We seek him here, we seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in heaven? Is he in hell? That demmed, elusive Pimpernel. Back in 1982, a TV-movie version of The Scarlet Pimpernel starring Anthony Andrews, Jane Seymour and Ian McKellan aired in the US. My high school BFF and I were completely enthralled, particularly by Anthony Andrews. Honestly, I still am today. After watching clips of it on YouTube, I believe it has withstood the test of time. For me, Anthony Andrews’ […]
Turbulent Waters in Post WWI London
Sarah Waters’ The Paying Guests has been getting a lot of good press since its release last month, and the praise for this novel is much deserved. It really is a masterful work. Waters creates a suspenseful and heartbreaking love story against the backdrop of post-WWI London. Its rigid moral climate and deteriorating social and economic situation contribute to an almost suffocating environment that limits opportunity for women and criminalizes unconventional sexual desires. Waters stands shoulder to shoulder with Edith Wharton and Kate Chopin in […]
Guilt, Pleasure, and Murder
This mystery is part of the Inspector Lynley series, featuring the inspector and his sergeant Barbara Havers. I haven’t read the others in the series, and I’m happy to report that it doesn’t seem to matter. Elizabeth George’s work was recommended by a friend and it was a good recommendation. The tale moved along at a quick pace and featured morally complex characters, which all added up to more than just a clever whodunnit. What I liked most about this story was the inclusion of […]
This is Madness!
Antoinette Cosway, the main character of this novel, is the crazy woman in the attic in Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Rhys imagines the life of Rochester’s first wife and the events that drove her to madness, demonstrating her knowledge and understanding of Jamaican/West Indies history and culture as well as the powerful socio-economic forces that influenced post-Emancipation development there. As Francis Wyndham writes in the introduction, …Rhys knew about the mad Creole heiresses in the early nineteenth century, whose dowries were only an additional burden […]