Sunday, March 20, 2016

Ending the TBR dare a little Early - due to the letter E

As James has just reminded us, there are only eleven days left in the TBR Triple Dog Dare. I know I could make it to April 1st, but I don't think I will. There are two reasons for this. The first is the long Easter weekend. While I'll be spending extra time at church, I'll also have extra time for reading, and it feels like a good time to get to some of the new books.

One book in particular, by Emily Eden. I mentioned before that ABE Books finally found me a copy of Miss Eden's Letters, edited by a great-niece and published in 1919. I had downloaded an e-version some time ago and read about two-thirds of it. I stopped at the point in 1835 where Miss Eden was preparing to go to India with her brother, Lord Auckland, the newly-appointed Governor-General. I've read her book Up the Country, a collection of letters written from India between 1837 and 1840. I have since learned that two additional books of her letters from India were published soon after her death. I've re-read Miss Eden's Letters up to 1835, but because I like my stories in chronological order, I've set them aside to read the Letters from India. Volume I (a modern reprint) arrived last week. As soon as I finish the book I'm currently reading (from the TBR shelves), I think I will be back with Miss Eden.

I really enjoy her letters, which remind me of Jane Austen's. Like Austen, she was part of a large, clever, close and funny family. Unlike Austen's, though, they were nobility, an old Whig political family. Emily's father, the first Lord Auckland, was a diplomat who served as Ambassador to France, Spain and Holland. She moved in the highest social and political circles. She and her unmarried sister Fanny acted as hostesses for their bachelor brother, with whom they lived. Like Austen, she came to value her "life of single blessedness," particularly as her sisters and women friends produced child after child. "Six small Intellects constantly on the march, and [sister] Mary, of course, is hatching a seventh child," she wrote in 1827 (another sister gave birth to seventeen).

I'll write more about this book later, when I've finished it, but I have to share this Austen-esque paragraph from an 1815 letter to her brother George, Lord Auckland:
There is to be a meeting of all the Sunday Schools in the district next week at Bromley, and a collection, and a collation. We mean to eat up the collation, and give all our old clipped sixpences to the collection, which we think is a plan you would approve if you were here.
And this one, to her oldest sister Lady Buckinghamshire in 1817, could have come straight out of Jane Austen's juvenalia:
My dearest Sister, the reason I am in such a state of ignorance about the letter is, that Mama and Louisa went to meet them on their way to London; that we were behind them in the poney-cart; and George behind us in the grig. We all fell in with each other and the letters in the middle of Penge Common, where we each took what belonged to us. I met immediately with the dreadful intelligence that you were going actually to take May Place, and on our recommendation, which dreadful intelligence I communicated to George, who immediately fainted away, and was driven off by his servant. I fainted away, and was driven off by Mary, and Mama and Louisa went on in hysterics to London.
The later letters are less light-hearted, but always interesting. I am looking forward to reading in Letters from India about the long voyage out, and her first impressions of the country.

I've done pretty well with the Dare as it is. I've cleared off 53 books, and half of two more. I've added another 35 to the shelves though, which only gives me a net gain of 18 (plus two pending). In addition to Miss Eden's letters, I'm looking forward to reading more Willa Cather, Patricia Wentworth, Margery Sharp, and N.K. Jemisin. I am also anxious to get to Shilpi Somaya Gowda's new book, The Golden Son.

16 comments:

  1. I've had the Viragos of The Semi-Detached House and the Semi-Attached Couple (or is the other way around?) for ever but haven't read them - but I was fascinated to read (in Claire Harman's Jane's Fame) that she usurped the plot of one of Jane Austen's novels at a time when no one was reading J.A. So I think your end to the Dare is highly justified. :)

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    1. I had forgotten that Claire Harman included Miss Eden! I will have to look for that. The opening chapter of The Semi-attached Couple is so Jane Austen. And in her letters she mentions Mr. Collins, and exploring in a barouche like Mrs. Elton.

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  2. Congratulations on clearing so many books off your shelves! Hopefully the ones you've added will all be books you'll enjoy. It sounds as though the Dare has been a success for you, but I can understand your reasons for finishing early, with the Easter weekend coming up and so many tempting new books to read. :)

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    1. I am going to make a real effort (again) this year to read the books that I'm buying, not just add them to the TBR stacks. All that reading time over Easter just seems like the perfect time to start :)

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  3. The TBR Dare was a resounding success for you! I didn't read nearly as many books as I'd hoped, but (mostly) stuck to the dare. Happy Easter.

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    1. I did more re-reading than I expected, since James said that was allowed :) I was tempted into buying new books (or new to me at least), but I managed to resist reading them. I've really missed the library though!

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  4. You've done so well and I am impressed (as I am every year)! I think it's perfectly reasonable to quit a bit early to read a book that you're truly excited about.

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    1. I was debating about sticking with it, just for the bragging rights, but I decided I wanted to read the book more!

      I was really tempted to visit the Persephone website today, but I've already spent this month's book money - so for that, I'll have to wait til April 1st :)

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  5. That sounds like an excellent plan, and you've done well to keep to your dare for so long and bring down the TBR as much as you have.

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    1. It does feel good to clear some of the long-term TBR books off - either by reading them, or deciding they aren't for me after all and passing them along to the library sales.

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  6. Fifty-three! I am so impressed! Even if you did only have a net subtraction of eighteen books in the end, fifty-three is still SUPER impressive. Well done you!

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    1. Thank you! I thought I had cleared out a lot of the "books I was never going to read," but I've found a few still lurking - and then of course I've loved some of the ones I thought were dead wood.

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  7. At least you're in the plus column! Clearing off 53 books is awesome. (I've only read one book off my TBR shelf this year.) And adding 35 more isn't bad if the books you bought are ones you really want to read. Here's to books! :)

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    1. I don't think I'm going to hit my "TBR 100" goal this year. But as long as the number keeps shrinking!

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  8. You are succeeding in your clearing off of 53 books, I am working at the same goal.

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    1. My overall goal is to reduce the TBR number to 25 or so. I don't know if I'll ever actually manage that. But I do manage to clear a few books off, I just keep buying more.

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Thank you for taking the time to read, and to comment. I always enjoy hearing different points of view about the books I am reading, even if we disagree!