contemporary books which respectfully nod back to our older favorites

I've got What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew on my shelf, but I haven't read it yet. But I'm enjoying Tea With Jane Austen right now. It includes letter excerpts between Jane and her sister, Charlotte and neice, Fanny. Also some background information about commerce and businesses such as Twinings and Wedgwood china. And of course, quotes from her novels and other contemporary writings, as well as recipes from 18th & early 19th century cookery books.

I just discovered that my mother's recipe for a Summer Special Surprise is quite similar to a syllabub.

I'm also listening to The Tale of Hill Top Farm, mentioned by MDGentleReader in another thread. (Thanks MD!) It's the first of a series of cozy mysteries which take place in the village where Beatrix Potter has just bought her farm. The animals get in on the story, just as they would in her books.

I've pulled out my copy of At Home with Beatrix Potter, and it makes the trip so much more fun, as it lovingly portrays her home and countryside in full color photographs. These are interspersed with period black and white photos and Miss Potter's illustrations.

I'm enjoying Return to the Willows, a further adventure book for Mole, Ratty, Toad et al. Though some of it is too similar to the original, there are parts that are fresh and entertaining, especially the footnotes.

Which reminds me to mention Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCAughrean. That was less than satisfying because I thought it had a more modern mindset concerning action and mean-ness, though the language was nice.

I own a mystery with Jane Austen as a detective. I've never read it though.

I found a second-hand copy of Goodnight, Mr. Tom last weekend. It was published in the early 1980s, but it feels like it was written during the second world war. It has old fashioned sensibilities. And it is a wonderfully written story. I highly recommend it.

What Chas Dickens Knew...etc, isn't so much a read-it-in-one-go type book as a reference for when you're reading something from that time and don't have a clue. Like what's a blunderbuss? that kind of thing. It's enjoyable though to dip into. Fun stuff.

One of my favourite tidbits from What Jane Austen Ate... was that the butler had to sleep with the silverware. Who knew? I just finished reading At Home by Bill Bryson, which focuses largely on the same period, and I kept thinking "Hey, I read about that in the Austen/Dickens book."

I'm reading What Matters in Jane Austen and greatly enjoying it. I'll get another copy for my younger daughter's birthday present.

I spent a good chunk of the weekend reading What Matters in Jane Austen.

It's quite absorbing. Some good questions discussed. It should make future re-reads more enjoyable.

Oh, those are very sweet!

>5 2wonderY: Yes, I love that book very much, too. Do you know the TV movie based on it? Great performance by the late John Thaw.

No, I did not. Thanks!

SylviaC somewhere recommended To Marry an English Lord, and I started reading it last evening. It's the historical truth behind so many of the romantic frolics such as The Shuttle and Lord Loveland Discovers America.

The developers of Downton Abbey consider it a source book for the show.

>14 2wonderY:

Can't have been me, as I haven't read it. :)
I have been considering it though, so maybe you read my mind. I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

I've started reading A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39 by Nicola Beauman. It's a study of the lives of middle class women in Britain, based on the literature of the time. So far, it looks promising.

hmmm. This site is just too big. I can't keep track of how the titles come my way. And my brain is pretty useless nowadays in that regard. I keep a tab open to my public library's catalog and just keep ordering interesting stuff as I see it here. I temporarily suspended my holds last week and got my library books down to 29. But I'm expecting 30 or more to pour in this week.

Oh, right! I read your mind!

>15 SylviaC:: That is on my Tbr pile, Sylvia. I do need to read it as it will probably inspire me to tackle some of the many Virago books that are also on the pile.

Resurrecting an old thread.

Timber Press sent me a notice of a new publication that might interest our readers.

Coming soon, The Landscapes of Anne of Green Gables.

They also note three like titles
The World of Laura Ingalls Wilder
The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh
and one I really enjoyed
Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life

Got sidetracked and there it sets on the side table, but recently started Marmee and Louisa to scratch the Little Women itch.

>ooh. And I've got Eden's Outcasts, also languishing.

>18 2wonderY: Oooh I want the Winnie one! Haha.

>19 gmathis: I just read that and thought it was excellent. A proper double biography, with at least as much attention to Abigail as to Louisa. It also gave a great portrait of New England society at the time.

When I was raising my own girls, I would re-read Little Women just to be re-inspired by Marmee. Bless her.

I am the poster child for seasonal depression (it's been a hard winter personally as well as meteorologically) and childhood favorites are good medicine.

Thought of another title that would fit this category well: The Last Dickens. A mid-1800's romp on two continents with an intrepid publisher preventing the pre-copyright law piracy of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Read another by the same author, The Last Bookaneer, hunting down Robert Louis Stevenson in his last years, but it was kind of a slow slog.

If you are a Jane Austen fan, I can recommend The Murder of Mr. Wickham. I had to scribble a couple of notes to myself to keep several of the couples straight, as it’s been a while since I’ve read the books.

I liked PD James' Death comes to Pemberley.

>4 BonnieJune54: I read one of those, BonnieJune. I really enjoyed it but I haven't read the rest of them.

>25 2wonderY: But I couldn’t finish the sequel The Late Mrs. Willoughby. It was awful.

>27 historyhound7: The Stephanie Barron Jane Austen mystery sat unread for another 8 years before getting rehomed in my move to smaller(but nicer) quarters. Mentally I feel like I live in a boarding house from a TBSL novel. Or a cozy cottage in a village.

I would love to live in a cottage in a village! I will try imagining that before I go to sleep. I definitely live in England in my head, I think!

What do you think of the JA mysteries?

>31 historyhound7: There are some Mark Twain mysteries by Peter Heck that capture the era and author nicely.

>31 historyhound7: I’m afraid that I never read it. I collect more books than I read.

>30 historyhound7: I live in a retirement center. It suits me. My little space has sunshine, plants, books and pictures. I’m part of a community and we know everyone else’s business and learn to tolerate each other like the villages in TBSL books.

That sounds nice, BonnieJune.