The Semi-Detached House. Emily Eden. 1859. 172 pages. [Source: Bought]
"THE only fault of the house is that it is semi-detached." "Oh, Aunt Sarah! you don't mean that you expect me to live in a semi-detached house?" "Why not, my dear, if it suits you in other respects?" "Why, because I should hate my semi-detachment, or whatever the occupants of the other half of the house may call themselves." "They call themselves Hopkinson," continued Aunt Sarah coolly.
I very much enjoyed reading Emily Eden's The Semi-Detached House. This Victorian classic is fun, lively romantic comedy. Readers get to know Blanche, the heroine, and her neighbors well. What do we know about Blanche? Well, she's relatively newly wed--she's expecting her first child--and she's a little too imaginative for her own good. She's always worrying about a thousand things that might go wrong. Her husband will be away from her for three months or so--and she's distraught, as you can imagine. (Having her sister, Aileen, live with her will help.) She knows nothing about her neighbors, and, her neighbors know nothing about her. They will suffer through false impressions at first before becoming very close friends. What do we come to learn about their neighbors? Well, it's a mother and her two grown-daughters. (The daughters are Janet and Rose). (The father, I believe, is a sailor so he's often away at sea.) They are also raising a little boy (grandson, nephew). They still are in very close contact with the boy's father (the son-in-law/brother-in-law) who is a widower "lost" in grief. (His name is Mr. Willis). He's one of the comic figures of the book. Readers also become acquainted with the neighborhood or community...
Quotes:
"Then the girls have won," said John, "for you are certainly going–I promised Arthur that I would bring you." "Oh, John! How could you? I can't dine out, I'm so fat." "Well, my dear, you can hardly expect to be as slim as you were at seventeen, but you are not half the size of your friend the Baroness; and this one dinner, unless you eat very voraciously, will not make you much fatter." This idea threw Mrs. Hopkinson into one of her most comfortable fits of laughter. "
The idea of Willis making the best of anything was so startling, such a very astonishing novelty, that this announcement was received much as the intimation of a great misfortune would have been from anybody else.
The Baroness wore a gown of such very bright yellow that the sun was affronted and went in.
© 2015 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
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| The Two Sisters, 1889, Pierre-Auguste Renoir |
I'm excited to host the Victorian Reading Challenge for 2015! I hope you'll join me if you love Victorian literature! This year will be a little different from previous years. I think it will be a fun change! I'm offering two options: a 2015 challenge and a perpetual challenge. Let me know which one you are signing up for in the comments. (You can sign up for both, just indicate that.)
The 2015 Challenge. The first Bingo card is for 2015.
The goal is to get a Bingo (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, four corners and center square). This will require a minimum of five books.
One book per square. For example:
Oliver Twist can count for "Book with a name as the title" or "Charles Dickens" or "Book published 1837-1940" or "Book published in serial format" or "Book over 400 pages" or "Book that has been adapted into a movie" or "Book set in England." But obviously, it can only count once.
The categories:
- book published in the 1840s,
- male author,
- female author,
- book with a name as the title,
- book published in serial (monthly) format
- book published 1837-1840,
- book published in the 1850s,
- children's book,
- book of your choice,
- Charles Dickens
- book set in England,
- book that you wish had been adapted into a movie,
- book published in the 1860s,
- reread of your choice,
- Anthony Trollope
- for better or worse (marriage),
- mystery-suspense-sensation,
- book over 400 pages,
- book published in the 1870s
- Wilkie Collins
- book published in the 1890s,
- book that has been adapted into a movie,
- book published 1900-1901,
- collection (poetry, stories, fairy tales),
- book published in the 1880s
If there is enough interest, I can compose a list of examples/suggestions for each category. Or if there is a particular category that puzzles you, and you want suggestions, I could answer your specific question.
- Fiction or nonfiction.
- Books, e-books, audio books all are fine.
- Books and movies can be reviewed together or separately.
- You can create a reading list if you want, but it's not a requirement
- If you do make a list, consider adding a list of five books you'd recommend to others
- If possible try to try a new-to-you author! I know it can be really tempting to stick with familiar favorites.
- Children's books published during these years should not be forgotten!
- Rereads are definitely allowed if you have favorites!
- A blog is not required, a review is not required, but, if you don't review please consider sharing what you read in a comment with one or two sentences of 'reaction' or 'response.'
- for the 2015 challenge, any qualifying book FINISHED January through December 2015 counts. OR any qualifying book REVIEWED January through December 2015 counts.
- for the perpetual challenge, it is up to you if you want to count books read/reviewed in 2014 too. You can if you like. Or you could start fresh in 2015.
A perpetual challenge. For those that LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Victorian literature and want an ambitious challenge that could take over a year or two to complete, I offer the Victorian Bingo card.
(If you're super-ambitious, you might want to try to fill the whole card.) The goal: to get a Bingo by reading eight books. (horizontal, vertical, diagonal, four corners and four center squares). Same guidelines apply as above.
© 2014 Becky Laney of
Becky's Book Reviews
