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Jul. 8th, 2015 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsLast weekend I was on vacation! To cover all my vacation bases, I brought with me a mystery novel, a romance novel, and a fantasy novel about dragons.
I think I actually liked the romance novel best! Rose Lerner's Sweet Disorder, which is about SMALL TOWN NINETEENTH CENTURY POLITICS.
The plot revolves around the fact that for much of the nineteenth century in the UK only male persons of a certain status in town were enfranchised. The heroine is a widow who has inherited an ability-to-vote from her husband, which she can't use herself, but can give to someone else if she marries them, and various political machinations on the part of town political parties to get her to marry someone who will vote usefully. Matchmaking and bribery ensues!
At first I was like, "is it really that plausible that people would be focusing so much energy on this poor woman's one vote?" and then I was like "OK, here's the rubric: would a nineteenth-century Leslie Knope do this? Yes. Yes, Leslie Knope ABSOLUTELY would," and that sold it for me.
(The hero's mother basically IS a more ruthless nineteenth-century Leslie Knope, which is one of the reasons I'm sad the book likes her less than it likes almost everybody else. I mean, it likes most of the rest of its characters a lot! Overall, it's a very kind-eyed narrative. Which is one of the reasons I like it. But I also like nineteenth-century Leslie Knope!)
Anyway, Our Heroine Phoebe is very much enjoying being a widow despite her reduced resources and has no intention of marrying again even for copious amounts of matchmaking and bribery, until her teenaged little sister turns up distressed and pregnant, at which point bribery suddenly becomes of the essence! So she graciously makes it known to the political agents at hand that she is open to negotiation, and they present her with bachelors.
BACHELOR A: Mr. Moon, a very nice man who runs a pastry shop (which will also be bailed out of crippling debt by matchmaking bribery if they go through with the marriage.) Problem: while he is very, very nice, and has progressive politics like Phoebe, they are COMPLETELY INCOMPATIBLE in personality. Also, Phoebe hates pastry.
BACHELOR B: a nice older factory owner with a sense of humor and good taste in literature, and also an adorable young daughter, who also likes reading, which is basically Phoebe's kryptonite. Problem: he is a Tory and his political opinions are awful and racist.
And then of course there is also a Bachelor C, the actual hero, who came back from the Army with depression and a limp and is now a political agent and supposed to be hooking her up with Bachelor A. He's also nobility, of course, but that feels -- almost tacked-on? Like, there's a little bit of the obligatory angsting about the gap in their station, and some exploration of wealth and power dynamics, but really this book wants to be about working and middle-class people who live in small towns. I'm ALL FOR that. I always want to be reading more Regency novels about working and middle-class people who live in small towns! Phoebe has a family, a brother-in-law that she's close to, a landlady, a woman who helps her with the laundry twice a week, a whole sewing circle; she very much feels like she's part of and embedded in a community, which is one of the reasons I liked the book so much.
The other reason is that, like I said above, it's a very warm novel generally. There aren't really bad guys, just difficult situations -- with one major exception (which is not hard to see coming), and while the major exception is in fact TERRIBLE, and appropriately so, he is also very clearly drawn as a human being, who happens to be terrible.
Anyway, I'm into small-town politics, and small-town newspapers, and small-town families (I also really like the whole subplot about Phoebe's brother-in-law) and Rose Lerner, apparently! Will definitely be reading more of her stuff.
I think I actually liked the romance novel best! Rose Lerner's Sweet Disorder, which is about SMALL TOWN NINETEENTH CENTURY POLITICS.
The plot revolves around the fact that for much of the nineteenth century in the UK only male persons of a certain status in town were enfranchised. The heroine is a widow who has inherited an ability-to-vote from her husband, which she can't use herself, but can give to someone else if she marries them, and various political machinations on the part of town political parties to get her to marry someone who will vote usefully. Matchmaking and bribery ensues!
At first I was like, "is it really that plausible that people would be focusing so much energy on this poor woman's one vote?" and then I was like "OK, here's the rubric: would a nineteenth-century Leslie Knope do this? Yes. Yes, Leslie Knope ABSOLUTELY would," and that sold it for me.
(The hero's mother basically IS a more ruthless nineteenth-century Leslie Knope, which is one of the reasons I'm sad the book likes her less than it likes almost everybody else. I mean, it likes most of the rest of its characters a lot! Overall, it's a very kind-eyed narrative. Which is one of the reasons I like it. But I also like nineteenth-century Leslie Knope!)
Anyway, Our Heroine Phoebe is very much enjoying being a widow despite her reduced resources and has no intention of marrying again even for copious amounts of matchmaking and bribery, until her teenaged little sister turns up distressed and pregnant, at which point bribery suddenly becomes of the essence! So she graciously makes it known to the political agents at hand that she is open to negotiation, and they present her with bachelors.
BACHELOR A: Mr. Moon, a very nice man who runs a pastry shop (which will also be bailed out of crippling debt by matchmaking bribery if they go through with the marriage.) Problem: while he is very, very nice, and has progressive politics like Phoebe, they are COMPLETELY INCOMPATIBLE in personality. Also, Phoebe hates pastry.
BACHELOR B: a nice older factory owner with a sense of humor and good taste in literature, and also an adorable young daughter, who also likes reading, which is basically Phoebe's kryptonite. Problem: he is a Tory and his political opinions are awful and racist.
And then of course there is also a Bachelor C, the actual hero, who came back from the Army with depression and a limp and is now a political agent and supposed to be hooking her up with Bachelor A. He's also nobility, of course, but that feels -- almost tacked-on? Like, there's a little bit of the obligatory angsting about the gap in their station, and some exploration of wealth and power dynamics, but really this book wants to be about working and middle-class people who live in small towns. I'm ALL FOR that. I always want to be reading more Regency novels about working and middle-class people who live in small towns! Phoebe has a family, a brother-in-law that she's close to, a landlady, a woman who helps her with the laundry twice a week, a whole sewing circle; she very much feels like she's part of and embedded in a community, which is one of the reasons I liked the book so much.
The other reason is that, like I said above, it's a very warm novel generally. There aren't really bad guys, just difficult situations -- with one major exception (which is not hard to see coming), and while the major exception is in fact TERRIBLE, and appropriately so, he is also very clearly drawn as a human being, who happens to be terrible.
Anyway, I'm into small-town politics, and small-town newspapers, and small-town families (I also really like the whole subplot about Phoebe's brother-in-law) and Rose Lerner, apparently! Will definitely be reading more of her stuff.
