The Land of Temples (India), published 1882, has quite a few images of cats, which I think are actually ads for another book entirely. Here is another cat, from Leaves from My Notebook, by an Ex-Officer of the Royal Irish Constabulary (1879). Enjoy your weekend!
Author: Karen Wade
Dr. Karen Wade is a researcher and lecturer at the School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin.
All the toads and serpents
Sir James Brooke, of The Absentee, does not relish the prospect of the return of Lady Dashfort and her daughter to these shores: ‘…one worthless woman, especially one worthless Englishwoman of rank, does incalculable mischief in a country like this, which looks up to the sister country for fashion. For my own part, as a…
Ladies and Gentlemen: visualising character mentions by gender in the novels
In early 2015, Adam Calhoun created a (now quite famous) series of images that visualise the punctuation from famous novels. These rather lovely images demonstrate clearly how differently writing can be structured, particularly in regard to features like punctuation: hiding in plain sight, punctuation renders writing intelligible, but goes practically unnoticed by the reader. (Until…
Out for a jaunt
Around the turn of the 19th century, if you wanted to get around in Ireland, it seems that a jaunting-car was the main way to go. These light two-wheeled carriages (which come in “inside” and “outside” varieties) make a number of appearances in our novel collection, and can also be found illustrating a number of…
Alas! Or, Some Titles of “Interest”
Ada Maria Jocelyn, £100,000 Versus Ghosts: A Novel. 1888. UK’s Most Haunted: The 19th Century Edition Anonymous, The Life and Adventures of Toby, the Sapient Pig; with his opinions on men and manners. Written by himself. 1805 (although this date may be inaccurate?). Toby was quite the celebrity in his day, and his memoirs were…
One Million Images: the British Library Labs Collection
*WARNING: CONTENT IS VERY DISTRACTING AND MAY INTERRUPT YOUR WORKDAY* Unless otherwise specified, the images we’ve been using on The Sea of Books all come from the British Library Labs scanned images collection. This is a project which is very dear to our hearts, as it consists of a massive, confusing and wonderful dataset, full…
What’s in a name? Waverley and The Sea of Books
The protagonist of Sir Walter Scott’s 1814 historical novel, Waverley, comes from a wealthy family and has the good fortune to be brought up with access to an enormous collection of books: The library at Waverley-Honour, a large Gothic room, with double arches and a gallery, contained such a miscellaneous and extensive collection of volumes…
Insult of the Week: Intolerably Stupid
We may be a little biased, but we feel there’s some truth in this pointed comment from Henry Tilney: The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid. From chapter 14 of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, published 1817. Read the novel for free at Project Gutenberg!
The Sea of Books 