Victorian, witty, and delightful, The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion  transport us to 1883 London, where Emma navigates traditional gender and societal roles with an irreverence that contains just enough charm for her to slide by. When volume one opens, she has moved into her family home, Lapis Lazuli, that she rightfully owns, but which she does not inherit for six more months, when she turns 21.

The house has been occupied and run by her cousin Archibald—who has depleted the bank accounts, gambled and spent her inheritance, and withheld Emma’s three year salary for taking care of an elderly and difficult Aunt Matilde. So she must figure out how to retain the house, create an income, avoid her cousin, and also become an acceptable socialite companion and foil for her cousin Arabella (on her mother’s side) who is in her “marriage match,” year, a process organized and overseen by Lady Eugenia (her Aunt) who tells Emma to be a “bug on the window, not speaking of politics or religion or life in general.” 

All of this makes for hilarious journal entries as Emma reveals these stories in each day’s writing, a form that works perfectly as she is merely logging her encounters, events, and opinions for an audience of herself. But we, as readers of her journal, are privy to Emma’s most authentic voice and thoughts.

In addition to companionship with her school friend Mary and her social obligations with Arabella, she also banters with a childhood peer, Roland, who is now part of Arabella’s circle; the Duke of Islington; and the most interesting character of all, her tenant with whom she shares the upper Garrett of Lapis Lazuli and who slips her notes under the wall. Together they own a cat, his solution to their attic mice problem. Their unfolding friendship is worth the price of both books.

The story in these two novellas takes place in the close-knit St. Crispian’s neighborhood where objects sometimes magically wander from one house to another and where ghosts sometimes pay a visit. Emma delights in all of it.

If you like Jane Austin or Victorian women who refuse to abide by the rules or simply a sassy, smart young woman trying to be her own person in a society that purports to know what’s best for her…you’ll love these books. There are 8 volumes in all, and I’ve only read 2, but I will continue with the other 6. They are difficult to find in a library, so I have switched to the audio version which is a delight in its own way as all the voices are well dramatized by actress Genevieve Gaunt. 

I’m surprised these books are not at the front of every bookstore (they’re so good), and I’m thankful to Forrest for Volume 1 as a birthday gift. Reviews of later volumes will be coming. 

FYI: Beth Brower also wrote The Queen’s Gambit.