Christmas in august ~

[lookingland]

a couple of very Victorian Christmas books for the 50bookchallenge:

no. 48 ~ the birds’ Christmas carol by kate douglas wiggin. the quintessential Victorian Christmas story: poor family of many children lives next door to rich family with few children, one of whom is an invalid who teaches them all the joy of giving (and you know what happens to her in the end (naturally). it’s so saccharin your teeth hurt after reading it (of course, i loved it!).

no. 49 ~ the mansion by henry van dyke. this one is a morality tale in the vein of dickens’ Christmas carol: wealthy philanthropist gives all his money to charity building treasures on earth instead of heaven. when his son asks to help out a friend in financial difficulty on Christmas eve, and to go work in a foreign mission, the father says no to both because neither seems a wise investment. the father falls asleep and dreams of the mansion he has built for himself in heaven. needless to say he wakes up having changed his mind about all of his son’s charitable plans. predictable and ham-fisted, but still somehow satisfying.

i'm currently reading more s. weir mitchell (Westways), which i am loving, and a couple of other things. boy, hitting 50 this year was no problem (and i'm sure i'm forgetting to count a few here).

yeah, this is me: trying to think cool, wintery thoughts.



artist: doug laird