British Author Challenge July 2022: The Georgian Era (1714-1837)

George I-IV & William IV

The Georgian Era began in 1714 when British Queen Anne died without children, leaving the kingdom to her closest relative*, George, the Elector of Hanover. The rule of the Hanoverian kings lasted until the death of William IV in 1837, leaving the British crown to William's niece, Victoria.

The era saw a great many wars: the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, the last Jacobite uprising, and the Napoleonic Wars are some of the conflicts Britain was involved in at the time. The Georgian Era also saw the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire, and eventually the abolition of slavery throughout most of the Empire.

Britain's empire expanded greatly during the Georgian Era despite the loss of the American colonies. The treaty ending the French and Indian war gave Britain much of France's North American possessions; Australia and New Zealand became British colonies; and the Act of Union 1800 united Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

The Georgian Era also produced some of Britain's most celebrated writers: Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, Ann Radcliff, Sir Walter Scott, and Jane Austen all lived and wrote during the period.

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*I should say her closest Protestant relative. Anne had about five dozen closer relatives, but they were all Catholic.

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Suggestions
The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
The Adventures of Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
Pamela: or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
Rasselas by Samuel Johnson
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. byJames Boswell
Rob Roy by Walter Scott
Evelina by Fanny Burney
Persuasion by Jane Austen
A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe
Belinda by Maria Edgeworth
The Adventures of David Simple by Sarah Fielding
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Female Quixote by Charlotte Lennox
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Fanny Hill: Or, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland
Don Juan by Lord Byron
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
The Beggar's Opera by John Gay
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Reflections on the Revolution in France by Edmund Burke

I read The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy earlier in the year. I don't recommend it unless you're really into obscure satire and dick jokes.

I'll be tackling Tom Jones in July if anyone is interested in joining me.

I have Gulliver's Travels on my shelves, unread, think I'll give it a try.

It's Jane Austen July, so I'll be re-reading Persuasion and Lady Susan.
Additional possibilities (all new reads):
--Jane Austen's Names by Margaret Doody; nonfiction focusing on place and family names in her novels.
--The Absentee, Maria Edgeworth (1812)
--Robinson Crusoe, Defoe (1719)
--Evelina, Fanny Burney (1778)
--The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott (1825)

I've also just started a slow re-read of Eliot's The Mill on the Floss (1860), which is historical fiction set roughly from 1829 - 1840. Probably will finish this some time in July.

Hi - I'm already reading Rime of the Ancient Mariner, both a regular edition with "Christobel" and "Kubla Khan,"
plus Hunt Emerson's great "Rime" Graphic,

along with a lovely old The Poems of BYRON, KEATS, AND SHELLEY.

I am going for the tail end of the era with The Vicar of Wrexhill, which was published in 1837.

>3 fuzzi: I found Gulliver challenging, but very rewarding.

>4 kac522: I hope to get to something by Scott later in the month.

>5 m.belljackson: Love Rime of the Ancient Mariner! I have an edition with Dore illustrations that I pull out occasionally.

>6 cbl_tn: I've never heard of that one. I look forward to your thoughts on it.

>7 amanda4242: Lucky you to have the Dore illustrations! Can some be put up here?

My little New Pockets Classic book has treasured drawings by A. Gladys Peck.

>8 m.belljackson: Have all of them!

https://digital.lib.buffalo.edu/items/browse/tag/Rime+of+the+Ancient+Mariner

>6 cbl_tn: Hmm, I read and enjoyed that years ago. May be an excuse to read another Fanny Trollope Carrie!

>9 amanda4242: That is an incredible astounding collection!

Thank You!

My library request just came in for: A Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain: A Handbook for Visitors to 1789-1830 by Ian Mortimer. This should fit in, so adding it to my pile of possibilities.

I finished reading Emma last night.

Tom Jones by Henry Fielding

I feel as if I've just run a marathon! It often took a great deal of mental energy to decipher Fielding's circumlocutions, but I feel my efforts were well rewarded by this spirited tale.

>13 fairywings: It's on my TBR list (the one that includes stacking books nearby so I can see them); I've read it once, long time ago, and didn't like it, but then a year ago I've watched the movie and was amazed by it, so here we are.

For now I'm reading Italian translation of Mansfield Park, more for the language than for the plot (which doesn't mean I don't like it, it's very dear to me)), but I'm not sure whether I'll be able to finish it in the following weeks.

>14 amanda4242: Well done! That's been staring at me from my shelves for years...glad to hear it was worth the effort, so maybe one of these days....

>15 zuzaer: I re-read Austen every few years. I just watched the new persuasion movie on Netflix. It was a pretty enjoyable interpretation.

>17 fairywings: I tend to have Opinions about Austen adaptations... I haven't watched that one yet since I haven't read the book, but I definitely plan to do so. Good to know it's enjoyable.

>17 fairywings:, >18 zuzaer: Most of the reviews I've seen or read of the new Persuasion have not been favorable. I must say a drunken Anne does not sound like the character from the book. I don't plan to watch it.

So far this month I've:

-finished George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss, which is set 1829-1839.
-re-read Austen's Persuasion, Lady Susan and Pride and Prejudice
-Currently re-reading: What Matters in Jane Austen? Twenty Crucial Puzzles Solved by John Mullan and loving it
-DNF'd Jane Austen's Names: Riddles, Persons, Places by Margaret Doody--there was too much detail packed into a narrative format. Would have worked much better (and more useful for further reference) as a glossary/dictionary/index of names, with a couple of introductory chapters on the history of naming and their origins.

Still to read:
-The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer, which looks very interesting
-The Absentee, Maria Edgeworth
-Jamaica Inn, Daphne DuMaurier--historical fiction set in 1815 Cornwall
and if time permits
-The Talisman, Sir Walter Scott

>16 kac522: It's certainly a challenge, but so worth it. Having seen the movie multiple times definitely helped.

>19 kac522: what is it about Austen adaptations deviating from the books' plot?... (As in: give me a good Mansfield Park apart from the BBC miniseries...)

>20 kac522: Impressive! The books about Austen herself look like a good read and an add-on to the wishlist.

>22 zuzaer: I don't know, particularly (as in this new one) where the nature of the main character is completely changed. In the book Anne Elliott is an older (27), thoughtful, practical, but somewhat melancholy heroine. I really love Persuasion and highly recommend you read the book before any adaptation. My own favorite is the 1995 movie with Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds. There's a BBC mini-series from 1971 that is quite good, if you can get past the hairstyles and the poor sound recording.

>24 kac522: The acting and script in the 1971 Persuasion is good, but it does show it's 1960s esthetic painfully. I love the 1980 BBC Pride an Prejudice inordinately. It gets so many things right and has the best Jane Bennett ever.

>25 quondame: I just re-watched that 1980 P&P tonight--I haven't watched it in quite a few years. I think Fay Weldon's script feels truer to Austen; definitely Jane Bennet and Mrs Bennet and Mr Collins are better (for me) in this 1980 version. I cannot warm to David Rintoul, though--he's just too stiff for me--I don't feel the chemistry like I do with Firth & Ehle in the 1995 version.

And just realized that the 1980 Lady Catherine (played by Judy Parfitt) is still acting today--she plays Sister Monica Joan on Call The Midwife. Amazing--she's got to be close to 90 now.

>26 kac522: I do like Rintoul - yes, he's stiff, but then he smiles and it means something. The 1995 version did stress the chemistry, didn't it? I loved Charlotte as well, who made a great Elinor too, though the 1995 actress was also good.

I once was waiting at a crosswalk (to the LA County Art Museum) with Judy Parfitt. She's great.

>24 kac522: I intend to read the book, thank you---and only then any movies.

>25 quondame: And now I need to watch the 1980 P&P! :)

>28 zuzaer: Yes, you do! I've never seen a recorded copy as clear as the first broadcasts, and there have been scenes cut for sure in the old VHS days. There was some amazing lace on Miss de Burgh's dress that I've never been able to get a good view of since I first saw it in the days when we were lucky if we could see an episode twice much less do screen captures.

>29 quondame: Hmmm, that sounds like a challenge of finding the material in itself...

>30 zuzaer: I actually broke down and bought the BBC Austen DVD collection of all the early (1970s-1980s) series. It has been well worth the cost to watch over and over again. It's still available from the BBC:
https://shop.bbc.com/products/the-jane-austen-collection-22046

I believe P&P might be viewable on BritBox, too.

>31 kac522: That is an amazing thought, thank you for mentioning it! (I'll need to think about the costs though... but it would be worth it)

I'll check BritBox, maybe I can stream from there.

>31 kac522: I admit I indulged in that DVD set as well, soon after we got a DVD. Our first purchase for any new medium is Seven Samurai though.

The August thread is up!

https://www.librarything.com/topic/343200

Besides the 3 Austen works (Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion and Lady Susan) I did finish Maria Edgeworth's The Absentee (1813), about an Irish land-owning family that lives in London and essentially neglects their tenants in Ireland. Edgeworth was a contemporary of Jane Austen. Edgeworth covers a broader spectrum of topics and places than Austen: London, Ireland, tenants, middle classes, Lords, poverty, Irish history and culture. She also uses Irish dialect for the Irish characters. But I found her writing more 18th century than 19th century, and not as smooth or witty as Austen. Edgeworth's characterizations are generally two-dimensional: either very good, very bad or forgettable. The plot was too twisty and the end was like a morality play. Compared to Edgeworth, Austen feels positively modern.

I'm still reading What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan and I hope to get into The Time Traveler's Guide to Regency Britain by Ian Mortimer, which looks very intriguing.

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure by John Cleland

Far more entertaining that I thought it would be. It is porn so it's mostly just one sex scene after another, but all of the carnal acts are written in such an elevated style that it's actually kind of funny.

It's not great literature, but I have to give credit to Cleland for writing a book waaay back in the 18th century that shows women are capable of sexual pleasure, are deserving of sexual pleasure, and, most shocking of all, does not punish women for having sex.