Galileo, Waterloo, Austalian Convict Ships, Odysseus..

Yes, I've been reading some rather unusual things recently.  Gawd knows why, but I've quite enjoyed them all.  The female novelists then - a brief summary.

The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood

I chose the Margaret Atwood novel for two reasons.  Firstly, I have enjoyed a few of her other novels and  knew her to be an intelligent and engaging author, and secondly, I love the greek mythologies and the story of what happens when Odysseus finally returns and finds so many manipulative suitors vying to to take over his life, his wife, his land, title and wealth, has always fascinated me.

This tale is told from his wife Penelope's point of view, and how she coped during those long years of his absence.  It is also interspersed with prose and lamentations from the 12 maids that were killed after his return and their reasons for blaming both Penelope and Odysseus for their deaths.  Some of the pieces are very much in the style of Aristophanes with his repititive verses and choruses and which oddly give the style a lighter air despite the topic.  In fact, the book itself is short and a fairly quick, easy read, almost written as something specifially aimed at teenagers although I don't know if this is actually the case.

I think I enjoyed it overall but it is quite divorced from more common styles of storytelling, constantly flipping back and forth between Penelope's narrative and the maids accusatory songs and speeches. Also the distance between that ancient time and our present time is rather odd.  What I did enjoy quite alot though is Penelope's reflections of the character of Helen of Troy, quite amusing.  An interesting point of view.


The Floating Brothel - Sian Rees

I picked this one up after a brief glance at the first few pages and realised just how harsh and excessive the English judicial system was back in the late 18th century.  This book covers the women who were transported to Australia on the ship the Lady Juliana, considered sometimes part of both the first and second fleets.  The truth is that she sailed about a year before the second fleet but arrived only a week or two before them, the convicts and crew enjoying a rather pleasant journey, all things considered, especially compared to some of the appalling conditions that convicts were transported under in later journeys.

While the women on board did defintiely use their more relaxed state of imprisonment to their advantage, and also made many alliances and valuable trades in every port they stopped in along the way; I felt the real information in the book was focusing on the ridiculously petty crimes that landed these women with such weighty sentences, mostly to '7 years transportation across the seas'.   These crimes included stealing a metre of cloth, pickpocketing a teaspoon, taking an apron, and it goes on.  The harsh treatment of women who often had all other options of making a living taken away from them by the very system that then punishes them so horribly for trying to survive just made my blood boil at times.

One interesting fact was that during the American war for Independence and the war with the French, women were encouraged to take up many shop positions as the men were rather scarce.  When the men returned in abundance, these women were forced from their positons, even in haberdasheries and other stores more suited to a female pysche, and the only real form of honest employment was maid work.  When Pitt the younger imposed his income taxes on the people to try to alleviate the growing national debt the wars had incurred, many simply couldn't afford to live and stole to get by.  A vicious circle for some it would seem.

Still, I also read about Mary Wade, the youngest female convict to travel to Australia (she left Britain when she was only 11), and her descendants today number over tens of thousands.  By all accounts, she embraced her new life and is considered one of the founding mothers of Australia.

At times this book was too factual but I learnt alot and it is an absolutely fascinating time in history.  So much tragedy but also glimmers of real hope.