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ujames1978 's review for:
Jezebel's Daughter
by Wilkie Collins
On the plus side, this book 'ISN'T' dragged out to the point at which you're screaming "Get On With It!" and actually qualifies as a novel; not merely a short story that's been padded out as much as humanly possibly in order to be passed off as one. But while it doesn't try my patience anywhere near as much as a great deal of Wilkie Collins' other work, it is still full of many of the same annoyances that make me roll my eyes and exhale through my nose. Including:
a) Plot contrivances so utterly ridiculous that they take you out of the story.
b) A raging bigotry against Jesuits, and in this one instance, Jews as well.
c) The definite suspicion that like "The Moonstone" et al, Collins wrote this story for the sole purpose of showing off some new knowledge that he thought was interesting. In this case, the study of poisons and antidotes, the German practice of keeping watch over the recently deceased and attaching bells to their bodies in case they were still alive and the 'Rehabilitation' of the mentally ill. And speaking of which...
d) The fact that although he was 'Progressive' by the standards of the time, his ideas of what the 'Liberation' of women and 'Rehabilitation' of the mentally ill and people with learning difficulties would look like is deeply patronising and problematic.
Because in both this book and "The Law & The Lady," he portrays characters with learning difficulties and/or mental illness as being either dangerous maniacs or, when 'Rehabilitated,' the devoted slaves of their 'Saviours;' literally equating them with dogs who are given names like pets, are happy to live like animals and are incapable of living without their Master/Mistress. And while, in this book, Jack's dog-like devotion to his 'Mistress' and compulsive need to watch the bell in case she rings for him actually serves a vital role in the story, (unlike in the "Law & The Lady" in which the 'Slave' is literally nothing but an object of pity and abuse and has no reason to exist,) it is still deeply uncomfortable to read.
So although, in the grand scheme of things, Collins first novel after "The Fallen Leaves" is nowhere near as bad as some of his other work, "The Fallen Leaves" is still, in my humble opinion, the only genuinely good book by that author which I have read to date.
a) Plot contrivances so utterly ridiculous that they take you out of the story.
b) A raging bigotry against Jesuits, and in this one instance, Jews as well.
c) The definite suspicion that like "The Moonstone" et al, Collins wrote this story for the sole purpose of showing off some new knowledge that he thought was interesting. In this case, the study of poisons and antidotes, the German practice of keeping watch over the recently deceased and attaching bells to their bodies in case they were still alive and the 'Rehabilitation' of the mentally ill. And speaking of which...
d) The fact that although he was 'Progressive' by the standards of the time, his ideas of what the 'Liberation' of women and 'Rehabilitation' of the mentally ill and people with learning difficulties would look like is deeply patronising and problematic.
Because in both this book and "The Law & The Lady," he portrays characters with learning difficulties and/or mental illness as being either dangerous maniacs or, when 'Rehabilitated,' the devoted slaves of their 'Saviours;' literally equating them with dogs who are given names like pets, are happy to live like animals and are incapable of living without their Master/Mistress. And while, in this book, Jack's dog-like devotion to his 'Mistress' and compulsive need to watch the bell in case she rings for him actually serves a vital role in the story, (unlike in the "Law & The Lady" in which the 'Slave' is literally nothing but an object of pity and abuse and has no reason to exist,) it is still deeply uncomfortable to read.
So although, in the grand scheme of things, Collins first novel after "The Fallen Leaves" is nowhere near as bad as some of his other work, "The Fallen Leaves" is still, in my humble opinion, the only genuinely good book by that author which I have read to date.