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A Fair Barbarian (1880)

di Frances Hodgson Burnett

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Classic Literature. Fiction. Romance. HTML:

In Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Fair Barbarian, cultures clash when an affluent American heiress makes a splash in a sleepy British village. Octavia Bassett, a spirited young woman who hails from the untamed outback of Nevada, shocks and offends many of the staid aristocrats she encounters??but she manages to capture a few hearts, as well.… (altro)

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Cute, but not too memorable for me. The Shuttle is my preferred Frances Hodgson Burnett novel. (I LOVE The Shuttle!) This was short, and the stakes weren't quite as high as in The Shuttle, but the theme of American vs. British manners was there, and some nice enough characters. ( )
  Alishadt | Feb 25, 2023 |
A young, beautiful American heiress descends upon a tiny sleepy English town. Burnett loves gender and class stereotypes; there is nothing she likes more than to write about a lady's delicate features or a man's strong arms, and certainly every member of the lower classes is flatteringly awed by their betters. Nevertheless, the American Octavia Bassett manages to upset the usual mode just a little--when she is asked to marry a handsome, well-bred and rich Englishman, she refuses with composure. I love the scene:

'"You don't want _me_," she said. "You want somebody meeker,--somebody who would respect you very much, and obey you. I'm not used to obeying people."
"Do you mean also that you would not respect me?" he inquired bitterly.
"Oh," she replied, "you haven't respected me much!"
"Excuse me"--he began, in his loftiest manner.
"You didn't respect me enough to think me worth marrying," she said. "I was not the kind of girl you would have chosen of your own will."
"You are treating me unfairly!" he cried.
"You were going to give me a great deal, I suppose--looking at it in your way," she went on; "but, if I _wasn't_ exactly what you wanted, I had something to give too. I'm young enough to have a good many years to live; and I should have to live them with you, if I married you. That's something, you know."
He rose from his seat pale with wrath and wounded feeling.
"Does this mean that you refuse me?" he demanded, "that your answer is'no'?"
She rose, too--not exultant, not confused, neither pale nor flushed. He had never seen her prettier, more charming, or more natural.
"It would have been 'no,' even if there hadn't been any obstacle," she answered.
"Then," he said, "I need say no more. I see that I have--humiliated myself in vain; and it is rather bitter, I must confess."
"It wasn't my fault," she remarked.'

I love her! There's nothing more refreshing than someone who is aware of the values of her peers, but recognizes their limitations and that they are important only in relative terms. The plot of My Fair Barbarian is not complex or surprising, but it is short and sweet. It is also a good showcase for Burnett's ability at writing Victorian literature that lacks a surprising number of the usual pitfalls of that era--the sentences contain only a few clauses each, the dialog is impressively natural, and the characters are personalities of their own, rather than archetypes acting out a morality pagant. ( )
  wealhtheowwylfing | Feb 29, 2016 |
The small end of the wedge being inserted into the social stratum, the rest was not so difficult.*
(p. 53, Chapitre 15, “Superior advantages”).

She still looked up at him; and then, in spite of her happiness, or perhaps because of it, she suddenly began to cry softly, and forgot she had been angry at all, as he took her into his strong, kind arms.**
(p. 90, Chapitre 23, “May I go?”).

Frances Hodgson Burnett, mais si vous savez bien. Le Petit Lord Fauntleroy et puis surtout ce dessin animé, Princesse Sarah qui passait sur La Cinq il y a quelques (bel euphémisme, n’est-ce pas ?) années, et qui est une adaptation du roman La Petite Princesse. Mais notre romancière, considérée comme un des précurseurs du roman d’apprentissage pour les enfants, ne s’est pas arrêtée là. Si seulement six de ses romans ont été traduits en français (dont apparemment seuls trois sont encore disponibles), elle est l’auteur d’une bonne quarantaine de bouquins. Celui dont il est question ici, A Fair Barbarian, a je pense été traduit en français sous le titre Une Nièce d’Amérique, mais est épuisé depuis belle lurette. C’est donc en anglais que je l’ai lu, grâce au Projet Gutenberg qui met à disposition gratuitement de nombreux ouvrages du domaine public, pour peu qu’on ait une liseuse électronique ou un ordinateur.
Le livre date de 1881, donc l’anglais n’est pas celui dont j’ai l’habitude, ce qui a un peu ralenti ma lecture, notamment avec des mots dont le sens a légèrement changé en un peu plus d’un siècle. Mais une fois ces petits ajustements faits, le niveau de langue m’a paru tout fait accessible et j’ai apprécié ma lecture dans cette langue un peu plus soutenue que d’habitude et avec un parfum de violette un peu suranné.

Pour parler du roman en lui-même, il faut bien avouer que les personnages ont des caractères bien identifiés. On sait vite où sont les méchants et les gentils. Enfin, les gentils oui, mais les méchants non. Il serait plus exact de parler de gens étroits d’esprit, bornés, engoncés dans leurs certitudes sociales, mais au fond pas bien méchants.
On suit donc bien ce qui deviendra les conventions des romans pour enfants. Mais non, encore une fois, cette affirmation ne tient que superficiellement. D’abord il s’agit d’un roman pour adolescents plutôt que pour enfants. Cette fameuse nièce venue d’Amérique qui fait souffler un vent d’inconvenance dans la petite société provinciale de Slowbridge (« bridge » pour l’image bucolique du pont dans la campagne anglaise et « slow » pour la lenteur de l’évolution de la société sclérosée que Frances Hodgson Burnett s’amuse à dépeindre avec tous ses travers) où elle débarque sans crier gare, est une jeune fille en âge de se marier et les demoiselles qu’elle fréquente n’ont que cet objectif en tête. Ensuite, puisqu’il est question de mariage et qu’il y a deux héroïnes, Octavia Bassett, la nièce d’Amérique, et Lucia, la jeune anglaise effacée mais qui cache un caractère qui ne demande qu’à s’affirmer, j’ai longtemps cherché comment les couples s’arrangeraient à la fin, et les possibilités que j’entrevoyais ne me plaisait pas toutes. Pas assez morales peut-être, en tout cas un des prétendants me paraissait trop antipathique pour le dénouement prévisible que j’imaginais. Heureusement, la fin n’est pas aussi conventionnelle que je le pensais, et finalement tout est bien qui finit bien.
En résumé, donc, un gentil petit livre, presque de la chick litt avant l’heure. Les filles s’émancipent mais font aussi d’heureux mariages, on s’amuse bien du trait un peu forcé et des oppositions trop évidentes. Et comme je dois être un peu rétro, c’est bien la seule chick litt dont je me délecte, celle du siècle d’avant le siècle dernier !

Tentative de traduction :
* « – Une fois le petit bout du burin inséré dans l’ordre social, le reste ne fut plus bien difficile. »

** « – Elle avait la tête levée et le regardait toujours. Et soudain, malgré son bonheur, ou peut-être à cause de ce bonheur, elle se mis à pleurer doucement, et elle oublia qu’elle avait été en colère, alors qu’il la prenait entre ses bras forts et tendres. »
  raton-liseur | Nov 3, 2015 |
I'm afraid about halfway through I lost interest in this gentle little satire of English and American manners and stopped keep track of who was who and mostly just listened on without much engagement in the story. It is a light tale, possibly even charming, but didn't charm me as much as I hoped.
  amyem58 | Dec 19, 2014 |
This early novel of Burnett's is short and sweet. I liked it more than I thought I would. ( )
  kathleen586 | Mar 30, 2013 |
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Classic Literature. Fiction. Romance. HTML:

In Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Fair Barbarian, cultures clash when an affluent American heiress makes a splash in a sleepy British village. Octavia Bassett, a spirited young woman who hails from the untamed outback of Nevada, shocks and offends many of the staid aristocrats she encounters??but she manages to capture a few hearts, as well.

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