Book Review: Rob Roy

I'm catching up on my book reviews for the Back to the Classics Challenge. I've read multiple 19th century classics this year. I am participating in an online reading group for Sir Walter Scott's novels. I am abashed to admit that before December of last year, I had never read one of his books. I am making up for that this year. Starting with Waverly, I have continued by reading Rob Roy, Ivanhoe, The Talisman, and currently Kenilworth. I'm not sure if Waverly or Rob Roy is my favorite so far, but since the former was read in a previous year and doesn't count for this challenge, I will write a review on the latter.

As many of Scott's book, Rob Roy begins with detailing the background and history of the chief characters before diving into the plot. I have come to appreciate this style more, as I realize how much I know about and care about each principal character before the story truly begins. For this particular tale, I was nearly a quarter of the way through the book before I was sure who the eponymous character was. (Hint: it is not the protagonist; that would be Francis Osbaldistone.)

The book has everything a romance novel should: a lady, an unlikely hero, fighting, intrigue, and a champion of dubious integrity. The Scottish dialect made a few sections of the book confusing, but usually the import of the conversation would become clear with continued reading. It was actually fun for me to try to figure out if I could understand what was being said before Francis Osbaldistone did. The plot was wrapped up rather quickly. After spending so much time drawing us into the lives of the characters, I would have appreciated a few chapters at the end to allow us to enjoy their fates.

Since I have gotten asked 4 times, "What's for snack?" I better wrap this up. Now I am caught up on the reviews for now, and can read guilt-free. 

Book Review: Lady Susan

I admit that I am a fan of Jane Austen but somehow had never read her epistolary novella, Lady Susan. Written in 1871 with only 180 pages, this books qualifies for the "novella" category in my Back to the Classics Challenge. Lady Susan is as unprincipled of a character as I've ever met. Vain, avaricious, and cunning, she will balk at nothing to get what she wants. Although, I didn't feel as attached to the characters as in Austen's longer novels, I did find myself caring about what was going to happen to Lady Susan's various "victims" and hoping that virtue would win out.

Trying to write a story purely through letters and notes is a challenge. In Austen's day, letter writing was a common form of communication, so these letters don't feel like they're stretching too much to tell the story. Even Austen, however, couldn't quite figure out how to wrap everything up in this fashion and attached an epilogue to let us know how everyone fares in the end.

This story lacks the laugh out loud moments, I deeply prize in Austen's other works. It is not so poignant nor witty. From her other books, I know that Austen must have carefully studied human character and interactions. She portrays the character of Lady Susan amazingly well, giving us insights into her motives and her lack of remorse. Though it's certainly not a favorite of mine, I believe any Austen fan would enjoy a few evenings reading Lady Susan.