Recent reading

First of all, a fic rec: an absolutely beautiful Howards End fic, Ruth/Margaret in an AU where Henry dies instead of Ruth and things go somewhat differently for all the characters. It's a really interesting 'what might have been', the relationship development is lovely and, what most impressed me, the canon voice—for a Forster novel!—is spot-on. Highly recommended.

Now for some books...

A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Letters and Diaries by Barbara Pym, edited by Hilary Pym and Hazel Holt (1984). This is a collection of the various notebook diaries, containing both descriptions of her life and some of the observations which formed the material for her novels, kept by Barbara Pym throughout her life, together with some of her letters. Very enjoyable, especially after having read A Lot to Ask, Holt's biography of Pym. The diaries and letters reveal a lot about Pym both as a person and a novelist; I found the sense they gave of the development of her life quite moving, and also the sense of how she approached the serious emotions and events of her own life (I commented about A Lot to Ask that Pym had a Pratchett-witch-ish ability to stand back from the immediacy of life and emotion and observe herself as well as other people, and it's very clear again here), but I also enjoyed seeing where some of the details from her novels—the furniture warehouse in A Glass of Blessings!—came from. As an autobiography it's somewhat uneven, the inevitable result of the changing nature of Pym's record-keeping over time—the early years are covered by a very detailed personal diary, whereas later on there are more observational notes and less life detail (and the period including the writing of her earlier novels is one of the sparsest parts of the book, frustratingly), and the later years are mostly letters. But that in itself gives something to the shape of the story, as it were. Very much recommended for Pym fans!

Eminent Victorians by Lytton Strachey (1918). A collection of biographies of four figures in Victorian history—Cardinal Henry Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr Thomas Arnold and General Charles Gordon—written as a satirical commentary upon the Victorian age in general and its perceived moral-historical worthiness. Strachey certainly comments sharply enough upon all his subjects—one of the reviews quoted on the book's Wikipedia page describes its contents as 'elegant, energetic character assassinations'—but the book is also genuinely really good and interesting history and biography writing, and I enjoyed it very much in both aspects. I especially enjoyed the account of the Oxford movement, its origins, development and ends in the Manning section—also being interested in the history of education, I was disappointed by the Arnold section being by far the shortest of the four, but what detail there is there was still good. And I suppose it's interesting also as an instance of developing attitudes to 'the Victorians' in later history.

Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls by Juliana Horatia Ewing (1875). After enjoying Ewing's short stories so much, I thought I'd give this novel a try. It's a lovely Victorian children's story, following our narrator Margery Vandeleur, the daughter of an army officer stationed in India, as she recounts her early years in that country, becoming an orphan at the age of six, her new life with guardians in England, the family backstory which seems to have escaped from an early D. K. Broster story, her time at boarding school and the happy life she eventually finds living with new guardians in a vicarage on the Yorkshire moors. The whole thing is delightful, and I enjoyed the variety of settings and characters described; but I especially liked the decided views Ewing expresses through her characters on girls' life and women's education. The Arkwrights, Margery's adoptive family, are all frightfully keen on science and especially natural history, and their life involves an idyllic amount of rambling around the Yorkshire moors collecting snails and discovering new species of algae; besides which Margery and her BFF Eleanor Arkwright fill their time with gardening, dressmaking, sketching, writing, playing with the characterful family dogs (universally referred to as 'the dear boys', as opposed to Eleanor's brothers, who are merely 'the boys') and other such enjoyable and edifying activities. It's all great fun, heartwarming and lovely. Somewhat marred by Eleanor suddenly getting married at the end, after she and Margery had previously sworn to be old maids together, but you can't have everything.

As a result of this reading and requesting two Victorian fandoms for hurtcomfortex, I've now fallen into one of my periodic 'I LOVE the Victorians :D and I want to read Victorian books and absolutely nothing else for the rest of the year :D :D' moods. Er, not quite what Lytton Strachey may have intended, but never mind. Anyway, I've started reading another Victorian brick, Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy by Frances Trollope—it's very good indeed so far, and sufficient proof that the Victorians are perfectly capable of satirising the Victorians themselves.