In Regency England, Ellen Grimsley resents how carelessly her wastrel brother Gordon treats his studies at an Oxford university -- and her own ineligibility for those hallowed, masculine halls. But after Gordon maneuvers her into writing his Shakespeare essays for him, Ellen seizes the opportunity, dons drag, and plunges into Oxford. Cross-dressing hijinks ensue.

The first half of _Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career_ follows the sacred traditions of the feminist cross-dressing comedy (with antecedents ranging from _Twelfth Night_ to _Just One of the Guys_). There's the spunky heroine unfairly denied access to patriarchal privileges. (Modern outrage!) There's the dreamy hero who juggles separate relationships with the heroine and her masculine alter-ego. (Dramatic irony!) The heroine investigates gendered opportunities and suffers near-discoveries by disapproving society! There are hijinks!

Then the second half of _Miss Grimsley's Oxford Career_ arrives and ruthlessly punctures all those familiar genre expectations. The spunky heroine cannot fix the system and hooking up with the dreamy hero is going to involve lots of brutal, unfair compromises on her part. The bubbly feminist comedy tilts into anguish as Ellen agonizes over her limited choices and tries to pick the least of her potential evils.

There's an uneasy tension between the comedy and angst, which are never tightly integrated. Rather, the comedy seems slapped on top of the angst, and then the angst is slathered on top of the comedy. I'm not sure I love this approach, but there's something to be said for the subsequent strain. The jarring comedy sensitizes the reader to every nuance of that disquieting angst, and vice versa. But, like a shoe's vamp and sole, the novel's funny bits and its serious bits are distinct elements sewn together despite their material opposition. And sometimes the sole threatens to pull away from the shoe.

(But, on a base and low-brow note: the dreamy hero is incredibly dreamy.) ( )

Not steamy enough for a romance novel, not serious enough or with detail enough for proper historical fiction. Not an unpleasant read or anything, just a bit dull. ( )

Cute but implausible. ( )