About Me

It all started with a set of abridged classics.

Ever diligent about buying me books, my mother sat the collection in front of me at when I was about seven or eight years old. I don't know where she got them. I don't know why, for that matter; my mom was never a devotee of British classics herself. As an avid childhood reader, I would pick up anything. This particular set of illustrated abridged classics included the usual selections--Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, Dickens' major works, etc. I couldn’t pinpoint why, but I fell in love with them. I carried them with me on every car ride and read them aloud to myself in my room. When I discovered the existence of the original, more advanced versions, I took eagerly took them up. In that sense, classic literature occupies a special place in my heart because it was one of the ways I learned to read. British literature not only transported me to a different reality; it cultivated a deep love for language.

In middle school, that love for language met a love for cinema. While home sick from school, I discovered the 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation. A few weeks later on TCM, I would see the 1943 adaptation of Jane Eyre starring Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, which would lead me to an interest in black and white film. Another world opened—a world of adaptation and literature blent with cinema studies. I was captivated by the way filmmakers could translate my favorite texts through casting, screenwriting, and cinematography. I realized that TV and film adaptations could reflect different aspects of, or reveal new things about, their source material. That was the beginning of 'fandom.' And like most fanatics, I was hooked for good.

I can credit British lit with leading me to many of my other interests and passions, even ones that seem disconnected. No matter where I go or what I do, the pages of those books always feel like home. There are still very few things that rival the feeling of settling in bed after a long week and selecting an adaptation of Jane Eyre to watch, or picking up my weathered copy of North & South to skim or reread on a lazy, rainy day. In the midst of graduate school, this website is another way of coming back to what calms me and rediscovering what it looks like to share and write for fun. 

Lit Lovers & Corset Laces is my second go-round in blogging, but this time there is better writing, more ideas, and even more fun. Welcome lit lovers. Let's begin.