20 Sept 2012

For the Love of Retro Reading

My love for vintage books like Mary McCarthy's "The Group" and E. F. Benson's Mapp and Lucia books have sent me on a journey to discover vintage books. Classics. Retro readings. Call them what you like. Books that were written in another time, by another type of author, in another context but with a message that transcends time and tradition and still stands as valid as ever today. 

The best place to start that type of hunt is over on Stuck In a Book. This is the blog that will open your eyes to books you didn't know existed and today Simon's post on Diana Tutton's "Guard Your Daugthers" showed up in my facebook feed and I was hit by book lust-at-first-sight. I want it so badly. 

It is - according to Simon and various other sources - the story of a family living in a time pocket in rural England and it reminds many readers Dodie Smith's "I Capture the Castle" which is one of the best books ever. So really it not a case of, I want it. It is a case of I need it!

Other retro readings that I would love to get my hands on are: 

"The Rector's Daughter" by F. M. Mayor
A story of rector's daughter - 35-year-old Mary - who has spent her life devoting herself to her father and sister without wanting more until one day, she experiences love. 

"Cheerful Weather for the Wedding" by Julia Strachey
A wedding day. A bride-to-be. A whole lot of doubt. 

"Angel" by Elizabeth Taylor
About the risks of daydreaming and the fine line between dream and delusion. 

1 comment:

  1. How lovely, Willa, thank you! I can't wait to find out if you like it as much as I do :) And thank you for the reminder of The Group - I've had it on my shelf for years without reading it.

    Of those three books you mention, I love the bottom too - both very funny - but failed a bit with The Rector's Daughter. But everyone else adores it, so don't let that put you off for a moment ;)

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