I was very pleased that Monday started with a delivery of three books. Unsurprisingly, there were a couple of Marryats among them. Gup, Sketches of Anglo-Indian Life and Character is a reprint of Florence Marryat’s recollections of her time spent in India when her husband was stationed there during the Raj. I recently read an extract in Temple Bar called ‘Taming an Elephant’, and am looking forward to enjoying the full caboodle. Pictured is a curious edition of Petronel which I’m hoping is going to be particularly pertinent to my research. Unfortunately, it cost rather more than the 50 cents mentioned on the cover. This edition was published as part of Loring’s Railway Novels series. Oddly, it’s laid out in columns, a format that was presumably thought to be more conducive to reading in transit. There is a list of their other Marryat titles on the back cover, concluding with the declaration: “We earnestly commend them to all Travellers.” They also refer to Marryat as commanding the “largest number of readers of any English female novelist.” I wonder whether I can substantiate that claim?
Also part of this morning’s bounty was a review copy of the OUP’s new edition of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Beginning with Tristram’s conception, the novel recounts his progress in “this scurvy and disastrous world of ours,” including his misnaming during baptism and his accidental circumcision by a falling sash-window at the age of five. I must confess to always having been slightly scared of this book. I am hoping that some hand-holding in the form of an introduction from Sterne scholar Ian Campbell Ross, and a couple of Hogarth illustrations will lure me in. I shall let you know how I get on.
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