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 !
I wear my heart on
my sleeve, determined to show
love — alas, rebuffed. 🥀
#haikuhive #haikuaday #poetry
bailedI may come back to this later. I don‘t like how it‘s written. I don‘t particularly care for books that are written as letters to other people. 🤷🏻♀️
pickThis hilarious epistolary novel is full of snark, literary references, and a surprising amount of heart.
Jason Fitger is a lit/creative writing professor at a small college and he is plagued with requests for letters of recommendations for students and colleagues. He is also on a mission to get his star pupil published, get in his ex-wife‘s good graces, and make everybody hate the economics department as much as he does.
so-soWell it was interesting in the beginning but I got bored at the half of the book. I could not connect any of the caracters I cannot feel sorry for them. Plus I hate drugs.
pickIf you‘re into sexual power games and revealing the seedy under-belly of the upper crust, you should probably read Dangerous Liaisons – maybe just check out a few Wikipedia pages on pre-Revolution French nobility, if you‘re not already familiar ahead of time. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/dangerous-liaisons-pierre-choderlos-de-lacl...
