Recent reading
May. 16th, 2021 11:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
regshoeI'm making good use of the early mornings at the moment getting out for some longer walks. I've walked for about fifteen miles this morning, going down the river and watching lots of waterbirds (some terns; a little egret, which was very exciting; both reed and sedge warblers, etc.). I'm now quite enjoyably tired!
A Woman's Place, 1910-1975 by Ruth Adam (1977). Recommended by Persephone Books as useful historical background to the novels they publish. It was that—it provides some good context for a lot of the sort of fiction I like, and was very interesting. It's a short book with a wide scope, so it doesn't go into a great deal of detail or cover anything like all the potentially relevant bits of history, but is a good overview. A particular theme was how non-linear the development of women's position was—there's a lot about how the social expectations placed on women at different times were often contradictory and changed very rapidly in various different directions. Overall useful and interesting, though sadly marred by some very unpleasant views on disability at one point.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1962). Now this was a strange one! It's a children's novel set in an alternate version of mid nineteenth-century Britain. The exact details of the alternate history are vague. The most obvious thing is the presence of wolves, which seem to be rather more bloodthirsty and keen on human flesh than real grey wolves usually are; besides that, England seems to be somewhat less populous and more forested than it was at this time in real history, the climate is apparently quite a bit colder and long-distance railways exist (along with other nineteenth-century trappings like Grim Up North industrial towns) but are much slower than I think trains actually were at this point. The strange thing is that none of this has any bearing at all on the main plot, which is a classic 'plucky children defeat the evil and Dickensianly-named adults who are trying to steal all their nice things and banish them to a horrifying orphanage' story that could perfectly well have been set in the real world. The wolves at least contribute to the sort of atmosphere of larger-than-life unreality of a children's adventure story, but even they don't have anything to do with the actual plot. Odd. Also apparently the Jacobite monarchs are still on the throne, but there was no mention of this—presumably it comes up later in the series, along with the alternate history actually doing something. I did enjoy the book, however, for all that it was a bit puzzling!
(I think there's a joke somewhere about the irony of wolves still existing in Britain in a world where the Jacobites won, when in real history the last wolf in Britain was supposedly killed by notorious Jacobite Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (perhaps he had more other things to concentrate on?). But according to the book's Wikipedia page this isn't the original British population of wolves evading extirpation, it's a continental European population which 'migrated from the bitter cold of Europe and Russia into Britain via a new "channel tunnel"'. Mysterious! Again, more on this later, I suppose).
Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women 1850-1920 by Martha Vicinus (1985). A more dense and detailed history book covering a particularly interesting aspect of my favourite period. The book looks at the various institutions built by and for middle-class single women working independently outside the Victorian woman's traditional role, with a chapter each on religious orders, nursing, women's colleges, girls' schools and philanthropic settlement houses, ending by considering the suffrage movement in the light of the historical currents and themes examined. It's very interesting stuff. There's a lot of more theoretical history, discussions of how these women and their lives variously used, developed and pushed against nineteenth-century ideas about gender and how they dealt with the challenges of entering public life and independent work in male-dominated institutional contexts. I found the chapter on women's colleges especially interesting, having been to one of them myself (some familiar names in there!). The chapter on girls' schools contains a detailed discussion of homoerotic friendships which made a very interesting 'compare and contrast' with some of the stuff I've read about boys' schools in the same period. And, again, a lot of the subject matter here is relevant as background to other books I've read, fiction and contemporary non-fiction (I was pleased to see M. V. Hughes mentioned and quoted, amongst others!).
A Woman's Place, 1910-1975 by Ruth Adam (1977). Recommended by Persephone Books as useful historical background to the novels they publish. It was that—it provides some good context for a lot of the sort of fiction I like, and was very interesting. It's a short book with a wide scope, so it doesn't go into a great deal of detail or cover anything like all the potentially relevant bits of history, but is a good overview. A particular theme was how non-linear the development of women's position was—there's a lot about how the social expectations placed on women at different times were often contradictory and changed very rapidly in various different directions. Overall useful and interesting, though sadly marred by some very unpleasant views on disability at one point.
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (1962). Now this was a strange one! It's a children's novel set in an alternate version of mid nineteenth-century Britain. The exact details of the alternate history are vague. The most obvious thing is the presence of wolves, which seem to be rather more bloodthirsty and keen on human flesh than real grey wolves usually are; besides that, England seems to be somewhat less populous and more forested than it was at this time in real history, the climate is apparently quite a bit colder and long-distance railways exist (along with other nineteenth-century trappings like Grim Up North industrial towns) but are much slower than I think trains actually were at this point. The strange thing is that none of this has any bearing at all on the main plot, which is a classic 'plucky children defeat the evil and Dickensianly-named adults who are trying to steal all their nice things and banish them to a horrifying orphanage' story that could perfectly well have been set in the real world. The wolves at least contribute to the sort of atmosphere of larger-than-life unreality of a children's adventure story, but even they don't have anything to do with the actual plot. Odd. Also apparently the Jacobite monarchs are still on the throne, but there was no mention of this—presumably it comes up later in the series, along with the alternate history actually doing something. I did enjoy the book, however, for all that it was a bit puzzling!
(I think there's a joke somewhere about the irony of wolves still existing in Britain in a world where the Jacobites won, when in real history the last wolf in Britain was supposedly killed by notorious Jacobite Ewen Cameron of Lochiel (perhaps he had more other things to concentrate on?). But according to the book's Wikipedia page this isn't the original British population of wolves evading extirpation, it's a continental European population which 'migrated from the bitter cold of Europe and Russia into Britain via a new "channel tunnel"'. Mysterious! Again, more on this later, I suppose).
Independent Women: Work and Community for Single Women 1850-1920 by Martha Vicinus (1985). A more dense and detailed history book covering a particularly interesting aspect of my favourite period. The book looks at the various institutions built by and for middle-class single women working independently outside the Victorian woman's traditional role, with a chapter each on religious orders, nursing, women's colleges, girls' schools and philanthropic settlement houses, ending by considering the suffrage movement in the light of the historical currents and themes examined. It's very interesting stuff. There's a lot of more theoretical history, discussions of how these women and their lives variously used, developed and pushed against nineteenth-century ideas about gender and how they dealt with the challenges of entering public life and independent work in male-dominated institutional contexts. I found the chapter on women's colleges especially interesting, having been to one of them myself (some familiar names in there!). The chapter on girls' schools contains a detailed discussion of homoerotic friendships which made a very interesting 'compare and contrast' with some of the stuff I've read about boys' schools in the same period. And, again, a lot of the subject matter here is relevant as background to other books I've read, fiction and contemporary non-fiction (I was pleased to see M. V. Hughes mentioned and quoted, amongst others!).
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Date: May. 16th, 2021 02:57 pm (UTC)Those books sound great, especially "Independent Women", thanks for sharing your thoughts. And I know what you mean about books being spoiled by ableist (or racist, or classist, or sexist...) views, so it's good to have a warning!
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Date: May. 16th, 2021 04:20 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed the reviews—yes, I especially recommend Independent Women!
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Date: May. 16th, 2021 04:42 pm (UTC)The river walks sounds lovely! I'm not sure I've ever spotted sedge warblers.
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Date: May. 16th, 2021 06:15 pm (UTC)Sedge warblers are definitely a bit skulking—I was doing a lot of peering into willow trees and clumps of reeds today trying to catch glimpses of them :D
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Date: May. 22nd, 2021 09:34 pm (UTC)Glad you enjoyed the book; the strange worldbuilding is part of the charm, I suppose. I am in book four of the Aiken series, and the "channel tunnel" has not actually been mentioned yet. I do wonder how ordinary people and their livestock survive the flocks of wolves!
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Date: May. 23rd, 2021 10:36 am (UTC)Yes, I did think the weird alternate history was charming, if slightly inexplicable. I am looking forward to the rest of the series :D