Fabulous Finds - Part IX

I was out running errands today when I realized I was in the vicinity of a favorite used bookshop. Of course I had to stop in. I found 3 VMCs, 2 of which I will post on the duplicates thread in the coming days. The one I didn't have yet was Pilgrimage I.

I also noticed on our Virago Collection Tracker, that all 4 Pilgrimage volumes are listed as a single VMC (#18). Why is this?

My fabulous find recently was a hardcover first American edition (Doubleday & Co. 1938) of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca. Ex-library, with all the usual markings, and no dust jacket, so certainly not worth $3,000 like some of the first editions of Rebecca available on Alibris.com!

I had a trip out of town and found 3 secondhand bookshops with 5 green VMCs that I didn't have...it made my day! Kaye Gibbons by Ellen Foster, The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Alfrey, My Next Bride by Kay Boyle, The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter and Barren Ground by Ellen Glasgow. I'm rearranging the shelves again.

Cheerful Weather for the Wedding arrived in the mail (Thank you, teazle!) and I found a copy of The Happy Foreigner on the free shelf yesterday. Something to read on the plane when I fly to Australia next week! Or perhaps I should take something Australian -- Painted Clay, maybe, or Cindie...

I continue to receive stuff slowly but surely from Paperbackswap. I got a whole heap of non-Virago copies of Virago titles in the last week or so - almost too numerous to mention and when I'll read them... but they did include pristine copies of Olivia, The Story of an African Farm, and Not So Quiet.

On the real Virago front I got Rhapsody and The Ladies of Lyndon (thank you Cariola!) and The Semi Attached Couple and the Semi Detached House. Instead of reading any of the above I am listening to The Painted Veil on audio and devouring Pattie Boyd's bio on her life with George Harrison and Eric Clapton. Hey, it's summer....!

>5 romain:: I'm having great luck with Paperbackswap too. The wishlist feature has been a real boon to my collecting. It was time-consuming to add so many titles, but I would never have snagged them on my own, you have to be very vigilant enough with daily searching to do that.

I agree Laura. It took me ages to make up my 200 wish list but they keep arriving. After I wrote the above a copy of Crewe Train arrived in the mail and I am waiting on The Third Miss Symons which the sender assures me is also a green VMC (Thanks for the advice on that Cariola). I joined the club about 15 months ago and in that time I have received 49!!! real Viragos and probably as many other editions of Virago titles. Some are in horrible condition of course but about 25% are really nice to almost brand new.

I received The Little Ottleys from PBS today, a Dial Press edition. And I am eagerly awaiting a parcel with several VMCs from a PBS member ... more on that when they arrive.

I loved the Little Ottleys. It is very amusing and very easy to read. Oh God, don't tell me you've found another one of those women giving away her lifetime's collection of Viragos! Grrrhhh! :)

I've had pretty good luck finding titles through Paperbackswap. Not long ago, one of my wish listed titles became available and I entered into a bit of correspondence with the PBS member about the book. I mentioned that I collect these books, and she threw a bonus VMC into the box (the two books were The Caravaners, and The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen. But that wasn't all. This PBS member had seen several VMCs in a used bookshop, and offered to do a little shopping for me. Within a day or two she sent me a list of available titles, and I picked 7 that I needed in my collection. She bought them, boxed them, and mailed them ... and received PBS credits in return. These seven books marked a major milestone: I now own 101 of the more than 500 published Virago Modern Classics!

Reaching this milestone required a celebration of sorts: reorganizing my Virago bookshelf! Below, 101 Virago Modern Classics:


And now for the 7 books:


Back row, left to right: The Three Sisters, by May Sinclair; Rumour of Heaven, by Beatrix Lehman; Selected Stories, by Sylvia Townsend Warner
Middle row, left to right: Taking Chances, by M.J. Farrell; The Way Things Are, by E.M.Delafield; Mad Puppetstown, by M.J. Farrell
Front and center, the honorary #100: The Tortoise and the Hare, by Elizabeth Jenkins

Edited to fix touchstones

Let the champagne flow!

Just snagged The Virago book of Women Gardeners on EBay. Not likely a "fabulous" find but one which appeals to this gardener/reader.

POP! Excellent acquisitions Miss Laura and congrats on the first 100. Here's to 400 hundred more!! Love the picture too. I've been trying to revive the photo thread - perhaps you can post this beautiful photo there?

Congrats on scaling the first 100 Viragoes!

I am jumping up and down over my recent, fabulous find: The Skin Chairs by Barbara Comyns from ebay. I don't think it's a great copy but so rare that I don't care!

Well done bunnyb!

wtg bun!

Laura I am green! And Belva I'll answer you PBS thing here - I also had that confused until I figured out what everyone else was talking about. fyi if you go on Paperbackswap and type in Virago you will find a number of them that none of us regular members need. But first you have to join and either buy credits or swap some books.

Laura - Have you read The Tortoise and the Hare? That is one of my most favorite Viragos.

I've not read The Tortoise and the Hare yet, but have heard lots of good things!

Laura, What wonderful collection. Congratulaions! (It is a great bookcase too)

#14 It arrived and it does have an extremely creased spine but I can definitely live with it, of course!

I picked up a copy of The Lost Traveller in the very nice Chiswick Oxfam Books- I just need an original green edition of The Sugar House now to complete the quartet.

Arriving at the post from various used online book stores:
1. I'll Never Be Young Again
2. The Virago Book of Christmas
3. The Virago Book of Women Travellers
4. The Virago Book of Women Gardeners
5. I capture the Castle
6. Ethan Frome (I hate that the Virago press has used the movie tie-in pic for the cover)
7. Jonah's Gourd Vine
And while it is not a Virago, I am so thrilled that I found a copy of Isak Dinesen's Last Tales. I have been looking for that for some time.
My teeny tiny collection is beginning to grow thanks to so many of you who have generously shared duplicate copies with me and now this find online. I am starting to feel like one of the group and get excited.
One of the ladies said on a thread that she was using August as "Virago" month. Thus, I went online to find enough to keep me through the month as I wanted to join her. (I wish I could remember which lady it was) So I am claiming August (for myself) as "all Virago month" other than the group reads I am involved in.
I need to go and recount to make sure I have enough. I might need to order more before August arrives!~!
belva

I wish I could remember which lady it was

It was Tui (tiffin). Doesn't she come up with marvelous ideas!

Absolutely!~!
Thank you Tui and thank you christiquic.
It is a most marvelous idea!~!
belva

Beaming at being called a lady. ;)

Not a Virago (even if Virago recently published it, and I own a copy), today I found a first edition of The Eye of Love by Margery Sharp. The price indicated on the flap is 13s 6d net! My collection of Margery Sharp's books is almost perfect!

Tui:


glitter-graphics.com

Oh, happy day!~!
Oh happy day!~!
I had to mail some books off this afternoon so I ran back to the post and what to wondering eyes should appear but more used lovelies from online bookstores:
1. The Tortoise and the Hare
2. The Life and Death Harriett Frean
3. Temptresses: The Virago Book of Evil Women
4. Wayward Girls and Wicked Women
5. Testament of Youth
6. My Career Goes Bung
7. My Antonia
and this one is not a Virago but I was so thrilled when I found it:
The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family by Mary S. Lovell and aren't there books out with letters of the sisters recorded?
Well, I would think that coupled with what arrived earlier and what is on my shelf these should see me through the month of August.
Yea!~!
belva

My goodness Belva, you really cleaned up today! Which one will you read first?

I think I will first read Frost in May lindsacl, because I believe, (not sure) that was the first published Virago, was it not? I will begin August 1st and read Viragos straight through the month. I thought that to be an excellent idea of tiffin's. That girl-----so clever!~!

#1 sounds like a good place to start!

Well done Belva! May I recommend The Tortoise and the Hare which is one of my absolute faves not least because it has a huge surprise at the end. Carmen Cahill describes the final pages as 'startling and satisfactory'. But suffice it to say it's a lovely novel about adultery and what happens to the very nice, timid, wronged wife.

I agree, romain. I loved The Tortoise and the Hare, and the ending is one of my favorites. The novel also has a special place in my heart because it's the only Virago I've been able to persuade my wife to read!

I love it too.

Well then, in taking that under advisement, following Frost in May I shall read The Tortoise and the Hare. I have heard nothing but good anywhere on that one. Thank you.
I hope everyone in America has a safe 4th of July weekend. We will be staying home and off the busy highways. I hope to have a quiet day and perhaps get some reading done. There hasn't been much reading time these past two weeks.
Thank you all for your input on the reading choices. I appreciate it as I have only read one and it did not bode well for me. That one was Holiday. I am hoping that it was just my mood or something at the time I read the book. Because the same author Stevie Smith wrote Novel on Yellow Paper and I hear that one is marvelous!~!
Happy dayz all,
belva

I found four today

The Adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen by Elizabeth von Arnim
Ordinary Families by E. Arnot Robertson
Now in November by Josephine Johnson
and Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamund Lehmann.

Also found a Virago-related book The Life of a Provincial Lady Study of E. M. Delafield and Her Works by Violet Powell.

Excellent Teazle. What a haul!~! They all sound wonderful.
You know, I think I saw somewhere that The Sisters: the Saga of the Mitford Family is actually a Virago. Do you know if that is true?
Mine isn't a Virago Press copy, but just wondering.
belva

#37 My copy isn't, I'm pretty sure.

*wanders over to the bookcase to check*

No, definitely not Virago.

Belva - we have had discussions on Stevie Smith on this group before and responses are mixed. I am sure there are people out there who don't like Elizabeth Taylor or Elizabeth Von Arnim, but in the main everyone likes them. But not everyone likes all the Virago authors.

I really don't like M J Farrell/Molly Keane and I was never crazy about - ahem - Frost in May. It made me angry for the child involved. And then along comes some oddity like A Wreath for the Enemy that blew me away, but left everyone else I forced it on cold.

My copy of The Mitford Sisters is not a Virago either.

Along with dear Joyce an LT visitor from across the pond we snagged two VMCs in one of the Oxford Oxfam shops. We breezed in and were chattering away and a young man comes up with a Virago straight away - not an original though .... so I then went into VMC scanning mode and found The Mighty and Their Fall by Ivy Compton-Burnett £2.49. Wonderful - then Joyce appears with her find My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin £1.99.

Having retrieved the husbands (who were outside waiting - but had the cash) we then paid up our dues and congratualted ourselves on our little haul. In fact I am hoping that Joyce will be joining us here in the near future as her book is her very first VMC - we have a convert and another wonderful reading companion to join us in our tree house!

Nicely done there, Julie, both on the VMCs and the conversion!

ditto here!~!
belva

Many thanks to the lovely Laura for The Harsh Voice, which arrived (very quick, indeed) today.

My VMCs appear to be breeding and I foresee a headache-inducing rearrangement of my bookshelves in my near future.

After a wait of at least 15 years, I have a copy of M.J. Farrell's Young Entry (green-spined VMC, of course) in my hot little hands. YAY! I found it at amp for just a dollar above the shipping/handling cost, and I'm thrilled. (I was working as a part-time bookseller for WaldenBooks back when, and *YE* was simply un-gettable.)

>43 bunnyb:: Wow, that really was fast!

Bravo, Lizzie! 15 years - you ARE a patient one!

>#43:
bunnyb;
But what a lovely "headache inducement" it is indeed.

>#44;
LizzieD;
Congrats on a premier find. You waited long and patiently for that one.

belva

Ah Julie I am jealous of both you and Joyce. You are an impeccable LT host. I am getting to host an Lt friend myself this week and am going to the airport to meet her but I do not have to get up as early as you did to meet us at Heathrow I am afraid.

In the last week I have received three green Viragos from Paperbackswap. The Third Miss Symons, Miss Herbert and She Knew She Was Right - all in excellent condition.

Oh Maren - how very kind of you. You will be a superb hostess yourself. Enjoy your meeting and have a lovely bookish time! I love the label - an LT host. It is a very humbling role because it is in giving that we receive.

I would love to be an LT host!
:-))

>#50:
juliette07;
"It is a very humbling role because it is in giving that we receive."
I know I have heard or read that somewhere before. It sounds like all of you ladies are enjoying yourselves tremendously and I am with aluvalibri.

Miss Paola - I can see another great Virago phalanx flying over, across, up or down to you already =)

Belva - I am not sure where you live but I'll be over if it is this side of the pond - you too can be an LT host!!!

In fact it was St Francis that said 'it is in giving that we receive'. Just chuckling to myself with the religious language and the use of the word 'host' ..... with out meaning to offend anyone that is.

Sadly, juliette07, I am across the pond from you:-(
But I am going to try to get up to Seattle to meet and buy bonniebooks a cup of tea. And the same with --BJ when I go to Dallas later on if we can hook up. That is LT hosting of a sort, I think.

And a good job done of it, I say.

I love that the little threads around the world that connect readers (which is such a solitary pursuit) bring us together in so many different countries. It is an antidote to all the many other unpleasantnesses in the world.

After our honeymoon Rom said two of his favorite things were meeting up with my LT friends he said he felt we got more perspective on the country by being with people and how easy it would have been to travel as tourists without really meeting anyone at all.

Paola, someday you will be I have no doubt.

>53 juliette07: (Juliette, I'm sure that you are a heavenly host!)

I went to Whitstable on the Kent coast and also Canterbury today for a little day trip. Of course I made a beeline for the second hand book shops. I came home with 5 green spined Viragos for a grand total of £6.

So joining my library are:

The Sugar House by Antonia White
The Lost Traveller by Antonia White
Painted Clay by Capel Boake
The Orchid House by Phyllis Shand Allfrey
Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty

I was really pleased because I've got Frost in May and now I can finally read it because I have the sequels to hand. Also I saw Delta Wedding for £5 in a bookshop a few weeks ago and didn't buy it because it was too expensive, and then I found it for £1.95 in Oxfam in Canterbury so that was nice. I was right to hold out!

I also had to leave about ten Viragos behind (I know, I know) because I am on a very tight budget this month. This pained me but sometimes I just have to stop myself otherwise before I know it I've spent £50 and then I'm stuck eating baked beans all week. So I chose the ones I knew I'd read and reluctantly walked away from the others. The pain of having too little money to feed one's book habit!

The Whitstable bookshops are great!

I picked up a non-green copy of The Yellow Wallpaper today.

I found a nice green copy of Illyrian Spring by Ann Bridge in Oxfam today.

Oh Teazle I am SO jealous! That's top of my wishlist!!!

#60: I was pretty pleased to see it, as I had more or less resigned myself to never finding an affordable copy!

Did you act all cool and nonchalant, or did you grab it and shriek? (I always try the cool thing myself but I think the goosebumps give me away.)

#62: I hope that outwardly I was cool, but inwardly I was hugging myself and going 'oooh' for the rest of the afternoon :-)

Oh Teazle, what a find! I'm green with envy. I would have been oohing and hugging myself all day too!

I will join the envious crowd, as Illyrian Spring (the Virago version) has been on my wish list forever.

Sounds like that one must be difficult to come by.
Well, Amazon.com visited my house today and come to call was:
Travel Light,
The Children,
Moonraker by Jesse not Fleming and
Elizabeth and Her German Garden.
I am no longer lonely.
belva

I found Winifred Holtby's Anderby Wold and Olivia Manning's The Doves of Venus in Oxfam today. I really enjoyed The Crowded Street so I'm looking forward to reading another Winifred Holtby novel.

I've just received Pilgrimage 1 from GreenMetropolis - a lucky find on a casual trawl through their available VMCs. I'm also expecting a copy of All Passion Spent any day now.

Definitely enough holiday reading but that won't stop me I'm afraid.

I received from Paperbackswap today a copy of Millenium Hall by Sarah Scott. According to the lists there are only two copies on LT. I know that in the past all kinds of people come out of the woodwork with their own copies of Virago obscurities so I checked MrsPenny's list and she does not have it. I even checked under the correct spelling of millennium and there is nothing. So, does anyone else have a Virago copy of this or am I one of only two?

Romain, that book is an odd one because the Virago cover actually shows a short form of the book's title. The full title is "A Description of Millenium Hall and the Country Adjacent, Together with the Characters of the Inhabitants..." So you can see why they shorten it! I've combined your copy with the others on the author page, so you can now see how many people actually own the book.

I own it, too, and reviewed it last year on my blog.

Today I was invited to choose books from the library of a woman who is moving into a smaller retirement apartment and "downsizing" her collection. I was only able to find one VMC, a Dial edition of Mary Webb's Precious Bane. But it's something I didn't own and haven't read, so I was satisfied.

#69> I have a copy, Barbara.

Damn! And I thought I was special at last!

Thanks Betsy - I'm off to look on the amended author page.

Barbara, you don't need Millenium Hall to make you special! You are.
Meanwhile, playing catch-up, I have received a pristine, unread, green-spined copy of Elizabeth and her German Garden from pbs (How's that for beginner's luck!) and a black Dial edition of Hunt the Slipper from amp. I'm happy! (When I'm haunting pbs for VMC's I find myself waiting "7 of 7" or "5 of 5" and I'm pretty sure in my mind who the other, earlier ones are!)

> 69 - Barbara, I also have a copy in my library..it should come up if you search Sarah Scott in the titles/authors tag..

Patricia - The only place I looked was your VMC list. Oh well...

Peggy - I was that 7 of 7 too - about a year ago. Often by the time it's on offer the other 6 have bought it elsewhere - so don't despair. I am number one on a Persephone at the moment because all the others went away (mostly though I am 15 of 15 on Persephones). Try typing in Virago and then looking for different ISBNs under 'All books'. Sometimes you can find a different copy of the same title for which no one is waiting. In case that is not clear - purists may be waiting for the 1986 copy of a book but have not reserved the Dial or the newer editions.

Thanks for the tip, Barbara. Now I'm wondering whether any of us won the E. Taylor that was posted on Members' Giveaway. I didn't.

>77 LizzieD:

I didn't either.

But I did find a non-virago edition of For Love alone by Christina Stead in a used book shop for $6 last week. Since Australian novels are rather thin on the ground around here, it was quite exciting.

I didn't win the Elizabeth Taylor either. :(

I promised myself last week that I wouldn't buy any more books until I'd read the 100+ I have on my to read pile. The shame.

However...today I went to Tunbridge Wells in Kent and they had the most amazing second hand book shop...with a whole section devoted to Viragos! I just couldn't walk out with nothing, though I was very very good and only bought three that I needed...The Weather in the Streets because I have Invitation to the Waltz and wanted the sequel...and two I have been looking for for ages, The Three Brontes (The Three Sisters - touchstones doesn't work unless I write Brontes) and the one I was MOST excited about - the elusive Illyrian Spring!! All for £1.50 each. Plus I got Peking Picnic in an Orange Penguin.

So a good haul! But that really is IT now I have to read the Viragos I have until I indulge in any more.

only bought three that I needed

"Needed"--I love that! :)

>79 bigpinkmarshmallow:: now I have to read the Viragos I have until I indulge in any more. Ha. Good luck with that. I gave up trying; I'll get to them all someday!

Seriously, I am pea green, big pink! That's a fabulous find, indeed, because you can visit again & again!

OK BPM - the address and precise location of the Tunbridge Wells book shop *is* required. lol

I am finding that the charity shops here are becoming much more 'sanitised' in their opinion and have all the 'new' books on their shelves. I could also say that I think that they are 'dumbing down' and getting picky - pampering to the mass rather than simply selling all genres.

oooops I forgot - my find this week has been the Radio 7 link to The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby - it is lush! Thanks so much Christina for sharing that information.

Ooh I bet that shop was the one my friend used to work in when we were teenagers and she used to pass on her 10% discount to me when she could. If only I could remember the name... Oh, I just have - Halls? Down in the Pantiles on a corner, lots of books up to the ceiling?

Hmmm ... I have a friend in Tunbridge Wells ...
But if I were big pink I might just be keeping mum as to the details!

Christi - hehehe! I didn't realise I'd written needed! Clearly my subliminal mind coming through there...

Lyzzy - yes that is the one! Juliette and Lindsacl, here's the website

http://www.hallsbookshop.com/index.html

Get yourselves there asap! I left behind a lot of good stuff and it's all so reasonably priced. If I wasn't with a non book loving friend, I would have been in there for hours. And I would also have spent a lot more money if she hadn't have stopped me!!

Years ago I lived for year in Tunbridge Wells and bought a complete set of Arthur Mees Childrens Encyclopedias from that shop. I had forgotten all about it!

Awww - this has brought back so many memories! I bought quite a few volumes of a nice Hardy edition with gold tooling on the spines there, gradually, and my Arther Quiller-Couches and some of the Oxford Book Of ...s

We thought we were so sophisticated - I used to meet my friend at work and we'd go to Ruperts Wine Bar and sip cocktails! If they had cocoa powder on the top (I was allergic to chocolate at the time) my friend would have to hoover it off with her straw. As I said, sophisticated....!

Happy days!

#86: *kicking self here* Do you know how close I was to that bookshop when I was in Rye last September? Arrrrggghhhh!!!

ETA: just look at that place - I could almost smell the books....

>86 bigpinkmarshmallow: "And I would also have spent a lot more money if she hadn't have stopped me!!"
(Pink, you're sure this woman is a friend???)

edited to add They don't accept plastic..... *sigh* What's a poor little colonial to do?

Write to them asking for specific titles and if they have them, send a money order snail mail in British £s sterling? Very 84 Charing Cross Roadish!

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Ten years ago there was no way that I could buy a money order here in British #s sterling. I tried in order to buy a book I really wanted. (How does one get a pound sign?) Things may be different now, but somehow I doubt it. Does anybody else over here do that?

>92 LizzieD: £ = & #163 (without the space between the & and #)

I know Wells Fargo does foreign currency bank checks. (see here)

Lizzie, hold the alt key down and hit 156 on the number pad.

Lizzie it is indeed difficult and I went through something similar between here and NZ last year. I spoke to B of A over the phone and they assured me what I wanted was an easy transaction. NONE of their local branches had a clue what I was talking about however. My advice is to buy one of those Visa gift cards (as good as cash) or deal with someone who does accept plastic. I would opt for the latter.

Thank you all. You humble me------- I was simply speaking in general terms, having bought so much in the past couple of months that I will NOT try any way at all to be in touch with that lovely Halls shop.
£!!!!!

£ !!!
I just had to try it. Thanks tiffin!

Didn't work for me. :(

Did y'all try mine?

yes. :(

Me too - but I don't think I understand what you're telling me to do. 92£.....?

Edited to say "OH YES IT DID!"

£ Whoopee! Alt156 works for me. Thanks LizzieD.

Couldn't get yours to work Christina!

(Alt156 is the tip of tiffin!) I didn't think Christina's worked either until the post came up, and then it did........but for some reason my edit came through in another post.) (Just trying to keep things straight. And I really wish that I knew my keyboard.)

Apologies Tiffin and thank you. Its been one of those days.

Am I missing something here? .... it is easy on my computer press the key with the pound sign on it!!!!

No key with pound sign here. Do you have "$"?

>107 juliette07:: ROFL.
Julie, have you ever been faced with a French keyboard while in La Belle France? What a nightmare!

My fabulous find came today -- a first edition of The Brontes Went to Woolworth's purchased on ebay for 99 cents! It's a lovely blue color, a bit battered, but I'm looking forward to reading it at last.

From Amazon Marketplace I received today The Judge by Rebecca West.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh, I saw Illyrian Spring on Ebay going for $59.00 and I actually had the gall to message the seller for a picture of the item and he/she never responded. The gall, again, I say!~!

I got two books from different people on PBS. Good Behavior in pristine condition and I Capture the Castle in horrible condition and (as Belva complains also) with the movie tie-in cover.

I went to the Newberry Library (Chicago) booksale today and was able to get a slew of Virago Modern Classsics for $1 each. Here they are, in no particular order.

Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall (what a fantastic cover)
Tortoise by Candlelight by Nina Bawden
The Winged Horse by Pamela Frankau
Women Against Men by Storm Jameson
The Willow Cabin by Pamela Frankau
The Other Woman by Colette
The Golden Arrow by Mary Webb
Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark (not a Virago)
That Lady by Kate O'Brien
Hungary Hearts and Other Stories by Anzia Yezierska
Company Parade by Storm Jameson
Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards
Poor Caroline by Winifred Holtby
Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane
Crossriggs by the Findlaters

I also found a first edition of Nancy Mitford's Pigeon' Pie and a 1926 edition of The Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion in the Year 1764-4 edited by her Kinsman Alexander Blacker Kerr. One random entry:

"June 18th

I spend half the day at the hairdresser's now. My head has not been opened for over a Fortnight, and this is positively the longest time I will go in this hot weather, though some Ladies keep their Heads unopened till they are Intolerable to themselves and everyone else. The dresser informed me that one lady from motives of thrift went so long a time that her head when opened was found to contain a Nest of Mice. Lord save me from that! We are to attend a grand Ball to-night at the Duchess of Queensbury. She is a Whimsical clever woman."

Okay, "head opened"???? Maybe taking down and redoing those 18th century elaborate, high hairstyles. Has anyone heard of this term?

What a fun day.

What a bunch of fabulous finds! You must have been in heaven.

Drool on the keyboard is both disgusting and debilitating.
I think you're spot on in your analysis of "head opened." I'm reminded of a Lady Mary Montagu quotation (or approximation) when somebody commented on how dirty her hands were; "You think these are dirty! You should see my feet!"

Ha!~! That is funny and at my house, usually true!~!

>114 Liz1564::
Liz1564;
I was skimming your post as I am rushing trying to catch up after having some horrific days with my "computer" and unable to load the threads.
But anyway when reading your quote, I thought: "My goodness, they talk funny across the pond when going to the beauty shop." So of course I went to your profile only to find that you live over "here". And had to go back and read the darned thing all over again. Very funny!~!
None of the libraries around my neck of the woods have ever heard of Virago Press you lucky girl you!~!
belva

Took a trip to Cambridge (UK) yesterday and had a little success. I found

Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
My Friend says Its Bulletproof by Penelope Mortimer
and
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence

also a copy of The Well of Loneliness in a remaindered book shop (not the original green edition, but never mind).

You may all know, but just in case you didn't, the Bloomsbury reprint of The Brontes went to Woolworths was also available in Blackwells bookshop and they are also now operating a print on demand service - their web site (http://bookshop.blackwell.co.uk/jsp/editorial/othersites.jsp?route=services ) is not very user-friendly (sorry, still struggling with html), but I managed to find out that all four volumes of Pilgrimage by Dorothy Richardson are available via this service and maybe more VMCs if anyone is interested in checking it out.

I've also been in Cambridge (and Ely) over the past few days, and picked up a number of Viragos:

The Crowded Street by Winifred Holtby
Anderby Wold by Winifred Holtby
Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
Seven For a Secret by Mary Webb
The Golden Arrow by Mary Webb
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

All are green, apart from the last one. I found the first five in the back of an antique shop in Ely for £1 each. I was especially pleased with The Crowded Street, as it's since been re-printed by Persephone. There were quite a lot of Viragos in the Amnesty bookshop in Cambridge and the market in town, but they were rather expensive.

Has anyone got any thoughts on Mary Webb? I only know her as the author of 'rustic' novels parodied by Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm, but they look intriguing and the covers are pretty.

In post today 2 lovely green vmcs: The Microcosm by Maureen Duffy and Sunflower by Rebecca West.

Also a Virago Traveller: West with the Night by Beryl Markham.

114 Oh Liz you did very well. I have only found one or two at past Newberry book sales perhaps I go too late. I an glad you rescued them!

#119 Julia, I read The Crowded Street last week (Persephone edition) and really enjoyed it. The Connie section seems to be an inspiration for Stella Gibbons' parody, as well as Mary Webb.

I envy you Anderby Wold as now I am wanting to read more Winifred Holtby.

I went back to the Newberry today. No VMC's, but I came away with the two volume set of Roger Fry's letters, the letters of the Mitford sisters to each other, Lewis's Pulitzer Prize-winning Dragon's Teeth.

But the find of the sale is a first edition two vol set of The Golden Bowl for $4. I questioned the price because, even though there were no dust jackets, the books were in good shape; faded, but tight, no warping, pages not crumbly. The pricer said that any value was diminished because the previous owner had stamped his name on the inside covers. I happily was given permission to enjoy the find.

When I got home (husband ecstatic since he is the James nut), I goggled the name. It seems Henry Kitchel Webster was born in Evanston IL and was a professional writer who wrote novels, plays, and screenplays for the silent movies. In fact, he worked on The Sheik (which is published by VMC) so there is even a shirt-tail Virago collection. He has some stuff on Project Gutenberg so I think I'll try his prose.

Another fun day.

>123 Liz1564: WOW!

Not a Virago, but a Virago author: Beatrix Lehmann's first novel, But Wisdom Lingers. It might even be a first edition; I'm not sure. But it took me about 20 years to find, so I don't really care. :)

#104 Yes Lizzie - I do ... have a dollar key here $ !! ~109 Please, please do not start me on French key boards - I never use them - my Keith will take his computer on Monday week so ... should I feel the urge to write I will use that and certainly not a local keyboard!!!

>120 englishrose60: Valerie - West with the Night has now been incorporated into the VMC list and is regarded as a Virago Modern Classic..

I drove to the next town for a baseball game tonight. I had about an hour before the start so I peeked into a used shop and what did I find but a pile of VMCs (gasp)

without my cloak
young entry
conversation piece
mad puppetstown
pilgrimage I
the perpetual curate
tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow
cullum
the loved and envied
the constant nymph
the lifted veil

A wonderful day was had by all

33 new pea-green inducing emails here. I shouldn't go away. I can take one or two a day but when you come back to find after find after find, well, it's too much. I think I need to lie down.

#127. Thanks Patricia. I shall add a vmc tag.

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West with cover picture by P. Picasso.

3 Amanda Cross Virago Crime:
The Theban Mysteries
The James Joyce Murder
The Question of Max

>129 tiffin:: LOL!

I found The Skin Chairs and This Real Night in a wonderful, haphazardly crazy shop down a side street in Hampstead today.

The buying books ban has officially gone out of the window. :(

How wonderful, bgp (even if it does now mean that you aren't allowed to "treat" yourself with a book next month for being good!) I picked up a copy of The Skin Chairs recently too as well The Edible Woman and Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead.

I went to a very upmarket thrift store today in a ritzy neighborhood and picked up a bunch of like new trade paperbacks for swapping on Paperbackswap - 10c each. (!!) In the middle of all these new books was a somewhat battered book called Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher, which I bought because she is a Virago author.

Viragos from PBS this week are Broke Heart Blues, and 3 Virago titles in non-Virago editions - for reading rather than collecting.

Romain, Understood Betsy was one of my favorites as a child. I hope you enjoy it. In fact, I bought my very first Virago, The Brimming Cup, because I had loved Understood Betsy and I wanted to read more books by Dorothy Canfield.

I really am quite ill here. I never realized that I DO break one of the ten commandments every time you lovely ladies have a day like this. I do not want to live here any longer. I want to move across the puddle so I can have "finds" also. I am so envious.
**pout*sniffle*pout**
belva

From BookMooch:

Devoted Ladies by Molly Keane. a vmc

The Diary of Ma Yan virago autobiography.

I go away for only a few days and look what happens - a plethora of fantabulous finds. Congrats to you all!

romain -- I too loved Understood Betsy as a child -- I must have read it at least a dozen times. And like Aviddiva, I bookmooched another book of hers -- Rough-Hewn (touchstone not working) which, alas, sits in a tbr pile that I WILL get to one day.

I'll get to it Jane - it's on the pile! Today I got from Paperbackswap Miss Marjoribanks and Company Parade - both good solid green copies to add to the collection.

I'm happy (to say the least) to report a new (pink!)VMC copy of Invitation to the Waltz from teazle (and I thank her) and a black Dial copy of The Weather in the Streets from amp. That doubles my Rosamond Lehmann holdings.

123 Liz I did get to the Newberry sale and I found two Viragos but they are both the dial press covers. One is a duplicate (The Getting of Wisdom) which I will post on the duplicates thread. I also picked up Gone to Earth and a non-Virago but relevant The River by Rumer Godden.

The River is one of my faves of hers Maren and I believe was her first. Godden is such a complex woman - after reading her biogs I find she was never a nice woman, very British Raj and all that entailed, and yet she writes wonderful books - a sort of deeply spiritual Margaret Thatcher! I believe there is a Jean Renoir movie of The River, which shows how good the book is.

Two more from BookMooch arrived today.

During Mother's Absence by Michele Roberts.
Childhood Interrupted by Kathleen O'Malley.

144 romain, oh dear " a deeply spiritual Margaret Thatcher" that is a description. I am looking forward to reading it but perhaps I will stay away from the biographies for a bit! I will have to seek out the film as well.

Three VMCs all arrived at once ... yippee! They are: The Happy Foreigner, Rhapsody, and Crossriggs.

146 yes, that scared the wotsits out of me, too!!! I am still recovering from turning to the last page of the plates in my book about the 1970s and having Her face beaming out at me!

The Rendezvous and Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier. I mooched this, the first of my Du Maurier's from the list.

Yes, it's never good to read biographies of your favorite authors and find out they kicked puppies or stole their best friend's husbands. Godden never did anything 'wrong' - she just wasn't the Godden her books indicated she was. And Doris Lessing who shares my politics abandoned two tiny children to have the freedom to write - now that really put me off her.

And what's wrong with Margaret Thatcher! I've modeled my whole appearance on her! :) :)

150 - OK picture please lol =)

Romain, that is hilarious! Including the cardboard hair?

Got two VMCs today from a good friend: Lantana Lane and The Persimmon Tree.

God Tiffin, I wish. It's 100% humidity today and I have hair like Bobo the Clown.

Tui, Lantana Lane is one of my favourites.

I get high with a little help from my friends! In this case noodlejet22, who sent me a fine green-spined copy of On the Side of the Angels in the package with an ARC that she had reviewed and I had commented on, and a non-Virago-but-lovely copy of My Brilliant Career / My Career Goes Bung. Thank you both, Barbara and Danielle!

(Edited to say: For the first time in my life I look forward to high humidity because it makes my hair curl as opposed to twist and fly out. This curl is the wierdest thing that has ever happened to me. All my life my hair was stick-straight and floppy. About ten years ago it achieved a little motion, then it waved, and now - with humidity - I truly have curls. No reason for this that I know of - just another benefit of aging!)

Sitting on Paperbackswap for quite some time now are the following:

Lacquer Lady - Dial
I'm Not Complaining - Dial
The Getting of Wisdom - Dial
The Vet's Daughter - Dial

Poor Caroline - Green
Devoted Ladies - Green - this latter does not appear on the Virago list but has a Virago ISBN and cover.

Many Virago titles available in non-Virago editions if you just want a reading copy.

(Oh shoot! I've told you about my hair before. Your indulgence, please, for a rapidly-aging lady.)

The Devoted Ladies is my listing and is, indeed, the green cover with the ladies holding fans. When I posted the ISBN number it came up with the newer cover and there was nothing I could do about it. Poor Caroline is also mine. Those are two I picked up at the Newberry sale last week. (As soon as I manage to build up credits at Paperswap, I'll post duplicate VCM's here, I promise.)

This week I received in the mail The Optimist's Daughter, At the Still Point and The Land of Spices. I was quite happy about that (an understatement, obviously).

Ho ho ho!~!
I found:
Red Pottage (was wowed, been looking for a long time!~!
At Mrs. Lippincote's,
Beyond These Walls,
Gone to Earth,
Harriet Hume,
Hester Lilly,
Hudson River Bracketed,
In A Summer Season,
The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte
Pillion Riders,
Solstice,
The Sugar House,
and Troy Chimneys, one I have been really looking for as well.
I can't wait to dig in.
While they are still not the collection you others have, I now have 2 shelves of Viragos. Whoo Hoo!~! I'm excited. Starting to feel like part of the family. For so long I only had two Viragos books. But it was a start.
I love Virago Press!~!
belva

Wow, Belva, you are really rocketing along! Well done.

>161 sqdancer: I'd second that.
2 whole shelves devoted to your lovelies is wonderful! happy reading and collecting!
Danielle

Thank you. *she curtsies demurely**

Wow Belva that is impressive!

"It's not easy, being green."

Particularly if you live in Florida -- the only time I see green is if I get really lucky on Book Mooch or the mail delivers a gift from one of you lovely folks.

Don't do the "mooch" thing yet, but ditto here and online upon occasion. I wouldn't have any if it weren't for the lovely folks here who gave me my start. Can't thank you all enough.
Though I have only read 3 Virago Press thus far, I have read other publications of some of the Virago books, and I have found them all to be of a calming nature and that feeds my spirit. I really like that about the lovely greens.
belva

Coming to the top of my wishlist on Paperbackswap in the last week the following Viragos.
The Solitary Summer
Madame de Treymes
My Antonia - which is like new and absolutely gorgeous
On a wet Sunday I gave in and ordered 7 $1 books on line (+ apprx $3 p&p per book) and the first two of those also arrived today.
Ellen Foster
Dust Falls on Eugene Schlumburger
All of the above Greens.
Plus I got The Irish RM off Paperbackswap.

Today I went to the Oak Park Library booksale. It was held in the high school where Ernest Hemingway graduated. Since it was the second day, I didn't expect too much, but I was wrong. Here is a partial list: (all paperbacks $1)

A Woman
Marriage
Ellen Foster
Beth Book
Transit of Venus
Their Eyes Are Watching God
Mary Lavelle
At Mrs. Lippincote's YES!!!
Selected Stories of Sylvia Townsend Warner
Thinking Reed
Beyond the Glass
That Lady
Full House
Sugar House
and all eight Viragoes by E. H. Young

Some good nonVMC's were

The Complete Novels of Jean Rhys
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
Henrietta's War by Joyce Dennis
The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute
Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker 1941 hardback

And a slew of Margaret Atwood and Joanna Trollope. Plus some other things. I spent $33.

It was a really good sale. Now the only one left is the Hyde Park community book sale in Oct. I have high hopes because Powells (local in Hyde Park) and the University of Chicago bookstore carried all the dark green Viragoes in the 80's and maybe the Hyde Parkers will be divesting themselves of older books.
Last time I went my friend picked up 30 pristine volumes of the LOEB Classical Library for 50 cents each because the prof who donated them realized he had duplicates of the entire series.

>168 romain:, 169: WOW !!!!!

You see - this is what happens when you live in a main center rather than Southern New Jersey!!! I wonder who gave them all away. I never find this stuff at my local library sale, although if they were there I'm fairly confident I'd be the only person who wanted them. As I've said before the only bookstore around here that has a few every now and again is the one near Princeton. And then a few weeks ago I found 3 duplicates in a Mom and Pop video store. Now that was a shock.

Liz1564;
I am really impressed!~! And you live in the U.S. as well. I had to check. I thought for sure you lived in the U.K. as I never ever see Viragos at used book sales.
I am soooo happy for you. (but just a little envious too)

romain;
When you live in Morton, Washington all you find are Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts.

belva

oozing pea green over all the EH Youngs. Cripes!

NOT a Virago but a Virago author, yesterday I found a 1914 copy of Delia Blanchflower by Mrs. Humphry Ward. I am quite content.

Paola;
Is there really a Dodo Press?
That is hysterically funny!~!
belva

Yes, Belva, there is a "Dodo Press", and they publish a lot of interesting books, many of which I have on my wish list.
Just go to Amazon and search for 'Dodo Press', you will be surprised (and your wallet will become lighter, methinks!).

on my way!~!

168

Romain I finished Some Experiences of an Irish RM on the train this morning. Delightful. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

169 Liz you are having good luck. I will have to remember the Hyde Park sale as well this year. I always seem to remember the week after.

I think Hyde Park is Oct 10.

Mooched 2 Viragos:

Sights Unseen by Kaye Gibbons - a vmc.

A Hundred and One Days: A Baghdad Journal by Asne Seierstad - A Virago Original.

>169 Liz1564: Your post took my breath away! I don't know what I would do if I found that many Viragos in one place!! Faint, probably!

ER, I've never even heard of that one by Seierstad.

#180: no you wouldn't, Christine, you'd be moving like greased lightning.

tiffin - I was looking for her other book The Bookseller of Kabul. Saw this and couldn't resist.

Mooched: The Virago Book of Evil Women by Shahrukh Husain.

Bought from Amazon Frenchman's Creek by Daphne Du Maurier.

Found a copy of Cold Comfort Farm at the Goodwill bookstore -- it's not a Virago, but this Penguin edition has a lovely cover anyway.

In the mail this week Moonraker (the VMC not the Bond novel), Spinster, Crossriggs and Salem Chapel. Another eclectic selection as Virago acquisitions always seem to be.

Snagged a copy of Bobbin Up on EBay. So not a find, per se, and not £1 or anything wonderful but a reasonable price and free postage.

>186 tiffin:: and it's a good book, too!

186. I'll second that.

Mooched Good Behaviour by Molly Keane. New edition VMC.

Ah.... From online (pbs and amp) I now have fairly gently read, green copies of Painted Clay and Crossriggs and a black Dial copy of The Vet's Daughter. My glee is marred only by the fact that a black Dial was mailed by a Conn. pbs'er, and I'm now down to four days before the outer limit of time it should arrive in. It should have arrived; and it's The Sugar House. And I WANT it!

Contact her by pm Peg. This happened to me and the woman had never actually mailed it. Intended to, marked it as mailed, but it was still in her car or some such.

Thanks, friend. I'll do that if I can find out who she is.......... I'll scout around. I may even have the email telling me that she mailed it.

Peking Picnic arrived in the mail (Thanks Rachel!) I'm so excited to read this book I've heard so much about!

YEE! Ha! for sure!!!! My copy of The Sugar House arrived in the mail this morning. The sender found it and mailed it Thursday, so now I lack only Beyond the Glass to be able to follow Clara's complete career. *glow*

Red Pottage arrived this afternoon, from Amazon Marketplace. I had to have it, since Mary Cholmondeley was a friend of the delightful Findlater sisters. And Rhoda Boughton's Belinda is on its way. Looking forward to starting one or the other once I've finished rereading Middlemarch.

Home by Marilynne Robinson
The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier
Both from Amazon.co.uk

She Done Him Wrong by Mae West from an Amazon used bookseller.

Peggy - I received a green copy of Beyond the Glass last week from PBS, which leaves my black Dial copy going spare. I'll send it off to you this week.

Barbara, you are too good to exist!!!! (Be careful of yourself!) THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!! My others are the black ones, so I'll have a matching set - a thing that doesn't happen too often in my library.

I got The adventures of Elizabeth in Rugen and My Brilliant Career and I am trying to keep myself reading about Isadora Duncan with minor forays into my early reviewers book Daphne which is fiction about Daphne DuMaurier that I suspect many here would like although I am not finished yet.

I enjoyed Daphne, and have an egotistical soft spot for it, because the author linked to my review on her blog.

I got a copy of Daphne too, Maren! Now I have to read it and write a review, which of course will never be even remotely comparable to the wonderful job you all do when you write reviews.

Oh that's great Rob. I'll have to read your review when I am done and Paola I am glad I will have someone else to compare notes with.

Good review, Rob. You've made me want to read the book, which a good (and positive) review will do. I left a comment.

I'm lucky enough to have been inundated with good things recently. I decided to give myself a present for my birthday so treated myself to some books with my balance from GreenMetropolis:

The Matriarch by G B Stern
A Deputy Was King by G B Stern
Together and Apart by Margaret Kennedy
Painted Clay by Capel Boake
Saraband by Eliot Bliss
and
The Brimming Cup by Dorothy Canfield

All original VMC style!

Then on a visit to friends and family, I was able to explore a few new charity and second hand book shops and found

Provincial Daughter by R M Dashwood
Daughter of Earth by Agnes Smedley
The Sugar Mother by Elizabeth Jolley
and
Rhapsody by Dorothy Edwards

Since then, two of my wish list from GreenMetropolis have arrived:

One Way of Love by Gamel Woolsey
and
Spinster by Sylvia Ashton-Warner (although not a VMC, but a vintage Penguin edition from the early 1960s)

I'd say that's all for now, but I'm in Cambridge at the weekend so good resolutions will have to wait until next week. I'd blame this group if I wasn't enjoying myself so much!

1 dozen - all but one a VMC. Wow!

What an excellent haul!!

In spite of not having time to read it yet I got the dial press version of The Little Ottleys yesterday. Sigh.

I snagged a copy of Daphne on Early Reviewers. I received it yesterday.

You too?
So, that makes three of us: you, Maren, and moi!

The box of books I purchased while in Texas arrived today. In it were several Virago Press releases. Go figure-------------I have to go all the way to Texas to find any that are not on line. Anyhoo, I was able to snag:
The Land of Spices by Kate O'Brien, which I read on the plane coming home and absolutely fell in love with O'Brien. This is a wonderful book and I look forward to reading anything I can find by her. Absolutely anything.
All God's Children Need Travelling Shoes by Maya Angelou
Passing by Nella Larsen, not a Virago, but a Penguin classic that looks really good.
Salem Chapel by Mrs Oliphant; a lovely green copy:-)
The Virago Book of Ghost Stories edited by Richard Dalby
The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter
Shadow Dance by Angela Carter
A Song Flung Up to Heaven by Maya Angelou and
The Portable Dorothy Parker; not Virago, but I was so very happy to find this one. It made me smile as I scooped it up off the shelf.
There are quite a few others but I will post them over on my thread on the 50 book gig.
belva

Lucky you! I wish I could find some green covers here in SW Florida!

Belva - don't forget your half Virago by O'Brien - Talk of Angels/Mary Lavelle. It is very good. I own and have read Passing which is very good and is about a black girl passing for white and the complications that ensue. Nella Larsen was part of the Harlem Renaissance.

>#212:
Jane;
Only one had a Virago green cover, but I was thrilled with all of them all the same. It is really difficult in the U.S., especially in the rural areas, to find the Viragos at all. I have joked in the past that here in my area all one finds are Danielle Steele and Nora Roberts books.

>213 romain::
Barbara;
Silly me; I have been waiting and waiting for Mary Lavelle to arrive. They are one and the same? Did I suddenly go blonde or what? I had set Talk of Angels aside until I received Mary Lavelle. Oh, that is too funny!~!~!:-))
Oh, lucky dog, lucky dog; I'm a lucky dog!~! I have 2 Kate O'Briens!~! I am excited! But please tell me again; why is it only half Virago???????????????????? I don't get it.
And I just knew when I saw Passing that it would be a great book. You know how you just sometimes get that feeling when you pick one up? Like it's a heart thing? And I didn't realize that Larsen was part of that group. I learn something new everyday.
Big hugs!~~!


glitter-graphics.com

belva

>214 rainpebble: Ms. Belva, Talk of Angels/Mary Lavelle is a VMC. Mary Lavelle is the book, and Talk of Angels is the book with the tie-in movie cover and changed title. :)

I found the four volumes of Pilgrimage in a used book market in Cambridge, UK, years ago, then I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on Richardson!

They were supposed to be sold all together when the first complete edition appeared, maybe that is why they are listed as a single volume

>#215:
Christina;
So is that one of those "let's change the name because it's going across the pond" thingies?
I am just so excited because now I have another Kate O'Brien to read. Don't you think she is wonderful?
Thank you for clearing my head.
Big hugs,
belva

Nice little haul there, Belva. I loved Passing. It's a pity that Larsen published only two novels. One of the things I find interesting about her is that her career ended when she was accused of plagiarizing a short story by a Virago author, Sheila Kaye-Smith.

Yesterday I received via PBS what may be the shortest VMC: The Lifted Veil by George Eliot. Only 90 pages!

Yes Belva - it is a Virago book (right down to the type face) but with a crappy cover put on for the movie tie-in - hence half a Virago. You started with O'Brien's masterpiece (IMO) but Mary Lavelle/Talk of Angels will not disappoint. Re: Angela Carter - one of my best buddies raves about her but I have struggled. My policy is to always read two books by an author, in case I got their worst book first. This worked for me with Townsend Warner. I was not happy with Lolly Willowes but have loved everything else by her.

Andrew - I heard about the plagiarism but did not know it was Kaye-Smith. How blatant was it?

And was it even true?

http://www.archives.gov/central-plains/press/2008/women-ww-i-movies.html

belva

I just found Kaye-Smith's "Mrs. Adis" online. It's quite short, so I'll read it and "Sanctuary" and report back to y'all.

We knew we could count on you.
Thanx man!~!

There is very little difference between the two stories. I read them a paragraph at a time: first Kaye-Smith, then Larsen. The style and language are different, but otherwise they are practically identical. It's really rather astonishing. "Sanctuary" can be found in Intimation of Things Distant; I' like to post a link to "Mrs. Adis" but don't know how.

Andrew - do you remember the contretemps when Colleen McCullough stole an entire book from L M Montgomery? Almost word for word in large sections. And years ago when I read The Blue Bicycle I was absolutely gobsmacked because it was almost word for word Gone With The Wind updated to World War 2. And of course Mitchell's estate sued the pants off the woman.

Barbara - I vaguely remember the McCullough/Montgomery case but not the books in question. I haven't heard of The Blue Bicycle until now.

Although I don't remember the Larsen bio very well (it was rather dry, alas) I think the author posited the theory that Larsen had read the story when it was published 1922 but when she wrote "Sanctuary" she wasn't aware that she was rewriting something she'd read almost a decade earlier. In 1930 Larsen was an emotional wreck; her marriage was falling apart and she was under tremendous stress.

I think in this modern age with all us 'experts' on line every day one cannot get away with much for long including 'unconscious plagiarism'. The McCullough thing blew my socks off though - it was nothing short of fraud and her cover was blown as soon as the book was published in Canada and Montgomery's estate got wind of it. I remember reading reviews of another book of hers back in the 80's and thinking just from the review that it was a reworking of an obscure b&w 1950's British movie called The Hasty Heart. After the Montgomery thing people came out of the woodwork about that book too. I sit here now wondering who she stole her Virago published The Thorn Birds from - or was that all her own work?

I will have to look up the McCullough/Montgomery story. Now I'm really curious. As for Larsen, I have trouble with the "unconscious plagiarism" theory because the stories are so similar in so many ways. Before I'd read and compared them, I was inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt, but now...not so much.

Maybe she was a one book wonder, Barbara. Not everyone knows when to quit like Harper Lee. But I am harrumphing that she tried to rip off our Lucy Maude! I hadn't taken the latter too seriously until my brother did his thesis about her and was waxing on at great length. He greatly revised my opinion of her (one formed in childhood from reading the Anne books).

Is it possible to know the title of the book that plagiarized L.M. Montgomery???????
Now I am very curious to know.

The Ladies of Missalonghi apparently plagiarised from The Blue Castle

http://books.google.com/books?id=R8iBgXif0ZQC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=...

I hope this works. The discussion on plagiarism goes from page 141 and can be scrolled back to if I have got it started somewhere else.

I quite enjoyed The Ladies of Missalonghi for its fairy tale quality, and had no clue it had plagiarized another book.
Now I want to look for The Blue Castle.

I don't know about unconsiously plagiarizing a whole book, but I do know that I overstudied for my first test for a professor with a reputation so much that I ended up quoting the text for several pages. She let me retake the test and believed, then, that I hadn't cheated.
As for C. McCullough, I can't read her no matter who publishes her. I wanted to like The Thorn Birds but found the writing so incompetent that I just couldn't do it. de gustibus....
(Edited because when I looked for "Fabulous Finds," I found that I was already here.) My copy of Beyond the Glass is here from Barbara, and I am thrilled to have the whole series in Black! Thank you, friend!

maryclarel provided my fabulous find - The Odd Woman by George Gissing. Many thanks Mary.

Liana available in green on PBS.

Today I found on ebay.com a lot of 8 vintage Virago Beacon Press Travel books. I won't list them all here but I did get them. I will be anxiously awaiting them. I have been wanting some Virago nonfiction and some of these sound really good. They have the burgandy covers. Will look very pretty with the lovely greens.
belva

The Virago Beacon Travellers are great, Belva. I am glad you got them!

Found a VMC edition of A Pin to See the Peepshow on Abebooks this evening. And the VMC Provincial Lady omnibus. And a Persephone, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding. Also a first edition of Broderie Anglaise by Violet Trefusis. I'm very interested to see if she was as witty in French as she was in English.

I found an old copy of Out of Such Fires by Virago author Jean Devanny today. I have to say it looks like a real potboiler, but perhaps it will live up to Cindie.

To quote the dustjacket: ""The girl is a cultured, outspoken pagan, strongly sexed, and an implacable rebel against provincialism and dogma. The stepmother is a raging fire of pent-up passion manifested in greed, cruelty, gluttony, lust for power. In the struggle, the girl's cultured sanity is dragged down to a primitive dementia." I'll have to read it and report back!

Liz, it is one of the only two of her books (that is, those on LT) I do not own.
Please do report back, I am looking forward to reading the lurid details.

I am waiting ever so impatiently for Rhoda Broughton's Belinda to arrive from a recalcitrant vendor. Meanwhile, I just settled down to Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which runs to over 3,000 pages. So it may be a while until I can read anything else!

Arggggggggggggggggg!~!~!
3,000 pages??????? So how many inches is that Rob?
belva

It comes in three volumes (Penguin); I have volume 1, which is two inches thick (and I'm also just finishing Middlemarch, which is an inch and a half thick).

I have an edition in two volumes, which looks and feels like onion skin paper.
I have yet to find the courage to start reading it.

You two should do a group read on it and we will see you in the spring. ha

Funny!
;-)

Did anyone read that article about a year ago on War and Peace - how none of the major literary reviewers had actually read it? Many people own it but few ever open it. I think it's in Doctor at Sea that he takes it on an ocean voyage and uses it to prop open his cabin door and squash cockroaches.

I listened to Middlemarch on audio and loved it but would never have read it. The longest books I have read are Gone With the Wind, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and the The Horseman Riding By trilogy which I read at a temp job. I was there for a week running the switchboard and it rang maybe 4 times a day, so I read.

I have a five volume copy of Decline and Fall (or Decline and Fall off of the Roman Empire for you Dickens fans). I have some vague recollection of making it through the first volume, but since I don't remember a word of it, I don't think that counts. (I do need to get it recorded here.) For whatever reason, I am attracted by BIG books........ I did read *W&P* and Don Quixote and three volumes into Proust and all the Dickens novels (twice) ---- you see what I mean. A friend once asked, "Is the pulp paper industry subsidizing your reading?" I just think that if I'm going to invest time in a book, I want it to last!

I LOVED War and Peace and Middlemarch, but I read them before I had children and a teaching job -- ah youth, ah time.....

Same here, Jane, but I did a reread of Middlemarch last year.

Maybe when I retire...

It took that for me to do it, Jane. ;)

I read most of War and Peace. I skipped the last hundred or so pages, though; the story was over and Tolstoi just seemed to be ruminating on the ideas of war and peace in general, and by then I just didn't care any more. As for the longest novel I've read to date: Clarissa. 500 pp. longer than Tolstoi's epic, and with a lot less plot. It's the only book I have ever thrown across the room. (It left quite a dent in the wall, too.)

The longest book I've read was A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. I enjoyed it, but felt that if it had been edited a bit, it would have been even better.

I read War and Peace, Middlemarch, quite a few Dickens (not all...yet), the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, The Buddenbrooks, Gone with the Wind and....I am sure I am forgetting some tomes, but the ones I mentioned are hefty enough.

I ploughed through Les Miserables when I was about 13, all 1400 pages of it. I loved it then, but I don't think I'd have the patience to read it now.

That is one of those I forgot: Les Miserables.
And like you, Liz, I read it when I was 13!

That's about when I read it too. I also read the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy twice -- once in high school and again when the film came out.

You're all putting me to shame. I'm 250 pages into W&P, really enjoying it but sidetracked. And I bought Kristin Lavransdatter for the group read on here last year, and am about 100 pages into that too!

Anyway - I popped in to report on a big Virago hit. Today the enormous book fair for our City Mission is on - it raised over $100,000 last year, and by 9 am there were several hundred people lined up waiting for the doors to open. It's a huge amount of fun. I found 7 Viragoes for $2 each...

Hester Lilly by Elizabeth Taylor
Bid me to Live by H.D.
The Fly on the Wheel by Katherine Cecil Thurston
The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
We that were Young by Irene Rathbone (this one sounds really really good)
Maurice Guest by Henry Handel Richardson

Those of us across the pond are drooling...

ditto what jane said........
I swear I am moving over............just for the books, not the rain because we get tonz of that same rain here. hee hee
belva

10 titles up for auction in eBay right now, auction ends 17:54 US PDT. Current bid is $20.50. I have most of the titles already and am not bidding ... would love to hear if someone from this group wins this!

Laura -- I won! I won! With a bid of $21! Thanks so much for the tip! And... since I already have 3*of the lot, when they arrive, there will be duplicate copies available. Stay tuned....

Antonia White. The Lost Traveller
Antonia White. Strangers
Margaret Kennedy. The Ladies of Lyndon
*Emily Eden. The Semi-Attached Couple & The Semi-Detached House
May Sinclair. Mary Olivier: A Life
Barbara Comyns. The Vet's Daughter
*F. Tennyson Jesse. The Lacquer Lady
Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson) Maurice Guest
*Mary Webb. Gone to Earth
Mrs. Oliphant. Chronicles of Carlingford/The Perpetual Curate (Virago Classic)

Brilliant, Jane!

I am so pleased for you Jane - I know how hard it is for you to find them in Florida. Well done!

GOOD for you, Jane! I might have been competition except that the list includes 6 titles that I own. (Happy me!)

Well, I made it to the annual bookfair in Wellington mentioned above, for the first time in several years. I came home with 24 books for $1 each. Although I went specifically to look for duplicate VMCs I only found these four which I didn't already have myself:

Helen Hodgman - Blue Skies & Jack and Jill
Margaret Laurence - A Jest of God and The Fire-Dwellers
Charlotte Perkins Gilman - The Yellow Wallpaper

Sorry everybody. Next year I'll have to get there a day earlier as Cushla did.

Jane, I'll be sure to tell my husband. He's much more of an eBay watcher than me and he alerted me to the auction yesterday. He was a bit disappointed to learn I already had most of the books but I know he'll be happy to hear his scouting paid off for someone in this group!

ETA: just re-read your list to see which were duplicates. So glad you've rounded out your Antonia White collection. Well, actually, I think all of these books are really "classic" Virago Modern Classics!

i found a virago in my fave charity shop for 45p the other day, and the the oxfam near me had 5 in stock i didnt owm for £1.69 each! i was really chuffed with that hall. In fact that oxfam has made a whole shelf for viragos, which has made it wonderfully easy for me to scout it out each week.

Not Viragoes, but I was very pleased to find copies of Heroes and Villains and Black Venus in Oxfam, meaning that my Angela Carter collection is nearly complete (I wonder if Virago will ever obtain copyright to her entire oeuvre), and a Women's Press edition of The Yellow Wallpaper and other writings of Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

I was going to my friend's flat in East London on Friday night and was just walking along the street, minding my own business, when I came across a pile of DISCARDED BOOKS by a rubbish bin. The charity shop next to the bin had clearly just chucked a load of books they couldn't sell. Never one to miss out on an opportunity to nab some free books, I had a quick leaf through - I have no shame! To my joy I found two pristine green viragos - Tell Me a Riddle by Tillie Olsen and None Turn Back by Storm Jameson. I've had a leaf through Tell Me a Riddle and it looks good - I like short stories. I gather from the blurb on the back of the Storm Jameson that it's the last in a trilogy so I suppose I shall have to collect the first two now! Anyone know if they're any good?

bpm, good for you, rescuing perfectly good books from a trip to the landfill. well done!

(I'm sorry; I just have to groan. BigP finds pristine VMC's in the dump, and I can't find one for love nor money {Well, I really haven't ever tried "love"} anywhere around but online.) I second Laura's "Good for you" to have rescued them and hope that many others come your way!

BPM, I have the Storm Jameson trilogy and it looks good. Well done for finding books in a rubbish bin!!

LizzieD, I read that in a hurry and saw "I really haven't ever tried love anywhere but online"!

Grant I'm about to peek in your library to see what the other 20 books were...

(Cushla, I'd blush but I'm innocent! I'm innocent!!!)

Congrats everyone on your book hauls. Good going!~!
And jane----way to go!~! Some of those come hard earned!~! Congrats!~!
belva