Novels that Inspired The Secrets of Hartwood Hall
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- Опубліковано 18 жов 2024
- In which I talk about books that inspired my books . . .
This is mostly a spoiler-free video. There are spoilers for The Secrets of Hartwood Hall from 21 minutes, 10 seconds in.
More About My Novel
My debut novel, The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, is out now. It is a gothic historical novel about a governess and what happens when she takes a new position at a mysterious country house . . .
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Goodreads: / the-secrets-of-hartwoo...
Books Mentioned
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë: / 10210.jane_eyre
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Brontë: / 337113.the_tenant_of_w...
Agnes Grey, Anne Brontë: / 298230.agnes_grey
Martin Chuzzlewit, Charles Dickens: / 1990.martin_chuzzlewit
The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins: / 5890.the_woman_in_white
Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë: / 6185.wuthering_heights
Uncle Silas. J. Sheridan Le Fanu: / 49190.uncle_silas
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens: / 2623.great_expectations
The Old Nurse’s Story, Elizabeth Gaskell: / the-old-nurse-s-story
The Woodlanders, Thomas Hardy: / 341281.the_woodlanders
Deerbrook, Harriet Martineau: / 1339655.deerbrook
Dombey and Son, Charles Dickens: / 50827.dombey_and_son
Olive, Dinah Mulock Craik: / 898983.olive
The Half Sisters, Geraldine Jewsbury: / 1458574.the_half_sisters
Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier: / rebecca
The Turn of the Screw, Henry James: / 12948.the_turn_of_the_...
The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett: / 2998.the_secret_garden
The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield: / 40440.the_thirteenth_tale
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley: / the-watchmaker-of-fili...
Fingersmith, Sarah Waters: / fingersmith
The House at Riverton, Kate Morton: / 1278752.the_house_at_r...
The Wonder, Emma Donoghue: / the-wonder
General Links
My website: www.katielumsde...
Bookshop.org UK affiliate shop: uk.bookshop.or...
Twitter: / katiejlumsden
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Facebook: / justbooksandthings
Goodreads: / katie-lumsden
NaNoWriMo: nanowrimo.org/p...
Email: katie.booksandthings@gmail.com
I'm glad you mentioned Bleak House because I loved the level of research underpinning the measles section - all the lemon juice, salty broths, spirits of vitriol, barley water & balm tea, sugar candy & spermaceti. It was so delightfully detailed!
Thanks so much! I had so much fun researching for that section.
I recently finished reading the Secrets of Hartwood Hall and I was genuinely blown away. It's my perfect book, and the level of sensitivity, ingenuity, and thought was amazing. I wanted to thank you for writing it, it's an inspiration, and also a genuine work of art.
A lot of the books mentioned in the list are some of my favourites, and now yours has been added to the list!
It was fantastic.
Thank you so very much! I really do appreciate it :)
I'm so glad that you shared the books that inspired the novel you wrote, it makes me even more excited to get to your book 🙌
Just received the book - very excited! A reader from Taiwan
This was so fun to watch. Love that Thomas Hardy was partly the inspiration for the landscapes! It’s one of my favorite things about him as a novelist. 😊
I have your book on my Kobo (I just haven't had a chance to get to it yet...), but The Thirteenth Tale is one of my favorite novels. The fact that it had such an influence on your book makes me want to read your book even more!
This was fascinating and I loved seeing your influences! I definitely spotted some of them - and I was just about to mention the Grey Woman just as you got to the end!! Some that I saw/felt like I saw were Middlemarch and Sylvia's Lovers (around the Margaret's marriage) - oh, and North and South with the Lennox family. Oh, and a hint of Lady Audley's Secret (thinking about Phoebe and Susan)
I'm sure there's a lot of unconscious stuff - it's been a long time since I read Sylvia's Lovers and Lady Audley's Secret, so they're not super fresh in my mind at all, but they might have got in there somewhere!
This is a great reading list to make my way through once I've read Hartwood Hall.
Hi there! This is so interesting and fun, thanks for inside look. Of course-- you have such a range and depth of both knowledge & passion for Victorian lit!! And Secrets of Hartwood Hall is your own...thanks for writing it & sharing all your inspiration!!❤
Thanks so much :)
So excited to read The Secrets of Hartwood Hall, it was great to hear about all the books that helped influence you. It makes me look forward to it even more ❤
I love especially the 'oh wait, that did inspire me!'
I bookmarked this video without even starting it because I was afraid it might have spoilers (although I should have known it wouldn't, since you don't ever spoil anything!). I broke my VERY STRICT, cannot-be-broken, "no-buy" to get the UK version of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall as my last hurrah from Book Depository, and, well, ok it was also my birthday, and I really wanted to read it before I die of old age getting to the end of my TBR. Anyway, I just stayed up all night reading it and I just ADORED it. Katie, you knocked it out of the park. I saw all these little connections to many of the books you mentioned here (and there are many that I haven't yet read). I loved how the book looked at Victorian themes with a modern eye and yeah... it was just a delight, through and through. I've shelved her next to Trollope, and I think they will be good friends. :)
Fascinating to watch you show your influences.
PS, my college roommate was deaf in her left ear after having had scarlet fever as a toddler and a lot of what you described about Margaret reminded me of her. I always had to be on her right and she would quickly duck behind you and get on your left if you forgot. :) And she would sleep with her good ear down so she slept very soundly!
I read The secrets of hartwood hall while in the middle of writing the final essay for my English MA at York and it was such a great read! I’d been in a bit of a slump with reading books which weren’t for uni but I devoured the book in 2 days!
Thanks very much :)
Your writing of characters, gender and atmosphere was my favourite and I love that you are giving us the behind the scenes. It's so wonderful to hear you talk about books and now as a novelist!
Thanks very much :)
I love your rambles Katie! You’ve also inspired me to get some Victorian reading done as unbelievably, I’ve not read any this year so far. As always, thanks for sharing 💖
Thanks so much :)
Sooo many books that i absolutely love. You know the brontes are my favourite authors so I’m super excited about it 🎉🎉
I loved The Secrets of Hartwood Hall so it was fascinating to hear about your influences. Every time I read the name Margaret Lennox I automatically thought of The Secret Garden because the main character in that is called Mary Lennox, sounds like that was a coincidence though! 😊
Oh thank god you have solved the mystery of why The Thirteenth Tale was on my to-buy list- it’s definitely because of you! I found and read it last month and had a great time but couldn’t for the life of me remember how I heard of it.
I highly recommend The Thirteenth Tale - it's wonderful!
I loved all of the Victorian lit references throughout The Secrets of Hartwood Hall and your explorations of class, love, sex and gender. I am sure I read The House at Riverton some time ago. The opening of novel in the carriage with the warnings from locals was very reminiscent of both Jamaica Inn and Dracula, though they are probably obvious comparisons. I love both of those so it was a perfect gothic opening for me! Fingersmith was brought to mind a lot while I read it as well. You have added a lot to my mental tbr today!
Thanks so much, Jack!
I thought The Odd Women might have been influential to the position Margret finds herself in at the beginning of the novel.
This was very interesting, both just because it's interesting to learn about the creative process and how you think about books that influence you and secondly you've reminded me of a whole bunch of books that I want to read.
Thanks very much! I hadn't even thought of The Odd Women, but I'm sure it worked its way in there.
I was so glad when you held up Rebecca. I just finished The Secrets of Hartwood Hall yesterday and I definitely picked up lots of Du Maurier vibes, especially Hartwood Hall as a character of its own (like Manderley). I also found the opening with Margaret travelling out to Hartwood to be very dark and atmospheric like the journey out to the moors the main character Mary takes in Jamaica Inn. I loved all of the influence of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which I absolutely love. I can’t wait to read The Thirteenth Tale.
This was such an interesting video Katie, thank you for sharing your influences. 😊
Thanks so much, Alice!
I so loved how you shared all of these influential books with us! I told you that I was holding off on reading your book till the summer, but I cannot wait anymore, so I'm fitting it in between book club books. I'm on chapter 6 and I don't want to do anything but read your book! I'm enjoying it so much!! Thank you for creating such a fun book for all of us to read. 🥰
Thanks so much :)
Have just finished listening to the audiobook of The Secrets of Hartwood Hall and absolutely loved it. Had to stop what I was doing and just sit down and listen at the end so I could give the dramatic final chapters my full attention! Waited till I'd finished before watching this video as wanted to see the spoiler bits too. I'd picked up on some of the novels that inspired you but have now added others you mentioned to my list. Congratulations Katie, just a great novel.
Thanks so much, Mandy :)
I’m reading your book at the moment and I’m so in love with it !
This was so interesting! I caught some of these but not others. Well that’s my theory about Margaret Lennox being a North and South reference scuppered - though of course Margaret isn’t really like Margaret Hale at all apart from that they’re two quite capable, caring people and Lennox was a man she could have married like Margaret but didn’t? I was a bit preoccupied with the names though - is the similarity between Eversham and Havisham a coincidence? And was Agnes a hint towards Anne’s book and Lucy, Villette? And Isabella - she had somewhat of a similar misfortune as Isabella in Wuthering Heights. Ah just watched the outtro- the wrong Mrs Eversham! I have that book slated to read later this year so will be extra looking forward to now!
Haha, not really a reference to North and South, but I probably did come to like the name Margaret from reading North and South. Eversham and Havisham is purposeful. I hadn't thought of the others but they probably worked in there!
So The Woman in White didn't influence it at all? I was getting a few WIW vibes though Jane Eyre, Wildfell Hall, and Thirteenth Tale were the most obvious. Congrats on writing such an engaging novel that felt genuinely Victorian as far as the setting, characters, and dialogue. I struggle with historical fiction that feels too modern. I look forward to reading your next book!
Thanks so much! So, I read The Woman in White when I was about 15 and I'm sure it seeped into me a bit, but I didn't actually reread it until late last year, after The Secrets of Hartwood Hall was completely finished, so I don't think it was a big influence exactly, though they definitely have a lot of themes in common!
Hi Katie. I bought my copy of your book at the weekend. I can't wait to start it!!
I read your whole novel the day it came out. I loved it!!! Congratulations!; 🎊🎉
Thank you for making this as it was such fun to watch and in my head tick off some and add others. I must read Deerbrook and Jill. I'm glad you added Bleak House at the end for the sickness and nursing scenes.
Oh, I think you'd love Deerbrook and Jill!
I love writing a book list so got my pen & paper ready!! 📝 I will use this as a future reading challenge once I have read your book ☺️📚❤
For some reason when you talk about other authors influencing your writing I thought of Donne’s poem NO MAN IS AN ISLAND. I realize it’s a loose connection but is there a single author credited with the original Victorian gothic novel? I suspect not. Nevertheless, your writing style has a drawing effect-you end each chapter at just the right place making it difficult to put down-what a joy it was to read it!
So, the first novel that self-styled itself as gothic is The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, but I expect he was building on previous themes/tropes, and definitely the genre has developed a lot since then! Thanks, Larry :)
@@katiejlumsden Thank you, Katie, for sharing your storehouse of knowledge with me!
A book which is said to have influenced Rebecca is Vera by Elizabeth von Arnim - maybe worth a look?
I know you don't really care for it but, Northanger Abby also has a closed off room as well
Ah, I do love Northanger Abbey. It's my least favourite Jane Austen but all Jane Austen is wonderful!