A Lost Chapter Of The World’s First Novel Discovered In A Japanese Home
It's one of 54 chapters from a transcription of The Tale of Genji, written in the 11th century.
By Natasha Ishak
The Tale Of Genji at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=The+Tale+Of+Genji
New College Festival of Books & Belief
7–8 November, Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh’s New College Festival of Books & Belief invites speakers & writers from the UK & beyond to explore the relationship between literature & all aspects of belief.
The fifth Festival will be held on 7–8 November 2025 – see link for programme
Well Versed Author Event: Imtiaz Dharker
15 Oct, online – free
A poetry reading & audience Q&A with Imtiaz Dharker, part of Open Book’s Well Versed series in partnership with StAnza International Poetry Festival
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/well-versed-author-event-imtiaz-dharker-tickets-1729406705009
BANNED BOOKS WEEK
5–11 October 2025
Tom Leonard’s 1984 poetry collection INTIMATE VOICES was banned in Scotland’s Central Region school libraries. The Education Committee said
“There are some harmful words in it … Sometimes the naked truth has to be clothed”
But Leonard had anticipated this sort of reaction…
1/3
#Scottish #literature #BannedBooksWeek #censorship #poem #poetry #TomLeonard
In the latest Scots Whay Hae! podcast, Graeme Macrae Burnet discusses his new novella BENBECULA, the gothic tradition, how historical fiction speaks to the present day, & how BENBECULA links to HIS BLOODY PROJECT, Graeme’s Booker-shortlisted 2016 novel
https://www.scotswhayhae.com/post/dark-isle-the-scots-whay-hae-podcast-talks-to-graeme-macrae-burnet
#Scottish #literature #gothic #historicalfiction #CrimeFiction
“Ending badly from the beginning”: facing finitude with Robert Louis Stevenson
8 October, University of Edinburgh & online – free
What does it mean to live – and to write – well, through experiences of illness and in the shadow of death? An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar from Dr Shari Sabeti
#Scottish #literature #RobertLouisStevenson #Samoa #illness #culturalstudies #death
English writer of children's stories Juliana Horatia Ewing died #OTD in 1885.
Ewing's writing career began in the late 1860s, and she quickly gained recognition for her charming and insightful stories that often featured children and their adventures. Some of Ewing's most popular works include "Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances" (1869), "Six to Sixteen: A Story for Girls" (1875), and "Jackanapes" (1884).
Books by Juliana Horatia Ewing at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1803
Noo Maunsie’s wis as guid a tongue
As ever psalm o’ Dauvid sung.
It fittit weel a godly mooth,
And said few wirds ’at wirna truth,
An’ never swöre by Guid or Deil
Excep’ whan kyunnens ate his kail…
—from “Auld Maunsie’s Crü” by B.R. Anderson (1861–1888), in Broken Lights: Poems & Reminiscences of the Late Basil Ramsay Anderson (1888) – republished in 2021 by Northus Shetland Classics
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #Shetland #Scotstober #poem #poetry
“She dies from never having experienced a love of her own volition.”
German writer Margarete Böhme was born #OTD in 1867.
She is best known for her controversial and highly successful novel, "Tagebuch einer Verlorenen", first published in 1905. It purportedly tells the true story of Thymian, a young woman forced by circumstance into a life of prostitution. A movie was made based on this book (Tabea, stehe auf! 1922).
Books by Margarete Böhme at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Margarete+B%C3%B6hme&submit_search=Go%21
French poet, dramatist, and novelist Jean Aicard died #OTD in 1921.
He was associated with the Parnassian movement, which emphasized formalism, craftsmanship, and the use of classical mythology and historical themes in poetry. He was also a prolific playwright and novelist. One of Aicard's most famous works is the novel "Le Roi de Camargue" (The King of Camargue), was published in 1872.
Books by Jean Aicard at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6209
“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
Carl Jung
#quotes #quote #quoteoftheday #quotesoftheday #Jung #CarlJung #reading #readers #chemistry #psychology #psyche #psychologie #books #nonfiction #bookish #literature #literatura #literatur #bookstodon @bookstodon #booksky #BookTalk #BookTok #Bookwyrm #book #psychoanalysis #bookstadon #readingcommunity #social #personalgrowth #contacts
“Feindre d’ignorer ce qu’on sait, de savoir tout ce que l’on ignore... voilà toute la politique.”
Le Mariage de Figaro (1778)
French polymath cha died #OTD in 1799.
He is best known for his classic plays, particularly "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro," which form part of the Figaro trilogy. These works were adapted into famous operas by Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart respectively.
Books by Pierre Beaumarchais at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7962
British mathematician, logician, philosopher, & public intellectual Bertrand Russell was born #OTD in 1872.
One of Russell's most significant achievements is the co-authorship of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-1913) with Alfred North Whitehead. His works, such as "The Problems of Philosophy" (1912) & "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914), explored issues related to knowledge, perception, & the scientific method.
Books by Bertrand Russell at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/355
American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne died #OTD in 1864.
Hawthorne's early career was marked by relative obscurity. He self-published his first work, a novel titled "Fanshawe," in 1828, but later sought to suppress it. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, he wrote numerous short stories and sketches which were later collected in volumes such as "Twice-Told Tales" (1837, 1842).
Books by Nathaniel Hawthorne at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/28
"Destiny stands behind people, veiled in a veil of mystery, and in her hand she holds a quiver with a thousand events..."
Gloria Victis
Polish novelist Eliza Orzeszkowa died #OTD in 1810.
Orzeszkowa was a leading writer of the Positivism movement during foreign Partitions of Poland. In 1905, together with Henryk Sienkiewicz, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Books by Eliza Orzeszkowa at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/9367
Aifter the boombers cleck
and the sodgers traik thro the skau
there’s an auld air sterts up –
bubblin and greetin.
It’s a ballant mithers sing
on their hunkers i the stour
for a bairn deid.
They ken it by hert.
—Alastair Mackie, “Pietà”
published in The Golden Treasury of Scottish Verse, @canongatebooks, 2021
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #poem #poetry #warpoem #warpoetry
The Maud Sulter Annual Lecture
31 October, Glasgow School of Art – free
Pratibha Parmar met Maud Sulter in the mid 1980’s when many outside the mainstream arts establishment were committed to growing a vibrant Black women’s arts movement. Parmar will talk about these foundational moments in dialogue with Sulter’s work & their reverberations today.
https://womenslibrary.org.uk/event/the-maud-sulter-annual-lecture-with-pratibha-palmar/
#Scottish #literature #poetry #photography #film #movingimage #art #MaudSulter #womensart #Blackwomen
Dutch poet, literary critic, & essayist Albert Verwey was born #OTD in 1865.
Verwey was a central figure in the Dutch literary movement known as the Tachtigers, which sought to revolutionize Dutch poetry by emphasizing individualism, emotion, and innovative language and form. The Tachtigers rejected the conventional poetic styles & themes of their time, advocating for a more personal and introspective approach to poetry.
Books by Albert Verwey at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/38843
“THE DYNAMITER is a hugely inventive & brilliant book, at once a political thriller, a blackly comic satire, & a female adventure”
Robert Louis Stevenson & Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne married #OTD, 19 May, 1880. In this article, Prof Penny Fielding explores the dangerous #collaboration between RLS & his wife: granting female agency on the page & in life
#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson #WomenWriters #humour
https://dangerouswomenproject.org/2017/01/06/a-dangerous-collaboration/
#OTD in 1916.
Natsume Sōseki's novel Light and Darkness (明暗, Mei An) begins to be serialized in the Tokyo and Osaka editions of the newspaper Asahi Shimbun, but will remain unfinished at the author's death on December 9, aged 49.
Works by Natsume Sōseki at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2905
British poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans died #OTD in 1835.
Some of her most famous poems include "Casabianca," which begins with the memorable line "The boy stood on the burning deck," and "The Homes of England," which celebrates the virtues of home and family. Hemans also wrote historical and romantic poetry, drawing inspiration from literature, history, and mythology.
Books by or about Felicia Hemans at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Felicia+Hemans&submit_search=Go%21
#OTD in 1926.
C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien first meet in Oxford.
Both men served on the English faculty at Oxford University and were active in the informal Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. The Inklings were literary enthusiasts who praised the value of narrative in fiction and encouraged the writing of fantasy.
C.S. Lewis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/782
J.R.R. Tolkien at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/42379
"There is an ideal standard somewhere and only that matters and I cannot find it. Hence the aimlessness."
The Letters of T.E. Lawrence
British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer T. E. Lawrence died #OTD in 1935.
He is famously known as "Lawrence of Arabia" due to his extraordinary role in the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
T. E. Lawrence as a translator at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/65161
French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac was born #OTD in 1799.
He is best known for his magnum opus, "La Comédie Humaine", a vast collection of interlinked novels and stories that provide a detailed panorama of French society in the first half of the 19th century. The series is divided into three major parts: "Études de Mœurs", "Études Philosophiques", and "Études Analytiques".
Books by Honoré de Balzac at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/251
Danish-born Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset was born #OTD in 1882.
Born in Denmark and raised in Norway, Undset had her first books of historical fiction published in 1907. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945.
Books by Sigrid Undset at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35742
