Author: Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897)

I was musing in my previous post about Margaret Oliphant's lack of visibility on the Victorian Author's Stage. We are so well versed in the stories of those female authors who died young, unwed and childless (an intentional sweeping generalisation) that there seems to be little room left for those authors who have the temerity …

Miss Marjoribanks, by ME Oliphant (1866). Part I

You know that squidgy stuff you squirt into wall cavities and it grows and grows and grows, filling the hole? Yeah, you know what I mean? I know, let's call it expanding foam....well, I think I've found the book equivalent. As part of the Classic 50 challenge I scoured online shops, poached ideas from other …

Chess aka The Royal Game (Schachnovelle), by Stefan Zweig (1942)

Towards the end of A Clockwork Orange there is the memorable scene in which Alex is subjected to Aversion Therapy. He is injected with nausea-inducing drugs, his eyes are pinned open and he is forced to watch images of sex and violence, all the while listening to Beethoven. Without dwelling on The Current Situation too …

The Duke and I – #1 in the Bridgerton Series, by Julia Quinn (2000)

It's perhaps no secret that I like Regency stuff. It won't be a surprise to hear that I like period dramas on TV and film. So combine the two - a Regency Period Drama then it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm going to watch it. So, Bridgerton on Netflix. What's not to like? There's the …

Protected: ‘Secretly’ Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (1814)

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen (1814)

Written after 'Pride and Prejudice' it does make you wonder if it was a tough act to follow. If asked I'm sure that 'Mansfield Park' would be far down the list of novels by Jane Austen that people would name. 'Sense and Sensibility' probably followed by 'Emma' might nudge their way to the forefront of …

A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

Written in 1859 this work of historical fiction recounts events of the French Revolution in the last quarter of the 18th Century. However, it is also reflective of the great social change sweeping through Europe in the 19th Century and, in some ways, should have been a cautionary tale for those nations whose monarchs were …