Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

You can tell this is Austen’s first completed novel. Its characters and themes are not as well developed as those in later novels, and the ending is a little too tidy. But Northanger Abbey has a real freshness about it, and many Fans of Austen find that they enjoy this book more each time they read it.

The heroine, Catherine Morland, is a naïve and charming young woman who leaves her home in the country to visit the tourist town of Bath, England. There she becomes fast friends with Isabella Thorpe, another young woman who shares Catherine’s love of gothic novels such as The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe.  But Isabella is not as honest and loyal as she tries to appear. And her braggart brother John isn’t the dashing rake he so wants to appear to be. Catherine must figure this out for herself as she navigates the social circles in Bath.

In this effort she is aided by the truly charming Henry Tilney. At first, Henry teases Catherine and even condescends to her a little bit because of her lack of worldliness and her consequent gullibility and trusting nature. But Catherine is no fool, even if she is awfully young and inexperienced, and as the book progresses, Henry comes to appreciate her and to return the affection she so obviously feels for him.

Of course, there are complications. Henry’s father is a wealthy and proud man who insists that his son marry a woman with money of her own as well as high social status. But any Austen reader can tell you that everything is bound to work out all right. This is one of the reasons Jane Austen remains so popular after more than 200 years. Her books are like comfort food—something you can return to again and again knowing there will be no regrets.

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Keeping the Castle: A Tale of Romance, Riches, and Real Estate by Patrice Kindl

Every review of this book compares the author to Jane Austen, and uses words like “frothy” and “endearing” to describe it. Many books are compared to Jane Austen’s works, but few can live up to the hype. As a hardcore Janeite, I often try to read these modern imitators, but rarely manage to finish them. To me, most are dry attempts to echo the classic books that I love so much. Keeping the Castle is different. I’m not saying it’s destined to become a classic that will be read and reread for centuries to come. No, I am saying that it is a fun read—one I can recommend to those who love Jane Austen and to those who are just looking for a romantic comedy in a book.

A beautiful young girl named Althea is from a genteel but poor family and knows she must marry well in order to preserve the family home for her younger brother. Althea has two mean-spirited stepsisters who have money of their own, but who refuse to contribute to anyone else’s comfort. Her mother does her best to help, but figuring out how to make the most of the very little moneythey have falls on Althea’s shoulders every day, and she must be both diligent and creative.

Being only 17 years old, Althea is a little too honest sometimes. She loses one suitor when she lets it slip that his money plays a part in her willingness to marry him. But she knows there will be others, and of course there are. Soon a party of friends comes to visit the neighbors, and Althea’s prospects look brighter.

This young adult novel combines elements from Cinderella with Pride and Prejudice,and has a lighthearted fairy tale feel to it. I enjoyed the characters with names like Lord Boring, Lady Throstletwist, and Miss Sneech.  But, of course, Althea takes center stage and she is a delightful character—independent, fresh, and witty. She’s a younger Elizabeth Bennet, someone we would all like to know.

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Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Jane Austen’s first published novel (1811) is a romance, of course.  But the central relationship of the book is that of two sisters,  Elinor and Marianne.

Elinor represents the “sense” of the title. She is practical, trustworthy, and self-disciplined.  Elinor tries to do what’s right even if this causes pain for herself, and she doesn’t inflict that pain on others.  Marianne is the “sensible” one.In Austen’s time, sensibility was the belief that emotions should be felt deeply and expressed freely.  For devotees of this philosophy,  social conventions were a bore. Elinor and Marianne are very different, but are united by a deep bond of sisterly love.

The plot of the novel is set in motion when the sisters’ father dies.  This forces Elinor, Marianne, their mother, and their younger sister to leave their large estate and relocate to a small cottage. Three eligible men are introduced as possible husbands for the older sisters. Shy Edward seems to be in love with Elinor, but then becomes standoffish. Charming Willoughby and Marianne seem to have everything in common and Marianne falls hard for him. And reliable Colonel Brandon falls for Marianne, but must watch her romance with Willoughby grow. We also meet the scheming Lucy Steel, the greedy Fanny Dashwood, the garrulous Mrs. Jennings, and the worst brother in all of Austen.

To say that Sense and Sensibility is a groundbreaking novel is not an exaggeration. Until this book, the heroines of novels were orphans or were otherwise separated from family support. This allowed the author to place their heroine in jeopardy with no resources other than themselves. Austen, however, knew how to move her plots forward and include close family relationships.  This made her novels more realistic and relatable. It’s part of the reason her books are still so popular today.

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Sacre Bleu: a Comedy d’Art by Christopher Moore

Some authors start out good and just get better with each book they write, while others like to try their hands at writing different types of stories from those for which they’re known. In Christopher Moore’s latest, I believe that he has achieved both of these. This new novel is very funny and filled with the type of (sometimes ribald, often laugh-out-loud) humor Moore’s fans have come to expect, yet it is also so much more. Sacre Bleu is a Historical Fiction novel about the art and artists of 19th Century France, especially Paris. Some of his other novels have also dealt with historical events (see: Lamb and Fool), but those were much more silly, and less accurate, in their approach. While I have loved just about all of Chris’s novels, I feel like I actually learned more about the time, place, people and subject about which he has written this time. So, yeah, this one is just a bit different from “typical” Christopher Moore, but in a totally good way.

In the novel we meet Lucien Lessard, a young baker in Paris who dreams of being a painter, just as his father did. We also meet many famous French painters of the time, including Van Gogh, Pissaro, Manet, Monet, Seurat, Gaugin, and Lucien’s good friend — and co-star of the novel — Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The story opens with the supposed suicide of Vincent Van Gogh. But, why would anyone, even a tortured artist, shoot himself to end his life and then walk a mile to the nearest doctor’s house? There are also the numerous sightings of a very short, dark, gnarled man around the artists whose presence seems linked to a special ultramarine shade of blue pigment — the very shade that Van Gogh was using while painting outdoors that night.

The mysterious shade of blue is the same one that is used in sacred religious paintings (used mainly for Mary’s cloak), but we soon discover that it may, in fact, have magical properties. The dwarf, known as The Colorman, also has an accomplice for his nefarious schemes, a beautiful young woman called Bleu, who’s been a muse to many painters. Could the mystery of Van Gogh’s death, the dark little dwarf, the madness of artists, and the color blue all be connected? Well, of course, but just how Moore ties all of these things, and more, together has to be read to be appreciated.  What the French artists of the time did with paint, Moore does here with words to wonderful effect.

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The Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

Some readers may characterize the fairy tales of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen as melancholic, sad, and sentimental – true, it’s all there - but Andersen is a complex author whose tales are wonderfully rich and multifaceted.

Harold Bloom once said, “Andersen was a visionary tale-teller, but his fairy-realm was malign. Of his aesthetic eminence, I entertain no doubts, but I believe that we still have not learned how to read him.” Be that as it may – generations have been entertained by Andersen and for more than a century he has made people smile, snicker, snivel, shudder, and laugh. To read Andersen can be a sweet and tender experience, but it can also be nerve wracking or like taking a knife in your heart. And his humor is often as drastic and unexpected, as here, in The Traveling Companions. “Then the [marionette show] started, and it was a nice play with a king and a queen. They sat on the loveliest of thrones, with golden crowns on their heads and long trains on their garments, because they could afford it. […] It was quite a charming play, and it wasn’t the least bit sad. But just as the queen stood up and walked across the stage, then… Well, God only knows what that big bulldog was thinking. But since the fat butcher wasn’t holding on to him, the dog leaped at the stage and grabbed the queen around her slender waist, making it say ‘crick, crack!’ It was simply dreadful!”

What in the world!

The directness of Andersen’s storytelling, closely related to the traditional folk tales, makes it relentlessly powerful, and his imagery is splendid, stark, vivid, loving. “With fear in her heart,” it says in The Wild Swans, “as if she were about to commit an evil deed, she crept out into the moonlit night, down to the garden. She walked down the long lanes out to the deserted streets and over to the churchyard. There she saw, sitting on one of the widest headstones, a group of Lamias, hideous witches. They were taking off their rags, as if they were going to bathe, and then they buried their long, gaunt fingers in the fresh graves, pulled out the bodies, and ate their flesh.”

Brrr…

In Andersen’s fairy tales, the reader will encounter the Little Mermaid, the Emperor who marches naked down the street, the steadfast Tin Soldier, the Ugly Duckling, a Princess on top of twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdown quilts, the Snow Queen, and Death, witches, and trolls. His world is a world of wonder and terror, where salvation is not always granted, and where ancient folk tales collide and mingle with Christian sentiments.

Hans Christian Andersen’s writing is one of the wonders of the world.

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How Few Remain by Harry Turtledove

All fiction asks “what if?” (What if a boy named Huck Finn ran away with a slave named Jim and sailed the Mississippi?)  Science Fiction and Fantasy do this to an even greater extent (What if a scientist was able to re-animate a human corpse using lightning?) Within Sci-Fi & Fantasy the sub-genre of Alternative History takes actual events from History and asks what if they had happened differently (What if Hitler’s Germany had won World War II?) Harry Turtledove is considered the master of Alternative History and in this novel he asks: “What if The North rises again – in the stunning saga of the Second Civil War?”

It’s been a generation since the South defeated the North in the Civil War, and a disgraced Abraham Lincoln now roams the United States preaching the gospel of socialism. Meanwhile, the Confederate States have purchased territories from the Empire of Mexico. This would extend the CSA’s rule from the Atlantic to the Pacific and the United States decides that they should not be allowed to expand, and thus begins the Second Civil War. Many familiar names appear as the story unfolds: George Armstrong Custer patrols the frontier of Kansas using the new fangled Gatling guns against the Indians; General Stonewall Jackson is the supreme military commander of the Confederate forces and directs the Battle of St. Louis; Frederick Douglas is a journalist from Rochester, New York who travels to the dangerous border covering the war; J.E.B. Stuart leads the CSA forces in the newly annexed south-west territories; and Samuel Langhorne Clemens is the editor of a newspaper in San Francisco with a loving wife and two children. The characters are all as vivid as one could hope for and the action of the war – both on and off the battlefield – moves the story along keeping the reader wondering what “happened” next.

I’m a huge Sci-Fi & Fantasy reader, but have never been much into Alternative History for some reason. Also, I must admit that I have been reluctant to try Mr. Turtledove due to my own preconceived notions. You see, being from the North, I was never very interested in a story in which the South won the Civil War. I now freely admit how wrong I was – this novel was thoroughly enjoyable! If you like Historical Fiction, then chances are good that you’ll enjoy Harry Turtledove’s exploration of “what if” there were a second Civil War in the 1880s. I listened to this book on audio, and while it took me a while to finish it (21 CDs), I enjoyed listening to the talented and prolific George Guidall. (As of this writing, there’s even an excerpt from this audio book on George’s website!)

One of the hallmarks of great fiction (speculative, or otherwise) is that it makes you stop and think – and maybe even reconsider what you thought – about the given subject. How Few Remain certainly made me reconsider my views of the historical figures and events surrounding the Civil War.

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Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

 This book has been hailed by many as a fine example of modern literary fiction, and I have to agree with that assessment. I was drawn in by the aspect of a historical novel that was set in the North Carolina Mountains I love so much, and I kept reading because I was drawn in by Frazier’s way with words and the ability to paint a picture for the reader. One could almost believe that the author was actually there and witnessed these events.

Frazier uses the life story of the fictional Will Cooper to tell the larger story of a tumultuous 19th century and the immense challenges faced by the Cherokee during that time. At the age of twelve Cooper is sold into indentured servitude and left alone to run a trading outpost on The Nation, Cherokee territory. Though his presence there is an uneasy one at first, eventually he is adopted into a local tribe and establishes a close relationship with the tribal leader, Bear. As his life story progresses he finds his family, finds and loses the love of his life, fights in a war that is not his, makes and loses his fortune, and more. He becomes a business man, a tribal leader, a politician, a lobbyist, and a traveler. Throughout his life he struggles to find his way as a person who was born into the world of white men but came to manhood in the world of Indians.

Told as if Will Cooper himself had sat down in his old age and written down every part of his life that he could remember, this is a novel that will keep you turning the pages to the very end; and then perhaps wishing for a bit more.

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Persuasion by Jane Austen

Persuasion is a quiet novel, with a quiet heroine who is the exact opposite of the bold and headstrong Elizabeth Bennett, the famous heroine of Pride and Prejudice.  Anne Eliot, who Austen herself once described as “rather too good for me,” is shy, reserved, and gentle.  When a very young lady of nineteen, she was courted by a young man whom her overbearing family considered unsuitable for her.  Despite all her own wishes, she was persuaded to give him up, and Frederick Wentworth, who is the bold and headstrong character in this novel, was offended as well as heartbroken, and in consequence left the country.

The real action of the novel begins eight years after this episode, when Frederick Wentworth—now Captain Wentworth of the navy—comes back into Anne’s life.  Released from his duties by the war’s end, he comes to stay with his sister and her husband, who happen to live in Anne’s vicinity.  There he makes a dashing figure among the ladies.  Anne, whose long-ago history with him is generally unknown, has the pain of seeing him cool and distant only with her.

Captain Wentworth is in some ways the most interesting character in the book.  Anne’s feelings, despite her family’s unfortunate interference, have never wavered, but Wentworth is clearly reveling in angry pride and unaware of the true nature of his feelings toward Anne.  His high-spirited manners toward the ladies eventually land him in deep trouble—an implied engagement that he feels honor-bound to keep.  Only when he is nearly parted from her forever does Captain Wentworth come to his senses and recognize that the person he truly loves is Anne.

To use the words of Shakespeare’s Puck, “the path of true love never did run smooth.”  Of course, Anne and Captain Wentworth are reunited and finally married, but the fun is in following the twists and turns, which in this novel include one of the most dramatic scenes Austen ever wrote, as well as her finest proposal scene.

Jane Austen is one of my favorite writers, and this is one of my favorite of her novels.  Anne’s kind, gentle heart wins over more than one character in this book.  There is something so satisfying about seeing an underrated jewel of a person finally noticed and esteemed as she should be.

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Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Pirates! Treasure! Adventure! All this and more await you as you accompany teenage Jim Hawkins on a journey from his family’s small inn to the famed and titular island. Stevenson’s tale is obviously well known, with many different movie adaptations,  and is generally thought to be a book for boys. Certainly boys (of all ages, even the big ones over 30) will enjoy the swashbuckling sailors and treachery of pirates, but those of the female persuasion are also quite likely to enjoy it. Of course, the romance of Pirates has not diminished in the hundred plus years since the novel’s publication (they are, after all, making another Pirates of the Carribbean movie to the delight of Johnny Depp fans). Beyond the subject matter, Stevenson’s unforgettable characters, especially that of the infamous Long John Silver, are what have made this classic endure.

The story is told from the recollections of the grown up Jim Hawkins, and begins with the arrival of an old sailor, Billy Bones, at his parent’s inn. It becomes clear that Billy is hiding from someone and asks Jim to keep an eye out for a man with a wooden leg. A blind man comes looking for Billy and he receives the dreaded “black spot” (marked for death). After Billy dies Jim and his mother check his sea chest so that Mrs. Hawkins may claim the payment she’s been denied. Jim also spies an oil cloth packet, which turns out to contain a very interesting map. Jim is soon on the run from the blind man and his nasty friends and finds safety with doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney. These three then organize a trip to follow the map and lay claim to the treasure. They hire a ship – the Hispaniola – and Captain Smollett, who has misgivings about their venture and the fact that the ship’s cook, Silver, has hand picked about half of the crew. Silver is all charm and compliments to everyone on board and is a ready, cheerful and willing part of the crew, at least to start with. As they get closer to the island mutiny becomes his clear intent and by the time they arrive at the island, the crew is divided in two camps with each side fighting the other for the map and treasure.

Much like Tarzan of the Apes this tale of adventure can be read as a light, easy story that doesn’t require much thought. However, if one wishes to examine the story and what books influenced Stevenson’s writing – and, in turn, what Stevenson then influenced – one may find more literary connections than initially suspected. Most editions of Treasure Island include an introduction which discusses this to some extent. In the Penguin version John Seelye explains that earlier works such as Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Washington’s Tales of a Traveler and Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans influenced Stevenson’s writing.  Stevenson, in turn, is said to have influenced J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, Golding’s Lord of the Flies and almost every pirate story told since.  In fact, this novel is thought to be the first fictionalized appearance of such standard pirate cliches as the parrot on the shoulder, the peg leg, “X marks the spot,” and the now famous song lyric, “Fifteen men on a dead’s man’s chest – Yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum!”

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The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

If you like American history, you should love David McCullough. You really should. But it’s not easy. His books are all so heavy. The type is so small. The prose is so dense. The footnotes are so many. I confess that I have never managed to get through any of McCullough’s numerous award-winning presidential biographies.

That’s why I’d recommend you start with his slender-by-comparison debut title. Before McCullough earned his reputation as the country’s premier popular historian his meticulous research supported his storytelling instead of overshadowing it.

The Johnstown Flood takes place during the peak of the Industrial Revolution. Robber barons from Pittsburgh converted an abandoned reservoir into a vacationers’ lakefront paradise. The dam that held the lake gave way after an unusually wet spring in 1889, and the rush of water flattened Johnstown, the working-class steel town downstream, in a matter of minutes.

It’s easy to see how The Johnstown Flood launched McCullough’s career. He expertly manages to create a page-turner even though everybody already knows how the story ends by raising questions we may never otherwise think to ask. Was the flood a straight forward natural disaster or an epic failure of civil engineering? Were the casualties just unlucky victims of capricious Mother Nature or were they killed by callous capitalists who knew but did not care that their sailboat paradise would eventually jeopardize the lives of their workers downstream? And why did legal system ultimately fail to identify those responsible?

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