I finished this book this morning. The novel proper is quite short and readable, although I don't think I'll ever really enjoy a work where a writer uses a foreign narrator or character from a culture they don't actually know to further their plots or theories. However, the extra critical material does an excellent job of contextualising this 18th best-seller written by a blue-stocking with proto-feminist sensibilities.
illustration from the book
I 1st heard of this book when researching #Peru for #FoodAndLit but it wouldn't do b/c it's all about France. It is an 18th-c. epistolary novel written by a French woman. The narrator is an Inca “virgin of the sun“ snatched by Spanish conquistadores, then taken by French soldiers to France. Her letters to her Inca fiancé describe France & its mores from the point of view of an outsider - a “Noble Savage“ - uncorrupted by European civilisation.
so-so(1740)
Hooray for the magic of low expectations! I'd braced myself for a tedious slog, so was pleased to find an unexpectedly engaging story of power and resistance. Pamela's obsession with Virtue doesn't resonate, but as a drama of compulsion and consent, it's surprising how much still works. Of course a lot doesn't work: Pamela is as exasperatingly twee as she is sympathetic, and the hero belongs in prison. But I was prepared for so much worse.
My #BookSpin read for September is Samuel Richardson's “Pamela“, a book I've eyed with both interest and dread. Pamela is a milestone in the development of the English novel, but it's a work of “conduct literature,“ a genre I associate with stuffy moralizing, running over 700 pages.
And so for the #DoubleSpin the BookSpin Fates have assigned a much shorter stuffless read as my reward for finishing Pamela.
Thanks for hosting, @TheAromaofBooks !
We do not care that we bought the shorts we're wearing at a thrift store during Clinton's second term. Some styles are timeless.
We also do not care that we're posting this on Thursday. Time is a construct, and we can't be expected to keep up with what day it is.
#WDNCW @dabbe
The Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum — Out of Many, One — is our de facto national motto. It was a rallying cry of our founders as they built a single unified nation from a collection of states. It‘s a good reminder of where we need to go.
-Steve Blank
#EPluribusUnum
#JulyJazz
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks
so-soSo I've just read the play from Mansfield Park 🤓
Short, quick paced, and easy to read, Lovers' Vows is an entertaining little play with some humour. I picked it up to gain a deeper understanding of Mansfield Park, and it will be valuable when thinking about role choices and relationships in the novel. However, I'm not sure the play would linger with me on its own merits.
#JaneAustenThenAndNow @Crinoline_Laphroaig
I first read this for a uni class and, because we we had about a week and a half to read and discuss it, didn't pay a ton of attention to ENJOYING it.
After taking a step back from analyzing everything I read for academia, I'm slowly going back to rereading some classics I read back then. Some I have hated (side eye to Moll Flanders) but this one I'm really enjoying. It's entertaining as hell and has outrageous characters. And the HAIR. GAWD.
