(no subject)

Happy birthday, hhw!

Wednesday is glad that interview request went to the seldom-checked email

What I read

I really became quite engrossed by Helen - o what a tangled web &C&C - reminded of Yonge and the fatal effects of 'want of openness' - rather good.

Then read Manning Coles, Alias Uncle Hugo (1952) - spy thriller, from rec somewhere on Twitter - okay but not particularly sold on the author, if I want to read spy shenanigans of that period I think I will dig up my collection of Desmond Corys.

Maria Edgeworth, Belinda (1801), which I had read before ages ago and did not remember much about. Including the period racism (which probably was not that bad for 1801??? comparatively?) and the perhaps rather gratuitous introduction of Jewish moneylender? Did vaguely remember that there was - I'm not sure one can call Harriott Freke precisely gender-queer - gender-problematic? in that she cross-dresses and behaves in deliberately non-feminine ways, but is also married (and apparently promotes husband's political career), has young protegee who she leads to ruin by letting her be led on by a male seducer, embroils her female friends in her sptireful pranks and quarrels - I daresay there is litcrit on this? - at one point Chevalier d'Eon is invoked as a point of comparison - but is a force of disruption as much as anything. Apart from those elements the main issue I had with the novel, which has its engrossing elements, was that of awkward pacing/structure: the Lady Delacour strand pretty much winds up and then there are swathes of pages to go sorting out the mystery of Clarence Hervey's young lady at Windsor and Belinda's courtship decisions between him and Vincent (Qu: would 'creole' at this period be a racialised category or merely mean somebody born of settler stock in the Caribbean?)

Annick Trent, Beck and Call (2021). Late Georgian m/m romance between 2 valets with blackmail issues in the mix. Quite low-key. Also while I thought the central stuff about life in service, reading clubs and fears around sedition seemed well-researched, niggly pedant ol' me had various little qualms over period usage - including 'blackmail', which it is difficult to trace being used in this particular sense earlier than mid-C19th (as opposed to levy to prevent cattle-raids), music-halls were not a thing for quite a while yet, and I don't think rifles were used to shoot game-birds.

On the go

Maria Edgeworth Patronage (1815), which is very long.

Up next

There is a new Literary Review

Still plodding on with book for review (Y U no cite meeeeeee?).

Have got what would appear a go-ahead to dive into some reading for proposed chapter - aaaargh! (means actually digging out buried books...)