Review: Doris Dances & Fires Rekindled by Julian Hawthorne, edited by P. Alexander, Michael Tierney, and Robert A. Lupton
Stop me if you’ve heard this one. A turn-of-the-century sitcom and a paranormal romance walk into a bar....
A lost pair of tales by Julian Hawthorne reappear for readers’ convenience in the modern day, courtesy of Cirsova Publishing. The son of famous American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, Julian’s style differs considerably from that of his paternal inspiration. While the two have similar positions on religion and belief, Julian’s reflections have outcomes dissimilar from those in his father’s tales.
One of the best places to see the divergence is in this volume: Doris Dances & Fires Rekindled. Separately the two tales are fun and intriguing, but together they provide a view of this largely forgotten American writer’s mind and musings.
The Story
Doris Dances has all the humor and heart of an early sitcom crossed with the serious recognition that laughter and good fun can still be threatened by darkness. The tale begins with Robert “Bob” McIvor Melrose, the heir to his family’s fortune. Raised by his Puritanical relatives, the Calvin Bunyans, Bob soon demonstrates that he is going to be “a problem.” Mr. Calvin Bunyan takes the opportunity every Sunday morning to read the Bible and preach upon its meaning to his wife, the house servants, and Bob. The Calvin Bunyans do not attend church services but hold their own in their house every week, and woe unto the one who interrupts Mr. Calvin Bunyan in his position as self-appointed minister.
One Sunday morning, Bob interrupts Mr. Calvin Bunyan’s solemn sermon. It happens, as it always does, that the housemaid has two little kittens that are young enough to prefer playing to behaving. Bob isn’t much older than the kittens at this point and, mild-mannered and docile, he likes to watch them investigate the room while his guardian talks (and does not notice his ward’s lack of attention). When the two felines accidentally set up a commotion that interrupts the sermon, Bob does the unforgivable. He laughs!
Tsk, tsk! No laughing or disturbance amid important functions such as this, young man!
Poor Bob really doesn’t change as he grows. A Bohemian spirit with a genial temperament, Bob develops a fascination with human infants as he comes to adulthood – one his new wife does not share. When, while he is on a business trip to New York, Bob buys a baby girl for fifty dollars from the elderly guardian selling her, his wife makes it clear that her husband can have the baby or he can have her. He cannot have them both.
Bob chooses the baby, leaving his fortune to his wife, as he “never had an interest in” business anyway. He names his new infant Doris and the two begin to wander, with Bob playing the banjo while Doris dances. As she dances and grows, Doris becomes a beauty men would die – or do worse – to possess….
Fires Rekindled, meanwhile, is a paranormal romance and a far less lighthearted tale compared to Doris. Lionel Heathcote, an American researching his ancestor of the same name, arrives in England to meet his sister and take up residence in London, so he may continue his academic work. World War I is on the horizon but hardly registers in Lionel’s mind as his sister takes him to his apartment. It seems strangely familiar to him, and soon, he realizes he has been here before.
His sister is amused by this. After all, neither of them has been to the country before they reached adulthood; she to marry and live in London, Lionel to read up on their mysterious ancestor. But when her brother accurately describes rooms in the apartment before she opens the doors to show them to him, she is disturbed and asks him to stop.
Lionel appeases his sister but soon finds that, the longer he is in the apartment, the more memories that are not his own come to him. Of specific note are the memories of nights and days spent with a beautiful woman of divine appearance who also called this apartment home. Are these mere flights of fancy, or is Lionel tied to the ancestor whom he seeks to learn more of? If so, just what will be the consequences of this strange knowledge? And what is the answer to the riddle of these other-memories in his mind?
The Characters
Bob McIvor is fun and funny without being tedious or cartoonish. He really is a Bohemian spirit, one who needs a reminder every now and then that following impulses isn’t good for everything, as some could give scandal to those who should be protected from dishonor and disgrace. His seeming harmlessness is punctuated by his affability at the same time it is accentuated by his daughter’s otherworldly beauty and wisdom. Even before she becomes an adult, Doris sees the world through ancient, understanding eyes. She loves her father and his friends as family and would do anything for them, learning from the example which they set.
Lionel Heathcote, in contrast to most protagonists in tales like his, experiences no horror at having another’s memories supersede his own. Rather than be shocked and terrified at the potential that he could be losing his mind or his individuality, he becomes absorbed in the memories and dives into this discovery with a will. This is an interesting characteristic not much explored in tales like Fires Rekindled and it makes Lionel fascinating. His eager drive for knowledge is one too many heroes lack, so seeing it in this protagonist made him more intriguing than he might otherwise have been.
The World
The world is the bygone era of the turn of the 20th century. World War I is on the horizon in Fires while Bob McIvor can adopt a baby girl by paying fifty dollars to an immigrant tramp on the street trying to sell her. It is a strange world caught in a variety of interplaying forces and challenges. But there is humor, hope, and beauty that remains amid the shadows and uncertainties all the same.
Politics
The politics, such as they are, are those of the early 20th century. Any resemblance to current politics just goes to prove the old saw true: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Content Warning
Bob buys a baby from an immigrant in New York City. This might rub some people the wrong way, even though he does love his new daughter, doing everything in his power to make sure she grows up happy and well-educated. Lionel Heathcote remembers several intimate moments between his ancestor and his ancestor’s lover. They are not explicit but they are not vanilla descriptions, either. Beyond these items, there is nothing objectionable in the stories.
Who is it for?
Doris Dances & Fires Rekindled is for anyone who wants some light reading that illuminates where certain tropes and characters came from. Those who want an academic glimpse into the writing of the early pulp stories created at the turn of the century will also like this book, and readers who found Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter a slog in high school will discovers his son’s upbeat, quick-paced tales are a nice alternative to his father’s works. Parents with children currently reading The Scarlet Letter may want to pick this volume up as a sympathetic palate cleanser for said young readers as well. For those who actually enjoyed the novel by Julian’s father, Doris and Fires show what he learned at his father’s knee, as well as where he chose to follow his own path as a writer. Also, any paranormal romance fans or fans of Andre Norton’s Witch World and other novels will wish to read Fires Rekindled. It may have been an influence on some of her later works – or inspired those she liked to read.
Why buy it?
First and foremost, it is a piece of American history that deserves to be preserved. Second, it is a piece of pulp fiction history that needs to be saved for the future. Third and most importantly, it is FUN, light, and enjoyable reading that will fill an hour or two and leave a reader smiling. What more reason can there be to buy such tales as these?