Booklinks

 

     Books arrive here from all sorts of different sources and I have quite a pile of 'recent acquisitions', both fiction and non-fiction to talk about, but I'll begin with two which are linked in a sort of way, albeit tenuously.


      Mary Cavanagh's novel The Crowded Bed got great reviews when it came out last year, and I've had it in mind to read since then. Mary's second book is here on my desk, flagged on the back as "a truly excellent and page-turning read", and it certainly sounds like it from the blurb. A Man Like Any Other: The Priest's Tale is described by Caro Fraser as "a brilliantly constructed novel. An evocative examination of life, love, loyalty and human frailties". It features Father Ewan McEwan, chaplain of a Cistercian Abbey on the Suffolk coast, but a man who despite his vows and for most of his adult life has conducted a passionate affair with a woman. There's a lot more to it than that, and I'll be reporting back in due course, but the story of the sinning priest and his beautiful lady looks like being a meaty one.


     In what way is that book linked to the other one pictured here, a Jane Austen 'sequel' called The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet? Well, telling Mary's story is none other than Colleen McCullough, and what woman around at the time could forget her huge hit The Thorn Birds. Do you remember Richard Chamberlain on the beach? The sinning Father Ralph, in love with Meggie!
     In this new novel, Colleen McCullough has left the culpable clergyman and the vastness of Australia far behind and is charting the life of Mary Bennet, twenty years after the events of "Pride and Prejudice". With each of her sisters settled in their own way, "events transpire that free Mary from her family obligations and dangle the allurements of independence before her hungry gaze"; " a sparkling romance that shows it is never too late to find love. Funny, tragic and eminently satisfying". There are many Austen sequels around (here's a good post about one of them) but as I haven't read any at all this will be new territory for me. I'll let you know how I get on. 
     

   

Comments

[Ros]

When I'm Queen, I think that the second law I shall pass will forbid the publication of Austen-sequels. The first will ban chewing gum.

I did, however, enjoy the continuation of Austen's Sanditon by 'Another Lady'. But all the P&P and other sequels make my skin crawl with their awfulness. Anyway, I'll be interested to hear how you get on, though I shan't be tempted to try it myself.

[Simon T]

I've always thought Mary B would be a fascinating subject for a sequel - I've been beaten to it, it seems! Oh, if Mr. Collins had but chosen her...