I think I have mentioned before that I have a predilection towards mostly British novels of the nineteenth century up through WWI with some spillover to pre WWII.
I guess I was imprinted as a child with a love of the more intricate, descriptive and leisurely writing style of those times; I don't mind a detour by the narrator or an ironic aside commentary, or multiple subplots, or characters who are overtly villainous or virtuous, or over reliance on coincidental twists of fate or doppelganger physical similarities in some characters.
I also am fascinated by the role of women in novels of these times. Women are completely dominated by the demands of society to become wives and mothers. If they fail in this most basic of tasks, they are then relegated to lives of attempting to be socially useful and committing themselves to "good works" in their social enclaves or to becoming unpaid domestics or companions in the households of siblings or parents or even worse, being forced to going out "in service" as governesses or paid companions outside the family circle or attempting to earn their livings in the few occupations that were open to them such as seamstress or music teacher. After marinating in Victoriana even for a little while, there can thankfully be no doubt that yes, we have come a long way baby.
Because I have read so voraciously for so long in such a specific area, I have had in the past some issues in dredging up new literary grist for my mill. This has actually been a good thing, because it has forced me to actively search for the more obscure books and authors.
One really terrific side benefit of being an aficionado of the time frames I favor, is that vast amounts of the stuff that I like to read fall in the "public domain" category and I can load free book after free book onto my Kindle. I have a veritable library that I can and do take with me anywhere which saves me from having to read "Guns and Gardens" magazine or perusing Biblical coloring books at my dentists
In mining for these books I have had a few methods that have really worked for me.
The first is to utilize the "people who bought this book, also bought this book" click throughs on Amazon. Sometimes you have to drill down a few levels, but I almost always find something that looks worth looking into.
Second is to check out the "lists" on Good Reads. I will often look through a list of "best books" for particular decades
Third is to peruse manybooks.net which has a workable search function for original publication date plus a ton of other filters. If you're looking for Australian science fiction published between 1890-1910 than you have to check out manybooks. They also are the only ones I have found that have negative filters that let you screen out the topics you are not interested in.
Anyway, I have tumbled onto so many books and authors that have unjustifiably fallen into the dustbin of the overlooked and uncelebrated that I will share with you in future Diaries. Today's overlooked author is George Gissing
If you check out that Wiki, his own life could be a novel - brilliant British lad whose brains and intellect yield him a scholarship to University where he excels and wins multiple prizes, falls in love with woman of possibly shady repute, yields to temptation and steals at his college, is expelled and imprisoned, exiles self to America, becomes hard scrabble salesman then newspaperman/author/teacher, returns to England, settles down with former love and begins writing seriously, marries again to wife who becomes insane, hangs out with HG Wells, marries for the third time a French woman who translates his books and lives with her in France where he sadly dies at forty six(!) after catching a chill after "an ill-advised winter walk."
The Gissing book that I recommend today is The Odd Women which takes it's title from the women who remain after all the others have married. Many of these women are "odd" by their own choice, finding marriage and its conventions to be a stultifying prison which they choose not to enter.
Gissing has been somewhat rediscovered but not nearly enough in my opinion; his major themes revolve around social conventions and the price paid by both men and women in flouting them, particularly if they are not in situations of personal wealth that insulate and isolate them from society's condemnation.
What overlooked author have you tumbled onto that you would like to share? perhaps you would consider writing a diary for this space in the future? Kosmail me and set it up!
Books In My Life is a diary published most Friday mornings about books that have had a particular resonance in ones life for some personal reason. If you would like to write a diary in this series please contact Phoebe Loosinhouse by Kosmail to schedule a date