Klicka på en bild för att gå till Google Book Search.
Laddar... The Four Pools Mystery (1908)av Jean Webster
Ingen/inga Laddar...
Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
It was through the Patterson-Pratt forgery case that I first made the acquaintance of Terry Patten, and at the time I should have been more than willing to forego the pleasure. Our firm rarely dealt with criminal cases, but the Patterson family were long standing clients, and they naturally turned to us when the trouble came. Ordinarily, so important a matter would have been put in the hands of one of the older men, but it happened that I was the one who had drawn up the will for Patterson Senior the night before his suicide, therefore the brunt of the work devolved upon me. The most unpleasant part of the whole affair was the notoriety. Could we have kept it from the papers, it would not have been so bad, but that was a physical impossibility; Terry Patten was on our track, and within a week he had brought down upon us every newspaper in New York. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
Pågående diskussionerIngen/ingaPopulära omslag
Google Books — Laddar... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.5Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th CenturyKlassifikation enligt LCBetygMedelbetyg:
Är det här du? |
There is mystery; there are ghosts; there is the cocky city boy swanning in to solve the mystery… there is rampant unchecked racism. "If you have ever had anything to do with negroes, you can know the state our servants are in." At least in that sentence the less pejorative "negroes" was used. That is not the case, half the time. "Sho's yuh bohn, Marse Cunnel; it's de libbin' truf I's tellin' yuh. Dat ha'nt has fotched dat chicken right outen de oven, an' it's vanished in de air." Sho 'nuf. "One of them shambled forward….The creature was bare-footed and wore a faded suit of linsey-woolsey" … okay, that's enough. No – one more: "When he was in good humor, he was kindness itself to the darkies". Wait, one more: "…With an oath he cuffed the fellow back to a state of coherence". Guess the skin tones of the cuffing and the cuff-ee. But that's okay, apparently, because "In the first place it comes natural to to be whipped and they don't mind it." Well, that's sho 'nuf fortunate considering Southern plantation history.
Context: The book was written in and apparently set in 1908. That doesn't make it a palatable read over 100 years later. Political correctness is one (not always good) thing; this is several others.
One review comments that this is the South from the point of view of someone who had never been there; it seems like in general Ms. Webster was writing about things she didn't know much about. Someone tells the visitor, "There are half a dozen colts in the pasture just spoiling to be broken in; you may try your hand at that, sir." Has the young person ever trained a horse? Ever? This does not seem wise to me. Apparently he doesn't take the suggestion to try breaking any of the colts (yay for the colts), because he is still bored, and expresses a wish to go hunting. But "spring on a big river plantation is a busy season". It's also a season when you can't – or shouldn't – do a lot of hunting.
I have little memory of the mystery and its solution. The most memorable aspect of the story is the prejudice and language. Not fun, and not recommended. ( )