Trying to Fight Against Fate

04/19/24 • 40 min

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the very first author to appear a second time on our podcast, Richard Harding Davis! Today's all-new episode explores Davis' 1895 royal romance, THE PRINCESS ALINE—approved by none other than Queen Victoria herself! And we already know that Amy is a fan... but what does Jacinta think of her very first Dick Davis novel? Tune in to find out!

CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including companion episodes, and a link to download this episode's public-domain story for FREE!

Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Richard Harding Davis, Charles Dana Gibson, Queen Victoria, Princess Alix of Hesse, Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian Revolution, the Gilded Age, The Prisoner of Zenda, Somewhere in Time, Ward McAllister, the Patriarch's Ball, Delmonico's, Irene Langhorne Gibson, Cecil Clark Davis, Fairfax Downey, the Gibson Girl, the Gibson Man, Jeeves and Wooster, P. G. Wodehouse, the Atelier Julien, European tourism, and Ethel Barrymore.

CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including companion episodes, and a link to download this episode's public-domain story for FREE!

Previous Episode

They Don't Care a Straw What I Do

She's back!! Katja Labonté, the original co-host of The Gibson Girl Review, returns as a guest reviewer for this all-new episode, as she and Amy crack open the cover on Henry James' scandalous 1878 novella, Daisy Miller. But is this story as shocking for us today as it supposedly was during the Gilded Age? And how does this story relate to Amy and Katja's very first episode of the podcast?

And speaking of scandals, Amy introduces us in the history segment to Evelyn Nesbit, the most notorious of all the real-life Gibson Girl models, whose story is a surprisingly close parallel to that of our featured book's heroine.

CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public-domain book for FREE!

Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, the Gilded Age, Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier, the Redwall series, Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables, Hannah Linder, The Girl from the Hidden Forest, Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, The Trial of the Century, murder, scandal, insanity, jealousy, Gilmore Girls, American ex-patriots, Newport, Paris, London, Geneva, World War I, the Nobel Prize for Literature, Impressionism, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pink and White Tyranny, The Vassar Miscellany, Vassar girls, A Study in Bloomers, Miss Bayle's Romance, and Mr. Darcy.

Next Episode

When You Call Me That, Smile!

It's the Season Three finale of The Gibson Girl Review, and we are bringing it home with jangling spurs and a rollicking BANG! Amy, Jacinta, and Amanda all gather in the studio to discuss the Godfather of the American Western genre, Owen Wister's 1902 classic, The Virginian. Filled with humor, pathos, and some immortal characters, this meandering tale may very well change the way you think about Westerns forever!

CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public-domain novel for FREE!

Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Bret Harte, John Wayne, the Old West, American mythology, animal abuse, lynching, racism, High Noon, Angel and the Badman, the Wyoming Territory, and western tropes.