The Meanderings of the Emily Chesley Reading Circle

By Mark A. Rayner

It is hard to believe the remarkable life of Emily Chesley has been overlooked by historians and literary researchers. Long before H.G. Wells penned The War of the Worlds, Emily Chesley's prose was... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1412004934
• ISBN13: 9781412004930
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Length: 104 Pages
• Weight: 0.31 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Intelligent and slighty subversive mockery!

If you're fond of Monty Python, generally, and Michael Palin's "Ripping Yarns" in particular, you'll likely enjoy this short book of humor which delightfully spoofs Victorian/Edwardian literature and contemporary literary scholarship. This book mixes biographical sketches of the naughty adventuress and authoress of speculative fiction, Emily Chesley, with her surviving short stories, and some literary analysis of her work, and gets high marks for spot-on mockery in all departments. Even slight familiarity with biographical treatment of late 19th/early 20th century adventuresses, aviatrixes (e.g., "West With the Night" by Beryl Markham), the history of the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan, and the oh-so-self-important study of early Canadian literature will add to your enjoyment, as you'll catch a few 'in' jokes, but even those living a life blissfully unaware of Can-Lit and Can-Cult will find this book to be subversively witty. As a bonus, a few short stories by recent winners of the Tundra prize for speculative fiction are also included (and is this a real prize or a continuation of the parody? read it and decide for yourself!). I laughed out loud -- and in public places, too! -- while reading this book, and I wasn't even a Lit major.