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March 2011 Book of the Month: The Raven's Bride by Lenore Hart

A monthly discussion on varying themes guided by our members. (Book of the Month discussions through December 2011 can be found in this section too.)
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Undine
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Post by Undine » Mon March 14th, 2011, 2:19 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]I find that a lot of historical novels about the same historical figures are similar, not necessarily because the later authors have borrowed from the earlier authors but because they're working with the same historical material and relying on the interpretations by the same biographers.[/quote]

That's true, but the point I've been trying to make is that Hart repeated incidents and details that O'Neal invented--not things that appeared in biographies or other historical material.

As for the Wikipedia article...I haven't seen it in some time, so I don't know if anything has been changed since then. It was...well, Wikipedia. There were some inaccuracies, but it was basically a summary of what you'll see in the biographies. Whether all of that material is true is another story. Some of the biographies are more trustworthy than others.

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Margaret
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Post by Margaret » Tue March 15th, 2011, 5:07 am

I did find the characters likable - just kind of boring. I haven't read Becky, although the concept intrigued me.
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Divia
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Post by Divia » Tue March 15th, 2011, 10:00 am

[quote=""Margaret""]I did find the characters likable - just kind of boring. I haven't read Becky, although the concept intrigued me.[/quote]

Yeah, they were fine for me. I didn't hate them.

I havent read Becky.
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Post by boswellbaxter » Wed March 16th, 2011, 2:20 am

[quote=""Undine""]That's true, but the point I've been trying to make is that Hart repeated incidents and details that O'Neal invented--not things that appeared in biographies or other historical material.

[/quote]

I saw your blog post about the similarities you noted--that is disturbing. Have you contacted O'Neal's publisher?
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Undine
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Post by Undine » Wed March 16th, 2011, 12:25 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]I saw your blog post about the similarities you noted--that is disturbing. Have you contacted O'Neal's publisher?[/quote]

I've thought about that, but I'm not sure who to contact. O'Neal himself died about 10 years ago--I have no idea if he left any next-of-kin, or who might own his literary estate. "The Very Young Mrs. Poe" is still under copyright, but it's long out-of-print--I know little about the publishing industry, so I don't know if Crown Publishers (who released "Mrs. Poe") would still have a stake in the matter.

In any case, it certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to this month's book discussion, doesn't it?

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Post by boswellbaxter » Wed March 16th, 2011, 12:42 pm

[quote=""Undine""]I've thought about that, but I'm not sure who to contact. O'Neal himself died about 10 years ago--I have no idea if he left any next-of-kin, or who might own his literary estate. "The Very Young Mrs. Poe" is still under copyright, but it's long out-of-print--I know little about the publishing industry, so I don't know if Crown Publishers (who released "Mrs. Poe") would still have a stake in the matter.

In any case, it certainly adds an interesting wrinkle to this month's book discussion, doesn't it?[/quote]

I'd contact Crown's permissions department, at the very least, to tell them what is going on. (Crown is owned by Random House.)

http://www.randomhouse.com/about/permissions.html

http://www.randomhouse.com/about/faq/in ... 10&catId=1
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Undine
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Post by Undine » Wed March 16th, 2011, 3:41 pm

Thank you for the links. I suppose it's only fair to let them know about this, in case they think it's worth pursuing. I really have no idea what they'd make of it, from a professional standpoint.

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Post by Misfit » Fri March 18th, 2011, 12:31 am

I am late to this party as my copy just landed at the library, but on hearing about the similarities on the blog post (a friend at Goodreads mentioned it), I'm not sure if I even want to bother. Why not just stick with the original?

There's been a poster at the HF boards at Amazon who has really been hot on pushing this book (and a wee bit testy with the detractors), but I can't figure out what his *agenda* might be.
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Post by boswellbaxter » Fri March 18th, 2011, 3:40 am

[quote=""Misfit""]I am late to this party as my copy just landed at the library, but on hearing about the similarities on the blog post (a friend at Goodreads mentioned it), I'm not sure if I even want to bother. Why not just stick with the original?

There's been a poster at the HF boards at Amazon who has really been hot on pushing this book (and a wee bit testy with the detractors), but I can't figure out what his *agenda* might be.[/quote]

I enjoyed it, but I didn't read the blog post until I had finished it. I've gone ahead and ordered The Very Young Mrs. Poe--it will be interesting to compare for myself.
Susan Higginbotham
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Undine
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Post by Undine » Fri March 18th, 2011, 12:24 pm

[quote=""Misfit""]There's been a poster at the HF boards at Amazon who has really been hot on pushing this book (and a wee bit testy with the detractors), but I can't figure out what his *agenda* might be.[/quote]

I haven't seen this board at Amazon, but I know this poster--he's been a lot more than just testy with me for what I've said about the book. I take it he's somehow professionally affiliated with Hart--I don't know if he's her agent, or editor, or what, but he's definitely not a disinterested witness.

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