A Work in Progress

Teaser Tuesday: Letters from Constance

If you've not actually properly started reading a book (as in have read maybe two pages...) and decide after all it isn't what you're in the mood for and so set it aside, it doesn't count as abandoning it, right?  After writing about setting books aside and the many thoughtful comments that followed, I've decided I'm not going to feel guilty about shuffling my reading pile about in my quest for just the right book at the right moment.  If a book isn't giving you some sort of joy, then it's best to pick some other book that will, don't you think?

To that end I'm afraid I've returned poor John Keats and his beautiful letters to Fanny Brawne back to its spot on my shelves.  I chose it as a possible read for Melwyk's Postal Reading Challenge before I had a chance to compile a proper list to read from, and since then I've even added more books to the pile, including Mary Hocking's Letters from Constance, which is proving a much, much better fit for my current reading mood.  I do want to read Keats at some point, but his letters just weren't quite what I feel like right now, and I do want to read a collection of real correspondence, but I have all year to decide on a book, so no need to rush things.   

Every so often I will scan online used bookstores for older Viragos (I can't seem to find many, hardly none actually, locally), and I netted Mary Hocking's novel not very long ago without realizing it is an epistolary novel made up entirely of letters between two friends.  I tend to order Viragos by title or cover alone as I want to collect as many as I can (have quite a few already and hope to make a small dent in them this year after being so neglectful of them the last couple of years) as often there is little or no description of the contents, so it's often a surprise what I end up with.  But this is Virago we're taking about so more often than not the books end up being hidden gems, which is what I'm hoping for with this book.  I just started reading yesterday, and it's off to a promising start.

Letters from Constance was published in 1991, so not all that long ago, but it begins in July 1939 (do you see a trend here), and follows the lives of the two women up until the mid-1980s.  What's interesting is the book is made up of only Constance's letters, as we don't get to see Sheila's replies.  So the reader is left to imagine and piece together Sheila's life through Constance's eyes.  Hocking does a very good job of (thus far anyway) presenting believable letters that do tell a story and flesh out the characters' lives.  So often epistolary novels tend to have an artificial feel to them, though with a good writer I don't mind as long as I get wrapped up in the story.

So, here's a taste of what I've been reading:

"Education Office
November, 1939

Dear Sheila,

     The time is the lunch hour; the place, the reception room of an education office somewhere in the outer reaches of Middlesex.  Only one character: a haggard young woman, left in charge of the switchboard she has not yet mastered.  It is foggy outside, but one can just discern an overgrown garden in which dim figures are engaged in stirrup pump practice.  A chill feeling of hopelessness seeps into the room, which is cold because the City Council sees it as part of its war effort to ensure that its staff are finished off by consumption before the Germans get a crack at them.
     I miss you so much.  No one here has a sense of humour.  The Education Officer fusses about staffing ratios, fuel rationing and the quality of toilet paper now supplied to schools.  He has an endless capacity for anxiety and the other men (three in all) are little better, worrying about what arrangements to make for their families when they are called up.  The girls' talk is all about soldiers and they think I am stuck-up because I don't join in, whereas I am only silent because I haven't got a soldier.  I knew sooner or later the deficiencies in our education would make themselves felt."

I'm quite enjoying this and to be honest it's sort of a relief to set aside a book that I wasn't feeling especially excited about picking up.  As a matter of fact I've made some other adjustments to my reading pile (more relief), so I'll share my new books/reads soon.  As well, I'll write more about Letters from Constance when I finish.  It's just the sort of story I really like--one about women's lives.  When I find an author I like I tend to buy other books by them, and I've already got a small pile of Mary Hocking's books growing even as I type.

By the way my month of letters is moving along nicely.  I've managed to send at least a postcard a day to friends and correspondents and even fit in a letter or two!

A side note--for some reason Typepad is dropping comments into my spam folder from people who comment regularly.  Not sure why this is happening, but if you think your comment has been swallowed--never fear, it may simply have gotten dumped into my spam folder and I will retrieve it as soon as I log in here in the evenings. 

A Love of Letters: A Thursday Thirteen

It's been a while since I've come up with a Thursday Thirteen (not since last summer!).  I do love a good book list and since tomorrow is February 1st and the official kick off of my Month of Letters, it seemed appropriate to think about letter writing not only in fiction but also books about letter writing and collections of letters (how's that for an all-encompassing list?).  As I am also joining Melwyk's Postal Reading Challenge, I like to have a list of books to draw from.  I'm a great fan of epistolary novels in general (have shared lists before here and here).  But this list is only about letters and letter writing.  If you have any other good titles fiction or nonfiction, please do share!

1.  Bright Star: Love Letters and Poems of John Keats to Fanny Brawne by John Keats -- I've already mentioned this one.  I'm starting my letter-writing reading here.  This is a slim volume made up of almost as many pages of poetry as love letters, though only of Keats' letters as Fanny Brawne's did not survive.

2.  An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork by Etty Hillesum -- "Hillesum was in her mid-20s at the time of the Holocaust; her diaries consist mainly of musings about the confusion, perplexities, and struggles all around her and mature into a clear philosophy of love of God and all humanity. Her most intimate thoughts are played out at length, but perseverance results in a rewarding view of humanity. The young woman's letters (the second part of the book) reveal a great deal more detail about the day-to-day life at the transit camp of Westerbork (the last stop before Auschwitz). Here, individual people come into view more clearly, and the horrors and atrocities facing the Jews at that time emerge. That Hillesum could rise above hate and generalization in the midst of such horror and evil reveals a tremendous inner strength. Her courage, determination, and faith reveal her amazing spirit."

3.  From A to X by John Berger -- "In the dusty, ramshackle town of Suse lives A’ida. Her insurgent husband Xavier has been imprisoned. Resolute, sensuous and tender, A’ida’s letters to the man she loves tell of daily events in the town, and of its motley collection of inhabitants whose lives flow through hers. But the town is under threat, and as a faceless power inexorably encroaches from outside, so the smallest details and acts of humanity assume for A’ida a life-affirming significance, acts of resistance against the forces that might otherwise extinguish them."

4.  Other People's Mail: An Anthology of Letter Stories edited by Gail Pool -- (I found this one on my library's shelves).  "This collection is unique in that the entire exposition of each piece is conveyed through correspondence of some sort. Editor Pool has selected stories from a remarkably diverse collection of authors, some as well known as Alice Munro and Gail Godwin, and one from author Donna Kline, whose main career is not literature. Some stories are comic, some serious, and some tragic. And despite the diversity of style, theme, period, and ethnic point of view, the volume hangs together very well." (Booklist)

5.  My Dearest Friend: Letters of Abigail and John Adams edited by Margaret Hogan -- "In 1762, John Adams penned a flirtatious note to 'Miss Adorable,' the 17-year-old Abigail Smith. In 1801, Abigail wrote to wish her husband John a safe journey as he headed home to Quincy after serving as president of the nation he helped create. The letters that span these nearly forty years form the most significant correspondence--and reveal one of the most intriguing and inspiring partnerships--in American history.

6.  The Letters of Abelard and Heloise edited by Betty Radice -- "This collection of correspondence between medieval scholar Peter Abelard and Heloise, a French nun, chronicles one of the most tragic love affairs in all history. With their letters, the estranged lovers both mourn and reproach their romantic history as they address a variety of scholarly and professional topics common to the medieval period."

7.  Women's Letters: America from the Revolutionary War to the Present edited by Lisa Grunwald -- "Historical events of the last three centuries come alive through these women’s singular correspondences—often their only form of public expression. In 1775, Rachel Revere tries to send financial aid to her husband, Paul, in a note that is confiscated by the British; First Lady Dolley Madison tells her sister about rescuing George Washington’s portrait during the War of 1812; one week after JFK’s assassination, Jacqueline Kennedy pens a heartfelt letter to Nikita Khrushchev; and on September 12, 2001, a schoolgirl writes a note of thanks to a New York City firefighter, asking him, 'Were you afraid?'"

8.  800 Years of Women's Letters edited by Olga Kenyon -- "This inspiring and fascinating book is the first truly comprehensive study of women's letters ever published. Organised by subject matter, and covering a wide range of topics from politics, work and war, to childhood, love and sexual passion."

9.  Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal's Journey from Down Under to All Over by Geraldine Brooks -- "As a young girl in a working-class neighborhood of Sydney, Australia, Geraldine Brooks longed to discover the places where history happens and culture comes from, so she enlisted pen pals who offered her a window on adolescence in the Middle East, Europe, and America. Twenty years later Brooks, an award-winning foreign correspondent, embarked on a human treasure hunt to find her pen friends."

10.  Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer -- "It's a virtual romance that begins by chance. When Leo mistakenly receives e-mails from a stranger named Emmi, he replies--and Emmi writes back.  Soon, secrets are shared, sparks fly, and erotic tension simmers. Even though Emmi is married, it seems only a matter of time till they meet. But will their feelings survive a real-life encounter?  And, if so-what then?"

11.  A Life in Letters by Anton Chekhov -- "From his teenage years in provincial Russia to his premature death in 1904, Anton Chekhov wrote thousands of letters to a wide range of correspondents. This fascinating new selection tells Chekhov's story as a man and a writer through affectionate bulletins to his family, insightful discussions of literature with publishers and theater directors, and tender love letters to his actress wife. Vividly evoking landscapes, people, and his daily life, the letters offer revealing glimpses into Chekhov's preoccupations-the onset of tuberculosis, his dual careers as doctor and writer, and his ambivalence about his growing reputation as Russia's foremost playwright and author.

12.  The Salt Letters by Christine Balint -- "It is 1854, and with the certainty of land behind her, Sarah flees her home for the uncertainties of life in the new colony. In steerage, she joins the other unmarried women, where the horrors of their close confinement bring an unraveling of secrets no one can control. Sarah endures, longing for her mother's forgiveness and the sweetness of her cousin Richard's breath. As she draws closer to her new land, she becomes increasingly haunted by her own tale and the letter home she cannot write."

13. Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart -- "After deciding that city life as a laundress wasn't for her, Elinore Pruitt, a young widowed mother, accepted an offer to assist with a ranch in Wyoming, work that she found exceedingly more rewarding. In this delightful collection of letters, she describes these experiences to her former employer, Mrs. Coney. Pruitt's charming descriptions of work, travels, neighbors, animals, land and sky have an authentic feel. The West comes alive, and everyday life becomes captivating. Her writing is clear, witty, and entertaining. The 26 letters are brief and tell about her life on the ranch in the early 1900s."

There are endless choices available when it comes to collections of letters. A cursory search in my library's online catalog nets almost 400 results!  I own more collections than I list here, too, but didn't want to make my list too long.  Much like diaries I find reading letters endlessly fascinating and maybe a little voyeuristic, too.  Although I didn't put them in my list I'm also interested in reading letters by the Mitford sisters, as well as Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Katherine Mansfield.  Literary letters are of especial interest but so are letters written by travelers (maybe I'll have to come up with another list?). 

And starting tomorrow I'll be writing my own letters (or more so postcards actually).  I've got a small list of friends I'll be sanding cards and letters to (and a few of you I am long overdue in answering letters!).  Once again I'll mention Postable, a virtual online (and private) address book.  If you'd like to get a card from me in February, feel free to add your name to my address book.  A few of you have already taken me up on that offer, and in honor of a Month of Letters I've even ordered a new stash of postcards!  Oh, and I am happy to send abroad.  It's kind of like a little 'random act of kindness' sending a postcard or letter to someone. 

And hopefully next month I'll be writing (much) more about my letter-writing reading, too!  A little teaser for tomorrow, by the way...please do stop back this weekend for another lost in the stacks post--lots of lovely bookish photos to look at!

The City and the House by Natalia Ginzburg

With the busy-ness that came with the end of 2011 a couple of books that I read and enjoyed slipped through the cracks.  Both merit mentions, so I'll start today with one that I read along with Buried in Print.  Something I love about the web and being part of an online book community is the spontaneous book discussions that can erupt when two like-minded readers find themselves thinking about or reading the same book at the same time.  In this case we began chatting about Italian author Natalia Ginzburg at Goodreads.  One thing led to another and we decided we would both read and chat about Ginzburg's final novel, The House and the City.  It was chosen as part of a larger project to read epistolary novels, and I tagged along because I have long wanted to read Ginzburg.  Being fond of the format it was not too hard to convince me to pick up this book rather than All Our Yesterdays, which had been one of the books I had planned to read last year.  She's been one of those 'I really mean to read her work' authors.

While not without flaws and a few limitations brought on by the format, The House and the City was a book I mostly enjoyed as I was reading.  Does that sound like a strange response?  Reading a book compiled of letters sounds like the perfect sort of book to pick up and set aside to dip into on whim, but I found that reading just a few letters and setting it down didn't really compel me to pick it up again later.  This is a fairly short novel and one that works best when taken as a whole.  When I would spend long spans of time with it I would find myself happily lost in the drama of the story, but then the thread would easily be lost when I didn't pick up the book for a few days.  Part of the problem was a matter of continuity.  This is an epistolary novel that is made up of a handful of letter writers and keeping names and personalities straight took some time.

The city of the title is Rome and the house is Le Margherita in the little town of Monte Fermo.  Lucrezia lives at Le Margherita with her husband and children and it forms a hub where friends and lovers meet and socialize.  It's a place that these friends think of fondly--of warm gatherings and happy past holidays.  Giuseppe is Lucrezia's former lover who has decided to leave Rome and move to New Jersey to live with his brother.  It is their correspondence that sets the story in motion.  In a way this is a story that begins at the end really, or maybe better to say it begins with new beginnings.  Although Giuseppe and Lucrezia are still close friends, they know they are no longer bound together by love.  So many happy memories are now in the past and this move sets in motion many changes for the various characters.  When Giuseppe leaves, many ties will be broken even though the group of friends keep in touch via letters.  By the way, the book was written in 1985, and the letters are undated, so it is not necessarily hard to imagine the characters keeping in contact through letters rather than other methods.

Lucrezia and Giuseppe are not the only letter writers and the two don't only write to each other.  There is Giuseppe's son, with whom Giuseppe is not terribly close, and who is initially working and living in Germany.  Then there is a circle of several friends and a few acquaintances, each with their own life, different problems and relationships, loves and work.  They are like individual planets moving into and out of each other's orbit.  One will write to another about yet another's problems or circumstances, much like any normal letter-writer.  They are a close group of friends whose actions are interrelated and affect each other. 

Buried in Print noted how messy life can be and in particular relationships and reading about them can be an overwhelming, yet intensely interesting prospect.  It's a little strange to think how a wider portrait can be formed of these lives through simple letters.  Gaps are filled in by the various characters giving their own version of events--each with a different piece of the puzzle, and this is a story that takes place over what seems to be several years, which means quite a lot happens.  Babies are born, people die, relationships begin and end and there is much turmoil and angst as well as moments of happiness. 

It's too difficult to try and summarize the plot since so much does happen and to such varied characters, but I suppose this group of friends is simply a microcosm of humanity.  I was wondering why Ginzburg chose to tell the story in an epistolary format rather than as a straightforward narrative.  I suppose getting different perspectives is a way to shed light on the actions within the story from different vantage points.  Initially I thought it felt a little forced or artificial.  Maybe it's been too long since I was a serious letter writer (and at one time in my life I was).  Do people share their stories, their histories in the same way as Giuseppe and Lucrezia do (surely they already know each other's histories)?  I should say did they, since letter writing seems to be a lost art these days.  Then again there are times I prefer to send a long email to someone (sadly I am no longer the letter writer I used to be) rather than picking up the phone--it's a way to contemplate problems and mulling them over in my mind before clicking 'send'.

All in all this was an enjoyable read, though not without faults.  I think it is perhaps not the best place to start with Natalia Ginzburg, who was an award winning, respected author in Italy.  I have a feeling this is not her best work, but it certainly won't stop me from picking up All Our Yesterdays at some point.

Diary of a Provincial Lady

E.M. Delafield's The Diary of a Provincial Lady is another one for the charming category.  It's the sort of book that you can easily pick up, read a few passages of and set aside again for the next time you need a little light-hearted pick me up.  Or like me, you simply devour because it's so witty and clever you have to know what adventure the Provincial Lady is about to embark upon next.  I can only say I feel an affinity for anyone who writes, "Am struck, as usual, by infinite superiority of other people's food to my own."  On more than one occasion she seemed to read my mind.  

In case you've not yet had the opportunity to meet the Provincial Lady, let me tell you a little bit about her.  She lives in a typical little English village (ca. 1931) with a very British husband and two very British children (as the introduction assures me).  She leads a nice, comfortable middle class existence with servants to contend with and a French governess, though money is always an issue.  Her grandmother's gold ring spends more time in hock than on the Provincial Lady's finger.  Written in an epistolary format, the diary follows the Provincial Lady through an average  year from November (planting indoor bulbs) to the following October (again trying her hand at those indoor bulbs).  The novel reminded me a little of Elizabeth von Arnim's Elizabeth and Her German Garden, though the Provincial Lady unfortunately doesn't show quite the same aptitude with plants. 

While the novel is a bit short on plot, it's long on entertainment.  You get a real feel for the diarist and her daily trials and tribulations as well as those of her household.  She never takes things too seriously, which is what endeared me so much to her.  You also get a look at the rhythms of village life and its varied inhabitants.  But why take my word for it.  It's much better to let the Provincial Lady speak for herself.

May 7th.--Resume diary after long and deplorable interlude, vanquished chill having suddenly reappeared with immense force and fury, revealed itself as measles.  Robin, on same day begins to cough, and expensive hospital nurse materialises and takes complete charge.  She proves kind and efficient, and brings me messages from children, and realistic drawing from Robin entitled 'Ill person being eaten up by jerms.'

(Query: Is dear Robin perhaps future Heath Robinson or Arthur Watts?)

Soon after this all becomes incoherent and muddled.  Chief recollection is of hearing the doctor say that of course my Age is against me, which hurts my feelings and makes me feel like old Mrs. Blenkinsop.  After a few days, however, I get the better of my age, and am given champagne, grapes, and Valentine's Meat Juice."

I really do need to find out what Valentine's Meat Juice is...

July 3rd.--Breakfast enlivened by letter from dear Rose written at, apparently, earthly paradise of blue sea and red rocks, on South Coast of France.  She says that she is having complete rest, and enjoying congenial society of charming group of friends, and makes unprecedented suggestion that I should join her for a fortnight.  I am moved to exclaim--perhaps rather thoughtlessly--that the most wonderful thing in the world must be to be a childless widow--but this is met by unsympathetic silence from Robert, which recalls me to myself, and impels me to say that that isn't in the least what I meant.

(Mem.: Should often be very, very sorry to explain exactly what it is that I do mean, and am in fact conscious of deliberately avoiding self-analysis on many occasions.  Do not propose, however, to go into this now or at any other time.)

I tell Robert that if it wasn't for the expense, and not having any clothes, and the servants, and leaving Vicky, I should think seriously of Rose's suggestion. 

However, she does think seriously of Rose's suggestion.  One of the things I loved about The Diary of the Provincial Lady is that she was so literary, or tried to be anyway.

July 14th.--Question of books to be taken abroad undecided till late hour last night.  Robert says, Why take any?  And Vicky proffers Les Malheurs de Sophie, which she puts into the very bottom of my suitcase, whence it is extracted with some difficulty by Mademoiselle later.  Finally decide on Little Dorrit and The Daisy Chain, with Jane Eyre in coat-pocket.  Should prefer to be the kind of person who is inseparable from volume of Keats, or even Jane Austen, but cannot compass this.

July 18th, at Ste. Agathe.--Vicissitudes of travel very strange, and am struck--as often--by enormous dissimilarity between journeys undertaken in real life, and as reported in fiction.  Can remember very few novels in which train journey of any kind does not involve either (a) Hectic encounter with member of opposite sex, leading to tense emotional issue; (b) discovery of murdered body in hideously battered condition, under circumstances which utterly defy detection; (c) elopement between two people each of whom is married to somebody else, culminating severe disillusionment, or lofty renunciation.

Back home from France. 

August 31st.--Read The Edwardians--which everybody else has read months ago--and am delighted and amused.  Remember that V. Sackville-West and I once attended dancing classes together at the Albert Hall, many years ago, but feel that if I do mention this, everybody will think I am boasting--which indeed I should be--so better forget about it again, and in any case, dancing never my strong point, and performance at Albert Hall extremely mediocre and may well be left in oblivion.  Short letter from Robin which I am very glad to get, but which refers to nothing whatever except animals at home, and project for going out in a boat and diving from it on some unspecified future occasion.  Reply to all, and am too modern to beg tiresomely for information concerning himself.

I'm contemplating leaving the book by my bedside as I would be happy to just open it up randomly and read a few entries when my mood is black as surely the Provincial Lady would do wonders in terms of brightening dark moods.  I often found myself chuckling over her diary entries.  However, will dig out The Provincial Lady in London instead, which is one of several sequels.

By the way, E.M. Delafield was the pen name of Elizabeth Monica Dashwood, neé de la Pasture.  I had to read the little author blurb to understand that Delafield is the anglicized version of it!  Delafield's mother was also a novelist.  As E.M. Delafield was growing up she had a series of French governesses who undoubtedly gave her much inspiration for Mademoiselle.  I'm so glad I finally got around to this one, it was a wonderfully entertaining read!     

Book Notes: This Week's Reads...

While I was supposed to be spending this month whittling down the pile of books on my nghtstand, it seems to have grown instead.  I'm not sure how that happened (well, I do, but best not get into it), but I'm not at all suprised.  So I've decided I need to be more conscientious in my planning as I have a few books I really do need to pay attention to as the month continues to fly by.  So, less dipping into everything and a little more attention to a few select books (and then moving on to the next...). 

First and foremost, it's time to pull out the Slaves next book, Stefan Zweig's The Post-Office Girl, which I have been looking forward to reading for a while now.  From the publisher: "this extraordinary book is an unexpected and haunting foray into noir fiction by one of the masters of the psychological novel."

I've been slowly reading Christian Moerk's Darling Jim.  It came to me as a review copy, and to be honest I'm not entirely sure what I make of it so far.  I'm only a third of the way in, and it's not at all what I expected it to be, not that I'm really sure what that was.  It's crime fiction of a sort.  It combines storytelling with fairy tales and maybe a little bit of mythology.  And yes, there's murder.  The story told in a very unique voice so far.  I'll let you know how it goes.

And for something a little more calming I've been reading the very charming and delightful Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield.  It's literally a diary written by an upper middle class (am assuming) lady with two children, a very British husband (so says the introduction), a French governess, a house in the country and a very British life.  It's set in the early thirties and I've really been enjoying all the details of one provincial lady's life.  It's been easy to pick up, read a few entries and set aside again, but I feel like I want to spend more uninterrupted time with it this week.      

And I'll definitely be dipping into my Heyer books, too!

What are you reading this week? 

Reading Notes

Every weekend should be a three day weekend, don't you think?  I didn't catch up on everything I wanted to, but I'm quite satisfied at having spent a mostly lazy weekend reading. 

I finished Sarah Bower's Needle in the Blood and am working on a post about it.  I wish I could see the real Bayeaux Tapestry, but I'll simply have to content myself with reading more about it.  And yes, I loved the book, by the way.  Of course from what I had already read about it from other discerning book bloggers, I wasn't at all surprised.

Next up?  I want another book exactly like Sarah Bower's, but I know I won't find it.  Better to look for something completely different.  I had a little stack of books to choose from, but in the end I opted for Stef Penney's The Tenderness of Wolves.  I hadn't even been contemplating reading this but pulled it out to consider with the rest on a whim.  After reading the first couple of pages it caught my attention sufficiently to want to give it a go.  It's set in the icy cold wilderness of the Northern Territory in 1867.  Icy cold is good on a really hot Summer day.  It also had been nominated for the Orange Prize and won the Costa (Whitbread), though that's really not all that important to me.  It's the story that appeals--a historical mystery of sorts.

I watched the entire BBC production of Sense and Sensibility straight through and enjoyed it immensely.  I think I may even have to buy it.  I thought they stayed pretty true to the story, though I don't recall a duel between Colonel Brandon and Willoughby in the book.  Did I miss that?  Elinor also seemed much more forgiving towards Willoughby in the book when he came to plead his case than she was in the film, but I can't say I blame her.  Next weekend I plan on watching the Emma Thompson version.  I'm sorely tempted to start reading Pride and Prejudice now (next up in my Jane Austen project), as watching the films puts me into a very Jane Austen mood.  For the moment, though, I'll try and just keep it close at hand while I finish something else first.

And I got a couple of books in the mail yesterday, too.  I've heard very good things about Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows' The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society.  I had been planning on borrowing it from the library (though I was far down on the list), but as B&N was offering such a good price on it I broke down and ordered it.  I'll set it next to Pride and Prejudice, though I'm tempted to start it as well.  And to get free shipping I also ordered Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South.  The description reads:

"When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction. In North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell skillfully fused individual feeling with social concern, and in Margaret Hale created one of the most original heroines of Victorian literature."

This sounds an awful lot like Charlotte Bronte's Shirley to me.

"Shirley is Charlotte Bronte's only historical novel and her most topical one. Written at a time of social unrest, it is set during the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when economic hardship led to riots in the woollen district of Yorkshire. A mill-owner, Robert Moore, is determined to introduce new machinery despite fierce opposition from his workers; he ignores their suffering, and puts his own life at risk.  Robert sees marriage to the wealthy Shirley Keeldar as the solution to his difficulties, but he loves his cousin Caroline. She suffers misery and frustration, and Shirley has her own ideas about the man she will choose to marry. The friendship between the two women, and the contrast between their situations, is at the heart of this compelling novel, which is suffused with Bronte's deep yearning for an earlier time."

Mill-owners abound it would seem.  I think they were both writing at about the same time.  I'll have to compare and contrast the two!  More books for the bedside.   

Weekend Miscellenea

I finished reading Tom Rob Smith's Child 44.  Whoosh.  That was quite a ride!  How does a first time author manage such a perfectly plotted novel?  If it was a movie (and I hear it is going to be one) it would be the sort where you cover your eyes with your hands, but peek out anyway because you have to know what's happening.  I'll write about it more next week, since it deserves a post of its own, but for now suffice it to say that as thrillers go, you can't get much better than this!

I was thinking that next I would get back to my cozy mystery series featuring Daisy Dalrymple, but there's no way I'll be able to settle down to such a nice refined mystery.  I think a sordid, gritty crime novel may fit the bill instead.  Perhaps not edge-of-your seat, but not refined either.  I just picked up Natsuo Kirino's Grotesque from the library.  I read and 'enjoyed' her book Out a couple of years ago.  She has quite a knack for writing about the sort of Japan I never imagined existed. 

If you're reading Hugo's Les Misérables we now have a group blog, Into the Parisian Underworld.  It was very kindly set up by Ashleigh (Thanks!).  Just leave a note in the comment area with your email address and she will send out an invite to you so you can post on the blog.  There's no need to have a blog of your own.  This will be a nice central place we can all check in and talk about the book!  Everyone is reading at their own pace, so please consider joining us!      

I suspect a lot of people have gotten email teasers about the soon to be released book by Lily Koppel, The Red Leather Diary.  This sounds like just the sort of book I would love and I am greatly looking forward to getting a copy.  You can check out the author's website here (though I am getting an error message for some reason...that seems to be happening to me a lot lately...hopefully you can click through, however).  And check out the book trailer:

If you are a fan of historical novels, check out The Historical Novel Society.  I'm contemplating joining, though the membership cost is a little pricey.  Still, it would mean six issues of their two publications, which look like they're chock full of interesting articles, interviews and reviews of books.  I'm a great fan of this genre, so it might well be worth the cost for me.  Does anyone get these publications?  While I'm considering this, I'll have to study their forthcoming historical novels list!

New and Notable

My library has this wonderful feature in their catalog where they list all the newly added books to the collection by subject.  I've gotten into the habit of checking there every few weeks, and I always discover several new books to either request or add to my wishlist.  My latest finds:

• Afternoons with Emily, Rose MacMurray - A fictionalized account of the life of Emily Dickinson.
• The Fourth Man, K.O. Dahl - Another Norwegian crime writer...
• Girls in Trucks, Katie Crouch - I can't say that I've ever been into stories featuring Southern debutantes, but this one sounded interesting as the character flees her restrictive upbringing, moving to NYC.
• Grotesque, Natsuo Kirino - I read her earlier novel, Out, which was a somewhat gruesome thriller and have been watching for her next novel for a while now.  "Grotesque is both a psychological investigation into the female psyche and a classic work of noir fiction."   
• The Lost City, Henry Shukman - A suspenseful novel of a British expat searching for lost treasure in a vanished Peruvian empire.  Okay, my description sounds pretty hokey, but what I read actually really caught my eye!
• The Red Diary: Reclaiming a Life Through the Pages of a Lost Journal, Lily Koppel - I can't wait for this one.  The author found a discarded diary of a woman living in 1930s New York City.  It sounds almost too good to be true.  You can read about it here.  It's due out next month and I may have to buy it rather than wait for a library copy.
• Zugzwang, Ronan Bennett - A literary thriller set in 1914 St. Petersburg during a chess tournament.
• The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History, Linda Colley - A biography of an 18th-century woman who traveled far and wide.

I'm trying to get into the habit of just adding these new finds to my wishlist rather than actually requesting them.  Once again I've got a towering pile of library books at home, and I know I can't possibly get to all of them.  I've got the day off from work today, so I am going through the stack and deciding which I really do want to try and read,and a trip to the library later this afternoon is in order (to switch out old for new!). 

Something that's being returned is the Masterpiece Theatre presentation of The Secret Life of Mrs. Beeton, which I watched last night.  I'd heard of her book, but I really didn't know anything about her.  What a fascinating woman.  I now have a new interest and will have to look for a biography of her life, as it would be quite an insightful look into the Victorian world!

Epistolary Novels, Part 2

You know I love lists.  The thing with lists is they always generate more book ideas.  I received so many wonderful suggestions for epistolary novels, I thought I would list the suggestions here.  Nearly all of them are entirely new to me and will give me ideas when I want a book in this category (and having them all in a list like this makes it easy for me when I head off to the library).  So without further ado, more epistolary novels:

• Humphry Clinker, Tobias George Smollett - "The Expedition of Humphry Clinker was the last of the picaresque novels of Tobias Smollett, and is considered by many to be his best and funniest work. Published in London on 17 June 1771, it is an epistolary novel, presented in the form of letters written by six different characters: Matthew Bramble, a Welsh Squire; his sister Tabitha; their niece and nephew, Jery and Lydia Melford; Tabitha's maid Winifred Jenkins; and Lydia's suitor, Wilson.
• Christmas Letters, Lee Smith - "Smith writes an epistolary, here in the form of Christmas greetings sent from North Carolina by female members of the Pickett family. In what they say and don't say these articulate, down-to-earth women preserve three generations of American experience."
• Nausea, Jean Paul Sartre - "Nausea is the story of Antoine Roquentin, a French writer who is horrified at his own existence. In impressionistic, diary form he ruthlessly catalogues his every feeling and sensation."
• The Woman Destroyed, Simone de Beauvoir - "Three long stories that draw the reader into the lives of three women, all past their first youth, all facing unexpected crises."  See also Litlove's wonderful post on this book.
• We Need to Talk About Kevin , Lionel Shriver - "In a series of brutally introspective missives to her husband, Franklin, from whom she is separated, Eva tries to come to grips with the fact that their 17-year-old son, Kevin, has killed seven students and two adults with his crossbow."
• The Color Purple, Alice Walker - "Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self."
• Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding - "In the course of the year recorded in Bridget Jones's Diary, Bridget confides her hopes, her dreams, and her monstrously fluctuating poundage, not to mention her consumption of 5277 cigarettes and "Fat units 3457 (approx.) (hideous in every way)."
• These is My Words, Nancy Turner - "Based on the real-life exploits of the author's great-grandmother, this fictionalized diary vividly details one woman's struggles with life and love in frontier Arizona at the end of the last century. When she begins recording her life, Sarah Prine is an intelligent, headstrong 18-year-old capable of holding her own on her family's settlement near Tucson."
• Between Friends, Debbie Macomber - "Prolific Macomber's latest traces the lives and friendship of Jillian Lawton and Lesley Adamski through their letters, diaries, and other correspondence."
• Dear Zoe, Phillip Beard - "When her little sister, Zoe, dies after being struck by a car on September 11, 2001, savvy, self-aware Tess DeNunzio works through her grief by writing letters to Zoe."
• Dearest Stranger, Dearest Friend, Laney K. Becker - "E-mail and the Internet are phenomena not fully integrated into the characters' lives in this earnest, appealing debut novel told in the form of epistolary e-mail. After Lara Cohen, a 38-year-old freelance copywriter in Armonk, N.Y., discovers a lump in her left breast, she posts her fears on a breast cancer Web site's bulletin board. A breast cancer survivor named Susan Peterson from Canton, Ohio, responds with the right mixture of sobriety and jocularity, and an e-mail friendship is born."
• Evelina, Frances Burney - "Frances Burney's first and most enduringly popular novel is a vivid, satirical, and seductive account of the pleasures and dangers of fashionable life in late eighteenth-century London. As she describes her heroine's entry into society, womanhood and, inevitably, love, Burney exposes the vulnerability of female innocence in an image-conscious and often cruel world where social snobbery and sexual aggression are played out in the public arenas of pleasure-gardens, theatre visits, and balls."
• Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte - "In The Tenant of Wildfell Hall a devout young woman named Helen falls in love with a man who is handsome, but whose values are questionable; willing to believe she can alter his character, she marries him. Her marriage becomes a misery she has no power to change until she devises a bold plan to take control. Her story comes through two voices - her own and that of Gilbert Markham, a man who falls in love with Helen later in her life - and is told through journals and letters written over a period of time."
• Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy , Jean Webster - "One of the great novels of American girlhood, Jean Webster’s Daddy-Long- Legs (1912) follows the adventures of an orphan named Judy Abbott, whose letters to her anonymous male benefactor trace her development as an independent thinker and writer. Its sequel, Dear Enemy (1915), also told in letters, follows the progress of Judy’s former orphanage now run by her friend Sallie McBride, who struggles to give her young charges hope and a new life. Full of irrepressible female characters that both recall Alcott’s Jo March and anticipate the popular heroines of contemporary literature, Webster’s novels are witty, heartfelt, and delightfully modern."
• Sorcery and Cecelia or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country , Caroline Stevermer - "In 1817 in England, two young cousins, Cecilia living in the country and Kate in London, write letters to keep each other informed of their exploits, which take a sinister turn when they find themselves confronted by evil wizards." Sequels: The Grand tour and The Mislaid Magician or Ten Years After.
• The Ides of March, Thornton Wilder - "The Ides of March, first published in 1948, is a brilliant epistolary novel set in Julius Caesar's Rome. Thornton Wilder called it 'a fantasia on certain events and persons of the last days of the Roman republic.' Through vividly imagined letters and documents, Wilder brings to life a dramatic period of world history and one of history's most magnetic, elusive personalities."
• Fairy Ring, Martine Desjardins - "In 1895, the arctic explorer Captain Ian Ryder has let his house in Blackpool on the Nova Scotia coast to the recently married Clara Weiss, who is about to become the compass of a social circle far too intimate for its own good.  Set in the year Freud published his ground-breaking essay on hysteria, this is a compulsively readable, beautiful and dark novel of personal relations so close they verge on the incestuous, and desires so vast they approach the cold crystalline purity of the archetype."
• More than Love Letters, Rosy Thornton - "When Richard Slater receives a letter of complaint from one of his constituents, a Margaret Hayton, he merely responds with his standard letter of empty promises. Clearly, this woman is insane and must be avoided at all costs. But she will not be dismissed so easily, and when Richard finally sets eyes on the 'twenty-something vision in stone-washed denim,' he risks losing his heart, his head, and quite possibly his political career."
• Dear Exile : The True Story of Two Friends Separated (for a Year) by an Ocean , Hilary Liftin and Kate Montgomery - "College roommates Kate Montgomery and Hilary Liftin went in different directions after they graduated. Kate married and went to Kenya with her husband to teach with the Peace Corps, while Hilary attempted to conquer Manhattan. This book consists of their letters during the year they were separated."

You'll have to forgive me for nabbing descriptions of the books from Amazon.  As most of these are completely new to me I had to look them up and thought  it might be nice to share a line or two about each books' contents.  I'm looking forward to looking for these books.  Many thanks for all the wonderful suggestions!  And for more ideas, check out Melanie's list, too.