literature

1y

"Ah! the death of the poor, the empty entrails, howling hunger, the animal appetite that leads one with chattering teeth to fill one’s stomach with beastly refuse in this great Paris, so bright and golden! "
Chapter XII

#OTD in 1877.

Émile Zola's L'Assommoir, 7th in his novel sequence Les Rougon-Macquart, is first published in book format a few weeks after its serialisation ends in Le Bien public (Paris).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Assommoir

L´Assommoir at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=L%27Assommoir&submit_search=Go%21

#books #literature

Cover of 1877 Charpentier edition of L'Assommoir.

The cover of the 1877 Charpentier edition of L'Assommoir by Émile Zola is relatively simple and characteristic of 19th-century French book design.

It typically features a plain or minimalistic layout with the title (L'Assommoir) and author's name (Émile Zola) displayed prominently in an elegant, classic serif typeface.

The publisher, G. Charpentier, is credited, often at the bottom of the cover. The design is likely devoid of elaborate illustrations, aligning with the literary and serious nature of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series.

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

242d

Oidhche Challain: No admission without a rhyme

Happy Old New Year!

After the 1750 Calendar Act changed the date of New Year’s Day, some Gaels – to make sure they didn’t miss it – chose to celebrate both. Dr Dòmhnall Uilleam Stiùbhart discusses the once ubiquitous Highland tradition of Oidhche Challain:

https://www.whfp.com/2020/01/08/oidhche-challain-no-admission-without-a-rhyme/

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poetry #tradition #NewYear #Highlands #Hebrides #OldNewYear

2 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1835.

Abolitionist Susan Paul officiates at a meeting of the New England Anti-Slavery Society (NEASS) in Boston. Later in the year, her Memoir of James Jackson becomes the earliest-known published narrative by an African-American woman and the first account documenting the life of a free black child in the United States.

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

#books #literature

Memoir of James Jackson by Susan Paul, 1835, cover

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy

This video from the London Review of Books (LRB) celebrates the Folio’s 400th anniversary by documenting an audacious attempt to replicate the methods used to print the book at the time of its original release.

https://aeon.co/videos/replicating-shakespearean-era-printing-brings-its-own-dramas-and-comedy

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

#books #literature #oldprinting

The title page of the First Folio of William Shakespeare's plays.

The title page prominently features an engraved portrait of Shakespeare, created by Martin Droeshout, a relatively young engraver at the time.

The portrait depicts Shakespeare with a high forehead, a mustache, and a goatee, wearing a doublet with a wide lace collar.
The engraving has been both praised and critiqued for its accuracy. Ben Jonson, in his introductory poem to the Folio, vouched for its likeness, calling it a "true representation" of Shakespeare.

Edited 1y ago

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

" I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
Have His Carcase

English author, poet, and playwright Dorothy L. Sayers died #OTD in 1957. Sayers is most famous for her detective novels featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, an aristocratic amateur sleuth. She wrote several plays, including The Zeal of Thy House and The Man Born to Be King. Sayers also translated major works, notably Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Dorothy L. Sayers at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/45867

#books #literature

Dorothy L. Sayers – English crime writer, playwright, essayist and Christian writer (1893-1957)

uncredited; published by Boni and Liveright in connexion with her 1925 release Whose Body - Publicity photo from her American publishers; copy at the National Portrait Gallery.

The focus is on Sayers' upper torso and face, with a neutral or slightly blurred background that ensures the viewer’s attention is drawn entirely to her.

3 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1824.

The first issue of a radical quarterly founded by Jeremy Bentham, The Westminster Review, is published in London.

It was published from 1824 to 1914. James Mill was one of the driving forces behind the liberal journal until 1828. Some notable contributors: George Eliot, Harriet Martineau, John Stuart Mill, Mary Shelley, Herbert Spencer, John Tyndall, Caroline Cornwallis, Julia Wedgwood, Elizabeth Clarke Wolstenholme Elmy.

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

#books #literature

Frontispiece of The Westminster review v.1 1824.

Full copies are available at Hathi Trust Digital Library:
https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008893449

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

241d

"Understand this, I mean to arrive at the truth. The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to seekers after it."
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)

Dame Agatha Christie died #OTD 50 years ago.

She wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections. She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

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

Agatha Christie at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/451

#books #literature

Agatha Christie as a young woman

Unknown author - The Christie Archive Trust

The image captures Christie leaning out of a window with decorative latticed or diamond-patterned glass panes. She is photographed from roughly chest level up, positioned in the window frame.

Christie appears youthful creating volume on top of her head. She wears a distinctive outfit featuring a striped blouse with bold vertical stripes, paired with what appears to be a polka-dotted. A decorative handkerchief or lace detail is visible near her collar area.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Agatha_Christie#/media/File:Agatha_Christie_as_a_young_woman.jpg

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

HAPPY PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY!

Books which will enter the US public domain:

William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
Dashiell Hammett, Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon (as serialized in Black Mask magazine)
John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (Steinbeck's first novel)
Richard Hughes, A High Wind in Jamaica
Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story
Patrick Hamilton, Rope

#books #literature #publicdomain
/1

Edited 1y ago

14 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1818.

Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus first appears anonymously in London.

Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition was published anonymously in London on 1 January 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared in the second edition, which was published in Paris in 1821.

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

1818 edition at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/41445
1831 edition
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/42324

#books #literature

Title page of first edition of Frankenstein, Volume I.

Author Mary Shelley; publisher Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones

It includes the following details:

Title: Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
Volume Information: "In Three Volumes."
Quotation: A quote from Paradise Lost by John Milton:
Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?

Volume Number: "VOL. I."
Publication Details:
Published in London.
Printed for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, located at Finsbury Square.
Year of Publication: 1818.

Victor Frankenstein becoming disgusted at his creation. Illustration from the frontispiece of the 1831 edition. Steel engraving (993 x 71mm) to the revised edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, published by Colburn and Bentley, London 1831. The novel was first published in 1818.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

3h

The Legend of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”

Phillip Lopate on the Enduring Legacy of Washington Irving’s Most Famous Short Story

https://lithub.com/the-legend-of-the-legend-of-sleepy-hollow/

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41

#books #literature

The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane by John Quidor.

Ichabod flees on a white horse, arm raised in fear, while the headless horseman gives chase on a dark rearing steed through a moonlit forest.

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

146d

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)

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

#Scottish #literature #WorldHeritageDay #poem #poetry

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.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1873.

Louisa May Alcott's family satire "Transcendental Wild Oats" is published in the newspaper The Independent.

The work was first published in a New York newspaper in 1873, and reprinted in 1874, 1876, and 1915 and after. Alcott's view of male arrogance and female exploitation in this piece is paralleled in her novel Work, published in the same year as Transcendental Wild Oats.

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

Transcendental Wild Oats at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34920

#books #literature

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

146d

Lost Federico García Lorca verse discovered 93 years after it was written

Eight-line poem found on the back of a manuscript sheds light on Spanish poet’s preoccupation with time

by Sam Jones

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2026/apr/18/lost-federico-garcia-lorca-verse-discovered-93-years-after-it-was-written

Lorca at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/56772

#books #literature #poetry

Self-Portrait by Federico García Lorca for *Poeta en Nueva York*

A large dreaming face dominates the centre, eyes closed, crescent moons on the cheeks. Surrounding skyscrapers are covered in alphabets and numbers. Black demon-like creatures prowl the margins. A winged figure floats above. A piano keyboard appears on the right.

https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca#/media/Archivo:Autorretrato_Poeta_NY.jpg

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

241d

Thomas Hardy’s Jude the Obscure criticised university elitism – it still rings true today

by Shelley Galpin

https://theconversation.com/thomas-hardys-jude-the-obscure-criticised-university-elitism-it-still-rings-true-today-266009

Jude the Obscure at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/153

#books #literature

Hardy - Jude the Obscure, 1896.

The illustration depicts a dramatic indoor scene with three figures. On the left, partially visible through what appears to be a doorway, is a man in formal Victorian attire with a bow tie, holding what looks like a candle or lamp, illuminating the scene. In the center and right of the composition stand two other figures - a man in dark clothing and a woman in a light-colored blouse or dress with a dark skirt, both dressed in typical late 19th-century fashion.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Jude_the_Obscure#/media/File:Hardy_-_Jude_the_Obscure,_1896_(page_135_crop).jpg

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

"Thus, after pursuing those images, I overtook them. Now I know that I invented them. But inventing is a creation, not a lie."
La coscienza di Zeno (1923)

#OTD in 1928.

Italo Svevo (Aron Schmitz), returning from an Alpine resort to Trieste, suffers a car accident. He dies next day leaving his novel Il Vegliardo (The Old Man) unfinished in mid-word.

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

#books #literature

Italo Svevo with the preliminary draft of A Life (1892).

Svevo is depicted as a refined, intellectual figure. He has a well-groomed mustache and an intense, thoughtful gaze, reflective of his literary persona and introspective writing style.

Svevo is dressed in formal, period-appropriate clothing, including:
A dark suit jacket and waistcoat.

A white shirt and bow tie, which enhance the formality of his appearance.

A stylish boater hat, which adds a touch of elegance and aligns with late 19th-century European fashion trends.

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

"THE times that tried men's souls," are over- and the greatest and completest revolution the world ever knew, gloriously and happily accomplished."

#OTD in 1776.

Thomas Paine publishes one of a series of pamphlets in The Pennsylvania Journal entitled "The American Crisis". Paine signed the pamphlets with the pseudonym, "Common Sense".

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

The American Crisis at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3741

#books #literature

An image of the first page from the first edition of The American Crisis, a pamphlet authored by Thomas Paine.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

240d

What January taught George Orwell about control and resistance

Like many of us, George Orwell saw January as a month to be endured rather than enjoyed. You can picture him steeling himself against its cold, gloom, rain, frost and wind.

by Nathan Waddell

https://theconversation.com/what-january-taught-george-orwell-about-control-and-resistance-272860

#books #literature

Picture of George Orwell which appears in an old accreditation for the BNUJ.

Orwell has dark, neatly combed hair swept back from a high forehead, a thin moustache, and a slender face with pronounced cheekbones. His expression is serious and composed, with a direct, steady gaze. He appears to be wearing a jacket over a collared shirt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#/media/File:George_Orwell_press_photo.jpg

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

#OTD in 1864 (until April 16).

James Payn publishes his most popular story, Lost Sir Massingberd, in Chambers's Journal. He follows it in the magazine (August 6 – December 24) by Married Beneath Him. Lost Sir Massingberd was published as a book in two volumes in 1864.

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

Lost Sir Massingberd at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37170
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37171

#books #literature

Title page of Lost Sir Massingberd.

The book is in two volumes, with this being Volume I.
Published in London by Sampson Low, Son, and Marston, located at 14, Ludgate Hill, in 1864.
It includes the note: "[The Right of Translation is Reserved.]".

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

241d

Peter Kropotkin’s Memoirs of a Revolutionist (1899)

“Many a man and many a woman have accomplished a great life-work without having led a great life”, the influential Danish literary critic Georg Brandes wrote in his introduction to Peter Kropotkin’s 1899 Memoirs of a Revolutionist. “Many people are interesting, although their lives may have been quite insignificant and commonplace. Kropotkin’s life is both great and interesting”.

Book at PG:

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73882

#books #literature

Drawing of Peter Kropotkin.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

146d

But Edinburgh is a mad god’s dream,
Fitful and dark,
Unseizable in Leith
And wildered by the Forth…

—Hugh MacDiarmid, “Midnight”
published in The Complete Poems (1978)

Today, 18 April, is World Heritage Day. Edinburgh’s medieval Old Town & Georgian New Town form one of Scotland’s UNESCO World Heritage sites

https://www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support/listing-scheduling-and-designations/world-heritage-sites/old-and-new-towns-of-edinburgh/

#Scottish #Literature #WorldHeritageDay #architecture #builtenvironment #poem #poetry #Edinburgh #MacDiarmid

Midnight
Hugh MacDiarmid

Glasgow is null,
Its suburbs shadows
And the Clyde a cloud.

Dundee is dust
And Aberdeen a shell.

But Edinburgh is a mad god’s dream,
Fitful and dark,
Unseizable in Leith
And wildered by the Forth,
But irresistibly at last
Cleaving to sombre heights
Of passionate imagining
Till stonily,
From soaring battlements,
Earth eyes Eternity.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

241d

Today, 13 January, is the Feast Day of St Mungo (AKA St Kentigern), patron saint of Glasgow. Edwin Morgan’s “Colloquy in Glaschu” imagines a conversation between St Mungo & St Columba.

From CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

1/5

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #Glasgow #Saints #StMungo

Colloquy in Glaschu
by Edwin Morgan

God but le son du cor, Columba sighed
to Kentigern, est triste au fond silvarum!
Frater, said Kentigern, I see no harm.
J'aime le son du cor, when day has died,
deep in the bois, and oystercatchers rise
before the fowler as he trudges home
and sermo lupi loosens the grey loam.
À I’horizon lointain is paradise,
abest silentium, le cor éclate –
– et meurt, Columba mused, but Kentigern
replied, renaît et se prolonge. The cell
is filled with song. Outside, puer cantat.
Veni venator sings the gallus kern.
The saints dip startled cups in Mungo’s well.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

"Nothing is stranger to man than his own image."

#OTD in 1921.

World premiere of the science fiction play R.U.R. (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek in a theater in Hradec Králové. It introduced the word "robot" to the English language and to science fiction as a whole.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.

R.U.R. at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/59112

#books #literature #theatre

Cover of the first edition of R.U.R. by Karel Čapek.

Unknown author - Karel Čapek: R.U.R.: Rosumovi Univerzální Roboti. Vydalo Aventinum, Prague 1920. via answcdn.com

This is the cover of the first edition of "R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Čapek, a Czech playwright and author. Published in 1920, this science fiction drama is famous for introducing the word "robot" to the world. The play explores themes of industrialization, artificial intelligence, and the potential dangers of technological advancement.

Edited 1y ago

6 0 1 View Post & Replies See Original

1y

"Every human institution (Justice included) will stretch a little, if you only pull it the right way."

From January 4 till August 8 1868.

Wilkie Collins' epistolary novel The Moonstone: a Romance is serialised in All the Year Round (U.K.), being published in book format in July by Tinsley Brothers of London. It is seen as a precursor of full-length mystery fiction and the psychological thriller.

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

The Moonstone at PG:
https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/155

#books #literature

First edition title page.

The title, The Moonstone, prominently displayed in a serif typeface, with the author's name, Wilkie Collins, positioned below.

It includes a subtitle describing the novel, such as "A Romance".

Details of the original publisher, Tinsley Brothers, are found at the bottom of the title page, indicating the publication city, London, and sometimes the publication year.

The layout and typography are straightforward, avoiding elaborate ornamentation, characteristic of 19th-century literature.

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

240d

Fra banc to banc, fra wod to wod, I rin
Ourhailit with my feble fantasie,
Lyk til a leif that fallis from a trie
Or til a reid ourblawin with the wind…

—“Sonet of Venus & Cupid”, by Mark Alexander Boyd (1563–1601), born #OTD, 13 Jan
published in THE GOLDEN TREASURY OF SCOTTISH VERSE, @canongatebooks 2021

https://canongate.co.uk/books/3267-the-golden-treasury-of-scottish-verse/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #sonnet #16thcentury #17thcentury #earlymodern #Scots #Scotslanguage

Sonet of Venus and Cupid
by Mark Alexander Boyd

Fra banc to banc, fra wod to wod, I rin
Ourhailit with my feble fantasie,
Lyk til a leif that fallis from a trie
Or til a reid ourblawin with the wind.
Twa gods gyds me: the ane of tham is blind,
Ye, and a bairn brocht up in vanitie;
The nixt a wyf ingenrit of the se,
And lichter nor a dauphin with hir fin.

Unhappie is the man for evirmair
That teils the sand and sawis in the aire;
Bot twyse unhappier is he, I lairn,
That feidis in his hairt a mad desyre,
And follows on a woman throw the fyre,
Led be a blind and teichit be a bairn.

1 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

240d

Alexander the Great, Ancient Gay Icon

Harry Tanner Explores Queerness and Homophobia in the Hellenistic Period

https://lithub.com/alexander-the-great-ancient-gay-icon/

Alexander the Great at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/3864

#books #literature #history

Alexander Cuts the Gordian Knot by Jean-Simon Berthélemy (1767).

At the center of the composition stands Alexander, shown as a youthful. He wears a metal breastplate, a short tunic, and a flowing blue cloak. With one arm extended, he raises a sword, poised mid-action as he decisively cuts the knot rather than attempting to untie it.

Around him, several figures react with surprise and tension. To the right, men kneel or lean forward, their bodies twisted toward the knot, hands outstretched as if caught between disbelief and awe. To the left, older figures and attendants watch intently, one bearded man appearing contemplative, while a child looks on with curiosity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great#/media/File:Alexander_cuts_the_Gordian_Knot.jpg

0 0 0 View Post & Replies See Original

Previous Page Next Page