REVIEW: My Cousin from Australia
May. 30th, 2013 06:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllOne morning this week, I breezed through
My Cousin from Australia: Evelyn Everett Green Hutchinson, Second Edition
I found this copy while doing a sort out. Apparently I bought it just before going to university for 10p (those were the days). I wasn’t sure whether I’d read it before, and having finished it and based on the pile of books where I found it, I’m not sure whether I actually did.
It’s pretty terrible. The cousin from Australia is not heroine-narrator Cicely’s cousin, really. He is related to her stepfather and stepbrother, with whom she lives at Ladywell, which she will inherit upon her majority. But for now, her stepfather is her guardian and the master of the house. He is not a tyrant, but an aesthete and something of an Epicurian; nonetheless, he has his own way in general. Cicely has lived a luxurious life, but a very isolated one. Her mother died soon after remarrying, there is no talk of relatives, so Cicely is happy to 'adopt' her new cousin. Since being very young, it has always been assumed that she will marry Sir FerdinandMount Trevor, a neighbouring baronet. Trained to be obedient and well-mannered, one of Cicely’s few wilful acts has been to shy away from actually agreeing to marry him, making him wait until she is twenty one.
And then, a few months before her birthday, Griffeth Coloqhuan, the cousin of the title, comes to stay. He is tall like Hercules and although his uncle tries to be dismissive of him, Cicely likes and admires him for his directness and all the ways he’s different from what she’s known all her life. She falls in love with him, just as she realises that her stepfather and most of the household are determined to marry her to Ferdinand. Never mind that he kills a puppy*!
Cicely’s habits and training (grooming, perhaps) do not help her as circumstances seem to force her to her doom. There’s a fire and she has a nervous collapse the day after, exacerbated by the strain of being too polite to gainsay her suitor and stepfather, essentially, so Griffeth is sent away, believing her to be willingly engaged to Ferdinand. Cicely’s position is never helped by her daft insistence on the romantic gesture of always wearing a ring that Griffeth gave her, on the traditional finger for engagement rings, which looks just like the one that Ferdinand gave her. Only the stones that Griffeth picked up while knocking about diamond mines are better, of course.
With him goes more or less Cicely’s only friend. It’s ridiculous, there’s no talk of how she was educated; all the local young women are undifferentiated acquaintances; church is only a place where banns are read; and Cicely has no idea of the name of the lawyers surely representing her interests. Writing from some undefined point in the future, 'Cicely' keeps pointing this out. There’s a kind nurse who’s whisked away before Cicely is strong enough to confide in her. As Cicely is completely hopeless, she has to depend on others, and isn’t sure if she can trust her stepbrother to try to find Griffeth to save her. Yes, whereas a half-decent heroine in her position might need friends to advise her on how to act, Cicely, who got into dire straits because of a lack of independence, is still dependent to the end.
I don’t mind this sort of schlock when it’s better done. One could analyse the description of Cicely’s privileged powerless life as living in a gilded cage and her issues as listed – a dead mother and the absence of feminine role models and protectors, her fear of the cruel man who will be forced upon her as her husband, her weak stepfather and lazy stepbrother and why Griffeth is presented as a positive contrast – he can tame horses, he can dance and he is secretly rich. Obviously, it's heightened and exaggerated, but did it speak to the fears of some of its readers about their futures and lack of control over them?
Still, there’s a reason why twentieth century versions of this story are labelled ‘suspense’, and this story falls completely flat on that score. Even from the first chapter, as Cicely idly responds to the news that Griffeth will be visiting them, the narrator more or less gives away what will happen in the rest of the book. EEG throws in salient details – oh, he had a massive gambling debt; oh, she has a horse that needs to be broken; oh, she had a nurse living in Camberwell – just as she realises she needs them. It’s hilariously clunky. The writing is poor, from the dialogue to the lazy repetition of words to little effect. I gave ‘Blue of the Sea’ a pasting a few months ago, but that did at least try to do more with creating atmosphere.
*This puppy is Cicely’s pet and Ferdinand hates him because Griffeth rescued him from being drowned and gifted him to her. She loves it to bits, apparently, and has him for several weeks, but bizarrely never names him.
Edited on 31st of May to correct a character's name.
My Cousin from Australia: Evelyn Everett Green Hutchinson, Second Edition
I found this copy while doing a sort out. Apparently I bought it just before going to university for 10p (those were the days). I wasn’t sure whether I’d read it before, and having finished it and based on the pile of books where I found it, I’m not sure whether I actually did.
It’s pretty terrible. The cousin from Australia is not heroine-narrator Cicely’s cousin, really. He is related to her stepfather and stepbrother, with whom she lives at Ladywell, which she will inherit upon her majority. But for now, her stepfather is her guardian and the master of the house. He is not a tyrant, but an aesthete and something of an Epicurian; nonetheless, he has his own way in general. Cicely has lived a luxurious life, but a very isolated one. Her mother died soon after remarrying, there is no talk of relatives, so Cicely is happy to 'adopt' her new cousin. Since being very young, it has always been assumed that she will marry Sir Ferdinand
And then, a few months before her birthday, Griffeth Coloqhuan, the cousin of the title, comes to stay. He is tall like Hercules and although his uncle tries to be dismissive of him, Cicely likes and admires him for his directness and all the ways he’s different from what she’s known all her life. She falls in love with him, just as she realises that her stepfather and most of the household are determined to marry her to Ferdinand. Never mind that he kills a puppy*!
Cicely’s habits and training (grooming, perhaps) do not help her as circumstances seem to force her to her doom. There’s a fire and she has a nervous collapse the day after, exacerbated by the strain of being too polite to gainsay her suitor and stepfather, essentially, so Griffeth is sent away, believing her to be willingly engaged to Ferdinand. Cicely’s position is never helped by her daft insistence on the romantic gesture of always wearing a ring that Griffeth gave her, on the traditional finger for engagement rings, which looks just like the one that Ferdinand gave her. Only the stones that Griffeth picked up while knocking about diamond mines are better, of course.
With him goes more or less Cicely’s only friend. It’s ridiculous, there’s no talk of how she was educated; all the local young women are undifferentiated acquaintances; church is only a place where banns are read; and Cicely has no idea of the name of the lawyers surely representing her interests. Writing from some undefined point in the future, 'Cicely' keeps pointing this out. There’s a kind nurse who’s whisked away before Cicely is strong enough to confide in her. As Cicely is completely hopeless, she has to depend on others, and isn’t sure if she can trust her stepbrother to try to find Griffeth to save her. Yes, whereas a half-decent heroine in her position might need friends to advise her on how to act, Cicely, who got into dire straits because of a lack of independence, is still dependent to the end.
I don’t mind this sort of schlock when it’s better done. One could analyse the description of Cicely’s privileged powerless life as living in a gilded cage and her issues as listed – a dead mother and the absence of feminine role models and protectors, her fear of the cruel man who will be forced upon her as her husband, her weak stepfather and lazy stepbrother and why Griffeth is presented as a positive contrast – he can tame horses, he can dance and he is secretly rich. Obviously, it's heightened and exaggerated, but did it speak to the fears of some of its readers about their futures and lack of control over them?
Still, there’s a reason why twentieth century versions of this story are labelled ‘suspense’, and this story falls completely flat on that score. Even from the first chapter, as Cicely idly responds to the news that Griffeth will be visiting them, the narrator more or less gives away what will happen in the rest of the book. EEG throws in salient details – oh, he had a massive gambling debt; oh, she has a horse that needs to be broken; oh, she had a nurse living in Camberwell – just as she realises she needs them. It’s hilariously clunky. The writing is poor, from the dialogue to the lazy repetition of words to little effect. I gave ‘Blue of the Sea’ a pasting a few months ago, but that did at least try to do more with creating atmosphere.
*This puppy is Cicely’s pet and Ferdinand hates him because Griffeth rescued him from being drowned and gifted him to her. She loves it to bits, apparently, and has him for several weeks, but bizarrely never names him.
Edited on 31st of May to correct a character's name.
