Yesterday, I was reading Shklovsky and stumbled upon this unexpectedly chilling short text. I translated it for you (although I just googled that the book itself *is* available in English, if you decide to read it from start to finish).
"To Sarraguce I go, and know full well
Who thither goes, may ne'er return."
Chanson de Roland
French literary historian Léon Gautier died #OTD in 1897.
Gautier rendered great services to the study of early French literature, the most important of his numerous works on medieval subjects being a critical text with translation and introduction of the Chanson de Roland, and Les Épopées françaises.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Gautier_(historian)
La Chanson de Roland at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23819
Outlaw, fiddler, & folk hero James Macpherson (c.1675–1700) was hanged #OTD, 16 November, for being Romani. Prior to his execution Macpherson composed his famous “Rant”. Macpherson sang this lament on the gallows & smashed his fiddle before meeting his fate
1/7
#Scottish #literature #history #18thcentury #earlymodern #Romani #poem #poetry #song #folksong
Don Roberto: the Adventure of Being Cunninghame Graham
18 Nov, Carnoustie – free
Jamie Jauncey talks about his extraordinary great-great-uncle Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham – traveller, adventurer, politician, writer, etc. etc. – & asks why RBCG is so overlooked today
Elspeth Barker (1940–2022) was born #OTD, 16 Nov
Maggie O’Farrell called Barker’s classic O CALEDONIA “one of those books you proselytize about… I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named [it] as her favourite book”
A 🎂🧵
1/4
https://lithub.com/maggie-ofarrell-on-elspeth-barkers-modern-scottish-classic-o-caledonia/
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #comingofage
In his latest novel YOUR LIFE WITHOUT ME, published by @canongatebooks, James Meek examines the unpredictable links between personal trauma, family dysfunction & political violence. He & Lara Pawson discuss the book on the London Review of Books bookshop podcast
Smoke in the woods
like someone walking in a silent film
beside the tracks…
—John Burnside, “Signal Stop, Near Horsley”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Cape, 2006)
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/389400/selected-poems-by-burnside-john/9780224078030
#OTD in 1921.
The Cervantes Theatre (Buenos Aires) opens with a production of Lope de Vega's La dama boba (The Foolish Lady, 1613). It is one of the earliest examples of the "comedia palatina" subgenre. De Vega completed it on 28 April 1613, as shown by a surviving manuscript copy in his own hand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_dama_boba
Books by Lope Vega at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/25752
Why Tolkien thought “sub-creation” was the secret to great fantasy and science fiction
According to Tolkien, fantasy requires a deep imagination known as “sub-creation.” And the genre reflects a fundamental truth of being human.
By Jonny Thomson
https://bigthink.com/mini-philosophy/tolkien-fantasy-science-fiction/
Fantasy books at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/138
The St Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at University of St Andrews Wardlaw Museum from 21 November to 7 December
#Scottish #literature #history #16thcentury #manuscript #BookHistory
An End to Kings, 1776
by Jack Kelly
"Author Jack Kelly of Tom Paine’s War shares with The History Reader the crucial role Thomas Paine (author of Common Sense) played in encouraging Americans to overthrow King George in 1776."
"Common Sense" at PG:
"It is a stern fact of history that no nation that rushed to the abyss ever turned back. Not ever, in the long history of the world. We are now on the edge of the abyss. Can we, for the first time in history, turn back? It is up to you."
~Taylor Caldwell (September 7, 1900 – August 30, 1985)
"The sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and hope."
#OTD in 1844.
Alexandre Dumas père's near-recent historical adventure story Le Comte de Monte-Cristo begins serialization in the Paris newspaper Journal des débats, and continues through to January 1846. Book publication also begins this year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Count_of_Monte_Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Le+Comte+de+Monte-Cristo&submit_search=Go%21
What are you going to do
With what is left of yourself
Now among the rustling
Of your maybe best years?
—WS Graham, “An Entertainment for WS Graham for Him Having Reached Sixty-Five”
The Modernist romantic poet W.S. Graham (1918–1986) was born #OTD, 19 November
A 🎂 🧵
1/7
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham
Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference
17 January, University of Glasgow – £25 (includes tea, coffee, lunch, & a toast)
A day conference exploring the life, work, & legacy of Robert Burns.This year, the conference theme is the Burns Supper: a global phenomenon that celebrates its 225th anniversary in 2026.
@litstudies
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for-robert-burns-studies-conference-tickets-1851549627779
#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #18thcentury #poetry #song #romanticism #BurnsSupper
“The Crocodile,” Dostoevsky’s Weirdest Short Story.
Why being eaten by a crocodile named Little Karl is really a lesson in the dangers of foreign capital.
By: Emily Zarevich via @JSTOR_Daily
https://daily.jstor.org/the-crocodile-dostoevskys-weirdest-short-story/
In The Defense, Nabokov’s language is, as always, rich, sharp, and full of vivid imagery and wordplay.
The characters, however, feel strangely soulless and do not inspire sympathy. It even seems that the author treats them with a kind of superiority bordering on contempt.
#Nabokov #TheDefense #books #reading #bookreview #book #bookstodon @bookstodon #literature #novel #booksky #amreading #chess #readingcommunity #BookTok #Bookwyrm #bookish #booklovers #readers #review
Creative Conversations: Rachelle Atalla
9 March, University of Glasgow – free
The perfect escape. The perfect nightmare.
Rachelle Atalla discusses her unsettling, creepy, & claustrophobic novel, THE SALT FLATS
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creative-conversations-rachelle-atalla-tickets-1984284674878
American activist and author Jane Addams died #OTD in 1935.
Addams co-founded Hull House, one of America's most famous settlement houses, in Chicago, Illinois, providing extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. In 1910, Addams was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University, becoming the first woman to receive an honorary degree from the school.
Books by Jane Addams at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/602
A liuthad soitheach a dh’fhàg ar dùthaich
le sgiathan geala a’ toirt Chanada orra.
Tha iad mar neapaigearan ’nar cuimhne
’s an sàl mar dheoirean,
’s anns na croinn aca seòladairean a’ seinn
mar eòin air gheugan.
—Iain Mac a’ Ghobhainn, “Na h-Eilthirich” (Iain Crichton Smith, “The Exiles”)
published in Nua-Bhardachd Gaidhlig / Modern Scottish Gaelic Poems, @canongatebooks 1999
https://canongate.co.uk/books/193-modern-scottish-gaelic-poems-a-bilingual-anthology/
#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #Clearances #emigration #exile
I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An’ fellow-mortal!
—Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785”
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #RobertBurns #Scots #Scotlsanguage #environmentalism #naturewriting #18thCentury #Romanticism #November #winter
#OTD in 1911.
Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, writing as "Guillaume Apollinaire", is suspected in the theft of the Mona Lisa and a number of Egyptian statuettes from the Louvre museum in Paris on August 21 and imprisoned for six days. This year he publishes his first book of poetry, Le Bestiaire ou Cortège d'Orphée.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillaume_Apollinaire
Books by Guillaume Apollinaire at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/6075
American poet and playwright Georgia Douglas Johnson was born #OTD in 1880.
Her first collection of poetry, "The Heart of a Woman" (1918), was one of the earliest books of poetry published by a Black woman in the United States. Her second volume, "Bronze" (1922), focuses more explicitly on racial issues, delving into the experiences of Black Americans and the injustices they faced in society.
Spanish writer Francisco Gómez de Quevedo y Villegas died #OTD in 1645.
Along with his lifelong rival, Luis de Góngora, Quevedo was one of the most prominent Spanish poets of the age. His style is characterized by what was called conceptismo. This style existed in stark contrast to Góngora's culteranismo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_de_Quevedo
Books by Francisco de Quevedo at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/35792
"Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience."
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (ed. 1793)
British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights Mary Wollstonecraft was born #OTD in 1759. In "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792), Wollstonecraft argued that women are not naturally inferior to men but appear so only because of a lack of education.
Books by Mary Wollstonecraft at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/84
![THE RED ELEPHANT
The red elephant, my son's toy, you'll be the first invited into my book, so all the other wouldn't be vain.
The red elephant squeaks and whines. All the rubber toys should be squeaking; otherwise why would the air come out of them.
So, despite the writings of [Alfred] Brehm, the red elephant squeaks and whines. And I'm writing in my nest high above Arbat street.
A rare bird would reach me without losing its breath. My nest broke my habit of long breaths.
My son is laughing.
He laughed when he saw the horse for the first time. He thought that it made itself four legs and a long face as a joke.
We all manufactured in different shapes, but we all have the same voice if we're squeezed.
— Move aside, red elephant. I want to see life without a jest and to tell it something with my voice through the squeaker.
This is the end of a feuilleton.
VICTOR SHKLOVSKY. THIRD FACTORY (1926)](/proxy/post_attachment/931946/ff38e62322.png "THE RED ELEPHANT
The red elephant, my son's toy, you'll be the first invited into my book, so all the other wouldn't be vain.
The red elephant squeaks and whines. All the rubber toys should be squeaking; otherwise why would the air come out of them.
So, despite the writings of [Alfred] Brehm, the red elephant squeaks and whines. And I'm writing in my nest high above Arbat street.
A rare bird would reach me without losing its breath. My nest broke my habit of long breaths.
My son is laughing.
He laughed when he saw the horse for the first time. He thought that it made itself four legs and a long face as a joke.
We all manufactured in different shapes, but we all have the same voice if we're squeezed.
— Move aside, red elephant. I want to see life without a jest and to tell it something with my voice through the squeaker.
This is the end of a feuilleton.
VICTOR SHKLOVSKY. THIRD FACTORY (1926)")
![Title : Journal des débats politiques et littéraires
Publisher : [s.n.] (Paris)
Publication date : 1844-08-28
Relationship : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb3929](/proxy/post_attachment/339977/cc2859eba6.jpeg "Title : Journal des débats politiques et littéraires
Publisher : [s.n.] (Paris)
Publication date : 1844-08-28
Relationship : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb3929")
