Which Virago Are you Reading? Part XIX

É uma continuação do tópico Which Virago Are you Reading? Part XVIII.

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Which Virago Are you Reading? Part XIX

1bleuroses
Mar 30, 2021, 4:50 pm

It's time for a new thread!

Virago Press started a new dedicated page on Facebook for their Virago Modern Classics Book Club.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/viragomodernclassicsbookclub

Their first book is Sisters by A River by Barbara Comyns which I'll be rereading.

There are 300 hundred members so far with quite a few of us in the mix. I don't think they have a cap on the number of members so if you're interested, please join in!

2kaggsy
Mar 31, 2021, 1:35 pm

Thanks Cate! Alas I don’t do Facebook but hopefully others will give a presence there!

3Sakerfalcon
Abr 1, 2021, 6:09 am

I've joined! I love Barbara Comyns and haven't read this one for a long time, so it will be great to reread and discuss it!

4lyzard
Abr 1, 2021, 4:25 pm

For those interested in the group read(s) of Margaret Oliphant's 'Carlingford' series, I will be setting up the thread for The Executor and The Rector over the weekend.

5lyzard
Abr 3, 2021, 8:06 pm

The thread is now up for discussion of The Executor and The Rector by Margaret Oliphant:

Here

Hope to see you there!

6Kristelh
Abr 4, 2021, 9:20 am

I am reading The Lost Traveller by Antonia White.

7lyzard
Maio 2, 2021, 6:42 pm

The thread is up for the next part of the group read of Margaret Oliphant's 'Chronicles of Carlingford': this month we will be reading The Doctor's Family.

All welcome!

Here

8kayclifton
Maio 8, 2021, 11:57 am

I have been reading Other People by Celia Dale. She is a Virago author but I don't think that the book is on the Virago list.

9elkiedee
Maio 8, 2021, 12:57 pm

I'm reading Rosa Guy's Bird at My Window, though I don't quite understand why Virago republished this and one of her other novels but seemingly not as Virago Modern Classics.

10lippincote
Maio 9, 2021, 9:13 am

I had a book by Rosa Guy that was one of my son's favorites. Billy the Great I had no idea she wrote adult books.

11spiralsheep
Editado: Maio 9, 2021, 9:16 am

I read Two Serious Ladies, by Jane Bowles, which is a batshit novel about terrible people and their alternately batshit and terrible lives. Bowles appears to be trying to render the banal as interesting and the interesting as banal, which didn't work for me. But this doesn't mean I didn't enjoy reading the book. So 3.5 for fun and 2.5 for style = 3*

I read the Virago Modern Classic reprint from 1979 which belonged to a local university before being accessioned to the county library system, and the old date stamp page which is still in the front reveals only 8 loans in 15 years. Sad lonely book.

12elkiedee
Maio 9, 2021, 11:07 am

>10 lippincote: I also had some of her books as a kid - what in the US are called middle grade adn YA books. I think she wrote a number of books for adults and I have A Measure of Time as well as the book I'm currently reading. Virago also published one book in a YA imprint, which I think I may have upstairs but my shelves of children's and YA books are double shelved and hidden behind boxes and piles of other books so my ability to find and access them is limited. There are also a lot of books on those shelves that I've not logged on LT (anything that was properly shelved before I started putting books on LT at the end of 2009 is probably buried behind the other books, unless I've hunted it out for my kids or myself to read).

13LyzzyBee
Maio 10, 2021, 9:50 am

I've just finished reading My Cousin Rachel for Ali's Daphne du Maurier Week (rude not to as she gave it to me for Christmas for that precise purpose!) What a page-turner! Goodness!

14Sakerfalcon
Maio 11, 2021, 7:10 am

>11 spiralsheep: I read Two serious ladies recently as well. "Batshit" describes it perfectly!

15spiralsheep
Editado: Maio 11, 2021, 7:47 am

>14 Sakerfalcon: The most favourited Two Serious Ladies review on goodreads is a work of genius: "This novel appears to have been written by someone who has not the faintest idea of what a novel actually is, who has overheard someone describing a novel very poorly once and thought ah, I must do that. And it further appears that the author has only the remotest notion of what human beings are like, what happens in peoples' lives, why they do the things they do. Also, it seems quite possible that the author was quite drunk when she wrote this (...)". :D

I'm now reading Keepers of the House by by Lisa St. Aubin de Terán which is described as an autobiographical novel but appears to be more of a gothic fairytale, at least so far.

Why do blurbers insist on pretending books are so much less interesting than they actually are? Are we to believe the book-buying public have such dulled mediocre taste? >;-)

16lippincote
Maio 12, 2021, 7:25 am

Ditto on Jane Bowles. I read that book after reading her husband's The Sheltering Sky. I usually do two books by an author, in case I picked up their worst novel first, but I don't believe I read another of hers.

17spiralsheep
Maio 12, 2021, 8:06 am

>16 lippincote: To be fair to Jane Bowles, at least two more parts of her original novel were cut from the printed version (if I understand correctly), although I'm not sure additional parts would've been an improvement. Those two (?) sections were subsequently printed as short stories. I'm not planning to read her short stories.

Reading Two Serious Ladies is certainly an experience. I'm just not sure what it's an experience of.... >;-)

18spiralsheep
Maio 12, 2021, 12:07 pm

I read Keepers of the House, by Lisa St Aubin de Terán, which is supposedly a semi-autobiographical novel, although the present date in the book is around 15 years too early for the author's time in Venezuela. The framing story is about a young English woman who marries into a landowning Venezuelan family and moves to her incapable husband's run-down sugar plantation in the Andes where she receives tenebrous tales of his family history from an elderly servant. The novel reads like a collection of short Hispanic-gothic literary fairytales about the rural gentry. These stories tell of lonely death, massacre, in-breeding, madness, disease, and famine (imagine if Aunt Ada Doom from Cold Comfort Farm came from Latin American rural gentry and had written a family history). Not my sort of thing, and nearly a dnf, but that's not the book's fault. 3*

19Sakerfalcon
Maio 13, 2021, 5:57 am

>15 spiralsheep: Haha, that review is perfect!
I do own the short stories and will probably get to them at some point.

20spiralsheep
Maio 13, 2021, 6:43 am

>19 Sakerfalcon: Apparently, Everything Is Nice: The Collected Stories contains three (not two) further parts cut from Two Serious Ladies. I can't quite imagine why I'm now tempted to read this collection, but I'm resisting that temptation with all my might.

I'm also now wondering if anyone has made a list of the worst/most extreme/oddest novels Virago published, especially back in the 80s when their brand was a bit more flexible. I've seen lists of best/favourite books but has anyone spotted worst/oddest lists anywhere?

21kac522
Maio 13, 2021, 4:31 pm

>20 spiralsheep: I'm not sure if this is "odd", but I have a Virago with a male author--Bernard Shaw's An Unsocial Socialist. It's the only male author I've seen, though perhaps there are more?

Haven't read it yet, so can't say if it's good, bad or indifferent.

22spiralsheep
Maio 13, 2021, 4:57 pm

>21 kac522: Yes, those four early reprints by men do stand out on the longer VMC list:

28 Unsocial Socialist, G. Bernard Shaw,
29 Ann Veronicav, H.G. Wells,
30 Diana of the Crossways, George Meredith,
31 The Odd Women, George Gissing.

I think the intended purpose and intended audience even of the VMCs within the wider Virago imprint has changed over the years.

23spiralsheep
Editado: Maio 13, 2021, 5:21 pm

>20 spiralsheep: To answer my own question.... although VMCs always included experimental modernist novels there are several slightly more extreme stylistic oddities such as Two Serious Ladies or The Hearing Trumpet.

I suppose the fantasy genre novels also stand out, e.g. Lolly Willowes and Travel Light.

Aphra Behn is a historically earlier author than usual for the list.

Sunlight on a Broken Column is definitely a literary classic but Attia Hosain stands out as the only non-white British subject on the list (iirc?) and I have wondered if including her work involved some persuasion from a certain publishing financier who knew the author.

And the sudden outbreak of male authors as >21 kac522: correctly pointed out.

Any other apparent oddities?

24elkiedee
Maio 13, 2021, 6:04 pm

Actually there are quite a few non British writers, though mostly white. From my shelves

Australia - Christina Stead, Janette Turner Hospital, Miles Franklin, Elizabeth Jolley, Katherine Susannah Prichard
New Zealand - a Katherine Mansfield novella, Janet Frame more recently though I think the Women's Press published her here first
South Africa - Olive Schreiner, Nadine Gordimer, Mary Benson
Canada - Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence
US - Edith Wharton, Willa Cather, Eudora Welty, Kaye Gibbons, Martha Gellhorn, Anzia Yezierska, Grace Paley, Ann Petry, Paule Marshall, Louise Meriwether, Mary McCarthy- and Rosa Guy but not in VMC
Caribbean - a novel by Grace Nichols but not VMC
Ireland - Molly Keane (though Anglo-Irish), Kate O'Brien, Moira Laverty

25mrspenny
Maio 13, 2021, 6:25 pm

>24 elkiedee: Also add:-

Italy - A Woman - Sibilla Aleramo;
Dominican Republic - The Orchid House - Phyllis Shand Allfrey.

26kaggsy
Maio 14, 2021, 1:08 am

I’d add Ivy Litvinov, who’s not an obvious choice for them - British born but married to a Soviet diplomat!

27kaggsy
Maio 14, 2021, 1:10 am

I’d actually argue that the VMC list is very broad and there isn’t a typical house style. My feeling is that the male authors were included because their books were important in the discussion of the ‘woman question’ of the time.

28spiralsheep
Editado: Maio 14, 2021, 6:12 am

>24 elkiedee: Yes, I know there are "non British" writers and that some of the Americans are African American, but Attia Hosain is the only non-white British subject and as I noted above she had extremely highly placed contacts. The fact that there are such a variety of writers represented on the list, including men, makes that absence of non-white British subjects rather glaring.

>27 kaggsy: "I’d actually argue that the VMC list is very broad and there isn’t a typical house style."

I'd agree that in the long term this might seem true, but that wasn't the intention at the beginning, and looking at the list it seems obvious to me when changes in editorial control occurred. But I was around at the time, living in London, and am probably more aware of what was going on behind the scenes.

"My feeling is that the male authors were included because their books were important in the discussion of the ‘woman question’ of the time."

I agree, but it is notable that only left/progressive male writers are represented, alongside the reprinting of left/progressive women writers who had arguably been excluded from the canon or reprints as much because of their "feminism" (using the broadest possible set of meanings for that term, e.g. "The radical notion that women are people") as because of their femaleness. But as I said before, it's perhaps more obvious to people who were around at the time that Virago was founded with particular aims.

Anyway, I don't want to be responsible for this thread veering away from the books. I was just curious about perceived odd duck books as I said in >20 spiralsheep: :-) ETA: specifically because I enjoy reading oddities! /ETA

29elkiedee
Maio 14, 2021, 8:31 am

>26 kaggsy: Yes, good one - I have the Litvinov somewhere.

And although Gellhorn was from the US, she actually spent a lot of her time living and working in various places - I read A Stricken Field, set in/about Prague in 1938 as the Nazis are moving in and Jews and others who have reasons to be afraid are in desperate queues at every embassy (most will be burned down, and they and the American journalist and other point of view outsider characters already know that they are in very real danger.

30elkiedee
Maio 14, 2021, 8:39 am

>28 spiralsheep: and >27 kaggsy: Looking at Virago from the 1970s and 1980s as well as more recently, I think the range of publishing choices has dated in a way more than the books have. That is, I love reading older books, but the older Virago lists do look a bit white now. It's a bit like some of the prize lists - yes, there are a few Indian and non white writers sneaking in to the Booker prize lists earlier, but I think expectations etc have really changed - the judges, the longlists, the shortlists etc all look rather different. And hopefully that will continue to change what publishers bring out, what bookshops stock, what public libraries buy, what books are used in schools.

31kaggsy
Maio 14, 2021, 2:00 pm

>30 elkiedee: Agreed! The list is of its time and place and I guess evolved as it went on to include a wider range of authors. Still very valuable though when you think how neglected women authors of the 20th century were at the time!

32kac522
Editado: Maio 14, 2021, 5:54 pm

>30 elkiedee: So true; let's hope so.
>31 kaggsy: Right. Back when these were being published, just recognizing forgotten women authors was going way, way outside the box. Remember that including women (or any non-white male, for that matter) in any kind of mainstream discussion/recognition/publication of literature was considered radical.
And yes, we can see now how authors of different countries and colors were neglected and sometimes deliberately excluded, so hopefully Virago and other publishers are making amends. But it had to start somewhere, and back then, they started with what they knew and could easily access.

33lippincote
Maio 15, 2021, 8:52 am

I remember the first Viragos on display in quality bookstores and thinking - Elizabeth Taylor writes novels!!!???

I also remember all the fuss about Jacob Bronowski's The Ascent of Man. Why no women or people of color etc? The justification was that women and people of color only became 'real' people very late in the day. Sadly, he had a point.

In Carmen Callil's recommended reading book The Modern Library she shows a strong bias towards Australasia, but then she was from there.

I don't like much in the VMC catalog after the Mae West novels. I think they hit a low there and never really recovered.

34Kristelh
Maio 23, 2021, 6:02 pm

I am reading Now in November by Josephine W. Johnson. Besides being a Pulitzer winner, I think it is a Virago.

35elkiedee
Maio 23, 2021, 7:21 pm

>34 Kristelh: It is. I have a VMC edition.. Quite a while ago, maybe about 20 years - after I moved into this house in 1998 but a long time before I logged my acquisitions online, a company selling bargain books, often in box sets, offered two sets of Virago Modern Classics, both offering about 10 books for only a little more than the full cover price of one, and this was in one of those boxes.

36Kristelh
Maio 25, 2021, 7:03 am

>35 elkiedee: thank you. What a deal you stumbled across!

37kac522
Maio 25, 2021, 5:53 pm

I finished 3 Virago books this month:
--Fraulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther by Elizabeth von Arnim--a one-sided "love" affair told through letters
--The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby (1924)--following our shy heroine Muriel from age 11 in 1910 through 1920, as she comes into her own.
--William by E. H. Young (1925)--a witty portrait of family life at the turn of the 20th century with grown-up married children, which is sometimes not explored as well as other topics. How parents worry about their married children, and whether they are "happy."

...and I loved them all, each one better than the last!

38Sakerfalcon
Maio 26, 2021, 5:55 am

I've read all three of those and loved them too!

39spiralsheep
Jun 19, 2021, 12:23 pm

I read Poison for Teacher, by Nancy Spain, which is a 1949 camp comedy, murder mystery, girl's school novel with an lgb(t) bent. This is technically the fifth book in a loose series of nine but it works as a standalone. The protagonist is a retired "Russian" ballerina who has recently left her husband to move in with her female friend. Her side-kick is a revue actress turned detective, based on real life star Hermione Gingold at her own request as, according to the author, she literally asked Spain to "Send me up as far as you like, but I do so want to be in a book...". They are employed as fake teachers at Radcliff Hall School for Girls (supposedly named after the red cliffs of Sussex and not anything, or anyone, else). Spain's writing style is the same as her performing style: a rapid succession of humour, clues, and red herrings. If you don't get one joke or clue then don't worry because several more will arrive almost immediately. 3.5*

40lippincote
Jun 20, 2021, 10:32 am

I am old enough to remember Nancy Spain from What's My Line etc. I also remember when she died in a plane crash. I had no idea she wrote books and had presumed that someone else was using her name to write modern novels. At some point over the decades I figured out she was gay but, of course, that was never discussed at the time. I just looked her up on Wikipedia and was comforted to see that she died with her long term partner. What an interesting woman she was.

41spiralsheep
Jun 20, 2021, 11:19 am

>40 lippincote: Thank you for those reminiscences. I'm not quite old enough to remember her but the older generations of my family certainly did. Her books are very much at the witty end of the murder mystery spectrum, as I'm sure those who knew her broadcast work would expect, and she didn't neglect the mystery plot either (it's clear she thought more of Sayers than Christie as authors). They're not Great Literature, but they are great fun. She also wrote several volumes of autobiography, which I haven't read but understand to be more about her travels and encounters than about herself. I don't know how much her life partner features but I'm sure she mentions Gilbert Harding, who was also gay and Spain's public faux romance for a while.

42elkiedee
Jun 20, 2021, 11:48 am

Not a Virago but I found a memoir by Nancy Spain, Why I'm Not a Millionaire, in a fairly old (1950s?) World Book Club hardback edition, in one of my many boxes of books that have no shelf space to live on.

43spiralsheep
Jun 20, 2021, 12:07 pm

>42 elkiedee: Your edition wasn't a Virago but they are in the process of republishing much of her work, including her memoir Why I'm Not a Millionaire and the later A Funny Thing Happened on the Way in addition to some/all (?) of her detective novels.

44Stuck-in-a-Book
Jul 6, 2021, 5:40 am

I'm just about to re-read my VMC copy of A Pin To See The Peepshow by F Tennyson Jesse for the exciting reason that it'll be a British Library Women Writers reprint in October!

45Sakerfalcon
Jul 6, 2021, 7:31 am

>44 Stuck-in-a-Book: That is such a good book! It will be marvellous to have it back in print again!

46elkiedee
Jul 6, 2021, 7:59 am

>43 spiralsheep: I now have a Netgalley of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way and I think it's being published by another imprint, Weidenfeld and Nicolson/Orion though it's not as obvious without a physical cover. And yes, there is a planned resissue of the book I have a much older copy of. Still, as I can't afford to buy all those lovely looking new books and I have nowhere to store them, it's a lovely discovery. I'm still finding totally forgotten treasures in my cardboard boxes, though it never seems to be the book I'm actually searching for at the time.

I would think it would make more sense to bring her memoirs out with the novels, and make them all Virago, for cross marketing purposes, especially as the non fiction is about women having independent adventures and Virago readers/collectors would seem like a natural audience.

>44 Stuck-in-a-Book: Exciting news. I liked it very much when I read it years ago in a non Virago, ex library hardback edition. I have a slightly battered VMC copy and have been meaning to reread it for a few years, perhaps since I read Jill Dawson's fictionalised version of the sane murder trial story, Fred and Edie.

47kayclifton
Jul 31, 2021, 2:52 pm

I just finished reading It Ends With Revelations by Dodie Smith. Before that I read her The New Moon With the Old and It Ends With Revelations and next on my list will be A Town in Bloom.

48kac522
Jul 31, 2021, 5:54 pm

In case you missed it, the All Virago/All August 2021 thread is open:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/333824

49Sakerfalcon
Ago 4, 2021, 7:07 am

I've just started The ship of widows, a rare Russian title from Virago (not a VMC though).

50elkiedee
Ago 4, 2021, 5:19 pm

I just realised that one of the books I'm reading is from my collection of Virago Modern Classics - The Eye of Love by Margery Sharp. However, I'm distracted at the moment by a huge quantity of library books.

And I've just returned Paula Byrne's recent biography of a Virago author, Barbara Pym to the library. Paula Byrne mentions somewhere that she discovered Pym's books through the VMC reprints. I'd heard of PYm before that, possibly through the Philip Larkin connection, but think I actually finally started reading the books in Virago editions.

51JayneCM
Ago 5, 2021, 6:22 am

>50 elkiedee: I do love Barbara Pym. I really enjoyed Quartet In Autumn.

52kayclifton
Ago 5, 2021, 2:56 pm

My next reread is A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym and I just finished her Some Tame Gazelle. I find her books soothing.

53lyzard
Ago 26, 2021, 7:17 pm

There will be a group read of Margaret Oliphant's Salem Chapel next month; I will probably be setting the thread up next Friday, to make a start over the weekend. I will post here again when we're ready to go.

All welcome! :)

54Sakerfalcon
Ago 27, 2021, 7:36 am

I've been posting in the AV/AA thread but to catch up here - this month I've read
The ship of widows
Bobbin up
My next bride
Laughing torso
and have started
Poison for teacher.

In a happy coincidence, when googling for images of Nina Hamnett's paintings I discovered that there is an exhibition of her work on at Charleston (Vanessa Bell's home) so I've made plans to go there this weekend!

55LyzzyBee
Ago 28, 2021, 8:07 am

56kaggsy
Ago 28, 2021, 12:25 pm

>54 Sakerfalcon: That's a brilliant selection of books - will look forward to hear what you think about Poison for Teacher. And very jealous about the Charleston visit - the exhibition looks amazing!

57lyzard
Set 3, 2021, 10:10 pm

The thread is up for the group read of Margaret Oliphant's Salem Chapel - here.

All welcome! :)

58kaggsy
Set 12, 2021, 12:34 pm

Just started a Virago I picked up recently in a second hand shop - A Death in the Faculty by Amanda Cross. It's a Virago Crime Fiction rather than a VMC, but it sounded rather intriguing. Very rooted in the sexual politics of the 1980s at the moment, but enjoyable so far. I'm tempted to explore the Virago Crime Fiction imprint more - I wonder if there is a list anywhere???

59LyzzyBee
Set 13, 2021, 2:33 am

>58 kaggsy: I have read a couple of those and they are great. No word from Winifred is a good one. No idea about the list though!

60kaggsy
Set 13, 2021, 11:14 am

>59 LyzzyBee: Fab! I'm enjoying this one so far!!

61Sakerfalcon
Editado: Set 13, 2021, 11:42 am

>58 kaggsy: I read a bunch of the Kate Fansler mysteries last year and really enjoyed them. I love the academic setting. The first two in the series were badly dated in their attitudes, but the rest were very good.

>59 LyzzyBee: That was one of the best I've read!

62kaggsy
Set 14, 2021, 6:30 am

>61 Sakerfalcon: That's good to know - I'm enjoying this one a lot, though there is much in gender politics which has changed. But have been moved to send off for another! :D

63kayclifton
Set 15, 2021, 3:58 pm

I am just beginning a reread of Memento Mori by Muriel Spark. I reread two of her other books and enjoyed them more than on the first reading. It's an interesting phenomenon.

64kayclifton
Set 20, 2021, 5:14 pm

I gave up on Memento Mori and have just begun the book Growing Up by Angela Thirkell. I borrowed the book from the library and it's not a Virago. Her books suit me at certain times.

65lippincote
Set 21, 2021, 9:37 am

I also didn't enjoy Memento Mori. I find that with Spark. Love it or meh! I LOVED The Prime of Jean Brodie The Mandelbaum Gate and A Far Cry From Kensington.

66kac522
Set 21, 2021, 1:32 pm

>65 lippincote: Good to know--I have both Memento Mori and A Far Cry from Kensington on the TBR. Now I know which one to pick up first.

67kayclifton
Set 21, 2021, 4:19 pm

>65 lippincote: lippincote: By any chance is your user name taken from the book At Mrs Lippincote's. It is one of my favorite Elizabeth Taylor novels.

68lippincote
Set 22, 2021, 8:31 am

Yes - I used to be Romain, on here since 2008 but one day I did something - who knows what and my account went dark. It's still there but it doesn't seem to be connected to this group anymore. In the end I gave up and started over as Lippincote because of the ET book. I tried to be Lippincote when I came to this group first in 2008 but someone else had it. I guess they were gone when I started anew. It's my favorite ET and the first VMC I read.

69kayclifton
Set 23, 2021, 3:03 pm

Gave up on Growing Up by Angela Thirkell. Reading about the gentry isn't my cup of tea at this time so I turned to one of my favorites Miss Read who once again writes about the ordinary folk in News From Thrush Green.

70kac522
Set 23, 2021, 5:25 pm

>69 kayclifton: I am reading all the Thrush Green books in order and that is next up for me. I hope to get to it soon. Have a couple of more serious books to finish first.

71LyzzyBee
Set 24, 2021, 3:59 am

Oh I love the Thrush Green books and I'm feeling I might do a project on them after my Larry McMurtry year next year.

72kayclifton
Set 25, 2021, 3:29 pm

>71 LyzzyBee: LizzyBee: What type of project?

73LyzzyBee
Set 26, 2021, 1:53 pm

>72 kayclifton: Oh sorry, nothing exciting, just a project to read them all within the year. I usually have such a thing going on - I'm doing Anne Tyler this year (two a month: a mistake, really), then Larry McMurtry next year ...

74kayclifton
Set 26, 2021, 3:39 pm

>73 LyzzyBee: LyzzyBee: I've never read any books by Anne Tyler so would be interested in any discussion of her works.

75lippincote
Set 27, 2021, 9:08 am

Me too Lyzzy. I think I've read them all and found them variable. You?

76LyzzyBee
Set 28, 2021, 1:19 am

Yes, I have indeed found them variable - I have read them all, from a certain point as they came out, though haven't done the last two yet. Here's a link to the project page where you can find links to my reviews for all of them so far (up to Noah's Compass) and also links to other people's reviews who've been reading along with me, if that's of interest: https://librofulltime.wordpress.com/about/anne-tyler-re-read-project-2021/

77lippincote
Set 28, 2021, 9:04 am

A quick scan of your list shows me that I have not read them all. I had no idea about her very early stuff. I start with Celestial Navigation and from that point I have read all of them up until 2016 except Noah's Compass and the two last ones. I started reading her when we were stationed in Germany with a tiny base library and zero choice. I used to get Time Magazine back then and I read a review of one of her 90's novels and started there.

78LyzzyBee
Set 28, 2021, 9:50 am

>77 lippincote: Aha! She has apparently disowned her first four but I enjoyed them! Interesting how you found out about her - I was given a copy of one of her novels by my American then-boyfriend and was hooked.

79kayclifton
Set 28, 2021, 4:49 pm

I just got a copy of The Beginner's Goodbye from a library and look forward to a discussion about it.

80LyzzyBee
Set 29, 2021, 3:58 am

Oh, excellent! I will be reviewing it on my blog on 10 October (I have a strict reviewing schedule for the books but then people continue to chat about each book once the review is up) so look forward to you popping by once that's up. Hope you enjoy the book!

81kayclifton
Set 29, 2021, 3:08 pm

Since discovering "Virago Modern Classics" almost every book that I have read has had a female protagonist and I find myself rather flummoxed coping with a book written from a man's perspective as in The Beginner's Goodbye. I find it difficult to identify with him but I will finish the book and then give it some thought.

82BeyondEdenRock
Dez 14, 2021, 10:53 am

I have just picked up Told by an Idiot by Rose Macaulay and am loving the mixture of history, family saga and satire. It is completely different to anything else I have read recently.

83kayclifton
Dez 14, 2021, 2:35 pm

I have just begun reading Rose Macaulay's Crewe Train and just realized that it's the same name as the Abbess of Crewe. Is that a place name?

84kaggsy
Dez 14, 2021, 3:51 pm

85kayclifton
Dez 19, 2021, 2:14 pm

I have just finished Crewe Train and found nothing in the plot of the book to explain the significance of the title. Has anyone else read it and can explain it?

86elkiedee
Editado: Jan 5, 2022, 11:42 pm

I read the novel a long time ago and can't remember why, but apparently it's a reference to a music hall song called Oh Mr Porter - a girl has found herself on the wrong train.

Crewe is a town in the south of Cheshire, north west England - south of Manchester, and Liverpool (and the location of quite a lot of posh suburbs and commuterland), north of Birmingham, where the Midlands meets the North of England. However, Crewe is one of the towns in Cheshire which doesn't have such cachet, though I'm sure the transport links are handy, but I've no doubt it has also been affected since RM's day by post industrial decline.

Lots of railway lines meet there and it was very common to change at Crewe to make journeys between places around England (and parts of Wales too), more a place to change than a destination.

87kayclifton
Dez 21, 2021, 3:04 pm

>86 elkiedee: elkiedee
Thanks for this information.
The young female protagonist in the book is on a metaphoric "wrong train".

88lyzard
Editado: Fev 2, 2022, 4:29 pm

I have more or less accidentally read my first Virago in ages (I really want to do better!), joining a shared read of Willa Cather's The Song Of The Lark, about a girl from a small town pursuing her dream of being a singer. This is one of Cather's "Prairie Trilogy", and while I enjoyed all of it, I found the first half of the protagonist's childhood in a small, isolated Colorado town more engaging.

89kac522
Fev 2, 2022, 6:11 pm

>88 lyzard: I've got that on the shelf as my next Cather to read. Your description reminds me of her book One of Ours, which is set in WWI, with the first half set in pre-WWI Nebraska (or Kansas--some place rural Midwest) was better than the second half, which was more about WWI and post-WWI.

90lyzard
Fev 2, 2022, 6:19 pm

>89 kac522:

Yes, that sounds similar. I found the protagonist more interesting as a confused child than a single-minded adult.

91mrspenny
Editado: Fev 3, 2022, 5:15 am

>88 lyzard:, >89 kac522: I decided I would undertake a serious project this year so I have started on the works of Willa Cather and Edith Wharton. I have started with the very early short stories of both writers although I have already read some of their later works. Even in her early work, Cather immediately engages this reader with her writing style. I find it a bit harder to engage with Whartons early stories.

92Sakerfalcon
Editado: Fev 3, 2022, 6:42 am

>91 mrspenny: What a wonderful project! I love both Cather and Wharton and envy you the journey of (re)discovery!

ETA I am finishing up Spinster before starting on either A shutter of snow or Tell me a riddle and Yonnondio for the February reading challenge.

93elkiedee
Fev 3, 2022, 10:42 am

>91 mrspenny: Sounds like a great project. Maybe another year I'll do this - I've also had copies of biographies of both writers by Hermione Lee TBR for a very long time - and I should work these into my reading plans at some point, but at the moment I'm prioritisiing biography and history books that I've borrowed from the library, as sometimes I end up only reading the shiny new books with a large reservation queue.

94kayclifton
Fev 3, 2022, 2:37 pm

I've read a number of Cather's books. Lucy Gayheart and in spite of its tragic ending is the most memorable for me.

95lyzard
Fev 3, 2022, 4:06 pm

>91 mrspenny:

Oh, lovely!

96mrspenny
Fev 6, 2022, 3:03 am

>93 elkiedee:, >94 kayclifton:, >95 lyzard: - I have Lee’s biography of Edith Wharton but not one of Willa Cather so it is included in the project. I hope to find one of Cather sometime during the year. I am planning to get really going after I finish the latest Dr Ruth Galloway title which has just been released. :-)

97elkiedee
Fev 7, 2022, 1:51 pm

>96 mrspenny: Is that The Locked Room, published on my son's 13th birthday least week? If so, I'm jealous. One of my library services has 2 copies on order and I think I am 2nd in the queue - but that's of 4 so I will need to get on with reading once I get hold of it. She has a non-Ruth novel coming in September too....

Good luck with your Wharton & Cather reading project.

98mrspenny
Fev 12, 2022, 6:56 pm

>97 elkiedee: : Yes - it is The Locked Room and I have to confess I haven't started it yet. Our internet service is down and has been for over two weeks - thus the late reply.
Meanwhile, I am pushing on with Cather's Short Stories and really enjoying them.
I'm afraid Edith is lagging a bit behind in that regard but I will get to them again shortly.

Have you read any of D.S. Alex Cupidi novels? the author is William Shaw, (Not as entertaining as Dr Galloway (IMHO) but enjoyable.

99BeyondEdenRock
Fev 14, 2022, 7:05 am

>97 elkiedee: Only 4? There are 77 in the queue in Cornwall before the book is in stock! Fortunately I am a good few books behind.

>96 mrspenny: Have you read Kate Rhodes, I wonder? The Dr Ruth Galloway novels made me think of her when I started reading, though they are quite different.

100lippincote
Fev 14, 2022, 7:54 am

I just finished the 5th Ruth Galloway and was disappointed. I thought it was just a filler book to move the personal stuff forward. The mystery was a complete non-event.

101elkiedee
Fev 15, 2022, 11:54 am

>99 BeyondEdenRock: How many copies though are on order? Hopefully more than one across your large county. I'm in London where we have 33 different boroughs each with their own library service, and those on the outskirts, stretching out beyond what anyone in London or beyond would consider part of this city. I think each type of service has its pros and cons.

>100 lippincote: For someone who loves crime fiction and has lots of favourite series, series that I started so long ago I may need to start from the beginning, and books in series that I haven't even started reading yet but want to, I'm a bit strange in that I'm more interested in characters, and Elly Griffiths' strength is in creating characters I care about and rarely in her plotting.

#13 in the Ruth Galloway series was clearly written after March 2020 and set in autumn 2019, and staff have to attend a presentation about Zoom and online teaching/learning etc and I've been wondering how everyone is coping ever since I read it (police as well as university staff).

102kayclifton
Fev 15, 2022, 2:38 pm

I am currently rereading A Few Green Leaves by Barbara Pym. I enjoy visiting her small village and meeting the characters who dwell there.

103BeyondEdenRock
Fev 18, 2022, 12:29 pm

>101 elkiedee: I won't know how many copies until they appear in stock. Usually they buy a copy of mainstream popular books for most branches (28 plus 2 mobiles) so hopefully most people in the queue won't have too long to wait.

104lyzard
Fev 21, 2022, 5:57 pm

Hi, all:

Our first group read of the year will be in March: we will be continuing our read through Margaret Oliphant's Carlingford Chronicles, with The Perpetual Curate. I will post again when the thread is up. All welcome! :)

105Sakerfalcon
Fev 22, 2022, 11:01 am

>104 lyzard: Thanks for the heads-up! I will be joining you for this.

106lyzard
Fev 28, 2022, 10:07 pm

107lyzard
Fev 28, 2022, 10:07 pm

And the thread is now up for the group read of The Perpetual Curate:

Here

Hope to see you there! :)

108SassyLassy
Mar 5, 2022, 10:41 am

Just finished The Birds Fall Down and was completely wrapped up in it. Now I need to find my copy of her The Meaning of Treason to go with it.

109kayclifton
Mar 5, 2022, 2:25 pm

I'm now reading A Glass of Blessings by Barbara Pym. She's been one of my mainstays during the pandemic.

110Stuck-in-a-Book
Maio 18, 2022, 3:58 am

I've just read A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence, which I've had on my shelves for 15 years - and I'm glad I kept it, as it's so wonderful. Full review at stuckinabook.com, for those interested!

111kayclifton
Maio 19, 2022, 4:07 pm

I have begun rereading Nightingale Wood by Gibbons. I chose it because i have nice memories of it and hope that I will enjoy it as well on the second reading.

112elkiedee
Maio 22, 2022, 5:24 pm

I had to put down my VMC for a while because I found it very difficult to read print books or anything else on which I couldn't change the settings to something quite weird (to me) for several months. I found that I had cataracts. I now have one good new eye (including the replacement of part of my eye with a synthetic "lens" I gather, and after time for that to heal and weeks of eyedrops and a consultation, the other eye will be treated.

So I'm now continuing to read Death Goes on Skis by Nancy Spain, the first of 3 in her crime series that Virago have reprinted, although I have realised that the LT listing is wrong and the other series listing I've seen indicating that Skis and the other two books available from Virago are actually mid series.

This is an odd mix of mid 20th century amateur sleuth crime novel and social comedy, but it is quite entertaining.

I've also just started reading Lennie Gooding's memoir of her life working for Virago A Bite of the Apple, though intriguingly this is published by OUP not Virago.

113lippincote
Maio 25, 2022, 9:24 am

Gosh Elk - Hope you are now much better. We all seem to reach the cataract thing sooner or later. Good luck with the second op.

114kayclifton
Maio 29, 2022, 3:14 pm

I am continuing to read and enjoy Nightingale Wood while alternating it with a Dorothy L Sayers mystery Clouds of Witness.

115Sakerfalcon
Maio 30, 2022, 8:20 am

>114 kayclifton: I loved Nightingale Wood - a very unromantic romance!

116kayclifton
Jun 21, 2022, 3:38 pm

I am now reading Barbara Pym's Civil to Strangers. I may not finish it but will give it a try. It's a bit of a downer.

117kac522
Editado: Jun 24, 2022, 12:01 pm

For the June 2022 Themed Read I finished The Feast by Margaret Kennedy and loved it. It's not published by Virago, but Kennedy is a Virago author.

But I have some very spoiler-y questions for those who have read it:

Spoiler Question 1:I read the Intro after finishing the book. The "Seven Deadly Sins" connection was brilliant, but I had no idea about it until I read the Intro. Is there a hint in the text to this idea? Did you figure this out yourself just by reading the novel?

Spoiler Question 2:Why is Mrs Siddal "saved" at the last moment? She didn't seem a particularly good person, although not totally evil, either. But she was irritating in some ways. Did she redeem herself somehow?

Thanks for any insights!

(Posted here and in the June 2022 Themed Read Thread)

118elkiedee
Jun 24, 2022, 1:08 pm

>117 kac522: I haven't read The Feast yet but am looking forward to it. I had borrowed it from the library as an ebook last year but then it's been a UK Kindle offer for a couple of weeks, at 99p.

119surtsey
Jul 20, 2022, 9:49 am

>117 kac522: It's been a few years since I read The Feast, so I can't remember, but this makes me want to re-read it to find out the answers!

I just finished Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pym. I see why people consider it to be her most mature work. It will probably linger with me more than some of the lighter ones.

120kayclifton
Ago 26, 2022, 3:40 pm

I've just begun a reread of Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark.

121kayclifton
Ago 28, 2022, 3:27 pm

After I began reading Loitering with Intent, I realized that I hadn't read it before. it has quirky characters and a comical plot so it's a fund read for late summer.

122lyzard
Set 27, 2022, 2:18 am

There will be a group read of Margaret Oliphant's Miss Marjoribanks next month. I will be creating the thread either Friday or Saturday, and will post back here when I have.

All welcome!

123lyzard
Out 1, 2022, 7:12 pm

The thread is now up for the group read of Miss Marjoribanks - here.

I will hope to see you there. :)

124Nickelini
Jan 30, 2023, 11:38 pm

I haven't been reading much these last few years, so haven't wandered into this group for a while. Let me know if I should have posted this elsewhere.

>112 elkiedee:
I just read that too! Here are my comments:

Death Goes On Skis, Nancy Spain, 1949


cover comments: Absolutely love this. I use vintage travel posters in my vacation photo books, so this is very much my aesthetic. Also, this scene happened in the novel, so bonus points.

Comments: In 2020 Virago republished this 1949 novel.

It's February 1947 and a large group of loosely connected English people travel to a ski resort in the central European country of Schizo-Frenia, where most of the inhabitants speak German and the currency is the franc - just like their neighbour Switzerland. English people who could travel to the Alps in 1947 were naturally wealthy and, in this case, very spoiled and nasty. There is the perfume company owner who was a huge drip, but who most of the females in the book are crushing hard on; there are his two unpleasant daughters who are both teenagers and little children simultaneously, there is a Russian ballerina (who I think was supposed to be the protagonist?), and a famous film star, and several female characters--all admirable in some way--throwing off strong lesbian vibes. A few miserable, weak men, and so on. There were a handful of local cardboard characters.

This is a novel that I'm sure some have described as a "lark" and where rich Brits behave in selfish and silly ways, and there are a couple of murders, but no one is too fussed about that. Especially the newly widowed husbands. It's all veddy English in that "tally ho, pip pip and all that rot" sort of way. It was rather light and amusing at times, but for the last 1/5th I was entirely frustrated with these shallow, horrid people. But the last 3 pages were quite surprising and did redeem the novel, somewhat.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Why I Read This Now: I love a book set in the Alps

How I Discovered This: Simon Savidge of Savidge Reads. I'd never heard of Nancy Spain. She sounds like a fascinating character on her own.

Recommended for: readers who like silly novels that might be described as a murder mystery with distasteful characters

125elkiedee
Jan 31, 2023, 5:00 am

>124 Nickelini: Death Goes on Skis is actually one of a series of about 9 novels, though I think Virago has republished 4 of them so far. Skis is about #3 or #4 but it's the earliest book that Virago has brought back into print. I've had the next two in my library TBR for ages.

126kac522
Jan 31, 2023, 5:03 pm

Come join the new 2023 project to celebrate 50 years of Virago!

Master thread here to see the year's schedule: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348159#
February thread here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/348128#

127Sakerfalcon
Fev 2, 2023, 4:56 am

I've just started reading Maurice Guest. I realised why I haven't read it before when I opened the book - very dense, small type. But the story is good so far.

128elkiedee
Fev 4, 2023, 1:37 pm

I'm reading The Vet's Daughter by Barbara Comyns - think I must have first read it in the 1990s because I had a copy. I have an old green and a more recent reissue, both VMCs, different introductions, I think. I'm actually reading my more recent copy with an intro by another favourite author, Jane Gardam, and an earlier intro by Comyns, but I think I will probably get down the older edition to see if it is indeed the one with an intro by Celia Brayfield too!

129kayclifton
Fev 4, 2023, 2:43 pm

I plan to read For Love Alone by Christina Stead.

130kaggsy
Editado: Mar 14, 2023, 11:19 am

Currently dipping into the new Furies anthology, for the 50th anniversary of Virago. Starts off with Margaret Atwood, so has to be good!

131elkiedee
Mar 13, 2023, 1:37 pm

>130 kaggsy: Wow at 50th birthday celebration. I somehow got to go to a much earlier anniversary party with my mum - maybe that was 20 years. I was much too shy to dare speak to anyone.

132kaggsy
Mar 14, 2023, 11:19 am

>131 elkiedee: I would have been too!!!

133LyzzyBee
Mar 17, 2023, 3:45 pm

O I would have been super-shy! I can't work out how it's 10 years since the 40th anniv collection!

134kac522
Mar 19, 2023, 6:01 pm

elkiedee posted this on another thread:

Rupert Heath, founder of Dean Street Press, including the Furrowed Middlebrow imprint - a reprint publisher - has died of a heart attack at the age of only 54, a few weeks after his wife died of cancer.

http://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.com/

135kaggsy
Mar 24, 2023, 6:04 am

>134 kac522: Such sad news.

136kaggsy
Editado: Mar 24, 2023, 6:17 am

Have just read a book that has been a Virago but my edition was the recent Manderley Press reissue - The Fly on the Wheel by Katherine Cecil Thurston. A really good and evocative story, and I'm glad I finally got to it. Unfortunately, I don't think it counts for this month's reading event!

ETA: you can read my thoughts here! https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/a-volcano-is-quiet-till...

137Sakerfalcon
Mar 24, 2023, 7:54 am

>136 kaggsy: I read that last year and really liked it! It was well written and gripping, and brilliantly explored the time, place and class in which it was set.

138Sakerfalcon
Mar 24, 2023, 7:58 am

>134 kac522: I'm really sorry to hear this. Furrowed Middlebrow has brought so many undeservedly forgotten books back into print. They will stand as his legacy.

139elkiedee
Mar 24, 2023, 12:19 pm

>134 kac522: Thanks for sharing my post here for me. I was very sad to read this too.

140kaggsy
Mar 26, 2023, 5:46 am

>137 Sakerfalcon: Exactly that! An excellent book and just surprised it's not better known - hopefully the new edition will help a bit. I'm sure I had it in a Virago once...

141Sakerfalcon
Mar 27, 2023, 8:53 am

>140 kaggsy: The new edition is lovely!

142lyzard
Mar 27, 2023, 6:29 pm

A reminder (rather belated, sorry!) that there will be a group read of Margaret Oliphant's Phoebe Junior next month. I will be setting up the thread over the weekend. All welcome!

143lyzard
Mar 27, 2023, 6:30 pm

>134 kac522:

That is dreadful news, terribly cruel.

144lyzard
Abr 2, 2023, 5:46 pm

The thread is now up for the group read of Margaret Oliphant's Phoebe, Junior:

Here

I will hope to see you there. :)

145kaggsy
Abr 24, 2023, 9:02 am

Have just started reading I'll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier for HeavenAli's DDM Reading Week - loving the writing so far, but I want to give the narrator a good shaking!!!

146kayclifton
Maio 6, 2023, 2:51 pm

I just finished reading Marriage by Susan Ferrier and enjoyed it very much. It's interesting to be temporarily immersed in the lives and mores of people (especially women) in the 19th century. Their lives were so circumscribed.

147Sakerfalcon
Maio 11, 2023, 5:58 am

I've started She knew she was right and I love it so far!

148kaggsy
Maio 13, 2023, 4:19 pm

149kaggsy
Maio 13, 2023, 4:20 pm

I really struggled with the DDM book in the end - my full thoughts here… 🙁😬

https://kaggsysbookishramblings.wordpress.com/2023/05/12/the-pompous-mouthings-o...

150kayclifton
Jun 1, 2023, 3:35 pm

I'm almost finished reading Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth Von Arnim and I'm very much enjoying it. I'm not sure where it is on the VMC list.

151lyzard
Set 27, 2023, 7:20 pm

With apologies for the late notice---

There will be a group read on October of Elizabeth Gaskell's Curious, If True and George Eliot's The Lifted Veil.

The plan for this group read is to push it through into November, so that each individual short work is given proper consideration.

I will be setting up the thread over the weekend, and will post here again when it is up.

All welcome!

152lyzard
Set 30, 2023, 8:27 pm

The thread is now up for the group read of Elizabeth Gaskell's Curious, If True and George Eliot's The Lifted Veil - here.

Because we are dealing with a number of short works, the group read will be conducted differently than it usually is, so if you are thinking of participating, please drop in and check the arrangements.

Hope to see you there!

153LisaMorr
Fev 5, 9:41 am

Beside The Devastating Boys, I'm also reading Beyond These Walls: Escaping the Warsaw Ghetto. I didn't realize there were any VMC autobiographies.

154elkiedee
Fev 5, 4:58 pm

>153 LisaMorr: I think Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth and Janet Frame's An Angel at My Table - an omnibus edition of 3 volumes of memoir - are now VMCs. ToY was previously published by Virago and in non Virago editions, and the omnibus AAaMT was published by the Women's Press - I think the 3 original were issued by other publishers before that. I have a memory of borrowing at least one or two from the libraries but it would have been about 30 years ago. Anti apartheid Ruth First's memoir of imprisonment, 117 Days, is another, and I'm sure there are more autobiographies/memoirs and other non fiction. My impression is that VMCs were originally all fiction, but Virago also published quite a lot of non fiction, some as other series books, like Virago Travellers.

155LisaMorr
Fev 7, 10:19 am

>154 elkiedee: Thanks for the info!

156Kristelh
Fev 7, 12:19 pm

Just finished Memento Mori by Muriel Spark. I liked it and I like the books that I've read by this author.

157mrspenny
Fev 7, 10:02 pm

I am reading Excellent Women by the wonderful author Barbara Pym. It is a very entertaining work and made doubly enjoyable as one of the characters is so like a dear friend who is always chasing up items for her church ‘white elephant’ sale.