The other Rebecca A Sucessora (1934, ‘The Successor’) opens with a couple returning from their honeymoon trip. The first chapter unravels through an extended scene that feels…… Read more “A trail of books: on Carolina Nabuco’s A Sucessora (‘The Sucessor’, 1934) and the plagiarism charges against Daphne Du Maurier’s Rebecca (1938)”
Blog Posts
Carolina Nabuco
Carolina Nabuco (née Maria Carolina Nabuco de Araújo. February 9th, 1890 – August 18th, 1981) was a Brazilian author. Daughter of the statesman Joaquim Nabuco, Carolina was…… Read more “Carolina Nabuco”
Her heart is this red apple
Dear Irina, When Isolde (2019, tr. Bryan Karetnyk and Irina Steinberg. Original: Изольда, 1929) opens, it’s summer, sometime in the wild 1920’s, and we are in Biarritz.…… Read more “Her heart is this red apple”
In the transparent silence of night,
Six poems by Irina Odoevtseva: three from the collection A Russian cultural revival: a critical anthology of émigré literature before 1939, edited and translated by Temira Pachmuss…… Read more “In the transparent silence of night,”
Irina Odoevtseva
Irina Vladimirovna Odoevtseva (Ирина Влади′мировна Одо′евцева, pen name of Ираида Густавовна Гейнике – Iraida Gustavovna Geinike. Latvian: Iraida Heinike. 15 June 1895 – 14 October 1990) was…… Read more “Irina Odoevtseva”
Her perversities were as essential a part of her work as her inspirations,
Hi, folks, This is post 1 of Deal me In. For more about this project & my previous posts on it, go here: Reading Plans | I…… Read more “Her perversities were as essential a part of her work as her inspirations,”
Constance Fenimore Woolson
Constance Fenimore Woolson (March 5, 1840 – January 24, 1894) was an American writer. Woolson was born in Claremont, New Hampshire. Shortly after her birth, three of…… Read more “Constance Fenimore Woolson”
Most Anticipated Books | 2021
Hi, folks, Here are some forthcoming books that are on my radar for 2021, listed in chronological order by publication date: My Most Anticipated Books January: A…… Read more “Most Anticipated Books | 2021”
That is solemn we have ended,
Hi, folks! Thankfully, 2020 has come to an end. So, my loves, let’s look back over the books we’ve read this year and pick our favourites, shall…… Read more “That is solemn we have ended,”
The music of life and living
Dear Dorothy, We are forever exiles of our childhoods, but sometimes the smallest details can bring us back to our neverland. It takes one song, a slant…… Read more “The music of life and living”
Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Dorothy Evelyn Smith (née Jones, 1893 – 1969) was an English writer. She attended an art school in 1911, and married three years later, in 1914, to the…… Read more “Dorothy Evelyn Smith”
Such shifting winds in life
Dear Ida, A Change of Time (2019, tr. Martin Aitken. Original: En ny tid, 2015) is the record of a woman’s passage through grief. Told through diary entries…… Read more “Such shifting winds in life”
Ida Jessen
Ida Jessen (25 September 1964) is a Danish writer. Jessen studied literary history and communication studies at Aarhus University. In 1989, she published her first book, the…… Read more “Ida Jessen”
A kind of door in oneself through which it was necessary to pass
Dear Mary, The Friendly Young Ladies (1944. Published in the USA as The Middle Mist, 1945) is at its best when walking the tight rope of double…… Read more “A kind of door in oneself through which it was necessary to pass”
Reading Projects | 2021
Hi, folks! It’s that time of the year again, when we reflect on what has been accomplished in the past months & start to plan ahead. Here…… Read more “Reading Projects | 2021”
Happiness is so elusive it may as well be supernatural
Dear Marie-Helene, Much of the disturbing, off-kilter sense of humour in Parakeet: A Novel (2020) comes from a finely-drawn contrast between the strong sense of reality in…… Read more “Happiness is so elusive it may as well be supernatural”
Marie-Helene Bertino
Marie-Helene Bertino is an American writer. She grew up in Philadelphia and earned an MFA from Brooklyn College. She was an Emerging Writer Fellow at NYC’s Center for Fiction, as well…… Read more “Marie-Helene Bertino”
It was under the sway of that force that I began to feel,
Dear Gabriela, A coming-of-age story, a road novel, a picaresque adventure, a piece of nature and travel writing, an epic, and a reinterpretation of Martín Fierro through a…… Read more “It was under the sway of that force that I began to feel,”