In a well written story, I don’t mind describing a person’s “attributes”. But when there is no space left on the page to advance the story after describing the woman’s rear, and imagining what’s under her sweater, etc., it gets a little boring. Frankly, it was starting to read like a cheap romance novel than a sci-fi story.
OTOH, I recently read a collection of short stories by Jack Finney where there were descriptions of what the main character was seeing when I got a pair of magic X-ray glasses; but that was central to the story, and he did a good job of getting the message across without having to go into great detail. So it can be done. (the book was “About Time”, all short stories dealing with time travel or other fantasy; pretty good light read).
Pride & Prejudice is one of the three books I’ve ever (intentionally) not finished, at age 13 (along with Lord of the Flies, age 11, and It, age 9).
It is also one of my favorite books (re-read/completed, age 19). I didn’t “get” that Jane Austen was funny until I saw Sense & Sensibility (1995) in high school. Then I read S&S, Emma, Persuasion, Northanger Abbey, Mansfield Park…and finally back around to P&P.
It is hilarious.
I have quoted Mr Bennett “And yet I am unmoved” to my children enough that they now quote it to me.
I think the Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth mini-series was the best. (Firth’s career was made when he, as Mr. Darcy, dove in the pond and came out. dripping, showing those abs and close-fitting Regency buckskins).
Jane A., who, if you’ve read her letters, was far from a prude, more 18th century maiden than 19th, would have been proud!!
Have just slammed Wilson’s AFTER the VICTORIANS shut-and vowed to never buy another of his titles, new or used(too bad, because I wanted to read his bio of Dante) .
Dislike his oligarchic snobbery-since he can in no sense be called an aristocrat(and does he resent the fact!) Wonder if he actually believes anything he spouts? If he represents what Britain thinks underneath the tourism; monarchial pagentry and Oxbridge’s ancient/impressive campuses, glad we only visit every 20 years!!
We were at the Grand Canyon today (along w/ thousands of multi-national tourists speaking hundreds of languages. Will never go to a national park again on/near a holiday thinking will be a slow day for tourism).
Will mention the entrance fee{$35 per vehicle] was waived when the park ranger asked my husband if he was over 62 and a veteran. When he answered the ranger in the affirmative, he was enrolled in the “America the Beautiful” life-time program-free entrance to National Parks and Federal recreational Lands Pass. Expires, said the ranger jovially, when you expire!! Who Knew?
Was gratified to see several bookstores, one right on the rim where the Kolb brothers(early photographers of the national parks) had their studio.
Purchased books in our several days there and have already dipped into both:
The Out Trail by Mary Roberts Rhinehart(Yes, THAT MRR, the Agatha Christie of America, who was a war journalist on the Belgian Front. Beginning in 1915, she traveled to many of the still young national parks and wrote about her experiences, popularizing camping/ riding/fishing and western guide-led travel for the adventurous female post-W.W.I.
Portrait of an Artist: A biography of Georgia O’Keefe by Laurie Lisle. I’m beginning to have a “thing” for Ms. O’Keefe, who was a trail-blazer in the southwest, as an independent female and artist.
Georgia O’Keeffe remains one of my favorite modern artists - not just because we made so much profit hawking reproductions of her still lifes (among other works) around various college campuses with our recently-shuttered Tent Sale biz entity for so long, but because I actually admire her compositions, on several levels.
I’m reading this too.
This 600 page book would be 350 pages if he stopped repeating himself so much. His points, when he makes them, are usually good. I think he got a bit lazy in the last couple chapters about airpower and aircraft carriers though.
I’ve recently read several monarchial biographies whose subjects aren’t the most interesting British King/Queen but are great reads due to the authors’ skill..
KING GEORGE THE FIFTH, HIS LIFE AND REIGN by Harold Nicholson
(married to Vita Sackville-West, friend/lover of Virginia Woolf.) George and Mary, both great-grand-children of George III (the king who lost America) shared the eccentric Hanoverian gene-pool-to the monarchy’s detriment. .. Originally, Mary was engaged to George’s half-cracked older brother(who some say could be Jack-the-Ripper), before he conveniently died prior to the wedding, Even their biographers can’t gloss over the fact the pair were terrible parents. Not physically abusive but unimaginative/indifferent.
Queen Mary by James Pope-Hennessy plus his The Quest for Queen Mary edited by Hugo Vickers (so frank re: Queen’ Mary’s often chilly public persona, these interviews recorded by Pope-Hennessy in the 1950’s, weren’t approved for publication by her granddaughter, Elizabeth II, till 50 years after the former’s death.)
George V: Never A Dull Moment by Jane Ridley. The title is a play on the biographer’s subject since George himself was extremely dull/bad-tempered plus dominated his much-more intelligent/cultivated wife(see Pope-Hennessy) The times he lived through(reigned 1911-1936) were anything but boring. If one wants to place blame for the dysfunctional nature/self-centeredness/lack of cultural interests of today’s British monarchy, blame George and his beautiful, well-meaning but infantile Danish mother, Queen Alexandra..
And certainly severely emotionally abusive to their children, if perhaps not to their grandchildren.
There are two points made in The King’s Speech that really showcased (in shortcuts) how they contributed to their own kids’ issues:
George V’s treatment of Bertie’s (future George VI) abuse by his nanny and older brother David (future Edward VIII and later Duke of Windsor), as well as his own abuse of Bertie, that all facilitated the stutter and fits of sudden rage that plagued Bertie and contributed to his lifelong heavy smoking that killed him too early; and
Queen Mary’s frozen reaction to David’s emotionality at his father’s deathbed. Granted, David is a bit over the top–and it is just a movie–but his mother freezes like a deer in headlights as he clings to her, sobbing…and you can really then understand how damaged he was, that he felt entitled to put a romance where he felt emotionally validated, ahead of his duties to country, church, and family.
I only exclude their grandchildren because of how close QE2 and her grandmother Queen Mary seemed to be (this is from other research, not TKS). It was apparent that Mary’s shame at David’s abdication also begat extreme care and concern for both Bertie and Elizabeth that almost looked like affection. I think that Mary and George genuinely liked Bertie and his family in general, and that Mary was enraged at how David’s choices not only killed Bertie but also changed the entire course of Elizabeth’s life. Alongside Elizabeth the Queen Mother, Mary bitterly resented her own son (David) until her death and also played a big role in Elizabeth II’s (and Princess Margaret’s) upbringing and familial support structure after she became Queen so young, in ways that it appeared Mary had not been present and active for her own children.
(The dysfunction in the British royal family has always fascinated me, even after I figured out that they are no different than every other family in that way lol)
Bertie’s(George VI) stutter caused by his father’s “chafing”(royal rage-- like something out of Henry VIII) as is euphemistically termed in the titles I’ve read.
Why didn’t Mary stop him bullying their sons? “…She had too much respect for the Monarchy to oppose the King’s will.” Baloney! Did she curtsey before they crawled into bed(producing 6 children)?. Can’t do that without some intimacy and pillow talk. Plus, shared a bed all their marriage-unusual for monarchs, apparently, since several biographers mention it.
The Windsors have a uxorious streak that sometimes causes them to go off the rails: See Edward VII and his many mistresses, Duke of Windsor(Edward VIII), Charles and horse-faced Camilla and Harry, Duke of Sussex.
A more sympathetic view of Queen Mary is given in: Thatched with Gold The Memoirs Mabell Countess of Airlie, her Lady-in-Waiting for over 50 years. Has a touch of Downton Abbey that appealed to me. The Aristocracy in crisis effected by crushing taxes, etc, etc, etc. But they still dress for dinner, can barely afford new clothes for Ascot/garden parties at Buckingham Palace and still own several castles in disrepair and a flat in London. Mabell mentions that under George VI and Elizabeth, they held a more "informal court " men stopped wearing orders/medals plus no more knee britches, trousers were allowed!!
I’ve also just started The Crown in Crisis Countdown to the Abdication by Alexander Larman. who is a revisionist historian, so who knows who he’ll blame. Just purchased George VI and Elizabeth The Marriage that Saved the Monarchy by Sally Bedell Smith(I’ve read her before, she’s middle-of- the- road reliable as a biographer) and Winston Churchill & the Queen An Unlikely Friendship by Oliver Williams. About 900 pages-I need distraction right now-and AMAZON and third-parties delivered it!
I just picked up a copy of the “Black Hole Survival Guide” , by Janna Levin, an astrophysicist. It is entertaining, and I’ll probably make a few pennies profit selling it later.
I grabbed but haven’t started The House of My Mother: A Daughter’s Quest for Freedom by Shari Franke, the oldest child of Ruby and Kevin Franke, formerly of the family YT vlog 8 Passengers. I had no idea who Ruby Franke was before the news hit that she and her “business partner” were arrested for the abuse and detainment of her two youngest children. Since then, I’ve followed the case. My two youngest kids (10 and 13) and I watched the recent documentary together because they had seen previews and had questions, and they happened to wander in as I started it and asked (yes it’s TV-MA for abuse, neglect, a few adult situations, but was ultimately tamer about the adult stuff than many shows and an excellent warning about social media).
I’m trying to read, between more family emergencies in TEXAS, we’re at the age where many family/friends are ill or dying, and attempting to cull books so viewers can see past them to relize how charming our house is(LOL).
In the middle of chaos, I need comfort, so I’m re-reading The Thrush Green series by Miss Read (AKA Dora Jessie Saint who also wrote the charming Fairacre series featuring an unmarried school teacher and her pupils in a a small English rural village between 1950-1980’s).
Also reading or re-reading several Jane Austen bios since it’s the 250th anniversary of her birth. Jane Austen by Helen Lefroy, leading light of the Jane Austen Society and related to Madam.Anne Lefroy, neighbor and subject of Jane’s admiration. Also Park Honan’s Jane Austen Her Life which has a different focus than many Austen titles and the Illustrated Letters of Jane Austen, edited by Deirdre le Faye another well-known Austen scholar and biographer. The few letters (100+) that survived her sister Cassandra’s bonfires-it you’re been watching the PBS series. Miss Austen…
I could list more but knowing that some of the forum membership feel Jane is overrated or merely a writer of “romances”, will restrain myself. Only Dickens and Shakespeare, which even the doubters of Jane’s talent will admit are excellent company, have joined her on British currency.
Four years ago I was lucky enough to be asked to partner in the purchase of a collection of over 60 years. The folks were moving into assisted care. The real estate agent told them he could not show the house until the books were out, it was claustrophobia inducing. He had bookcases and shelves pretty much everywhere, though not the kitchen, as he did try to look after them nicely, though there were shelves built next to the vanity in the basement bathroom of about 4 x 5 feet. It took two of us 17 hours over four days of non-stop packing and lugging to get them out. He was allowed to keep two bookcases in the new place and kept the most beautiful ones. He also cheated and took three bookcases. I’m still selling those books.
