Wednesday, January 14, 2009

From the Shelves of the Paco Library



Shortly after the turn of the last century, the American publisher, Charles Scribner’s Sons, brought out a series of classic adventure stories and novels of historical fiction, adorned with pictures by some of our greatest illustrators, including N.C. Wyeth and Peter Hurd. Although originally aimed at younger readers, the books appeal to people of any age who enjoy imaginative, well-written stories. I confess that I did not get around to reading many of these books until I was into well-advanced adulthood - Treasure Island, Kidnapped, Robinson Crusoe, The Black Arrow - but I nonetheless enjoyed them immensely, and the experience was richly enhanced by the beautiful color plates (I have a dozen books in the series; a few are early editions, but most are high-quality reissues from the 1980’s and ‘90’s).

I have just completed one book in the Scribner’s series which had been sitting on the shelf, forgotten and unread, for years. Jules Verne is remembered as being one of the pioneers of science fiction, but he was also a writer of historical fiction. Michael Strogoff is the romantic tale of a captain in the courier service of Czar Alexander II, who is charged with the responsibility of carrying a letter to the Czar’s brother, the Grand Duke. The Grand Duke is governor of a distant Siberian province, and his life is threatened by a Russian traitor by the name of Ivan Ogareff. Strogoff sets out in a race against time, as a Tartar insurrection, which has been actively incited by Ogareff, sweeps across the steppes, leaving death and devastation in its wake. Strogoff is thrown together with a young woman who has set out for Siberia to take up residence with her father, an exile from the Baltic region, and they help each other along the way, combating the elements, enduring a brief captivity by the Tartars, and ultimately outwitting the treacherous Ogareff.

I have previously highlighted another fine book in the series (Sir Walter Scott’s Quentin Durward), and would also recommend Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Black Arrow, a story set in the Wars of the Roses. The Black Arrow of the title is Ellis Duckworth, the leader of a band of men forced into outlawry by an adherent to the house of Lancaster, Sir Daniel Brackley; however, the real hero is Dick Shelton, the young ward of Sir Daniel, who winds up turning against his guardian when he discovers that he murdered his father. Sir Daniel kidnaps a beautiful young heiress, Joanna Sedley, whom he intends to marry off to Shelton. Joanna is, naturally, appalled by the prospect of a forced marriage, but, ironically, falls in love with Shelton (and vice versa). Once they break with Sir Daniel, they experience numerous adventures against the backdrop of the civil war, and Shelton eventually enters the service of Richard Crookback (later King Richard III). Justice against Sir Daniel is delayed, but finally executed by the Black Arrow, after the defeat of the Lancastrian faction in battle. Few authors of his generation exceeded Stevenson’s ability to recreate a sense of time and place and historical authenticity, and perhaps no one surpassed him in the ability to spin a lively and entertaining yarn.

The Scribner’s books are great additions to the permanent library: pleasing to the eye, stimulating to the imagination, and, in spite of the relatively high quality of their manufacture, easy on the pocketbook

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Paco, have you ever thought about putting an Amazon button on these posts? You'd get a little money from any purchase made by anyone using the button and I'd be happy to see you get it.

BTW, I'm still crossing the plains with Franics Parkman.

Retread

TW: catickiv, more sea kittens?

Paco said...

Retread: No, I hadn't thought about that, but thanks for the suggestion!

Anonymous said...

Not directly relevant to this book, but it seemed an appropriate place to thank you for putting me on to the works of Donald Westlake. For some reason I’d not read him before and am now hooked, only half way through the first book and happy in the realisation that his output was prodigious. Discovering a new author with a vast authorship is a great, albeit infrequent pleasure, and I feel the same sense of impending pleasure when first encountering Patrick O’Brien a decade or so ago.

However, the services of the Perfect Author Collation Organisation have been of such high quality as to get me wondering. Clearly the world is supposed to dismiss the whole idea of a Paco Inc due to the frequent joky references to a shonky, dysfunctional organisation with a wide range of dubious products run by a dangerous, sociopathic megalomaniac. I’m wondering though whether this is a double bluff intended to cover the real existence of a highly efficient and sinister organisation with excellent products and services run by a dangerous, sociopathic megalomaniac. If this is the case of course having discovered the secret I’d be in some danger [stops typing as garrotte tightens, last vision is of Paco thanking Spurgeon as he pours another Laphroaig and lights the third Cohiba Siglo No 4 … ]

Paco said...

"Give him a little air, Spurgeon. That's right. No, I don't think that will be necessary. He has an honest face; I believe we can trust him."

I'm very glad that you are enjoying Westlake. Some people seem to prefer the Parker novels - straight noir-type crime stories, well-plotted but featuring a sociopathic protagonist. A little too gritty and violent, for me. The Dortmunder books are my favorites, but he wrote a sizable number of crime/adventure/caper novels with non-recurring characters that are extremely entertaining, too.

I know exactly the sensation you're talking about with respect to your first meeting with Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin. I remember getting a warm feeling just thinking about all the adventures that lay before me.

Anonymous said...

Sociopathic protagonist!

Well why didn't you say so in the first place, I'm so there!

richard mcenroe said...

I dunno if I'd call Spensefr sociopathic. He just marches to a different drummer... and may split it over your head if you piss him off long enough. But he seems too aware of his own sometimes tenuous grip on humanity to be a true sociopath.

BTW, Arthur Conan Doyle was a prolific author outside of his Holmes canon, and many of his books are available for free at Project Gutenberg. They're well worth reading...

TW: anking: latest in a noble line of lounge singers.