Simply gorgeous parcel arrived this morning from Yale UP and I am gloating over its contents and have to share my delight. These are three books high up on my reading list, but as you know, I am awaiting the birth of second grandchild and know full well these will take a while to get through so I want to flag these up and recommend them to you before I even read them. And if you think this is
being a bit precipitate, then read on…
The Great Charles Dickens Scandal – Michael Slater. In this year of Dicken's celebration I am sure some of us are beginning to flag, but not me. I find Dickens a totally fascinating man as well as loving his writing, and the contradictions in his character and his portayal of himself as the happy family man with the perfect life when, in fact, he was the opposite, is intriguing. I read Michael Slater's simply magnificent biography of Dickens a year or so ago, reviewed here, and said in my then post that he had concentrated on Dickens the writer. I am glad he has now decided to analyse his paterfamilia image in more detail and if it is half as good as his biography then I shall be a happy lady.
My Dear Governess – the letters of Edith Wharton to Anna Bahlmann edited by Irene-Goldman Price. Oh this is going to be read first. Well, not straight through, will read a bit each night as gulping down letters all at once is not a good idea in my opinion, they need to be savoured. In 2009 the papers
of Bahlmann, a governess and companion to several prominent American families, were auctioned and among this collection was a treasure trove for all Wharton lovers – 135 letters from Edith to her governess. I have already dipped in and here is an excerpt from a letter written when Edith was just fifteen: "Today is what the poets call 'halycon' weather; a word which always bring 'to my mind's eye, Horatio' a vision of becalmed ships in blue seas, with white birds swooping overhead"…OK do you think there is a fifteen year old today who would write like that? Well, perhaps there is but I have my doubts. SO looking forward to watching the style and expression of her letters change as she matures and grows older.
Victorian Bloomsbury – Rosemary Ashton. Another gorgeous book which I
cannot wait to read. This is the story of Bloomsbury before Woolf et al got hold of it. While we automatically think of VW and her cohorts whenever the word Bloomsbury is mentioned, the neighbourhood was, according to the blurb "the undisputed intellectual quarter of nineteenth century London". Having lived in Bloomsbury for a large part of my teens and twenties and knowing so many of the parks, squares and streets of this area I know I am going to find this of great interest. There are a lot of 'firsts' in Bloomsbury including the first kindergarten and hospital for children in Britain and first medical school for women amongst others.
So three totally drool over books to read in the coming months – think the Slater will be first off the pile and the Wharton for my bedside table and then will tackle Bloombury as soon as.
My thanks to Yale for their generosity. I know they are a super duper publishers because of course they published Pashas by one James Mather who just happens to be my lovely son-in-law………..
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