Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea:

The Vast Unknown: in which Professor Arronax decides to stay on board the Nautilus. Really does feel like a possible alternate ending of the original novel, witch both Arronax' and Nemo's voices spot-on.

VersaillesI never got around to writing a review of the third season, which I didn't enjoy nearly as ( Read more... )

Monday saw me visiting another bunch of dead Victorians - or perhaps more accurately dead Georgians who made it into Victoria's reign and some additional Victorians - at Kensal Green Cemetery, more on that below the cut complete with photos; and before you ask, that is the end of my morbid cemetery exploration during this particular London trip ( Read more... )

Twitter yesterday reminded me of this, because the strand of Lucrezia's hair which had been kept with her correspondence with Cardinal di Bembo and which Byron pinched when he saw it in Milan in 1816 has been found. How do we know Byron made off with the hair and was in general Lucrezia-fannish? Because he wrote all about to his sister Augusta. ( Read more... )

It turns out I was mistaken about the total absence of cats in Venice. This noon when strolling I spotted not only one but two: a black and white and an absolutely beautiful and large red. Clearly the later's name must be Tiziano ( Read more... )

Allow me to geek out for a moment: Byron's copy of 'Frankenstein' with a handwritten dedication by Mary Shelley goes on sale at an auction! Haunted summer! One of the more creative laudanum-drenched get togethers of English writers while touring Switzerland! (Also a bad Highlander episode, but forget that one.) (The Ken Russell movie Gothic, ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

A link from
( Read more... )

( Read more... )

So here I was, reading something looking back on the Bush years, when a quote from Byron about George III. nagged in my mind, which I always thought to be the best summary of W. I looked up The Vision of Judgment, and there indeed it was. It also reminded me of something else, namely, how immensely readable much of Byron's work is still today, and ( Read more... )

Two reviews written a while ago, which I hadn't gotten around to posting yet, about two historical novels by the same author I enjoyed a lot, set in two very different periods.

( Restoration, Stuart family drama, and a first person narrative )