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paulcowdell's review
3.0
I came to this through interests both in the legends of Richard Harris Barham's part of the world (Kent) and in the adaptive use of traditional folklore for literary ends. There's actually not so much of the latter as I'd hoped, but the creation of the Ingoldsby family narrator/s as a vehicle for Barham (an extremely witty and learned churchman) is itself an interesting approach, and he owes much more to the 18th century antiquarian traditions than to the emerging folklore investigations of his own day.
Barham's great facility was in impeccable if convoluted rhyming, and his writing is explicitly conceived of as diversionary entertainment. I don't really recommend trying to read this through cover to cover, because it's not that sort of writing, but if you're in the right mood it's a cheerfully distracting collection to dip into. I suspect one reason he's invoked only vaguely as having something to do with Kent legends & folklore is that readers these days probably don't get very far into the book before realising it's not what they'd hoped it might be in that regard.
That said, Barham definitely did shape the first two series of the Legends as coherent collections. (The third series, assembled posthumously from his remaining writings, is far less successful). The first series particularly fair romps along (including some brilliantly funny footnotes), and probably can be read through in its entirety before the sensation begins to pall a bit.
The further into the Legends you get, though, the greater the likelihood that the unrelenting flash of Barham's performance will begin to wear you down: some of the stories outstay their welcome thanks to that relentlessness, and begin to feel more strained in their efforts to amuse you. That may also be compounded by his high church moralising, which makes the continued anti-Semitism (escalating noticeably in the second series) even less palatable than it would have been ordinarily. That's not the only throwaway racism for the entertainment of upper class dinner guests on offer here, and it's tiresome to say the least. But at their best (especially in series one) Barham's outrageous rhyming (I particularly liked 'indigenous/pigeon-house') is genuinely successful in its smart but good-humoured glee.
Barham's great facility was in impeccable if convoluted rhyming, and his writing is explicitly conceived of as diversionary entertainment. I don't really recommend trying to read this through cover to cover, because it's not that sort of writing, but if you're in the right mood it's a cheerfully distracting collection to dip into. I suspect one reason he's invoked only vaguely as having something to do with Kent legends & folklore is that readers these days probably don't get very far into the book before realising it's not what they'd hoped it might be in that regard.
That said, Barham definitely did shape the first two series of the Legends as coherent collections. (The third series, assembled posthumously from his remaining writings, is far less successful). The first series particularly fair romps along (including some brilliantly funny footnotes), and probably can be read through in its entirety before the sensation begins to pall a bit.
The further into the Legends you get, though, the greater the likelihood that the unrelenting flash of Barham's performance will begin to wear you down: some of the stories outstay their welcome thanks to that relentlessness, and begin to feel more strained in their efforts to amuse you. That may also be compounded by his high church moralising, which makes the continued anti-Semitism (escalating noticeably in the second series) even less palatable than it would have been ordinarily. That's not the only throwaway racism for the entertainment of upper class dinner guests on offer here, and it's tiresome to say the least. But at their best (especially in series one) Barham's outrageous rhyming (I particularly liked 'indigenous/pigeon-house') is genuinely successful in its smart but good-humoured glee.
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