Outside of a Dog: Clarke, Susanna: (01.5) The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories

NathanL

NathanL wrote on January 2, 2007 at 7:16 AM:

I noticed upon my first inspection that there was some sort of pretend-academic Introduction/"Professor of Fairie Studies" type deals, which mostly gives me hives when it's done in sf. Might still pick it up, though.

Kate

Kate wrote on January 2, 2007 at 10:04 AM:

You can perfectly well skip the introduction, so don't let that stop you.

K

K wrote on January 5, 2007 at 12:25 PM:

(Here via Librarything)

I've just read the book and mostly concur with what you've said.

That's interesting that you consider "On Lickerish Hill" to be written in dialect. I suppose if the past is a foreign country, then it is. I liked this one, partly because Miranda is so endearingly calculating, but partly because I'm a fan of John Aubrey, whose writing Clarke is channelling here.

I enjoyed "Mr Simonelli", although it is a reworking of a folktale I'd read before. But it's a clever reworking - particularly as the fairy reality that only fairies can see is grubby and nasty, not wonderful and amazing as in the version I'd read (which was told from the point of view of the child's nurse).

The charcoal-burner story also reminded me of something, but I've yet to identify it!

K

K wrote on January 5, 2007 at 12:29 PM:

Oh, and now I see you have athenais on your LJ friends list. So do I - I'm kicking_k.

Kate

Kate wrote on January 5, 2007 at 4:45 PM:

K: doesn't Clarke explicitly say somewhere that it's written in dialect? At any rate, I read by word recognition not phonetically, so extensive non-standard spelling is very difficult for me.

(And I got very confused for a moment until I realized your John Aubrey was a historical figure, not Patrick O'Brian's character Jack Aubrey!)

Which folktale, by the way?

K

K wrote on January 5, 2007 at 6:15 PM:

There's an endnote in which (if I've got this right - I haven't the book to hand, but I only read it yesterday) she acknowledges a debt to someone else's dialect version.

I'd say the folktale in "Lickerish Hill" is Rumpelstiltskin - though I've heard the nimmy-nimmy-not doggerel somewhere else (I have a feeling it's a Joan Aiken book, maybe Black Hearts in Battersea).

And the one in "Mr Simonelli" is called, I think, just "The Fairy Widower" - it's collected in a children's book called "The Cat King's Daughter and other Stories", which has various folktales, mostly from the Celtic fringe. This one had a Cornish setting and the heroine's name, as I recall, was Cherry Trewethy (she's not a wet-nurse, though - the child is older). It's quite different, but there are many common elements - particularly the girl being unable to return to her family for a set time, and being unable to see what the fairies see until liquid is applied to her eyes.

I did hear a suggestion that they're all reworked folktales, but if so, I can't identify the source for all of them.

My sister reads that way, too - it should have occurred to me that funny spelling would cause problems for some people. Sorry. I work in archives, so archaic spelling (and handwriting) is almost normal for me...

I've been really enjoying browsing through your reviews, by the way.

Autumnelle

Autumnelle wrote on February 25, 2007 at 12:03 PM:

Hello everyone, I'm currently doing a translation of "John Uskglass and Cumbrian charcoal burner" into Russian. Just curious, if someone has any ideas on why Blakeman, the pig, bears a somewhat human name? =) Or it's just my illusion as a non-native speaker of English :/

I would appreciate your opinions and associations with the word "Blakeman" in the context. Just cannot decide whether to look for an adequate equivalent for Blakeman in Russian or not. Thanks in advance.