Recent reading

[luzula]

Giving Birth in 18th Century England by Sarah Fox (2022)
Recced by oursin (thank you!). I read this as fic research. Granted, Alison already had children in my previous poly FotH fic, but she will have them in this one too, and I wanted to find some different angle on it. For my last fic, I got some material from William Smellie’s A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery (1752). There's a lot of stuff in Fox's book about the social context of giving birth, both in terms of family and of the surrounding community. Interesting to read about the trials for infanticide, where the surrounding community kept tabs on women they suspected, accusing them and bringing evidence - but also sometimes being kind to women in difficult circumstances, for example female servants made pregnant by their masters. Well, that's not relevant for my fic, but there are plenty of other good details I can use.

The Black Mask by E. W. Hornung (1901)
The second collection of Raffles stories. There's a sort of claustrophobic feel to this one due to their changed circumstances. I have to say that I prefer regshoe’s version of what happened after the end of the first book! And I rolled my eyes at Raffles’ female love interests, which were introduced just for the space of one story, and then never mentioned again, while at the same time we were supposed to believe a depth of feeling that was never really earned. But wow, that is certainly...an ending. I wonder where the next book goes after that. And did the author, like ACD, want to stop writing?

Comments

[sylvanwitch]

One of my many tasks as a research asst. in grad school was to read Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette (which I loved doing), and of the many things I learned, the one that stands out to me still is the number of infants and toddlers who had terrible accidents around the hearth and barnyard. How many were genuine tragedies and how many deliberate infanticides is impossible to know, of course, but it did give me a lot to think about.

[luzula]

The infanticides in this book are about infants who were just born, and of course there are also a lot of infants who were stillborn. It seems that in court proceedings they looked at whether a woman had prepared for the arrival of a child, and had gotten clothes for it, etc. The reasoning was that if she had, then she probably hadn't planned to kill it.

[regshoe]

I know what you mean about the claustrophobic feeling of the Earl's Court stories especially! And, yeah, the love interests are a bit annoying; Hornung is pretty good at female characters elsewhere, but they were never a main point in the Raffles stories—although I think there are a few interesting bits of characterisation for both them and Raffles to be got in those stories.

As for the ending (which is certainly an ending, I agree :D )—I've never got the impression Hornung actually disliked writing Raffles, though he does seem to have preferred his Australian books, and certainly his hiatus didn't last nearly as long as Doyle's. I can, briefly and without details, spoil you for where the next book goes, but will refrain if you'd rather find out by reading it. :D

[luzula]

No no, don't spoil me, I look forward to finding out for myself. : )

And thanks for the fic recs you gave me, I have now read most of them (though not commented yet, since I read on my ereader and usually do comments in batches once in a while). The Romeo and Juliet one was adorable, and had some really quality kissing. And I much enjoyed WolfieonAO3’s writing style. Possibly not a surprise, since you seem to be mutual beta readers. : )

I also very much enjoyed this story--it's well written (don't be fooled by the modern language in the summary) and has emotional complications that I found compelling, as well as being hot. But knowing our differences in fic taste, I'm not sure whether you would enjoy it as much as I did.

[regshoe]

No no, don't spoil me, I look forward to finding out for myself. : )

Hehe, that's fine :D

Oh, I'm glad you're enjoying the fic! I definitely agree about the kissing in the Romeo & Juliet fic, and Wolfie's style is indeed lovely. :) (And do say if you would like more recs that would have been spoilery before finishing the second book!)

Thanks for the link to that other fic, too. I recognise the author's name, as they've also written for Hornung's other book Witching Hill and I absolutely adore that fic. I think I tried the Raffles one too but couldn't get into the characterisation? Hmm, perhaps I'll give it another go.

[luzula]

And do say if you would like more recs that would have been spoilery before finishing the second book!
Yes please! : )

[regshoe]

OK, here are a few recs! As you can see, I like Ham Common fic... :D

Patient Confidentiality by canolacrush is set in the Earl's Court/Maturin era, exploring Dr Theobald's view of Raffles and Bunny, with some nice hurt/comfort too.

Spion Kop by Artemis is a beautiful, very angsty ficlet set post-Knees of the Gods.

In The Dusk-Light And The Quiet by WolfieOnAO3 is a lovely mixture of angst and fluff about Ham Common and what went before.

Det är också en berättelse på svenska—Det sista snöfallet av thechestofsilver! Den utspelas på Ham Common, och den är väldigt söt.

And a self-rec: Lovely on the Water is my favourite of my own Raffles stories—it's casefic/angst set at Ham Common.

[luzula]

Excellent, thank you! *opens tabs* And by the way, thechestofsilver and I have realized that we live quite close to each other, and have tentatively agreed to have a fannish fika at some future point, if one of us is in the other’s town. : )

[regshoe]

Aww, that's lovely! Glad to hear it :)