Reading The Island of Doctor Moreau, I thought it must be the darkest of Wells’s science fiction stories, but The War of the Worlds represents some solid competition on that front. As stories of alien invasion go, it’s remarkably bleak and lacking in heroism. After the aliens land in the suburbs of London (the …
1898 is quite a memorable year for one big reason; it marks the start and end of the Spanish-American war, the first adventure of the USA’s imperial phase, and the making of one of its most zeitgeist-setting leaders, Theodore Roosevelt. On the plus side this means the year is easier to research, but on …
It’s one of those stories that barely seems credible; British-led construction workers building a railway across Kenya and Uganda are picked off and eaten by a pair of unusually cunning lions. Traps are laid, but the lions manage to outwit the hunters at every stage, until in a final showdown they are defeated by a …
Oscar in his third and final act was perhaps on the surface a different sort of animal; withdrawn and solemn, altogether lacking in the choice witticisms that made his name. I like to think that nothing had changed – here is the honesty and compassion that I see in his essays and his novel, just …
 War The Spanish—American War The Battle of Omdurman: British and Egyptian troops defeat Sudanese tribesmen. 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen are slaughtered by the Turks in Heraklion, Greece, leading to the establishment of the autonomous Cretan State. Other Conflict (inter-human) Émile Zola’s “J’accuse…!” letter is published on the front page of the Paris daily newspaper …
MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack “The country is awakening to the real harm these “coon songs” and “rag-time” are doing… It is an evil music that has crept into the homes and hearts of our American people regardless of race, and must be wiped out as other …
From 1897, the most republished newspaper editorial of all time, summing up the prevalent style of its times very well indeed. Merry Christmas from Centuries of Sound.
John Collier – Lady Godiva Edvard Munch – The Kiss Paul Gauguin — Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? Camille Pissarro – Boulevard Montmartre, printemps Henri Rousseau — Boy on the Rocks Jacek Malczewski — Vicious Circle L. A. Ring – In the garden door. The artist’s wife Ramon …
To mirror the main mix, this year we have some extra inappropriate content – irresponsible drinking, the occult, and actual sort-of porn. The Hallucinated Alchemist Old Man Drinking a Glass of Beer The X-Rays The Bewitched Inn Making Sausages After The Ball Leaving Jerusalem by Railway Naval Combat in Greece Spanish Bullfight La prise de …
It’s been over twenty years since I last read ‘Dracula’ and I was a little surprised to find that my opinion about it this time was essentially the same. It’s 50% utterly wonderful, a wildly evocative mystery story with enough half-spoken to lead to a century of derivative works, none of which can quite capture …
