↓
 

Late Last Night Books

because so much reading, writing, and living happens after-hours

Late Last
Night Books
because so much reading, writing, and living happens after-hours
Since 2013
Gary Garth McCann, founder and managing editor
an ad-free magazine about fiction by authors Terra Ziporyn * Sally Whitney * Eileen Haavik McIntire * Gary Garth McCann * Peter G. Pollak * Garry Craig Powell * Jenny Yacovissi * Lily Iona MacKenzie * Todd S. Garth * Daniel Oliver
Menu
  • Home
  • Book Reviews
  • Insights
  • Interviews
  • Authors
  • Guest Bloggers
  • About
  • Tag Cloud

Author Archives: Todd S. Garth

Daphne du Maurier and the Absent Self

Late Last Night Books
TODD S. GARTH

The Self of the City: Macedonio Fernández, The Argentine Avant-Garde and Modernity in Buenos Aires (2005);  Pariah in the Desert: The Monstrous and the Heroic in Horácio Quiroga (2015).

15 DECEMBER 2020 Daphne du Maurier and the Absent Self

Speaking of self-suppressing heroines (well I was, anyway), consider the protagonist of Daphne Du Maurier’s blockbuster 1938 novel, Rebecca. This first-person narrator is so self-deprecating that she never thinks it worthwhile to reveal her name, though she makes it clear that it’s a memorable one. The Rebecca of the title is the first Mrs. Maximilian de Winter, the narrator’s predecessor in marriage to a handsome but brooding aristocrat a good 20 years older than his naïve new bride. The plot centers on the narrator’s sense of utter inferiority—to the point of self-erasure—in comparison to her husband’s formidable first wife. The novel’s ingenious arc is only incompletely evident in the multiple movie and mini-series versions made over the decades (the best and most famous of which is Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film).

(Continue Reading)

Do Selfless Heroines Need to Be Self Suppressing Women?

Late Last Night Books
TODD S. GARTH

The Self of the City: Macedonio Fernández, The Argentine Avant-Garde and Modernity in Buenos Aires (2005);  Pariah in the Desert: The Monstrous and the Heroic in Horácio Quiroga (2015).

16 NOVEMBER 2020 Do Selfless Heroines Need to Be Self Suppressing Women?

“She knew, to the moving of a feather, what she could do with him and what she could not. Her immediate wish was to enable him to draw all possible pleasure from his triumph of the day, and therefore she would say no word to signify that his glory was founded on her sacrifice.” –Anthony Trollope, Golden Lion of Granpère

Every inch the Victorian novelist, Trollope regarded female self-sacrifice as a cardinal virtue. And yet he was surprisingly ahead of his time–and ahead of other male writers–in exploring the problems of identity, self-worth and self-assertion among his female characters. He was sharply aware of the untenable and unethical oppression of women in patriarchal Victorian society. His scores of novels relentlessly explore this problem.

(Continue Reading)

Whither the Heroine?

Late Last Night Books
TODD S. GARTH

The Self of the City: Macedonio Fernández, The Argentine Avant-Garde and Modernity in Buenos Aires (2005);  Pariah in the Desert: The Monstrous and the Heroic in Horácio Quiroga (2015).

14 OCTOBER 2019 Whither the Heroine?

Think about it. When was the last time you read about a heroine who was not essentially modeled in the male heroic tradition? This tradition was consolidated by Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle nearly 180 years ago. Find me a heroine who isn’t an individual acting essentially alone and against societal expectations; who isn’t defined by a journey of self-discovery culminating in an extraordinary individual act; who sacrifices self and many of those she loves—but not her individual integrity or self-reliance—to perform that act; who is ultimately, retrospectively, praised or memorialized for that individual performance. Find me a heroine that is not a clone of millions of male heroes who have come before her.

Nowadays people don’t generally think in terms of heroic tradition, and there’s a good reason.

(Continue Reading)

When Less is More, or Why Victorian Novels Still Matter

Late Last Night Books
TODD S. GARTH

The Self of the City: Macedonio Fernández, The Argentine Avant-Garde and Modernity in Buenos Aires (2005);  Pariah in the Desert: The Monstrous and the Heroic in Horácio Quiroga (2015).

20 AUGUST 2019 When Less is More, or Why Victorian Novels Still Matter

In today’s environment of openness and explicitness, when virtually anything can and will be said and written, it’s a logical assumption that our level of communication and understanding is higher than ever—that very little is left to be revealed.

This has always intuitively seemed wrong to me, but it was the happy coincidence of reading Andrew Sean Greer’s best-selling novel, Less, and Anthony Trollope’s 1867 opus, Phineas Finn, more or less together, that helped me understand why.

If you’re not familiar with Trollope, or with Victorian writing generally (or, for that matter, with Henry James, the primary link between 19th and 20th century aesthetics and sensibilities), it helps to know that these novels are really, really long.

(Continue Reading)

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
banner photo copyright Dervish_design - Fotolia.com
Log in
©2021 - Late Last Night Books - Weaver Xtreme Theme Privacy Policy
↑