Retro Reads discussion

Merry Christmas from NZ to all my reader friends. Hope your bookshelves are replenished.

Lesley wrote: "Merry Christmas from NZ to all my reader friends. Hope your bookshelves are replenished."

Thanks, Lesley- wishing you the same! And pleasant Christmas weather!

I had planned to do a lot of Christmas-theme reading and actually did next to none. Sigh... Maybe next year.
I hope my fellow Retro Readers had a better reading luck. And, of course, a happy and safe holiday!
Carol, we all want to hear about this sailing outing of yours. I certainly have nothing as exciting happening!

Me, too, Barb, me, too!

Aw, thanks Barb & Karlyne.

I got home yesterday. The sailing trip was a mixture of good & bad. Highlights were spending time with my sisters & a friend of mine who is like another sister to me, being taken to the Casita Miro Restaurant on Waiheke https://www.casitamiro.co.nz/ which I think is the prettiest restaurant I've ever been to & finally climbing Rangitoto.

Lowlights- well I found out what it means when another yacht "drags on" to you. Craig had only just left the yacht when my sister spotted a yacht was very close, then that it was coming straight for us! That yacht's crew hadn't secured their anchor properly & had gone on shore. Luckily other yachties spotted the problem & came to our aid. one of them knew the captain & where he hid his keys as well. No damage done.

& we came home in rough conditions yesterday. Anchoring & (for Marty) final clean on boat a nightmare.

But overall a wonderful trip.

wow, how exciting!

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Aw, thanks Barb & Karlyne.

I got home yesterday. The sailing trip was a mixture of good & bad. Highlights were spending time with my sisters & a friend of mine who is like another sister to me, be..."

Sounds like a fun (for the most part) and exciting trip! Glad you’re home safe after your adventures.

I was really sure that it was here that people mentioned listening to Middlemarch; does that sound familiar to anyone?

I think Teresa read it, and I started it last year, want to get back to it this year and finish!

I wanted to offer a bit of literary levity so everyone can have a bit of a chuckle: https://lithub.com/the-first-lines-of...

Abigail wrote: "I wanted to offer a bit of literary levity so everyone can have a bit of a chuckle: https://lithub.com/the-first-lines-of......"

I think the Pride and Prejudice might be the funniest, but I laughed at all of them!

Oh, and I also think that MIddlemarch might be my new Victorian favorite, even above David Copperfield and Jane Eyre. The last couple of chapters had me surreptitiously scanning the end papers just to make sure the names of the people I HAD to know about were there, and I seriously rarely do that.

The Great Gatsby is mine! I've just subscribed! :)

Good one, Abigail!

"Face Time me Ishmael" is pretty clever too. Glad to be able to lighten the mood!

I agree, Karlyne, Middlemarch is an extraordinary novel. I reread it last year in awe, and am using a quote from it as the epigraph of my next novel: "Obligation may be stretched till it is no better than a brand of slavery stamped on us when we were too young to know its meaning."

Abigail wrote: "I wanted to offer a bit of literary levity so everyone can have a bit of a chuckle: https://lithub.com/the-first-lines-of......"

Thank you SO MUCH Abigail for sharing this. I'm on break at work and laughing out loud! One of my coworkers asked 'what's so funny?' She's not a bibliophile, quite the opposite in fact ((the 'movie was better than book' person)) so she didn't 'get it.' I don't care. I needed that laugh. I'm still upbeat from yesterday when at the grocery store I saw 4 packs of toilet paper and purchased only one because 3 other people needed some too. It was a feel-good moment indeed.

Oh too funny, Abigail! I loved them all, cannot pick a fav!

LOL, ShanDizzy! As someone who has not yet scored toilet paper (or gloves, or hand sanitizer, or wipes), I appreciate your restraint!

Abigail wrote: ""Face Time me Ishmael" is pretty clever too. Glad to be able to lighten the mood!

I agree, Karlyne, Middlemarch is an extraordinary novel. I reread it last year in awe, and am using a quote from i..."

I think that's why I also found it extraordinary; there were whole passages of ... truth, and whole characters who, although flawed, were still people of integrity. I've been thinking a lot lately about our "stewardship" of the earth, and Caleb Garth's comments about how he'd rather have a chance of getting a bit of the country into good fettle and putting men into the right way with their farming, etc., just about made me cry!

You're right, it's incredibly rich--in scholarship and humanity alike. For me, the extended passage at the end of the first half when Dorothea finally sees the truth about her marriage is one of the greatest things in English-language literature.

Yes! And the fact that she didn't give in to what she clearly saw: sadness, but not utter despair. Beautiful.

Another part I was completely surprised about is when Lydgate realizes that his marriage will always be one of giving in to Rosamond, because he has to somehow keep their life together as good as he can make it. I was blown away. He could have so easily retreated into injured pride and thoughts of what he "deserved" and left her, if not physically at least emotionally. It was so mature, such a thoughtful treatment of what it means to get onto the road of selflessness by seeing what "ought" to be done and then doing it. Wow.

So much wisdom!

Abigail wrote: "So much wisdom!"

I don't often reread thousand page books, but this one just might be on my list for next year. I'll be keeping a notebook for quotes!

Just to change the subject somewhat . . . I sometimes come across contemporary novels that are so good they could have been written in the past, there is just something about them that has a flavour of days gone by. I don't mean historical fiction necessarily. I was wondering about starting a thread called Modern Books With a Retro Feel or words to that effect?
To start it off, I love books by Victoria Clayton who reminds me of Angela Thirkell. All her books are set in the 1970s although written later. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has similar books in mind.

Reminds you of Angela Thirkell? I'm so there! Thanks for mentioning this new-to-me author, and I love your idea for a new thread.

Abigail wrote: "Reminds you of Angela Thirkell? I'm so there! Thanks for mentioning this new-to-me author, and I love your idea for a new thread."

Angela Thirkell - hello! Big fan here, thanks for the author and thread idea, Elinor!

Elinor wrote: "Just to change the subject somewhat . . . I sometimes come across contemporary novels that are so good they could have been written in the past, there is just something about them that has a flavou..."

Hi Elinor

Your moderators have discussed this idea & our reactions ranged from mildly in favour to against, so we have decided to remain with the status quo to keep our focus on twentieth century writers.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Elinor wrote: "Just to change the subject somewhat . . . I sometimes come across contemporary novels that are so good they could have been written in the past, there is just something about them th..."

Thanks for considering it, and I do understand your reasoning. There are just so many great retro reads to explore!

Here's an amazing bit of trivia that has nothing to do with Easter, or, for that matter, a real retro read, but still...

I'm finishing up Under the Lilacs in my Louisa May re-readings, and I came across a reference to How They Brought the Good News from Ghent, and I thought, "Heavens! Do I remember that?" So I looked it up to jog my memory, and after I'd read it, I saw a youtube reference to - get this! - an actual recitation by Robert Browning on one of Edison's new records in 1889. It boggled my mind that Browning could be actually heard! It's fuzzy, but it's audible, and I stand officially amazed.

This is out of our time period but this is something so exceptional I'm going to post a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYot5...

Make sure you listen to the end.

If any off you belong to any Victorian groups pass this on!

Inspired by Karlyne & Elinor I found a P.G. Wodehouse interview.

I haven't played it fully myslef yet, but I have to say he sounds exactly like I would have expected him to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re9QX...

Oh! What a delight!

I listened to the whole interview including the hour-long documentary that followed. What an amazing guy. Thanks for the link.

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "Inspired by Karlyne & Elinor I found a P.G. Wodehouse interview.

I haven't played it fully myslef yet, but I have to say he sounds exactly like I would have expected him to.

https://www.youtube.c..."

thanks for the link!

Carol She's So Novel꧁꧂ wrote: "This is out of our time period but this is something so exceptional I'm going to post a link.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYot5...

Make sure you listen to the end.

If any off you belong t..."

Just amazing!!!

Remember when we read Rumer Godden's China Court, and we talked about the style of writing, how she kept everything in the present tense, regardless of "when" in time it was happening? Well, aha! reading her last autobiography and she references Dunne's An Experience in Time, published in 1927 and very widely read by anybody who was anybody (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis both used some of his theory in their novels). Has anyone ever read it? I'm thinking I need to find a copy, because it sounds fascinating, an "Eternal Now" sort of explanation of not only time, but life.

Interesting post, Karlyne! I haven't read Dunne's book but it seems as if various strategies for giving fiction more emotional immediacy were very much in the air in British writing in the 1920s. Thinking of stream-of-consciousness as well as first-person and present-tense narratives. It sounds, though, as if Dunne were taking a broader, more philosophical approach to looking at time, not just a craft-of-writing approach. If you obtain the book and read it, I'd be very interested to see what you think!

Godden likens the theory to being on a river (an obvious fascination of hers). If you go around a bend, you can no longer see the past or the future, but life is still going on back there and up ahead, too. The only way you can see it is from the air, where it's all going on simultaneously. I should have marked the passage, because she put it much more intelligently! Anyway, I am going to look for a copy of Dunne, and I'll let you know how it goes.

Hi

As those of you in the Georgette Heyer Group know, I am off to the South Island tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to it quite as much as I was before we discovered we still have Coronavirus, but I am trying to keep a positive mindset.

I'll be back in a little over a week.

Have your reading in August suggestions ready! :)

Hope it goes well and proves relaxing!

hope you have a safe journey!

Have fun! South Island would be on my bucket list, if I had one.

Have fun, Carol! Finally some good news in my town--the library will be opening for curbside pickup by appointment starting July 6. I'm so thrilled! Maybe we should consider a children's retro-read for August? Something light and fun at any rate.

Ooh! Ooh! A children's book read would be fun! I've been wanting to reread Edgar (Edward?) Eager and/or E. Nesbit. . . .

I don't have any Eager, but I have a nice collection of Nesbit (hmmm, one "t" or 2?)

Abigail wrote: "Ooh! Ooh! A children's book read would be fun! I've been wanting to reread Edgar (Edward?) Eager and/or E. Nesbit. . . ."

I love ALL the EE books! Magic By The Lake would be perfect for August.
the only other ones I love as much would be The Saturdays and sequels to that one.

I also loved both E Nesbit and Edward Eager as a child.

I believe The Saturdays is by another EE, Elizabeth Enright, I used to be obsessed with it and read it about a million times.

Judy wrote: "I also loved both E Nesbit and Edward Eager as a child.

I believe The Saturdays is by another EE, Elizabeth Enright, I used to be obsessed with it and read it about a million times."

that's true! Elizabeth Enright and Edward Eager, both great authors.

should I ever need a pen name, I'm going to be Esmerelda Endlewhite or something similar in their honor! ;-)

I'd love to read a children's book for August, and I'd happily go along with any of the "E's" mentioned so far!

A Nesbit I’ve been wanting to read is The House of Arden. Both it and its sequel, Harding's Luck, are free on Project Gutenberg. Plus the main characters are named Edrid and Elfrida, so another EE.

But any of the others sound good too. I love Edward Eager, and have had Enright’s Melendey series on my TBR for ages.

Peggy wrote: "A Nesbit I’ve been wanting to read is The House of Arden. Both it and its sequel, Harding's Luck, are free on Project Gutenberg. Plus the main characters are named Edrid ..."

I've never heard of those Nesbits!

On another note, I just finished Latter End by Patricia Wentworth; I've read it before, but I'd forgotten just about all of it! However, I hereby nominate it for The Best Psychological/Temperament/Personality of a Family Not Necessarily Related by Blood Murder Mystery. I'm sure there have been others with this same premise, but I can't think of any, and I seriously enjoyed this read.