Beverly of Graustark

I'm not really sure what to make of this one. There was alot of the rip-roaring adventure tale that I was looking for but the last few chapters just seemed to become a hopeless tangle and Marlanx was really not much more than a cardboard villian. As there are no more Graustark novels on LibriVox and I need to read actual books, I think I will leave this series for a bit.

George Barr McCutcheon’s second novel in his Graustark series features some of the same characters from Book One, however, the original main characters take a step back to allow a few new faces to take centre stage.

Beverly is a young American woman who gets to know Yetive, the Princess of Graustark, through her highness’s American consort. Events transpire than Beverly and her servant travel to Graustark to meet the royal couple. The Americans end up stranded only to be helped out by a band of vagabonds, whose leader – Baldos, the hero of the story – proves himself to be a real charmer.

The opening quarter of the novel appealed to me the most, during which time Beverly, Baldos, and the gang are wandering about in the wilderness. show more Once they reach Graustark the story becomes patchy.

With Beverly, George Barr McCutcheon has created one of his best female characters. She’s witty, confident, and beautiful – what more could a man want? Yet this great character alone isn’t enough to raise the book to greater heights.

That said, ‘Beverly of Graustark’ is well worth checking out. show less

Overall, I like the Graustark series, one of the two series (the other being Anthony Hope's Ruritania novels) which became the eponyms of the Graustarkian or Ruritanian novel involving romantic adventure in small imaginary European monarchies in the late 19th century. I bought this as part iof an attempt (incomplete so far) to fill in my holdings of the Graustark series.This is not my favorite because the heroine is a daughter of passionate Confederates with a feeble comic black "mammy" servant. Some fictional mammies are wise understanding counselors, but this one is just a silly stereotype. The heroine finds herself in Graustark which is now ruled by a beautiful young princess with an American husband (courtesy of the first book, show more Graustark0 and for a while she is mistaken for the princess and rather awkwardly plays along with it (particularly awkwardly as she does not known the language; the princess is fluent in English but naturally also in her own language.) Beverly gets involved with an exiled prince from a neighboring nation. show less