About stories of all kinds
By all accounts, Dostoevsky wrote The Gambler on a deadline, ironically, to pay gambling debts. No better way to prove invention's parentage is necessity. I recently missed another Classics Club spin, only to realise I still haven't performed the function of reviewing my last Classics Club read for Spin #39. Hence the necessity of my… Continue reading Rye, Rabble, and Roulette: The Gambler Review
Frances Hodgson Burnett was born Frances Eliza Hodgson in Manchester, England on this day, November 24, in 1849. If you thought Francis Hodgson Burnett exclusively wrote heartwarming children's stories, that was me not long ago. The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy... even if you haven't read the books, you've likely seen one… Continue reading The Ninth Daughter: A Lady of Quality Review
I don't think there is anyone quite like H.G. Wells, who can so convincingly write about fantastical impossibilities in a manner that is not only credulous but also firmly rooted in a comprehensive grasp of known science, society, and human nature. Maybe Jules Verne comes close but seems at times out of touch with human… Continue reading Strange and Hideous Dreams: The War of the Worlds Review
Northanger Abbey (completed 1803, published 1817) by Jane Austen I've read Northanger Abbey at least four times, if not more. I recently re-read it with my book club after we finished The Mysteries of Udolpho, which is heavily referenced in Northanger Abbey. It only gets better on re-read, I find. Due in no small part… Continue reading Two Towers, Pt. 2: Northanger Abbey
[W]hile I have Udolpho to read, I feel as if nobody could make me miserable. Oh! The dreadful black veil! -Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) by Ann Radcliffe Since hearing about Radcliffe's influence on the gothic literary movement of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, I have been interested in reading… Continue reading Two Towers, Pt. 1: The Mysteries of Udolpho
Here's the problem with making a complex secondary character a main character in their own novel: they lose some of the mystical quality that makes them interesting to the reader to try and interpret. Also, quite often their "voice" as the perspective character loses some of what their established personality has been. They are no… Continue reading Reclaimed: Murtagh Review
Fictitiously Yours 