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Apr. 10th, 2022 08:08 pmI've been reading Tales of the City Room, a collection of short stories by 19th-century Lady Journalist Elizabeth Garver Jordan about the Experience of being a 19th-century Lady Journalist.
Unsurprisingly, many of the stories are quite Victorian-moralistic and/or sentimental but for the most part I've been enjoying them! The most prominent recurring character is star journalist Ruth Herrick, who over the course of several stories
- forms an intense connection with an dreamy accused murderess ("I am glad you are a stranger, with a certain magnetism about you which interests me, and fills me with a silly desire to know what you think of me, and whether you fear me or believe in me")
- forms an intense connection with a dreamy nun entering the cloister forever ("I, a perfect stranger to her, had her last words and her last kiss")
- forms an intense connection with a dreamy Spanish dancer of dubious morality ("She did me a good turn once when she published my answer to that Van Dreer story. Now we are quits. But she is a good woman, and so she would never have believed me if I had told her the truth. I shocked him purposely, and I sent him away — because she asked it")
- forms an intense connection with a mysterious lady who delivers presents to her sick-room and then vanishes ("It looks precisely," she said, "as if some well-meaning young farmer had gone to the county fair and had there selected these things as beautiful and appropriate offerings for his Hebe. [...] What was the dear, queer woman thinking about? And who and what is she?")
This woman appears to be breaking lesbian hearts all over the city and I'm seriously considering nominating her for Yuletide.
Ruth Herrick's array of conquests aside, my actual three favorite stories are:
- "At the Close of the Second Day," in which an elegant young lady journalist (not Miss Herrick) is forced to grapple with the fact that her financial situation has slipped from 'temporary dry spell' to 'life-threatening poverty'
- "A Point of Ethics," in which Ruth Herrick and several of her other young lady journalist friends have an argument about whether a young lady journalist can afford to sacrifice respectability and reputation on the altar of personal friendship
- ... okay also "Ruth Herrick's Assignment," the one where Ruth Herrick forms the intense connection with the dreamy accused murderess, is simply a very good time
Unsurprisingly, many of the stories are quite Victorian-moralistic and/or sentimental but for the most part I've been enjoying them! The most prominent recurring character is star journalist Ruth Herrick, who over the course of several stories
- forms an intense connection with an dreamy accused murderess ("I am glad you are a stranger, with a certain magnetism about you which interests me, and fills me with a silly desire to know what you think of me, and whether you fear me or believe in me")
- forms an intense connection with a dreamy nun entering the cloister forever ("I, a perfect stranger to her, had her last words and her last kiss")
- forms an intense connection with a dreamy Spanish dancer of dubious morality ("She did me a good turn once when she published my answer to that Van Dreer story. Now we are quits. But she is a good woman, and so she would never have believed me if I had told her the truth. I shocked him purposely, and I sent him away — because she asked it")
- forms an intense connection with a mysterious lady who delivers presents to her sick-room and then vanishes ("It looks precisely," she said, "as if some well-meaning young farmer had gone to the county fair and had there selected these things as beautiful and appropriate offerings for his Hebe. [...] What was the dear, queer woman thinking about? And who and what is she?")
This woman appears to be breaking lesbian hearts all over the city and I'm seriously considering nominating her for Yuletide.
Ruth Herrick's array of conquests aside, my actual three favorite stories are:
- "At the Close of the Second Day," in which an elegant young lady journalist (not Miss Herrick) is forced to grapple with the fact that her financial situation has slipped from 'temporary dry spell' to 'life-threatening poverty'
- "A Point of Ethics," in which Ruth Herrick and several of her other young lady journalist friends have an argument about whether a young lady journalist can afford to sacrifice respectability and reputation on the altar of personal friendship
- ... okay also "Ruth Herrick's Assignment," the one where Ruth Herrick forms the intense connection with the dreamy accused murderess, is simply a very good time
