Mailbox Mondays

A Civil Contract, Georgette Heyer ~paperbackswap.com wish granted

"When his father, the Viscount Lynton, dies unexpectedly, Adam Deveril abandons soldiering to return to his ancestral home—only to find the estate plagued by debt and the abundant land wilted with neglect. He must either sell everything and leave his family impoverished…or find a wealthy bride.
Raised in privilege, Jenny Chawleigh is the only daughter of a doting, self-made financier who's determined to elevate his daughter's status in society. But to do that Jenny must marry into nobility…. And the new Viscount Lynton seems quite suitable.
But while society politely applauds the fortuitous marriage, Adam is still possessed by the thought of another woman—the one he couldn't marry…"


Lady of Quality, Georgette Heyer ~paperbackswap.com wish granted

"Miss Annis Wychwood, at twenty-nine, has long been on the shelf, but this bothers her not at all. She is rich and still beautiful and she enjoys living independently in Bath, except for the tiresome female cousin, who her very proper brother insists must live with her.

When Annis offers sanctuary to the very young runaway heiress Miss Lucilla Carleton, no one at all thinks this is a good idea. With the exception of Miss Carleton's overbearing guardian, Mr. Oliver Carleton, whose reputation as the rudest man in London precedes him. Outrageous as he is, the charming Annis ends up finding him absolutely irresistible".

English Children's Books 1600-1900, Percy Muir ~My Local Library Sale

"In this book, Percy Muir, a leading authority on English children's books, has written a scholarly and entertaining account of the works published for children during a period of three centuries. Mr. Muir passes over the books written solely to instruct or to improve and concentrates on those whose aim is entertainment. He discusses at some length, and with an endearing enthusiasm, the important children's writers and their books in the years preceding 1900. He provides lists- invaluable to the collector-of the most important children's books during each period, and he refers to the most useful works on the subject by earlier writers.

John Newbery is generally held to have originated children's books in 1740. Mr. Muir successfully challenges this assumption. He also satisfactorily fills in a number of gaps left by previous historians of the subject. The interesting and important publishing histories of the most famous children's books, here given for the first time, are especially valuable guides to this most ephemeral branch of the literature.

There are more than 100 illustrations: color plates, photographs and facsimile reproductions in "line". In themselves a most attractive collection, they will be of great value to the student of children's books. To the collector and librarian, the book will be a necessary work of reference; to the much wider public who loved children's books when young and who love them still it will be a delightful possession".

Claude Monet 1840-1926: A Feast for the Eyes, ~Karin Sagner-Duchting My Local Library Sale

"Claude Monet (1840-1926) was both the most typical and the most individual painter of Impressionism. His long life and extraordinary work capacity - coupled with a sometimes furious perfectionism - he dedicated to a pictorial exploration of the sensations which reality, in particular landscape, offer the human eye".



But while Monet the painter was faithful and persevering in the pursuit of his motifs, his personal life - characterized by frequent travels and changes of location - followed a more restless course. Parisian by birth, he discovered plein-air painting as a youth in the provinces and sought to defy his family's insistence upon an academic painter's training. For over half his life the artist was plagued by financial worries, which in part precipitated the frequent moves made by his expanding household.
Two of his homes stand out above the rest. The first, Argenteuil, has come to represent the artistic flowering and official establishment of Impressionism as a movement, with Monet as its creative leader.

But it was also Monet who, in his endeavor to capture the ever-changing face of reality, went beyond Impressionism and thereby beyond the confines of the self-contained panel painting. This step he took in the village of Giverny: here he painted the Poplars, Grain Stacks and Rouen Cathedral series in which he addressed one motif in constantly new variations. Here, too, Monet laid out the famous garden with its water lily pond which he was to paint on huge canvases well into the 1920s. He thereby sought to render not reality as objectively experienced, but rather that which takes place "between the motif and the artist". In their open, no longer more than tenuously representational structure and impressive scale, his water lily paintings - created long before the currents of contemporary avant-garde - point the way forward to the developments of the future".

The Huntington: Library, Art Gallery, Botanical Gardens, ~Elizabeth Pomeroy My Local Library Sale

"The life of an institution may be greater than the sum of its parts. At the Huntington, a pre-eminent library, a distinguished art collection, and a bounty of gardens make a combination unmatched anywhere".

For more on this institution 'The Huntington" in San Marino, CA
~Lizzy~