1889

“The river – with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows o’er the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies, wantoning with the weirs’ white waters, silvering moss-grown walls and bridges, brightening every tiny townlet, making sweet …

Jerome K. Jerome – Three Men In A Boat Read More »

Chekhov’s early farces were written as simple money-spinners, and have been held in fairly low regard by critics. Even Chekov himself called A Marriage Proposal a “wretched, boring, vulgar little skit.” and advised its director to “roll cigarettes out of it for all I care.” So I’m probably going to be on my own in …

Anton Chekhov — A Marriage Proposal (Предложение) Read More »

Some artists grow in stature after their death, and some others go the other way. George Gissing is one of the heavyweight names of late Victorian literature, and I have to confess that I’d never heard of him before I began this project. The Nether World is a grim look at the slums of London. …

George Gissing — The Nether World Read More »

The middle Victorian era saw a surge in popularity for romantic tales of chivalry, and pseudo-historical romances of the Sir Walter Scott variety were almost universally read. Mark Twain had no time for this nostalgia for a time that never was – in fact he held it partially responsible for the civil war; It was …

Mark Twain – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Read More »

1889 was a year of new stuff. Among other debuts we have; * The Coca-Cola Company (incorporated as the Pemberton Medicine Company) * Columbia Phonograph (though we will have to wait to get some of their discs) * The Eiffel Tower (much to the dissaproval of Parisians) * The first long distance electric power transmission …

Elsewhere in 1889 Read More »