On Books : Including How Brexit Can Affect The Reading Of Even An Eighteenth Century Novel

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers will know that I've a low opinion on Brexit (and it hasn't happened yet!) and I've mentioned before how it's affected from time to time how I read a book even if written years before the referendum and it's consequences. Now it's affected my reading of a novel published in 1778!

Evelina, written by Fanny Burney, for reasons which I won't spoil, begins with the reader making the assumption that the novel is going to be anti-French. Inwardly your mind groans.

However whilst the French characters can be idiosyncratic they turn out not to be evil but human. Indeed the counterweight to my initial thoughts is the character of Captain Malvern, who is so pro British and vehemently anti-French you would have wondered whether if this had been a non-fiction tale his descendants would have been all leave voters and Brexit party candidates.

It's clear that Ms Burney does not have a high opinion of the Captain. Which makes me confident that she would have voted Remain in the referendum. But the fact that these thoughts occur to me shows how Brexit permeates my thoughts in the most unlikeliest of places. And don't forget I've not mentioned the main character yet!

Evelina is a story of an inexperienced country girl going to London for the first time. We've all read and seen similar tales throughout our lives and I'm not going to spoil anything by saying that the general arc of the plot won't be a surprise. However Ms Burney does hold surprises along the way to show she's more sophisticated a writer than the story may at first appear. Not only in the deft way she handles the Continental characters but that it is slightly (and I do mean slightly here) more racier than I'd expected.

So as an entertainment I'd recommend it. Indeed I'd go as far as to say I've enjoyed this book more than (of the books I've read so far) any of the Jane Austen novels I've read.

As is my way with regard to the Kindle if I find a writer whose works I can get for free I tend to download all of the free books by that author. Which explains why although Samuel Butler was a novelist my random way in picking the next book to read turns out to be Evolution: Old and New. Mr Butler's views on the subject.

The book was interesting in two ways. One was in the introduction of other writers in the field. But the other was the way he attacked Charles Darwin. Firstly saying the Darwin's Origin Of The Species would not be remembered after his death (when it powers on as the work on the subject) and then by generally suggesting Charles Darwin rehashed the work of his namesake Erasmus Darwin.

I've learnt subsequently that later in life Butler regretted these views. Something that holds him in credit. Still irony that Charles Darwin is remembered today and Samuel Butler barely so.

Regular readers will know that Anton Chekhov (rather like Jane Austen) is in a category of writers that I call "Literary Switzerland" in that whilst I don't dislike them I don't understand why they're considered "great". They will also know that I don't see the point of reading theatre plays for your own pleasure.

But as regular readers will also know I am the slight hypocrite so I read The Seagull hoping I'd have a definitive opinion. But no. I'm still neutral. When it comes to Chekhov Switzerland is my home.

Until the next time.