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“Gentle” readers and Readers, thank you!

Gertrude Fiske

Thank you!

When I posted the last entry of that blog, some days ago, I thought it might interest the readers of the “gentle” fiction I was trying to understand. Therefore, I published it on Facebook, not only on my private and my blogger pages, but also on the pages of groups to which I belong and that are dedicated to such or such lady author.

The number of people who read the post and who were kind enough to “like” largely exceeds my wildest dreams!

I have received comments from friends and people I know, as well as from “gentle” readers and “simply” readers – more than I thought I would. This has led to very interesting discussions and opened new vistas for me.

So, I would like to thank everyone to have taken time to look at the post and to have made observations, critiques, comments. It helps me a lot in this study of “gentle fiction” that I lead for my own knowledge and pleasure.

For, as I have told some of you, this post is not written out of the blue. There are others on this blog, mainly

http://camilledefleurville.blogspot.fr/2015/07/the-proper-place-and-my-proper-place.html

and

http://camilledefleurville.blogspot.fr/2015/09/literature-for-children-and-gentle.html.

But there are others that you may find in scrolling up the whole blog.

In any case, again and again, a great “THANK YOU”. Furthermore I hope that the thread we are weaving between us will last long while you help me read your favourite author(s).

Gertrude Fiske

9 thoughts on ““Gentle” readers and Readers, thank you!”

  1. What wonderful posts those links take one to! I shall enjoy them at length later on as time presses me right now, but the quick skim I had of them tells me they are both lovely pieces to be enjoyed properly with a nice cup of tea and, with any luck, a slice of cake.

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    1. Thank you very much, indeed: I did not think they would be interesting outside a small circle of readers of “gentle” fiction and scholars or close friends. They are little essays about a genre in British literature that does not exist in the French one but I never thought they would be worthwhile reading for lots of people! This is very kind of you. 🙂

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      1. Gentle fiction is a beautiful and whimsical thing and I adore it completely. For me, it is the purest form of literature as it is an escape to a far better and kinder place than anywhere reality can offer. It leaves me with a little warm feeling in my tummy and I aspire to write such things one day 🙂

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  2. This “thank you post” continues the previous post I wrote last week called “In media res stat virtus”. You may see that I am critical of “gentle writing”.
    Some gentle women writers are, as far as I am concerned, “secondary” or minor authors. Nevertheless, I think that opening the canon to the is widening the vision one has of literature. This “minor” fiction, being firmly anchored in time and place, may also be taken as witness of its period (carefully, of cause). Therefore I do believe it is a good thing to retrieve them from being forgotten.
    But I think that they are mainly what you describe: a real place with the twist of a fairy tale that make them comfort or reconfortant books.
    This is why I am reluctant vis-a-vis scholarly readership that will dismiss them with a shrug, AND over-enthusiastic reading where readers empathise so much with the fiction that they forget that it IS fiction. Such readers are sometimes over-protective of their “idol” and promote publishing of fragments or even whole novels that would be well worth forgotten.
    I like reading those books; I like Angela Thirkell, O douglas, Dora Saint, and others. Angela Thirkell reminds me of some traits of my own family that went on long after the 1930s. But this very fact made me question myself and wonder about the structure of the books, their literary and emotiona values, their eadership, etc. I find that blogging from time time to time about “gentle literature” and having comments help me clarify my thoughts and opening my reasoning. 🙂
    But please, do keep the dry and wry humour you show in your writing even if you turn to gentle literature: Thirkell does it and that makes her particular fineto read. Do not lose this quality. 🙂

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  3. Thank YOU, Camille, for introducing me to various authors I did not know. For the rest, I adore Barbara Pym! Must re-read.
    May I suggest that you use links in your posts, they are very easy to do and make the blog look tidier. You just highlight a word or two, such as a name or ‘click here’, press the link symbol on top of the page, and a window opens where you paste the whole URL. Then the words turn blue, and when clicked upon they take you straight to the old post or whatever.
    And a question. Where do you find your lovely photographs?

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    1. 1) I shall have to look more closely about these links! I know nothing about them but I shall follow your guidelines: they will be precious.
      2) Barbara Pym is a step higher (for me) than these “gentle” writers. But I might say that she was an introduction for this kind of fiction. Nevertheless she has a dry and wry humour that makes her more astringent than DE Stevenson or Miss Read (Dora Saint) for instance, and she is less formulaic. But I have read and still read “gentle” lady authors: I only like to dissect their books and techniques.
      3) These paintings are by little known painters that I discover while browsing art blogs and art pages. They arevery often by women artists. Then I google until I find what seems the right illustration. It takes time, which is why I have stopped blogging every day: it was too time consuming to write and find adequate photographs or paintings.
      Thank you for stopping, reading, and commenting. I shall try tagging my entries and adding these links. Be careful: I may ask for help! 🙂

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