BleakChesneyWold

                                                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...

                                                                     " Wildfell Hall is a feminist manifesto of revolutionary power and intelligence'                                            Stevie Davies (1996)                   "It ( The Tenant of Wildfell Hall  ) was written too obviously as a work of propaganda, a treatise against drunkeness, to be considered a work of art "                                                        Winifred Gerin (1959)                ...

       Sensation Novel Transformed into a Social Concern Romance             'The New Magdalene' , serialised in 1872-1873, then as a novel in 1873, is certainly an interesting and surprisingly difficult  work: Arguably contains three quite diverse sections under one title. In the 21st century Wilkie Collins ( 1824- 1889) is largely known for 'The Woman in White' ( published in 1860) and 'The Moonstone' ( 1868). The former is a major work in the development of the Victorian 'sensation novel', the latter a key player in the rise of the detective novel. It is hard to imagine 'The New Magdalene' being dramatised for modern television, or film, though a stage version did appear shortly after its publication.  This novel deals with plight of a 'fallen woman' , a social usurper, who is eventually redeemed by the love of a good Christian gentleman, but remained displaced by wider society. They both go into voluntary exile. Collin...

                               A  Classic Sensation Novel                                                      ' Lady Audley's Secret'  (first installments in 1861- completed in 1862) is both a Victorian 'bigamy' and 'sensation' novel. Charlotte Bronte's 'Jane Eyre'  ( 1847) is the prime example of the former, with poor Jane in church all set to become Mrs Rochester, only to discover that husband to be already has an insane wife shut up in the attic.  In 'Lady Audley's Secret'  and the next Braddon novel 'Aurora Floyd' (1864), it is in fact the leading female characters that have committed bigamy, both deceiving second husbands. Braddon accepted that these two books were ' bigamy novels' . EDWARDS As for a definition of 'sensation' novels, t...

                                    A Press Release from The Byron Society  Something a little different .... Press Release submitted by the Byron Society on 26th February 2024 : National statue of the poet Lord Byron to be rescued from neglect 200 years after his death in Greece A planning application has been submitted to Westminster City Council to rescue one of London’s neglected and forgotten gems, the national Byron Memorial Statue, and relocate it from its current position on a traffic island on London's Park Lane to a publicly accessible, high profile location near Hyde Park’s Victoria Gate. The project forms part of the many activities around the world that will take place to commemorate the 200-year-anniversary of Lord Byron's death at Missonlonghi in Greece in April 2024.  The initiative is spearheaded by The Byron Society, a charitable membership organisation dedicated to the ...

                                            One of Hardy's Neglected Novels  The term 'Laodicean'  comes from the Book of Revelation, chapter 3, meaning 'lukewarm' and 'non committal' or even 'incapable of making a real commitment'. [ 14 ] And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; [ 15 ] I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. [ 16 ] So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth I can not trace any TV,radio, or stage adaptations. A screenplay  has been written with an audio version uploaded on to You Tube in seven parts, not sure if this was ever performed. This highlights the storyline's more comic elements.  Hardy was ill in bed when constructing working...