Wordsworth and Watercolors

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells Published 1895 Classics Club Review #6/50 IAN:  I'd set the class a problem with A, B, and C as the three dimensions. . . . . [ Flashback ] SUSAN:  It's impossible unless you use D and E! IAN:  D and E? Whatever for? Do the problem that's set, Susan. SUSAN:  I can't, Mr. Chesterton—you can't simply work on three of the dimensions. IAN:  Three of them? Oh, Time being the fourth, I suppose. Then what do you need E for? What do you make the fifth dimension? SUSAN:  Space.     Doctor Who, "An Unearthly Child", 1963 Episode written by Anthony Coburn ("Spoilers!") The opening scene of the novella, in which "the Time Traveller" gives us a lecture on the reality of physics, reminded me of Susan Foreman's frustrated near-breakdown in this first episode of Doctor Who—though I recognize that Susan and the Traveller are saying slightly different things.  Also, the flickering and the rush of wind as the model mach...

"We seem to be drifting into unknown places and unknown ways; into a whole world of dark and dreadful things." — Dracula , Bram Stoker A little time after creating my Classics Club List I began to ponder the titles I'd included, to muse upon the genres, to think of myself submerged in their atmospheres, and discovered an in-and-of-itself disturbing lack of . . . disturbance . The du Mauriers, Mary Shelley, Emily Brontë,—where Mrs. Radcliffe? M. R. James? Where Gorey and Poe? I then peered inwards: what, as Catherine Morland and her friends would say, horrid novels did I know of? Disgusted, I determined to create (with no particular chronological guidelines) A To-Be-Read List of Gothic Tomes, Horrific Tales, Eerie Mysteries, & Unsettling Volumes Date Created: August 2nd, 2025 0/50 1. "A Ghost Story For Christmas" Stories, Various — ongoing 2. Trilby , George du Maurier 3. Rebecca , Daphne du Maurier 4. Mrs. de Winter , Susan Hill 5. "Jamaica I...

I am impatient as the wind to begin reading, as joy is all I feel upon spinning, number 11: Lyrical Ballads , by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge Now: to find some laudanum and a large, white seabird . . . A NEW SPIN LIST! You spin me right round, baby, right round . . . We wait 'til next Sunday to settle into another great Spin —the fifth since I began Clubbing!—hopefully to finish. Here is my list; all I know is that to me these books look like they're lots of fun! Good luck to all! 1. North and South , Elizabeth Gaskell 2. Greyfriars Bobby , Eleanor Atkinson 3. The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki 4. Rob Roy , Sir Walter Scott 5. Agnes Grey , Anne Brontë 6. Gulliver's Travels , Jonathan Swift 7. Trilby , George du Maurier 8. The Warden , Anthony Trollope 9. The Mystery of Edwin Drood , Charles Dickens 10. Rebecca , Daphne du Maurier 11. Lyrical Ballads , William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge 12. Brideshead Revisited , Evelyn Waugh...

  V ölsunga Saga or, The Saga of the Volsungs Author Unknown Classics Club Review #5/50 An all round bizarre but thoroughly enjoyable history of the lineage and legacy of Volsung. I haven't much to say, I'm afraid, and I read it a while back now. Consider this post less as a review, but more of an acknowledgement. The best known story from this is that of Sigurd and the Dragon. Sigurd is the original Siegfried I encountered as a child in Die Nibelungen (1924), which was in turn based on the German epic poem 'Nibelungenlied'. "Brunhilde knelt at his feet", 1905, Ferdinand Leeke The beautiful warrior queen Brunhild/Brynhild, whom you do not want to mess with, lies sleeping within castle walls surrounded by a barrier of fire, through which, if any man would awaken her and take her to wife, he must go. And then there's whatever Brunhild might do to him. The only reason for all this palaver is because, after killing one of Odin's favorite kings in battle, ...

  The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson Published April, 1759 Tremendously Late Classics Club Review #4/50 I found this volume in a used bookstore, and really only got it because it seemed a whimsical thing to do; why not, after all? People do read Samuel Johnson, and what an intriguing title! I didn't only obtain the book for pretension's sake; it did sound genuinely interesting – an aspiring snob I may be, but a discerning one I hope. Rasselas, said Prince of Abissinia [ sic ], lives in the so-called Happy Valley in a pleasure palace, indolent and carefree. But not happy. One day, musing beside a stream, he watches the sheep grazing and realizes that they are what the people of the Happy Valley are like: they have no pursuits beyond immediate carnal enjoyments – food, water, shelter, sleep, sunshine, – and he begins to wonder if this is really 'happiness'. For a sheep, certainly. But for human beings there must be something more needed, some a...