The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter (The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club, #1)

by Theodora Goss

We are modern. And, of course, monstrous . . .

A lady might feel fear, but she must not give in to it,

Twenty minutes later, Mary rang the bell at 221B Baker Street.

“Yet even a madman has method in his madness,” said Holmes.

What good would it have done? We often think that class of woman is hard-hearted, because it does not show emotion, but what good would it do for the Kates of the world to cry? They have learned that tears do not bring relief or change of circumstance. There is no one to wipe their tears, no one to assuage their grief.

JUSTINE: We all need human sympathy. DIANA: I don’t.

“Although I never discount the improbable until it has been proven impossible.”

Love is a fool’s game, I think.

I learned about the world—there’s no place in it for girls whose parents aren’t rich and respectable, or who have Lascar blood in them, or who are addicted to laudanum.

“I’m not afraid of madmen,”

Sometimes they were the only ones who made sense.”

DIANA: I only said it because he was being an idiot. MARY: You said it because you wanted to protect me. Because despite your insufferable behavior, you love your sister. That’s why. DIANA: If you kiss me again, I’m going to hit you.

These two are fantastic, and I love the breaking of the fourth wall with these narrators.

Why follow social conventions if they’re silly?

No wonder men did not want women to wear bloomers. What could women accomplish if they did not have to continually mind their skirts, keep them from dragging in the mud or getting trampled on the steps of an omnibus? If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world!

Clothing is one means of enforcing women’s social and political subordination.

“Improbable, but not impossible,”