Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by ablotial
Uncle Silas: A Tale of Bartram-Haugh by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
2.0
This book took me a long time to read. There were some parts that I had a lot of trouble getting interested in, although there were other parts where I just wanted to keep reading and keep reading. The main character, Maud, annoyed me -- at times she seemed very wise, but much of the time she seemed incredibly naive and young for her years. Even with the crazy hints people were dropping, she still missed what I considered obvious.
Being a Victorian novel, much of the book is sort of dark and mysterious, though I would say very little was actually scary. Often, in the style of many books from this time period, the author would go off on seemingly unrelated tangents or introduce seemingly unimportant characters, though they often tie in in some way far, far down the line. Though I still do wonder about Captain Oakley. Not sure what the point of his existence was. I guess just as a potential love interest, but we sort of all knew from the start that it wouldn't work out.
The ending left me unsatisfied for the most part, though it did tie up a few things rather nicely. There is a fair bit of "dialectical" speech written beginning in the middle of the book -- normally I don't mind this too much, but when you combine the dialect with the fact that it is a BRITISH dialect and I'm American, and the fact that the book was written in somewhat archaic language anyway due to the fact that it's just an old book... some parts were incredibly difficult to decipher.
Overall and interesting book, and I could definitely see how some of the devices from this novel have made their way into modern cliches, but I don't think much about it will stick in my mind for long.
Being a Victorian novel, much of the book is sort of dark and mysterious, though I would say very little was actually scary. Often, in the style of many books from this time period, the author would go off on seemingly unrelated tangents or introduce seemingly unimportant characters, though they often tie in in some way far, far down the line. Though I still do wonder about Captain Oakley. Not sure what the point of his existence was. I guess just as a potential love interest, but we sort of all knew from the start that it wouldn't work out.
The ending left me unsatisfied for the most part, though it did tie up a few things rather nicely. There is a fair bit of "dialectical" speech written beginning in the middle of the book -- normally I don't mind this too much, but when you combine the dialect with the fact that it is a BRITISH dialect and I'm American, and the fact that the book was written in somewhat archaic language anyway due to the fact that it's just an old book... some parts were incredibly difficult to decipher.
Overall and interesting book, and I could definitely see how some of the devices from this novel have made their way into modern cliches, but I don't think much about it will stick in my mind for long.