Through a Glass Darkly Book

After some grappling and soul-searching, I have finally decided not to finish this book. As Karen said in her review, there's nothing wrong with indulging in a trashy novel occasionally, but 750 pages is a big investment for trash.

This book reminded me of some of the Philippa Gregory books I've tried to read and abandoned, although I did find the characters here slightly more interesting. Barbara, a beautiful (how could she not be?), headstrong (naturally) 15-year-old is engaged to 40-something Lord Roger Devane, whom she loves in a worshipful way, and you just know that she's going to get hurt in this relationship. Although this worshipful unrequited love by heroines has annoyed me in the past, I could forgive it a little -- just a little -- in Barbara because she is, after all, 15. Roger has agreed to marry little Barbara despite their age difference because she comes with property in which he would like to invest. Roger, though mostly a cad, actually does care for Barbara on some level, although his love clearly doesn't match hers (a deeply rooted passion which is based on, uh, his good looks?). It takes them a while to actually get married, because of scheming on the part of various family members with regard to the property and milking Roger. As a result, the book was slower than your typical Harlequin-cum-historical-romance, and I closed it after finally reaching their wedding night on page 250 or so.

Other things that annoyed me included ridiculously heavy-handed characterization. For example, Barbara's cousin Tony, the stupid-but-goodhearted character in the book, continuously leaves off the first words of his sentences in an effort to remind you of his limited intelligence, except for those rare moments where he shines in heroically. His sentences in those scenes are helpfully complete, sometimes accompanied by asides from the author pointing out that this was one of the rare occasions in which he spoke in full sentences. What is that? Is he just pretending to be dumb the rest of the time? I wasn't motivated to read far enough to solve this mystery. Barbara also consistently lifts her chin whenever she's deciding to defy authority. She's lifting her chin -- look out, world!

These types of trashy-pretending-to-be-literary historical romances are also often guilty of anachronism. I found the character of Roger's friend Tommy Carlyle, a flaming homosexual complete with heels, make-up, and sexy young men draped on his arms, extremely difficult to swallow for the 1700s. Look -- I don't know much about that period of history, but I really find it hard to believe that one could be so blatantly homosexual and still function as a part of high society in those days, a group which, in this book, included the British royal family (another hallmark of this type of historical fiction -- of course, they're all best buds with the people in the history books, as Sarah pointed out in her review of "March").

I actually gave this three stars because, if you're a more forgiving reader who likes historical romance, I could see this being a good read despite its flaws. If it had been shorter and tighter, I would have finished it and maybe even enjoyed it. However, if you want a good historical romance, I would suggest "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon instead.