Using newly discovered letters from Eileen to her best friend, Funder re-creates the Orwells' marriage, through the Spanish Civil War and the Second World War. Eileen O’Shaughnessy’s literary brilliance shaped Orwell’s work and her practical nous saved his life.
Eileen O’Shaughnessy Blair died young during a hysterectomy and Blair/Orwell married Sonia Brownell four years later, shortly before he died. Brownell appears in Bloomsbury Girls by Natalie Jenner (2022), which is about several young women working in a London bookshop in 1950.
Due to We Danced in Bloomsbury Square by Jean Estoril/Mabel Esther Allan (1967), I was fascinated by Bloomsbury as a pre-teen and particularly loved reading about twins who earn scholarships to attend a ballet school in London and explore the city in their free time. Thank goodness I finally found a copy because it is now quite pricey.
American Bloomsbury by Susan Cheever (2006) explores how Concord, Massachusetts – home of Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau and others – developed into the first American community devoted to literature and original ideas.
Louisa is or was the most famous resident of Concord. As a girl, I owned most of her books, including Under the Lilacs (1878), in a nice hardcover edition that belonged to a great-aunt. It’s about two girls who rescue a boy who has run away from a circus with his dog. It is not one of her most popular but I read them all.
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| Illustration from an 1888 edition |
In The Mystery at the Lilac Inn by Carolyn Keene (1930), Nancy Drew helps her friend recover heirloom jewels that were stolen at the Inn. I gave one of my nieces all my Nancy Drews which was inconvenient when I wrote a paper about her in graduate school right before the pandemic.
I bought The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman (1998) because of a review that described it as "a punchy little comedy of manners. . . . Think Jane Austen in the Catskills," and I became a big fan of her novels. My friend Eva’s dog ate my copy while we were in law school and I never had the heart to ask her if she managed to read it first (she was sick and had needed something fun to read). Lending books is dangerous! If you ever have the chance to attend one of Lipman’s book signings, she is very amusing and friendly.
Next month (October 7, 2023), Kate has chosen a classic that most of us have probably read – I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.
I had “I Danced in Bloomsbury Square” as a child and loved it. At some point, when I was in my 20’s my mom lent it to the grandchildren of the lady next door and it never came back. A few years ago I looked to buy a used copy to read again (the library didn’t have it) and OMG it was so expensive I couldn’t justify it.
ReplyDeleteI loved Jean Estoril's books as a child and We Danced in Bloomsbury Square was a favourite (it was published as The Ballet Twins here in the UK). I think I liked it even more than the Drina series. I probably read The Mystery at the Lilac Inn too, although I read so many Nancy Drew books I can't remember which ones. Great chain!
ReplyDeleteThat connection to Bloomsbury Girls is very interesting. I started to buy that book recently, then decided not to add it to my TBR.
ReplyDeleteIn 2021, Bloomsbury Publishing acquired the published I worked was employed by for nearly 30 years, ABC-Clio. That was interesting. As far as I can tell, the offices are still in Santa Barbara (or actually in Goleta).
I just read a section in More Book Lust by Nancy Pearl recommending Elinor Lipman's books. I plan to look for some.
I have not read I Capture the Castle, but it is on my classics list and I hope to read it before the Six Degrees for next month.
What a charming chain!
ReplyDeleteJean Estoril/Mabel Esther Allan's ballet-themed books are my favorites of her vast output, although I don't think I knew all her pseudonyms as a child. Mary, tell me if you need a photocopy of We Danced!
ReplyDeleteHelen, I did not come across the Drina books until I was an adult but the other two I really liked were The Ballet Family and The Ballet Family Again. My library had a lot of her sort of YA romances, which I enjoyed, but the two books I thought were the best are Time to Go Back and Romansgrove. I don't really remember the Nancy Drews separately except for The Secret of the Old Clock and The Bungalow Mystery (I was so young when I read that I agonized about what a bungalow was but did not yet know I was supposed to find a dictionary). I Capture the Castle is charming and I think I would have been enchanted if I had read it as a teen; I like it as an adult too.
Tracy, I wanted to love Bloomsbury Girls but I found it slightly tedious. Good decision not to buy it, I think, although many did enjoy. I definitely think you would like Elinor Lipman as she is very wry. I think her older books are the best: Isabel's Bed, Then She Found Me, The Inn at Lake Devine, and The Ladies' Man.
I haven't read any of your books but they all sound interesting. I had to think about Helen Hanff's books when I read "Bloomsbury".
ReplyDeleteMy Six Degrees of Separation took me from Wifedom to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs.
What a fun Six Degrees. I haven't participated in a while but enjoy reading about the book connections and I need to add American Bloomsbury. That sounds so interesting!
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