By Taylor Jasmine | On September 19, 2017 | Updated September 21, 2026 | Comments (0)
It’s widely believed that Lady Ruby MacLean, the protagonist of The Loved and Envied by Enid Bagnold was based on real-life Lady Diana Cooper, a famous socialite of the early 20th century. Bagnold’s fellow British writer Nancy Mitford also drew inspiration from Lady Cooper for Don’t Tell Alfred.
Though the book doesn’t much resonate with contemporary readers, it was apparently enjoyed by a previous generation, and stands firmly in Bagnold’s modest canon.
Lady Maclean is the character through which the theme of aging is explored, in particular, how it affects a beauty who is, as the title implies, loved and envied. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 18, 2017 | Updated September 14, 2026 | Comments (0)
Jessie Redmon Fauset (1882 – 1961) was an American editor, poet, essayist, and novelist associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Plum Bun (1928) was one of four novels Fauset produced, along with There is Confusion (1924), The Chinaberry Tree (1931), and Comedy, American Style (1933).
In addition to the novels, Fauset’s output of shorter works was quite prodigious. And her eight-year tenure as the literary editor of the influential Crisis magazine was impressively productive, helping to launch the careers of a number of iconic writers of the era. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 8, 2017 | Updated May 27, 2022 | Comments (0)
From the original review of Wyoming Summer by Mary O’Hara in The Fresno Bee (CA), April, 1963: From diaries based on the 10 years spent with her second husband at their Wyoming ranch — and out of which came her famous stories, My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead .
Mary O’Hara now gives us in journal form an account of a typical summer. In describing that life, Mary O’Hara reveals much of herself: Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 31, 2017 | Updated June 12, 2023 | Comments (0)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) was the last published work by Shirley Jackson during her lifetime. The narrator, Mary Katherine “Merricat” Blackwood, lives with her sister and uncle on an isolated estate in rural Vermont.
The Blackwoods have been shunned by the neighbors in the nearby village due to a tragedy — murder by poisoning — that occurred some years earlier.
This critically acclaimed novel is considered one of Jackson’s masterpieces; and it has been an inspiration to authors that came after who write in the thriller and mystery genres. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On August 31, 2017 | Updated November 18, 2022 | Comments (0)
Raising Demons by Shirley Jackson is a 1957 memoir of motherhood and domestic tribulations. Wry and humorous, it serves up an idealized version of this author’s family’s life in North Bennington, Vermont, and is a departure from her fictional tales of psychological terror — notably, The Lottery (1949).
How much of the depiction of this family’s life reflects reality is an open question. Jackson’s husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, a literary critic and professor, was chronically unfaithful, controlling, and belittling.
Jackson herself was a heavy smoker, overweight, and may have been addicted to prescription barbiturates due to anxiety. She was only 48 when she died of heart failure in her sleep in 1965. Read More→
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