Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Jonathan Cape (2005), Edition: Export / Ireland Ed, Paperback, 531 pages
Description
Lord Loveall, heretofore heirless lord of the sprawling Love Hall, is the richest man in England. He arrives home one morning with a most unusual package - a baby that he presents as the inheritor to the family name and fortune. In honor of his beloved sister, who died young, Loveall names the baby Rose. The household, relieved at the continuation of the Loveall line, ignores the fact that this Rose has a thorn...that she is, in fact, a boy. Rose grows up with the two servant children who are her only friends, blissfully unaware of her own gender, casually hitting boundaries at Love Hall's yearly cricket game and learning to shave even as she continues to wear more and more elaborate dresses. Until, of course, the fateful day when Rose's world comes crashing down around her, and she is banished from Love Hall as an impostor by those who would claim her place as heir.… (more)
Media reviews
In its premise, plot, pacing, style, and enormous cast of characters, Misfortune operates deliberately like a Dickens novel. The book begins with a foundling in a rubbish heap (a foundling!), taken home to opulent Love Hall by the bachelor Lord Geoffroy Loveall, who, because of the traumatic early
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death of his sister Dolores, is determined to raise the child as a girl (Rose Old), even though the child is a boy. Show Less
Publishers Weekly
This gender-bending romp about a boy raised as a girl in 19th-century England--penned by musician John Wesley Harding, writing here under his real name--more than lives up to the hype it will surely, ahem, engender.
User reviews
LibraryThing member quigui
I am not sure how I came about this book. It might have been a recommendation for another book, or simply finding the cover somewhere and being drawn to it (how could I not, there is a woman with a moustache!). In any case, it was an absolute find!
Set in the 19th century it tells the story of Rose
This alone made the book amazing. And no, I'm not a particular fan of gender bending or cross-dressing, but the idea of a boy raised as a girl only because her/his father refused to accept that (s)he wasn't the sex he though/wished the baby was, seemed hilarious to me.
I loved the writing style, quirky and funny, but never demeaning the story. There were parts that it was truly Dickensian. On page 15 I was already certain I would love it, by page 31 I knew it was going to be epic. Even if I never had so much trouble with pronouns since The Left Hand of Darkness. But the author was never intimidated by Rose's gender duality. When Rose thought of herself as a girl (because she believed to she was one for a long time), she was referred as such. When he finds out that, after all, he is a boy, Rose becomes a "he". No confusion whatsoever.
There is also some play on words that is simply marvellous. Some of it comes directly from the character of Geoffroy Loveall, that names Rose Old as such, to be an anagram of his beloved sister's name Dolores, and renames Rose in one of her plays, as Lord Ose, another anagram. There is also the play with the family name, Loveall, that love all, live in Love Hall, and have the motto of Amor Vincit Omnia (Love conquers All).
But even if this is quirky and funny, there are deep themes being explored, gender identity and the definition of self being some of them. Finding out that one has been lied to all their life, by their parents on top of all, can have devastating consequences, and give a sense of loss like no other. Rose goes through all of this, and there are parts of her life that remain unknown to the reader, although they are hinted at, for she is ashamed of what she has done in her despair. To add to this, there is also the loss of her right to inherit the Loveall name and Love Hall, because she was adopted. It is amazing to read of Rose's misfortunes and problems, angsty in parts, but no overly so, and how she overcomes them.
Despite this, there is a happy ending waiting for Rose, and throughout the book there are hints that it will be so. And yes, the nice plot twist in the end is expected, some would say not entirely believable, but I liked it. It fitted Rose, especially because she was referred to as Miss Fortune (another play on words), because despite all that happened she was indeed very fortunate.
Absolutely lovely.
Also at Spoilers and Nuts
Set in the 19th century it tells the story of Rose
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Old Loveall, from birth to death, in a memoir style, and with very quirky language. What makes this book different? Well, Rose is found by the Young Lord Loveall after being left for dead in a rubbish heap, barely a day old, and rescued to be brought up as his child, and heir to his fortune. Only Rose is a boy, even if he is brought up as a girl.This alone made the book amazing. And no, I'm not a particular fan of gender bending or cross-dressing, but the idea of a boy raised as a girl only because her/his father refused to accept that (s)he wasn't the sex he though/wished the baby was, seemed hilarious to me.
I loved the writing style, quirky and funny, but never demeaning the story. There were parts that it was truly Dickensian. On page 15 I was already certain I would love it, by page 31 I knew it was going to be epic. Even if I never had so much trouble with pronouns since The Left Hand of Darkness. But the author was never intimidated by Rose's gender duality. When Rose thought of herself as a girl (because she believed to she was one for a long time), she was referred as such. When he finds out that, after all, he is a boy, Rose becomes a "he". No confusion whatsoever.
There is also some play on words that is simply marvellous. Some of it comes directly from the character of Geoffroy Loveall, that names Rose Old as such, to be an anagram of his beloved sister's name Dolores, and renames Rose in one of her plays, as Lord Ose, another anagram. There is also the play with the family name, Loveall, that love all, live in Love Hall, and have the motto of Amor Vincit Omnia (Love conquers All).
But even if this is quirky and funny, there are deep themes being explored, gender identity and the definition of self being some of them. Finding out that one has been lied to all their life, by their parents on top of all, can have devastating consequences, and give a sense of loss like no other. Rose goes through all of this, and there are parts of her life that remain unknown to the reader, although they are hinted at, for she is ashamed of what she has done in her despair. To add to this, there is also the loss of her right to inherit the Loveall name and Love Hall, because she was adopted. It is amazing to read of Rose's misfortunes and problems, angsty in parts, but no overly so, and how she overcomes them.
Despite this, there is a happy ending waiting for Rose, and throughout the book there are hints that it will be so. And yes, the nice plot twist in the end is expected, some would say not entirely believable, but I liked it. It fitted Rose, especially because she was referred to as Miss Fortune (another play on words), because despite all that happened she was indeed very fortunate.
Absolutely lovely.
Also at Spoilers and Nuts
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LibraryThing member nellgwyn
I like reading debut novels in a slightly different way from how I enjoy novels and books in general. There's a freshness to them, and a bit of risktaking as well, on my part as well as the writers'...the potentiality for discovery. Of course, I enjoy reading works by established and acclaimed
However, I became abundantly aware midway through Misfortune that it was not a great find of a novel, even excusing the author's inexperience. Set in England, it is about a orphan boy who was adopted by an eccentric nobleman and raised as a girl, which conspired to wreak havoc with his/her inheritance. The premise sounded intriguing at first, and perhaps with a better/more experienced writer it might have actually been intriguing. But the plot was unnecessarily complicated by superfluous detail, unclear prose, and a subplot and shifts in point of view that were neither needed nor carried out well. On top of this, the main character's entire being seemed totally centered on his/her gender confusion - which would understandably be an important thing to any adolescent girl who is learning that she is actually a boy, but the focus on it seemed excessive. And what really sent the book across the line into not-goodness was the "twist" at the ending. I won't reveal it, but I will say that I saw it coming a mile away and groaned in disgust because not only was it predictable, it was also trite, unimaginative, and so lame that even romance novels usually avoid that device (or at least execute it better). From the premise, I couldn't help but compare Misfortune to Jeffrey Eugenides' Pulitzer-winning Middlesex, which was published a few years earlier and is stunningly good. The comparison definitely finds Misfortune lacking.
Note: This is a review I wrote five years ago, when I read this book. Being lazy and not having reread, I opted to copy and paste rather than write something new.
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writers too, but with them there's sometimes a shadow of prior readers' opinions and judgments hovering at the edge of my consciousness. "What did they think here? Were they right? Do I agree with them? Why or why not?" This doesn't bother me or deter me from reading well-known books, but it is nice to read something with no notion or curiosity about what Others thought of it. My opinions can rest on their own laurels for once. However, I became abundantly aware midway through Misfortune that it was not a great find of a novel, even excusing the author's inexperience. Set in England, it is about a orphan boy who was adopted by an eccentric nobleman and raised as a girl, which conspired to wreak havoc with his/her inheritance. The premise sounded intriguing at first, and perhaps with a better/more experienced writer it might have actually been intriguing. But the plot was unnecessarily complicated by superfluous detail, unclear prose, and a subplot and shifts in point of view that were neither needed nor carried out well. On top of this, the main character's entire being seemed totally centered on his/her gender confusion - which would understandably be an important thing to any adolescent girl who is learning that she is actually a boy, but the focus on it seemed excessive. And what really sent the book across the line into not-goodness was the "twist" at the ending. I won't reveal it, but I will say that I saw it coming a mile away and groaned in disgust because not only was it predictable, it was also trite, unimaginative, and so lame that even romance novels usually avoid that device (or at least execute it better). From the premise, I couldn't help but compare Misfortune to Jeffrey Eugenides' Pulitzer-winning Middlesex, which was published a few years earlier and is stunningly good. The comparison definitely finds Misfortune lacking.
Note: This is a review I wrote five years ago, when I read this book. Being lazy and not having reread, I opted to copy and paste rather than write something new.
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LibraryThing member mhgatti
British singer-songwriter John Wesley Harding is a master at cramming verbose stories into fun three-minute pop songs.British novelist Wesley Stace doesn't have the benefit of a bouncy beat, so it takes him 544 pages to tell his story in Misfortune. Even so, Stace's debut novel moves along quickly
A little identity crisis? Maybe, but it's nothing compared to what Rose, the protagonist of Misfortune, suffers. Rescued from abandonment as a newborn and raised as a girl by an English lord who longs for a replacement for his long-deceased little sister, Rose understandably has some issues.
Rose grows up a happy girl in one of the richest household in England, only discovering the truth as he approaches adolescence. Rose decides to run away from both his home and the truth, before deciding to come home and face that truth, on his own terms.
Throughout this Victorian-era story, Stace weaves tales of greedy relatives plotting to overthrow the estate, the inter-workings of the mansion, and the balladeer that found the abandoned baby Rose. Of all these stories, Stace, perhaps slipping into his John Welsey Harding songwriter role, seems most interested in the ballets and he wisely uses them to move the book through it's third act.
Probably because of the English estate setting, Stace's storytelling reminded me a bit of Ian McEwan's in Atonement, though it wasn't quite as strong. Misfortune may have lacked Atonement's big surprise ending, but its finale was still gratifying - especially with a remarkably realistic appendix tacked on. And while I do think that Stace could have used a few less words in his debut, the story still seemed move along as quickly as a John Welsey Harding song.
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thanks to his engaging storytelling. This isn't surprising since John Wesley Harding is the musical alias of one Welsey Stace.A little identity crisis? Maybe, but it's nothing compared to what Rose, the protagonist of Misfortune, suffers. Rescued from abandonment as a newborn and raised as a girl by an English lord who longs for a replacement for his long-deceased little sister, Rose understandably has some issues.
Rose grows up a happy girl in one of the richest household in England, only discovering the truth as he approaches adolescence. Rose decides to run away from both his home and the truth, before deciding to come home and face that truth, on his own terms.
Throughout this Victorian-era story, Stace weaves tales of greedy relatives plotting to overthrow the estate, the inter-workings of the mansion, and the balladeer that found the abandoned baby Rose. Of all these stories, Stace, perhaps slipping into his John Welsey Harding songwriter role, seems most interested in the ballets and he wisely uses them to move the book through it's third act.
Probably because of the English estate setting, Stace's storytelling reminded me a bit of Ian McEwan's in Atonement, though it wasn't quite as strong. Misfortune may have lacked Atonement's big surprise ending, but its finale was still gratifying - especially with a remarkably realistic appendix tacked on. And while I do think that Stace could have used a few less words in his debut, the story still seemed move along as quickly as a John Welsey Harding song.
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LibraryThing member bohemian1
An entertaining parody of the Dickensian novel revolving around a thought-to-be aborted baby tossed on a rubbish heap who has the luck of being adopted by a strange lord who takes this child in as his own. The lord holds a deep platonic love for his dead sister, for whom he is in perpetual morning,
The plot continues and has some great high points, and some rather disappointing lows, but these keep in the genre of literature this work is partly satirizing.
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and names the child after her. The only problem there is that the child is a boy. The plot continues and has some great high points, and some rather disappointing lows, but these keep in the genre of literature this work is partly satirizing.
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LibraryThing member bcquinnsmom
I bought this book because I was intrigued by the teaser on the dust jacket. I read all of 65 pages the first night because I could not put it down. Only the need for sleep made me reluctantly shut the book. The second night I read a little more, the third night even more, and last night I went to
I'll try to synopsize the story briefly, but what sucked me in was not so much the story, but the beautiful and well-constructed prose. You can just tell that the author had a great deal of fun simply writing the novel.
"brief" synopsis
One night, the Lord Loveall from Love Hall is returning from an errand he was sent to by his mother, and makes a stop near a pub. He surveys the rubbish heap and finds, to his surprise, a dog carrying a bundle which is making noise. He trades the dog a lamb chop for the bundle and inside he finds a baby. The baby is brought home to Love Hall, where the Lord Loveall announces it as his new heir. Because his sister, Dolores, had died when she was younger, and because Lord Loveall (Geoffroy) had lived his life distraught over her death and his loss, he tells his mother that he has Dolores back. Sadly, she breaks the news to him that it is not Dolores and that it is not even a girl; the foundling is really a boy. Geoffroy's mother has a plan, but before it can get set into motion, she dies.
Once she's dead, Geoffroy has to make the baby's title as heir legal; he marries his former governess now librarian Anonyma Wood, and between the two of them they raise the baby, allowing the town & the rest of the relations (who all want possession of the title and the estate) to believe not only that the baby was their legitimate offspring, but that the baby is a girl! Anonyma goes along with the plan for two reasons: 1) Geoffroy has convinced himself that Rose is his Dolores returned and has it in his head that Rose is a girl; and 2) Anonyma believes wholeheartedly in a sort of utopia in which there is no differentiation between the sexes. So as a result, Rose is raised as a girl and Anonyma has taken the time to weave an incredible web of truths under which Rose grows up. The new baby becomes the Lord Rose (check out the wordplay here -- change the letters around in Dolores and you have Lord Rose). Rose remains an innocent "victim" if you will, until her father's death, when she finally comes to the realization of her situation and her sexuality. But if that were the sum total of this novel, you could say "been there, done this," and that would be that. But wait, there's more! In a delightfully Dickensian way, there are players who know the secret who will stop at nothing to have it revealed. If you get the feeling that the ending is a little contrived, get over it; go read some Dickens or anything else Victorian and you'll get it.
I absolutely loved the characterizations of this novel; I thought that the author breathed life into each and every person in this book. The story is marvelous. The transition between the first three books and the fourth may be a little tough for some readers; however, if you've paid a lot of attention to Rose's childhood, you shouldn't have a problem understanding what's going on here. As I noted, the writing is superb; probably the most well-written piece of postmodern fiction I've encountered in a very long time. I absolutely cannot do this book the justice it deserves in the brief amount of space I have here; suffice it to say that it was well worth the cover price and the time it took to read it. Please don't miss this one!!!!!
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bed very early just to finish the book before I had to call it a day. I ended up turning the last page of the appendix at about 2 a.m. with a 6 a.m. wake-up time, but believe me, it was well worth it. I am adding this to my "very highly recommended" list of novels read this year, and I think if you can get over the fact that the book is 500+ pages, you will find it to be one of the best books to hit the bookstore shelves in a long time.I'll try to synopsize the story briefly, but what sucked me in was not so much the story, but the beautiful and well-constructed prose. You can just tell that the author had a great deal of fun simply writing the novel.
"brief" synopsis
One night, the Lord Loveall from Love Hall is returning from an errand he was sent to by his mother, and makes a stop near a pub. He surveys the rubbish heap and finds, to his surprise, a dog carrying a bundle which is making noise. He trades the dog a lamb chop for the bundle and inside he finds a baby. The baby is brought home to Love Hall, where the Lord Loveall announces it as his new heir. Because his sister, Dolores, had died when she was younger, and because Lord Loveall (Geoffroy) had lived his life distraught over her death and his loss, he tells his mother that he has Dolores back. Sadly, she breaks the news to him that it is not Dolores and that it is not even a girl; the foundling is really a boy. Geoffroy's mother has a plan, but before it can get set into motion, she dies.
Once she's dead, Geoffroy has to make the baby's title as heir legal; he marries his former governess now librarian Anonyma Wood, and between the two of them they raise the baby, allowing the town & the rest of the relations (who all want possession of the title and the estate) to believe not only that the baby was their legitimate offspring, but that the baby is a girl! Anonyma goes along with the plan for two reasons: 1) Geoffroy has convinced himself that Rose is his Dolores returned and has it in his head that Rose is a girl; and 2) Anonyma believes wholeheartedly in a sort of utopia in which there is no differentiation between the sexes. So as a result, Rose is raised as a girl and Anonyma has taken the time to weave an incredible web of truths under which Rose grows up. The new baby becomes the Lord Rose (check out the wordplay here -- change the letters around in Dolores and you have Lord Rose). Rose remains an innocent "victim" if you will, until her father's death, when she finally comes to the realization of her situation and her sexuality. But if that were the sum total of this novel, you could say "been there, done this," and that would be that. But wait, there's more! In a delightfully Dickensian way, there are players who know the secret who will stop at nothing to have it revealed. If you get the feeling that the ending is a little contrived, get over it; go read some Dickens or anything else Victorian and you'll get it.
I absolutely loved the characterizations of this novel; I thought that the author breathed life into each and every person in this book. The story is marvelous. The transition between the first three books and the fourth may be a little tough for some readers; however, if you've paid a lot of attention to Rose's childhood, you shouldn't have a problem understanding what's going on here. As I noted, the writing is superb; probably the most well-written piece of postmodern fiction I've encountered in a very long time. I absolutely cannot do this book the justice it deserves in the brief amount of space I have here; suffice it to say that it was well worth the cover price and the time it took to read it. Please don't miss this one!!!!!
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LibraryThing member sarathena1
This book starts off fantastically but struggles toward the finish line. I initially thought that it was going to be a Middlesex rip-off but was pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, the formulaic ending was a downfall, but up until the final sections of the book, a great read.
LibraryThing member Jasper
I picked this up because I'm a fan of his music (he records as John Wesley Harding - check out "Confessions of St. Ace" for a nice slice of power pop with biting lyrics - his other stuff is folksier (originally heard him on the soundtrack to "High Fidelity")), and I found the book an enjoyable
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taste of Victoriana with a twist. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member picardyrose
The fun runs out when Rose runs away from home, but the ending is just fine.
LibraryThing member mbergman
A wonderfully quirky novel set on a 10th-century English estate, where an eccentric lord rescues a male infant from a garbage heap & raises him as a girl. It's a story about how love overcomes obstacles of character & nature & of the benefits of accepting what life throws at us, compelling us to
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choose the life that is chosen for us. Show Less
LibraryThing member pragmatist
I honestly thought this book was a kind of masterpiece - a cunning re-exploration of the Dickensian world and its tropes through a new lens, and a moving story of the search for love and identity. Somehow it managed to walk the line between a knowing parody and a very unselfconscious and sincere
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bildungsroman. It seemed very well-researched to me, but wore this learning lightly. I truly loved it and have recommended it widely. Show Less
LibraryThing member emhromp2
This is a tough book to read, you have to really claw into it. The story is simple: because is father wanted a daughter so much, Rose is raised as a girl. Except Rose is a boy. And a foundling. His father is very rich, and once it becomes clear that he is going to inherit the place, his greedy
I liked the idea of raising a boy you find in the street as your legal daughter. Although at first sight this seems like a good plan, there are obviously going to be some hiccups.
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relatives do everything to prevent this. They seem to succeed, but...I liked the idea of raising a boy you find in the street as your legal daughter. Although at first sight this seems like a good plan, there are obviously going to be some hiccups.
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LibraryThing member mandolin82
What a fun book. Like Oliver Twist, with a twist. A romp to read, and a unique story. I highly recommend as an enjoyable read.
LibraryThing member ursula
The characters in this one are just one-of-a-kind. A strange nobleman finds a baby and decides to raise her as his daughter. The major problem with this course of action is that the baby is actually a boy. This is a good one.
LibraryThing member PaulMysterioso
Rose Loveall is the adopted inheritor of the Loveall fortune and, as a child is given a completely idyllic childhood on the family estate. But when Rose's adopted parents die and the relatives descend, Rose's secret is revealed and Rose must journey from the shelter of home and into the world on a
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journey of exploration and self-discovery. Show Less
LibraryThing member tronella
#12: Misfortune by Wesley Stace.
Shaney lent me this book about a thousand years ago. I thought the writing in this book was beautiful. It reads like historical fantasy, even though nothing fantastical actually happens in it.
It's set in England around the 19th century, I believe, and follows the
Like The Savage Garden, the ending does seem a little contrived, but I forgive it for the great story.
Shaney lent me this book about a thousand years ago. I thought the writing in this book was beautiful. It reads like historical fantasy, even though nothing fantastical actually happens in it.
It's set in England around the 19th century, I believe, and follows the
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life of the main character, Rose. Rose was abandoned as a baby but rescued by Lord Loveall, who was still mentally scarred by the death of his younger sister when they were children. So he brought up Rose as some sort of replacement for her (their names are even anagrams), even though she is biologically male. And of course, the titular misfortune eventually ensues.Like The Savage Garden, the ending does seem a little contrived, but I forgive it for the great story.
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LibraryThing member randalrh
I was told to like this more than By George, but I just couldn't. The set up of the novel, which no doubt some readers find interesting in its own right, is about half the novel and relies on a lot of individual introspection. The next quarter involved some interaction, and only the last quarter
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any interesting interaction. I'm sure I'd like this better if Stace thought it through again and rewrote it in half the pages. Show Less
LibraryThing member lizzy-x
I love books that explored gender identity, and this was a great example. It was a little drawn-out at points, as long books are prone to do, but overall, it was enjoyable and had a very original plotline.
LibraryThing member sumik
When I was at the library I saw one of Wes' other books and thought about taking it out BUT I thought I might want to read his first book first. So I interlibrary loaned it. An odd little story that is told well.
LibraryThing member SChant
Tiptree shortlist 2005. I wasn't really taken with it at first - couldn't get into the "eccentric ruling class family beloved by servants and villagers" motif - but eventually Rose's story and the fascinating exploration of gender and identity won me over. Could have done without the last 50 pages
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of long-winded exposition to reach a rather obvious conclusion. Again, no SF&F in it so why it was on the Tiptree list I don't know, but an entertaining read. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookwoman247
This is a quirky, playful, sympathetic novel that blends the modern themes of gender identity and self-discovery with a Dickensian rags-to-riches theme and a Dickensian theme, setting and cast of characters.
This novel was a crazy amalgam of of themes and styles that worked beautifully!
I just
This novel was a crazy amalgam of of themes and styles that worked beautifully!
I just
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finished reading this tour-de-force a few minutes ago, and I already want to open it to the first page and read it all over again! Show Less
LibraryThing member JBD1
An absolutely whacky novel, with hints of Dickens, Sterne, Fielding, and Charles Palliser. Somewhat standard inheritance plot, but with added elements of gender identity at the core of the book. While rather strange in parts, certainly an attention-holding read!
LibraryThing member Dreesie
A 500-page romp through early 19th century England, this book tells the story of Rose Loveall, a male foundling raised as a girl heir to Love Hall--who grows up to be a cross-dressing man, booted from his home by the Osbern side of the Loveall family.
Intrigue (over decades), goofiness, wordplay,
And it really does all neatly wrap up. I almost want to read it again so I can better catch the details in the appendix.
Intrigue (over decades), goofiness, wordplay,
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rich snobs, longtime servants and friends, ballads, and books all come together to solve the mystery of Rose's origin and find the true heir to Love Hall.And it really does all neatly wrap up. I almost want to read it again so I can better catch the details in the appendix.
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LibraryThing member MoiraStirling
Wonderful! Truly a delightful journey. Very avante-garde...I've never read anything quite like it. Bravo Mr. Stace on a brilliant first novel!!!
LibraryThing member extrajoker
first line: "By now, Pharaoh had reached his destination."
Like reading a Dickensian novel with modern sensibilities. (Think Great Expectations with gender-bending and the occasional sex scene.)
Like reading a Dickensian novel with modern sensibilities. (Think Great Expectations with gender-bending and the occasional sex scene.)
Subjects
Awards
Otherwise Award (Shortlist — 2005)
Language
Original publication date
2005
Physical description
531 p.; 9.06 inches
ISBN
0224076922 / 9780224076920
Local notes
A discarded infant boy is raised as a girl, Rose Loveall.
Interesting characters but slow-moving story.
Interesting characters but slow-moving story.