Joyce, Lydia - The Veil of Night
Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008 03:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterVictoria Wakefield has agreed to stay with the mysterious Byron Stratford, Duke of Raeburn, in the dark, forbidding, and architecturally insane Raeburn Hall for a week so discharge her brother's gambling debts. He's very mysterious and lurks about in darkness and refuses to stand in the sunshine. She's a maidenly spinster with hidden sensuality. Together, they fight crime have hot sex!
So far, out of all of Joyce's books, this has my favorite romance, as Raeburn is the most interesting hero (all her heroines have so far been interesting). Also, the book basically consists of the two of them talking to each other and getting to know each other, which was very welcome. Victoria is your standard icy heroine; she thaws more quickly than I would like, particularly given Raeburn's reluctance to give up power, but she reads very differently from the two other Joyce heroines I've read. I also like her story of secret angst-that-isn't.
Unfortunately, the latter half of the book is not quite as good. Most of Victoria's secrets have already been revealed, whereas Raeburn is being stupidly stubborn. This should lead to more tension, but instead, as I am not interested in Raeburn's secret angst and wanted to know more about Victoria, it only led to me wanting to beat him over the head for not telling her. Especially after we found out what it was!
The other thing that I found very interesting was how Gothic this was, even more so than her two other books. (Please let me know if I'm wrong about any of this! All my knowledge of Gothics is taken from Jane Eyre and reading other people's posts about Gothics.) It's very much Girl Meets House, and the houses figure prominently in the story. While Raeburn's not threatening to kill Victoria, there's the sense of shadowed menace and deformity that seems to accompany Gothics. I wish I had more to say on Gothics, only I need more genre knowledge.
Also, this book read to me like a take on Beauty and the Beast, from the woman in a dark castle to save a relative from debt to a beastly figure to the mysterious servants to the final plot twist. So, for people who read Gothics: would you classify "Beauty and the Beast" as Gothic (in whichever form, though I am thinking largely of Cocteau's movie, the Disney movie, and the Mme de Beaumont version most, though I further note that I haven't seen the Cocteau)?
So far, out of all of Joyce's books, this has my favorite romance, as Raeburn is the most interesting hero (all her heroines have so far been interesting). Also, the book basically consists of the two of them talking to each other and getting to know each other, which was very welcome. Victoria is your standard icy heroine; she thaws more quickly than I would like, particularly given Raeburn's reluctance to give up power, but she reads very differently from the two other Joyce heroines I've read. I also like her story of secret angst-that-isn't.
Unfortunately, the latter half of the book is not quite as good. Most of Victoria's secrets have already been revealed, whereas Raeburn is being stupidly stubborn. This should lead to more tension, but instead, as I am not interested in Raeburn's secret angst and wanted to know more about Victoria, it only led to me wanting to beat him over the head for not telling her. Especially after we found out what it was!
The other thing that I found very interesting was how Gothic this was, even more so than her two other books. (Please let me know if I'm wrong about any of this! All my knowledge of Gothics is taken from Jane Eyre and reading other people's posts about Gothics.) It's very much Girl Meets House, and the houses figure prominently in the story. While Raeburn's not threatening to kill Victoria, there's the sense of shadowed menace and deformity that seems to accompany Gothics. I wish I had more to say on Gothics, only I need more genre knowledge.
Also, this book read to me like a take on Beauty and the Beast, from the woman in a dark castle to save a relative from debt to a beastly figure to the mysterious servants to the final plot twist. So, for people who read Gothics: would you classify "Beauty and the Beast" as Gothic (in whichever form, though I am thinking largely of Cocteau's movie, the Disney movie, and the Mme de Beaumont version most, though I further note that I haven't seen the Cocteau)?
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Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008 11:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008 11:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008 11:41 pm (UTC)"Beauty and the Beast": Now that you mention it, it seems like the prototype Gothic: young woman, big house, scary man who may or may not be dangerous.
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Tue, Apr. 22nd, 2008 11:44 pm (UTC)Also, I feel like there must be something out there on Beauty and the Beast as a prototype Gothic, since it's so prototypical, what with the literal beast-ness of the hero and the deliberate contrast of that with his politeness (at times?).