[books 2013] Lynn Shepherd

[inulro]

56. Tom-All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd

Some time in the last year I went to a talk by Lynn Shepherd and was convinced to buy her new book, A Treacherous Likeness, and loved it. So I got hold of the previous one as well.

This one is set in the intersection between Dickens' Bleak House and Collins' The Woman in White (mostly the former) and makes explicit the abuse and corruption in ways that the Victorians authors couldn't.

I loved this one too. I might even have to look out her first book, which is set on the margins of one of the Jane Austen books. As we all know, the thought of Austen brings me out in hives, but I really like Shepherd's writing and her characters.

The Woman in White is my favourite Victorian novel anyway; but it's becoming rapidly apparent that if I care at all about the development of the detective novel I have to read Bleak House (In addition to this, John Connolly recently raved somewhere about how good and important it is). And while I think I hate Dickens, I suspect I just didn't get on with David Copperfield and how badly it was taught in my undergrad career. (I do, after all, love A Tale of Two Cities). Bleak House is really, really long though.

I suspect once I've read Bleak House I will have to re-read this to pick up on all the references I missed this time round.

Comments

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Bleak House is my favourite Dickens. A lecturer I had at Lampeter always said there was a Dickens for everyone, and I think Bleak House is mine.

[inulro.livejournal.com]

If you're expressing it in those terms, I would have always assumed that A Tale of Two Cities is mine. However, I'm willing to give Bleak House a go.