comparing adaptations
16 Sep 2007 10:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cimoreneI am extra fond of the fairytale "Tam Lin" because of the things it has in common with Cupid & Psyche/ East of the Sun & West of the Moon, which is my true favourite folktale. (Even fonder, I mean, than I am of fairytale-styled and -inspired fantasy in general.)
So when I went to the US I collected my copy of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and bought my own copy of Diana Wynne Jones's retelling Fire & Hemlock. It's DWJ's only non-YA novel, as far as I know, but I still retained an impression in my memory of it as less sophisticated than Dean's version. That's probably because so much of the book deals with the heroine's childhood. I've discovered on the last reread that Fire & Hemlock has improved on my memory, which is the case with many of my favourite DWJs; but Tam Lin, so far, has somewhat disappointed, although Dean's narrative voice is elegant and slightly, pleasantly lyrical. I remember being really impressed the first two times I read it, but this time it comes off as rather more a) self-absorbed (memoir-like, injoke-filled) and b) dated. It says copyright 1991, but I feel it's set in the late 70s, perhaps.
The last Georgette Heyer book I got was Charity Girl, which was a It was that rare case of the novel with two romantic interests where there is some genuine uncertainty about which the protagonist will end up with (rather rare in my experience of romances and traditional Regencies, at least, where the signs tend to be pretty easy to read to the experienced eye). This time there's actually a double uncertainty centering on two important characters - Lord Ashley Desford, the main POV character, who's running around England on a wild goose chase in his efforts to help out the titular penniless Charity Girl; and his childhood friend Henrietta, who takes Charity into her respectable household while he's looking. It's mainly the goosechase, and all the twists, which are entertaining, and in fact I was able to guess the romantic pairing far in advance of the ending. That didn't detract from the fun, though.
So when I went to the US I collected my copy of Pamela Dean's Tam Lin and bought my own copy of Diana Wynne Jones's retelling Fire & Hemlock. It's DWJ's only non-YA novel, as far as I know, but I still retained an impression in my memory of it as less sophisticated than Dean's version. That's probably because so much of the book deals with the heroine's childhood. I've discovered on the last reread that Fire & Hemlock has improved on my memory, which is the case with many of my favourite DWJs; but Tam Lin, so far, has somewhat disappointed, although Dean's narrative voice is elegant and slightly, pleasantly lyrical. I remember being really impressed the first two times I read it, but this time it comes off as rather more a) self-absorbed (memoir-like, injoke-filled) and b) dated. It says copyright 1991, but I feel it's set in the late 70s, perhaps.
The last Georgette Heyer book I got was Charity Girl, which was a It was that rare case of the novel with two romantic interests where there is some genuine uncertainty about which the protagonist will end up with (rather rare in my experience of romances and traditional Regencies, at least, where the signs tend to be pretty easy to read to the experienced eye). This time there's actually a double uncertainty centering on two important characters - Lord Ashley Desford, the main POV character, who's running around England on a wild goose chase in his efforts to help out the titular penniless Charity Girl; and his childhood friend Henrietta, who takes Charity into her respectable household while he's looking. It's mainly the goosechase, and all the twists, which are entertaining, and in fact I was able to guess the romantic pairing far in advance of the ending. That didn't detract from the fun, though.
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Date: 16 Sep 2007 08:04 pm (UTC)She's written four novels for adults: The Changeover, which I've never read (or been able to find; it's ancient), A Sudden Wild Magic, which I read and, um, really didn't like, The Dark Lord of Derkholm, which I was surprised was considered an adult novel, and Deep Secret, which I like a lot. Also some EBs, I think.
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Date: 16 Sep 2007 08:11 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 17 Sep 2007 03:04 am (UTC)Deep Secret is, I think, considered adult because a) the narrators are past YA-hood themselves and b) it's longer than her usual YA books, though the matter is for me made somewhat more confusing by its having sequels that are YA. A Sudden Wild Magic I'm not at all sure about - age again, maybe? And Changeover could be considered adult for any reason, including graphic sex scenes and loads of lovingly-detailed torture sequences (although this really wouldn't separate it from a lot of YA books currently being published, actually), since its existence cannot be independently verified. (Seriously. Years of searching everywhere for her books, in England and the US, and I'd not heard of it until I checked her website.)