Moths, Vol. 1 of 3: A Novel

by Ouida

Excerpt from Moths, Vol. 1 of 3: A Novel
It ruined her morning. It clouded the sunshine. It spoiled her cigarette. It made the waltzes sound like dirges. It made her chief rival look almost good-looking to her. It made a gown combined of parrots' breasts and passion- owers that she was going to wear in the afternoon feel green, and-yellow, and bilious in her anticipation of it, though it was quite new and a wonder. It made her remember her debts. It made her feel that she had not digested those e'cremlsses at supper. It made her fancy that her husband might not really go to Java or Jupiter. It was so sudden, so appal ling, so bewildering, so endless a question and Lady Dolly only asked questions, she never answered them or waited for their answers.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."

402 pages, Paperback

First published January 10, 2011

About the author

Ouida was the pen name of the English novelist Maria Louise Ramé (although she preferred to be known as Marie Louise de la Ramée).

During her career, she wrote more than 40 novels, children's books and collections of short stories and essays. She was an animal rights activist and animal rescuer, and at times owned as many as thirty dogs. For many years she lived in London, but about 1874 she went to Italy, where she died.

Ouida's work went through several phases during her career. In her early period, her novels were a hybrid of the sensationalism of the 1860s and the proto-adventure novels dubbed "muscular fiction" that were emerging in part as a romanticization of imperial expansion. Later her work was more along the lines of historical romance, though she never stopped comment on contemporary society. She also wrote several stories for children. One of her most famous novels, Under Two Flags, described the British in Algeria in the most extravagant of terms, while nonetheless also expressing sympathy for the French—with whom Ouida deeply identified—and, to some extent, the Arabs. This book went on to be staged in plays, and subsequently to be turned into at least three movies, transitioning Ouida in the 20th century.

Jack London cites her novel Signa, which describes an unschooled Italian peasant child who achieves fame as an opera composer, and which he read at age eight, as one of the eight reasons for his literary success.

Reviews

[Dannica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Am I calling this book three books when it's really a book in three volumes to cheat on my reading challenge? Yes, absolutely! It's so damn long.

Anyways, my thoughts so far:
-Dolly does suck and so does basically everyone in this book, so I guess Ouida's view of society as corrupt and shallow is convincing.
-On the other hand, some of the things Vere thinks of as vulgar and awful (e.g. revealing swimming outfits or waltzing) are a little bit silly. Not everything about hanging out with people, following fashion, or having a good time is literally evil.
-Vere married Zouroff :( it was upsetting but it would have more of an effect if I more understood what Zouroff's like. He gets described a lot but he doesn't get a lot of actual pagetime.
-Correze's poetic and all but he still fell for a sixteen year old so idk about that. Well, it's more like they had a meeting-of-the-souls type of experience I guess.

What will happen now, I don't really know.