Despite the genre, the real joy of Miss Grimsely's Oxford Career is seeing her passion for scholarship and Shakespeare and intellectual acknowledgement develop: forget the love interest. Ellen's seduced: by the pleasures of essay-writing. She's tempted: by recognition of her abilities. She falls in love: with Oxford. |
And that's why it hurts so much to see her agency slowly being curtailed, as she cannot take credit for work that gets a standing ovation, as she resigns herself to marry whoever her parents with her to, and then as everyone around her seems to conspire in beating her down. I like that Jim's many proposals are refused so that Ellen can prove to herself that she can live on her own, but her family keeps ruining her resolve, which I like much less. It feels like the narrative pushes her to depend and rely on Jim more and more, until it feels like she's living on his goodwill.
I know it's unlikely that Ellen would have had the Oxford career that she deserved, but the moment when she had to deny her authorship of her papers just to save her gormless brother (though Gordon is charming, he is, one must admit, thankless and foolish) rankled. The moment when she had to crawl back to Jim Gatewood for Ralph's sake also rankled. I love Ellen, and I loved the parts of the novel where she learned how to revel in academia. I just wish that, once in a while, her book would let her win.
Rating: Three out of five. Tries to be feminist, loops back to sexist near the end.
Turd rating: One for Ellen's family combined. Sheesh.
I know it's unlikely that Ellen would have had the Oxford career that she deserved, but the moment when she had to deny her authorship of her papers just to save her gormless brother (though Gordon is charming, he is, one must admit, thankless and foolish) rankled. The moment when she had to crawl back to Jim Gatewood for Ralph's sake also rankled. I love Ellen, and I loved the parts of the novel where she learned how to revel in academia. I just wish that, once in a while, her book would let her win.
Rating: Three out of five. Tries to be feminist, loops back to sexist near the end.
Turd rating: One for Ellen's family combined. Sheesh.