BRITISH AUTHOR CHALLENGE JUNE - FRASER & CONRAD

LADY ANTONIA FRASER

LADY ANTONIA FRASER BOOKS

JOSEPH CONRAD BOOKS

WHAT I'M READING

I have already started The Shadow Line by Conrad



and will be reading Mary Queen of Scots by Fraser.

I have started Fraser's Quiet as a Nun, the first book in her Jemima Shore mystery series. If I have enough reading time this month, I'll also read Conrad's The Secret Agent. And I may listen to Heart of Darkness.

And I've finished Fraser's Quiet as a Nun. It's an entertaining but forgettable mystery set in the Catholic convent school that investigative journalist Jemima Shore had attended as a child. One of the nuns, a school friend of Jemima's, has recently died and the circumstances of her death has raised questions about the future of the convent. The plot reminds me of some of the Nancy Drew mysteries I loved in my middle school years.

I had planned to read Fraser's Marie Antoinette, but when I found that it was the 30th book from the top of a 37 book pile I looked for something a bit closer to the top of the non-fiction stacks and came up with King James VI of Scotland, I of England instead. It was a very quick read, with lots of illustrations. I suspect that Fraser kind of took it easy in writing about James; he had a very unfortunate childhood, a complicated personal life as an adult and an unusual reign as king (he seemed to me to be a king whose policies aimed to keep the peace) so I think there was a lot there to write about. I will try to find something with a little more depth by someone else, now. Not a bad book, just a little too light for me.

I'm reading some of Conrad's short fiction for this challenge. I finished "An Outpost of Progress" this afternoon. A common Conrad theme of the psychology of being outside the bounds of civilization and what it does to men. Some paternalism and off-hand racism that jars the 21st century mentality.

ETA: I also read "Youth", a gripping story of the tribulations of the Judea, a freighter attempting to transport 600 tons of coal from Newcastle to Bankok, as told years later by its second mate, Mr. Marlow. Various leaky and stormy mishaps caused a nearly 3 month delay in taking on its cargo; this portion of the story became almost farcical at times (particularly as punctuated by Marlow's frequent requests to his listeners to "Pass the bottle"). Once loaded and at sea, things did not improve for Judea, its novice captain and its third crew. This is fine storytelling indeed.

I am going to try to read Mary Queen of Scots or Royal Charles by Antonia Fraser. Not sure which one, but think it will be Mary. It has been on my shelf longer. I think from sometime in the 1970's.

I'm going to be listening to Marie Antoinette and Heart of Darkness. Both authors are new to me.

Well my Conradian suffering is complete.



The Shadow-Line by Joseph Conrad

I have never considered Conrad's books among my favourites ~ and this shortish novel does little to dispel that.

I have on the other hand always admired his full-life, the scope of his imagination and his facility in English when at best it was his third language, being born a Pole and speaking French from infancy. Unfortunately, and maybe because his maritime concerns are little concern of mine, I have steadfastly found his writing to be ditchwater dull. Even in Under Western Eyes and The Secret Agent which augur Ambler and Greene the writing is as stodgy as it is devoid of the lightness of touch and expression of some of his contemporaries and successors.

That said this in a form of memoir as it closely was apparently has the virtue of being short and of interest to the extent that it is based in a part of the world that I am now intimate with.

Conrad will never be quite my thing, I'm afraid.

I finished Fraser's truly awful Warrior Queens today. She jumps back and forth between time periods constantly, keeps trying to relate every woman she writes about to Boudica and her legend, is in love with her own lame terminology, and dedicates a lot of ink to speculation. I can't even say that I trust her research since in chapter 14 she calls Pocahontas "a member of the Sioux tribe": I don't have words enough to say how wrong this statement is.*

Avoid this one at all costs.

---

*Seriously, it's like saying Eleanor of Aquitaine was Polish.

>13 amanda4242: You mean she wasn't Polish?! I am also not sure how academic a historian she really is but often puts the story together well when writing on a single subject. I remember reading the book you disliked so much whilst I was courting Hani over 20 years ago. I should have taken the fragmentary hint as I finished up with a warrior queen of my own!

>14 PaulCranswick: I have a copy of Faith and Treason: The Story of the Gunpowder Plot on my shelves so I'll give her another chance before I give up on her.

I've picked up a copy of The Secret Agent so hoping to get to it soon.

I've finished Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer and find that Conrad still has a soporific effect on me.

I'm going to read Nostromo which I've been meaning to read for ages. But then I loved Heart of Darkness.

>12 PaulCranswick: I don't think Conrad is my thing either. I have been plodding away at Lord Jim - I can't quite put a finger on my reaction. I won't call it boring, and Conrad uses lots of beautiful language but reading him is like zoning out. Time and again I'll have gone to turn a page and realize I have no recollection of what I just read in the past couple paragraphs. It is so weird.

I will finish Lord Jim but it will take me a while!

ETA: Sadly I have given up. I just cannot read this novel.

I (audio) read Typhoon by Joseph Conrad. I probably wouldn't have disliked it so much if the narrator hadn't been so awful. Glad it's done.

I'm just not into reading anymore of this month's authors, so I picked up a book by one of the "wildcards": Rumer Godden's The Peacock Spring. It's not great literature, but it was enjoyable and the characters, although none of them were really likable, were well written.

I, too, could not do Conrad. That one awful book in high school was enough for me. I decided to read A Candle for St. Jude by Rumer Godden instead.

I think that Antonia Fraser is best known for her historical books but she also wrote a series of mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Jemima Shore. Tartan Tragedy is the second novel in the series and the first book that I read. Strangely enough, it was the only book of her's that was available in the bookshop in Bowmore on Islay. A good mystery and an enjoyable reminder of last year's trip to Scotland.

I went for Conrad's first novel - Almayer's Folly - as my BAC read. Overall, After a bit of a slow start and being nagged by thoughts that this story seemed oddly familiar to me (even though I have never read anything by Conrad before now), I found this to be a rather interesting read. The title is an apt one. For a first novel, well rather on the dark and bleak side, I found it to be rather well written, without any of the awkwardness or teething pains of a first time author.

I read Nostromo several years ago and found it a slog. I had tried to read The Secret Agent years ago. I didn't officially abandon it, but just never got around to completing it. The audio is working out better for me this time around.

I've noticed as I listen to The Secret Agent what I noticed in Nostromo - Conrad does much more telling than showing. If I had to break it down, about 90% reveals the internal thoughts and psychological state of the characters, and about 10% is dialogue or action. His style reminds me a lot more of Virginia Woolf than Erskine Childers's The Riddle of the Sands or John Buchan's The Thirty-Nine Steps.

I failed to report I finished Almayer's Folly for this earlier in the week.

I had planned on reading Lord Jim, but that didn't happen.

To at least give Conrad a chance, today I read 2 short stories I came across in an old college literature anthology. "Amy Foster" was more about her washed ashore husband than about poor Amy. It's told as a conversation between 2 men of her village. "The Secret Sharer" was a suspenseful ship story that I enjoyed. Both stories have that Conrad intensity that seems easier to take in a small story dose, rather than a full length novel.