acerbictomes

WOW is this exhaustively researched and really, really, really good historical 1789 femslash RPF. All of the quoted articles (except for the fictional Beau Monde Inquirer, but those epigraphs are really stupid anyway, so who cares) are from primary sources, which is super cool.

Life Mask by Emma Donoghue is about Anne Dahmer, sculptor and Foxite and Eliza Farren, actress trying to get into the upper class, as well as Lord Derby, the guy who invented the horse race and who has been courting Eliza for like, forever, Mary Berry, woman of letters, and progressive politics + the specter of revolution.

Emma Donoghue does class and politics really, really, well. Anne is... actually called out on her privilege & progressive pretensions (she thinks she's ~so progressive~ because she has a Black footman), and is contrasted nicely with Eliza, who started out performing in barns and worked her way up to Queen of Comedy on Drury Lane, buuut desperately wants to become a member of the aristocracy. The political subplots (one of the most interesting bits is the part where the French Revolution comes along, and this coalition of reformers and aristocrats starts to go, "wait, we don't ACTUALLY want to lose our privilege") are excellent: politics is very much the backbone of the novel.

The writing style is excellent, characters witty and emotional conflict gripping, and even though the book does sprawl a bit (672 pages, wow), it is so, so worth it. Read it, even if you end up skipping chunks. Even if it takes you two years. Read it, and write excellent angsty fanfiction, because wow, dang.

Uh, unless instances of social ostracism & homophobia & sexism squick you. In that case, you should probably read something else.

( Spoilers and shipping (Eliza/Anne OTP) here. )