Tag: historical fiction

One-Shot Finch: To Kill a Mockingbird

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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

‘Meshes of the web of destiny’

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I find myself checked constantly by thoughts of "but what about so-and-so? wouldn't they have something to say about it? what about my responsibilities?" These considerations are my "fetters of duty" and and "regulations of honour."

Burning Ring of Fire: The Fatal Flame Review

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Blurb for The Fatal Flame by Lyndsay Faye No one in 1840s New York likes fires, copper star Timothy Wilde least of all. After a blaze killed his parents and another left him with a terrible scar, he has avoided flames of all kinds. So when a seamstress turned arsonist threatens Robert Symmes, a corrupt… Continue reading Burning Ring of Fire: The Fatal Flame Review

Titles on Trend: Wives & Daughters, Pt. 2

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Finally, the long-awaited conclusion to this two-part series of Titles on Trend: the “daughters” portion of “Wives & Daughters.” If you didn't catch the first part, the "wives," check it out here. I easily compiled a list of books following the same pattern of “The [insert occupation of choice here]’s Daughter” without even fudging the… Continue reading Titles on Trend: Wives & Daughters, Pt. 2

Titles on Trend: Wives & Daughters, Pt. 1

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So, a couple years ago I came across a thread expressing outrage about a headline for an article that was about a collaborative art exhibition. The headline in question, rather than including the names of the artists, identified the two women by their respective husband and father, who just happened to both be somewhat famous… Continue reading Titles on Trend: Wives & Daughters, Pt. 1

It Got Involved: War and Peace Review

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The "I can't find a blurb because everybody already knows or doesn't care what this book is about" solution: An Encyclopedia Britannica entry on War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy War and Peace, historical novel by Leo Tolstoy, originally published as Voyna i mir in 1865–69. This panoramic study of early 19th-century Russian society, noted for its mastery of realistic… Continue reading It Got Involved: War and Peace Review

La Mouette: Review of Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier

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My sister read this book before I did, and from what she told me I was expecting fluff with a blush of adventure: more or less what it promises in the first chapter, in which the mood is set for “ye olden tale of romance.” I wasn’t expecting to be quite so gutted by existential… Continue reading La Mouette: Review of Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier

‘Too little company’

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The truth was, he thought that what newspapers and books referred to as ‘the horrors of solitary confinement’ were grossly exaggerated. He would rather have too little company than too much of the wrong sort. Arthur & George by Julian Barnes Arthur & George by Julian Barnes, Vintage Books 2006, p. 211 There are times… Continue reading ‘Too little company’

“To turn the world upside down”

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“[W]e... care not what you set up, so you pull merrily down what stands in our way... for it is our profession to turn the world upside down, and we live ever the blithest life when the downer side is uppermost.”The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott The Monastery by Sir Walter Scott Some days the… Continue reading “To turn the world upside down”