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sophia_sol) wrote2017-11-17 07:59 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2017-11-17 07:59 pm
Once On A Time, by A. A. Milne
Continuing with posting about all the public domain books I read while I was travelling!
This is an odd sort of book. It's a whimsical fairy tale type of story, about a princess having to deal with her kingdom while her father the king is off at war.
I liked the character of the narrator a great deal. And I liked that it's the sort of low-stakes good-hearted book where a war can be won by shaving off a king's whiskers.
But I had trouble with the narrative role of the Countess. She's the antagonist of the piece and she does some quite malicious things, and yet everyone is happy to let her marry the king at the end because they all agree she'd be such a good queen - even though there's no evidence of this and much evidence to the contrary that she'd use her position for her own benefit! Except that the book tells us that in fact she is a good queen. I have trouble believing it.
Ah well. The narrative voice was so charming that I thoroughly enjoyed the book anyway.
This is an odd sort of book. It's a whimsical fairy tale type of story, about a princess having to deal with her kingdom while her father the king is off at war.
I liked the character of the narrator a great deal. And I liked that it's the sort of low-stakes good-hearted book where a war can be won by shaving off a king's whiskers.
But I had trouble with the narrative role of the Countess. She's the antagonist of the piece and she does some quite malicious things, and yet everyone is happy to let her marry the king at the end because they all agree she'd be such a good queen - even though there's no evidence of this and much evidence to the contrary that she'd use her position for her own benefit! Except that the book tells us that in fact she is a good queen. I have trouble believing it.
Ah well. The narrative voice was so charming that I thoroughly enjoyed the book anyway.
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(For myself, I feel like I'm so eternally braced against narratives that have nothing good whatsoever to say about older female antagonists that I have no defenses against the fact that this particular book launches itself completely in the opposite direction and just buy into it one hundred percent. Sure! Let her be queen! Why not?)
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