Eggplant.place

74d

Explained: Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' explained in 10 sentences

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/web-stories/explained-shakespeares-macbeth-explained-in-10-sentences/photostory/121212146.cms

By Aakanksh Sharma

Macbeth at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1533

#books #literature #drama

Macbeth and Banquo encounter the witches for the first time.

Théodore Chassériau - Musée d'Orsay

The painting vividly captures the eerie moment from Shakespeare's Macbeth when the two Scottish generals meet the three witches on a desolate heath.

Chassériau's Romantic style infuses the scene with dramatic tension and supernatural atmosphere. Macbeth and Banquo, dressed in rich, flowing garments and mounted on horseback, confront the witches, who are ghostly and otherworldly in appearance. The witches stand or hover in unnatural postures, with windswept robes and haunting expressions, emphasizing their mystical power and unsettling presence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth#/media/File:MacbethAndBanquo-Witches.jpg

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

74d

See Flannery O’Connor’s Little-Known Visual Artworks That Had Been Collecting Dust in Storage

From childhood cartoons to thoughtful self-portraits, the acclaimed Southern writer was always a keen observer of her surroundings

By Eli Wizevich

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/see-flannery-oconnors-little-known-visual-artworks-that-had-been-collecting-dust-in-storage-180986591/?utm_source=smithsoniandaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial&lctg=93133550

#books #art #literature

Top Row (left to right): Felix Nussbaum; Edith Sitwell; Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Middle Row (left to right): Rachel Carson; Edvard Munch; Flannery O’Connor; Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Bottom Row (left to right): Glenn Miller; Wassily Kandinsky; Ian Fleming; Piet Mondrian

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/class-of-2015/

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

61d

I've finished: Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

First of all, this is a wonderful mystery, lead by an amateur detective. Her flaws and awkward pursuit of the truth are what kept me glued to this novel.

While this is a novel about an alien embassy to earth, it is more a study of human culture than alien culture.

A climate change destabilized humanity deals badly with the soft power of an alien embassy's cultural attache.

Robson contrasts the aliens that are disinterested in digital media and humanity that is consumed by it. The telepathic aliens that find it hard to lie and obfuscate and the humans that can't stop.

https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/62f8f66e-e912-4afc-bd8e-efc4b38eecaa

@bookstodon @audiobooks
#ScienceFiction #mystery #AudioBooks #books

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

59d

OMG! Kevin R Free is finishing recording the Pass the Salt Audiobook! The publisher said I can send people over for reviews! I'm gonna do that tomorrow so join my mailing list in the meantime. So excited! https://buttondown.com/weirdwriter #Audible #Free #Audiobook #Audiobooks #Books @bookstodon @bookstadon

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

74d

The Cosmic Library on Reflection and Refraction

The Final Episode of the Dostoevsky Season

https://lithub.com/the-cosmic-library-on-reflection-and-refraction/

The Brothers Karamazov at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28054

#books #literature

Dostoyevsky's notes for Chapter 5 of The Brothers Karamazov.

The manuscript is densely packed with cursive script, marginal annotations, and line edits, reflecting the author's intense thought process and narrative structuring. The paper bears visible creases and ink smudges, conveying a sense of urgency and meticulous labor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brothers_Karamazov#/media/File:Bkdraft.jpg

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

74d

A Question of Free Will: Inside the Final Days of Katherine Mansfield

Allison Buccola Complicates Some of Popular Culture's Common Narratives About Cults

https://lithub.com/a-question-of-free-will-inside-the-final-days-of-katherine-mansfield/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01JVN4QNGF8T03QHGNH5NAWAJB&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Katherine Mansfield at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/631

#books #literature

Katherine Mansfield (14 October 1888 – 9 January 1923)

This is a black and white portrait photograph. In the image is a young woman with short, bobbed hair styled in a somewhat tousled fashion with bangs across her forehead. She has a serious, contemplative expression and is looking directly at the camera. She's wearing what appears to be a light-colored blouse or dress with a delicate collar detail.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mansfield#/media/File:Katherine_Mansfield_(no_signature).jpg

ALT

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

73d

💻 📚 **How an AI-generated summer reading list got published in major newspapers**

“_Only five of the 15 titles on the list are real._”

🔗 https://www.npr.org/2025/05/20/nx-s1-5405022/fake-summer-reading-list-ai.

#AI #ArtificialIntelligence #Technology #Fake #ReadingList #Books #Bookstodon @ai @bookstodon

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

73d

The Fantastic 17th-Century Book of Birds, Made from Feathers

By Allison Meier from the archives

https://hyperallergic.com/245169/the-fantastic-17th-century-book-of-birds-made-from-feathers/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Who%20Really%20Took%20the%20%22Napalm%20Girl%22%20Photo%3F&utm_campaign=D051925

The Feather Book:
https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/featherbook/birds1-30.html

#animals #books

Title page of The Feather Book, a series of pictures made entirely of bird feathers. The creator was Dionisio Minaggio, the Chief Gardener of the Duchy of Milan. The book primarily contained images of birds indigenous to the Lombardy region of Italy but also contained sets of images depicting hunters, tradesmen, musicians and commedia dell'arte characters. The bird depicted here is the female Blue Rock Thrush (Monticola solitarius).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feather_Book_of_Dionisio_Minaggio#/media/File:The_Feather_Book_of_Dionisio_Minaggio_-_title_page.JPG

ALT

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

47d

#OTD in 1816.

At the Villa Diodati, Lord Byron reads Fantasmagoriana to Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Claire Clairmont, and John Polidori, then challenges each to write a ghost story, culminating in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John Polidori’s story “The Vampyre,” and Byron’s poem “Darkness.”

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

The Vampyre:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6087

Frankenstein:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/84

Darkness:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20158

#books #literature #poetry

(Left to Right):
Mary Shelley: She wears a dark gown with a bare neckline, consistent with early 19th-century fashion.

Her image likely comes from Richard Rothwell’s 1840 posthumous portrait.

John Polidori: The author of The Vampyre (1819), often considered the first modern vampire story. He appears youthful, with curly dark hair and a romantic expression.

Claire Clairmont: The stepsister of Mary Shelley and mother of Lord Byron’s daughter, Allegra. She is depicted with reddish-brown curls and wearing a modest white dress.

Percy Bysshe Shelley: The radical Romantic poet known for Prometheus Unbound and Ode to the West Wind. He is shown with intense eyes and a loosely worn open shirt and dark coat.

Lord Byron: He is shown in a contemplative pose with his hand to his face, wearing a deep red coat—this mirrors Thomas Phillips’s famous portrait of Byron.

ALT

2 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

73d

Charles Butler’s The Feminine Monarchie, or the History of Bees (1634 edition)
history-of-bees

The earliest full-length work of apiculture published in English, which popularised the discovery that bee colonies have queens instead of kings.

by Hunter Dukes

https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/history-of-bees/?utm_source=newsletter

The Life of the Bee by Maurice Maeterlinck at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4511

#books #entomology

Charles Butler, The Feminin’ Monarchi’, or, the History of Bees (Oxford: William Turner, 1634).

The title page is printed on aged, yellowed paper with a honeycomb pattern subtly visible in the background. The title is presented in a typical 17th-century typographical style with varied font sizes for emphasis.

The full title reads: "THE Feminin' Monarchie, OR THE HISTORIE OF BEES.

SHEWING Their admirable Nature, and Properties; Their Generation and Colonies; Their Government, Loyaltie, Art, Industrie; Enimies, VVars, Magnanimitie, &c.

TOGETHER With the right Ordering of them from time to time: and the sweete Profit arising thereof."

The page indicates it was "Written out of Experience By CHARLS BUTLER, Magd."

There is a Latin quote from Plaut in Trucul, Act 2, Sc. 6: "Pluris est oculatus testis unus, quàm auriti decem" (which translates approximately to "One eye-witness is worth more than ten who have heard").

At the bottom, it states "OXFORD, Printed by WILLIAM TURNER, for de Author. M.DC.XXXIV." (1634).

On the right side of the page is a small illustration or bookplate showing what appears to be a bird or eagle with wings spread above what might be a shield or decorative element with ornate scrollwork.

This work is historically significant as one of the earliest comprehensive English-language treatises on beekeeping, notable for identifying the ruler of the hive as female (the "feminin' monarchie"), which was an advanced scientific understanding for its time.

ALT

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

59d

finished reading The Man Who Died Twice 🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑
by Richard Osman.

More fun times with the crime-solving (& committing!) pensioners. The stakes are higher but doesn't feel so fresh. A bigger role for the inscrutable Bogdan is welcome. Laughs off some pretty substantial abuse of the justice system.

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #CrimeFiction

@WildWoila @wildwoila@wyrms.de

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

238d

Why are some people obsessed about reading the right way?

“You’re wasting your time if you’re not reading the classics” or “reading should be about sucking the marrow of the vast body literature” or “reading is about retaining information”

None of it is true. People read because they like reading. Maybe they like stories. Maybe they like words. Maybe they are learning something obscure. There are millions of different reasons or ways to read. Don’t let pedants steal your joy or soul.

Just read #read #books

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

72d

Natalie Jenner, author of "Austen at Sea," discusses how Austen's works reverberated as far back as the mid-19th C, influenced lawyers on both sides of the pond.

https://lithub.com/the-power-of-persuasion-why-lawyers-love-jane-austen/

#AmReading #AmWriting @bookstodon #books #Bookstodon #WritingCommunity #ReadingCommunity #Regency #Georgian #JaneAusten @romancelandia

0 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

72d

Book number 9 for the year finished!

This time I read The Rainfall Market by You Yeong-Gwang. It was quite good! I loved all the characters and the different shops in the market! It was a very chill book with surprising action. I also appreciated the twists and turns at the end. I even teared up a little bit!

I give this book a 4.5 out of 5!

Only 26 books left until my goal!

#books #reading #bookstodon #readingchallenge