I cannot find my copy of Le Fanu’s The Rose and the Key.

If you have read this mediocre novel, you will wonder why on earth I’m looking for it.  My own reaction a decade ago was:  “A 400-page poorly-plotted Gothic.”  Well, even though it is bound to be disappointing, I am a mad Le Fanu fan. Uncle Silas is my favorite Gothic novel, and so I want to reread The Rose and the Key.

Our books used to be well-organized, even catalogued, but then we had a black mold scare in the study.  We packed up our books so the  de-molding crew could do its thing, which seemed to be painting the walls. (N.B.  The CDC  website says there is no black mold menace. All houses have mold,  and no link has been proved between black mold and any diseases.)

Well, some of our books are still packed in boxes, so I decided to reorganize them.  Our library is so huge that I am doing them bookcase by bookcase, alphabetized by author.  Each bookcase has its own A-Z shelves.

Here are some messy stacks on the floor.  I wonder if I will ever reread George Meredith’s Evan Harrington.

All right, they’re shelved now.  Here is a partial photo of the front of two reorganized double-stacked shelves in one bookcase.  Curiously, I have read almost all of them, but I don’t feel the urge to weed these (mostly) classics.

Well, we’re not ready to go on Booktube with this look.  Booktubers have spare, tastefully-ordered, often white-painted bookcases. Their books often match!  I should do this by color code.

But I didn’t find my copy of The Rose and the Key.  Very sad.  And reading the e-book is just not the same.