Acquire Today Mitternacht Ist Ein Ort By Joan Aiken Supplied As Audiobook
on Mitternacht ist ein Ort
Aiken is a master at creating atmosphere, and Midnight Is a Place is no exception the book could well be called a Gothic novel for children, with its orphaned hero and heroine, disagreeable guardian, mysterious events, and gloomy setting.
Lucas Bell, an orphan, lives with his guardian, Sir Randolph Grimsby, and his tutor, Julian Oakapple, in an old mansion called Midnight Court, Soon after the arrival of Anna Marie, another orphan and the grandchild of the previous owner of Midnight Court, Lucas and Anna Marie are forced to fend for themselves on the streets of the dismal city of Blastburn.
There is never a dull moment the story speeds along, through the dangerous mill where the workers may be crushed by a press or drowned in glue, to the sewers where maneating hogs run in packs.
The force of Aiken's imagination is present on every page, in the suspenseful story, the memorable characters, and the ominous atmosphere, Well, I finished it. What a dismal, dreary world, Where are all the adults in this book Why are Aiken's books OK, I have only read two so freezing cold It's like eternal winter there, Children, no matter how admirable and clever, just shouldn't have to work so hard or know so much or feel so responsible, It was wellwritten and compelling enough to finish, but still disappointing and depressing, I would never, never recommend this to a child of any age, This was honestly quite bizarre and a little hard to follow at times, but also it was really good It took me a while to get into it, but once I was in, I was in.
There were many twists and turns along the way, and all my questions were answered in the end, What an interesting book.
'Nowt said breaks no head, ' Davey Scatcherd
A dark tale of unspoken secrets and kind words, sharp practices and generosity, bravery and steadfastness, all set in a grim manufacturing town may not sound ideal fare for young readers, and yet Joan Aiken to my mind has carried it off.
While there is no "Jerusalem builded here among those dark satanic mills" there is hope and optimism amongst the tragedy and a determination that creativity can counteract the bleaker side of human contradictions.
Orphan Lucas Bell is under the guardianship of Sir Randolph Grimsby, privately educated by a a taciturn tutor at the forbidding Midnight Court, hard by the town of Blastburn.
As Lucas turns thirteen he is joined by another orphan, AnnaMarie Murgatroyd who, lately come from Calais, speaks only French,
But relationships between these four individuals is somewhat strained as suspicions sour the atmosphere, already fouled by the smoke and grime from nearby Blastburn, Something has to give and for Lucas and others they find it is a case of out of the frying pan, only to find themselves, almost literally, in the fire.
Midnight is a Place is a fierce reimagining of an England here called Albion at the height of the Industrial Revolution, when the destitute from the countryside migrated to the urban centres where they hoped to find some kind of paid work in factories, mills and other workplaces.
Here is an amalgam of the Vendale of the opening of Charles Kingsley's The WaterBabies with the Lancashire of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels, the curious and suggestive names from Dickens' fiction with the feminist sensibilities of the Brontë sisters.
In fact this novel is set in, the year in which Charlotte and Emily Brontë set off to work in Brussels, just as AnnaMarie Murgatroyd is making the reverse journey from the Continent to a thinly disguised Yorkshire.
In Lucas and AnnaMarie we have two distinctive protagonists, one creative and selfeffacing, the other feisty and practical it's as though they represent twin aspects of the author herself.
The journey from middleclass respectability to a handtomouth penury working in sewers, in a textile mill, making cigars anew from discarded butts and so on is both heartbreaking and yet heartwarming, especially when friends are found in the most unlikely of places and in the direst of circumstances.
I must add that, unlike many of the Wolves Chronicles where villains get their just desserts and the good win through in the end, Midnight is a Place introduces death, often violent, as a necessary
adjunct to life, and the hopedfor happy ending is edged with funereal black.
If the Chronicles are magical realism, albeit with a social conscience, this novel probably set in the same alternate world as the Chronicles is more social realism, even if the fortuitous coincidences and unexpected revelations are more usual in lighter fiction.
Despite Midnight Court being a bleak house, as a Joan Aiken novel this still fulfils the promise of great expectations, Humour and music, wisdom and humanity suffuse the narrative and, strangely, for a standalone title, there is to be an unsoughtfor sequel of sorts anticipated in a scripturelike prophecy made by a rascal in the closing pages.
.stars
Aiken is a unique writer its generally alternative action historical fiction, Some stories have some paranormal elements in them, Ive decided to label her books “historical fantasy, ” I made up that genre name, but I like it,
This one is a standalone novel, It takes place in the town of Blastburn with Yorkshireish accents, a setting in The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, but this is the only connection to that book or series.
The review quoted on the back of the book gives away a lot of the plot, so dont read that,
The writing is very good the details shine with creativity, Partand Partof the book are quite different, In Part, we see all those threads tie together, and that was great fun,
Joan Aiken continues her protosteampunk adventures for children, Less silly than the Willoughby Chase series no one bounces ten feet in the air on a windowseat cushion, for example, the standard Aiken universe is still in placea place called Midnight.
Plucky kids are still being done out of their homes and inheritance by unscrupulous adults, Good folks still live underground, And industry is still a bad thing, although in this book we are told as much right out loud, as Grandmere and Mr Oakapple inveigh against the "evils" of tools.
I suppose "Midnight" is a reference to Blake's "dark, satanic mills, " The plucky kids make money the best way they know how, whether it's picking apart cigar butts for the tobacco, to make "new" cheroots to sell and if the nicotine doesn't kill you, the secondhand bacteria will! or grubbing about in the sewers and garbage heaps for sellable secondhand items.
I think Aiken must have seen the film "The Mudlarks" at some point,
The authoress' French isn't up to much, but that's OK, it's fictional French and I doubt many of her child readers know more than a few words anyway.
I am a bit surprised at how little I have to say about this book, but then it didn't make much of an impression, It was a quick read, and if I'd been aboutorI probably would have loved it, As it is, I found the ambience began to pall about twothirds of the way through, and the wrap was hurried and patchy to say the very least, Two and a half, Plot summary: Lucas Bell lives in a gloomy house with no one but his badtempered guardian and tutor for company, But when someone else comes to live at Midnight Court, things are about to change forever,
Thoughts: I LOVED Joan Aiken's books as a kid, They were a big part of what got me interested in history and the Victorian era more specifically, The characters weren't nearly as wonderful as I remembered them being, and the story contains quite a lot of deaths, But then again, it's set inin a carpet mill, so what would you expect!
It's still got plenty of gaspworthy moments as an adult, but the action is all fairly shortlived.
Lots of build up, and then the climax takes place in half a page! Still worth the read for kids who are interested in history, provided they can handle the dark themes.
Two orphans who don't even like each other at first are thrown together after their house burns down, their guardian dies, and their tutor is injured in the fire.
What a start! Lucas and Anna Marie have to find a place to live, a place to work, and avoid the local gang, This is set in a very dark version of Victorian England, and both children wind up going through some really terrible things,
I have read books by this author before, and she often deals with dark themes, What bothered me about this book is that the book never let up much, Things got a little better towards the end, but when I was expecting the big payoff at the factory, it just sort of ended, I felt like I was robbed, There was no justice and no resolution, .
Joan Aiken