Welcome to Litsy!

Drop whatever Victorian novel you‘re reading & go get a copy of this one. I‘m one of the many boffins in love with Lydia Gwilt & I don‘t care who knows it. Also, I know which Allan Armadale I prefer— I‘d kill the other for whistling, other offenses aside.

It‘s also nice to see some representation in a nineteenth century novel— there are many more affluent people of color in the landscape of Europe than a whitewashed history would have us believe.

“If you've never read Little Dorrit before, you might want to save this Introduction for an Afterword. There's no way to dance around all of Dickens's secrets and revelations and still make myself intelligible; three sentences from here, I'm going to start letting stuff slip, so if you want to bail, bail now.”

As a compulsively responsible reader who always feels obligated to read the intro, I SO appreciate this spoiler alert! #WhattheDickens

Random book from our home library:

📖 Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy

#WhatTheDickens

Ugh, I don‘t care for Mr Flintwinch at all also I‘m highly suspicious of Arthur‘s mother 🤨 I love the little drawings in a Dickens novel, wouldn‘t it be nice if novels had little drawings in them? I guess the costs for an illustrator and printing would be astronomical. @Texreader

Sunday‘s book swap scores on the hour or so walk home from 5 hours of rehearsals so I wasn‘t in too much pain come Monday. Let me tell you the muscles you use as a showgirl girl are completely different to ballet! I‘m not sure which shoes are worse, pointe or chorus. Even a simple bevel is hard! But it‘s my dream come true so I‘ll get through it.

I‘m not embarrassed to say I‘m more enchanted with Lydia Gwilt than the dunderhead Miss Milroy. Give me Ozias Midwinter over every Allan Armadale, too.

Reading this in the park with the whole family was a perfect #hyggehour experience ❤️ I can‘t wait to go back & do it again next week!

My #MayReCap of books I owned (audio/physical) and listened/read this month :)

#OffTheShelf2025
@Librariana

Whoa! I think I know where the idea of the DOGE came from!! Read this chapter fall! It is ominously prescient!

#whattheDickens @Cuilin

#whattheDickens @Cuilin

@batsy is right. This book is 🍌👖! Per the introduction it‘s one of the first novels to feature a female (amateur) detective. The “Lady” definitely shares some characteristics with Marion Halcolmb from The Woman in White. She‘s subverting Victorian ideals of femininity but apologizing for it, more often than not. In some ways this book made me think the fairytale Bluebeard in the protagonist‘s effort to find out the truth about her husband.