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wagmore's review against another edition
3.0
Was it unusual for an author writing in the 1890s to have such a strong female protagonist? I have to think it was. Pretty entertaining glimpse into a different era.
thenovelbook's review against another edition
4.0
Well, this novel is, shall we say, comprehensive.
Lois Cayley's stepfather dies. He is her last near relation and she is left penniless, so she quite naturally decides to take a trip around the world. Who wouldn't? Along the way she hunts out new sources of income, or sometimes things find her. By turns she is a temporary lady's maid for a cantankerous old woman, a bicycle racer, a living bicycle advertisement and saleswoman, house sitter, preventer of theft and fraud, tiger hunter (I don't like that part), journalist, honored guest of a maharajah, and entrepreneur. In the end she has to turn detective, because her fiance is accused of forging his uncle's will. Turns out the will really is forged, but it's an exact forged copy of the real will. Why would anyone need to forge, unaltered, a copy of a will? I leave it to your imagination (or read the book).
Lois turns out to be a rather comical narrator, and I'm glad that I finally determined that this is not a book to be taken seriously, because it would be impossible. I chuckle when she says things like,
"My employer wrote, 'You are a born journalist.'
I confess this surprised me; for I have always considered myself a truthful person."
And the pictures! Lots of old books of this sort have the occasional sketch scattered throughout, but this one has pictures every few pages, so that you might accurately imagine Lois' latest escapade.
Although there are no noticeable puns or plays on language, I have to say that I think this author is literarily (but not literally) related to P.G. Wodehouse. A similar sense of the ridiculous, and frequently over-the-top, but everything comes right by the end of the episode. Yes, this book is written in episodes, tied together by a few common threads.
Some may want to take note that there are a dozen or so uses of the N-word around the middle of the book, but only out of the mouth of a character you are not supposed to like anyway. Oddly enough, he's not talking about people of African descent, but those from India.
Lois Cayley's stepfather dies. He is her last near relation and she is left penniless, so she quite naturally decides to take a trip around the world. Who wouldn't? Along the way she hunts out new sources of income, or sometimes things find her. By turns she is a temporary lady's maid for a cantankerous old woman, a bicycle racer, a living bicycle advertisement and saleswoman, house sitter, preventer of theft and fraud, tiger hunter (I don't like that part), journalist, honored guest of a maharajah, and entrepreneur. In the end she has to turn detective, because her fiance is accused of forging his uncle's will. Turns out the will really is forged, but it's an exact forged copy of the real will. Why would anyone need to forge, unaltered, a copy of a will? I leave it to your imagination (or read the book).
Lois turns out to be a rather comical narrator, and I'm glad that I finally determined that this is not a book to be taken seriously, because it would be impossible. I chuckle when she says things like,
"My employer wrote, 'You are a born journalist.'
I confess this surprised me; for I have always considered myself a truthful person."
And the pictures! Lots of old books of this sort have the occasional sketch scattered throughout, but this one has pictures every few pages, so that you might accurately imagine Lois' latest escapade.
Although there are no noticeable puns or plays on language, I have to say that I think this author is literarily (but not literally) related to P.G. Wodehouse. A similar sense of the ridiculous, and frequently over-the-top, but everything comes right by the end of the episode. Yes, this book is written in episodes, tied together by a few common threads.
Some may want to take note that there are a dozen or so uses of the N-word around the middle of the book, but only out of the mouth of a character you are not supposed to like anyway. Oddly enough, he's not talking about people of African descent, but those from India.
mommaraff's review against another edition
4.0
It was different and interesting but I really disliked these of the n word I realize it was by a not good guy in the store but still passed around so easily I that chapter and I didn't like the quick wrap up.
marmercurio's review against another edition
This is a fairly obscure Victorian novel that fits perfectly into my doctoral research, but I don't expect most folks to pick it up. That being said, heads up if you do: racial slurs are used in the latter chapters, generally framed as uncouth but nevertheless present.
ssejig's review against another edition
3.0
I got this book for free from Google Books after reading about it on Smart Bitches and was mostly quite charmed by it (though it did take me a LONG time to read, especially on Overdrive and their persistent use of percentages rather than page numbers, what's the point of that, I might ask? I finally switched over to Aldiko and was so much happier). Unfortunately, this book is a product of its times and super racist.
Anyway, Miss Lois Cayley is about to be kicked out of school and has very little money to her name. So she sets off on a grand adventure, hoping to work her way around the world. She immediately finds work as a companion for an old, crotchety woman and thwarts the robbery of the woman's jewels. Then she meets the woman's nephew. In a regular romance, this would've been the end of the story, resulting in marriage. In this book, Miss Cayley decides that a)she still wants adventure and b)she doesn't want him to be disinherited (he wouldn't mind and she doesn't want the money but she also doesn't want it to be a bone of contention with them later).
Along the way, Lois sells bicycles and typewriters. She sends for her friend Elsie who had been ill and they set off for a year in Italy and then in to Egypt.
Anyway, Miss Lois Cayley is about to be kicked out of school and has very little money to her name. So she sets off on a grand adventure, hoping to work her way around the world. She immediately finds work as a companion for an old, crotchety woman and thwarts the robbery of the woman's jewels. Then she meets the woman's nephew. In a regular romance, this would've been the end of the story, resulting in marriage. In this book, Miss Cayley decides that a)she still wants adventure and b)she doesn't want him to be disinherited (he wouldn't mind and she doesn't want the money but she also doesn't want it to be a bone of contention with them later).
Along the way, Lois sells bicycles and typewriters. She sends for her friend Elsie who had been ill and they set off for a year in Italy and then in to Egypt.
wealhtheow's review against another edition
3.0
Lois Cayley is the quick-witted, sharp-tongued, stout-hearted heroine of this sweet little novel. She's so clever and masterful that her various triumphs come as no surprise, but her asides are so amusing that her near-perfection is never annoying. The quips and bon mots are hilarious (see my status updates for examples), and the characters memorable. The women are just as capable, full of agency, and rife with both foibles and strengths (including higher mathematics), as the men. The n-word pops up a number of times once Lois gets to India, but the main Indian character is far more admirable than most of the other characters, and not "in spite" of his race or creed. (It's disheartening to realize this was printed as early as 1899, and yet over a hundred years later the truths Allen found self-evident are still being argued about.) Everything is handled with a light, airy touch, and the humor has a wonderfully dry tone to it. The plot veers into melodrama at the end, but it's all in good fun.
I wish this was part of a series, because I am loathe to part with the admirable Miss Cayley! Can be found online here.
I wish this was part of a series, because I am loathe to part with the admirable Miss Cayley! Can be found online here.
glyptodonsneeze's review
3.0
Missie will hate Miss Cayley's Adventures for the same reasons she hated Name of the Wind. Miss Cayley is too damn good at everything. But Name of the Wind was funny, there was real swashbucklement, the plot moved forward, it wasn't racist. Missie recommended Miss Cayley's Adventures to me based on this glowing Toast article: http://the-toast.net/2014/09/03/lois-cayley-adventuress/ and it is a whole hell of a lot better than most New Woman literature, but that's not saying much. Miss Cayley shoots one tiger, but mostly she relies on her extensive wits and serendipity to travel around the world. On the train to Germany, she foils a jewel thief. The old lady with the jewels provide Miss Cayley's start-up capital and Miss Cayley is fallen in love with by the lady's rich nephew Harold. Miss Cayley wants to be not an adventuress but an adventuress so she refuses Harold's hand and continues her travels by winning a bicycle race and becoming a commissioned sales agent of a piston-action bicycle company. After foiling another plot by the jewel thief brigand, she and her friend set up a typing shop in Milan. Bicycles and typewriters are both extremely modern inventions to be embraced by the New Woman. In Egypt, she rescues a white woman from non-white people, and in India she meets a young potentate with the manners of a European and the soul of a dusky savage. With trouble brewing between Harold and the villain who's dogging her, Miss Cayley heads to Vancouver on a steamer, crosses Canada by express train, and disembarks at Quebec in time to take the speedboat back to London, thus ignoring North America in her round the world adventure, and foiling the villain once and for all in a clever courtroom maneuver. Miss Cayley's Adventures is not at all a bad book but it's not a good book either. It's "better than," if I may damn it with faint praise. Better than so many books of its era, but if you want overt, bad-ass, 1890s feminism, read The Shuttle. (And for globular circumnavigation Around the World in 80 Days is the obvious choice.)
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/12/im-behind-quick-review-round-up.html
http://surfeitofbooks.blogspot.com/2014/12/im-behind-quick-review-round-up.html
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