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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I love D.E. Stevenson and it was interesting to meet a young MacAslan but overall not one of her best.
A favorite author, but this is not my favorite work. I picked up the hardcover edition at thrift store with high hopes and I will definitely be keeping my copy (Stevenson novels are not so easy to come by, after all) but I probably won't re-read any time soon (or ever).
The ending is...morally ambiguous at best. I know Stevenson was capable of resolving her plot / love triangle better than this. Maybe she just ran out of steam on the story. Mrs. Hetherington Smith was my favorite character, by far.
The ending is...morally ambiguous at best. I know Stevenson was capable of resolving her plot / love triangle better than this. Maybe she just ran out of steam on the story. Mrs. Hetherington Smith was my favorite character, by far.
Quiet Scottish romance, but I couldn't buy the end justifies the mean message. It als0 seems to corroborate that law and order lets evil people get away with...
This book was a pretty enjoyable read, but towards the end it took an odd turn. Instead of facing out the difficulty, someone just decided to cut straight through the knot in a judgment call that left me scratching my head and uncomfortable with the whole thing. The main character is a good one, though, and there's wonderful atmosphere. The first D.E. Stevenson book I read was Bel Lamington, which I adored. I also liked its sequel, Fletchers End. But this one, not so much.
Not the best DE Stevenson, but awfully nice all the same. Nothing is as relaxing as a book where you know everything will be all right in the end, and you can always count on DES for that.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book took my breath away — and that is not a compliment. I read this book as part of Dean Street December 2023 and as an exercise in satisfying my curiosity. There were reviews here at the Storygraph which made it sound bad, and I wanted to see if it really was that bad. It was not.
It was much, much worse.
It was much, much worse.
The introduction to this Dean Street Press edition was written by Alexander McCall Smith. I gave up on his Mma Ramotswe series after about a dozen books having reached my limit of cloyingly twee. If there is one thing no one could accuse this book of being it's "cloyingly twee". At the very end of his intro Smith says of Stevenson's books in general
These are gentle books, very fitting for times of uncertainty and conflict. Some books can be prescribed for anxiety – these are in that category.
There is definitely plenty of uncertainty and conflict in this book; enough to make it clear that he and I have very different views of what constitutes "gentle". As for being prescribed for anxiety, I would prescribe this book only if someone were looking to increase their anxiety levels.
There is some truly beautiful writing in this book, and it is crystal clear that Stevenson really, truly loved her Scotland. This is the first of her books that I've read which is set in the Highlands as opposed to the Scottish Borders where most of her middlebrow books are set. It was a big plus for me that there is a lot of Gaelic in the story and a not insignificant amount of it is left untranslated. Kudos for that. Her descriptions of the setting are as lyrically beautiful as ever. That is where my plaudits end.
In one of his "Hitch-Hiker's Guide" books Douglas Adams wrote of a particularly stupid species of bird that it "had heard of the notion of survival of the species but wanted no truck with it". This book suggests very strongly that Stevenson "had heard of the notion of subtlety but wanted no truck with it."
One of the other books I read for Dean Street December 2023 was "Love Comes Home" by Molly Clavering, who was for a long time Stevenson's neighbour. I did not finish that book because I found its feudally right-wing politics difficult to swallow. That book was written in 1938. This one was written in 1935 and makes "Love Comes Home" look like the work of a loony left-wing liberal. The rest of this review will explain why I feel that way, and because it contains spoilers for what happens in the story it will be hidden behind spoiler tags
Clavering's book had repeatedly insisted that the hereditary landed gentry in Scotland were cruelly maligned and grossly misunderstood. This book says that their serfs adored them and knew that underlying feudal allegiance was the natural order of things. This book does not imply that, it states it. Exhibit A:
****To-night his heart sang... because MacAslan had asked for his help. It was foolishness, of course, MacAslan had no need to ask. Did MacAslan doubt him that he should ask his help? Did he not know that Donald would lay down his life in the service of MacAslan? What could this thing be—this thing that MacAslan had done and already regretted? If it were that he had killed a man, Donald would hide him until the danger was past ****
I was flabbergasted when I read that but she was just warming up. After the laird had manipulated someone into doing what he wanted (to win a bet), this was Donald's reaction
**** Calum had been wiled from his thicket and was now MacAslan’s slave. Where had all Calum’s ideas of Socialism gone? Those crazy ideas that he got out of a weekly paper and insisted on expounding to all who would listen to him, ideas that had no sense in them, to Donald’s way of thinking—that a man was just as good as his master, if not better—Sheer foolishness, Donald thought, Calum Mor would learn sense as he grew older. ****
The hero of the story is the Laird, and it is very clear that readers are supposed to love his story of falling in love. For me, his anger issues were horrifying. After meeting the boy who would eventually become his stepson and arranging to take on a boat trip, this is reaction when the young boy turns up for the trip the next day, with his mother
**** She said, “I wanted to thank you for being kind to Richard.”
... He was angry, angry and ashamed. He felt it a kind of insult that he should thus be taken at a disadvantage. He would not look at the woman. How dared she invade his solitude, discover him in such an invidious position—dirty and untidy, a pariah on his own land? His Highland blood boiled in his veins.
She said a trifle diffidently, “I hope—I hope Richard wasn’t a nuisance—”
...
“Richard was very useful,” said Iain quickly. He was not going to hurt the child. Even if he were angry, and justly so, the child should not suffer. ****
The idea that he was "boiling" with rage and considered himself to be "justly" angry when a young boy he had met just the day before brought his mother along rather than travel unaccompanied with a complete stranger said a lot about the "hero" and his view of his place in the world. He expressed that view much more clearly as the book progressed. For example, after he and the boys mother started developing a relationship, this is what he said about life in the modern world:
**** “Life is awfully complicated now,” he said, trying to express his thoughts; “you have got to conform to laws that your instinct tells you are false laws—it makes me angry sometimes.”
He doubled down on that in the next paragraph when looking back fondly on the good old days of his ancestors and the "laws" by which they lived.
“Natural laws, dictated to them by their own consciences, by their honour, by their own feeling of what was right for themselves. If the chief ... had naturally fine instincts, the thing worked admirably. Everybody was happy and prosperous. Laws are made for bad people, really. They are made for people who have no decent instincts. " ****
Like any good romance there is an impediment to the two lovers getting together. In the case of these two lovebirds the minor hitch is that she's already hitched. Her husband is a brute and a bully, of course, but what makes him especially contemptible in the eyes of our lovable laird?
**** “He’s afraid of the law?” Iain said doubtfully. It seemed to him a queer thing for a man to fear the law. ****
When it becomes clear that the love of his life will not be free of her horrible husband without drastic action, that is exactly what he proposes.
**** "I shall have to kill Medworth,” said Iain quietly. ****
Not surprisingly, his beloved, born and raised in 20th-century civilisation, is horrified
The following passage REALLY made me glad I never have to worry about upsetting Stevenson
(character names added for clarity)
**** Linda: "Murder is wrong—it’s unthinkable—it’s the most dreadful wickedness. Promise me, promise me faithfully that you won’t think of it any more.”
Ian: “It’s the only way, Linda. I don’t think of it as wickedness—the man is bad all through, you know it as well as I do—”
Linda: “I know, but you mustn’t,” she cried. “You can’t take the law into your own hands like that. You can’t kill a man, even if he is bad—it’s murder.”
Ian: “It would be worse than murder to let him have Richard—think of it—”
Linda: “I have thought,” she cried. “Do you think I don’t see how frightful it would be? I see it more clearly than you—”
Ian: “He’s a bad man,” Iain urged. “A dangerous man—a man without any decent instincts.” ****
The nobility of his "this bad man needs killing" is exposed for sheer selfishness when he later says to his loyal serf Donald
**** "would to God I had lived in the days when a man took what he wanted by force and held it" ****
Which at least has the virtue of being much more honest. At many places throughout the story our hard done by hero had railed internally at the gross injustice of living in a world where he was expected to pay taxes, and bemoaned the unfairness evident in the fact that other people could be rich and he wasn't, for no other reason than that he knew nothing about land management or how to run a business.
The story has what we are supposed to accept is a happy ending. The bad husband gets what's coming to him, and the lovable laird doesn't have to do it. The closing paragraphs of the book are unalloyed praise and compliments for the person who did do it— whose identity one does not have to be Hercule Poirot to figure out.
In conclusion, I stress again that the reason I couldn't stomach this book was the way it made it VERY difficult to believe that Stevenson did not herself share the sentiments expressed and applaud the actions to which those sentiments led.
This was an enjoyable read. It was almost, almost a 5-star read. Very atmospheric. The supporting characters were fleshed out so well. I didn't realize how well writers did that back then. I find it lacking today - but it could just be the books I had been reading recently. I cared just as much about the outcomes of the supporting characters as I did for the main characters. Matter of fact, my favorite character was Mrs. Hetherington- Smith whose purpose in the book was twofold - to act as a catalyst for our two main characters to meet, and to address the farce that money= happiness.
There are some statements in here about class, good and bad. You're able to make an observation and draw your own conclusions on the matter so I was ok with how it was presented. Books written Pre- WWII are interesting to me cuz you know what is coming but the writer doesn't. I find the dynamic and tones interesting - what is viewed as important to the book's characters or the hope you know will be dashed soon.
The romance was ok, but the "hero" was a little... quirky. I don't know a better word. The contrast between city and Highland life felt like you were reading two books sometimes - and I mean that as a compliment. I will be reading more from this author.
This book has a title that denotes a bodice ripper romance title to me. But it's not. Recommend!
There are some statements in here about class, good and bad. You're able to make an observation and draw your own conclusions on the matter so I was ok with how it was presented. Books written Pre- WWII are interesting to me cuz you know what is coming but the writer doesn't. I find the dynamic and tones interesting - what is viewed as important to the book's characters or the hope you know will be dashed soon.
The romance was ok, but the "hero" was a little... quirky. I don't know a better word. The contrast between city and Highland life felt like you were reading two books sometimes - and I mean that as a compliment. I will be reading more from this author.
This book has a title that denotes a bodice ripper romance title to me. But it's not. Recommend!
I can’t explain how the problem of this book is ultimately solved - spoilers - but it does raise questions about Stevenson’s attitude to crime and vengeance. Apart from that, a typical Scottish romance. Wonderful escapism.
An odd one. When you step back you realise there was very actual peril or plot until right at the end. I’m used to DES books having abrupt endings, but this is particularly egregious!
We open with Iain, the male protagonist, in emotional agony over having to rent out his Highland estate because he cannot afford the upkeep, but however much the story tried to make me empathise, it’s such a small problem in the scheme of things that I kind of just wanted him to get over it.
I was expecting the Scottish mysticism, since that is one of DES’s things, but the notion of there being a saintly aristocratic class created to own Scotland and a flock of devoted, simple peasants destined to serve them through the centuries was particularly strong in this one.
I’ve complained a lot, but this was very atmospheric, and it did go down very easy. As ever DES sketches a range of distinct characters vivdly, and fleshes them out more in a chapter than some authors do in a five hundred page novel. My favourite part was probably the supporting character Mrs Heatherington-Smith, who used to be dirt poor in London, and hasn’t felt real since her husband made huge amounts of money and they moved up in society. She’s so kind and lovely, but a bit lonely, making the best of having no place she belongs. I want a book about her!
We open with Iain, the male protagonist, in emotional agony over having to rent out his Highland estate because he cannot afford the upkeep, but however much the story tried to make me empathise, it’s such a small problem in the scheme of things that I kind of just wanted him to get over it.
Spoiler
And then he basically did! He’s been in a love with Linda, a random woman he met briefly on a trip to London years ago, and of course she comes with the party who have rented the house, and he loves her fiercely on sight, and she loves him very shortly afterwards, so there’s no romantic emotional tension. They can’t get together until her divorce is finalised, but there’s no real indication the might not happen until right at the end, so that’s not particularly tense. Her little son loves Iain and Iain loves him, so that’s not an issue. Then right at the end the ex husband says he’s going to appeal the divorce on the grounds of them having an affair (they’ve never even kissed) and Iain’s faithful friend and servant murders the ex husband! Plots it in cold blood! I really wasn’t expecting it.I was expecting the Scottish mysticism, since that is one of DES’s things, but the notion of there being a saintly aristocratic class created to own Scotland and a flock of devoted, simple peasants destined to serve them through the centuries was particularly strong in this one.
I’ve complained a lot, but this was very atmospheric, and it did go down very easy. As ever DES sketches a range of distinct characters vivdly, and fleshes them out more in a chapter than some authors do in a five hundred page novel. My favourite part was probably the supporting character Mrs Heatherington-Smith, who used to be dirt poor in London, and hasn’t felt real since her husband made huge amounts of money and they moved up in society. She’s so kind and lovely, but a bit lonely, making the best of having no place she belongs. I want a book about her!
Not Stevenson's best, but it did the job. And props, because it's not your every day middlebrow domestic fiction that hinges the central couples' happiness on a spot of murder!