Black Butler XI

Black Butler XI, like the earlier volumes, is in five parts, each 35 pages long.  The first two chapters finish the arc where there are a string of murders at the Phantomhive manor; the final two chapters begin a new arc, the "Aurora Society;" the middle chapter being somewhat of a transition between the two.  The Aurora Society is a secret sect that looks to resurrect the dead using modern science.  You have to remember that in 1899, when the story takes place, there were huge advancements in science, and anything seemed possible for a little while.

Space ships, submarines flying machines, radio, electricity...  The late 19th century has spawned a genre dedicated to those seemingly unending advancements in science: steampunk.  One must look no further than Jacques Tardi's The Arctic Marauder for an example in the realm of comics.  I must admit to spending a lot of time in the Victorian Era (metaphorically), or in France, the belle epoch.  In America, that time has been called the Gilded Age, the dying time of the Old West, just before motorcars and subways.

In America, that time is characterized by the working class in literature, cinema, and television, but in England and France, the greatest stories were about the aristocracy.  I've written before about In Search of Lost Time, which I have been reading for the past month and a half.  Black Butler gives a very European take on the time, even though it is written in Japan.  I like this new "steampunk" arc.