Jacksprat Gets Lost in Fiction

Review of Beren and Luthien By: JRR Tolkien             A man, Beren, saw the beautiful Elf princess, Luthien, dancing in the forest and it was love at first sight. He wanted to marry her, so Beren went to her father, the Elf Lord Thingol and asked for her hand. Lord Thingol didn’t approve of humans and opposed the marriage and sent Beren on an impossible quest to retrieve a Simaril, a jewel, that was currently on the crown of the Dark Lord Morgoth.             Beren and Luthien’s the story of a mortal and immortal falling love, was the story he wrote before Aragorn and Arwen’s epic love story in the Appendices of “Lord of the Rings”. Like a lot of Tolkien’s early work, it was written in the form of an epic poem and explored the theme of love conquering evil, though the ending was bittersweet.  Since it was fairytale, it had the love at first trope on Beren’s...

Review of “The Trouble with Mrs. Montgomery Hurst” By: Katie Lumsden             In the county of Wickenshire the most eligible bachelor Mr. Montgomery Hurst got engaged to an outsider, a widow from London with 3 children, and everyone in the community had an opinion on it. The older generation of county were determined to get their children married, and the younger generation felt the pressure to get married even when they didn’t desire it.             “Montgomery Hurst” was a fun and joyful read with an atmosphere that was cozy with its suburban setting, despite the characters being surrounded by gossipy neighbors. As I was reading, I was eager to turn the pages and consume the next chapter to find out what would happen next.  The drama was familiar for those of us who were entertained by Jane Austen and Anthony Trollop novels where the conflict was, who wa...

Review of “The Pillow Book” By: Sei Shonagon             In the Heian period Noble women living at court kept Diaries of their time at court and most memorable experiences. The authors intended these Diaries to be autobiographical. “The Pillow Book” was like these Diaries but had considerable differences from them, which were its structure and general character.  Sei Shonagon hadn’t written it it to be autobiographical, but it was an account of what she saw during her ten years at court and her reflections on her experiences there.             Sei Shonagon had quite the personality with her strong opinions and love of pretty things.  She reminded me of Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse with her charm and opinionated, as well as judgmental nature.  Throughout there were entries on her things that annoyed her or things that gave her pleasure that...

Review of The Plantagenets: The Kings and Queens the Made England? By: Dan Jones Dan Jones writes about the history of the Plantagenet Dynasty starting with Henry I all the way to Richard II.  Some of the Kings were good leaders, but others not so much due to their choices and relationship with their people.   Dan Jones divided the book into parts and organized it by years as he focused on each king and queen of those years.  It was a nice reprieve that there were short chapters. Each section highlighted the good and bad of each King’s reign and how they impacted the country.  In my opinion, some of them proved the King had too much, because they didn’t have empathy for their people.  They believed that they were King and only their opinion mattered and who cares what the people think.  This wasn’t shown through how the people responded but also how advisors responded to the throne.  Some would even turn against the K...