The English Marriage: Tales of Love, Money and Adultery by Maureen Waller

December 31, 2011

Following his umpteenth divorce, Rod Stewart remarked that he wouldn’t get married again – he would simply find a (presumably blonde) woman he didn’t like very much and give her a house. Reading Maureen Waller’s The English Marriage, I can’t say I blame him. There is very little love to be found in these pages, [...]

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The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson by Anthony Trollope

December 30, 2011

Trollope intended The Struggles of Brown, Jones and Robinson (1870) as ‘a hit at the present system of advertising’. Unfortunately, his unappreciative audience thought it a flop, with one critic dismissing it as “Thackeray-and-water”. As is often the case, I find myself almost alone in thinking it one of the author’s triumphs. The story charts [...]

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What to read on your Kindle

December 29, 2011

Astonishingly, around 5m people received a Kindle for Christmas this year. And that’s even with stiff competition from Barnes and Noble’s Nook and the Kobo. There has been much grumbling in internet forums about the cost of ebooks, which is often on parity with their physical counterparts. Large publishers simply can’t bring themselves to charge [...]

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End of Year Book Meme

December 28, 2011

How many books read in 2011? 132: fewer than last year, probably because I’ve been busy publishing eight books and wrestling with a wonky thyroid. Fiction/Non-Fiction ratio? 69 fiction, 63 non-fiction, which seems pleasingly well-balanced. Male/Female authors? 75 were by male authors, 57 by female authors (skewed by the Trollope Challenge and my Spring obsession [...]

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New Woman Fiction

December 27, 2011

I must confess to having rather neglected my blog during 2011, mainly through spending a great deal of time with a semi-naked Prussian. Although there has been a dearth of reviews here, I have popped up in a couple of other places. My piece on New Woman Fiction has just gone live on the Review [...]

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Life According to Literature

December 16, 2011

It’s that time of year again when I suddenly wish I’d read books with titles containing verbs. There are still a few weeks left in 2011, but I shall be devoting those to my much-neglected thesis. Anyway, here’s the idea: Using only books you have read this year (2011), answer these questions. Try not to [...]

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The Landleaguers by Anthony Trollope

December 15, 2011

It’s hard to read The Landleaguers (1883) without a lump in the throat, as it was to be Trollope’s final novel. My sentimentality quickly vapourised, however, as it’s not one of his finer moments. The eponymous Landleaguers were Irish farmers who resisted eviction and strove to control their own land. Their tactics ranged from withholding [...]

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Magnificent Obsession by Helen Rappaport

December 14, 2011

One hundred and fifty years ago today, Queen Victoria and her subjects were plunged into mourning following the untimely demise of the Prince Consort. Albert’s death threw an enormous wet blanket over the social season, with the cancellation of balls, concerts and soirees. For appearances’ sake, Charles Dickens was obliged to postpone a lucrative series [...]

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Shiny new Trollopes

September 11, 2011

I’m nearing the end of my Trollope Challenge (only one to go) and now want to read them all over again, thanks to these stunning new editions from OUP. They’ve just published completely revised editions of five Palliser novels, with Can You Forgive Her? to follow early next year. The covers are beautiful, and will [...]

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Let the Flowers Go: A Life of Mary Cholmondeley by Carolyn Oulton

September 4, 2011

My poor blog is feeling unloved at the moment. In mitigation, have been spending a lot of time on Victorian Secrets, and will be publishing some exciting books over the next few months. I have started a Contemporary Voices series, and will be extending our remit to include living authors writing on nineteenth-century subjects. Early [...]

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