The exchange over A Flight of Angels (1988) is lengthy and sophisticated and I won't attempt to repeat it here. The one over The Chocolate Boy is not, and when my wrist stops hurting (I seem to have sprained it) I will type it out here. There may be room for argument over A Flight of Angels but with The Chocolate Boy I find myself wondering if they read the same book as I did, to which of course the answer is "no" for they read in their context, and i read in mine.
This wasn't on any of my lists, I just happened to find a reference to it. Very glad I found this: one of Trease's lesser known books it is also one of his best.
Sandro is the illegitimate son of a merchant , snet to Vitorrino's school in Mantua. There he falls in with Federigo, illegitimate son of he Count of Urbino, destined eventually to inherit the countship and become the greatest Condotteri General in Italy. Having failed to take in his father's business Sandro returns to Federigo and becomes his clerk, accompanying him through the campaigns against Malatesta, the negotiations with the citizens of Urbino after the fall of Federigo's young half brother (a nasty piece of work) and rising himself as historian and chronicler.
Against this background is the story of Catherine of Spinelli, daughter of an impoverished Lord who is also educated at the school. While there she has a crush on Federigo, but after finds herself in an arranged engagement. When Malatesta invades her lands, she and her family flee and the fiancee loses interest. Catherine, evading the lusts of the Duke, is falling in love with Sandro, and when the Duke is killed she is kidnapped by Federigo and Sandro's boyhood enemt who has been acting as an agent procavateur in the court on behalf of Malatesta.
Taddeo's plans go awry when Malatesta decides he wants Catherine, and forces Taddeo to be her guard while he is away. Catherine makes friends with Lucia, the black slave-maidservant (note that Malatesta is described as refusing to touch the slave "you might as well have brought me an ape" which both makes him nastier and means that we don't have to deal with a rape victim) and when Sandro, riding to the rescue, is kidnapped and hung in a cage against the castle wall, it is Lucia who works out how to rescue him, and Catherine and Lucia together excecute it.
They ride off, chased by hounds, and the cavalry appear on the hills
This really is excellent, with the best of Trease's landscape writing and two really superb female protagonists. Sandro is also very nicely drawn and a young man brave, but without martial spirit.
The aim is to finish this one by December (yup, next week) and then to move on to chapter 5 which is a "historiography" of children's civil war fiction.
I have:
Maryatt
Trease
Sutcliff
Welch
Alice Turnbull
Jane Lane
Barbara Softly
Hester Burton
Sally Gardiner
Anyone missing? The more authors the better, and I am very sure there are more.
In 1955 Trease had play versions of Seven Kings of England broadcast as Seven Sovereign Lords on Children's Hour: 55 minute plays, hagiographical in the extreme (the version of King Charles I as a boy is, well, a bit embarrassing for someone with Trease's background).
But look who I spotted in the casts, obviously in their spear carrier days (or is there an alternative term for voice actors?).
Alfred: the Shepherd of the English
24th April 1955.
Alfred: Paul Daneman
KIng Ethelwulf, his father/a messenger/a man: Deryck Guyler
Ethelred, his brother: Ralph Truman
Ealswith, his wife: Curigen Lewis
Pope Benedict III: Martin Lewis
Guthrum, King of the Danes: Howieson Culff
A Danish Earl: Leslie Perrins
5. Charles: the Sad Cavalier.
19th June 1955
Charles I/2nd MP: James McKechnie
Lady Carey, Charles' s governness/Madame St. George: Ella Milne
James I/Messenger/3rd MP/President/Officer: John Laurie
Prince Henry (as a boy): Michael Brooke
Charles as a Boy: Jonathan Swift
Queen Henrietta Maria: Jennifer Madox
Sentry/SIr Anthony Vandyke/Speaker/Royalist/Bishop of London: Denys Blakelock
This is Pure Gold for an archive researcher:
The line never came out because of Kaye Webb's failing health.
( Read more... )
So with a few hours left today I asked to see both copies, Ancient and Modern.
Oh Mr. Trease, you are so disengenous! These are not merely corrections! These are attempts to gut some of the more interesting historical info dumps, and, while you were at it, eviscerate some of the really lovely writing. I'd been wondering recently if I had merely become a careless reader, if Trease's landscape writing was duller, or if it simply wasn't there....
Now read on:
( Read more... )
So, what have I found?
First, I very much wanted to find out what books Trease consulted when he wrote. I am still working on that but it turns out he wrote an article on just that in 1961:
( Read more... )
Next up is his complex attitude to bias. He thinks he is straightforward, and non-didactic, but he is still very much a Message writer.
( Read more... )
Next up, it turns out that for all his condemnation of the unlikely plot (see Tales out of School about the cliched plots of children's fiction) he'd rather a cliched plot than mess with historical probability.
( Read more... )
And finally for my science fiction followers, I found this in a journal I was actually reading for the article on Trease.
In a small journal called in review, a Msgr Peter J. Elliot writes from Vatican City about the occasion on which his Australian father (a vicar) became acquainted with C. S. Lewis.
"Later that night he whisked my father away on a "pub crawl", near Fleet Street where the science fiction writers met. My father later recalled that more talking than drinking took place. " (34)
FromL
"A Child's Memories of C. S. Lewis, Review: Living Books Past and Present A Journal on Books for Family Reading 1(3): 33-36.
More tomorrow. Specifically, the unpublished ms.
There is no way to soften this: had Mr Trease been writing today, when people could easily compare talks and articles, he;d have been in trouble. As far as I can tell, he wrote three lectures in the early 1960s:
on historical writing
on how to write for children
on his writing life
And then proceeded to recycle them over and over again. The originals are 20 pages long. As he proceeds, he *always* makes the notes again, but they get shorter. By 1993 they were three index cards.
However, the one topic he does keep up to date on--surprisingly given he never meant to be a children's writer--is children's writing. I have a piece from 1949 which mentions an exciting new writer called Rosemary Sutcliff, and also Hilda Lewis. Later he enthuses about Mary Cadogan's book on Richmal Crompton. One reason Trease may have been able to reinvigorate his career in the 90s is because he stayed up to date with the field even at his crankiest in the 1970s. More on that tomorrow because I think I may have finally figured out what was going on there.
What next?
Well, I need to write chapter 3, which is the last of the strictly chronological chapters. I will do that between now and December. Judging by the last two I need fourteen days of solid writing.
In between...
I begin work on Geoffrey Trease's archive papers in Newcastle on the 30th August. I will report back on anything of particular interest.
Then the next stage is the chapter I've called (at the moment) Mr. Trease's History of England. For this I will construct a time line of texts so we can see where he focussed his attention. Something about his love of the eighteenth century makes me want to title the sections of this chapter in faux eighteenth century fashion:
Mr Trease leads us around antique Greece.
Mr Trease protests the injustices of Medieval England but notes its opportunities
Mr. Trease celebrates Gloriana
Mr Trease declares for the Commonwealth, But Has Regrets
Mr. Trease takes us on the Grand Tour
Mr Trease comes to terms with Industrial England
...all with reference to the Theatrical styles and managements of the period.
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