2014 read #53: Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton.

Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton
332 pages
Published 2003
Read from June 12 to June 13
Rating: ★★★½ out of 5

A Victorian novel of manners, populated entirely by dragons -- a charming, high-concept basis for a story, no? Victorian novels are an appallingly large gap in my reading history (you know, along with Classical texts, medieval writing, early modern works, 20th century classics, and basically everything before and after as well as during the Victorian era), but I've gotten enough of a gist from summaries and parodies to have a sense of the expectations and rhythm of such novels. Here I find a neat bit of cross-pollination from a previous read, Albion by Peter Ackroyd. One may reject his fanciful and ill-defined genius loci hypothesis while still recognizing inherent qualities in English works, such as the oft-mentioned emphasis on superficial detail at the expense of deeper emotion and meaning, which was a helpful insight into how this sort of novel is supposed to work. Walton has fun complicating the plot and setting the characters careening off one way and another to create a pleasingly complex design, but even as parody or satire Tooth and Claw never digs deep. Brisk, entertaining, and an inspired conceit, but never more than a charming bauble.