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Category: Author
Charlotte Brontë and ‘Villette’ in Context
On first publication in 1853 Villette received a rather varied reception, and did not achieve the same level of success as Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë and ‘Villette’ intext This was Brontë’s fourth written novel and third to be published. It was also the final novel to be published during her lifetime. Her first written novel… Read More
I am the eye with which the Universe, Beholds itself and knows itself divine
Mia Rocquemore reflects on time and nature in the poetry of Shelley The most famous of Shelley’s poems describes the annihilating effects of time: Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Ozymandias, 12-14) The sands of time, both literal and metaphorical,… Read More
![‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day’[1]](https://wordsworth-editions.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/SM-Pic-2-crop.jpg)
‘There was no possibility of taking a walk that day’[1]
To celebrate midwinter, Sally Minogue looks at some of the ways writers have drawn inspiration from winter weather. As I write, I’m looking out over a perfect winter landscape. The Frost has performed its secret ministry. In the hoar-laden grass near to my window, chaffinch, goldfinch and other small birds bend busily to seed fallen… Read More
New release: The Sun Also Rises
The hard-boiled paradox: Stefania Ciocia looks into her soft spot for Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises “How did you go bankrupt?” Bill asked. “Two ways,” Mike said. “Gradually and then suddenly.” There is a little smiley face pencilled in next to this exchange in my old copy of The Sun Also Rises (1926), from twenty-odd… Read More
Woman of Stone
M.R. James, Mark Gatiss, and the Evolution of the BBC’s Ghost Stories for Christmas Woman of Stone ‘The ghost is innately conservative,’ Professor Clive Bloom once wrote, in an uncompromising essay on M.R. James. A bold claim in gothic theory, it makes perfect sense when you think about it. ‘Ghosts tell us of stability and… Read More
‘The great floodgates of the wonder-world swung open’
Sally Minogue examines the ‘wonder-world’ of Herman Melville’s great novel Moby Dick. ‘Call me Ishmael’: is there a more famous opening sentence in fiction? People who have never read Moby Dick, people who have never read the Bible, and don’t know who Ishmael is in either text, may still recognize and even in some way… Read More
Classic of the Week: Nicholas Nickleby
David Ellis looks at Charles Dickens’ third novel. Classic of the Week: Nicholas Nickleby If there were a prize for the most unpleasant character in Nicholas Nickleby it would be hotly contested. Prominent among the contestants would of course be Wackford Squeers, the ignorant barbarian who runs a school in Yorkshire for boys whose parents… Read More
‘He do the Police in different voices’
As Charles Dickens’ last complete novel, Our Mutual Friend, is adapted for BBC Radio 4, Sally Minogue looks at the novel’s relationship to his world and to ours. I’ve just spent a few days in London, where this blog was very much on my mind. In Our Mutual Friend (1865), as often in Dickens’ novels,… Read More
The Witch’s Curse: Elizabeth Gaskell and the Female Gothic
Something for Halloween… The Witch’s Curse In the great pantheon of Victorian British literature, Elizabeth Gaskell is among its most versatile authors. Of course, she will always be associated with her powerful industrial novels Mary Barton and North and South. But there is also the progressive social protest of Ruth – a contentious novel in… Read More