FFB: Doctors and Nurses - The Way They Used to Be.

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source - Cover art: Isabel Dawson

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source - Cover art: Bob Abbett 1961

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source - Cover art: Robert Maguire

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Remember these? Well, even if you never read them (and I don't think I did) these covers may still be familiar to you on some vague level. If only to remind you (me) that once upon a time nurses went about in crisp white uniforms and starched white caps.

Don't forget to check in at Patti Abbott's blog, Pattnase, to see what other forgotten or overlooked books other bloggers are talking about today.

Forgotten Book Friday: MIDNIGHT IS A PLACE (1976) by Joan Aiken (1924 - 2004)

Joan Aiken was a prolific and very talented English writer who specialized in creating intriguing books for children and young adults. She also turned out some pretty terrific Gothic romance novels as well as stories based on Jane Austen characters.

I suppose Aiken is most well known and best remembered for the classic, WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE - especially the version with the Edward Gorey illustrations. (My own personal favorite is MIDWINTER NIGHTINGALE (2003), which is part of the 'wolves' series.)

But in truth, Aiken was such a splendid writer that several of her books can be defined as 'classics' including MIDNIGHT IS A PLACE, a historical novel with an intense and very definite Dickensian flavor. This is a decidedly dark and forbidding 19th century 'orphans of the storm' story starring two rather plucky young orphans (Aikens' specialty), one English, one French, who must learn to survive on their own when their cruel guardian's mansion goes up in flames. No real loss since the house was grim and forbidding and falling apart to begin with (as was its owner).

Parent-less, Lucas Bell has been sent to live with his guardian, Sir Randolph Grimsby. Grimsby (you can tell by his name) is a surly, nasty piece of goods who'd won 'his' estate, Midnight Court and a nearby carpet mill which provides all his income, as the result of a crooked wager many years before.

Lucas has lived a sad, solitary existence for two years with no one for company save his humorless tutor, Mr. Oakapple. This all changes one day when little Anna-Marie arrives. At first extremely weepy and not at all the type of child Lucas was hoping to have as a friend (she can barely speak any English), she will soon prove her mettle to the unhappy boy.

Anna-Marie is a French orphan dropped out of the blue on an outraged Sir Randolph's doorstep. Mysteriously, it appears she belongs at Midnight Court but before we can learn the raison d'etre, there is an ugly Twist of Fate to contend with.

One gloomy night Sir Randolph meets his grisly end in a conflagration which destroys Midnight Court. The children's tutor Mr. Oakapple is gravely injured and insensible. The two orphans are cast out into the dingy, unfriendly streets of Blastburn, a dismal industrialized English town where the sun never shines and the steam and smoke clogged skies never clear. With no one to care for them, they must learn to survive on their own.

I know - oh woe is me - but it works.

Most of the townspeople toil in the dreadful carpet mill owned by the late Sir Randolph. The factory is a dark, dangerous and forbidding place, its managers unconcerned with workplace safety - it is the 19th century, after all. Child workers are regularly killed there by the hideous machinery which is used in the manufacturing process.

Author Joan Aiken doesn't stint on any ugly realities when elaborating on the life lived by the downtrodden workers. We were earlier given a grand tour of the terrible building when Lucas is shown over the mill and told (to his dismay) he will someday inherit the business. But since Sir Randolph never paid any back taxes, the whole inheritance situation is mostly moot.

After the fire, neither child is especially eager to work in the factory (and who can blame them?) but they must quickly find shelter and figure out a way to earn some sort of living until Mr. Oakapple, the tutor, is back on his feet and can help Lucas lay claim to the burnt out estate.

The resourceful Anna-Marie is just six years old but clever enough to pick up discarded cigar butts in the streets and fashion them into full cigars which she will sell. Lucas becomes a 'tosher' apprenticed to an ugly unreliable sort who goes through apprentices at a suspiciously fast pace. They will toil in the nightmare world of the town's sewers picking up discarded refuse to sell, occasionally fighting off rats as big as cats and wild rampaging pigs which inhabit the sewers.

How these two children overcome their unfair share of ugly adversity and survive several frightening near-death experiences - one in the factory itself - is a hair-raising, well-told tale by an author who is an old experienced hand at spinning complicated webs full of doom and gloom - though never without a glimmer of sly humor.

MIDNIGHT IS A PLACE has a very Dickensian ending full of happy coincidences and an 'all's well that ends well' good enough for any reader unsettled by the earlier dismal doings.

An engaging book easily read in one evening. It would make for a good read-aloud (not for small children), especially at this time of year. It might also lead to some pretty interesting discussions with older children.

This being Friday, don't forget to check in at Patti's blog, Pattinase, to see what other Forgotten (or Overlooked) books other bloggers are talking about today.

Friday's Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book: THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY (1929) by Ellery Queen

This is the first Ellery Queen book, first published in 1929. I probably read it when I was a kid (I used to read all this stuff way back then though most of it has been erased from memory) and while I know that Ellery Queen can be an acquired taste, I thoroughly enjoyed THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY, anachronisms and all.

Oh, it is a very dated piece of work, in fact,  just the hat thing alone could not happen today. But perhaps there might be another article of clothing which could be substituted in its place so that the crime itself - complete with obscure poison - could work in some fashion or other.

At any rate, keeping that in mind, the story is still clever and the setting a lot of fun. The plot is filled with colorful New York characters of the sort you might find in a screwball mystery of the thirties. Unfortunately, the story is also complete with racial stereotypes which are pretty cringe-worthy. But I shrug my shoulders and skip along always reminding myself that it's 1929 and most people weren't as enlightened then as they are today...ahem.

Murder most foul occurs in the orchestra seating section at the Roman Theater while onstage the aptly named production of  GUN PLAY is in full swing. (Next to a small English village setting, I love a theater murder.) Monte Field, a well known and rather scurvy legal shyster has been found dead in his seat. It doesn't take much strenuous investigating to find out that Field was a blackmailer as well as a crooked lawyer.

When Inspector Queen is called in - he takes all the high profile cases - he and his son Ellery have trouble at first making heads or tails of the one main clue: Monte Field's top hat is missing. After a substantial search, it has apparently disappeared. In those days men ALWAYS wore top hats with their evening clothes - so this is, indeed, a strange occurrence.

Part of the reason I enjoyed the story so much, by the way, is this insistence on clothing etiquette and the whole idea that people used to dress to the teeth to attend the theater.

I like the warm camaraderie between the elderly Queen and his persnickety son. Though I must admit that a little bit of Ellery goes a very long way. (One thing I do love is that he wears prince nez instead of regular eyeglasses.)

Both men live in a large apartment house with one devoted servant - an energetic boy named Djuna. Djuna is apparently of some minority persuasion though his ethnicity is not made clear. I assumed he was someone the Queens picked up on a case along the way. (I guess in those days it was possible to do that sort of thing.) A few unflattering comments (and comparisons) are made about this quirky member of the Queen household though everyone apparently likes the boy (but who the heck is he?) and I suppose admire the Queens for taking him in. It's all rather obscure.

In today's world, the whole living situation of these three would seem a bit strange, but those were different times. The fact that the boy curls up in a corner like a pet doesn't seem off-putting to the Queens - in fact, everyone rather chuckles at Djuna's eccentricities.

At any rate, back to the story: It is obvious that for mysterious reasons of his own, the killer must have either hidden the missing hat or walked out with it late into the night. Obviously, the hat must hold a clue to the identity of the murderer. The cause of death too is rather mysterious - poison. But not just any old poison, something I've never heard of (and why would I?) distilled from gasoline. This was in the days of wood alcohol causing many accidental poisonings, but Monte Field's killer was a bit more creative and daring.

MYSTERY OF THE ROMAN HAT is a strict whodunit with 'fair play' clues posted along the way and a goodly cast of characters - several connected with Monty Field's lucrative blackmailing past time just happen to be in the theater on the night concerned. So lots of suspects, lots of clues. This was in the day when women got hysterical and often collapsed at the drop of a hat so there's some of that as well.

But the so-called 'fair play' sprinkling of clues isn't as fair as the authors imply in the end. Near that end, we even get a pause which asks us if we have figured out who the killer is yet.

And it turns out that Inspector Queen and Ellery figured out early on who the killer must be but kept that info to themselves because there was no proof. Uhuh.

Well, guess what, I figured it out on my own though I didn't pick the actual killer's name - I just knew where he must have come from and where the hat must be. But not because of any 'fair play' clues supplied by the authors. I just used my own common sense. Though there is a lot of obfuscation as there must be in mysteries of this sort, the whereabouts of the killer seems rather obvious. But okay, only after you read about halfway through.

In the end, the motive is a doozy - but probably one that wouldn't necessitate murder today. Although one never knows. Upper crust is till upper crust, I suppose.

Ellery Queen, by the way, was the pseudonym of two prolific cousins (from Brooklyn, no less) named Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee.

To learn more about Dannay and Lee and their work, please use this handy-dandy link.

Also, don't forget to check in at Todd Mason's blog this week to see what other overlooked or forgotten books other bloggers are talking about today. Patti Abbot will be back at her hosting duties next week.

Forgotten Book Friday: ETHAN FROME by Edith Wharton

Today is Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book day over at Patti Abbott's blog, Pattinsase  Don't forget to check out all the other book mavens talking about forgotten books today. Lots of good recommendations.

I know that ETHAN FROME is not the first book you think of when you think of Edith Wharton's work - the woman wrote several classics of early 20th century literature - but it's the only one I remember reading in high school - thanks to Miss Eisenberg, my wonderful English teacher. I've since re-read it many times, it remains one of those books hard to define but intriguing as hell. It's a kind of grim romantic tragedy that is also, because of its ending, a horror story. At least in my view.

I have a feeling it was one of Miss Eisenberg's favorites as well since she was/is a big fan of allegory and symbolism. And let me tell you, ETHAN FROME is a symbolist's dream.

Part of our lesson plan was to highlight and interpret the various symbols Wharton used in the book, for instance, 'the sled'.  Let me tell you we had some great discussions in class.

The story is set (mostly in winter) in a bleak New England village, imaginatively enough called Starkville, by the author. Frome is a tall, silent, physical 'ruin of a man' when we first meet him. He is an enigma to the narrator who, an outsider, is in Starkville on some sort of company business never much elaborated on because it isn't important.

"I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.

If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins on his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade: and you must have asked who he was."

Note the specific use of the word, 'drag' in describing Frome's approach to the post office door. The narrator then goes on to describe him in detail, making a powerful picture in our minds before we're much into the story.

Many people are put off by the idea that the story is not told from the point of view of any of the protagonists but from that of a sophisticated humanist, someone who has no stake in the outcome except assuaging his curiosity.

But we enter the story twenty four years after the main events and as Wharton herself puts it in an Author's Introduction, she gave the mechanics of story-telling a great deal of thought:

"The problem before me, as I saw in the first flash, was this: I had to deal with a subject of which the dramatic climax, or rather the anti-climax, occurs a generation later than the first acts of the tragedy. This enforced lapse of time would seem to anyone persuaded - as I have always been - that every subject (in the novelist's sense of the term) implicitly contains its own form and dimensions - to mark Ethan Frome as the subject for a novel. But I never thought this for a moment, for I had felt, at the same time, that the theme of my tale was not one on which many variations could be played. It must be treated as starkly and summarily as life had always presented itself to my protagonists; any attempt to elaborate and complicate their sentiments would necessarily have falsified the whole. They were, in truth, these figures, my granite outcroppings; but half-emerged from the soil, and scarcely more articulate."

The plot:

In his late twenties, From is married to a needy and unpleasant woman, a bitter hypochondriac who's joy in life is to complain. His character dictates that he make the best of the situation; he is silent and stoic and accepting of life's harsh vicissitudes.

Until his wife's young, vivacious and impoverished cousin comes to stay on the farm.

The inevitable ending - inevitable because of the time and place and who these people are - has a garish horror to it which transcends even the general bleakness of the story.

Everytime I re-read ETHAN FROME, I get caught up and hope for a different outcome. It never happens.

The book was turned into a movie a few years ago starring Liam Neesom as Ethan Frome (he was wonderful in the part) and Patricia Arquette. It wasn't bad. But read the book first.