Recent reading

[luzula]

Armadale by Wilkie Collins (1866)
I read what regshoe tells me to, apparently! It was a great choice to listen to this as an audiobook rather than read it with my eyes; the reader doing Lydia Gwilt was particularly good. I enjoyed this dramatic ride, but I won't attempt a proper write-up when such good ones already exist. Currently I am reading this Lydia Gwilt fic, with a delightful narrative voice.

Hornblower and the Hotspur by C S Forester (1962)
I am really appreciating these books now, and greatly enjoyed this! It has some good Hornblower-and-Bush interaction, along with some exciting naval adventure. And some peak Hornblower passages such as They had not done this as a joke, or in a silly attempt to win his favour. He had to believe the unbelievable, and accept the fact that they had done it because they liked him. That showed their poor judgement; gratification warred with guilt in his mind, yet the fact that they had dared to do such a thing was a strange but undeniable confirmation that the Hotspur was welding herself into a fighting entity. Wow. And then there’s the bit where he goes through with a wedding to someone he doesn’t love because he can’t say no and feels guilty about disappointing her...

Am reading various Hornblower fic now, and enjoying that, too!

Comments

[luzula]

Aww, it was very nice of them to make him curtains!

Yes, I appreciate his attempts, even as they also make me cringe. Also, it's nice to see an 19th century character for whom flowery letter-writing does not come naturally and he has to really work at it. I expect that was really the case for a lot of people, who used letter-writing manuals and copied phrases from other people's letters.

Thanks for the guidance on what book to read next! Are your Hotspur-era fics labeled as such? In that case I can find them myself--otherwise please share. : ) Just a linkdump is fine.

[sanguinity]

A rec I should have made in the previous post! tgarnsl's Across the Line (only one bed)

And then my stuff, some of which is easily identifiable as Hotspur-era, and some of which isn't:

A Well-Rooted Briar (fantasy series)

His Majesty's Kraken (fantasy series, first three works are Hotspur-era)

The Hornblowers' to Command (OT3 series, first four stories are Hotspur-era, then a Flying Colours-era story)

The Adventures of Goatratio Hornblower (humour, with podfic by ljm)

Christmas on the Hotspur (fluff, with podfic by ljm)

The Only Comfort (missing scene, I've recorded a podfic I still need to edit, I'll try to get that up soonish)

[luzula]

Oh, thank you! : )