Hayley

Yep, hugely fluid! It's because the era can be defined by the reigning monarch or recognisable movements in culture (which are really hard to pin down!). As you said, Kev, the big obvious change in literature is around the first world war, so that's why some historians use 1914. I feel like I'm on the edge of a good bit at the moment, although I'm not very far in! Fingers crossed! I do find it really frustrating when there's a mystery to be solved but the narrative takes you away from that mystery for a long time. I have seen that one but it was a long time ago and I can't really remember how accurate it might have been. I do remember that they made a big point of Lucy being a lot more sexualised than Mina, which I know some people say is why she gets the fate she does in the book.

Your review reminded me that I really wanted to try the Maigret books! I love a good detective novel. Although, I think there are quite a lot out there that could be described this way (!):

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey (which won the Costa book of the year award last year) is 99p on kindle for the month.

Agreed. I can’t wait to see how it ends! August feels like a very long time… I didn’t know that! I’m quite intrigued. I wonder what he changed!? Although we do tend to talk about the Victorian era as the literal reign of Queen Victoria, a lot of people would say the Edwardian era doesn’t start until about 1914. So you’d be safe with that still! That sounds good though! It reminds me a bit of Frankenstein! I read the first two chapters of Lady Audley’s Secret last night and I think I’m going to like it!

Oh yes! When you said The Dance of the Serpents was the last one I thought you meant the last one we have to read for now! I think the actual last one will be out next year. I really hope It was so good! There were so many intense moments and layers of mystery. That's good to hear! I'm just about to start it.

Oh yes! I suppose it all adds to a sense of a sinister threat approaching. I finished Dance of the Serpents last night (was NOT expecting that last scene!) so I'll be starting Lady Audley's Secret today. Reading the notes at the end of Dance of the Serpents - where Oscar de Muriel explains which elements were true and which were fiction - made me think about the way he actually writes about the Victorian period compared to other authors I've read and I think what I really like about his setting is that it actually feels real. There are a lot of novels with Victorian settings that end up like a kind of caricature of that period, with characters from real life thrown in to make it feel more genuine (although I actually think that often makes it worse). The characters in the Frey & McGray novels fit into their world perfectly; they don't have aside thoughts about the usefulness of telegram or to reflect on the railway in ways that we just don't do with everyday things in our own times. Oscar de Muriel posted on Twitter earlier this week that he'd had the final book in the series, The Sign of the Devil, back from his editor (and teased that one of the editor's comments was 'so many bombshells!!!') so I can't wait for that - although I will be very sad that no more books are coming out. Hopefully he'll start a new, equally good series!

I can't think of any that you don't already have on your list but I did un-bold your text for you (you'll be able to edit posts yourself once you have ten posts).

I’m glad you included the video clip because I’d have had to search otherwise! I do love a good twist in a story. I would love to go to Whitby. Partly because of Dracula, partly because it sounded amazing in Possession by A.S Byatt, and partly because I hear they have excellent fish and chips . Possession made a lot of the Victorian love for Whitby Jet in mourning jewellery, which is something I’d also be interested in. I wonder whether appearing as a black dog is related to other folk tales about black dogs as bad omens? The way they do that is implied later in the book but I’m not sure if you’ll have gotten there yet and don’t want to give anything away!

I had to make myself stop reading last night because I needed to be up early, but this part is full of twists!! I wanted to share this while we're thinking about Victorian things: 🎃🕸️ WikiVictorian 🕸️🎃 (@wikivictorian) / Twitter this Twitter account posts loads of brilliant art, items and clothing from that time. If you scroll down to yesterday's posts it had the mourning dress of Queen Victoria (which made me think of Dance of the Serpents!). Fairly sure you should be able to see it even if you don't have a twitter account.

That was quick! I'm assuming the end is good then!? I'm going to read some now! And a very Gothic thing to be! Double points . I also thought the changes in perspective and use of letters etc. were particularly nicely done in Dracula. It slows the rate that you find things out just enough to make it extra tense, but without it becoming too drawn out.

Your method of tweaking the list as you go is working then! I do find that very interesting. It's not something I'd thought about before.

I hadn't heard anything about that. I just looked it up and wow is there a lot of disturbing information! I agree that the timing seems odd but also that it seems a little late for any cleaning up! That's exciting! I have seen others point out today that the outage made them realise that it's dangerous to rely on technology from a single source. Yet another reason why big businesses buying everything up isn't a good thing!

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman is 99p on kindle until the end of October.

Just before that is actually the last time I used WhatsApp - I think I’d just lost all sense of how late it was! Everything seems to be back up now though.

Nearly though! Were these last changes just for preference? I know it's considered a classic but I hated In Cold Blood, it made me feel really uncomfortable.

Well that's weird! Has it only gone down in the last hour or so?

Whatsapp is fine too here! I work with a tuition company in China and have had Whatsapp messages from them today as well. Maybe it's a local issue? No idea how I missed this last year but I completely agree. I definitely notice a difference in my own stress levels when I don't use my phone for a long time. I also turned off news alerts because it's definitely not good to be bombarded by stressful (sometimes totally misleading) headlines all day. On the other hand, it seems increasingly as though we're expected to be plugged in all the time for work. There are a few job adverts I've seen recently that specify good social media capabilities, which then makes me feel that I need to be more active on at least one social media platform to be noticed for a job (I should point out, none of the jobs had anything to do with social media). One I looked at just today asked, even more specifically, to show professional use of Twitter. The website I use to advertise tutoring tracks how long you take to respond to messages and rates you accordingly, so the faster you reply the better rating you get, increasing your chance to get work. I've also been doing some freelance editing for a company who just give the job to someone else if you don't reply fast enough, and since they have no 'work hours' I have to have email alerts on constantly. I don't have much of an option other than to play along at the moment, but I do find it incredibly frustrating. And don't even get me started on LinkedIn... That turned into a bit of a rant but, my point is, just as professionals are pointing out that being connected to our phones/ the internet all the time isn't good for us, there's increased expectation that we stay constantly connected. It just doesn't seem right.

I hadn't thought of it that way but it could be read in that context. That previous section with Jonathan and the female vampires is definitely very sexual, but there's more going on here too, with Dracula's control of these women, I think. I didn't realise he wrote the introduction. I met him once, he's very nice and very, very good at what he does! I think that's an interesting point about vampirism and disease. Fear of wasting diseases which had no cure would definitely have made the 'symptoms' of being bitten more terrifying! Probably a connection to made there with the late eighteenth-century 'consumptive chic' too (purposely trying to look like you had 'consumption' because it was fashionable) and the attractiveness of vampires in literature and film.

Glad it was a good reading/ eating day for you too . I got to 62% of the book by the end of the day yesterday, which I'm very happy with in one way but, in another, I wish I had more of it to read!

'The little girl clung to the crone's long skirts, even though the woman scared her as much as the surrounding darkness'. The Dance of the Serpents by Oscar de Muriel

Stayed up far later than I meant to last night but it means I am close to halfway through Dance of the Serpents now! These three read-a-thon days are going very quickly but it is pouring with rain, I'm very full of Sunday dinner and I have a blanket ready for more reading this evening .

It must have been so exciting to get the next part. I think there’s a good chance I would have been a Penny Dreadful reader if I had been a Victorian . Haha, yes! I do like these editions for being cheap but still unabridged. I really do not like the cover image on this one though. If you look at the straps of her bag it literally looks as though someone quickly drew two lines on in clip art. They don’t even meet her arm!

Oooh I love those editions of Varney the Vampire! You can really see just how long it is overall when you see them like that though! That's the edition of Lady Audley's Secret that I bought too.

Well I did a bit of quick googling (because I really wanted to know what the connection was!) and I think it probably stems from a research paper that was published in the early 90's, where it's argued that Dracula was inspired by Oscar Wilde's trial (where he was charged with sodomy) and portrays Stoker's repressed homosexuality. It's not a very convincing argument, I have to say. There's a lot of big assumptions going on. Me too, and I agree! Already hooked. It's not part of a trilogy, those three books are just considered to have started the 'sensation novel' trend. I highly recommend The Woman in White anyway though, it's very good. Actually, I've really loved everything I've read by Willkie Collins! Someone should make Sensation Novel Bingo

That does sound good!