"Ask no questions, and you'll be told no lies."
#OTD in 1860.
Charles Dickens's Bildungsroman Great Expectations begins serialization in All the Year Round. Although intended for weekly publication, Great Expectations was divided into nine monthly sections, with new pagination for each.
Great Expectations at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400
#OTD in 1892.
George Bernard Shaw's first play Widowers' Houses has its first performance, at the Royalty Theatre in London under the auspices of the Independent Theatre Society. The author is booed.
This is one of three plays Shaw published as Plays Unpleasant in 1898. The other plays in the group are The Philanderer and Mrs. Warren's Profession.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widowers%27_Houses
Books by Bernard Shaw at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/467
#OTD in 1812.
Leigh Hunt is tried and convicted of libel for calling the Prince Regent "a violator of his word, a libertine over head and ears in debt and disgrace" in The Examiner on March 22.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Hunt
Original files (with links) are available at @internetarchive
Books by Leigh Hunt at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3612
"Was that, then, the way we do things? "Not knowing"— was that the way the most profound things happened? ... Was the secret of never escaping from the greater life the secret of living like a sleepwalker?"
The Passion According to G.H.
~Clarice Lispector (December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977)
#OTD in 1822.
French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel, in a memoir read to the Academy of Sciences, coins the terms linear polarization, circular polarization, and elliptical polarization, and reports a direct refraction experiment verifying his theory that optical rotation is a form of birefringence.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polarization_(waves)
The wave theory of light is available at @internetarchive
https://archive.org/details/wavetheoryofligh00crewrich
"It is equally a fault to believe all men or to believe none."
#OTD in 1817.
Walter Scott's historical novel Rob Roy, written from this spring, is published anonymously by Archibald Constable in Edinburgh, while a shipload of copies is carried from Leith to London for simultaneous publication there by Longman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rob_Roy_(novel)
Rob Roy at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/7025
The consolations of philosophy
In my latest blog post I talk about three books that help me to understand, resist and find hope: The Unaccountability Machine, Stories Are Weapons, and The Dispossessed.
"Everything comes in time to him who knows how to wait."
In December 1869.
Publication of Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace complete in book form concludes. It is printed in Moscow and sold by the author on subscription. Portions of an earlier version, titled The Year 1805, were serialized in The Russian Messenger from 1865 to 1867 before the novel was published in its entirety in 1869.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_and_Peace#
War and Peace at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/2600
In December 1917.
The first of many editions of Robert Baden-Powell's The Wolf Cub's Handbook is published.
The Wolf Cub's Handbook, in various editions, remained The Boy Scouts Association's official handbook for Wolf Cubs until The Chief Scout's Advance Party Report of 1966 recommended that less emphasis be placed on the Jungle Book theme and renamed its Wolf Cubs program as Cubs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_Cub%27s_Handbook
Books by Robert Baden-Powell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2144
In December 1855.
Charles Dickens publishes the first instalment of Little Dorrit, which continues to appear into 1857.
Little Dorrit was published in 19 monthly instalments, each consisting of 32 pages with two illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne whose pen name was Phiz. Each instalment cost a shilling except for the last, a double issue which cost two shillings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Dorrit#
Little Dorrit at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/963
In December 1914.
Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, who writes under the pen name "Guillaume Apollinaire", enlists in the French Army to fight in World War I and becomes a French citizen after an August attempt at enlistment is rejected.
Apollinaire is considered one of the foremost poets of the early 20th century, as well as one of the most impassioned defenders of Cubism and a forefather of Surrealism.
Books by Apollinaire at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6075
#OTD in 1898.
Moscow Art Theatre's first season opens with a double bill of Emilia Matthai's Greta's Happiness and Carlo Goldoni's The Mistress of the Inn. The successful and influential Moscow Art Theatre production of The Seagull by Chekhov (its Moscow première), would open on 29 December 1898.
"O Day! he cannot die
When thou so fair art shining!
O Sun, in such a glorious sky,
So tranquilly declining;..."
#OTD in 1844.
Emily Brontë writes the poem "A Death-Scene". It was published in 1846 in a book collecting poetry by Brontë and her siblings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Death-Scene
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1019
#OTD in 1851.
The French coup d'état of 1851 prompts Victor Hugo to be a leader of an unsuccessful insurrection against it. He is forced into exile, initially to Brussels, then Jersey, from which he was expelled for supporting L’Homme. He finally settled with his family at Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, where he would live in exile from October 1855 until 1870.
Books by Victor Hugo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/85
#OTD in 1928.
Radclyffe Hall's novel The Well of Loneliness, published by Jonathan Cape in London, is tried and convicted on the grounds of obscenity under the Hicklin test, after a campaign against it by James Douglas in the Sunday Express.
#OTD in 1920.
D. H. Lawrence's novel Women in Love appears in a limited U.S. subscribers' edition. This first was available only to subscribers, due to the controversy caused by Lawrence's previous work, The Rainbow (1915).
Women in Love at PG
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/4240
Is Oedipus Rex the Mother of All Drama?
Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex (aka Oedipus the King) … Is it the mother of all Western drama? The father? Or both?
By Thom Delapa
https://www.thecollector.com/oedipus-rex-mother-drama/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_Rex
Oedipus King of Thebes by Sophocles at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27673
#OTD in 1901.
The first Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded, to French poet Sully Prudhomme.
He devoted the bulk of the money he received to the creation of a poetry prize awarded by the Société des gens de lettres. He also founded, in 1902, the Société des poètes français with Jose-Maria de Heredia and Leon Dierx.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sully_Prudhomme
Books by Sully Prudhomme at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7695
Alfred North Whitehead, who died #OTD in 1947, was an English mathematician and philosopher. He is best known as the defining figure of the philosophical school known as process philosophy, which today has found application to a wide variety of disciplines, including ecology, theology, education, physics, biology, economics, and psychology, among other areas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead
Alfred North Whitehead at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/8283
Arthur Schopenhauer’s Idealism: Is Our World Just a Dream?
Schopenhauer argued that the world is but an intricate dream, and what he suggested lies beyond it may shock you.
By Maysara Kamal
https://www.thecollector.com/arthur-schopenhauers-idealism-is-our-world-just-a-dream/
Books by Arthur Schopenhauer at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3648
#OTD in 1899.
Robert Browning's book Asolando; Fancies and facts is published on the same day he dies at Ca' Rezzonico in Venice. He is buried in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
His magnum opus, The Ring and the Book (1868–1869), is a 12-volume epic poem based on a real-life Italian murder trial. He is particularly celebrated for his dramatic monologues, which reveal the inner workings of his characters' minds.
Asolando
https://archive.org/details/asolandofanciesf00browiala
📣 Reminder: #MEAction is giving away 2 copies (one paperback, one audiobook) of the book "Pillow Writers Anthology 1: Near-Life Experiences"
Their "Chronically Complex" podcast has extracts from the book:
https://www.meaction.net/chronically-complex-meaction-podcast/
Deadline for entry is December 15, winners will be selected the next day
I can't find an announcement on the #MEAction website but here's a link to what they posted on Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/meactnet.bsky.social/post/3lbkjfa4w6c2t
@mecfs
The Long History of a Short Form.
The aphorism, from Hippocrates to Maggie Nelson.
By Ryan Ruby via @laphamsquart
For a word that literally means definition, the aphorism is a rather indefinite genre. It bears a family resemblance to the fragment, the proverb, the maxim, the hypomnema, the epigram, the mantra, the parable, and the prose poem.
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/long-history-short-form
#OTD in 1854.
Wilkie Collins's "The Lawyer's Story of a Stolen Letter", published as "The Fourth Poor Traveller" in The Seven Poor Travellers – the Household Words special Christmas number – is the first non-police detective fiction published in Britain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilkie_Collins
The Lawyer's Story of a Stolen Letter at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1626
![With Estella after all.
Great Expectations
[1867 Edition]
by Charles Dickens
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400](/proxy/post_attachment/531410/604c689fba.jpg "With Estella after all.
Great Expectations
[1867 Edition]
by Charles Dickens
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1400")
![Uma coletânea de contos de Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), publicada em julho deste ano nos Estados Unidos com o título "The complete stories", entrou na lista dos 100 melhores livros de 2015 feita pelo jornal americano "The New York Times". A editora Rocco planeja publicar a versão nacional de "The complete stories" em abril de 2016. O título da versão nacional ainda não foi definido. Clarice Lispector nasceu em Tchetchelnick, na Ucrânia. Seu nome de batismo era Haia. Ela se mudou com a família para o Brasil em 1922 e aqui ganhou o nome de Clarice. Em sua lista de melhores do ano, o "New York Times" escreve que "a brasileira foi uma das verdadeiras [vozes] autênticas da literatura latino-americana". O jornal cita como exemplos desses "inovadores" o argentino Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), o mexicano Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) e o também brasileiro Machado de Assis (1839-1908).](/proxy/post_attachment/540680/26a8fa37f9.png "Uma coletânea de contos de Clarice Lispector (1920-1977), publicada em julho deste ano nos Estados Unidos com o título \"The complete stories\", entrou na lista dos 100 melhores livros de 2015 feita pelo jornal americano \"The New York Times\". A editora Rocco planeja publicar a versão nacional de \"The complete stories\" em abril de 2016. O título da versão nacional ainda não foi definido. Clarice Lispector nasceu em Tchetchelnick, na Ucrânia. Seu nome de batismo era Haia. Ela se mudou com a família para o Brasil em 1922 e aqui ganhou o nome de Clarice. Em sua lista de melhores do ano, o \"New York Times\" escreve que \"a brasileira foi uma das verdadeiras [vozes] autênticas da literatura latino-americana\". O jornal cita como exemplos desses \"inovadores\" o argentino Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986), o mexicano Juan Rulfo (1917-1986) e o também brasileiro Machado de Assis (1839-1908).")
![Du coton dans les oreilles
[première page]
Tant d'explosifs sur le point vif !
Ecris un mot si tu l'oses ?
Les points d'impact dans mon âme toujours en guerre
Ton troupeau féroce crache le feu
Ô Mégaphone
[écriteau]
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55569](/proxy/post_attachment/539732/2fd8797d27.jpg "Du coton dans les oreilles
[première page]
Tant d'explosifs sur le point vif !
Ecris un mot si tu l'oses ?
Les points d'impact dans mon âme toujours en guerre
Ton troupeau féroce crache le feu
Ô Mégaphone
[écriteau]
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/55569")
