Each Little World

Summer reading: Miss Buncle's Book

Barbara Buncle has me beaming.

Actually it's Miss Buncle's book that's put the smile on my face. That is, DE Stevenson's 1934 novel, "Miss Buncle's Book," which tells the story of the unassuming but highly observant Barbara Buncle, who pens a best-selling roman a clef about her country town.

Published as "Disturber of the Peace," under the nome de plume John Smith, the book has that exact effect on her neighbors, with its healthy dose of wit and irony in its depictions of the personalities and goings on of sleepy little Silverstream aka Copperfield. In the second part of "Disturber," however, Miss Buncle gives free reign to her imagination, fantasizing a Golden Boy whose music has an incendiary effect on some of the townsfolk.

The endpapers in "Miss Buncle's Book" are taken from "Flower vase lit by rays from a table lamp," a screen-printed cotton and rayon designed by Vanessa Bell for Allan Walton Textiles in 1934.

"Disturber" becomes a best seller to the dismay of the more officious and hypocritical members of the community who threaten libel suits and determine to unmask John Smith, going to lengths that Miss Buncle's publisher considers stranger than fiction. 

Stevenson's Miss Buncle is a first cousin to Winifred Watson's Miss Pettigrew. They're both unappreciated women of a certain age who draw on unsuspected reserves of creativity and intelligence to pull themselves out of dire financial straits. In the process, they transform themselves and those around them — to the endless delight of this reader. It seems amazing to never have heard of Stevenson, given that four million copies of her books were sold in Britain and three million in the U.S. between 1923 and 1970. Thanks again to Persephone for providing another perfect read.

Miss Buncle's Golden Boy graces the cover of this early edition of the book. Persephone's reprint, of course, is clothed in its distinctive discrete grey covers.

Two bloggers are having a Read a Persephone Book week next month for all you fans of the publisher. I still have a couple of unread titles on my shelf so I may try to join in.

Happy Birthday, dear Persephone

If you're lucky enough to be in London today, then you can stop in Persephone Books in Lamb Conduit Street to celebrate this delightful publisher's birthday. "There are cute books, there are beautiful books," said the Irish Times, "and then there are Persephone books."  Quite so. 

Persephone's first book came out in March, 1999. But they note that — like the Queen — they are celebrating in June; today, in fact. There will be all sorts of tempting taste treats on offer as well as a special offer for visitors: three books for the price of two — today only and only in the shop.

My Persephone titles lined up on top of my china cabinet in my red sitting room.

But Persephone has kindly extended that offer to those of us who must buy from abroad for this whole week. I had been thinking about how lovely it would be to have something new from Persephone to read this summer and now here is my chance! Great titles at a great price. The free book will ship surface mail no matter what method you chose for your other two titles. I've discovered on past orders, however, that surface mail is virtually as quick as airmail and in some cases has actually been faster.

What did I order, you ask? One of the most recent titles, "Miss Buncle's Book" by DE Stevenson (No. 81); one of the early titles, "A Woman's Place:1910-75 by Ruth Adam (No. 20, endpaper shown above); and one from the middle. "The Runaway" by Elizabeth Anna Hart with illustrations by Gwen Raverat (No. 37, endpaper shown below). At least that's what I meant to do. I had a bit of difficulty this time deciding which titles to pick, and seem to have messed up my order in my confused state. So I am currently corresponding with Lydia at the shop to be sure I am getting the books I intended!

If you haven't been on Persephone's Web site lately, it's worth a visit. The smart women who run Persephone have added a daily blog post that is a must and the way I now begin my morning. They very aptly describe it as a "parallel in pictures to Persephone Books." The first entry (below) gives a clue as to how those lovely gray book covers originated: 

"The first Persephone book ten years ago this spring, and the most recent: ten years of endpapers wrapped round the grey of a Dean & Deluca cup; first noticed by us in New York in 1998, thereby prompting the question — why can't books look as chic as a coffee cup?"

Girlebooks

When it comes to the printed word, I still prefer the printing to be on paper. You could call me a Luddite; I prefer traditionalist. So, there's nothing I love more than Persephone Books. That's the U.K. publisher who's virtually cornered the market on literature by, about and for women; reprinting a variety of "lost" titles for contemporary readers. Last year I ordered a dozen titles even though the exchange rate was not in my favor.

Persephone introduced me to numerous new authors as well as Frances Hodgson Burnett's works for adult readers. Shortly thereafter, I found an unknown FHB title in a second-hand bookstore while on vacation. Imagine my chagrin when I reached the end of the book and discovered it was continued in a second volume with a different title. 

The only way I could finish the book was on-line from Project Gutenberg. It was a less than satisfactory experience because Gutenberg doesn't seem set up to satisfy those who love books. The covers, the layout, the font, the logic that readers take for granted in print is often lacking on-line. Certainly that was the way I felt exploring and reading a book from Gutenberg. 

At last that's changing, especially for those of us who can't get enough of Persephone's titles. The British publisher now has a worthy competitor: Girlebooks. Say it again slowly, with the emphasis on the "e" — electronic. Yup, it's "free ebooks by the gals."

The Web site is the work of one woman, Laura McDonald, and her mother, Joyce McDonald. They describe Girlebooks' mission as making "classic and lesser-known works by female writers available to a large audience through the ebook medium. They note they like books by men, but feel that "women's most loved and re-read books are generally books by other women." And they point out the same likely holds true for men. It works for me. 

But what really works is the attractiveness of the site and the ebooks themsleves. You can search the site by title, author, or kind of lit (British, American, young adult and new releases). And the titles are wonderful. Many I'm completely unfamiliar with, like "The Female Quixote;" old friends like "Persuasion" and "My Antonia" have perfect cover images. I don't care if it's electronic; I still want an evocative cover. Or the cover that is on my own 1911 print copy of "The Secret Garden."

If my husband can read Thomas Hardy on his iPhone then I am willing to give ebooks a try on my laptop. I have to: Girlebooks hooked me with "The Leavenworth Case" and I'm not about to find a copy anywhere else. It looks to be a quirky mystery story told in the first person. But what is even more interesting is that the author, Anna Katherine Green, was one of the first to include scientific evidence as part of her dramas. 

Even more interesting is the fact that the McDonald's discovered this author via an article in Antiques Magazine about the unique Arts-and-Crafts-era furniture designed by Charles Rohlfs with an unknown degree of collaboration by his wife — Anna Green. You can see some of their work in this slide show from Antiques Magazine.

But what hooked me is the discovery that Rohlfs and Green lived in my hometown — Buffalo — in one of my favorite neighborhoods where Rohlfs built them a Craftsman house, now in some disrepair. Thus, on my very first visit to Girlebooks, I discovered an unknown author, got a design and history lesson and a nostalgic link to the hometown of my childhood. And I haven't even started reading yet!

 Girlebooks appears to have done the impossible: they've created a catalog of ebooks that will appeal to readers of Persephone's esoteric titles and whose design will keep those of us who love print happy on-line.

All book covers from Girlebooks. Image of the Rohlfs house (above) from the Web site: Buffalo As an Architectural Museum.

The Secret Garden

"Then she slipped through the door,

and shut it behind her, breathing quite fast

with excitement and wonder, and delight.

She was standing inside the secret garden."

— Frances Hodgson Burnett

When it comes to stories centered on gardens, one title has stood above all the others for almost 100 years: Frances Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden." Regardless of age, it has the power to transport the reader to a degree that few works of fiction can claim. That power comes from the timeless nature of the story as well as from Burnett's own story and the garden at the center of her tale.

Burnett was born in England but spent her childhood in the U.S. after the death of her father. Though her first husband was an American, Burnett wound up spending much of her married life in England, including the years during and after a disastrous second marriage. That partner's abusive and threatening personality are considered the basis for the fictional tyrant, Sir Nigel Anstruthers, one of the central figures of Burnett's 1907 novel, "The Shuttle." 

"The Shuttle" looks at the trans-Atlantic weaving together in marriage of impoverished British aristocrats and wealthy American young women and the culture clashes that ensue. Burnett profiles a new kind of woman: wealthy, brainy, loaded with initiative and not about to take a back seat to anyone — including her husband.

"The Shuttle," reprinted by the U.K. feminist publisher Persephone Books, is an enthralling read. It's also the place where you can begin to see the importance Burnett assigns to gardens as places of beauty, nourishment and especially, new life. Burnett wrote most of "The Shuttle" at Maytham, a Georgian house near Rolvenden in Kent where she lived for about ten years beginning in 1898, according to Anne Sebba's introduction to the book. The village is still there, virtually unchanged, though the house was demolished in 1910 and replaced by the current Lutyens creation. 

PICTURESOFENGLAND.COM

Frances Hodgson Burnett lived and worked at Great Maytham Hall (above) for about ten years beginning in 1898. The original Georgian house, near Rolvenden in Kent, was torn down in 1910 and replaced with this Lutyens' designed dwelling. The walled garden inspired Burnett's classic tale, "The Secret Garden."

Burnett wrote on the wide terrace of the house; there were woods crowding by, and a walled rose garden that one entered through a wooden door. In "The Shuttle," Burnett begins the theme that this landscape suggested and that she will explore so deeply: "One feels so much in a garden ... One is so close to Life in it — the stirring of the brown earth, the piercing through of green spears, that breaking of buds and pouring forth of scent." 

Four years later — in 1911 —  "The Secret Garden" was published. There was surprisingly little attention paid to the book — nothing like that for her popular adult novels nor for her children's tales like "Little Lord Fauntleroy." Its renaissance seems related to the release of the first (silent) film version of the story in 1918 and to the increasing notice given to children's literature as the 20th century progressed.

"The Secret Garden" revolves around three children: Dickon, a local Yorkshire lad; Mary Lennox, the orphan come to England from India; and her sickly cousin, Colin Craven, whose father is the master of Misselthwaite Manor where the story takes place. It's a forbidding and mysterious house, filled with long corridors, strange sounds and people who have little time for a cranky orphan. The story revolves around the discoveries the children make about themselves, each other and the healing power of Nature, and the abandoned, hidden garden they bring back to life. 

Inga Moore's illustrated edition of "The Secret Garden," published in 2008 (above left) may be the best version since the book was originally published in 1911 (above right).

The garden ranks with Thornfield Hall, Manderley and Tara as one of the most memorable creations in literature. A place that every reader imagines and longs to visit. My 1911 edition (above right) has only four color illustrations inserted, so the house and garden are mostly imaginary landscapes for readers of that period. 

That's changed over the years as Burnett's book has attained classic status. New versions, illustrated by the likes of Graham Rust and Tasha Tudor, have entered the market on a regular basis. Truth be told, I like Tudor herself, her amazing house and garden, much more than her illustrations — charming though they may be.

No, the most perfect illustrated version of "The Secret Garden" (above left and below) was released last year at this time by the Candlewick Press of Cambridge, MA. The drawings are by Inga Moore, a woman who knows gardens and the English landscape intimately. The plants are so identifiable that I could build my own version of this garden based on Moore's drawings alone. There are animals of every stripe that one would find roaming the woods and all the details of the hardscaping and shrubbery of a classic country estate — all captured by Moore on paper. 

The book is large enough (8 and 1/2" x 11") that the text is readable regardless of age, and the pictures present lots of detail as well as showing us the hand of the artist at work. Above all, there are multiple double-page spreads that offer an extraordinary sense of moving through all the different spaces of this property on the way to the secret garden. 

COPYRIGHT: CANDLEWICK PRESS

The cover of "The Secret Garden," illustrated by Inga Moore, gives you a sense of the richness of the book and the artist's vision.

As an illustrator, Moore is able to overcome the greatest limitation of filmmakers: her garden looks real because she knows her subject and she doesn't have to show us the rapid transformation that the movie versions of the story demand. Finally, the publisher has followed Burnett's original text — no talking down to readers, no modern usage, no glossing over Mary's colonial imperiousness. This is a book to absolutely treasure.

If you love "The Secret Garden," and you want more, there are only a couple of ways to get more. One is the various film and television adaptations now available on DVD or video. There is the 1949 MGM movie starring Margret O'Brien, with only the garden scenes shot in color. There are three BBC versions but the most acclaimed film adaptation is probably the one directed by Agnieszka Holland for American Zoetrope in 1993. 

I have that one as part of a two-disc set with the glorious adaptation of "The Little Princess" by Alfonso Cuaron. But I find Holland's film too over-the-top for my taste. Her "secret garden" scenes are filmed in time lapse photography which goes against my gardening grain. A garden is already a miracle; I don't need fancy filmwork to try and convince me. 

Holland also filmed her garden scenes at Fountains Abbey where the setting and scale seem all wrong. To remain a secret, a garden needs to be reasonably small and contained without tumbledown walls and noteworthy architectural framing. Close but no stars from me.

My favorite version is the 1987 Hallmark Hall of Fame television production. Normally I steer clear of Hallmark but I think they've done a superb job of capturing the essence of the story — which you can see by the fact that I have both a video and a DVD of that production. It was entirely filmed on location in England with Highclere Castle standing in for Misselthwaite Manor. The building has an overpowering exterior (below) and its 75 rooms required little in the way of props or changes. Its gardens were cared for by a staff of 19 in the years before WWII. 

It is the discovery of the abandoned garden and the idea of restoration that make the book — and most film versions — memorable. The restored garden never has the charm of the dream for me, and I suspect that's true for many others. (And what about those pink AND blue hydrangeas blooming right next to each other?)  

Like all the film versions, Hallmark takes some liberties with the story. But in this case, I thought they added another layer of meaning. The film is book-ended with scenes of the grown-up Mary — a WWI Red Cross nurse — returning to the garden and telling the story as a flashback. It ends with the adult Mary inside the garden with the adult Colin (Colin Firth!) home from the war. 

Highclere Castle (above) was the setting for the 1987 Hallmark version of "The Secret Garden."

If you want to take it even further there are two film sequels that do so, but I've only seen the 2001 TV production, "Back to the Secret Garden." It stars Joan Plowright as the grown-up Martha Sowerby, who's been put in charge by Colin and Mary and is now running the estate as a shelter for orphans. A nice idea but it doesn't quite come off.

Finally, there is Susan Moody's book, "Return to the Secret Garden." Dickon goes off to WWI while Mary goes off to India with a husband. Collin stays home and tries to figure out who he is. Eventually the three rejoin forces in England where they make a name for themselves designing and building garden conservatories. That much seems probable. 

“Colin knew that he and Mary needed Dickon to complete themselves. Without him, they were too rich a mixture. Dickon diluted the intensity of their natures, absorbed their more extreme tendencies, gave them a sense of balance,” is how Moody describes the relationship among the three. Ultimately the book became too much of a tortured soap opera. It wasn't what I had imagined for this charmed threesome. 

No matter how much readers like myself want to peer into their future, there is no future for this triumvirate. Mary, Dickon and Colin must remain children in the garden. We are the ones Burnett is instructing and admonishing to change and grow:

"Two things cannot be in one place.

Where you tend a rose,

A thistle cannot grow."

A book a week

Last winter, just after I discovered Persephone Books, I discovered book bloggers. Or rather, a book blogger discovered me. I suppose it was inevitable given the fact that we live in the same town and are both fans of the U.K. publishing house, Persephone.

Becky aka A Book A Week sent me a note about a newspaper column I wrote about Persephone and I've been reading about what Becky's reading ever since. Sometimes I've read the title she's covering; other times I've been inspired by an unknown title.

But mostly I've been inspired to follow Becky's lead and read a book a week, something she's been doing for 25 years! It helped when I realized that — though I haven't managed to make it through 52 books in 2008 — some weeks I easily make it through a book or three. The problem is that a number of weeks may pass before I pick up another, let alone finish it. Or I read the same one twice — which isn't fair to count as two books (is it Becky?).

Persephone, founded in 1999 by feminist historian and biographer Nicola Beauman, publishes books, mainly by women, that are reprints of "neglected" novels, diaries, short stories, cookbooks and poetry from the early to mid-20th century.

My resolution for 2009 is to try to follow Becky's lead and read a book a week. In the meantime, I'm following in the footsteps of Stuck in a Book and Other Rooms with this end-of-year-roundup:

HOW MANY BOOKS READ IN 2008: 44 (and three in progress. I'm not counting cookbooks, gardening or design and decor since I tend to dip into them on an ongoing basis rather than "finish" them).

FICTION/NON-FICTION RATIO: 29/15 The non-fiction was mostly memoir and biography,

MALE/FEMALE AUTHORS: 13/31. This was not intentional, merely inevitable, given how many Persephone titles I read this year as well as an interest in women's history.

FAVORITE BOOK READ: I did mention a few favorites earlier but I read Frances Hodgson Burnett's marvelous  "The Shuttle" (Persephone) 2+ times since I ordered it early in 2008. An era that intrigues me, plus country houses and FHB's first ideas about gardens all coming together in a novel with an intelligent heroine who has money and power and wields both well.

LEAST FAVORITE: Anything I did not finish so it did not make it onto my final (unpublished) list. There are a number of contenders but I'll go with "The Zookeeper's Wife." Widely acclaimed but not by me — I consider it overwritten to the point of distraction.

OLDEST BOOK READ: Not a year for really old books for me; lots of early 20th century with "The Making of a Marchioness" taking the lead at 1901. 

NEWEST: Lots of 2008 titles like poet Donald Hall's memoir, "Unpacking the Boxes."

LONGEST BOOK TITLE: "Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, The End of Civilization" by Nicholson Baker.

SHORTEST TITLE: Winner by one letter, "Reflex," by Dick Francis — a re-read for the millionth time.

HOW MANY RE-READS: 7 (Dick Francis, a Spenser myster, "The Snow Goose" for Christmas, two F.H. Burnett, "Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict" by Laurie Viera Rigler (a new title this year and a hoot), and Georgette Heyer's "The Talisman Ring." 

MOST BOOKS READ BY ONE AUTHOR THIS YEAR: Frances Hodgson Burnett, five: "The Head of the House of Coombe," "Robin," "The Shuttle" (see above), "The Making of a Marchioness" (also above) and a new edition of "The Secret Garden" with enchanting illustrations by Inga Moore. Three each by Barbara Cleverly (mysteries) and Jeffrey Farnol (early 20th century novels — delightfully dated).

ANY IN TRANSLATION: None to my knowledge.

AND HOW MANY OF THIS YEAR'S BOOKS WERE FROM THE LIBRARY: 18. 

One of the pleasures of Persephone Books is that the endpapers are reproductions of fabric from the era when the title was originally published. Each book also comes with a bookmark of the same design (four examples above).

As for 2009, I'm not off to a very good start. I've barely picked up a book in the last two days. But I have spent some time thinking about what to read in '09. 

Should I have a plan? Follow a topic? Invest in an author? Be led by a blogger? I've thought about only reading books that are already sitting on my shelves but are still unread. I'm sure I've got a book a week there. And I wouldn't have to worry about library due dates or fines. 

But given the stories about troubled bookstores, I feel a degree of guilt if I'm not out there buying books. Still, I know I'll be horrified when I see what I've spent on books in 2008 — as if it will be any consolation to publishers. 

Have you got a reading plan for 2009?  Does it matter — or is just reading enough?

Singled Out

When I was growing up November 11 was still called Armistice Day in remembrance of the end of World War I at exactly the 11^th hour of the 11^th day of the 11^th month in 1918: Ninety years ago today.

My father and all his brothers fought in the Pacific in WWII but it is the earlier war — the Great War — that captures my attention despite Tom Brokaw’s claims about my parents and their friends being “The Greatest Generation.” I don’t deny their hardships, victories and rightful place in history, but I am nevertheless caught in that earlier era. It was the moment when the modern world we now live in was created and the moment when the seeds of their war were planted. 

My interest is being fed by what seems like a veritable cottage industry of WWI books. They’ve been appearing in a steady stream for the last decade: Stephen O’Shea’s “Back to the Front” (1996), John Keegan’s authoritative 1999 military history, Margaret Macmillan’s “Paris 1919” about the peace talks (2001), and Juliet Nicolson’s “The Perfect Summer” about England just before the war (2006). They’re all lined up in a crisp row on my bookshelves.

But, for me, the standout has to be Virginia Nicholson’s “Singled Out: How Two Million Women Survived Without Men after the First World War,” one of the few books that looks at the war from women's viewpoints.   

I read a number of book blogs here in the U.S. but also in the U.K. (see the list at the end) where I keep finding books like Nicholson’s that aren't in the bookstores or public library here in Wisconsin. “Singled Out” was an expensive read since the price is in pounds not dollars and I had it shipped from overseas. The writing wasn't always the best, but the subject is one that has been rarely covered and was still well worth the cost in dollars and time spent reading. 

Perhaps the most difficult thing about a book like this is that women's experiences and options have changed so radically that it's hard for us to picture the narrow possibilities that confined single women before the war. But that is also the value of this book: it presents that life across all social and economic classes so we get a broad look at the issue. The book also introduces readers to dozens of women who went on to make satisfying and productive lives — and sometimes a name — for themselves.

Some will be well-known to many readers like Vera Brittain whose “Testament of Youth” is one of the most famed and devastating books about the war ever penned. Others, like novelists Cicely Hamilton and Winifred Holtby are only now getting their due as their books are brought to new audiences through feminist publisher, Persephone Books. You’ll find women who carved out careers as stockbrokers, engineers and archeologists as well as those who had quieter lives. The book also provides excellent source information and a bibliography offering further opportunities for reading and research.

 

This cigarette advertisement shows the kind of life that was a cultural given at the start of WWI: that all those young women waiting for their soldier sweethearts to return from the Front would one day bask in a bright future together, in a world made safe for democracy.

After reading "Singled Out," it is apparent that the women of today are in the debt of those two million women whose fates were changed by the war. As the book notes, "A cohort of stay-at-home wives and mothers could never have achieved for women what this generation of spinsters did in meeting the challenge of grief and loss. For them, being denied marriage was a liberation and a launching pad."

"They were not in the first rank of suffragettes and pioneers, but on foundations laid by those earlier women — education, opportunity, equality — and through sheer force of numbers, they steered women's concerns to the top of the agenda, and there they have remained."

It is a book that, once read, is hard to forget.

 

Virginia Nicholson (above) looks at the effect of World War I on the lives of a broad group of women from the United Kingdom in her book, "Singled Out." Nicholson, the grand daughter of Vanessa Bell, is pictured at Charleston, the Bloomsbury Group's house.

BOOK BLOGS

I read a number of blogs about interior design, gardening, and textiles as well as about books and reading. Some, like U.K. blogs Cornflower and Yarnstorm, cross many of those categories. Others concentrate on books but I think all of them are worth adding to your list of bookmarks. 

dovegreyreader scribbles is written by "a Devonshire based bookaholic, sock-knitting quilter who used to be a community nurse in her spare time." How can you not want to read what she has to say? The writer behind A BOOK A WEEK lives in my town so I know I will usually be able to easily find the books she's reading — something that is often a problem with the U.K. bloggers' titles. 

If you stop by VINTAGE READS, you'll note that she is posting about war-related books like some of the other U.K. bloggers, including Cornflower. They seem to be much more conscious of Nov. 11 than we are here in the U.S. Also of note is Other Stories, which is subtitled "Books, Feminism and Other Stories" and always has something of interest to say and lastly (but not leastly) is  Citizen Reader who concentrates on non-fiction.