Eggplant.place

1y

‘He contains the whole of literature’: is Dickens better than Shakespeare?

After rereading the entire works of the great Victorian novelist during the pandemic, Peter Conrad became convinced – whisper it – that Dickens is an even greater writer than that other British literary giant, the Bard.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/mar/02/is-dickens-better-than-shakespeare

Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

Charles Dickens at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37

#books #literature

Portrait of William Shakespeare by John Taylor.

The portrait shows Shakespeare with a slightly melancholic yet confident expression, dark eyes, and a mustache with a small pointed beard.

He is dressed in Elizabethan attire, wearing a black doublet or jacket with a wide, white collar. A gold hoop earring is visible in his left ear, a fashionable accessory among poets and playwrights of the time.

The background is dark, which emphasizes his face and adds a sense of depth and drama to the portrait.

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Portrait of Charles Dickens by Jeremiah Gurney, c. 1867–1868.

In the portrait, Dickens is dressed in formal Victorian attire, typically a dark suit with a vest and a neatly tied cravat.

His hair is slightly disheveled, and his full beard and mustache frame his face, giving him a distinguished yet somewhat weary appearance.

His eyes, often described as piercing and thoughtful, add to the emotional depth of the image.

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290d

Entwinings

Literature and History, Fathers and Sons, Writers and Readers

by Adam Garfinkle

https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/place-and-revolution/articles/entwinings

Wharton & Fitzgerald & Stoddard at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/104
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/420
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/3837

#books #literature

Wharton, c. 1895

Photograph of writer Edith Wharton, taken by E. F. Cooper, at Newport, Rhode Island. Cabinet photograph. Courtesy of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Whartons is dressed with:
Elaborate hat with feathers and ornamental details
Leg-of-mutton sleeves (gigot sleeves)
High-necked white blouse with lace or embroidered details
Two small dogs on her lap, likely Pekingese or similar toy breeds (Wharton was known to be fond of dogs throughout her life)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Wharton#/media/File:Edith_Newbold_Jones_Wharton_(cropped_02).jpg

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Fitzgerald in 1921

Photographer unknown. The publicity photo was distributed by Fitzgerald's publisher, Scribner's (source: Curtis, William (April 15, 1922). "Some Recent Books". Town & Country, Vol. LXXIX, pp. 62, 76; see photo caption).

The photograph shows Fitzgerald as the embodiment of the young Jazz Age celebrity:

Handsome, polished appearance
Slicked-back hair in the fashionable style of the early 1920s
Well-tailored tweed jacket and tie
Direct, confident gaze

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Scott_Fitzgerald#/media/File:F._Scott_Fitzgerald_(1921_portrait_-_crop)_Retouched.jpg

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This is a scan of the frontis of his most attributed book, "John L. Stoddard's Lectures". Copyright is 1897; printed in 1905.

This formal portrait shows Stoddard:

In his prime, with a distinguished appearance
Wearing a formal dark suit typical of the Victorian/Edwardian era
With his characteristic well-groomed mustache
Seated with what appears to be a rolled document or paper in his hand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lawson_Stoddard#/media/File:John_L._Stoddard.jpg

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285d

Kirkcudbright Book Festival 2026
5–8 March

Kirkcudbright Book Festival celebrates local & national voices, local history, Scottish culture, children’s authors, crime fiction, nature and the environment & much more – full programme online now

https://www.kbtbookfestival.org/full-programme

#Scottish #literature #kidlit #crimefiction #naturewriting #ScottishCulture #bookfestival #Kirkcudbright

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285d

2026 is Agnes Owens’ centenary year, & Polygon will publish 7 new editions of her novels & short stories in collaboration with the Agnes Owens Archive – also launching this year. These new editions will be introduced by some of Scotland’s finest contemporary writers.

https://birlinn.co.uk/2026/01/08/polygon-to-publish-new-editions-of-the-works-of-agnes-owens-to-mark-centenary/

#Scottish #literature #womenwriters #20thcentury #workingclass #workingclasswriters #AgnesOwens

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98d

The Cheviot, the Stag & the Black, Black Oil

Currently on the BBC iPlayer: the 1974 TV adaptation of John McGrath’s iconic 7:84 play about the exploitation of the Scottish people through history, from the aftermath of Culloden to the North Sea oil boom

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0193404/play-for-today-series-4-the-cheviot-the-stag-and-the-black-black-oil

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #drama #theatre

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1y

In March 1881.

Ambrose Bierce contributes to the weekly satirical San Francisco magazine The Wasp & resumes his column "Prattle" and the series of cynical definitions which he first calls The Devil's Dictionary.

Bierce's witty definitions were imitated & plagiarized for years before he gathered them into books, first as The Cynic's Word Book in 1906 & then in a more complete version as The Devil's Dictionary in 1911.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil%27s_Dictionary

At PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/972

#books #literature

Title page of The Cynic's Word Book by Ambrose Bierce.

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1y

#OTD in 1914 (dated February).

Publication of the first issue of New Numbers, a quarterly collection of work by the Dymock poets in England edited by Lascelles Abercrombie with Wilfrid Gibson. It containing poems such as Brooke's "The Soldier", published in 1915.

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

The Soldier at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/48306/pg48306-images.html#v-the-soldier

#books #literature #poetry

Image of Rupert Brooke (frontispiece) from For remembrance: soldier poets who have fallen in the war

Arthur St. John Adcock - https://archive.org/details/forremembranceso00adco

Brooke is depicted as a young man with wavy hair, gazing into the distance with a contemplative and idealistic expression.

The lighting emphasizes the classical features of his face, often described as handsome and romantic.

The portrait conveys a sense of youth, intellect, and melancholy, fitting for a poet who became a symbol of lost potential during World War I.

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1y

The Post-Millennial Poe, or, Edgar Allan Holmes?

In life, Edgar Allan Poe was best known as a literary critic. Today, he’s best remembered for his disquieting tales…but that may be changing.

By: Matthew Wills

https://daily.jstor.org/the-post-millennial-poe-or-edgar-allan-holmes/

#books #literature #literarycriticism

Edgar Allan Poe, June 1849. Daguerreotype "Annie", given to Poe's friend Mrs. Annie L. Richmond; probably taken in June 1849 in Lowell, Massachusetts, photographer unknown.

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290d

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) was born #OTD in 1832.

An interesting comment from one proofreader at @DProofreaders : "It is said that Queen Victoria enjoyed the Alice books so much that she sent for all the author's works, and was then appalled to find herself confronted by mathematics."

"Curiosa mathematica, Part I: A new theory of parallels" by Dodgson, Charles L. coming soon at PG.

Lewis Carroll at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/7

#books #literature #mathematics

1863 photograph of Carroll by Oscar G. Rejlander.

Carroll appears formally dressed in Victorian clerical attire, with wavy, somewhat disheveled hair, contemplative, serious expression and relaxed pose with hands clasped.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Carroll#/media/File:Lewis_Carroll_1863.jpg

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1y

This part really stuck with me while doing an immersive read of Paradise Lost tonight.

@bookstodon @reading #classiclit #ClassicLiterature #fiction #johnmilton #literature

O shame to men! Devil with devil damned firm concord holds; men only disagree of creatures rational, though under hope of heavily grace, and, God proclaiming peace, Yet live in hatred, enimity and strife among themselves, and levy cruel wars wasting the earth, each other to destroy: as if (which might induce us to accord) man had not hellish foes enow besides, that day and night for his destruction to wait!

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290d

On Being Ill at 100: Virginia Woolf’s ‘best essay’ still shapes how we read sickness

Woolf argues that illness is ‘the great confessional’ which is never talked about in literature.

by Lucyl Harrison

https://theconversation.com/on-being-ill-at-100-virginia-woolfs-best-essay-still-shapes-how-we-read-sickness-274061?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2026%202026%20-%203655137341&utm_content=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20January%2026%202026%20-%203655137341+CID_adf3f1b5c74478478c0668be85d67378&utm_source=campaign_monitor_uk&utm_term=On%20Being%20Ill%20at%20100%20Virginia%20Woolfs%20best%20essay%20still%20shapes%20how%20we%20read%20sickness

Virginia Woold at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/89

#books #literature

A portrait of Woolf by Roger Fry c. 1917.

Virginia faces the viewer with a slightly tilted head and a calm, introspective expression. Her dark hair is parted and swept back into soft, rounded shapes, framing a pale face with large, elongated eyes and lightly flushed cheeks. Her lips are small and red.

She wears a muted, loose-fitting jacket or cardigan over a darker blue garment, with a narrow green trim adding contrast along the edges. Her hands rest together in front of her.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Woolf#/media/File:Roger_Fry_-_Virginia_Woolf.jpg

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290d

When you have walked through a town, as an infantryman
you’ll never go through streets the same way again.

There is shoulder-ache from rifle-sling, and sore
butt-bruise, of bolt, on hip and thigh…

—“Infantryman”, by Colin McIntyre (1927–2012) – born #OTD, 27 January

Published in FROM THE LINE: Scottish War Poetry 1914–1945

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/from_the_line/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoetry #WW2

Infantryman
by Colin McIntyre

When you have walked through a town, as an infantryman
you'll never go through streets the same way again.

There is shoulder-ache from rifle-sling, and sore
butt-bruise, of bolt, on hip and thigh.

The walk comes somewhere between slope and slow hike,
a wary step, splay-footed, as drawers cellular,
catch in the crotch, twist centrifugally around.

Our lot moved at slow deliberate plod, eyes down, look out,
Ted walked on the left, looks right; I took the right,
looked left. Well spaced out, bloody tired all the time.

Ted and I had a reputation, in Four Section, for hitting
the deck, together, quick as a flash, at the first shell.
Ted had a nose for crossroads ranged by guns.

Infantrymen grow fat in later years, from never walking.
Ted would have become quite gross. But Ted's dead.
Stepped on an AP mine in champagne country.
Cheers, Ted, you old sod, you.

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290d

“It is a bold move to be so morally unflinching, especially in the face of a perceived aesthetic orthodoxy that so often privileges distance and irony, but in Glyph we see a major British writer answering the call of the day when so many others have equivocated or turned away.”

—GLYPH by Ali Smith: bearing witness to the war in Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/jan/27/glyph-by-ali-smith-review-bearing-witness-to-the-war-in-gaza

#Scottish #literature #Gaza #AliSmith #womenwriters

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1y

#OTD in 1888.

During Joseph Conrad's career at sea as Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, he departs from Bangkok for Sydney in his first command as master, on the British barque Otago. This provides a basis for his novella The Shadow Line (1916).

It was first published as a serial in New York's Metropolitan Magazine in the English Review and published in book form in 1917 in the UK and America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow_Line_(novel)

The Shadow Line at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/451

#books #literature

First edition (UK) of Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad.

The title, The Shadow Line, is prominently displayed at the top in bold, dark lettering. Below the title, a red-bordered box contains text posing a mysterious question about the challenges faced by the captain and crew in passing latitude 8° 20' in the Far East.

Centered on the cover is a black-and-white portrait of Joseph Conrad, framed within a red rectangular border. He has a distinguished look with a mustache and beard.

At the bottom, the author’s name, Joseph Conrad, is printed in bold, capitalized letters on a red background, ensuring visibility.

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290d

“If these children need me in days of sunshine,
how much more do they need me in days of darkness?”
—Jane Haining

You rose each day at 5 a.m. to go
to market for their food, sliced your leather
luggage into strips they’d use for soles
on worn-out shoes…

“In Days of Darkness”, a poem by Stuart A. Paterson for Holocaust Memorial Day

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/days-darkness/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Holocaust #HolocaustRemembrance #HolocaustMemorialDay

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249d

Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.

Omar Khayyam

@bookstodon
#books #literature #bookstodon

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1y

Happy birthday Shakespeare (born #OTD in 1564)!

#OTD in 1932. To mark Shakespeare's birthday:

The Royal Shakespeare Company's new theatre opens at Stratford-upon-Avon.

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

The Folger Shakespeare Library opens in Washington, D.C.

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

Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

#books #literature #theatre

Artistic depiction of the Shakespeare family, late 19th century

Perine, George Edward, 1837-1885, printmaker. - engraved for the Eclectic by Perine & Giles.

Illustration of William Shakespeare reciting his play Hamlet to his family. His wife, Anne Hathaway, is sitting in the chair on the right; his son Hamnet is behind him on the left; his two daughters Susanna and Judith are on the right and left of him. (Hamnet shown younger than his twin, Judith, as he had died a few years before Hamlet was written).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare#/media/File:Shakespeare's_family_circle.jpg

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289d

Reading Scotland with Gioia Angeletti: Early 19th-century Scottish Migration Literature
3 Feb, free online

Examining how Scotland’s experience of “internal colonialism” after the 1707 Union shaped its literary engagement with empire & migration during the long eighteenth century

@litstudies

https://www.scotland.uni-mainz.de/reading-scotland/

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #19thcentury #migration #empire #imperialism #colonialism #nationalidentity

Reading Scotland
with Gioia Angeletti

Early 19th-century Scottish Migration Literature

Tuesday, 3rd February 2026
6.00–7.00pm (German time) on MS Teams

www.scotland.uni-mainz.de

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Edited 289d ago

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1y

What Is Rousseau’s Social Contract Theory? (Definition & Criticisms)

Rousseau’s social contract theory advocates for collective sovereignty, freedom, and equality through the general will for a just society.

By Viktoriya Sus

https://www.thecollector.com/rousseau-social-contract-theory-definition/

The Social Contract at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46333

#books #literature #philosophy

1766 portrait of Rousseau wearing an Armenian papakha and costume, Allan Ramsay

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149d

Was Mill anti-traditional?

And was Hayek suffering from the burden of the past...?

by Henry Oliver

https://www.commonreader.co.uk/p/was-mill-anti-traditional

Books by John Stuart Mill at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/1705

#Books #Literature

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1y

The Authorship Debate: Who Is the Real Shakespeare?

The Shakespeare Authorship Debate concerns the ongoing mystery as to the true author of the plays, sonnets and other works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford Upon Avon.

By Lauren Jones

https://www.thecollector.com/the-authorship-debate-who-is-the-real-shakespeare/

Shakespeare at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/65

#books #literature #drama

Portrait of William Shakespeare by John Taylor, edited.

The Portrait of William Shakespeare by John Taylor, commonly known as the Chandos Portrait, is one of the most famous and widely accepted depictions of the playwright. Created in the early 17th century, it is an oil painting on canvas and is believed to be the only portrait of Shakespeare painted during his lifetime.

The portrait features Shakespeare with a slightly receding hairline, dark, wavy hair, and a mustache and goatee.

He wears a black doublet with a white collar, and a gold hoop earring in his left ear, which was fashionable among Elizabethan gentlemen and artists.

His expression is calm and introspective, with dark eyes that appear to gaze directly at the viewer.

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1y

7 Out-of-This-World Facts About Ray Bradbury’s ‘The Martian Chronicles’

The fix-up novel, which turns 75 this year, would become one of Bradbury’s most famous books—and inspire future scientists.

By Lorna Wallace

https://www.mentalfloss.com/ray-bradbury-martian-chronicles-book-facts

#books #literature

Publicity photo of Ray Bradbury from the television progam Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1959.

It shows him as a middle-aged man with a youthful yet intellectual demeanor. Bradbury, known for his iconic works such as Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles, typically had neatly combed hair and wore thick, dark-framed glasses, which contributed to his scholarly appearance.

In this black-and-white image, he is dressed in a suit, appropriate for the formal nature of television appearances in the late 1950s.

His expression is serious yet approachable, reflecting his deep imagination and storytelling prowess.

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1y

In February 1929.

The first of Margery Allingham's crime novels to feature Albert Campion, The Crime at Black Dudley (U.S. title: The Black Dudley Murder), is published in the UK. It introduces Albert Campion, her misleadingly vapid detective, who would go on to appear in another 18 novels and many short stories over the next 30 years.

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

Books by Margery Allingham at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Margery+Allingham&submit_search=Search

#books #literature

First edition of The Crime at Black Dudley by Margery Allingham.

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1y

From February to August 1929.

Voltaire's Candide (1759) is held to be obscene by the United States Customs Service in Boston.

Immediately after its secretive publication, the book was widely banned because of its religious blasphemy, political sedition, and intellectual hostility hidden under a thin veil of naivety.

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

Candide at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/19942

#books #literature

This was a frontispiece of Voltaire's Candide, or Optimism. It reads, "Candide, or Optimism. Translated from the German of Dr. Ralph."

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196d

The Fairytale Language of the Brothers Grimm

By Chi Luu

How the Brothers Grimm went hunting for fairytales, accidentally changed the course of historical linguistics, and kickstarted a new field of scholarship in folklore

https://daily.jstor.org/the-fairytale-language-of-the-brothers-grimm/?utm_source=mcae&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jstordaily_04302026

Brothers Grimm at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Brothers+Grimm

#Books #Literature #Philology #Folklore