by Laura Kalpakian | Apr 14, 2020 | random reader
After publishing a flurry of short, well-received, ephemeral novels in the 1920’s and 1930’s, after years of traipsing around the Continent, Jean Rhys fetched up in Cornwall, England. Here she lived in reduced circumstances, settled into thirty... 
by Laura Kalpakian | Apr 7, 2020 | random reader
In the 1980’s I spent a lot of time in England where I ran full-tilt, one might say, into books published by Virago Press. Virago, an upstart publisher, made a recent splash with their commitment to women writers, past and present. And what a lot of past there... 
by Laura Kalpakian | Apr 2, 2020 | random reader
When I first read Jane Eyre, perhaps at age twelve or thirteen, I was intolerable for months. Southern California was very short on wild moors, and I longed for them. A little breathlessly I imagined a great love for a difficult man worthy of my affections. So...