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A review by melindamoor
The Shuttle by Frances Hodgson Burnett
5.0
This book can be downloaded for free from Project Gutenberg
On my first reading this book I gave it 3,5 stars. It forced reluctant admiration from me and even though I couldn't deny the EFFECT it had on me, I tried to resist it for some reason or other.
Just like a Darcy on 1st meeting Elizabeth Bennet, I tried to find faults with [b:The Shuttle|1057543|The Shuttle|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410270110l/1057543._SX50_.jpg|2309178] and was quick to discover and point out its imperfections, even though deep down I knew that it had a hold over me.
So, of course I couldn't help, but return to it. I read the book [b:To Marry an English Lord|13499343|To Marry an English Lord|Gail MacColl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330148343l/13499343._SX50_.jpg|605208], which was recommended by other reviewers.
I was OPEN for this book this time and I simply loved it, despite some imperfections (I still think that some 50 or 100 pages might have been dedicated to draw out the happy ending even more instead of dwelling on some other thing unnecessarily long)!
************************
Original thoughts:
After reading [b:The Making of a Marchioness|42548944|The Making of a Marchioness|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1540841596l/42548944._SX50_.jpg|48271026] I kind of expected some vivid and precise portrayal of characters by [a:Frances Hodgson Burnett|2041|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1197934848p2/2041.jpg], but she exceeded those high expectations.
Betty Vanderpoel & Fergus Mount Dunstan deserve a place in the Hall of Fame for Literary Couples. (Still wondering which actresses/actors might do them justice.)
***********************
It is the beginning of the 20th century (The novel was published in 1907.) and for some 30 years there has been an influx of American heiresses (Dollar Princesses) marrying British aristocrats. The first marriage to set the trend was that of Miss Jenny Jerome -later, the mother of Winston C.- to Lord Randolph Churchill, younger son of the Duke of Marlborough, in 1876.
The reason for these girls to try and marry into the British aristocracy was that they could not gain high enough social standing in America or rather, in New York, being the daughters of self-made men and not getting acceptance into the high and mighty circle of the exclusive 400. The situation is rather an ironic one: Americans being shunned by Americans and trying to use the British snobs to give those US snobs back home one in the eye.
A British title was seen as a shortcut to social acceptance, and there were plenty of willing aristocrats to trade with. Financially and socially seen this may have been a win-win situation. From a personal POV, things not always turned out quite that satisfactorily. Both the American and the British side were customers and merchandise at the same time and some of them felt cheated after the transaction was done.
[a:Frances Hodgson Burnett|2041|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1197934848p2/2041.jpg] (British-born, but emigrating to the US in her childhood) clearly felt that the American wives were the losers, because they did not know what they let themselves in for. It is an undeniable fact that especially in the beginning while their money was taken to repair dilapidated aristocratic homes, most of them got ostracised or at least scorned because of their origin and their social pretenses.
The cornerstone & starting point for this novel is a similar situation described above. Rosalie Vanderpoel, the innocent & kind, but not very bright daughter of the immensely rich Reuben Vanderpoel, is wooed and then wed by Sir Nigel Anstruthers with a dilapidated estate and a cruel and dissolute mind, both of which he is clever enough to hide from the American in-laws.
Once they are in England, on his estate and away from the prying eyes of the in-laws, Nigel and his mother systematically bully and intimidate the gentle ingenue into total misery and submission. This is all described in the novel in details which are horrifying as well as clearly prove that F.H.B. knew what she was writing about (her second husband tried to put her through the same kind of mental torture). Rosalie loses touch with her family through the manipulations & manoeuverings of her husband and is left to her fate by 12 long & terrible years.
(There was one single issue that stood out, though the author just glossed it over for the sake of the plot, but which still rubs me the wrong way: the character of Reuben Vanderpoel, Rosy's father.
The reasons we are given: he was busy because he's a multimillionaire and can't be expected to do much about it. Well, cry me an effing river!
Several times during the last few years he had thought that if he had not been so hard worked, if he had had time, he would have seriously investigated the case of Rosy. But who is not aware that the profession of multimillionaire does not allow of any swerving from duty or of any interests requiring leisure?
ERGO, his financial pursuits were more important to this otherwise perfect father figure than her own daughter and F.H.B. finds nothing amiss about it nor does she see the need to offer any better explanation or apology for it.)
After 12 years, Bettina Vanderpoel, younger daughter of Reuben, sets out from New York to England to try and find out what happened with her sister.
She arrives -thankfully Nigel is away- to the estate to find both it and Rosalie crumbling and she, with skill, cleverness and determination & lots of money, sets out to put everything to right.
She is definitely a new kind of heroine: strong, determined, intelligent, sharp, cool-headed, but tender-hearted ...and of course, beautiful. There is nothing helpless about her. Everything under her touch turns to gold. She's almost too perfect to be true, but because of the skillful portrayal, as well as the difficult situation she and her sister are in, this never becomes truly grating. She is a very interesting character and definitely deserves a place among the notable heroines of classic literature, next to Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Margaret Hale, Becky Sharpe etc. (It is on purpose I list heroines with such different characters & with different fates.)
"Women have found out so much. Perhaps it is because the heroines of novels have informed them. Heroines and heroes always bring in the new fashions in character. I believe it is years since a heroine ‘burst into a flood of tears.’ It has been discovered, really, that nothing is to be gained by it."
"There is the Atlantic cable, you know. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why heroines have changed. When they could not escape from their persecutors except in a stage coach, and could not send telegrams, they were more or less in everyone’s hands. It is different now."
It is very satisfying to witness how she breathes life and new purpose into her wilting sister and into the decrepit estate & the village nearby.
The psychological war she fights with Nigel on his return is another fascinating thread of the overall narrative, though it gives you the creeps because of Nigel's extreme repulsiveness.
And of course with such an outstanding heroine, the question arises, if there are any worthy men that could be her match especially in England? It is with skill that the author finally introduces, step by step, the much-needed balance. Together with Betty, we get to know Lord Mount Dunstan, impoverished owner of a neighbouring estate that has seen better days and is in serious need of (American, any kind of) capital. His (now dead) father and older brother were dishonest scoundrels and gave the family a bad name. Fergus is a noble, strong & magnetic man, but also stubborn, proud and aloof, who holds other English nobles in contempt for marrying rich American girls.
"They don’t come and fight with us and get possession of us by force. They come and buy us. They buy our land and our homes, and our landowners, for that matter—when they don’t buy them, they send their women to marry them, confound it."
“You know how I have felt myself perfectly within my rights when I blackguarded such men and sneered at such women—taking it for granted that each was merchandise of his or her kind and beneath contempt. I am not a foul-mouthed man, but I have used gross words and rough ones to describe them.” “I have heard you.” Mount Dunstan threw back his head with a big, harsh laugh. He came out of the shadow and stood still. “Well,” he said, “I am in love—as much in love as any lunatic ever was—with the daughter of Reuben S. Vanderpoel. There you are—and there I am!”
The development of their feelings and how they are drawn to each other is superbly done. It goes much deeper than the Victorian/Edwardian love stories of the time. I would say it has very strong elements of the metaphysical and in a rather positive way.
Also when typhoid fever breaks out on his estate the way he gives shelter to the sick in his house as well as his willingness to nurse them ads new layers to his character as well as an interesting turn to the plot.
"In Stornham village and in all others of the neighbourhood the feminine attitude towards Mount Dunstan had been one of strongly emotional admiration. The thwarted female longing for romance—the desire for drama and a hero had been fed by him. A fine, big young man, one that had been “spoke ill of” and regarded as an outcast, had suddenly turned the tables on fortune and made himself the central figure of the county, the talk of gentry in their grand houses, of cottage women on their doorsteps, and labourers stopping to speak to each other by the roadside. Magic stories had been told of him, beflowered with dramatic detail. No incident could have been related to his credit which would not have been believed and improved upon. Shut up in his village working among his people and unseen by outsiders, he had become a popular idol. Any scrap of news of him—any rumour, true or untrue, was seized upon and excitedly spread abroad."
And then of course, there is the villain of the piece Sir Nigel Anstruthers. He is surely at least among the runners-up for the Literary Prize "Most manipulative and blood-chillingly obnoxious Bully of all times". OMG, that guy just knows how to put the psychological screws on anyone. His unpredictable outbursts of physical violence make it all the worse. He gave me the serious creeps. (Move over, Heathcliff, we are sooooooo over you!)
My mental image of him was that of a grey, vicious looking spider dripping with poison, stealthily weaving its web and gloating over every ensnared victim.
After the dramatic events at the end of the story, where Sir Nigel gets his final, well-deserved and very satisfying comeuppance at the hands of Lord Mount Dunstan and fate, the actual happy ending is too short and I felt a bit cheated because surely the readers should have deserved a bit more elaboration on the future of the characters, especially after I fought my way through all long and rambling passages, but all in all, it was worth it.
A very remarkable, or rather, extraordinary book for all of those who like classics, especially the unworthily forgotten ones.
On my first reading this book I gave it 3,5 stars. It forced reluctant admiration from me and even though I couldn't deny the EFFECT it had on me, I tried to resist it for some reason or other.
Just like a Darcy on 1st meeting Elizabeth Bennet, I tried to find faults with [b:The Shuttle|1057543|The Shuttle|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1410270110l/1057543._SX50_.jpg|2309178] and was quick to discover and point out its imperfections, even though deep down I knew that it had a hold over me.
So, of course I couldn't help, but return to it. I read the book [b:To Marry an English Lord|13499343|To Marry an English Lord|Gail MacColl|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1330148343l/13499343._SX50_.jpg|605208], which was recommended by other reviewers.
I was OPEN for this book this time and I simply loved it, despite some imperfections (I still think that some 50 or 100 pages might have been dedicated to draw out the happy ending even more instead of dwelling on some other thing unnecessarily long)!
************************
Original thoughts:
After reading [b:The Making of a Marchioness|42548944|The Making of a Marchioness|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1540841596l/42548944._SX50_.jpg|48271026] I kind of expected some vivid and precise portrayal of characters by [a:Frances Hodgson Burnett|2041|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1197934848p2/2041.jpg], but she exceeded those high expectations.
Betty Vanderpoel & Fergus Mount Dunstan deserve a place in the Hall of Fame for Literary Couples. (Still wondering which actresses/actors might do them justice.)
***********************
It is the beginning of the 20th century (The novel was published in 1907.) and for some 30 years there has been an influx of American heiresses (Dollar Princesses) marrying British aristocrats. The first marriage to set the trend was that of Miss Jenny Jerome -later, the mother of Winston C.- to Lord Randolph Churchill, younger son of the Duke of Marlborough, in 1876.
The reason for these girls to try and marry into the British aristocracy was that they could not gain high enough social standing in America or rather, in New York, being the daughters of self-made men and not getting acceptance into the high and mighty circle of the exclusive 400. The situation is rather an ironic one: Americans being shunned by Americans and trying to use the British snobs to give those US snobs back home one in the eye.
A British title was seen as a shortcut to social acceptance, and there were plenty of willing aristocrats to trade with. Financially and socially seen this may have been a win-win situation. From a personal POV, things not always turned out quite that satisfactorily. Both the American and the British side were customers and merchandise at the same time and some of them felt cheated after the transaction was done.
[a:Frances Hodgson Burnett|2041|Frances Hodgson Burnett|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1197934848p2/2041.jpg] (British-born, but emigrating to the US in her childhood) clearly felt that the American wives were the losers, because they did not know what they let themselves in for. It is an undeniable fact that especially in the beginning while their money was taken to repair dilapidated aristocratic homes, most of them got ostracised or at least scorned because of their origin and their social pretenses.
The cornerstone & starting point for this novel is a similar situation described above. Rosalie Vanderpoel, the innocent & kind, but not very bright daughter of the immensely rich Reuben Vanderpoel, is wooed and then wed by Sir Nigel Anstruthers with a dilapidated estate and a cruel and dissolute mind, both of which he is clever enough to hide from the American in-laws.
Once they are in England, on his estate and away from the prying eyes of the in-laws, Nigel and his mother systematically bully and intimidate the gentle ingenue into total misery and submission. This is all described in the novel in details which are horrifying as well as clearly prove that F.H.B. knew what she was writing about (her second husband tried to put her through the same kind of mental torture). Rosalie loses touch with her family through the manipulations & manoeuverings of her husband and is left to her fate by 12 long & terrible years.
(There was one single issue that stood out, though the author just glossed it over for the sake of the plot, but which still rubs me the wrong way: the character of Reuben Vanderpoel, Rosy's father.
Spoiler
He is American, so naturally F.H.B. endowed him with every positive trait imaginable, but this is the same father WHO DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING DURING THAT 12 YEARS TO TRY AND FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO ROSALIE. He is satisfied to send his other, younger daughter Betty, to find out why after 12 bloody years.The reasons we are given: he was busy because he's a multimillionaire and can't be expected to do much about it. Well, cry me an effing river!
Several times during the last few years he had thought that if he had not been so hard worked, if he had had time, he would have seriously investigated the case of Rosy. But who is not aware that the profession of multimillionaire does not allow of any swerving from duty or of any interests requiring leisure?
ERGO, his financial pursuits were more important to this otherwise perfect father figure than her own daughter and F.H.B. finds nothing amiss about it nor does she see the need to offer any better explanation or apology for it.
After 12 years, Bettina Vanderpoel, younger daughter of Reuben, sets out from New York to England to try and find out what happened with her sister.
She arrives -thankfully Nigel is away- to the estate to find both it and Rosalie crumbling and she, with skill, cleverness and determination & lots of money, sets out to put everything to right.
She is definitely a new kind of heroine: strong, determined, intelligent, sharp, cool-headed, but tender-hearted ...and of course, beautiful. There is nothing helpless about her. Everything under her touch turns to gold. She's almost too perfect to be true, but because of the skillful portrayal, as well as the difficult situation she and her sister are in, this never becomes truly grating. She is a very interesting character and definitely deserves a place among the notable heroines of classic literature, next to Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Eyre, Margaret Hale, Becky Sharpe etc. (It is on purpose I list heroines with such different characters & with different fates.)
"Women have found out so much. Perhaps it is because the heroines of novels have informed them. Heroines and heroes always bring in the new fashions in character. I believe it is years since a heroine ‘burst into a flood of tears.’ It has been discovered, really, that nothing is to be gained by it."
"There is the Atlantic cable, you know. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why heroines have changed. When they could not escape from their persecutors except in a stage coach, and could not send telegrams, they were more or less in everyone’s hands. It is different now."
It is very satisfying to witness how she breathes life and new purpose into her wilting sister and into the decrepit estate & the village nearby.
The psychological war she fights with Nigel on his return is another fascinating thread of the overall narrative, though it gives you the creeps because of Nigel's extreme repulsiveness.
And of course with such an outstanding heroine, the question arises, if there are any worthy men that could be her match especially in England? It is with skill that the author finally introduces, step by step, the much-needed balance. Together with Betty, we get to know Lord Mount Dunstan, impoverished owner of a neighbouring estate that has seen better days and is in serious need of (American, any kind of) capital. His (now dead) father and older brother were dishonest scoundrels and gave the family a bad name. Fergus is a noble, strong & magnetic man, but also stubborn, proud and aloof, who holds other English nobles in contempt for marrying rich American girls.
"They don’t come and fight with us and get possession of us by force. They come and buy us. They buy our land and our homes, and our landowners, for that matter—when they don’t buy them, they send their women to marry them, confound it."
Spoiler
And then he meets and falls in love with Betty:“You know how I have felt myself perfectly within my rights when I blackguarded such men and sneered at such women—taking it for granted that each was merchandise of his or her kind and beneath contempt. I am not a foul-mouthed man, but I have used gross words and rough ones to describe them.” “I have heard you.” Mount Dunstan threw back his head with a big, harsh laugh. He came out of the shadow and stood still. “Well,” he said, “I am in love—as much in love as any lunatic ever was—with the daughter of Reuben S. Vanderpoel. There you are—and there I am!”
The development of their feelings and how they are drawn to each other is superbly done. It goes much deeper than the Victorian/Edwardian love stories of the time. I would say it has very strong elements of the metaphysical and in a rather positive way.
Also when typhoid fever breaks out on his estate the way he gives shelter to the sick in his house as well as his willingness to nurse them ads new layers to his character as well as an interesting turn to the plot.
"In Stornham village and in all others of the neighbourhood the feminine attitude towards Mount Dunstan had been one of strongly emotional admiration. The thwarted female longing for romance—the desire for drama and a hero had been fed by him. A fine, big young man, one that had been “spoke ill of” and regarded as an outcast, had suddenly turned the tables on fortune and made himself the central figure of the county, the talk of gentry in their grand houses, of cottage women on their doorsteps, and labourers stopping to speak to each other by the roadside. Magic stories had been told of him, beflowered with dramatic detail. No incident could have been related to his credit which would not have been believed and improved upon. Shut up in his village working among his people and unseen by outsiders, he had become a popular idol. Any scrap of news of him—any rumour, true or untrue, was seized upon and excitedly spread abroad."
And then of course, there is the villain of the piece Sir Nigel Anstruthers. He is surely at least among the runners-up for the Literary Prize "Most manipulative and blood-chillingly obnoxious Bully of all times". OMG, that guy just knows how to put the psychological screws on anyone. His unpredictable outbursts of physical violence make it all the worse. He gave me the serious creeps. (Move over, Heathcliff, we are sooooooo over you!)
My mental image of him was that of a grey, vicious looking spider dripping with poison, stealthily weaving its web and gloating over every ensnared victim.
After the dramatic events at the end of the story, where Sir Nigel gets his final, well-deserved and very satisfying comeuppance at the hands of Lord Mount Dunstan and fate, the actual happy ending is too short and I felt a bit cheated because surely the readers should have deserved a bit more elaboration on the future of the characters, especially after I fought my way through all long and rambling passages, but all in all, it was worth it.
A very remarkable, or rather, extraordinary book for all of those who like classics, especially the unworthily forgotten ones.