Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven

foxmouth:

Burning of “The Sun Also Rises” 
by S. Otto Nicli | Tumblr 

“The burning of a book is a sad, sad sight, for even though a book is nothing but ink and paper, it feels as if the ideas contained in the book are disappearing as the pages turn to ashes and the cover and binding—which is the term for the stitching and glue that holds the pages together—blacken and curl as the flames do their wicked work.

"When someone is burning a book, they are showing utter contempt for all of the thinking that produced its ideas, all of the labor that went into its words and sentences, and all of the trouble that befell the author…”

—Lemony Snicket, The Penultimate Peril

the-library-and-step-on-it:

A letter from Charlotte Brontë to Henry Nussey (5 March 1839), in which she turned down his marriage proposal.

“Before answering your letter, I might have spent a long time in consideration of its subject; but as from the first moment of its reception and perusal I determined on which course to pursue, it seemed to me that delay was wholly unnecessary. You are aware that I have many reasons to feel gratified to your family, that I have peculiar reasons for affection towards one at least of your sisters, and also that I highly esteem yourself. Do not therefore accuse me of wrong motives when I say that my answer to your proposal must be a decided negative. In forming this answer — I trust I have listened to the dictates of conscience more than to those of inclination; I have no personal repugnance to the idea of a union with you — but I feel convinced that mine is not the sort of disposition calculated to form the happiness of a man like you. It has always been my habit to study the character of those amongst whom I chance to be thrown, and I think I know yours and can imagine what description of woman would suit you for a wife. Her character should not be too marked, ardent and original — her temper should be mild, her piety undoubted, her spirits even and cheerful, and her ‘personal attractions’ sufficient to please your eye and gratify your just pride. As for me, you do not know me, I am not this serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose — You would think me romantic and eccentric — you would say I was satirical and severe. However, I scorn deceit and I will never for the sake of attaining the distinction of matrimony and escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy.”

After becoming curate of the parish church of Earnley, near Chichester, Henry had begun to search for an appropriate wife. He had known Charlotte through her friendship with his younger sister, Ellen, from about 1835. Her polite demurral seemingly aroused no apparent resentment on the part of the Nusseys, nor does it seem to have weighed on Charlotte’s mind, for she remained on companiable terms with Henry for many years.

dalpuri:

J.R.R. and Edith Tolkien in Oxford, 1961.

todayinhistory:

August 30th 1797: Mary Shelley born

On this day in 1797 the English novelist Mary Shelley was born in London. Her birth name was Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, and her mother was British women’s rights advocate Mary Wollstonecraft. Her mother died a few days after giving birth to her. Mary went on to marry the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. The Shelleys famously attended a party at the home of British poet Lord Byron where he challenged that each guest (all of whom were authors and poets) write a ghost story. Mary Shelley then proceeded to write one of the most famous novels of all time: ‘Frankenstein’. Percy Shelley drowned in 1822 and Mary Shelley died in 1851.

schioro:

literature meme: (1/8) prose writers - Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

“Nothing can be sadder or more profound than to see a thousand things for the first and last time. To journey is to be born and die each minute… All the elements of life are in constant flight from us, with darkness and clarity intermingled, the vision and the eclipse; we look and hasten, reaching out our hands to clutch; every happening is a bend in the road…”

Artistic Movements: The Bloomsbury Group [Circa 1910]

The Bloomsbury Group—or Bloomsbury Set—was an influential group of associated English writers, intellectuals, philosophers and artists, the best known members of which included Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. This loose collective of friends and relatives lived, worked or studied together near Bloomsbury, London, during the first half of the 20th century. According to Ian Ousby, “although its members denied being a group in any formal sense, they were united by an abiding belief in the importance of the arts”.Their works and outlook deeply influenced literature, aesthetics, criticism, and economics as well as modern attitudes towards feminism, pacifism, and sexuality.

The members of Bloomsbury, or “Bloomsberries,” would more or less maintain allegiance to their mutual philosophy of an ideal society, even through a World War and three decades of tectonic shifts in the political climate. They had no codified agenda or mission. They were not political in the ordinary sense of the word. Most importantly, there was no application or initiation required to become a member. Bloomsbury was an informal hodgepodge of intellectual friends, and one either merited inclusion to that circle or one did not. No rules of order, as in a committee, governed the way in which Bloomsbury managed their interactions. Instead, they held impromptu dinners and gatherings where any number of topics was the subject of serious discussion and contemplation. These intellectual exchanges served as the main influence on later work by individual members. By no means were all members in full agreement on all subjects. Some of Bloomsbury’s most stimulating ideas and writings were borne out of internal disagreement and strife. One can safely say that each member of Bloomsbury was leftist in his or her politics, although as individuals they expressed their politics in very different ways. [x]

oldtrinkets:

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of Four, ch. 8

siderealscion:

Dracula Characters 3/10- Jonathan Harker

He is uncommonly clever, if one can judge from his face, and full of energy. If this journal be true, (and judging by one’s own wonderful experiences, it must be,) he is also a man of great nerve.

clairelizabethfraser:

Soft-spoken sweet-smelling Sansa, who loved silks, songs, chivalry and tall gallant knights with handsome faces.

Vladimir Nabokov’s Drawings of Butterflies (1957 - 1974) [x]