JCO: A Bloodsmoor Romance

Early fall there was some mention of discussing A Bloodsmoor Romance. I
just finished this long novel and would love to discuss it with others.
Is anyone else ready to discuss this work? Here are some initial
comments to help start a conversation:

It took a while for me to get involved in this story. The beginning,
with the abduction of Dierdre by a black silken balloon, seemed
preposterous (and it never is clearly explained), and the the style of
writing seemed tedious at first. Then after about 50 pages, I began to
enjoy the language used by the narrator and to appreciate the parady of
a Victorian romance. The narrator writes in a 19th-century style,
complete with moralizing sayings, and she has no problem about leaping
ahead of her story and then circling back to one of the strings she left
hanging. As she tells the story of the five Zinn sisters, she often
condemns their behavior. She appears to hold rigid, conformist views of
proper behavior and etiquette, all the while making those views seem
ridiculous to our more "modern" ways of thinking. Although she tells us
the subject is ''Christian marriage, that treasure so ignorantly spurned
by three of our young Zinn ladies, in their frenzied quest for their own
fortunes in the wide world,'' the real subject seems to be the destiny
of women in the 19th century and the ways it has carried on into the
present.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tone Clusters: The Joyce Carol Oates discussion group

To send a message to the group, email jco@usfca.edu
To subscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: subscribe jco
To unsubscribe, email majordomo@usfca.edu: unsubscribe jco