No One Likes the British or Buses

I know that in the past I have complained about (or at least made frequent note of) instances where the two books I am set to write about have nothing in coming, thus making a coherent post challenging. These two really do have nothing in common, but in some ways they are ripe for comparison because they could hardly be more different from a style perspective.

Castle Richmond is pretty much exactly what you think a mid 19th century British novel should be. It is self-consciously a novel, the author talks to the reader and makes comments about himself, acknowledging that this is a story, a constructed world. It's your classic love story with decaying aristocracy, over-bearing relatives, sinister and scheming characters who get what they deserve, and lots of life of leisure events like day-long picnic excursions and parties. Everything is, of course, resolved by the right people marrying each other. Hooray!

Jacob's Room, however, is nothing like that. It's not even really a story. When reading Woolf, it always helps me to remember this article I read that talks about her novels as being very impressionistic. I'm not a Woolf fan, but coming from that lens helps me appreciate her, and that was particularly the case for this one. The world is constructed and conveyed in that impressionistic style, and to the extent that we ever get close to the titular character, he is similarly constructed. I don't think that I got too much out of this one, since existential angst doesn't do a ton for me. But I always like reading about British people going to Italy.

Back to Castle Richmond for a small bone to pick (or really not so small, but I'm letting it go): Trollope describes Clara as the heroine of the story, but that is far from the word I would use. She doesn't get to do anything except sit around and wait for all the people in her life to work out whom she should marry. Seriously. Yes, she is sort of the eye of the hurricane of the story in many ways, but she is not a heroine. She's less developed and interesting than your average Disney princess.