Kunwoo Lee Lee itibaren Madapura, Karnataka, الهند
Fanny Kemble was a very famous 19th century British actress and author who traveled the world, married one of her groupies who inherited a plantation with hundreds of slaves, divorced him and became an outspoken advocate of abolition. She belonged to a theatrical family; her father, aunt and uncle were famous actors and her sister was an opera singer. Fanny kept extensive journals commenting on everything. Her diary Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation 1838-1839 was published before the Civil War, she spoke against slavery and donated money to the abolitionist movement. I should have read one of the biographies either instead of or before reading her memoirs. Although these letters were published many years after they were written, the author blanked out most of the names. For example, letters are addressed to "Dear H----" so I don't know if that is Harriet or some other person whose name starts with H. And in the letters she refers to people as Mr.----- and Miss---- which leaves me in the dark. The letters are not in chronological order. The book starts with letters written in 1874 and most of the books seems to cover 1874-1876. The earlier period seems to be relatively few letters towards the end of the book and some letters are undated.
This book was heavily recommended on the women's book circuit. And it's not a bad book. It was well written considering what alot of the "women's" lit is these days. But I didn't like it. I felt it was overly descriptive, abundent over-use of adjectives, and a wallowing in emotions. I'm a drama queen but I seriously felt like I should get my period reading this. Story is about a family who has twins, one of whom hs Down's Syndrome in the 1960s when that was very taboo. The father tells the mom the baby was born dead and sends the nurse to institutionalize the baby. The nurse instead runs away with the baby and raises her on her own. Meanwhile the original family has major dysfunction due to the lie/dead baby.