#Anna Karenina Isn't Dead

[atlinmerrick]

COVER REVEAL

Anna Karenina Isn't Dead Welcome to the rewritten Lives of Literary Legends!

From Russia's Anna Karenina to Vietnam's Lady Trieu, from Cio-Cio-San to Frankenstein's second creature, suffering, madness, or death is the fate of far too many women in classic literature. Anna Karenina Isn't Dead undoes that.

In this anthology of literary women, these women live. Do they have a happily ever after? You'll see. Do they have a happy-right-now? Oh yes.

These are the reimagined tales of the famous, the infamous, the barely mentioned women in myths, poems, and legends. These are the stories of the Lady in Black, Wendy Darling, Dido, and many more, each getting a better journey than the one she originally got.

Here Anna Karenina and her literary kin are not dead. Very far from it.

Available for pre-order at 20% off until the publication date of February 29, 2024!

[blogstandbygo]

Published!

One of my poems was accepted by the amazing (TM) @improbablepress for inclusion in the upcoming anthology Anna Karenina Isn't Dead, and @atlinmerrick sent me a symbolic dollar for my first paid publication!

I'm so excited to be part of this project, and will share details of how you can get your own copy of this fascinating collection.

[themisimagines]

labyrinth

content: you and vyn attend a birthday party hosted in his honour but end up doing something rather more fun in a garden labyrinth. wink wink nudge nudge. again inspired by anna karenina (2012) film but also labyrinth (1986). maybe a companion to 'i could sleep inside the cold of you'. some spoilers for episode 10. total porn without plot. characters: vyn x fem!reader warnings: public sex, hunter-prey relationship, breeding kink, minor knife play

On your second last day in Svart, Vyn's father hosts a birthday party for Vyn – all to keep up appearances, of course. His father isn't present, and Vyn dislikes half, if not most of the people there. You've made your way through most of the evening by his side, and finally things have begun to wind down, the guests suitably drunk and starting to do unspeakable things, sure to forget everything by tomorrow. Vyn has told you to keep close – he doesn't trust half the people here, and your kidnap by his uncle is still fresh in the forefront of his mind.

Then the next moment, you find yourself wandering the grounds of a large garden maze, heart beating out of your chest as you run as fast as you can, trying to get to the heart of the labyrinth before you get caught. Every single twitch of the leaves and hedges beside you makes you jump. You've dropped pieces of clothing slowly to make a trail, so you don't get lost. Thank goodness they dressed you like an iced cake – layers upon layers of silk, lace, underskirt, petticoats, gloves, ornaments, brocade, outer layers, inner layers, not to mention the hoops used to prop up the voluminous skirts.

Just as you shed one of your outer layers, exposing your bare skin to the chill night air, a low whistle sounds behind you. Without looking, you decide to run, going further and further into the maze, not caring if you get lost now. But just as you see you've hit a dead end, you turn around, but Vyn is there, blocking the entrance.

Vyn stands in front of you, slowly approaching and twirling a decorative blade between his fingers. Even though you know he would never hurt you, there is a tantalising whisper of fear running up your spine, which is deliciously arousing.

'I found you,' he sing songs softly. In the moonlight, his eyes glint as he gets closer, the most delicious shade of honey gold. You love seeing him like this, like a cat who has gotten the cream, a mischievous boy reliving the childhood he never really got to have.

You consider making a dash for it, but he closes the distance and grips your wrists over your head tightly, breath skimming against your ear and neck as he whispers, 'Don't even try... I've hunted down my prey and I intend on enjoying every single moment...'

He turns you around and secures your wrists to a branch with his abandoned bowtie, manoeuvring expertly around your hooped skirts to run his hands up your bodice and corset, slicing open the corset ribbons and stripping your layers back. Standing there, unable to move, you feel especially vulnerable, feeling the cool metal of the blade just barely grazing your skin. Under his careful unwrapping, you are soon completely naked, bared to the moonlight.

'What a marvellous birthday present,' he whispers against your skin, pressing soft kisses throughout your back. 'Thank you.'

You can hear other people have entered the maze, laughing drunkenly from some distance away. Vyn sees you notice them, and chuckles in a low voice. 'You didn't manage to find the heart of the maze so you're all mine. If I choose to let anyone else watch me fuck you, then you can't do anything about it.'

'Pretty words,' you retort, squirming at the feeling of his gloved hands running over your body, squeezing at your tits, ghosting over your thighs, flicking at your clit. 'I bet if anyone actually dared to come over, you would have their head cut off or something.'

He growls at the thought and bites down hard on your neck, definitely leaving a bruise there. 'You're not wrong.'

Vyn pulls away and you whine at the lack of contact, turning around to see what he's up to, but without any warning, he lines his throbbing cock up with your entrance and thrusts up into you, making you cry out in surprise.

The pace he's taking is breathless, cock sliding out fully before slamming into you, setting a desperate pace like he's trying to punish you, forcing small cries from your throat. You are pressed up tightly against the hedge, pain mingling with pleasure, twigs and branches scratching at your delicate skin, feeling like a thousand hands clawing at you, which somehow is a huge turn on.

'That's it,' Vyn purrs. 'Make those beautiful noises for me, darling. I want everyone to hear you.'

You try to bite your tongue just to defy him, but then he grabs your breasts in each hand, forcing you against him and bending your back impossibly as he fucks you fast and hard. Your nipples are in his clever fingers, and he is playing with them in the way that makes you want to scream, because it feels too good, and you are terribly overstimulated from everything. You squirm relentlessly on his cock and you hear him pant shallowly, quietly whispering about how wonderful you are over and over again under his breath, hips thrusting into you endlessly.

You're not content with letting him have his way completely, so you turn your head around to look at his face, which is dark with desire, completely focused on every single sensation as if he's a beast and you're his prey.

'Is that all you've got?' You challenge him.

Upon hearing that, he growls and stops to untie your hands, looking to punish you even further, but the moment you are free you tackle him onto the ground, knocking all the air out of his lungs and mounting him. His face is surprised, but he doesn't resist, and this time it's your turn to pin his arms above his head with his own bowtie as he watches you hungrily, not resisting although you know he could easily break free of your sloppy knots, wanting to see what you do next. It's a strange sight – you are completely nude, having been stripped so thoroughly by Vyn earlier, but he is almost fully clothed. It almost makes you feel like a wild woman who has hunted down her prey and is ready to enjoy the spoils.

You slide down onto his cock, relishing the feeling of fucking outdoors – being fucked from behind always feels so animalistic, but being on top tonight drives you wild, and you lift yourself off his cock and plunge back down, watching Vyn bite his lip and watch you move up and down, your breasts bouncing with every thrust, your thighs burning with exertion. 'Nghh-' you moan, feeling him hit a particularly sensitive spot inside you. 'I love watching you like this,' you tease him breathlessly. 'Helpless beneath me, completely at my mercy...' You grind your hips in a circular motion, drawing your lovemaking out.

There are more voices approaching, they seem to be getting closer, but you're quite sure that they aren't about to find you anytime soon. Cries of pleasure ring out from other corners of the maze, other lovers having found secret spots to release their desires. You see Vyn's eyes glint as you tease him, a smile on the corner of his lips, rising to the challenge. He shifts his feet upwards, thighs grazing your buttocks, and you are just about to ask him what kind of tricks he's trying when his hips thrust upwards, sending you bouncing upwards, and seeing stars from how deeply his cock is buried inside you.

'I can hardly let my prey get away with everything,' Vyn bites down, cock ramming into you, leaving you breathless and begging him to slow down.

'Ah - Vyn - Ah - ah - mmmh!' You cry out, as he drives faster and faster, not letting you gather yourself for a single moment, thrusting so hard that you lose your balance and are pressed against him, hands scrabbling for purchase in the soil as he just uses you mercilessly, chasing his own release while pushing you closer and closer off the edge. 'Ready to scream for our audience?' He chuckles in a low voice. A pair of voices comes so close that you swear they are about to turn the corner, and the thought of getting caught is so deliciously tantalising that Vyn just has to thrust a few more times before you come undone around his cock, trying to stifle your cries in his neck, clenching and throbbing so hard that you see flashes at the side of your vision.

Vyn speeds up for his last few thrusts, and he whispers how good you are, how amazing your cunt feels around his cock, about how much he loves you, and surely you have another one in there for him, he wants to feel you come again. He has freed his own hands and one now snakes down to your clit, the other tearing your hand away from your mouth - 'Don't you dare hold back, I want everyone to hear that you're mine.' He rubs your clit as his cock grows and throbs inside your cunt and that pushes you over the edge again, crying out in earnest this time - 'Fuck yes, Vyn - oh!' and Vyn cums with a guttural groan, growling deeply and squeezing his eyes in pleasure.

The voices trail off, giggling to themselves. There is no way that they didn't hear their lovemaking, but also the hedges are so thick that they couldn't possibly have seen who it was. You collapse onto Vyn, and he embraces you in his arms, both of you panting heavily. He gives you his jacket, and drags over the remains of your dress to keep you warm. 'It would be a shame if you caught a cold,' he says. 'I would feel rather responsible.' You giggle against his chest, buried in layers of silk and tulle. You both look up at the sky, watching the stars and feeling so lucky to be in love.

[ripeteeth]

Hi! I hope this isn't too random or intrusive, but I discovered your blog recently due to coming across your post about reading Frankenstein when I was searching a book ask meme tag. I really enjoyed reading your thoughts about the books you like and I found I shared quite a few of your tastes and opinions as well (eg. I wasn't a big fan of Love in the Time of Cholera or Neil Gaiman's solo writing either, I really love grotesquely interesting and oddly pretty stories like Perfume).

please don't feel any pressure to answer this if you'd rather not, but I was wondering if you had any other books to recommend or talk a bit about that have really stuck with you? I'm also curious about how you usually find more good books for your future reading list – if you have any tips or advice you could share Thank you! ♡

Hi! I’m always down to talk about books I love or loathe! There’s so much out there in terms of grotesque beauty, so to speak!

I worked in a bookstore all throughout college, so I had a ton of resources there in being connected to other book lovers and had the pure luck to spend thousands of hours shelving books and having so many titles pass through my hands. Many of my favorites are here because something about the cover or summary intrigued me while I was reshelving it or finding it for someone (or pulling it during zoning to return to the publisher if it hadn’t sold). If you have a good used bookstore near you, I HIGHLY recommend just taking time to wander through and just look for something weird! Something that catches your attention, even if you can’t put your finger on why. Ask the booksellers there if they have any recommendations - I’ve rarely met a bookseller that didn’t have an opinion or five about good books to share.

I also had the benefit of having a very book-centric family, especially my mom. She’s my best friend and she introduced me to so many incredible titles, like The Stranger, Jane Eyre, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe, Lolita, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Anna Karenina, Murder on the Orient Express, and the collected hijinks of Jeeves and Wooster. So many of the books I read are ones she recommends!

Beyond that and recommendations from friends, I tend to pick up books from following publishers. Right now I’m obsessed with reading publications by the New York Review of Books and Fitzcarraldo Editions, both of which publish incredibly high-quality writing from authors I’ve usually never heard of. A lot of these books are either experimental or have never been translated into English before (or haven’t been published in decades). I really tend to just go through their catalogs and grab a book at random and I haven’t had a miss yet. Right now from NYRB, I’m reading Mourning A Breast, a memoir of living with breast cancer by Hong Kong writer Xi Xi, and I have Vasily Grossman’s Leningrad on deck. From Fitzcarraldo, I recently loved Drive Your Plow Over The Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and am going to start Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor soon.

Right off the top of my head, based on the few you referenced here such as Perfume and Frankenstein, I’d recommend:

Grendel - John Gardner

Along with Frankenstein, this is probably my all-time favorite book. It’s a fascinating retelling of Beowulf, all from Grendel’s point-of-view. It’s lush but in that way of undergrowth and decay, and Gardner leans into Grendel’s wretchedness and monstrosity, letting it sing. He’s not interested in rehabilitating a monster, but in giving this pathetic creature a voice. I have a deep love of retellings that move the viewfinder and give the reins to a side character or villain. (Though I admit I haven’t liked many of the recent releases in this vein. They give me the crawling sensation that they were written because it became popular, not because the author had an interest in the story or characters, which is perfectly valid - hey, it’s a capitalist hellscape we all live in, no shame in getting paid - but those aren’t the books I enjoy.)

Crash - J.G. Ballard

This is a weird one. A wonderfully messy, fucked-up weird one where the heartbeat of the story is about psychosexual car crash fetishes. Cronenberg made it into a film in 1995 and the fact that Cronenberg made a movie about it at all should tell you everything you need to know.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find and Other Stories - Flannery O’Connor

If you like dark and oddly beautiful, nothing fits that criteria more than Flannery O’Connor. Something heavy and somber hovers over her work. A sense of dread. Dry grasses. Revival tents. The dead eyed stare of a preacher. A fire you cannot escape.

[A list of recs below the cut]

A few others that come to mind as titles you may enjoy, though I can’t quite put my finger on why. These are all beautifully written, fascinating, and many are uncomfortable in the precise way I like fiction to leave me feeling.

Cassandra - Christa Wolf

The Dwarf - Par Lagerkvist

Hunger - Knut Hamsun

Solenoid - Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu

We Have Always Lived In The Castle - Shirley Jackson

Rashomon and Other Stories - Ryunosuke Akutagawa

The Passion - Jeanette Winterson

Shadow and Claw - Gene Wolfe

Dancing Lessons for the Advanced in Age - Bohumil Hrabal

Voices From Chernobyl - Svetlana Alexievich (Proof that non-fiction can be poetic and haunting)

Just Kids - Patti Smith

A Map To The Door of No Return - Dionne Brand

This Way For the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen - Tadeusz Borowski

The Street of Crocodiles - Bruno Schulz

Lote - Shola von Reinhold

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong

Autobiography of Red - Anne Carson

Labyrinths - Jorge Luis Borges

If on a winter’s night a traveler - Italo Calvino

2666 - Roberto Bolaño

The Name of the Rose - Umberto Eco

The Pearl Diver - Jeff Talarigo

Beyond The Gates - Molly Gloss

Oryx and Crake - Margaret Atwood

Self-Help and Other Stories - Lorrie Moore

The Historian - Elizabeth Kostova

Get In Trouble: Stories - Kelly Link

Piranesi - Susanna Clarke

Consent - Vanessa Springora

Medea - Christa Wolf

Simple Passion - Annie Ernaux

[holycatsandrabbits]

So excited to get my author copy of Anna Karenina Isn't Dead!

The anthology

Welcome to the rewritten lives of thirty-two literary legends

From Russia’s Anna Karenina to Vietnam’s Lady Trieu, from Cio-Cio-San to Frankenstein's second creature, suffering, madness, or death is the fate of far too many women in classic literature. Anna Karenina Isn’t Dead undoes that.

In this anthology of literary women, these women live. Do they have a happily ever after? You’ll see. Do they have a happy-right-now? Oh yes.

These are the reimagined tales of the famous, the infamous, the barely mentioned women in myths, poems, and legends. These are the stories of the Lady in Black, Wendy Darling, Dido, and many more, each getting a better journey than the one she originally got.

Here Anna Karenina and her literary kin are not dead. Very far from it.

Edited by @atlinmerrick ; Cover artwork by Claudia Caranfa

My story

My mother and I loved the poem “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, and I jumped at the chance to write Bess a better ending. In my story “Love Knot,” I gave her five minutes’ notice of the soldiers’ arrival, and she did the rest.

King George’s men saw Samuel only as a highwayman, a rogue, a thief. They knew his rich clothes, but not how they smelled of sun and sweat and the cold road. They knew the weapons beneath his coat, but not how he liked to use his rapier to cut apples from a tree, how he would flash his shiny pistols at the children who gathered to hear his stories of daring battles for yellow gold. They knew he’d given a confession of love to Bess. They didn’t know what it had sounded like in the earnest voice of a boy who was then only eight years old.

Order here

AO3 ~ DannyeChase.com ~ Linktree ~ Weird Wednesday writing prompts blog ~ Resources for Writers

[beesmygod]

I saw your answer about art experiences. How do you feel things from literature? I am consistently disconnected from things I try to feel from, like I read The Glass Menagerie and it was good, even, but nothing came of it, and usually it is so much less than that.

I thought it might be something like Having A Coke With You, where the art is superceded by real human relationships — and I actually did understand Having A Coke With You for a while, and it was kind of incredible, but now I look at descriptions that resonated me not two months ago and they're just empty. I don't think having friends did that.

I just want this to be me, I want to feel things so much, especially without looking on it from a consumer's perspective (cf. rayne fisher-quam's standing on the shoulders of complex female characters), which I feel is hindering all of this. I feel like I'm missing out on one of the great experiences of life, the connection and meaning that comes from art.

I watched Greg Guevara's video on art experiences, where he said that everyone is overstimulated and spreading out their art experiences into meaningless social media bits, and I don't know how to change that. I saw a play today and I didn't understand it and I was bored, even, and it didn't change me. I needed it to change me into someone who loved it.

I read Anna Karenina in eighth grade and pushed through it and it was a comfort book and I related to Levin but I don't think I understood it, even (I don't have the book anymore). My friend – I have a bad habit of comparing myself to others, I know, but it's relevant – reads Crime and Punishment and feels things. I couldn't even get through the first part of War and Peace.

I'm sorry for the scatteredness, I write on my phone and I find it difficult to organize my thoughts here. I'm sorry for sending this to you, and I hope you feel free to delete it. Lastly, I'm sorry if you cannot answer this, if this is outside your experience.

i have a weird framing and personal philosophy about this subject that i hope does not come off as unsatisfactory to you but bear with me. i'm pretty sure i know this feeling; this is the feeling i get when i'm exposed to the wondrous, marvelous beauty of unspoiled nature. i could not give two shits about the glorious national parks of this genuinely gorgeous country despite my family dragging me all over the continental US for summer break as far as the family van would take us. i have seen some of the most spectacular sights this country can offer, from the grand canyon to the redwoods of california to the devils tower to yellowstone and so many more. and i tell you i stare at it dead-eyed like a fish. i know i should be feeling something, everyone else is. but when i see old faithful erupt all i could think about was how i could see water at home. absolutely 0 spiritual or emotional connection. even landscape paintings leave me cold. i can appreciate and understand the aesthetic value in what i'm seeing, but its like it stops at my eyes and never penetrates my brain.

but i have just accepted that there are things i simply will not be able to experience in my lifetime. this has always been the case for me being less than 5 ft tall with most things in life, but dont read that as self-pitying lore dropping. because the secret is that it's not really that big of a deal to not be able to do things. i might have 0 memories of yellowstone that aren't "insane thing that happened to us" but as an adult i can pursue things i actually do like instead of trying to force myself to FEEL something my brain isn't wired for.

maybe your relationship with reading is the same. you understand literature's grand purpose in the wide tapestry of history or whatever and have seen people have rapturous moments of artistic connection with specific books, but that experience is completely foreign to you. you can even read a book and enjoy it, like how i think the prismatic spring IS pretty fucking sick, but whatever ethereal feeling youre supposed to feel never materialize. thankfully, i promise you that its not a big deal. and now i never have to visit a national park again until i force my children to go see them because it's good for them or whatever. i can sit at home and experience art i DO get that feeling from.

anyway, in short: read things with no expectations of how you're "supposed" to feel about them and just enjoy a pretty good story. keep throwing yourself into artistic pursuits you do enjoy and feel connected to. and try new ones! you never know what will activate your brain

[gabessquishytum]

Dreamling Anna Karenina au?

Oof, this is going to hurt. Content warnings for attempted suicide, infidelity, childbirth, general angst...

Dream has been married to his older husband for several years now, and he's... content. They have a young son. They are very rich, and Dream has the best of everything.

He pays a visit to the countryside to his sibling Desire, who is having marriage problems. Dream has agreed to try and help smooth things over. The stay goes quite well, until Dream is introduced to Robert Gadling.

Robert is young, younger than Dream. He is also rich and full of life and love. The attraction between him and Dream is instant and everyone can see it. It grows so strong that Dream decides to leave, before things get out of hand. He's beginning to doubt his loyalty to his husband. He returns to the city, but Hob follows him. Unable to let Dream go.

They begin a proper affair. They attend parties together, they're sleeping together, and it isn't long before Dream’s husband finds out. He demands an end to the affair, saying that he will forgive Dream if it ends now. Dream asks for a divorce, and his husband refuses.

Dream is ultimately forced to leave his home, and his son. He has Hob, and he is also pregnant with their child, but the birth goes badly and he is very ill - close to dying. His husband comes to visit and forgives Dream for all his wrongs, and tells him that he can return home with the new baby. Hob, devastated at losing Dream yet again, unsuccessfully tries to end his own life... and Dream finds that despite the joy of being reunited with his son, he can't stay with his husband. He and Hob flee abroad with their baby and Dream is forced to leave his son behind.

Dream is snubbed by society and despite being happy with Hob, it's impossible to live in the way they would like because of the scandal. Even Desire is critical of his choices. Furthermore, Dream’s husband has told their son that Dream is dead. Despite being happy with Hob, he simply can't recover from the fact that he will never be allowed to see his son again, and that he will never be able to marry Hob because his husband still refuses to divorce him.

Because Dream is considered the immoral party for having an affair and abandoning his child, he is still snubbed by society. But Hob can go out into the world and associate with whoever he likes, leading to increasing jealousy between them. Dream is terrified that Hob will marry someone else, and his anxiety becomes unmanageable.

I won't spoil what happens in the end of the novel, but if you know, you know. Or perhaps there's a happy ending in this au, and Dream’s husband dies, allowing him to marry Hob and be reunited with his son. I'll let you all decide how it goes <3

[grandhotelabyss]

Thoughts on Toni Morrison’s Jazz? I get the arguments for it being minor work relative to Beloved and Paradise, though I’ve always had a soft spot for it. I think it harmonizes quite well the sentimental quality of some of her later work with what you’ve called “based Morrison”-the sometimes race-essentialist, vitalist sense that evil somehow improves us, that we’re almost made better people for our interactions with it.

Unlike a lot of Morrison's books, I've only read it once, which isn't nearly enough. High virtuosity, not Faulknerian but Nabokovian, and I think I agree with your thematic assessment. My first impression, though, is that it was so virtuoso the human element went missing, as sometimes also in Nabokov, a problem triumphantly overcome in Paradise. I've seen people on Twitter screenshot Edna O'Brien's NYT review as if it were the ne plus ultra of liberal white-lady racism, but she had a point:

Do I miss something? Yes. I miss the emotional nexus, the moment shorn of all artifice that brings us headlong into the deepest recesses of feeling, moments such as in Faulkner's "Light in August," when the fugitive Joe Christmas takes to the road knowing that it will run on forever "between the savage and spurious board fronts of oil towns," or when Leopold Bloom, in the throes of a tender letter to his mistress, pauses to address his dead son with: "Love. Hate. These are words Rudy. Soon I am old," or when poor, crazed Anna Karenina, observing the bolts and irons of the oncoming train, asks God to forgive her.

That ending, though, is extraordinary, and just thinking about it makes me want to read the whole book again immediately. "...look, look. Look where your hands are. Now."

[brightmaiden]

Bookish asks: 🗺🥺 🤧 💟 📓

Thank you!

🗺 what’s a book series you love that’s inspired by the culture/history of a specific country?

A Bride's Story by Kaoru Mori follows several brides and their families in Central Asia during the late 1800s. It is thoroughly researched and beautifully drawn, with careful detail brought to their clothes, food, homes, and art. The stories unfold slowly, and while there are moments of tension relating to politics or clashes between cultures, the focus is always on these women and their families and ways of life.

🥺 what’s a truly underrated book/series you recommend and wish the whole world would read?

I'm going to cheat a little on this one, since there really isn't a book or series I would recommend to the whole world. I do wish, though, that more people read poetry. Like any genre, it appeals to some readers and not to others, but I think it also has a reputation as something only intellectuals would read...or as an art form that requires tremendous effort to analyze and understand. Some poetry is that way, but a lot of it isn't, and I would love to see more people feeling confident and empowered to give it a try, to find poems and poets that delight them.

🤧 An overrated book/character trope you’re tired of?

Friendly Target, as defined and explained by TVTropes.org. I am so tired of a best friend, family member, beloved mentor, or love interest needing to die for the protagonist to find the motivation to do their thing. There are so many other ways for someone to find their way toward heroism, and having people support you on that journey—because they are not dead—helps tremendously.

💟 A book/character trope you can’t get enough of?

Marriage Before Romance (again relying on TVTropes.org) is a favorite of mine. Technically, the situation doesn't have to be romantic, but I like it when people who are mostly strangers find themselves in a situation where they have to rely on one another, where they slowly unfold each other's outer layers and start to understand who the other person truly is. Romantic contexts tend to be more emotionally intimate, which is what I'm looking for, but I've seen stories with found families accomplish that too.

📓 do you read classic literature? if so, what’s your favorite classic? give your top 3 if you can’t choose just one!

I do read classic lit! As for a favorite...I have a tier of favorites, and since I love them for different reasons, they'll rotate in and out of Top 3 positions depending on what I'm most engaged by at a given moment. Right now...probably Anna Karenina (the compassion with which Tolstoy writes these flawed people), An Old-Fashioned Girl (standing up for who you are and finding how you fit anyway), and Ars Amatoria (the way Ovid has of being sly and naughty one moment and then poignant and truth-speaking the next).

[sothischickshe]

In case anyone is thinking ahh now is the time to read some classic long af books by some old dead white men, I've had some thoughts in my time

Ulysses by James Joyce - is it worth reading it so you can say you've read it? Maybe, depends how obnoxious the people in your life are. The last 8 pages are the best bit, and tbh you can probably read them out of context and still appreciate them perfectly well? Very few hyphens in the entire book, which is weird. I'm not convinced Joyce made up as many words as people think, I think he just confused them because all the compounds are run together without hyphens. The oxen of the sun section is banging!! Overall a very inconsistent approach to chapter/section length. ~6.7/10

War and peace by Leo Tolstoy - pretty great tbh! Starts off strong, straight jokes from the get go. Very short chapters which are easy to digest! The tone is kind. It is one of those books where at a certain point you think... Oh... Maybe men shouldn't write women, huh. But there's a lot of those about! Taught me everything I know about the napoleonic wars. Possible overuse of the word 'lads' but maybe that's just down to the translation. Could have done without it turning into a diatribe about military history. 8.3/10

Moby dick by Herman melville - I mean what the fuck was going on here? Starts great, all call me Ishmael, and the first 4 chapters or so are pretty banging. Then just... What? Ishmael gets further and further from perspective, it's now in the third person, what? I don't care about fishing, sorry. Also apparently the s in ambergris isn't silent? All feels like a betrayal. Especially cos melville wrote other stuff that's great!!! 3/10

The brothers karamazov by fyodor dostoevsky - fucking banging mate! Read this book. It's very funny. The tone is very kind. There is mystery! Some of the religion stuff does go on a bit. 9/10

Tristram shandy by Lawrence sterne - all right, it's very funny, but at what cost, you know? If nothing else, it's worth it so you can watch a cock and bull story. 6.9/10

Moll flanders by Daniel defoe - a really fucking solid book tbh! My main problem with it is that it has no chapter breaks. Am I supposed to read it all in one go? A book that did NOT make me think... O, men really shouldn't write women, huh. 8.8/10

Pickwick papers by Charles dickens - a man and his friends often get drunk and hang out. That's the plot? Boy you could get away with some loose concepts for novels back in the day. Advise getting red wine and vicodin drunk for reading this. 6.4/10

Don quixote by Miguel de cervantes - very very funny (at least in parts) . But is it actually that funny? I mean it's so punny! Is that the translators going crazy hard? Or is English a romance creole so the puns are easy to translate into English? Does go on a bit. I prefer part 1. 6.7/10

Anna karenina by Leo Tolstoy - it's all right. There's quite a lot of trains. Vronsky is fun to say. War and peace is better. 6.7/10

[kissfaeries]

Can you please recommend me some books with strong/interesting female leads that are pretty popular? English isn't my first language (not even second lol) so i prefer reading in my native one but but usually all i can find in my family's library is some misogynic "classic" :/ Thanks in advance!

Sure!!! I also recommend reading books online, because that way you can have access to thousands of books regardless of how popular they are (just type the name of the book + pdf vk) but most of them aren’t translated sadly :((

Popular ones:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Emma by Jane Austen

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Nancy Drew Mystery Stories by Carolyn Keene

The Narnia Chronicles by C. S. Lewis

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brönte

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Not so popular ones that u can find online:

Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalco

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

The Legend Trilogy by Marie Lu

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The Grisha Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

Circe by Madeline Miller

The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

The Shadowhunter Chronicles by Cassandra Clare (mostly The infernal devices and The dark Artifices though)

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

[atlinmerrick]

Anna Karenina Isn't Dead (The Rewritten Lives of Literary Legends)

Improbable Press' next anthology is out at the end of the month and we hope you'll want to read the thirty-two wonderful stories that reimagine the journeys for the women of classic literature so that these women live.

Do they have a happily ever after? You'll see. Do they have a happy right now. Absolutely.

Full cover and pre-ordering information (20% off paperback or ebooks!) tomorrow, February 23, 2024!

[atlinmerrick]

I'm always so happy to get boxes o' our books! I do NOT personally kiss each one but that's only because I Am A Professional and no one needs my germs on their anthology.

Aaaanyway, odd opening to say I gotchoo some Anna Karenina Isn't Dead if you want this glorious collection thirty-plus stories rewritring the lives of literary legends.

From Russia's Anna Karenina to Vietnam's Lady Trieu, from Cio-Cio-San to Frankenstein's second creature Anna Karenina Isn't Dead undoes the suffering, madness, or death that is the fate of far too many women in classic literature.

In this anthology of literary women, these women live. Do they have a happily ever after? You'll see. Do they have a happy-right-now? Oh yes.

These are the reimagined tales of the famous, the infamous, the barely mentioned women in myths, poems, and legends. These are the stories of the Lady in Black, Wendy Darling, Dido, and many more, each getting a better journey than the one she originally got.

Here Anna Karenina and her literary kin are not dead. Very far from it.

Available a paperback or ebook from Improbable Press!

You can also get hardbacks, paperbacks, and ebooks from all online sellers such as Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and more!

[atlinmerrick]

Improbable Press has a new call for submissions Anna Karenina Isn't Dead: The rewritten lives of literary legends.

From Anna Karenina to Jocasta to Cio-Cio-San, from Esmeralda to Aida to Mrs Rochester, death, madness, or suffering is the fate of far too many women in classic stories. Anna Karenina Isn't Dead undoes that.

In this anthology of literary women, these women live.

We want reimagined tale of the famous, the infamous, the barely mentioned woman in an old story, poem, or legend. Give her a better journey than the one she got.

This call is open to writers of any gender, the deadline of 31 January 2023, and if you have questions about Anna Karenina Isn't Dead, we've got answer, just click on the link above and email us!

[holycatsandrabbits]

It's here!! Anna Karenina Isn't Dead from Improbable Press

The anthology

Welcome to the rewritten lives of thirty-two literary legends

From Russia's Anna Karenina to Vietnam's Lady Trieu, from Cio-Cio-San to Frankenstein's second creature, suffering, madness, or death is the fate of far too many women in classic literature. Anna Karenina Isn't Dead undoes that.

In this anthology of literary women, these women live. Do they have a happily ever after? You'll see. Do they have a happy-right-now? Oh yes.

These are the reimagined tales of the famous, the infamous, the barely mentioned women in myths, poems, and legends. These are the stories of the Lady in Black, Wendy Darling, Dido, and many more, each getting a better journey than the one she originally got.

Here Anna Karenina and her literary kin are not dead. Very far from it.

Edited by @atlinmerrick ; Cover artwork by Claudia Caranfa

My story

My mother and I loved the poem "The Highwayman" by Alfred Noyes, and I jumped at the chance to write Bess a better ending. In my story "Love Knot," I gave her five minutes’ notice of the soldiers’ arrival, and she did the rest.

King George's men saw Samuel only as a highwayman, a rogue, a thief. They knew his rich clothes, but not how they smelled of sun and sweat and the cold road. They knew the weapons beneath his coat, but not how he liked to use his rapier to cut apples from a tree, how he would flash his shiny pistols at the children who gathered to hear his stories of daring battles for yellow gold. They knew he'd given a confession of love to Bess. They didn't know what it had sounded like in the earnest voice of a boy who was then only eight years old.

Order here

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