Review: I'VE COME TO STAY: A LOVE COMEDY OF BOHEMIA by Mary Heaton Vorse

Original Publication Date: 1918

Genre: romantic comedy

Topics: love, free will, battle of the sexes






















Review by heidenkind:

Ambrose is a writer living in Greenwich Village, right on the edge of Washington Square. Despite the fact that he rarely has two pennies to scrape together, he has a fine wardrobe, wonderful friends, and only writes when he feels like it. Ambrose is living the dream, in other words. But when he adopts an orphan named Sonya (or is it the other way around?), Ambrose can sense his glorious life slipping away into one of conventionality and obligation. Will Ambrose be able to hold on to the life he wants while still doing the right thing?

Books like I've Come To Stay are the entire reason I started this blog. This novel is totally obscure and completely delightful, and I can't wait to tell everyone about it! In tone it reminded me of Gigi, or perhaps a 1910s American version of Notting Hill. In other words, I loved the hell out of it.

I've Come To Stay is a unique take on the romantic comedy. First of all, the people that populate it are fun and quirky, as one would expect from a book set in Greenwich Village. I'm a total sucker for stories that capture avant-garde communities and time periods like this, and I've Come To Stay does it perfectly. It's filled with people who've deliberately rejected the idea of being conventional and decided to become dancers, artists, writers, fashion designers, and political dissidents. They're not necessarily ambitious—Ambrose certainly isn't—except when it comes to freedom and self-expression. For instance, Sonya, the orphan who decides Ambrose is going to adopt her, was raised by her grandfather:

...to express her individuality fully. If she feels like catching a ride on a hearse, she does it. Instead of the Bible she has had Nietzsche; instead of the catechism, Max Stimer; instead of geography she was from the cradle taught to dance by a fat, old Italian ballerina...

Another example is Camilla, the woman Ambrose is sweet on. She longs to escape her "horrible blue-serge youth" in the country, and accordingly has no interest in settling down, getting married, or being a mother, especially to Sonya. Will Ambrose be able to convince her that marrying him doesn't mean becoming a boring and conventional hausfrau?

There's a theme of obligation and responsibility running through I've Come To Stay that intersects with a subtly played out battle of the sexes. As Ambrose's Aunt Adelaide tells him, "It's that awful maternal instinct run rampant." Adelaide's theory is that women make men miserable by treating their husbands and boyfriends like children. But men do the same thing to women, as Camilla discovers when she's caught in her own web of obligation.

I wouldn't call I've Come To Stay a strict romance—most of the scenes and storylines have to do with Sonya messing up Ambrose's life, not the relationship between him and Camilla—but it is SO, SO FUNNY. The dialog between Ambrose and Camilla is sharp and clever, and Ambrose himself is droll and completely charming. His interactions with Sonya are also pretty amusing, since she's an insane, tiny drill sergeant ("When I'm one minute late to school I feel as if I had wasted my whole life") who's constantly trying to get him to toe the line.

When I got close to the end of I've Come To Stay, I honestly wasn't sure if Camilla and Ambrose would end up together, and I was more than a little worried they'd both settle down and decide to "grow up" or become normal. This novel could have gone in so many different directions, but the conclusion Mary Heaton Vorse writes is absolutely perfect and delightful.

If you like comedies, romantic or otherwise, I really hope you'll give I've Come To Stay a try. I loved it and predict it will be one of my favorite books of the year. I want to read all of Vorse's other books now!




Download I've Come To Stay: A Love Comedy of Bohemia by Mary Heaton Vorse at Archive.org|Librivox

Review: THE POISONED PEN by Arthur B. Reeve

Original Publication Date: 1912

Genre: mystery, short stories

Topics: Detective, technology, corruption, science























Review by heidenkind:


"Professor" Craig Kennedy (what exactly he's a professor of I don't know—his first name might be professor) and his reporter friend/sidekick, Walter Jameson, are on the case of a string of mysterious crimes in this collection of short stories.

Someone on Goodreads described Craig Kennedy as "A poor man's Sherlock Holmes," and that's fair—but isn't that really true of 70% of detective fiction? Kennedy and Jameson are definitely "inspired by" Holmes and Watson; but even if the premise isn't very original, I found the short stories in The Poisoned Pen to be unusual and entertaining.

Admittedly, part of the reason why I liked The Poisoned Pen so much had nothing to do with the book itself, but the narrator of the audiobook version I downloaded, Elliot Miller. He was awesome! He gave all the characters their own voices, including Kennedy, who spoke like an olde-timey movie actor. The fact that Kennedy talked like Cary Grant was something I totally got a kick out of, and Miller was spot-on at reproducing that throwback Mid-Atlantic English accent.

I also really liked how women were treated in The Poisoned Pen. Not that it passes the Bechdel Test or that I would ever describe it as feminist or anything, but the female characters Arthur B. Reeve introduces are well-rounded human beings with their own motivations, NOT stereotypes or tropes (what a concept). For example, in "The Campaign Grafter," there's a suffragette who's sweet, fashionable, and idealistic. In "The Yeggman" (which I guess is a burglar?), one of the suspects is a woman who chews Kennedy out when he accuses her of trying to commit fraud. Instead of dismissing her as "hysterical" or "difficult," Kennedy admits he deserved the ass chewing and apologizes to her. And in "The Firebug," Kennedy solves a crime using handwriting analysis, concluding the writer of a series of letters is a woman. This kind of thing happens all the time in detective novels and on TV shows (I'm looking at you, Sherlock), and it normally pisses me off because it promotes ideas of gender essentialism (she checked her nails a certain way, she must really be a man!). But in The Poisoned Pen, Kennedy takes care to explain that determining gender based on handwriting is only accurate about 80% of the time, and the reason men and women tend to write differently has to do with the types of professions they gravitate toward and the amount of writing they do, NOT anything to do with their gender per se. So okay, Kennedy, I'll give you a pass on that one.

As for the mysteries themselves, some of the solutions in The Poisoned Pen were SO BIZARRE, I can't even. In one, Kennedy concludes the criminal disguised himself by cutting off the tips of his fingers and REGROWING THEM to produce new fingers (and thereby different fingerprints). Totally plausible you guys. In another story, Kennedy brings someone back from the dead. Literally. And then there was an instance where a doctor avoids dying from cyanide poisoning by washing out his stomach with hydrogen peroxide and then injecting said hydrogen peroxide into his bloodstream. LIKE, WHAT?

I'm no chemist or anything, but that sounds like it might do more harm than good.

That being said, I found the bizarro plot points more amusing than annoying. It's kind of entertaining how Kennedy uses devices of "the future" that seem very quaint and odd now.

Not that all of the stories are great (the last three are kind of a drag), but for the most part I'd recommend The Poisoned Pen to anyone who enjoys mysteries. And definitely check out Librivox's audiobook version if you're into that sort of thing!







Download The Poisoned Pen by Arthur B. Reeve at Project Gutenberg|Librivox

Review: EMMA by Jane Austen

Proposed alternate title: Mr. Knightley is Always Right

Original Publication Date: 1815

Genre: women's fiction

Topics: marriage, women, coming of age, friendship, class




















Review by heidenkind:


The life of young, pretty, clever, and rich Emma Woodhouse is thrown into chaos—or at least discomfort—when her governess and best friend, Miss Taylor, gets married. Lonely, Emma tries to find other friendships in the small town of Highbury, but her managing ways only seem to spread misery, as her neighbor Mr. Knightley delights in pointing out. Will Emma ever be able to settle into a life of happiness, peace, and tranquility?

I actually liked Emma a lot more than I thought I would based on the film and television adaptations I've seen (of which there are an astonishing number, all things considered). In most adaptations, Emma comes across as a spoiled brat. Not to say she isn't, but I found her more sympathetic in the book.

Emma is separated into three parts: Emma vs Harriet Smith, Emma vs Jane Fairfax, and Emma vs Emma. Emma vs Harriet Smith was, quite frankly, REALLY hard to get through. If I hadn't promised Kelly from Reading with Analysis that I would read Emma for Jane Austen January, I probably would have DNF'd it before I got to Part 2. Emma is just SUCH a manipulative bitch. It was so bad I wondered if Jane Austen wasn't making fun of Prince George, whom she hated but was forced to dedicate Emma to (I guess because he asked her to). After all, like Prinny, Emma is the princess of her little village: no other person is her social equal, and that is NOT a benefit for her, personality- or character-wise. Yet everyone inexplicably thinks she's wonderful; and even if they don't, they don't say anything about it. Also like Prinny, Emma's dad is CRAZY. But, I will say this much for her: when Emma realizes she's made a mistake, she owns up to it and apologizes right away. So going into Part 2, I was inclined to think better of her.

I found Emma vs Jane Fairfax to be more amusing than Part 1. Mostly because I already knew what was going to happen, so I could enjoy the irony. But there was one thing that drove me insane: conversations that went on and on AND ON. Like we get it already! The joke has been made! Let me give you some examples of the fascinating topics under discussion:

The post office. Did you know they ship mail? And the mail often reaches its recipient! It's a wonder of organization, is what it is. Let's discuss this for TEN PAGES.
*silently screaming*<-me

MRS ELTON: Jane, I'm going to find you a governess position.
JANE: No thank you.
REPEAT AD INFINITUM

Gruel! It's a healthy dinner option for anyone who's ill or has completely given up on life. But did you know it shouldn't be too thick? Nor too thin.

In Emma vs Emma, Emma goes into a hate spiral because Harriet tells her Mr. Knightley is in love with her. And since everyone except Knightley has noticed he's a being moody bastard, Emma is inclined to believe her. I do have to admit I found Mr. Knightley pretty attractive and thought he and Emma had great chemistry. That is, at least until the part of the book where Emma gives him Frank Churchill's letter (and people today whine about email forwarding...) and Knightley goes through it line by line, criticizing everything Frank ever did or was wont to do. Because Knightley's not only a good man, a kind man, a beautiful man; he's the most perfect man to have ever walked the earth! At least since Jesus.

Look who's talking, buddy.

But enough unnecessary summary. The sculptor Louise Nevelson once said, "Life isn't one straight line. Most of us have to be transplanted, like a tree, before we blossom." And maybe it's because of that quote that I found Emma to be unsuccessful as a coming of age story. There were times when it reminded me of a Georgian version of Seinfeld: nothing changes. Emma's world is very small (though not idyllic—there are robberies and whatnot), and she never expresses even barest hint of a wish to leave or grow beyond it. She doesn't even move into Knightley's house—which is what, a five minute walk away?—after they're married! Emma may not be as wackadoo as her dad, but just like him she doesn't want anything to change, ever, and I would argue that includes herself. Sure, she realizes she's made a few mistakes over the course of the novel, but the ease with which she faces them and moves on makes me doubt she learned anything from them. For example, when she's like, "Mr. Knightley was right, I never should have befriended Harriet Smith!" it's because she thinks Mr. Knightley is in love with Harriet and she wants him for herself, not because she's had some sort inner revelation about how Harriet is significantly less happy now than she was before Emma condescended to notice her. Even in the last part of the novel she's still pretty selfish.

I also found Emma to be a more cynical novel than other Austen novels I've read. In Pride & Prejudice, you really get the sense that even though Darcy and Elizabeth got off on the wrong foot, they come to a true understanding of one another, flaws and all. With Emma, almost the opposite is true: she starts off as a matchmaker, believing she understands the human heart, and ends up thinking that no one can ever really know another human being. But that's cool, since she doesn't really care all that much anyway.

I'm glad I read Emma. It is a well-written book, but I don't think it will ever be my favorite Austen novel. Or even my fourth-favorite.

Incidentally, I listened to the Librivox version of the book narrated by Moira Fogarty, and she did a fantastic job. She gave every character his/her own voice and everything. I highly recommend it!



Download Emma by Jane Austen at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|GirleBooks

Review: THE GREAT IMPERSONATION by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Original Publication Date: 1920

Genre: Mystery

Topics: Espionage, Germanic horde, WWI, love, civilization vs savagery





 













Review by heidenkind:

Sir Everard Dominey, living in self-exile in Africa, wakes up after a night of drinking too much whiskey to find himself the guest of Leopold von Ragastein, his doppelganger. The two have many similarities beside their appearance: they both have a natural gift for languages, and Ragastein is also in exile after killing his mistress' husband in a duel. The only major difference between them is that Ragastein is German and therefore EVIL. After spending the night prying into the life of Everard Dominey, Ragastein and his friend, Dr. Schmidt, send Dominey out into the African desert with no water and nothing but extremely salty food, never to be heard from again. Then, taking on the identity of his double, Ragastein goes to England, where he, impersonating Everard Dominey, is in the perfect position to be the greatest and most insidious German spy of all time. But will he have the heart to do what the Kaiser asks of him? And is Everard Dominey really dead?

I decided to read The Great Impersonation after I "overheard" Melody from Redeeming Qualities and Evangeline from Edwardian Promenade talking about it on Twitter. I'm so glad I did! The Great Impersonation is an absolutely great story, good enough for me to overlook the constant references to Rosamund Dominey, Everard's homicidally insane wife, as "childlike" (yes, his wife is insane and homicidal, YET CHILDLIKE. You're hooked now, aren't you?).

As soon as "Dominey" returns to England, the reader is sure two things are going to happen: Leopold's going to fall in love with Dominey's wife, and the real Everard Dominey is going to show up and spoil everything. Of course, this should be something the reader wants to happen, since Leopold is GERMAN and therefore EVIL. But in actuality, Leopold is kind of upstanding and honorable, and—now that he's in England—demonstrates some divided loyalties between England and Germany. It's almost enough to make one think The Great Impersonation might be the only book in all of 20th century English literature where there's a good German character. Almost.

I also liked how The Great Impersonation is a cross between several genres. Yes, you have the whole spy/WWI plot; but it could also arguably be classified as a gothic mystery, what with the ominous Dominey homestead (filled with secret passages, hauntings, superstitious locals, and an adjacent cursed forest, OF COURSE) and the disappearance of Roger Unthank; as well as a coming of age tale.

Basically, if you're looking for an entertaining, fast-paced novel with mystery, romance, and twists, you can't go wrong with The Great Impersonation. I'll definitely be reading more of E. Phillips Oppenheim's work in the future!




Download The Great Impersonation by E. Phillips Oppenheim at Project Gutenberg|Librivox

Review: THE MYSTERY OF THE HASTY ARROW by Anna Katharine Green

Original Publication Date: 1917

Genre: Mystery

Topics: Love, tragedy, betrayal, ambition




















Review by heidenkind:


In the middle of a museum gallery, a young woman lies dead, an arrow shot straight through her chest. An older woman claiming no connection with the victim is found hovering over the body, muttering incoherently. Was it murder or a tragic accident? And who was the young woman? The aged detective, Mr. Ebenezer Gryce, is on the case to find out.

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows I like to make fun of Anna Katharine Green, but The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow is actually a pretty decent book. The mystery is super-twisty and the story has the scope of a Greek tragedy.

Naturally the woman hovering over the girl's body is the initial suspect, but Gryce doesn't think she committed the murder. After locking down the museum and questioning all the visitors, Gryce discovers one of the men who witnessed the murder actually knew the victim, kinda sorta. You see, he fell in love with her at first sight and then chased her all the way across the Atlantic on a steamer ship from Europe to New York, never introducing himself, just always watching. STALKER MUCH? Gryce thinks Mr. Travis is a pretty weird dude, but still doesn't like him for the murder. Fortunately Travis has some useful information: the name of the girl (Angeline Willetts) and the fact that she was traveling with a French woman. Gryce and his team search all the New York hotels, only to discover that Angeline Willetts' traveling companion up and walked right of their hotel shortly before the murder took place. Dun dun dun!

And that's just the start of the novel.

Don't get me wrong, The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow has a few major problems. It's way too long—a quarter of it is all about the chase to find the French woman, and the denouement is inSANEly long—but overall I really enjoyed it. One of the things that always bugs me about Green's books is that everything is as it appears. The grieving yet ditzy widow is actually just a grieving airhead, the dangerous vagabond is actually a dangerous vagabond, etc. That's not the case in this book, though! No one is as they first appear, and the conclusion to the story definitely surprised me and went in a direction I never expected. I mean, yes, there are still some WTF scenes and everything is superfluously dramatic, but in the case of this particular story it didn't seem as weird as it has in some of Green's other works.

Basically, if you've been thinking about trying one of Anna Katharine Green's novels, I'd recommend The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow. It's definitely the best Green mystery I've come across so far.



Download The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow by Anna Katharine Green at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|GirleBooks

Review: THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE by Robert Louis Stevenson

Original Publication Date: 1886

Genre: mystery, horror

Topics: madness, good vs evil, society









Review by heidenkind:

Mr. Utterson, a London lawyer, is concerned that his friend, Dr. Jekyll, has developed a relationship with an unsavory character named Mr. Hyde, especially as Hyde has been connected with several incidents of violence and assault. Eventually Jekyll assures Utterson he's cut off all ties with Hyde, but the mystery of Hyde's connection to Jekyll persists, especially after Jekyll disappears.

A few weeks ago, I got it into my head that I was going to read The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This is a book I'd had no interest in reading before; and, considering I DNF'd Treasure Island earlier this year, I didn't have super-high hopes for it. I was pleasantly proved incorrect—I loved Jekyll and Hyde, and this novel will definitely land on my short list of favorite reads of the year.

Robert Louis Stevenson had me from the very beginning of the story with his comparison of Utterson—a completely conventional, moderate, and reasonable man—to that of his friend and distant relative, Mr. Enfield, a "well-known man about town":

It was a nut to crack for many, what these two could see in each other, or what subject they could find in common.

In this way Stevenson immediately sets us up for a story about the multiple sides of men's characters—for, if Utterson was completely mild-mannered and Enfield completely dissolute, how would they manage to enjoy one another's company so much? Clearly there's a little of Utterson in Enfield and vice versa.

Fittingly, it is through Enfield that the character of Hyde is introduced, seen in a disreputable part of town knocking over a little girl. Utterson also knows Hyde, or knows of him, because Hyde is mentioned in the will of his friend, Dr. Jekyll. Like Utterson, Jekyll is an upstanding gentleman whose friends are "all intelligent, reputable men and all judges of good wine." So what would Jekyll have to do with a reprobate like Hyde? Utterson wonders.

Obviously we all know the answer to that question, even if we haven't read the book. But the real issue driving the story is WHY—what would drive Jekyll to even conceive of a way to isolate a part of his personality and then switch from one to the other?

Jekyll and Hyde was not what I was expecting based on the adaptations I've seen. It's more of a detective story than a horror story, and neither Jekyll nor Hyde are as good or evil as they've been portrayed. Is Hyde really evil, or is he just uncivilized? He knocked over the girl by accident, and he did offer recompense to her family. It seems like Hyde's demonic nature is more perception than reality; as soon as people see him, they detest him. According to Enfield,

I had taken a loathing to my gentleman at first sight. So had the child's family, which was only natural. But the doctor's case was what struck me. He was the usual cut-and-dry apothecary, of no particular age and colour, with a strong Edinburgh accent, and about as emotional as a bagpipe. Well, sir, he was like the rest of us; every time he looked at my prisoner, I saw that Sawbones turn sick and white with the desire to kill him.

How else is a person supposed to react when people treat them like that?

Jekyll wasn't the mild-mannered shy physician I anticipated, either: he's a gentleman bachelor NOW, but it's stated that in his youth he was "wild," and there's a certain "slyness" about his face.

It's for these reasons that I don't see The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as being a tale of good versus evil—instead, it's a cautionary tale about conformity. Jekyll wants to be normal and to fit in with those men who are respectable and intelligent, so he tries to remove the part of himself they would shun if they knew about it. Whether it's addiction, the id, or a demon, Hyde represents whatever society rejects. In Jekyll's attempt to conform to society's definition of a gentleman doctor, he in turn rejects the part of himself that society finds distasteful, and in the process he destroys himself.

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is one of those deceptively simple novels, like Animal Farm, that's a good story and also makes you think. It's accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds and can be read simply as a great story, an indictment of Victorian society as a whole, or anywhere in between. Definitely a book I think is a must-read.



Download The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson at Project Gutenberg|Librivox|Internet Archive

Happy Birthday, Anna Katherine Green

Today is—or would be, if she was still alive—Anna Katharine Green's birthday. Green was the first woman to publish a mystery novel (The Leavenworth Case in 1878), and her books tend to be really weird. I don't know why I keep reading them, but I find them bizarrely fascinating. Like watching a Japanese game show: you have a general sense of what's going on, but you can also tell there are things getting lost in the translation. Except in Green's case, the translation is one of time rather than language.

By coincidence, I'm taking a class on historical fiction through Coursera right now called Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction, and Anna Katharine Green is one of the major authors featured. Apparently she was not just the first woman to publish a mystery novel, but was also the first person to write a historical mystery! Mind: blown.

The book in question is titled The Forsaken Inn; and yes, it's already on my Kindle. I thought it would be fun to include the instructor, Bruce Holsinger's, lectures on it here (I really hope the videos work):

Green was a realist? HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS, her books make so much sense now (I'm kidding, they still don't make sense). As a side note, Holsinger's obvious enjoyment of Green's very Victorian writing style is kind of adorkable.

One of the most interesting things I'm learning from this class is how much information can be found in the title pages of old books. They're like the metadata files of books in paper!

Anyway, happy birthday to Green, a very interesting and innovative author in her time period. Nice to see her getting some more attention!