Sunday, September 28, 2014
START THE WEEK
WHETHER in ballerinas, or in heels, or indeed in whatever shoe type, we start the new week with confidence! A lovely book about shoes is In her Shoes, by Jennifer Weiner. This is a book about accepting who we are, which in turn makes us stronger and better. Everyone is different and everyone is worthwhile. I loved In her Shoes, the book and the film, an I recommend both. In fact I even think that it is one of those rare occasions where the film is better than the book (but this is only an opinion). Have a great Monday morning! xxx
FASHION SUNDAY
IT'S Sunday, which only means that I am updating my fashion journal! I am here uploading the page where I record how impressed I am with Serkan Cura's use of the corset! If you are interested in the corset, I think the best book remains Valerie Steele's The Corset: A Cultural History! Also, the Victoria & Albert Museum has very good editions on the history of clothing and underwear, all with lovely photographs. I wish you a lovely Sunday afternoon! xxx
Saturday, September 27, 2014
THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW
HELLO and welcome to this weekend's review from The Lipstick Papers! Today we got The Woman in White, a novel by Wilkie Collins!
Written in 1859, The Woman in White belongs to the genre of sensation fiction. This was an extremely popular Victorian type of novel, concerned with mystery, family secrets, murder, and the supernatural. Often, the centre of the mystery was a beautiful woman.
In The Woman in White, there is not one beautiful woman but two, Laura Fairlie and Anne Catherick, the actual woman in white. The two women are identical in appearance, and are both caught up in the fate of Walter Hartright, a young and idealistic art teacher.
The scene where Walter meets Anne, clad in white, on the moonlit road to London at midnight is, for me, among the finest pieces of literature ever written. I am not sure why. This scene is not pleasant, it is rather tragic. Yet it is unforgettable.
The novel became a huge hit in the Victorian era, and made Wilkie Collins famous. Other memorable characters in The Woman in White are the evil Count Fosco and Marian Halcombe, Laura's faithful half-sister.
The Woman in White played with many Victorian hopes and fears: finding happiness and moving upwards in the social scale as against deadly family secrets, villainous and violent husbands, crime and madness.
What is the secret of the Woman in White? Not only the plot, but also life and death depend on finding the answer. But I also think that the answer has a lot to do with the heart and mind of each reader, for the novel is unsettling and enigmatic to the end...
The Woman in White is a long novel. Victorians loved the slow-moving, dense narrative. If you don't mind this, and you love mystery, this novel is for you!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a book! xxx
Written in 1859, The Woman in White belongs to the genre of sensation fiction. This was an extremely popular Victorian type of novel, concerned with mystery, family secrets, murder, and the supernatural. Often, the centre of the mystery was a beautiful woman.
In The Woman in White, there is not one beautiful woman but two, Laura Fairlie and Anne Catherick, the actual woman in white. The two women are identical in appearance, and are both caught up in the fate of Walter Hartright, a young and idealistic art teacher.
The scene where Walter meets Anne, clad in white, on the moonlit road to London at midnight is, for me, among the finest pieces of literature ever written. I am not sure why. This scene is not pleasant, it is rather tragic. Yet it is unforgettable.
The novel became a huge hit in the Victorian era, and made Wilkie Collins famous. Other memorable characters in The Woman in White are the evil Count Fosco and Marian Halcombe, Laura's faithful half-sister.
The Woman in White played with many Victorian hopes and fears: finding happiness and moving upwards in the social scale as against deadly family secrets, villainous and violent husbands, crime and madness.
What is the secret of the Woman in White? Not only the plot, but also life and death depend on finding the answer. But I also think that the answer has a lot to do with the heart and mind of each reader, for the novel is unsettling and enigmatic to the end...
The Woman in White is a long novel. Victorians loved the slow-moving, dense narrative. If you don't mind this, and you love mystery, this novel is for you!
Have a lovely weekend, always with beauty and a book! xxx
Friday, September 26, 2014
BEAUTY FRIDAY
The end of the week has a beauty all of its own. I hope you are all having a beautiful Friday! The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review coming soon! xxx
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
PLAY THE PIANO ANYTIME
MUSIC often appears in fiction, sometimes in an unsettling way.
For example, there is something terrible in the scene where Laura Fairley plays the piano to say goodbye to Walter Hartright in The Woman in White! Laura is a young, aristocratic woman, not allowed by convention to marry Walter, who is just a poor teacher. She has to marry someone her father chose for her, and who, of course, turns out to be totally evil. Will the two lovers eventually get together? I can't say; check out the novel to find out!
;-)
In Middlemarch, too, Rosamond's beautiful piano music stands for a talent wasted. George Eliot generally uses music to pass messages about women's subversion, and I have read that this is especially so in her novel Daniel Deronda. Personally, I found that novel unreadable, so I can't say much else about it.
Dorian Gray is a masterful piano player, and again the scenes where he plays are disturbing if not downright scary.
The beautiful Edward Cullen is also talented with the piano.
Yet, for me, the most amazing piano playing scenes are in Fifty Shades of Grey! Like Dorian, Christian too plays to express sadness, loneliness and despair.
Give me a mysterious man who can play the piano anytime!
For example, there is something terrible in the scene where Laura Fairley plays the piano to say goodbye to Walter Hartright in The Woman in White! Laura is a young, aristocratic woman, not allowed by convention to marry Walter, who is just a poor teacher. She has to marry someone her father chose for her, and who, of course, turns out to be totally evil. Will the two lovers eventually get together? I can't say; check out the novel to find out!
;-)
In Middlemarch, too, Rosamond's beautiful piano music stands for a talent wasted. George Eliot generally uses music to pass messages about women's subversion, and I have read that this is especially so in her novel Daniel Deronda. Personally, I found that novel unreadable, so I can't say much else about it.
Dorian Gray is a masterful piano player, and again the scenes where he plays are disturbing if not downright scary.
The beautiful Edward Cullen is also talented with the piano.
Yet, for me, the most amazing piano playing scenes are in Fifty Shades of Grey! Like Dorian, Christian too plays to express sadness, loneliness and despair.
Give me a mysterious man who can play the piano anytime!
Monday, September 22, 2014
I COULD ONLY REMEMBER THE ODDITIES
I SAW this beautiful painting on a board, and I thought to write about the love letter in literature!
Of course, the subject is too wide, and a whole library shelf could be filled with love letter anthologies, from fiction or real life!
Not all love letters are lovely, however. In fact, when I sat down to try and list some fictional love letters, I could only remember the oddities! For example, Mr Darcy's inflated love confession and marriage proposal in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and the ambivalent love letters in Secret Engagement (Μυστικοί Αρραβώνες), a Greek novel by 19th century Greek author Gregorios Xenopoulos (Γρηγόριος Ξενόπουλος). Also, Dorian Gray's unusual love letter to his fiancee in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The letter is unusual because Dorian doesn't know the fiancee is already dead. Dorian had broken up with her, she killed herself, while Dorian writes to make amends.
Not too pleasant, I must admit.
Having said that, there are good examples that come to mind too. Christian and Ana write amazing emails to each other in the Fifty Shades trilogy!
When it comes to real life letters from poets or writers, among the most beautiful are John Keats's love letters to his fiancee Fanny Browne. I have a weakness for John Keats, this is true; yet, more objective authorities than I am consider that his letters are, in general, among the finest letters ever written.
Also, I have to add this. Probably the best fictional love letter I have ever read is from one man to another, in David Mitchell's lovely book Cloud Atlas.
Cloud Atlas is a long novel, written in complicated prose. However, I highly recommend it!
Have a good evening, always with beauty and a book! xxx
Of course, the subject is too wide, and a whole library shelf could be filled with love letter anthologies, from fiction or real life!
Not all love letters are lovely, however. In fact, when I sat down to try and list some fictional love letters, I could only remember the oddities! For example, Mr Darcy's inflated love confession and marriage proposal in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, and the ambivalent love letters in Secret Engagement (Μυστικοί Αρραβώνες), a Greek novel by 19th century Greek author Gregorios Xenopoulos (Γρηγόριος Ξενόπουλος). Also, Dorian Gray's unusual love letter to his fiancee in The Picture of Dorian Gray. The letter is unusual because Dorian doesn't know the fiancee is already dead. Dorian had broken up with her, she killed herself, while Dorian writes to make amends.
Not too pleasant, I must admit.
Having said that, there are good examples that come to mind too. Christian and Ana write amazing emails to each other in the Fifty Shades trilogy!
When it comes to real life letters from poets or writers, among the most beautiful are John Keats's love letters to his fiancee Fanny Browne. I have a weakness for John Keats, this is true; yet, more objective authorities than I am consider that his letters are, in general, among the finest letters ever written.
Also, I have to add this. Probably the best fictional love letter I have ever read is from one man to another, in David Mitchell's lovely book Cloud Atlas.
Cloud Atlas is a long novel, written in complicated prose. However, I highly recommend it!
Have a good evening, always with beauty and a book! xxx
Sunday, September 21, 2014
START THE WEEK
THE best start to the week must certainly have to do with a slash of lipstick, a bit of fashion and a good book! After Fifty Shades of Grey I have to say that I find most fiction unexciting, and I don't read too much anymore. The novels which imitate Fifty Shades are, to me, not that good. I have gone back to old favorites, like Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte, all this while waiting for the new publishing craze! Any ideas what that may be?
I wish you all a great start to the week! xxx
I wish you all a great start to the week! xxx
SUNDAY FAVORITES
IT'S SUNDAY so, after doing the house-cleaning, which I hate, I am updating my fashion journal, which I love! Updating the fashion journal is my second favorite pass-time! Which is number one? Writing in The Lipstick Papers, of course! :-)
Saturday, September 20, 2014
THE LIPSTICK PAPERS WEEKEND REVIEW
HELLO and welcome to The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review! This week we got The Complete Short Stories by Oscar Wilde, published in Oxford World's Classics!
This edition features all of Oscar Wilde's short stories and fairy tales, including The Happy Prince, The Star Child and The Fisherman and his Soul!
Oscar Wilde's prose is absolutely lovely. The fairy tales and short stories have been written with imagination, elegance, sensitivity and honesty. Above all, they have been written with a great understanding of the deep pain which runs through the world and human life.
The fairy tales are not for children, or at least not for small children. I would give them to a child of about eleven. I think only The Selfish Giant can be read by a child smaller than this.
When I buy classic literature, I prefer to buy Oxford World's Classics (published by Oxford University Press). This is because the OUP editions are easier to use than other scholarly editions. The notes are very easy to find, there is a chronology of the author's life and of the period in which he/she is writing, and always a good introduction. Also, the covers are usually more tastefully chosen than those of other editions.
;-)
I recommend Wilde's short stories to anyone interested in Victorian literature, in literature about beauty and in the fairy tale!
Have a great weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
This edition features all of Oscar Wilde's short stories and fairy tales, including The Happy Prince, The Star Child and The Fisherman and his Soul!
Oscar Wilde's prose is absolutely lovely. The fairy tales and short stories have been written with imagination, elegance, sensitivity and honesty. Above all, they have been written with a great understanding of the deep pain which runs through the world and human life.
The fairy tales are not for children, or at least not for small children. I would give them to a child of about eleven. I think only The Selfish Giant can be read by a child smaller than this.
When I buy classic literature, I prefer to buy Oxford World's Classics (published by Oxford University Press). This is because the OUP editions are easier to use than other scholarly editions. The notes are very easy to find, there is a chronology of the author's life and of the period in which he/she is writing, and always a good introduction. Also, the covers are usually more tastefully chosen than those of other editions.
;-)
I recommend Wilde's short stories to anyone interested in Victorian literature, in literature about beauty and in the fairy tale!
Have a great weekend, always with beauty and a good book! xxx
Friday, September 19, 2014
BEAUTY FRIDAY
NOTHING beats the beauty of Friday! Friday is beautiful no matter what. I hope you all have a nice day. The Lipstick Papers Weekend Review coming soon! xxx
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