Customer Reviews

A Fair Barbarian

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JQV4NW/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img

The tiny village of Slowbridge in England is "shaken to its foundations," as the first sentence tells us, by the arrival of Miss Belinda Bassett's not only unexpected, but completely unknown to exist, niece from Bloody Gulch, Nevada. Octavia Bassett, with her trunks of stylish clothes, piles of diamond jewelry, purses of gold coins for the vicar to present to the unfortunate, and utter lack of shyness or what the residents of Slowbridge consider proper maidenly behavior, promptly becomes a close friend of Lucia Gaston, the completely repressed granddaughter of the village matriarch, Lady Theobald.

By the time her father and her fiance, who marries her in Slowbridge, take her away along with Miss Belinda Bassett, marriages planned since children were in the cribs have been replaced with previously unimaginable sets of bride and groom, Lady Theobald's plans are slammed to the ground with amazingly good results, dressmaker Miss Chickie can no longer get away with selling identical dresses to all the young women in town, and even Lady Theobald has been forced to accept the existence of Mr. Burmistone, the horrible man who built a factory in Slowbridge . . . and neglected to let anyone know that he was a close friend and relation of Lord Lansdowne.

This isn't belly-laugh humor, but there is something delightful on every page. I recommend it strongly.

I decided to read this because it is by the same author as the Secret Garden, one of my favorite books. but I was disappointed by this book for a number of reasons. Chiefly because of a lack of any real point to this story. The main character was very interesting and very real but that is basically it. The story lacked any real tension and I thought it was under-worked and hastily put together. Also, the ending would have been nice if it was elaborated on a little more. It seemed like an after thought rather than the culmination point of the story- the way it was supposed to be. I really didn't like this one. I realize this is Hodges' early work but still its missing a lot.

Loved the main character because she was really a cool character and captured what the American persona/culture looks like to most Europeans. I gave this book the second star for showing us that even back then the American type had already been firmly established and had confidently introduced itself to the rest of the world. This book does a decent job of portraying English attitudes toward America and also, tells us a little about what it was like to live in middle class England during that time period.

Didn't like this and can't say I recommend it.

From the author of The Secret Garden and Little Lord Fauntleroy is another story built on what is shared between English speakers across leagues of the Atlantic. The niece of a lady in a humble town of England arrives unannounced to tell of her own upbringing. Sure enough, the culture shock yank's through the monotonous fabric of the town's society showing who is pure of heart and who of assumed strong character actually has little virtue.