This addendum to my review of Grant Allen's Under Sealed Orders now appears in my new book:
The Dusty Bookcase:
A Journey Through Canada'sForgotten, Neglected, and Suppressed Writing
Available at the very best bookstores and through
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That poem speaks to me. Interesting indeed,
ReplyDelete'Tis, beautiful, is it not. If nothing else, I can thank Allen for introducing me to Amy Levy's work.
DeleteThe right amount of education is difficult to find sometimes. Was it Steve Martin who said he took just enough philosophy courses to really mess himself up?
ReplyDeleteNever took so much as one philosophy course myself, John. What's my excuse?
DeleteBlackbird's description of her education sounds very like that of John Stuart Mill, so it may not have been women's education- or not women's education only- that Grant Allen (no relation, incidentally) was taking a swipe at.
ReplyDeleteCould be, Roger. That said, I haven't come across anything in Allen's writing - fiction or otherwise - in which he suggests higher education for men can be a bad thing. On the other hand, one of his highly educated young men, Harry Chichele in The Devil'd Die, turns out to be a psychopath. What made him thus is unexplored.
DeleteI'm currently finishing up a Grosset & Dunlap edition published at the same time as this book and UNDER SEALED OPDERS (in fact my edition has a uniform binding as the Allen book) and I was puzzled by the illustrations' placement. Each plate has a page number to note where the line illustrated occurs, but none of those pages are correct. In one case the illustration is placed 49 pages too early. In another over 100 pages too early. As in your case one of the illustrations spoiled the story by revealing a plot twist too early. I wonder if these were offset printed from British editions or merely rebound from unsold/returned seconds. My copy also is littered with typographical and spelling errors. The most distracting part of the book are the myriad inverted quote marks that appear at the start of non-dialogue sections. It was either set by a fumbling novice in a 19th century print shop or someone who didn't care at all.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I wonder whether the illustrations where originally published in another edition, John. If so, could it be that some anonymous soul working for Grosset & Dunlap simply neglected to make the changes?
DeleteAs far as I can tell, the plates found in my G&D copy first appeared in the 1896 New Amsterdam edition. The page numbers indicated at the end of each caption have been altered to those of the G&D edition.
To be perfectly fair, the reader already has a sense that Blackbird may have at least attempted suicide - and the caption doesn't actually say that she is dead.
I should complain more about the cover, I suppose. The image - also used as frontispiece - had me expecting a killing that wouldn't involve young Owen Cazalet, the main character. I kept waiting for it to happen… and then it did.
Ah, well, at least it did happen - and as depicted! You won't find me complaining the way I did about Margaret Millar's An Air that Kills.