The Victorian and the Romantic: A Memoir, a Love Story, and a Friendship Across Time PDF
Preview The Victorian and the Romantic: A Memoir, a Love Story, and a Friendship Across Time
Praise for BLEAKER HOUSE “As funny as it is poignant.” —Lena Dunham “A mesmerizing literary levitation act. . . . Bleaker House swirls text, subtext, and context into a single narrative.” —Vogue “A literary feast. . . . An inventive memoir about a young writer’s struggle to find her literary footing.” —NPR “A meditative, engagingly comic reflection. . . . Stevens discovers not just the pains and pleasures of the artistic process, but the power of leaving one’s life behind for the sake of self-discovery.” —Harper’s Bazaar “A book that’s simultaneously smart, lively and even, at points, unhinged. . . . Stevens charts a path of personal and professional exploration tinged with both sadness and humor.” —Jezebel “An honest portrait of writerly neurosis.” —San Francisco Chronicle “One of the most original, entertaining, and thought-provoking books I have ever read about the difficulty of writing a book.” —Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker “Fresh and spirited. . . . A delightful literary debut.” —Kirkus Reviews “Quirky and engaging. . . . A captivating portrait of the creative life.” —BookPage “A romp of a book, a genre-defying feat of the imagination, and a pure pleasure to read.” —Alison Pick, author of Far to Go and Between Gods “Stevens writes with considerable charm and winning honesty.” —The Guardian PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF CANADA Copyright © 2018 by Nell Stevens All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Published in 2018 by Alfred A. Knopf Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto, and simultaneously in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York. Distributed in Canada by Penguin Random House Canada Limited, Toronto. www.penguinrandomhouse.ca Knopf Canada and colophon are registered trademarks. This page constitutes an extension of this copyright page. Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Stevens, Nell, author The Victorian and the romantic : a memoir, a love story, and a friendship across time / Nell Stevens. Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-7352-7419-8 eBook ISBN 978-0-7352-7421-1 1. Stevens, Nell. 2. Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn, 1810–1865. 3. Authors, English—21st century—Biography. 4. Novelists, English— 19th century—Biography. 5. Fiction—Authorship. I. Title. PR6119.T494Z46 2018 823’.92 C2018-900111-9 C2018-900112-7 Cover adapted from an original design by Emily Mahon Jacket illustrations of women by Bradley Clark v5.3.1 ep Contents Cover Praise for BLEAKER HOUSE Title Page Copyright Dedication Epigraph Disclaimer Part One: Body Study 1855: What You Had 2013: Eurostar 1857: Manchester to Rome 2013: Rue d’Aboukir 2013: “I Never Get Over to You”: Unreachable Americas and the Idea of Home in the Letters and Fiction of Elizabeth Gaskell 1857: Goldfinch 2013: Q&A 2013: Basic Accounting for Ph.D. Students 1853: The Casting of The Clasped Hands of Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Harriet Hosmer 2013: Body Study 1857: Via Sant’Isidoro 2013: Shakespeare and Company 1857: Mr. Charles Eliot Norton’s Guide to Rome and Its Environs Part Two: Saliva Study 2015: Procrastination: Three Techniques 1857: Hornets’ Nest 2015: Loon Mountain 2015: Upgrade Examination 1857: The Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition 2015: 560 Million Years After the Big Bang 1858: Séance 2015: Pig–Human Relations in Jude the Obscure 2015: Saliva Study 1857: The First of Many 2015: Winning 2015: People Who Fit Your Criteria Part Three: Sleep Study 2015: Treehouse 1859: Sylvia’s Lovers 2015: Sleep Study 2015: Great News 1862: A Woman Whom Everybody Loves 2016: Tornado 1878: William’s Party 2016: Accoutrements of Womanhood: Three Observations 2016: Critic 2016: Viva 1865: Mortis 2017: Three Types of Ending for This Book The End: Mrs. Gaskell Goes to America Acknowledgments Permissions About the Author For Amanda, Grace and Claudia Of writing many books there is no end; And I who have written much in prose and verse For others’ uses, will write now for mine,— Will write my story for my better self, As when you paint your portrait for a friend, Who keeps it in a drawer and looks at it Long after he has ceased to love you, just To hold together what he was and is. —ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING DISCLAIMER “Do you mind the law of libel?” Mrs. Gaskell wrote to her publisher, when she was working on her biography of Charlotte Brontë in 1856. “I have three people I want to libel.” I have no people I want to libel. I have changed names, scenes, details, motivations and personalities. Every word has been filtered through the distortions of my memory, bias and efforts to tell a story. This is as true of the historical material as it is of the sections about my own life: studies, letters and texts excerpted here are not always faithfully quoted. This is a work of imagination. Two separate parties threatened legal action against Mrs. Gaskell when The Life of Charlotte Brontë came out in 1857. I want to be like her in many ways, but not that one.
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