Charlie Castelletti
Autore di The Manor House Governess
Sull'Autore
Opere di Charlie Castelletti
Etichette
Informazioni generali
- Nome canonico
- Castelletti, Charlie
- Altri nomi
- Castle, C. A. (pseudonym)
- Data di nascita
- 20th century
- Sesso
- genderfluid
- Nazionalità
- UK
- Agente
- Good Literary Agency
- Breve biografia
- Born on a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and later raised in England, United Kingdom, Charlie is the author of The Manor House Governess, under the pseudonym C. A. Castle, as well as an anthologist. He has a degree in English Literature from King's College, London, and a Masters in Film and Screen studies from the University of Cambridge.
When not writing, Charlie enjoys good period dramas, bold fashion choices, afternoon tea, and white chocolate. He is also an Editor at one of the big-five publishing houses. He lives in Cambridgeshire.
Utenti
Recensioni
Despite the disparagement toward Austen in favor of the Brontës within its pages, kind of a modern(ish) retooling of Northanger Abbey. Very poetic, if largely predictable.
The Manor House Governess offers a 21st Century homage to and disruption of the novels of Jane Austen and Charlotte Brontë. The novel is set our present. Our central character, Bron, was orphaned young and has spent most of his life as a student, then instructor at a boys' boarding school. Bron, who has male genitalia and uses he pronouns, feels most comfortable when he can express femininity, mixing male and female apparel. His hair is long. He's slightly built. He's been consistently bullied at the boarding school that's become his de facto home. He's survived there by reading and rereading Austen and Brontë novels and watching and rewatching film adaptations of those novels.
[Aside: this is a hard review to write because of the charged nature of gender and sexual identity. We all have preferred terms. We all have preferred pronouns. I'm trying to write using the terminology I think Bron would use. If it isn't the terminology you prefer, please be forgiving.]
However, everything is about to change. Bron has been hired as a live-in tutor (a governess) for nine-year-old Ada, the only child in a manor house, which is shared with her father, a housekeeper, and—occasionally—her adult brother Darcy. From the beginning, the members of the household are comfortable with Bron's nonbinary expression. Ada does get a bit frustrated early on and pesters Bron about his pronouns, but the pestering originates in her desire to respect his identity as he defines it. The only member of the household is uncomfortable with Bron is Darcy (the name is no coincidence).
You can imagine the kinds of things that follow. Bron and Ada grow deeply attached to one another. Ada and her father including Bron is household events, which he finds uncomfortable, coming from an utterly different economic background than theirs and existing in the no-person's land of not-family, but more-than-servent. There are balls. Cricket matches. A breakfast room where breakfast is eaten. A remarkable library holding generations' worth of treasured volumes. The only person present who treats Bron critically is Darcy. Everything each one of them says to the other is perceived as an insult or provocation.
If you've read any Austen or Brontë, you can predict much of what will happen. Poor, not-quite-a-girl governess meets arrogant rich man and they despise each other. The family has secrets, lots of them. Some of the family's closest friends may not be as well-disposed as they seem. The housekeeper may be up to no good. There's a fire. There are fights, misunderstandings, and moments of deep distrust.
I absolutely love what this novel did in modernizing a well-worn trope. Characters can easily be matched with their equivalents in Austen and Brontë's work. But here's the thing of it: I've just wearied of novels where the driving question is "will these two wind up together?" If you enjoy romances and comedies of manners, The Manor House Governess will delight you. If you're more ambivalent about such things, you may feel less emotionally engaged, but you will definitely take pleasure in this twisting of the genre.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.… (altro)
[Aside: this is a hard review to write because of the charged nature of gender and sexual identity. We all have preferred terms. We all have preferred pronouns. I'm trying to write using the terminology I think Bron would use. If it isn't the terminology you prefer, please be forgiving.]
However, everything is about to change. Bron has been hired as a live-in tutor (a governess) for nine-year-old Ada, the only child in a manor house, which is shared with her father, a housekeeper, and—occasionally—her adult brother Darcy. From the beginning, the members of the household are comfortable with Bron's nonbinary expression. Ada does get a bit frustrated early on and pesters Bron about his pronouns, but the pestering originates in her desire to respect his identity as he defines it. The only member of the household is uncomfortable with Bron is Darcy (the name is no coincidence).
You can imagine the kinds of things that follow. Bron and Ada grow deeply attached to one another. Ada and her father including Bron is household events, which he finds uncomfortable, coming from an utterly different economic background than theirs and existing in the no-person's land of not-family, but more-than-servent. There are balls. Cricket matches. A breakfast room where breakfast is eaten. A remarkable library holding generations' worth of treasured volumes. The only person present who treats Bron critically is Darcy. Everything each one of them says to the other is perceived as an insult or provocation.
If you've read any Austen or Brontë, you can predict much of what will happen. Poor, not-quite-a-girl governess meets arrogant rich man and they despise each other. The family has secrets, lots of them. Some of the family's closest friends may not be as well-disposed as they seem. The housekeeper may be up to no good. There's a fire. There are fights, misunderstandings, and moments of deep distrust.
I absolutely love what this novel did in modernizing a well-worn trope. Characters can easily be matched with their equivalents in Austen and Brontë's work. But here's the thing of it: I've just wearied of novels where the driving question is "will these two wind up together?" If you enjoy romances and comedies of manners, The Manor House Governess will delight you. If you're more ambivalent about such things, you may feel less emotionally engaged, but you will definitely take pleasure in this twisting of the genre.
I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via NetGalley; the opinions are my own.… (altro)
1 
Sarah-Hope | 3 altre recensioni | Oct 16, 2023 |
Sarah-Hope | 3 altre recensioni | Oct 16, 2023 | 
Questa recensione è stata scritta per Recensori in anteprima di LibraryThing.What an interesting book! As someone who loved Charlotte Bronte's <a href="https://www.librarything.com/work/2204">Jane Eyre</a> but generally prefers contemporary fiction, I found a story that honors the 19th century British classics but in a 21st century setting and with a gender-fluid protagonist to be compelling. The prose was thoughtful and, again, reminiscent of earlier times; I often forgot that I was reading something set in the present day until Bron made a reference to Netflix or his phone. I generally liked the characters; Ada was delightfully precocious, and Mr. Edwards' acceptance of Bron was heartwarming. I found myself often impatient with Darcy, but as the story unfolded and we learned what was behind his behavior, I was able to make some room for it. As a "mystery", it worked pretty well... I definitely wanted to know why things had unfolded the way they did. I also got a little impatient with the amount of gender-and-sexual-expression angst, but reminded myself that living in Seattle with its vastly liberal attitudes about almost everything has spoiled me to the struggles that many people have. All in all, it was a very enjoyable read by a very creative writer.… (altro)
Liste
Premi e riconoscimenti
Statistiche
- Opere
- 3
- Utenti
- 34
- Popolarità
- #413,653
- Voto
- 3.6
- Recensioni
- 4
- ISBN
- 7
Despite heavy references to the Brontes and Jane Austen, The Manor House Governess has neither the high melodrama of the former nor the biting wit of the latter. There are a few dramatic events, but by and large it's a low-key, gentle narrative revolving around Bron's personal growth, as he realizes that he has to stop trying to live in a classic novel and start living in the real world, and his romance with Darcy.
The novel's main strength, to me, was its compassion for its central trio of queer characters (Bron, Darcy, and Bron's ex Giovanni), each of whom has a different relationship to sexuality and gender presentation. Another facet of Bron's journey in the book is getting past his knee-jerk judgement of queer people whom he views as too gender-conforming or straight-acting and realizing that none of us has it easy in this cisheteronormative world. The narrative clearly has empathy both for Giovanni's frustration at being in a relationship with a closeted partner and for Darcy's unwillingness to be open about his sexuality at that point in his life, which is somewhat uncommon in queer literature in my experience. Both men also turn out to have done some pretty egregious things as their relationship deteriorated, which are clearly not condoned but are treated sympathetically. Meanwhile, both Darcy's story and a subplot in which Bron helps a neighbor accept and reconnect with her trans daughter offer hope that family members who are less than understanding at first might come around in time, which is also nice to see.
If you're expecting actual pastiche of Regency or Victorian novels, The Manor House Governess may disappoint. But if you're interested in an ultimately low-stakes bildungsroman plus romance that explores the different ways queer people navigate a sometimes-hostile society, it's certainly worth a look.… (altro)