July - September 2017 - 18th Century

The 18th Century

Storming the Bastille - - Watt's steam engine

The 18th Century was a century of Revolutions: Industrial, American, French, Brabant, Haitian, and others.

Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations and Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe are published. Messier publishes his catalogue of astronomical objects. And some woman named Jane Austen publishes some books.

The first piano was built in 1709.

Bering 'discovers' Alaska. Ben Franklin creates the lightning rod and bifocals.

In Opera, The Magic Flute and Don Giovanni wow audiences. John James Audubon publishes his works.

A list of qualifying books: http://www.librarything.com/tag/18th+century and associated tag mashes

Don't forget to update the wiki:
http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/Reading_Through_Time_Quarterly_Theme_...

Noticed Les Liaisons Dangereuses on the link; I have never read the book, but clearly remember the stunning movie with Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfiffer when I was in college. Saw a production of it via National Theatre live last year and think this is the optimal time to read this book. Any thoughts on the best translation to get?

The Reading Through Time July Theme is Viva La Revolución! - read a work set during or about a revolutionary period which dovetails nicely with this Quarterly Theme of the 18th century. If you are planning on reading about any Revolution that happened during the 18th century, your book will fit both places.

I am usually able to read a book about a different time and place, and can separate the mores of that time and place and mine. But now I have hit one of those books that I just can't finish - Dangerous Liasons. I was loving the letters and the wickedness of the two main characters, but it was at the point when Valmont rapes 15 year old Cecile, and then tells her its her fault, I had to stop. I am familiar with the story, knew this was coming, saw the movie and play, but reading this was so off putting I just cannot pick it back up. So off into the trade pile it goes.

Currently reading Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon.

The Wiki's are currently not working but this is a site-wide problem and they are working to fix it.

I finished Die Schimmelmanns im atlantischen Dreieckshandel, a magisterial monograph on the slave trade and sugar production in the West Indies, and here in particular the Danish West Indies. Forty years old, and still well worth reading.

I read Valiant Ambition by Nathaniel Philbrick. This nonfiction history digs beneath the surface into the character and behavior of Benedict Arnold, the successful colonial Officer turned traitor and his commanding General during the American Revolution, George Washington. Glad I picked this one up. I learned something more about a subject I thought I already completely understood. I would have liked more information on Benedict Arnold after his switch - a minor quibble.

And I have also read Teori, a novel about Georg Forster and his voyage to the South Sea with Captain James Cook. It even includes a frame story set during the French Revolution.

Finished The Hamilton Affair and Burr. Interesting reading about the same time period from the perspective of friends who became enemies (still just don't get how dueling became a thing.)

ETA I also read these for the Revolution thread, so I guess Im cheating a bit. But the fit both themes!

I completed Castle Rackrent which is on the cusp as far at the time frame here. It was published in 1800 but the setting was well before that time. This was a novella of 89 pages about the Rackrents as told by Sir Condy's loyal servant, Thad or "Old Thady." This is hailed as the first British novel. I found the narrator to be unreliable and babbling. I found the the story boring and plotless.

I have just completed Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran. Set against a backdrop of the French Revolution, the life of this woman, whose museums are still operating today, was very interesting.

James Winn's Queen Anne: Patroness of Arts (4****), which also qualifies for the August read on the Arts. Straddles the 17th and 18th centuries, but Anne's own reign was at the commencement of the 18th. At 816pp, it also qualifies for the Big Fat Book Challenge.

David McCullough, John Adams. I suppose this one might also qualify for September's "Historically Significant Event" – Declaration of Independence and that sort of thing – but I've got another book to use for September so I'll just leave this one at the 3d Quarter "Eighteenth Century" read.

October- December quarterly thread is up: http://www.librarything.com/topic/269476#

Looking back through my reads for the quarter, the only book I read which fits is The Scent of Death by Andrew Taylor, a fairly good historical mystery/crime novel set in New York during the American Revolution.

The Silent Boy is set at the time of the outbreak the French Revolution. This lends credence to the intricate plot which puts the silent boy, Charles, in peril. Someone has kidnapped him after he reaches England. But who has him and why has he been taken? Will he and Savil, the person who has Charles' best interest at heart, be able to find each other?

>18 Familyhistorian:, Snap! I have just finished The Silent Boy by Andrew Taylor, its the sequel to The Scent of Death. I thought it was a fairly good historical mystery.

>19 Roro8: I was very impressed by how good the mystery element was in The Silent Boy. I love a good mystery.

My books for the 18th century read were:

Celia Garth, Gwen Bristow (historical fiction / American Revolution)
Demelza, Winston Graham (historical fiction / family saga, 1780s Cornwall)
Ross Poldark, Winston Graham (")