Review: Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes

Wired Love: A Romance of Dots and Dashes by Ella Cheever Thayer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Spotted this on my Project Gutenberg feed, and it was well reviewed, so I gave it a try. It's a rom-com from the 1880s about two people who meet online - or rather, "on the wire," through their common occupation as telegraphists. It would actually make a pretty good movie.

There are six characters at the centre of the plot, three men and three women. Among them, we get most of the possible romantic pairings and mispairings and misunderstandings; A loves B, B loves C, C loves D, but thinks that D loves E although D actually loves C back, and F loves E but for a long time won't admit it... Not all of these romances end happily, which is a note of realism a modern romance novel might omit, but I think the book is stronger for it. There are also a small cast of supporting actors: two very different middle-aged landladies, one of whom thinks it absolutely scandalous that a young man and a young woman should be communicating via the telegraph; the father of one of the women, mostly a loud voice offstage; and a despicable man who's the equivalent of an online troll.

The flirting and the banter is lively, the young people are likeable and have distinct personalities, the emotional arc is sound, and the working out of the premise is irresistibly reminiscent of how young people used current technology about 115 years later, in the early days of the public internet. I met my own wife online back when that was considered weird, and the exchanges between "N" and "C" are reminiscent of our early email exchanges, allowing for personality differences.

A fun, light romance with moments of seriousness that aren't overplayed. Recommended.

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