The Literate Quilter: non-fiction

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

There's Something About Darcy: The History of a Romantic Archetype

I became a Janite in 1978.

At Temple University a professor told our class there were three courses we should not miss and I took them all. Toby Olshin's honors class on Jane Austen was one; it had a huge impact on me as a student and a reader.

In 1978 no one could foresee Jane Austen becoming universally recognized or Darcy taking precedence as our favorite literary romantic hero. Although Pride and Prejudice was early adapted for the stage, it took film to reach a wide audience. Darcy's various film portrayal have eclipsed Austen's original in the public mind. Darcy has become Colin Firth in a wet shirt or Mathew Mcfayden's soulful sensitivity.

Darcy hands Elizabeth a letter. Regency Redwork, a Pride and Prejudice
Storybook quilt by Nancy A. Bekofske

In There's Something About Darcy Gabrielle Malcolm contends that Austen created a romantic hero archetype and traces his many manifestations and transformations over the centuries. It's a lot to cover, as she delves into every genre including romance and fanfiction!

I was engaged while reading about literary heroes before and after Darcy, including Rochester and Heathcliff.

I had seen many of the various film adaptations she discusses but was getting overwhelmed by the time she came to contemporary novels and spin-offs. I was overloaded. I have not read many of these books, and although she explains each book's plot and such, I was often reduced to skimming the text.

Malcolm has given me a lot to think about and I feel impelled to revisit the novel and the famous film versions with her interpretation in mind.

I was granted access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

There's Something About Darcy
by Gabrielle Malcolm
Endeavour Quill
Pub Date 11 Nov 2019
ISBN: 9781911445562

PRICE: £9.99 (GBP)

from the publisher:
For some, Colin Firth emerging from a lake in that clinging wet shirt is one of the most iconic moments in television. But what is it about the two-hundred-year-old hero that we so ardently admire and love?

Dr Gabrielle Malcolm examines Jane Austen’s influences in creating Darcy’s potent mix of brooding Gothic hero, aristocratic elitist and romantic Regency man of action. She investigates how he paved the way for later characters like Heathcliff, Rochester and even Dracula, and what his impact has been on popular culture over the past two centuries. For twenty-first century readers the world over have their idea of the ‘perfect’ Darcy in mind when they read the novel and will defend their choice passionately.

In this insightful and entertaining study, every variety of Darcy jostles for attention: vampire Darcy, digital Darcy, Mormon Darcy and gay Darcy. Who does it best and how did a clergyman’s daughter from Hampshire create such an enduring character?

*****

Polite Society with my Austen Family Album quilt

Jane Austen's Novels:

Northanger Abbey
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/05/northanger-abbey.html

Persuasion
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2015/05/anne-eliot-vs-modern-perky-heroine.html

Jane Austen Quilts:

Pride and Prejudice Storybook Quilt
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2012/02/pride-and-prejudice-story-book-quilt.html

Regency Redwork: a Pride and Prejudice Storybook Quilt
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2016/11/my-regency-redwork-pattern-is-featured.html

Austen Family Album
https://theliteratequilter.blogspot.com/2018/02/austen-finishes.html

Jane Austen's Quilt Reproduction Pattern from Linda Franz
https://lindafranz.com/shop/jane-austen/2

Jane Austen Quilts Inspired By Her Novels by Karen Gloeggler
https://shop.americanquilter.com/books/ebooks/1427-ebook-jane-austen-s-quilts-inspired-by-her-novels.html

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy in the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell About It

In Adrift, Brian Murphy recounts the journey of the packet ship John Rutledge from its navigation down the Mersey River to the ice fields that sank four ships in 1856. Nearly 1,000 souls died in three months, with commercial losses in the millions of dollars. The Irish immigrants and crew on board the Rutledge were all lost, save one man. This is his story.

I love a good adventure story, and if there are ships and ice involved, I'm all in. I was also interested in reading Brian Murphy's Adrift because it is about Irish immigrants, who in 1856 had scrimped and saved for their passage, hopeful they would find a better life in America. My own Irish ancestors left their homeland for England, a much shorter sea journey. But the reasons for leaving their homeland would have been the same, as well as their poverty.

The book is based on the story of Thomas Nye, a New Bedford maritime sailor who was twenty-two when he shipped on the packet ship John Rutledge out of Liverpool. The ship carried over 100 Irish passengers, bound for New York.

In 1903, just two years before his death, a journalist interviewed Nye who told the story of the sinking of the Rutledge, his nine days asea watching the other survivors succumb to the elements and dehydration, and his providential rescue.

Murphy takes us on Nye's journey, recreating the events, drawing from Nye's writings, ships logs, and newspaper accounts. We are there when the ship strikes a berg and during the launching of the lifeboats. We experience Nye watching as his fellow passengers in an open board are driven to desperate measures and die until only he is left.

It is a tale of harrowing adventure, but also a study of human nature in desperate circumstances when conventional morality and social norms are washed away. There is no cannibalism involved, thankfully, for as Murphy shares, sometimes that did happen.

Reforms to improve maritime safety did not advance until the 1912 sinking of the Titanic. (Some things never change: the lives of impoverished immigrant families did not spur safety advances, but the deaths of some of the richest men in the world did.)

As climate change accelerates the calving of Greenland's ice sheet, more icebergs will clog shipping lanes. Today we have communication between ships and ship and shore, and knowledge of where the ice fields are.

Murphy is a journalist with the Washington Post and the author of three books.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Adrift: A True Story of Tragedy on the Icy Atlantic and the One Who Lived to Tell about It
by Brian Murphy
Da Capo Press
Pub Date 04 Sep 2018
ISBN: 9780306902000
Hardcover $27.00 (USD)