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Bettie's Books
A Stuga On the Cusp of the Orust Riviera, tucked away next to a hobbit hole in the woods.
Treveryan
bookshelves: one-penny-wonder, paper-read, published-1942, autumn-2012, bedside, cornwall, gothic, families, mental-health
Recommended to ☯Bettie☯ by: Jane
Recommended for: 3Ms
Read from September 18 to October 15, 2012
Dedication:
Dedicated
with much Love to
DAPHNE
my Sister
Opening:
'But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,
I could a tale unfold whose lightest word
Would harrow up thy soul...
UNLIKE THE GHOST of Hamlet there is no prison-house to forbid me. A tale. Queer, old-fashioned, unsatisfactory little word for what may be bleak tragedy.
kicking off the marathon with some pages from this gothic tale that is somewhat more Hardy than du Maurier.Page 58: Oswald had just given her his engagement ring, a beautiful thing of pearls and opals.
"It's lovely!" she answered quietly, and indeed it was the prettiest ring she had ever seen.
"I know your birthday isn't in October, sweetheart, but I'm not superstitious. Are you?" and he looked half anxiously at her.
"Anything as beautiful as this could never bring ill-luck," she answered.
Famous last words!
Look at the original cover:
What you will mostly be wanting to know is how does this stand up against Daphne's ouevre and it is like literary deja vu:
this is Wuthering Heights compared to Jane Eyre
4* for me because of the slackness in the first 20 odd pages; however, if, like Wuthering Heights, this sticks in the memory it may, over time, become the full 5*.
That Yew moment and the surrounding events - brilliant.
Thanks Fleur for finding this, and thanks to Bird Brian, Wanda and Brazilliant for following the progress.
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