MostlyFiction Book Reviews » 18th-Century We Love to Read! Wed, 14 May 2014 13:06:32 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.3 INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS by Imogen Robertson /2011/instruments-of-darkness-by-imogen-robertson/ /2011/instruments-of-darkness-by-imogen-robertson/#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 03:06:43 +0000 /?p=16205 Book Quote:

“Should you need me in years to come, you will find a way to discover me, I am sure.   There are ties that bind us together, bonds of blood beyond titles and land.  If you cannot free yourself, call for me, and I shall come to you in one way or another.”

Book Review:

Review by Eleanor Bukowsky  (FEB 27, 2011)

Imogen Robertson’s Instruments of Darkness is set in the village of Hartswood, West Sussex, at a time when the colonies were waging war against England. The male protagonist, the brusque Gabriel Crowther, is an eccentric and a recluse who has a wide-ranging knowledge of and interest in human anatomy. One day, a local woman, Mrs. Harriet Westerman of Caveley Park, pays him a visit and insists that his maid give him the following note: “I have found a body on my land. His throat has been cut.”

Robertson then shifts to Tichfield Street near Soho Square in London. Residing there are a music store proprietor, Alexander Adams, and his two children, the precocious Susan, who is nine, and Jonathan, six. Alexander is a widower who has cut off contact with his birth family for reasons that will later become clear. He ruefully states “that the past must be looked at squarely or it will chase you down,” but he fails to follow this sound advice. Fortunately, Adams has the support of close friends, including a young writer, Mr. Graves, and Mr. and Mrs. Chase, whose single daughter has caught Graves’s eye.

How do all these characters fit together? Readers will need a great deal of patience while the author presents us with an elaborate jigsaw puzzle and then painstakingly fits the pieces together. Although Crowther and Harriet are not romantically involved (she is happily married to a commodore who is at sea, and they have two small children), the two become a sort of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. They put their heads together in an effort to: 1. Learn the identity of the dead man 2. Find out who killed him and why 3. Discover what connection, if any, there is between the victim and the people living in Thornleigh Hall. They include the older Lord Thornleigh, the Earl of Sussex, who is ailing; his low-class young wife; Captain Hugh Thornleigh, who fought against the colonists and came back maimed; and Hugh’s steward, the unpleasant Wicksteed. Harriet insists “There is something wrong in that house. Something wounded and rotten. I am sure of it.”

Instrument of Darkness is reminiscent of Anne Perry’s books, in that it examines the rot that destroys titled and wealthy families from within when they are morally bankrupt. The mystery is not difficult to solve once the clues are laid out, but the villains prove to be so utterly evil that they cease to be realistic. Robertson goes back and forth in time and shifts locales frequently, which can be rather dizzying. In addition, Crowther and Harriet are an odd couple. He is reticent; she is voluble. He is a man of science and reflection. She is a woman of action. For their own reasons, they go out of their way to learn the truth (with a bit of help from Harriet’s eighteen-year-old sister, Miss Rachel Trench), which eventually emerges in all of its sordid details. The conclusion is over the top, and the body count rises alarmingly before the dust finally settles.

To her credit, the author has a good sense of time and place, and her dialogue and prose style are pleasantly fluent. She demonstrates how the redcoats underestimated the American farmers who passionately took up arms against them. In addition, she explores the ways in which the skeletons in one’s closet can destroy relationships. The characters of Susan, her father, and Graves, are particularly appealing and their story is poignant. Finally, Robertson shows how imperfect the criminal justice system was in those days. If Crowther and Harriet had not intervened, no one would have ever learned who the guilty parties really were. Although this is not a top-tier novel—it is a bit too long and has too many subplots, including one about the bitter conflict between Protestants and Catholics—Instruments of Darkness will be of interest to readers who enjoy forensics and historical fiction with gothic overtones.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 3 readers
PUBLISHER: Pamela Dorman Books (February 17, 2011)
REVIEWER: Eleanor Bukowsky
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Imogen Robertson
EXTRAS: Reading Guide
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More 18th century detective work:

The Serpent in the Garden by Janet Gleeson

Bibliography:

]]> /2011/instruments-of-darkness-by-imogen-robertson/feed/ 0 THE THOUSAND AUTUMNS OF JACOB DE ZOET by David Mitchell /2010/the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet-by-david-mitchell/ /2010/the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet-by-david-mitchell/#comments Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:04:34 +0000 /?p=10355 Book Quote:

“Over the balcony of the Room of Last Chrysanthemum, where a puddle from last night’s rain is evaporating; a puddle in which Magistrate Shiroyama observes the blurred reflections of gulls wheeling through spokes of sunlight. This world, he thinks, contains just one masterpiece, and that is itself.”

Book Review:

Review by Betsey Van Horn (JUN 30, 2010)

This is a modern, woolly mastodon of a book, a book with tusks and chewing teeth, a throwback to the most towering storytelling in literary history. But it is also a Seraph, a three-paired-winged novel that is full of zeal and respect, humility and ethereal beauty, an airborne creature that gave me five days in heaven. And, it is a sea serpent, because it lifted itself up like a column and it grabbed and swallowed me. Whole.

Pardon me while I gush; I bow to the spirit and heartbeat of David Mitchell, a force of nature who wrote this unforgettable, epic tale of adventure and colossal love. It is really…all about life and love. At turns knotty, briny, ribald, sensuous, fearsome, biting, daring, cerebral, grandiose, infinitesimal, and what did I leave out? It’s panoptic, and exquisitely poetic. The first page-and-a-half of chapter XXXIX rivals Shelley’s Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. It will make you laugh, it will make you weep, it will make your soul utter its secrets.

The novel starts with a birth, ends with a death, like bookends to all it contains. It contains two calendars, the Gregorian and the lunar. Time is an expanding and contracting entity in this story. In the strictest and most Western sense, it is linear. But when you are addressing a more Eastern orientation, as well as gestation and birth, the lunar calendar is more fitting. Mitchell makes them work, hand in hand, in alternating chapters.

The eponymous Jacob de Zoet, the Dutch Zeelander and clerk, is the strong and very moral center of this novel. Copper-haired and green-eyed, robust but reserved, he is a devout, sensitive, patient, tolerant, artistic, and keenly intelligent young man. He is sometimes troubled, and often prescient. He is posted indefinitely on the fan-shaped, artificial island of Dejima in the bay of Nagasaki with the Dutch East India Company’s warehouses and stock and motley crew, and the year is 1799.

At first sight, Jacob falls in love with Orito Aiwabaga, midwife and student to the scholarly Dr. Marinus. A burn scar on the left side of her face is no impediment to her beauty in the eyes of Jacob; his principled nature is his obstruction. I inhabited his quiet torment and pleaded with the pages to bring them together. I fell a little in love with Jacob myself–he transcended the fictional; I felt his hands.

Drawing on historical facts but twisting it into a magnificent, almost mythical tale, Mitchell casts a spell with words and images. His juxtapositions are painterly; the narrative is colorful with stylistic and linguistic leaps that keep you on your toes. This is a demanding novel. Mitchell stays one step ahead of the reader (but not arrogantly so), and he does it with brio. It is as if he is aware of what he needs to do to take you to the fathomless waters of his prose. He starts off with these tongue-slicing, lip-curling crazy names that may frustrate you initially, but it makes you slow…down…and pay attention to the minute details as well as the grand canvas.

I have rarely read a book (in third person point of view) that makes me feel so intimate with the author’s artistic strokes. It was as if he made a contract to take our senses, gradually tune us to his rhythms, and descend further and deeper. With not one stitch of self-consciousness, he envelopes you. And there are lovely sketches in the book that add dimension to the narrative.(I wish I knew who the artist was–is it Mitchell? His wife?)

There are three major shifts in the book. The first part sets up the tension and gives you the flow and rhythm and landscape of the novel, and introduces the Dutch and Japanese equipoise of politics that teeter-totters in this faraway place. The hierarchy of administrators, leaders, shoguns, samurais, medical practitioners, merchants, interpreters, servants, and slaves encompasses the serious to the sensational, and is often comically ingenious. This is also where I was most a tenant of Jacob.

The middle section focuses more on Orito, and has a feminine spirit to it, as well as cautiously moving into a thriller mode. And just when you think you got ahead of the author, he wrests that predictability away and keeps his promise to elevate his purpose.

The third section is the most challenging to read. It begins baldly but ambiguously, with a nautical saltiness that throws you off, and a gouty Captain with a morality of uncertain definition. You know where you are, but not why you are there and how it relates to the story and themes. The language is frequently idiomatic and the circumstances initially unclear. But, Mitchell doesn’t let you down. Everything gradually connects without artificial means. And the Captain’s closing thoughts stole my breath away.

This is as close to perfect as a novel can be. (You know there will be a movie–it is beautifully cinematic without being conventional.) You will close the pages, exalted. Jacob de Zoet and Orito Aibagawa will be eternally seared in your consciousness, and this story forever in your heart. A++

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-0from 190 readers
PUBLISHER: Random House (June 29, 2010)
REVIEWER: Betsey Van Horn
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: David Mitchell
EXTRAS: Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Cloud Atlas

Another MF review of The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet

Bibliography:

]]> /2010/the-thousand-autumns-of-jacob-de-zoet-by-david-mitchell/feed/ 0 THE DEVIL’S COMPANY by David Liss /2009/devils-company-by-david-liss/ /2009/devils-company-by-david-liss/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:38:10 +0000 /?p=6031 Book Quote:

“I doubted the soul-saving qualities of the comptor, for a sodomite sent to spend the night in that fetid prison could well expect endless hours of abuse. In such places, the time-honored tradition required that the most hardened criminals force the sodomites to consume large quantities of human waste.”

Book Review:

Review by Lynn Harnett (OCT 30, 2009)

Benjamin Weaver, Jew, thieftaker, and former pugilist, enjoys a certain notoriety and standing in 1722 London. As a Jew he is accustomed to derision and discrimination and has only in recent years come to bask in a sense of family and community. As a champion boxer he is a bit of a celebrity; feared and admired – a natural for the freewheeling, dubious profession of thieftaker, the 18th century private eye.

Weaver’s reputation and previous successes earn him hefty fees and allow him his pick of jobs. He has therefore turned down a risky, unrewarding, and illegal commission to burgle the heavily guarded headquarters of the East India Company for some office paperwork.

Unwilling to take “no” for an answer, his would-be clients have resorted to force, paralyzing the finances of his elderly uncle and two of his friends, holding ruin over their heads should Weaver not cooperate. And now, not only do they demand the ridiculous burglary, they order him to investigate a murder without mentioning the victim’s name or asking any questions.

Cornered and furious, Weaver naturally attempts to learn what his clients are up to, only to find his every move observed, his conversations overheard, and his friends deeper in peril. Forced to risk the life and liberty of others as well as his own, Weaver is driven to even greater feats of ingenuity and daring.

What Liss (and Weaver) previously did for the South Sea Bubble of 1720 (A Conspiracy of Paper) and the political struggle between the Georgians and the Jacobites (A Spectacle of Corruption), he does now for the burgeoning, scheming, powerful East India Company, not yet an empire builder but with ambitions in that direction.

The issues of capitalism, big business, justice, globalization and beyond have natural parallels to the burning issues of today but, as in all of Liss’ books, this state of affairs feels natural and unforced and is deeply interesting.

And, as always, Weaver takes us on a two-fisted tour of London’s alleys, taverns, whore houses (including gay brothels) and thieves’ dens as well as the feathered nests of the wealthy and the backrooms of the movers and shakers. Workingmen are a day’s pay from poverty and women a man’s heartbeat from the streets. The atmosphere is often fetid, the food and drink foul, but Liss’ London is vibrant with life.

There’s a woman, too, her smarts and skills a match for Weaver’s, and fans will hope to see more of her. The Devil’s Company is on a par with the best of his work, the Edgar winning A Spectacle of Corruption.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-4-5from 49 readers
PUBLISHER: Random House; First Edition edition (July 7, 2009)
REVIEWER: Lynn Harnett
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: David Liss
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: Read our review of:

Bibliography:

Benjamin Weaver thrillers:

Other Historical novels:

]]> /2009/devils-company-by-david-liss/feed/ 0 ANGEL OF THE ASSASSINATION by Graeme Fife /2009/angel-assassination-by-graeme-fife/ /2009/angel-assassination-by-graeme-fife/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:46:01 +0000 /?p=4084 Book Quote:

“ ‘But the man was beaten and made to pay because he was a poacher and mama said it was unjust because he was only getting food for his family so it’s unkind.’
‘That is so but it’s also the law.’
‘It shouldn’t be.’
‘Ah, Charlotte, not for us to say. That’s the way it is.’”

Book Review:

Reviewed by Katherine Petersen (SEP 25, 2009)

Novelizations of historic events can serve as an exemplary tool for understanding history for those who don’t have the patience to explore original documentation. Graeme Fife’s The Angel of the Assassination, the story of Charlotte Corday: her life and her ultimate sacrifice, is no exception. Charlotte grew up in Calvados in Normandy, the daughter of a nobleman, but her father, Jacques-Francois was an impoverished nobleman with the ideals and not the wherewithal due his station. Rather than accepting his lot, he continually fought to gain what he felt he and his family deserved, sending his two sons to officers school where they would compete against boys–and ultimately, men—who would always have more. Jacques-Francois never settled, and his schemes to gain riches put much stress on his wife and children. In the midst of an unsatisfactory lawsuit, he lost his wife and newborn child during childbirth.

One of the benefits of his wanting more for his children was Charlotte’s education with her uncle and at the Abbaye aux Dames in Caen, where she decided to become a nun until the National Assembly in Paris handed religion and ownership of all religious houses into secular control, leaving all the sisters to find their own way. Charlotte found her way back to Caen to live with a far-removed cousin where she learned about Jean Paul Marat, who she saw as the focal point of the revolution and met and interacted with many “rebels” who had escaped Paris with their lives to re-group and continue their plans to put down Marat and the revolution. Feeling useless as a woman, Charlotte began making plans to play her own part in Marat’s destruction.

Fife doubtless learned of Charlotte Corday doing research for his history book The Terror: Shadow of the Guillotine, which detailed the terror that overwhelmed Paris from 1792 to 1794. With deft writing and intuitive insight, he tells the story of her life, drawing the reader along with poignant detail so the reader experiences her emotions and understands her convictions at her side. He illustrates both the mood of the times and Charlotte’s character with care, detail and grace. In addition to Charlotte, he tells of a girl raped in the street, how the flimsiest evidence gets another woman killed and the death of a Royal Army leader who disagreed with the mobs.

From an early age, Charlotte questions the unfairness of many of the king’s laws such as how a poacher can be whipped merely for killing game on her father’s land. And, while she too, believes in the concept of a republic, she can’t condone Marat’s viewpoint that it’s necessary to kill thousands to obtain liberty.

Through a combination of research and his own insight, Graeme takes the reader through the development of Charlotte’s beliefs including stories and legends told by her mother and teachings from her uncle about everything from slavery to the Roman Empire. Always independent, Charlotte continually questioned, forming her own ideals and opinions. This lead to contentious relations with her sister, brother and father. Although she remained true to herself, she never stopped loving those closest to her.

Having watched marriage and family life overwhelm her mother, Charlotte vowed not to submit to either. This reader wasn’t surprised when she opted to become a nun as she possessed the calm serenity often associated with those in religious orders.

With a superior sense of language, Fife brings her surroundings to life with vivid descriptions that allow readers to easily find themselves in every location. Fife’s word pictures of nature are especially stunning whether he envisions birds, flowers or snow-covered fields.

The story does bog down in the middle to a degree with some of Charlotte’s teachings with her uncle, but patient readers will persevere. My only other complaint is that an epilogue would have answered some questions that remain such as the reactions of her friends and family to her actions. As a major in French in college, this has definitely rekindled my interest in the period of the French Revolution, and I plan to read Fife’s historical account of the time period.

AMAZON READER RATING: stars-5-0from 2 readers
PUBLISHER: Merit Publishing (August 15, 2009)
REVIEWER: Katherine Petersen
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? Not Yet
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Graeme Fife
EXTRAS: An article on Graeme Fife
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More historical fiction:

Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell

Susannah Morrow by Megan Chance

Versailles by Kathryn Davis

Seraglio by Janet Wallach

Bibliography:

Nonfiction:

Fiction:

]]> /2009/angel-assassination-by-graeme-fife/feed/ 0 THE LIEUTENANT by Kate Grenville /2009/the-lieutenant-by-kate-grenville/ /2009/the-lieutenant-by-kate-grenville/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 22:02:08 +0000 /?p=4706 Book Quote:

“New South Wales was not an open door, and he was not his own man. New South Wales was the possession of King George the Third. The commission he had given his governor awarded James Gilbert sovereignty over every man black or white, every object great or small, every relationship of whatever sort that might take place in his kingdom.”

Book Review:

Review by Mary Whipple (SEP 7, 2009)

Basing this fine novel about the settlement of Australia’s New South Wales on the real life and notebooks made by Lt. William Dawes from 1788 – 1790, author Kate Grenville subjects the empire-building attitudes of the Crown and its representatives to careful scrutiny and creates a novel filled with conflicts and well-developed themes. New South Wales was already inhabited by an aboriginal population which had its own language and culture when a thousand British officers and prisoners, both male and female, landed their eleven ships in Sydney Cove and took over land which had been the traditional homelands of the aborigines. Illustrating the arrogance of conquerors, these officers and officials imposed their harsh “justice” upon anyone who challenged their will and their national “destiny.” Believing that they were superior, not equals, they introduced themselves to the exceedingly shy native population through a demonstration of power, forever losing the opportunity to learn from a culture they regarded as inferior.

Lt. Daniel Rooke, the main character, a stand-in for the real William Dawes, is first introduced as a brilliant child who experienced the “misery of being out of step with the world,” and it is Rooke’s differences which infuse the conflicts of the novel. Tormented by his duller peers, he enlisted in His Majesty’s Marines as a young teenager, putting his extensive knowledge of astronomy to use as a navigator and sailing to the American colonies and the Caribbean. He was horrified by the routine treatment he saw of slaves in Antigua, and stunned by the gruesome justice he observed when a sailor who had merely talked of disobeying orders, but had not actually done so, was publicly hanged. When offered the chance to sail to Australia, however, Rooke realized that he might be the only astronomer in a position to see a comet which was expected to be in the Southern Hemisphere between October, 1788, and March, 1789. He volunteers, believing that “this was the orbit his life was intended to follow.”

Rooke is on the first ship that lands in New South Wales. Allowed to set up an astronomical observatory on a headland above the settlement, Rooke is happily alone with his calculations during the week, climbing down to base for Sunday dinner and avoiding most of the daily conflicts. It is his friend Gardiner who first describes the capture of two aborigines, “By God, you should have heard them crying out, it would break your heart. The ones left behind as we got away, they were screaming. The wretches in the boat crying out…We call them savages. But their feelings are no different from ours…they were wailing as if their hearts would break.” Stunned by the cruelty, Rooke realizes that any possibility of understanding between the Crown and the natives has been lost forever. On the personal side, Rooke can only wonder what he would have done if he had been directed to give the order to seize the two captives.

The aborigines soon begin to visit him in his isolation at the observatory, however, and he becomes friends with some children, keeping notebooks of their vocabulary, the grammar of their language, and the expressions used most commonly. (Grenville transcribes Dawes’s actual notebooks extensively here.) Isolated from the settlement, he is respected by his native visitors, and he recognizes that he is truly in conflict with his own peers at the most basic level. One former military friend illustrated “the impulse to make the strange familiar, to transform it,” while Rooke wanted “to enter that strangeness and lose himself in it.” His chaste relationship with a bright eleven-year-old Cadigal girl who wants to teach him her language and to learn from him, provides one of the most meaningful experiences of his life and some of the most touching passages in the novel.

In clear, unadorned prose, Grenville tells of life as it was and as an impartial observer would see it, never allowing her prose to take flight into realms of fancy. Firmly grounding her narrative in the human feelings and human costs of all who were involved in this sad chapter of history, she tells an important story which questions the meaning of “justice,” especially when it is applied to alien cultures which see such justice as cruelty. The conflicting emotions of sensitive people like Rooke, whose mission to conquer and subjugate are alien to their personal beliefs, illustrate the helplessness of those who would have changed course if it had been possible. Ultimately, Rooke is able to take the long view, however, realizing that “until you could put yourself at some point beyond your own world, looking back at it, you would never see how everything worked together.” A well-developed novel which explores the human costs to both sides of colonial conquest.

AMAZON READER RATING: from 57 readers
PUBLISHER: Atlantic Monthly Press (September 8, 2009)
REVIEWER: Mary Whipple
AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE BOOK? YES! Start Reading Now!
AUTHOR WEBSITE: Kate Grenville
EXTRAS: Reading Guide and Excerpt
MORE ON MOSTLYFICTION: More on Australian history:

at amazon.com:

More on empire-building:

Bibliography:

Non-fiction:

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