Lamenting the rapid resolution of painstakingly established plots

Five books, seven weeks. Uh oh. I'm in trouble.

I have finally finished my reading of Charlotte Lennox's wonderful novel, The Female Quixote, which is book five in my reading adventure (to borrow Arabella's word). Wonderfully whimsical but with a strong moral core, this 18th-century novel was a real pleasure to read.

If it has one real weakness, and it's a weakness I have also found with Radcliffe's books from approximately the same period, it is that the author takes a very long time to set out and establish the main problem of the novel but a very short time to resolve it.

In this case, Arabella spends much of her life (and the first 360 pages of this novel) suffering under the misapprehension that the real world of 1750 operates by the same rules as the world of 17th-century French romance novels. This misapprehension leads to any number of hilarious experiences and to a rather delightful conundrum for the book's male hero, Mr. Glanville, who adores Arabella for her wit, her intelligence, her goodness and the loveliness of her appearance but who finds her intoxication with the world and customs of romances a source of great exasperation and public humiliation.

The author then introduces a brief, serious illness for Arabella at approximately page 360, followed by an intense (and very interesting) conversation between Arabella and her physician which manages to convince her of her long-held folly and to give up her misapprehensions in favour of the real world.

What she develops so lovingly in 360 pages, Lennox resolves, not so convincingly, in the final 20.

My reading of this novel was affected (quite happily, to be honest) by the many margin notes my partner Patti added when she first read it 20 years ago. I believe she read the book as part of a feminist literary course so many of her comments relate to the portrayal of women or the place of women in society (both the society of the book and the society of its author). Other comments reveal Patti's interest in the philosophy of John Locke, who would become the subject of her Masters and PhD theses.

All in all, a very interesting, very fun reading experience. But slow...

What was I thinking when I planned to read each book in this journey in just five days? My average, after finishing The Female Quixote, is almost 10 days per book.

Perhaps the next book on the shelf, Henrik Ibsen's classic play Peer Gynt, will help speed things up.