Looking through my Internet Archive favorites for an early-Victorian Catholic novel and came across THE PERVERTER IN HIGH LIFE, which is one of those titles that promises the 21st-century reader something that it most certainly does not deliver #VictorianReligiousFiction
And by the end of Mrs. Sherwood's STORIES EXPLANATORY OF THE CHURCH CATECHISM (1817), there is drowning (1), deaths by mysterious fevers (3), children becoming accidentally drunk (2), alcoholism, conversion via miraculous vision of Hell, and swearing. #VictorianReligiousFiction
By page 200 of Mrs. Sherwood's STORIES EXPLANATORY OF THE CHURCH CATECHISM (1817), we have added alcoholism (multiple), suicide (2), theft (4), more whipping, "good" death (1), more swearing, and an expensive dinner. #VictorianReligiousFiction
The first 100 pages of Mrs. Sherwood's STORIES EXPLANATORY OF THE CHURCH CATECHISM (1817) have yielded manslaughter (1), child death (1), spousal abuse (1), child tied down to prevent distraction (1), whipping (several), and swearing (lots). #VictorianReligiousFiction
Reading a Victorian book review as part of Work In Progress, and reminded once again that the casual 21st-century reader is likely to anticipate something very different from W. J. B. Conybeare's PERVERSION (1856) than the book actually delivers. #VictorianReligiousFiction
If you're stuck working with a reprint that has no original, there's no way to tell if, among other things, the publisher has added/deleted plot elements or characters; changed the novel's denominational affiliation; altered the politics; etc. #VictorianReligiousFiction
Late-Victorian religious fiction got pretty unusual at the margins, but I suspect that James Dennis Hird's A CHRISTIAN WITH TWO WIVES (1896) will take the proverbial cake. #VictorianReligiousFiction
Back to the "let's read through the Thomas Richardson fiction catalog" project. #BookThree #VictorianReligiousFiction
Wait, this Catholic novel is about good King Wenceslaus? *reads further* Oh, it's the *other* Wenceslaus. #VictorianReligiousFiction
Continuing with the Victorian Catholic children's novel; I fear that this current chapter may be bad for our heroine's health. #VictorianReligiousFiction #academiclife
*is reduced to speechless exasperation* #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
"I've just suffered a near-fatal wound and can barely breathe, so I'll now perform this lengthy ballad." #VictorianReligiousFiction
"You can totally stop being queen!" is odd advice to give a Tudor monarch. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
This character is in the throes of guilt, and yet he's giving a minute description of his costume. #VictorianReligiousFiction
Oh. Oh, Lady Jane. *shakes head* #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
We take a break from excessive ellipses, only to substitute excessive em dashes. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Now the author is waxing faux-philosophical. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
I SHOULD HOPE SO, replies the reader. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction #ReallyNow
The novelist is versifying again, inadvisably. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Would somebody please tell Lady Jane Grey to stop fainting at inconvenient moments? #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Sigh. Volume 3. (I did look ahead to the ending, which is Unhappy.) #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
I do wish someone would have told this novelist that they lacked the comic gift. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
BRB, introducing a theological position nobody would hear of for another 70 yrs or so. #Anachronism #VictorianReligiousFiction
"Yes, I've just rejected your marriage proposal; now, please help me with this incredibly dangerous plan." #VictorianReligiousFiction
When bad interpolated verse attacks. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Let's pause for this somewhat gratuitous allusion to Odysseus' homecoming. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Haven't said "this, I, er, no" quite so loudly while reading a historical novel in quite some time. #VictorianReligiousFiction
Enough with the clothes, please. #ThreeByFiveCards #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
OMINOUS SYMBOLIC LIGHTNING. #VictorianReligiousFiction #VictorianCatholicFiction
Volume two, and we have finally encountered the novel's title characters. #VictorianTitleTrends #VictorianReligiousFiction
