REVIEW: Rangers and Strangers
Rangers and Strangers and Other Stories: Ethel Talbot Nelson
I didn't realise until opening this book to read it that it was a collection of short stories, rather than one book-length story. The title of the collection comes from the first and longest story, and is, in a way misleading, becausethe stories aren't all about Sea Rangers, but a complete hodge podge, or to put it more politely, show off Talbot's range. She is one of those writers who turned her hand to all sorts of types of stories. 'Where there's a will' is a family story and the 'Rune of the Ruins' is about out-of-school treasure hunting.
What does unite all four stories is that they're first person point of view narratives, related by girls. It's rare to find this in longer girls own stories, partly to allow the author to have her grown-up say or to allow her to dip into the prefects room instead of stickingto the limitations of one schoolgirl's perspective. However, first person POV is far more prevalent in the short stories that were mainly written for magazines, papers and annuals (and not often collected in book form lke this) perhaps because it was easier to sustain in a shorter length of story - and more credible that a schoolgirl would write a short story. It provides a looser, more immediate and engaging tone.
Our narrator in 'Rangers and Strangers' is Di, one of a patrol (or was it a company?) of Sea Rangers...from the Midlands. They go to gain seafaring experience by camping on the Cornish coast, where they encounter the mysterious strangers of the title. To say more would be to give too much away, although what follows isn't hugely surprising. The story could easily have been expanded, with a few more scenes of camp life - it features the larges cast of characters. The other stories really are short stories.
'Funk and Felicity'* didn't work for me, although it certainly uses the licence allowed by being a 'mere' short story to go places that wouldn't be encouraged if it weren't the only story between these covers. I don't think it was just my modern sensibilities, it was probably reading it as an adult too, but I wasn't as thrilled as the first readers of this story probably were.
It's even more obvious to the reader than the narrator, the head of the house, that all is not right with new girl Felicity. Expecting her to settle in like all the other girls at St Bede's, a boarding school that specialises in very acrobatic gymnastics - no mere cartwheels or marching or anything here - was a bit much. Er, again, I don't want to give the whole thing away, but I have to note that the narrator's name is Armorel - a name for the collection.
*Not a story about a schoolgirl discovering the music of James Brown et al.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/106750.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.
I didn't realise until opening this book to read it that it was a collection of short stories, rather than one book-length story. The title of the collection comes from the first and longest story, and is, in a way misleading, becausethe stories aren't all about Sea Rangers, but a complete hodge podge, or to put it more politely, show off Talbot's range. She is one of those writers who turned her hand to all sorts of types of stories. 'Where there's a will' is a family story and the 'Rune of the Ruins' is about out-of-school treasure hunting.
What does unite all four stories is that they're first person point of view narratives, related by girls. It's rare to find this in longer girls own stories, partly to allow the author to have her grown-up say or to allow her to dip into the prefects room instead of stickingto the limitations of one schoolgirl's perspective. However, first person POV is far more prevalent in the short stories that were mainly written for magazines, papers and annuals (and not often collected in book form lke this) perhaps because it was easier to sustain in a shorter length of story - and more credible that a schoolgirl would write a short story. It provides a looser, more immediate and engaging tone.
Our narrator in 'Rangers and Strangers' is Di, one of a patrol (or was it a company?) of Sea Rangers...from the Midlands. They go to gain seafaring experience by camping on the Cornish coast, where they encounter the mysterious strangers of the title. To say more would be to give too much away, although what follows isn't hugely surprising. The story could easily have been expanded, with a few more scenes of camp life - it features the larges cast of characters. The other stories really are short stories.
'Funk and Felicity'* didn't work for me, although it certainly uses the licence allowed by being a 'mere' short story to go places that wouldn't be encouraged if it weren't the only story between these covers. I don't think it was just my modern sensibilities, it was probably reading it as an adult too, but I wasn't as thrilled as the first readers of this story probably were.
It's even more obvious to the reader than the narrator, the head of the house, that all is not right with new girl Felicity. Expecting her to settle in like all the other girls at St Bede's, a boarding school that specialises in very acrobatic gymnastics - no mere cartwheels or marching or anything here - was a bit much. Er, again, I don't want to give the whole thing away, but I have to note that the narrator's name is Armorel - a name for the collection.
*Not a story about a schoolgirl discovering the music of James Brown et al.
This entry was originally posted at http://feather-ghyll.dreamwidth.org/106750.html. Please comment wherever you prefer to.