Cloth, Gilt & Marble is the newest addition to my Substack Newsletter! I’ve taken the name from the materials used in creating the kinds of books which will be featured here— one-hundred-plus-year-old bestsellers, flops, and middling novels that have been lost to time. These are books which are long out of copyright, but not just because they’ve met the current requirements in place for such books (so no Great Gatsby, even though I could conceivably do so; why bother? It’s probably on your bookshelf right now). I’m talking books that no one bothered to keep in copyright, because they didn’t sell well, or their authors did not make it into the pantheons of literature… or they didn’t have a representative of their estate fighting tooth and nail to keep them in copyright (your Florence Stokers and your Jean Doyles).
Why am I doing this? Mostly because I’m extremely fascinated by them. As an aspiring novelist, it is not lost on me that I may join their ranks one day. There is no guarantee of literary immortality in this world, and as I hope to show, even great novels can be lost in the stacks of an antique store, behind the Fondue sets from the 70s and the moth-eaten wedding dresses from the 80s. Sometimes these novels have lasted long enough to be published by mid-century houses like the Modern Library or Everyman, or even present-day houses doing exactly what I’m doing, like Persephone Books and Pushkin Press; but mostly, these works will be pulled from Project Gutenberg, or (theoretically) hand typed from copies I purchase from my local used bookstores (I am imagining this will come much later, as I have my own writing to attend to at present!). If there is a version available to buy from a small press, I will link them as well, though I’m going to try to avoid this where I can by choosing novels that have not yet been dug up!1
It is a bit of literary archeology, is it not?
These books have always enthralled me. The gilt lettering and imagery, the decorative art nouveau influences, the marbled papers, the classic illustrations, the color plates — everything about them made them seem special, even though they were largely mass produced through new techniques in printmaking. More and more often I find myself intrigued by books that have been forgotten and have a hard time finding them on anything other than public domain sites such as Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive. Though these sites do important work by archiving them and providing easy access, they do not provide the enticing reading experience that the physical books did over a century ago. I know I cannot replicate that experience (at least not right now! Who knows!), but I can at least provide context, enthusiasm, and a manageable schedule for people to incorporate old literature into their lives.
While these may not be the “Great Books” everyone should read in their lifetime (Henry and Naomi do an excellent job, among others, of extolling the virtues of the “greats”), I think they are still worthy of your time. The goal is to get eyes on stories and new perspectives from literary history that didn’t make the cut, for whatever nebulous reason! And this is a perfect way to announce the first title I will be serializing on Substack: Peter Ibbetson by George Du Maurier, published in 1891.2 Not only will I be serializing the novel (taken from the aforementioned Project Gutenberg), but I possess a physical copy of the book, which contains the original illustrations — done by the author himself! I will be including these, as well as footnoted commentary by me that I hope will facilitate discussion on its themes, story, relation to the author’s life, and the overall scope of literature at the time.
This cover was illustrated by the author and is included on my Modern Library classics edition (which I found at my favorite local used and rare bookstore, H.A.S. Beane Books! Thanks Nina and Karen!)
Because Peter Ibbetson is one of my favorite books and it is the start of our newsletter, I’ve made the logo for the section the gilt version of the most important illustration in the book. When we get to it in the story, I’ll point it out and we’ll discuss it!3
So, while I prepare part one of this new enterprise, be sure to subscribe! I’ll be posting these in the new section, but I’ll include mentions on my regular newsletter. I’m also planning on creating further sections in the future, as I’m still trying to figure out exactly what I Never Promised You a Rose Garden is all about. Probably one dedicated to Film scholarship, and perhaps another for my fiction. I’m happy to have you here, and I hope you enjoy reading Peter Ibbetson with me!
Many are scooped up by Amazon and other ePub distributors for poorly formatted and slap-dash copies, just to make money. I’ll definitely be including these! When these books are available free on PG, someone should be caring for them as their authors cared for them during their own time! Think of me as a Substack version of Pushkin Press (one hopes!).
You’ll find that this novel is so obscure that it doesn’t even have its own Wiki page! To find any plot information on this book, you have to look at the Wikis of the play, opera, or film adaptations! We might cap off the reading with a livestream of the film, I love hosting live streams of movies!
Footnotes are actually incredible for annotating a novel in real time. Basically, I’m going to reread it and annotate along the way. It’s like a digital version of what all the girls on Insta are doing with their fave Romantasies, only… scholarly? I guess? But let’s be real, I’m also going to fangirl at times over a gorgeous sentence or character moment!
I love this idea so much. Graham Greene is one of my favorite writers, and he's falling increasingly out of fashion. I always buy his books when I see them in bookstores because I want to give publishers an incentive to keep him in print.
I've noticed that Kurt Vonnegut, who used to be a household name, is now possibly becoming obscure; when I was in high school ("only" ten years ago), kids would pretend to have read him because it was so in vogue, but now the same age group doesn't even necessarily recognize his name.
My point: It's easy to imagine many writers just as great have been forgotten. I'm also interested in these old, forgotten books from a historical perspective; the penny dreadfuls show us different glimpses of society than, say, the work of George Eliot.
Looking forward to this!