I am in one of those times that occur in one's reading life when I think 'I don't know what to read next'. I have about thirty books on my recently received table, dozens more on my shelves and yet I cannot settle to any of them. When this happens, and it has happened before, I tend to re-read a book I know well and have loved in the past. Quite often they will be a book originally written for children. So the other day I read The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett which I simply adore. Involves the lost claimant of a throne somewhere in Europe where two factions have been fighting and killing each other for centuries. There has always bee a Prince in Waiting throughout the years and when we meet our three main protagonists, a poor family consisting of a boy, a gentleman father and an aide-de-camp in the guise of an old soldier, living in hiding all round Europe and now London, we have no doubts as to their identity
It is all very Ruritanian – think Prisoner of Zenda and it is romantic and far fetched and it never fails to make me feel better. This led me on to taking down another by this author and, once again, was totally beguiled by Little Lord Fauntleroy. This book has really suffered from ghastly weepy film versions over the years and, in the wrong hands, has become thoroughly cringeworthy. This is a shame as it means people are put off reading it and they are missing a treat. Young Cedric Errol lives in New York with his mother in genteel poverty. By a series of misfortunes he finds that he is the heir to an Earldom and he is whisked away to England to learn to be a gentleman. His grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt is an embittered disappointed man disliked and feared by everyone. How he comes to love his grandson and to learn from him how to treat people with love and kindness is the story of the book and, NO, it is not too much to take. Forget the winsome versions with golden haired children in velvet suits making one feel nauseous. Just concentrate on the relationships within the story which are at its heart.
When this was published thousands of school boys had reason to loathe her as it became hugely fashionable to dress your child in a velvet suit just like the Little Lord. This story was as popular and as widely read by children in its day as Harry Potter has been. It made its author famous after a long long time of writing adult books which, though they sold well, did not feature in the best sellers of the time.
Not many people knew that before the wrote children’s fiction she was a highly successful author of dozens of adult novels and I was one of the ignorant until one day I came across an American publication in my local library of a book called The Making of a Marchioness. I took it home with me, sat down to read it, and did not speak to anybody for about half a day until I had finished it.
This book features an unlikely pair of lovers – a dull, prosaic Marquis bored by being pursued by society women, and Miss Emily Fox-Seton, who cannot be described in any way as young or beautiful or even interesting. She is a good hearted, good natured woman, living by her own endeavours and, unmarried at nearly 30, facing a frightening future on her own.
She meets her future husband, the Marquis of Walderhurst, at a weekend house party where she is paying for her keep by organising a function for her hostess. At the same party we meet Lady Agatha Slade, a society beauty, who is in a state of high anxiety and nervousness as she feels that she is failing in her duty by not marrying well and saving the family fortunes. With younger sisters at home she knows her time on the marriage market is limited. Despite the disparity in their positions, Lady Agatha and Emily Fox-Seton become friends, linked together by their terror of a lonely old age. On the surface of it, The Making of a Marchioness is a Cinderella story, but Frances Hodgson Burnett was making her own comment on the very nature of the society in which it is set, in which women were at the mercy of circumstances and were only judged by whether they made a ‘good’ marriage or not.
This book was reprinted by Persephone books a few years ago and has been one of their best sellers. They went on to publish another by this author, The Shuttle. This tells the story of the influx of American heiresses in English Edwardian society where their money, married to an English title, saved many a historic family from failure. The title can be looked at it two ways: that of a shuttle weaving the threads together between the two countries or, as a modern usage of the word which we are more used to, that of shuttling backwards and forwards across the Atlantic.
This book is writing of a high order, totally absorbing and in its own way, quite daring. Without giving any of the plot away, there is a scene where our heroine has been abducted and FHB makes it clear that a rape is in the offing. Heavy stuff at that time.
Through One Administration is set in Washington. At the time of writing Franches was married to a politician and they were involved in the heart of political life. This book is absorbing. I will agree when reading her that sometimes you can hit a purple passage but they are less in this book and I found it positively Edith Wharton like in its construction and narrative. High praise.
Then there is T Tembarom which I have written about here and which I note I read when I was in the middle of a busy time and could not concentrate or read. Seems I turn to FHB a lot in these moments.
Nearly all the out of print books are now available in hardback, paperback and of course, Kindle versions. At the moment you can buy the complete works of this author for your Kindle for the princely sum of 99p. Got to be the bargain of the year.
Only problem with turning to this author for comfort reading is that I need to know when to stop. I have started a new biography of WInston Churchill, which is clearly going to be excellent, three volumes on the life of L M Montgomery which include an examination of all that she read, half a dozen Gold Age mysteries are clammering for attention and so many more.
What to do? What to do?
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