BW32: Time to revisit Flufferton Abbey

 

Happy Sunday!  Since this is romance awareness month, it's a good time to revisit Flufferton Abbey, 

Flufferton Abbey is a term coined by Amy (Aggieamy) several years ago and described as "not a genre so much as a writing style.  A few genres lend themselves well to being Fluffeton books such as cozy mysteries, comedy of manners, romance, and historical fiction.  Everyone has their own specific thing they look for when they pick up a book and plan to spend time at Flufferton Abbey but there are a number of things that are expected:

Happy Ending – If you are crying at the end of the book it does NOT qualify.  A Flufferton book has the couple getting together, the mystery solved, the situation put right tidily.  If anyone has died during the course of the book they had better have deserved it.

Setting – A lot of the charm in these books is being able to sneak away to someplace wonderful for a visit.  It’s easy to imagine that the cuppa tea we’re having isn’t really in our living room but the morning room of our manor house.  Gritty?  Realistic?  Downtown Detroit in the 1960’s?  Nope.  Not Flufferton appropriate. 

Characters – We love these characters.  They have charm.  They make us smile.  We wish we knew them in real life.   

Humor – A mandatory ingredient.  Some books have us laughing out loud in ways that make our family worry about our mental stability.  Some books have just an occasional chuckle.  All books have at least some. 

Re-readability - Absolutely.  These are the books that we've read so many times that there are sections we've memorized."

 I've been enjoying Lucy Score's Blue Moon, Knockemout, and Riley Thorne series which are laugh out loud funny which charming characters and interesting situations. Everyone's idea of Flufferton is different so I'll let you enjoy following your own rabbit trails leading to Flufferton Abbey.

Our post is brought to you by the letter U for unbelievable, unique, unconventional, and unusual. 

Y'all know what to do. Leave a link or comment below!

BW5: 52 Books Bingo - Something Flufferton

Woman Reading - Jacques-Emile Blanche

I think I'm in the mood for something flufferton which just happens to be a 52 Books Bingo Category.  Come join me at Flufferton Abbey as we perambulate and promenade along footpaths and around the lake, enjoy a bit of tea and scones, perhaps a few finger sandwiches, then while away the afternoon reading in the library or the garden. 

Flufferton is a term coined by Amy, one of our Well Trained Mind mom's,  in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern.  Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction set in the regency era can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to paranormal.  

The Regency era from 1811 to 1820 fell within the period of Romanticism which latest approximately from 1790's to 1850's.  Romanticism in English Literature began with the poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coolridge in 1790.  By the 1820's Romanticism encompassed almost all of Europe and was influenced by The Bronte sisters,  French authors Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas and as well as American, Italian, Russian and Polish writers. 

According to Amy: 

"Flufferton Abbey is not a genre so much as a writing style.  A few genres lend themselves well to being Flufferton books such as cozy mysteries, comedy of manners, romance, and historical fiction.  Everyone has their own specific thing they look for when they pick up a book and plan to spend time at Flufferton Abbey but there are a number of things that are expected:

• A happy ending – If you are crying at the end of the book it does NOT qualify.  A Flufferton book has the couple getting together, the mystery solved, the situation put right tidily.  If anyone has died during the course of the book they had better have deserved it.
• Setting – A lot of the charm in these books is being able to sneak away to someplace wonderful for a visit.  It’s easy to imagine that the cuppa tea we’re having isn’t really in our living room but the morning room of our manor house.  Gritty?  Realistic?  Downtown Detroit in the 1960’s?  Nope.  Not Flufferton appropriate. 
• Characters – We love these characters.  They have charm.  They make us smile.  We wish we knew them in real life.   
• Humor – A mandatory ingredient.  Some books have us laughing out loud in ways that make our family worry about our mental stability.  Some books have just an occasional chuckle.  All books have at least some. 
• Re-readability - Absolutely.  These are the books that we've read so many times that there are sections we've memorized."

The queen of the modern regency romance is undoubtedly Georgette Heyer.  Although Jane Austen lived and wrote her books during the 1800's, Heyer created the Regency England genre of romance novels. Back when I was a teen in the 70's, Harlequin romances and historical romances were my favorite reads and I actually still have a few in my shelves, all yellowed and well read.  

Check out a few of these links and have fun following rabbit trails. 

Time Traveling Regency Romances 

NPR's 100 Swoon Worthy Romances

The Regency Inkwell's Contemporary Romance Writers of the Regency and Victorian Period

Goodreads Popular Regency Era Fiction

Silver Petticoat Review's regency romance

Regency Reader's Top Fifty Funny Regency Romances

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BW46: Flufferton Abbey

In the Garden - George Goodwin Kilburne

I think we are all in the mood for something flufferton.  This post is brought to you by AggieAmy, one of our 52 Books Well Trained Mind Book a weekers, who kindly offered to guest post this week.

Flufferton Abbey is not a genre so much as a writing style.  A few genres lend themselves well to being Fluffeton books such as cozy mysteries, comedy of manners, romance, and historical fiction.  Everyone has their own specific thing they look for when they pick up a book and plan to spend time at Flufferton Abbey but there are a number of things that are expected:

• A happy ending – If you are crying at the end of the book it does NOT qualify.  A Flufferton book has the couple getting together, the mystery solved, the situation put right tidily.  If anyone has died during the course of the book they had better have deserved it.
• Setting – A lot of the charm in these books is being able to sneak away to someplace wonderful for a visit.  It’s easy to imagine that the cuppa tea we’re having isn’t really in our living room but the morning room of our manor house.  Gritty?  Realistic?  Downtown Detroit in the 1960’s?  Nope.  Not Flufferton appropriate. 
• Characters – We love these characters.  They have charm.  They make us smile.  We wish we knew them in real life.   
• Humor – A mandatory ingredient.  Some books have us laughing out loud in ways that make our family worry about our mental stability.  Some books have just an occasional chuckle.  All books have at least some. 
• Re-readability - Absolutely.  These are the books that we've read so many times that there are sections we've memorized. 

Where to start:

Georgette Heyer

                The Grand Sophy, Frederica, Venetia, Sylvester, Cotillion  

Jane Austen

                Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion

DE Stevenson

                Miss Buncle’s Book, Mrs. Tim Christie, Katherine Wentworth

PG Wodehouse

                My Man Jeeves, Something Fresh

LM Montgomery

                Anne of Green Gables, The Blue Castle

Angela Thirkell

                High Rising

Stella Riley

                The Parfit Knight

Susan Branch – a nonfiction present day version of Flufferton Abbey

                A Fine Romance:  Falling in Love with the English Countryside

Which ones have you read?  What authors would you add to this list?

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post.

BW6: Victorian Era

Our Flufferton February wouldn't be complete without mentioning the Victorian Era with ran during Queen Victoria's reign from her birth in 1807 until her death in 1901. It was the age of the English novel and the writings of Charles Dickens, William Thackary, George Eliot (aka Mary Ann Evans) as well as the Bronte Sisters.  The leading poets of that time were Lord Alfred Tennyson and the husband and wife duo, Elizabeth Barret Browning and Robert Browning. 

Children's literature was introduced with the writings of Lewis Carroll and Anna Sewell as well as Robert Louis Stevenson and Anthony Hope. For a bit of history, check out Children's Books in the Victoria Era from the International Library of Children's literature

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, founded by Dante Gabriel Rossetti with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Milais, tied together the arts and literature creating art, full of symbolic realism,  from the influences of poets Shakespeare, Keats and Tennyson. 

The major writers of this period are:

• Arnold, Matthew (1822-1888)
• Brontë, Charlotte (1816-1855)
• Brontë, Emily (1818-1848)
• Browning, Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861)
• Browning, Robert (1812-1889)
• Carroll, Lewis (1832-1898)
• Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881)
• Dickens, Charles (1812-1870)
• Doyle, Arthur Conan (1859-1930)
• Eliot, George (1819-1880)
• Hardy, Thomas (1840-1928)
• Hopkins, Gerard Manley (1844-1889)
• Housman, A. E. (1859-1936)
• Kipling, Rudyard (1865-1936)
• Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1802-1838)
• Rossetti, Christina (1830-1894)
• Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)
• Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-1894)
• Swinburne, Algernon Charles (1837-1909)
• Tennyson, Alfred (Lord) (1809-1892)
• Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811-1863)
• Wells, H.G. (1866-1946)
• Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900)
• Yeats, William Butler (1865-1939)

Check out the Victorian Web for links to many of the major authors

And to fan the flame further, Check out these lists and have fun adding to your wishlists:

Mystery Fiction set in the Victorian Era from Murder by Gaslight

Popular Victorian Era Books

Romantic Reads of the Victoria Era from Romantic Reads

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 7 (51 - 55) and Chapter 8 (56 - 60)

Refounding the Kingdom (371-412 AD)

The Catholic Church (378-382 AD

Which brings us to the end of Part One of Unity

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.

BW5: Flufferton February

Jane Austen

Bronte Sisters

 Flufferton 

February 

Welcome to Flufferton February and our author flavors of the month: The Bronte siblings --- Charlotte, Emily, Anne, and Branwell ---  as well as Jane Austen.   Flufferton is a term coined by one of our Well Trained Mind mom's in relation to all things regency, both classic and modern.  Regency stories revolve around romance, mysteries, and the Napoleonic war. Modern fiction is set in the regency era and can run the gamut from historical romance fiction to horror to paranormal.  

The Regency era from 1811 to 1820 fell within the period of Romanticism which latest approximately from 1790's to 1850's.  Romanticism in English Literature began with the poetry of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coolridge in 1790.  By the 1820's Romanticism encompassed almost all of Europe and was influenced not only by the Bronte Sisters, but  French authors Victor Hugo and Alexander Dumas and as well as American, Italian, Russian and Polish writers. 


Jane Austen wrote six novels, which have been some of the most popular and widely read stories over the years.  Her novels:  Emma, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion are all available on line for your reading pleasure.

There have also been many spin off's, inspired by Austen, revolving around Mr. Darcy and other characters.   Be sure to check out Laurel Natress's website dedicated to all things Austen at AustenProse.   It will keep you busy for quite a while, so might want to save it for when you have more time. 

The Bronte sisters books have been equally popular. Charlotte Bronte wrote Jane Eyre, Villette, Shirley, The Professor, High Life in Verdopolis and Juvenilia. Emily wrote Wuthering Heights and Anne produced Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Their brother, Branwell, was a painter and a poet as well and his works may be found here.

Courtesy of dennis barlogo

Come join me in the manor garden for afternoon tea (or a glass of wine if you prefer), and munch on tea cakes or scones, while we laze about for the day. Take a stroll among the flowers or trail your toes in the lake while diving into the stories of Jane Austen and/or the Bronte sisters.   Or wind your way down the various rabbit trails and see where it takes you.

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment ~ Jane Austen

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History of the Medieval World - Chapter 6 (pp 41 - 50)
Earthquake and Invasion (364 - 376 AD)



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BW34: Flufferton Abbey

April Lady

 The moonlight glinted on the pistol, and the hand that held it. Letty cried: "Don't, don't!" and tried with feverish haste to unclasp the single row of pearls from round her throat.

"Not you!" said the highwayman, even more ferociously.

"You!" The pistol was now pointing straight at Nell, but instead of shrinking away, or making hast (as Letty quaveringly implored her to do) to strip off her bracelets and rings and the large pendant that flashed on her breast, she was sitting bolt upright, her incredulous gaze fixed at first on the hand that grasped the pistol, and then lifting to the masked face.

"Quick!" commanded the highwaymen harshly. "If you don't want me to put a bullet through you!"

"Dysart!"

"Hell and the devil confound it!" ejaculated his lordship, adding,however, in a hasty attempt to cover this lapse: "None o' that! Hand over the gewgaws!"

"Take the pistol away!" ordered Nell. "How dare you try to frighten me like this? Of all the outrageous things to do -! It is a great deal too bad of you! What in the world possessed you?"

"Well, if you can't tell that you must be a bigger sapskull than I knew!" said his lordship disgustedly. He pulled off his mask, and called over his shoulder: "Bubbled, Corny!"

"There, what did I tell you?" said Mr Fancot, putting up the weapon with which he had been covering the coachman, and riding up to bow politely to the occupants of the carriage. "You ought to have let me do the trick, dear boy: I said her ladyship would recognise you!"

"Well, I don't know how the devil she should!" said the Viscount,considerably put-out.

"Oh, Dy, how absurd you are!" Nell exclaimed, trying not to laugh."The moonlight was shining on the ring Mama gave you when you came of age! And then you said Not you! to Letty! Of course I recognised you!"

One genre I didn't mention last week is the Regency Romance period which flourished between 1811 to 1820's during the shift from the aristocratic Age of Enlightenment to the artistic movement of Romanticism.  Since the period overlapped the Napoleonic wars, writers expanded on themes of the drama of wounded soldiers, mystery, adventure and of course, romance.  Regency romances are light and fluffy reads and since most are set in England, hence the term Flufferton Abbey. 

The queen of the Regency Romance is undoubtedly Georgette Heyer.  Although Jane Austen lived and wrote her books during the 1800's, Heyer created the Regency England genre of romance novels. Back when I was a teen in the 70's, Harlequin romances and historical romances were my favorite reads and I actually still have a few in my shelves, all yellowed and well read. 


Authors to check out,  besides Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer,  are Julie Quinn, Mary Balogh, and Loretta Chase to name a few.  Be sure to peruse  Goodreads list of  Popular Regency books.  And we can't forget the classic authors whose best known works were written during the Regency period: Percy Bysshe Shelley and Sir Walter Scott as well as poets Lord Byron, William Blake and John Keats.

Join me in flufferton abbey this month and read a book from the regency era. 

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Link to your most current read. Please link to your specific book review post and not your general blog link. In the Your Name field, type in your name and the name of the book in parenthesis. In the Your URL field leave a link to your specific post. If you have multiple reviews, then type in (multi) after your name and link to your general blog url.