Recent reading
Jul. 1st, 2024 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
luzulaA Narrative of the Life of Mrs Charlotte Charke (1755)
My regular dose of 18th century writing. This autobiography reminds me a little of Moll Flanders, in that it is about a woman making her own way in the world. The difference is that there are far fewer husbands and lovers, less life of crime, and more queerness. Charlotte is primarily an actor, often in breeches roles, and the book would probably be interesting for people who are into the history of theatre. But she is a very precariously employed actor, who often can't get acting jobs, or quarrels with someone, or is sick of the theatre world and wants to strike out and do something else. Which she does: selling sausages, keeping a public house, selling pastries, etc. Unfortunately she's not a great entrepreneur (which she herself owns), or else she just has bad luck. Charlotte grew up in a fairly well off family in the theatre world, and I'm afraid I took against her in the beginning when she as a young teenager sold bogus remedies to poor people, pretending to be an apothecary. But she grows more sympathetic with age. When she's still fairly young she falls in love with a man and persuades her parents to let her marry him. But the relationship quickly goes south, at which point they just separate and she does her best to safeguard the money she manages to make so her husband can't get at it. He dies after a while, there's one more brief love affair with a man, and then no more. After this she’s a single mother bringing up a daughter, who eventually also becomes an actor. Charlotte also spends periods of her (his?) life living as a man (Mr Brown), partly to dodge creditors and find jobs, but had masculine interests early in life, as well. She works as a valet for a while, with the gentleman being aware that she’s not a cis man. She also lived for years with a female friend/lover/partner (who knows which) as Mr and Mrs Brown. A fascinating life! This book is of course written for public consumption and who knows how that affected what she wrote.
All Change Here by Naomi Mitchison (1975)
After this I cast about a bit, not feeling in the mood for anything on my e-reader, before recalling that I happen to have this physical book that wasn't in a box, and it was just what I wanted to read. This is the second part of her autobiography, about her girlhood and marriage before and during WWI. This hadn't struck me so much in the first part about her childhood, but she is so sheltered and so far still from the outspoken and political author of her later life! OMG. Like, even after she's married, her mother makes sure she has a chaperone in various situations. Looking forward to reading the third part where presumably we get to see how she becomes more independent.
My regular dose of 18th century writing. This autobiography reminds me a little of Moll Flanders, in that it is about a woman making her own way in the world. The difference is that there are far fewer husbands and lovers, less life of crime, and more queerness. Charlotte is primarily an actor, often in breeches roles, and the book would probably be interesting for people who are into the history of theatre. But she is a very precariously employed actor, who often can't get acting jobs, or quarrels with someone, or is sick of the theatre world and wants to strike out and do something else. Which she does: selling sausages, keeping a public house, selling pastries, etc. Unfortunately she's not a great entrepreneur (which she herself owns), or else she just has bad luck. Charlotte grew up in a fairly well off family in the theatre world, and I'm afraid I took against her in the beginning when she as a young teenager sold bogus remedies to poor people, pretending to be an apothecary. But she grows more sympathetic with age. When she's still fairly young she falls in love with a man and persuades her parents to let her marry him. But the relationship quickly goes south, at which point they just separate and she does her best to safeguard the money she manages to make so her husband can't get at it. He dies after a while, there's one more brief love affair with a man, and then no more. After this she’s a single mother bringing up a daughter, who eventually also becomes an actor. Charlotte also spends periods of her (his?) life living as a man (Mr Brown), partly to dodge creditors and find jobs, but had masculine interests early in life, as well. She works as a valet for a while, with the gentleman being aware that she’s not a cis man. She also lived for years with a female friend/lover/partner (who knows which) as Mr and Mrs Brown. A fascinating life! This book is of course written for public consumption and who knows how that affected what she wrote.
All Change Here by Naomi Mitchison (1975)
After this I cast about a bit, not feeling in the mood for anything on my e-reader, before recalling that I happen to have this physical book that wasn't in a box, and it was just what I wanted to read. This is the second part of her autobiography, about her girlhood and marriage before and during WWI. This hadn't struck me so much in the first part about her childhood, but she is so sheltered and so far still from the outspoken and political author of her later life! OMG. Like, even after she's married, her mother makes sure she has a chaperone in various situations. Looking forward to reading the third part where presumably we get to see how she becomes more independent.
