{"id":12187,"date":"2023-12-04T12:39:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T17:39:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fosterlibraries.org\/?p=12187"},"modified":"2023-12-04T12:39:27","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T17:39:27","slug":"privilege-of-the-sword-by-ellen-kushner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/?p=12187","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;The Privilege of the Sword&#8221; by Ellen Kushner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Audrey recommends:<\/strong> <em>The Privilege of the Sword<\/em> by Ellen Kushner<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Genre: <\/strong>Fantasy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Reading Level: <\/strong>Adult<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Summary:<\/strong> The eccentric Mad Duke of Tremontaine decides to teach his niece, Katherine, how to become a swordmaster rather than marry her off to an eligible nobleman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Audrey says:<\/strong> Ellen Kushner describes her Riverside series as &#8220;a melodrama of manners&#8221;: Jane-Austen-style social commentary in a bloody, high-stakes action-adventure. The ladies in town gossip about the latest slaughter as if it were a fashionable dress. Literary opinions are settled by a duel to first blood. &#8220;Melodrama of manners&#8221; is now my new favorite genre of all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leaving aside the environment, this novel is, at its core, about breaking boundaries. Marriage or death seem to be the only option for a young lady, but the Mad Duke encourages her to take a third option: true independence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At first, Katherine resists: if she walks around in boy&#8217;s clothes, folks will think she&#8217;s clinically insane, or worse, an actress. Katherine herself has no issue wearing breeches; she limits herself purely on the perceptions of others. The pressure to marry young, to appear chaste, to rely on men, to avoid making a scene&#8230; The societal norms of class and gender completely unravel once she realizes that they&#8217;re all illusions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This brief summary can&#8217;t do justice to the detail of Kushner&#8217;s world nor the rich interiority of her characters. I&#8217;m surprised this cult classic isn&#8217;t more well-known; I recommend you read the book for yourself, not least so I have someone to talk to about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_20231127_203718045_PORTRAIT-860x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12207\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The eccentric Mad Duke of Tremontaine decides to teach his niece, Katherine, how to become a swordmaster rather than marry her off to an eligible nobleman. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15987,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_recurring":false,"_piecal_recurring_interval":1,"_piecal_recurring_frequency":"","_piecal_recurring_exact_position":false,"_piecal_recurring_end":"","_piecal_color":"","_piecal_text_color":"","_piecal_global_color_master":false,"_piecal_rsets":"[]","_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14,16,22],"class_list":["post-12187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-recs","tag-adult","tag-audrey-recs","tag-fantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fostercommunitylibrary.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}