All Virago/All August 2023

Hello fellow Viragoites!

This year we have been celebrating the 50th anniversary of our favourite publisher with monthly threads for reading from Virago's backlist.

This will carry on during August, of course, but I thought I would put up a thread for our usual annual All Virago/All August reads in case some of us wanted to spend the month focusing even more on our Virago and related books.

To recap, this month we encourage to read from your Virago collection and also related kinds e.g. Furrowed Middlebrow, Persephone and the like.

So do use August as an excuse to indulge in as many of these lovely books as you like, and tie in with the monthly selection to cover two challenges in one! Let us know what you're enjoying! 😊😊📚📚

My favourite reading month! Thanks for the reminder!

I'm hoping to do the 50th anniversary book which Karen kindly sent me - I usually add Viragoes etc into my 20 Books of Summer but this year I'm doing that with books I've bought from my local bookshop and there aren't any Viragoes!!!

I've pulled out four Viragos from the August selection, but as three of them are pretty huge I doubt I'll read all of them. I've picked
The richer the poorer by Dorothy West
New York mosaic by Isabel Bolton
A garden of earthly delights by Joyce Carol Oates
The bull calves by Naomi Mitchison.

I'm likely to start the West first as it looks like a good one to read on the train.

I've just finished rereading Precious Bane by Mary Webb and enjoyed it as much as the first time.

I read my first Virago author for the month, although this particular book was not published by Virago.

The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge, was written in 1973, but is set in Liverpool during WWII. The story centers around Rita, a sheltered 17-year-old, who meets Ira, an American soldier, at a party. Rita has been raised by her two middle-aged aunts, Nellie (a dressmaker) and her sister Marge, who all live together in the family home, haunted by the sisters' dead mother. Their brother Jack (and Rita's father) lives above his shop not far away. This short but dark story is really about family dynamics, and how Rita's teen-age crush up-ends the accepted order.

Bainbridge's detailed descriptions of the characters, their clothing, their furnishings and the general shabbiness of their lives drew me in, but at the same time made me feel constantly ill-at-ease, like I was seeing things I shouldn't. I can't say I liked any of the characters, but I didn't out-right dislike them, either. Except for disgruntled talk about the American soldiers ("overpaid, over-sexed, and over here"), we don't hear a lot about the war, but only are told of lingering destruction from bombings and rationings. This was very dark and has a shocking ending that comes out of nowhere. I think Bainbridge is a bit too dark for me.

As noted in the monthly challenge I read A Death in the Life by Dorothy Salisbury Davis.

>6 kac522: I think that there are some authors who don't like their characters especially the women. I've found it with Edith Wharton, Nina Bawden and others.
I wonder if it reflects the author's attitude toward other people? It makes for rather unpleasant reading.

I have The Girls of Slender Means by Muriel Spark on my TBR list. I am now reading Gentian Hill by Rumer Godden and the background is rural as was that of Precious Bane.. Most of Spark's settings are urban and more modern.

Correction: Gentian Hill was written by Elizabeth Goudge.

I've accidentally done one as I finished "The Guilty Feminist" by Deborah Frances-White on Monday, my last read-along with my best friend! Review to come on the blog, it was very interesting although I didn't recognise a few of the behaviours she claims most/all women subscribe to!

I agree about Bainbridge. She was very celebrated in the '70s and I read a few of her books then. I always wanted to say - 'I don't really like this author' but kept my mouth shut because she was so popular. My sister once said she wrote about 'ugly people doing ugly things'.

>12 lippincote: 'ugly people doing ugly things'. Yes! the characters are meticulously described in undesirable ways. The young girl in The Dressmaker is not quite so bad; we do feel sorry for her, but she makes terrible choices.

I picked up 3 used Virago titles today--I'm extending "All Virago" to my book-buying this month:

The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim--I have this and read it several times, but in another edition
The Sleeping Beauty, Elizabeth Taylor--I've read this, too, but it was a library book. Now I have my own!
Blaming, Elizabeth Taylor--haven't read this one yet

>14 kac522: What a wonderful find! It is always special to add Virago editions to your collection.

I finished The richer, the poorer and was hugely impressed by the breadth of character that West portrays, and how convincing her voice is whether she is using the POV of a woman, man or child. The essay, many of which talked about her family and childhood, were excellent too.

Now I've started The garden of earthly delights which has much in common with The grapes of wrath so far, being set among the poor white farm labourers who travel the US in search of work. These are hard people living hard lives.

I've just finished A garden of earthly delights. This is one of JCO's early novels, and focuses on 3 generations of a poor white family, beginning in the Dustbowl of 1930s America. Clara is the central figure, born into a family of itinerant farmhands but determined to do better for herself. This was interesting to read so soon after Demon Copperhead, which tackles similar themes of growing up poor and despised. It's not a happy book but I found it gripping.

I'll soon be starting a reread of The Flint Anchor by Sylvia Townsend Warner as soon as I finish Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.

My Virago titles this month were:

Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim (1919)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911), a re-read
Good Daughters by Mary Hocking (1984)--really loved this historical fiction set in the 1930s.

and one Virago author, Beryl Bainbridge's The Dressmaker, which is not a Virago title.

And I'm currently half-way through Jamaica Inn by Daphne Du Maurier, and hope to finish it up this weekend, because I definitely can't stand the suspense!

I managed to read Letter to my Daughter by Maya Angelou right at the last minute; didn't manage the Virago at 50 volume but hoping I can get it in this month!