Reading Roundup, April 2023
Apr. 30th, 2023 05:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phantomtomatoAfter thinking that I should budget a few weeks for it, I blitzed through Feversham's Fag by John Mowbray in an evening. It's short, I'm just used to reading in smaller chunks, but, well. Those boys' novel authors really knew how to tell a fun story.
We never get the first names of either Feversham (older prefect, subject of hero-worship) or his fag, Derry, during the novel. It's kind of absurd tbh, but I guess as good an excuse as any for something like not using Fowler's also-absent first name in Another Country fic. The plot is fairly simple and covers a short period of time in-universe, which is a bit of a break from the school novels I've read otherwise—it's maybe a single academic year at most. Feversham has a bad reputation for unspecified crimes, and Derry dreads being assigned to fag his study until he realizes that Feversham treats him fairly and even, occasionally, smiles a little bit at him. Swoon! (Also Feversham has lovely grey eyes, and this is repeated at every mention of him.) Of course there is a plot against Feversham: some of the more senior prefects went out dancing (shock, horror) and were caught by Feversham. They used their popularity and seniority to turn the school against him, so he's been alone and unloved all year, poor boy.
I love reading these sorts of novels to pick up the variations on the formula. There's always such fun slang, somehow they're all totally different, but also the Sports Chapters represent a neat area for differentiation. Feversham's Fag does track/cross country, which I've never seen before! I found the race descriptions really exciting. They had the intended effect on me, whereas the cricket and rugby and football chapters never quite land and I tend to skim. It also made Feversham, a good long-distance runner, feel quite independently attractive, since his athletic merits are all to his credit alone. Anyway, I had to purchase a physical copy of this, since it hasn't been converted to Gutenberg, though it should be public domain this year. Perhaps in the future we'll see a nice ebook version.
I did not finish Fathers of Men by E. W. Hornung, though it’s among the best-written of the boarding school novels I’ve tried. I knew going in that it wasn’t particularly shippy, but I found out just how important that quality was when reading this. IMO the boarding school novel relies on the strength of relationship between the protagonist and some other boy. My favorite of this plays the protag against an academic rival, though the more common variation is a protag paired up with a true friend, which is what’s displayed here. This relationship carries me through the disconnected stories of school life, since most of these don’t aim for anything approaching an overarching plot until the final third if that. But there’s no romance to the central relationship in Fathers, and so each chapter had to persuade me anew to care about the story, since they don’t build on one another in service of something. I was not persuaded, and I quit about the halfway mark.
Also, a short reflection on Hornung’s antisemitism
I expect to run into prejudices when I read old novels, but the way that
Hornung uses them is more upsetting to me than most others, I think because
it’s his heroes who make the antisemitic remarks. Fathers had only
one explicit mention in the part that I read, but it was extremely
unpleasant to run across—having our protagonist describe a fellow boy
according to his Jewishness as an explanation for a deficit of his
character is qualitatively different for me than an offhand mention in
narration. I’d seen this before in the Raffles stories, where it was worse.
Hornung actively villainizes Jews, and though it wasn’t a core/central part
of this story, it was tough to encounter!
I also finished The Longest Journey by E. M. Forster, which I went into aware that it was a polarizing novel. The prose is great, of course, which made getting through the meandering parts easier—but tbh I was fairly hooked by the end of the first quarter and didn’t need persuading from then on. The characters are unpleasant, on the whole. Rickie Elliot, the protagonist, is a young man finding his way in the world as an orphan with a congenital disability (which is an important factor in how he conceptualizes his worth, he and the novel are very aware of his limp). He makes friends, he marries, he deals with family scandal, he struggles with what should be considered meaningful in life (the “Longest Journey” of the title).
Spoilers
I was spoiled by my own googling (intentionally!) so that I knew Rickie
would die. I’m glad I did that; I would have been upset at the suddenness
of his death if not. I think that’s my main dissatisfaction with the novel,
its triteness at the end, wrapping up Rickie’s storyline so neatly by
killing him off just as soon as he’s reached a breakthrough in his
awareness of the world and would next have to do the hard work of
refactoring his life. That’s another 100k novel, I know, but—I would have
enjoyed seeing Rickie do some of that work, especially repairing his
friendship with Stewart Ansell.
And two non-spoilery thoughts on the book:
First, there’s a quote from Maurice, in which Forster writes of his leads: “Both were misogynists… women had become as remote as horses or cats.” I would apply that to Forster here. Journey contains many generalizations of women as a monolithic group. The women who play a significant role in the novel are fairly terrible people, at least with respect to Rickie. There’s something to be said for Maurice’s resolute disinterest in female characters, if the alternative is maligning them!
Second, I’m still so unused to how Edwardian novels seem to mark the passage of time. It absolutely thrills me. This had many moments where a marriage, death, or some other life event simply happens: one or two sentences to remark upon it, at the start or the end of a chapter, and then moving briskly along to the talky scene of our characters in a room. I find a lot to admire in the matter-of-fact way in which Forster and others dispense with years that they don’t want focus on. There’s an assumption of… willingness? capability? on the part of the reader, to simply note that two years have passed and someone has been awarded their degree and things continued as normal. And combined with the fact that most of this novel is spent detailing very very mundane interactions, it’s not that there’s just! so! much! stuff! we must get through, so the slow bits are cut for time; this is an intentional decision to give attention to some episodes within the characters’ lives, but not all of them. Compared to fic, it’s nonstandard pacing. But it’s inspiring, because what I hate in longer fic is the expectation that each chapter or each X thousand words represents a linear progression of time, building on top of all prior. I haven’t written longer fic in a while, but if I do again, I hope to find an excuse to use this.
Overall I enjoyed the novel, despite any criticisms above. I read it in a day, for whatever that’s worth. I really liked Rickie and Stewart, and I ended up writing fic to deal with that one scene in which they absolutely should have kissed: Idyll XII.
May brings finals week, commencement, and a short lakeside vacation, so I’m hoping to fit in a few more books before the summer research commitments eat me. See you at the end of it!
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Date: 2023-05-01 09:37 am (UTC)Aww, Feversham and Derry sound adorable! And agreed about Fowler being a very hard character to assign a first name to (it's hard to imagine him even having one, tbh, or letting anyone use it).
Second, I’m still so unused to how Edwardian novels seem to mark the passage of time. It absolutely thrills me.
I know what you mean! I still haven't got over that bit in Howards End where Forster is like "by the way, Mrs Wilcox is dead now, but anyway, moving on a year". The Longest Journey is the only Forster novel I have left to read-- I acquired a lovely old Penguin paperback edition of it for 50p in a local bookshop a while ago, so I really have no excuse!
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Date: 2023-05-01 04:06 pm (UTC)I wish there were some mandate that authors put first and last names for all characters in an index at the back of the book. For entirely selfish reasons, I admit. Make them come up with the names so that later adaptations and fan authors don't have to! When it comes to writing someone like Fowler, the lack of a first name makes the scope of the story I can tell feel limited, and I am never satisfied with the names I come up with on my own. The surname-only character that I write the most, Nott Sr., is a prime example—I took a fanon firstname for him (Thoros) despite thinking it's an extremely stupid choice, just because it at least was easier than making my own decision!
Journey is only my second Forster, so I'm sure I'll be in for a surprise if I eventually get to the rest! I'll look forward to your thoughts if you get around to it. :) But yes, the time thing is as fun as it is weird.
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Date: 2023-05-01 04:44 pm (UTC)I personally like to imagine that Fowler has some hilariously uptight and stuffy first name like Clarence or Eustace, the sort of thing that would get you mercilessly bullied at a boys' boarding school if anyone discovered it. But it would feel weird and unsatisfying to include that in a fic, like you say!
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Date: 2023-05-01 04:58 pm (UTC)Oh, help, now I'm picturing Fowler's mum calling him "Clary" during some unfortunate parent visit day!
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Date: 2024-06-17 03:31 am (UTC)Now having also read Howards End, oh my god, yes. Mrs. Wilcox’s sudden death was so jarring! And after such a compelling set-up of her friendship with Margaret!
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Date: 2023-05-01 12:28 pm (UTC)Feversham's Fag sounds great, however :D Oh, the drama and pathos and romance, and lovely swoon-worthy grey eyes! (And I make no promises, but I make ebooks for Gutenberg, and if I do get round to reading it I shall add it to my list of possibilities).
And I'm glad you enjoyed The Longest Journey! I really do love that book. I think when I first read it I thought of Rickie's death as a matter of sort of tragic inevitability and accepted it as satisfying/appropriate from that perspective—considered more from the view of story logic it is a bit overly neat, and you're right that there could have been a very interesting additional novel in exploring how he went on if he'd lived.
I totally agree that they should have kissed in that one scene, and am delighted that you've written fic *opens to read later* :D
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Date: 2023-05-01 04:23 pm (UTC)Ah, it's no problem about Fathers. Did you do a writeup of it in your journal when you read it? I'm curious to see what stood out to you.
I'm also super interested in the process of producing books for Gutenberg! That sounds like a fantastic hobby (?). I know I appreciate the collection so much.
No, I think you're correct about Rickie's death fitting his narrative arc, especially with the foreshadowing of the two earlier sudden deaths (his mother, Gerald) and the children being killed by trains in that crossing. I can't say it wasn't fitting! I'm just drawn to stories of readjustment, especially when they take place during adulthood rather than before the onset of it. I mean, for however much Rickie counts as an adult—I know he's actually about 23, he just hits this modern reader more like his late 30s, given what he's already done in life.
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Date: 2023-05-01 05:44 pm (UTC)Yes, that makes sense! I suppose I am more drawn to stories of tragic inevitability and cathartic doom (at least with this sort of book), but that possibility of readjustment would certainly make a fascinating AU.
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Date: 2023-05-01 07:53 pm (UTC)Oh, thank you for the links to both! I've added Imre to my reading list—it looks like a fun short read! I also have the Canadian site ebook version of Flight of the Heron in my phone, so I will eventually see whether I take to the Jacobite period as well. :)
Your Fathers of Men review including a comparison with The Hill is perfect! I got the same impression of the central triangle when reading both, and as with both, I was most interested in the villain role of Evan/Scaife. I do have a bunch of highlighted passages wherein Jan describes Evan's beautiful skin and hair, ha. I love the language around it! But it's very helpful to see you reacting so much to the specific context of the author, and that helps me explain some of my detachment from the novel.
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Date: 2023-05-02 06:21 pm (UTC)Yes, I think the specific Hornung details were a lot of what I liked about Fathers of Men, especially when I last read it in the middle of a read-through of all his books. But I'm glad you enjoyed the descriptions of Evan's beautiful skin and hair, anyway XD