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Sep. 21st, 2018 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsI was saving Aster Glenn Gray's Briarley and I'm so glad I did; it was a perfect comfort read for a multi-city work trip and is also, coincidentally, my new favorite version of Beauty and the Beast.
This particular variant on the story is set during WWII, and begins when a nice country parson stops at a Mysterious Villa on his way home to grab a rose for his on-leave WAAF daughter.
...and then, when an enormous beast (in this case a dragon) appears to demand that he send his daughter to the castle in exchange for his liberty, flat refuses, because what? no?? what kind of father???
The dragon accedes, with bad grace; however, upon meeting the household's invisible servants and learning about the imminent B&tB Curse Deadline, our hero decides that it is his responsibility to stay and at least see what he might be able to do to help the household with this unfortunate situation. For example: rational curse interpretation! Who said love and be loved had to refer to a young woman? Has the dragon considered getting a puppy?
(He has not, but he will!)
The book's charm lies not just in its hero (who is indeed vastly endearing, just a tremendous sweetheart) but also in the sense of place and time: the first sign that Something Is Very Weird in the household is the giant groaning table that's never heard of rationing; the parson keeps wistfully thinking about how many refugees or wounded soldiers the cursed household could take in; when the parson's daughter valiantly DOES come to trade herself for her father everyone is like "YOU CANNOT, YOU ARE A WAAF, THAT WOULD BE DESERTION." And, of course, the parson's own experience with trauma and recovery comes out of his time serving in WWI.
It's a really lovely little book and I recommend it highly, I may end up rereading it on my plane home!
This particular variant on the story is set during WWII, and begins when a nice country parson stops at a Mysterious Villa on his way home to grab a rose for his on-leave WAAF daughter.
...and then, when an enormous beast (in this case a dragon) appears to demand that he send his daughter to the castle in exchange for his liberty, flat refuses, because what? no?? what kind of father???
The dragon accedes, with bad grace; however, upon meeting the household's invisible servants and learning about the imminent B&tB Curse Deadline, our hero decides that it is his responsibility to stay and at least see what he might be able to do to help the household with this unfortunate situation. For example: rational curse interpretation! Who said love and be loved had to refer to a young woman? Has the dragon considered getting a puppy?
(He has not, but he will!)
The book's charm lies not just in its hero (who is indeed vastly endearing, just a tremendous sweetheart) but also in the sense of place and time: the first sign that Something Is Very Weird in the household is the giant groaning table that's never heard of rationing; the parson keeps wistfully thinking about how many refugees or wounded soldiers the cursed household could take in; when the parson's daughter valiantly DOES come to trade herself for her father everyone is like "YOU CANNOT, YOU ARE A WAAF, THAT WOULD BE DESERTION." And, of course, the parson's own experience with trauma and recovery comes out of his time serving in WWI.
It's a really lovely little book and I recommend it highly, I may end up rereading it on my plane home!
