Ferney by James Long: a Book Review

Published on by Margaret1 Comment

Whether you believe in reincarnation or not Ferney by James Long is a most enjoyable read. It’s difficult to write about it without giving away too much. I liked the balance between historical fact and imagination as the story of Ferney and Gally unfolds.

When Gally and her husband Mike buy a derelict cottage in Penselwood in Somerset they meet Ferney, an old man of 80 who knows the history of the cottage.  When they first see the cottage

It was not much more than a shell, and a green wet-looking shell at that, though the roof was still on. Long and low, the jumbled lines of its random stonework told of many changes and additions over all the busy years. The roof-line took a little step downwards towards the far end. Stone lintels topped window holes filled only by ivy and from the middle of the house a buckled, wooden lattice-work porch jutted out, tilting down on to its knees from the weight of the creeper that had massed on it, sensing an easy opponent.

Gally thinks it is perfect. Despite his misgivings Mike agrees to buy and renovate the cottage because after Gally’s miscarriage he wants to keep her on an even keel and this promised to bring her “more peace and happiness than he had seen since they first met.”  At this point in the book Gally is very fragile, tormented by nightmares and mentally unbalanced (or so I thought).

But right from their first meeting with Ferney he startles them both. Gally sees him as “a  philospher king with a sword in one hand and a book of verse in the other.” And as the bond grows between Gally and Ferney, Mike is upset immediately feeling on the defensive, irritated, and pushed out. And he is quite right to feel like that. Mike is a historian but he finds it hard to believe Ferney’s stories of the past and insists on having proof. The contrast between the two men is a focal point with Gally torn between the two of them.

I loved the way the narrative slips effortlessly from the past to the present as time slips for Gally and she finds herself reliving scenes from long ago. Just what effect does the cottage and the Bag Stone that stands outside have on their lives? And how will the relationship between Gally and Ferney be resolved? I just had to read on and on to find out.

This is the 12th library book I’ve read this year.

Symbolism – Booking Through Thursday

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

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Question suggested by Barbara H:

My husband is not an avid reader, and he used to get very frustrated in college when teachers would insist discussing symbolism in a literary work when there didn’t seem to him to be any. He felt that writers often just wrote the story for the story’s sake and other people read symbolism into it.

It does seem like modern fiction just ‘tells the story’ without much symbolism. Is symbolism an older literary device, like excessive description, that is not used much any more? Do you think there was as much symbolism as English teachers seemed to think? What are some examples of symbolism from your reading?

I sympathise with Barbara’s husband and remember thinking at school that my teacher was trying to extract more from the text than was actually there, and getting really tired of analysing every sentence almost when I wanted to get on with reading. That I think was the problem -sometimes I just wanted to know what happened and was not very interested in going any further.

But later I took a course in “Literature” and was fascinated by how much more you can find in a text than on first reading. I read The Waste Land by T S Eliot which is crammed to the brim with symbolism. Without understanding the symbolism and literary allusions much of the poem is meaningless and baffling.

The dictionary definition of “symbol” is that it represents something else such as an idea or a quality by analogy or association for example a rose can represent or symbolise beauty and a serpent may stand for evil.  Using symbolism means that a variety of meanings and interpretations are possible and I think they enrich the text.  Any object or scene or episode can be symbolic giving depth of meaning and achieving a mysterious suggestiveness.

These days I like to vary my reading and sometimes I’m happy reading books that can be read quickly without thinking too deeply about what is happening, but at other times I want a more complex book, where there are themes working on several different levels that stimulate my imagination. I don’t think the use of symbolism is an older literary device, although my example of The Waste Land is not exactly “modern”.

Wordless Wednesday – The Dark Tower

Published on by Margaret16 Comments
Niddry Castle, near Winchburgh, West Lothian
Niddry Castle, near Winchburgh, West Lothian

 

Well, nearly wordless.

Niddry Castle, a Tower House built around 1500, about 11 miles west of Edinburgh. Mary Queen of Scots stayed here in May 1568 after her escape from captivity in Loch Leven Castle.  We visited it on an open day last September. The entrance is up a narrow stone stairway and I was amazed to see a grand piano in the living room way up in the tower.

Book Review: The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe

Published on by Margaret

Non-fiction books often take me a while to read and Sue Roe’s The Private Lives of the Impressionists is no exception; not however, because it’s difficult to read or boring, but simply because I decided to read it slowly. The Impressionists were a mixed bunch, including Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Cezanne, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Caillebotte. I feel I got to know some of them more than others and have only just skimmed the surface of their lives, which is understandable in a book covering so many people.

The Private Lives of the Impressionists tells how the early leaders of the group met when students in the studios of Paris. There was Monet, from an affluent family background originally from Normandy, Pissarro a Portuguese Jew from a very different background, born in the Dutch West Indies, Cezanne, a strange and intense student from Aix-en-Provence. The group widened with the addition of Renoir, from a working family (his father was a tailor from Limoges), Sisley the son of an English merchant and a Frenchwoman, and Bazille the son of a wealthy Montpellier wine-grower. They rebelled against the Salon and were pilloried and criticised for their work. They struggled to make a living, although now their paintings sell for millions.

Manet, whose father was a judge and mother the god-daughter of  the King of Sweden, was not really a part of their group , although over the years he supported them but never exhibited at the Impressionists exhibitions. To say that Manet was a complex character is an understatement and I’m going to read a biography devoted to him alone at some point. I’d also like to know more about Pissarro, Berthe Morisot and Renoir in particular.

This book follows their lives and loves and how their art developed over 26 years between 1860 when they first met and the introduction of their work to America in 1886. The Epilogue summarised what happened to each artist as the end of the century approached and the Paris art scene changed completely.

I now feel rather sad to have come to the end but there is a bibliography, essential for non-fiction books in my view, listing other books on the artists. If I’m being picky I’d criticise the bibliography because it’s arranged a-z by author – I’d prefer it to be arranged the individual artists. I’d also have liked more illustrations, but there are plenty of books on Impressionism.  I’d also love to travel the world to see their paintings – in London, Paris, and the US – well maybe I’ll manage the London galleries.

These are some of my favourite paintings, some of which are in this book.

Bar at the Folies Bergere by Manet
Red Roofs, 1877
La Loge by Renoir

This is the  eleventh library book I’ve read this year – still on target to complete the Support Your Local Library Challenge.

Ferney: Tuesday Teasers

Published on by Margaret10 Comments

teaser-tuesdayIt’s Tuesday again – the day for posting two or three sentences as teasers from a book you’re currently reading without giving away any spoilers, hosted by Mizb.

Today my teasers are from Ferney by James Long. I’m  not very far into it but so far I think it’s absolutely fascinating. It’s a bit historical, and a bit mysterious with characters who can see what the landscape looked like in centuries long gone.

He lifted his head from the ghost of the wrecked tree and let his gaze wander across the landscape, changing, turning. The pylons in the valley flicked out, the cluster of new houses beyond them melted like butter, the woods writhed, grew ragged and stretched their boundaries, the fields divided themselves back with old, forgotten walls, and a hard, brash metal barn shrivelled back into a thing of sagging tile and stone. (page 30)

ferneyIn addition it has a young couple who have bought their dream cottage in the country – one that is derelict and in need of some tender loving care. But this brings their relationship under strain and Ferney, the old countryman who seems to know everything about  the house and the countryside complicates matters.