![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wildestrangerI've spent the last three weeks with Francis Crawford of Lymond. If you've met me during this time, I will have told you about him. Descriptions such as 'sweet and malicious' and 'men love him and women want to be him' might have been uttered. Actually, this is a theme in the novels - I'm vaguely thinking about writing a fic titled 'Men Who Loved Francis Crawford, but Not Like That (and the Women Who Laughed at Them) as this is an occasional discussion point and the source of much amusement.
So. Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles consist of six novels written between 1961 and 1971. They are concerned with the life of Francis Crawford, the younger son of a Scottish baronial family, a mercenary by profession and an annoying git by deliberate choice. The books take him through Renaissance Europe (1548-1558), from Scotland and France to Morocco, Turkey and Russia. The world-building is vivid and detailed. The adventures are exciting. Characterisation, however, is what makes these books amazing. The majority of the narrative is told from the perspective of people around Francis, and on the few occasions we do follow him, the pov is mostly external. Our reaction to him is guided through the reactions of other characters, who tend to find him strangely magnetic yet extremely frustrating. There is a lot of aggravation caused by Francis Crawford being too damn perfect, and sarcastic, and pretty. Information about his character is distributed carefully, and in ways designed to make him all the more tantalizing. These books are making me have thoughts about narrative structure and the formation of identity through dissemination of literary tropes. And also feelings about how Francis Crawford is the most perfect human being of all time.
Anyway. If you've read these books, come and talk to me about them! If you haven't read them, you should! These books are the most enjoyable reading experience of my life, and they will make your life better.
So. Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles consist of six novels written between 1961 and 1971. They are concerned with the life of Francis Crawford, the younger son of a Scottish baronial family, a mercenary by profession and an annoying git by deliberate choice. The books take him through Renaissance Europe (1548-1558), from Scotland and France to Morocco, Turkey and Russia. The world-building is vivid and detailed. The adventures are exciting. Characterisation, however, is what makes these books amazing. The majority of the narrative is told from the perspective of people around Francis, and on the few occasions we do follow him, the pov is mostly external. Our reaction to him is guided through the reactions of other characters, who tend to find him strangely magnetic yet extremely frustrating. There is a lot of aggravation caused by Francis Crawford being too damn perfect, and sarcastic, and pretty. Information about his character is distributed carefully, and in ways designed to make him all the more tantalizing. These books are making me have thoughts about narrative structure and the formation of identity through dissemination of literary tropes. And also feelings about how Francis Crawford is the most perfect human being of all time.
Anyway. If you've read these books, come and talk to me about them! If you haven't read them, you should! These books are the most enjoyable reading experience of my life, and they will make your life better.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-08-24 08:48 pm (UTC)And a couple of weeks ago I ran into someone who had read them and we just SHRIEKED at each other for a while.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-24 09:42 pm (UTC)They are also giving me lots of fic ideas but there doesn't seem to be much of a fandom for them.
no subject
Date: 2012-08-24 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-08-26 10:50 pm (UTC)But fic thoughts - I keep being delighted by all the men who fall in love with Francis Crawford and how frustrated they get when he fails to be their soulmate, how confused they are and how they respond to him. There seems to be one in every book: Will Scott, Robin Stewart, Jerotth Blyth and arguably Gabriel, and Daniel Hislop who basically joins the group so he can watch other men fall in love with Lymond. And then all the women who laugh at them. It makes me wonder what would they actually and specifically want from him - what would they want to see happen, what would be a satisfying encounter with Lymond? If he had in fact taken Will Scott to bed at the Ostrich, as Will expected him to do? If he had heard Robin Stewart's message and met him that final day? If he had agreed to be mastered by Gabriel, as everyone else seems to have wanted him to?
I would be reluctant to write about Lymond with Philippa, as that is perfectly done in the books, but I'm very interested in how other people see him, and fantasize about him, and pine ridiculously.