Victorians! discussion

Chap. 6 of A House to Let

I thoroughly enjoyed this read. Many thanks to whoever suggested the book. I probably wouldn't have picked it up on my own. I envy the Victorians who could look forward to stories like this at Christmas every year.

Wasn't the ending so sweet. I was so happy at the end resolution. It is so great that Sophonisba received her little bundle of joy after all!


Yes, thank you to whoever suggested this. It was a great read. It was so fun to pick out the different authors!

I finished and really liked the ending as well... Thanks to Sarah for suggesting this little Christmas story.

You are welcome everyone. I enjoyed it too and I can't even remember how I stumbled across the book either. I was glad it was an opportunity to take a break and go with something short as compared to the longer works of these great writers that we have been working through lately.

I did like the ending also. Like other work I know by Collins, Dickens, and Gaskell, there was enough of a dose of the harsh world to make you ponder. Think of the aunt of the Kirkland child, who clearly knowing her father (Mr. Forley) had falsified the child's death AND kidnapped him, disowning him after his rescue! All from greed, I suppose. Her own daughter would still get a life allowance, as I understand, but I suppose they wanted it all, even through ill means. Cold-hearted.

But on the happier side, A House to Let seems to speak of the chance for us to make reparations (Mr. Openshaw for one) and make a new start (Sophonisba, maybe even Chopski) and embrace things outside of yourself. Like looking across the street and gaining a concern of what other lives may include rather than just dwelling on yourself.

Hi! I'm new to the group and just picked up the Buddy Read. I really enjoyed it (and probably would have never stumbled onto it without the buddy read). Like pretty much everyone else here, I'd read three of the four authors independently and loved that they had all collaborated on a single piece of fiction. Sure the book is a little disjointed (as one would expect on what was essentially a really elaborate game of Victorian-era Mad Libs), but it was fun to see each one of the authors side-by-side. From chapter to chapter, it was easy to pick out the theme and stylistic quirks that each author has come to be known for: Dickens's witty dialogue and quirky character studies; Gaskell's attention to the complexity of human relationships and the internal life of women; and Wilkie's great sense of mystery.

Really fun stuff. I'm looking forward to the next Buddy Read, and (of course) _No Name_.

I am glad you joined in the read, Julia. A very good summary of the work too, I thought!

All in all I rather enjoyed reading this book. I thought it was quite an interesting project, with all the different authors working together in collaboration and each of the stories could stand upon its own, while still working together in the end.

I had mixed feelings about the ending of the book, as I have to say on the whole I am not usually for happily ever after type of endings, but it was a way of bringing the story sort of full circle. There was enough of the Gothic, and an allusion to the possible supernatural at the very beginning, with elements of mystery, and in the end the woman who had been denied children through her life, and yet always wanted them was able to take a tragic, or series of tragic situations and transform it into a hospital for children.