Books in books and Stella Gibbons – welcome to episode 107!
In the first half, we continue our ‘do we care…’ series with ‘do we care what characters read?’ By which we mean we’re looking at the books that characters read, and what that tells us about them. In the second half, we compare two novels by Stella Gibbons – The Bachelor and Enbury Heath.
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The books and authors we mention in this episode:
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
An Inspector Calls by J.B. Priestley
Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim
A Wreath of Roses by Elizabeth Taylor
Heat Wave by Penelope Lively
Instructions for a Heat Wave by Maggie O’Farrell
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Provincial Lady series by E.M. Delafield
The Priory by Dorothy Whipple
William Shakespeare
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Brontes Went to Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson
Mrs Miniver by Jan Struther
Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Baedeker Guides
Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell
Michael Arlen
William Burroughs
Warwick Deeping
E.M. Dell
Gilbert Frankau
Pamela Frankau
John Galsworthy
Philip Gibbs
J.B. Priestley
Sapper
Hugh Walpole
F.R. and Q.D. Leavis
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radclyffe
Horace Walpole
Lover’s Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald
A Sky Painted Gold by Laura Wood
A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood
Agatha Christie
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
Penelope Lively
Penelope Mortimer
Specimen Days by Michael Cunningham
Walt Whitman
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Virginia Woolf in Manhattan by Maggie Gee
A House in the Country by Ruth Adam
Bassett by Stella Gibbons
Westwood by Stella Gibbons
Tea Is So Intoxicating by Mary Essex
Late and Soon by E.M. Delafield
A Game of Hide and Seek by Elizabeth Taylor
Hi Simon. Have you read The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon? It’s also set in the 1976 heatwave, which is very central to the plot. Perhaps one for the next heatwave along! Gill
Oo I haven’t, though I remember it being all over the blogs a few years ago. Thanks for the mention!
Based on your recommendation, I convinced my library to purchase a copy of Enbury Heath, and I have it on hold. Looking forward to reading it!
Though it’s probably well outside your wheelhouse, Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series is steeped in all manner of literary inside jokes and trickery, with disruptions to the plots of Jane Eyre and Martin Chuzzlewit being central to The Eyre Affair…
And I know Christopher Morley’s Parnassus on Wheels and The Haunted Bookshop have been discussed on the podcast—what everyone is reading is central to the themes of both. For something completely different, Mark Dunn’s Under the Harrow imagines an experimental community whose only literary knowledge is the works of Charles Dickens, forming the basis for the entire society.
The Thursday Next series is very fun, though I think it veered off the rails towards the end. The first couple of books are very good though, lots of literary references!
Oh that’s wonderful, Ginny!
Loved this episode, I always notice what characters read and often look them up later to see if they’re worth reading, it’s interesting which books have stood the test of time. I have actually tried to read some of the Gothic novels mentioned in Northanger Abbey and could not get through any of them. My Jane Austen group also tried acting out bits of Lover’s Vows. Not a great play but it was a fun activity.
I particularly enjoyed your Stella Gibbons reviews as I have accumulated an entire shelf of the Vintage paperback editions and have read none of them yet. I started Westwood but for some reason got distracted and still haven’t gone back to it, though I’m determined to read at least one by the end of the year. I do own both The Bachelor and Enbury Heath and no contest which one I’ll read first!
Thanks Karen! And yes, a bit of guidance definitely needed with Gibbons… enjoy Enbury Heath!
Thanks to Rachel for recommending The Good Companions. I read it over the weekend and loved it. It reminded me of Collins’ London Belongs to Me in style and in tone. Next up, Angel Pavement!
I must follow her recommendations too!
I really enjoy novels that reference lots of books, and also pick up suggestions for further reading this way. One of my favourite books is Niall Williams ‘History of the rain’ for the way it celebrates a love of literature. Recently I came across the same book mentioned in two different books I happened to be reading – Heidegger, ‘Being and Time’ – and I have noticed that philosophy classics seem to get mentioned a lot, maybe as a short-hand way of indicating that a character is intellectually deep (or pretentious!).
Oo thanks for the recommendation