SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady
Just another GR refugee. Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.
Currently reading
The India Fan
The India Fan, one of Victoria Holt's novels, is certainly the "gothic" she's famous for - it is the tale of Drusilla Dantry, the rector's daughter, and how her life, from the age of two, has been entwined with that of the local gentry family, the Fannings. The son of the family, Fabian, "kidnaps" her when he is seven and she is two, while his younger sister, Lucilla, is her childhood playmate.
Fabian, when he is home, lords it over them all, and as a result, Drusilla comes into contact with certain features of "The House," such as it's east wing, haunted by a nun, it's west wing, the home of a mad Fanning relative, and a fine peacock fan, unfortunately cursed, owned by the latter.
Their lives intertwine for at least twenty years, from the 1840s onward - Lucilla is a great beauty, while Drusilla, we are told, is plain but sensible, but they are sent to school together, and as a result face scandal, blackmail, and other menaces together.
Things come to a head in the homeland of that cursed peacock fan - India. In the late 1850s. Rebellion is thick in the air, and they are all caught up by what we today would call the Great Indian Mutiny.
This was an enjoyable enough read. Though I find it curious that Drusilla, whom we are repeatedly told is plain (perhaps as many times as we are told Fabian "kidnapped" her), seems to attract plenty of male attention, some of it more savory than others of it.
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