Fantastic Victoriana

-In case you have any doubts about whether you need The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana, my esteemed colleague Ken Hite has written a review that is, in itself, well worth the read.

Books: Abbeys & Dungeons

-I finished Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey a couple days ago. I had fun with it; it's mostly a satire of gothic romances, in that A) the author likes to point out how her heroine's life doesn't look like a gothic romance (often with arch sarcasm, in the form, "And then, clearly in high distress, she ate a sensible meal, and went to bed early, sleeping soundly.") and B) the heroine herself (Catherine) is a devoted fan of such romances, and expects reality to conform to them. I confess I myself haven't read many gothic romances to speak of (with the exception of Frankenstein and similar cornerstones, which all post-date Abbey anyway), but the trappings are familiar to me from a thousand literary and cinematic offshoots.

-The ending rather snuck up on me. This is partly because the volume I read had Austen's short story Lady Susan tucked into the back, and partly because the plot seems to have some loose ends. I never really felt like the whole Isabella situation got resolved — exactly what happened between her and her two suitors? (At that mythical point in the future when I have oodles of free time, it might be fun to do a fanfic of Abbey from Isabella's POV, with Catherine as a delusional ninny who grossly misinterprets Isabella's actions . . . )

-One of the fun bits of reading Abbey (which makes me rather wish I'd read it in a public place) was that I was reading a copy from my mother's set of Austen. Several chapters in, I tried to turn the page, looked up from the book, and said to her accusingly, "You never finished reading Northanger Abbey!"

-She looked over at me, smiled, and said, "I finished a different copy. Are the pages not cut?"

"Only through page 150. Pass me that bread knife." Her copy was old enough that it came from an era when publishers didn't always cut all the signatures at the printers, leaving the reader to do it.

(Several of the women in my life are now thinking, "Ooo, that's cool!" Corollary: I'm a very lucky man.)

-I'm also currently working my way through The World's Largest Dungeon (which, come to think of it, probably owes a little bit to gothic romances, as well). This is a single mammoth Dungeons & Dragons adventure. I don't expect to finish WLD anytime soon, or likely at all, in the strictest sense, since there are many rooms and sub-regions I'm skimming or skipping outright. The darn thing is 900,000 words, the maps cover a wall (see pic at bottom of link above), and it uses every single monster type from the D&D SRD. It's intended to take a group of PCs from 1st level to 20th without ever seeing daylight. As an example of epic adventure design, it's a landmark piece of work, no mistake. This one was a gift from inthatoneway; thanks, bro!

(No, drwex, you may not borrow it. The other players would lynch me.)