Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
The Theoretical Foot
The Theoretical Foot | M. F. K. Fisher
2 posts | 8 to read
When her long-time agent and friend Robert Lescher died in 2012, the manuscript of M.F.K. Fishers unpublished first novel was discovered packed tidily away in one of Leschers signature red boxes.Following on the success of Serve It Forth and written when she was in her early 30s, the novel employs Fishers characteristic sharp-eyed wit to sketch themes so outr they may have seemed too challenging for a proper woman of her time to attempt.Set in the late 1930s,The Theoretical Foot concerns two expat American couples in Europe, tramping from country to country without sanction of marriage, this during an era when cohabitationto say nothing of a girls hitchhiking!could ruin a respectable womans reputation for all time. As fascism spreads and war inevitably approaches, the idyll of a beautiful life of love and freedom from convention is also threatened from within, as the man in one of the couples falls gravely ill with a rare circulatory disease. And indeed, Mary Francis Kennedy Fisher and Dillwyn Parrish had been forced to return to Depression-era California where she was struggling to support them with her writing. Parrishlike the character in the storywas afflicted with Buergers disease, for which there was only one effective painkiller, unavailable in the States. Faced with unrelieved agony and the threat of serial amputations, Parrish killed himself in August of 1941. Weeks later the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the entire world was engulfed in war.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
blurb
BethFishReads
The Theoretical Foot | M. F. K. Fisher
post image

I have mixed feelings about “newly discovered” manuscripts from dead authors, but I‘ve loved pretty much everything MFK Fisher wrote (and I think I‘ve read all her work). So I‘ll be giving this a shot.

ApoptyGina69 I got it too for similar reasons. Haven‘t read it yet... 7y
BethFishReads @ApoptyGina69 I‘m not sure when I‘ll get to it, but I had to buy it 7y
27 likes2 comments
blurb
ValerieAndBooks
The Theoretical Foot | M. F. K. Fisher
post image

Any of you remember when I posted a while back about the cover twins at top? Well, make that cover triplets😳😱. Bottom is the Bloomsbury edition of My Theoretical Foot, a rediscovered novel of MFK Fisher, who was known for her non-fiction writings on food and places like France. I love her writing and this has been on my TBR, but a different cover version (as in Litsy database) is more readily available. I was just flabbergasted when I saw this!

OrangeMooseReads Hmmmm interesting. It's a nice picture, but really 🙂 8y
Moray_Reads I've noticed things like this. One in particular is a woman in 19th century dress carrying a birdcage. There are few here http://ow.ly/T8zw306N9LL 8y
Jaimelire They need to dust off the camera! 8y
See All 14 Comments
Donna_sBookMinute Oh wow. Popular shot. You should start a hashtag. 8y
Reviewsbylola Ugh, I really wish publishers would stop doing this. 8y
DivineDiana Somehow, this just doesn't seem right. 😕 8y
BookishMarginalia 😱😱😱 8y
Notafraidofwords Ugh this feels lazy. 8y
QuintusMarcus That's pretty funny--I wonder what the history of that picture is? 8y
ApoptyGina69 Just got The Theoretical Foot from ThriftBooks. I went check, but it's a different cover. The one I notice a lot is the Victorian silhouette like on Little Bee by Chris Cleve. Great book though. 8y
LeahBergen What the?! 8y
ValerieAndBooks @OrangeMooseReads so nice it's been used more than once 😂! @Moray_Reads thanks for that link! Amazing how he found so many covers being reused. I think I've seen the birdcage one you speak of! @Jaimelire yes, use the camera for unique shots instead of relying on stock photos! @Donna_sBookMinute I'm terrible at using hashtags, lol! But this is worthy of one. @Reviewsbylola maybe if enough of us mention it, they'll make a better effort! 8y
ValerieAndBooks @BookishMarginalia @Notafraidofwords @LeahBergen I agree ?!Cropping it or color tinting isn't enough of a change either! @QuintusMarcus I wonder also. Maybe the picture credit is inside them but I don't actually have any to take a look. @ApoptyGina69 yes Victorian style silhouettes are a thing in book design right now it seems. Someday people will look at those covers and say "that's so 2010s" as they do for other eras of design! 8y
Moray_Reads I've noticed very similar retro-ish floral designs recently, see Eimear McBride's The Lesser Bohemians, Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies and Anne Tyler's Vinegar Girl 8y
70 likes4 stack adds14 comments