This is a difficult book to review because I simultaneously like it and don't like it. I read two versions of the story. First, I read the ebook version which was quite long and tedious. I've done my fair share of scholarship and the book just brought back so many boring memories. The other version was the BBC heavily edited version that was also dramatized. What a relief that was! It just goes to show that every book can benefit from a monster-load of editing! I could actually enjoy a few love stories without hundreds and hundreds of pages of allusions within several fictitious poets' compendiums steeped in their stifling cultural morasses. Wow, what a difference that is! Sure, bright writing is as bright writing does, but I have to say that a really bright writer would have couched her writing in a style that doesn't actively try to alienate by tedious scholarship. I mean, I've been a fantasy fan for many years. I can make a leap of faith with few clues and just assume that these characters are genuine scholars (of fake poets). 
 Sigh. Yes, yes, I'm duly impressed with the amount of tedium the author poured into the book. Congratulations. Of course, to be fair, we could have substituted all of the poems and scholarship with zombies and trying to survive at all odds while having a love affair and both novels would have had the same effect. They were both survival fictions.