My sister hated The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t love it either. I think I wanted more, or, maybe, I just wanted it to be better. It glosses over a lot of Evelyn’s relationships and especially with the relationship that Evelyn claimed was the most important. I also had the same problem with it that I had with All the Stars in the Heavens in that, reading this book from the mindset of someone not living in those […]
Treason and Syphilis During the 7-Years War
This is Gabaldon’s first book in a new trilogy following her highly successful Outlander series. The “Lord John” series is based on the relatively minor character from the Outlander books Lord John Grey, who is a young and fiercely patriotic military officer and second son of a wealthy and prestigious family. Lord John is also a secret homosexual, a practice which was seen as akin to treason in these tumultuous days of the Seven Years War between England and France, and which causes him no […]
Wars, treason and homosexuality in 18th century England
An offshoot of the original Outlander series, the Lord John novels deal with Lord John Grey, a British nobleman, a soldier and a patriot in the time of the Seven Years War in 18th century Europe. He is also a secret homosexual, at a time when coming out would not only destroy his career, his reputation and that of his family, but would very likely lead to his exile, jailing, or possibly even execution. Despite the fact that homosexuality is pervasive during these times, and […]
A Novelist’s Profound Discourse on Human Suffering
This was my first foray into the writing of Ruth Rendell, who now apparently publishes under the pseudonym of Barbara Vine, and I was affected to the core by what some reviewers call her finest work. She takes the story of an outwardly successful family—a popular British author, his two beloved daughters, his caring wife—and forges a mystery so infused with sadness and psychological trauma that it can leave no reader unscathed. Gerald Candless is an imposing figure of a man—deep-voiced and towering, with leonine […]