#britishliterature — Public Fediverse posts

Queen Of Lombard Steet

Queen Of Lombard Street

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Baty

The republication by MIT Press of "Beatrice the Sixteenth", Irene Clyde's 1909 novel of a feminist utopia, sent me in search of more information about the author.What surprised me as I read the Wikipedia entry was not so much the gender material but rather the Japanese Foreign Office career.

#IreneClyde #ThomasBaty #Gender #InternationalLaw #BeatriceTheSixteenth #BritishLiterature #Utopia #Feminism #Japan #Transgender #TwentiethCenturyLiterature

https://www.europesays.com/videos/78334/ France enters literary season amid publishing industry crisis • FRANCE 24 English #BookTrends #books #bookseller #bookshop #BritishLiterature #culture #France #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FRANCE24 #FRANCE24English #FrenchBooks #FrenchLiterature #LiteraryTrends #Literature #london #NewBooks #Publishing #PublishingIndustry #RentréeLittéraire

Review: Persuasion – One of Jane Austen’s Most Underrated Books. (Spoilers)

Last Christmas, one of the books I received was Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which, as the title says, is possibly one of her most underrated books. While we have all heard of Pride and Prejudice, and maybe some of her other stories such as Sense and Sensibility or Emma, most of us probably aren’t familiar with Persuasion, despite it being one of the most heart-wrenchingly written romances Jane Austen ever put to paper.

Set in Regency-era England, Persuasion follows Anne Elliot, the daughter of a wealthy aristocrat whose poor spending habits have landed the family deep in debt. In an attempt to get out of debt, the Elliot family is forced to rent out their estate to some wealthy tenants and move to their new home in Bath. However, the guy renting their estate isn’t just a random guy, but is actually Admiral Croft, who is married to the sister of Anne’s former suitor Captain Fredrick Wentworth, the man whom she was persuaded to break up with 8 years prior to the events of the book. Thus, Anne and Wentworth are forced to reconnect and confront their lingering feelings for each other through a series of misunderstandings.

With that description alone, it is understandable why Persuasion holds such a special place in the hearts of Jane Austen fans everywhere. Whereas most of Austen’s books center around young women falling in love for the first time, Persuasion focuses on an older heroine (Anne is 27) who has despaired of ever finding a husband and believes that Wentworth would never again want her after she rejected him. Thus, instead of the story necessarily focusing on finding a husband (though that’s a big part of it), it focuses more on forgiveness and the rekindling of the relationship between the two, and Anne’s rediscovery of hope and joy after being mired in despair for so long.

Besides that, Persuasion also feels different compared to some of Jane Austen’s other novels in the sense that Austen was in a similar situation to Anne. While her family wasn’t deep in debt and weren’t high-up aristocrats, Austen never married, despite having an attraction to a young man named Tom Lefroy (though the jury is out on whether this was a fling or if she actually liked him), being engaged to a guy named Harris Bigg-Wither (which she ended the morning after he proposed), and supposedly having a romance with a young clergyman in Bath who tragically died shortly after their infatuation began. Whether she actually loved any of these men is a topic of debate, but within Persuasion, it feels as though she wrote from personal experience. The pain that Anne feels at being single and losing her shot feels as though it came from Jane’s own sadness. Though heartbreak appears in several of Austen’s books (i.e. Sense and Sensibility), here, it feels deeper and more cutting, like Jane was writing about something closer to home.

Because of that, the end of the book feels so much more deserved. Yes, the heroines of other works like Sense and Sensibility who go through heartbreak also get endings that feel consistent with their journeys and are well-earned, but because Persuasion is largely about overcoming heartbreak and rediscovering love, the end is that much better. It’s more satisfying to know that Anne has become the person she used to be – hopeful, in love, and beautiful again – instead of despairing.

For the hopeless romantics, Persuasion is a book that expresses romantic longing better than many of Jane Austen’s other works.

Until next time,

M.J.

Robert Graves -- Good-Bye To All That

This 1929 autobiographical work is indispensable for an understanding of how many British dealt with the memory of the Great War in the years that followed.

The accounts of the chaos and confusion of military operations were vividly narrated, but did not come as a great surprise to me. I was more taken aback by the stories of allied mistreatment of German prisoners, with Graves picking out Canadian and Australian soldiers as especially notable for this behaviour.

"Good-Bye To All That" is rich with memorable anecdote and imagery, such as tommies using machine gun cooling water to make tea, and incidents of the wartime absurd, like the story of Graves mistakenly being reported as dead, then receiving a communication from his commanding officer: “I cannot tell you how pleased I am you are alive.”

Nevertheless the horror of the war is never forgotten: “The first dead body I came upon was Samson’s. I found that he had forced his knuckles into his mouth to stop himself crying out and attracting any more men to their death. He had been hit in 17 places.”

#Books #RobertGraves #GoodByeToAllThat #Autobiography #BritishLiterature #LiteratureInEnglish #FirstWorldWar #WW1 #History

Anthony Powell -- Afternoon Men

One might think of Anthony Powell as a quintessentially British novelist, so the importance of the USA in his first novel, the 1931 "Afternoon Men", might come as a surprise.

The USA makes itself felt both in the novel's content and in its style. The publisher Scheigan is the stereotyped American abroad, while the USA itself is mentioned continually throughout the novel as a place where people can go to either make or hunt fortunes. Making up the bulk of the text, the clipped dialogue of the novel seems indebted both to Hemingway and the new American popular culture form, the talkie.

I also noted Powell's depiction of Jews in the novel. Although "Afternoon Men" does not promote antisemitism as a central theme, a current of unfriendly suspicion is nevertheless detectable.

Although the novel was published in 1931, the social, romantic, and occupational misadventures of the mostly youthful characters smacks of the decade preceding the great depression. Comparing it to Waugh's "Decline and Fall" and "Vile Bodies", I found the comedy less broad but more perceptive about British society and individual ambition and romantic aspiration.

Decades have passed since I last read "A Dance to the Music of Time". I wonder how that cycle would strike me now that I am acquainted with Powell's 1931 novel of comedy and class.

#Books #AfternoonMen #AnthonyPowell #Novel #BritishLiterature #LiteratureInEnglish #20thCenturyLiterature #1930s #1920s #Antisemitism

🧵 1/2

Housman Country -- Peter Parker

A biography of the A. E. Housman, a study of "A Shropshire Lad', and a rewarding study of how that slim 1896 book of verse played and continues to play an outsize role in creating an England of the imagination, rural, haunted by the melancholy and mortality of youth, and forever slipping out of our grasp into an irrecoverable past.

Parker explores so much here: the homoeroticism, the oblique relation of Housman's poetry to the places it names, the appeal of the book to Americans, its part in the shaping of twentieth century music in England....but how does this English Mastodonian feel about "A Shropshire Lad"?

#HousmanCountry #AShropshireLad #PeterParker #AEHousman #Poetry #Books #19thCentury #EnglishLiterature #BritishLiterature #England #UKCulture #LiteratureInEnglsh #LiteraryHistory

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33972802

I want to read Ambler's 1939 "The Mask of Dimitrios" not only as part of my contuing quest to make sense of the twenties and thirties but also because of its reputation as a first rate novel of espionage.

#Books #EricAmbler #TheMaskOfDimitrios #LiteratureInEnglish #BritishLiterature #Espionage #Thriller #1930s

I read Richard Hughes's novel A High Wind in Jamaica every few years, and just finished reading it again. Many novelists have inimitable voices, Austen, Dickens, Trollope, G. Eliot, etc. but they're consistent from book to book. This novel, though, is absolutely unique even compared to Hughes's three others. It's more like a vision than anything planned out consciously. Wuthering Heights is the only other novel I know that feels like that, although (of course) they're nothing alike. Francine Prose explains more eloquently than I could do (but if you read the NYRB Classics edition skip her introduction at first because it's chock full of spoilers).

Oh, and it's about some children captured by pirates! Highly recommend!

#AHighWindInJamaica #RichardHughes #BritishLiterature #Pirates #FrancineProse #NYRBClassics #Bookstodon

🧵 2/2

This change of mind has come about for a couple of reasons.

In the first place, reading Gabriele Tergit's "Effingers" reminded me of how satisfying a read a well observed family saga can be. I'm pretty sure that Tergit had read both "Buddenbrooks" and the Galsworthy. Previously I read the Thomas Mann, thinking of it as a key work in European literature, but had been inclined to regard the Galsworthy as something that I could afford to pass over -- I admit that a little bit of Virginia Woolf snobbery about "middlebrow" fiction was probably at work here too. But I might just enjoy the Galsworthy!

Then my interest was prompted by this BBC feature on a new television adaptation. It reminded me that a family saga does not have to consist of Mann like novels of ideas to be probing and revelatory.

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260320-the-story-that-skewered-the-british-class-system

#JohnGalsworthy #ForsyteSaga #Literature #Novels #BritishLiterature #FamilySaga #Books #TwentiethCenturyLiterature

Smith is a master in describing atmospheres, vibes, settings, and reading this felt like I was walking (and seeing, smelling, enjoying, enduring, feeling) London.
It's a pity the characters often felt like stereotypes with not very interesting stories.

NW, Zadie Smith

7/10

#BritishLiterature #NWLondon #ZadieSmith #bookstodon

I don't know how I feel about this. It's short, intense, and complex.
Is it love? Is it lust? Addiction? Helplessness? Or is it just desire in all its mysterious ways?

Well, I liked it.

Box Hill, Adam Mars-Jones

8/10

#boxhill #BritishLiterature #bookstodon

Book Review: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Author: William Shakespeare
Title: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
Publication Info: New York : Washington Square Press, 1993 (originated in 1595)
Summary/Review:

For the first time, Shakespeare ventures into fantasy and it proves to be quite entertaining.  The plot is complex (in a good way) so I won’t summarize it here.  Suffice to say it’s a story of relationships and how they can go horribly wrong.  This is particularly true for Oberon and Titiana, the King and the Queen of the Fairies, whose marital difficulties result in problems for a lot of human couples.  Theseus the Duke of Athens is engaged to wed Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.  But first he plans to wed his daughter Hermia to Demetrius.  But Hermia flees to the woods with her lover Lysander instead.  Meanwhile, Hermia’s friend Helena suffers unrequited love for Demetrius.

The fairy Robin Goodfellow (aka – Puck) stirs up some shit with several pranks on these lovers.  He also messes with a group of “Mechanicals” as they rehearse and perform a play based on Pyramus and Thisbe. Notably, he gives the weaver Nick Bottom a donkey’s head and enchants Titiana to be in love with him.  Just because.  Alls well that ends well, of course, and everyone ends up betrothed to the right person as they enjoy Pyramus and Thisbe in a Mystery Science Theater style.

Very enjoyable and once again it shows remarkable evolution in Shakespeare’s writing style.

Rating: ****

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, Part 1
4. Henry VI, Part 2
5. Henry VI, Part 3
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet

The two novels of Orwell I haven't read are "A Clergyman's Daughter" and "Coming Up for Air".

The former incorporates Orwell's supposedly unsuccessful stab at modernist literary technique; I'm curious to see if it really is a failure.

I know little about the latter, but both the completist and the cultural historian within me want to polish it off anyway.

"Burmese Days" is excellent, and should be pressed into the hands of Niall Ferguson fans and other right wingers inclined to wax lyrical about the British empire.

At some point in the future, I'll post my thoughts on "1984'".

Image: 1943 National Union of Journalists card photo -- Wikimedia Commons -- Public domain.

#GeorgeOrwell #Books #Literature #BritishLiterature #Fiction #AClergymansDaughter #ComingUpForAir #BurmeseDays #1984 #BritishEmpire #Imperialism #RightWing #LiteraryHistory

Orwell's 1936 novel sees Gordon Comstock quit advertisement copywriting to work on his poetry and maintain his integrity in the face of the "money god".

Comstock's rebellion, like that of Winston Smith a decade later, ultimately fails.

In addition to being struck by the parallels between Comstock's life under British capitalism in the 30's and Smith's under Ingsoc in Airstrip One, I was also impressed by Orwell's sharp descriptions of the indignities of genteel poverty.

#Books #KeepTheAspidistraFlying #GeorgeOrwell #BritishLiterature #LiteratureInEnglish #Novels #20thCenturyLiterature

I know that they still read "An Inspector Calls" in English schools, but I suspect that I might be one of very few who wants to read a JB Priestley novel today.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/nov/09/jb-priestley-adventures-of-the-tradesman-of-letters

#BritishLiterature #Books #JBPriestley #20thCenturyLiterature #Fiction #Novels

Let me ask you something unusual:
Have you ever changed your nationality?

This time, I’d like to talk about Kazuo Ishiguro,
the Japanese-born British novelist.

If you're curious, feel free to take a peek 😌
https://introvert-path.com/en/embracing-e/reading-habit/20251012-1/

#NobelPrizeInLiterature #BritishLiterature #JapaneseLiterature
#Bookish #Bookworm #Booklovers #Reading

Though not really my thing, it's interesting and original and not unenjoyable.

Would I have liked it more if I read Bronte first?

Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys

6/10

#widesargassosea #JeanRhys #BritishLiterature #bookstodon

#rebeccastale #sallybeauman #gothic #britishliterature #historical #mystery #romance #newpurchase #midureads #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookishcommuníty #booklover #bookaholic #bookaddict #bookshelf #bookish #bookworm

Original, intriguing, beautiful characters, but strangely unengaging.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark

6/10

#BritishLiterature #murielspark #britishbooks #bookstodon

#adrianmole #adrianmoletheprostrateyears #suetownsend #bookstagram #booklover #bookworm #bibliophile #tbr #bookish #bookaddict #bookcommunity #instareads #midureads #fiction #humor #comedy #britishliterature #contemporary #youngadult

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜'𝗺 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: "𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗵" 𝗯𝘆 𝗭𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗲 𝗦𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗵 -

Do we need to have a better understanding of immigration, race, and history? Gosh, this read is long overdue for me!

#books #bookreviews #bookworm #readreadread #tbr #tbrpile #tbrlist #quotes #reading #zadiesmith #whiteteeth #immigration #religion #fiction #britishliterature #multiculturalism

@acarsdrama unexpected #AVgeek / #BritishLiterature crossover.. https://live.acarsdrama.com/@acarsdrama/114908682381468315

Winning Rouge. Victorian. Mystery. Crime. Thief. Thriller.

#newpurchase #dodger #thriller #britishliterature #jamesbernmore #midureads #bookstagram

🧵 2/2

...Edith Nesbit's "Psammead" series not only engaged me with narrative but also suggested to me, particularly in the second and third books, that "another world is possible".

I am sure that such a suggestion formed part of Nesbit's authorial intention, given that she was a committed socialist and founding member of the Fabian Society.

Fantasy in literature is sometimes criticized as "escapist". Whenever such a label is applied to disparage this or other genres, I respond by conceding that escapism might well be a motive for readers or audiences; I then ask what are they trying to escape from and where are they trying to escape to.

The politics of escapism are by no means straightforwardly quietistic or socially soporific.

#EdithNesbit #Fantasy #Books #Literature #BritishLiterature
#Escapism #ChildrensLiterature #EnglishLiterature

🧵 1/2

"Lord of the Rings" meant much to me in my early adolescence, but I have not reread it since then and have no current plans to do so.

Nevertheless, this piece's claim that LOTR should not be dismissed as simplistic reaction fascinated me.

This fascination stems in part from views I already espoused regarding the political potency of fantasy and magic in the arts and literature.

For example...

https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/tolkien-against-the-grain/

#LordOfTheRings #Tolkien #Fantasy #Books #Literature #GerryCanavan #BritishLiterature #EnglishLiterature

#3goodthings

1. Enjoyed reading Somerset Maugham's short story "The Book-Bag" while sitting in a diner eating a cheese, pepper, and ham omelette with home fries.

2. In Starbucks, the barista told me how she and her coworkers like to dip madeleines in cold foam. She gave me a free cup so I could try it out. Delicious!

3. Two Kpop groups put out performance videos that I had been wanting to see.

https://c.im/@jemmesedi/114260989795797172

https://youtu.be/XjQKDQK3i9A?si=0j8LtAYHfK3CvUK6

@[email protected] @[email protected] #3GoodThingsToday #ReasonsToBeCheerful #SomersetMaugham #BritishLiterature #ShortStory #TheBookBag #Food #Starbucks #Madeleine #Kpop #izna #Sign #LeSserafim #ComeOver #PerformanceVideo #PV #GirlGroups #StudioChoom #Choom

I am now going to drink tea and read a short story by Somerset Maugham, for whom I think the designation "first rate second rate writer" was originally coined. Then I'll go to bed!

Image: W. Somerset Maugham, photo by Paul Thompson -- Wikimedia Commons -- Public domain

#WSomersetMaugham #BritishLiterature
#ShortStory

I want to grapple more with D.H. Lawrence, in particular "The Rainbow" and "Women in Love".

I've read both but came away puzzled and dissatisfied. What did I miss? I've been nagged by a feeling for years that my inadequacies as a reader have obscured important themes from me. I don't have much time to do unrelated to work rereading, but I do have a hunch that understanding these two works will better my understanding of both my country and myself past and present.

Lawrence's reputation has never fully recovered from the attack mounted on his work by Kate Millett in the 1970 "Sexual Politics". Feminist scholarship following Millett contributed to the supersession of the Leavisite criticism that had championed Lawrence as the heir to the "Great Tradition" of moral seriousness in English literature, and that critical approach withered not only intellectually, but also institutionally as British literature and humanities departments came more and more under the sway of US academia's priorities and values; what place for Lawrence's rainswept reflections on the burdens of class in Britain on a sunny, tech infused Californian campus? Pointing to Lawrence in New Mexico or Australia just feels desperate...

My reading, however, is informed but not determined by what's in favor (note the spelling) in departments of literature. Kate Millett might have hated "Lady Chatterley's Lover", but I have found it a rich source not just for thinking about sex and gender but also language, class, technology, and disability in interwar Britain . I hope that a reread of "The Rainbow" and "Women in Love" will prove similarly rewarding.

#DHLawrence #Books #TheRainbow #WomenInLove #LadyChatterleysLover #BritishLiterature #EnglishLiterature

Image: D H Lawrence in 1921 -- Wikimedia Commons -- Public domain.

🧵 3/4

Nels Abbey, the director of The Black Writers Guild would like to see the curriculum enhanced with “the excellent work of Black British writers” rightly noting that such works would be attuned to students growing up in modern multicultural Britain, a society quite different from the USA of the Great Depression. Frustratingly, instead of naming any specific works from modern multicultural Britain, he then recommends “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”, the life story of an American born a century ago.

I know that just over ten years ago the Tory education secretary Michael Gove expressed dissatisfaction with the assignment of “Of Mice and Men” and urged that students be asked to read works by British authors instead. Although I am not entirely unsympathetic to the claim that British students should have to engage with British literature, I also think that Abbey’s point matters; students should be reading at least one significant work by a British author from a racial or ethnic minority. That requirement would not, of course, preclude the reading of works by authors from other parts of the English speaking world.

But what are those books by minority Britons that are at once valuable and teachable? I’d love to know.

#OfMiceAndMen #GCSEEnglishLiterature #BritishLiterature #BlackBritishWriters #Books

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/06/of-mice-and-men-steinbeck-syllabus-gcse-wales-culture-war

I recently enjoyed this funny and perceptive story.

Bennett's theme of this memorial service set story is repression, and he manages to both move and amuse the reader. He's also astute and entertaining on the workings of the Church of England.

I read this in book form because I prefer to read pieces longer than a newspaper article in hard copy, but I know that some will be happy to find the text here online and free of charge.

Alan Bennett · Story: ‘The Laying on of Hands’

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n11/alan-bennett/the-laying-on-of-hands

#AlanBennett #BritishLiterature #EnglishLiterature #QueerFiction #GayMenInFiction #TheLayingOnOfHands #Stories #Fiction

Hello. I joined Friendica in October of 2024, after Facebook closed their Basic Mobile site (not app). I live in New Jersey and am forty years old. Some of my interests include studying dandyism, nineteenth-century grammar, Received Pronunciation, and the Regency. I like coffees, teas, and nasal snuffs, and enjoy cooking, reading, nature and historical documentaries, and gardening. I like Baroque through Classical and a bit of early Romantic music. I love theatre (mostly English and Viennese operettas, and some Regency/Georgian plays). I prefer antique menswear and accessories. It's my dream to either buy a genuine Edwardian suit or have one commissioned. I love wit, wordplay, and dry humour without vulgarity. My parents are lesbians, and I am a huge gay rights supporter. I have been totally blind since I was two months old, due to Retinopathy of Prematurity.

I am happily childfree and am not religious. I respect those who are, as long as they don't try to convert me, or base their lives around it. The same is true of vegans. I also have no time for mind games, drama, or political correctness/sugar coating. I tend to get along better with people older than I, but I will accept friends twenty-one and over. I don't have any understanding of chronic illness, anxiety, depression, loneliness, etc. so if you need someone who could help you through those on a personal level, I'm not the one for that. I enjoy hearing about cats, cooking or gardening adventures, antiques, and interesting life stories.

For those who would like to know more about me, this is my journal. Anyone can read or comment, whether or not he is a member. Almost all entries are clean. Anything adult-oriented is always marked as such and is put behind a cut. If you're a straight or bisexual, childfree man, preferably over sixty (forty at the absolute youngest) and are single, you may be interested in my dating post, (link in the About Me post near top of page).

dandylover1.dreamwidth.org

#antiquemensware #antiques #blind #books #Britishliterature #cards #cats #childfree #coffee #cooking #classicalmusic #crafts #dandies #dandyism #dice #dinnerparties #documentaries #Dreamwidth #Edwardian #England #Facebook #Friendica #friends #friendship #gayrights #gardening #grammar #highculture #humor #humour #introduction #men #MS-DOS #nasalsnuff #nature #NewJersey #oldermen #operettas #reading #ReceivedPronunciation #Regency #relationships #seniors #silverfork #singles #tea #theater #theatre #Windows #writing