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dangermousie...and Lymond begging Philippa for the right to kill himself is still one of the most unbearable things ever.
Also this time, I don't think I could even bear to reread Pawn. The chess game kills me so badly I can't breathe.
Also, Philippa? Most awesome fictional heroine ever. EVER. But I am not sure whether it's because I adore her intrinsic awesomeness or because she is Lymond's salvation.
Also this time, I don't think I could even bear to reread Pawn. The chess game kills me so badly I can't breathe.
Also, Philippa? Most awesome fictional heroine ever. EVER. But I am not sure whether it's because I adore her intrinsic awesomeness or because she is Lymond's salvation.
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Date: 2007-05-31 10:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 02:29 am (UTC)He is the protagonist of the six novels (they tell one arc-ed story) collectivly known as 'Lymond Chronicles' by Dorothy Dunnett.
Lymond is a 16th century Scottish nobleman who is a polyglot genius who is completely messed up. It's really hard to explain/describe him but he is just incredible. If you click on my 'lymond' tag there are some posts about him.
In an earlier post, I described Lymond while comparing him to Sayers' Lord Peter:
Actually, walking this morning, it just occurred to me how much Lymond is inspired by Lord Peter (though of course he is uniquely his own, as a character), and I don't just refer to the aristocratic blondness. They are both emotionally high-strung (the old term would have been 'nervy'), extremely self-controlled men. Both with an amazing intellect and strength of purpose they conceal under a manner to guard themselves. They are polyglot quotation magpies, with a love of poetry (I bet if John Donne existed when Lymond lived, he would be quoting him non-stop) and a passion for music.
Both were promising but rather well-adjusted-into-society young men with a set path in front of them and then both got horribly derailed and traumatized by an event that happened prior to anything in the books but has shaped them completely. And this past continues to affect them. And for both, their chosen fields of endeavor, while uniquely suited for them, actually continue to mess them up further and feed into their issues and feelings of 'unworthiness.' Everything Lymond does and that is done to him in the course of the books violates his headspace and his soul more and more). Both men are all about control, not just because they'd had so little earlier, but also because without control they would sit in a little room, screaming.
The authors are marvelous about showing us so much through so little. Letting us figure things out. We only see twice inside Lymond's head, but somehow, through all the indirections and mirrors and shields, we get to know the characters intimately. It's in what they don't say. Even though the chess game in Pawn in unbearable, there is no scene that freaks me out more than Lymond first coming across the child Khaireddin, who is his son. And Khaireddin is small, and painted, and has been a child prostitute. And the whole scene is horrifying, with Khaireddin offering favors to his own father who he doesn't know is that, and the scene would make anyone sick and yet Lymond reacts with amazing rightness and gentleness and treats Khaireddin like a real little boy/man and subnegates himself in doing what's right for him, no matter what it costs him. Even though anyone decent would have a strong reaction to child prostitution. And more than that, Khaireddin is his son. And not just that, if anyone has buttons about sexual abuse, Lymond would (a beautiful 16 year old on the galleys? He was pretty surely toast). But the control and care Lymond has is all not about him. And Dunnett wants us to infer all that, there is no beating over the head with it.
Even the families are a bit similar: both have brilliant mothers they adore, and shadowy fathers. And a well-meaning, dull elder brother, who loves but doesn't understand.
And then there are the women they love. Both of them are grounded by the somewhat younger, much more pragmatic, yet fiercely wounded women they fall in love with. And those women make them jump through hoops (not on purpose) but really are what saves them.
And of course, both those women are fiercely intelligent, yet wounded and need healing in turn, and are in some ways mirroring their men.
Anyway.
The books are (in order):
Game of Kings (can stand on its own)
Queen Of Thrones
Disorderly Knights
Pawn in Fankincense
Ringed Castle
Checkmate
You can skip the first two and start with DK but the last four must be read together. GoK is wonderful and I loved it from the first page but some people find it a bit slow going at first (give it 200 pages or so).
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Date: 2007-06-01 08:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 04:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 06:49 am (UTC)I don't think I could even bear to reread Pawn. The chess game kills me so badly I can't breathe.
I hear you on that, but in fact it's my favourite book of the series because of its tortured emotions. And because Phillipa was starting to come into her own. Although I love the first one too. And the second because of the portrayal of the French court. And the fifth one because of Russia. And . . . Oh hell, I love them ALL.
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Date: 2007-06-01 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-01 07:16 am (UTC)Tell me more ofthese Lymond Chronicles of which you speak. About? Time period? How many books? Etc...
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Date: 2007-06-01 03:33 pm (UTC)http://dangermousie.livejournal.com/832592.html?thread=8730704#t8730704
They are super wonderful.
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Date: 2007-06-03 12:22 am (UTC)The Lymond Chronicles are really, really, really good and I must reread them asap...
Alas, the Niccolo books never grabbed me as much :/.
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Date: 2007-06-04 04:29 am (UTC)