I've just created crip_crit, for discussing the portrayal of disability in literature, film and TV. Victorian lit is absolutely swarming with this particular topic: it turns up in pretty much everything written by Wilkie Collins, and there are other famous examples such as Mrs Joe's brain injury in Great Expectations. Come along and discuss it! You don't ( Read more... )

Since Victorian lit is full of strange lines, I thought it would be fun to play a game where you have to post a line from a Victorian novel, and whoever guesses it correctly continues the game by posting another. To kick off:

"He sauntered lingeringly, fondling the spaniel in his bosom."

I am struggling with coming up with a focus for my essay on Jane Eyre for my MA course in Victorian studies ( Read more... )

I'm listening to audiobooks a lot at the moment, and I find that I pick up on things I didn't notice when reading the novel. Jane Eyre is the one I've just finished, noting that St John is even more of a bastard than I remembered, and that Rochester may be a Strong Rugged Man type, but Jane is constantly rescuing him. The bit that really made me ( Read more... )

 OK...lately I've been on a kick...let's call it historical-thriller-suspense novels.  I have recently read and finished ( Read more... )

Hello!

I'm after some recommendations for novels written in a female, first person point of view, preferably -- but not necessarily -- by female writers. So far I have only Jane Eyre and Villette. Thematically, anything goes; it's the point of view in which I'm interested.

Thanks heaps. :D

I share a birthday season (Thanksgiving - New Year's) with a few friends from high school. This year we decided to re-read Daniel Deronda, by George Eliot. All I remembered about the book was romance, romance. But this time around..this mature reader was delighted with the historical elements as well as the Jewish element - very interesting.
In ( Read more... )

i have recently been reading some some books from the odd Victorian genre, the "Christmas Book".
i was looking for more information on the subject, Thackeray's Christmas books in particular, when i came across this interesting article from the NY Times dated December 6, 1907 ( Read more... )

 Maybe that's going too far.  But I have created a blog devoted to completely rewriting, reinterpreting, and generally kicking the tires on Stoker's novel.  It's called "The Dracula Innocence Project," and it's at http://draculawasframed.blogspot.com

Or check out my funny book on Stoker's masterpiece and all the crazy vamp children it spawned -- ( Read more... )

I am going to be writing an essay on Jane Eyre for my MA course over Xmas and I have to come up with the question myself. I already have some ideas and interests, particularly of a feminist nature and the Gothic elements of the novel. However, I thought I would ask here and see what you gentle folk might suggest. Random keywords that I have buzzing ( Read more... )