If I had a
comfort read, this would be it: Kaari Utrio's romantic comedies that
are set in the 19th century Grand Duchy of Finland. For
excitement, I go for her earlier novels, set in the much less genteel
Medieval times. That world is brutal!
Then
again, so is the 19th century. The ballrooms may not be
battle fields, but the pecking order is rigid and the rules ruthless.
This is the time when one's
social standing determines everything from the way one dresses to the
people one can associate with – and
marry. Marriages have little or nothing to do with love: they are
advantageous arrangements. Women have precious little independence
and extremely narrow roles.
These
novels are described as comedies of manners and are often compared
with Jane Austen's novels. They do indeed have much in common: ladies
and gentlemen looking for an advantageous match; meddling parents and
family members; a bit of
romance and quite a lot of humour.
Some of the characters
start off as haughty or stand-offish, but – yes, you guessed it:
love changes everything.
The focus
is on match-making, but, like
Austen, Utrio highlights
the dependence of women on marriage to secure social status.
There is usually
something about her heroines that sets them apart, and they tend to
have experiences atypical of (and sometimes abhorred by) the women
of their
times:
they may have received an education available
to very few women (e.g.
in The Smolny Institute for Noble Girls in St Petersburg) or
they may have accompanied their fathers on expeditions where folklore
material (such as poems) was collected.
When
you pick up one of these novels, you
know what you're going to get (therein
lies the comfort). There
will be bonnets and balls, pride and prejudice, attractions deemed
unacceptable... and characters whose
love will conquer the obstacles of societal expectations.
The historical details
are rich and well-researched. The writing is solid – perhaps
not the lyrical prose
I'm guilty
of favouring,
but it's vivid and a
perfect fit for the
characters. The sharp
observations are
delivered in humorous tones:
I always find myself
chuckling and smiling when reading these books.
Granted,
when you start, you have a fairly good idea of what's going to
happen, but how... that is a mystery.
Plot twists abound, often involving mistaken identities or
exaggerations or
ill-intentioned
rumours, or misunderstanding arising from the fact that it
simply was not appropriate to discuss certain matters (let alone
express one's feelings). The final page always leaves me admiring how
neatly Utrio ties up every loose end.
This is
what a comfort read is all about: as soon as you open the first page,
you know you're in good hands.
