So Many Books... - August 23rd, 2009

10:53 pm - The old triangle

steepholm was reading Middlemarch when I was in Bristol last time, and I picked it up and read some random sections, with one line getting stuck in my head. It's about Mary Garth, and Mr Farebrother and Fred's both being in love with her. 'What could these two men, so different from each other, see in this "brown patch", as Mary called herself?'

I'd just been reading Lisa Mantchev's Eyes Like Stars, which has a kind of classic YA triangle, with the main character having one dependable, good friend (who's obviously in love with her) and one (possibly) bad boy with gobs of appeal who may be in love with her too, or may have other motivation besides his attraction to her, and is wounded in some way. This is NOT sniping at the book, BTW - I thought the characters in Eyes Like Stars were great, and Ariel especially incredibly well done.

I also said at the time I wrote about Maggie Stiefvater's Lament that the triangle in that blew me away, as she managed to keep the wounded Bad Boy newcomer totally sympathetic while at the same time also ratcheting up the love for the Dependable Best Friend (who's in love with the heroine). (The DBF is James btw - you'll want to remember that name, if you haven't read Lament yet.)

I mentioned this to steepholm the other night, as he was reporting on where he was in Middlemarch at that point, idly tossing off the question of whether Mary Garth was the mother of these YA heroines with the two guys vying for her love - and he replied that it had a long tradition in literature - mentioning Arthur, Guinevere and Lancelot. At that I started talking very fast about how they weren't allowed a place in my collection, because I hated that part of the Arthur story, and it was the Arthur story, not the Guinevere story, and did I mention I'd always hated that and the triangle is *always* from the girl's POV and lalala, not listening. Despite all that, I heard something about 'special pleading', but nothing more said about Them, so I didn't argue it.

I can think of lots of recent YAs with this kind of triangle, but didn't get much farther than adding a few of Jane Austen's books, if a bit tentatively, to the list. Elizabeth sort of fits the pattern, if one allows Wickham as the Bad Boy, but Darcy doesn't work for the dependable friend type then, so it's not really right. Marianne is better, though her not appreciating Colonel Brandon at all kind of works against a proper triangulation. I guess Anne Elliot has her moment of triangledom, though Captain Wentworth spends so long not realising he's still in love with her it's brief. (Not that she ever asked for Mr. Elliot's attentions, of course.)

Oh no - just thought of Jo and Laurie and the Professor. But that's too depressing for words and they're not concurrent anyway (and Laurie goes off with Amy). Anne of Green Gables - though Roy Gardner - no. Just no. (Gilbert makes up for any lack in Roy by the length of his devotion, maybe!)

Others I've missed? Or someone want to clue me in on why these girls have such amazingly great male best friends? Seriously, James, in Lament? (And in Ballad too, when it's finally available!)