Tea Novels in the afternoon

Friday, in the afternoon....what do you have to lose ?

2005-11-11T15:42:00.000-08:00

'tis Friday afternoon and I'm back in blogging class, learning how to upload photos to post to my blog.
I googled Margaret Oliphant, a Scottish writer, who was Queen Victoria's favorite writer.
Margaret Oliphant wrote to support her family--she reminds me of Charles Dickens in that way. Her father was an artist who etched designs in glass, some type of work that involved ships...in any case, he was not very successful, and he died young. I'm recalling this from reading about her about 6 years ago. So, I'll have to refresh my memory and post more accurate information.
The point is, she was a working writer who supported her very large extended family and she became so successful that she put her sons through Eton and lived in the same posh neighborhood as the Queen of England. Her novels have strong women characters, and the Chronicles of Carlingford was an extremely popular series of novels from the mid-1800s. Read them and get a sense of English village life and meet some feisty women.
When I visited Edinburgh, I was walking around, exploring the ancient city. I came upon a bust of Margaret Oliphant in the dark interior of a church. I'll look for that image and I'll post it later. Today I'm posting a sketch of Margaret that was done by Jane Oliphant. I also went to the state library and read some of her books there. She said she would have been a better artist if she hadn't needed to write so quickly, in order to earn money. I hope others will find her books and read them.

Metaphysics in the afternoon

2005-11-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

While in blogging class this afternoon,
the assignment was to search wikipedia for an obscure entry.
My search came up with some information
that's not too obscure for readers of Iris Murdoch,
but for those who are not yet acquainted
with her philosophical writings, here is a list:

Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953)
The Sovereignty of Good (1970)
The Fire and the Sun (1977)
Acastos: Two Platonic Dialogues (1986)
Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (1992)
Existentialists and Mystics (1997)

The wikipedia entry has more details about the fabulous Dame Murdoch:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Murdoch

Tea Novels in the afternoon

2005-11-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

Friday, October 28, 2005

First, Tea Novels explained

What is Tea Novels? Why Tea Novels?
When I get into long political conversations and start arguing with a Lyndon LaRouchian on a street corner, I know I would much rather be home, with a cup of tea and an English novel.
English women literary writers have been my favorite genre of literature. I include the Scottish women literary writers, too, that I began to discover, because they weren't taught in college: Muriel Sparke, Margaret Oliphant.

Penelope Fitzgerald, or Penelope Lively, or even A.S. Byatt or P.D. James.
Dame Iris Murdoch: re-read everything she has ever written, re-read Peter Conradi's biography of Iris.
Read the nonfiction works of Penelope Fitzgerald, a biography she wrote about her father and uncles and the Oxford movement.

Doris Lessing: the most amazing writer of novels and short stories. Her Children of Violence series.
The passion of politics and the best writing in English.
In Pursuit of the English: a little novel about living in a boarding house in post-blitz London.
Muriel Spark writes about living in a London boarding house full of women and working for the government during WWII. What was that called? Everything I've read by Muriel Spark has been worth reading.

Rain splatters on the windows, people commit political sins everywhere and we can read the web all day and try to keep up with all the news and commentary. Or, take some time to drink tea and read a novel.

my first blog attempt "Tea Novels" was spammed in record time, so I'm reposting here as "Tea Novels in the afternoon" and let's hope the spooks stay out of it.
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