{"id":260,"date":"2010-12-07T20:11:01","date_gmt":"2010-12-07T20:11:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/?p=260"},"modified":"2011-04-27T17:21:37","modified_gmt":"2011-04-27T16:21:37","slug":"present-tense-book-review-%e2%80%93-lady-audley%e2%80%99s-secret-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/present-tense-book-review-%e2%80%93-lady-audley%e2%80%99s-secret-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Present Tense Book Review \u2013 Lady Audley\u2019s Secret: Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n(Part One<\/a> of this Present Tense Book Review.)\n<\/p>\n

\nRobert Audley is still assiduously trying to uncover the eponymous secret, and entertaining me while he does so. He’s a bit of an odd character, and he reminds me of myself, sometimes. He likes his idle pleasures, is phlegmatic (in a good sense), and looks after any stray dogs that come his way. But when he does<\/i> have something to do, he sets about it with a single-minded obstinacy. There’s a smashing quote from Bob, when talking to his melodramatic (and smitten) cousin, Alicia:\n<\/p>\n

\n“Life is such a very troublesome matter, when all is said and done, that it’s as well to take even its blessings quietly. I don’t make a great howling because I can get good cigars one door from the corner of Chancery Lane, and have a dear, good girl for my cousin: but I am not the less grateful to Providence that it is so.”\n<\/p>\n

\nAn unusual aspect to the story is Bob’s motivation: his friendship with the missing George, and the impact of his absence. He’s also concerned about his family, and there are a couple of eyelash-fluttering lovelies involved, but, for me, the chief strand running through the narrative is the friendship between two men, which I don’t recall having often encountered in fiction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Part One of this Present Tense Book Review.) Robert Audley is still assiduously trying to uncover the eponymous secret, and entertaining me while he does so. He’s a bit of an odd character, and he reminds me of myself, sometimes. He likes his idle pleasures, is phlegmatic (in a good sense), and looks after any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-quote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monkeyshines.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}