BleakChesneyWold

      William Harrison Ainsworth  (1805-1882)  William Harrison Ainsworth  by Daniel Maclise ( died 1870) donated to the National Portrait Gallery in 1949 : In public domain, courtesy of Wikipedia.  This post originally appeared in my blog  A Burnt Ship  in November 2020. Thought worth sharing here as essentially a look at a 19th century novelist's view of the Guy Fawkes. Professor James Sharpe, referred to below, sadly passed away in February 2024.  William Harrison Ainsworth  1805-1882 was the son of a Manchester solicitor and moved to London in 1824 to study law. As well as being a poet , magazine editor and journalist,  Ainsworth belonged to a crop of Victorian novelists who were widely read during during the middle of the 19th century but fell from favour, being  largely neglected by the end of his life. 'Guy Fawkes or The Gunpowder Treason -An Historical Romance'  appeared by instalments, included in 'Bentley's ...

                                     Poem published 7th May 1842 in the 'Leeds Intelligencer'                                        Lucasta Miller referred to Mrs Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bront ë  and the shaping of the Bront ë s's reputation in the following terms : " The legend it laid down-three lonely sisters playing out their tragic destiny on top of a windswept moor with a mad misanthrope father and doomed brother". MILLER Whilst in the guide to The Bront ë s, 'The Brontethaurus', John Sutherland stated "My brilliant boy', Patrick (Bront ë ) called his only son Branwell. Brilliant, but doomed. Before terminally incapacitated by drink, drugs, self pity, and sexual incontinence". SUTHERLAND  Of course the overall Bront ë  'legend' is open to a challenge. Jus...

               'The Gothic Tales of Mary Elizabeth Braddon' This 2014 collection was edited with an introduction by Greg Buzwell, as part of the British Library 'Tales of the Weird' series, and contains fourteen short stories that originally appeared in various periodicals from 1860-1907. Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1835-1915) is still most known for one of her first published novel  Lady Audley's Secret (1862), which  made a vital contribution to the 'Sensation novels' genre,was extremely popular and arguably has overshadowed, her huge body of work: Some 90 novels, countless short stories, not  always submitted to magazines in her own name. Braddon scholars are still trying to trace all her work,quite a formidable task. CARNELL & ASSOCIATION 'Sensation novels' tend to emphasise frightful human behaviour, scandal, far fetched coincidence, often with an amateur detective, and crumbling country house, preferably a mansion.But not afra...

                                      Short horror story -England 1896                                  Ferguson Wright Hume  (Fergus Hume) was born in, Powick, Worcestershire, in 1859, and emigrated with his family to New Zealand aged three. Hume remained there and trained as a barrister, qualifying in 1885, then left for Melbourne in 1886 to become a barrister's clerk and unsuccessful playwright. His first novel The Mystery of the Hansom Cab , was self published in 1886 and started selling well. Hume sold all the rights to the book, including to the British and American markets, and lost out when it  became a bestseller. Detective fiction was still in its infancy. The Mystery of the Hansom Cab is sensational, with a murder, disputed inheritance, a family secret that desperately needs to be suppres...

                                                Another side to 'Bleak House'  "The rain is ever falling, drip, drip, drip, by day and night, upon the broad flagged terrace - pavement, The Ghosts Walk."                       Personally I regard 'Bleak House' as Charles Dickens's masterpiece: The longest of his novels, and one that includes 'social concerns' with its blistering attacks on both rural and urban poverty. But also looms as a forerunner of the later sensation novel genre-with illegitimacy, scandal, stalking, drug use, spontaneous combustion as significant themes. There is also a detective story, an infamous long drawn out legal battle where only the lawyers are victorious. Not to mention a ghost tale.  In chapter seven of 'Bleak House' we are introduced to 'Chesney Wold', the country mansion in...

                                   Very Poetic and Atmospheric  historical novel - Magnificent  Alan Humm edits the arts journal 'One Hand Clapping' and has had two poetry collections published. 'The Sparkler' is his first novel, published by Vine Leaves Press.  This is certainly quality writing. Alan Humm uses fiction as a means of  exploring what he considers to be 'gaps' in historians' knowledge of Dickens's life: A surprising challenge at first as Dickens has had so many biographers, and some potential readers may feel that the novel veers towards the 'unknowable' Dickens.At any rate, Mr Humm has cited the two books that have inspired him in creating 'The Sparkler' as being 'Becoming Dickens-The Invention of a Novelist' by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst and 'The Pantomime Life of Joseph Grimaldi, Laughter, Madness and 'The Story of Britain's Greatest Comedian' by Andrew Mconell S...