Eggplant.place

103d

“Although this was his first visit, Conan Doyle already knew something of Egypt. The country had been a popular theme in the European imagination, a place of mystery and glamour that had inspired various European works of art in the nineteenth century, from Shelley’s sonnet ‘Ozymandias’ to Verdi’s opera Aida.”

—Arthur Conan Doyle in Egypt

https://euppublishingblog.com/2026/07/21/arthur-conan-doyle-in-egypt/

#Scottish #literature #ConanDoyle #19thcentury #Victorian #Egypt #imperialism #orientalism

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86d

I send to you, commissioners,
A paper that may please ye, sirs
(For troth they say it might be worse‍‍
An’ I believe’t)…

—Robert Louis Stevenson, “To the Commissioners of Northern Lights”, which Stevenson sent to them along with his design for “a new form of intermittent light”

This weekend is International Lighthouse & Lightship Weekend

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https://illw.net

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #ScotsLanguage #RobertLouisStevenson #19thcentury #Victorian #lighthouse #engineering

To the Commissioners of Northern Lights
Robert Louis Stevenson

I send to you, commissioners,
A paper that may please ye, sirs
(For troth they say it might be worse‍‍
An’ I believe’t)
And on your business lay my curse‍‍
Before I leav’t.

I thocht I’d serve wi’ you, sirs, yince,
But I’ve thocht better of it since;
The matter I will nowise mince,‍‍
But tell ye true:
I’ll service wi’ some ither prince,‍‍
An’ no wi’ you.

I’ve no been very deep, ye’ll think,
Cam’ delicately to the brink
An’ when the water gart me shrink‍‍
Straucht took the rue,
An’ didna stoop my fill to drink—‍‍
I own it true.

I kent on cape and isle, a light
Burnt fair an’ clearly ilka night;
But at the service I took fright,‍‍
As sune’s I saw,
An’ being still a neophite‍‍
Gaed straucht awa’.

Anither course I now begin,
The weeg I’Il cairry for my Sin,
The court my voice shall echo in,‍‍
An’—wha can tell?—
Some ither day I may be yin‍‍
O’ you mysel’.

ALT

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21d

“Carry the same idea of using one’s senses accurately and constantly, and you will see that many a surgical case will bring his past history, national, social, and medical, into the consulting-room as he walks in.”

—Lindsay Fitzharris on the observational genius of Professor Joseph Bell – the Edinburgh doctor who inspired Sherlock Holmes

https://lithub.com/the-real-sherlock-holmes-how-an-edinburgh-doctor-inspired-doyles-detective/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #Edinburgh #medicalhumanities #SherlockHolmes #ConanDoyle

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87d

“Scott is the most filmic of writers… He may be considered difficult to read today, long-winded & meandering by modern standards, but his narratives still come alive when the characters move dramatically in a visual world”

—Walter Scott & Cinema

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https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2013/05/wattie-goes-to-hollywood-scott-scotland-and-film/

#Scottish #literature #WalterScott #SirWalterScott #19thcentury #Victorian #romanticism #novel #cinema #film #cinemahistory

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87d

Walter Scott, Opera, & the Italian Journey

“What was it about Scott’s poems and novels that attracted composers all over Europe—and inspired more than seventy operas? […] We have four on Rob Roy, four on The Heart of Midlothian, eight on The Bride of Lammermoor, and no less than eleven each on Ivanhoe and Kenilworth.”

📷 “Lucia di Lammermoor”, Metropolitan Opera 2011

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2011/05/scott-opera-and-the-italian-journey/

#Scottish #literature #WalterScott #SirWalterScott #19thcentury #Victorian #opera #classicalmusic

Natalie Dessay as Lucia di Lammermoor for the Metropolitan Opera in 2011. The photo shows a young woman in a white wedding dress. She holds one hand to her cheek and looks upwards and away, with a lost, distracted expression. She has long, dark hair. Her raised hand, and the entire front of her white dress, is splashed with red blood. Behind her, a group of men and women in what appear to be late-19th-century formal clothes are seen, out of focus, standing on a curving stair.

ALT

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87d

From Sept 2025 – Dr Gerard McKeever, lecturer in modern Scottish literature at the University of Edinburgh, speaks about Walter Scott’s relationship with Scotland, particularly through the lens of his so-called “Scotch Novels”

@litstudies

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twvrXYw1Sus

#Scottish #literature #WalterScott #SirWalterScott #Scotland ##19thcentury #Victorian #novel

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56d

Teacher, Tender, Comrade, Wife: The Life of Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson
28 October, Edinburgh. £10

Pioneer of the American West; art student in Paris; South Seas explorer: Fanny Van de Grift Stevenson’s life was full of remarkable exploits which has been overshadowed by her more famous husband, Robert Louis Stevenson. Jane Bonnyman tells the story of Fanny’s unconventional & free-spirited life.

https://cultureedinburgh.com/events/teacher-tender-comrade-wife-the-life-of-fanny-van-de-grift-stevenson-lauriston-castle-lectures

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson

teacher-tender-comrade-wife-the-life-of-fanny-van-de-grift-stevenson-lauriston-castle-lectures

Edited 56d ago

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46d

From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod…

—Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Land of Nod”
from A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES (1885)

Today, 25 September, is World Dream Day

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#Scottish #literature #kidlit #ChildrensLiterature #poem #poetry #Victorian #19thcentury #RobertLouisStevenson #dream #dreams #dreaming #WorldDreamDay

The Land of Nod
by Robert Louis Stevenson

From breakfast on through all the day
At home among my friends I stay,
But every night I go abroad
Afar into the land of Nod.

All by myself I have to go,
With none to tell me what to do —
All alone beside the streams
And up the mountain-sides of dreams.

The strangest things are there for me,
Both things to eat and things to see,
And many frightening sights abroad
Till morning in the land of Nod.

Try as I like to find the way,
I never can get back by day,
Nor can remember plain and clear
The curious music that I hear.

ALT

Pen and ink illustration by Charles Robinson (1870–1937) to Stevenson’s poem "The Land of Nod". The image is tall and thin; the right side is dominated by a black crag (or possibly a strange tree-trunk), in front of which, in the bottom right-hand corner, stand two fantastical bird-like creatures with scruffy feathers and outsized, beaked heads. Although not overtly threatening or frightening, they are unsettling in their appearance. Behind them, a small child, head bowed, toils up-slope with the aid of a staff. Strange, twisted outcrops and buildings are in the background, and in the distance another child can be seen floating serenely on a cloud. In the top left-hand corner, a giant, long-nosed face peers over the top of the cliff.

Caption: "Up the mountain sides of dreams"

ALT

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54d

Buying options for the Crooked Medium's Guide to Terror

"Stephen Cox has done it again. An absolute page-turner that masterfully blends Victorian crime with unearthly menace"

"Humane tender and funny..."

RECOMMENDED UK PRINT OPTIONS using independent printer

From my website post free £10.99
https://stephencox.co.uk/product/the-crooked-mediums-guide-to-terror/

From my website both books as bundle £19.99
https://stephencox.co.uk/product/both-crooked-medium-books-discount-price/

All Good Bookshop (can be signed)
https://allgoodbookshop.co.uk/order-items/ols/products/xn--the-crooked-mediums-guide-to-terror-by-stephen-cox-m105a

#mystery #murder #Victorian #sapphic #indie #books

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19d

Characters on the Scott Monument: Their Stories
7 November, Edinburgh Central Library. Free, ticketed

The statuettes on Edinburgh’s Scott Monument show characters from Walter Scott’s poems & novels. This talk will examine the statuettes & show how they shed light on Scott’s works.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/characters-on-the-scott-monument-their-stories-tickets-1999689835127

#Scottish #literature #sculpture #19thcentury #Victorian #visualart #sculpture #WalterScott #romanticism #Edinburgh #memorial

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47d

SR Crockett (1859–1914) was born #OTD, 24 Sep. A bestselling author of 60+ novels, he fell from fashion, his books dismissed as “kailyard”. But Tolkien cites Crockett as an inspiration, & in VIDA, or THE IRON LORD (1907) he possibly wrote the first car chase in fiction

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https://1890s.ca/crockett_bio/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #20thcentury #Victorian #Edwardian #Tolkien

Samuel Rutherford Crockett. Photograph by Elliott & Fry. The Critic, September 1905. P. 200. Wikimedia Commons. Crockett is bearded, and wears a jacket buttoned all the way up to his neck. His left hand rests in his jacket pocket and he is holding a book, casually, in his right. The photograph is in black and white.

ALT

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16d

Voices fae Victorian Dundee
7 November, Dundee Central Library. Free, ticketed.

This event will showcase Scots and Gaelic literature in Dundee Central Library’s important collections of 19th-century newspapers, books, and ballads, and live performances of work from and inspired by Dundee’s literary history.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/voices-fae-victorian-dundee-tickets-2003765267856

#Scottish #literature #poetry #song #popularliterature #19thcentury #Victorian #Dundee #Scots #Scotslanguage #Gaelic #Gaidhlig

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15d

“Why do these characters […] seem to attract reinvention and retelling so much more than any other fictional creations? […] This doesn’t happen with Poirot, Father Brown or Lord Peter Wimsey. What’s so special about the denizens of Baker Street?”

—Stephen Fry on the enduring appeal of Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective

@bookstodon

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/oct/25/stephen-fry-sherlock-holmes-altered-the-course-of-my-whole-life

#Scottish #literature #ConanDoyle #19thcentury #Victorian #detectivefiction #crimefiction #SherlockHolmes

stephen-fry-sherlock-holmes-altered-the-course-of-my-whole-life

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10d

“They were both experienced in such affairs, & powerful with the spade; & they had scarce been twenty minutes at their task before they were rewarded by a dull rattle on the coffin lid…”

💀Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Body-Snatcher” – available in a free ebook from our website

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/free-publications/sins-and-follies-2/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #horror #shortfiction #shortstory #RobertLouisStevenson #Gothic #Halloween

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8d

Paddling Their Own Canoes
13 Nov, Edinburgh. Free

In 1876, Robert Louis Stevenson & his friend Sir Walter Simpson set out on a canoe voyage through France & Belgium that would become his first travel book, 𝘈𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘝𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘨𝘦. This year marks the 150th anniversary of that adventure, and the Club is gathering for readings to commemorate it.

https://www.planomato.com/en/edinburgh/p/robert-louis-stevenson-day-paddling-their-own-canoes

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #RobertLouisStevenson #Victorian #France #Belgium #canoeing

ALT

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5d

Hugh Miller: the David Attenborough of his day
4 December, Elgin Museum. £6.13

A fossil hunter, folklorist, man of faith, stonemason, geologist, editor, writer & social justice campaigner, find out why Hugh Miller is one of the great Scots of the 19th century – & why he deserves the title of “the David Attenborough of his day”

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hugh-miller-the-david-attenborough-of-his-day-tickets-2004167394628

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #geology #folklore #science #fossil #HughMiller

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38d

Keepers of the Light
Currently on BBC Sounds

For generations, the Stevenson family built lighthouses around Scotland’s coast. Robert Louis Stevenson was expected to do the same – but instead, he chose to write. Keepers of the Light explores the uneasy boundary between art & engineering, & how one extraordinary family shared an impulse to create in very different forms.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0031py0

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #Victorian #art #engineering #lighthouse #RobertLouisStevenson

m0031py0

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36d

The Dominie is growin’ grey,
And, feth, he’s keepit thrang
Wi’ counts an’ spellin’ a’ the day,
And liffies when they’re wrang…

—“The Dominie’s Happy Lot”, by poet & schoolmaster Walter Wingate (1865–1918)

Times may have changed, but happy World Teachers’ Day – 5 October – to all who celebrate!

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https://www.unesco.org/en/days/teachers

#Scottish #literature #teachers #teaching #WorldTeachersDay #poem #poetry #19thcentury #Victorian #Scots #Scotslanguage

The Dominie’s Happy Lot
Walter Wingate

The Dominie is growin’ grey,
And, feth, he’s keepit thrang
Wi’ counts an’ spellin’ a’ the day,
And liffies when they’re wrang.
He dauners out at nine o’clock,
He dauners hame at four—
Frae twal to ane to eat and smoke—
And sae his day is owre!

Oh! Leezie, Leezie, fine and easy
Is a job like yon—
A’ Saturday at gowf to play,
And aye the pay gaun on!

And when the burn comes doun in spate,
And troots are taken weel,
To tak’ a day he isna blate,
Sine marches aff wi’s creel.
His garden, it has ne’er a weed,
His tatties are a’ soun’,
The laddies needna fash to read,
As lang’s they delve his grun’.

Oh! Leezie, Leezie, fine and easy
Is a job like yon—
Weel or ill he’s maister still,
And aye the pay gaun on!

ALT

When winter days are cauld and dark,
And dykes are deep wi’ snaw,
And bairns are shivern’ owre their wark,
He shuts the shop at twa;
And when it comes to Hogmanay,
And fun comes roarin’ ben,
And ilka dog maun tak’ a day,
The Dominie tak’s ten!

Oh! Leezie, Leezie, fine and easy
Is a job like yon—
To stop the mill whene’er you will,
And aye the pay gaun on!

And when Inspectors gi’e a ca’
He tak’s them roun’ to dine,
And aye the upshot o’ it a—
“The bairns are daein’ fine!”
And sae the “Board” come smirkin’ roun’
Wi’ prizes in their haun’;
And syne it’s frae the end o’ June
Until the Lord kens whan!

Oh! Leezie, Leezie, fine and easy
Is a job like yon—
Sax weeks to jaunt and gallivant,
And aye the pay gaun on!

ALT

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31d

Fossil hunter, folklorist, evangelist, stonemason, editor, social justice campaigner, & geologist, Hugh Miller (1802–1856) – born #OTD, 10 Oct – should be remembered in the company of Carlyle, Ruskin, Matthew Arnold & JS Mill as one of the leading moral & social thinkers of the 19th centuries

A 🎂🧵

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#Scottish #literature #Victorian #19thcentury #HughMiller #geology #historyofgeology #workingclass #workingclasswriters

Faded 19th-century sepia photograph of Hugh Miller. He is standing, dressed in workman's overalls, his shirt-sleeves rolled up. He has bushy hair and large sideburns, and his left elbow is propped up on a carved gravestone. His right hand rests on a large stonemason's maul, and he holds a chisel in his left hand.

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55d

Wanted a husband who doesn’t suppose,
That all earthly employments one feminine knows—
That she’ll scrub, do the cleaning, and cooking, and baking,
And plain needlework, hats and caps, and dressmaking…

—“Wanted A Husband”, by Marion Bernstein (1846–1906), born #OTD, 16 September. A 🎂🧵

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#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #19thcentury #Victorian #womenwriters #feminism

Wanted a Husband
Marion Bernstein

‘Baking and cooking, scrubbing and dressing
Accomplishments grand, well worth possessing;
Economy too, with wisdom discreet,
My wife must practise to make all ends meet.’
—Eleve.

Wanted a husband who doesn’t suppose,
That all earthly employments one feminine knows—
That she’ll scrub, do the cleaning, and cooking, and baking,
And plain needlework, hats and caps, and dressmaking.
Do the family washing, yet always look neat,
Mind the bairns, with a temper unchangeably sweet,
Be a cheerful companion, whenever desired,
And contentedly toil day and night, if required.
Men expecting as much, one may easily see,
But they’re not what is wanted, at least, not by me.

Wanted a husband who’s tender and true,
Who will stick to his duty, and never get ‘fou,’
But when all his day’s work he has blithely gone through,
Help his wife, ‘set to rights,’ till her work is done too;
Who will not absurdly, and helplessly go,
And trouble the wife about ‘buttons to sew,’
On his shirt, or his gloves, or his coat, or his vest,
But will sew them himself, and not think he’s oppressed.
Now, if such a lad you should happen to see,
He’s wanted by many, but yet—not by me!

ALT

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