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Today, Hartford Books Examiner is pleased to welcome back Hallie Ephron upon the release of her new book, The Bibliophile’s Devotional.
The Bibliophile’s Devotional is a 365-day guide through literary classics, both old and new. Each entry introduces a different title, offering plot summaries, opening lines, fascinating facts about the book and author, and critical reviews. Published just in time for the holidays, it’s the perfect gift for the booklover in your life. (To order a signed copy from the Mystery Lovers Bookshop—with free shipping!—click here.)
Hallie Ephron is a writer, book reviewer (for the Boston Globe) and teacher who hails from a long line of literary talent. Her parents, Henry and Phoebe, were screenwriters of classic movies such as Desk Set and Carousel, and all three of her three sisters (Nora, Delia, and Amy) write. Her first foray into fiction was a collaboration with Donald Davidoff, a neuropsychologist at Harvard’s McLean Hospital, and the two would publish five mysteries under the pseudonym G.H. Ephron before Hallie struck out on her own and wrote the non-fiction titles 1001 Books for Every Mood and Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel: How To Knock ‘Em Dead with Style, the latter of which was nominated for both Edgar and Anthony awards. In January of 2009, Never Tell a Lie, a novel of psychological suspense, was released to rave reviews. The author is currently at work on another standalone title in that vein for publication in early 2011.
In the meantime, The Bibliophile’s Devotional will provide literary nourishment for an entire year—though readers will find it difficult to close the book after just one entry.
From Hallie:
Today is the official pub date for “The Bibliophile’s Devotional” (Adams Media 978-1-60550-105-5) -- 365 days of inspiration from literary classics for the bibliophile in each of us. I had great fun putting this together, deciding which books to include, writing the plot summaries, seasoning each tidbit about the author or the book or the reading public.
For instance, did you know that Eleanor Roosevelt came to John Steinbeck’s defense when he was accused of being a communist and of exaggerating the conditions in migrant labor camps in “The Grapes of Wrath”? Or that Virginia Woolf’s working title for her novel “Mrs. Dalloway” was “The Hours,” the same title that Michael Cunningham adopted for his modern adaptation of the book? Or that “Huckleberry Finn” was dismissed by some contemporary reviewers? One called it “singularly flat, stale, and unprofitable.”
The book in "The Bibliophile's Devotional" for today’s date is one of my favorites, “The Adventures of Oliver Twist” by Charles Dickens. The entry begins with the book’s 98-word opening sentence, one of the longest of any book included. (John Barth’s “Sot-Weed Factor”, the February 24 entry, beats it with a 118-word opening line.)
Here’s the rest of the entry for “Oliver Twist”:
A felicitous combination of melodrama and social and political satire, this timeless novel tells the story of an orphan born in a workhouse near London. At nine, he’s put to work by the pompous beadle, Mr. Bumble, picking oakum. In a famous episode, the boys, all desperately hungry, draw lots and Oliver loses. He must ask, “Please sir, I want some more.”
The workhouse board members, a well-fed bunch, are outraged and offer Oliver up for five pounds sterling to anyone who will take him away. Off he goes to apprentice to the local undertaker, Mr. Sowerberry. After a run-in with a bullying fellow apprentice, Oliver runs away.
On London’s streets he meets the Artful Dodger and falls among thieves working for the cunning Fagin. Too late, Oliver realizes his new friends do not make wallets. He is arrested for pickpocketing. His victim, the kindly Mr. Brownlow, takes pity on Oliver and brings him home. Fagin’s gang kidnaps him back. Finally, the thieves are brought to justice and Oliver is restored to his wealthy grandfather.
Dickens’s second novel, published in 1838, this was the first English novel to have a child as its protagonist.
“Oliver Twist turned the world upside down and offered a new view of things to Dickens’s readers: life at the bottom of Victorian society as seen through the eyes of a child.” —Jane Smiley
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Feel free to visit Hallie Ephron at her web-site or at the Jungle Red Writers blog, where she shares space with five other femme fatales. And if you missed our Q&A upon the release of Never Tell a Lie, you can view it here.
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