Recent reading

[luzula]

Mostly reading Yuletide fic now (and hoping to make some recs later), but here are two books I read before the collection opened.

Unfit To Print by K J Charles (2018)
This was great! The author must have had a lot of fun with the Victorian porn, and I liked the characters. I found it warm and engaging, and not as tropey as some of her other books. It's not fluff, since the characters are carrying some baggage and emotional trauma. Unlike some other novellas, it didn't leave me feeling like it was too short: I thought it was just the right length both to wrap up the plot and to develop the relationship.

Letters of the Right Honourable Mary Wortley Montague (1724)
Subtitle: "WRITTEN DURING HER TRAVELS IN EUROPE, ASIA, AND AFRICA, TO Persons of Distinction, Men of Letters, &c. in different PARTS of EUROPE. Which contain, among other curious Relations, ACCOUNTS of the POLICY and MANNERS of the TURKS. Drawn from Sources that have been inaccessible to other Travellers." I was actually more interested in reading about the details of her private life that I have learned about from cahn's salon, which are sadly not in evidence in this volume, but this is what was available on Gutenberg, so. A lot of the letters are to her sister (married to the Earl of Mar who was in the '15; not a happy marriage). Her husband was an ambassador in Turkey, thus why she went there (and there is indeed a short note about variolation, which she was famous for bringing to England). I feel like she describes Muslim Turkey and Catholic Vienna as if they are about equally as foreign to her. There's also a sort of "we may be different, but we're all upper class and will be generously hospitable to each other" in her interactions wherever she goes. Here's a sample of her writing: My curiosity supplied me with strength to climb to the top of [the promontory], to see the place where Achilles was buried, and where Alexander ran naked round his tomb, in honour of him, which, no doubt, was a great comfort to his ghost. So yeah, she's both witty and erudite. Here is a poem about her to that effect.

Comments

[sovay]

Unfit To Print by K J Charles (2018)

This sounds like the next K. J. Charles I should try, then, because I loved Spectred Isle, the sequel never happened, and in the meantime I read a bunch of other recommended romances, queer and not, and discovered that I have an extremely low tolerance for most romance tropes. Thank you!

[luzula]

I don't read much in the romance genre generally and have definitely bounced off a number of romances myself. I can't quite put my finger on how published romance differs from fic romance?

This one is short, anyway, so I guess you'll see soon if you enjoy it. I guess there are some tropes in it--on AO3 it would be labeled "Second Chance".

(Also, if you want a well-written book with a romance in it which is not like a genre romance, I recommend Molly Greely's The Heiress.)

[sovay]

This one is short, anyway, so I guess you'll see soon if you enjoy it. I guess there are some tropes in it--on AO3 it would be labeled "Second Chance".

I mean, so would Persuasion! I'm not allergic to romance as a concept, just category romance seems mostly not to work for me. Thanks for the heads-up on The Heiress!

[chestnut_pod]

Unfit to Print is my very favorite Charles! I am very pleased you liked it, and "warm" is a good way of describing why I think it resonates with me.

[luzula]

I read it because you recced it, so thanks! : )

[osprey_archer]

My curiosity supplied me with strength to climb to the top of [the promontory], to see the place where Achilles was buried, and where Alexander ran naked round his tomb, in honour of him, which, no doubt, was a great comfort to his ghost.

Love this quote. Just imagining ghost!Achilles looking on as Alexander runs naked around his tomb, all "WTF?"

[chestnut_pod]

*\o/*

[tgarnsl]

Oooh, Mary Wortley Montagu! I just encountered her on a podcast series I'm listening to about the Ottoman Empire and found her extremely intriguing. I know that two publications resulted from her accounts — the first was more or less a pirated copy, and the second was a more 'official' publication. I'm guessing this is the latter? Is it worth reading if you have an interest in 18th century Constantinople?

[selenak]

Lady Mary! If it's the 1724 edition, it probably are The Embassy Letters which she herself edited and arranged for publication. There are also volumes of her letters published after her death, but these don't contain that much about her private life, either, since they were published by her grandchildren in literally another century when everyone had a different take on Georgian morals and also Horace Walpole and Alexander Pope (after their fallout) had badmouthed her so much that it was in her family's interest to show how very respectable she was and totally misunderstood. That we have her desperate love letters to Algarotti is due to the fact they weren't anywhere near her family's possessions. They were in Venice where Algarotti presumably left them, and where none other than Lord Byron got his hands on them decades later. Since he was a Lady Mary fan (not having any problems with Georgian morals, to put it mildly, and also admiring her descriptions of Turkey), he was delighted. And thankfully preserved them for posterity. (See also here.) Mildred has them, if you want to read them, but be warned, they're causing a similar sensation as reading Charlotte Bronte's desperate love letters to Professor Heger to, because in both cases you have brilliant women laying themselves emotionally bare to men who aren't bad guys - Heger was married and just not interested, Algarotti thought her interesting but wasn't into her to that degree, and definitely did NOT want a steady relationship - but did no return their feelings.

What I really regret is that we don't have more than two or so letters from Lady Mary to Lord Hervey, but that's because his son returned them to her when she came back to England to die, and she appreciated the gesture, told said son Hervey was the best and her bff whom she could tell everything to and promptly destroyed them herself. Otoh, we have some more letters from him to her because Hervey made copies of his outgoing letters, and also letters of Hervey to Algarotti also filling in his side of the story.

ETA: I feel like she describes Muslim Turkey and Catholic Vienna as if they are about equally as foreign to her.

This is very true, and you can add Protestant but German Hannover to the collection. :) Oh, and a trivia for you: Heinrich the brother of Frederick the Great was an admirer of the Embassy Letters when they got published and recced them in an old age letter to Frederick.

[luzula]

Me too! It's a vivid image. *g*

[luzula]

This one looks official to me! I've edited the link into the post.

Is it worth reading if you have an interest in 18th century Constantinople?
Probably? There's quite a lot about it, anyway, though obviously it's filtered through the eyes and experience of a visiting British woman. I know almost nothing about 18th century Constantinople myself, and can't tell you what's true and what's false.

[luzula]

Oh, excellent, I was just about to go over to salon and ask for more info about other letters! Perhaps I'll ask Mildred about them--I'm certainly tempted. Yes, it does seem a pity that we don't have more letters from Lady Mary to Hervey.

I have myself written letters to someone I was unrequitedly in love with, but I only very occasionally alluded to my feelings, and took care not to write too often! Like, you don't want to burden the other person with that when you already know they're not interested, nor embarrass yourself. But obviously not everyone feels the same!

[falena]

Unfit to Print is my fave of KJ Charles's novellas. <3

Btw, if you happen to talk to your friend Annick Trent could you pass along that her latest novel, The Oak and the Ash is absolutely fantastic and her best yet? I'm rooting for someone to pick up audiobook rights of her works, because this one is something I would listen to over and over if I could.

[luzula]

It was very good!

And I'm so glad you enjoyed The Oak and the Ash! : D I have passed on the feedback. I don't know about audiobook rights, but she's definitely working on another book, at least.