The inner landscapes of North & South characters: Trudy Brasure’s In Consequence

I’ve got the fabulous news that the Kindle version of In Consequence, a North & South retelling by our fellow fan and “me + richard armitage” reader, Trudy Brasure, author of the much-beloved A Heart for Milton, is now available on Kindle.

It’s a really romantic story! Get yours today!

Now, if you’ve read this blog for any length of time,  you know that I am challenged in the romance department. I think, mildly challenged, but the reactions to some things I write here suggest — I’m desperately challenged. Trudy describes herself as a hopeless romantic and I’ve never seen anything in her writing to contradict that assertion.

While me, I’ve been justly accused before of preferring fanfiction for the sex.

But Trudy hardly writes any smut!

Despite that, I followed this story for months and just bought my own copy.

All that romance and limited sex — why am I such a big fan of Milton à la Brasure?

As I said once, in an obscure place, the little sex Trudy writes is strongly historically accurate. Trudy gets what I’d call the “ineffability and sublimity” orientation of the mid-Victorians right on without ever getting oversweet — a love that is spiritual and avoids our confusion of that quality with romance. As a consequence, the sex in In Consequence, when it appears, is quite effective. But that’s not the whole story.

I started reading her stuff because she’d done something I want to do — turn her fandom into concrete creativity. But I kept on with it because I thought it was good. I’ve never met an author of fanfic — or now published novels — who cares as much about development of the characters and fidelity to what she sees as their true natures as Trudy Brasure. I love her approach to these stories — retellings and sequels that explore every detail of the minds and spirits of the main characters in minute detail and with care and even passion. I love best the passages in which she gives the characters free reign to ponder their pasts, presents, futures, and decisions — mirroring the Victorian world in which people thought much more than they said and in which, as a consequence, a gesture or sign took on grand meaning in ways foreign to us today. Trudy twists the plot slightly and looks to see what these characters will do in response. But because her allegiance to the characters is so strong, when I read her retellings I end up believing the plot because she just knows Mr. Thornton and Margaret so incredibly well. Her portrayals of the supporting characters — particularly Mrs. Thornton — are incredibly sympathetic.

Admittedly, Trudy wants a happy ending for (almost) every character and her optimism also shines through the story in ways that paint the darker sides of some characters in a bright tone. Nonetheless, I think she writes Margaret exceptionally well — in a way that makes her more intelligible to me as a personality than Gaskell has done. I occasionally quibble with her reading of Mr. Thornton (the main character in North & South that I identify with). But I don’t think the aspects of Thornton that I occasionally question in Trudy’s presentation — the fact that he is more regularly aware of his passions early on, and more likely to give in to and enjoy them, than the serial in particular admitted — is something that’s likely to disturb the average reader. Even I find interesting the possibility that Mr. Thornton would give in to his desires in ways that would disturb him a provocative and dramatically productive possibility. Trudy’s Thornton realizes the implications of Gaskell’s proposal scene, in which Thornton openly conceives of himself as possessing the unique, unparalleled capacity to love. She also gives him a stronger tinge of Armitage’s self-deprecating moments for the character than did the book, which is all to the good.

That’s a Mr. Thornton — and Trudy’s an author — I can get behind.

Some more information:

The gorgeous cover displayed at above right (and, I assume, the earlier one as well) was designed by Heather Siemon, or HeathRA, as she’s known in the fandom. She had her own interesting Richard Armitage encounter after the Captain America premiere in 2011, when she was finally able to introduce herself to the muse. He remembered her work — the Havoc Tour t-shirt, which he had mentioned in an early Robin Hood press interview.

There’s a free sample of the book, for those who are not familiar with the story or would like to try before you buy. Obviously a purchase is a great “thank you” for the hours of reading pleasure Trudy’s given us.

And, if you know the story already, you can also do Trudy a big favor and go over there and leave a detailed review of your reaction to the work. Well-written reviews always boost sales.

~ by Servetus on January 19, 2014.