DecadeCAT - the '10s

The 1610s:
1611 saw the publication of the King James Version/Authorised Version of the Bible. Although the dating of Shakespeare's plays is a vexed topic, The Tempest as his last play is generally ascribed to the 1610s. According to Wikipedia the second part of Don Quixote was published in 1615.

I haven't been able to find any historical fiction set in the 1610s.

The 1710s
The Rape of the Lock a mock heroic poem by Alexander Pope comes from this decade but the most famous work is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

The Old Pretender and the '15 are not as popular a setting for historical fiction as the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and the '45, but there is Sir Walter Scott's Rob Roy for double points, as it takes us to:

The 1810s
which includes some of Scott's historical fiction, including "Rob Roy" and Ivanhoe. From the point of view of the 21st century, though, this decade's literature was dominated by the six main novels of Jane Austen and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Poetry enthusiasts might want to look at Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Historically this decade includes the Regency, a very popular period for historical fiction and romances, while the Napoleonic Wars are popular subjects for military fiction.

The 1910s
Rabindranath Tagore was the first non European to win the Nobel Prize for literature (in 1913) and his novel The Home and the World was published in 1916. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's final Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear was published in 1914 and his final collection of Holmes stories His Last Bow in 1917. In 1912 Conan Doyle also published The Lost World, about dinosaurs surviving on an isolated South American plateau, which inspired Michael Crichton, who inspired a certain series of films.

The historical events of this decade which seem to most frequently appear in historical fiction are of course the First World War and the Russian Revolution.

The 2010s
I'm sure we all have books from the 2010s in our collections.

This is by and large an Anglocentric introduction, but it would be interesting to see what people can produce from other parts of the world.

ETA: Sorry, I forgot to link to the WIKI, which is here: https://wiki.librarything.com/index.php/2026_DecadesCAT#February:

I am planning on reading Laddie, a True Blue Story by Gene Stratton-Porter, published in 1913 and telling the semi-autobiographical novel of her siblings and her family bonds.

*** Plans have changed and I am now hoping to read the following two books,both published in 1910:

: Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess
: The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood

The DecadesCAT seems like the perfect time to pull out my 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die as they are listed chronologically.
Possibilities - Robinson Crusoe(1719), Sense and Sensibility (1811), Rob Roy(1817), Sons and Lovers(1913), Growth of the Soil(1917), The Sense of an Ending(2011), 10:04(2014)
I will wait to see the TIOLI challenges and see what fits.

Wow, I could read the whole month in the '10s--here's just a few from my TBR:
Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe (1719)
The Heart of Midlothian, Walter Scott (1818)
Virginia, Ellen Glasgow (1913)
The Song of the Lark, Willa Cather (1915)
Fidelity, Susan Glaspell (1915)
This is Happiness, Niall Williams (2019)

Lots of Jane Austen in the 1810's: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Mansfield Park (1814), Emma (1815), Northanger Abbey (1817, posthumous), and Persuasion (1817, posthumous). Also, Sandition, which was unfinished by Austen was published in 1817.

If I don't have time or not feeling one of the Austen's, I may dabble in some poetry and short stories for this prompt. I have Irving's Rip van Winkle and a poetry anthology of Stephen Vincent Benet with poems from 1917 onwards. Also have compendium of Grimm's Fairytales as well as a beautifully illustrated Nutcracker and the Mouse King.

I am considering the famous trashy romance novel that was first published in 1919 and was wildly popular during the 1920s: The Sheik by E. M. Hull. I'm also planning to read something published in the 2010s, which should be easy.

I'm planning to read West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan published in 2015.

I plan to read Pete the Cat’s Giant Groovy Book. The book itself plus all nine books contained in it were written in the 2010’s.

I'm planning to read Andrew L. Erdman's Beautiful, a biography of Julian Eltinge, an actor/female impersonator who was a Broadway star in the 1910s.

>3 JayneCM: I'm also using this strategy of books off the 1001 Books to Read list. I'm thinking Sense and Sensibility for this month, the last Austen off the lsit for me.

Lots of options. I haven't decided yet!

>11 thornton37814: Same here.

I am thinking about consulting the Deutsche Welle list of German books for this, in continuation of one of my categories from last year.

I think I'll read Lad a Dog. I read many animal books, especially about dogs, when I was growing up but I don't remember reading this one. First published in 1919.

>14 clue: Great book! That's a favorite, as are all of Albert Payson Terhune's series about Sunnybank and his collies.

Thanks for telling me, I'll have to try them all!

In case The Sheik is too much, I've found some possibilities by Ethel M. Dell and Ruby M. Ayres, both of whom wrote many popular romances. I've enjoyed books by both of these authors: they fall into the "so bad they're good" category.

>17 pamelad: Ha! Yesterday I started reading a collection of George Orwell's essays and there's one about when he worked in a used bookshop. The most popular author?: Ethel M. Dell!!

I just realised that Das Geheimnis der Ordensfrau fits here, because it is set in 1415: in Constance the worldly powers have assembled to decide who the rightful pope is, and a very humble secular administrator of a convent sets out from Königsfelden in Aargau to ask confoirmation of land privileges for his convent from the pope. When he returns, the Habsburgs have been thrown out as liege lords of the Aargau, and the canton jopins the Swiss Confederation.

I've read the romance/adventure/religious tract The Lamp in the Desert by Ethel M. Dell, which was first published in 1919. I enjoyed it, though perhaps I shouldn't have. The plot is ludicrous, the book is full of the unthinking racism of the times, and the prose is hysterically overwrought.

>18 kac522: Orwell was scathing about the authors read by shop girls. I loved his books when I was young, but these days I mark him down for being such a misery and a snob, and for not acknowledging his debt to Yevgeny Zamyatin's We.

>20 pamelad: In that same essay, "Bookshop Memories", he satirized just about everyone who came into the shop, particularly people who placed orders for rare books and then never came back to buy them, which he implied they did just for show. But he was pretty hard on everyone; I'm sure he wasn't all that good for the shop's business 😲

I've finished West of Sunset by Stewart O'Nan, published in 2015.

I took a trip down memory lane and read Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess. Originally published in 1910, this is a colletion of children's stories about woodland creatures.

COMPLETED The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope (1717)

Grandma Kisses by Laura Neutzling ★★★


Grandma time is lots of fun and full of love. Join these delightful little ones as they enjoy time with their grandmas- playing games, reading books, and eating the best cookies in the world. This little book will have grandmas and their little ones smiling and snuggling as they read together.

A huge plus for the illustrations by Cee Biscoe, a big no for the misrhyming. Things and swing do not quite rhyme like many in this book. Still, it is cute enough to take off my shelf and give to my granddaughter, along with grandma kisses of my own.

Published in 2015

I've read A Dangerous Deceit by Marjorie Eccles, a serviceable historical mystery first published in 2013.

Though Breach of Promise doesn't name the year it's set, it's distinctly a Regency romance, so I'm counting it under the theory it's meant to be somewhere around 1818 or 1819.

French Wikipedia tells me that Ferragus, chef des Dévorants takes place in 1819.

I read The Reversal by Michael Connelly

Published in 2010 although there is little to indicate the year apart from Harry Bosch’s Luddite reluctance to use electronics. Micky Haller was talked into reversing his usual role of defence by prosecuting at the retrial of an old case, a role that provided extra interest to the story and courtroom events. I enjoyed this, as usual with Connelly's books.

I haven't gotten to Sense and Sensibility yet. But I have finished a few others:
The Hanover Square Affair by Ashley Gardner, historical mystery set in 1816
Shiftless by Aimee Easterling, published 2014
City of Songs by Anthony Ryan, published in 2017
Clementine by Cherie Priest, published in 2010

I read Five Days at Memorial by Sheri Fink, about the possibly illegal actions of doctors at a New Orleans hospital during Hurricane Katrina and the legal investigation that followed.

Currently reading Poison or Protect by Gail Carriger (2016)

I read Not the Kind of Earl You Marry by Kate Pembrooke, a Regency romance that's explicitly set in 1817.

I have finished a book published in 2019: Hochamt in Neapel by Stefan von der Lahr. Interesting mix of political thriller and archaeology.

I've chosen to go with the world events for this month, and am re-reading The Price of Glory by Alistair Horne. It is a fascinating though extremely grim book and the chapters are mercifully short.

In reserve, in case I need it, I also have Peter Pan on my reading stack, published in the 1910's.

Another one for the '10s:

Bretonische Geheimnisse by Jean-Luc Bannalec was published in 2018 and this time there are murders among a group of Arthurian scholars who met for a conference in the Forest of Brocéliande.

I've finished two more and also finally started Sense and Sensibility:
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, published in 2012
The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark set in 1912 and published in 2019.

The book I wanted to read for this (Bluebird by Genevieve Graham), had too many holds at the library (had I realized at the start of the month, that included a "skip the line" copy on a 7 day loan, I would have borrowed it earlier and already read it!), so I decided to try Racing the Devil by Charles Todd instead.

That one is technically set in 1920, but has a few parts set back during WWI, so I hoped it would fit. I feel like there is not enough during the war to really count, so I'm likely going to fit in "Bluebird" when I can a bit later and come back to count it here instead.

Starting Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw (1913/4)

The Little French Bistro by Nina George was published in 2010 and later translated to English (from German) in 2017.

American Midnight by Adam Hochschild is a look at the little-known but all-too-familiar-seeming attacks on civil liberties in American during WWI and its immediate aftermath.

COMPLETED Androcles and the Lion by George Bernard Shaw (play 1913, preface 1915)

I like this challenge. I'll probably start with "Old Mother West Wind" by Thornton Burgess.

I read Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker by Patricia Hruby Powell; illustrated by Christian Robinson (2014).

I read Lad:A Dog by Albert Payson Terhune published in 1919.

I read The summer I turned pretty by: jenny Han.

February reads from the 10s:

Christine, Alice Cholmondeley (pseud. of Elizabeth von Arnim) (1917); fictional letters from 1914 in pre-war Germany
Mary Olivier, May Sinclair (1919); fiction from my Virago collection

I'm also slowly making my way through Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862), which is set in France from 1815-1832. I've read the first 500+ pages, which covers parts set in 1815 through 1819, including a long section on the Battle of Waterloo (1815).

I finished Old Mother West Wind by Thornton Burgess (pub. 1910) a couple weeks ago and then forgot about it. Probably because I didn't like it. I found it too repetitive and also mean spirited. I didn't like that the frog was treated so bad and was told it was ugly. If I recall correctly, the book didn't treat the raccoons so well either. I'd rather read books to children with a love for all animals.