#18th-century novels

[eighteenthcenturyfiction]

Now with links to the books added! I sent the files to press for ECF July 2024, so you know what that means: The July issue reviews section is free to read on the journal website -- ecf.humanities.mcmaster.ca/bookreviews/

#18thCentury Get your read on!

ECF 36.3 Book titles, authors, publishers, reviewers; ToC titles, etc.

England Re-Oriented: How Central and South Asian Travelers Imagined the West, 1750–1857 by Humberto Garcia

Review by Eun Kyung Min, Seoul National University

Literary Authority: An Eighteenth-Century Genealogy by Claude Willan

Review by Paul Keen, Carleton University

Backlash: Libel, Impeachment, and Populism in the Reign of Queen Anne by Rachel Carnell

Review by Nicola Parsons, University of Sydney

Death and the Body in the Eighteenth-Century Novel by Jolene Zigarovich

Review by Heather Meek, Université de Montréal

Daniel Defoe in Context, ed. Albert J. Rivero and George Justice

Review by Kit Kincade, Indiana State University

Women and Property Ownership in Jane Austen by Rita J. Dashwood

Review by Lise Gaston, Concordia University

Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era by Hannah Doherty Hudson

Review by Elizabeth Neiman, University of Maine

Romanticism and the Biopolitics of Modern War Writing by Neil Ramsey

Review by Matthew Reznicek, University of Minnesota

Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to “Gentleman Jack,” ed. Chris Roulston and Caroline Gonda

Review by Ula Lukszo Klein, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh

Theology in the Early British and Irish Gothic, 1764–1834 by Sam Hirst Review by Jarlath Killeen, Trinity College Dublin

[thepastisalreadywritten]

TODAY IN HISTORY

22 November 1963

John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine, was charged with the murder — shooting from the Texas School Book Depository.

Oswald was then killed two days later by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

The Warren Commission concluded in 1964 that Oswald acted alone, but this sparked skepticism and numerous alternative theories about the day arose.

The new administration has promised to release the classified files regarding the assassination, so potentially we’ll know the true story very soon.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy 

(29 May 1917 – 22 November 1963)

22 November 1963

C.S. Lewis passed away at the age of 64 from kidney failure.

He was a scholar at Oxford and Cambridge, known for writing the Chronicles of Narnia and other Christian apologetics.

His death happened on the exact same day as John F. Kennedy's assassination, so he did not receive the attention he deserved.

His works were an incredible blend of imagination and theology, and remain influential in literature and religious thought to this day.

Clive Staples Lewis FBA 

(29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) 

22 November 1963

It turns out that this was an extremely dark day in history in 1963.

Not only did John F. Kennedy's assassination and C.S. Lewis's passing occur, but Aldous Huxley also died at age 69 in Los Angeles from laryngeal cancer.

He’s best known for his 1932 novel Brave New World, which is a dystopian vision of the future.

Aldous Leonard Huxley 

(26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963)

22 November 1718

The notorious pirate Blackbeard, real name Edward Teach, died in a battle off North Carolina's Ocracoke Island.

He fought Lieutenant Robert Maynard in a sea battle and suffered multiple wounds before being killed and beheaded.

Blackbeard's death was a huge victory against piracy in the Atlantic.

He was the embodiment of the Golden Age of Piracy, and remains one of the most iconic and well-known pirates today.

Edward Teach 

(or Thatch; c. 1680 – 22 November 1718)

[ahb-writes]

Person: Oh, you're a writer! What do you write?

Me:

[burningvelvet]

I read A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift and I don't know what I originally thought it was going to be about but whatever it was IT WAS NOT THAT

[essenceofarda]

thinkin' about some MG Graphic Novel ideas I have,, and about these two girlies that become unlikely friends in one of the story ideas I have :) (not a historical graphic novel, but more fantasy/historical inspired as it takes place in a fantasy/magical world that is loosely based on ours but y'know, has literal magic)

Probably upper MG/Young YA? If I had to choose an age group that this story was aimed for :)

Basically the premise is: The blonde girl (name pending) travels to a magical Eastern/Chinese-inspired country with her rich (Evil) father, and befriends the daughter (also name pending lol) of said country's emperor. Shenanigans ensue :) Also... young love??

[queerquaintrelle]

Vamptember 2024: "Evil is always possible"

"Evil is always possible, and goodness is eternally difficult." - IWTV, 1976 (Anne Rice)

What Constitutes Evil? <- a TVC novels literary analysis essay by me (I can't believe my high school English teacher let me get away with it).

@vamptember

[hongluboobs]

book reader i have a copy of dream of the red chamber (volume 1) that ive been trying to get through for over a year how do i motivate myself to finish it

I'm recently coming out of a half a year ish period of not reading very much so trust me when I say the lack of motivation comes for us all. I think I have some tips for how to motivate reading in general+ some for DOTRC specifically :)

(Real quick, I assume because you mentioned a volume 1 you're talking about the Hawkes-David translation published by Penguin in five volumes under the name 'The Story of The Stone'. This is the translation I read through, and it's the one I see recommended most to english speakers looking for an enjoyable reading experience, so to any other prospective readers of this novel I HIGHLY recommend reading this translation as opposed to any other ones. I don't know if I need to say this or if it's well-known to seek out that version, but because Hong Lu's canto is coming up I want to make sure anyone interested in reading through the source material can have the best experience possible with it👍)

It's important to remember that reading is a hobby, and the best way to keep going with it is to make it a habit. Unfortunately, this means forcing yourself to read sometimes, but it comes easier the more you do it. The trick is: it doesn't have to be a lot of reading.

The hard part for me is really just picking up the book and starting to read. Normally with books I like to set a goal of a chapter or so per day, but because this book has longer chapters that wasn't always feasible for me, especially if I had stuff to do. But once I had the book in my hands and started reading I would usually go above my goal I had set :)

Last year a lot of my DOTRC reading was done while I was waiting in line for things, getting/eating food, waiting on the bus, or killing time between classes/during boring lectures (I don't know if I'd advise that last one). This is moreso once you get in the rhythm of things, though.

Another tip is sometimes the format is the thing to stop me. I don't know if you're reading from a physical book or an ipad/kindle/etc or a computer or what, but sometimes I read better on my laptop than other things because it's Always Around. Sometimes I don't feel like grabbing a book or I don't have it with me, but my laptop's already open and I'm bored so maybe I'll do a little bit of reading instead of scrolling social medias. Lately, i've been jumping between my laptop and kindle for reading (laptop for convenience, kindle for portability and reading before bed at night) but I've gone between physical books and digital devices before. (If you want the epub versions of dotrc, I'd be willing to share them as well. The only difficulty is page numbers change between reading formats so I can only really switch at the start of chapters or if I skim to where I last was.

Something that saved me while reading DOTRC specifically (as well as other sinner books) was having a place I could discuss/"liveblog" the book. These books can get LONG and the reading experience varies from "really interesting and compelling" to "oh my godddd I do not need 20 pages of Outdated Whale Facts right now". (no offense to Moby Dick. I'm only slandering that one because I read the whole thing and in spite of enjoying it I understand why there are SO many abridged versions around.) It's kind of just the classic lit experience to deal with these types of things, but it's a lot more tolerable to me if you can talk to other people about it.

When I read DOTRC I didn't have anyone else reading with me, but just having a place to tell people about all the things that happen in this book helped me to keep track of events and characters. It also motivated me to keep reading so I could tell The People what happened next. Having someone else read with me would probably have helped as well, but it's hard to sell people on reading a 5-volume behemoth of a novel with so much stuff in it it has it's own field of study dedicated to it.

You can really yap anywhere. I have a channel in my Limbus Discord dedicated to the books so I don't drive everyone insane with my rambling and it seems to have helped some of my friends get through some of the other books as well so I think this method is a pretty solid success? You could also pretty easily do it just in someone's DMs if they're already familiar with the book (this has the bonus of them potentially being able to clarify things for you and help you get a deeper understanding of the book) or even yapping on a tumblr sideblog or empty notes doc or something.

So TL;DR:

Picking up the book is the hardest part. Reading a little is better than not reading at all.

Subjecting your friends to this book will make it easier to keep going :)

Also: for Dream of the Red Chamber specifically: the book starts slow. I don't know how far in you are, but so many people drop it early. I started reading it during a 12-ish hour car ride and that might've been the play because i can see people getting bored during the first few chapters. It definitely picks up though, so trust me when I say it gets a lot easier to read as you keep going. Chapter 5 is an incredibly interesting chapter, and from there I find things pick up and start going faster. (It helps that chapter 5 is pretty relevant for the direction I think Limbus is going to take canto 8 in!) The later volumes were able to go by a lot faster for me than the earlier ones as well.

This is a long ass book, but it's gonna be a while before Hong Lu's canto drops and we get to Witness that Surrender. Or Surrender that Witness. I'm not actually sure. But regardless, you've got plenty of time to get through it, even if you're a slower reader or don't have much time to dedicate to reading. Steady progress is the name of the game for stuff like this.

Worst case, you've killed a bunch of time during the wait for Hong Lu's canto (because oh boy, I have a feeling this one's gonna be a wait) and you are able to gain a better appreciation for canto 8 by understanding some of the nicher bits of how it adapts stuff from the source.

Best case, you really enjoy reading it and end up like a bunch of the Hong Lu fans I know who were permanently changed by reading this book and started reading scholarly analysis of it for fun (or start seeking out every adaptation of it you can find, or read the book 5 times over... I am coming to realize this book does something to people.)

This book is legitimately incredibly good, even outside the context of me reading it because I was very invested in that beautiful cyan freak from a game I like. I might not have been able to get through it without Limbus providing me the push to keep going on days where I really didn't want to read, but it's a legitimate interest of mine now I will seek out information on regardless of its connection to Limbus! Trust me when I say it's worth getting through even if it feels hard or tedious.

(and if it helps- a solid amount of the stuff I feel is most likely to be Limbus relevant happens near the end of the book. There's so much in this book so things that could be relevant are scattered throughout almost all of it, but I've been picking up so many end of the book vibes from stuff we've seen lately. so you've got to get there!!)

[incesthemes]

i finished season 1 of black sails and it was pretty decent. the display of misogyny throughout the show has been intriguing to witness, and the understated horror of max's final conversation with eleanor was ambiguously presented enough that i couldn't actually tell if the writers knew they were condoning rape or not so that's interesting too. it kind of subverts the #girlpower of earlier shows and movies by making the misogyny so present and having the female characters work well within the constraints of society instead of breaking free of them through one-note badassery, and honestly i find that refreshing. i don't see too many shows which are willing to actually commit so dramatically to sexism and misogyny, i suppose out of fear. but the way both eleanor and max are treated, though wildly different, is genuinely shocking because of the extent of what they face from the male cast (including the ones we're meant to sympathize with! you really do not see that often at all). and the most fascinating part to me is that i really can't tell if this is all intentional and intelligent display of misogyny or if the show actually believes some of what it's saying, especially regarding max. that ambiguity i think is very ballsy tbh and it's honestly kind of fun to watch

[peblezq]

ATTENTION ALL LITTLE LAVENDER READERS

It has come to my attention that there are sites that are reselling my book for higher prices. Let it be known that Amazon is the official way to purchase my book and help support me directly. Here is the link for anyone interested:

Also, if you wanna help make the review score more accurate, don't forget to post your honest review on GoodReads which is directly affiliated with Amazon:

I'm also working on setting up a poll for you guys to vote and let me know if there are people who would be willing to support me in another way (like patreon) where you can get some behind the scenes goodies of Adolescent Aconite, the official sequel to Little Lavender, as well as other writing projects I work on.

Thank you all for your support. Every time a book is purchased, the money went straight to my food funding.

And while we're here, I'm also working on another novel for fun on the side called Untouchable. You can read that HERE.

Have a good day, and pls reblog this post to spread awareness. Thank you!

[eighteenthcenturyfiction]

Great news for a Tuesday! The new ECF special issue "Refusing 18th-Century Fictions, Part 2" is now available to read at Project MUSE:

https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/52266

#18thCentury #ASECS2024 #asecs24

Cover caption: The image on the front cover is Young Woman with a Book, by Miyagawa (Katsukawa) Shunsui (mid-18th century). The digital file of this Public Domain painting is provided courtesy of The Met, New York.

[chicago-geniza]

Only cogent response to season 5 I read during my "lit review" was, surprisingly, from The Forward, and it was "Julian Fellowes is a Tory, Downton Abbey relies on a Trollope-esque juxtaposition between the British and 'the other'/'the outsider', Americans and Jews are narratively interchangeable within this role because it functions only as a gauche contrast to the old-money stiff upper lip (which is what makes Shirley Maclaine's performance as Martha Levinson, the gaudy American, "feel Jewish" to American audiences, a neat trick of cultural translation), and moreover if Lord Sinderby was so concerned about his son marrying a non-Jewish woman he shouldn't have raised him assimilated to the point of being indistinguishable from an upper-class English gentleman"

[kissmefriendly]

Ya know I’ve always wondered what the crew of Walton’s ship were doing during this part of the book. Robert is supposed to be the CAPTAIN of an ARCTIC EXPEDITION and he’s just like “Actually I gotta go personally check on the strange man sleeping in my quarters, he’s about to drop his life story on me and I cannot miss it”

Like what is the crew doing?? They’re trapped in the ice! What about rations?? A plan for winter?? Are the officers still having meetings without Walton? Is the unnamed first mate in charge???

[burningvelvet]

this is a reminder that you should all read tristram shandy (1759) by laurence sterne

[wildwren]

THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES, A FOUNDLING + ICONIC SCENES // TOM JONES (2023)

My reader then is not to be surprized, if, in the course of this work, he shall find some chapters very short, and others altogether as long; some that contain only the time of a single day, and others that comprise years; in a word, if my history sometimes seems to stand still, and sometimes to fly. For all which I shall not look on myself as accountable to any court of critical jurisdiction whatever: for as I am, in reality, the founder of a new province of writing, so I am at liberty to make what laws I please therein.

[queerquaintrelle]

Vamptember 2024: library

The Unintended & The Library on ao3.

@vamptember

[ahalliance]

fighting for my life for dark-skinned heathcliff in this wuthering heights class