Title: The Devil and the Dark WaterAuthor: Stuart TurtonPublisher: Raven BooksDate: 2021 (2020)Genre: Historical / Mystery Summary: It’s 1634 and Samuel Pipps, the world’s greatest detective, is being transported to Amsterdam to be executed for a crime he may, or may not, have committed. Travelling with him is his loyal bodyguard, Arent Hayes, who is… Continue reading Book Review: The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
In recent posts, I’ve introduced some of the common forms of prose and poetry in Renaissance England and in this post, I’ll be exploring Renaissance drama. This post is going to be a little different to the others since there are fewer forms of drama: general plays, masques, academic drama, and closet drama. I’m sure… Continue reading An Introduction to English Renaissance Drama
But none of all this beauty Which floods the earth and air Is unto me the secret Which makes September fair. – September, Helen Hunt Jackson The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield Summary: They could not have had a more perfect day for a garden-party if they had ordered it. A windless, warm day greets… Continue reading September 2021 TBR
August was good. August was productive. August was probably the best month I’ve had so far in 2021. I spent the first half of the month preparing for my PhD viva. I had my viva on the 17th and I passed with minor corrections. I guess I have a PhD now. Or I’m super close… Continue reading #MonthlyWrapUp: August 2021
Title: Moll FlandersAuthor: Daniel DefoePublisher: Oxford University PressDate: 2011 (1722)Genre: Picaresque novelSummary: A tour-de-force of writing by Daniel Defoe, this extraordinary novel tells the vivid and racy tale of a woman’s experience in the seamy side of life in late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century England and America. Born in Newgate prison, and seduced in the home… Continue reading Book Review: Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Title: On the Soul and Other Pyschological WorksAuthor: AristotleTranslator: Fred D. Miller JrPublisher: Oxford University PressDate: 2018 (c.350 BC)Genre: Non-fiction / Philosophy Summary: What is the nature of the soul? It is this question that Aristotle sought to answer in De Anima (On the Soul). In doing so he offers a psychological theory that encompasses… Continue reading Book Review: On the Soul and Other Psychological Works by Aristotle
Happy Saturday! I’m back with another post about one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and this time we’re looking at John Ford. Ford actually started his dramatic career after Shakespeare’s death but he was a Jacobean playwright so I’m including him in this series. Where possible, I’ve linked to free versions of each text. Some links are… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: John Ford (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #9)
Title: Lady Audley’s SecretAuthor: Mary Elizabeth BraddonPublisher: PenguinDate: 2019 (1862)Genre: Sensation novel / MysterySummary: In this outlandish, outrageous triumph of Scandal fiction, a new Lady Audley arrives at the manor: young, beautiful – and very mysterious. Why does she behave so strangely? What, exactly, is the dark secret this seductive outsider carries with her? I read… Continue reading Book Review: Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Today’s post is an introduction to some of the forms of poetry that were popular in Renaissance England. There are no set dates for when the ‘Renaissance’ happened in England but I’ll be using examples from between 1520 and 1621 in this post. If you’d like to see a post about one of the works I… Continue reading An Introduction to English Renaissance Poetry
Title: Before the Coffee Gets ColdAuthor: Toshikazu KawaguchiTranslator: Geoffrey TrousselotPublisher: Picador Date: 2019 (2015)Genre: Magical RealismSummary: In a small back alley in Tokyo, there is a café which has been serving carefully brewed coffee for more than one hundred years. But this coffee shop offers its customers a unique experience: the chance to travel back… Continue reading Book Review: Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
