I *did* say that I would have more to blog on the subject of The Diamond Age Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, and I actually do. We are given the backstory of a poor girl, Nellody, daughter of Tequila, an unfortunate waif, who, through the fortunate pillfering by her brother, Harvard, gets her hands on a Most Marvellous Book--and here, Gentle Reader, I am sold. I am on the outset on the side of a four year old in peril, I can be no otherwise. And in peril she most certainly is: her mother's choices in beaux are beastly and abusive, and she is so very curious and charming a lass that I worried for her: "Nell", you know. Famous Dickens character in The Curiousity Shop for pretty much having, well, suffered a lot and then dying.
But no, like her progenitrexes Alice, Dorothy and Lucy, she makes the most of her wonderous journey to adulthood through the use of this engine of education--although I will leave the particulars for those who stumble upon my review and have not read this charming work to see for themselves. Regardless, I have actually one complaint, and that possibly one of the nicer ones an author (being better than ten years from completion of said work--myself having come terrifically late to his appreciation) can receive: I wish he had borrowed a different page from Dickens, that of the balance sheet, and written more as though he were paid by each word--
There, I've admitted it. It could have been, for my satisfaction, even more fleshed out--as to the ending, most particularly. I could not help but compare it at the end to The Baroque Cycle, which was 2700 pages and not one to my thinking superfluous. That our Nell grows by leaps and bounds, and that the events about her changed rapidly, I certainly would have known, but might have liked *more*--and a better grasp of what the drummers were beyond a kind of "show, not tell" sketch could have been appreciated. Nonetheless, I consider it a wonderful story--much recommended.
But no, like her progenitrexes Alice, Dorothy and Lucy, she makes the most of her wonderous journey to adulthood through the use of this engine of education--although I will leave the particulars for those who stumble upon my review and have not read this charming work to see for themselves. Regardless, I have actually one complaint, and that possibly one of the nicer ones an author (being better than ten years from completion of said work--myself having come terrifically late to his appreciation) can receive: I wish he had borrowed a different page from Dickens, that of the balance sheet, and written more as though he were paid by each word--
There, I've admitted it. It could have been, for my satisfaction, even more fleshed out--as to the ending, most particularly. I could not help but compare it at the end to The Baroque Cycle, which was 2700 pages and not one to my thinking superfluous. That our Nell grows by leaps and bounds, and that the events about her changed rapidly, I certainly would have known, but might have liked *more*--and a better grasp of what the drummers were beyond a kind of "show, not tell" sketch could have been appreciated. Nonetheless, I consider it a wonderful story--much recommended.
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