Becoming Harriet Vane

Bluestocking, feminist, itinerant scholar. She/her. Fueled by tea. Always open for questions and discussions. This adultbooklr-ish blog also includes history, fictional detectives, architecture, and Fantasy Canon Law™. Curator of @teaformrholmes.

[oldshrewsburyian]

For a while I was at peace. If I closed my eyes I could have been anywhere on earth, at any time too. Perhaps Avalon, before Arthur was born.

The Gift of Rain, Tan Twan Eng

[matthewrhys]

How Well Do Keri Russell & Matthew Rhys Know Each Other?

[zielenna]

Fredric Jameson · The Fog of History: On Olga Tokarczuk

We have been approaching the figure of Jacob in a spirit of reverence, with hushed voices, as in church, as though he...

[psalmlover]

tiddles the church cat

[tattahitotsunosaetayarikata-dea]

[tuulikki]

#someone had a lot of fun writing this headline

(from @afloweroutofstone)

[didanagy]

PETER PAN (1953)

dir. clyde geronimi, wilfred jackson, hamilton luske

[angstystoryteller]

RONALD COLMAN as SYDNEY CARTON in A TALE OF TWO CITIES (1935)

[oldshrewsburyian]

Hello! I really enjoyed (re-)reading your Persuasion story, For Those In Peril On The Sea. I have a bit of an oddly specific question that's also slightly NSFW (so please feel free to delete this ask if it's a discomfiting one) but there was a part that stood out to me:

“I know,” says Anne into his shoulder, “that we were not expecting — that is, that we had not thought of a third child, but — ” She feels him stiffen, and looks up to meet his eyes. “I thought we might ask Sophia and the Admiral to be godparents? If all goes well, that is, if…”

Firstly, I love how sweet this discussion and frankly all these two's communication is, and Frederick's certainty that if there was something even slightly off with his wife, 1) he would've instinctively understood 2) she would've found some way to communicate that to him even without words. Makes me think of homophrosyne!

But I was wondering, does "we had not thought of a third child" imply that there was some attempt(s) made at family planning by the Wentworths? I've read a couple Regency marital hygiene manuals (thanks archive.org) that alluded to husbandly "consideration," i.e., men taking measures to prevent one's wife from going through frequent pregnancies, with all the "modern" sense of men's sexual selfishness as a vice that this implies(!); I was wondering if your Frederick did indeed have that sense of "consideration" which Anne knows about and discussed with him, and what that might've entailed. Thanks and hope you have a good day!

Hi! I'm gratified that you enjoyed it! (Fic here for the curious.)

To your first point, the ways we see Anne and her Frederick attuned to each other even when they think everything between them is hopelessly consigned to the past really do drive me wild. I love them.

To your question: it's been a long time since I thought about this, but I'm going to say yes. I read Anne as genuinely devout, and therefore very likely to assent to the proposition in the Book of Common Prayer that marriage is ordained for (among other things) the procreation of children. But also, as you observe, the medical/social advice enabling and encouraging couples to take a degree of control over reproductive sex, largely as a consideration for the woman's physical and mental health.

Also, for the record, I'm not discomfited by sex being a fact of life.

[sociedadnoticiasmx]

“Un hijo propio”, documental de Maite Alberdi sobre el caso real de una mujer que fingió un embarazo, llega a Netflix este 13 de agosto tras su recorrido por festivales internacionales. #Netflix

“Un hijo propio”: Maite Alberdi lleva a Netflix el caso que conmocionó a México

[oldshrewsburyian]

I watched this and found it to be compelling and moving. As with her previous documentaries, Alberdi combines compassion and creative filming, and gets really impressive results.

[oldshrewsburyian]

Undertake what's easy as if it were hard, and what's hard as if it were easy. In the first case, so that confidence does not make you careless; in the second, so that lack of confidence does not make you discouraged.

Balthasar Gracián, The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence, 1647

[if-one-of-us-falls]

The Song of Songs is the original "she is beauty, she is grace, she will punch you in the face"

[nkp1981]

Sylvester McCoy in Glasgow, Scotland, July 2026

[yuniper]

my specialty is liking the same movies that 50-year-old dads like but in a way that would instantly send those dads into cardiac arrest if they heard me talk about them

[rachels-memories]

Gregory Peck, ph. by Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1949, for LIFE magazine

[snoopyoftheday]

snoopy of the day

[didanagy]

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995) dir. ang lee

[oldshrewsburyian]

Knowledge and courage contribute in turn to greatness. Since they are immortal, they immortalize. You are as much as you know, and a wise person can do anything. A person without knowledge is a world in darkness. Judgement and strength, eyes and hands; without courage, wisdom is sterile.

Balthasar Gracián, The Pocket Oracle and Art of Prudence, 1647