This leaves me breathless tonight....
The night holds a chill in her hands this evening.
Out of the shower, October shrouds me in some mild tinge of chilliness. I'm not gas-savvy enough to figure out how to light the pilot light for my sweet little heater, thus I am left to the comfort of leggings, a tank, t-shirt, sweatshirt and Uggs. I heart my Uggs- and finally it is their time. Their time and my own. Something magical sings to me in the chill of this season.
It is finally the time to dust off the collection of Reds, harbored in cabinets. There's something smart about a red malbec, sweet, tangy and thick. There's also something magical about the marriage between such a warm liquid and it's counterpart: books.
'Tis the season to bring out the Period dramas.
Ms. Austen, Sir Lawrence, The Bronte Sisters, Dear Haubert, H. James and friends are fit for an evening such as this and more to come, though this particular year marks an especially intriguing mystery.
Since rekindling my fondness for a particular Ms. Jane Austen, I am reminded, with a fiery rush, of a stack of black and copper rimmed novels I've coveted since rescuing from my college library over five years ago. Well aware of Ms. Austen's prowess and strength as a most beloved authoress, I am quite baffled by the four books which I've now gathered from the shelves and placed before me.
Each is written by a different author, but are each prefaced with the following:
"The Northanger Set of Jane Austen Horrid Novels"
Furthermore, each is described as being a "Gothic Romance."
Right then.
Could there be anything better?
For Austenites, this really boils down to a few key points. "Northanger Abbey" is noted: this we know to be Austen's only gothic romance, far darker than any of her other, more, dare I say, quaint novels. Though a social farce in some respects, the novel stands on it's own as a romantic thriller of sorts. Secondly, something described as a "gothic romance" is thus attributed to at least four volumes of Austen-esque authorship. As mentioned, there's only one such Austen novel that could proclaim such a title and to now discover the magnitude of this is....well....it's like discovering a pot o' gold at the end of a rainbow.
I wouldn't suppose anyone might be able to shed some light on the beginnings of such a foursome of novels?
S'pose I have quite the Fall and Winter set of reading before me....what girl's not up for a darkly romantic journey in to the unknown?
