Shatterday: Review

It's funny where a book journey can take you. Back in June, I signed up for the Follow That Blurb Reading Challenge. In short, we were to pick a starter book, read that, then read a book by someone who wrote a blurb for that first book. And so on, for a total of ten books. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison is my 8th book. I started with a mystery. That book led me through five more mysteries. It was beginning to look like my little book trek was going to be all mysteries, all the time. Then book number six led me to a mystical, new-agey book by Lawrence Block (another mystery writer, granted--but I deliberately chose one of his books that wasn't a mystery). And that book brought me here.....to Harlan Ellison and some excellent classic science fiction.

It's been a long time since I've read any Ellison. I discovered him back in the day when I was on my science fiction kick. Let me just tell you straight....Harlan Ellison is not for everyone. He's not for the squeamish. Or the prudish. You want your fiction all neat and tidy and full of rainbows and sunshine and happily-ever-afters. Ellison is not your man. That's not to say he can't write a happy ending. He can. He does in this collection. But it's not your everyday, Disney happy ending....and getting there may be a bit more painful than you'd like. Ellison, as he puts it, walks through our lives and runs them through his spectacular imagination and hands them back full of all the horrors and nightmares and mortal dreads we don't want to face. No, I'm not talking about zombies or things that go bump in the night. At least not in most of the stories. "Flop Sweat" comes the closest to a nice horror-movie case of the screaming heebie-jeebies, but it's not the evil things that are the scariest. It's the idea that these things were called forth by human beings just like you and me.

And that's what makes these stories so great. Maybe we'll never climb into a space/timeship and go off to another dimension; maybe we'll never have to face a day when our self has divided and there's two of us and we have to figure out which one is real; maybe our past won't ever catch up with us and force us to do horrible things. But...then again. We can relate to the characters because somewhere, sometime there was a situation, not the same situation, but a situation nonetheless where we acted/reacted/didn't react like we should have...in just the same way. The stories show us to ourselves....and if we're brave enough we learn from it.

I had forgotten what a master storyteller Ellison is. I had forgotten his skill at twisting the everyday and making it thought-provoking. And I had forgotten what a slippery little cuss he is. Just when you think you've figured out what kind of writer he is...science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy, horror, black comedy, psychological...he throws you a curve ball and does something completely different. No wonder he's racked up so many awards in so many fields. This is a fabulous short story collection. My favorites are "Flop Sweat," "The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge," and "Count the Clock That Tells the Time." Five stars.

Top Ten Tuesday: Beloved But Never Reviewed

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme created over at The Broke and the Bookish. Today Top Ten Participants are asked to highlight books that they've read but never reviewed--whether that be because it was read before you began reviewing or something prevented you from reviewing or..... I'm going to reach back to the days before I began reviewing all the books I read.

1. Briar Rose by Jane Yolen: Ever since she was a child, Rebecca has been enchanted by her grandmother Gemma’s stories about Briar Rose. But a promise Rebecca makes to her dying grandmother will lead her on a remarkable journey to uncover the truth of Gemma’s astonishing claim: I am Briar Rose. A journey that will lead her to unspeakable brutality and horror. But also to redemption and hope. A retelling of the Sleeping Beauty tale finds Briar Rose living in forests patrolled by the German army during World War II in a dark tale of the Holocaust. I loved this retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Tragically beautiful.

2. Snow Queen by Joan D. Vinge: The imperious Winter colonists have ruled the planet Tiamat for 150 years, deriving wealth from the slaughter of the sea mers. But soon the galactic stargate will close, isolating Tiamat, and the 150-year reign of the Summer primitives will begin. All is not lost if Arienrhod, the ageless, corrupt Snow Queen, can destroy destiny with an act of genocide. Arienrhod is not without competition as Moon, a young Summer-tribe sibyl, and the nemesis of the Snow Queen, battles to break a conspiracy that spans space. Loved this when I was in my science fiction phase.

3. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey: Inspector Alan Grant of Scotland Yard, recuperating from a broken leg, becomes fascinated with a contemporary portrait of Richard III that bears no resemblance to the Wicked Uncle of history. Could such a sensitive, noble face actually belong to one of the world's most heinous villains -- a venomous hunchback who may have killed his brother's children to make his crown secure? Or could Richard have been the victim, turned into a monster by the usurpers of England's throne? Grant determines to find out once and for all, with the help of the British Museum and an American scholar, what kind of man Richard Plantagenet really was and who killed the Little Princes in the Tower. One of my all-time favorite mysteries.

4. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara: In the four most bloody and courageous days of our nation’s history, two armies fought for two conflicting dreams. One dreamed of freedom, the other of a way of life. Far more than rifles and bullets were carried into battle. There were memories. There were promises. There was love. And far more than men fell on those Pennsylvania fields. Bright futures, untested innocence, and pristine beauty were also the casualties of war. Michael Shaara’s Pulitzer Prize–winning masterpiece is unique, sweeping, unforgettable—the dramatic story of the battleground for America’s destiny. The book upon which the movie Gettysburg was based. Although I was already a bit of a Civill War buff, this book (and movie) got me even more interested.

5. Persuasion by Jane Austen. The romance between Captain Wentworth and Anne, the daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, seems doomed because of the young man's family connections and lack of wealth. My favorite Austen so far. Somewhere around here I have my papers from college. There's one about this book....if I could find it, I could use it to help to do a review....Or I could just reread the book.

6. The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R King: In 1914, a young woman named Mary Russell meets a retired beekeeper on the Sussex Downs. His name is Sherlock Holmes. And although he may have all the Victorian "flaws" listed above, the Great Detective is no fool, and can spot a fellow intellect even in a fifteen-year-old woman. So, at first informally, then consciously, he takes Mary as his apprentice. They work on a few small local cases, then, on a larger and more urgent investigation, which ends successfully. All the time, Mary is developing as a detective in her own right, with the benefit of the knowledge and experience of her mentor and, increasingly, friend. And then the sky opens on them, and they find themselves the targets of a slippery, murderous, and apparently all-knowing adversary. Together they devise a plan to trap their enemy--a plan that may save their lives but may also kill off their relationship. One of the best stories with Holmes that wasn't written by Doyle.

7. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas: Edmund Dantès, betrayed by his enemies and unjustly convicted of aiding the exiled Napoleon, escapes after fourteen years imprisonment in the Château d'If and embarks on a carefully crafted plot to seek his revenge. I like this even better than The Three Musketeers.
8. Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward: Dragon's Egg is a neutron star with a surface gravity 67 billion times that of Earth, and inhabited by cheela, intelligent creatures that have the volume of sesame seeds and live a million times faster than humans. Most of the novel, from May to June 2050, chronicles the cheela civilization beginning with its discovery of agriculture to its first face-to-face contact with humans, who are observing the star from orbit. One of the all-time best hard science fiction novels I've ever read. I don't do a lot of hard SF...but this was fabulous.

9. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco: In 1327, finding his sensitive mission at an Italian abbey further complicated by seven bizarre deaths, Brother William of Baskerville turns detective, penetrating the cunning labyrinth of the abbey and deciphering coded manuscripts for clues. A wonderful historical mystery. With one of the most awesome libraries in fiction.

10. The Nine Wrong Answers by John Dickson Carr: Carr's forte is the rational crime problem costumed as an eerie tale of the seemingly supernatural. This tale set in London is an elaborate puzzle that concerns a large inheritance and contains a wonderful scene at Sherlock Holmes' rooms on Baker Street. The first mystery I ever read by Carr. I would love to have my thoughts from when I read it.

Teaser Tuesdays

MizB of Should Be Reading hosts Teaser Tuesdays. Anyone can play along. Just do the following:

*Grab your current read.*Open to a random page.
*Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.

*BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! You don't want to ruin the book for others.

*Share the title and author too, so other TT participants can add it to their TBR lists if they like your teaser.
Here's mine from "Count the Clock That Tells the Time," a short story in Shatterday by Harlan Ellison (p. 210):

Time unused is not wasted; it is leached out, drained through the normal space-time continuum and recycled. All this history you see shooting past us is that part of the time-flow what was wasted.

That Day in September August Giveaway Winner!

The giveaway for Artie Van Why's memoir That Day in September officially closed last night at midnight. And as promised, I have used the magic Custom Random Number Generator to give us our winner. After much buzzing and whirring and flashing of lights, the CRNG has cranked out the number.....seven! That means our winner is Ashley Holt, the seventh commenter on the blog! Congratulations Ashley! An email is coming your way and you will have 48 hours from the time of the email to confirm your win with me.

Don't forget...there is another giveaway running for Janet Evanovich's Plum Lucky (see sidebar for link) and I am putting the finishing touches on my 300 Follower Celebration Giveway!

P.S. Ashley has already confirmed with me! Congrats again to our winner!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a bookish meme hosted by Book Journey. It's where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week. It's a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list. So hop on over via the link above and join in...and leave a comment here so I can check out what you are reading

I missed last week, so here's the list since my last post.

Books Read (click on titles for review):
The Elberg Collection by Anthony Oliver
Seven Gothic Tales by Isek Dinesen
The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson
Kathleen by Christopher Morley
Three Victorian Detective Novels by E. F. Bleiler (ed)
Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Currently Reading:
Shatterday by Harlan Ellison: A revolutionary classic from one of science fiction's most highly regarded authors, this collection of 16 brilliant stories remains as scathing and influential today as it was when it was first published more than 20 years ago. These category-defying stories combine science fiction, horror, and fantasy with ironic humor, sardonic social criticism, and intense self-revelation. From "Jeffty is Five," the tragedy of an innocent child wrenched out of an idyllic past, to humanity's encounter with dangerously seductive aliens in "How's the Night Life on Cissalda?" and "Shatterday," the dark allegory of an identity-stealing doppelgänger replacing his inferior twin, this incendiary collection re-establishes its legendary author's place at the cutting edge of the short story form.

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon: Lucy Graham marries lord Michael Audley and all seems well, until Lord Audley's nephew's friend goes missing whist on a visit to Audley court and fingers start pointing towards the girlish though mysterious Lady Audley ... A fast-paced Victorian thriller that will delight audiences today as well as it did 100 years ago, Lady Audley's secret has subterfuge, kidnapping, jealousy and fraud all thrown into the mix and shaken up for good measure. A mystery which keeps a listener guessing until the last moments, this production is a must-listen for anyone who enjoys playing detective.


Books that spark my interest:
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The High Crusade by Poul Anderson
Lucky Jim by Kinglsey Amis
The Arrow by Christopher Morley
Middlemarch by George Eliot (if I'm brave enough)
Parnassas on Wheels by Christopher Morley

Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines

Coming soon to a blog near you (that would be Carol's Facing 50 With Humor), yours truly will be entered in Carol's Mini-skirt competition. A nice little photo will be posted to enter me as a contestant. Keep your eyes on the blog and I'll post as soon as Carol tells me I'm on.

Carol writes an absolutely hilarious blog and has also written a book called Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines. And if you fancy a laugh, then join me at the Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines On-Line Book launch on September 16th. Great giveaways, prizes and best of all giggles will be happening at her site (link above). You'll want to sign up. She'll be hosting giveaways and prizes all day. There will even be a chance to win a Kindle. It should be a lot of fun with competitions, laughs, extracts from her hilarious novel, guests to check out, new people to meet and I even heard on the grape vine that she will actually be appearing on a video link!

Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines
Published by YouWriteOn/June 2011
ISBN: 9781908481811
Available from WHSmith, Waterstones, Amazon, etc.

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Starting Line

button designed by Tara @ 25 Hour Books

I've signed up for the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon hosted by On a Bookbender and here is my official starting line post. Over the course of the week I am hoping to knock out at least six books. Most of them will be Classics because previously I signed up for The Classic Bribe Challenge and it ends on Labor Day....so I need to rack up as many Classics as I possibly can. That said, the book I'm starting with isn't a Classic--unless I can convince the host that Classic science fiction counts.

Here's my planned reading:
1. Shatterday by Harlan Ellison (classic SF from the 70s)
2. Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
3. Lucky Jim by Kinglsey Amis
4. The Arrow by Christopher Morley
5. Middlemarch by George Eliot (if I'm brave enough)
6. Parnassas on Wheels by Christopher Morley

If I find that I need a break from all that heavy classic literature, I may venture off into some Georgette Heyer mysteries, Sherlock Holmes pastiches, or Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy L Sayers. My list of books completed (and how many pages for each) will show up on my original 'Thon post HERE.

Crime Fiction on a Europass: Holland/Belgium

Leaving France, our next stop on our Crime Fiction Europass vacation get-away is Holland and/or Belgium. And, oh, am I so full of myself. I found the perfect book. Dekok and Murder on Blood Mountain written by one of the most widely read authors in the Netherlands, A C Baantjer. And, here's the kicker, this novel sends his Dutch Inspector to Blood Mountain in....you guessed it...Belgium! I haven't read this one yet...but then I don't think I've read any mysteries written by an author from either Belgium or Holland. I guarantee you, though, that after researching for the Europass post I'm going to be taking care of that little deficiency tout de suite. I am especially entranced by the descriptions of A C Baantjer's series.

Here is the synopsis for Dekok and Murder on Blood Mountain:

In Inspector DeKok's line of work, death is commonplace. But encountering figures from the dead certainly is not. At the request of the Belgium police, Inspectors DeKok and Vledder attend the funeral of a murder victim. The body was fished out of Antwerp's Scheldt River, but brought back to Amsterdam to be laid to rest in Sorrow Field Cemetery. During the service DeKok spies the face of a man long known to be dead. Whispers of the gray sleuth's sanity are uttered but DeKok is certain of a darker, more sinister activity at play than just the ridiculous notion of ghosts. Further bodies are discovered; apparently they too were poisoned and dumped into the river. DeKok is forced to venture from his beloved city and travel to Bloedberg ("Blood Mountain"), a notorious neighborhood in Antwerp. It seems a certain Heaven's Gate Temple and the Holy Pact for the Dying hold the answers to both the living dead and the dead and buried. - (Blackwell North Amer)

Challenge Complete: Victorian Literature

Back in November, I signed up for The Victorian Literature Challenge sponsored by Bethany at words, words, words . I initially signed up for the Great Expectations level (read 5-9 books), but then added a few more to my list and settled on Hard Times (read 10-14 books) Just today I finished my tenth book and have now met my final challenge level. There are more Victorian-era books looming on my TBR pile and I will probably add a few more to the list before the year is done, but the challenge has officially been met. Here are the books read for this challenge:

The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson [8/17/11]
Three Victorian Detective Novels by E. F. Bleiler (ed.) [8/20/22]
The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green [2/8/11]
Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (8/21/11)
Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes [5/13/11]
The Eustace Diamonds by Anthony Trollope [2/1/11]
The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle [3/29/11]
Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (I know he didn't actually write until the 1900s, but he was a Victorian, and he wanted to write earlier, but his father forbade him.) [4/11/11]
Victorian Tales of Mystery & Detection by Michael Cox (ed) [4/26/11]
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope [4/29/11]

Sir Nigel: Review

Set in the middle of the 14th century, Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is what these days is known as a prequel to The White Company. Written fifteen years later, it tells the story of how Nigel Loring, the near-destitute squire of the Manor of Tilford, went off to seek his fortune and win the hand of his lady-love in the early years of the Hundred Years War. Nigel leaves home a squire and returns home as an honorable knight through many brave adventures on the battlefield and abroad. Nigel is equally brave on land or sea. We see Nigel as he tames a horse that no other man can ride, as he battles a French spy aboard a ship headed across the channel, as he beards a feared robber lord in his den, and as he even faces the King of France.

Maybe it was the difference in the edition....Sir Nigel is a standard Wordsworth Classic edition and The White Company was a much earlier edition with very juvenile illustrations....but this novel didn't strike me so much as a Boy's Own Version of History as The White Company did. It is still full of high romance and tales of derring-do, but I took it much more seriously and enjoyed it more. There is still much of the Don Quixote about Nigel, but there is an innocent seriousness to him. I particularly enjoyed the episode where Nigel leads the way in secretly entering the robber lord's castle. A very well-told tale in Doyle's exemplary prose. Four stars.

Saturday Snapshot: August 20

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce at At Home with Books. All you have to do is "post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken and then leave a direct link to your post in the Mr. Linky on [her] blog. Photos can be old or new, and be of anything as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give is up to you." All she asks is that you don't just post random photos that you find online. (Click pictures for close-ups.)



These are from a family vacation in June of 2007. We went to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. Were my guys thrilled and excited by the humongous underground cavern? Maybe a little. But what they really liked....was a Dinosaur Park in the nearby town.

Quote It! Saturday

Freda's Voice has an awesome Saturday meme for quote lovers called Quote It! and I have another blog, Quote Mistress, which is entirely devoted to the quotes I have collected over my lifetime. So my Quote It! may be found on my quote site. I'd love for you to visit...and be sure and visit Freda's Voice too!

Three Victorian Detective Novels: Review

Three Victorian Detective Novels edited and introduced by E. F. Bleiler contains some of the earliest modern detective novels available. The stories selected are meant to represent various moments in the history of the detective novel. We have a story that gives us one of the first more fictional accounts of police work. Previous works were more like casebooks--more factual and less narrative license. Then we have a story of theft that is more typical of the Victorian domestic novel spiced up with sensation. The final story gives us one of the earliest locked room mysteries...and one of the first stories to deliberately attempt to outwit the reader.

The first novel is The Unknown Weapon (1864) by Andrew Forrester. It is about the death of the son of a miserly old man who is killed while apparently in the the process of breaking into his own father's house. He has been stabbed with a weapon that no seems to be able to identify. This story has the honor of being quite probably the first novel about the Metropolitan Police (formed in 1829) , the first modern detective novel, and the first novel featuring a professional female detective. She is absolutely unnamed in this volume, but in other stories by Forrester, she is referred to as Mrs. G---- of the Metropolitan Police. She makes reference to herself and another female officer as constables...and I find it interesting to have references to female constables at this early date. Mrs. G---- is a thoroughly scientific detective, reminding the reader of Holmes. Had she the advantages of his training at university, I'm sure she would have examined her own bits of fluff under the microscope rather than sending them off in a tin box and directing "it to the gentleman who is good enough to control these kind of investigations." She faithfully takes up every piece of evidence, giving it a more thorough going-over than the local constable, looks over the scene of the crime, and thinks the problem through with logic that Holmes could not fault. There is no "feminine intuition" at work; it is a thoughtful, orderly investigation. The grand finale is a bit of a let-down--but over all a very good early detective story. Three and a half stars.

Next up: My Lady's Money (1877) by Wilkie Collins, a tale of theft. Lady Lydiard's husband has died and while going through his effects she finds letters indicating that he had a cousin with a family in desperate circumstances. The cousin, who has since passed on himself, had been led to believe that Lady Lydiard prevented her husband from being any assistance to his family. So she decides to make things right by anonymously sending the cousin's family 500 pounds sealed in an envelope and to be distributed by a minister. However, when the minister receives the envelope, the money has vanished. Suspicion falls upon Lady Lydiard's young companion--a girl that Lady Lydiard has taken a great fancy to and whom her ladyship believes absolutely to be innocent. The police are no help in clearing the young woman's name and soon "Old Sharon"--an eccentric former lawyer--is hired to get to the bottom of the mystery. Even the dullest of readers ought to spot the thief straight away. True to the most common Victorian forms, Collins does not spend any effort in trying to keep the criminal's identity hidden. The main point of the story is to figure out how the detective will be able to bring the crime home to him and what justice there will be. I enjoyed Collins' style very much--it was closer to The Moonstone than I felt The Woman in White to be. But I didn't warm to his "Old Sharon" as much as I did to Forrester's Mrs. G---------. One of the best parts was Tommie, the little Scotch Terrier--to whom Collins surpisingly gave a "speaking" part. For instance, "A low growl followed the fresh young voice, and added (in dog's language), 'Much worse, my lady--much worse!'" A nice little story--not quite as good as the first. Three stars.

The third novel is Israel Zangwill's The Big Bow Mystery. As mentioned above, it is one of the earliest examples of the locked room mystery. The solution may seem a bit trite to those of us in the 21st Century, but it is good to remember how puzzling and fresh it must have been to readers of the London Star in 1891. The story begins at the rooming house of Mrs. Drabdump (gotta love those Victorian names). She has been directed to wake one of her tenants, Mr. Arthur Constant, early so he can make an important meeting. Naturally, she finds that she has overslept and is rushing 'round to prepare breakfast. But when she tries to rouse Constant, she receives no answer. At first she is not too alarmed. The poor man had been suffering from toothache and perhaps he feel into a deep slumber once he finally did get to sleep. But when repeated efforts fail to waken him and a final, violent assault on his door does not bring him out, she feels sure that he must be lying murdered in his bed. She rushes across the street to the home of retired policeman, George Grodman. Grodman succeeds in breaking down the locked and bolted door and a terrible sight is revealed. Constant is lying in bed with his throat cut. He is still warm...so he has not been long dead. The windows are all fastened tight. There is no weapon to be found in the room and no way the culprit could have escaped. Inspector Edward Wimp (snort) of Scotland Yard is called in to investigate officially. But there seems to be no solution. There is no item in the room with which the dead man could have harmed himself, therefore it cannot be suicide. There is no way anyone could have gotten out of the room, therefore it cannot be murder. Eventually, however, clues come Wimp's way that convince him that Tom Mortlake, Constant's fellow tenant and supposed rival, has committed the crime. A trial and conviction follows....but Grodman produces the final twist that produces the complete solution. This is a well-written and quite witty short novel. The final twist is ingenious for its time. Four stars for this story. And a final rating of three and a half stars for the entire collection.

Friday Memes

Book Beginnings on Friday is a bookish meme sponsored by Katy at A Few More Pages. Here's what you do: Share the first line (or two) of the book you are currently reading on your blog or in the comments section. Include the title and author so we know what you're reading. Then, if you are so moved, let us know what your first impressions were based on that first line and if you did or did not like that sentence. Link up each week at Katy's place.


Here's mine from The Unknown Weapon (Andrew Forrester), the first short novel found in Three Victorian Detective Novels edited by E. F. Bleiler:
I am about to set out here one of the most remarkable cases which have come under my actual observation.

The Friday 56 is a bookish meme sponsored by Freda's Voice. It is really easy to participate.
*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56.
*Find any sentence that grabs you.
*Post it.
*Link up at Freda's site.

Here's mine from The Unknown Weapon (Andrew Forrester), the first short novel found in Three Victorian Detective Novels edited by E. F. Bleiler:

Had he been killed without any knowledge of who he was?

Kathleen: Review

Kathleen is a short, lively little novel by Christopher Morley. It's a slice of early 20th Century Oxford life--It's what Oxford was probably like when Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey was earning his First in History and swatting balls all over the cricket field. And, I am SO turning into a Christopher Morley fan-girl. I loved The Haunted Bookshop. And now I've loved Kathleen. It's like Wodehouse. But better. I'm getting all gushy and I don't think I can help it.

Morley's book brings us the Scorpions, a literary society made up of Oxford undergraduates whose purpose seems to be to write witty poetry, share literary papers, and to put together a smashing serial novel penned in turn by each member. Kenneth Forbes has been elected to start the serial off with a bang and has been given the entire Christmas vacation to use his fertile imagination to produce the opening chapter. So of course, in true undergraduate style, he is spending the first Sunday of term "at his desk desperately driving his pen across the paper." The Scorpions will be invading his rooms for their weekly meeting in about two hours time.

But Forbes has come up with a winning opener. While browsing at a bookstore, he discovers what appears to be a mild love letter from "Kathleen" to her beau "Joe." He decides that the Scorpions should use the letter as their guide--writing their story about the trials and tribulations of the couple's romance and only using people actually mentioned in the letter as characters. His fellow society members think this is a ripping good idea and they spend the term producing the saga of Kathleen and Joe--and in the process, Kathleen becomes the ideal woman for each of them. They soon decide that it would be great fun to descend upon Kathleen's hometown and attempt to meet the woman of their dreams. A contest is suggested in which each member is to make whatever arrangements he might (so long as they are not distressing to Kathleen and her family) and the winner will be the one who succeeds in speaking with Kathleen and having her agree to visit them in college. What follows is an onslaught of disguises, telegrams, and humorous hijinks. Great fun indeed!

This was so much fun. I started it at 7:30 last night and could not go to bed until I finished the last page (midnight). I couldn't wait to see what disguise, what elaborate plan each society member would come up with next. The events of the dinner party at Kathleen's house are the highlight of the adventure and it was all laugh-out-loud terrific. Morley writes with such simplicity; he was an absolute delight after wading through the over-done prose of Stevenson.

I suppose if one wanted to get all analytical and English-majory (oh, wait, I am English-majory), then one might want to look in-depth at the perception of women in the early 20th Century and examine this early form of stalking....Nah. Let's just enjoy it for what it is. Good clean fun with a bunch of high-spirited Oxford undergrads. Lovely. Five stars.