Recent reading
Mar. 15th, 2020 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaDamn' Rebel Bitches: The Women of the '45 by Maggie Craig (1997)
A good corrective to other books that don't have much women in them. It's written much less academically than other books I've read, but strangely it assumes more knowledge: I think you'd be pretty confused by this book unless you didn't already know the events and places of the war. There is some stuff about the general position of women in Scottish society at the time, but I wish there was more. Apparently in some ways they had more freedom than women later in the 19th century? Most of the book is very episodic, telling stories about women who took active parts in the war or were just caught up in it. I appreciate that it's about women of all classes, though of course there's more documentation about upper-class women.
At the end, the author strongly recommends Flight of the Heron. Not because it's about women (it isn't), but because apparently she can't help it, which, who can blame her? *g* I think she motivates it by it being written by a woman.
But, there also appears to exist another slashy historical novel set during the '45 and written by a woman in the beginning of the 20th century: Flemington by Violet Jacobs, from 1911. It's on Gutenberg, and according to a goodreads review it is "gay Jacobite espionage tragedy". The main character appears to be a government spy in Montrose, which was a heavily Jacobite-leaning town in the Lowlands. Has anyone read it?
Also, new Flight of the Heron fic: go readregshoe's Up in the Grey Hills, which is lovely hurt/comfort. regshoe also posted What Makes Heroic Strife a while ago, which it seems I failed to mention, but it's an intriguing missing scene from early on in canon. Ha, soon we shall have doubled the amount of fanworks compared to a couple of months ago...
A good corrective to other books that don't have much women in them. It's written much less academically than other books I've read, but strangely it assumes more knowledge: I think you'd be pretty confused by this book unless you didn't already know the events and places of the war. There is some stuff about the general position of women in Scottish society at the time, but I wish there was more. Apparently in some ways they had more freedom than women later in the 19th century? Most of the book is very episodic, telling stories about women who took active parts in the war or were just caught up in it. I appreciate that it's about women of all classes, though of course there's more documentation about upper-class women.
At the end, the author strongly recommends Flight of the Heron. Not because it's about women (it isn't), but because apparently she can't help it, which, who can blame her? *g* I think she motivates it by it being written by a woman.
But, there also appears to exist another slashy historical novel set during the '45 and written by a woman in the beginning of the 20th century: Flemington by Violet Jacobs, from 1911. It's on Gutenberg, and according to a goodreads review it is "gay Jacobite espionage tragedy". The main character appears to be a government spy in Montrose, which was a heavily Jacobite-leaning town in the Lowlands. Has anyone read it?
Also, new Flight of the Heron fic: go read
regshoe's Up in the Grey Hills, which is lovely hurt/comfort. regshoe also posted What Makes Heroic Strife a while ago, which it seems I failed to mention, but it's an intriguing missing scene from early on in canon. Ha, soon we shall have doubled the amount of fanworks compared to a couple of months ago...
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-15 05:54 pm (UTC)Damn' Rebel Bitches sounds great—the books I've read so far have had some intriguing asides on women who played important roles, but not much more than asides, and I'd like to learn more. Also I'm delighted to know that at least one of these historians writing about the '45 knows and appreciates Flight of the Heron :D
Main character is a government spy—that sounds like it could be an interesting counterpart to FotH's perspective and focus. I'll have to check it out...
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-16 09:40 pm (UTC)Yes, I have definitely put Flemington in my reading queue, but it's an ebook, so I'll probably prioritize the paper books that are waiting for me...
(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-16 11:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2020-03-17 09:08 am (UTC)