Currently on the BBC iPlayer: Ian Rankin investigates Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde”. Rankin traces the roots of this story, which stretch back to Stevenson's childhood. Grave-robbers, drugs & prostitution all play their part, as Rankin's journey takes him into the dark streets of the city that inspired the tale: Edinburgh.
During the Peninsular War a wounded soldier recuperates in a remote location. He falls in love with the daughter of the house, but her family hides a terrible secret…
Clytemnestra, in Greek mythology, was the wife of Agamemnon, and the half-sister of Helen of Troy.
In Aeschylus' Oresteia, she murders Agamemnon – said by Euripides to be her second husband – and the Trojan princess Cassandra, whom Agamemnon had taken as a war prize following the sack of Troy; however, in Homer's Odyssey, her role in Agamemnon's death is unclear and her character is significantly more subdued.
"Of the life of Benjamin Button between his twelfth and twenty-first year I intend to say little. Suffice to record that they were years of normal ungrowth."
F. Scott Fitzgerald's short story "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is published in The Smart Set magazine. It was subsequently anthologized in Fitzgerald's 1922 book Tales of the Jazz Age.
#JohnsHopkins UP is offering a 30% discount w/the code HMOR24 on all its books, including mine, Finding the Right Words: A Story of #Literature, #Grief, and the #Brain, the #memoir I wrote w/#neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller. If you click on the book link & then click on the figures link, you'll see images of the brain that might be helpful. The glossary also includes terms that are good to know when going to the #doctor. Bruce & I hope you find it helpful.
American artist and fiction writer Robert W. Chambers was born #OTD in 1865.
Chambers is best known for his weird fiction and horror stories, particularly "The King in Yellow," a collection of short stories published in 1895. He wrote numerous other novels and short stories across various genres including "The Maker of Moons" (1896), "The Mystery of Choice" (1897), and "The Tracer of Lost Persons" (1906).
"Along the shore the cloud waves break,
The twin suns sink behind the lake,
The shadows lengthen
In Carcosa.
...
Song of my soul, my voice is dead;
Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed
Shall dry and die in
Lost Carcosa."
Cassilda's Song in "The King in Yellow," Act i, Scene 2.
~Robert William Chambers (May 26, 1865 – December 16, 1933)
French writer, literary critic, art critic, book publisher Edmond de Goncourt was born #OTD in 1822.
He was the founder of the Académie Goncourt. Some of his work was written in collaboration with his brother, Jules. Until his death in 1870, Jules was the main author of the Journal, which was then continued by Edmond, who remained alone. It consists of a collection of notes, generally brief, taken from day to day.
Heads up for Maya Angelou night on #BBC4 starting at 9pm BST this evening.
Bonnie Greer looks back on the extraordinary life of one of literature’s most significant and inspirational figures through an exploration of the BBC archives.
#TIL that in 1929, JM Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, gifted his work's copyright to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
"Through this gift, Peter Pan’s magic made an unprecedented leap from the realm of fiction into reality and the hospital began to receive royalties every time a production of the play was on, as well as from the sale of Peter Pan books and other products."
Spanish dramatis, writer and poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca died #OTD in 1681.
His plays have been divided thematically: religious comedies (La devoción de la cruz), historical-legendary (El sitio de Breda), comedies of intrigue (Casa con dos puertas, mala es de guardar), comedies of honor (El médico de su honra), philosophical (El gran teatro del mundo), mythological (Eco y Narciso) and sacramental acts (A Dios por razón de estado).
«¿Qué es la vida? Un frenesí.
¿Qué es la vida? Una ilusión,
una sombra, una ficción;
y el mayor bien es pequeño;
que toda la vida es sueño,
y los sueños, sueños son».
"What is life? A madness.
What is life? An illusion,
a shadow, a story.
And the greatest good is little enough:
for all life is a dream,
and dreams themselves are only dreams."
La vida es sueño (1635)
~Pedro Calderón de la Barca (17 January 1600 – 25 May 1681)
“Widely respected – & regularly attacked (once physically) – in her lifetime, she is now largely neglected; an intriguing aside to feminism or to agnosticism. Dixie deserves better.”
Florence Dixie – novelist, poet, dramatist, war correspondent, campaigning journalist, suffragist, & more – was born #OTD, 25 May. Valentina Bold explores Dixie’s roving life
English writer and politician Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton was born #OTD in 1803.
He published Falkland in 1827: its intimate portrayal of pre-Victorian dandyism kept gossips busy trying to associate public figures with characters in the book. The character of Richard Crawford in The Disowned, also published in 1828, borrowed much from that of banker and forger Henry Fauntleroy, who was hanged in London in 1824.
Many years ago i found a ‘list of items for a grand house in mourning’, on it were things like black velvet drapes etc and also a butter dish in the shape of a skull that moulds the butter inside in to a brain.
I feel like this was maybe a Perec thing, or something published by Atlas Press or someone like that.
Anyone know who wrote it or where it’s from? #goth#avantgarde#literature
I can hardly wait until the release of 'The Auroras & Blossoms PoArtMo Anthology: Volume 5', with haiku, poems and a short (fictional) story by me. Pre-orders of this beautiful e-book until 3 June for just $ /€ 4,99 instead of $/€ 9,99.