#20th Century Historical Romance

[daguerreotyping]

WWI real photo postcard depicting a French and a British soldier getting very cordial indeed

[artemlegere-art]

A Tale from the Decameron

Artist: John William Waterhouse (English, 1849–1917)

Title: The Decameron

Date: 1916

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Collection: Lady Lever Art Gallery, The National Museums, Liverpool

Description

These scenes of medieval storytelling, painted in 1916 and 1917, distil many of the qualities of Waterhouse’s work. Their fanciful subject, colour and attention to detail echo the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. Their composition, elegance and figures remind us of works by the Victorian classicists.

In The Decameron we see most of the members of the group sitting, listening intently to the latest tale. In The Enchanted Garden, Waterhouse illustrates one tale specifically. This is the fifth story from the tenth day. It concerns Dianora, wife of Gilberto, who is pursued by Ansaldo,whose fame for feats of arms and courtesy was spread far and wide. Dianora is exasperated by Ansaldo’s insistence so she devises what she believes is an impossible task in order that he will prove his love. If he does complete the task she will be his lover. Dianora asks Ansaldo to produce a May garden, full of blooms, in January. Assisted by a magician, Ansaldo achieves this seemingly impossible task leaving Dianora distraught. In an anxious state, she explains to her husband the bargain she has made and he, conscious of that Ansaldo has fulfilled his part of the bargain advises her that the agreement must be kept. On hearing of Dianora’s honesty, Ansaldo decides to release her from the obligation. Waterhouse has chosen the great moment of discovery and realisation by Dianora for this painting.

[bugsieplusone]

My new Nanowrimo project for 2023. Sequel to my debut novel! WOOOHOOO

[niixxka]

“One has to angle the image this way and that until it catches the light in a particular way and one can make out the person whose features have been absorbed into the blank surface of the plate. It is the same with our memories. But then one day light strikes from a certain angle and one recaptures a face again.”

-Embers, Sándor Márai

(image does not belong to me)

[ya-world-challenge]

Book Review - The Weight of Our Sky (🇲🇾 Malaysia)

[image 1: book cover; image 2: map of Malaysia; image 3: aftermath of riots, Kuala Lumpur, 1969 source: Getty]

YA World Challenge book for 🇲🇾 Malaysia

The Weight of our Sky

Author: Hanna Alkaf

A Malay girl searches for her mother while battling OCD, finding help from a Chinese family in the middle of violent and tragic race riots in 1969 Kuala Lumpur.

Review

This book was amazing and kept me on the edge of my seat to the end. I felt that the author’s depiction of Melati’s OCD “djinn” was very real and excellently done. At times during the book I could really feel her anxiety myself. The writing is gripping and really pulls you in. Melati’s OCD is numbers, counting, and imagining her mother’s death. People with anxiety or OCD might find the descriptiveness of her condition triggering - it is very much there the whole book.

Melati, despite being Malay, is rescued by a Chinese woman when riots break out following an election and Chinese and Malays starting murdering each other in the streets. She finds refuge in the Chinese family’s home, guilty over leaving her friend behind and anxious to find her mother. She finds a friendship with Vincent, one of the two sons of the family, who helps her plans to look for her mother.

One thing about this book is that it does not favor one ‘side’, but rather shows the complexity of prejudice and the shortsightedness and error of those both Chinese & Malay (and the Indians caught between). It shows how people, even family we love like Vincent’s brother, can get caught up in their hate when we follow the mob, a truth that is still very relevant today. But it’s also about a girl caught up in an unfortunate event and finding the strength to conquer her inner demons.

I appreciated this book for a look at a piece of history I had never heard of, along with some in-depth characters and fast-paced story.

Other reps: #mental health (OCD) #no romance

Genres:  #historical, 20th century

★  ★  ★  ★  ★    5 stars    

Read it at:  Bookshop.org  |  Scribd  |   Amazon

[mishacrews]

Friday Freebies: "Love Letter Collection" and "Daffodils"

Hey there, book friends! In the spirit of "New Year, New You" I've decided to revive my blog and start posting regularly again. As part of this fun new exercise, I will be sharing free books that I find on Kindle. These will be either books I have read a

Hey there, book friends! In the spirit of “New Year, New You” I’ve decided to revive my blog and start posting regularly again. As part of this fun new exercise, I will be sharing free books that I find on Kindle. These will be either books I have read and enjoyed, or books that have on my Kindle. Let’s see what kind of books we can find, and what kind of imaginary trouble we can get into (in a…

[quirky-book-reads]

The Tuscan Orphan

Genre: Historical Fiction, Women’s Fiction, WW2 1944 – When an air raid strikes the hospital she’s been working in, Carrie’s life irrevocably changes. But as a nurse in the middle of wartime, she has no time to grieve, as she has too many people relying on her. For resistance fighter, Vito, nothing is more important than seeking vengeance for the atrocities his fellow comrades have suffered.…

[writervblavender]

The 8 Bastard's of Cedric St. John: Chapter 4 (Heather Sparrow)

1918: Heather finds herself falling for Reese St. John, the ambulance driver, who befriended her during the war. Heather's growing affection for Reese recalls her former loves- Her long gone best friend, Sally, Her late husband, Hugh, and the ardent affair she has with Val Farrar, who is openly a lesbian. Heather hopes that this love she shares with Reese will last and won't flee fast away from her like all the others.

Part historic drama, part family epic with twists of mystery and romance; The 8 Bastards of Cedric St. John is an experimental writing project inspired in part the Modernist movement. The story will jump around in time and shift in perspective between the various characters to slowly unfold the whole story of Cedric's many children in 20th century England and beyond.

All names used in this project are not based on any real people living or dead. This is all my imagination- no one in this story was ever a real living person.

Genres: Historic Fiction, Drama, Family Epic, includes some LGBT romances

[thepenmuse]

Release Blitz: The Rock at the Bottom

Lorna & Tristan #3   20th Century Historical Fiction / Romance Date Published: 03-21-2023     Stephen feels he is marked from day one to lose the ones he loves. His mother dies giving birth to him, and his alcoholic father makes sure Stephen never forgets it. To block out his father’s hate, fists, and belt, young Stephen loses himself in his imagination. Stories become his closest companions and…

[oidheadh-con-culainn]

i don't have the words to articulate it at this moment but there's something about the way that people have specific expectations for "authenticity" and will dismiss anything that falls outside them as a mangled, anglicised version of the thing when actually that is the older and more traditional form of something, it just doesn't match their expectations. obviously in my personal experiences i'm mostly talking about medieval literature here especially medieval irish literature

sometimes this is as simple as spelling – i've had people argue that the name "finn" is anglicised and it should always be "fionn" to be Really Irish, but "finn" is an older spelling, glide vowels are later, if you wanna go real far back it'll be "find" (nd in place of nn is an older spelling pattern). or they'll hear someone say "ogam" and assume they're mispronouncing "ogham" due to lack of knowledge of irish and not consider the fact that medievalists tend to use the older form of the word. or they'll Well Actually you about "correct" terminology which wasn't standardised (and/or invented) until the 20th century

a lot of this is defensive and the result of seeing a lot of people ACTUALLY get this stuff wrong and have no respect for the language. in that regard i understand it, although it becomes very tedious after a while, particularly when people sanctimoniously declare something "inauthentic", "fake", or "anglicised" without doing enough research to realise it's not trying to be modern irish and is in fact correct for older forms of the language

more often however this search for the projected "authenticity" is ideological and has much larger flaws and more problematic implications. "this can't be the real story because it's christian" well... that's the oldest version of the story that exists and it postdates christianity in ireland by about nine hundred years, so... maybe question why you're assuming the only "real" version of irish stories can't be a christian one? this is especially true when it comes to fíanaigecht material tbh, but in general there seems to a widespread misapprehension about ireland's historical relationship with christianity (i have seen people arguing that christianity in ireland is the result of english colonialism which took their "true" faith from them... bro. they were christian before the "english" existed. half the conversion efforts went the other way. please read some early medieval history thank you)

however i also saw someone saying this about arthurian literature lately which REALLY baffled me. "we'll never have the Real arthurian stories only the christianised versions" and it was in the context of chivalric romance. buddy you are mourning something that does not exist. this "authentic" story you're looking for isn't there. that twelfth century story you're dismissing as a christian bastardisation is as "real" a part of this tradition as you're going to get

[vkelleyart]

WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON: COVER REVEAL

✨WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON✨— Coming MERMay 2025 in the USA and UK!

It’s with immense gratitude (and a racing heart) that I share the cover artwork for my debut historical romantasy, WHEN THE TIDES HELD THE MOON! Links to preorder the novel and add it on Goodreads are now live and linked below, with details about Digital and Printed ARCs coming soon. **Note: If you’re preordering — SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS for the upcoming preorder campaign!**

Add on Goodreads

I can’t overstate how grateful I am to Erewhon Books and Kensington Publishing for the joy of being able to fully illustrate a novel for adult readers! Thank you to my peerless editor Diana Pho and incomparable agent Saritza Hernández for embracing this book’s potential, as well as to the brilliant Cassandra Farin for her artistic oversight on this cover. I would also be remiss if I didn’t thank @argylefetish / @penpanoply and Alicia.MB.art on Instagram for their incredible beta help!

Finally, endless thanks to legendary authors TJ Klune and Freya Marske for their early praise of TIDES. I am undone with gratitude and just so humbled by their enthusiastic support of my work!

More details about the cover art, Benny & Río’s story, and what’s included in the hardcover edition will be coming soon. And in the meantime, I will be PINCHING MYSELF.

Preorder WTTHTM:

[fahye]

book recs: feb 2024

(disclaimer: I have spent nearly three months languishing and sullen with post-COVID symptoms and have read, over dec-feb, eighty-one books. this is a ruthlessly streamlined list of recs that does not include, uh, all the rereading of sarah maclean and charlie adhara and georgette heyer books.)

AT FIRST SPITE by olivia dade - what if I moved in next to the man who ruined my engagement to his younger brother, and tried to ruin his life by playing monsterfucking audiobooks really loudly?? a heartfelt and lovely romance that also expertly sets up a great small-town setting for an ongoing series.

THE REFORMATORY by tananarive due - historical horror based on the existence of a real school for boys, clear-eyed and brutal in showing the the effect of racist systems in the 1950s american south. compelling as hell. even if you're not usually into horror, I'd recommend this: the ghost aspect is light-handed and really not as important as the horror of what humans do to other humans.

SOMETHING WILD & WONDERFUL by anita kelly - this is a m/m romance about walking the pacific crest trail which made me see the appeal of very long walks. a miracle! it's gentle and emotional and well put together; the characters really grabbed me.

THE BELL IN THE FOG by lev a.c. rosen - the followup to 'lavender house', and somehow even better?? a historical mystery series featuring a queer private eye in 1950s san francisco who looks into crimes against other queer people. amazing queer history! ACAB! I hope there are fifty more books in this series.

FEAST WHILE YOU CAN* by mikaella clements & onjuli datta - beautiful, greedy, terrifying small-town horror that is also a fucking fantastic, gorgeously written sapphic love story. this one IS for the horror fans. it gave me the absolute creeps but I couldn't put it down.

LADY EVE'S LAST CON* by rebecca fraimow - I described this on bsky as 'if you like Leverage, space opera, old screwball comedies, and dashing sapphics who are at all times spiritually wearing a leather jacket: this one is for you' and I stand by that. huge amounts of fun.

LONG LIVE EVIL* by sarah rees brennan - I will be screaming from here until forever about SRB's first adult fantasy book. if you like the isekai'd-into-a-villain-character setup and want it to be hilarious, genre-savvy and wildly angry and clever, you will roll around in this like a blood-stained mud puddle and then beg for more.

THE LAST HOUR BETWEEN WORLDS* by melissa caruso - really clever and original fantasy about a woman on maternity leave who gets dragged into saving a cocktail party which is falling through increasingly murderous and bizarre dimensions. LISTEN, JUST GO WITH IT. it's a seriously cool adventure.

YOU SHOULD BE SO LUCKY* by cat sebastian - yes, it's another m/m romance about queer history in the mid 20th century, this one between a baseball player and the journalist assigned to write a story about his slump. made me care about baseball. cat is a genius.

*I read these as ARCs, they're not available yet but consider preordering or keep your eye out for them!

[kentopedia]

❝𝐖𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐎𝐎𝐋𝐒 𝐈𝐍 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄❞ welcome to kentopedia's love through the ages collab. in honor of another lonely valentine’s day, i wanted to combine my two greatest loves: history and literature! so this is for anyone who wants a passionate romance and loves the aesthetics of the past. because i know that no matter when you live and die, your favs will always choose you ♡

STATUS: CLOSED

♛ — TO JOIN

submit a piece based off a time in history you find interesting. it can be an au of your favorite classic novel, a song you enjoy from a period before your own, a piece of art you enjoy, or something entirely your own. be creative!!

please reblog this post & send me an ask with the character you'd like to write about and the inspiration. for example: "nanami + renaissance" (which is what i’ll be writing teehee).

♛ — REQUIREMENTS

no fandom limitation, but i will cap it off at 2 entries per character (i won’t count mine in that limit!). and you can join as many times as you want.

this is a historical au collab, so i will not accept any submissions based in the 21st century :) but it can go back as far as you want!

there is no deadline. minimum of 500 words, but no maximum. i love long fics! please use the read more feature on your posts.

♛ — OTHER

anyone can join, this is not limited to followers. no age requirement, but you must be 18+ to submit nsfw pieces, with an age indicator. make sure to follow the rules of all creators involved (including me!).

submissions can be as historically accurate or inaccurate as you want them to be, and could include fantasy elements too! this is all about capturing the aesthetics of a time period, but i will never limit anyone’s creativity. it can be extremely niche too!

all forms of art are welcome, not just writing, as long as they are of your own creation.

nsfw, sfw, dark content, etc. is all acceptable. be sure to tag accordingly!

♛ — TO SUBMIT

tag me in your submission so i can also add you to the masterlist. also, link this post on your submission to spread the love to other readers! i will be reading all the submissions and reblogging with feedback as well. let me know if you have any questions!

bungo stray dogs . . .

nakahara chuuya and post wwii yakuza by @cheriiyaya

nakahara chuuya and the 1800s italian mafia by @osaemu

dazai osamu & fyodor dostoevsky as rival painters in the renaissance by @aureatchi

dazai osamu & fyodor dostoevsky in the trojan war by @fyorina

fyodor dostoevsky and victorian era royalty by @verlainepaul

dazai osamu as a fallen angel by @chuuyrr

jujutsu kaisen . . .

nanami kento and the renaissance by @kentopedia

okkotsu yuta as an edo period samurai by @anqelically

gojo satoru & geto suguru and the medieval period by @flowerpersephone

geto suguru as a nineteenth century vampire by @todorokies

nanami kento and the victorian era by @starsinmylatte

gojo satoru and orpheus and eurydice by @forest-hashira

geto suguru and the american old west by @forest-hashira

geto suguru and phantom of the opera by @mynahx3

geto suguru and ancient greece by @mochimooon

nanami kento and the heian period by @purpleqilinwrites

fushiguro toji as a medieval bandit by @honeybleed

true form sukuna ryomen and ancient greece by @girlwithsharpt33th

okkotsu yuuta and post apocalyptic 1600s by @atsquie

nanami kento as a medieval knight by @mynahx3

nanami kento and the regency period by @kentopedia

nanami kento and ancient japan by @mynahx3

attack on titan . . .

reiner braun as a wwii soldier by @thel0v3hashira143

levi ackerman and the impressionist era by @be-co-me

armin arlert and the early 20th century by @crazychaoticizzy

eren jaeger and the age of piracy by @bloompompom

demon slayer . . .

shinazugawa sanemi and antony & cleopatra by @mitsuristoleme

tengen uzui and the roaring 20s by @forest-hashira

haikyuu . . .

kuroo tetsurō and the space race by @ktsumu

kuroo tetsurō & iwaizumi hajime in regency era inspired japan by @jarjarwinx

persona 5 . . .

akira kurusu and the prohibition era by @clubkira

genshin impact . . .

albedo as a renaissance artist by @clubkira

dainsleif in the greatest showman by @rubysm

blue lock . . .

noel noa and indonesian colonization by

[elbiotipo]

Want to talk a lot about language but I'm busy (I will return to this however). Here's a sci-fi concept, however:

English becomes the main world language, as the current trends seem to point, in commerce, science and international diplomacy, much like Latin once was for Europe. However, the dominance of English-speaking empires is not assured. Empires always fall, and eventually, the United States, NATO, and the world system guaranteed by them, decline. Learning English isn't associated with the social mobility it once was. The internet preserves a kind of "World English", comparable to Church Latin, but it eventually diverges from the English spoken in what remains of the US or the British Commonwealth. These "Englishes" in turn, also diverge, as much as Romance languages diverge from each other. Eventually, as the Internet itself is replaced by other means of communication and new cultures and nations emerge, the World English also decays and becomes known as Internet English, no longer something that dominates the world, but a product of its time, of the domination of Usamerican culture which has long been replaced by other waves.

Eventually, Internet or World English is required learning, much like Latin or Greek, to interpret culture in the 20th-21th centuries. People spend many years learning Internet English so that they can translate archived websites and PDFs, which are especially valuable since they predate AI LLMs which have muddled historical records. However, these future historians talk something unknown to us. I hope it's actually Latin again.

[ya-world-challenge]

Book Review: The Orphan Sky by Ella Leya (🇦🇿  Azerbaijan)

[image 1: book cover: red text on black, in the bottom corner a figure with her knees pulled to her chest, white paper birds obscure her face and scatter across the cover; image 2: map showing Azerbaijan on the Caspian Sea between Russia and Iran; image 3: the Maiden Tower in Baku, Azerbaijan - in a town square, an ancient round tower stands against a dark clouded sky source: Bahram Jamalov]

The Orphan Sky

Author: Ella Leya

YA World Challenge book for 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan

Review

This was a beautiful and poetic book I read through in a week and couldn't put down. I've seen it compared to The Kite Runner, which I haven't yet read, and I think this book deserves more attention than it gets.

Azerbaijan is, as the blurb says, "at the crossroads of Russia, Turkey, and Persia." In 1979, Azerbaijan is Sovietized, half looking to please father Moscow, and half clinging to it's Islamic, Eastern past.

Leila is a prodigy pianist, privileged to be among the elite, and naïve in her admiration for the state. On a mission from a Communist youth mentor to spy on a music store owner, she instead finds herself thrown into a world of American records and the young free spirit Tahir, forcing her to question all that she has ever taken for granted.

The novel sweeps us through Leila's tumultuous journey through young adulthood, from the cutthroat world of Soviet arts performance, to war-torn Afghanistan, to devastating family secrets. Always leading back to Tahir, but how can people whose eyes have been opened to freedom and injustice survive communism unscathed?

Set against the Azer legend of the Maiden Tower, with a classical score and musically poetic prose, this book takes your breath away with highs and lows as stunning as the legendary firebird in flight.

Other reps: #m/f #muslim #zoroastrianism

Genre: #historical, 20th century #literary #coming of age #romance #communism

 ★  ★  ★  ★  ★ 5 stars

CW: There are some difficult issues dealt with, such as SA, abortion, suicide, so be sure to check the content warnings.

[ideas-on-paper]

On Carlo and Romeo's relationship & homosexuality in Victorian schools

In my quest to find out more about Carlo and Romeo's lives at Monad Charity House, I have once again resorted to my tried and tested method of historical research, this time with a primary focus on Victorian boarding schools.

Along the way, I stumbled upon Lord Alfred Douglas, aka "Bosie" Douglas, the lover of Oscar Wilde. As people familiar with them may know, their gay romance caused quite a stir in 1895 due to the (in)famous trials of Wilde for “gross indecency”, the tragic result of which was that the latter was convicted to two years of hard labor that ruined his health.

Both already had their fair share of gay affairs beforehand though - Bosie specifically was very popular among his peers during his time at Oxford University, being excellent at sports, artistically gifted and incredibly handsome, so it's not too surprising he hooked up with some of his fellow students. What absolutely had me rolling on the floor was this statement, however (quoted from this page):

"[...] we argue that the English public schools in the last part of the nineteenth century tolerated, if they did not actually encourage the development of strong homoerotic friendships between students."

Apparently, homosexuality in boarding schools was so common people made off-hand jokes about it. In the novel Rites of Passage by William Golding, the protagonist finds a fellow traveler engaged in oral sex with a sailor, thinking of it as "that silly schoolboy prank". Admittedly, Golding wrote his novel in the 20th century, so we don’t know for sure if the 19th-century attitudes portrayed in it are accurate, but this might imply that sexual interaction between schoolboys was fairly common.

In the first edition of Tom Brown's School Days by Thomas Hughes, published in 1857, there was even a passage of the protagonist insulting two boys who were clearly in a sexual relationship with senior boys, with the author commenting that "everyone who studied at Rugby would understand why this passage was necessary". (Hughes himself was Christian and condemned homosexual relationships; the concerning passage was cut out in later versions).

This does not mean, however, that all the boys attending boarding schools were gay - rather, because boarding schools were restricted by gender, they had their first sexual experiences in this male-only environment. Many of them would try the exact same thing out with a girl later and find they enjoyed it much more. However, there were also those who never felt any desire to try it out with a girl - and given how close Carlo and Romeo were, I would honestly be more surprised if there wasn’t anything romantic going on between them.

I mean, it’s not like the entire LoP community isn’t already shipping Carlo and Romeo, but in case there was ever any doubt about it, take it from me: I’m positive these boys were gay.

And in case anyone feels like pointing out that “well, actually, the setting of Lies of P is based on France”: Homosexuality was already decriminalized in France as early as 1791 by the National Constituent Assembly, making France the first Western European country to do so - or rather, the penal code drafted with the intention to only punish "real crimes" made no mention of homosexual acts in private. Still, it was a major step for gay rights.