The Gibson Girl Review

Merry Christmas, old book lovers! Season Four of The Gibson Girl Review comes to a close with this charming holiday novel, THIS WAY TO CHRISTMAS by Ruth Sawyer (1916), which brings a surprising amount of international zest to the festive season. Plus Amy and Jacinta have a big announcement about an exciting new venture for the podcast, and the season-long history segment celebrating the Golden Age of Illustration concludes with a look at the most famous American illustrator of all time, Norman Rockwell. GET YOUR COPY of our brand new book, A GIBSON GIRL CHRISTMAS, right here! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE!

Did you know that John Phillip Sousa, the legendary composer and band leader, wrote novels? Neither did we! Which is exactly why Amy and guest reviewer Monique Hurtado just had to read his 1902 debut story, THE FIFTH STRING. It's a Faustian allegory that definitely left us thinking about our upcoming New Year's resolutions. Tune in and tell us what you think! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download this episode's public domain story for FREE!

Boy, do we know the feeling of THIS episode title after the past few weeks! Technical glitches and daily-life dramas have tied us up the past few weeks, but now we're back... and Amy and Jacinta firmly believe this book is worth the wait! They uncover and unpack Mary Roberts Rinehart's 1915 emotional ensemble drama, "K"—primarily because who can resist a book title that's only one letter?? Plus the all-new history segment profiles a little-known master from the Golden Age of Illustration, Charles E. Chambers. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE! Other books and authors mentioned in this episode include: Poor Dear Theodora! Jan of the Windmill The Notting Hill Mystery Hearts and Masks P.G. Wodehouse Agatha Christie Anna Katherine Green The Circular Staircase Little Women Cranford Little Dorrit Pearl S. Buck W. Somerset Maugham Other topics and shout-outs in this episode include: the Golden Age of Illustration, WWI, Castle, Murdoch Mysteries, Bob Newhart, Jeeves & Wooster, Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, The Andy Griffith Show, I Love Lucy, Gilligan's Island, Steinway & Sons, Chesterfield Cigarettes, Fannie Munsell, Pauline True, Winston Churchill, King Albert & Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, Queen Mary and King George V of England, The Saturday Evening Post, Melrose Place, Coronation Street, Ballykissangel, Forrest Gump, Lark Rise to Candleford, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Richard Munsell Chambers, Pearl Harbor, Norman Rockwell, the Art Institute of Chicago, soap operas, the friend zone, nursing school, Pittsburgh, breast cancer, and rental cars.

It's a Gibson Girl first—TWO guest reviewers! Gwendolyn Gage makes her third appearance on the podcast (is it time to start calling her a co-host?), along with longtime show fan Anne Skelly, a docent at the Frederic Remington Art Museum in Ogdensburg, NY. They join Amy in the studio for a deep dive into the first novel written by the legendary Western artist Frederic Remington, JOHN ERMINE OF THE YELLOWSTONE (1902). Plus Anne, with her expertise on all things Fred, is the show's first-ever guest historian for the history segment! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE! Other books and authors mentioned in this episode include: The Way of an Indian by Frederic Remington Richard Harding Davis True Grit by Charles Portis The Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper Other topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl, the Gibson Man, the Golden Age of Illustration, the Crow (Absaroke) tribe, Dances with Wolves, Tombstone, John Wayne, John Ford, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, the U.S. Cavalry, the Apache Wars, the Civil War, tuberculosis, fish-out-of-water tropes, anti-heroes, and scalping.

Hear ye, hear ye! An olde friend of the show has returned! Amy is joined in the studio by the original co-host of The Gibson Girl Review, Katja Labonté, for our first-ever medieval story! But what will the medieval history major and the medieval fiction aficionado make of Howard Pyle's 1891 armor-rattler, MEN OF IRON? Tune in to find out! Plus Amy explores Howard Pyle's legacy as an artist in the next installment of our Golden Age of Illustration history segments. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE! Other books and authors mentioned in this episode include: Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott Richard Harding Davis For Jacinta by Harold Bindloss St. George for England by G.A. Henty The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle The Elusive Truth of Lily Temple by Joanna Davidson Politano The Pax Series by Sara Pennypacker The Parish Orphans of Devon Series by Mimi Matthews Louisa May Alcott What Katy Did by Sarah Chauncey Woolsey Elsie Dinsmore by Martha Finley Other topics and shout-outs in this episode include: the Golden Age of Illustration, medieval history, library cards, Victorian travel, historical romance, knights, Quakers, Teddy Roosevelt, injustice, unions, the Brandywine School, the Howard Pyle School of Illustration Art, Drexel University, the strenuous life, rugged individualism, vengeance, Scribner's Magazine, Chadds Ford, bullies, imagination, Henry IV, Henry V, the Battle of Agincourt, Ecclesiastes, coming of age, jousting, damsels, and pirates.

All the podcast rules are out the window this week, as Amy and Amanda dive deep into THE NOTTING HILL MYSTERY, an 1862 novel that claims to be "the first detective novel." But wait—didn't they already review "the first detective novel" in an earlier season? It's an unvarnished, no-holds-barred episode unlike any we've ever done before! Plus the girls celebrate Charles Dana Gibson's birthday week with a special history segment tribute to Gibson's artistic idol, George du Maurier. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE! Books and authors mentioned in this episode include: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier Angela du Maurier Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux Trilby by George du Maurier Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins Edgar Allan Poe Paul Collins Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid Authentically Izzy by Pepper Basham Novels of Mystery from the Victorian Age edited by Maurice Richardson Other topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl, the Gilded Age, the Golden Age of Illustration, Charles Warren Adams, George du Maurier, Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, murder mysteries, the 1980s, remote controls, hypnotism, twin sympathy, detective novels, Victorian literature, and author reviews.

We're back!! After a summer break full of many ups and downs, Amy and Jacinta return to the studio with more than just a new old book review... it's a new theme for the entire season! We are celebrating the Golden Age of Illustration with each episode of Season Four, and we kick things off with a rollicking romance story illustrated by the one artist whose work is most often mislabeled as "Gibson Girls," Harrison Fisher. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public domain book for FREE! Books and authors mentioned in this episode include: Husband Auditions by Angela Strong Jen Turano Paul Leicester Ford In the Bishop's Carriage by Miriam Michelson The Princess Aline by Richard Harding Davis The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau by Anthony Hope Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, Harrison Fisher, Fisher Girls, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, Clara Bow, European travel, the Northwest Montana History Museum, the Humane Society, Harlequin cats, and hearing impairments.

It's the Season Three finale of The Gibson Girl Review, and we are bringing it home with jangling spurs and a rollicking BANG! Amy, Jacinta, and Amanda all gather in the studio to discuss the Godfather of the American Western genre, Owen Wister's 1902 classic, The Virginian. Filled with humor, pathos, and some immortal characters, this meandering tale may very well change the way you think about Westerns forever! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public-domain novel for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, Bret Harte, John Wayne, the Old West, American mythology, animal abuse, lynching, racism, High Noon, Angel and the Badman, the Wyoming Territory, and western tropes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the very first author to appear a second time on our podcast, Richard Harding Davis! Today's all-new episode explores Davis' 1895 royal romance, THE PRINCESS ALINE—approved by none other than Queen Victoria herself! And we already know that Amy is a fan... but what does Jacinta think of her very first Dick Davis novel? Tune in to find out! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including companion episodes, and a link to download this episode's public-domain story for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Richard Harding Davis, Charles Dana Gibson, Queen Victoria, Princess Alix of Hesse, Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian Revolution, the Gilded Age, The Prisoner of Zenda, Somewhere in Time, Ward McAllister, the Patriarch's Ball, Delmonico's, Irene Langhorne Gibson, Cecil Clark Davis, Fairfax Downey, the Gibson Girl, the Gibson Man, Jeeves and Wooster, P. G. Wodehouse, the Atelier Julien, European tourism, and Ethel Barrymore.

She's back!! Katja Labonté, the original co-host of The Gibson Girl Review, returns as a guest reviewer for this all-new episode, as she and Amy crack open the cover on Henry James' scandalous 1878 novella, Daisy Miller. But is this story as shocking for us today as it supposedly was during the Gilded Age? And how does this story relate to Amy and Katja's very first episode of the podcast? And speaking of scandals, Amy introduces us in the history segment to Evelyn Nesbit, the most notorious of all the real-life Gibson Girl models, whose story is a surprisingly close parallel to that of our featured book's heroine. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's public-domain book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, the Gilded Age, Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier, the Redwall series, Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables, Hannah Linder, The Girl from the Hidden Forest, Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, Harry Kendall Thaw, The Trial of the Century, murder, scandal, insanity, jealousy, Gilmore Girls, American ex-patriots, Newport, Paris, London, Geneva, World War I, the Nobel Prize for Literature, Impressionism, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Pink and White Tyranny, The Vassar Miscellany, Vassar girls, A Study in Bloomers, Miss Bayle's Romance, and Mr. Darcy.

It's here at last—the book YOU wanted us to review! In honor of baseball's Opening Day, Amy and Jacinta step up to the plate with the winner of last season's First 5 Pages Challenge, ICE-CREAM ALLEY by Henry Albert Collins (1918), and explore all the ways this audience-selected book surprised and disappointed them. Plus Amy introduces us to the most famous Gibson Girl of the 1890s, Minnie Clark! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to read today's public-domain book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, Minnie Clark, The First 5 Pages Challenge, baseball, Cracker Jack, Anne of the Island, Eric Liddell, Chariots of Fire, Kirk Gibson, the 1988 World Series, Sense & Sensibility, Catherine Marshall, Peter Marshall, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, A Man Called Peter, the Rollings Reliable Baking Powder Company, life annuity bonds, applied Christianity, the Methodist Episcopal Church, YMCA, Moody Bible College, James Carroll Beckwith, Daniel C. French, the Chicago 1893 World's Fair, Percy Griffin, and Easter.

What would you do with your life if, for the first time in history, you had a choice? That's the big question that Amy and guest reviewer Lisa Ard tackle in today's 1894 novel, A BACHELOR MAID by Mrs. Burton Harrison. This forgotten Gilded Age romance explores many relevant themes that 21st century women are still struggling with, plus Amy introduces the next-generation Gibson Girl model, Charles Dana Gibson's daughter Babs! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to this episode's exclusive SPOILER ROOM mini-episode, and to download today's public domain book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, the Gibson Girl, Irene Gibson Emery, the Gilded Age, the Woman Question, women's rights, spinsters, working women, Helen Reddy, Jane Austen, Pearl S. Buck, To Kill a Mockingbird, middle-grade fiction, the Civil War, Reconstruction, divorce, property rights, emancipation, suffrage, and the Nineteenth Amendment.

It's Leap Day—and the men have taken over the podcast! It's the first-ever episode of The Gibson MAN Review, because today's featured book, For Jacinta by Harold Bindloss (1907), definitely needed guy's perspective to help Amy and our Jacinta understand it. Plus, in honor of the tables-turned day, Amy introduces the original Gibson Man model in the history segment, Charles Dana Gibson's very own brother, Langdon. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download this public domain book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: the Gibson Man, Charles Dana Gibson, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, Leap Day, Richard Harding Davis, Langdon Gibson, the Stanton Expedition of 1889-1890, the Peary Expedition of 1891-1892, General Electric, fictional heroes, Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, Mr. Darcy, Colonel Fitzwilliam, Persuasion, Captain Wentworth, Emma, Mr. Elton, Frank Churchill, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Gilbert Blythe, Emily of New Moon, Teddy Kent, The Black Stallion, Alec Ramsey, Walter Farley, Rudolph Rassendyll, The Prisoner of Zenda, Anthony Hope, Poor Dear Theodora!, Alan Beeckman, Florence Irwin, Levi Grant, To Win Her Heart, Karen Witemeyer, Matt Jarreau, My Stubborn Heart, Becky Wade, Authentically Izzy, World War I, racism, shipwrecks, salvage works, Horatio Hornblower, Soldiers of Fortune, Mr. Latimer, In the Bishop's Carriage, Goodreads, manual labor, malaria, Africa, and the Canary Islands.

Surprise!! We're releasing this episode a day earlier than usual because it's Valentine's Day, and we have a LOT of love to share for one of our all-time favorite Gilded Age authors! Amy and Amanda gush about the inimitable George MacDonald and how his works have shaped their lives, plus they take a closer look at MacDonald's last book, FAR ABOVE RUBIES (1898), a sweet novella that not only perfectly encapsulates his writing career, but also exposes his tender heart for a hurting world. It's a multi-layered Valentine episode you don't want to miss! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download this public domain book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: the Gilded Age, George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy, Madeleine L'Engle, J. R. R. Tolkein, G. K. Chesterton, What's Mine's Mine, Phantastes, Lilith, The Princess and the Goblin, Diary of an Old Soul, Louisa MacDonald, Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life, Jimmy Stewart, and "Stand By Your Man."

Guard your wallets and jewels, old book lovers! There's a pickpocket sneaking into The Gibson Girl Review today... and Amy and Jacinta are utterly fascinated by her! Tune in for their review of IN THE BISHOP'S CARRIAGE by Miriam Michelson, a 1903 novel that is as entertaining as it is unconventional. Plus Amy exposes a Real-Life Gibson Girl fraud in our latest history segment! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to THE SPOILER-ROOM mini-episode exclusive, and to download today's book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, gilded fiction, Camille Clifford, Abebooks, Bookshop.org, Henry W. Savage, the Great War, Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Nobel Prize, the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, pickpockets, prison, and grace.

At long last!! After a week of messy technical problems (and a lot of ugly-crying!), we are FINALLY able to bring you our latest episode... and we think it's worth the wait because this is THE book, folks! Without Mark Twain and Charles Warner's masterful 1873 satire, THE GILDED AGE, well, we simply wouldn't have a podcast! But does this collaborative classic live up to the expectations? Returning guest Gwendolyn Gage joins Amy in the studio to find out! Plus it's our most dramatic and tragic history segment yet, as Amy tells Gwen the story of real-life Gibson Girl model Amy Thill. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to download print and audio copies of today's book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Josephine Gibson Knowlton, Janette Rallison, Amy Thill, John Bigelow, Benjamin Falk, John LaFarge, Julie Andrews, Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner, Julian Fellowes, HBO's The Gilded Age, the Civil War, satire, Quakers, the Gilded Age, women's rights, suffrage, emancipation, steamboats, adoption, revenge, greed, political corruption, land conservation, Millennials, and Gen Z.

Bloomers, bicycles, and old books—oh my! It's an all new year, and an all new season of The Gibson Girl Review kicks off with long-overdue book we've been wanting to share since the podcast began: George F. Hall's didactic diatribe, A Study in Bloomers (1895). Amy and Jacinta take turns praising and bashing this unusual story of a weary preacher who falls for a bloomer-wearing, bicycle-riding "New Woman," and take a deeper look at the differences between this "New Woman" and the iconic Gibson Girl. Plus the history segment is back by popular demand! This season, it's all about the real-life women who modeled for Charles Dana Gibson's illustrations, and who better to start with than the one woman who just might be able to claim the "original Gibson Girl" title once and for all—Gibson's little sister, Josephine. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to THE SPOILER ROOM mini-episode exclusive, and to download today's book for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: Charles Dana Gibson, Gibson Girls, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, gilded fiction, Josephine Gibson Knowlton, Daniel Knowlton, Life Magazine, Irene Langhorne Gibson, the Mafia, the Interstate Commerce Commission, Chevrolet, Harvard, The Great War, feminism vs. femininity, The Woman Question, Mr. Darcy, America's Daughter, A Study in Scarlet, Sherlock Holmes, Miss Bayle's Romance, Elsie Dinsmore, Swiss Family Robinson, Didacticism, Ben-Hur, bimetalism, divorce, prohibition, dress reform, dietetics, athleticism, Paul Leicester Ford, Shop Early for Christmas, the Bicycle Craze, the Bloomer Agitation, the 1893 World's Fair, and land speculation.

Well, most of them anyhow!! Amy and Amanda are in the Gibson Girl Review studio today, and boy, do they have a bone to pick with William Sidney Porter about his most famous Christmas short story! But they also have two more story recommendations from this famous author, making it a trifecta of Christmas cheer for your holiday to-be-read list! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to download today's public-domain stories for FREE!

We're back!!! December is here, and so is Season Three of The Gibson Girl Review! We're preempting our regular book reviews this month to bring you a couple very special Christmas episodes! Amy and Jacinta kick off the season with two swoonworthy Christmas romances that deliver all of the holiday warm-fuzzies. Click the link below to add them to your holiday TBR pile today! CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including links to download today's public-domain stories for FREE! Topics and shout-outs in this episode include: the Gibson Girl, Charles Dana Gibson, the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era, Paul Leicester Ford, Howard Chandler Christy, Margaret Armstrong, the Christy Girl, Richard Harding Davis, Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Teddy Roosevelt, Benito Mussolini, the Wright Brothers, the Spanish-American War, World War I, Ebenezer Scrooge, Macy's, early Christmas, Christmas gift books, dime novels, Old Sleuth, Rena I. Halsey, America's Daughter, New York City, colonial history, the American Revolution, Art Nouveau, stained glass, mystery novels, Wildflowers of the American West, silent movies, newsboys, and Hallmark movies.

It's the Season Two Finale of The Gibson Girl Review, and for this special Halloween episode to wrap up our Month of Mystery! theme, we're unshelving our most famous book yet—Gaston Leroux's 1911 classic, THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA. How does this original horror story measure up to the stage and screen adaptations we know and love today? Tune in to find out! Plus Amy, Jacinta, and Amy take a brief look back at all the books featured this season... the good, the bad, and the melodramatic. CLICK HERE for complete show notes, including a link to download today's book for FREE!