Bridget Jones’s Diary could easily win the “ultimate early 2000s rom-com” award, if there was one. Alcohol, cigarettes, a flat in London, mini skirts, and a job in publishing… Can it get further from the early Regency era of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice? And yet, beneath the hangovers, the messy apartment and the questionable…
Category: Miscellaneous
A 21st-century guide to Mudie’s Select Library
Or: Why sales figures don’t always give the best indication of what the Victorians were reading If you’re a long-term reader of this blog, you’re probably familiar with its authors’ fascination with reading cultures. We’re aware that many of our readers found their way here for the numbers: maybe you urgently needed to know which…
The Bestselling English Novels of the Nineteenth Century, Ranked: Part Three
Which nineteenth-century novels sold the most in their first few decades? Part One, on instant successes, is here.Part Two, on novels which were successful in their first few years, is here.Part Four, on successful novels that don’t really fit into any of the other categories, is available here. In this post, we provide sales figures…
The Bestselling English Novels of the Nineteenth Century, Ranked: Part Two
Which nineteenth-century novels sold the most copies over their first few years? Part One on instant successes is here.Part Three, on novels that sold well in their first few decades, is here.Part Four, on successful novels that don’t fit into any of our other categories, is here. Last week we took a dive into the…
The Bestselling English Novels of the 19th Century, Ranked: Part One
Which were the fastest-selling novels of nineteenth-century Britain? Part Two, on novels which were successful in their first few years, is here.Part Three, on novels that sold well in their first few decades, is here.Part Four, on successful novels that don’t fit into any of our other categories, is here. This blog has been around…
The captain, the sea-serpent, and “the Illustrious News”
What can an 1848 sea-serpent sighting tell us about the workings of the mid-19th-century newspaper industry? Sixty feet long!Awfully strong!It held its course straight on, for right or for wrong,And many a brave tar on board of the Daedalus,Thought to himself if he comes here he’ll settle us. … Its size and its hues,All who…
Lies and Litigation, Part Two: the cost of the Autographs
Part One of this post can be found here. Last year, I acquired a partial copy of Geraldine of Desmond from John’s Bookshop in Athlone. It was the only original Crumpe novel that I’ve ever seen for sale, and I was keen to own one for myself. It’s not in perfect condition, but this is…
Lies and Litigation, Part One; or, When is a First Edition Not a First Edition?
It’s 1831. You’re a recently-published novelist, and you suspect that your publisher – who has a bit of a dubious reputation in the business – is withholding the proceeds from your book. Worse still, you’ve asked repeatedly for the return of a manuscript, and he’s refused to provide it. There can only be one solution:…
Guest Post: The Real-Life Houses That Inspired Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
Today’s guest post has been written by Will Leary, a former student of English with Film at University College Dublin. Will is especially interested in the crossovers between the two mediums of literature and film, particularly film adaptations of novels. Whom amongst us hasn’t dreamt of traversing the hallways of Pemberley? Or longed to take…
Teaching A Neural Network to Write 19th-Century Book Titles
This post is inspired by one of my all-time favourite blogs, AI Weirdness, whose author Janelle Shane uses machine learning to develop new and strange approaches to familiar tasks. The blog showcases her experiments in training neural networks on large textual datasets, in order to create names for guinea pigs, generate new college courses, and…
Then and Now: Trinity College Gates
This view of the corner of College Green in Dublin comes from The Illustrated Dictionary of Dublin, a guidebook by Strangways and Cosgrave, and dates to around 1895. To the of the picture is the front entrance to Trinity College, and in among the throng of pedestrians and omnibuses you can also see a few…
Found: Two Unknown Letters by Thomas Moore, 1845
On Tuesday March 25th, 1845, the poet Thomas Moore sat down in his study at Sloperton, in Wiltshire, to write a short – and somewhat confused – thank-you note to an old friend. The letter’s recipient pinned it carefully into a collection of treasured documents, but apart from herself, a handful of library staff members,…
The Sea of Books 