wednesday books

[landofnowhere]

Chronicles of Avonlea, L. M. Montgomery. I've read the Anne series multiple times, but this was my first time with these short stories (which are only very loosely connected to Anne and her books). I was intrigued by ladyherenya's comment that they were mostly about spinsters, especially as I'm still thinking of writing a spinster story myself with this Therese Gauss project. The stories were charming, though by the end it was a bit too much of traditional gender roles and romantic happily ever afters for me. Interesting to note that the book was published a year after Montgomery herself married, unromantically and unhappily, at the age of 37.

Puss in Boots, Ludwig Tieck, translated by Wikisource. Readaloud. I booklogged this fourth-wall-breaking satirical comedy when I first read it, but now I can report that it works as well as a readaloud as I'd hoped! (And I suspect it may even work better as a readaloud than dealing with the difficulties of actually staging it.) It is very clever and I am excessively fond of it. (And probably would be even more so if I got more of the cultural references.)

Silver and Lead, Seanan McGuire. Book 19 of October Daye; don't start here. At this point I'm following along with the story for the ride, but not going back to reread earlier books (though A is following along more closely and able to fill me in with hints and theories). Toby is still not particularly skilled at detective work, but as usual solves things by heroically charging in and assuming that everything will work out, which it does, though with the potential to cause more trouble in later books.

Comments

[flo_nelja]

I'm curious about the Puss-in-boots ont, what is the plot?

[landofnowhere]

So it's a play within a play; the playwright is putting on his new play Puss In Boots in front of an opinionated and critical audience. The plot of the inner play is the standard Puss and Boots fairytale with some elaborations. But this is the sort of play that's about the meta more than it is about the plot.

[lunabee34]

I didn't know that Montgomery had unhappily married. :( Was it for money?

[landofnowhere]

There are L. M. Montgomery fans reading this who can probably give a better answer as to why she married. But from what I've read I think it was primarily because she wanted to have a family. She may have hoped that marriage would give her the sort of romantic happily ever after that she gave her characters, but these illusions didn't last very long past the marriage. And due to her husband's mental health problems and the success of her books, she ended up being the one to support him rather than vice versa.

[lunabee34]

That makes me really sad for her. :(

[ladyherenya]

the book was published a year after Montgomery herself married, unromantically and unhappily

That is interesting context! I wonder how much she wrote romantic happily ever afters because that was what she wanted (or wanted to write) and how much it was because that was what would sell.

[landofnowhere]

Yeah... Admittedly, some of the stories were written earlier, but Montgomery became engaged to her husband in 1906 and was waiting for her grandmother's death to marry. I noticed that none of the spinsters in Chronicles were taking care of elderly relatives, as Montgomery was; a couple have imperious older sisters, but on the whole they start out with more freedom than Montgomery had (and also more stability -- Montgomery had to move out when her grandmother died).

[garonne]

the book was published a year after Montgomery herself married, unromantically and unhappily, at the age of 37

I didn't know that. Interesting!

As far as I remember, the Chronicles of Avonlea was the first Anne/Avonlea book I read as a kid, which was kind of an atypical introduction...