''The Betrothal', c.1640-50', by School of Rembrandt
On this blog, I try to write and report about literature, books and biographies about famous classic authors. Having said that, this post is classified as shameless self promotion because I am linking to a story I wrote. It is entitled “Betrothed” and I just won a contest!
I am very appreciative and thrilled, needless to say.
It has been awhile … don’t you think that it is TIME FOR A FASHION PLATE? Brrrrrrrr… it is getting chilly outside again. I have been reading that many points north will have a loooonnnnngggg winter. These ladies are bundled up and ready to go!
From Godey's Lady's Book
I am soooo behind on my blogging. There seems to be a renaissance in Charles Dickens biograhies these days. It has been twenty years since the last one was written. Claire Tomalin (my favorite biographer) is currently working on a book and Michael Slater has just released his. It will be available in the U.S. November 10th.
I have not read everything Dickens ever wrote. Not by a long shot. I think Masterpiece Theatre is partially responsible for this. Many of Dickens greatest novels have been expertly serialized for the ‘small screen.” My sense is that this TV-ization of Dickens has led to a decline in his readership. Yet, I would be willing to wager the number of people who could give a synopsis of one of his novels without having actually read one is huge. It is also fascinating to think the TV versions were presented to the public in the same form Dickens came to the public in the mid 19th century: serialization.
My great grandfather’s complete set of Dickens is housed in my family’s cottage in Wisconsin. This is my preferred place to read Dickens. When I was twenty-something, I chose to read Little Dorrit because it was the one Dickens novel I had not seen rendered in some sort of film version. Happily, that has been rectified (twice, in 1988 and in 2009, I never saw the 1988 version, young motherhood and all that) and the recent BBC production was wonderful. I am looking forward to this biography. I will probably pick up Bleak House as a result. Biographies have that effect on me.
I found this bit of information to be very validating, since I am guilty of the same: “The sinister villain who entraps Oliver was named after his (actually friendly and helpful) workmate in the blacking factory, Bob Fagin.” The T-shirt admonition is apparently spot on. Be careful, or you’ll end up in my novel!
You could walk my marble halls and rest your head on my sacred bed …
My daughter, the inveterate music detective found this group – The Blue Hit. This song is ‘If I could’ … I love her sweet, sweet pure sound. I link this song in particular because the poetry is beautiful. It puts me in mind of the Lady of Shallot and mythical kingdoms… enjoy!
The Lygon Family influenced Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited. “I often think there is nothing quite so poignantly sad as old family groups.” Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Happiness.
I love biographies. I especially love biographies about writers. Interestingly, the more biographies you read about writers the more you learn how the skeletons of their novels are drawn from real bits of their lives. Being something of a writer myself, I am fascinated by this since I also draw on my own past or observances of others as a starting point for characters or situations. (I stress starting point.)
Reading biographies of literary figures may intrigue me because rooting about in a writer’s personal history feels something like conducting an archeological dig. I love discovering the real history or inspiration behind some of my favorite novels. The Guardian has a review today of a new book by Paula Byrne, Mad World, about the real life family who influenced Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited.
Apparently, Sebastian Flyte, Waugh’s teddy bear dependent friend who tragically descends into alcoholism was based on his real life friend Hugh Lygon. The beauty of fiction is exemplified in Waugh’s ability to transform the ‘dull dog’ Hughie into the heart achingly tragic Sebastian.
“Evelyn had been at Oxford with Hugh Lygon, the middle son, with whom, according to one not wholly reliable source, he had conducted an affair. Certainly, he had been bewitched by gentle, charming Hughie, many of whose characteristics – girlish beauty, floppy blond locks, the ubiquitous teddy bear – famously reappear in the portrayal of Sebastian, with whom Charles Ryder is so infatuated in the novel. Yet for all his charm, Hughie was rather a dull dog, and hopelessly alcoholic, and it was with Hugh’s sisters that Waugh formed a far more fruitful friendship, especially with Lady Mary and Lady Dorothy, or Maimie and Coote as they were more informally known. His letters to the girls – comic, tender, playfully obscene – are some of the most delightful he ever wrote.”
The English are the master of nicknames, aren’t the? This ability for nicknames is demonstrated by another family, the Mitfords,who translate poignantly from fact to fiction. I would highly recommend reading Nancy Mitford’s books The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate and then follow up by reading Nancy Lovell’s wonderfully moving biography The Mitford Sisters. The quote in the picture of the Lygon family inserted above may be my favorite quote in all of literature. If you do nothing else, read the first page of The Pursuit of Happiness. It is my favorite beginning of all time. These books are a wonderful glimpse into a vanished way of life.
The Mitford brood... an endlessly fascinating family.
Ellen Ternan - Charles Dickens mistress.
Apparently, Claire Tomalin is writing a new biography about Charles Dickens. Tomalin is one of my favorite biographers. Her books always read like a novel.
My favorites are: Jane Austen – A Life, Mrs. Jordan’s Profession and The Invisible Woman. I recommend all three.
This looks summery
I am trying to figure out something to blog about. I read a great review of some books about Mary Tudor, aka Bloody Mary, sounds like she was not such a bad sort after all. Isn’t that always the case? Richard III and now Mary – makes you wonder and realize how contemporary sources can be twisted to corrupt the record. I’m sure that couldn’t happen nowadays…
I watched that amazing wedding video the JKHeinz Wedding entrance on YouTube – pure, unadulterated joy. Anyone who blathers on about it being improper has serious happiness issues. Who says? I mean – let’s reflect on what music Jesus was listening to – should we limit ourselves to lutes and bizarre string instruments? I say – shake it up!
My family is blessed to own a small cottage on a postage stamp size island in Northern Wisconsin.
The Island
As a child, there was no television or telephone and because there were no distractions we did all those kid things: swim, catch frogs, swing, play in the woods… on the sunny days. Rainy days, however, were a different story. On rainy days, after we finished moaning and whining about having no television, we headed to the game drawer and started in on Monopoly marathons and my favorite game “Authors.”
We played ‘Authors’ day and night. We made fun of some of the authors’ portraits and we concocted jingles out of the titles. My favorite jingle was the one we made up for “Song of Hiawatha,” sung to a familiar theme played in all Cowboy and Indian movies of the 40’s.
Over the years, the stack of cards dwindled down to a mere shadow of its former self. Eventually, there were no more than a dozen. When I grew up and started taking my own daughter and nieces to the cottage, I mourned the missing ‘Authors’ cards. But, as fate would have it, while reading a magazine, I happened upon an article announcing a re-issue of the popular children’s card game. I ordered two sets and now I keep one in my dresser drawer and one is always in my purse. We never go to the cottage without them. Everyone asks as soon as we get in the car before we pull out of the driveway, “Do we have ‘Authors?” My girls love ‘Authors’ as much as we did as children.
My personal favorite card from the deck is “Idylls of the King.” As children, we often mispronounced this. My mother would smirk each time she heard one of us ask, “Do you have Iddles (rhymes with skiddles) of the King?” Finally, reluctantly, she decided to correct us, but we went on asking for Iddles, guffawing and snickering each time.
Do you have Iddles of the King (snort)
Within the past five years, I found an old, beat up copy of the book “Idylls of the King.” It is navy blue with gold leaf lettering.I bring it with me to the cottage, and whenever someone draws the card or asks for it, I whip out my copy and read a selection. Now we giggle and groan because everyone knows I will read a section out loud.
I am not the only one who thinks Tennyson should be read aloud. Radio 3 in the UK with be presenting “Idylls of the King” on July 12th. Apparently, as Michael Symmons Roberts tells us in this article,
Tennyson’s voice has been ringing in my head these past weeks, as I’ve been working on a new adaptation of his Arthurian sequence Idylls of the King for Radio 3. Not just Tennyson’s voice, but the voices he creates for kings, knights, maidens, fools and churls. This is poetry to be read aloud, and this was a poet with a popular voice. When a short, early version of the Idylls was first published in 1859, more than 10,000 copies were sold within the first fortnight. The more I worked on the poems, the more I thought of him as a radio poet before the age of radio.
I hope they create a podcast. I may decide to download it and the next time we are sitting around the table at my beloved cottage playing authors and someone asks “Do you have Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, I will hit the play button…
Here we are...playing 'Authors'
 | Jean on About Me - |
 | daddy on Betrothed |
 | Susan Boswell on About Me - |
| daddy on Betrothed |
 | Dody Jane on Betrothed |
