Well what's to be done I'll go away askance into the 16th century through the quotes over here

[sovay]

Delightful surprise of the week: visiting the brick-and-mortar office of Červená Barva Press in the basement of the Somerville Armory and discovering that not only do they sell their own books, like the chapbook of Aleksei Kruchonykh's libretto for the Futurist opera Victory Over the Sun (1913, trans. Larissa Shmailo 1980/2014) I had originally contacted the publisher about, they are a really lovely tiny used book store. My mother left with Gene Stratton-Porter's The Harvester (1911), Inez Haynes Irwin's Maida's Little School (1926), and Frances Hodgson Burnett's Robin (1922), all first editions—jacketless, but in otherwise quite respectable condition; the first two are books from her childhood and the third neither of us had ever heard of, so fingers crossed it's not terrible. I walked out with Barbara Helfgott Hyett's In Evidence: Poems of the Liberation of Nazi Concentration Camps (1986) and the Signet paperback of Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me, Deadly (1952), which I did not buy solely for its cover, but you must admit it helps. I am enjoying Victory Over the Sun. skygiants showed me the first three episodes of Underground (2016–) last night and I want a soundtrack album. I have returned unhappily to a state of not so much sleeping, but being awake is always better with good art.

Comments

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

After seeing this, I went over to Gutenberg to find and read Head of the House of Coombe and Robin. I've been reading Testament of Youth and thought they'd be interesting complements.

Finished Head and I can't decide whether Robin is a manic pixie dream girl whose purity is going to save someone, or if worse is in store for her. The books are so very sentimental that the character is difficult to take at face value.

This kind of older-man-protects-younger-girl can go so very off the rails for modern readers (e.g. Daddy Long-Legs) but Burnett seems to be keeping it under control so far. (Indeed this trope seems to be one of her Things.) Nonetheless, this pair of books clearly wants to be adapted into a manga or anime series.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Found the "syrup" reference. It was in a review in the Times Literary Supplement (but you notice they reviewed it at all -- plenty of other authors wouldn't have been). Ann Thwaite points out that the same issue of TLS had a review of Jacob's Room, which is an interesting juxtaposition. https://books.google.com/books?id=rRtis6DUY4wC&pg=PA240

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

The first half of Robin is more syrup, but the second half is syrup boiled to hard crack stage. I am not sorry I read it, but it's hard to believe that this was published as an actual serious literary novel---at times it's more like h/c fanfic.

[sovay]

The first half of Robin is more syrup, but the second half is syrup boiled to hard crack stage.

I'll be borrowing that from my mother, then.

[movingfinger.livejournal.com]

I said, loudly, "WHAT NO WAY NO" several times while reading it. I am not particularly up on sentimental Victoriana, so possibly those bits are taken in stride by the veteran reader of savarinesque tales.