Jun 27, 2024
This week's classic.
seen from Germany
seen from Indonesia
seen from China
seen from Poland
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from China
seen from United Kingdom
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Singapore
seen from United States
seen from Indonesia
seen from Finland
seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Russia
seen from United States
This week's classic.
April Wrap Up
This month has flown by and so much has happened! My boyfriend and I signed a lease on an apartment (we’re moving in at the beginning of June) and we booked a venue for our wedding in spring 2022! Now he just needs to get me a ring. Our new place is gorgeous and has so much natural light from the huge windows, which means maybe my book photos will be a bit better than they have been. One can hope, at least!
Books Read - Goal: 8 Total: 9
It’s been a good reading month, mainly due to school. And I just want to say that Moths and The Heavenly Twins are both 600+ pages so reading both of them in the same month plus other books is really impressive! Those two happen to also be my favorite and least favorite of the month. I need to read more by Ouida now; she’s amazing. The Heavenly Twins wasn’t awful; there were good parts, but it gets bogged down with a lot of unnecessary stuff.
Ruth Hall by Fanny Fern - 4 stars
Olive by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik - 3 stars
Malice by Heather Walter - 4 stars
Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Lauren Burke, Hannah K. Chapman, and Kaley Bales - 4 stars
Fruits Basket Another vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya - 3.5 stars
Moths by Ouida - 4 stars
Fruits Basket Another vol. 2 by Natsuki Takaya - 3.5 stars
Fruits Basket Another vol. 3 by Natsuki Takaya - 4 stars
The Heavenly Twins by Sarah Grand - 3 stars
On Tumblr:
There is one thing here. Enough said.
Book Quotes: Fruits Basket Another vol. 2 by Natsuki Takaya
On the Blog:
In contrast, we have plenty over here. There probably won’t be as much posted in May because I have seminar papers to write.
Come Book Shopping with Me at The Country Bookseller
3 Classics Review: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, East Lynne, and Ruth
March Wrap Up
Review: Malice by Heather Walter
A Bookish Easter, 2021
Review: Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Lauren Burke, Hannah K. Chapman, and Kaley Bales
What’s On My Never-Ending TBR 2021 Releases Edition
Review: Fruits Basket Another vol. 1 by Natsuki Takaya
im reading Ruth Hall right now and honestly?? how is this book not more popular. Ruth Hall is such a badass and i would kind of die for her.
For #WonderfulBooksWednesday , we’re featuring:
Fern, Fanny. Fresh Leaves. New York: Mason Bros, 1857. Jackson Library Special Collections-Woman's Collection PS2523.P9 F7 1857
In this compilation of newspaper columns written for the New York Ledger, there is one titled, “Tea and Darning-Needles “For Two!””, which is a scathing review of : Letters from the United States, Cuba and Canada written by the Hon. Amelia M. Murray and published in 1856. Any review that includes descriptives such as:
“stupid twaddle, unrhetorical sentences, hap-hazard conclusions, petty, egotistical, uninteresting details, narrow-minded views, and utterwant of talent...”
certainly leaves no doubt about whether or not this review was a roast.
This striking binding design proves strong enough to contain the wit within.
Back to School Book Haul, Part I
Back to School Book Haul, Part I
Another semester is about to start, and that means new books! I’m taking a 19th-century American literature seminar called National Space in Early Republican and Antebellum Writings and an independent study on Victorian women novelists and how they portray women. These aren’t all the books for the courses, just the ones I purchased from ThriftBooks. There will be another post with the Amazon…
View On WordPress
"To her, the name of father was another name for love."
Fanny Fern
and, with the timely aid of a stray sunbeam
I only said that it is a thousand pities that you were not a boy; then you could graft my trees for me, and hoe, and dig, and plant, and plough, and all that sort of thing. This puttering round, washing dishes a little ...
— Fanny Fern (1811-72), Shadows and Sunbeams : Being a Second Series of Leaves from Fanny’s Portfolio. Illustrated by George Thomas (London, 1854) : 6 different copy and scan, same edition, at hathitrust : 6
—
“Hetty,” said my uncle, as the door closed upon Mr. Grey, “I suppose you must go to school, or the neighbours will say we don’t treat you well. You ought to be very thankful for such a home as this, Hetty; women are poor, miserable creatures, left without money. I wish it had pleased Providence to have made you a boy. You might then have done Jonathan’s work just as well as not, and saved me his wages and board. There’s a piece of stone wall waiting to be laid, and the barn wants shingling. Josiah, now, would be at the extravagance of hiring a mason and a carpenter to do it. “Crying ? I wonder what’s the matter now? Well, it’s beyond me to keep track of anything in the shape of a woman. One moment they are up in the attic of ecstasy; the next, down in the cellar of despondency, as the almanac says; and it is as true as if it had been written in the Apocrypha. I only said that it is a thousand pities that you were not a boy ; then you could graft my trees for me, and hoe, and dig, and plant, and plough, and all that sort of thing. This puttering round, washing dishes a little, and mopping floors a little, and wringing out a few clothes, don’t amount to much toward supporting yourself. Let me see: you have had, since you came here” — and my uncle put on his spectacles, and pulled out a well-thumbed pocket memorandum — “You’ve had t-w-o p-a-i-r-s of shoes, at t-h-r-e-e s-h-i-l-l-i-n-g-s a pair, and nine yards of calico, for a dress, at s-i-x c-e-n-t-s a yard. That ’mounts up, Hetty, ’mounts up. You see it costs something to keep you. I earned my money, and if you ever expect to have any, you must earn yours” — and my uncle took out his snuff-box, helped himself to a pinch, and, with the timely aid of a stray sunbeam, achieved a succession of very satisfactory sneezes. The following day, under the overwhelming consciousness of my feminity and consequent good-for-nothingness, I made my debut at Master Grey’s school.
it would be stepping off your pedestal, you’ve got other things to do
She has no business to grow ugly; and as to sickness, it would be stepping off your pedestal to be puttering round, inquiring whether your wife’s gruel was furnished at the right time or not ; you’ve got other things to do...
ex 83, “Fanny Fern on Husbands” in The Life and Beauties of Fanny Fern (New York, 1855) : 322
Fanny Fern may not have had any participation in publication of this volume, whose preface states: “We have infringed on no one’s copy-right; the sketches having been copied, in every instance, from the papers to which they were originally contributed. A large proportion of them have never before appeared within the covers of a book...”
—
the entire sketch transcribed below —
“Husbands should by all means assist their wives in making home happy, and strive to preserve the hearts they have won. When you return from your daily avocations, meet your beloved with a smile of joy and satisfaction — take her by the hand-imprint an affectionate kiss upon her lips.”
Isn’t that antimonial? Don’t you do any such thing! If you’ve made a married woman of her, I’d like to know if that isn’t an honor that she might spend a life-time trying to repay you for; and come out at the little end of the horn at that? “Land of love! there’s many a woman dies of ‘hope deferred.’ Put that in her ear. Ask her what in mercy she thinks would have become of her, if you hadn't taken pity on her. Make her sensible of her beatified condition. Just tell her that any ‘little favor’ you do for her now, is an extra touch of philanthropy; that you may possibly go whole days without noticing her at all except to stow away the food she prepares for you; — that, as to thanking her for every button she sews on, Caesar! the boot is on the other foot! and should she lose her beauty or get sickly, of course she can’t expect you’ll care as much for her as when she was bran-new — the idea is absurd. She has no business to grow ugly; and as to sickness, it would be stepping off your pedestal to be puttering round, inquiring whether your wife’s gruel was furnished at the right time or not; you’ve got other things to do, of more importance; such as betting on elections, peeping into concerts and theatres, and so forth. “He might take me, too. You nonsensical little nuisance! In the first place-he-he-he-well, the upshot of it is, he don’t want you! it would spoil all his fun. So just sit down in your rocking-chair and contemplate your stocking-basket; and if your spirits droop for change of scene, for a kind word, or a loving glance—that's nothing! You can die any time you get ready; he will stop mourning for you long before the weed on his hat gets rusty. Besides, the world is full of women — a real crowd of ’em; he knows that well enough; dare say he’d be obliged to you to pop off. ‘Variety is the spire of life.’ “So there’s the map before you, my dear. That’s all there is of Life. If you’ve got married, you’ve climbed to the top of the hill—so now you can do as the rest of the wives do—stand still and crow a little while; and then commence your descent. No new discoveries to be made that I know of. Cry, if you feel like it—pocket handkerchiefs are only ninepence a-piece now.”
can find the sketch elsewhere only at Family Herald (“A domestic magazine of useful information and amusement”) (May 1, 1858) : 13
—
Fanny Fern, the pen name of Sarah Payson Willis (1811-72) wikipedia
See also — and even first — Joanna Scutts, “Feminize Your Canon: Fanny Fern”, The Paris Review (May 14, 2020)