#O Caledonia

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

She would live out her days at Auchnasaugh, a bookish spinster attended by cats and parrots, until that time when she might become ethereal, pure spirit untainted by the woes of flesh, a phantom drifting with the winds. What fun she would have as a ghost. She could hardly wait.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[jupitersflytrap]

drawings i did a while ago of some characters from books i read for one of my uni courses

[virgin-martyr]

'You’re a big girl now.' She didn’t want to be a big girl. It seemed she was punished for something which happened without her choice or knowledge.

Elspeth Barker, excerpt from O Caledonia

[hairtusk]

'To what green altar, O mysterious priest, Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies?' Well, she knew the name of that altar, the dim, blood-boultered altar of womanhood.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia (1991)

[alightinthelantern]

best of the bunch: phenomenal novels read in 2022-23 that I highly recommend

O Caledonia (Elspeth Barker)

Inland (Téa Obreht)

Temporary People (Deepak Unnikrishnan)

Insurrecto (Gina Apostol)

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena (Anthony Marra)

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro)

The Mask Carver’s Son (Alyson Richman)

Pavilion of Women (Pearl S. Buck)

A Free Life (Ha Jin)

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle (Stuart Turton)

[pinkbowjournal]

She stood on the terrace shaking the wet honeysuckle over her face, breathing its perfume, a creature momentarily compounded of dew and air and fragrance.

Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia.

[alwaysalreadyangry]

I'm reading O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker and oh my GOD. Archivist parrots!!!!!

[abellinthecupboard]

O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker, is called a modern gothic novel, but there’s really nothing gothic about it. It says in the novel that the main character’s parents are Calvinists, modern-day puritans. They behave in the novel exactly as puritanical parents behave in real life. And the main character, Janet, is a textbook-perfect example of autism. The novel is perfectly realistic. I saw my own childhood in the novel in painful clarity. The only gothic element in the book is Janet’s murder at the end of the story, and everything thing else is so incredibly, painfully realistic that the murder took me by shock even though I knew it was coming, since the book begins with the aftermath of her murder. Except for the final twist, the book is the perfect example of a high-functioning autistic child born to over-religious parents, the way she’s never good enough for her parents despite being bright and excelling at school, all because she’s different from other kids. It’s been months and I still haven’t been able to stop thinking about this book. I feel like it should be compulsive reading, somehow.

Anyway, the book is also one of the most beautifully written novels on a technical level that I’ve ever read, the prose is so clear and precise and vivid, so I really recommend reading it

[everythingiread]

For a long time she had affected to despise what she thought of as the world of women, its preoccupations with clothes and spring weddings (and hey nonny no) and needlework and babies. While she still had no interest in any of these matters, there were other aspects which drew her, as a lighted window glimpsed in a house unknown can rouse in the passer-by a sense not only of obscure longing for other warmer lives but also of a sharp exclusion, harsh as a door slammed in the face.

O Caledonia, Elspeth Barker

[brucklethings]

“Auchnasaugh. Up the windswept road they went, through bare moorland where sheep rose suddenly from the heather and scudded off and only a few stunted rowan trees clung to the steep slope. The mist left cobwebs clinging moist and delicate on the heather, and strands of wool flickered about the thistles. If they looked back they could see the village, unfriendly with its low grey houses, one shop, the church, and the Thistle Inn, packed in a graceless huddle down the hill; beyond it the land rose again in barren pastures outlined by drystone walls, until pasture gave way to empty moors. But for Janet it was the view ahead which held all the enchantment she had ever yearned for; in the distance the hills lapped against each other to the far limits of the visible world; nearer the great forest climbed to meet the moor, ancient rust-trunked pine and delicate silver birch, swaying and tossing over grass so green and fine that only harebell and wood anemone could grow there without seeming crude, even blasphemous.”

— Elspeth Barker, O Caledonia

[myhikari21things]

Read of O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker (1991) (188pgs)

[the-hearth-and-the-wild]

Of all the seasons this was the one Janet loved most. In the afternoons she would ride up through the forest onto the lonely moors; she felt then, looking into the unending distance of hills ranged beyond hills, that if only she had the courage to go on, she, like True Thomas, might reach a fairyland, another element, the place of the ballads, of "La Belle Dame Sans Merci".

Elsbeth Barker, O Caledonia

[stevviefox]

Book recs.

The days are getting darker. Are your books?

Maddelena and the Dark by Julia Fine "This book absolutely shines with the beauty of venice, the terror of first loves, and the singular intense passion of musicians and artists. Se deeply romantic! So alluring!" O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker "One of those rare writers whose charisma can be felt through the page"

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson "A pioneer for women in horror literature, Shirley Jackson remains as relevant as ever." Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi Try it if you like Castlevania, Hellsing, Western Gothics, and the art of Yoshitaka Amano

Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz "A YA Debut that truly has everything, and yes, even some casual grave digging." Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier "A beautiful gothic mystery dripping with atmosphere and teeming with dread"

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James "Is our narrator actually being haunted, or is she slowly losing her mind?" The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter "A collection of the best adaptations of classic fairy tales, with a feminist flare, modern twists, and carnal delights....If you like Neil Gaiman, you will like Angela Carter"

[virgin-martyr]

Divine pity. Human pity was not enough. A bleeding heart could only bleed and bleed.

Elspeth Barker, excerpt from O Caledonia