Another Young Trollope

[ellen_kushner]

When you write historical/ historical fantasy novels, you need to be able to imagine looking at the world through very different eyes.   One of the best ways to do this is by reading source material:  text from an earlier period, in which cultural suppositions are clearly stated - and usually unexamined by the writer . . . Unless, that is, he is

Comments

[movingfinger]

Lady Laura Standish is one of my favorite characters in T.

[sartorias]

Yes, and oh is she going to pay for her lack of maidenly reserve.

[swan_tower]

It makes me yearn for the days of the omniscient narrative voice, when you could get away so much more easily with that kind of description.

[ellen_kushner]

Yes!!! But it seems to me that In Genre is one of the last bastions of narrative flexibility - no?

[swan_tower]

Also, I've noticed that "complexion" as a facet of description seems to have fallen by the wayside. I mean, I'm not even sure what a "bright" complexion is. Pale, I presume, but what else? Ruddy and dark and sallow and bright complexions are all over the place in older literature, but I hardly see it used nowadays.

[kalimac]

I'm just enjoying the sight of an author who knows how to use British noble titles correctly. So few these days do.