Books 2014: Enchanted Castle, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey, Death's Rival, Blood Trade

[amedia]

Miscellaneous other books that I read during the second part of last year.
The Enchanted Castle by E. Nesbit
I loved how this book played with levels of/kinds of/realities of magic in very cool ways.

Jane Austen: Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey
I read all of these last semester, which tells you how stressed out I was. And now I'm all out of complete Austen novels that I haven't read! Waaah!

Jane Yellowrock: Death's Rival, Blood Trade
Still enjoying these greatly, much to Camille's (deserved) amusement.
For Christmas, I made Camille a collage of images and text from a museum exhibit I had attended recently that related to themes from the book. She posted it to a special readers' group that she belongs to (sort of an inner circle of Jane Yellowrock fans) and was pleased with the warm response. That made me happy for both of us.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

By any chance did you ever read Edward Eager's Knight's Castle? Eager was a huge Nesbit fan, and this one was almost certainly inspired by The Enchanted Castle in particular. It was my first introduction to the story of the blonde girl and the exotic brunette girl. . . .

[amedia.livejournal.com]

OMG, I loved all of Eager's books! I read every single one that our school library had. I can't believe I didn't make the Ivanhoe connection when I read Ivanhoe some years later. (I liked Rebecca way better than Rowena.)

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Of course there was only one movie that Jack, Roger, Eliza, and Ann were likely to have seen, and being played by the twenty-year-old Elizabeth Taylor probably gave Rebecca a big advantage!

Eager totally sold me on Rebecca being the superior choice, too, though I didn't get the ethnic/religious angle at all; what I saw was that Rebecca was smarter and did useful things.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

I'm going to have to reread that book now . . .

Didn't he also write a series about a group of kids who are the grandparents of the modern (at the time of writing) group? And a crossover story in which they meet?

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Roger and Ann's mother was Martha in Half Magic, and Jack and Eliza's was Katherine. And yes, he did, twice: Magic by the Lake told it from the first generation's PoV and The Time Garden told it again from the second generation's!

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

The Enchanted Castle is one of my favourite E. Nesbit books. I love the kids' characters, the feel of life back then, and magic added on top. When the Ugly Wugglies come to life and frighten everyone is such an awesome part of the book, especially when they're looking for a good hotel.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

When the Ugly Wugglies come to life and frighten everyone is such an awesome part of the book, especially when they're looking for a good hotel.

YES! Oh, yes. I found them pretty scary--I would have been totally freaked out had I read this book as a kid! They were very zombie-like! And looking for a good hotel, which I admit did make them a bit less scary. Nice bit of satire how well that one fit in with the world of high finance!