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.
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.
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)
@gutenberg_org TIL Bob and Ray were inspired by the author of "The King in Yellow" when they created "Mr. Treat, Chaser of Lost Persons." Thank you Project Gutenberg! #RobertWChambers#BobAndRay
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.
“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