Tämä sivusto käyttää evästeitä palvelujen toimittamiseen, toiminnan parantamiseen, analytiikkaan ja (jos et ole kirjautunut sisään) mainostamiseen. Käyttämällä LibraryThingiä ilmaiset, että olet lukenut ja ymmärtänyt käyttöehdot ja yksityisyydensuojakäytännöt. Sivujen ja palveluiden käytön tulee olla näiden ehtojen ja käytäntöjen mukaista.
"History meets memoir in two true-life love stories between two sets of writers--one unfolding in nineteenth century Rome, one in present-day Paris and London--which both reveal the longings and ambitions of the very contemporary Nell Stevens. In 1857, English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell completed her most famous work: the biography of her dear friend, the recently deceased Charlotte Bronte. As publication loomed Elizabeth was keen to escape the reviews and, leaving her wholesome, dull minister husband at home, traveled with her daughters to Rome. And it was there that she met the American writer and critic, Charles Eliot Norton. Seventeen years her junior, he was the love of her life. She knew they could never be together--it would be an unthinkable breach--but when she returned home to Mr. Gaskell, she discovered to her horror that while she was gone he had betrayed her--betrayed her work--in a way that she is not sure she can ever forgive. In 2013 Nell Stevens is in a PhD program in London, halfheartedly pursuing a post in academia to keep her afloat while she follows her true vocation as a writer. Her dissertation on the artistic expatriate community of nineteenth-century Rome isn't quite coming together. But questions of scholarly methodology take a back seat to her budding romance with Max, a soulful American with an unfinished screenplay. That is, until their relationship begins to founder, and the echoes between Nell's life and that of her historical subject become too strong to ignore. As these two storylines meet up in delightful, funny, and unexpected ways, The Victorian and the Romantic evokes the bittersweet ache of lost love and the consolations of female writerly ambition"--… (lisätietoja)
This book was just so satisfying. "The Victorian and the Romantic" covers Stevens' time working on her PhD, her subject Elizabeth Gaskell. A large part of which is consumed by her love life, juxtaposed with Gaskell’s own friendship (romance) that blossomed while in Rome. With a light step Stevens dances between Gaskell’s story and her own. Covering the last decade of Gaskell’s life, speaking to her with familiarity, as in a letter.
Stevens' obsession (romance) with her boyfriend and with Gaskell, weave wonderfully with Gaskell’s own. Stevens' voice is warm, comforting, and engrossing; full of love, loss, and friendship, giving us a story that crosses time and continents. ( )
For most of this book I would give it 3 stars, but finally in the last quarter it jumped to 4 stars. The premise is so intriguing, as Goodreads describes it: "History meets memoir in two irresistible true-life romances - one set in 19th century Rome, one in present-day Paris and London - linked by a bond between women writers a hundred years apart." But I didn't find the romances irresistible, and I didn't have much sympathy for the author's overwrought emotions and insecurities. I loved the connections between the two women ("Victorian" Elizabeth Gaskell and "Romantic" Nell Stevens): writers, long-distance (international) romances that don't work out as hoped for, the author writing about the Victorian writer and the amazing similarities between the two women. I admired the way "truth is stranger than fiction" - and then the author actually gives her book three alternate endings - this is what ultimately endeared her to me, and now I will look for her first memoir, Bleaker House. ( )
In 2013 Nell is on the Eurostar heading towards Paris, on her way to visit her American friend Max, a friend with whom she is hopelessly (and unrequitedly) in love. Specifically, she's on her way to tell Max that she can no longer be his friend, that the strain of their purely platonic friendship is too much of a strain for her to cope with. But miracles happen: after months of denying any desire for a relationship Max decides that he too is in love, and the pair embark on a long-distance relationship, first across the English Channel, and then across the Atlantic once Max returns home to Boston. And as her relationship starts, Nell is also starting her PhD in Victorian literature at King's College in London, and struggling to focus. Why, when all the other graduate students are so specific about their subjects should be, is Nell so uncertain about her topic? The one constant that she has is that it should include Mrs Gaskell, the nineteenth century author of novels such as [Mary Barton] and [North and South]. And this is what forms the other half of the book, the fictionalised account of Mrs Gaskell's trip to Rome in 1855, and her friendship with the American Charles Elliot Norton who she met there.
I was a little unsettled in this book in not knowing what was true and what not. It's clearly based to some extent on Nell Stevens own life, but I've no idea to what extent. And how much of Mrs Gaskell's life is factual is equally vague. But I did enjoy it, and it's reminded me that I enjoy Mrs Gaskell's books (I've read [North and South] and [Wives and Daughters]) and perhaps it's time I read some more. ( )
Nell Stevens writes her PhD dissertation on the Roman adventures of Elizabeth Gaskell (1810-1865), and develops a unique sense of closeness to the Victorian author. At the same time Stevens also has a quite modern romance with a fellow writer, a man she met in her previous graduate program. The two narrative threads are loosely woven together in a way that worked for me, on balance, but which may not work for readers who are looking for thematic unity or who cannot tolerate faux second-person narration. This quick, engaging read (I read it in three sittings over a 24-hour period) is well worth picking up. ( )
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
For Amanda, Grace and Claudia
Ensimmäiset sanat
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
When you wanted to talk about your husband, you talked about sermons.
Sitaatit
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
Of writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others' uses, will write now for mine,-- Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is.
--Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Viimeiset sanat
Tiedot englanninkielisestä Yhteisestä tiedosta.Muokkaa kotoistaaksesi se omalle kielellesi.
His face amongst the others in the crowd was hopeful, smiling, sunlit, looking just as you first saw it.
"History meets memoir in two true-life love stories between two sets of writers--one unfolding in nineteenth century Rome, one in present-day Paris and London--which both reveal the longings and ambitions of the very contemporary Nell Stevens. In 1857, English novelist Elizabeth Gaskell completed her most famous work: the biography of her dear friend, the recently deceased Charlotte Bronte. As publication loomed Elizabeth was keen to escape the reviews and, leaving her wholesome, dull minister husband at home, traveled with her daughters to Rome. And it was there that she met the American writer and critic, Charles Eliot Norton. Seventeen years her junior, he was the love of her life. She knew they could never be together--it would be an unthinkable breach--but when she returned home to Mr. Gaskell, she discovered to her horror that while she was gone he had betrayed her--betrayed her work--in a way that she is not sure she can ever forgive. In 2013 Nell Stevens is in a PhD program in London, halfheartedly pursuing a post in academia to keep her afloat while she follows her true vocation as a writer. Her dissertation on the artistic expatriate community of nineteenth-century Rome isn't quite coming together. But questions of scholarly methodology take a back seat to her budding romance with Max, a soulful American with an unfinished screenplay. That is, until their relationship begins to founder, and the echoes between Nell's life and that of her historical subject become too strong to ignore. As these two storylines meet up in delightful, funny, and unexpected ways, The Victorian and the Romantic evokes the bittersweet ache of lost love and the consolations of female writerly ambition"--
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Google Books — Ladataan...
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Stevens' obsession (romance) with her boyfriend and with Gaskell, weave wonderfully with Gaskell’s own. Stevens' voice is warm, comforting, and engrossing; full of love, loss, and friendship, giving us a story that crosses time and continents. (