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Old 16-10-06, 02:56 PM
Jayflip Jayflip is offline
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well ive been reading the glass books and here's my summary of it...what does everyone else think?

So far it does not seem to be Victorian Gothic in even the broadest, most liberal sense of the term. The style of narrative suggests a Comedy of Manners. (But for that to work the author needs to know the milieu he/she is satirizing, inside and out, and so far it looks like he doesn't. If he means to combine Com with 19th century Gothic, I would suggest a course of Thomas Love Peacock.)

The first pages are full of details about Miss Temple's life and her previous relationship with the man who has just jilted her. Then comes a sequence on a strangely empty train, where she discovers that the (very few) passengers are all wearing masks which is strangely disquieting. But any uneasiness the reader might feel is diluted by a lengthy scene of a sedate ride in a coach, during which the occupants exchange vacuous pleasantries, until Miss Temple -- inexcusably, one can't help thinking, considering the very slight provocation -- pokes one of the other women in the eyes.

Yet things will start to feel creepier when they reach their destination. In the meantime, it reminds me of how Le Fanu, or Stoker, or Collins, or Gaskell would have handled the train ride, investing the whole thing with a menacing atmosphere. And I've now realized why so many authors of Victorian ghost stories and novels of Gothic suspense chose protagonists who were high-strung artistic types, or students or businessmen just recovering from nervous breakdowns due to too much studying or overwork -- such characters are keenly sensitive to mood and atmosphere, and the reader is able to experience every thrill of terror along with them - Miss Temple seems to fit this bill also.

so what sort of Victorian Gothic novel is this book is supposed to be? Anyone who doesn't have the same love for 19th century fiction that you and I share is probably skimming this message by now, and wondering who are these writers, Le Fanu, Gaskell, and so forth and why should I care? So I'll move on to something more likely to interest them:

Modern readers, accustomed to the style of contemporary writers, will probably think the narrative of The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters very wordy with a slow pace.

But this, too, seems to improve as the story goes on. The book must have something special about it, to attract so much attention. I'm willing to get the subscription and keep reading...
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