Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

[trytofly]

Pour les livres de Madeline Hunter j'ai trouvé en Français la série "Les Séducteurs"
Tome 1 Le maitre de la séduction,
Tome 2 "Le pire des adversaires"
et Tome 3 "Une si jolie Fleur
The Sins of Lord Easterbrook n'existerait pas en Français...

For Madeline Hunter's books I found in French the series "Les Séducteurs" (The Seducers)
Volume 1 The master of seduction,
Volume 2 "The worst of the adversaries"
and Tome 3 "Une si jolie Fleur
The Sins of Lord Easterbrook would not exist in French...

French books are up to date on the reading list (Romance Book List).
And indeed "The Sins of Lord Easterbrook" is not translated into French. But the first two of the series to which he belongs are.
"Tromperies et séduction" et "Le manuscrit du déshonneur"

 

[Yas]

I've just finished reading The Gilded Web. Wow! What an incredible book and story! This has become my favourite for too many reasons, but, let me just start with the fact that I thought the complexity of the characters and the description of their thoughts and feelings, their dialogues and their interactions, were brilliant.

Throughout the book there are many gems and fragments which I highlighted and will keep in a collection of quotes. There's a lot to be learnt from this book.

Spoiler: Spoiler

It is amazing to see how Alexandra's character develops as the story moves forward, and even though it is harrowing to see her choosing self-assertion and "freedom" over love, family and happiness, I can totally understand her thinking and feeling. It is something I would have chosen in similar circumstances, perhaps, and it is also the line of thinking and the sort of feelings I had before in my life.

It was also very good to notice how the resentment she was feeling over the life she hadn't had led her to feel too sorry for herself and wish fo the stars and the moon too as Edmund put it, despite the fact that, in general, she was quite stoic about her own unhappiness. And then, of course, it was only when she got a bit over herself and realized that it wasn't only she who was suffering in the relationship and that she was being selfish that she could open herself to love and really see Edmund, who was trying hard to give himself to her.

Also, the topic of vulnerability is a big one too. Alexandra needed to know that she was indeed wanted and needed before she could accept being married with Edmund, and Edmund had to show his own hurt, his own need for her. She didn't want to be married just to be saved, she wanted a real relationship where both give and receive, and Edmund had to learn how to be in the receiving end of love, which is, paradoxically, another way of giving... in this case, of giving himself completely.

There are also some very good reflections on the topic of freedom, and how we are never completely free in a naïve way of looking into that word. Freedom always comes within the parameters of the world we're in and our responsibilities are part of it. We have to compromise and pay back to life, sacrifice part of that naïve desire for "complete" freedom, for love and unity, while keeping our integrity.

And, the book also made me think a lot about how sometimes we may make things worse by trying to help another person when we don't truly understand the situation or the person involved and when we think we know better what is best for another person and refuse to see that the person needs to go through his or her own learning and that's what life is presenting to them.

There is so much wisdom in this book, I recommend it to all who haven't read it yet.

Here are a few fragments I will keep as reminders:
(There could be some spoilers in the quotes)

“Then I am to accept that I must be a pariah unmarried, but perfectly respectable as your wife?” she asked, looking very directly at him again.

He smiled. “You have a way of putting things, Miss Purnell,” he said, “a very direct way that makes a person feel uncomfortable. The answer to your question seems so obviously to be no. But the world is not such a black-and-white place as you imply. Life is what it is. Society is what it is. There is very little we can do to change either. We must accept what we must and change what we can. And somehow preserve our own integrity.”

There was too much need in him to give love to make the life of a hermit a possibility.

Today everything seemed possible. It seemed possible that she could marry him and live comfortably with him. It seemed possible that marriage, even one not of her own choosing, need not be a prison. Marriage would bind her to this man, but within those bonds she could perhaps be free. After all, was not life itself very similar? One was bound to life and could not escape death. But there was freedom and happiness to be achieved within it.

He had a great deal to learn about sharing his life with someone else. It was all very well to think of love, to dream of the perfect marriage. But nothing could be accomplished if he retreated to his private world whenever anything happened to ruffle his calm. Love was not just a word, a passive emotion. It was a full-time, lifelong commitment.

He was a man who could do a great deal for others when occasion demanded it. But he had no practice in giving himself.

She laid her cheek against his. “Oh, I am sorry, Dom,” she said. “I am truly sorry I have made you feel inadequate. Your trouble is, not that you are immature, but that you are very sweet and sensitive. You hate to hurt anyone. You want to please everyone and take the burden of the world upon your own shoulders. You are just like Edmund in that way. But it can’t always be done, dear. Other people have to carry their own burdens for themselves. Sometimes you have to allow other people to suffer, Dom, even if they are people you love. Sometimes you can make the situation worse by trying to intervene.”

... Free! There is no such thing as freedom, I am here to tell you.”

“If I were a man I could be free,” Alexandra said. “Ouch, Nanny. Can you not be a little more gentle?”

“Do you want to go to bed with tangles?” Nanny Rey had asked severely. “Hold still now, lovey. Men are no more free than we are, I do assure you. We are all born to a certain way of life, and we have to make the best of it. The person does not live who can do just whatsoever he pleases. Oh, some of those Eastern princes, perhaps, with their harems and other heathen trappings, poor lost souls. But I’ll wager even they have to do what is expected of them. What if one of them wants only one wife? Everyone will laugh at him and think he is less than a man. So he is forced to fill his harem with fifty wives.”

“Ouch! Nanny!” Alexandra had complained.

“Hold still, lovey” had been the only sympathy she had received. “If you spend your life running around in search of freedom, you will be running to your dying day and still no nearer than when you started.”

Edit: A quote that was incomplete.

 

[PERLOU]

BnF Catalogue général

Plus de 13 millions de notices bibliographiques (imprimés, documents sonores, ressources électroniques, manuscrits, objets...) et près de 5 millions de notices d'autorité (personnes, collectivités, œuvres, noms communs, noms géographiques, marques ... )

catalogue.bnf.fr

Je me sers de ce lien donné par Maat pour retrouver les livres en Anglais que nous conseille LAURA pour avoir les tires en Français...
"Tromperies et Séduction" et "Le manuscrit du déshonneur" sont ils dans la liste de Laura ?...
Si c'est le cas ils m'ont échappés...

BnF Catalogue général

Plus de 13 millions de notices bibliographiques (imprimés, documents sonores, ressources électroniques, manuscrits, objets...) et près de 5 millions de notices d'autorité (personnes, collectivités, œuvres, noms communs, noms géographiques, marques ... )

catalogue.bnf.fr

I'm using this link given by Maat to find the books in English that LAURA recommends to get the French versions...
Are "Deception and Seduction" and "The Manuscript of Dishonor" in Laura's list ?...
If it is the case they escaped me...

 

[PERLOU]

Lorraine Heath "Just Wicked Enough". N'est pas traduit en Français...

Lorraine Heath "Just Wicked Enough". Is not translated into French...

 

[trytofly]

BnF Catalogue général

Plus de 13 millions de notices bibliographiques (imprimés, documents sonores, ressources électroniques, manuscrits, objets...) et près de 5 millions de notices d'autorité (personnes, collectivités, œuvres, noms communs, noms géographiques, marques ... )

catalogue.bnf.fr

Je me sers de ce lien donné par Maat pour retrouver les livres en Anglais que nous conseille LAURA pour avoir les tires en Français...
"Tromperies et Séduction" et "Le manuscrit du déshonneur" sont ils dans la liste de Laura ?...
Si c'est le cas ils m'ont échappés...

BnF Catalogue général

Plus de 13 millions de notices bibliographiques (imprimés, documents sonores, ressources électroniques, manuscrits, objets...) et près de 5 millions de notices d'autorité (personnes, collectivités, œuvres, noms communs, noms géographiques, marques ... )

catalogue.bnf.fr

I'm using this link given by Maat to find the books in English that LAURA recommends to get the French versions...
Are "Deception and Seduction" and "The Manuscript of Dishonor" in Laura's list ?...
If it is the case they escaped me...

Laura said she hasen't read the other Rothwell Brothers books but she is guessing it is safe to add them. So yes they are in the list.

This site is easier to find books translated into French. Almost all the authors are listed there:
Les Romantiques, le site francophone dédié au roman féminin

 

[Laura]

Laura said she hasen't read the other Rothwell Brothers books but she is guessing it is safe to add them. So yes they are in the list.

This site is easier to find books translated into French. Almost all the authors are listed there:
Les Romantiques, le site francophone dédié au roman féminin

I have read vol 1 and 2 now and yes, highly recommended and SHOULD be read in order. I'm going to re-read vol 4 when it comes up because I realize there were a lot of nuances there that I missed by not having the context of the previous volumes.

This reading in order seems to be rather important in most of these series. There is a lot that carries from one volume to the next and the whole situation is more complex that one might think by reading a volume out of order. Even if the author tries to make them "stand-alone", if you don't read in order, you lose a lot.

 

[Voyageur]

Some time ago, had read two books by Elisa Braden (Making of a Highlander/The Taming of a Highlander), and then carried on to her other series that semi-backdrops the Midnight in Scotland Series. Had downloaded, however missed reading "Ever Yours, Annabelle" (listed on Goodreads as book # 0.5). Darn. Came back to it, though.

This # .5 book features the sister of John (John later in the book removes himself to Scotland where he is the centre of the first Highlander book). Here, though, Annabelle is a caricaturist who illustrates under a nom de plume and finds herself caught up with some intrigue. Now, speaking of this nom de plume, Braden also supplements characters in the book with a sub character that Annabelle illustrates, associated with an investment scandal. The scandal features the doings - scam, of Zechariah Bickerstaff against some nobles, for which later Bickerstaff's wife plays a role.

Either by being clever, or as a coincidence , Braden's introduction of Annabelle's penned nom de plume with illustrations about Bickerstaff, crosses over historically - if as a play on names. In this story, it is Zechariah Bickerstaff, except for the first name, historically, it was Isaac, Jonathan Swift's political nom de plume in his [Isaac] Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers, printed in The Tatler. This story by Braden concerns another paper.

Yeah, okay, nothing to see there.

Anyway, this gets to Laura's comment on reading in order, too. In this case, wish I had caught this error as it would have helped, among other things, with why the Dowager Marchioness of Wallingham was referred to as The Dragon.

There was much going on in the story between Annabelle and Conrad from childhood forward, and it was interesting overall - also this complete link of the soul between two people, this pull between people that can sometimes manifest as opposition.

 

[seek10]

Are "Deception and Seduction" and "The Manuscript of Dishonor" in Laura's list ?...
If it is the case they escaped me...

@PERLOU,
I am not sure of these books. I couldn't find these books even in Amazon or google. please the share the links if you can.

 

[trytofly]

@PERLOU,
I am not sure of these books. I couldn't find these books even in Amazon or google. please the share the links if you can.

In fact, "Deception and Seduction" and "The Manuscript of Dishonor" referred to by Perlou are the literal English translations of the French titles "Tromperies et seduction" and "Le manuscrit du déshonneur". They are in fact the books "The rules of seduction" and "Lessons of desire".
These books are listed 212 and 213 on the reading sheet.
I hope to be clear enough ! The translation can sometimes be confusing.

 

[hlat]

I just finished reading His Captive Lady, book 2 of Anne Gracie's Devil Riders series. This was the most devastating book I've completed so far.

Spoiler

Most of the book is about the search for baby Torie, and then she's dead and there's just a hole in her mother's heart.

I don't know if it's because of the story or the cumulative effect of the project. This is only the 2nd book I've read as opposed to the 20 I've listened to. I get the feeling that listening instead of reading might have been even more intense, because the audio keeps going and doesn't stop when you take your eyes off the page and look away. So I see how reading is better for maintaining control. Audio may be better for letting go and just going along for the ride.

 

[PERLOU]

Je n'ai pas réussi à trouver à l'achat les péchés de Lord Easterbrook en Français...
I was unable to find Lord Easterbrook's sins in French...

Titre (vf / vo)	Éditeur	Genre	Année	Cote
Série: Rothwell de Madeline Hunter​
Tromperie et séduction Les règles de la séduction	J'ai lu	Régence	2006	(33)	- P VO P VO
Le manuscrit du déshonneur Leçons de désir	J'ai lu	Régence	2007	(34)	- P VO P VO
- Secrets de reddition		Régence	2008	(1)	- VO VO
- Les péchés de Lord Easterbrook		Régence	2009	(1)	- VO VO

 

[PERLOU]

Merci Trytofly pour vos liens et votre recherche très appréciés...

Thank you Trytofly for your much appreciated links and research...

 

[Kosma]

I get the feeling that listening instead of reading might have been even more intense, because the audio keeps going and doesn't stop when you take your eyes off the page and look away

I have the same impression. Personally I do listen to audiobooks (in my native language) on small earphones in the evening just before going to sleep. I think it resembles listening to bedtime storys for me, and actually in the most stressful days it was the only option to fall asleep at all for me. Now I'm at third Mary Balogh position

 

[Andrian]

In the last couple of weeks I've read Courting Julia trilogy and The Four Horsemen trilogy by M. Balogh.

One particular theme I've noticed in these stories and in other stories I've read as well is how the main characters recognize each other on a different level, how they recognize in each other their true nature despite the fact that they are walking in their lives on autopilot as most of people. It's like their higher selves with the help of the DCM which is always present in everyone's life, naturally since all is one and one is everything that exists, are guiding the characters towards one another in order for them to help each other to overcome their shortcomings, their programs and grow together thus bringing them both closer to their true selves. The characters being for each other like an anchor that keeps them grounded and helps them overcome the life's challenges designed for a soul in order to grow.

Today I've finished reading Lorraine Heath's first book from Rogues and Roses series. Again I see the anchor theme as in the previous stories I've read and much more of course.

Like for example the obvious and simple fact that most of people don't realize until a certain point is being reached on their soul progression cycle me thinks, that fact being that there really is no free lunch in the Universe.

If the situation you find yourself in sucks, it won't change for the better by sitting with your butt on the couch watching TV, doing nothing and waiting for a miracle to fall on your head from the roof. Most likely it will happen that the roof itself will fall on your head as a hint from the DCM or your higher self that if you want to improve your life you just have to remove your butt from the couch and start DOING something, start fighting for your life, your future, your true nature, your true self. And I'm convinced that if one is willing to do that instead of doing nothing and wallowing in self-pity and self-importance the DCM will assist him and help him improve his life no matter how dire the situation he finds himself in.

Another important thing I've noticed while reading these books is that if one allows the fear, the anxiety and the unknown to condition one's life he basically by his own doing blocks the creative energies to flow through him thus narrowing his choices and possibilities to overcome whichever challenge he is facing that will help him eventually to grow. What happens instead is that by giving in to fear, to anxiety, to uncertainty one invites the chaos in his own life that brings greater suffering and destruction upon oneself and upon others.

Now back to reading the second Lorraine's book from Rogues and Roses series.

 

[Chu]

In the Counterfeit Betrothal, the love scenes between Marc & Olivia were vexing for me. His behavior was the manifestation of the testosterone beast. I was annoyed by Olivia passivity towards his brutish sex, let alone feeling that she wanted more of it. This depiction of Olivia’s inner reaction to Marc’s crass humping and post coupling rudeness was unrealistic. I expected her to smile sweetly while walking up to him, grab him by the shoulders, fake a kiss then knee him in the jewels.

Well, I read it a bit differently. They

Spoiler

had a "heavy past" together. He harbored a lot of resentment for her lack of forgiveness and the years they had "wasted", plus they both had prejudices about the other's alleged lovers, etc. So, it wasn't so simple as "testosterone", IMO. It wasn't "his" brutish sex (notice the reaction usually came after the act), but more like a manifestation of both their pent up traumas and misunderstandings, combined with a degree of "desperation" after having been separated for so long, and huge amount of stubborness on both sides. Had they been able to express their feelings and talk, things would have been different, but they couldn't at the time.

There are many examples of testosterone demon in these stories because the male characters are rogues and rakes. Their inner dialogs about how they will “conquer” their women does raise my cackles. I am aware that this is a necessary tool of the romance dance, but it is the female compliance and wanting it that is too unrealistic. Do women really respond positively towards the testosterone beast or is this just the author's ploy to heighten the sexual energies?

I don't think we can generalize so much, and say that it's the "testosterone beast", or "women" as a whole. Although, it seems obvious that the "soy boy" and "beta males" aren't most women's favorites (in general). That's not to say that women prefer full blown tyrants or "rakes", but there are many nuances to "assertiveness", and I don't think it's all down to one hormone (or a problem coming exclusively from men). One thing we can see in these books is that not two people are the same.

So, maybe read those parts with an eye for the underlying dynamics, not just the sex scenes in isolation, and I think it depicts quite well (in most instances) natural differences between men and women, albeit a bit stereotyped. The shape each relationship takes is different, but some of those scenes are representative of a desire for nurturing and caring, for protection, being understood and not judged (even for one's "human" desires, less than impeccable behavior, etc.) OSIT. Notice that a lot of the characters are high in neuroticism, so all the above can bring them to heal in many cases.

I thought book 2 of Elisa Braden's series Rescued from Ruin series (The Truth about Cads and Dukes) was very good at showing this. The amount of programming and guilt associated with desire is quite big for many people. Hardly anyone is taught to not go into extremes, and the result is usually less than optimal. OSIT.