Eggplant.place

53d

Stop adapting Jane Austen! Five other 18th-century writers perfect for the screen

From Eliza Haywood to Anne Radcliffe, there are other great 18-century writers whose work would be great on screen.

by Amy Louise Blaney

https://theconversation.com/stop-adapting-jane-austen-five-other-18th-century-writers-perfect-for-the-screen-292178?utm_campaign=the-weekender-39582&utm_content=the-weekender-39582_uk%7C177%7C39582%7C225db897&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=Stop+adapting+Jane+Austen%21+Five+other+18th-century+writers+perfect+for+the+screen

Most of the books are available at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6124
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50054
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6053
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3268

#books #literature

Charlotte Lenox, Frances Burney and Eliza Haywood are three other female writers whose work is ripe for adaptation.

A monochrome miniature with elaborate updo hairstyle in a silver frame; a color painting of a woman in a large ribboned hat; and an engraved portrait in a decorative oval frame.

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76d

I pulled all my mother’s expectations
with me, like a child’s kite, giddy with stir
of spring…

—Lynn Valentine, “St Kilda Crossing”
from DON’T. EVEN. ASK. TOO. HOT.: New Writing Scotland 42 (ASL, 2024)

Today, 29 August, marks the 96th anniversary of the final evacuation of St Kilda.

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws42/11111

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #StKilda

ST KILDA CROSSING
by Lynn Valentine

I pulled all my mother’s expectations
with me, like a child’s kite, giddy with stir
of spring. Because she was cancer-cracked
I turned tourist by proxy, crouched into cleits
looking for leavings of last century.

I photographed fawn smallness of Soays
felt the crash of wind-whipped stacs,
my pockets salt-filled. I leant
on those islands as my mother leant on me,
filled my lungs with their breeze
and leaping green language of sea.

I tried to hold my breath for days,
took it back to my mother, exhaled
island air on her weakened frame –
whispered broken stories of birds and rain.

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53d

Why Willa Cather Is America’s Most Underrated Storyteller

The renowned author built her career telling stories about the people who carved a life for themselves in the brutal landscape of the Great Plains.

https://www.thecollector.com/willa-cather-underrated-storyteller/

Cather at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/22

#books #literature

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53d

Chalk Scribblers: Meet the Author
7 October, 7–9pm BST, free online

An evening with leading science-fiction novelist Charles Stross @cstross

Charlie will open with a reading from his latest novel, The Regicide Report, which concludes The Laundry Files which started in 2006 with The Atrocity Archives.

@bookstodon

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/chalk-scribblers-meet-the-author-charles-stross-tickets-2000172679327

#Scottish #literature #scifi #sciencefiction #CharlesStross #LaundryFiles

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53d

Call it not vain:—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies…

—from Canto V, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” by Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) – died #OTD, 21 September

https://www.theotherpages.org/poems/canto05.html

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WalterScott #19thcentury #romanticism

Sir Walter Scott
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
Canto V

I.
Call it not vain;—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies:
Who say, tall cliff and cavern lone
For the departed Bard make moan;
That mountains weep in crystal rill;
That flowers in tears of balm distill;
Through his lov'd groves that breezes sigh,
And oaks, in deeper groan, reply;
And rivers teach their rushing wave
To murmur dirges round his grave

II.
Not that, in sooth, o'er mortal urn
Those things inanimate can mourn;
But that the stream, the wood, the gale
Is vocal with the plaintive wail
Of those, who, else forgotten long,
Liv'd in the poet's faithful song,
And with the poet's parting breath,
Whose memory feels a second death.
The Maid's pale shade, who wails her lot,
That love, true love, should be forgot,
From rose and hawthorn shakes the tear
Upon the gentle Minstrel's bier:
The phantom Knight, his glory fled,
Mourns o'er the field he heap'd with dead;
Mounts the wild blast that sweeps amain,
And shrieks along the battle-plain.
The Chief, whose antique crownlet long
Still sparkled in the feudal song,
Now, from the mountain's misty throne,
Sees, in the thanedom once his own,
His ashes undistinguish'd lie,
His place, his power, his memory die:
His groans the lonely caverns fill,
His tears of rage impel the rill:
All mourn the Minstrel's harp unstrung,
Their name unknown, their praise unsung.

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53d

The Battle of Prestonpans was fought #OTD, 21 September 1745. The first major engagement in the Jacobite rebellion, Prestonpans was a stunning victory for the (mostly Highland) troops under Charles Edward Stuart. The song “Johnnie Cope”, composed very shortly afterwards, probably by Adam Skirving, exists in numerous versions & arrangements – including one by Beethoven – but it is originally a pipe tune.

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#Scottish #literature #bagpipes #music #song #18thcentury #Jacobite #battle

Jonnie Cope

Second Set

To the foregoing air

Cope sent a challenge frae Dunbar,
Sayin “Charlie meet me an’ ye daur;
An’ I’ll learn ye the airts o’ war,
If ye’ll meet me in the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin’ yet?
Or are your drums a-beating yet?
If ye were waukin’ I wad wait,
Tae gang tae the coals i’ the morning.

When Charlie looked the letter upon,
He drew his sword its scabbard from,
“Come, follow me, my merry men,
And we’ll meet Johnnie Cope i’ the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Now Johnnie, be as gude’s as your word,
Come, let us try baith fire and sword,
And dinna flee like a frighted bird,
That’s chas’d frae its nest i’ the morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

When Johnnie Cope he heard o’ this,
He thought it wadna be amiss
To have a horse in readiness,
To flee awa i’ the morning.
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Fy now, Johnnie, get up an’ rin;
The Highland bagpipes make a din,
It’s best to sleep in a hale skin,
For ’twill be a bluidie morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

When Johnnie Cope to Dunbar came,
They speer’d at him, “Where’s a’ your men?”
“The de’il confound me gin I ken,
For I left them a’ this morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“Now Johnnie, troth ye wasna blate,
Tae come wi’ the news o’ your ain defeat,
And leave your men in sic a strait,
Sae early in the morning.
Hey! Johnnie Cope, &c.

“I’faith”, quo’ Johnnie, “I got a fleg
Wi’ their claymores an’ philabegs,
If I face them again, deil break my legs,
So I wish you a gude-morning.”
Hey! Johnnie Cope, are ye waukin’ yet?
Or are your drums a-beating yet?
If ye were waukin’ I wad wait,
Tae gang tae the coals i’ the morning.

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75d

What Is the Plot of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland?

Lewis Carroll’s beloved 1865 children’s book Alice in Wonderland has been adapted repeatedly for film and stage. The original plot explores the collapse of logic, authority, and identity, culminating in her self-realization and return home.

by Lauren Jones

https://www.thecollector.com/plot-of-lewis-carroll-alice-in-wonderland/

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Alice%27s+Adventures+in+Wonderland

#books #literature

It grunted again so violently that she looked down into its face in some alarm.

Title: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Author: Lewis Carroll

Contributor: Austin Dobson

Illustrator: Arthur Rackham

Alice holds the "pig-baby," the infant that the Duchess hands to her which then transforms into a piglet.

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75d

“…my habitual residence was on the blank and dreary northern shores of the Tay, near Dundee…”
—Mary Shelley, introduction to FRANKENSTEIN (1831 edn)

Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was born #OTD, 30 August. Prof Daniel Cook examines why Scotland mattered so much to Mary Shelley, & considers Shelley’s position in the Scottish Gothic tradition

@litstudies

https://www.nls.uk/papercut/mary-shelley-and-the-scottish-gothic-tradition/

#Scottish #literature #gothic #horror #Dundee #MaryShelley #Frankenstein #FrankensteinDay

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75d

The blind man did not hate me.
I saw him through the window,
through the rippling circle my own
hot breath had melted
in the spiky flowers of the frost…

—Liz Lochhead, “2. What the Creature Said”, from DREAMING FRANKENSTEIN & Collected Poems 1967–1984 (Birlinn, 2011)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/dreaming-frankenstein-2/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Frankenstein #FrankensteinDay

Liz Lochhead
from Dreaming Frankenstein

2. What the Creature Said

The blind man did not hate me.
I saw him through the window,
through the rippling circle my own
hot breath had melted
in the spiky flowers of the frost.

I was exhausted,
imagine it. Midwinter. Mountains.
Forest. Dragging my bad leg
over iron ground, impossible passes,
pained by that fleshwound where
that villager's silver bullet
grazed me.

There he was, bent
above the hot soup, supping
his solitude from a bone spoon.
And when my single rap
at the glass spun him full face
towards me, mild as a cat,
my heart stopped but oh
he did not flinch

Then I saw his
milky eyes stared right through me,
unblinking, and he fumbled
oddly forward to meet me at the latch.
I lifted it and entered,
sure that I found a friend.

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51d

The two Scottish female novelists who outsold and inspired Jane Austen

by Cleo O'Callaghan Yeoman

They are practically unknown today, but Susan Ferrier and Mary Brunton gave Jane Austen a run for her money.

https://theconversation.com/the-two-scottish-female-novelists-who-outsold-and-inspired-jane-austen-290405?utm_campaign=the-daily-39638&utm_content=the-daily-39638_uk%7C2%7C39638%7C41ea8a7e&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=The+two+Scottish+female+novelists+who+outsold+and+inspired+Jane+Austen

Books by Susan Ferrier and Mary Brunton at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/4487
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/39506

#books #literature

Scottish novelist Susan Ferrier; from an engraving after the 1836 portrait by R. Thorburn.

Portrait of Ferrier shown wearing an elaborate lace-trimmed bonnet and a dark dress with embroidered collar, holding what appears to be a locket or watch on a chain.

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Portrait of Mary Brunton (1778-1818) from the 2nd edition (1820) of Emmeline.

She's shown with curled hair, a pearl necklace, and puffed-sleeve dress.

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75d

“Can a man ‘make’ a feminist? It is the final riddle of a mesmerising mind game in which not even the heroine, and certainly not the author, can be trusted”

Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel POOR THINGS was inspired by FRANKENSTEIN (& several other things)

https://alasdairgrayspace.net/who-is-alasdair-gray/poor-things

#Scottish #literature #MaryShelley #Frankenstein #FrankensteinDay

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75d

Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.

—Norman MacCaig, “Memorial”
from THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)

Today, 30 August, is Grief Awareness Day

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-poems-of-norman-maccaig/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #NormanMacCaig #grief #GriefAwarenessDay

Memorial
by Norman MacCaig

Everywhere she dies. Everywhere I go she dies.
No sunrise, no city square, no lurking beautiful mountain
but has her death in it.
The silence of her dying sounds through
the carousel of language, it's a web
on which laughter stitches itself. How can my hand
clasp another's when between them
is that thick death, that intolerable distance?

She grieves for my grief. Dying, she tells me
that bird dives from the sun, that fish
leaps into it. No crocus is carved more gently
than the way her dying
shapes my mind. – But I hear, too,
the other words,
black words that make the sound
of soundlessness, that name the nowhere
she is continuously going into.

Ever since she died
she can't stop dying. She makes me
her elegy. I am a walking masterpiece,
a true fiction
of the ugliness of death.
I am her sad music.

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53d

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress…

—Jackie Kay, “George Square”
published in LIFE MASK (Bloodaxe, 2005)

Today, 21 September, is the International Day of Peace

https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-day-peace

#Scottish #literature #peace #poem #poetry #InternationalDayofPeace

George Square
by Jackie Kay

My seventy-seven-year-old father
put his reading glasses on
to help my mother do the buttons
on the back of her dress.
‘What a pair the two of us are!’
my mother said, ‘Me with my sore wrist,
you with your bad eyes, your soft thumbs!’

And off they went, my two parents
to march against the war in Iraq,
him with his plastic hips, her with her arthritis
to congregate at George Square where the banners
waved at each other like old friends, flapping,
where they’d met for so many marches over their years,
for peace on earth, for pity’s sake, for peace, for peace.

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74d

40 Years On: Aberdeen, Enlightenment, & Global Legacies
15 Oct, in-person & online – free

A landmark 1986 gathering placed Aberdeen at the centre of Scottish Enlightenment studies. This event revisits that scholarship & explores new perspectives on Aberdeen’s intellectual, cultural, & global impact

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/40-years-on-aberdeen-enlightenment-and-global-legacies-online-tickets-1992760674822

#Scottish #literature #culture #culturalstudies #Enlightenment #ScottishEnlightenment #18thcentury #Aberdeen

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74d

How Dante & the Tuscan Vernacular Gave Birth to the Italian Language

Dante’s decision to write his 14th-century "The Divine Comedy" in Florentine vernacular, not in Latin, shaped the Italian language spoken by 60 million people today.

by Maria-Anita Ronchini

https://www.thecollector.com/dante-tuscan-vernacular-italian-language/

Books by Dante Alighieri at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/507

#books #literature #italian_language

Front page first edition Vocabolario della Crusca, Crusca's dictionary 1612.

This is a view of the title page — the "Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca", published "In Venezia MDCXII" (Venice, 1612) by Giovanni Alberti ("Appresso Giouanni Alberti").

The Accademia della Crusca's emblem shows a flour sifter/mill with a goat's head below and the motto banner reading "Il più bel fior ne coglie" ("it gathers the most beautiful flower"), a phrase drawn from Petrarch.

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74d

[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
W. S. Graham

Inscribed by W. S. Graham on the flyleaf of a copy of THE WHITE THRESHOLD belonging to Sheila Lanyon, widow of the painter Peter Lanyon. The poem is dated June 18, 1966 & the “second summer” referred to is the second since her husband’s death, after a gliding accident, on August 31, 1964.

Published in POETRY, January 2018

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/145185/to-sheila-lanyon-on-the-flyleaf-of-a-book

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #WSGraham

[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
BY W. S. Graham

Sheila, we speak here on the fly
Leaf of a book which was myself
A good few graves ago.
Now I am maintained by other
Words for better or for worse
To whisper my hello.

The seasons turn. Threshold on thresh
Hold forms continually and falls
Under grief’s lonely hammer.
What did you say? I thought between
These fly leaf words I heard you speak
Out of your Second Summer.

The summer chimes and turns its blue
Dragon-flying eyes to see
We two are not afraid.
Hello, Sheila, I can hear
Your breath on the other side of the word
And see you turn your head.

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74d

On the Fact and Fiction of Kurt Vonnegut’s Dresden

“Terror wasn’t the only weapon the Nazis used against the American prisoners. Sometimes, they used propagandistic persuasion as well.”

Susan Farrell Considers a Source of Inspiration for Slaughterhouse-Five

https://lithub.com/on-the-fact-and-fiction-of-kurt-vonneguts-dresden/

Books about Dresden at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/33537

#books #literature

Fig. 30. Red steps in Meissen.
Based on a photograph by Römmler & Jonas in Dresden.

Title: Dresden und die Sächsische Schweiz

Author: Sophus Ruge

A black-and-white photograph of Dresden, showing a 'townscape of old half-timbered and stone buildings with steep tiled roofs, narrow winding streets, and a church spire visible in the background. A stone retaining wall runs along the lower left.

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74d

Bookings are officially open for Rutherglen’s first-ever Book Festival. Taking place from 29 October to 21 November – with a special additional event on 7 December – the festival brings together author talks, readings, conversations, storytelling & creative workshops.

All events are FREE, but places are limited – explore the programme and book your favourites now!

https://rutherglen900.com/event/rutherglen-book-festival/

#Scottish #literature #books #bookfestival #Rutherglen

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22d

The Scrutiny of Clara Barton, Heroine or Not?

by Jared Marrotte

https://blogs.library.duke.edu/rubenstein/2026/10/13/the-scrutiny-of-clara-barton-heroine-or-not/

Books by and about Clara Barton at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34455
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/30195

#books #literature

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The title page of “The Red Cross in Peace and War” by Clara Barton, published by American Historical Press in 1906. Red lettering sits in ruled boxes, with crossed Red Cross and American flags above a small nurse’s cap emblem.

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52d

Forgotten Mozart notebook reveals how a young woman learned to compose

The notebook preserves something that composer-centred histories often miss: the musical work taking place around Mozart, in this case by a young woman.

by Stacy Olive Jarvis

https://theconversation.com/forgotten-mozart-notebook-reveals-how-a-young-woman-learned-to-compose-292028?utm_campaign=the-daily-39618&utm_content=the-daily-39618_uk%7C2%7C39618%7C2e2a394b&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_term=Forgotten+Mozart+notebook+reveals+how+a+young+woman+learned+to+compose

Original article:
https://www.bnf.fr/en/actualitesEN/discovery-unpublished-autograph-manuscript-mozart-bnf-music-department

Books by Mozart at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1368

#books #literature #music #womencomposers

Posthumous portrait of Mozart (1756–91); commissioned by Joseph Sonnleithner (1776–1835) for the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society for the Friends of Music) in Vienna.

Mozart wears a powdered wig and an ornate red coat with gold-embroidered trim and lace jabot, set against a dark background.

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52d

My new essay about Samuel Johnson

I am unashamed to call him a great man, to say that he is my hero. I can never write of him without strong feeling.

by Karen Swallow Prior and Henry Oliver

https://karenswallowprior.substack.com/p/samuel-johnson-a-writer-for-us-all

Books by Samuel Johnson at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/297

#books #literature #literaryCriticism

Johnson (1775) showing his intense concentration and the weakness of his eyes; he did not want to be depicted as "Blinking Sam". This unique portrait showing his nearsightedness is in the Huntington Library in San Marino, California.

Johnson is shown reading intently, holding a bundle of papers close to his face—likely referencing his poor eyesight—wearing a burgundy velvet coat and powdered wig, set within an oval frame.

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51d

He was probably right

Cicero’s life and thought are a testament to the idea of probabilia: we should be confident in our beliefs, but never certain

by Massimo Pigliucci

https://aeon.co/essays/a-good-sceptic-has-more-than-doubt-and-less-than-certainty?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=ecce64c403-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_09_07_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

Books by Cicero at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/128

#books #literature

Cicero at His Villa at Tusculum by J. M. W. Turner, 1839.

A hazy, golden Italianate landscape with cypress trees, terraced gardens, and figures on a balustraded path overlooking a distant hilltop town.

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52d

Taobh a-muigh na h-uinneag-sa
tha an canal cho trang sa bhitheas e.
Tha na lachan, na cearcan-uisge
’s na faoileagan uile cha mhòr air fàs a-nis,
na h-iteagan aca laidir is grinn gu leòr
gus teicheadh air sgiath…

—Pàdraig MacAoidh, “Crann-cuinnse”

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/crann-cuinnse/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #autumn

Crann-cuinnse
Pàdraig MacAoidh

Taobh a-muigh na h-uinneag-sa
tha an canal cho trang sa bhitheas e.
Tha na lachan, na cearcan-uisge
’s na faoileagan uile cha mhòr air fàs a-nis,
na h-iteagan aca laidir is grinn gu leòr
gus teicheadh air sgiath. Tha am bliadhna
a’ tionndadh, ma-thà, agus sluagh nam fèisean
a’ lìonadh nan treànaichean ’s nan itealan
agus a’ toirt dhachaigh an cuid dannsa
agus gaireachdainn, ceòl agus dìbhearsain.
Measgachadh de leantainneachd
agus caochladh – na bhios a’ ruith agus a’ stad.
Dè dhèanamaid leis a’ chaochladh seo,
a’ chlach, an uisge, an fhoghair san adhar?
Cò aig a tha fios? Ach seall –
tha na druidean-dubha air tilleadh, a’ lìonadh
a’ chrainn-cuinnse, a’ feitheamh air biadh.

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Quince Tree
Peter Mackay

Outside the window the canal
is as busy as it ever is. The ducks,
the waterhens, the seagulls are all fledged,
their wings strong, elegant enough
to take flight. The year is turning, then,
and the crowds from the festivals
fill the trains and planes, taking home
their dancing and laughter, music and distraction.
A mix of continuity and flux, what flows
and what remains. What should we do
with this change, these cycles, this stone
and water, this autumn in the air?
Who knows? It doesn’t really matter.
Look, the starlings have returned,
filling the quince tree, waiting to be fed.

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73d

A 🎂 🧵 for Violet Jacob (1863–1946) – poet, novelist, short story writer, & key figure in the 20th-century Scottish renaissance & Scots language revival – born #OTD, 1 September

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https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/violet-jacob

#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #19thCentury #20thcentury #WomenWriters #VioletJacob

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52d

The moon is thin and poised like a curlew’s beak–
all bone. Hanging over the ocean, the abbey.
We watch the sea birds being swept by the wind
and I try to tell you about all my life you’ve missed.
There are still so many sentences I can’t reach…

—Roshni Gallagher, “The Whitby”

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/the-whitby/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #slavery

The Whitby
Roshni Gallagher

The moon is thin and poised like a curlew’s beak—
all bone. Hanging over the ocean, the abbey.
We watch the sea birds being swept by the wind
and I try to tell you about all my life you’ve missed.
There are still so many sentences I can’t reach.

I know that out on the water, welcomed home,
is a replica of the ship they took my ancestors in—
to sugar plantations for former slave owners.
The Whitby, sailing from India to the Caribbean,
a stale silence blowing in off the water to greet her.

Coming back here is like mutely looking down
on my own odd body as it moves without me.
Nothing is familiar. This loved, blank cliff
is a memorial stone with the names bleached out.

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