The Life and Opinions of Gilroy Hurst, Gentleman by Esther

Reviewer’s Haiku, by Oofy Prosser

This story review
So shamefully overdue
Is also quite short

Darling Readers, that really does sum things up. I have been trying to write this review for weeks. Weeks, I tell you! And something always interferes. Do forgive me.

Regency, AU, Teen at DWG

Life and Opinions is a parody, and like any good parody it engages lovingly with its source text. Esther’s Gilroy Hurst takes the place of narrator here, and the resulting story is a much more, shall we say, earthy Pride and Prejudice. Hurst is a garrulous narrator and reveals intimate details of his close relationship with his valet, Rupert, as well as his distant relationship with his wife. We also learn a great deal about his family history, which though common, scandalous and shocking, is also highly entertaining.

The conversational style of narration lends itself well to the parodic and farcical elements of the story. It’s actually very carnivalesque, in the Bakhtinian sense, which is in direct contrast to Austen’s writing. If I may borrow an explanation from Wikipedia:

Bakhtin likens the carnivalesque in literature to the type of activity that often takes place in the carnivals of popular culture. In the carnival, as we have seen, social hierarchies of everyday life—their solemnities and pieties and etiquettes, as well as all ready-made truths—are profaned and overturned by normally suppressed voices and energies. Thus, fools become wise, kings become beggars; opposites are mingled (fact and fantasy, heaven and hell).

Not that I think Esther had Bakhtin in mind when she was writing this story, mind you. It’s just one of those happy confluences that fills my literary theorist’s heart with delight.

In any case, amongst all the mingling, Mr Hurst sees all and influences all. He’s also never as drunk as he’s taken for. When we first meet Esther’s Hurst, he’s a self-deprecating, loveable, humourous, whimsical, bored man who’s trapped in a loveless marriage to a woman whose relatives he can barely stand. As he moves through the events of Pride and Prejudice, he not only influences but is influenced by, so that by the story’s end he’s a better man for it.

Esther introduces some original characters, including the aforementioned Rupert, and the exceedingly memorable (and absurd) Wilhelm Von Glugerschplontz. But I shall say no more, for fear of spoiling him for you.

Other highlights of the story include an awesome lyric shout-out to the song Time of the Season, and Hurst’s excellent taste in women. That is, he develops a crush on Charlotte Lucas. He writes her an anonymous sort-of love letter and has to hide in her closet to deliver it. It’s not at all as creepy and stalkerish as it sounds. It’s simply more evidence that in the carnivalesque world, and indeed the world of The Life and Opinions of Gilroy Hurst, Gentleman, nothing ever goes as planned.

This is a funny, silly, warm-hearted story where no one is allowed to keep his or her dignity for very long. It’s a little rough around the edges and could do with a good edit (much like Hurst himself), but overall it’s a great deal of fun.