Middlemarch

Middlemarch / George Eliot
Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin English Library, 1974, c1871-2.
908 p.

Nymeth of Things Mean A Lot set up a Middlemarch readalong for this summer, which made me happy, as it was just the push I needed to finally get to Middlemarch, a book I've meant to read for ages. Her post is up, and what a post it is -- lengthy, thoughtful and thorough, as usual.

While I am afraid I didn't love this book as much as many readers seem to, it was still a great read. It was revealing of its time, with many quotable bits, and some wonderful characters (more minor characters like Caleb Garth turned out to be my favourites). However, I found Dorothea and her idealism a bit tiresome, and as she is the focus of the book, the one we're following through a difficult growing-up situation, it probably would have been better to feel some sympathy for her rather than mostly exasperation. Oh well, I could still appreciate her and all the denizens of the small town of Middlemarch.

It's a story of youth, ideals, marriages, social position, compromises and mistakes, as well as a few sort-of happy endings. Dorothea marries Mr. Casaubon, her elderly scholar husband whom she desires to idolize, but she is sadly disillusioned of this hope after marriage. Her sister Celia marries Sir James Chettam, a local worthy whom Dorothea judged too dull, but who is revealed to have a rather noble character as a brother-in-law. Tertius Lydgate, the new doctor in town, falls for the prettiest girl and marries far too young, causing all sorts of strife between the newlyweds. Working class Mary Garth wants to marry the young gentleman Fred Vincy but he has no prospects at the moment of the story's beginning. And so on. Eliot is a genius at revealing human quirks in one or two simple phrases. She catches all the shadings of social position and the restrictions that class and gender placed on the movement of all these characters' lives.

I found the beginning slow going -- it took me a while to get into the rhythm and the intricacies of the story. Once I felt like I had a grasp of who was who in Middlemarch -- names, family connections, and less obvious social standings -- it was easier to sink into the book. Eliot published the book in the 1870s, but it was set in earlier years, right around 1830, which was a time of upheaval and reform in England. Dorothea gets interested in and involved with ideas of reform right along with the men in the story (I did find that a fascinating element of the story; while it is unusual for the women of Middlemarch, Dorothea is not a pariah because of her interest). But this makes the story a historical one of sorts -- a look at a certain time from a slight remove. Eliot has had time to consider the meaning of actions and events and create a story from them which points out her interests. One such interest is in the role each person plays in creating a society, and how this society then hinders and shapes each life. The story is full of moments that could be expanded upon, and since there are so many characters, and so many pages, you could probably go on for hours about just one thread of the story.

The more I think about it and try to write about it, the more I realize how extraordinary the construction of the book is. It's the first Eliot I've read, and I think I'll go on and read more of her work. While the story may not seem as exciting or full of vigour as Dickens or Wilkie Collins -- no eccentrics or lost heirs or crazy women in white floating about -- it is a complex look at provincial society in a time of change. I can only say that reading it will repay you for the time you have to invest in it. Try looking at others' views of their reading experience at the Middlemarch Readalong wrap-up post. Then decide if it is time to read it yourself!

Coming up in my next post: a small selection of some of my favourites of the many, many quotable bits of this marvellously written book.

Green Dolphin Country

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1975, c1944.
575 p.

I read this book in high school sometime; I can't quite remember when because all I recall about it is that I got about half way through and thought, what a dumb book! But, since I've been reading a lot of Elizabeth Goudge as an adult, and since I have (hopefully) a much wider viewpoint than I did at 14 or so, I tried again. This was partly inspired by the fact that I had bought a copy in a second-hand shop quite a long time ago, and thus added this title to my list of reading for Emily's TBR Challenge. I think I'm nearly halfway through my list of 20 reads from my own shelves, and it has certainly been a rewarding effort overall.

I still don't like this one as much as some of Goudge's other books though -- too much of a saga for me. And I had a few problems with the depiction of New Zealanders especially. The main characters are from the Channel Islands and they end up pioneering in New Zealand, where the Maori are depicted as bloodthirsty savages with superstitious traditions, and the missionaries trying to convert them are upright and holy. The missionaries are shown with a bit of complexity and she does have non-missionary characters who are more open minded, but the view of the natural superiority of the white, Christian way of life does colour the whole book. Of course, Goudge's Christian outlook flavours most of her work, but in her books with more modern settings it doesn't seem to jump out and whack you over the head quite so forcibly.

Anyhow -- here is the main storyline: Marianne and Marguerite Le Patourel are young sisters (16 and 11) on the tiny island of St. Pierre, when they meet the other main character, William Ozanne, age 13. He brings light into both their lives, with Marianne deciding that she will have him, while to William and Marguerite as well as to the reader, it is clear that they are the two who belong together.

Lots happens, they all grow to early adulthood, and William goes off in the Navy, and through a twisted but believable situation in China, misses his boat to accidentally go AWOL. This means he can never go home to his own country, so instead he heads off to New Zealand to homestead there. Eventually, once he's got on his feet a little, he writes home to ask Marguerite to join him. However, due to a bit of drink and the inherent lazy habits of thought he seems to possess, he writes "Marianne" instead, and changes the course of all three of their lives. This is the great sticking point of the book. Would someone REALLY make such an error? It feels like it is a forced moment, necessary to the rest of the story, but it certainly takes some suspension of disbelief. Goudge is at pains to explain in the introduction that this happening was inspired by the real life situation of one of her ancestors -- this really did happen, and just like in the book, her great-uncle kept quiet about his mistake and made the best of it. Nonetheless, because something is true in real life does not mean it works particularly well in fiction, and I felt like my whole reading was a bit flawed because of my lack of ability to feel that this was a natural event.

There is lots to enjoy in this book if you like Goudge's style of writing -- fairly old-fashioned with lots of descriptions of nature, of spiritual crises, of deep thoughts on various subjects. I do happen to like it, so persevered even though I was starting to feel the book was dragging on a bit. William and Marianne have to work out their troubles in New Zealand, while Marguerite, left behind in the Channel Islands, has to make some kind of life for herself, especially after her parents die. She becomes more and more religious, and her struggles provide Goudge with much opportunity for the kind of spiritual and faith-related writing she loves. There is one character in New Zealand, William's best friend and Marianne's frequent nemesis, who is a fascinating creation. I missed him once he left the story's inner circle.

Overall, if you like historical sagas and don't mind a bit of Christian content and can overlook the dated racial references, this one was okay. There is simply too much in the book to discuss all of its settings or even the different stages in the character's lives: it carries on from the girls' childhood to their old age and reunion of all three main characters in St. Pierre. As always, though, in reading Elizabeth Goudge, I found many quoteable selections. I'll share a couple of them, to give you a taste of her writing and her philosophical bent.

Nothing living should ever be treated with contempt. Whatever it is that lives, a man, a tree or a bird, should be touched gently, because the time is short.

I suppose it's always a mistake to hate, she said to herself, because when the people you hate suddenly turn around and do great things for you it puts you at such a ridiculous disadvantage.

...she knew also that what the world sees of the life of any human creature is not the real life; that life is lived in secret, a reality that moves behind the facade of appearance, like wind behind a painted curtain; only an occasional ripple of the surface, a smile, a sudden light or shadow passing on a face, surprising by its unexpectedness, gives news of something quite other than what is seen.

Gaudy Night

Gaudy Night / Dorothy Sayers
London: Hodder & Stoughton, 2003, c1935.
557 p.

What great fun I had on my recent holiday reading this detective novel! I've been meaning to read it for ages, but just got my hands on a copy in time to take it with me on my mini-break last week. Now I must go back and read all the Peter Wimsey books in order, as I think I've fallen a little bit in love with him!

I've done things backward, starting with the book at the end of the series - but many people have told me it is the best so I wanted to start with it. Also, Lord Peter and Harriet's romance is a strong part of this book and is so very well done (for those of you who've read it, the river scene? Fanning myself...)

Starting out with quotations, Latin, Oxford settings, sonnet writing and so much philosophical discussion, this novel gripped me almost immediately. I love the depth of the characters, and I love the fascinating discussions the group of female Oxford scholars get into with Harriet. It makes me nostalgic for an Oxford I never knew (and never could have) -- quite an authorial accomplishment, I think.

I do have to admit that there are large swathes of the novel that I didn't understand. There are many literary allusions that I missed, but when I did catch one I felt so proud of myself ;) And I did really feel the lack of a Latin dictionary -- I am sure a grasp of Latin would have added to the experience, especially the ending. There are also elements of the social structure that I didn't quite get, for example, in discussion of a certain woman, Harriet and the Dons look at each other significantly and say something like "You know the way that is" and "Exactly". But I didn't know how it was, and I knew I was missing some fine point of social expectations and meaning regarding women's characters in 1930's England. Nonetheless I enjoyed this novel immensely. I often enjoy reading something I don't quite understand fully, a habit I picked up in childhood. And this novel did make me feel woefully uneducated at times, but never excluded from the story and its many rewards.

In this novel there is no actual crime to investigate; but there is implied threat followed by real violence - Harriet and Peter are trying to pinpoint the potential for crime before it moves beyond nuisance to something very serious. When Harriet is called to Oxford, it is because there has been a string of obscene grafitti and messages and various unpleasant incidents seeming to be aimed at the educated women in Harriet's alma mater, Shrewsbury College. Since any noise about a scandal in the college would damage the still precarious state of women's education there is great need for discretion; thus Harriet's involvement, and by extension Peter's, rather than the police being called in.

The setting and the motive for the nasty incidents all combine to give us insight into Harriet's mind and the reasons for her resistance and eventual capitulation to her love for Peter. It is extremely well written, challenging to read and yet easy to follow even when skimming the more abstruse elements.

Rewarding and entertaining reading, certainly. And a couple of favourite quotes:


However loudly we may assert our own unworthiness, few of us are really offended by hearing the assertion contradicted by a disinterested party.


"The trouble is," said the Librarian, "that everybody sneers at restrictions and demands freedom, till something annoying happens; then they demand angrily what has become of the discipline."


Other views:

Kerry at Pickle Me This is intrigued by hysteria among the teacups

Nymeth at Things Mean a Lot says "Before I can even begin to try to be coherent, I need to get this out of the way: the! river! scene! AHFHGF!!@ "

Dorothy at Of Books and Bicycles thinks that "It’s a mystery novel and also an illustration of just how much a “mere” mystery novel can do."

Challenge List the First

Here are my Challenge lists for the Challenges I am going to undertake in 2010, not forgetting the ongoing Canadian Book Challenge which is still underway, of course. I'm a big one for creating book pools rather than strict lists - don't want to feel that my reading is a prescribed chore, and this way I just have more to choose from!


Science Book Challenge -- it's as easy as pi! (love the slogan)
(3 books)

One of my favourite challenges, for 2010 I have a number of science books around the house which I really want to get to. I had all these on my list for last year, but ended up reading three totally different titles. So I'll try again with these three:


Mauve / Simon Garfield
The story of William Perkin, a young inventor in the mid 1800s who discovered how to make dyes from coal tar, accidentally. He was really searching for a way to create artificial quinine.

The Arcanum / Janet Gleeson
About the Western discovery of how to make porcelain

Empire of the Stars / Arthur I. Miller
One of my favourite topics: astrophysics and how discoveries are made or affected by the personalities involved, with all their human failings.

I'd also like to get my hands on a biography recently voted top science book of 09 by physicsworld.com, the story of Paul Dirac. It's entitled The Strangest Man, written by Graham Farmelo. (there is also a lecture available by Farmelo on this topic) This era of physics is one of my favourite scientific subjects to read about, so will have to locate a copy of this one. All I know about Dirac presently is what I learned from one of my favourite nonfiction reads of last year, Gino Segre's Faust in Copenhagen.

**updated**

Healing Spaces / Esther Sternberg

Mauve / Simon Garfield

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Colourful Reading Challenge

This is going to be totally random, probably all books I read for other challenges or just pick up for fun. The Challenge is to read 9 books all with a different colour in the title throughout the year. I have my Science Book Challenge pick above, Mauve, and one I have TBR for the Canadian Book Challenge, Vera Lysenko's Yellow Boots, to begin.

Updates:

Yellow Boots / Vera Lysenko

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge

Mauve / Simon Garfield

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
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What's in a Name 3

I've done this challenge for the last two years (though this year I didn't quite keep up!) I love its random selections. These are some of the ideas for titles to choose from - they may still change throughout the year! This year the categories are:

A book with a food in the title

Honey and Ashes / Janice Kulyk Keefer (memoir)
Plum Bun / Jesse Redmon Fauset
Daalder's Chocolates / Philibert Schogt
Read: The Spice Necklace / Ann Vanderhoof

A book with a body of water in the title

The Waves / Virginia Woolf
By the Lake / John McGahern
The Seduction of Water / Carol Goodman
Read: Cool Water / Dianne Warren

A book with a title (queen, president) in the title

Sir Charles Grandison / Richardson (also for Chunkster)
The Case of the General's Thumb / Andrey Kurkov
Mrs. Dalloway / Virginia Woolf
Read: Queen of Hearts / Martha Brooks

A book with a plant in the title

The Blue Flower / Penelope Fitzgerald
Read: The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag / Alan Bradley
The Betrayal of the Blood Lily / Lauren Willig

A book with a place name (city, country) in the title

Read: The Road to Lichfield / Penelope Lively
The Enchantress of Florence / Salman Rushdie
Return to Paris / Colette Rossant (nonfiction- food writing)

A book with a music term in the title

The Ballad and the Source / Rosamond Lehmann
Music of a life / Andrei Makine
Song beneath the ice / Joe Fiorito
Read: Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern

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Flashback Challenge

All about rereading. This one has different levels of reading to choose from, but I think I'll sign up at the Literati level, six or more books. This is because I want to follow their suggestion of rereading childhood, high school, and adult choices.

Childhood Selections: this year I want to reread the entire Anne series by L.M. Montgomery, since I just finished the new publication of the restored Blythes are Quoted.

High School level: There are a few books I may choose from -- I haven't reread To Kill a Mockingbird since high school and might like to try that. But there are non-school books I'd like to revisit, including Watership Down or maybe Elizabeth Goudge's Green Dolphin Street, of which I remember very little - I think I was too young when I first read it.

Adult choices: There are two books I'd particularly like to reread - Virginia Woolf's The Waves, and Gwethalyn Graham's Earth and High Heaven.

Updated: actually read

As for me and my house / Sinclair Ross

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge

Anne of Green Gables / LMMontgomery

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Chunkster Challenge

This was the first challenge I ever participated in, and I think it is time to give it another go. I'm only going to sign up for the Chubby Chunkster level, which is three books over 450 pages in 2010. I may read more but am just starting with this. Some ideas for the books I'm going to read are:


Middlemarch / George Eliot (880 p) [read]

The Terror / Dan Simmons (765 p)

Sir Charles Grandison / Richardson (1159 p)

Gold Bug Variations / Richard Power s (635 p)

Celestial Harmonies / Peter Esterhazy (841 p)

Ursula, Under / Ingrid Hill (476 p)

Updated: Actually read:

Green Dolphin Country / Elizabeth Goudge (575 p.)

Gaudy Night / Dorothy Sayers (557 p.)

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Our Mutual Read

I love the name of the Challenge, and its potential for spending lots of time with Victorian literature! I think I will sign up at



Level 2: 8 books, at least 4 written during 1837 - 1901. The other books may be Neo-Victorian or non-fiction

And here is my list which is only a starting point:

Middlemarch / George Eliot
[read]

The Woman in White / Wilkie Collins
[read]

The Way we live now / Anthony Trollope

Bleak House / Charles Dickens

News from Nowhere / William Morris

Sylvia's lovers / Elizabeth Gaskell

Two on a Tower / Thomas Hardy

Also read:
Trumpets Sound no More / Jon Redfern (NeoVictorian)

Chunkster Challenge, redone

Okay, one more challenge! My eye has been caught by the reinvigorated Chunkster Challenge, being hosted this year by So many books, so little time. Even though I didn't come close to meeting my goals with this one last year, it was fun. And I think it would make a lovely counterpoint to the Short Story Challenge -- a few stories, a reaaallllly long novel. Balance. So I'm going to sign up again, and fortunately, cross-challenge books are permitted. Yay, War & Peace!


The rules:

• To qualify the book must be 450 pps regular type OR 750 pps large text.
• You must read FOUR chunksters (one each quarter), you OBVIOUSLY may read more
  The Challenge will run Jan 7th, 2008 - Dec 20th, 2008 (the only chunky thing occupying my mind over Christmas is ME! AND I am using my foresight remembering my inbox on Dec 31st/ Jan 1 of THIS year when all the challenges ended). BUT any chunkster started after Jan 1 qualifies.
• OH THERE WILL BE PRIZES - one a quarter. Prizes to be determined later ( so making the rules on the fly here, peeps). Think small and fun, not big and chunky.
• Sharing reviews mandatory, format still to be determined.
  

My choices:

For now, as I begin War & Peace, I'll count it toward this Challenge as well as the Russian Reading Challenge. I'll see what else pops up in coming months, perhaps some Dickens, perhaps another Russian, perhaps something wonderfully odd and unexpected...

Challenged and Overbooked

Alas, I must admit that I am not going to meet the requirements I so optimistically set myself way back in January for the Chunkster Challenge. Sigh. 6 books over 600 pages in 6 months, what was I thinking? I should have been warned off by the confluence of sixes...
I still have just under half of Kristen Lavransdattar to go, plus the entire Sir Charles Grandison. I do not think I can read more than 1000 pages in two weeks. You never know, but I'm betting against it. I still intend to finish both by the end of 2007,as I am actually quite enjoying Kristen, and Sir Charles is an epistolary novel, which I do love reading. But I know with all the new books I've just come home with, these two are not going to be finished in time. Still, I've been spurred forward by this Challenge and have finally read some of the books on my TBR; though of course looking through other people's lists has just refilled those few blanks on the TBR!

Armadale: a review

I've finally finished another Chunkster! Armadale is the most enjoyable Collins I've read so far. The story flings itself along, full of action and suspense. The theme is one of the sins of the fathers being visited upon the sons. Two Allan Armadales have two sons - both also named Allan Armadale. Deception, betrayal and murder between the fathers leads to a warning to one son never to associate with his namesake for fear of terrible things occuring. Despite this warning , the younger Allans meet by chance, and continue on with their friendship, although the poorer & forewarned Allan has by now taken the name of Ozias Midwinter.

Much drama ensues: Allan unexpectedly comes into a fortune, falls in love with his young neighbour Miss Milroy, and yet is distracted from his attentions through the interference of her very attractive governess, Miss Gwilt. Midwinter falls in love with Miss Gwilt himself, and marries her, with her secret ambition being to kill off both Armadales and pose as Allan's widow to inherit his fortune.

All of these ups and downs are told through straightforward narrative as well as Collins' favoured devices of letters and diary entries. The action stays strong for the entirety of this lengthy novel, and I could not guess how he was going to conclude it until a few pages from the end -- it could have gone a number of ways, and his skillful setup made any of them equally likely. I loved this book for the cleverness of the story, yet also as much for the wonderful characters. The two Allans are very different, but become close friends, like brothers to one another. Ozias Midwinter (here Collins almost reaches Dickens' genius of nomenclature) is a fascinating, complex individual who I was eager to learn more about.

But the star of this story, for me, is Miss Lydia Gwilt. This woman has been led down the wrong path since childhood, when she was implicated in the trouble between the two original Armadales. As a grown woman, she is now angling to destroy the younger Armadales as well, who are ignorant of her connection to them. She is a marvellous character, described as startlingly beautiful - masses of red hair, clear pale skin, enormous personal charm (even at the advanced age of 35!) - and utterly ruthless. She quite logically and calmly comes up with her plan to murder both Allans so that she will come off the winner, and she is so fully described and presented that I wasn't quite certain whether I should be siding with the Allans or with this cold murderess. Collins gives us her background and her motives, and even if he had first thought of making her the stock Villainess, she seems to have taken over his sympathies. She becomes almost the second narrator of this story, and it is because of this that I was not sure who would prevail in the end. Collins keeps you guessing until the very end, and the pace of the novel keeps you reading. It's just too bad that Collins was constrained by societal expectations in his choice of endings.

I really enjoyed this one.

A very useful quote from this book:
"No is the strongest word in the English language, in the mouth of any man who has the courage to repeat it often enough."

(I think this would be a useful inspirational quote in any political action; though it may not be as inspiring in reference to the toddler you may be dealing with who has taken this as his mantra.)

Now a Green Darkness

While reading Anya Seton's Green Darkness as part of the Chunkster Challenge, I picked up White Darkness, which I've just reviewed. What's next, Heart of Darkness?
In any case, I've finished at long last Green Darkness, a loooong historical novel partly to do with reincarnation and karma. The working out of one's fate over lifetimes is suggested by the framing narrative; Richard and Celia are married in this lifetime, sometime in the 60's. Their marriage begins to fray dramatically, and it is all because they were Celia and Brother Stephen in 16th century England, and had a doomed love affair. As I read in another review, the framing narrative is a bit dated and cheesy. It is very 60's, with requisite gay fashion designer friend. This set-up was necessary for the reincarnation issues, but the meat of the book is the life of young Celia Bohun during a time of political upheaval in England. The love story, mainly Celia's obsession with the house priest Stephen, is believable and understandably tragic. The political atmosphere, that of Catholics and Protestants warring during the instability following Henry VIII's death and the struggle for the throne between his children Edward, Mary and Elizabeth is exhaustively detailed, yet is never tiring. The depth which she goes in to about the supporting characters' lives does makes the story a bit long and wandery at times. However, the writing itself is earthy and descriptive, lots of historical detail, with small, telling features highlighted in her characters.
All the way through I was still getting that whiff of the 70's. (It was published in 1972.) But, if you're a historical novel fan, this may be one you'd like. I've heard that if you're an Anya Seton fan, you'll either champion this novel or her other big historical, Katherine. I'll have to try that one too, and see on which side I fall.

The Little Country

I've always been fond of books about tiny people; The Borrowers or The Littles series were favourites as a child. Charles DeLint's fantasy novel The Little Country has partly to do with such creatures - he calls them Smalls. This novel is really two parallel novels, with both stories progressing side by side until they merge at the end. It begins with Janey Little, who lives in Cornwall with her grandfather, discovering a magic book in a trunk in the attic. She proceeds to read it - that's the second story - alternating chapters until you can see how they reflect each other. This book is full of magic and legend, is heavily dependent on folk music, and is also flavoured with esoteric conspiracy. All of the chapter titles are names of traditional tunes, except for a couple of recent compositions. (Charles DeLint and his wife are both folk musicians, who I was once able to watch do a reading; he read from his newest, and then they performed for a while. Amazing.)
I enjoyed this read, and it was a quick one, lots of action to keep you moving forward. There were a couple of false notes for me; the fantastical world within the magic book has a feel of a classic children's story(witches, magic, Smalls), but in the next chapter, in Janey Little's world, there suddenly appears sex, drugs and murder. A bit startling. I got a bit muddled with circular logic near the end; the magic in the book means each reader reads a unique story, which works until Janey's "story" seems to become an alternate reality in the last few pages. Is she reading the story or is it reading her? Enter the funhouse. A small quibble though; overall it was a wonderfully creative entertainment. I've always felt I should be reading more of Charles DeLint, a talented and well respected Canadian fantasy writer who I certainly know a lot about, though I don't know enough of his work first hand. This was a good one to pick up - and, it has music notation for some of his tunes in the back! Who can resist?

Glassy-eyed Chunkster reading

I've finished one of the books on my Chunkster list -- The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by Gordon Dahlquist. I really don't know what to say about this hard-to-categorize novel with the unwieldy title. I found it an entertaining light read, though due to that very lightness, the 700+ pages could have been cut to something more along the lines of 400. It is a quasi-Victorian, Gothic, Adventure, Science Fiction story written by a man who has previously written plays and produced small films. It shows; the book is full of 'action sequences' and visual images you can imagine on-screen via computer animation. I don't quite get the write-ups that describe it as "darkly erotic". I don't really consider ladies of the evening prancing about in silk underclothes in front of one way mirrors "darkly erotic", but maybe it's a man thing. Anyhow, though the execution sometimes falters, the plot is vastly creative and original. An evil cabal with the alchemical power to turn dreams and memories into blue glass, oh yes, and plans for world domination, are brought to their knees by the fumbling and originally unplanned actions of three outsider individuals. These three are: Miss Celeste Temple, recently cruelly jilted by one of the newest Cabal members; Cardinal Chang, a hired assassin who unwitttingly gets mixed up in the middle of things by a client; and Doctor Svenson, nursemaid to a Germanic princeling. I found Miss Temple annoying at times, and not fully believable (especially when she's delightedly admiring herself in her aforementioned silk underclothes, in a strange and unknown house, while sinister masked women & men are lurking outside the room -- and she knows this). But I read on while all three developed into startlingly competent co-conspirators. After about the sixth capture, near death and miraculous escape, I gave up rolling my eyes and just gave myself over to the graphic-novel style exploits. It was entertaining, and I loved the character of Dr. Svenson. His progression from meek though spying employee to ruthlessly efficient killing machine was well done. If this were made into a movie, which I have no doubt it will be, I don't really care who plays the others, but I see Paul Bettany as the moral Doctor who bows to cruel necessity and saves the day, over and over and over. Overall, a fun read, but too long. It would have benefitted from a little of the ruthless cutting down that most of the characters suffered.
Warning to all Black Adder fans: Dahlquist must use the word "cunning" fifty times in the first chapter. Beware of letting Baldrick colour the character of Miss Temple!