Castle Richmond (1960), one of Trollope’s standalone novels, is the story of two families―the Fitzgeralds of Castle Richmond of the title and the Desmonds of Desmond Court, set in the backdrop of the Irish famine. The story opens with Owen Fizgerald, a cousin of the Castle Richmond Fitzgeralds, falling in love with young Clara Desmond,…
Book Review: Dickens and Travel: The Start of Modern Travel Writing by Lucinda Hawksley
My thanks to Pen & Sword for a review copy of this book via NetGalley. Perhaps the most famous of Victorian writers, Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812–1870) was known for not only for the novels he wrote but also for the many wonderful, whimsical, inimitable and memorable characters he created, the love for Christmas he…
Book Review: Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen #NovNov
Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen, written and set during the Harlem renaissance, is a complex novel, which as its name suggests, navigates themes of race and identity which form a central thread in the book but also much more, for themes of marriage and relationships are also key, besides others like motherhood, class and society.…
Book Review: The Half Sisters by Geraldine Jewsbury
The Half Sisters (1848) is a novel by lesser-known Victorian writer Geraldine Jewsbury whose books are described as feminist, and which often questioned the conventional norms and roles that women at the time were confined to. Jewbury who was a novelist, book reviewer (with around 2,000 reviews to her credit, many for the Athenaeum), and…
The Puzzle that is Lucy Snowe
Lucy, I wonder of anybody will ever comprehend you altogether?Charlotte Brontë, Villette (1853) Over the April and May this year, I revisited Charlotte Brontë’s fourth and final novel Villette (1853; but it was the third to be published; her first, The Professor, was published later) with a book group on Goodreads. Villette is seen as…
Book Review: Charles Dickens: Places and Objects of Interest by Paul Kendall
My thanks to Pen &Sword and NetGalley for a review copy of the book. Charles Dickens: Places and Objects of Interest acquaints us with different places and objects associated with Charles Dickens at different points in his life (childhood to his death) from homes he lived in to hotels he stayed at or places where…
Book Review: The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
First published in serial form between April 1840 and February 1841 in Dickens’ weekly periodical, Master Humphrey’s Clock, The Old Curiosity Shop was Dickens’ fourth novel, and was among his most successful ones during his lifetime; in fact so much so that New York readers are said to have stormed the wharf when the last…
Book Review: Dr Wortle’s School by Anthony Trollope
Dr Wortle’s School (1881) is a standalone and the fortieth book written by Victorian author Anthony Trollope and focuses on themes of morality, justice, social propriety, and gossip, with an incidental thread of romance. Dr Wortle is the proprietor of a boys’ school which prepares students to go on to Eton and eventually Oxford. He…
Book Review: The Semi-detached House by Emily Eden
Over April and May I revisited Emily Eden’s The Semi-detached House with a Goodreads group. This is Eden’s second novel, though published first in 1859. Emily Eden (1797–1869) was born into an aristocratic family (her father William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland was a diplomat and politician (also author of a book on Penal Law) while…
Book Review: My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier #DDMreadingweek
This is the first of my (hopefully) two reads for Daphne du Maurier reading week between 10 and 16 May 2021, hosted by Ali at Heavenali (details here and here). A story of suspicion, jealousy, love, infatuation and murder, set in du Maurier’s beloved Cornwall. My Cousin Rachel (1952) is narrated in the voice of…
Literary Potpourri 