Big Book Club's "oh Boy, Tolstoy!"

This week we were joined by Gale, our first guest host. We had a great discussion covering lustful eyes, the invention of stethoscopes, Edith Wharton, reform bills and more. Shownotes: Gale mentions authors Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton and William Makepeace Thackeray ("Vanity Fair") as favorites. The stethoscope was invented in France in 1816 by René Laennec, so Lydgate's stethoscope would have been a relatively new tool - from Wikipedia. The Reform Bill of 1832 (the first of 4) primarily served to transfer voting privileges from the small boroughs controlled by the nobility and gentry to the heavily populated industrial towns. - from Encyclopaedia Britannica Vicars and Curate and Livings, Oh My! - and explanation of how "livings" work for the clergy, the relationship between vicars and curates, and what their duties actually were. - from the blog English Historical Fiction Authors Edith Wharton references: "The Age of Innocence" film "The Buccaneers"  - About five wealthy American girls den