British Library, Day One

I came, I saw, I read over 900 pages.  Also, I took photographs, which simplified my life considerably (some reflections on that below).

Once again, I was assaulted by GoogleBooks' search engine, which had insisted that there was no full text available for one of Mme. de Genlis' novels--until I massaged the search by clicking through "more editions" on some volumes.  It would be easier, I think, if the search engine would just bring up the titles when you searched for them.  Or am I naive? Is it bizarre to think that GoogleBooks ought to have a viable search function?

Apparently so.

I found another novel lurking in Gale's Ecco hardcopy series, so I decided to buy it, rather than deal with what I have to say was a seriously decrepit volume (I was afraid I'd kill the poor thing just by opening it).

• Mme. de Genlis, Rash Vows (1799).  It's Sense and Sensibility! But with dead people! Short version: Rakish Frenchman, Sainville, falls for mysterious and allegorically-named English Catholic beauty, Constance; identity mix-up with Irish Catholic beauty Ophelia (an ex-courtesan) follows; complex backstory about Constance's excessive sensibility ensues, climaxing with the sacred oath she carved into her husband's tomb with a knife (...that's some seriously soft stone there) in which she swears never to marry again (Rash Vow #1); Sainville pursues, she parries, he pursues some more, she breaks up with him forever (or so he thinks) and he rushes off to become a Knight of Malta (Rash Vow #2); Constance tries to renege on her oath to save the dying Sainville, but the whole Knight of Malta bit saves her and she (providentially) dies; Sainville faints; the end.  Aside from some passing anti-Protestant snark and a mention of confession, there's little in the way of overt theology here, which is why Mme. de Genlis, despite being Catholic, managed to have a strong Protestant following in the UK.  The novel actually does some rather interesting things with texts and materiality, especially when it comes to Constance's oath:  by the end of the novel, not only is there the writing carved on the tomb, but also representations of the writing (engravings, for example), which circulate around England, as well as her own painting of the tomb and its text.  In effect, the novel is about a woman who not only indulges in sensibility, but who even more importantly becomes commodified as part of the cult of sensibility: "She also met with many engravings sent to her from London by various artists, representing her in different attitudes weeping over the tomb of lord Clarendon" (III.228).  By inserting her weeping body, engravers divert the viewers' attention from her original sacred intent (sealing an oath with God via the inscription) to her feeling, sobbing female body--from heaven to earth, as it were.  But this focus on her body also reignites the question of sexual desire, which has been the problem all along (Sainville's desire for Constance, Constance's anxiety when Clarendon ceases to be as "passionate" as he once was, Clarendon's involvement with Ophelia, Lord Elby's attempt to seduce Constance, etc.).  Writing features prominently elsewhere--characters obsess over other characters' writing, letters pass from one person to another, Sainville writes where Constance once did, and so forth.  
• Mme. de Genlis, The History of Cecilia (1804).  A short tale.  Teenage girl is chucked into convent by dad seeking to ensure his son's prosperity, despite girl's would-be husband; many years later, girl achieves state of Christian resignation, but dies, much to dad's sorrow; dad accidentally meets up again with would-be husband, who has built an altar to Cecilia, and is ticked.  However, everyone is reconciled at the end, and dad finally learns his lesson.  Like Rash Vows, the novella emphasizes that sacred oaths, no matter why they were sworn, trump all mere romantic considerations; there is no way to negotiate a successful ending to these would-be marriage plots.   
• Samuel Chandler, Christian Courtship: Or, Piety and Affection Exemplified in the Conduct and Correspondence of a Young Couple. A Serious and Interesting Tale (1817).  Serious, to be sure.  Interesting...well.  (Then again, the author does mention that the unconverted will be bored by this book, so I'm clearly not amongst the elect.  As many of the pages were uncut, I would guess that the novel ran into an awful lot of unconverted readers.)  A whole lot of Calvinism going on, with enough total depravity to suit anyone's tastes.  Guy courts girl; guy gets religion; guy thinks about dumping girl; girl gets religion; completely random person dies for several pages, setting a good example; guy and girl live happily ever after, with divine assistance.  The book primarily consists  of overly chatty set-pieces, much like Coelebs in Search of a Wife, which interests me from a formal POV (Book III 1/2 will be, in part, about how religious novelists kept experimenting with various narrative forms to model Christian practice without inadvertently subverting themselves). 

The self-service photography.  The photography was easy enough: I used a cellphone with a good camera (13 MP) and no flash, as per regulations, with good results.  (I opted for a phone rather than a camera so that a) the shutter would be completely silent and b) the photos would immediately upload into Dropbox; if you have a snappier camera with a WiFi connection, that would also work.)  I don't think you could use one of the scanner apps--the ones I've seen have required a flash.  Obvious advantages: wow, this cuts transcription time down almost to nothing; oh look, no more worries about typos.  Disadvantages: figuring out the best method of sorting and finding photos, especially if they can't be turned into searchable PDFs.  Right now, I've got a running text outline with short quotations/summaries and pointers indicating where there's a photographed page available; the text and photographs are stored together in a folder. It seems to me that I could schlep the photos into the document.   But I'm not a Super Digital Humanities Genius(TM), so I'm open to other suggestions/experiences.