Persephone Readathon February 1-11, 2018

Hi all!

Just wanted to let you all know that I'm hosting a Persephone Readathon from February 1-11, 2018. It will be a laid-back readathon with the only goal being to read and enjoy Persephone books. Hope some of you will join in!

Here's the announcement post on my blog: https://dwellinpossibilityblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/01/announcing-the-persephon...

Happy reading,
Jessie @ Dwell in Possibility
#persephonereadathon

What a nice idea - count me in.

How fun - I'll definitely join in! I just need to decide what to read. :-)

Hi again!

Just wanted to remind you all that the Persephone Readathon starts this Thursday, February 1st.

You can sign up here: https://dwellinpossibilityblog.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/persephone-readathon-sig...

And make sure to follow along/share with #PersephoneReadathon!

Happy (Persephone) reading,
Jessie @ Dwell in Possibility

CurrerBell's Persephone Readathon

I'm in, and I'll be using this post as my blogpost for your Inlinkz sign-in page. I've only a few Persephones, and the only three I've ever read have been Alas, Poor Lady (absolutely! for my interest in Brontëan Rachel Ferguson), Nicola Beauman's A Very Great Profession, and Julia Strachey's Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. Since I'm very active on the ROOTs group and have a goal of 75 for this year's ROOTing, my Persephone readathon is going to be limited to books that I've already got in TBR.

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Feb 2 ... Enid Bagnold, The Squire 3½***

Interestingly, this title has been cross-published in both Persephone and VMC. I've got the VMC (greenie).

The only Bagnold that I've previously read has been The Happy Foreigner (and on Kindle her nonfictional war diary A Diary Without Dates), but I saw the movie adaptation of The Chalk Garden years ago, have Four Plays by Enid Bagnold (unread), and have been meaning to rewatch the movie which I've had around the house for ages. It was one of those many Oscar-worthy performances by Deborah Kerr, and Hayley Mills was my very first screen crush over a half-century ago.

I've been promoting Bagnold (thus far unsuccessfully) as a Monthly Author on the VMC group, so this will be an excuse to get a Bagnold read while simultaneously participating in the Persephone Readathon.

The Squire will probably be more attractive to female than to male readers – much more attractive, in fact – and although men may be able to appreciate the novel intellectually, its focus on pregnancy and motherhood is going to be gender-specific to most readers.

Upstairs? Or Downstairs. Personally, I found the servants more interesting than "the squire."

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Feb 4 ... Winifred Watson, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day 4****

Cinderella?

I've seen this one compared with Jane Austen. Personally (and I'm a Brontëan, not a Janeite, but I say this as a compliment to Watson), it's a case of "Jane Austen meets Lemony Snicket," with the breathless pace A Series of Unfortunate Events moving it along much better than any Austen novel.

A bit of a fluff piece, but quite clever.

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I've also read Cheerful Weather for the Wedding and would love to read some of Rachel Ferguson's work, as well as Nicola Beauman's book soon.

I'm not familiar with Enid Bagnold, but I just looked up the description of The Squire and it sounds fascinating. I look forward to hearing what you think once you've finished it!

It's always so interesting to see which books are published by both VMC and Persephone. Happy reading!

~Jessie @ Dwell in Possibility

I read The Squire quite some years ago (I have the old Virago edition), and hated it because, I think, I couldn't disassociate myself from my own experience of pregnancy, which was not at all enjoyable. But the distance of time must have softened me, because I enjoyed it when I read it again recently. And I think she broke new ground by making pregnancy and birth so central to the novel.