Oct
07
2008
Author: Hilary Mantel
ISBN: 038525895X DDC: 823.914
See also: Library Thing ; Elsewhere ; RIP III
“Bring in the cows now. Time to shut up for the night”.
There came three cows, breathing in the near-dark: swishing with the tips of their tails, their bones showing through hide.
This book isn’t labelled as horror; I’m guessing you are more likely to find it in the fiction or literary fiction section of a bookshop rather than the horror or even historical fiction section. But it fits under both. If you ask me.
The Giant of the title is based on the real life story of Charles Byrne but this is never intended to follow his life story. The real Byrne merely provides the inspiration. Along with the real John Hunter, real-life surgeon and anatomist. What Mantel does is use their stories as a jumping off point, an examination of the characters and their times. So of course it makes no pretence at being a real story.
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Tags:
8 Stars,
823.914,
based on true story,
Britain - 1700s,
Charles Byrne,
England - 1700s,
freak shows,
Hilary Mantel,
historical fiction,
Ireland,
Ireland - 1700s,
John Hunter,
London,
RIP 3,
RIP Challenge,
The Giant O'Brien
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Sep
26
2008
Harriette Wilson, the woman who blackmailed the king
Author: Frances Wilson
ISBN: 0571205240 DDC: 941.073092
See also: LibraryThing ; Other reviews
Harriette Wilson’s Memoirs omit both time and place; there are no addresses given, no locations described, no elections, diseases, or wars. “Dates make ladies nervous and stories dry,” she wrote.
It has taken me quite a while to finish this book. Usually that isn’t a very good sign, it means I’ve not really being all that interested in it, but usually I don’t read non-fiction. Whenever I do it always takes me longer to get through.
This is the story of Harriette Wilson who grew up to become a courtesan in Regency London. The woman whose Memoirs caused a scandal, and raised her quite a bit of cash, as those named began to buy her silence. But as well as that it is a story of how few options there were available to women at that time. It was a case of be married or be damned. Harriette seems to have chosen the damned option. It was her book that led to the, now famous, if incorrect line by Wellington, “publish and be damned”.
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Tags:
7 Stars,
941.073092,
biography,
blackmail,
Britain,
Britain - 1700s,
Britain - 1800s,
Britain - Georgian,
Britain - Regency,
British royalty - George III,
C18th,
C19th,
England - 1786-1846,
Frances Wilson,
Harriette Wilson,
history,
The courtesan's revenge,
The courtesan's revenge: Harriette Wilson,
the woman who blackmailed the king,
women,
women in society
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