soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2014-11-03 08:21 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2014-11-03 08:21 pm
The Eagle of the Ninth, by Rosemary Sutcliff
This is my first time rereading the book since falling into Sutcliff fandom - and gosh it's weird to reread after having read SO MUCH movie fic and movie-book fusion fic. I'd forgotten how different the plot is? Like, Marcus and Esca make lots of LEGIT GOOD PLANS, yay them! And Marcus is way younger than I thought of him - he's only 19 when he first comes to Britain, and the rest of the events of the book are maybe two years at most, he's a wee bb. Also Guern doesn't die (probably) and there's no out-and-out fighting during the whole business of rescuing the Eagle. And of course there's the thing where the dynamics between Marcus and Esca are entirely different, and Cottia exists, but those changes I remembered.
On another point, awww, Rosemary Sutcliff's writing. So distinctive! I love her nature porn, which is really good at having these bits of imagery that are out of the common way and very evocative - like birds singing "with that note of clear-washed surprise that belongs to the early spring" or calling the edge of a wood a "woodshore" or this whole sentence: "It was an evening coloured like a dove's breast; a little wind feathered the shining water, and far out on the dreaming brightness many scattered islands seemed to float lightly as sleeping sea-birds." But another distinctive element of Sutcliff's writing his how hilariously stiltedly formal all dialogue is. And all those instances of "It is in my heart that" and so forth! Oh Sutcliff. But also she's just generally good at telling a story. I like Sutcliff's writing, despite the unrealistic dialogue and other flaws.
On another point, awww, Rosemary Sutcliff's writing. So distinctive! I love her nature porn, which is really good at having these bits of imagery that are out of the common way and very evocative - like birds singing "with that note of clear-washed surprise that belongs to the early spring" or calling the edge of a wood a "woodshore" or this whole sentence: "It was an evening coloured like a dove's breast; a little wind feathered the shining water, and far out on the dreaming brightness many scattered islands seemed to float lightly as sleeping sea-birds." But another distinctive element of Sutcliff's writing his how hilariously stiltedly formal all dialogue is. And all those instances of "It is in my heart that" and so forth! Oh Sutcliff. But also she's just generally good at telling a story. I like Sutcliff's writing, despite the unrealistic dialogue and other flaws.
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I think someone once told me that a lot of those set phrases are actually from Welsh, and may even be used sometimes in English in Wales. At any rate, I've always found Sutcliff's dialogue faux-archaic, but not stilted, although I realize that's a minority opinion...
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("It is in my heart" is also all over the King James Bible, frex.) I don't think Sutcliff made stuff up very often, tbh, so much as smushed together stuff from sources that might not be quite right to go for an overall feel.
(Gosh, I was rereading some of my Sutcliff WIPs and cringing SO HARD at a lot of my writing. IDK about Sutcliff but boy did I get awkward trying to pastiche sometimes...I think many of them are destined for the trash bin.)