Thank you to Doubleday Books for the free review copy & Out of Print epigraph print!
I spotted this book floating around Instagram as part of the second Doubleday summer box giveaway and I couldn’t resist requesting a review copy of The Victorian and the Romantic. First, that cover: millennial pink, the trench coat? (YES, I choose way too many of my books based on the cover art alone but I can’t resist a killer aesthetic above all else!)
I was an English major so this book truly spoke to me. I haven’t read any Elizabeth Gaskell, though, and my plan was to read one of her books alongside The Victorian and the Romantic for the true experience, but my local library didn’t have any Gaskell--I guess the classics are dead according to the Geneva Public Library. My fiance did pre-order a copy of North and South that I had my eye on, though, so I’ll get to dive into that come September. Even though I didn’t get my own literature-meets-memoir class experience while reading, I really loved this book. Throughout, Stevens alternates between her own experience as a PhD candidate, juggling her long distance love, apathy toward her subject matter and academia as a whole, and her medical/reproductive struggles, and Mrs. Gaskell (as Stevens prefers to address her), living in Rome after the publication of her scandalous posthumous biography of her close friend, Charlotte Bronte. And though Stevens was struggling to feel the same obsession that her classmates seemed to be feeling about their subjects, her story still reminded me of what I loved about being a student: spending my days in the library and the rare book room, pouring over texts for some window into the author’s life, writing and writing and writing.
I know that, unlike Stevens, I’ll never pursue a PhD. The idea of going to grad school for literature did pique my interest (and a number of professors suggested the path to me, admittedly because enrollment in my college’s grad program was low) but sadly, that’s not the path for me.
Anyway. I loved this book! For a former-academic like me, it’s a perfect read, but it’s also not dense and heavy like literary criticism. It’s not exclusionary, only to be read by someone with a degree in literary analysis, but for everyone with a love of literature and books.
It toes the line between memoir and biography-- I’m not usually the biggest fan of biographies but I do love memoirs. Nell made her own story and Mrs. Gaskell’s story equally compelling. I expected to me more invested in Nell as she fell in love, travelled to America for fellowships and romantic weekends, and butted heads with her PhD counselor. But I found myself equally thrilled to read about Gaskell’s time in Rome, exploring the sights, having early morning coffee with Norton, and returning to home to a book that was high contested and a husband who she wasn’t the least bit interested in. Gaskell’s life was interesting, and here was a woman, an author, I knew nothing about and even going into this book, wasn’t particularly interested in learning more about.
I’m so glad I read this book! I think it came to me at the perfect time in my life. I’m getting ready, now, to start applying to grad school for the spring semester to pursue a Masters in Library Science. I’ve found myself, lately, really missing school. I know I’ll never be able to go back to the time in my life when I lived in a dorm, ate all my meals from the on-campus Subway and the school bookstore Starbucks, and spent countless nights holed up in the library or at endless sorority recruitment events. But of course, that’s not the only thing to love about school: What I really miss is learning and I’m excited to get back to that.