![]() ![]() “But wait, Ben,” you say, “surely I remember there was a dragon at the end of Bleak House.” No, silly reader of my reviews, that was a carriage. Tooth and Claw is the Victorian novel you’ve always wanted: that is, a Victorian novel with dragons. So in that respect, I’m actually really glad I found something like this book: it has so many of the elements I enjoy about Victorian literature, but it’s more readable-and did I mention the dragons? ![]() Some people don’t have the energy or inclination to battle with the stilted (from our perspective) language or the historical context. Indeed, I love Victorian literature, but even I am not crazy enough to recommend it to everyone. We still get self-aware books, but we also get a lot of incredibly earnest narratives. While I’m not here to condemn the novels of any other time period, I will say that over the intervening years, the evolution of novel from a serial and pulp form to a massive, mass-market industry means that the character of the novel has changed. Victorian England was a time of immense social and technological change, novelists of that era tended to be of a position and background that gave them something to say and the means to say it. Victorian authors tend to have an appreciation of irony and can wield characters-as-social-commentary like nobody’s business. ![]() One reason I love the Victorian novel? It’s remarkably self-aware. ![]()
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