books

163d

Italian nobrewoman Vittoria Accoramboni was born #OTD in 1557.

Her story formed the basis of Webster's drama, The Tragedy of Paolo Giordano Ursini (1612), and of Ludwig Tieck's novel, Vittoria Accoramboni (1840); it is told more accurately in D. Gnoli's volume, Vittoria Accoramboni (Florence, 1870), and an excellent sketch of her life is given in Countess E. Martinengo-Cesaresco's Lombard Studies (London, 1902).

Vittoria Accoramboni by Stendhal at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/802

#books #literature

Vittoria Accoramboni by Scipione Pulzone.

In the portrait, she is depicted in a stately, formal pose, reflecting her high social status.

She wears a richly embroidered Renaissance gown, made of luxurious silk, adorned with intricate gold patterns.

A delicate lace ruff collar frames her face, a typical fashion element of Italian nobility in the late 16th century.

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134d

Unearthed notebooks shed light on Victorian genius who inspired Einstein

Michael Faraday’s illustrated notes that show how radical scientist began his theories at London’s Royal Institution to go online

by Donna Ferguson

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/mar/15/notebooks-michael-faraday-victorian-scientist-einstein

#books #science

Portrait of Michael Faraday.

Faraday is seated and dressed formally in 19th-century attire, wearing a dark suit with a waistcoat, a white shirt, and a bow tie.

His expression is calm and contemplative, and he is resting his head on his hand, which adds an intellectual, thoughtful mood to the portrait.

His hair is parted and brushed back, showing his distinctive hairstyle—slightly tousled and graying.

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131d

finished reading Home Fire 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑
A British-Pakistani family gets caught (& distraught) on the three horns of identity, politics & jihad. Deeply immersive for a range of perspectives.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

Edited 131d ago

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168d

I don't typically post about non fiction but I finished Meditations last month and it is one of my first forays into philosophical literature. It's very much worth your time to read, learning about the mentality and inner thoughts of how one of the foremost Roman Emperors managed to keep his head about him and work through his problems.
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
@bookstodon #books #ClassicLiterature #marcusaurelius #bookstadon #bookphotography

don't typically post about non fiction but I finished Meditations last month and it is one of my first forays into philosophical literature. It's very much worth your time to read, learning about the mentality and inner thoughts of how one of the foremost Roman Emperors managed to keep his head about him and work through his problems.
⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟
@bookstodon@a.gup.pe #books #ClassicLiterature #marcusaurelius #bookstadon #bookphotography

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119d

#OTD in 1836 (dated April)

The first monthly part of The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens is issued in London. On April 20, the original illustrator, Robert Seymour, shoots himself and Dickens has more freedom to develop the story in his own way.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pickwick_Papers

The Pickwick Papers at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=The+Pickwick+Papers&submit_search=Search

#books #literature

Cover of serial, "Pickwick Club" by Charles Dickens.

Typical cover illustrations depict Mr. Samuel Pickwick, the kind-hearted and portly founder of the club, along with his fellow club members—Mr. Tupman, Mr. Snodgrass, and Mr. Winkle. They are often dressed in 19th-century attire, engaged in comical or exaggerated activities, such as traveling in a carriage, engaging in lively discussions, or encountering eccentric characters.

Many editions feature artwork inspired by the original illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne (known as Phiz) or Robert Seymour, who initially illustrated the novel. The scenes on the cover typically capture the novel’s lighthearted and satirical tone, emphasizing Dickens’s signature blend of humor and social commentary.

Edited 119d ago

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131d

#OTD in 1885.

Bolesław Prus's, The Outpost, begins serialization in the Polish illustrated weekly, Wędrowiec.

Its specificity was influenced by two trends: naturalism and realism. The main themes of the work are German colonization in Polish lands, a study of the life of the peasant in the 2nd half of the 19th century and his struggle to keep the land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outpost_(Prus_novel)

Bolesław Prus at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/25958

#books #literature

Front cover of Placówka, 1886 novel by Bolesław Prus (1847–1912). One of the very first prints; Gebethner i Wolff publishers, Warsaw. Original engraving.

The layout is ornate yet balanced, with a central illustration framed by intricate decorative elements. The title, "Placówka", is prominently displayed in bold, stylized typeface at the top.

Beneath the title lies an original engraving—possibly a pastoral or village scene—reflecting the novel’s focus on the life of Polish peasants and their struggle to hold on to land amid social and political changes.

The illustration may depict a modest peasant dwelling, with figures in traditional attire engaged in everyday work, subtly emphasizing the dignity and hardship of rural life.

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133d

"The strong man is strongest when alone."
Tell, Act I, sc. iii

#OTD in 1804.

The first performance of Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell takes place at Weimar under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Tell_(play)

William Tell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2782

#books #literature #theatre

William Tell; from the Schiller Galerie; by Johann Leonhard Raab

Friedrich Pecht: Schiller Gallery. Characters from Schiller's works, drawn by Friedrich Pecht and Arthur von Ramberg. Fifty sheets in steel engraving with explanatory text by Friedrich Pecht. F. A. Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1859

In the image, William Tell is depicted holding a crossbow in his left hand and an arrow (or bolt) in his raised right hand.

He stands with a resolute and determined expression, wearing traditional medieval-style clothing with visible armor elements on his shoulders.

The background features a forest landscape with mountains faintly visible, evoking the natural setting of the Swiss Alps.

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133d

Leviathan Resurrected: Illustration and Astronomy

In the 1840s, the Leviathan of Parsonstown, built by William Parsons, third Earl of Rosse, became the largest telescope in the world.

By: Danny Robb

https://daily.jstor.org/leviathan-resurrected-illustration-and-astronomy/

#books #astronomy

Leviathan of Parsonstown

Lord Rosse's Great Reflecting Telescope, at Parsonstown, Ireland Coloured cotton wall hanging, showing the so-called Leviathan of Parsonstown, a large reflecting telescope erected at Birr Castle in Ireland.

At each corner is a brass eyelet from which to hang the piece, while the number 109 is printed in the lower left hand corner below a stamp for the Working Men's Educational Union, King William Street, Trafalgar Square, London.

This is one of nine wall hangings now in the NMM, all on astronomical themes, which were produced by the Working Men's Educational Union. They were printed lithographically on cotton, probably to avoid paper duty. The hangings would have been used in lectures, held at various locations, to illustrate the latest advances in knowledge.

The Working Men's Educational Union was a philanthropic society that aimed to provide education to the working classes. The WMEU's first annual report (1853) lists wall hanging 109 as 'Lord Rosse's Great Reflecting Telescope, at Parsonstown, Ireland. It cost 1s 6d for subscribers and 2s 0d for non-subscribers and was one of a series of hangings depicting telescopes and their optical principles. The National Maritime Museum also has a print of the Birr Castle telescope (PAJ3506). ‘Leviathan of Parsonstown’

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131d

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Why She Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

From the Penguin Classics Collection “Twelve Stories by American Women”

https://lithub.com/charlotte-perkins-gilman-on-why-she-wrote-the-yellow-wallpaper/

The Yellow Wallpaper at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1952

#books #literature

Yellowish wallpaper with green decorations

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133d

Musical Storytelling: Librettist Gene Scheer On Transforming Novels Into Operas

Viviana Freyer Shares a Look Inside Two Current and Upcoming Literary Adaptations For the Stage

https://lithub.com/musical-storytelling-librettist-gene-scheer-on-transforming-novels-into-operas?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Lit%20Hub%20Daily:%20March%2017%2C%202025&utm_term=lithub_master_list

#books #music #opera

llustration of the final chase of Moby-Dick in a 1902 edition.

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124d

#OTD in 1920.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald sets him up as a writer and celebrity. An initial 3,000 copies sell out in three days. The book's reputation dims in later years, but Dorothy Parker will recall that it was seen as innovative when it first appeared.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Side_of_Paradise

This Side of Paradise at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/805

#books #literature

Cover of Fitzgerald's 1920 novel, This Side of Paradise, by illustrator W. E. Hill. The cover's title text is in white font, and the background is dark yellow.

The cover depicts a haughty young woman wearing a white dress and holding a hand fan with large white feathers.

Behind her, a dashing young man in a dark suit, white shirt, and black bow tie is leaning forward as if to whisper in her ear.

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162d

"Those are rare who fall without becoming degraded; there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Misérables."

#OTD in 1833.

Victor Hugo and Juliette Drouet begin a fifty-year affair. This is recorded in his novel Les Misérables (1862) as the date of Marius and Cosette's wedding night (Part V, Book 6, Chapter 1).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables

At PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/135
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/17494

Young Cosette sweeping: 1862 drawing for Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

French illustrator Émile Bayard drew this sketch of Cosette for the first edition.

It has become emblematic of the entire story, being used in promotional art for various versions of the musical.

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164d

Strip the DRM from your Kindle books, simple effective, free, online https://dedrm.com/

#Kindle #Amazon #DRM #books

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162d

#OTD in 1826.

Hungarian Serbs gather at Pest to set up Matica srpska, a cultural society dedicated to promoting the works of Serb writers. It sponsors Georgije Magarašević's Serbski Letopis, which remained "one of Europe's oldest, regularly published journals."

Magarašević was the first to tackle the question of literary history in a more consistent way than anyone else before.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgije_Magara%C5%A1evi%C4%87

#books #literature

Illustration of Georgije Magarašević, published in Знаменити Срби 19. века (1901).

It depicts Magarašević, a Serbian writer, journalist, and editor, in a formal pose typical of 19th-century portraiture.

He is shown wearing elegant attire, likely a suit or coat with a high-collared shirt, reflecting the fashion of his time.

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124d

"She belonged to a different age, but being so entire, so complete, would always stand up on the horizon, stone-white, eminent, like a lighthouse marking some past stage on this adventurous, long, long voyage, this interminable — this interminable life."

#OTD in 1915.

Virginia Woolf's first novel, The Voyage Out, is published in London by the firm of her half-brother, Gerald Duckworth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_Out

The Voyage Out at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/144

#books #literature

Cover of the first edition of w:Virginia Woolf's w:The Voyage Out, Duckworth & Co., London, 1915.

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124d

Flannery O'Connor Wanted to Shake Her Readers Awake. Her Family Wanted Her to Write the Next 'Gone With the Wind'

This year marks the writer’s 100th birthday. Through fiction anchored in her Southern background and Catholic faith, O’Connor revealed how candid confrontations with darkness lead to moments of reckoning.

By Ellen Wexler

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/flannery-oconnor-wanted-to-shake-her-readers-awake-her-family-wanted-her-to-write-the-next-gone-with-the-wind-180986301/

#books #literature

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162d

Literary Genius: Who Was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is the most influential German literary figure in history. Learn more about his life, science, and philosophy.

By Maysara Kamal

https://www.thecollector.com/literary-genius-who-was-johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/

Books by Goethe at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/586

#books #literature

Goethe in 1828, by Joseph Karl Stieler.

He is dressed in a dark, buttoned-up coat with a white high-collared shirt underneath, reflecting the refined fashion of the early 19th century.

A decorative chain and a red brooch adorn his attire, indicating his status and prestige.

In his right hand, he holds a piece of paper with handwritten text, symbolizing his literary and intellectual contributions.

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119d

#OTD in 1862.

The first two volumes of Victor Hugo's epic historical novel Les Misérables appear in Brussels, followed on April 3 by Paris publication, with the remaining volumes on May 15. The first English-language translations, by Charles Edwin Wilbour, are published in New York on June 7, and by Frederic Charles Lascelles Wraxall, in London in October.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables

Les Misérables at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Les+Mis%C3%A9rables&submit_search=Search

#books #literature

Émile Bayard, Cosette sweeping, 1862, reproduced in Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (London, G. Routledge and Sons), 1887. Rare Books Collection, State Library of Victoria.

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22d

Time Interpolated

A companion essay to our partner podcast Proust Curious, hosted by Emma Claussen and Hannah Weaver.

via @lithub

https://www.publicbooks.org/time-interpolated/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01JZ8JEHVTREMXDDYHMPZ4W5ZA&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

In Search of Lost Time at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=In+Search+of+Lost+Time

#Books #Literature

First galley proof of A la recherche du temps perdu: Du côté de chez Swann with handwritten revision notes by Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time#/media/File:MS_A_la_recherche_du_temps_perdu.jpg

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162d

Lost and Found: A Newly Discovered Poem by Robert Frost

Nothing New,” which the American poet wrote in 1918, is published for the first time in The New Yorker’s Anniversary Issue.

By Jay Parini

https://www.newyorker.com/books/double-take/lost-and-found-a-newly-discovered-poem-by-robert-frost

#books #literature #poetry

Frost in 1949

Walter Albertin, World Telegram staff photographer - Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection.

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c20741

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Frost_NYWTS_4.jpg

Frost appears as an elderly man with white, slightly disheveled hair, deep-set eyes, and a contemplative expression.

His face shows signs of age, with visible wrinkles that add to his distinguished and wise appearance.

He is dressed in a suit and tie, reflecting his formal yet approachable persona.

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124d

A Journey Through Dante’s Inferno: A Brief Guide

by Thom Delapa

Dante’s Inferno is hailed as a medieval masterpiece and a precursor to the Renaissance, with T.S. Eliot having ranked it alongside Shakespeare.

https://www.thecollector.com/journey-through-dante-inferno/

#books #literature #medieval

Inferno, Canto XXXIII–XXXIV by Andrea di Cione di Orcagna

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132d

"All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
Pt. I, ch. 1

#OTD in 1873.

Leo Tolstoy begins his novel Anna Karenina, which is serialized in Russkiy Vestnik (Moscow) between 1873 and 1877, but the last part appearing in the periodical The Russian Messenger.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Karenina

Anna Karenina at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1399

#books #literature

Scene of Anna and Vronsky's rendezvous in the light (Part II, Chapter VI). Drawing by Elmer Boyd Smith, 1886.

Anna, elegantly dressed, is shown with a sense of poised tension — her expression is a mixture of longing, vulnerability, and moral conflict.

Vronsky stands close, his posture attentive and intimate, reflecting his ardent pursuit and emotional investment. The subtle interplay of light and shadow highlights their closeness while also hinting at the forbidden nature of their affair.

Smith uses the warm glow to bathe the scene in an almost romantic softness, but there’s a palpable undercurrent of tension, suggesting the consequences looming beneath their tender interaction.

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124d

finished reading Record of a Spaceborn Few 🌕🌕🌕🌗🌑
Centuries after sending colonies into space as insurance against Earth's collapse, humans have integrated into alien civilisation. But now what purpose do those colonies serve, and what happens to their distinctive communal culture? Good premise & great world-building but not much plot, with a few too many characters.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #SciFi #SFF

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

Edited 124d ago

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127d

In ihrem Essay zu Lessing betont Arendt die politische Relevanz der Freundschaft. Politisches Denken ist parteiisch, dabei jedoch nicht subjektiv oder relativistisch. Allein im Ideal der Freundschaft kann der politische Diskurs vollzogen werden. Das Verstehen-Wollen des Anderen ist die Grundlage von Politik. Die grundsätzliche Ablehnung des Anderen,wie es im totalitären Denken geschieht,ist damit der Tod von #Politik . #Faschismus ist nicht politikfähig.
#books #philosophy #politics #bücherwabe

Zu sehen ist das Cover von "Menschen in finsteren Zeiten" ein Essayband mit Essays von Hannah Arendt, erschienen im Piper Verlag. Das obere drittel des Covers ist eine Schwarzweißfotografie von Hannah Arendt. Darunter folgen Name und Titel in orangen Buchstaben auf weißem Grund.

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93d

"People are deeply imbedded in philosophical, i.e., grammatical confusions. And to free them presupposes pulling them out of the immensely manifold connections they are caught up in."

~Ludwig Wittgenstein (26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951)

Ludwig Wittgenstein at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1861

#books #philosophy

Moriz Nähr, Ludwig Wittgenstein. Portrait for the conferment of the Trinity College scholarship 1929, 1928/29.

Wittgenstein is shown seated, facing slightly to the side but with his gaze sharply directed toward the camera. His expression is deeply serious, almost severe, with tightly pressed lips and piercing, contemplative eyes — as if caught mid-thought in an intense inner dialogue.

He wears a modest, slightly rumpled jacket over a simple shirt, open at the collar without a tie.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein#/media/File:Ludwig_Wittgenstein_1929.jpg

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