Tuesday, June 7, 2016

The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe - Elaine Showalter

Shiny New Books no 10 went live a few days ago & I'm very pleased to have a review in it. I enjoyed Elaine Showalter's new biography of Julia Ward Howe very much. Here's the beginning of my review,

Julia Ward was born in 1819, to a wealthy New York family. Her father’s fortune was in banking and, despite his strict religious beliefs, he felt no guilt about his wealth and spent it accordingly. After Julia’s mother died of puerperal fever after giving birth to her seventh child at the age of only twenty-seven, Samuel Ward’s grief took the form of stricter religious observance. Julia and her sisters were brought up as accomplished young ladies, while her brothers were sent to school. The Ward girls were taught French, dancing and music at which Julia excelled. Their social circle was restricted to family and Sundays were dominated by church services and improving literature. Julia later wrote,

The early years of my youth were passed in seclusion not only of home life, but of a home life most carefully and jealously guarded from all that might be represented in the orthodox trinity of evil, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

You can read the rest here.

There are lots of other enticing reviews in this new issue. New biographies of Thomas De Quincey & Anne Brontë (both of which I definitely want to read), more British Library Crime Classics, the new OUP edition of Flaubert's Sentimental Education (which I've just finished & will be reviewing soon), reprints of books by Eric Ambler, Angela Thirkell & Eudora Welty & much more.

6 comments:

  1. new information on a new writer... tx! the poor gal sure had a tough row to hoe; in many ways, protestantism has a lot to answer for in terms of human misery...

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    1. I was surprised at how angry I felt at her husband's behaviour. The way he just appropriated her money & lost most of it was so aggravating. It was an eye-opener!

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  2. We're very pleased that you had a review there too! I'm greatly looking forward to this book.

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    1. I think you'll enjoy it, Audrey. I knew very little about JWH beforehand.

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  3. I really liked the bio. of Julia Ward Howe that I read a few years ago, but this one sounds even better. :)

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    1. She had such an interesting life, it was good to learn more about her.

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