#1920s novels

[newyorkthegoldenage]

John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer, 1925.

Following the success of his second novel, “Three Soldiers” (1921), a hard-bitten work of realism partly inspired by his experiences as an ambulance driver in World War I, John Dos Passos seemingly became disenchanted with the constraints of traditional narrative. Any book aiming to portray the teeming masses of New York City in all their muck and glory needed, he must have reasoned, to boldly break with tried-and-true storytelling. As such, his fourth novel forgoes conventional plot structure, pacing and characterization, instead dipping in and out of the lives of dozens of the city’s locals: immigrants, day laborers, newly minted millionaires; a killer, a dishwasher, an actress. Their lives are entwined with the fortunes and pitfalls of the metropolis and—given bits and pieces of their encounters—readers play the role of straphangers, overhearing other people’s intimacies as they course through the city. Tracking how much the city changed from the end of the Gilded Age to the Roaring Twenties, Dos Passos reveals the grubby underside of industrialization. One moment a seamstress daydreams, the next the tulle she’s sewing catches fire, and her with it. “Manhattan Transfer” paved the way for scores of other gritty New York novels, but its blend of the poetic and the profane, not all of which has aged well, remains a product of its time. —Miguel Morales, NY Times

Picture: Original dust jacket, Wikimedia. Artist unknown.

#New York #NYC #vintage New York #1920s #John Dos Passos #Manhattan Transfer #novels #1920s novels #1920s literature #Jazz Age

[rosered-schneeweisschens-sis]

can’t currently afford the print copy of the fabulous @lackadaisycats work?

maybe your local library will buy it in the meantime! hand for scale.

reading a hard copy of what I found years ago on the internet is cool in its own right, but the over 20 pages of bonus content are what’s really tempting.

note about the back cover: this is what was facing out as I carried the book in my arm out of the library and into the streets. certainly didn’t make me look like a psycho I’m sure.

#cheers #lackadaisy #lackadaisy comic #lackadaisy cats #tracy j butler #iron circus comics #good art #good books #graphic novel #webcomic #public libraries #library books #library #books & libraries #support artists #1920s #historical fiction #anthromorphic #writeblr #artblr #booklr

[lackadaisycats]

Heyyy, l’ll be doing a limited book signing this June!

If you’d like a nice Lackadaisy Volume 1 hardcover book signed / doodled-in on livestream, this is how to get one.

Available through Streamily!

#lackadaisy #lackadaisycats #comic #webcomic #book #graphic novel #cats #animation #cartoon #1920s #streamily #signing

[yesterdaysprint]

Daphne Du Maurier with her father, Sir Reginald Du Maurier, Hampstead, 1925

#1920s #roaring 20s #jazz age #history #daphne du maurier #historic #vintage #reginald du maurier #1925 #photos #author #writer #novels #books #rebecca #jamaica inn #my cousin rachel #hampstead #england

[yeoldenews]

For all my fellow name nerds out there, I am very pleased to present the second annual "Gloyd Roberson Memorial List of Actual Human Children Who Wrote Letters to Santa in 1920s/30s Oklahoma".

These aren’t all necessarily “weirder than Gloyd” but fall into three rough categories which I’ve dubbed: “that’s got a nice ring to it”, “if I used this in a novel it would be considered too unrealistic” and “you’ve got 5 seconds to name a character that lives in 1920s Oklahoma, GO!”:

Selvyn Atteberry

Dyer Banfield

Bert Baxter

Hilda Bender

Imogene Berry

Heloise Blakely

Burl Boyer

Clyda Pearl Boyington

Okal Brooks

Vada Jo Bricker

Deverett Brumley

Lee Roy Buck

Vivian May Burdue

Donnie Buster

Elmarie Button

Junior Buzzard

Melchor Caldex

Tycene Calhoun

Tiny Bell Callison

Dapalene Caywood

Edney Clopton

Buster Combs

Georgia Countryman

Vantruba Crockett

Alto Day

Buddie DeWayne

Violet Divine

Elwanda Downing

Cletys Durham

Thurlo Epps

Apple Fields

Floyd Fleetwood

Metherine Franklin

Ula Fay French

Wanda Jo Fronterhouse

Irline Fuller

Jack Gritzmaker

J. D. Grizzle

Billie Jean Gulley

Joline Hardcastle

Kaloolah Herrill

Thelias Hatfield

Elva Heavins

Coleman Hewlett

Helen Hillhouse

Virgil Holderby

Katymae Houston

Myree Huffstutlar

Estelline Hurrypack

Blondie Huhm

Lila Lou Jackson

Denver Jones

Vernell Lambert

Sonny Boy Lockart

Dinkey Long (autocorrect really wanted this to be Donkey Kong)

Bamma Lynn

Rep Madden

Standford Mann

Jack Mattingly

Goldia McGee

Madge Messinger

Mauzell Mullins

Jeffie Wayne Muskrat

Archibald Neighbors

Hazel Nickerson

Eulah Oakley

Lyle Oyler

Milburn Partain

Jackson Payne

Montana Phillips

Bobbie Dean Phoenix

Toots Putman

Madonna Mae Rickey

Cyprine Robertson

Juanelle Schneeberger

Billie Jean Sparks

Texanna Smith

Pansy Stetson

Patsy Ruth Stubblefield

Eldon Sweezy

Hoy Trotter

Pearl Vandorien

Leland Weems

Joe Bob West

Wayness Whitely

Buster Wyatt

John Ira Youngblood

Domby Zinn

#feel free to use for any western themed dnd campaigns #or dust bowl romance novels you may be writing #names #oklahoma #1920s #1930s #dnd #long post

[canisalbus]

Would Machete be supreme at skating like an absolute angel of movement, or would choas be imminent?

[When I saw these boots I instantly thought of him :') ]

I think it's likely he'd be on the more awkward side, he's anything but athletic. The again, he managed to adjust to wearing high heels and I like to think he's become remarkably surefooted and graceful with them (to the point he feels a bit out of sorts without them), so it's not like he has no sense of balance or proprioception whatsoever. If he really wanted to skate well he would be able to learn.

#but I feel like if he saw someone skating he'd just consider it a very novel way to injure oneself #he doesn't like fast speeds and his eyesight isn't the greatest #better not risk it #side note I've come across these skates a few times over the years and they always make me smile #they're from 1920 if I'm not mistaken #so aggressively quaint #answered #dax-fox

[amphibimations]

can you draw klavier gavin ?!

yeah sure :-)

Also, as a side note: if any of you ace attorney fans out there want to listen to a courtroom/law themed love song, theres one from the 1920’s called ‘my fate is in your hands’ !!! (link)

(the best cover imo is by josephine baker. Also if any of you don’t know who that is, you should read the wikipedia page for josephine baker because she was like the coolest woman of all time)

With lyrics like ‘wanting you is my offense, you have all the evidence, now i wait for you to sentence me.’ And ‘there’s no use pretending, love needs no defending, what is the verdict? My fate is in your hands.’ i feel like this is a song every ace attorney fan should listen to.

(Also my real motive here is that i just want everyone to listen to more 20s music. i love 20s music)

#ace attorney #ace attorney fanart #ace attorney comic #apollo justice #aa4 #aa4 fanart #klavier gavin #ace attorney klavier #aa klavier #ema skye #klapollo #music history #1920s #1920s music #comic #comics #webcomic #fanart #video games #visual novel

[sweet-potatah-pie]

First look at some interior pages of Tiana and the Magic of Harlem, a graphic novel debuting Janurary 2, 2024! Available for pre-order.

#the princess and the frog #patf #Tiana and the Magic of Harlem #graphic novel #princess and the frog #princess tiana #look at our girl!!! #first look pages are in German #it's not great 😕 #Too many white people in 1920s Harlem #a new friend who lies #Tiana falls back into overworking herself

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Dracula, by Bram Stoker (1927, 1928, 1940 editions)

#bram stoker #dracula #horror novels #vintage book covers #horror art #count dracula #mina murray #vampire #1920s #1940s #1927 #1928 #1940

[fortunaestalta]

#artists on tumblr #ai artwork #alternative #1920's style #Then There Was a Knock On The Door #detective novels

[thebabblingbabs]

My wonderful highschool oc’s brought back to life!!! Celia and Vassago (originally Damian) an exorcist for hire and her weird demon that’s haunting her house!

I’ve been planning on redoing their story for a long time so 👀 lookout

#digital art #artists on tumblr #thebabblingbabs #unholy days #unholydays #demon #1920s #1920s fashion #original character #character design #leyendecker style #romance novels

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Ex-Wife, published anonymously in 1929, was a succès de scandale. The very title aggressively challenged American mores and morals; divorce was almost unheard of in the middle classes at the time. And Manhattan high life in the 1920s (the novel takes place between 1923 and 1927) gave the prurient everything they could wish: not just divorce, but promiscuity, abortion, smoking, and drinking.

And I had, for an instant, that feeling that New York was an altogether beautiful place to live, no matter what happened to me living in it—a comforting feeling that had come to me sometimes, of late, when I stopped looking to people for comfort.

Narrated by Patricia, it tells of her life after her husband walked out on her. She goes from grief and despair to acceptance to indifference while becoming increasingly successful as an advertising copywriter in fashion, and bedding numerous men. Her friend Lucia, a slightly older and more experienced divorcee, supports and mentors her.

Surprisingly, the book is vehemently anti-feminist. The 1920s were a time when women could vote and were free of Victorian behavioral constraints, but systemic sexism ran deep and went largely unnoticed—at least by Patricia and Lucia.

The book was filmed in 1930 as The Divorcée, starring Norma Shearer, who won her only Oscar for it.

Norma Shearer in The Divorcee

In the forward to the 2023 edition (whose cover is shown above), Alissa Bennett writes, "It's easy to get caught in the trap of Ex-Wife's nostalgic charm; there are phonographs and jazz clubs and dresses from Vionnet; there are verboten cocktails and towering new buildings that reach toward a New York skyline so young that it still reveals its stars."

The author's son, Marc Parrott, agreed. "The New York described here," he wrote in an afterward to the 1989 edition, reprinted in the current edition, "and this was true, I think, for 20 years or more—was much smaller, much more intimate, much safer and much cheaper than the city from the '50s on to the present. It was also cleaner. My mother called it 'shining.'"

This is how Patricia and Lucia react to Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue:

"The tune matches New York," Lucia said. "The New York we know. It has gaiety and colour and irrelevancy and futility and glamour as beautifully blended as the ingredients in crêpes suzette." I said, "It makes me think of skyscrapers and Harlem and liners sailing and newsboys calling extras." "It makes me think I’m twenty years old and on the way to owning the city," Lucia said. "Start it over again, will you?"

Second & fourth photos: NYC Past Third photo: eBay

#vintage New York #1920s #Ursula Parrott #fiction #NYC fiction #novels #Ex-Wife #NYC in literature #Jazz Age #roaring '20s

[naneki-maid]

He had her in his arms, her face like a wet flower at his lips, and all their vain terrors shriveling up like ghosts at sunrise. The one thing that astonished him now was that he should have stood for five minutes arguing with her across the width of the room, when just touching her made everything so simple.

The Age of Innocence (1920) by Edith Wharton

#the age of innocence #edith wharton #1920 #classic literature #fiction #writing #american literature #books #novels #quotes #words #newland archer you are a fool!!! #insufferable #this has taken me by surprise? like I just can’t stop reading?? very unexpected. no wonder it won the Pulitzer #they must have ate this up immediately back in the day ?! #1921

[user-needs-new-hyperfixation]

about to chew my own arm off over the knowledge that the phrase "make love" used to just mean like, "to court or woo" and didn't mean "sweet sex" until the 20s or thereabouts. What am I supposed to use for characters thinking/talking about romantic, sentimental sex in a Victorian setting?

#trials of fic writing #strangely i was already frustrated about this before watching rwrb but that didn't help #i remember being very shook by old novels in my teens when they were like 'the main couple is casually making love in a room full of people #ALSO shook by writing 'the 20s' because to my millennial ass that will always just mean the 1920s and then i realized we're IN THE 20S WHAT #WHEN DID THAT HAPPEN?!?!

[fictifgames]

What would you give to the man that seemingly has everything?

#Two Against The World #TATW #fictif #fictif games #fictif memes #nicky valentino #1920s fashion #roaring 20s #1920s style #visual novel #romance reader #romance author #romance novels #interactive #romance books #new york love #NYC romance

[fallensapphires]

Stories: The Great Gatsby

I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life.

#the great gatsby #Daisy Buchanan #Nick Carraway #Jay Gatsby #f. scott fitzgerald #1920s #jazz age #prohibition #roaring 20s #books #1920s books #books and novels #novels #book aesthetic #book moodboard #1920s aesthetic #1920s moodboard #1920s style #1920s vintage #roaring twenties #flappers #aesthetic #moodboard