The world of books and art, 1789 – 1914
Book review – The Gulag Archipelago – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn [pub. 1974] The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is an account of the Soviet Union's forced labour camp system. Apart from the prominence of ice and snow you probably think that it wouldn't make ideal Christmas reading. But let me give you three reasons why you... Continue Reading →
Book review – Murder on the Orient Express – Agatha Christie [pub. 1934] [Dont worry, I won't be giving away the book's ending in this review] This is a rambling review of the first and only Agatha Christie that I have read, Murder on the Orient Express (1934) [I later reviewed 4.50 from Paddington]. Like a... Continue Reading →
Book review – When the World Screamed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Professor Challenger #4). 1928. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is famous for his Sherlock Holmes stories, but did you know that he created a series of stories for another eccentric genius, Professor George Edward Challenger? There are five Challenger stories in total, this is... Continue Reading →
Book review - Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958) I have just read a fascinating book, Things Fall Apart* by Chinua Achebe. It was published in 1958, but is set in the 1890s. The book was given to me by a friend: "I think you might enjoy this". As usual on these occasions my... Continue Reading →
This is a short postscript to the last post, it's not going to be a regular theme. I prefer to focus on the positive, if possible. Another public museum is selling off art to pay the bills. Berkshire Museum in Massachusetts (USA) is selling off 40 of it's most notable paintings, sculptures and drawings -... Continue Reading →
Going, going ... GONE! When is it acceptable to sell public art? It's happening more frequently than you might think. There was a time when I had assumed that once a work of art had been gifted or bought by a public art gallery, there it would stay (apart from loans and special exhibitions). Later... Continue Reading →
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Henry Thoreau was many things: an essayist, poet, practical philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor and historian. Those were days when there was still room to do many different things, rather than the intense specialism that is common today. But perhaps most famously, he was author of the book... Continue Reading →
Today is the anniversary of the death of Sir David Wilkie (18 November 1785 – 1 June 1841). A Scottish painter. When I think of Wilkie, I immediately think of the The Letter of Introduction. The Letter of Introduction (1813) Readers reading series #11 The painting was completed in the same year that Jane Austen's... Continue Reading →
I enjoy blogging, but wish I did it more frequently. Usually my thoughts don't get further than the garden, some end up as tweets. So here is a compromise solution, a half tweet/half blog post, though by the time you read this it may have grown. There is a book quiz at the end. Today... Continue Reading →
On this day in 1830, a poem (later a nursery rhyme) Mary Had a Little Lamb, by Sarah Hale was published. Later in the decade Lowell Mason set the poem to a melody adding repetition in the verses. The poem was the first thing recorded by Thomas Edison on his newly invented phonograph in 1878... Continue Reading →
The Long Victorian 