Tag Archives: British literature

LITERATURE

Susan Howatch’s Absolute Truths: Book 6 of Starbridge

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Susan Howatch’s Absolute Truths is the sixth and final novel in her Starbridge Series. This is the second time I have read the series, and it has been an very rewarding experience; I have noticed so many details and internal references that I missed the first time around.

In a nice nod to symmetry, Howatch concludes the series with the same narrator who began it: Charles Ashworth. It is 1965, and he is now bishop of Starbridge, happily (ecstatically, actually) married to Lyle, who keeps his life ordered and on track, down to the smallest details. They have two adult sons, Michael and Charley. In terms of theology, Ashworth is a traditionalist who sees his calling as defending the Church’s “absolute truths” against the cultural onslaughts of the 1960s.

To read the full review, click here.

LITERATURE

Ivanhoe – A Tale from the Age of Chivalry

I read Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe when I was in high school back in the 1970s. Was it required reading? Nope, I just picked it up in my local bookstore because the cover looked interesting and it was $0.95. With a 5% sales tax, it cost me a dollar even, which was a bargain. I soon got caught up in Scott’s fast-paced tale of a valiant and honorable knight who was treated wrongly. I’ve been rereading literary classics that I first read when I was much younger to see how much more meaning I get from them now, and I decided to dive into Ivanhoe.

The Paperback version I bought 50 years ago.

The Paperback version I bought fifty years ago.

Scott published it in 1820, and it was a big hit. It is set in the late 1100s, in Britain, after the Normans had established their conquest of it. There remain a few Saxon nobles, but almost all power resides in the Norman landowners. Richard the Lionhearted is king, but he hasn’t been seen for years, since he left for a Crusade, and it’s rumored he is being held prisoner in Europe. His brother, John, sits on the throne, and he is doing everything he can to consolidate his power.

You can read the rest of this review by clicking here.

fiction, LITERATURE

George Eliot’s Middlemarch – The GOAT of British Literature?

George Eliot’s masterpiece,  Middlemarch, is a massive and complex portrait of rural England at the time of the 1830s Reform Bills. The BBC lists it as the greatest British novel of all time. You can read my thoughts on it here.