Read a good diary, or someone else's letters lately?

[BookCat]

I love reading diaries and letters, whether fictional or non-fiction. If you've read books of this type recently, and enjoyed them, please tell.

Thanks.

[ametzler]

Landing by Emma Donoghue contains some great letters.

[BenG]

Some that I've read:

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster
and one of the Anne of Green Gables books. I forget which.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BenG

and one of the Anne of Green Gables books. I forget which.

Anne of Windy Poplars. That said, I don't recommend it. The quality of the Anne books is inconsistent and this is one of the worse ones. It was also written much later than its place in the chronology and it shows, as nothing can happen that will matter later.

[BookCat]

Thanks.

I've discovered that Elizabeth Van Arnim wrote lots of books in diary and letter form. Has anyone read them?

[astrangerhere]

I listened to The Diary of a Dead Officer: Being the Posthumous Papers of Arthur Graeme West read by the excellent Ruth Golding on LibriVox.

I also read and enjoyed Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth in college and again a few years ago. I know she played fast and loose with the personal facts a bit, but as a diary study, it is a good one.

[Pulpmeister]

P G Wodehouse, "Performing Flea", consists of his many letters to his old school chum and lifelong friend Bill Townend, which Townend (well obviously) kept. Lots of thoughts on the craft and technique of writing, and the astonishing sums of money he was paid in the USA for a serial in the 1920s, when $295 would buy you a new Ford T. Tens of thousands of dollars!

You will not be surprised to discover that P G Wodehouse the author and P G Wodehouse the letter writer are unmistakably the same man.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I also read and enjoyed Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth in college and again a few years ago. I know she played fast and loose with the personal facts a bit, but as a diary study, it is a good one.

It is interesting to compare Testament of Youth, published in 1933, with the diary that was its primary source, published posthumously as Chronicle of Youth. Chronicle is both more immediate and rawer as is to be expected, and it's also more revealing about Brittain's youthful foibles and opinions.

[BookCat]

I read Testament of Youth way back in the 80s and remember enjoying it, although it was a grim read at times. But I don't remember that it was an epistolary novel; long time since I read it though.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by issybird

It is interesting to compare Testament of Youth, published in 1933, with the diary that was its primary source, published posthumously as Chronicle of Youth. Chronicle is both more immediate and rawer as is to be expected, and it's also more revealing about Brittain's youthful foibles and opinions.

Is Chronicle of Youth a diary, whereas the other is a 'dramatised version' of the diary? That would seem to tally with my very vague memory of Testament of Youth.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

P G Wodehouse, "Performing Flea", consists of his many letters to his old school chum and lifelong friend Bill Townend, which Townend (well obviously) kept. Lots of thoughts on the craft and technique of writing, and the astonishing sums of money he was paid in the USA for a serial in the 1920s, when $295 would buy you a new Ford T. Tens of thousands of dollars!

You will not be surprised to discover that P G Wodehouse the author and P G Wodehouse the letter writer are unmistakably the same man.

Wodehouse is always fun to read, thanks.

[BookCat]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

I listened to The Diary of a Dead Officer: Being the Posthumous Papers of Arthur Graeme West read by the excellent Ruth Golding on LibriVox.

If it's on librivox, I'll probably be able to find a PD version so listen and read at the same time, at least for parts of it. Thanks.