A Beleaguered City, by Mrs Oliphant

[sophia_sol]

Sorry, this is short, I just don't have a lot to say about this book apparently. It's a 19th century ghost story about dead people kicking all the living people out of their town! I was remarkably charmed. I liked getting the different POV's - there was good characterization work in this book. I also enjoyed that the whole thing was just so different in every respect from what a book on this subject would be like if written today.

Comments

[genarti]

Yes! Those are about my thoughts. I've forgotten a great deal of what happened in it, but I remember being fascinated by how very unlike a modern story with the same premise would be it was.

That, and I remember being unsure how much to take some of the comments about men as the gently pointed sardonicism I wanted them to be. Having read Miss Marjoribanks since, I'm now fairly sure it was quite intentional.

[sophia_sol]

It was really neat to read this book and have no idea at all where it was going to go because I didn't know the correct genre protocols!

I don't remember the comments about men though, alas...

[genarti]

They were mostly about the mayor (?), as I recall, or some other powerful figure, who kept assuring his wife and daughter not to worry their pretty little heads about anything, while the narration was somewhat dry about his masculine pride in his own fitness for the tasks and judgment calls that he earnestly considered himself the best and only man in a position to take. More character-specific than broadly generalizing, but still, at the time I wasn't quite sure how much was internalized sexism in the narrator and how much was tongue-in-cheek.

And yes, exactly, about the genre protocols! So much fun. Plus, with Project Gutenberg there's all that backmatter at the end, so I couldn't even tell for sure from the percentage read when we were near the resolution.

[sophia_sol]

Oh yes, that does sound familiar!