<![CDATA[Misfortune: A Novel]]>

false <![CDATA[Misfortune: A Novel]]>

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One of the most auspicious debuts of recent years, Wesley Stace's Misfortune follows the rise, fall, and triumphant return of Rose Old, a foundling rescued from a London garbage heap in 1820 by the richest man in Britain. Lord Geoffroy Loveall, whose character has been shaped by perpetual mourning for a sister who died in childhood, seizes on the infant as a replacement for his beloved sister. With the help of trusted servants, he arranges for the child to be lovingly brought up at his ancestral mansion, Loveall Hall--to all appearances, his biological daughter and unhoped-for heir. No matter that the baby is not a girl. The story thus far is so engaging, and the details of Rose's childhood so playfully rendered (when she was first brought to Loveall Hall, the staff of 250 included a servant whose sole responsibility was to iron newspapers before their second reading), that it is with reluctance that the reader meets the inevitable rude, scheming relatives whose plotting will lead to the "misfortune" of the title. Luckily, Stace (the given name of the musician John Wesley Harding) takes too much delight in Rose to dump her back on the garbage heap, or at least not for long. The cross-dressing love child of Great Expectations and A. S. Byatt's Possession, Misfortune will find you breathlessly tracking the movements of its principal players, and applauding the most ridiculous twists of fate. --Regina Marler <html><head> <meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <meta content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1491" name="GENERATOR"></head> <body> Amazon.com Bonus Content Born in Hastings and educated at Cambridge, Wesley Stace is also known as the musician John Wesley Harding. Musical influences are on display in his gender-bending debut novel, Misfortune, a historical tale set in 19th-Century England about an abandoned boy raised as a girl. Read on to listen to three original songs inspired by the book. A Message from Wesley Stace <img border="1" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/G/01/authors/stace_wesley.m.jpg" align="left">Songs weave their way throughout Misfortune--some are ballads, crucial to the plot and written by one of the characters, others are traditional songs sung at various points of the narrative, others are folk songs from a collection in the Octagonal Library of Love Hall, the home of the central family. Songs aren't anything if they aren't sung, so I decided to match melodies and words and record some of them. I picked these because they were the first two. There will be a full record of the songs of Misfortune, performed by The Love Hall Tryst (myself, Kelly Hogan, Nora O'Connor, and Brian Lohmann) which will be released by Appleseed Recordings later this year. --Wesley Stace "Lambkin" From Chapter One: "For a moment, the laundress was unaware that there was anyone beneath. She began to sing as she worked and this is what finally breathed life into Pharaoh again. It was one of the old songs, his favourite of the many she sang: the story of Lambkin the builder who tortures Lord Murray's family when his note is refused. The purity of Annie's voice contrasted starkly with the words of her song and the street below: "'Where is the heir of this house?' said Lambkin: 'Asleep in his cradle,' the false nurse said to him. And he pricked that baby all over with a pin, While the nurse held a basin for the blood to run in." She had sung it so many times as a lullaby that the horror of the story was somehow soothing." <li>Listen to "Lambkin" "Lord Lovel" From Chapter Two: "Loveall recalled a previous Lord Loveall and the song that bore his name, and he sang it softly to the baby. This ancestor had deferred his marriage for seven years while he went travelling. He returned after only twelve months, but as he rode home, he heard the church bells ringing, "for Nancy Bell who died for a discourteous squire." He died too of grief, as he gazed on her corpse lying in its coffin, and was buried next to her. From her heart grew a red rose and from his heart a briar: "They grew and grew to the church steeple Till they could grow no higher And he pricked that baby all over with a pin, And there entwined in a true lover's knot For true lovers to admire." <li>Listen to "Lord Lovel" "The Ballad of Miss Fortune" "Miss Fortune" is the song from which came the original idea for Misfortune. The Ballad of Miss Fortune is a re-recording of this song from John Wesley Harding's album, Awake. <li>Listen to "The Ballad of Miss Fortune" Music from John Wesley Harding <table border="0" cellpadding="4" width="100%" cellspacing="4"> <tbody> <tr class="tiny" align="middle" valign="top"> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000056ICM.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> Awake</td> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001A79RQ.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> Adam's Apple</td> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008L3ZW.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> Here Comes the Groom</td></tr> <tr class="tiny" align="middle" valign="top"> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000058TEC.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> Trad Arr Jones</td> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00004WJG6.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> Confessions of St. Ace</td> <td><img border="0" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000CNY1Y.01.TZZZZZZZ.jpg"> John Wesley Harding's New Deal</td></tr></tbody></table> </!-- -- end6pak></li></body></html>

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3 1 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Wed Aug 01 08:51:21 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 01 09:15:25 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Wed Sep 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 05:46:10 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 02 05:52:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false true Fri Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Fri Jan 23 23:50:31 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 23 23:50:53 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 02 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 17 17:37:37 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 03 16:02:05 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Aug 02 16:36:01 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 02 16:42:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 0 false false Tue Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Thu Jul 31 05:28:31 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 26 12:55:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false true Sat Feb 23 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jun 26 06:16:17 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 06:17:24 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 05 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Tue Feb 12 08:49:17 -0800 2008 Tue Feb 12 08:49:17 -0800 2008
I'll try to sy...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 18 11:28:56 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 13 17:59:46 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Nov 27 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 27 00:08:01 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 27 00:21:16 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 11:56:59 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 01 12:00:11 -0700 2009
And that is still true.

I'm not sure how I feel about the book, but it certainly kept me on my toes and thinking about gender identity, nature versus nurture, and more. I...more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Jul 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 20 21:28:50 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 24 09:53:56 -0700 2009
Misfortune is a truly engaging and titillating story! A boy raised as a girl by an asexual man and his literary ...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Nov 23 21:01:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 21:03:21 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false true Wed May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 23 18:15:48 -0700 2008 Wed May 28 18:24:15 -0700 2008
spoiler: i particularly enjoyed how the extended ...more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jul 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 22:37:10 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 02 23:11:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Wed Aug 05 07:40:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 05 07:40:47 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 07 20:27:36 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 05 15:18:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 13:56:48 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 14:02:21 -0700 2009 4 5 false false Sat May 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 04 13:10:30 -0700 2009 Sun May 17 13:39:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 28 19:40:56 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 26 19:29:10 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=200840