Showcasing the undeniable literary and lyrical talents of Irish poet Eilean Ni Chuilleanain, The Girl Who Married The Reindeer will wonderfully introduce truly skilled and memorable poetry to an appreciative American readership. From An Apparition: Where did I see her, through/Which break in the cloud, the woman/In profile, a great eye like a scared horse?//Seated at a till, her right hand moving,/The fingers landing precisely as if/They stopped notes on a lute, it seemed//That her other hand protected something fragile./then she half sprang to her feet, a captive warding off,/And the long swathe of silk she wore began to shift//Flowing away like dye in water, but still she stood/Cramped, and the sliding web lapped against the window/So I knew I was looking at a window,//The silk text building against the glass/In flaps and folds of yellow and arctic blue,/And bottle-dark green until the pane darkened/And closed like a big fringed eyelid into sleep.

I read the book based on reader recommendations that equated 'Belinda' with Jane Austen's work. I had high expectations but struggled to read the book to the end. I found the writing at certain points more like an essay than a novel. Her character development seems forced, and there is little ambient description. Those interested in tracing literary associations of Jane Austen should probably read the book, but if you've read all of Austen's work and are desperately looking for something 'similar' to her style and quality, I would recommend you look elsewhere.

Why I never heard about this book until I stumbled upon it online, I will never know! This is as good as any Jane Austen novel, and should have a BBC film of it's own.

Besides this being as readable as Jane Austen, this book is witty and intelligent. It raises thought provoking questions about gender roles and transgression that suggest that Edgeworth was not an ordinary woman. Unfortunately, like many other 18th C. novels, the book ends with all the usual conventions intact. The women who cross dress (and the man who cross-dresses!) are returned to their spheres and/or married. Don't get me wrong though, this book is quite innovative. I don't know of many literary women having duels and stepping in iron traps that cut up their legs. Also particularly interesting is Edgeworth's treatment of colonialism: there is a cross-racial marriage that is entirely sanctioned. And yet the thought of the heroine marrying a creole is not approved. It is much better for her to marry an Englishman in the parliament. This is a delightful book that would entertain romantics and scholars. I would like to think that I am both, though.