mslavinia

"I'm here for Miss Mason," Cedric says impatiently. It's almost perfunctory, he feels: Lavinia's servants are used to the boisterous young man's presence in the house. But the worried-looking maid pauses a moment before taking the letter he thrusts forward insistently at her. It's Lavinia's handwriting, unmistakably, and the hurried scrawls beg him to come for tea and the discussion of a serious matter the next day: this Thursday.

( ... )

A sample, but not an exhaustive list, of some garments you may find the Charming Cryptopoetess wearing.

( Open the armoire doors... )

What follows is a list (in progress!) of Lavinia's published work.

There is a split between her poetry and her prose; her poetry is heavier, more lyrical, and a bit more on the Symbolist side than the Gothic or Romantic side. However, her fiction is very much inflected with the latter two movements. Her adventure in the mirror, and the disorientation that caused (probably inflected with her suspicions already) marks a lot of her early fiction. Notable tropes include mirrors, reflections which don't work the way they should (from dreams she's had and heard about from fellow tale-tellers in the Mandrake), oneiric cats, empty halls and pools of water. Also, the unsettling feeling of being watched.

Apobulitosis, ostensibly a paean to the mushroom, modeled after a Latin epic poem. Lavinia is fortunate that her patron didn't know his Seneca.

Through the Mirror-Glass, a fairy story for adults. Loosely a response to a surface mathematician's adventure story, in which a young woman falls through a mirror and enters a twisted world where everything mirrors her fears about growing up, with a Neathy twist.

"Days of Sunlight and Roses", published in the Gazette. A bold account of her experiences with prisoner's honey, lyrical and provocative, in which a dalliance with a beautiful young heiress is teasingly hinted at. It gained her a fair bit of notoriety, and speculation swirled furiously over the identity of the mysterious woman, but Lavinia refused to confirm any rumors.

The Fire-place Grate, published in Midnights. A piece of gothic horror involving a man who locks his daughter in his attic, then marries a woman who looks like her; a series of ominous events that could be either supernatural or psychological then occur to unsettle the couple.

The House of the Baronet. A short satire of gothic country house fiction, in which the occupants of an old manor on the outskirts of London, who have held a long tradition of it being haunted, have to contend with a different type of house-guest after the fall. Rudimentary and competent, but with some marks of talent.

The Red Right Hand. An epistolary short story concerning an inspector's week, which begins with a fairly innocuous mystery and devolves into psychological horror, featuring fictional news clippings throughout.

Discoveries, published in The Magazine Formerly Known As The London Magazine. A short story about passions that are partially but not entirely requited, hinging on the misreading of a letter and culminating in a dinner party in which nothing is outright stated but all is nevertheless revealed. Received rather well, it caused her name to be known in some small literary circles, and among some members of society.

In progress:

Acheron, an epic poem that is a rewriting of the myth of Hades and Persephone.