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karenangela_1's review
3.0
Marriage – Susan Ferrier
This story starts with an extremely spoiled and petulant young woman marrying against the wishes of her family. Throughout the story her behaviour doesn’t improve if anything it gets worse, this is a woman who leaves one of her twins to be raised by a group of women that you wouldn’t ask to care for a house plant and won’t feed the other as she would rather feed her dogs.
Somehow both twins survive, although living very different lives in different countries. One twin is labelled as ‘good’ and the other ‘bad’, and of course the ‘good’ girl will get her happy ending and the ‘bad’ one will be rejected by ‘good’ society.
While I can agree with the author that marrying for money alone will make you miserable I can’t agree with her that marrying purely for love would have the same outcome, she believes that a happy marriage should combine both but that seems to imply that if you are poor then you can’t have a happy marriage. On the plus side the author does value education for women and believe that women should be equal in a marriage, that the happily ever after should go to real women instead of the one who will give up her identity to please her husband and society.
Gillespie – J. MacDougall Hay
Gillespie Strang is devious and selfish, a public benefactor and a leech. He is one of the new breed of entrepreneurs, prepared to use any and all means to fulfill his ambitions.
While the book is named for Gillespie the fishing village in which he lives is the main character. A village full of ordinary people just trying to survive – fisherman who will be extremely lucky if they live to be old men, women who have to take in laundry if they are to have any chance of feeding their children, children who stop smiling before they turn six. The community is designed to show us what it means to be human, and ultimately how insignificant humanity is in the face of nature.
The prose is too dense at times and occasionally loses the thread, and unless you are very familiar with the old Scottish dialect then a dictionary would be really useful.
Ringan Gilhaize – John Galt
This novel covers Scottish history from 1540 to 1690 as seen through the experiences of one family. While the family is fictional most of the events and other characters are real or are based on real events and people.
Ringan experiences the most turbulent era, that of the Covenant, the Commonwealth and the Reformation. We follow his development from a peaceful devout man to a blood thirsty fanatic.
The author clearly believes that this period in Scottish history will be forever represented by the conflict between the reformers or Covananters and the idol worshippers. He makes it quite clear that he believes that being a Covananter or Presbyterian is far more honourable than being Catholic or Papist.
This was incredibly well written and I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in Scottish literature or history.
This story starts with an extremely spoiled and petulant young woman marrying against the wishes of her family. Throughout the story her behaviour doesn’t improve if anything it gets worse, this is a woman who leaves one of her twins to be raised by a group of women that you wouldn’t ask to care for a house plant and won’t feed the other as she would rather feed her dogs.
Somehow both twins survive, although living very different lives in different countries. One twin is labelled as ‘good’ and the other ‘bad’, and of course the ‘good’ girl will get her happy ending and the ‘bad’ one will be rejected by ‘good’ society.
While I can agree with the author that marrying for money alone will make you miserable I can’t agree with her that marrying purely for love would have the same outcome, she believes that a happy marriage should combine both but that seems to imply that if you are poor then you can’t have a happy marriage. On the plus side the author does value education for women and believe that women should be equal in a marriage, that the happily ever after should go to real women instead of the one who will give up her identity to please her husband and society.
Gillespie – J. MacDougall Hay
Gillespie Strang is devious and selfish, a public benefactor and a leech. He is one of the new breed of entrepreneurs, prepared to use any and all means to fulfill his ambitions.
While the book is named for Gillespie the fishing village in which he lives is the main character. A village full of ordinary people just trying to survive – fisherman who will be extremely lucky if they live to be old men, women who have to take in laundry if they are to have any chance of feeding their children, children who stop smiling before they turn six. The community is designed to show us what it means to be human, and ultimately how insignificant humanity is in the face of nature.
The prose is too dense at times and occasionally loses the thread, and unless you are very familiar with the old Scottish dialect then a dictionary would be really useful.
Ringan Gilhaize – John Galt
This novel covers Scottish history from 1540 to 1690 as seen through the experiences of one family. While the family is fictional most of the events and other characters are real or are based on real events and people.
Ringan experiences the most turbulent era, that of the Covenant, the Commonwealth and the Reformation. We follow his development from a peaceful devout man to a blood thirsty fanatic.
The author clearly believes that this period in Scottish history will be forever represented by the conflict between the reformers or Covananters and the idol worshippers. He makes it quite clear that he believes that being a Covananter or Presbyterian is far more honourable than being Catholic or Papist.
This was incredibly well written and I would recommend it to anybody with an interest in Scottish literature or history.
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