That looks like a fascinating book, osso! Not really about typical Victorian life, but a short bio of five very interesting people from that time!
I didn't know Dickens actually left his wife. I thought he just maintained a mistress on the side!
I'd like to know more about George Eliot too. She was certainly ahead of her time. Although, I don't think her books hold up as well as Dickens' -- her real life is more interesting than her fiction!
I really need to go back and reread "The Bright and Shining Lie: John Paul Van and America in Vietnam" to see if I still love it as much as I did 20 something years ago.
Another fascinating (but hard to read) book is "Aching For Beauty. Footbinding in China". It is not very readable but it provides information and perspective that I've not ever seen elsewhere.
Stray Cat wrote:That looks like a fascinating book, osso! Not really about typical Victorian life, but a short bio of five very interesting people from that time!
I didn't know Dickens actually left his wife. I thought he just maintained a mistress on the side!
I'd like to know more about George Eliot too. She was certainly ahead of her time. Although, I don't think her books hold up as well as Dickens' -- her real life is more interesting than her fiction!
It ends up being more than five, more like 15 or so, and all of them interest me...
I'm no literary smartee, I was an english major for only one semester (call me ms. bouncy re majors); I learned a lot from this book, would like to read it again.
Stray Cat, that's an a2k amazon link I gave, which means that a2k gets some small amount if you order by it -- see the home page - whenever I order from amazon I order via the a2k homepage, but then I don't always order from amazon, liking Powells as I do. Still, I give most of my book links through that Amazon thingy on the homepage.
As I remember reading earlier, even for the a2k wear, a2k gets very little recompense. Still, me, I like to support the site however.
Boomer, I've read a lot of books about the vietnam situation (now there's a weak description), but not that one. Will at least look it up, based on your connection to it.
Quote:Another fascinating (but hard to read) book is "Aching For Beauty. Footbinding in China".
Boomerang, you reminded me of another book, "The Inn of the Sixth Happiness." Have you read it? If you're interested in China, you'd love that book! It's about the life of an English missionary who spent many years there.
Quote:Stray Cat, that's an a2k amazon link I gave, which means that a2k gets some small amount if you order by it
I didn't realize that, osso. Thanks for the info!
