I know who the characters are, and where they are, but I don't really know what the plot is. That's usually the way it is for me I usually get the setting or the topic first, then I get the people, and the last thing I get is the story. Q: So what was the genesis of 'The Signature of All Things'?Ī: I had the topic first. But sometimes I wonder what a gifted writer like Charlotte would have done if she'd been allowed to discuss what really goes on in people's bedrooms. Q: You could argue that the book is more erotic for the author not having had license to dive into the bedroom.Ī: Well, that's what people say they say the same thing about movies from the 1940s. There's this weird vibe between them that's really sexual. Q: I would have said 'Wuthering Heights' had the most potential for carnality.Ī: Well, the initial scenes between Rochester and Jane Eyre are just so charged. If there's a writer from that period who I wish could have written about sexuality in a more direct way, it would be Charlotte. I wouldn't say I dislike her, but if I had to choose between her and Eliot to bring to a desert island, it would definitely be Eliot.Ī: The Brontë sisters, of course - who are the kinkiest of the Victorians, I believe. She's probably my second-biggest influence now after Dickens, and after her, I'd say (Anthony) Trollope. It was only seven or eight years ago that I read 'Middlemarch.' And I revisited it again when I started writing this new book. Q: Did you have other touchstone writers from that period - Jane Austen, maybe, or George Eliot?Ī: I did, but I came to Eliot later in life than I'd like to admit, though she's become exceedingly important to me. It's incredibly dramatic and terrifying and exciting it's almost like he's saying, 'I dare you not to continue reading this book.' I think the opening to 'Great Expectations,' the scene in the graveyard, is pretty much the best opening of a novel ever. I'm always dazzled by the way he manages to have something like 250 characters in that book, and never once do you lose track of who they are.īut I think his most emotional book is 'Great Expectations,' at least for me. So not having TV worked out well for my sister and me, even though we resented it at the time - and even though, whenever I'd go to a friend's house, I'd turn on 'Gilligan's Island' as quick as I could.Ī: It's probably 'Great Expectations.' I also love 'Bleak House,' although maybe I admire it more than love it. We had an old copy of 'A Christmas Carol,' and we brought it out and read it every Christmas. We had a lot of books, and we also lived on a farm about a mile and a half from the library, so Dickens was a big part of my life early on. Q: But you did a lot of reading that maybe you wouldn't have, if you'd had TV.Ī: That's right. A: Oh, I would have watched it 24 hours a day if we'd had one! I should say that I'm a big television watcher now I stayed up late last night watching an episode of 'Breaking Bad.'

The signature of all things gilbert