Wednesday Reading Meme
Oct. 31st, 2018 10:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress, A Story of the City Beautiful is surprisingly low on actual details about the Chicago World’s Fair for a book that is set there. This is one of those books where Burnett grabs onto an idea like a terrier and repeats it over and over: in A Lady of Quality it’s Clorinda’s beauteousness (mentioned at least once every three pages. I don’t think I’m exaggerating), while here it’s the idea of the Chicago World’s Fair as fairyland or City Beautiful, which is repeated often to the exclusion of actual detail about the Fair.
On the bright side, the book did help me figure out that the City Beautiful movement was called that as a reference to Pilgrim’s Progress, not just because the organizers thought reversing the normal English order of nouns & adjectives sounded like fun.
I’ve also read Jane Trahey’s Life with Mother Superior, the memoir that inspired The Trouble with Angels. It’s fun! I can see why someone read this book and said, “We’ve got to turn this into a movie.” The movie switches around the order of the incidents, but most of the incidents are drawn from the book - pretty much everything except the scene where the nuns take the girls to a department store to buy bras, and that’s really a better sight gag than it would be in a book.
What I’m Reading Now
The latest American Girl series, set in Hawaii in 1941. Let me begin with my perennial plaint about the lack of illustration in the new American Girl books. Beautiful illustrations have always been central to the appeal of the American Girl series! Why would you set a book in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and not illustrate it???? A travesty.
Otherwise, eh, the story is all right I guess. Not good enough to make up for the lack of illustrations. NEVER LETTING THIS GO.
I’ve also begun Martha Finley’s Elsie at the World’s Fair, which more than makes up for the lack of detail in Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress: Finley clearly swallowed a guidebook whole and then regurgitated it full onto the pages of her novel. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re researching the World’s Fair.
Similarly, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ Beyond the Gates is interesting as a nineteenth-century vision of heaven - but I wouldn’t recommend it as reading material today unless you happen to be interested in nineteenth-century American religious beliefs and/or spiritualism.
What I Plan to Read Next
My November reading challenge is “a memoir, biography, or book of creative nonfiction,” and lo, A Secret Sisterhood came through with a recommendation: Vera Brittain’s Testament of Friendship, a memoir about her friendship with fellow author Winifred Holt. It’s perfect! I love memoirs of literary friendships.
Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress, A Story of the City Beautiful is surprisingly low on actual details about the Chicago World’s Fair for a book that is set there. This is one of those books where Burnett grabs onto an idea like a terrier and repeats it over and over: in A Lady of Quality it’s Clorinda’s beauteousness (mentioned at least once every three pages. I don’t think I’m exaggerating), while here it’s the idea of the Chicago World’s Fair as fairyland or City Beautiful, which is repeated often to the exclusion of actual detail about the Fair.
On the bright side, the book did help me figure out that the City Beautiful movement was called that as a reference to Pilgrim’s Progress, not just because the organizers thought reversing the normal English order of nouns & adjectives sounded like fun.
I’ve also read Jane Trahey’s Life with Mother Superior, the memoir that inspired The Trouble with Angels. It’s fun! I can see why someone read this book and said, “We’ve got to turn this into a movie.” The movie switches around the order of the incidents, but most of the incidents are drawn from the book - pretty much everything except the scene where the nuns take the girls to a department store to buy bras, and that’s really a better sight gag than it would be in a book.
What I’m Reading Now
The latest American Girl series, set in Hawaii in 1941. Let me begin with my perennial plaint about the lack of illustration in the new American Girl books. Beautiful illustrations have always been central to the appeal of the American Girl series! Why would you set a book in Hawaii, one of the most beautiful places on earth, and not illustrate it???? A travesty.
Otherwise, eh, the story is all right I guess. Not good enough to make up for the lack of illustrations. NEVER LETTING THIS GO.
I’ve also begun Martha Finley’s Elsie at the World’s Fair, which more than makes up for the lack of detail in Two Little Pilgrims’ Progress: Finley clearly swallowed a guidebook whole and then regurgitated it full onto the pages of her novel. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re researching the World’s Fair.
Similarly, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’ Beyond the Gates is interesting as a nineteenth-century vision of heaven - but I wouldn’t recommend it as reading material today unless you happen to be interested in nineteenth-century American religious beliefs and/or spiritualism.
What I Plan to Read Next
My November reading challenge is “a memoir, biography, or book of creative nonfiction,” and lo, A Secret Sisterhood came through with a recommendation: Vera Brittain’s Testament of Friendship, a memoir about her friendship with fellow author Winifred Holt. It’s perfect! I love memoirs of literary friendships.
no subject
Date: 2018-10-31 08:05 pm (UTC)I am surprised and delighted at the textual fidelity!
no subject
Date: 2018-11-02 01:33 pm (UTC)