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Thornfield Hall | A Book Blog - Books & Literature
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Radical Feminism vs. Cancel Culture – Thornfield Hall
One day in the 1970s, I sat in a crowded auditorium at the Student Union. Although there were a few men, the audience was primarily women. Everyone was restless and excited. We were there to see Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique. This feminist text was my introduction to feminism. And why isn’t Betty…
An Italian Predecessor of “The Group” & the Threat of the Algorithm in a Women’s Prize-longlisted Novel – Thornfield Hall
Version 1.0.0 Fans of the Italian writer Alba de Cespedes (1911-1997), the author of Forbidden Notebook, will love her first novel, There’s No Turning Back. It reminds me of Mary McCarthy’s The Group: both tell the stories of eight women who are friends in their university days. There’s No Turning Back was published in 1938…
Physical Appearance in Charlotte Bronte’s “Villette” – Thornfield Hall
Charlotte Bronte’s most popular novel is Jane Eyre, but Villette is by far her most complex, and my favorite. This near-psychedelic maze of a novel charts the narrator Lucy’s survival in a foreign country, her challenges as a working woman, and the price of solitude – illness, hallucinations, and mental breakdown - when she lives…
The Ziplock Dickens – Thornfield Hall
My dream job has been announced on Instagram. The Charles Dickens Museum is hiring!We're delighted to announce this rare opportunity to join our museum as a curator. Working to maintain the museum as a high-profile heritage site, you'll develop visitor-facing programs including displays and exhibitions, as well as undertaking key aspects of collections management and…
THE THORNFIELD HALL NEWSLETTER – Thornfield Hall
Spring 2025, Issue 4 In this issue, I consider the pros and cons of Zoom, show you my latest collectible books, and "review" a charming collection of John Verney's humor writing and cartoons. Va-va Voom! It’s a Zoom World! “Then the faces of all the other women in our book group popped up, each in…
The Sadness of the War Horse – Thornfield Hall
post bellator equus positis insignibus Aethon/ it lacrimans guttisque umectat grandibus ora. - Virgil’s Aeneid For months I've been haunted by the crying warhorse in Virgil’s Aeneid. Aethon (Blaze) mourns the death of his master with tears. “After his splendid trappings are put aside, the warhorse Aethon walks crying and wets his face with abundant…
Waiting for the Women’s Prize – Thornfield Hall
Winner of the first Orange Prize (Women's Prize), 1996 I am a literary award freak. I love the Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the P. G. Wodehouse Prize... And I have followed The Women’s Prize through three incarnations, since its inception in 1996. First it was the Orange Prize, sponsored by…
Cathy, the Comic Strip – Thornfield Hall
Cathy Guisewites’s delightful Cathy was my favorite comic strip. It was one of the few syndicated comic strips written and drawn by a woman, and certainly the only one about a career woman. There were a lot of Cathys and Kathys when Cathy was first published in 1976 (the Caitlins came later), and a lot…
The Zoom Wardrobe Checklist – Thornfield Hall
Love the Wikipedia Beatnik poet look! My first Zoom meeting was fun but nerve-racking. That's because I worried about what to wear. “Everybody Zooms. They’ll only see your top,” a friend explained. Nonetheless, I felt a certain anxiety. And so I had a checklist. POSSIBLE ZOOM GARB. Glamorous black sweater and black jeans. Were any…
A New Book for the Bronte Collection – Thornfield Hall
Charlote Bronte's Shirley, Folio Society 1968 People say I buy too many books. Of course I buy books. I read them, too. “Do you need more library books?” a friend asked. She was ready to do an intervention. I could feel it. “Oh no.” I was kind of appalled. “I just love books!” And then…
The Portrait of a Sissy: Howard Sturgis’s “Belchamber” – Thornfield Hall
“Belchamber, first published in 1904, is the portrait of a sissy…,” writes Edmund White in the introduction to the NYRB edition. The protagonist is charming, but Sturgis’s peers disliked the book and the critics were tepid. Sturgis’s friend Henry James was critical. Perhaps we are more tolerant of sissies in the twenty-first century. I love…
Three for February: Two Books & One Poem – Thornfield Hall
An ominous snowstorm is predicted, and our city is shutting down. The snow plows are at the ready, and it will be the first work these men have had this year. The townspeople will rise at dawn and get out their shovels and snowblowers, and whoever gets up first will clear the sidewalks all the…
One Cup of Tea at a Time – Thornfield Hall
I don't have this mug, but isn't it lovely? “It’s common sense to make only one cup at a time,” a friend said. I agree with her. “I see what you mean.” Nonetheless, I have my ways. I am coming down with a cold, so I filled a teapot with Lapsang Souchong, a mug with…
Tracking the Locution: The Edith Wharton Mystery – Thornfield Hall
I very much enjoyed Olivia Wolfgang-Smith’s whimsical new novel, Mutual Interest, the story of three queer misfits who build a business empire based on soap and perfume (later they add scented candles). Set in Manhattan at the turn of the century, it examines business from a queer point-of-view. Mutual Interest is not just about work:…
The Villette Rebellion – Thornfield Hall
Penguin hardcover classic I have a Villette book bag. I designed and ordered a unique Villette bag from a personalized wedding paraphernalia website. I love to tuck a copy of Charlotte Bronte’s Villette into the mysteriously-named bag. (Villette is Bronte's fictional name for Brussels, the city where she studied, taught, and fell in love.) On…
Charming Weekend Reading: Ruth Adam’s “A House in the Country” – Thornfield Hall
After a brisk working week, I plan to curl up with tea and a charming old English novel. And if you're looking for charm, I recommend Ruth Adam’s delightful novel, A House in the Country (1957), published in the Furrowed Middlebrow series by Dean Street Press. I adored this little book, which will appeal to…
A Witty Debut Novel: Elizabeth Harris’s “How to Sleep at Night” – Thornfield Hall
Elizabeth Harris’s witty first novel, How to Sleep at Night, has an irresistibly funny premise: Ethan and Gabe, a smart couple with a five-year-old daughter, have a peaceful life in a New Jersey suburb until Ethan announces he wants to run for Congress. This would be fine, since Gabe is a supportive spouse, except for…
When a Commenter Gets Abusive… – Thornfield Hall
In our part of the blogosphere, people are civilized. “Have you ever read Flaccus Valerius?” we might ask. But my readers and I much prefer Emily Dickinson and can recite one or two of her poems. We are also enthusiastic about Lawrence Durrell: members of the International Lawrence Durrell Society generously left long informative comments,…
Angels of Books: Dixon, Haslett, & Zola – Thornfield Hall
1Photo by Debrocke/ClassicStock/Getty Images “How I would love to be an angel of books!” I love the sound of the word angel – from the Greek angelos (messenger) - and to an extent I am a "messenger" of books. I admit, I do not keep up with the latest books. I am bewildered by the…
Travels with Kat: The Bodyguard and Beyond – Thornfield Hall
If you watch The Great British Baking Show, you know that Paul Hollywood, the acclaimed bread baker and baking judge, has a reputation for toughness. Prue, his fellow judge, a mellow woman who wears multi-colored glasses, is the nice one. But even she has her limits On Season 7 of The Great American Baking Show,…
Feeling Exhausted? Try Long Short Stories – Thornfield Hall
"I'm not a blooming suffragette." - Mabel in Miss Browne's Friend No one knows how much I hate the cold. Proust may or may not have worn his fur-lined overcoat when he wrote in bed; I imitate his spirit if not his style. When it’s -2 degrees, I wear improvised ski gear, a puffy vest…
Wintry Weekend Reading in the Nineteenth Century – Thornfield Hall
Some years ago I designed a winter survival kit for subzero days indoors. If we'd had a fireplace, we'd have burned fragrant apple wood or beech, but instead we huddled under blankets and sipped hot beverages. We also read many flamboyant old books, most of them novels. My pile of books is ready for the…
A Middlebrow Classic: Elizabeth Goudge’s “The Dean’s Watch” – Thornfield Hall
The original American cover 'Elizabeth Goudge’s novels have been a source of delight in my life. The enthusiasm began with the discovery of Green Dolphin Street, which won the Literary Guild Award in 1944 and was also made into a film. But my favorite of Goudge's books is The Dean’s Watch (1960), a historical novel…
Where’s Our Space Car? – Thornfield Hall
“Meet George Jetson!” – from The Jetsons theme song The Jetsons had a flying car. Imagine a young couple driving in a blizzard. The car has no heat – there may even be a mat over a hole in the floor (though perhaps that was another car) – and there is zero visibility. My boyfriend…
“OPERATION HEARTBREAK”: A HEARTBREAKING WAR NOVEL – Thornfield Hall
“He was not a fellow of whom I thought very highly. But I suppose there was no harm in him.” – Operation Heartbreak, by Duff Cooper After weeping over this sad, ironic little novel. I returned to the prologue, which is not just sad but cruel. One doesn’t understand it fully until the end of…
ALIAS 68: LIVING IN A COLD HOUSE – Thornfield Hall
“Baby, it’s cold outside.” – Song by Frank Loesser Nobody likes a cold house. Correction: I do not like a cold house. Our thermostat is a liar: it says 68, but feels like 60. When the temperature drops below zero outside, I add an afghan to my excessively sweater-ish ensemble. I wrap it cocoon-meets-shawl-style, inspired…
Pat Barker’s “The Voyage Home”: A New Take on the Cassandra Myth – Thornfield Hall
Last year, the Booker Prize dominated my reading of new books. And I only read four! The truth is, I read very little 21st-century literature. But I recently read Pat Barker’s new novel, The Voyage Home, the third in her Women of Troy series, and felt obligated to review it. It is the reflex of…
Lists & Stats: Why Do We Love Book Journals? – Thornfield Hall
I’m not the kind of gal who keeps a regular book journal. In 2004 I bought an inexpensive notebook at Walmart (not a Moleskine) and listed the books I read, that is, when I remembered. I got up to 50 books, then got bored, then lost the notebook. For a while I revived the list…
Tolstoy on New Year’s Day: “War and Peace” – Thornfield Hall
Rosemary Edmonds' translation Traditionally, I read Tolstoy's War and Peace on New Year’s Day. I always look forward to attending Princess Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s glittering reception, where she and her aristocratic friends will discuss their enemy Bonaparte (“the anti-Christ’) and the greatness of their own Prince Alexander. Through the refined, if occasionally playful, conversations at…
New Year’s Eve: Friends Recommend Favorite Books of ‘24 – Thornfield Hall
A few days ago I had a brilliant idea. Why not invite a few friends, bloggers, and commenters to recommend their favorite books of the year? And I am absolutely fascinated by their responses: some of these books I am barely familiar with; others are now at the top of the TBR list. By the…
A Year in Reading: SF, A Victorian Novella, Who Will Inherit Carlice Abbey?, & the Price of “Pride and Prejudice” – Thornfield Hall
Books don’t let you down, people let you down. And that’s why books are important. Forget AI: who needs that when we have books? Deeply flawed human beings moonlight as poets, playwrights, and novelists, and sibyl-like fall into a trance to chart the nuances of our changing culture. They mourn or satirize the economy, waste…
Dead or Alive: What Makes a Good Reading Year? – Thornfield Hall
Was 2024 a good reading year? Every year is a good reading year because I am picky-picky-picky. I don’t finish a book unless it is (a) fascinating, (b) well-written, and (c) works some kind of spell on me. You know, Girls just want to have fun! But we also are earnest. I don’t care if…
A Comic Masterpiece : Kingsley Amis’s “Difficulties with Girls” – Thornfield Hall
Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim may be the greatest academic satire of all time, and he won the Booker Prize in 1986 for The Old Devils. I recently discovered his 1988 comic classic, Difficulties with Girls, another splendid showcase for his mordant wit. This loosely-structured satire skewers the publishing business, modern poetry, marriage, adultery, psychiatry, and…
Does Gender Matter? And The Strangest Book I’ve Read This Year – Thornfield Hall
Change is inevitable. So they say. At this point, near the winter solstice, on a cold, gloomy, short day, tucked under a quilt, I look over my book journal and make a discovery: I no longer care about the writer’s gender. Gender was an important literary issue before women busted into the canon in the…
Dreaming in Latin – Thornfield Hall
If you dream in Latin, it means (a) you have memorized too much Virgil, (b) you fell asleep over Robert Harris’s Imperium, the first novel in a trilogy about Cicero, or (c) you are almost ill over the violence in an obscure epic poem by Valerius Flaccus, I was lucky to find a Latin copy…
Great Reads of 2024: Something for Everybody – Thornfield Hall
I have read many remarkable books this year, too many to list, but here are five favorites. At our house we find NYRB Classics irresistible. I belong to the NYRB Classics Book Club, which sends me a new book every month. Talk about great 20th century literature: I really enjoyed Dino Buzzati’s The Singularity, and…
Dreaming in Latin, 2: Why We Need New Translations – Thornfield Hall
There is nothing like an obscure Roman poet to curl up with on a dark winter day. I have been reading Valerius Flaccus, a poet seldom read even by Latinists. Very little is known about Valerius Flaccus. Quintilian mentions a writer of that name who died in 95 CE. He writes, "We have recently lost…
Editor vs. Editor: “Office Politics,” by Wilfrid Sheed – Thornfield Hall
First, let me say that I never worked for a radical magazine like The Outsider, which, according to Gerald Howard in his preface to Wilfrid Sheed’s comic novel, Office Politics, is based on magazines such as The Nation, Dissent, and The New York Review of Books. When I worked in an office, I never noticed…
“The End of the Dream”: Philip Wylie, Literary Witness of Climate Change – Thornfield Hall
Philip Wiley Philip Wylie’s last science fiction novel, The End of the Dream (1972), ought to be a cult classic. On the other hand, if the book had attracted more readers, he might have been arrested. He was put under house arrest in 1945 after the publication of his short story, “The Paradise Crater” (1945),…
Goats & Things: Christmas Gifts on the Wild Side – Thornfield Hall
Goats for Christmas? The year we did not receive our Harry & David’s Tower of Treats for Christmas we were disappointed and dumbfounded. That year, our friend decided to buy us a goat, maybe two goats, for a family in Africa, for just pennies, in our name. I believe the concomitant catalogue said the goats…