About stories of all kinds
[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
The Story Through the catalyst of the Shelbys, a Kentucky family, falling into debt, the fate of their slaves changes forever. At the prospect of her young son being sold away from her, Eliza takes him and runs for Canada without fully understanding the distance or difficulties involved, trusting that her husband will come after… Continue reading Other People’s Glass Houses: Uncle Tom’s Cabin Review
Today 160 years ago, Nathaniel Hawthorne died. Born in Salem in 1804, he was a writer of short stories and novels, American consul, and friend to contemporary writers of fiction and non-fiction alike. Among these contemporaries were Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His style is characteristic of what might now be… Continue reading ‘that I did not die then’
160 years ago this week, Richard Harding Davis was born. He became an American war correspondent for over three significant wars in his lifetime, also writing short stories and championing Theodore Roosevelt's campaign for the United States presidency. I stumbled upon his work accidentally, finding a copy of Once Upon a Time in a thrift… Continue reading “the one charge you cannot deny”
I guess a St. Patrick's Day post is a tradition now. Anyway, this is the fourth year in a row for me, which is probably the longest I've ever stuck with anything in my life. I've done a post about green books, books with "green" in the titles, and Irish mythology books, so now I… Continue reading 5 Irish Fiction Recommendations for St. Patrick’s Day
136 years ago this week, author Louisa May Alcott died. Born November 29, 1832, Alcott wrote the beloved Little Women, sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys, as well as numerous other novels and short stories. Among these, a dramatic Faustian tale titled A Modern Mephistopheles, which was her inspiration for another book with similar themes,… Continue reading “being what he was”
A well-known novel of the American south, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is a challenging look at the history of race-relations and the process of a child coming to terms with another side of her familiar, safe community of Maycomb. Scout, her older brother Jem, and their friend Dill play around at constructing a… Continue reading One-Shot Finch: To Kill a Mockingbird
...a mysterious history is put forth by the lawyer Lightwood about the Harmon family and its fortune... No sooner has the tale been told than Lightwood is called upon to attend a body... identified as the long lost heir to that very same family's fortune.
Donna Tartt [has an] incredibly beautiful, smooth, flowing writing style that simply sings to your senses as you read along. So much so, it disguises the fact that there is actually very little happening in the plot, character beats, or anything else besides.
Fictitiously Yours 