I have to admit that on this reread I'm far more aware of a certain amount of slut-shaming and Orientalism that I never noticed when I was younger. But even so, there are multiple women in each novel with power and opinions, and agendas beyond sleeping with the hero.

I mostly read Dunnett's mysteries ... the ... Johnson Johnson was it? the painter with his yacht Dolly? In retrospect, pretty disrespectful of women, but they were kind of fun at the time.

In retrospect, pretty disrespectful of women, but they were kind of fun at the time.

Well, all the POV characters are women. I liked best the one with the makeup artist.

But those are weird books: she wrote them out of internal chronological order, but set each of them in the cultural context of the year they were written. Which is kind of ridiculous, given that she wrote them over at least a twenty-year period.

But the similarity to the Lymond novels is unmistakeable: the highly-controlled and multi-talented lead male, with a tormented past and hidden passions; the wordplay; the ridiculous set pieces; and the way the twist at the end upends everything you thought you knew while you read the novel.

Yes, I liked that one - Dolly and the Bird of Paradise. I think I kept that one, but not the others.

I think I kept that one, but not the others.

I have several of them packed away somewhere, and I heard recently that they're being released in ebook versions. Some of them, I suspect, will have aged better than others...

When I'm done rereading (re-listening?) to the Lymond books, I really need to sit down and reread King Hereafter. That will be epic, and I rather wish there was an audiobook version.

Perhaps I should check Dunnett out. I too, have been put off by their largeness, and also, I somehow thought they were sci-fi.

Has anyone ever read 'Daddy Long Legs?' I think the Fred Astaire movie was based on it. I find it oddly creepy, though I guess not as creepy as Elsie Dinsmore. But the whole book is letters from a orphaned 17 year old who has been sent to college by an anonymous guardian benefactor. They are one sided-- he has asked her to write to him, but only his secretary communicates with her. She calls him "Daddy Long Legs". It is alsmost like a journal because he never writes back, so she is sort of free to write what is in her heart. She ends up with 2 suitors, both brothers of college friends, which she writes about to "Daddy".

And then, it ends up that the one she is in love with IS "Daddy". Which really creeps me out, because he has totally been reading her letters under, I think, false pretences. Also, did he send her to school just to groom her. It is so weird.

I kind of love it, but I read it at the correct age.

Also, did he send her to school just to groom her. It is so weird.

Yeah, I remember the movie, and it does seem kind of skeevy. More so now than it did in the past, I guess, when it was far more acceptable.

Now we look at something like Jacob's fixation on Bella's baby and go, ewwww. Or at least some of us do...

I find it oddly creepy, though I guess not as creepy as Elsie Dinsmore.

I kind of love how this has become a measure of creepiness. (In its own time, it seems like it was a measure of crappy books. I've found two other books, written while Elsie was still hugely popular, where characters talk about the Elsie books as an example of horrible books.)

What's the deal with Elsie Dinsmore? I've neveer read it.