REVIEW: Winter Holiday
Jan. 5th, 2008 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllHappy New Year! I've been away reading for a fortnight, among other things, one of Jane Shaw's Susan stories; 'Red Caps at School' by Ethel Talbot, a really slight story, but not as annoying as I found some of her books over the past year; 'Sadie Comes to School' by May Wynne, a busy story with a new American girl, spies, near fatal accidents and an undercooked Christian moral; the much older 'Captain Polly' which was more of a Seven Little Australians/What Katy Did family story. I also read 'Nancy Drew and Company', a collection of academic essays about North American girls' series books, which I gleefully covered with exclamatory glosses, even though I wasn't familiar with about two thirds of the series that were discussed.
I've just finished 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome, which was a perfectly seasonal book to read at the end of the Christmas holiday, although of course, a Ransome is a good read it any time.
I still can't decide whether I've read it before - I wasn't struck by a feeling of familiarity or newness - but I must have, a long, long time ago. This is the book where the D.'s (Dorothea and Dick) first meet the Swallows and Amazons, having come to finish their holidays by the lake. At first, when the others are little more than figures through Dick's telescope, the D.'s think of them as Martians, but tentative signaling leads to contact, which leads to an alliance. The Swallows and Amazons are building an igloo and planning an Arctic expedition, and seem willing to allow the newcomers to join in, even though they can't tie knots, don't know Morse or semaphore, and are town bred, although the more sensitive Dorothea wonders if they'll ever truly belong.
But with Nancy planning things - and she does this even when sent to her bed with mumps, which gives the other children a month's grace from school and a chance to see the lake freeze over - the D.'s are given plenty of chances to show their mettle. The lake in winter is a topsy-turvy place, with no camping. But there's skating, sailing on sleds, Captain Flint to co-opt...
As I've said before, I love how right Ransome gets the seriousness of the make-believe, and with Dorothea as the main point-of-view character there's a slight difference in tone. In her absence, it becomes clear that Captain Nancy is the Peter Pan to the others's lost boys, with Peggy, touchingly, consciously, trying to step into the breach and not be a galoot. But Nancy is the leader, bringing a touch of Amazonian anarchy to the winter holiday, which is only sometimes contained by the natives and Susan's sterling good sense. And it's funny, when the children go too far, such as the whole sequence when Captain Flint returns to find his houseboat has been taken over by his niece, her friends, two of which are strangers to him, onto his revenge on Peggy. Like Nancy, you have to laugh.
But I noticed a stylistic quirk that I hadn't noticed before, where Ransome starts two sequential sentences the same way, for emphasis, I suppose. It happens often enough to be noticeable after you first catch it. Otherwise, the prose is as clear as ever, not getting on the way of the story of making your own adventures, of loyalty and sharing as the 'ancient allies' make room for more.
After a lousy 24 hours, I finally caved and spent nearly £9 on a Swallows and Amazons mug from Borders that I've been eyeing for months. My other excuse is that there was a broken mug incident over the holidays. It features illustrations from the books on a green background and the quote about how the books almost wrote themselves. I have yet to use it.
Coming soon (maybe): a review of the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes and Finding Minerva, which I read over the holidays.
I've just finished 'Winter Holiday' by Arthur Ransome, which was a perfectly seasonal book to read at the end of the Christmas holiday, although of course, a Ransome is a good read it any time.
I still can't decide whether I've read it before - I wasn't struck by a feeling of familiarity or newness - but I must have, a long, long time ago. This is the book where the D.'s (Dorothea and Dick) first meet the Swallows and Amazons, having come to finish their holidays by the lake. At first, when the others are little more than figures through Dick's telescope, the D.'s think of them as Martians, but tentative signaling leads to contact, which leads to an alliance. The Swallows and Amazons are building an igloo and planning an Arctic expedition, and seem willing to allow the newcomers to join in, even though they can't tie knots, don't know Morse or semaphore, and are town bred, although the more sensitive Dorothea wonders if they'll ever truly belong.
But with Nancy planning things - and she does this even when sent to her bed with mumps, which gives the other children a month's grace from school and a chance to see the lake freeze over - the D.'s are given plenty of chances to show their mettle. The lake in winter is a topsy-turvy place, with no camping. But there's skating, sailing on sleds, Captain Flint to co-opt...
As I've said before, I love how right Ransome gets the seriousness of the make-believe, and with Dorothea as the main point-of-view character there's a slight difference in tone. In her absence, it becomes clear that Captain Nancy is the Peter Pan to the others's lost boys, with Peggy, touchingly, consciously, trying to step into the breach and not be a galoot. But Nancy is the leader, bringing a touch of Amazonian anarchy to the winter holiday, which is only sometimes contained by the natives and Susan's sterling good sense. And it's funny, when the children go too far, such as the whole sequence when Captain Flint returns to find his houseboat has been taken over by his niece, her friends, two of which are strangers to him, onto his revenge on Peggy. Like Nancy, you have to laugh.
But I noticed a stylistic quirk that I hadn't noticed before, where Ransome starts two sequential sentences the same way, for emphasis, I suppose. It happens often enough to be noticeable after you first catch it. Otherwise, the prose is as clear as ever, not getting on the way of the story of making your own adventures, of loyalty and sharing as the 'ancient allies' make room for more.
After a lousy 24 hours, I finally caved and spent nearly £9 on a Swallows and Amazons mug from Borders that I've been eyeing for months. My other excuse is that there was a broken mug incident over the holidays. It features illustrations from the books on a green background and the quote about how the books almost wrote themselves. I have yet to use it.
Coming soon (maybe): a review of the TV adaptation of Ballet Shoes and Finding Minerva, which I read over the holidays.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 04:24 pm (UTC)I wonder how much of it is fellow feeling for others with absent parents.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 04:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 05:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-01-07 08:23 pm (UTC)Well, that's understandable. Now that I have all the books, I fully intend to reread them all in order and more attentively.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-05 08:01 pm (UTC)One of the things I think AR did best in the book was the beginning of the 'alliance'; the kids' doubts about each other seem very natural, as does the eventual friendship. Plus, Peggy gets to shine! (As a younger sister, I always felt a bit sorry for Peggy.)
And I got given that same mug for Christmas! Gorgeous, isn't it? :D
no subject
Date: 2008-01-07 08:31 pm (UTC)I'm not sure I could say which book was my favourite. Each has its individual charm, but WH was the perfect end-of-the-holiday read.
kids' doubts about each other seem very natural, as does the eventual friendship. Yes, it's not a case of everyone getting along swimmingly immediately, it's earned.
I'm an elder sister, so I tend to see things more from Nancy and John's (and maybe Susan's) perspective.
The mug's great. It could only be topped by a tin (?) mug to rinse in the lake or in a beck.