Eggplant.place

48d

Think you know Hans Christian Andersen? Four experts pick his weirdest fairy tales to read this Christmas

By Ane Grum-Schwensen, Holger Berg, Jacob Bøggild and Sarah Bienko Eriksen

https://theconversation.com/think-you-know-hans-christian-andersen-four-experts-pick-his-weirdest-fairy-tales-to-read-this-christmas-270725?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2015%202025%20-%203618036937&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20December%2015%202025%20-%203618036937+CID_56e9e58f2a4c2b638ff45c2b60003d5f&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=Think%20you%20know%20Hans%20Christian%20Andersen%20Four%20experts%20pick%20his%20weirdest%20fairy%20tales%20to%20read%20this%20Christmas

Andersen at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/2298

#books #literature

The superstitious mother was an archetype, but Andersen’s depiction is shaped by memories of his own mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter. Illustration by Lorenz Frölich. The Hans Christian Andersen Centre.

This illustration by Lorenz Frölich depicts a scene from Hans Christian Andersen's writing, showing the archetype of the superstitious mother - a characterization influenced by Andersen's own mother, Anne Marie Andersdatter. The historical artwork is held at The Hans Christian Andersen Centre and represents the personal biographical elements that shaped Andersen's literary work.

https://hca.sdu.dk/tales/index.html

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27d

it wis January
and a gey dreich day
the first day Ah went to the school…

—Liz Lochhead, “Kidspoem/Bairnsang”
published in A CHOOSING: The Selected Poems of Liz Lochhead (Polygon, 2017)

https://birlinn.co.uk/product/a-choosing/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #scots #language #MinorityLanguages

Kidspoem/Bairnsang
Liz Lochhead

it wis January
and a gey dreich day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood
birled a scarf aroon ma neck
pu’ed oan ma pixie an my pawkies
it wis that bitter
said noo ye’ll no starve
gie’d me a wee kiss and a kid-oan skelp oan the bum
and sent me aff across the playground
tae the place Ah’d learn to say
it was January
and a really dismal day
the first day I went to school
so my mother wrapped me up in my
best navy-blue top coat with the red tartan hood
twirled a scarf around my neck
pulled on my bobble-hat and mittens
it was so bitterly cold
said now you won’t freeze to death
gave me a little kiss and a pretend slap on the bottom
and sent me off across the playground
to the place I’d learn to forget to say
it wis January
and a gey dreich day
the first day Ah went to the school
so my Mum happed me up in ma
good navy-blue napp coat wi the rid tartan hood
birled a scarf aroon ma neck
pu’ed oan ma pixie an ma pawkies
it wis that bitter.

Oh saying it was one thing
but when it came to writing it
in black and white
the way it had to be said
was as if you were posh, grown-up, male, English and dead.

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1y

English poet and novelist Letitia Elizabeth Landon died #OTD in 1838.

Her first major breakthrough came with The Improvisatrice and thence she developed the metrical romance towards the Victorian ideal of the Victorian monologue, influencing fellow English writers such as Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson and Christina Rossetti.

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

Books about Letitia Elizabeth Landon at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/56166

#books #literature #poetry

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838); variation of the original painting by Daniel Maclise.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (L.E.L.) was a renowned English poet and novelist of the early 19th century, known for her Romantic works. In the portrait by Daniel Maclise, she is depicted with a delicate and refined appearance, typical of Romantic portraiture of the time. The original shows her seated gracefully, with soft curls framing her face, gazing thoughtfully into the distance. Her attire consists of elegant 19th-century clothing, with rich textures and details.

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1y

#OTD in 1858.

The farce Our American Cousin by the English playwright Tom Taylor is first performed at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City, with the American Joe Jefferson in the title rôle and the English actor Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.

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

Our American Cousin at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3158

#books #literature #theatre

Photograph of Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.

Unknown author - http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/chatterbox/2009/02/our_american_cousin_revisited.html

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27d

Dictionary of the Oldest Written Language–It Took 90 Years to Complete, and It’s Now Free Online

https://www.openculture.com/2026/01/dictionary-of-the-oldest-written-language-free-online.html#google_vignette

#books #literature #language

Reading glasses on top of an open dictionary

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1y

#OTD in 1892.

The first collection of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories from The Strand Magazine (June 1891–June 1892), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, is published by George Newnes in London; it includes Doyle's favourite, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band", which was originally published in February.

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

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661

#books #literature

Illustration of the Sherlock Holmes short story The Speckled Band, which appeared in The Strand Magazine in February, 1892. Original caption was "WHICH OF YOU IS HOLMES?"

Sidney Paget (1860 - 1908)

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1y

#OTD in 1926.

The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne first appears, published by Methuen in London.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnie-the-Pooh_(book)#

Winnie-the-Pooh's entrance into the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022 was noted by several news publications, generally in the context of a greater Public Domain Day article.

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2022/#fn6text

Winnie-the-Pooh at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/67098

#books #literature

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47d

The ecstatic swoon

As Stendhal knew, the reason for art is to make you feel. Do not try to grasp the artwork: allow it to grasp you instead

by Robert D Zaretsky

https://aeon.co/essays/what-stendhal-says-about-the-purpose-and-promise-of-art?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=048e2ed722-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_12_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-4ef8a26106-72664972

#books #art #literature

Portrait de Stendhal par Ducis, 1835, Bibliothèque Sormani, Milan. Portrait mélancolique.

An 1835 oil portrait of French writer Stendhal by Johan-Nepomuk Ender (attributed to Ducis), housed at the Bibliothèque Sormani in Milan. The melancholic portrait shows the author of "The Red and the Black" in dark formal attire against a muted green background, holding an elegant walking stick, capturing his contemplative demeanor during his mature years.

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

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44d

“You are standing in a high, dim stone vault. There is a thick soundlessness, as in a recording studio, or a strongroom.”

—Kathleen Jamie visits Maeshowe chambered cairn at midwinter, for the London Review of Books, 2003

1/5

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v25/n24/kathleen-jamie/into-the-dark

#Scottish #literature #midwinter #solstice #Orkney #archaeology #prehistory #neolithic

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1y

"Call me Ishmael."

#OTD in 1851.

Herman Melville's Moby-Dick is first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

In the October 1851 issue of Harper's New Monthly Magazine "The Town Ho's Story" was published, with a footnote reading: "From 'The Whale'. The title of a new work by Mr. Melville, in the press of Harper and Brothers, and now publishing in London by Mr. Bentley."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick

Moby-Dick at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/15

#books #literature

The whale or Moby Dick (half-title page), Herman Melville, 1851

Herman Melville and one more author - State Library of New South Wales, [https://collection.sl.nsw.gov.au/record/74VK2oZrBwKZ/l3gXqDvw8yl0N DSM/813.3/M531/2A1

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44d

He has gone down into darkness at the wrecked end of the year
And is lying, gaberlunzie, in the needled nest of frost…

—Gerry Cambridge, “Processional at the Winter Solstice”
published in Notes for Lighting a Fire (HappenStance Press 2012)

https://happenstancepress.com/index.php/shop/product/4-notes-for-lighting-a-fire-gerry-cambridge/category_pathway-12

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #midwinter #solstice

Processional at the Winter Solstice
by Gerry Cambridge

He has gone down into darkness at the wrecked end of the year
And is lying, gaberlunzie, in the needled nest of frost.
The arctic thrushes call for him although he cannot hear,

And the worm too understands him in the chilled grip of its dark,
And the ptarmigan in blizzards where no thought is worth a crumb,
And treecreepers in shivering puffs in Wellingtonias’ bark.

Shop windows glint in city lights like ice and sky, but still
No tinsel gifts can touch him, freed to silence like a stone’s;
His face is white as paper’s white in miles-high midnight chill.

He lies as plain as frost-dust where those starving thrushes call,
And his lime and ray-struck armoury could hardly be less small
On the anvil of beginnings in the sun’s gate on the wall.

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44d

#sundaySentence @bookstodon #reading #literature #bookstodon

“…each and every one of us carries with us a wholly uncharted world that reveals itself to us only on occasion, in unfathomable states of perception, and may not such rich mental states, this secret reality, the life that exists in the remotest depths of the soul, be represented in literature too?”

Karl Ove Knausgaard

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46d

Virginia Woolf Thought Katharine Mansfield Stank Like a “Civet Cat Taken to Streetwalking”

Gerri Kimber on the Literary Legacy of an Early Master of the Short Form

https://lithub.com/virginia-woolf-thought-katharine-mansfield-stank-like-a-civet-cat-taken-to-streetwalking/

Mansfield & Woolf at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/631
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89

##books #literature

Katherine Mansfield, a New Zealand-writer of short stories. Picture taken 1912.

A 1912 photograph of Katherine Mansfield, the acclaimed New Zealand short story writer. The formal portrait shows Mansfield during her early literary career, before she became one of the modernist movement's most influential voices in short fiction.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katherine_Mansfield#/media/File:Mansfield1.jpg

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Portrait of Virginia Woolf (January 25, 1882 – March 28, 1941), a British author and feminist, with her chignon. By George Charles Beresford.

The 1902 portrait by George Charles Beresford captures Virginia striking image, with her famous chignon, reflecting her distinctive style and the aesthetics of the time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#/media/File:George_Charles_Beresford_-_Virginia_Woolf_in_1902_-_Restoration.jpg

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46d

Rare public display for Mary Queen of Scots' final letter

The public are to be given a rare chance to see the last letter by Mary Queen of Scots, which was written just hours before she was beheaded.

by Cara Berkley

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4nzy3r5zyo

Mary Queen of Scots at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subjects/search/?query=Mary+Queen+of+Scots

#books #literature

La mort de Marie Stuart, 19th-century painting by Abel de Pujol

The painting is centered around Mary, who is portrayed with an expression of a mix of resignation and strength.

The painting reflects the tragic fate of Mary, who was executed in 1587 after being imprisoned for years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Queen_of_Scots#/media/File:Execution-of-Mary-Queen-of-Scots.jpg

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26d

Medieval Self-Portraits: Ten Artists Who Put Themselves in the Picture

Medieval artists did not just paint saints and kings—they sometimes slipped themselves into the scene, leaving behind portraits that can be devotional, witty, and surprisingly personal.

https://www.medievalists.net/2026/01/medieval-self-portraits-ten-artists-who-put-themselves-in-the-picture/

Medieval artists at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=medieval+artists

#books #literature #painting

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1y

#OTD in 1911.

German novelist Hans Fallada, kills his best friend in a suicide pact staged as a duel.

Fallada made a pact with a friend, Hanns Dietrich von Necker, to stage a duel to mask their suicides, feeling that the duel would be seen as more honorable. However, because of both boys' inexperience with weapons, it was a bungled affair. Dietrich missed Fallada, but Fallada did not miss Dietrich, killing him.

Hans Fallada at Projekt Gutenberg-DE
https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/autoren/namen/fallada.html

#books #literature

German writer Hans Fallada (1893–1947), depicted in Bonniers litterära magasin Nr.6, 1936.

In the image, Fallada appears as a middle-aged man with a solid, slightly rounded face. His expression is calm yet intense, reflecting a contemplative nature and the inner turmoil often associated with his life and writing. His eyes, framed by slightly heavy eyelids, have a distant, introspective gaze, as if lost in thought. His short, dark hair is combed neatly, and his face bears a mustache, common to his appearance in the 1930s.

Fallada's attire is formal but modest, in keeping with the style of the time. He is dressed in a suit with a high-collared shirt and a simple tie, perhaps signaling his role as a respected writer while also hinting at his working-class sensibilities. The black-and-white portrait from Bonniers litterära magasin emphasizes sharp contrasts, with Fallada's face and suit emerging starkly from the background, highlighting his features with a sense of gravity and weight.

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1y

"The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself."

#OTD in 1847.

Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre is published (as "an autobiography, edited by Currer Bell") in London by Smith, Elder & Co. in 3 volumes.

The first American edition was published the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York.

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

Jane Eyre at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/1260

#books #literature

The title page to the original publication of Jane Eyre, including Brontë's pseudonym "Currer Bell".

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St John Rivers admits Jane to Moor House, illustration by F. H. Townsend

F. H. Townsend, 1868-1920 - http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1260/1260-h/images/

"Hush, Hannah! I have a word to say to the woman.

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46d

Coming up Buchanan Street, quickly, on a sharp winter evening
a young man and two girls, under the Christmas lights –
The young man carries a new guitar in his arms,
the girl on the inside carries a very young baby,
and the girl on the outside carries a chihuahua…

—Edwin Morgan, “Trio”
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #Christmas #BuchananStreet #EdwinMorgan

Trio
by Edwin Morgan

Coming up Buchanan Street, quickly, on a sharp winter evening
a young man and two girls, under the Christmas lights –
The young man carries a new guitar in his arms,
the girl on the inside carries a very young baby,
and the girl on the outside carries a chihuahua.
And the three of them are laughing, their breath rises
in a cloud of happiness, and as they pass
the boy says, “Wait till he sees this but!”
The chihuahua has a tiny Royal Stewart tartan coat like a teapot-holder,
the baby in its white shawl is all bright eyes and mouth like favours in a fresh sweet cake,
the guitar swells out under its milky plastic cover, tied at the neck with silver tinsel tape and a brisk sprig of mistletoe.
Orphean sprig! Melting baby! Warm chihuahua!
The vale of tears is powerless before you.
Whether Christ is born, or is not born, you
put paid to fate, it abdicates
under the Christmas lights.
Monsters of the year
go blank, are scattered back,
can’t bear this march of three.

– And the three have passed, vanished in the crowd
(yet not vanished, for in their arms they wind
the life of men and beasts, and music,
laughter ringing them round like a guard)
at the end of this winter’s day.

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1y

#OTD in 1917.

The 51-year-old poet W. B. Yeats marries 25-year-old Georgie Hyde-Lees at Harrow Road register office in London, with Ezra Pound as best man, a couple of months after Yeats' proposal of marriage to his ex-mistress's daughter, Iseult Gonne, is rejected.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._B._Yeats#Marriage_to_Georgie_Hyde-Lees

Books by W. B. Yeats at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1719

#books #literature #poetry

Walter de la Mare, Bertha Georgie Yeats (née Hyde-Lees), William Butler Yeats, unknown woman, summer 1930; photo by Lady Ottoline Morrell.

In the image, the group is outdoors, likely in a garden or rural setting, characteristic of Lady Ottoline's gatherings at her homes. The lighting is soft, typical of an English summer, lending a relaxed and somewhat nostalgic quality to the photograph.

Walter de la Mare, the English poet and author, stands or sits calmly, perhaps slightly to one side.

Bertha Georgie Yeats (née Hyde-Lees), the wife of William Butler Yeats, appears in the photograph with a sense of quiet elegance.

William Butler Yeats, the famed Irish poet, stands or sits prominently in the image, his distinctive features easily recognizable.

The unknown woman is present alongside the others, her identity and role a mystery, adding an air of intrigue to the photograph.

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1y

"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but their own."

Irish writer Jonathan Swift died #OTD in 1745.

Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, Gulliver's Travels, & A Modest Proposal. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—including Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously.

Books by Jonathan Swift at PG
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/326

#books #literature

Charles Jervas portrait of Jonathan Swift.

In the portrait, Swift is shown as a middle-aged man, with his characteristic rounded face and full, expressive features. His hair, worn in long, flowing curls, is typical of the wigs of the early 18th century, a fashion among men of high status. His gaze is direct, with piercing, intelligent eyes that convey both a sharp wit and deep contemplation, traits often associated with his satirical writing.

Swift is dressed in clerical attire, signifying his role as a clergyman within the Church of Ireland. He wears a dark robe with a white clerical collar, which contrasts against the rich, dark tones of his clothing.

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26d

Among the Sleuths: Looking for Answers at the Nancy Drew Convention

Jadie Stillwell and Nicole Blackwood on the Mystery of the Missing Discernible Character Traits

https://lithub.com/among-the-sleuths-looking-for-answers-at-the-nancy-drew-convention/?utm_source=Klaviyo&utm_medium=campaign&utm_id=01KE5W7XNRXXS2MZDKNH70YJS5&_kx=3MZUehzXM-41qlWAMPUiuNZadX2p0SByuNf_t0eMLB0.U5D8ER

Carolyn Keene at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/58985

#books #literature

Cover page of The hidden staircase by Carolyn Keene, illustratated by Russell H. Tandy.

At the top of the cover, "Nancy Drew Mystery Stories" appears in a stylized script font in yellow/gold lettering. Below this, the title "THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE" is displayed prominently in bold, uppercase blue letters.

The cover features an illustration showing Nancy Drew descending a mysterious hidden staircase.

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77602/pg77602-images.html

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46d

The NEW SCIENTIST Book Club is reading the science-fiction masterpiece THE PLAYER OF GAMES by Iain M. Banks. In this video, Iain’s friend & fellow author Ken MacLeod discusses everything from how the pair met as teenagers at school to Banks’s literary influences, & even his idea for a final novel set in the universe of the Culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7OW6A8XCgg

#Scottish #literature #sciencefiction #scifi #IainBanks #IainMBanks #TheCulture

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1y

In November 1873.

The children's periodical St. Nicholas Magazine begins publication by Scribner and Company in New York under the editorship of Mary Mapes Dodge.

Books by Mary Mapes Dodge at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/402

#books #literature

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1y

Dutch author and poet Isabelle de Charrière, known as Belle van Zuylen, was born #OTD in 1740.

She is now best known for her letters and novels, although she also wrote pamphlets, music and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics of her age, and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabelle_de_Charri%C3%A8re

Books by Isabelle de Charrière at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Isabelle+de+Charri%C3%A8re&submit_search=Go%21

#books #literature #poetry

Isabelle de Charrière by Jens Juel, (1777), Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Neuchâtel.

Jens Juel - http://www.charriere.nl/images/juel.htm [1]

Isabelle de Charrière, born Isabelle Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken, known as Belle de Zuylen (1740-1805)

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26d

This was the year before the year
that collapsed on us, a roof brought down by snow.
The year of riding through abandoned stations
on the riverside line that never crossed the river
but danced among warehouses, silos and factories (deceased)
beside battleships settling into red mud…

—Pippa Little, “This Was the Year”
published in OVERWINTERING (Carcanet, 2012)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781906188061/overwintering/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry