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Bezig met laden... The Old English Baron: A Gothic Story (1777)door Clara Reeve
Bezig met laden...
Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. downgraded this from one to two stars after hearing so much about how this was Reeve's manifesto for the patriarchy. Suddenly the whole thing makes sense. Uck. ( ) This isn't very good. The author wrote this as an attempt to produce something like The Castle of Otranto but without the unrealistic and over-the-top supernatural elements that jarred her out of the story. And, indeed, the supernatural elements here are almost subdued compared to Otranto. But what it makes up for in credibility, it more than loses in terms of predictability. Also: emotions run dramatically wild. Towards the end, the book needlessly drags out revealing the central conceit to side characters, with characters intentionally withholding crucial information so as to build up to an emotional tension in preparation for dramatic reveals and scenes of emotional release. That gets old really fast. Coupled with endless marriage preambles, it makes the final third a chore to sit through. The author says she wrote this in response to Walpole's The Castle of Otranto. It doesn't compare. Unlike Walpole, who made a private study of it, Reeve knows nothing about the Middle Ages. Consequently, her barons live and behave like Georgian country squires. She refers to the younger characters as "Mister" which is entirely anachronistic. And I think the narrowness of her own horizons shows in the way she spends pages on the division of the estates, right down to tableware and linens, like some penny-pinching housewife. Somehow the phrase "a nation of shopkeepers" sprang to mind. Of academic merit only to people who study Gothic literature in depth. ETC geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)Oxford English Novels (1777) Is opgenomen inWerd geïnspireerd door
'Though I have been dead these fifteen years, I still command here, and none can enter these gates without my permission.'When Sir Philip Harclay returns to England after a long absence, he finds that his childhood friend, Arthur,Lord Lovel, is no longer alive, and that the castle and estates of the Lovel family have twice changed hands. But a mysteriously abandoned set of rooms in the castle of Lovel promises todisclose the secrets of the past. After a series of frantic episodes and surprising revelations, culminating in a trial by combat, the crimes of the usurper and the legitimacy of the true heir are finally discovered.'The literary offspring of the castle of Otranto', as Reeve described it, The Old English Baron provides an ambitious rewriting of Horace Walpole's groundbreaking work, transporting the trappings of the Gothic to medieval England. Innovative and original in its day, Reeve's historical romance isincreasingly recognized as a major influence on the development of Gothic fiction. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.6Literature English English fiction Later 18th century 1745-1800LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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