Miss Wonderful & The Last Hellion Audio Release Day

Miss Wonderful

Loretta reports:

I’m very happy to announce the release today of audio editions, of two of my books, Miss Wonderful (first book of the Carsington Brothers series), and The Last Hellion, the fourth and last book of the Scoundrels series. I'm pleased to report that Kate Reading is narrating once again.

Yesterday’s post about Matlock Bath was a sort of prelude or teaser for Miss Wonderful, which is set in Derbyshire’s beautiful Peak District, and deals with, among other nerdy history topics, canal building and early railways, and the area’s popularity as a tourist resort.

The Last Hellion touches on, among other things, London’s not-so-elegant underworld, stunning prejudices against women writers, and the serialized stories that appeared in so many magazines (yes, decades before Dickens). Also, there is a dog.

The Last Hellion

Here and on my website blog, I’ll be exploring some of the topics. and in the next week or so, you can expect to see updates to my Pinterest boards, where I try to give readers illustrated guides to my stories.

News update:
 AudioGals are interviewing narrator Kate Reading, offering first chapter listens of both books, and giving away ten sets. You'll find them here.

A German Lady Travels to Matlock in Jane Austen's Time

Matlock Tor by Moonlight

Loretta reports:

Those familiar with Pride & Prejudice will remember Elizabeth Bennett’s trip to Derbyshire, when she fell in love with Mr. Darcy’s house.

Johanna Schopenhauer (mother of the philosopher) traveled to Derbyshire early in the first decade of the 1800s. Her account of her travels was published in German, but not translated into English until the 1980s. If you understand German, you might want to listen to the audio version here.

The following excerpt is from Ruth Michaelis-Jena and Willy Merson’s A Lady Travels: The Diaries of Johanna Schopenhauer, the translation that helped me time travel as I wrote Miss Wonderful.

~~~

This lovely valley, friendly yet vast, lonely yet full of life, is one of the most beautiful in Britain.  It may be that Matlock’s springs are not very effective, but this is not necessary to the finding of new energy and vitality in this heavenly place ...

The actual spa consists of three large inns and two lodging-houses, with the village of Matlock about a mile and a half away. It is impossible to describe the charm of this valley in mere words: it is so peaceful, so intimate, with the Derwent flowing through it, surrounded by high cliffs which stand rugged and bare against the sky, yet usually looking friendly, as their summits are crowned with beautiful trees.

We took a boat on the Derwent as far as it is navigable, which is only a short stretch. After that it becomes a wild torrent, full of rapids and whirlpools ... Opposite us was the highest cliff in the neighbor hood, which the local people call the High Tor. We climbed it easily, up a shaded path, and from the top we could see on one side the narrow valley in all the glory of its rich vegetation, with the river running through the center. ON the wooded rocks opposite were the fine buildings of the spa, providing a friendly picture of pleasant social life ... On the other side we saw a second valley, looking as if no human foot had ever trod there, so remote and silent was it, enclosed by green hills ... Nowhere else had we seen the wild, simple beauty of nature more happily combined with civilization than here on the banks of the Derwent.

~~~

Image above: Joseph Wright of Derby, Matlock Tor by Moonlight (1777-80), courtesy Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection. Note: This work is part of the splendid exhibition, The Critique of Reason: Romantic Art 1760-1860, very well worth seeing.

Image below: Joseph Wright of Derby, Matlock Tor by Daylight, ca 1785, from the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK, via Wikipedia.

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.

Breakfast Links: Week of May 4, 2015

Fresh for your weekend reading pleasure! Our weekly round-up of links to other web sites, blogs, articles, and images, all gathered via Twitter.
• Retro-fails: ten unsuccessful Victorian-era inventions from both sides of the Atlantic.
• Fun and games with the world's oldest deck of cards (from the 16thc.)
• From farm to fashion: straw shoes for would-be ballerina, 1830-40.
• Catharine Macaulay, the first English woman historian.
• The New England Primer: death and mayhem in books made for children.
• The incredible women who swam the Thames in the early 1900s.
• The anti-drinking PSAs of the vaudeville era were gorgeously morbid.
• Image: Beautiful watercolor of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra.
• Anne Blunt, a 19thc. traveller, artist, and "noble lady of the horses."
• Ghostly voices from Thomas Edison's talking dolls can once again now be heard.
• Austen, Heyer, and the Prince of Orange: pugs in literary history.
• Delightful animation based on sketches of Macau by 19thc. British artist George Chinnery.
• Temples of literature: (successful) writers' houses in pictures.
• Patent application for a collapsible 1860s hoop for supporting women's skirts.
• Fantastic resource: over 6,000 historical wallpaper patterns digitized.
• Attempting to control the uncontrollable: Elizabethan sumptuary statutes. (Where were the fashion police?)
• Image: Secret door and staircase hidden in 18thc bookcase at Admont Abbey, Austria.
• Vintage photographs of New York City c. 1900.
• When fashion and tragic history meet: the story of Jacqueline Kennedy's pink Chanel suit.
• Letters from a Scottish schoolteacher who survived the sinking of the Lusitania.
• How 19thc. schoolchildren trolled one another.
• "Is it proper for women to be learned?" The questions people asked advice columnists in the 1690s.
• "Does not want poems about love and roses": a guide for women on how to pitch to an 1880s magazine.
• Image: 18thc. exhibition of dancing dogs.
• And in the 18thc., The Lady's Magazine: understanding the material magazine.
• Historical hunting weapons: a splendid 17thc. wheellock.
• "From my doleful prison in the Tower this sixt of May": letter from Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII.
• Fantastically preserved 18thc. Jacobite silk garters.
• Image: Could be in fashion now: knitted garment, Sweden, c.1835-40, naturally dyed wool, silk ribbons, velvet.
• The oldest mulberry tree in Britain was planted in 1548 at Syon Park in West London.
• Finally returning the spoils of WWII, taken by Americans.
• A dead prostitute, a male impersonator, and a medium: all found in three sensational 19thc. pamphlets.
• Behold the Grand Cassowar! Gilbert Pidcock's traveling menagerie.
• Image: This London Illustrated News sketch shows how little polling stations have changed since the 19thc.
• The man whose wife had sex with the lodgers, 1900.
• "A heart above all mercenary views": A Georgian "lonely hearts" advertisement.
• Corpse medicine: what the 17thc. believed were the healing qualities of hanged men's hands and mummy flesh.
Hungry for more? Follow us on Twitter @2nerdyhistgirls for fresh updates daily.

Friday Video: Early Spring at Wintherthur

Isabella reporting,

Here on the blog, I've shared many of the treasures of Winterthur Museum, from embroidered silk mantles to a gilded tureen, unforgettable portraits to a porcelain bourdaloue. But in addition to being a world-class museum founded by American collector Henry Francis du Pont, Winterthur is also home to world-class grounds, sixty acres of naturalistic gardens and woodlands that were another passion of Mr. du Pont. Regardless of the season, the gardens are an endless joy to visit.

For those of you who live too far from Delaware for a visit, here's a short video featuring the early spring gardens - two minutes of beauty and serenity to begin your day.

A Glimpse at the Prince of Wales's Levee

Reception of the Moorish Ambassador

Loretta reports:

Adam Badeau wrote in the introduction to Aristocracy in London, “The first thing which more than any other, for an American, distinguishes English life and civilization from his own is—Aristocracy.  Even Europeans find the characteristics of the British people more affected by caste than is the case with the most enlightened races of the Continent, while the existence and influence of the institution are to a democrat, fresh from the equality and uniformity of social and political life in the New World, matter of unceasing marvel.”

He marveled and wrote in detail about his experiences during his twelve years in England. Following is an excerpt from his description of a royal levee. I found the bit about the gloves particularly interesting, as glove etiquette is not easy to pin down, since it changes over time and in different circumstances.

Levee description

Levee description

Image: John Seymour Lucas, The Reception of the Moorish Ambassador by Edward VII at St James's Palace (1902), courtesy the Royal Collection, via Wikipedia

Clicking on the image will enlarge it.  Clicking on the caption will allow you to read at the source, where you can learn more and enlarge images as needed.