Virginia Feito turns Gothic literature on its head with Victorian Psycho, an outrageously bonkers novel about revenge. The central character of the novel is a governess, a familiar figure in Victorian literature. Sometimes they’re the heroine (in the mode of Jane Eyre) and sometimes the villain (think Becky Sharpe in Vanity Fair). Virginia Feito’s governess Winifred Notty […]
The topic this week for Top Ten Tuesday is “Books for Armchair Travellers.” Since I haven’t ventured overseas for at least five years I’m going to keep my list within the borders of the United Kingdom. Let’s start in the north with Scotland. 1. The Cone Gatherers by Robin Jenkins One thing Scotland has in […]
When I think about Émile Zola, my mind is filled with characters whose lives are blighted by poverty, vice and alcoholism. Most of the Zola novels I’ve read so far are all about the bleakness of life in late nineteenth century France, its people weighed down by capitalism, industrialisation and political intrigue. The Dream (Le […]
The Classics Club Spin delivered number …. … thus giving me the chance to read La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette) by Honoré De Balzac. Published in 1847 which is roughly when the novel is set, Cousin Bette is about a middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette resents her cousin Adeline Hulot […]
it’s time for another round of the classic club spin and this time I’m hoping to get something from Wales or Ireland