dangermousie (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dangermousie) wrote2008-07-27 09:06 pm
dangermousie) wrote2008-07-27 09:06 pm
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Best Book You Never Heard Of: The Definite Object
First off, a fair note of warning: If you have friended me because of drama-related stuff (which is probably most of you), you might want to put me on filter for the next couple of weeks. I am unlikely to be posting on dramas much, if at all, for that time. I basically ODed on them in Australia and also associate them with missing Mr. Mousie and being lonely and cold and homesick. So I need a little break...
Anyway, this post is about books.
I am about to embark on my biannual (or so) reread of Gone with the Wind. Let's see how that goes.
But I want to talk about a different book: one of my ultimate 'tired/cranky so need this' reads, The Definite Object by Jeffery Farnol (you can find it on gutenberg.net here, as the copyright has expired with age).
Written just before WWI, TDO was probably a shopgirl's dream-book, so what it says about me, I don't know, but I love it. Farnol was a fairly prolific (British) author and I like a number of his books (which are usually set in Britain and are period adventure novels), but none with the love of TDO which is neither set in the UK nor period (well, it is for us, but it was contemporaneous when Farnol wrote it).
The story basically combines everything I love in my books: comedy, fights, angsty love story, etc.
The protagonist of the story, Geoff, is a half-British young (early 30s) millionaire and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who is incredibly bored with his life and lack of any possible goal. However his life changes one random evening when (during one of his rare sojourns in his New York house) he catches a scruffy (and useless) juvenile delinquent breaking in with the intention to rob the place. Instead of turning the young man over to the cops, Geoff is caught for the moment by the boy's pleas to let him go because otherwise his older sister Hermione will be distraught. More out of idle curiousity than anything, Geoff makes a deal with the teen. If 'Spike' will take him incognito to the slums and allow him to meet Hermione, he will let him go.
Spike is more than happy to agree of course and does so. But...something happens Geoff did not expect. After the first look at the beautiful, strong (she is the one raising her useless brother), Geoff discovers a definite object for his life indeed: he falls madly in love.
What follows is a delicious adventure-romance tale. He moves into the slum, pretending to be yet another anonymous city-dweller down on his luck. From there on he will try to win the heart (and soul) of Hermione, discover an even better goal for his life in trying to help fellow slum-dwellers in various ways, and also taking on the local mob which makes life down in the slums even worse than it has to be. There are passionate love confessions, beat-downs, death-bed weddings, and some pretty racy (especially considering when it was written) UST. Oh, and Hermione is pretty awesome, too.
Seriously, I love that book SO MUCH.
Guilty Confession: I never thought so before (and I first read the book almost ten years ago, but thinking of it now, I am so totally going to picture Christian Bale as the main male character. Come on, a half-British adrenalin junkie millionaire with angst? So right.
Scratch GWRW reread, actually. I think I just talked myself into rereading The Definite Object.
Anyway, this post is about books.
I am about to embark on my biannual (or so) reread of Gone with the Wind. Let's see how that goes.
But I want to talk about a different book: one of my ultimate 'tired/cranky so need this' reads, The Definite Object by Jeffery Farnol (you can find it on gutenberg.net here, as the copyright has expired with age).
Written just before WWI, TDO was probably a shopgirl's dream-book, so what it says about me, I don't know, but I love it. Farnol was a fairly prolific (British) author and I like a number of his books (which are usually set in Britain and are period adventure novels), but none with the love of TDO which is neither set in the UK nor period (well, it is for us, but it was contemporaneous when Farnol wrote it).
The story basically combines everything I love in my books: comedy, fights, angsty love story, etc.
The protagonist of the story, Geoff, is a half-British young (early 30s) millionaire and a bit of an adrenaline junkie who is incredibly bored with his life and lack of any possible goal. However his life changes one random evening when (during one of his rare sojourns in his New York house) he catches a scruffy (and useless) juvenile delinquent breaking in with the intention to rob the place. Instead of turning the young man over to the cops, Geoff is caught for the moment by the boy's pleas to let him go because otherwise his older sister Hermione will be distraught. More out of idle curiousity than anything, Geoff makes a deal with the teen. If 'Spike' will take him incognito to the slums and allow him to meet Hermione, he will let him go.
Spike is more than happy to agree of course and does so. But...something happens Geoff did not expect. After the first look at the beautiful, strong (she is the one raising her useless brother), Geoff discovers a definite object for his life indeed: he falls madly in love.
What follows is a delicious adventure-romance tale. He moves into the slum, pretending to be yet another anonymous city-dweller down on his luck. From there on he will try to win the heart (and soul) of Hermione, discover an even better goal for his life in trying to help fellow slum-dwellers in various ways, and also taking on the local mob which makes life down in the slums even worse than it has to be. There are passionate love confessions, beat-downs, death-bed weddings, and some pretty racy (especially considering when it was written) UST. Oh, and Hermione is pretty awesome, too.
Seriously, I love that book SO MUCH.
Scratch GWRW reread, actually. I think I just talked myself into rereading The Definite Object.