Alice Wilson Fox (1863–1943)
Auteur van A Dangerous Inheritance, or, Sydney's Fortune
Over de Auteur
Werken van Alice Wilson Fox
Love, the Leader; or, Defenders of the Faith 2 exemplaren
Too Near the Throne: An Historical Romance 1 exemplaar
A Regular Madam 1 exemplaar
The General's Choice 1 exemplaar
Love In the Balance: A Novel 1 exemplaar
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Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Gangbare naam
- Fox, Alice Wilson
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Alice Theodora Raikes (maiden name)
- Geboortedatum
- 1863
- Overlijdensdatum
- 1943
- Geslacht
- female
- Nationaliteit
- England
UK - Land (voor op de kaart)
- UK
- Beroepen
- Children's Author
Novelist
Biographer - Relaties
- Carroll, Lewis (cousin)
- Korte biografie
- The daughter of Conservative politician and MP Henry Cecil Raikes, Alice Theodora Raikes was born in 1863, and was married to barrister William Arthur Wilson-Fox in 1889. She published novels, stories, and tracts from 1905, including juvenile novels such as Hearts and Coronets (1910) and A Regular Madam (1912). She was a distant connection of Charles Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, and had a youthful encounter with the famous author in which she was subjected to a "mirror test," an experience that is sometimes cited as one inspiration for Carroll's Through the Looking Glass. Wilson-Fox died in 1943. (sources: Edwardian Fiction: An Oxford Companion / Lives of Victorian Literary Figures / Lewis Carroll: Interviews and Recollections)
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 10
- Ook door
- 1
- Leden
- 15
- Populariteit
- #708,120
- Waardering
- 3.1
- Besprekingen
- 7
- Favoriet
- 1
Having greatly enjoyed a number of Alice Wilson Fox's novels for children - Hearts and Coronets, A Dangerous Inheritance, The General's Choice - I was quite excited to pick up Charmian: Chauffeuse, which I would describe as an early twentieth-century young adult novel, and which I finally managed to track down in the rare book room of the university where I was studying at the time. Unfortunately, despite my predisposition to like it, given its interesting subject matter (a young woman driver during WWI!), and my fondness for some of its author's other work, I was mostly disappointed. I didn't find its eponymous heroine particularly appealing, in her own right, and I found the depiction of some of the other characters off-putting. One sometimes encounters a certain kind of sneering anti-Americanism in vintage British fiction, and while it usually doesn't bother me that much, the depiction of the figure of Irene here - the lampooning of her accent, Charmian's conclusion that she (and Americans in general) were "vulgar-minded" - was rather unpleasant. I suspect that my negative reaction was owing less to any extremity on Wilson Fox's part, when it comes to this theme - Charmian even concludes, toward the end of the book, that Irene wasn't "a bad-hearted little soul" - and more to it being so wholly unexpected, given the absence of such a feeling in the author's earlier A Dangerous Inheritance (1910), which featured an American heiress living with a British vicar's family. It's tempting to think that the difference in feeling between the two books, when it comes to the American characters, was owing to some sort of resentment on the part of Wilson Fox, to America's late entry into WWI, but it's impossible to really say.
However that may be, given my feeling of distaste at those moments involving Irene, and my general lack of emotional involvement in Charmian's story, despite finding the narrative engaging enough, I can't say I enjoyed this one as much as some of Wilson Fox's others. I subsequently had a similarly conflicted/indifferent reaction to the author's adult romance, Love in the Balance, which makes me wonder whether I simply prefer her children's fare to that she wrote for adults and older teens. In sum: this is one I would really only recommend to Alice Wilson Fox completists (are there any, besides myself?), and readers interested in British vintage fiction set during the First World War.… (meer)