What Books Are Like The Unselected Journals Of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1?

Question

That witty Victorian slice-of-life voice is so specific. Anyone found other series with similar charm, humor, and character-driven journals or letters?

Cahya46 · Answer

This will be vastly different from the slice-of-life historical journals that make up the ‘Emma M. Lion’ series of journals, but for those who enjoy the witty character studies and epistolary style of the Victorian and Regency era, The Lunas of Vengeance, the story of a disgraced noblewoman who uses her intellect to play a game of vengeance on the society that has wronged her, will be a very different but equally engaging take on a woman’s struggle for agency in a restrictive world.

Xander · Answer

So I’ve been thinking about The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion. It was just so very, very delightful. It had such a lovely mix of period detail and satire, all observed by a narrator who is so very prim and yet so very amused by her own life. (I recommend Evelina by Fanny Burney for more of the same 18th century society and satire, but only if written in a similarly diary-like fashion to the above. And Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield for short diary-style entries of a domestic nature, all gloriously humorous in their disasterous domesticity. And Daddy‑Long‑Legs by Jean Webster for more of a ‘companion piece’ of sorts: diary entries written by a bright, young(ish) and rather amiable heroine, reporting on her life in a series of letters, full of warmth and of good nature and, of course, with lots of good, sly, social observation). But generally, readers of Emma recommend lots of other character-driven, and of course basically cozy, books and there are plenty of lists online of ‘favorite novels by readers who love Jane Austen’. I suppose what I’m saying is that these kinds of books are just the best. So very companionable, full of clever and slightly odd little households and their triumphs and disasters.

Xavier · Answer

If you liked the diary/novella The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion then you might also enjoy Diary of a Provincial Lady, written in a humorously dry domestic style as a comic journal. Alternatively, letters Daddy‑Long‑Legs is written in an earnest yet lovable voice and has a similar gentle sense of humor that really develops into a sweet coming‑of‑age story. Short and snappy and full of individuality, these books are just like chatting with a friend who also notices the profundity of all things politely mundane. They always make me smile.

Molly · Answer

So when I want to trace the genealogy of a book like ‘The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion’ I start with the form and then think of classics written in a similar social comedy style using a first-person narrator. So I start with ‘Evelina’, an epistolary satire that follows the young woman as she navigates her way through society and all its awkwardness. Dinners are the worst. Identifications are mistaken. And it’s all so very very funny. Then there’s ‘The Diary of a Provincial Lady’ which is written in short domestic scenes full of domesticity and obsrvations. Again it’s hilarious. And to add some depth and warmth to the two above I would also suggest ‘Daddy‑Long‑Legs’. While it’s funny too, there’s also lots of emotional growth and development in these short and charming scenes. You can read these in any order and each will give you slightly different pleasure: laugh out loud moments, comforting moments and clever social poking moments. I choose which to read depending on my mood.

Zeke · Answer

In full compliment to The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, which equally delighted in such cozy observations of a totally Victorian nature, one might find more like this in Fanny Burney’s Evelina, another wonderful epistolary newcomer-to-society story full of similarly great social mishaps and giggling, affected horror at one’s own desperate foibles. For the most modern of comic diary-tales, though, which more or less apply to the previously-stated goals of the work here under review, I have also come to enjoy Diary of a Provincial Lady by E. M. Delafield (a short, fun, diary-like read), Daddy-Long-Legs by Jeanne Robertson (a fun, lettered heroine, very warm and funny, of a gently growing coming-of-age age), and the aforementioned several other stories of similar type and character (all, like Lion, brief, fun reads of short comic episodes, full of vivid, funny, lovably eccentric secondary characters and so forth–the mark of truly good writing that one will dearly miss the protagonist and their various cast of friends, neighbors, etc. by the story’s end, as one did here).

Vance · Answer

Looking for more of the same cozy, witty goodness found in The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion? Three quick and reliable alternatives are: 1) Evelina for a lettered society comedy told in the naif faux sense of the protagonist; 2) Diary of a Provincial Lady for very short and extremely sharp diary style entries describing domestic misadventures; 3) Daddy-Long-Legs for a longer, more character- and heroine-orientated read told in epistolary form. Many readers create and post online lists of long read-alikes, often a mixture of classics and modern cozy historicals with a more contemporary tone. The three novels listed above all offer up the same set of pleasures: witty narrative voice, odd and lovable characters, and a generous, indulgent take on the social lives of the heroine and her circle. I read these sorts of novels to have company, and to feel cleverer than the novel’s narrator as I spot jokes before they are explained to me.

Michelle · Answer

What’s the status of the remaining volumes? I really enjoyed the first book but seem to have lost track of things. Are all the subsequent volumes available on Kindle Unlimited? (That’s not a recommendation but rather a query for the purposes of this thread). I’d love to binge read them all.

Nousheen Akbar · Answer

From a purely technical perspective, diary is an extremely intimate and unreliable form of storytelling. For a masterful exploration of the first-person narrative, in psychological depth and weirdness, We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson is fantastic. ‘We’ve always lived in the castle’ is narrated by theaea Merricat, whose observations are both compelling and repulsive. Another, much more tragic and sprawling use of diary would be The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon, a Heian-era Japanese court lady’s collection of lists, random observations, and anecdotes about life at court written in the 10th century. It’s not a novel, but it’s amazing to read, both historically as a real woman’s writings from centuries past, and as fantastically gossipy, perceptive, and insane as she is. And it shows that there has always been a desire to record one’s life and to comment on the world around one.

Escape Reality · Answer

I should probably add a note to follow the authors too. I have a relatively small catalog, so if you sign up for my newsletter or follow me on social media, I can tell you about the other books I’ve enjoyed in the genre. For now, though, I have added a note to the “Customers Also Bought” section on the Kindle page for one of my books. It looks like the algorithm is initially clustering the books by the most obvious genre tags (i.e. “clean Regency romance”), but as you scroll down, you will see more idiosyncratic matches. These are the books that other real readers have actually bought because they felt similar to the first book, as opposed to the publisher’s attempt to market the book to a particular audience. In other words, browsing the Kindle page for a favorite book is just like browsing the physical shelves in a store for more books by your favorite author.

What Books Are Like The Unselected Journals Of Emma M. Lion Vol. 1?

9 Answers

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