Wednesday Reading Meme

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cousin Phillis, which has many good points - I enjoyed its sketch of a rural idyll - but ends quite abruptly; I did a bit of hunting and it turns out that she and her editor had a misunderstanding about how much space the story would get, so she had to wrap it up all of a sudden even though she had a longer ending planned.

I imagine she might have lengthened it later, but she dived into Wives and Daughters right after (which I haven’t read, and really ought to) and then died, so she didn’t have the chance. Ah well.

I loved Joan G. Robinson’s When Marnie Was There so much that I snagged The Teddy Robinson Storybook, which is the only other one of her books that my library has. It’s for much younger children and hasn’t grabbed me by the heart like When Marnie Was There, although the teddy bear illustrations are adorable and full of character.

What I’m Reading Now

Frances Hodgson Burnett’s That Lass O’Lowrie’s. Joan Lowrie, the eponymous heroine, is a pit girl of heroic stature and even more heroic character, who bravely steps up to protect a former pit girl who has turned up with an illegitimate child. Joan lifts the baby high so all can see, and castigates them all for attacking such a poor helpless creature, and takes the girl and her baby into her own house so they won’t starve in the streets.

Joan is fabulous. She has also become embroiled in a love quadrangle, in which all the characters involved are far too noble and love each other too much to allow their jealousy to destroy their friendships, and indeed leap at the chance to promote their friend’s love affairs at their own expense: suffering all the while, but making the sacrifice willingly.

Also, Joan has been fearlessly traipsing around in the dark of the night to protect the man she loves from the depredations of her evil father, who was discharged for putting the mine in danger of an explosion and wants VENGEANCE. But he shall not have it while Joan is alive to interpose herself between them!

This is the kind of quality Frances Hodgson Burnett action that I am all about. Channel my id some more, Burnett! (Also I think all four of them will be happily coupled by the end, once one of them unbends enough to actually speak the name of his beloved, LOOKING AT YOU DERRICK, a lot of trouble could have been avoided if you had just said “I love Joan Lowrie” outright when you asked your friend for advice.)

I’ve also started reaching Michael Pollan’s new book, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, which honestly has been a bit of a slog so far: he’s talking about the history of psychedelics and their legal status and honestly I am just here to learn what they have to tell us about Consciousness et al.

I’m having a similar problem with Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s A House Full of Females: Plural Marriage and Women's Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870: the title promises plural marriage and women’s place in early Mormonism, but so far the book is mostly following Wilford Woodruff around on his missionary work, with occasional mentions of women he met on the way.

I realize that when one is writing history one must to a certain extent follow the evidence, and Woodruff kept a very thorough diary which makes him a potentially invaluable source, although possibly for a different book. I’m here to read about women, not Woodruff. We’ll see if it gets more interesting once plural marriage begins.

What I Plan to Read Next

I’m contemplating interlibrary loaning some of Joan G. Robinson’s books for older children.