E G Logan
Full Member
- Nov 11, 2018
We've done books we loved. Now can I suggest: Books we didn't like, and why..?
Before anyone jumps in to suggest this sounds rather ungracious of me, I would point out that my aim is two-fold:
1. to explain why these books don't work for you; i.e didactic, and
2. to save anyone else from ploughing through them, as I did; i.e. humanitarian.
To kick off: Wylder's Hand by Sheridan le Fanu. I've just read this.
Le Fanu is best known for (Victorian) ghost stories, mostly short and very well-regarded*, but he also wrote Gothic works, in the case of Wylder's Hand, a novel.
I came on this via a mention in another book, under the heading of 'Works unjustly overlooked'. Hmm. I beg to differ.
In mitigation:
-- This style has not aged well. But the book is what it is, a product of its time. In particular, the title has almost completely lost its impact. In Victorian English, however, one meaning of hand, now fallen out of use, would have been handwriting, very important here. That play on words no longer works.
-- The basic, underlying plot is simple and sound. It's the execution that lets it down, in fact almost completely torpedoes it.
-- The Gutenberg (free) version I was reading does Le F no favours. It is dotted with typos and the layout peculiarities often magnify the existing uncertainty over who is speaking in the many great blocks of dialogue.
In my view:
-- It's much too long. More than a short story but definitely no more than a novella. Should have been cut.
-- It's sloppily, self-indulgently written. In fact, I wondered if the good people at Gutenberg might have been working from a draft -- that is what it reads like. This means that: it's hard to keep track of the admittedly (and unnecessarily) complex plot, partly because it's difficult to see who is speaking. Le F clearly dislikes using 'he said/she said', and rarely does, but in a narrative that moves forward via a great deal of dialogue, this is a huge weakness.
-- The point of view wanders. There is mostly a 1st person narrator, but a lot of action is also reported to him, including by letter or newspaper article. That makes it easy to lose the thread.
-- The characterisation is inconsistent and just plain odd. Dorcas Brandon must be, unintentionally, one of the weirdest female characters in fiction, passive to the point of practically catatonic.
But, hey! You may think it's great.
[* M R James, no less, once described Le Fanu's The Familiar as one of the greatest ghost stories ever.]
Before anyone jumps in to suggest this sounds rather ungracious of me, I would point out that my aim is two-fold:
1. to explain why these books don't work for you; i.e didactic, and
2. to save anyone else from ploughing through them, as I did; i.e. humanitarian.
To kick off: Wylder's Hand by Sheridan le Fanu. I've just read this.
Le Fanu is best known for (Victorian) ghost stories, mostly short and very well-regarded*, but he also wrote Gothic works, in the case of Wylder's Hand, a novel.
I came on this via a mention in another book, under the heading of 'Works unjustly overlooked'. Hmm. I beg to differ.
In mitigation:
-- This style has not aged well. But the book is what it is, a product of its time. In particular, the title has almost completely lost its impact. In Victorian English, however, one meaning of hand, now fallen out of use, would have been handwriting, very important here. That play on words no longer works.
-- The basic, underlying plot is simple and sound. It's the execution that lets it down, in fact almost completely torpedoes it.
-- The Gutenberg (free) version I was reading does Le F no favours. It is dotted with typos and the layout peculiarities often magnify the existing uncertainty over who is speaking in the many great blocks of dialogue.
In my view:
-- It's much too long. More than a short story but definitely no more than a novella. Should have been cut.
-- It's sloppily, self-indulgently written. In fact, I wondered if the good people at Gutenberg might have been working from a draft -- that is what it reads like. This means that: it's hard to keep track of the admittedly (and unnecessarily) complex plot, partly because it's difficult to see who is speaking. Le F clearly dislikes using 'he said/she said', and rarely does, but in a narrative that moves forward via a great deal of dialogue, this is a huge weakness.
-- The point of view wanders. There is mostly a 1st person narrator, but a lot of action is also reported to him, including by letter or newspaper article. That makes it easy to lose the thread.
-- The characterisation is inconsistent and just plain odd. Dorcas Brandon must be, unintentionally, one of the weirdest female characters in fiction, passive to the point of practically catatonic.
But, hey! You may think it's great.
[* M R James, no less, once described Le Fanu's The Familiar as one of the greatest ghost stories ever.]
