#spoilers for Mansfield Park?

[mollywog]

Something I find funny about Jane Austen is: she doesn’t f*ck around with dialogue she doesn’t want to write (AKA: end-game main character proposals/acceptances)

Emma/Mr. Knightly

She spoke then, on being so entreated.—What did she say?—Just what she ought, of course.

Lizzie/Mr. Darcy

Elizabeth, feeling all the more than common awkwardness and anxiety of his situation, now forced herself to speak; and immediately, though not very fluently, gave him to understand that her sentiments had undergone so material a change, since the period to which he alluded, as to make her receive with gratitude and pleasure his present assurances.

Elinor/Edward

How soon he had walked himself into the proper resolution, however, how soon an opportunity of exercising it occurred, in what manner he expressed himself, and how he was received, need not be particularly told. This only need be said;—that when they all sat down to table at four o'clock, about three hours after his arrival, he had secured his lady, engaged her mother's consent, and was not only in the rapturous profession of the lover, but, in the reality of reason and truth, one of the happiest of men.

Anne/Captain Wentworth

Charles was at the bottom of Union Street again, and the other two proceeding together: and soon words enough had passed between them to decide their direction towards the comparatively quiet and retired gravel walk, where the power of conversation would make the present hour a blessing indeed, and prepare it for all the immortality which the happiest recollections of their own future lives could bestow. There they exchanged again those feelings and those promises which had once before seemed to secure everything, but which had been followed by so many, many years of division and estrangement. There they returned again into the past, more exquisitely happy, perhaps, in their re-union, than when it had been first projected; more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other’s character, truth, and attachment;

Catherine/Henry

Some explanation on his father's account he had to give; but his first purpose was to explain himself, and before they reached Mr. Allen's grounds he had done it so well that Catherine did not think it could ever be repeated too often. She was assured of his affection; and that heart in return was solicited, which, perhaps, they pretty equally knew was already entirely his own;

Fanny/Edward Edmund

I purposely abstain from dates on this occasion, that every one may be at liberty to fix their own, aware that the cure of unconquerable passions, and the transfer of unchanging attachments, must vary much as to time in different people. I only entreat everybody to believe that exactly at the time when it was quite natural that it should be so, and not a week earlier, Edmund did cease to care about Miss Crawford, and became as anxious to marry Fanny as Fanny herself could desire.

[youremyonlyhope]

Wow, Eloise is so ahead of her time that she's reading Emma at least 6 months before it was even published.

[big-edies-sun-hat]

Although I don’t see a precise parallel for Mansfield Park, there’s one thing interesting in this context. The heroine, Fanny, is prissy and sometimes insufferable. But she’s also the only one with moral courage in the great house where she grew up, which is filled with shallow backbiters and built on the wealth of human suffering.

Neil talking about this season being inspired by Austen just hit me:

Aziraphale is like the Emma for his side of the story. He’s trying to arrange everything just so. He wants people to be happy without pausing to ask what they want. He has this perfect ideal of how everything is going to go and he’s clinging to it. He will arrange for people to fall in love and everything will be fine! Which makes Crowley his Mr. Knightley, fond but critical of Aziraphale’s schemes and entirely smitten on him without giving it voice until it’s too late.

Only he and Crowley are in different books. Crowley is the Lizzie Bennett. He’s the one who won’t do what is expected of him and asks questions and rejects the role he’s meant to be in. He misinterprets Aziraphale’s actions and intentions and in the proposal it’s very much like Darcy’s first awful “I love you against my better judgement” proposal. And likewise, he doesn’t understand that a lot of Aziraphale actions are in the name of protecting him, much like Darcy is trying to shield people from Wickham without ever explaining why.

They are running in different narratives in their own heads because they never talk to each other. They never ask what the other wants or fully understands what the other is thinking. There’s always another side to the story and neither of them is fully aware of it.

I can’t remember if this is right, but I think Neil mentioned Mansfield Park as Aziraphale’s favourite and I feel like this is prescient for the set up for season 3.

[bethanydelleman]

Please watch, read, or listen (all free) to Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance. It's so good! It is about a moral absolutist learning she was wrong. It's about a fallen woman, but more about how men should be held accountable for ruin. It's about society not caring what a man does as long as he serves good dinners. It has a character who is basically a grown up and married Mary Crawford (Mansfield Park). It is so Me Too. It's about people treating crime as interesting gossip.

It ends with a VERY satisfying slap (not a spoiler because I won't tell who!) and a great line reversal:

It gives me such feelings. I love it so much I gutted the entire play and filled it with Austen characters. It's officially my favourite Oscar Wilde creation.

[imissthembutitwasntadisaster]

Me and the story curse at brunch together like "and you know I love her, I love her! I love her I do... But you have to admit she's made some poor choices..."

The story curse at the end of a curse for true love being like hmmmm Evangeline deserves a happy ending not too sure about Jacks tho... It's me fr the story curse and I on the same wavelength.

[wqnwoos]

seventeen as jane austen characters

because i’m self-indulgent & rereading pride and prejudice for the 739482837th time

seungcheol as captain wentworth (persuasion) — if you haven’t read it, you just have to trust me. if you have, you will get it.

jeonghan as henry crawford (mansfield park) — slick charming dude with like. very mischievous undertones (no spoilers but jeonghan is better than this man it just fit him the most)

joshua as henry tilney (northanger abbey) — omg. charming and sweet but also a little witty and sarcastic.

jun as colonel fitzwilliam (p&p) — ok this is odd bc this character is barely present in the story but i was just reading the part he’s in and he just. seems like a really nice guy. in a jun type of way.

hoshi as mr bingley (p&p) — just a cheerful joyous lil fellow. happy to be here.

wonwoo as anne eliot (persuasion) — “elegance of mind and sweetness of character” YESSIRRR. (alternative could be colonel brandon from sense & sensibility?? idk i feel like anne is just my self indulgence running wild because i’m in love with her and also with wonwoo)

woozi as georgiana darcy (p&p) — she’s super good at music & just always described as “highly accomplished” and that reminds me of him. talented ass people.

dk as jane bennet (p&p) — a sweetheart who can do no wrong ever. and i mean ever.

mingyu as catherine morland (northanger abbey) — a little bit of a scaredy cat. but we love her still. v sweet & caring.

minghao as mr darcy (p&p) — he has nice hands.

seungkwan as emma woodhouse (emma) — gossip queen. also i feel like seungkwan would play matchmaker.

vernon as mr bennet (p&p) — THIS ONE IS. idk it makes sense but it doesn’t but it DOES okay like he’s so funny. and u know what it doesn’t have to make sense to YOU. it makes sense to ME.

chan as marianne dashwood (sense & sensibility) — very passionate and maybe a little bit impulsive but very loving & loyal.

[whenthegoldrays]

3,8,12 and 23 (for the book ask game)

3. Any new genres you want to explore this year?

I’d like to read some good light fantasy if I can find it! I’d love to get lost in a new world but not one that’s particularly heavy on magic.

8. If you could reread a book without remembering anything about it this year, which book would it be?

Oh my gosh, I’d have to say Emma because I wish I could’ve read it with no spoilers. Imagine one shock after the next after the next! The proposals, the secrets, the mystery of who loves who!

12. The artist(s) who made your favorite album of all time is releasing a book as an accompanying piece for said album. What is the book about, and which album did you pick?

It’s the story of a woman who abandons everything and moves out to a small town after her marriage falls apart. There she finds a collection of locals going through all sorts of grief and experiences that mirror and contrast her own. She slowly heals and eventually finds love as well. The album is evermore by Taylor Swift, of course :)

23. Books you hope get adapted into a TV series/ film this year?

The Blue Castle is at the top of my list! I’d also want Farmer Boy and a good adaptation of Mansfield Park (in k-drama format, perhaps?) Ideally they’d all be miniseries, but if I had to choose, then Mansfield as a 150-minute movie and the other two as series with lots and lots of focus on nature and scenery and the changing of the seasons.

Book ask game

[thethirdromana]

So how scandalous is it that Walter and Marian are just. Living together. I mean and Laura also but she's technically married and legally dead.

I think it's a grey area!

So the crucial thing is that Laura is also there. And Laura is - sort of - Lady Glyde, a respectable married woman and member of the upper classes. As a strict rule, a married woman of any age can act as a chaperone. In practice, I think it was seen as a bit dubious if the marred woman was very young (e.g. imagine Lydia as Mrs Wickham claiming the right to chaperone Kitty).

I found this from an 1847 novel:

"Agnes, I don't think it right your going out into society so much without me," he had suggested. "What, with your sister - with Lady Alfred Townshend?" was Agnes's rejoinder. "My sister is too young to be any very efficient chaperone; being Lady Alfred Townshend is nothing to the purpose," Gerald remarked. "Chaperone! what in the world is the use of being married if one require being chaperoned? and why should I want a chaperone more than Janet [Lady Townshend] herself, pray? Not so much, for I am older," Agnes exclaimed, angrily. "Nonsense! Janet, you know, mixes in society with her husband; and is better known than you are."

This is all about going out into society, but I'm assuming that living arrangements were governed by similar rules. So if we treat Walter and Marian as living together in the household of Lady Glyde, it's probably OK, but borderline. The older Marian is (is her age specified? I know she's older than Laura) then the more acceptable this is as well.

The thing is... are Marian and Walter living together in the household of Lady Glyde? Or is it more that Lady Glyde, a married woman, has left her husband to live with Walter, and her sister happens to be there as well? After all, they're not living in Lady Glyde's household at Blackwater Park, or anywhere formally under the name of Lady Glyde.

I have no idea how to factor Laura being technically dead into this.

If this could be perceived a newly married lady eloping with a lover, it's what happens with Maria at the end of Mansfield Park, and it's definitely not OK. (Apologies for the spoiler for a 200-year-old novel there).

Mansfield Park is 35 years earlier than the Woman in White but I suspect the outcome would be similar. Here's how Miss Crawford, who's generally cynical but clear-sighted, interprets it:

... once married [to her lover, having divorced her husband], and properly supported by her own family, people of respectability as they are, she may recover her footing in society to a certain degree. In some circles, we know, she would never be admitted, but with good dinners, and large parties, there will always be those who will be glad of her acquaintance; and there is, undoubtedly, more liberality and candour on those points than formerly.

(Edmund, formerly her love interest, is utterly horrified that Miss Crawford can discuss such shocking things so calmly. But he doesn't suggest that her assessment is wrong).

So I think how scandalous this is depends on how virtuous Laura is perceived to be, and whether any third party - such as Sir Percival - chooses to make a scandal of it. But if any of this is made public, I think it's more likely to ruin them than not.

[volcanicmudbubbles]

Well, how about that. Our Fanny’s a warlock!

I knew she’d be the one to save him.

❤️ mansfield park 🤝 my happy marriage 🤝 jane eyre ❤️

Live-blogging My Happy Marriage

If only Edmund had been so good to Fanny

[oneblckcoffee]

thoughts on mansfield park let’s go!!

overall: 3.75/5

⚠️ spoilers ahead

this is only the third austen book i’ve read but it was a pretty refreshing departure from the usual romance centric nature of her other stories. it’s great to see her writing style from a different narrative perspective and jane does a stellar job as always.

points off for the incest, i know i know product of its time etc etc but if a rich “reformed” fuckboy was pursuing me THAT hard and was willing to marry me even though the match was highly disadvantageous for him i would simply not marry my poorer priest first cousin but maybe that’s just me however i am glad that fanny was at least willing to die on this hill, we might even make a stretch and call it growth!!

thoughts on characters: fanny i would kill for you, i hope the bertram’s lose all of their plantation money, i pray that maria shanks mrs norris and she dies of tetanus or something

in conclusion: henry, i was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you, how DARE you!

[spicebiter]

Reading List (Latest Update Nov. 6, 2024)

The full list of books I'm interested in reading. Spoiler before you open the read-more: This list has 500+ entries so it's a tad long.

I'm pretty much constantly adding things to all of my lists- hence why I'm amending when this was last updated to the title itself- and will update this post anytime I update the wheel I use to randomize my next choice, which usually happens after I've added or subtracted a significant number of options.

Beowulf

Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism; Third Edition

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Watership Down by Richard Adams

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison

Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende

Eva Luna by Isabel Allende

The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders

Andersen’s Fairy Tales by H.C Andersen

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Animorphs Series by K.A Applegate

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

Emma by Jane Austen

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Oracle Night by Paul Auster

Bunny by Mona Awad

Borderline by Mishell Baker

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Just Above My Head by James Baldwin

Crash by J.G Ballard

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud

Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac

The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

I’m With the Band by Pamela Des Barres

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron

Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett

Simulacra and Simulation by Jean Baudrillard

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear

Waiting For Godot by Samuel Beckett

Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone De Beauvoir

The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir

Art of Fiction by Walter Besant and Henry James

Pushkin; A Biography by T.J Binyon

The Etched City by K.J Bishop

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Out of Africa by Karen Blixen

In the Vanisher’s Palace by Aliette De Bodard

Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen

My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

Sonnets From The Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

The Serpent and the Rose by Kathleen Bryan

Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry

Notes of a Dirty old Man by Charles Bukowski

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Pontypool Changes Everything by Tony Burgess

Song of the Simple Truth by Julia de Burgos

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Parable of the Sower Octavia E. Butler

American Predator by Maureen Callahan

A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre

Through the Woods by Emily Carrol

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

The Vorrh by B. Catling

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

The City of Brass by SA Chakraborty

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Moliere Biography by H.C Chatfield-Taylor

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Journey to the West by Wu Cheng-en

Wicket Fox by Kat Cho

The Awakening by Kat Chopin

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco

Finna by Nino Cipri

The Divinity Student by Michael Cisco

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djeli Clark

Pranesi by Susanne Clarke

Parasite by Darcy Coates

The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer

Swimming With Giants by Anne Collet

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Cordova

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

Inherit the Wind by Linda Cushman

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

Dreadnought by April Daniels

The Devourers by Indra Das

Fifth Business by Robertson Davies

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Collected Poems of Emily Dickinson

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Possessed by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Escaping Exodus by Nicky Drayden

An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III

The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich

This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis

The Collected Stories by Welty Eudora

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

Introducing Evolutionary Psychology by Dylan Evans and Oscar Zarate

A Collapse of Horses by Brian Evenson

The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Sanctuary by William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

It Devours! by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

Time and Again by Jack Finney

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes

The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford

A Passage to India by E.M Forster

The Diary of Anne Frank

Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) by Al Franken

River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

At Fear’s Altar by Richard Gavin

Count Zero by William Gibson

The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Neuromancer by William Gibson

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

The Empress of Forever by Max Gladstone

Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Marathon Man by William Goldman

These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

The Nature of Witches by Rachel Griffin

Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

My Life in Orange by Tim Guest

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J Hackwith

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon

The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

Empire of Light by Alex Harrow

The Little Locksmith by Katherine Butler Hathaway

City of Lies by Sam Hawke

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Bride by Ali Hazelwood

Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi

Catch 22 by Joseph Heller

A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway

The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix

Dune Series by Frank Herbert

Cover-Up by Seymour M. Hersh

Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera

Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill

The Outsiders by S.E Hinton

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman

The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rule of Magic by Alice Hoffman

Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman

The Iliad by Homer

The Complete Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby

High Fidelity by Nick Hornby

Songbook by Nick Hornby

To Escape the Stars by Robert Hoskins

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Warrior Cats Series by Erin Hunter

The Forest of Stolen Girls by June Hur

The Mirror Empire by Kameron Hurley

The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood

The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Daisy Miller by Henry James

False Bingo by Jac Jemc

The City We Became by N.K Jemisin

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin

Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson

Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynne Jones

My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones

The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones

Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce

Ulysses by James Joyce

The Trial by Franz Kafka

The Archidamian War by Donald Kagan

The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan

The Vegetarian by Han Kang

The Hunger by Alma Katsu

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Out of Control by Kevin Kelly

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Liu Ken

Ironweed by William Kennedy

You By Caroline Kepnes

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

The Very Best of Caitlin R Kiernan

Carrie by Stephen King

Christine by Stephen King

Cujo by Stephen King

Pet Sematary by Stephen King

The Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King

The Shining by Stephen King

Thornhedge by T. Kingfisher

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Legends of King Arthur and His Knights by Sir James Knowles and Sir Thomas Malory

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Gidget by Frederick Kohner

The Cipher by Kathe Koja

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Extravagance by Gary Krist

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

Babel by R.F Kuang

The Poppy War by R.F Kuang

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

False Hearts by Laura Lam

The Wide, Carnivorous Sky by John Langan

The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

The Changeling by Victor Lavelle

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by David Herbert Lawrence

Lies of the Fae by M.J Lawrie

Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

Jade City by Fonda Lee

Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee

The Dirt; Confessions of the Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

The Complete Pyramids by Mark Lehner

Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism by Vladimir Lenin

Human Errors by Nathan H. Lents

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem

Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin

Small Island by Andrea Levy

A Ruin of Shadows by L.D Lewis

Teatro Grottesco by Thomas Ligotti

Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim

Let the Right One In by John Lindquist

Stranger Things Happen by Kelly Link

The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

The Hike by Drew Magary

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Gregory Rabassa

A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin

Property by Valerie Martin

The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy

The Group by Mary McCarthy

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Fletch by Gregory Mcdonald

Atonement by Ian McEwan

The Rapture by Claire McGlasson

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

Quattrocento by James McKean

The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin

Terms of Endearment Larry McMurtry

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The Colonizer and the Colonized by Albert Memmi

A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L Mencken

My Life as Author and Editor by H.L Mencken

Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyer

Perdido Street Station by China Mieville

The Life of Edna by St. Vincent Millay

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

Sexus by Henry Miller

Slade House by David Mitchell

Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy by Barrington Moore Jr.

The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Jazz by Toni Morrison

Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami

In the Miso Soup by Ryu Murakami

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

The Ritual by Adam Nevill

Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng

The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

Ringworld by Larry Niven

Vurt by Jeff Noon

Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Bernard Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W Ocker

Revenge by Yoko Ogawa

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor

Binti by Nnedi Okorafor

Flowers of the Sea by Reggie Oliver

Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen

How To Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer

Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi

White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

Certain Dark Things by M.J Pack

The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk

Complete Stories of Dorothy Parker

Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

Gormenghast Series by Mervyn Peake

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

How the Light Gets In by Jolina Petersheim

The Song the Owl God Sang by Benjamin Peterson

A Mankind Beyond Earth by Claude A. Piantadosi

My Sister’s Keeper by Jodie Piccoult

We Owe You Nothing by Punk Planet

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe

Witchmark by C.L Polk

Complete Novels by Dawn Powell

Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Truth and Beauty by Ann Pratchett

Discworld Series by Terry Pratchett

The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield

Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust

The Godfather by Mario Puzo

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A Study in Drowning by Ava Reid

Juniper and Thorn by Ava Reid

I’m Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid

High Moor by Graeme Reynolds

Sybil by Schreiber Flora Rheta

The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

Stiff by Mary Roach

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry M. Robert

The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson

The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder

The Planet Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder

The Encyclopedia of the Weird and Wonderful by Milo Rossi

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Lisa and David by Theodore Isaac Rubin, M.D

The Hacker and the Ants by Rudy Rucker

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

Empire Falls by Richard Russo

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Sallinger

Franny and Zooey by J.D Sallinger

The Man Who Collected Machen by Mark Samuels

Ariah by B.R Sanders

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Shane by Jack Schaefer

Vicious by V.E Schwab

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Bhagavad Gita by Graham M. Schweig

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

Love Story by Erich Segal

The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Unless by Carol Shields

City Come A-Walkin’ by John Shirley

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

Crush by Richard Siken

Hyperion by Dan Simmons

The Terror by Dan Simmons

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Oil! by Upton Sinclair

Of Sorrow and Such by Angela Slatter

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith

The Flinch by Julien Smith

Chlorine by Jade Song

Beneath the Citadel by Destiny Soria

Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza

Last Breath by Peter Stark

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

City Under the Moon Hugh Sterbakov

Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susane

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars by Kai Cheng Thom

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

Walden by Henry D. Thoreau

An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

Secrets of the Flesh by Judith Thurman

Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Sisyphean by Dempow Torishima

The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry

Chilling Effect by Valerie Valdes

Palimpsest by Catherynne M. Valente

Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

A Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Jules Verne

Around the World in Eighty Days Jules Verne

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

The Last Empire- Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal

Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Candide by Voltaire

Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Fire in the Sky; The Walton Experience by Travis Walton

Blood Over Bright Haven by M.L Wang

The Graduate by Charles Webb

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I Am Not A Serial Killer by Dan Wells

The Invisible Man by H.G Wells

The Time Machine by H.G Wells

The War of the Worlds by H.G Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells

Prophesy Deliverance by Cornel West

Ship of Smoke and Steel by Django Wexler

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Roman Fever by Edith Wharton

Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams

The Code of the Woosters by P.G Wodehouse

Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe

The Electric Koolaid Test by Tom Wolfe

Old School by Tobias Wolff

John Dies at the End by David Wong

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Mrs. Dolloway by Virginia Woolf

Bitch; In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel

The Black Tides of Heaven by Jy Yang

Negative Space by B.R Yeager

Beneath the Moon by Yoshi Yoshitani

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Tomorrow, and Tommorow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

[bethanydelleman]

I did read Mansfield Park without spoilers and my reaction was pretty much the same as above.

I relate to this so much! I too occasionally find myself wondering what the original reactions of classic stories were like.

[bethanydelleman]

Here I am, reading Mansfield Park for the first time, and I'm surprised at how Henry Crawford's proposal reminds me of both Darcy and Collins. From Darcy's first proposal, we have the hero expressing his sentiments in a way that offends the heroine. From the second, there's the hero's help to the heroine's family (though Darcy tries his best to conceal his part while Crawford brags about his). And then, Henry is as certain that he will be accepted as both Darcy in his first attempt and Collins, plus about as persistent in the face of refusal as the latter. In addition, there's a heroine's relative (Mrs. Bennet and Sir Thomas) who pushes for the match with Collins and Crawford respectively to happen.

So exciting that you're reading Mansfield Park! I hope you are enjoying it.

I feel the same parallels! I think they were intentional, a doubling down if you will. I think Fanny's case is much more extreme than Elizabeth's, though they are very similar and I think Austen's trying desperately to make a point about women having a say in their decision to marry. Fanny has nothing and a far less hopeful future compared to Elizabeth, but she still says no. Elizabeth only has to withstand her silly mother, but Fanny has to deal with everyone pushing her to marry, she still says no. And as you point out, in almost a reversal of Pride & Prejudice, Fanny says no even though she feels a huge obligation to Henry Crawford for helping her family.

I really think Austen was trying to make the point that you'll probably come across soon (I'm thinking Edmund hasn't come home yet for you) that women should not be expected to accept any man who might ask them for their hand in marriage, no matter their circumstances or how amazing that man imagines himself to be. And since this is still a big problem today from what I've heard (lucky to have never experienced this myself), good for her!

I have a post about the understandable audacity though, given the historical context. Also about how Henry's proposal echoes Fanny Burney's Evelina.

The quote I'm talking about (spoilered in case you aren't there, Ch 35):

“I should have thought,” said Fanny, after a pause of recollection and exertion, “that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man’s not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself. But, even supposing it is so, allowing Mr. Crawford to have all the claims which his sisters think he has, how was I to be prepared to meet him with any feeling answerable to his own? He took me wholly by surprise. I had not an idea that his behaviour to me before had any meaning; and surely I was not to be teaching myself to like him only because he was taking what seemed very idle notice of me. In my situation, it would have been the extreme of vanity to be forming expectations on Mr. Crawford. I am sure his sisters, rating him as they do, must have thought it so, supposing he had meant nothing. How, then, was I to be—to be in love with him the moment he said he was with me? How was I to have an attachment at his service, as soon as it was asked for? His sisters should consider me as well as him. The higher his deserts, the more improper for me ever to have thought of him. And, and—we think very differently of the nature of women, if they can imagine a woman so very soon capable of returning an affection as this seems to imply.”

Mansfield Park, Ch 35

[starwarsrecrimination]

Episode Up Close: The Law of Identity (S1E1)

Note: these close looks will assume familiarity with the Recrimination outlines and may contain spoilers. If you are new to the project, check out this blog’s pinned post for more info.

What’s the Big Idea?

Broadly speaking, the first three episodes of Season 1 act as Recrimination’s pilot, in the fashion of Andor’s three-episode premiere. The naming structure refers to the three laws of logic, the first of which is the law of identity, stating that each thing is identical with itself. S1E1’s task is to establish the nature, character, and identity of Recrimination as a project. It does so by following only one perspective nearly continuously, utilizing dialogue and careful framing to suggest the events preluding the series while also looking ahead to the key conflicts that will occur later on in the story. Identity’s goal is to meet the viewer where they are, and makes the transition easier on new audiences by progressing through a reunion/reintegration narrative- everything is new, or at least different, so no one gets left behind.

Scene Spotlight: “Wake-Up Call”

This episode is probably the most sparsely described in the outlines, since I was still gauging how much information each summary should contain. The show, in my mind’s eye at any rate, opens with a stock “wake-up” scene, but one with cracks in its foundation: rather than annoying alarm noises, our protagonist jolts awake to the blaring klaxons of a ship in distress- except the sound dissipates almost immediately, and the window clearly looks out over a planetary view. So what’s going on? Things continue to fall into place as the scene progresses, but we don’t quite get the full picture. Protagonist Eli Vanto makes a grab under the pillow for a weapon, maybe, but there isn’t anything there. He sings quietly, off-key and crooked in some alien language while showering, reaching out an intricately scarred arm for a towel, puts on what looks like a military uniform, and as he looks in the mirror in the first face-forward shot we see, the background behind him folds over horizontally, forming a perfect reflection. As the show’s first impression, what I refer to as “Wake-Up Call” is designed to establish a few basic facts– science fiction setting, military connection, something not quite right with the actual fabric of the story– before we follow Eli out the door into a loud, crowded, unfamiliar world.

Inspiration

Probably the strongest influence on this opening episode is the pilot of Severance (2022), which has shaped in a lot of ways how I approach atmosphere and set design in my work. The dinner party at Devon’s is of particular relevance, as well as the parking-lot scene that occurs just after the opening animation. Other influences are Andor, as briefly discussed above, for its detailed character work and rich design, and the short story “Bliss” by Katherine Mansfield (an excellent study of authenticity).

[chesh-cat-rus]

My thoughts on 'Mansfield Park' with spoilers under the cut.

You hope a man can change? asks Jane Austen and continues, Then think again.

I was thinking throughout the book that this might be Jane Austen's take on the genre 'a good woman changes a bad man' and her trolling it (her works prove she doesn't believe it possible), but here she just puts the last nail in this genre's coffin. She says, if you think a bad man can be changed, you could be the one who gets played in the end. I was hoping that Henry Crawford did in fact change, but no, Fanny was right, and I kinda hated her for it.

And also the thing is, I didn't like Edmund. When he asked Fanny to be 'the perfect model of a woman' by accepting Crawford, I loudly asked him to go defenestrate himself. I was hoping he and Fanny would not end up together (for obvious reasons, and also because the whole book looking lovingly at Mary Crawford was his only character trait) and that some other new man would appear for Fanny, or that they would just forever be in that state of her silently loving him, I didn't care, I just didn't want that to be the ending of this story.

Fanny is fun. Reading the book I was sending audio messages to my friend pouring all my vexations about the book, and retelling some of Fanny's antics is the funniest thing. One of her speeches in particular is overly hilarious, should post about it later. "Her manner was incurably gentle" is a very cute trait. On the whole, the arc of her being forced to be grateful all her life and then refusing to be imposed on by a man and everyone around her, deserves some respect.

Overall, the book proved to be very unpredictable at all times. I was never sure what the next chapter would be about.

And also, Lady Bertram is a stoner.

[pearls-gone-wild]

One of the joys of reading literature from another culture or time is noticing all the variants of prejudice that exist in this microcosm. Some of my favorites, which are rarely discussed:

Georgette Heyer, who wrote Regency romances in the 1940s, includes a teeth-baringly awful Jewish moneylender in the otherwise hilarious "The Grand Sophy"

L.M. Montgomery, most famous for "Anne of Green Gables", opens that very novel with a pair of elderly siblings planning to adopt an orphan boy because the French Canadian farm hands they've been hiring seasonally have been so unreliable

Speaking of French stereotypes, what's up with Agatha Christie's "Murder on the Links" in which they [SPOILERS] pass off a dead man as someone else and they can do this because he's of a "typical French type"?!?

On the other side of the channel, Alexandre Dumas spends most of a chapter of "The Count of Monte Cristo" making fun of a "typically phlegmatic Englishman" who delivers news of financial salvation to a family on the brink of ruin, and then proceeds to disapprove of their tears of joy

Jane Austen writes in a few throwaway mentions of the slave trade, that don't quite elide the fact that the family wealth in "Mansfield Park" is Caribbean plantations worked by enslaved people

J.M Barrie's "Peter Pan"... oh wow, yeah, the portrayal of Native Americans... yeah, ok, let's go back to talking about that cannonically homicidal Tinkerbell

Literally anything in "Gone with the Wind" that's not about rich (or once-rich) white people

God, there really is nothing like 20s detective fiction to remind you that prejudice is a social construct.

You'll have a story with a crossdressing thief which is mildly transmisogynistic but completely devoid of modern vitriol; it literally comes off as "here is a fun oddity that lets me be Clever about French grammar"

And in the very next story you will learn fifteen different slurs for Italians