skygiants | (no subject)

Until

osprey_archer posted about That Lass O'Lowrie's I honestly had no idea that Frances Hodgson Burnett had written books aimed at adults, or indeed any books at all other than the Big Three (The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.)

That Lass O'Lowrie's centers on a Lancashire coal mining community and has four central characters, three of them educated outsiders: Derrick, the new mine engineer who wants to institute safety reforms; Paul Grace, the frail but earnest curate; Anice Barholm, the sensible daughter of the self-satisfied and relatively useless rector; and ✨Joan Lowrie✨.

✨Joan Lowrie✨ is a tall, brilliant, beautiful, extremely competent mine worker who over the course of the book:

- teaches herself to read
- adopts Fallen Teenager Liz and her illegitimate baby
- after telling the entire town that if they're going to be dicks to Liz they have to COME THROUGH ✨JOAN LOWRIE✨ FIRST*
- rescues her love interest from being murdered by her abusive father
- then starts secretly bodyguarding him home EVERY NIGHT, thwarting innumerable other murder attempts
- and THEN, to top it off, saves him from a mine cave-in
- and still the climax of the book is ~*~Joan Lowrie~*~, action heroine, first running away from her love interest so he doesn't demean herself by marrying her and then, when love finally triumphs, asking for more time to make herself worthy of him before they can get married, because classism is a hell of a thing

(*unfortunately, Joan Lowrie, being fictional, is not in a position to make such a threat to Frances Hodgson Burnett, who therefore has full reign to be as much of a dick to sad fallen teenager Liz and her baby as might be expected of a sentimental Victorian moralist)

Threaded | Flat

My favorite Burnett is The Making of a Marchioness, a deeply weird story that starts out as a simple Cinderella story before veering into psychological horror. Possibly it may be relevant to your interests.

Between you and

osprey_archer, I'm absolutely persuaded that I must read this!

This picture!!

Isn't it the MOST EPIC? Frances Hodgson Burnett had clearly never heard that there was such a thing as Too Much and I love her for it. You sparkle, Joan Lowrie! Be the brilliant beautiful action heroine we all know you were meant to be!

I had forgotten about the cave-in till you mentioned it but Joan Lowrie, Secret Bodyguard is basically branded on my brain. Following Derrick home every night so her father can't kill him! Undeterred by his insistence that he can look after himself! Untroubled by the dark!

I hoped that Joan would be able to adopt Liz's baby and Liz could... IDK, somehow bamboozle her lover into marrying her? I'm not sure what else would have been a happy ending for Liz; clearly not marrying a miner and barely scraping by for the rest of her life. But alas, it was Not To Be.

This sounds AMAZING, if probably also deeply frustrating at points. (Par for the Frances Hodgson Burnett course on both counts, really.)

My particular favourite is the entire village at the head of the mineshaft where the rescue party including Joan Lowrie and the nervous vicar are proposing to descend:

RANDOM VILLAGER: It's obvious Joan Lowrie's Secret Sweetheart must be trapped down there. Who would have thought it?

THE ENTIRE REST OF THE VILLAGE: If you want to pry into Joan Lowrie's private life at any time you're an idiot, and if you want to start when she's worked up they won't find two scraps of your body left; for God's sake stand back and let her get on with rescuing him .

and then, when love finally triumphs, asking for more time to make herself worthy of him before they can get married, because classism is a hell of a thing

Maybe in the time that's supposed to take, she'll figure out maybe it runs the other way round?

Oh, you have so much entertainment in store!

I'm particularly fond of A Lady of Quality (kick-ass heroine, whose most unbelievable accomplishment is becoming a paragon of upper-class manners after being raised in what amounts to a frathouse), T. Tembarom (a missing heir story with a twist), and The Shuttle (a villain that makes Tien Vorsoisson look like a halfway decent husband).

asking for more time to make herself worthy of him before they can get married

Dear ✨Joan Lowrie✨, please marry me instead.

My favourite Frances Hodgson Burnett that I've read thus far is The Lost Prince which is terrible and amazing, but this sounds incredible and I clearly need to get around to discovering the wonders of ✨Joan Lowrie✨

I honestly had no idea that Frances Hodgson Burnett had written books aimed at adults, or indeed any books at all other than the Big Three (The Secret Garden, The Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.)

Ah, that means you still have The Lost Prince to look forward to.

[eta: Whoops, sophia_sol got in with basically the same comment while I was writing mine.]

Edited 2018-11-24 23:50 (UTC)