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The Gothic Saga #2
A Bloodsmoor Romance
Set in a nineteenth century similar to our own, A Bloodsmoor Romance follows the beautiful Zinn sisters, five young women who refuse-for the most part-"the obligations of Christian marriage."
Full of Oates's mordant wit, and breathlessly told in the Victorian style by an unnamed narrator shocked by the Zinn sisters' sexuality, impulsivity, and rude rejection of the mores of their time, A Bloodsmoor Romance is a delicious filigree of literary conventions, "a novel of manners" in the tradition of Austen, Dickens, and Alcott which Oates turns on its head.
Oates's dark exploration interweaves murder and mayhem, ghosts, and abductions, substance abuse and gender identity, women's suffrage, the American spiritualist movement, and sexual aberration as the Zinn sisters come into contact with some of the nineteenth-century's greatest characters, from Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde. A biting assessment of the American landscape and a virtuosic transformation of a literary genre, A Bloodsmoor Romance is a compelling, hilarious, and magical anti-romance-Little Women by way of Stephen King.
Full of Oates's mordant wit, and breathlessly told in the Victorian style by an unnamed narrator shocked by the Zinn sisters' sexuality, impulsivity, and rude rejection of the mores of their time, A Bloodsmoor Romance is a delicious filigree of literary conventions, "a novel of manners" in the tradition of Austen, Dickens, and Alcott which Oates turns on its head.
Oates's dark exploration interweaves murder and mayhem, ghosts, and abductions, substance abuse and gender identity, women's suffrage, the American spiritualist movement, and sexual aberration as the Zinn sisters come into contact with some of the nineteenth-century's greatest characters, from Mark Twain to Oscar Wilde. A biting assessment of the American landscape and a virtuosic transformation of a literary genre, A Bloodsmoor Romance is a compelling, hilarious, and magical anti-romance-Little Women by way of Stephen King.
640 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
74 people are currently reading
1966 people want to read
About the author
Joyce Carol Oates
853 books9,624 followersJoyce Carol Oates is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels Black Water (1992), What I Lived For (1994), and Blonde (2000), and her short story collections The Wheel of Love (1970) and Lovely, Dark, Deep: Stories (2014) were each finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. She has won many awards for her writing, including the National Book Award, for her novel Them (1969), two O. Henry Awards, the National Humanities Medal, and the Jerusalem Prize (2019).
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
Oates taught at Princeton University from 1978 to 2014, and is the Roger S. Berlind '52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities with the Program in Creative Writing. From 2016 to 2020, she was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught short fiction in the spring semesters. She now teaches at Rutgers University, New Brunswick.
Oates was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2016.
Pseudonyms: Rosamond Smith and Lauren Kelly.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
June 15, 2015
This book...wow.
One of the '83 review blurbs describes it thus: "A merciless send-up of the romantic novel...like a long Edward Gorey cartoon, or like Little Women as told by Stephen King."
Honestly, I can think of no better tagline. This is a long, challenging, highly layered & surreal read. It defies total categorization, but touches upon such labels as historical fiction, post-modern fiction, literary fiction, moralistic melodrama, gothic, satire, grotesque, steampunk, pastiche, fantasy, & feminist manifesto. And while it includes aspects of all these things, it somehow manages to overturn each label in the same breath. How? I have no idea. It just does. It's an amazing example of what can be done with a love of language & genre -- but the author isn't blind to flaws & drawbacks of the past.
At the barest level, Bloodsmoor is the story of the Kiddemaster/Zinn family as chronicled by a nameless narrator. Regarding the narrator (an untrustworthy lens for the story), we know only that she's a woman, unmarried, & extremely strict in terms of Christian morality. But as to her subjects...well, the reader spends 600+ pages getting to know them in great detail. These subjects are a specific branch of the Kiddemaster clan -- that is, the family of John Quincy Zinn & Prudence Kiddemaster. They have five daughters, & each suffers a different fate. Without spoiling what happens to which sister, I will say this much: one suffers a dreadful marriage, one elopes with a poor suitor, one becomes a spiritualist, one embarks on a stage career, & one turns into a cross-dressing lesbian.
(Take that, Little Women. *evil cackle*)
Interwoven with the Zinn sisters & their parents is a wide-ranging homage to fiction & culture of the period (Twain's cameo is particularly awesome) that explores the late Victorian period from a modern standpoint, particularly their varied reactions to technological advancement & changing feminine roles. I have to admit, my favorite uber-literary aspect was the detailed inclusion of spiritualism & its history. Spiritualism is one of my pet fascinations of the Victorian period, & I was completely hooked by the ambiguity of ___'s spirit-related experiences. Was she truly communing with the dead, or was it a manifestation of various emotional traumas? There's no simple answer. Likewise, the yes/no question re: whether spirits exist is never quite settled.
But ultimately this is a satire, & the (justified) mocking of social hypocrisy comes through loud & clear. The airs & graces affected by the Kiddemasters are transparently ludicrous, while the narrator's fawning over their perfection only serves to highlight how utterly unrealistic such expectations were -- not only on the part of those who prattled the brilliance of such mores in that period, but also the over-romanticizing of those who look back on an imagined past & glorify the same false veneer of gentility. Point of fact, the satire isn't limited to the Kiddemasters & their overdone sensibility -- instead Bloodsmoor mocks everyone who reads a historical novel & expects the characters to conform to some gloried, hazy vision of past morals. The narrator continually clutches her pearls over the Zinn daughters & their escapades, protesting heartily even as she's dissecting their various fates -- and the reader can't help seeing a prurient delight in the same behavior she claims is so offensive, particularly re: anything sensual: ___'s hyperactive sex drive, ___'s crossdressing, or ___'s wifely duties (which include hoods, S&M, & erotic asphyxiation -- see, I wasn't kidding about the grotesque aspects :D).
...And on that equally prurient note, I'll wrap this epic review.
Overall this was an engrossing read, but it's definitely not for everyone. The language is extremely dense & takes getting used to. The plot is non-linear & skips from present to past to future according to the narrator's whim, & there are so many subjects covered that it's unlikely everyone will be interested in everything. (Indeed, the sections discussing John Quincy's educational philosophy were a slog for yours truly.) But if you've got the patience & the sense of humor to appreciate the various layers, this is an excellent read.
One of the '83 review blurbs describes it thus: "A merciless send-up of the romantic novel...like a long Edward Gorey cartoon, or like Little Women as told by Stephen King."
Honestly, I can think of no better tagline. This is a long, challenging, highly layered & surreal read. It defies total categorization, but touches upon such labels as historical fiction, post-modern fiction, literary fiction, moralistic melodrama, gothic, satire, grotesque, steampunk, pastiche, fantasy, & feminist manifesto. And while it includes aspects of all these things, it somehow manages to overturn each label in the same breath. How? I have no idea. It just does. It's an amazing example of what can be done with a love of language & genre -- but the author isn't blind to flaws & drawbacks of the past.
At the barest level, Bloodsmoor is the story of the Kiddemaster/Zinn family as chronicled by a nameless narrator. Regarding the narrator (an untrustworthy lens for the story), we know only that she's a woman, unmarried, & extremely strict in terms of Christian morality. But as to her subjects...well, the reader spends 600+ pages getting to know them in great detail. These subjects are a specific branch of the Kiddemaster clan -- that is, the family of John Quincy Zinn & Prudence Kiddemaster. They have five daughters, & each suffers a different fate. Without spoiling what happens to which sister, I will say this much: one suffers a dreadful marriage, one elopes with a poor suitor, one becomes a spiritualist, one embarks on a stage career, & one turns into a cross-dressing lesbian.
(Take that, Little Women. *evil cackle*)
Interwoven with the Zinn sisters & their parents is a wide-ranging homage to fiction & culture of the period (Twain's cameo is particularly awesome) that explores the late Victorian period from a modern standpoint, particularly their varied reactions to technological advancement & changing feminine roles. I have to admit, my favorite uber-literary aspect was the detailed inclusion of spiritualism & its history. Spiritualism is one of my pet fascinations of the Victorian period, & I was completely hooked by the ambiguity of ___'s spirit-related experiences. Was she truly communing with the dead, or was it a manifestation of various emotional traumas? There's no simple answer. Likewise, the yes/no question re: whether spirits exist is never quite settled.
But ultimately this is a satire, & the (justified) mocking of social hypocrisy comes through loud & clear. The airs & graces affected by the Kiddemasters are transparently ludicrous, while the narrator's fawning over their perfection only serves to highlight how utterly unrealistic such expectations were -- not only on the part of those who prattled the brilliance of such mores in that period, but also the over-romanticizing of those who look back on an imagined past & glorify the same false veneer of gentility. Point of fact, the satire isn't limited to the Kiddemasters & their overdone sensibility -- instead Bloodsmoor mocks everyone who reads a historical novel & expects the characters to conform to some gloried, hazy vision of past morals. The narrator continually clutches her pearls over the Zinn daughters & their escapades, protesting heartily even as she's dissecting their various fates -- and the reader can't help seeing a prurient delight in the same behavior she claims is so offensive, particularly re: anything sensual: ___'s hyperactive sex drive, ___'s crossdressing, or ___'s wifely duties (which include hoods, S&M, & erotic asphyxiation -- see, I wasn't kidding about the grotesque aspects :D).
...And on that equally prurient note, I'll wrap this epic review.
Overall this was an engrossing read, but it's definitely not for everyone. The language is extremely dense & takes getting used to. The plot is non-linear & skips from present to past to future according to the narrator's whim, & there are so many subjects covered that it's unlikely everyone will be interested in everything. (Indeed, the sections discussing John Quincy's educational philosophy were a slog for yours truly.) But if you've got the patience & the sense of humor to appreciate the various layers, this is an excellent read.
May 6, 2012
For those who think it's an actual ROMANCE, it's not. What a satire, someone on amazon likened it to an Edward Gorey cartoon, I think that nails it beautifully!
Finished it last night, what a long journey. I can understand how there were readers that could not get through it, knowing many people like short and sweet. I do think they missed out though. It's dark and humorous and it cannot be denied Oates is one hell of a prolific writer. This novel was like walking through a labyrinth full of godless creatures. I imagine Oates became, for the duration of creating this story, a member of the Zinn family. A delightfully dark, strange read full of the fruit I love to devour in novels.
May 19, 2018
I'm very close to finishing this looooong book and unless the ending is a real flop, it's a 5-star review. I've seen some reviews make the pitch that A Bloodsmoor Romance is the the sort of novel you'd get if Stephen King wrote Little Women, and I should tell you that those comparisons aren't adequate to describing this book. I think a better observation is is that it's a Joyce Carol Oates version of a 19th century romance about 5 daughters in the Zinn family whose lives take wholly unexpected and, for their station, very unapproved turns. To get into their individual fates in a review here would spoil the fun of discovering for yourself the treats this book has in store for the patient reader. Along the way you get kidnapping, seances, mediums, the occult, actresses, inventions, scandals, time machines, Mark Twain, Helena Blavatsky (look her up!), ghosts, disappearances, sexual kinkiness, strange deaths, and ample doses of sly humor. I think anyone who has read and liked Bellefleur by JCO will really enjoy this book too. Highly recommended for readers who appreciate books that aren't written like this anymore.
March 5, 2011
Joyce Carol Oates comes off as humorless most of the time. Not that I expect her tales of rape, hauntings, violence, isolation, infidelity, and despair to be lighthearted. But just as I expect any good humor writing to depict a kind of pain, I expect depictions of pain to have their own sense of humor. From my little worldview, it's part of being an honest writer.
In fact, right before reading JCO's sprawling epic A Bloodsmoor Romance, I told a friend that I liked everything about her books except that they were all so humorless.
Do you see where this is going, readers? Right after I made this judgment, I read a book by Joyce Carol Oates which was tragic, tangled, and consistently funny. OH, THE IRONY!
The unnamed narrator, a virgin, tries to keep her Victorian sense of propriety and decency as she details the lurid dissolution and reunion of an upper-class Pennsylvania family. She makes a great show of defending "proper Christian" conduct, then goes into painstaking detail about the unseemly events that bring the Zinn family into a new century.
There are infidelities, sex changes, ghosts, murders, meltdowns, spies, elopements, betrayals and abandonments, all tragic in their own way. All surreal and haunting. Cumulatively, however, in the voice of their virginal, self-righteous narrator, they make for a rollicking, jeering epic of a novel.
So I was wrong about JCO. In fact, I wonder if the same dark humor that infuses and carries A Bloodsmoor Romance isn't present in her other work as well. Maybe, like the narrator, I missed certain undertones and ironies in my rush to criticize.
Either way, A Bloodsmoor Romance joins the ranks of full-hearted epics like Infinite Jest, Catch-22, and Lolita that manage to elicit laughter, even as they batter and dissolve the relationships and spirits of their main characters.
So, I'm sure it offers Ms. Oates no small amount of relief to know that I no longer find her work humorless. In fact, Joyce, I salute you. You can be a very funny lady if you put your mind to it.
In fact, right before reading JCO's sprawling epic A Bloodsmoor Romance, I told a friend that I liked everything about her books except that they were all so humorless.
Do you see where this is going, readers? Right after I made this judgment, I read a book by Joyce Carol Oates which was tragic, tangled, and consistently funny. OH, THE IRONY!
The unnamed narrator, a virgin, tries to keep her Victorian sense of propriety and decency as she details the lurid dissolution and reunion of an upper-class Pennsylvania family. She makes a great show of defending "proper Christian" conduct, then goes into painstaking detail about the unseemly events that bring the Zinn family into a new century.
There are infidelities, sex changes, ghosts, murders, meltdowns, spies, elopements, betrayals and abandonments, all tragic in their own way. All surreal and haunting. Cumulatively, however, in the voice of their virginal, self-righteous narrator, they make for a rollicking, jeering epic of a novel.
So I was wrong about JCO. In fact, I wonder if the same dark humor that infuses and carries A Bloodsmoor Romance isn't present in her other work as well. Maybe, like the narrator, I missed certain undertones and ironies in my rush to criticize.
Either way, A Bloodsmoor Romance joins the ranks of full-hearted epics like Infinite Jest, Catch-22, and Lolita that manage to elicit laughter, even as they batter and dissolve the relationships and spirits of their main characters.
So, I'm sure it offers Ms. Oates no small amount of relief to know that I no longer find her work humorless. In fact, Joyce, I salute you. You can be a very funny lady if you put your mind to it.
May 21, 2012
JCO enriches and expands the rigid box of Victorian literature with an insidious, insistently realistic perspective.
The bones of the story are true to form, with accidents of birth and the struggle between sin and virtue at every turn, sprinkled liberally with strange events of spiritual portent. As in novels of manners from Dickens & Eliot to Madox Ford (Empire thro Edwardian) we see the middle class bougeoisie desperately trying to keep their skirts out of the mud from whence they rose by at least appearing to adhere religiously to social code.
Never does Oates drop the realistic ball. The reader is in on her wry modern perspective at all times yet easily suspends disbelief in a multitude of ridiculous encounters between her characters and historical personages/events. As always with Oates' work, events of the novel are well-grounded by full-fledged motivated characters, credible as associates and also-rans among Edison, duPont, Emerson, et al sages, inventors, industrialists, popular mystics of their day.
What I like best about this novel: it is told in a style which is not literary-- it's the voice of the everyday reading material of the ladies and gentlemen of working, middle & upper-middle-class America, pre-Civil War through pre-WWI era-- a style which is patently ridiculous to the modern ear, exposing the foibles of the times. I've collected plenty of this stuff-- ladies' magazines, gossip rags, newspapers-- the book sounds like it was torn from the pages of a serialized potboiler.
This, I believe, is the secret to Oates' success in maintaining that tightrope-walk between modern sensibility and suspension of disbelief. The style grows on you-- like stepping into a bath which is a bit too warm. As you steep in the patter of the cultural times, you develop a finer appreciation of gothic weirdness. It was the sound of clashing undercurrents: technology and communications galloped toward the future while the brakes were full on, socially.
The bones of the story are true to form, with accidents of birth and the struggle between sin and virtue at every turn, sprinkled liberally with strange events of spiritual portent. As in novels of manners from Dickens & Eliot to Madox Ford (Empire thro Edwardian) we see the middle class bougeoisie desperately trying to keep their skirts out of the mud from whence they rose by at least appearing to adhere religiously to social code.
Never does Oates drop the realistic ball. The reader is in on her wry modern perspective at all times yet easily suspends disbelief in a multitude of ridiculous encounters between her characters and historical personages/events. As always with Oates' work, events of the novel are well-grounded by full-fledged motivated characters, credible as associates and also-rans among Edison, duPont, Emerson, et al sages, inventors, industrialists, popular mystics of their day.
What I like best about this novel: it is told in a style which is not literary-- it's the voice of the everyday reading material of the ladies and gentlemen of working, middle & upper-middle-class America, pre-Civil War through pre-WWI era-- a style which is patently ridiculous to the modern ear, exposing the foibles of the times. I've collected plenty of this stuff-- ladies' magazines, gossip rags, newspapers-- the book sounds like it was torn from the pages of a serialized potboiler.
This, I believe, is the secret to Oates' success in maintaining that tightrope-walk between modern sensibility and suspension of disbelief. The style grows on you-- like stepping into a bath which is a bit too warm. As you steep in the patter of the cultural times, you develop a finer appreciation of gothic weirdness. It was the sound of clashing undercurrents: technology and communications galloped toward the future while the brakes were full on, socially.
November 4, 2021
I knew this one would require a huge investment of my reading time. It took me 10 days. It was time well spent.
The first thing that slowed me down was the style: 19th century Gothic romance with long and winding sentences. Just could not read quickly. The book did not sell well when published in 1982 and got damning reviews from people who should have known better. Read almost 40 years later it is an eye-opening look at the Gilded Age from the viewpoint of an annoying pious Christian woman who tells the story of the Zinn family, their four daughters plus one adopted daughter.
JCO plumbs the depths of hypocrisy in those beliefs in a purely satirical presentation of how they contributed to the wretched lives of women, the unholy aspirations of the wealthy and the politicians, and the idea that America should be the ruling power of the world.
Has anything changed in that regard? Not really, though the grinding process of achieving liberty for all continues.
As always, JCO was way ahead of her time. If you are up for the challenge, the novel is a shocking look at how we got to where we are today.
The first thing that slowed me down was the style: 19th century Gothic romance with long and winding sentences. Just could not read quickly. The book did not sell well when published in 1982 and got damning reviews from people who should have known better. Read almost 40 years later it is an eye-opening look at the Gilded Age from the viewpoint of an annoying pious Christian woman who tells the story of the Zinn family, their four daughters plus one adopted daughter.
JCO plumbs the depths of hypocrisy in those beliefs in a purely satirical presentation of how they contributed to the wretched lives of women, the unholy aspirations of the wealthy and the politicians, and the idea that America should be the ruling power of the world.
Has anything changed in that regard? Not really, though the grinding process of achieving liberty for all continues.
As always, JCO was way ahead of her time. If you are up for the challenge, the novel is a shocking look at how we got to where we are today.
November 12, 2010
Wow...well, my goodness, this one is downright odd, at times bizarre, yet delightful with language that is unique and contemplative, beautiful at the same time as grotesque, and loaded with interesting humor... it's a typical JCO novel. A Bloodsmoor Romance follows Bellefleur in the "American Gothic" Quartet, which also includes Mysteries of Winterthurn and My Heart Laid Bare. Like any book by JCO, if you read it and take it too seriously you will get into trouble with this book right away...even I had to adjust to it, at first I didn't like it as well as other JCO books, but it grew on me as it chugged along with the power of a long, long, long freight train hauling boxcars loaded with trunk loads of human baggage and fuel for the fire of the human spirit, and it became a dear friend (who I will miss). I learned about the book through reading The Journal of Joyce Carol Oates 1973-1982 and loved learning about her writing process, and how much she loved writing this book (which I totally relate to) and found a battered used copy somewhere in my travels, and decided to give it a whirl. Much like Bellefleur, it possesses a life of its own and at its heart beats the drum of the American Dream as it rises and falls in the rhythm of life as it is lived by the individuals in this multi-layered tale. There is a stunning realism that is blended with the wild fantasy of a “gothic romance”...a rogue peddler's son becoming a distinguished gentleman/inventor; runaway daughters finding their way in the world by breaking free of the constraints of familial expectations and traditions of the time. I could keep writing more...but I don't want to give it all away! Give it a chance, and come to it with an open mind.
February 1, 2010
This wasn't the first thing I read by Oates, but it was the first that showed me her vicious sense of humor, and it started me on a many-year jag. Someone described it as Little Women as written by Stephen King, which is about right. Very weird 19th-century New England family saga.
March 1, 2014
what the hell did I just read????
and WHO was the man in the black balloon?
interesting and boring and intriguing....
I still don't know what the hell I just read...
and WHO was the man in the black balloon?
interesting and boring and intriguing....
I still don't know what the hell I just read...
October 19, 2025
This book is the vibe I like to bring to a function: bedecked with florals and seemingly whimsical, but actually weird and somewhat dark and eccentric, with a slightly twisted and sly sense of humor, and overall a bit too much for many.
A Bloodsmoor Romance is like Little Women… had Louisa May Alcott the sensibilities of Edward Gorey and Shirley Jackson. And what a pity she didn’t. Thankfully we have Joyce Carole Oates to right this wrong (or write this wrong, depending on who you are). Anyways, this book has everything you could hope for from an American gothic: kidnapping by black hot air balloon, unruly sisters, time machines, a scandalous evening with a dressmaker’s dummy, another scandalous evening with Mark Twain, spirits and seances and ghosts, Yankee peddlers, perverse husbands, mysterious deaths, crossdressing, running away from home to become a famous actress, and so much more…. You know, all the usual horrors of girlhood.
I had always assumed that JCO was kind of a boring, stuffy American writer. But then I read her gothic tales Bellefleur and now a Bloodsmoor Romance, and they have been some of the most delightfully weird and fun books I’ve ever read. JCO is having fun here, parodying genres and other authors, playing with history, pushing the bounds of imagination. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense and it’s excessive, but JCO is doing her thing here, and I’m fully supportive of a woman’s right to being excessive.
A Bloodsmoor Romance is like Little Women… had Louisa May Alcott the sensibilities of Edward Gorey and Shirley Jackson. And what a pity she didn’t. Thankfully we have Joyce Carole Oates to right this wrong (or write this wrong, depending on who you are). Anyways, this book has everything you could hope for from an American gothic: kidnapping by black hot air balloon, unruly sisters, time machines, a scandalous evening with a dressmaker’s dummy, another scandalous evening with Mark Twain, spirits and seances and ghosts, Yankee peddlers, perverse husbands, mysterious deaths, crossdressing, running away from home to become a famous actress, and so much more…. You know, all the usual horrors of girlhood.
I had always assumed that JCO was kind of a boring, stuffy American writer. But then I read her gothic tales Bellefleur and now a Bloodsmoor Romance, and they have been some of the most delightfully weird and fun books I’ve ever read. JCO is having fun here, parodying genres and other authors, playing with history, pushing the bounds of imagination. Sometimes it doesn’t make sense and it’s excessive, but JCO is doing her thing here, and I’m fully supportive of a woman’s right to being excessive.
June 14, 2020
A Bloodsmoor Romance is a “romance” in the literary sense. There is very little in the way of a romantic love story between characters. Instead is more about the often bizarre and mysterious adventures of the five Zinn daughters in Gilded Age America. It was a pastiche of typical mid-19th century fiction maybe in its telling. The narrator often uses stilted language and/or syntax and it is very long; over 600 pages. It felt a lot like a subversion of Little Women. Though outside of some Hawthorn and Twain, Little Women is pretty much the only American classic I’ve read from that time period. But I interpreted it as an intentional send up of modern historical novels that idealize and whitewash the past.
The story begins when the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Zinn, teenaged Deirdre, is abducted by a man in a black hot-air balloon in 1879. This bizarre event is the beginning of the end of the Zinn family. The narrator takes the reader back to inventor John Zinn’s rather cloudy beginnings and his curious courtship with the then Miss Prudence Kiddemaster, heiress and bluestocking, from a wealthy and well connected Pennsylvania family. Then the fates of Dierdre and her other sisters are recounted. It is a wild tale and it includes mediums, time machines, stardom on the stage, cross-dressing and secret histories…pretty wild all in all. I am looking forward to trying JCO’s gothic novel Bellefleur, next. Is there nothing she cannot write?
The story begins when the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Zinn, teenaged Deirdre, is abducted by a man in a black hot-air balloon in 1879. This bizarre event is the beginning of the end of the Zinn family. The narrator takes the reader back to inventor John Zinn’s rather cloudy beginnings and his curious courtship with the then Miss Prudence Kiddemaster, heiress and bluestocking, from a wealthy and well connected Pennsylvania family. Then the fates of Dierdre and her other sisters are recounted. It is a wild tale and it includes mediums, time machines, stardom on the stage, cross-dressing and secret histories…pretty wild all in all. I am looking forward to trying JCO’s gothic novel Bellefleur, next. Is there nothing she cannot write?
January 13, 2017
Muy divertido, realmente divertido y corrosivo
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http://entremontonesdelibros.blogspot...
April 7, 2022
Fantastic homage (or send up? I can't tell how firmly Oates' tongue was planted in her cheek here) to Victorian gothic fiction with the gothic dialed way up to dark magical realism levels.
April 16, 2018
I fell head over heels in love with this book. It worked for me in so many ways: an intrusive, ironic narrative voice; dark humor; rich details; engaging, Victorian literature style plot lines; and fascinating uses of historical facts and personages.
I remember reading Black Water and Foxfire by Oates years ago. I liked them, but they didn't wow me. This book has caused me to have a bit of an author crush on Oates (as in I now follow her on Instagram and Twitter :)). I've heard Blonde is one of her best and I think I'll read it soon.
I remember reading Black Water and Foxfire by Oates years ago. I liked them, but they didn't wow me. This book has caused me to have a bit of an author crush on Oates (as in I now follow her on Instagram and Twitter :)). I've heard Blonde is one of her best and I think I'll read it soon.
March 31, 2014
This is not a book for an impatient reader; it's massive and detailed and layered and written in Victoriana. It lumbers along at times, and often feels like you are listening to an old lady telling tales of her youth, and just when you begin to wonder where on earth this story is going and hmmm, I think there is a piece of cake calling me...the story gets a little shot of sordidness and gossip and you almost can't believe you are reading what you are reading. Hilarious.
abandoned
April 2, 2014Perhaps I'll try another day, but the bloated writing and over-long sentences are just not my cuppa tea.
December 20, 2014
didn´t finish...blech...
June 2, 2019
Ce roman gothique moderne raconte la chute d'une famille prestigieuse et richissime, provoquée par les sœurs Zinn, des jeunes filles pourtant bien éduquées, qui s'écartent de la voie qui avait été tracée pour elles – soit un mariage arrangé avec un vieil aristocrate fortuné – pour vivre à leur manière, à la plus grande indignation générale!
Au cours de leur "honteuse" quête d'indépendance, les sœurs rencontrent des personnages peu recommandables, comme Madame Blavatsky ou Mark Twain. Des mystères inquiétants, des secrets de famille, des scandales et des querelles d'héritage agrémentent joyeusement le récit fragmenté de leur "déchéance".
Mais au cours de cette lecture, on assiste surtout à la déconstruction de l'idéologie puritaine catholique et bourgeoise des États-Unis du 19e siècle! La narration, à la fois très ampoulée et débordant d'une ironie hilarante, donne un ton parfait à cette saga familiale grinçante et très divertissante!
LES HAUTS : Une plume exercée et un humour raffiné...
LES BAS : Des phrases très longues, pas toujours faciles à lire...
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Au cours de leur "honteuse" quête d'indépendance, les sœurs rencontrent des personnages peu recommandables, comme Madame Blavatsky ou Mark Twain. Des mystères inquiétants, des secrets de famille, des scandales et des querelles d'héritage agrémentent joyeusement le récit fragmenté de leur "déchéance".
Mais au cours de cette lecture, on assiste surtout à la déconstruction de l'idéologie puritaine catholique et bourgeoise des États-Unis du 19e siècle! La narration, à la fois très ampoulée et débordant d'une ironie hilarante, donne un ton parfait à cette saga familiale grinçante et très divertissante!
LES HAUTS : Une plume exercée et un humour raffiné...
LES BAS : Des phrases très longues, pas toujours faciles à lire...
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January 5, 2021
4 stars
This is what I think of as classic JCO, she runs you around in a spiral; advancing a retreating, while setting up a cast of outlandish characters.
This is what I think of as classic JCO, she runs you around in a spiral; advancing a retreating, while setting up a cast of outlandish characters.
December 28, 2024
Joyce Carol Oates ur SO right eternally sheltered white girlhood IS horror
October 16, 2013
This title is the second book written in Oates' Gothic Saga. Before starting the review I want to point out, as I do at the beginning of all of the Gothic Saga novels, that these books follow the same gothic style setting and sometimes the same historical figures popping up but do not need to be read sequentially nor do they, as far as I know, reference each other in any way.
I enjoyed this tale of a family of five daughters, each of which chooses a very different fate as they leave home. What Oates manages to do quite masterfully is create five distinct personalities (more if you count the two parents, the great aunt, and other side characters) and five very different tales. Through their stories, an image of an era emerges from different angles and perspectives. It is well-written and well-researched. Some sections were certainly more interesting than others, and I found myself at times impatient for a section or perspective to end, but this was infrequent. I also found frustrating that Deirdre's perspective took so long to emerge and that her balloon was never explained (unless I'm missing some reference?), though I understand why she wasn't revealed for so long. I think Octavia's storyline was maybe my favorite, and Samantha's my least in terms of subtlety of the telling.
Since the Gothic Saga books aren't necessarily linked, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to compare them, but I will say that while Bellefleur took my breath away, A Bloodsmoor Romance did not. Some of the elements didn't really come together for me, and I thought some areas were a lot stronger than others.
If a turn of the century set novel about a wealthy families with supernatural and feminist elements sounds like an interesting read to you and you have some time, I say give it a shot. I'm glad I read it, and I'm off to hunt for tome three in the ongoing Gothic Saga series.
I enjoyed this tale of a family of five daughters, each of which chooses a very different fate as they leave home. What Oates manages to do quite masterfully is create five distinct personalities (more if you count the two parents, the great aunt, and other side characters) and five very different tales. Through their stories, an image of an era emerges from different angles and perspectives. It is well-written and well-researched. Some sections were certainly more interesting than others, and I found myself at times impatient for a section or perspective to end, but this was infrequent. I also found frustrating that Deirdre's perspective took so long to emerge and that her balloon was never explained (unless I'm missing some reference?), though I understand why she wasn't revealed for so long. I think Octavia's storyline was maybe my favorite, and Samantha's my least in terms of subtlety of the telling.
Since the Gothic Saga books aren't necessarily linked, I don't think it makes a lot of sense to compare them, but I will say that while Bellefleur took my breath away, A Bloodsmoor Romance did not. Some of the elements didn't really come together for me, and I thought some areas were a lot stronger than others.
If a turn of the century set novel about a wealthy families with supernatural and feminist elements sounds like an interesting read to you and you have some time, I say give it a shot. I'm glad I read it, and I'm off to hunt for tome three in the ongoing Gothic Saga series.
December 20, 2014
This book is the chronicle of a well-off (though not quite well-off enough) American family in the late 1800s. The narrator (a celibate maiden, as she continues to remind us whenever her natural feminine frailties interfere with the telling of the story) would like to extract from them a tale of moral inspiration and instruction, but how can she? While the Transcendentalist father and thoroughly respectable mother are beyond reproach, the lives of their five daughters shock her sensibilities. There’s Deirdre, the adopted malcontent abducted by a black outlaw balloon. There’s Constance Philippa, whose discomfort in her own body leads to a surreal transformation. There’s Malvinia, cruel and beautiful, with those strange urges that continue to interfere with her love life. There’s Samantha, the young inventor always subordinate to her father’s will- until suddenly she isn’t. And poor Octavia, the kindest and most obedient child, suffers such hardships- so many mysterious accidents befall those close to her, despite her best efforts to love and obey them as a good woman should!
A Bloodsmoor Romance is a gothic fantasia, and the tale that emerges could be described as “Little Women gone to hell.” The adventures of the Zinn daughters shock and sometimes delight the reader (though frequently at the opposite times as the narrator!) This dense and delicately-told book is packed with the grotesque and bizarre, and is ultimately a romance in the truest sense of the word.
A Bloodsmoor Romance is a gothic fantasia, and the tale that emerges could be described as “Little Women gone to hell.” The adventures of the Zinn daughters shock and sometimes delight the reader (though frequently at the opposite times as the narrator!) This dense and delicately-told book is packed with the grotesque and bizarre, and is ultimately a romance in the truest sense of the word.
October 11, 2009
This could be made into a fascinating mini-series, it's a gothic romance as only Oates could envision. Through delicate Victorian language we share the lives of individuals striving toward their disparate goals and the realization of their conflicting desires. You will experience elements and issues that would never have been acknowledged in any of those old-fashioned novels: substance abuse, gender identification issues, women's suffrage, the American spiritualist movement, sexual aberration, personal hygiene and medical practices and more, heavily salted with satirical humor. I don't know why it took me so long, getting around to finally reading this book, I guess I need to make more time to freely wander and harvest the stacks.
November 19, 2010
I don't know if it's necessary to have a familiarity with books of the past that were called romances (as all fiction was at one time), like the Victorian era especially, but I think it would help one catch the incredible number of humorous references in this book. Besides having an intriguing story and lots of lovely characters, it is so very, very funny. I found myself grinning and/or laughing in public many times as I carried this book around. It was very hard to stop reading it. I'm surprised it's not more popular.
June 16, 2007
I've never forgotten this book, because of the setting and the transgender twist. Historical fiction a la queen.
January 24, 2020
Ah, Joyce, how do I love thee - let me count the pages: page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4...
March 5, 2016
Why use one sentence when you can use seventeen? If Stephen King channeled the spirit of Charles Dickens to write Little Women, this is what you'd get.
September 26, 2022
In the not so distant past, when people ask me what kind of books are my favourites, I never knew how to answer. Then, some years ago, I arrived at a collection of features all my favourite books have. "A Bloodsmoor Romance" seems to possess all of them.
First, there is non-linear narration.
Second, there is a family that is somewhat dysfunctional.
Third, a looot of exposition.
Fourth, a plot with lots of storylines, which nevertheless doesn't play the major role in the story (crazy as it sounds).
This said, "A Bloodsmoor Romance" might not exctly be one of my top favourites.
At the beginning, I almost thought I wouldn't make it through this novel because of all the pastiche, especially in dialogues. Fortunately, I soon got used to it and, although I perhaps didn't come to enjoy it exactly, I greatly appreciate Oates's skill at recreating 19th-century conversation.
The bigger problem for me, however, was that to my mind, it started going a bit downhill in its last third or so. I felt like not all the storylines have been resolved, and, perhaps more importantly, some were not resolved to my satisfaction.
The final revelation didn't come as a surprise at all. So, to sum up: I don't mind a writer making her readers lose sight of the plot while reading, but she shouldn't then finish by reminding them that they have lost it by making them find it again and sort of peter out.
By the way, I listened to this novel as an audiobook and I can't recommend it enough: the narrator was AMAZING at doing all the voices and emotions. Plus, due to the convoluted narration style of the book, it doesn't really matter if your mind wanders off sometimes... just saying :).
In the end, it's 4 stars from me, though it might have as well been 5.
First, there is non-linear narration.
Second, there is a family that is somewhat dysfunctional.
Third, a looot of exposition.
Fourth, a plot with lots of storylines, which nevertheless doesn't play the major role in the story (crazy as it sounds).
This said, "A Bloodsmoor Romance" might not exctly be one of my top favourites.
At the beginning, I almost thought I wouldn't make it through this novel because of all the pastiche, especially in dialogues. Fortunately, I soon got used to it and, although I perhaps didn't come to enjoy it exactly, I greatly appreciate Oates's skill at recreating 19th-century conversation.
The bigger problem for me, however, was that to my mind, it started going a bit downhill in its last third or so. I felt like not all the storylines have been resolved, and, perhaps more importantly, some were not resolved to my satisfaction.
The final revelation didn't come as a surprise at all. So, to sum up: I don't mind a writer making her readers lose sight of the plot while reading, but she shouldn't then finish by reminding them that they have lost it by making them find it again and sort of peter out.
By the way, I listened to this novel as an audiobook and I can't recommend it enough: the narrator was AMAZING at doing all the voices and emotions. Plus, due to the convoluted narration style of the book, it doesn't really matter if your mind wanders off sometimes... just saying :).
In the end, it's 4 stars from me, though it might have as well been 5.
December 31, 2022
Three-quarters is good enough, right? Especially for a 750-page literary fiction? As usual with Joyce Carol Oates, I’m right there with her for the characters and writing, but right around 500 pages, I just wish she’d pick things up or that her editor would step in. Cut out 300 pages, and I would have no doubt given this five stars.
I found her take on a typical Victorian novel that charts the lives and fates of five sisters turned on its head, much to the shock of the pearl-clutching narrator, funny and bizarre and enjoyable. Until it wasn’t. Oates’s ability to create detailed histories and minute but realistic experiences for her characters is impressive, it’s just that she cares waaay more about them than the reader does.
I keep wondering why I was riveted for just about all of Anna Karenina, but books like this leave me bored and anxious to get to the next book on my TBR. Part of it is that even though lots happens in A Bloodsmoor Romance, there were still several lengthy sections that repeated the same things and hit on the same themes for endless pages (like the history and class/social commentary that was JQZ’s dragged-out backstory; relevant but bloated). Other authors are somehow more skilled at keeping the evolution of their characters moving at a quick pace, or at least moving at all.
Despite all that, I’ll for sure read the first three quarters of the next book in her Gothic “series” at some point.
I found her take on a typical Victorian novel that charts the lives and fates of five sisters turned on its head, much to the shock of the pearl-clutching narrator, funny and bizarre and enjoyable. Until it wasn’t. Oates’s ability to create detailed histories and minute but realistic experiences for her characters is impressive, it’s just that she cares waaay more about them than the reader does.
I keep wondering why I was riveted for just about all of Anna Karenina, but books like this leave me bored and anxious to get to the next book on my TBR. Part of it is that even though lots happens in A Bloodsmoor Romance, there were still several lengthy sections that repeated the same things and hit on the same themes for endless pages (like the history and class/social commentary that was JQZ’s dragged-out backstory; relevant but bloated). Other authors are somehow more skilled at keeping the evolution of their characters moving at a quick pace, or at least moving at all.
Despite all that, I’ll for sure read the first three quarters of the next book in her Gothic “series” at some point.
July 5, 2017
4 stars, maybe a bit more. The story of the Zinn family's "ignominious" history, set just before the turn of the 20th century. It begins when Deirdre Zinn, the adopted daughter of inventor/educator John Quincy Zinn, is abducted in broad daylight by a balloon of "black silken hue, manned by an unidentified pilot." Eldest daughter Constance Phillipa is next to make her escape from the cloistered world of Bloodsmoor. She escapes on her wedding night, never to be seen again in quite the same guise. Malvinia, leaving home for the lure of the stage, reaches the heights of worldly acclaim, and the amorous attentions of many men, including Mark Twain. Octavia, the least rebellious of the sisters, finds her reward close to home, marrying a widower with some, shall we say strange, sexual proclivities. Samantha, the "brainy" one, devotes herself to her father's work, inventing strange machines, including the electric chair. Time machines, Transcendentalism, escape from the yards of lace, sweet songs, and hope chests filled with "twelve dozen of everything", the Zinn daughters are sent into the modern age.
Quite the story! The second of Oates' Gothic Sagas, it follows "Bellefleur", which I also loved.
Quite the story! The second of Oates' Gothic Sagas, it follows "Bellefleur", which I also loved.
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