The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen (novel #196)

The Death of the Heart is a modernist novel set mostly in London, between the first and second world wars. Elizabeth Bowen called it a “pre-war” novel, but apart from that, I find it difficult to categorize.

I’ve read of Bowen 

…her novels masquerade as witty comedies of manners

 

Which is pretty fair, but please mark the word masquerade. I don’t think Bowen intended witty comedies. I’ve also read that her stories

…mine the depths of private tragedy.

 

Yeah, that’s about right.

 

It is the story of 16-year-old Portia Quayne, orphaned and sent to live with her half-brother Thomas and sister-in-law Anna. The three are never quite comfortable with each other. Portia falls in love (I would say, thinks she falls in love) with Eddie, a friend of Anna’s and employee of Thomas’.

 

Eddie is a cad, a loafer, and a narcissist. And Portia is just too 16, to realize it.

 

When Portia told him she thought he was very good looking, he responded…

 

Well, I am, you see, and I’ve got all this charm, and I can excite people. They don’t really notice my brain – they are always insulting me. Everyone hates my brain, because I don’t sell that. That’s the underground reason why everyone hates me.

 

When he thought he told a witty joke, and asked Portia if she thought it was funny, and she said no, he replied defiantly…

 

Well, it was: it was very funny

 

Despising Eddie was my main investment in this story.  I just wasn’t all-in for the others. I worried for Portia, but that was about it. Thomas and Anna evoked even less emotion.

 

So, it’s rather sad. It doesn’t come to a satisfying ending, though perhaps a crisis that may force Portia, Thomas, and Anna to be more honest with each other.

 

I give Bowen high marks for her writing though. She had an elegant way of describing the mundane, and a knack of capturing funny little feelings that are rather unimportant, and yet somehow resonate. Such as when Anna realizes she has been spotted from outside the house, herself looking out a window. 

 

She knew how foolish a person looking out of a window from the outside of a house looks – as though waiting for something that does not happen, as though wanting something from the outside world.

 

I like it when authors can do that. 

For the writing more so than for the story…

My rating 3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

 This novel satisfies “classic that’s been on my TBR the longest” in the Back to the Classics 2022 Challenge.

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The Classics Club Spin #29

It is time for the29th edition of the Classics Club Spin – List 20 books from my Classics Club TBR, the moderators will pick a random number between 1 - 20, and I then have until April 30, 2022 to read the corresponding book.

 

I only have 16 novels left on my Round III list, including a trilogy that I intend to read as one, so I will list several of these twice.

 

I’m hoping for The Princess Bride or the The Last Unicorn.

 

My spin list

 

1. Foundation trilogy by Isaac Asimov

2. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

3. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

4. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

5. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

6. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

7. Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan

8. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

9. The Blue Castle by Lucy Maud Montgomery

10. Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

11. Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth

12. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

13. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

14. The Princess Bride by William Goldman

15. Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock

16. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

17. Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino

18. A House for Mr. Biswas by V. S. Naipaul

19. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

20. The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

 

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The Naval Treaty – a Sherlock Holmes short story

"The Naval Treaty" is a Sherlock Holmes short story also known as “The Adventure of the Naval Treaty” in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes 24th case chronologically.

This is a case of stolen State Secrets, ruin and shame to their custodian, and grave peril to the British Empire. The government official who has the treaty stolen from under his nose, is an old school chum of Watson’s, who manages to convince his old friend to enlist the services of the World’s Greatest Detective.

 

And all is well.

 

This was a very intriguing case, much better than the last I read, but it still lacked the witty
banter between Holmes and Watson; or Holmes’ deadpan to Watson’s astonishment and oblivion. no quotable excerpts. There were more illustrations than usual, such as the one displayed here, with Holmes to the left, Watson second left, with the victim and his fiancée, all rendered by the preeminent Holmes illustrator Sidney Paget.

 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or Dr. Watson if you prefer, did not publish Holmes’ adventures in chronological order. However, The Annotated Sherlock Holmes attempts to put them down in order, based on contextual clues in the stories themselves. This adventure was one that was very revealing to that end, as Watson, identifies it as one of three that “immediately succeeded my marriage…” and he then puts those three in order. It isn’t always this clear, so I’m sure the researchers of this version, appreciated Watson’s details in this instance. 

 

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Six Degrees of Separation: from The End of the Affair to City of Glass

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @ booksarmyfavouriteandbest.

 

This month’s chain begins with The End of the Affair by Graham Greene which I’ve not read, but it is on my TBR.  I often get this title mixed up with…

 

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen, which I am currently reading. Good so far, but I haven’t reached the main conflict. But isn’t the title almost synonymous with the previous title? And in turn, this title reminds me of…

 

The Heart of the Matter, also by Graham Greene, which I have read. And since I’ve developed a trend, I’ll just stick with “titles” as the connecting thread, leading me to…

 

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. Very good; very sad. The title leads me to…

 

The Bee Hunter by James Fenimore Cooper. Wonderful and underappreciated tale. Next…

 

The Glass Bees by Ernest Jünger, on my TBR, and finally leading to…

 

City of Glass by Paul Aster, also on my TBR

 

And that is how you get from The End of the Affair to City of Glass.

 

 

 

Stardust by Neil Gaiman (novel #195)

“Adventures are all very well in their place”, he thought, “but there’s a lot to be said for regular
meals and freedom from pain.” ~ Tristran Thorn, the hero of our tale

What a delightful little tale: fairy tale to be precise. For it is little, barely 150 pages, and definitely a tale of Fae, precisely in the vein as described by Professor Tolkien’s scholarly essay On Fairy Stories. So much so, that I wonder if Gaiman read it, and then carefully followed the rules to compose this wonderful story. Fae, or Fay, or Faerie is a land similar to our own in many ways, but inhabited by mythical beasts, and peopled by a diverse set of sentient beings. Humans of our world at times are suffered, or fated, or chanced to wander into Fae, through various portals and times.

 

For Tristran Thorn, it was through a simple break in the wall, which separated his town from Fae. None were allowed to pass. But Tristran does not know that his first trip through the wall was not as a grown man, from the human world into Faerie, but rather as a babe from Faerie into the human world. Owing to this distinction, and for the love of a beautiful woman and a fateful oath, Tristran is allowed to pass…

 

…too ignorant to be scared, too young to be awed, Tristran Thorn passed beyond the fields we know…

… and into Faerie

 

Tristran’s quest is a search for a fallen star, a promise to his love. The star, in Fae at least, takes the form of a young woman. He encounters witches, and kings, unicorns and fairies, enchantments and dangers, causing him to eventually lament…

 

“Adventures are all very well in their place”, he thought, “but there’s a lot to be said for regular meals and freedom from pain.”

 

I love Gaiman’s narration. It is vivid, friendly, and whimsical. In his description of his version of Fae, he offers this amusing line…

 

Here, truly, there be Dragons.

 

It isn’t for young children. It is rather violent at times, and there is one brief amorous scene that is a bit risqué. This was my second read of Gaiman, Coraline being the other. I enjoyed both very much and I’ll definitely read more by this versatile writer.  

 

 My rating 3 1/2 out of 5 stars

 

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