I abandoned the effort at page 88/729, and consider myself lucky to have graduated to such a point, where I don't feel guilty about stopping, and will not be forcing myself to slog through 600-odd more pages of this.
If you like listening to the feverish imaginings of someone who is very erudite and nursing a lot of hatred, you may enjoy this book. The writing is perhaps very fine, and the scholarly background is probably even better, but I didn't enjoy _reading_ it, so I'm giving it a pass. ( )

A book about books. Couldn't get into it... though I didn't give it much of a chance. ( )

Pinkerton's sister is about Alice, a 35 year old, single woman, who is regarded as a madwoman and who has a stammer. She was born in 1868, the year in which the first part of Little Women had been published. Alice's life is lived inside her book-lined imagination. Her thoughts mix fact, fantasy, literature, past and present together. She tells us of the attempts that are made to cure her of her imagination and her spirit by using electrotherapy, hot and cold bath treatments, massage, hypnotism and cloud-reading. Books and authors that Alice mentions are, amongst others, The Princess and the Goblin, A Child's Garden of Verses, Tennyson, Jane Austen, the Brontës, the Brownings, Hardy, and Poe, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Woman in White, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Goblin Market and Alice in Wonderland. She makes literary connections between everyone around her by using her vast knowledge of books. This book is a fantastic achievement and a must for lovers of books about books. ( )

Wow. What an amazing book. It's not an easy read, but well worth it. What a great commentary of society, women, children, and sex at the turn of the century! ( )