Persuasion, Jane Austen

Persuasion by Jane Austen

First Published: 1818
Pages: 312 (Hardback)
Form: Novel

Rating:

Jane Austen’s final novel is the story of Anne Elliot, a woman who gets a second chance. As a teenager she becomes engaged to a man who seems perfect for her, Frederick Wentworth. But she is persuaded to break the engagement off by her friend Lady Russel, who believes he is too poor to be a suitable match. The episode plunges Anne into a period of bleak disappointment. Eight years later, Frederick returns from the Napoleonic Wars flushed with success. Anne’s circumstances have also changed; her father’s spendthrift ways means he has been forced to lease the home to a naval family.  Will Anne and Frederick rediscover their love? Can their changed fortunes inhibit their feelings? Persuasion is a story of self-knowledge and personal regeneration, of social change and emotional politics.

I’ve been meaning to reread Persuasion for ages. It’s the last of Austen’s novels and the first time I read it was during a bit of an Austen binge (all her major novels, back to back, in order of publication) and thus was feeling a bit romanced-out by the time I got round to this one and didn’t really ‘click’ with it.  I’ve always suspected that my ambivalence towards it back then was a little unfair and that a reread would improve my opinion, and I’m happy to say that I was right. It’s still not my favourite Austen but I did really really enjoy it and predict at least a couple more rereads in the future (which is a lot more than can be said about Mansfield Park).

Atlas of Remote Islands, Judith Schalansky

Atlas of Remote Islands: Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will by Judith Schalansky
Translated by Christine Lo

First Published: 2009
Translation Published: 2010
Pages: 143 (Hardback)
Form: Non-Fiction, Geography, Maps

Rating:

Winner of the German Arts Foundation prize for the most beautiful book of the year.

Born on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall, the only way Judith Schalansky ould travel as a child was through the pages of an atlas. Now she has created her own, which takes us across the oceans of the world to fifty remote islands – from Iwo Jima to Tristan da Cunha and from Easter Island to Disappointment Island. On one page are her perfect maps, on the other unfold cryptic stories from the islands. Rare animals and strange people abound: marooned slaves and lonely scientists, lost explorers and confused lighthouse keepers, mutinous sailors and forgotten castaways. Armchair explorers who undertake these journeys will find themselves in places that exist in reality, but only come to life in the imagination.

So first thing’s first: this is a beautiful, wonderful book and the three stars up there reflect my experience reading it much more than they do the quality of the book itself. It’s a gorgeous, quirky, little book. Fifty islands from around the world: on one page a detailed map, on the opposite page a few basic facts and a little vignette about an event in the island’s history. I loved, loved, loved the idea when I first picked it up and flicked through it in the bookshop, and there’s nothing wrong with the execution either – it’s precisely what I expected. But three stars simply because I realised that I didn’t love the idea as much as I thought I had.

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings, Caspar Henderson

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings: A 21st Century Bestiary by Caspar Henderson
Illustrated by Golbanou Moghaddas

First Published: 2012
Pages: 427 (Hardback)
Form: Non-Fiction, Science, Natural History, Zoology, Bestiary

Rating:

From the Axolotl to the Zebrafish, our planet contains a host of barely imagined beings: real creatures that are often more astonishing than anything dreamt in the pages of a medieval bestiary. Ranging from the depths of the ocean to the most arid corners of the land, Caspar Henderson captures the beauty and bizarreness of the many living forms we thought we knew and some we could never have contemplated, inviting us to better imagine the precarious world we inhabit.

A witty, vivid blend of cutting edge natural history and meditative reflection, The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is infectiously celebratory about the sheer ingenuity and variety of life.

The Book of Barely Imagined Beings is subtitled ‘A 21st Century Bestiary’ and that’s what it is; not a natural history book, not an encyclopedia of animals, a bestiary – an odd fusion of science and navel-gazing. While in a medieval bestiary real and mythological animals were used as symbols for human virtues or vices, in this book real animals are used as starting points to examine wider issues about how human’s relate to both the world and each other. So the Axolotl entry looks at the Spanish conquest of Mexico, the Gonodactylus examines the scientific evolution of the eye, and so on. It’s a unique and very interesting approach, but one that doesn’t quite hit the mark in every entry. In the spirit of mimicking of medieval bestiaries the book has also been gorgeously designed; there’s gilding on the cover, a full-page illustration and illuminated capital letter for each animal that incorporates the major themes of the entry, and (best of all) marginalia. It is, quite simply, a beautiful book. And not only beautiful on the outside but unique on the inside.

Inferno, Dante Alighieri

Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Translated by Robin Kirkpatrick

First Published: c.1308-1321
Translation Published: 2006 (this translation)
Pages: 449 including notes and original Italian  – plus introduction (Hardback)
Form: Epic Poetry
Series: The Divine Comedy #1

Rating:

Dante’s epic in a new, sumptuous and delightful clothbound edition.

Describing Dante’s descent into Hell midway through his life with Virgil as a guide, Inferno depicts a cruel underworld in which desperate figures are condemned to eternal damnation for committing one or more of seven deadly sins. As he descends through nine concentric circles of increasingly agonising torture, Dante encounters doomed souls including the pagan Aeneas, the liar Odysseus, the suicide Cleopatra, and his own political enemies, damned for their deceit. Led by leering demons, the poet must ultimately journey with Virgil to the deepest level of all. For it is only by encountering Satan, in the heart of Hell, that he can truly understand the tragedy of sin.

A belated review for a poem I finished a few weeks ago. And a confession:  somewhere around page LXXV of the CIV length introduction to the poem I gave up (I always read intros after the main book now, been spoiled too often). It wasn’t a bad introduction, it was actually very good – lots of interesting information – but it was all a bit much to absorb for me at the time, I’ll get back to it later, I’m sure – but it’s heavy going. Which, funnily enough, the text of the poem isn’t. It’s lively and funny and very, very vivid.

Top 5: Jane Austen adaptations

TV and film companies love Austen. Maybe it’s the enduring appeal of the novels, maybe it’s the huge in-built audience of Austen fans that’ll guarantee success, maybe they just like the clothing, or maybe they’re just too damn lazy to find and utilise less known novels. Who knows? Either way, it means that the market place is flooded with films, tv series, plays, webisodes – period versions, modern-day versions, Bollywood versions, time travelling versions, versions with zombies… (and that’s just for one book!) basically pretty much any ‘twist’ you can think of.

Well before I read any Austen for myself I had seen TV and film adaptations of most of her books, some good some…not so good. Here are just 5 of my favourites – and yes, they are mostly (but not all) period versions, maybe later I’ll put together a list of my favourite modern-day versions but for today it’ my all time favourites and these are simply the ones I love the most.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There, Catherynne M. Valente

The Girl Who Fell Beneath Fairyland and Led the Revels There by Catherynne M. Valente
Illustrated by Ana Juan

First Published: 2012
Pages: 344 (Paperback)
Form: Novel
Series: Fairyland #2

Rating:

In the kingdom of Fairyland-Below, preparations are underway for the annual Revels . . . bur aboveground, the creatures of Fairyland are in no mood for a party.

It has been a long time since young September bid farewell to Fairyland, and she is excited to see it again; but upon her return she is shocked to find that her friends have been losing their shadows, and therefore their magic, to the kingdom of Fairyland-Below . . . It spells certain disaster and September won’t stand for it. Determined to make amends, she travels down into the underworld where, among creatures of ice and moonlight, she encounters a face she recognizes all too well: Halloween, the Hollow Queen. Only then does September realize what she must do to save Fairyland from slipping into the mundane world forever.

Come and join the Revels with September and her friends. But be warned: in Fairyland-Below, even the best of friends aren’t always what they seem . . .

Still in post-novel afterglow here (this is what happens when you’re more interested in books than people). I really love this little series, it’s like a slice of childhood, I just want to drizzle cream and chocolate sauce all over this book and gobble it up. But that would ruin a very beautiful paperback (and probably my digestive system too) so instead I will simply love it and stroke it and tuck it carefully back on my bookshelf to treasure for all time. Like, seriously, if I could do the Gollum voice that is exactly what I would be doing right now.

And now that I’ve scared all the normal people off I’ll get onto the review. . .

Once Upon a Crime, Michael Buckley

Once Upon a Crime by Michael Buckley
Illustrated by  Peter Ferguson

First Published: 2007
Pages: 272 (Hardback)
Form: Novel
Series: The Sisters Grimm #4

Rating:

For the first time since their parents were kidnapped, Sabrina and Daphne Grimm return to their hometown, New York City, to find Puck’s family. But the fairy-tale detectives get more than they bargained for in the Big Apple: wand-wielding fairy godfathers, swashbuckling Wall Street Pirates, subway-stealing dwarfs, and, worst of all, hidden among these urban Everafters, a murderer.

This isn’t the city Sabrina remembers, the place where she spent happy, normal days with her family. Even her memories of her parents aren’t safe. As the sisters Grimm investigate the death of an important Everafter, they learn that their mother kept a secret from them that might lead to the heart of that evil organization, the Scarlet Hand.

Like the rest of the series, it’s the little moments in this book, rather than the slightly predictable mystery plot, that makes this stand out. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great little series and I have a lot of affection for it, but it’s the small things – the way fairy tale (and now literary) characters have been modernised, eg. Scrooge from A Christmas Carol becoming a medium – that I really enjoy. The mystery itself, as in previous books, remains predictable, something a bit of deductive reasoning and ‘who would benefit from this crime?’ sort of common sense would solve quite quickly – not helped by the cover kindof giving a big part of the game away as well. But whether you guess it or not, it’s a fun ride and there are lots of new characters, expanded world-building, and amusing cameos to enjoy. And a bit more light gets shed on the big mystery of Sabrina and Daphne’s parents disappearance and the sinister ‘Red Hand’.