King Arthur Movie Tristan

title: Bath Tangle

author: Georgette Heyer



genre: Regency Romance/Classic

pages: 362

published: 1955

source: sent for review from Sourcebooks



rated: 4 out of 5 stars











About:

The red-haired, fiery beauty Lady Serena Carlow has just lost her father to pneumonia. Her mother died when she was just twelve years old and she is an only child.

Serena's fifty-something year old father left behind a widow, the young Lady Fanny, who is twenty three years old, which makes her a few years younger than Serena. Milverly house, Serena's home, is left to her male cousin.



To Serena's horror, at the reading of her fathers will, Ivo Barrasford who is the marquis of Rotherham, is named trustee of Serena's wealth.


Rotherham, who is not even a blood relative, is also Serena's ex-beau, whom she broke it off with years ago because he was 'unendurable'. Serena's father however, trusted and liked Rotherham.




Added to all of this, Serena was once in love with a soldier named Hector Kirkby. This was six years ago and Serena's father made her break off the match since Hector was not wealthy.


Serena and the fair and dainty Fanny get along very well and they decide to temporarily move to Bath. Once at Bath, the two ladies make new acquaintances and find some entertainment with this new change of scenery. Serena even runs into her old flame, Major Hector Kirkby and sparks reignite.





My thoughts:

If I had to describe Bath Tangle with just one word, it would be charming.







Oh, what a tangled web Miss Georgette Heyer weaves in this novel.

This book had me laughing from the start with all the goings on within the storyline and sighing at the sweet romance throughout.




The reading of the will was a favorite scene and I laughed out loud at Serena's reaction to her fate. I thought she was going to claw Rotherham's eyes out since he had the nerve to laugh out loud after the Will was read.

"Fanny, don't touch me! I am not safe!"

-(Serena to Fanny)







I liked Rotherham and thought he made a good hero.
He and Serena had great chemistry, and although the two always found one reason or other to argue, I could always see that he still held feelings for her.
Some of the things he would say to Serena had me laughing. He is very much the 'no nonsense' type of guy.



Serena was likeable. She's got a mind of her own, is a self-confessed flirt and is always ready to argue with Rotherham when the opportunity arises.

She was raised as part of the upper class, used to meeting royalty, with mannerisms of someone who is used to having only the best. She also has a bit of a reputation due to her feisty temper and because she broke off her engagement with Rotherham.




Poor Fanny, she was made a widow in her early twenties, with a step-daughter near her same age to boot. She and Serena are more like sisters than anything. Fanny is happy with the simple life.




I liked when Hector Kirkby made his entrance into the story. He makes it known that he has never forgotten Serena and hates Rotherham. I did feel that Hector was too head over heels in love with Serena, and was blind to her faults. I would laugh out loud when Serena would put him in his place, as he had no control over her.
Another funny scene was when he took Serena to meet his mother. Hector is a bit of a flake.




I always enjoy visiting Regency England through Heyer's stories. She describes the time, place and customs so well that I feel as though I am really there.



This was a fun romance and I found myself being unable to put this one down. Heyer made me laugh until the very end.


The author has a knack for putting her characters into place, then letting the story take twists and turns until the final page.

This was also a story about class and social standings. Heyer weaves this aspect of class into the storyline very well.





With Georgette Heyer's signature witty dialogue, sweet romance, interesting characters and a fun storyline, I thoroughly enjoyed Bath Tangle.



This book has also been reviewed by:


Blodeuedd.







I'll close my review with a few favorite tidbits:

"Don't shoot daggerlooks at me! I'm impervious to 'em."

p.13

He had few graces, his manners being blunt to a fault, made as many enemies as friends, and, had he not been endowed with birth, rank, and fortune, would possibly
have been ostracized from polite circles. But these magical attributes were his, and they acted like a talisman upon his world. His Belcher neckties and his unconventional manners might be deplored but must be accepted: he was Rotherham.

p.13

"It is nearly seven years since I first saw her, and from that day those feelings have remained unchanged! She appeared to me then like some heavenly creature descended to earth to make every other woman seem commonplace! Her beauty, her grace, the very music of her voice, I could never forget! They have remained with me, haunted all of my dreams..."

p.127

About the author:







Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. The couple spent several years living in Tanganyika and Macedonia before returning to England in 1929. After her novel These Old Shades became popular despite its release during the General Strike, Heyer determined that publicity was not necessary for good sales. For the rest of her life, she refused to grant interviews, telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family."


quoted from wiki

title: Regret


author: Guy de Maupassant

genre: short story/classics



first lines:
Monsieur Saval, who was called in Mantes "Father Saval," had just risen from bed. He was weeping. It was a dull autumn day; the leaves were falling. They fell slowly in the rain, like a heavier and slower rain.




source: http://www.americanliterature.com/





In this story Paul Saval looks back upon his life with regrets. His parents have both passed on, he is not married and he is sixty-two years old.


He thinks about death and wonders how people can enjoy life knowing they will die one day.

Is it not strange that people can laugh, amuse themselves, be joyful under that eternal certainty of death? If this death were only probable, one could then have hope; but no, it is inevitable, as inevitable as that night follows the day.

Paul also reflects on never having someone love him, which I found to be the most depressing part of this story. He admits to being secretly in love with his best friends wife at one point, a woman named Madame Sandres.

He had not even been loved. No woman had reposed on his bosom, in a complete abandon of love. He knew nothing of the delicious anguish of expectation, the divine vibration of a hand in yours, of the ecstasy of triumphant passion.


What superhuman happiness must overflow your heart, when lips encounter lips for the first time, when the grasp of four arms makes one being of you, a being unutterably happy, two beings infatuated with one another.

As Paul reminisces on his secret love, and remembers one day when he was about to confess his love to her, he is full of remorse. He decides to go to Madame Sandres now and tell her how he has felt all this time.








I found this to be a beautifully written and sad short story. The way de Maupassant wrote it is with a sad heart. It's impressive that he was able to pack so much meaning and feeling in so little words.

I could not help but think that Regret was a direct reflection of the author's own feelings.


Moral of the story? Don't let life pass you by?

Life has its sombre days. It would no longer have any but sombre days for him, for he had reached the age of sixty-two. He is alone, an old bachelor, with nobody about him. How sad it is to die alone, all alone, without any one who is devoted to you!

You can read Regret
for free online
here.

Henri René Albert Guy de Maupassant (5 August 1850 – 6 July 1893) was a popular 19th-century French writer, considered one of the fathers of the modern short story and one of the form's finest exponents.




Maupassant suffered from mental illness in his later years and attempted suicide on January 2nd, 1892. He was committed to a private asylum in Paris and died the following year.

title: The Quiet Gentleman

author: Georgette Heyer

pages: 360

genre: regency mystery/romance

published: 1951

source: sent for review from Sourcebooks

first line: In the guide-books it figured as Stanyon Castle; on the tongues of the villagers, it was the Castle; the Polite World spoke of it as Stanyon, as it spoke of Woburn, and of Cheveley.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars









Before I start my review, I just wanted to mention that I believe Georgette Heyer to be the Queen Bee of Regency Mystery/Romance novels and I'm a big fan of her work. I'd also like to give many thanks to the publicists over @ Sourcebooks for providing me with several great Heyer titles over the past couple of years. They are the reason I discovered this wonderful author.





Now onto my review....I think you might already be able to tell how it will go.





About:


Gervase Frant returns home after surviving the Napoleanic Wars. Gervase is now the Earl of St. Erth and is home to claim himself as master of the estate known as Stanyon Manor. His step-mother Lady St.Erth, and step-brother Martin, are both openly unhappy about this. Also staying at Stanyon Castle are Gervase's cousin Theo and Miss Morville who is a guest.


One day while out riding, Gervase stumbles upon a maiden in distress. Miss Marianne Bolderwood has fallen off her horse.

Gervase notices right away how lovely Marianne is and begins, like so many others, to give her his attentions. This makes Martin furious, he thinks that Marianne is his personal property and plans to marry her someday, fueling his hatred of Gervase even more.





With Gervase waking in the middle of the night swearing someone was just in his room, to his being setup to purposely take a tumble off his horse, the new Earl has the distinct feeling that the jealous Martin is behind it all. Miss Morville actually tries to help Gervase figure out who is trying to do him harm and she becomes a good friend to the new Earl.









My thoughts:


Since I first read Heyer's work she has reminded me of Jane Austen.

Heyer brings Regency England to life in her stories, and as I read, I am instantly transported there. She set a Gothic mood in this novel from the start with her description of Stanyon Manor and I really enjoyed that.


Heyer had a knack for creating fun characters and storylines. There was a sweet and unexpected romance in the plot.



Gervase Frant himself is a well thought out character and he is definitely The Quiet Gentleman, never losing his composure and finding clever ways to get through difficult situations. He makes for a great hero.

There's a swordfight, people wandering the castle at night, a ball, men fighting over a female, witty dialogue and murder attempts. What more could you want in a book?




I giggled as I read, was swept into the storyline and sighed as I turned the last page. Heyer had me guessing until the end and the person behind trying to harm Gervase wasn't who I thought it would be.



I enjoyed reading The Quiet Gentleman so much that I was up past 1:00 AM to finish reading it, even though I had to be at work early the following day.


With interesting characters, a Gothic like mansion, a dash of humor and some romance, you have a fun mystery the likes of which only Georgette Heyer can weave.

"Good God! The fellow's nothing but a curst dandy!"
p.13

Check out Blodeuedd's review of The Quiet Gentleman.







About the author:





Georgette Heyer (16 August 1902 – 4 July 1974) was an English historical romance and detective fiction novelist. Her writing career began in 1921, when she turned a story for her younger brother into the novel The Black Moth. In 1925 Heyer married George Ronald Rougier, a mining engineer. The couple spent several years living in Tanganyika and Macedonia before returning to England in 1929. After her novel These Old Shades became popular despite its release during the General Strike, Heyer determined that publicity was not necessary for good sales. For the rest of her life, she refused to grant interviews, telling a friend: "My private life concerns no one but myself and my family."

quoted from wiki

title: The Jilting of Jane

author: H.G. Wells

genre: short story fiction


source: http://www.americanliterature.com/



published: 1894

first line: As I sit writing in my study, I can hear our Jane bumping her way downstairs with a brush and dust-pan.



In this short story by H.G. Wells a man named George tells the story of his housemaid Jane who is in love and engaged to be married to a man named William.

Jane has a low self esteem and thinks William is above her status.
She confides in Euphemia, George's wife, about her love.


When she brings William to the house to meet her employers, they notice that he is well dressed. Jane tells them that he was promoted at work.


William winds up leaving Jane for a wealthy older woman. Jane sees them in the street hand in hand and when she confronts them, they ignore her. Jane actually attends their wedding and throws a boot, yes a boot, at William.



George comments on how young Jane still is and how eventually she will get over the heartache.

We all have our sorrows, but I do not believe very much in the existence of sorrows that never heal.

George and his wife also comment on how this experience has opened Jane's eyes and made her wiser.

"I don't care," she said. "I don't care a rap. He will find out his mistake yet. It serves me right. I was stuck up about him. I ought not to have looked so high. And I am glad things are as things are."

Moral of the story? Time heals all wounds? You live and you learn?

I always enjoy H.G. Wells storytelling and find it impressive that although he was best known for science fiction stories, he still wrote short stories like this one.












About the author:







Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books. Together with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback, Wells has been referred to as "The Father of Science Fiction".


quoted from wiki

title: Through the Looking Glass


author: Lewis Carroll

genre: classic/fantasy/childrens

published: 1871

source: http://www.americanliterature.com/

first line: One thing was certain, that the WHITE kitten had had nothing to do with it:--it was the black kitten's fault entirely.

rated: 4 out of 5 stars










I recently read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and it became an instant favorite. After being a bit biased against Carrol, he won me over with his fun and bizarre classic, so I decided to read Through the Looking Glass, which is the sequel to Alice's Adventures.




This story opens with Alice speaking to her cat Dinah and her kittens. She holds up one of the kittens to the mirror, so it can see the looking glass world where everything is the opposite, even the letters in books are backwards.

Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking- glass House! I'm sure it's got, oh! such beautiful things in it! Let's pretend there's a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through--' She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass WAS beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.

Alice herself passes through the looking glass, into this other world. She is in her house, yet things are not the same. She decides to investigate this mirror world and have an adventure before going back through the looking glass and going back home.
Through the looking glass everything is backwards, time itself runs backwards and if Alice wants to get someplace, she has to move in the opposite direction to reach it.
When she leaves her house, she comes upon a sunny garden.

The countryside is set up in squares like a giant chessboard and as Alice explores it, she comes across some curious characters. Talking chess pieces, talking flowers, The Red Queen and Tweedledum and Tweedledee, a knitting sheep and Humpty Dumpty are a few of the characters she meets.








Where Alice in Wonderland is based on a deck of cards, Through the Looking Glass is modeled after a game of chess. Lewis Carroll's fantastic imagination is evident throughout, and I wish I had read these as a child. I'll be sharing both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with my daughter.

'And you do Addition?' the White Queen asked. 'What's one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one and one?'


'I don't know,' said Alice. 'I lost count.'


'She can't do Addition,' the Red Queen interrupted. 'Can you do Subtraction? Take nine from eight.'


'Nine from eight I can't, you know,' Alice replied very readily: 'but--'


'She can't do Subtraction,' said the White Queen. 'Can you do Division? Divide a loaf by a knife--what's the answer to that?'

This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland


author: Lewis Carroll


genre: classic/fantasy/childrens


published: 1865


source: DailyLit



first line: Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, `and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice `without pictures or conversation?'



rated: 4 out of 5 stars












I don't know what took me so long to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I think it's because I'm not a big fan of Disney's animated Alice, and that kind of put me off from reading the actual story.
I also have to admit the unsavory rumors about Lewis Carroll also steered me away from reading this one.




I put that aside and decided to finally read this classic. I found Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a delight. As soon as Alice falls down the rabbit hole, I found myself swept into Carroll's lyrical and strange storytelling and didn't stop reading until the end.


Alice herself is the one who captivates the reader.

For, you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.

After falling down the rabbit hole, Alice encounters some strange characters, the Chesire Cat, the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter among them. The encounters Alice has with these characters are funny and strange and I enjoyed the silliness of the story. Interestingly enough, this genre is referred to as literary nonsense.

Lewis Carroll was a mathematician and that is evident as you read this story.

Let me see: four times five is twelve, and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is - oh dear! I shall never get to twenty at that rate!

My favorite chapter was 5, Advice from a Caterpillar.


I found it amusing that Alice comes upon a caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, smoking a hookah no less.

The Caterpillar and Alice looked at each other for some time in silence: at last the Caterpillar took the hookah out of its mouth, and addressed her in a languid, sleepy voice.

'Who are you?' said the Caterpillar.

I read this one online, but I'll definitely be grabbing a copy to add to my book collection. I know this one is best read with the illustrations included.

I almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole--and yet--and yet--it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what CAN have happened to me! When I used to read fairy-tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one! There ought to be a book written about me, that there ought!

Read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland online free from DailyLit or at americanliterature.com.







This has been a part of Once Upon a Time

title: The Awakening


author: Kate Chopin

published: 1899

genre: classics/fiction/novella

pages: 155

source: personal copy

first line: A green and yellow parrot, which hung in a cage outside the door, kept repeating over and over: "Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapristi! That's all right!"


rated: 5 out of 5 stars

Edna began to feel like one who awakens gradually out of a dream, a delicious, grotesque, impossible dream, to feel again the realities pressing into her soul.

About:

Kate Chopin's The Awakening is one of my favorite pieces of literature and I thought it was finally time to re-read it.

The New Orleans coastal setting during the nineteenth century is at the heart of this novella. Chopin sets the mood just right and as I read, I felt like I was in Louisiana by the coast. I could almost smell and hear the ocean.



The story is about a woman named Edna Pontellier who is in her late twenties. Edna is a married mother of two small boys. Her husband Leonce gives her a seemingly satisfying lifestyle. Yet Edna is unhappy, often feeling restless and unfulfilled.


As the story unfolds, Edna falls in love with a man named Robert Lebrun while on summer vacation at the Grand Isle resort in the Gulf of Mexico.



She begins to awaken to feelings and thoughts within herself she never knew existed. In an attempt to resist temptation and heartache from an affair that can lead nowhere, Robert leaves abruptly for Mexico.




When the summer is over, Edna and her family return to New Orleans.
While Robert is gone, Edna misses him and finds herself beginning to feel even more dissatisfied. She begins to paint, considering herself an artist.



Edna's husband leaves on a business trip and while he is away, she ends up moving out of their home and renting an apartment by herself.
Edna meets a man named Alcée Arobin, who is known for his womanizing. She enjoys flirting with him and the two eventually have an affair.



When Robert returns to New Orleans, he and Edna both confess their feelings for one another. At this point, Edna knows she no longer loves her husband and wants to be 'free'.



My thoughts:

I like how Kate Chopin broke convention and wrote stories that challenged the norm. Her stories dealt with issues that weren't openly accepted or spoken about when she was alive.



In this story, a married woman decides she no longer wants to be tied down by her husband and even by her own children. She takes a lover and moves into her own apartment, all with no remorse. Although I didn't agree with Edna's behavior, I found myself almost mesmerized while reading Chopin's beautiful prose.

The voice of the sea is seductive; never ceasing, whispering, clamoring, murmuring, inviting the soul to wander for a spell in abysses of solitude; to lose itself in mazes of inward contemplation.



The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace.

I admire how Chopin pushed the envelope. The ending is harsh and poignant and not something I would think the reader is expecting.


The story that caused so much uproar in Chopin's day, is now considered a classic of feminist fiction. That counts for something.

The past was nothing to her; offered no lesson which she was willing to heed. The future was a mystery which she never attempted to penetrate. The present alone was significant; was hers, to torture her as it was doing then with the biting conviction that she had lost that which she had held, that she had been denied that which her impassioned, newly awakened being demanded.

If you're looking to read a classic, with an unconventional protagonist and lyrical prose, you might enjoy The Awakening.


Read it free online

here.

Kate Chopin (1850–1904) was born in St. Louis and, upon marriage, settled in New Orleans. The mother of six, Chopin did not begin writing until her husband’s death left her in debt. The Awakening (1899), Chopin’s best known work, was so far ahead of its time in its portrayal of a dissatisfied wife, that it was overlooked. Today Chopin is considered the forerunner of twentieth-century feminist authors.