BleakChesneyWold

                                             The Charles Dickens connection  Acting obsessed him ( Dickens) . He supported actors experiencing financial hard times and even dreamed of great actor Macready as his desirable double. John Glavin.  The play referred to here was . 'The Frozen Deep'  written by Wilkie Collins in 1853 with a certain input from Charles Dickens:  Dickens also played one of the leading roles, that of Richard Wardour. Collins and Dickens had been literary associates and friends from 1851. Dickens expert, Michael Slater went as far as to describe this play as a "melodrama expressly written for Dickens and his amateurs." SLATER  And the play was based on true events: In 1845 Captain Sir  John Franklin of the Erebus accompanied by the Terror sailed from Greenhithe, Kent, to The Arctic in a bid to discover the north west pa...

                                                    Novel by Mike Langridge  I had not really been convinced about the value of sequels and prequels written by modern novelists inspired by well known works by dead authors : But have to say that I enjoyed this book very much. Certainly some knowledge of the  plot of 'Tess of the 'd'Urbevilles' and perhaps a familiarity of Thomas Hardy's main novels, are a great help.  Starting with Angel Clare and Tess's sister Liza-Lu seeing the black flag raised marking the hanging of Tess for the killing of Alec D'Urbeville whose malign actions had contributed to Angel Clare abandoning Tess shortly after he had married her. Alec had at least financially supported Tess's family,and with his death. a crisis soon looms. Angel Clare, still feels contrite for his treatment of Tess, and for leaving her once she dis...

   Death of Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria-Hungary  and Maria (Mary)  Vetsera                                       I remember as a nipper watching the  1976 series BBC  'Fall of Eagles' about the decline and collapse of the Imperial rulers of Germany, Austro-Hungary and Russia: Episode 4 concerned the Mayerling incident: On 30th January 1889, Crown Prince Rudolph ( born 21st August 1858) and his mistress Mary Vetsera  ( born 19th March 1871) were found dead at Mayerling, a hunting lodge near Vienna.              Rudolph was married to Princess Stephanie of Belgium, cousin once removed to Queen Victoria. He visited Britain at least twice. In 1878 his travels took him to Scotland and Ireland, besides England. Rudolph represented the Austrian-Hungarian dual monarchy at Queen  Victoria's Golden Jubilee of 1887, ...

                                       A Vampire Story or Science Fiction ?           Mary Elizabeth Braddon  (1835-1915) is most famous for the novels   Lady Audley's Secret (1862)   and Aurora Floyd ( serialised in 1862; published as a novel in 1863 )  . Dozens more novels, short stories, children's tales, poems, followed. Mary Elizabeth Braddon was also an actress, and magazine editor.  The genres Braddon explored included ghost, horror, and crime fiction.  Pleased to have found the Classic Ghost Story Podcast version of  Good Lady Ducayne  read by Tony Walker. Originally appeared via installments in 'The Strand Magazine' in 1896. A year before Bram Stoker's 'Dracula' and Richard Marsh's 'The Beetle'.  Good Lady Ducayne appears to be set in the decade it was written. Fiction now and then is often placed slight...

                                                       A Pagan Connection ? One puzzling aspect of Thomas Hardy's 'The Return of the Native', first serialised in Belgravia  magazine 1878, was the depiction of Bonfire Night as some sort of Pagan festival with links to a tradition going back centuries. It must be noted straight away that the 'Wessex' depicted in Hardy's novels is a fictional creation, though obviously he was drawing on his extensive knowledge of rural Dorset when writing. However, at first reading it is strange to think that the main festival to commemorate the Protestant triumph over a Catholic attempt to seize power was somehow 'Pagan'.  On to the text; Clym Yeobright has returned to Egdon Heath and on the prehistoric mound 'Rainbarrow' we are offered a gorgeous description of a bonfire burning away  "It was as if the...

                                                             A ghost story by  Amelia B Edwards (1831- 1892)   Born in London in  1831,Amelia B (Blandford) Edwards was a novelist, musician,journalist,poet, travel writer and a leading Egyptologist.  Her contribution in the latter field was particularly noteworthy, being a founder of The Egypt Exploration Society in 1882. Miss Edwards travelled in to Upper Egypt, and her book of  observations and illustrations were first  published as A Thousand Miles Up The Nile in 1877- and republished in 1982 and 1986. Her account of travels in The Dolomites - Untrodden Peaks and Unfrequented Valleys (1872)    is not quite so highly regarded, but still highlighted a region that her readership was unlikely to have visited. Miss Edwards was also a member of...

                                                                                 Painting :   October (1878) by Jules Bastien-Lepage  * 'Return of the Native' was Hardy's sixth novel and is centred around an area he called Egdon Heath. As a physical location it is not easy to place. Edward Parnell in 'Ghostland' has proposed that geographically Black Heath and Duddle Heath in Dorset fulfil this role PARNELL .Mr Parnell has also cited Hardy's  own view of  his own  creation of 'Wessex' as being "partly real, partly dream country". Egdon Heath also features  in 'The Mayor of Casterbridge' and Hardy's short story 'The Withered Arm'.  The novel opens with an anonymous narrator offering a description of the Heath (  " heathy, furzy, briary wilderness-...