Sleep is good, books are better
Book review - The Poison Belt: Being An Account of Another Amazing Adventure of Professor Challenger by Arthur Conan Doyle. Today is the anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930). So it seems fitting to post a review of one of his stories: The Poison Belt. One of my favourite... Continue Reading →
Following on from a previous post The UK’s favourite 15 literary heroines, here are some other heroines that might have made it, but didn't. I leave you to identify the books they came from! By the way, what is the collective noun for literary heroines? A quill? A scribble? A canon? Thank you, Bill, for... Continue Reading →
Don't look yet - have a try first! Answers: Napoléon Bonaparte (1769 – 1821) Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 – 1864) Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806 – 1861) Margaret Fuller (1810 – 1850) Gustave Flaubert (1821 – 1880) Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900) Not easy - how many... Continue Reading →
The Day Dream (1880) - By Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882). Victoria & Albert Museum. Readers reading #9 Instead of 'Readers reading', perhaps this one ought to be titled 'Reader forgetting about reading' - we've all done it, one moment reading, the next drifting into a dream. Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator... Continue Reading →
Today is the anniversary of the death of James Boswell (b.29 October 1740 – d.19 May 1795). Boswell was a Scottish landowner, biographer and diarist, best known for his Life of Samuel Johnson (1791). There is a Boswell Society here on WordPress. Boswell famously quoted Dr Johnson as saying: “No man but a blockhead ever... Continue Reading →
Can you identify the above quotes about reading? Need some clues? Read on. [Warning – clue below] To help you here is a list of the authors responsible for the quotes –the list is presented in chronological order by birth. Napoléon Bonaparte (1769 - 1821) Jane Austen (1775 - 1817) Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804 - 1864)... Continue Reading →
The list below is from a survey of the UK's top 15 favourite literary heroines. I admit I have a weakness for book lists, perhaps it's my book trade background. This list doesn't really have any surprises, light-hearted but worth perusing. Sadly no heroines from the Long Victorian pens of George Eliot, Wilkie Collins or... Continue Reading →
Listen here for an interview with Roger Luckhurst by Oxford Academic (OUP) on H. Rider Haggard and King Solomon's Mines. Roger was editor of the Oxford World's Classics edition of King Solomon's Mines. About 16 minutes long - I found it enjoyable and enlightening. About the author: Roger Luckhurst has written widely on Victorian popular fiction,... Continue Reading →
This woman was born in 1746 and could easily have met someone able to say "My grandfather knew William Shakespeare". This is a Daguerreotype photograph of Hannah Stilley, aged 94 (b.1746). This is a woman born into a world when the American colonies were yet to revolt, when Samuel Johnson was working on his A... Continue Reading →
Don't look yet, have a try first! Answers: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (1859) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1845) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1902) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) Adventures... Continue Reading →
The Long Victorian 