Thursday Thirteen

This week you can read my T13 on Unusual Historicals: 13 Great Research Books. Enjoy!

Do you know this woman?

Do you know who this is?

My students didn't. 'Tis truly shocking.

When Your Research Makes You Cry

As you know, I'm currently working on a chapter about Richard Doyle for my PhD project (it's crahhhhhhhhhhwling along at a snail's pace). When Doyle was nineteen, he began to work for PUNCH. He mainly drew initial letters and text fillers, but also some of the larger cartoons and, most importantly, in he designed the famous Mr-Punch-and-his-doggie-Toby-surrounded-by-fairies cover for the magazine that would last until the 1950s. In the 1840s he also got his first commissions for book illustrations -- he provided drawings for a new edition of the Grimms' fairy tales, THE FAIRY RING (which you can buy on abebooks for 900 Euros ...), for Montalba's FAIRY TALES, and contributed illustrations for Dickens's Christmas books. Later, after his break with PUNCH over the magazine's attacks on the pope, he also illustrated several of Thackeray's works and the second book of the new literary wunderkind, Thomas Hughes (whose first published novel, TOM BROWN'S SCHOOLDAYS, was a big hit -- unfortunately, his second book wasn't quite that good).

One of Doyle's brothers was Charles Altamont Doyle, the father of Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes. Charles was several years younger than Richard, but apparently they were very close, and when Charles tried to become an artist in his own right, Dicky sent him letters full of advice.

So I was quite intrigued when I found out that one of Charles's diaries was published a few years ago under the title of THE DOYLE DIARY: THE LAST GREAT CONAN DOYLE MYSTERY and that he also mentions the weekly shows which the Doyle children organized for their father and which frequently appear in Richard's journal of 1840. So yes, I was intrigued and curious and quite excited about my find. And yesterday THE DOYLE DIARY finally arrived.

But it's not quite what I thought it to be.

For one thing, Charles primarily used the book as a sketchbook. And for another, he composed it in 1889 when he was living in Sunnyside House, a part of the Montrose Royal Lunatic Asylum. Indeed, Charles spent the last few years of his life in at least three of such instutions, where he was treated for alcoholism and epilepsy. Most of the watercolours in the book are of fairies, reminiscent of Richard's fairy paintings, but whereas Richard's small creatures are naughty and impisch, Charles's are large-eyed and shy and most of them look rather sad. Some of the black and white sketches are quite funny, for example, the Lion and the Unicorn taking a stroll behind Herald's College in London. Yet others are much more disturbing, like the man (and I assume this is supposed to be Charles himself) who reaches out and grabs the hand of a skeletal death dressed as a bride.

The diary entry about those long past, weekly Sunday shows is one of the longer textual entries and I found it very poignant as it starts with a mention of Richard's Journal, which was published in 1885, two years after Dicky Doyle's death. Apparently, Charles read it for the first time while he was at Sunnyside House.

A propos of "Dick's Journal" - Copy of which Dr. Howden has kindly lent me - I should like to mention one point on the inner life of the Doyle Family when this Journal was written - It is this - On Sunday the Day was observed by all the Children - Great and Small - Annette, James, Dick, Henry, Frank, Adelaide and myself, going to the Mass [...] and getting home to Breakfast at 10 - The after day was spent in perfect quiet till 8 in the Evening when the Camphore Lamp and Mole Candles were lit in the Drawing Room, and guests began to arrive, often comprizing the most distinguished Literary and Artistic Men of London and Foreigners [...] Most delicious Music was discoursed by Annette on the Piano - and James on the Violencello till about 10 when the Supper Tray was laid [...]

Those reminiscences of a happier past struck me as quite sad, especially combined with the fact that Charles wrote them while locked up in a mental hospital. On the whole, I found DOYLE'S DIARY extremely disturbing.

Thursday Thirteen #5: 13 Favourite Romance Novels

When I tried to come up with ideas for this week's TT13, I thought "13 Cups of Tea" might be a fitting (if slightly boring) topic. However, I'm sure I've already drunk more than 13 cups of tea today, so I had to drop the subject again. "13 Favourite Scenes from Gene Kelly Musicals" might have been fun on the one hand, but, on the other hand, might have been regarded as a Kelly overkill. So, no 13 scenes with Gene Kelly either.

Instead I'm going to do a list of 13 favourite romance novels to coincide with AAR's current "Top 100 Romance Poll". I put my list together sometime last week, but it still needs some tweaking because not only appear some of my very favourite novels in the 20s or even 30s right now, but because I also forgot to list Jane Austen and Julia Ross. Furthermore, I didn't know it was alright to list novellas as well.

Right, so here's a selection from my ballot for All About Romance:

13 of My Favourite Romance Novels First, #1, 2, and 3 on my list: 1 Susan Fox, THE PRODIGAL WIFE 2 Penelope Williamson, KEEPER OF THE DREAM 3 Jane Austen, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE Some examples from my Top Twenty: 4 Gaelen Foley, LORD OF FIRE (That scene when bad, bad Lucien Knight finds out the Goody-Two-Shoes heroine has managed to invade his den of iniquity? Priceless!) 5 Margaret Moore, THE WASTREL (A very sweet historical with hysterical secondary characters -- and as far as I know, it was one of the first Harlequin/M&B covers depicting only the hero) 6 Kathleen Givens, KILGANNON (Kath's debut novel was the second romance I read as a romance. You can therefore imagine what a pleasure it was to meet Kathleen in person for the first time at last year's German Booklovers Conference. I'm happy to say that since then she has become a dear friend.) 7 Victoria Holt, THE DEVIL ON HORSEBACK (Wheee! One of those Golden Oldies -- if I remember correctly it was also the first Holt novel I ever read back in my teens, and my German copy has long since been reduced to a mere loose-leaf collection *g*) 8 Julia Ross, NIGHT OF SIN (How could I forget Julia Ross??? I got THE SEDUCTION and THE WICKED LOVER, which also made it on my Top 100 list, at the Beau Monde silent auction back in 2005. It were not only the gorgeous covers that first captivated me, but also the dedication to THE SEDUCTION: "This book is respectfully dedicated to the memory of Dorothy Dunnett. -- Lymond will remain forever unequalled." Hear, hear.) Two novellas I particularily enjoyed 9 Sherrilyn Kenyon, "Fire and Ice" (from MAN OF MY DREAMS) (Tortured hero anybody? *g*) 10 Rachel Gibson, "Now and Forever" (from SECRETS OF A PERFECT NIGHT) (High-school lovers reunited at the high school reuinion, very sweet) Books that stand out: 11 Penny Jordan, A REKINDLED PASSION (An old Mills&Boon romance and a second-chance-at-love story. What I find so intriguing about this book is that the protagonists are in their late 30s / early 40s -- not all that usual for a romance written in 1989!) 12 Susan Sizemore, WINGS OF THE STORM (One of the best time travels I've ever read with a strong, but sweet hero, who is at one point likened to a big, old tomcat. *g*) 13 Valentina Luellen, THE DEVIL OF TALLAND (One of the more obscure titles among my collection of romance novels; the back cover blurb reads: "Overwhelmed by pity and believing he had only a few hours to live, Roxanna agreed to marry the stranger she met in a Cornish inn. How could she have known that she would find herself caught up in a web of intrigue and treachery, where jealousy wrestled with a new found love. -- Snatched from death by the husband she thought dead, could she trust the stranger who demanded his rights -- handsome, enigmatic Ross, whom she suspected of being not only a smuggler, but a traitor to his country?" -- What can I say? It's got a "devil" in the title, which should tell you it is a good, old-fashioned romance with an moody, brooding, domineering hero!)

'S Wonderful After All

The good things about a cold?

#1: You can sit the whole day on the couch, suffering picturesquely, and don't have to feel bad about not getting any work done.

#2: You can sit the whole day on the couch, suffering picturesquely, and don't have to feel bad about not getting any work done because you're having a Gene Kelly Day (and as we learnt from Monday's post, Gene Kelly is good for the Muse. Toh-TAH-ly!).

So today I watched On the Town, followed by That's Entertainment 2 and Cover Girl. I've got a feeling I'll spent this evening watching Brigadoon (and then I'll probably go straight to amazon and order The Pirate and Take Me out to the Ball Game *happy sigh*).

As I need to totter back to the couch to suffer picturesquely, I leave you with a clip I found on YouTube (love, love, love those arms!). Enjoy!

Duh

Got a cold. Feel like sh*te. 'S not so marvellous. :-/

Writers of Historicals Need to Have Lots of Visual Inspiration

Yes, indeed, we do! Even if we don't model our heroes on the aforementioned visual inspiration, the Muse still needs the nourishment. Toh-TAH-ly.

Isn't that a great excuse to watch old MGM musicals, specifically those featuring Gene Kelly?

'S marvellous.

Wonderful, even. :)

Besides, if you're not into crime and mysteries, our TV programme (CSI: Miami, CSI: New York, Navy CIS, Cold Case, Without a Trace, Medium, Ghost Whisperer, plus several German detective series) is uninspiring in the extreme. Not to talk about majorly depressing. By contrast, those old musicals are wonderful, feel-good entertainment, and you can count on them bringing a smile on your face.

And there is Gene Kelly, of course. Have I already mentioned Gene Kelly? *g*

Anatomy of a Scene

Today I typed the scene which I had scribbled on some sheets of paper yesterday, into the computer. Normally, while I thus copy passages or whole scenes, I tend to revise them yet again. And this is what I did today, too:

Once the floodgate had been opened, there was no escape from the memories that rose to the surface of her mind as giant sea monsters rose from the depths of the oceans to swallow up the unwary seafarer.

Being surrounded by all the dead birds did not help. They seemed to swirl around her in a grotesque roundelay, intertwining her past and present. There was the white face of a barn owl, its smooth outlines destroyed by moths, the eyes two jetblack, lifeless dull marbles. Yet in front of Georgina's inner eye, it spread its wings and flew away, far away over wide, open fields, a noiseless ghost in the soft, grey light of dusk. How often had she stood and watched it its brethren fly across the gently rolling hills before she had walked back towards the golden lights of the ancient sprawling mansion at the edge of the lake where water lilies bloomed, white and pure.

Hmm. I'm still not quite happy with this passage, especially with the first sentences of the second paragraph. I see my books as films (and, I suspect, animated films on top of that!) and sometimes it can be difficult to catch those images on paper.

Take the beginning of this whole birds-and-rising-memories passage: what I wrote yesterday reads:

Only the discovery of a lifeless puffin among the birds had sent a chill down Georgina's back as she had been transported back to the windy cliffs of Cornwall, where she had once stood to watch puffins play. She could almost taste the salty air again, feel the soft, thin layer of grass under her feet while overhead the seagulls cried, alarmed at the sight of the two human intruders. Yet all that was eclipsed by the feeling of the hard male hand engulfing hers, skin to skin, his thumb drawing lazy circles over her wrist. And the joy, the giddy joy which had filled her and had mixed with the languid stirring of desire. She remembered how she had surprised him by slipping a hand around his neck and drawing his head down for a kiss which had quickly turned wild and hot.

What I want to achieve here is a blending of past and present, or rather the superimposing of the memories on the present, which is triggered by the sight of the stuffed puffin. And I want to keep it all a bit vague in order to convey Georgina's surreal feeling of being in two places at the same time (if that makes sense). But when I typed this paragraph this morning, it occurred to me there was too much telling at the beginning of the passage. It didn't manage to capture that sense of being bombarded out of the blue by memories. Therefore the paragraph was transformed into:

Only the discovery of a lifeless puffin among the birds had sent a chill down Georgina's back It was the discovery of a lifeless puffin among the other birds that sent a chill down Georgina's spine. The call of the seagulls echoed in her head as she was transported back to the windy cliffs of Cornwall, where she had once stood and watched puffins play. She could almost taste the salty air again, feel the soft, thin layer of grass under her feet while overhead the seagulls cried, alarmed at the sight of the two human intruders. Yet all that was eclipsed by Her hand tingled from the feeling of the hard male hand fingers engulfing hers, skin to skin, his thumb drawing lazy circles over her wrist. And With bittersweet pain she remembered the joy, the giddy joy which had filled her and had mixed mingled with the languid stirring of renewed desire. She remembered How she had surprised him by slipping a hand around his neck and drawing to draw his head down for a kiss which had quickly turned wild and hot and quite indecent.

When I just read through this again, it struck me that the beginning was still not immediate enough. And so I've changed it into:

The sight of the lifeless puffin caught Georgina by surprise. A sliver of ice slithered down her spine while the call of the seagulls echoed in her head. All at once she stood again on the windy cliffs of Cornwall, where she had watched the puffins play so long ago.

Hmm. Of course, I now have the problem that the sentence before this passage also contains the word "sight". Duh.

Looking up my own books on abebooks ...

... can make for some surprises: the highest price for Castle of the Wolf is $ 34.21 (€ 24.86), and the two highest prices for The Lily Brand are $ 47.78 (€ 34.71) and an astonishing $ 77.87 (€ 56.58)!!! Interesting.

Writers of Historicals Need to Know about Birds

Remember the book on birds I bought when I was in Newcastle? Not only are the English names for birds terribly cute (I mean, little ringed plover? coot? capercaillie? shoveler? tree pipit? yellow wagtail? chiffchaff?), but I also made good use of the book today (see? I told you writers of historicals need to know about birds!) and combined it with a scene from THE BRITISH ISLES: A NATURAL HISTORY:

[set up: Georgina and Martin Renner have driven to Frankfurt and are shown a collection of stuffed birds which the new naturalist society of Frankfurt* has just acquired.]

Once the floodgate had been opened, there was no escape from the memories that rose to the surface of her mind as giant sea monsters rose from the depths of the oceans to swallow up the unwary seafarer.

There was the white face of a barn owl, its smooth outlines destroyed by moths, the eyes two jetblack, lifeless marbles. Yet in front of Georgina's inner eye it spread its wings and flew away, far away over wide, open fields, a noiseless ghost in the soft, grey light of dusk. How often had she stood and watched it fly across the rolling hills before she had walked back towards the golden lights of the ancient, sprawling mansion at the edge of the lake where water lilies bloomed, white and pure.

Oh, yes, the Muse has finally returned. Tee-hee! :)

* the Senckenbergische naturforschende Gesellschaft

A Day Filled with Books and Good Reviews

Carrie has just sent me a link to a link to a new blogger review of The Lily Brand. A new 4 1/2 stars blogger review of The Lily Brand!!! Wheee!

The story is intense and dark, as Troy struggles with his hate and anger, and Lillian with her guilt and fear. Their characterizations are very believable, particularly in how they remember what happened and in how they react and show (or don't show) their emotions.

Now, that's what a girl wants to hear. You bet I'll run around with a beaming smile on my face for the rest of the day. :)

And as if a nice review weren't enough to brighten anybody's day, I also got three (THREE!!!) packages with books today, including a big, fat parcel from play.com with David Dimbleby's How We Built Britain. I got the DVD of the series of the same title a few weeks ago and loved, loved, loved it (favourite scene: Dimbleby trying to squeeze through a particularily narrow entrance to a priest hole in Harvington Hall).

A Beautiful Day

Today it was simply beautiful outside so I decided I'd need to visit the Villa under the Linden Trees again in order to find out what it looks like in autumn, which would also provide a good opportunity for a nice walk along the river Main. Here are a few impressions ...

Isn't that a beautiful blue sky?

And here it is: the Villa under the Linden Trees :)

And just when I stepped through the gates into the park, the wind whispered through the tree tops and red and golden leaves were raining down on me.

The coachman's house -- do these windows belong to Georgina's room?

The entrance to the icehouse:

Thursday Thirteen #4: 13 Favourite M&B Novels

I discovered my love for Mills&Boon novels seven years ago while spending a rather wet year abroad in Galway, Ireland. The many UBSs in Galway provided for a steady supply of old and new romances, which resulted in many an afternoon snuggled up with a cup of tea and a book in bed while outside storm and rain raged.

Thirteen Favourite Mills&Boon Novels 1) Susan Fox, THE PRODIGAL WIFE (bought on 21 March 2003) A second-chance-at-love story: Five years ago Lainey left her new husband because it turned out he only married her for convenience. Or had he? When she learns that she might have been spectularly wrong about Gabe Patton, Lainey returns to the ranch in order to apologize and to offer him a divorce. Yet to her shock, Gabe insists that they stay married. One of my all-time favourite romances. 2) Liz Fielding, A WIFE ON PAPER (bought on 14 July 2004) When Francesca and Guy met for the first time, Guy was mesmerised -- yet also unable and unwilling to act on the instant attraction because Francesca was pregnant with the baby of his brother. But three years later, that brother is is dead and has left Francesca homeless and without a penny. In his will, he asks Guy to take care of her and their small son, and enter with her into a marriage of convenience. Soon, sparks begin to fly. 3) Kate Walker, THE TEMPTATION GAME (bought on 21 February 2001 in Galway) For years, Rachel hasn't seen her stepbrother with whom she was once so wildly in love as a teenager and who repudiated her love in the cruelest possible way. But now Gabriel is back, dark and brooding -- and she is still attracted to him. And it seems he might be, too ... 4) Lucy Gordon, THE PREGNANCY BOND (bought on 7 November 2002) On the night Kelly celebrates her divorce with a party, her estranged husband, a successful overseas journalist, unexpectedly turns up -- and at the end of the party both of them end up in bed. And a few weeks later, Kelly realizes she is pregnant. To her surprise, Jake is determined to look after her and support her during her pregnancy. What is more, Kelly slowly learns that Jake is not quite the man she thought she knew so well. One of the most unusual M&B novel I have ever read: in the course of the novel the hero suffers from severe depression and panic attacks. 5) Emma Darcy, CRAVING JAMIE (bought on 10 February 2001 in Galway) Another second-chance-at-love story (I love those!): Beth and Jamie had been childhood sweethearts before they lost contact. Years later they meet again, and Beth is shocked to find out Jamie has turned into a cold, emotionless man. But she is determined to find the old Jamie again under the cool exterior of the new Jim Neilson. 6) Michelle Reid, MARRIAGE ON THE REBOUND (bought on 28 February 2001 in Galway) From the backcover blurb: Shaan had been jilted by Piers Danvers on their wedding day, but Rafe Danvers was waiting to step straight into his half-brother's shoes. Older, darker, stronger, and head of the Danvers business empire, it was Rafe who had persuaded Piers to abandon Shaan. Now, with the same ruthless determination, he insisted that she become his bride instead, even though until this moment he had acted as if he despised her. 7) Penny Jordan, LOVER BY DECEPTION (bought on 23 November 2000 in Galway) An amnesia story!!! :) From the backcover blurb: Ward Hunter had reason to despise Anna Trewayne, and an accident had placed her at his mercy. Her memory lost, she mistakenly believed Ward to be a friend and lover... 8) Lynne Graham, CLAIMING HIS WIFE AND CHILD (bought on 21 April 2006) Part of the M&B "Queens of Romance" series, therefore two novels in one book and both of them second-chance-at-love AND revenge stories (yay for me!). Here's the backcover blurb: ONE NIGHT WITH HIS WIFE Luc Sarrazin's marriage to Star had been intensely passionate but brief. They'd separated almost immediately and Star had disappeared, but Lucy had never filed for divorce. Eighteen months later, Luc tracks Star down, but then he discovers that Star is the mother of twins! DUARTE'S CHILD Only days before she was about to give birth, Emily left her husband, Duarte de Monteiro. Now he has traced her and their baby son, and he wants to bring them back to Portugal. This proud man can still make her knees weak with his slightest touch ... but why does he want her back? 9) Janelle Denison, BRIDE INCLUDED (bought on 18 November 2000 in Galway) And yet another second-chance-at-love-story. Once Seth and Josie were friends and lovers, but the feud between their families separated them when Seth chose to believe the lies about Josie instead of accepting he was the father of her child. But now he is back and owns the deeds to Josie's home. And even worse: she is honour-bound to marry him. 10) Day Leclaire, LONG-LOST BRIDE (bought on 25 January 2001 in Galway) Guess what! Another second-chance-at-love story!!! Nine years ago, Shayne was forced to annul her marriage to Chaz, which she has regretted ever since. But when she meets him again at a masked ball, she can resist the temptation to kiss him and seduce him and accept his proposal of a loveless marriage. But will Chaz ever forgive her? 11) Victoria Gordon, A MAGICAL AFFAIR (bought on 10 March 2001 in Galway) Yup. Second-chance-at-love story, and here's the cover blurb: When Ruth embarked on her love affair with dynamic Kurtis Goodwin, it was the most wonderful experience of her life. And when their whirlwind romance led to marriage Ruth believed she was the luckiest woman in the world. But suddenly everything seemed to go wrong! If Kurtis loved Ruth so much, why did he spend so much time with his glamorous partner, Rosemary? Perhaps Ruth should cut her losses and leave Kurtis. But, if she did leave, how would he react? Before too long, though, Ruth found herself wishing she'd never asked that second question! 12) Alison Fraser, THE STRENGHT OF DESIRE (bought on 10 February 2001 in Galway) Second-chance-at-love AND secret baby. *happy sigh* Years ago, the callous behaviour of her womanising husband drove Hope into the arms of his younger brother Guy for one night of love and passion. Now her ex-husband is dead and Guy is back in her life -- and he still doesn't know that his niece is in truth his daughter. 13) Miranda Lee, THE PLAYBOY'S PROPOSITION (bought on 18 January 2001 in Galway) When Michele is invited to her ex-boyfriend's wedding, her best friend Tyler, impossible handsome, wealthy, and with an endless string of girlfriends, agrees to accompany her -- but only if they pretend to be lovers. And soon, they don't even have to pretend ...

Thursday Thirteen #4: The Prologue! :)

Last Thursday, BBC Radio 4 broadcasted a programme called "Guilty Pleasure -- A Hundred Years of Mills&Boon" presented by stand-up comedian Lucy Porter. All in all, it was a surprisingly balanced programme with interviews with M&B authors and editors as well as with Joseph McAleer, who has written one of the important studies on M&B. They also interviewed two female academics who forcefully stated how very, very bad M&B novels are for women. (Over at Teach Me Tonight, Laura blogged about the programme last week; I've snatched the following quotations from her post). Celia Brayfield said,

It's bad for women to suggest that the whole of their lives will be sorted out if they simply attract the right man. That is not the reality and it stands in the way of women taking responsibility for their own lives and for the lives of their children. Mills & Boon just says "make yourself attractive darling and some lovely bloke will come along and take care of it" and that simply doesn't happen and it also encourages women to be dependent, to underachieve their potential, and to not fully realise themselves as human beings.

(Right. Female readers are apparently too stupid to distinguish between fiction and reality. I hope nobody let's them read fantasy or SF!) (Hey, wait, does that mean I won't be swept off my feet by that Italian multi-millionnaire next week? Duh.)

Brayfield also thinks that "[...] quite honestly any woman with two neurons to rub together would have serious trouble reading more than one of these books unless she had the flu."

(Oh dearie me. I guess that means I've got only one neuron left after all those romance novels killed off the rest of 'em. Too bad.)

They also had another female scholar, who chimed in: "So as I say, I see them [M&B novels] as a literature of unhappiness rather than happiness. They're a classic literature for rather miserable, rather disappointed, rather jaundiced people."

(She's right, of course. I was totally, totally miserable last week.) (Oh yes, silly me, that might have had something to do with my teeth. It's too bad when you've got only one neuron left. You forget so many things...)

Anyways, Brayfield and Evans came across as stuck-up, snobby academics, even worse, stuck-up, snobby, uninformed academics because it was pretty clear that they've never read a romance novel. All they did was to rehash all those idotic academic studies on romance which claim that reading romance is like taking drugs or tranquillizers, that it keeps women from rebelling against the yoke of patriarchy, blah-blah-blah.

Soooo, I thought that it would be appropriate for this week's TT13 to list 13 of my favourite M&B titles. Me and my one lonely, little neuron love them to pieces.

Good start into the new week

• managed to finish §/$=%?!" article last night (hooray!)
• Jago, the cat, wasn't ill this morning when I got up (yay!)
• managed to solve a problem with the update of my anti-virus programme

Now I just have to proofread the aforementioned article, correct a few student papers, and keep my fingers crossed that reading the ms of Bewitched didn't kill my editor off. :)