By Victoria Holt
Read: January 2010
Rating: Not Bad
I don’t remember where it came from, but I wound up with a paperback of this out-of-print book. I can’t see a reason for it to be. It’s not a romance novel–it’s a novel with romance in it. So there.
Caroline Tressidor is the second daughter of a wealthy, upstanding man. Their home in Victorian London is strained, neither parent having much affection for the other, or interest in the children. Caroline is the smarter of the two girls, always questioning, dreaming, and seeing what her sister Olivia misses. They are, of course, thrilled when their beautiful socialite mother begins paying more attention to them… or is it only to Caroline? And yet a fourth person keeps appearing on their outings–the dashing Captain Carmichael.
Caroline lets slip to her father that they have been spending time with him. And then the world as she knew it shifts violently. Mother leaves. Caroline is sent away from London to live in the country with the ‘ogre’ Cousin Mary in the ancestral home. Though essentially banned from her home, she soon settles into life in Cornwall. The wild moors, the people… including the mysterious Paul Landower. His family owns the other large manor in the area, but their funds and the building are in ruins. It looks as though they will have to sell. Before anything is certain, Caroline is called back to London.
Her sister has ‘come out’ and is now on the marriage market. Caroline is approaching that age, too… yet somehow her father never orders them to make her ready. Months go by. And Caroline takes matters into her own hands–she contrives a way to go to a masked event, and winds up the apple of some young gentleman’s eye. Yet she never forgets Paul Landower, the brooding, noble heir…
It all comes down to how Paul can save the family home. If they sell, they’ll have money and no home. If they stay, the home will crumble and they’ll have to move out anyway. But Paul will do almost anything to preserve that house… and pay for it for the rest of his life.
From the outset, we know something huge is coming. The back copy and Caroline’s older-and-wiser narration tells us that something very dangerous is going to happen. Some implication that Paul is mixed up in murder. I was interested enough in Caroline and her life to not really mind, but this murder angle doesn’t appear for ages. The very last few chapters of the book, actually. So don’t hold your breath.
Things I Liked:
Caroline is a very independent young woman. She’s a good incarnation of ‘woman before her time.’ She’s clever and she considers all her options. She analyzes. Unfortunately, life throws a lot of shitty situations at her, and so her conclusions are grim. Men are mercenary jackasses–they want only one thing. And then they’ll use that money to pay for the pleasures of yet more women. She becomes cynical at a very young age, and her olderwiser narration is always analyzing this, always trying to pick apart what made her feel she was right to think that way.
A lot of the secondary characters are wonderful. Cousin Mary, for one. Rosie, for another. Jago is brilliant.
Not So Keen On:
It does seem rather convenient for *counts quickly* all five of the primary couplings in Caroline’s life to be disastrous. She really doesn’t know anyone who’s happy being married?
As much as we are in Caroline’s head, hearing her thoughts, feeling so much of what she does, there is a certain distance there. And it’s not bothersome except when it comes to her relationship with Paul Landower. When they first meet she’s only fourteen and he’s over twenty, much too young to be considered, and it’s more of a schoolgirl crush. The next time they meet, she’s pushing twenty herself, and some magical sparks fly. Years of passionate self-denial follow. But dubleyatee-eff, I’m just not feeling it. I don’t feel like Caroline IS truly, deeply, head over heels in love with him. I don’t feel it in the narrative or in the words and actions of her younger self.
Which brings me to one of my problems with the ending. (Stop reading now if you don’t like spoilers.)
It’s too neat. It ends the way this sort of book is supposed to end. Obstacles removed and true lovers together. But I don’t feel the joy. I don’t see the happiness. I don’t feel them building the life they wanted so dearly. I was really, really hoping that Holt would throw in a major curve ball, like Caroline winding up with somebody else. Or this murder thing coming to a big, legal head. Alas.
And that murder thing? It was sort of unexpected how that turned out. But not really–I did see the initial clue that was thrown out. But the thread wasn’t sustained in any real way, picking up only right before the end, and so it felt like a bit of a cop-out. It’s not an unreasonable situation, I don’t object to it in principle, just in practice. Especially cuz you would think the animals would know.
Have I said too much? Sorry.
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