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| Raquel Welch Foto de Terry O´Neill |
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Frances Burney's Evelina, 18th century male manners
From left to right: Charles, Count of Artois, Louis XVIII, Marie Caroline, Duchesse of Berry, Marie Thérèse, Duchesse of Angoulême, Louis Antoine, Duke of Angoulême and Charles Ferdinand, Duke of Berry
Frances Burney's Evelina, 18th century male manners
Gentility, gender, and gallantry, unraveling the tapestry of social conduct
Burney’s main male protagonist is Lord Orville. Before writing Evelina Burney had read the published letters of the Earl of Chesterfield’s advice to his son, referred to by Samuel Johnson as teaching “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing master.” They were viewed as advocating deceit and inconsistency, were meant to prepare the son for a diplomatic career, and were not meant for publication. They were published after the father’s death by his widow.
Mandeville's economics: social hierarchy insights
Bernard Mandeville (1670–1733) was a Dutch-born philosopher, economist, satirist, writer, and physician
Mandeville's economics: social hierarchy insights
Exploring Mandeville's views on consumption, social mobility, and state intervention in eighteenth-century economics
The eighteenth century was a time of significant change, where the landed nobility were losing their supremacy to mercantile and capitalist entrepreneurs. However, as Manderville shows in his economic assessment of the conditions that needed to be managed to ensure prosperity and growth, stability meant knowing your place and not levelling up.
Wednesday, July 30, 2025
Art, pain, suffering / The masterpieces of Vincent Van Gogh
"Farmhouse in Provence" artwork by Vincent van Gogh, painted in February 1888 in Arles, in the south of France
Art, pain, suffering: the masterpieces of Vincent Van Gogh
Delving into the intersection of the great artist's anguish and inspiration
Being in pain and delving into the process of making art is such a brutal way to make value of the process that we call expression. But what is art at the end of the day but just a soul throwing up its ache in multiple forms and colours?
Vincent’s Room / A visit to the last residence of Vincent Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
Vincent Van Gogh
Vincent’s Room
A visit to the last residence of Vincent Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
I stayed in Paris only three days, and the noise, etc., of Paris had such a bad effect on me that I thought it wise for my head’s sake to fly to the country...
(Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Paul Gauguin, Auvers-sur-Oise, c. 17 June 1890)
Lotus Foot Metamorphosis
Chinese Lotus Foot Shoes
Lotus Foot Metamorphosis
Da Zi Bao, Red Empire Changing Colors: A novel-in-progress
In black silk, head covered over in a yellow and white scarf, she hobbles in pain down the street. An elderly woman, her feet and four toes had been mangled and bound as an infant, a relic of yesteryear's Confucian ideal of elite Han beauty—a bizarre and aberrant statement of protest against the bestial behavior of the Manchu barbarians—that foot fetish of the three to five-inch lotus root.
Satirical brilliance in Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock'
'Sir Plume demands the restoration of the lock,' an oil painting by Charles Robert Leslie, inspired by Alexander Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock,' exhibited in 1854
Satirical brilliance in Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock'
Delving into the social commentary and symbolism of Alexander Pope's masterpiece
The first part of the eighteenth century was regarded as the Augustan Age due to poets such as Pope and Swift. Augustan poetry incorporates references to Greek and Roman writers: Virgil, Ovid, and Horace. Pope in The Rape of the Lock refers to supernatural beings such as the sylph inhabitants of the air and nymphs of the water, along with gnomes who are demons of the earth and delight in mischief. He is also characterised by his satire, making fun of human flaws.
Virtue and vanity in Pope's eighteenth-century women
Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is generally regarded as the greatest English poet of the eighteenth century, portrait by Michael Dahl
Virtue and vanity in Pope's eighteenth-century women
Analyzing Martha’s role as the ideal woman in Pope’s poem
Felicity Nussbaum, in her critique of the poem, argues there is no single theme that unifies the poem, suggesting various ideas are repeated. Martha becomes the embodiment of eighteenth-century conduct book expectations for women: good humor, sense, social love, and a quiet, unassuming wit. Compared to other women who are imposters with assumed identities, she is presented as genuine. In contrast are the portraits of the women condemned by society for being fickle, inconsistent, excessive self-love, and ostentatious displays of wit. These attributes were condemned as a self-centered approach, as they could be seen as challenging men’s positions in an effort to outshine them. Wit was associated with immorality due to the prejudice against women learning, as when taken to extremes, it could make them violent, quarrelsome, and destructive of the social order. James Fordyce stated that women who sought knowledge looked for control and power. His solution was they should confine themselves to the domestic sphere.
Rediscovering Dr. John Moore's "Zeluco"
The Massacre of the Innocents is the subject of two paintings by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the episode of the biblical Massacre of the Innocents of Bethlehem, as related in the Gospel of Matthew
Rediscovering Dr. John Moore's "Zeluco"
Unearthing morality, religion, and irony in the 18th-century novel
Dr. Moore published Zeluco in 1789. The opening line sets the tone of what is to follow: “Religion teaches, that Vice leads to endless misery in a future state; and experience proves, that in spite of the gayest and most prosperous appearances, inward misery accompanies her; for, even in this life, her ways are ways of wretchedness, and all her paths are woe.” Zeluco, despite being born into a prosperous family, fosters a cruel and selfish character that alienates him from everyone, resulting in a miserable marriage and a jealous mistress.
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Courtiers by Lucy Worsley / Power and intrigue in Georgian England's royal court
Kensington Palace in Kensington Gardens, London, England, United Kingdom
Courtiers by Lucy Worsley
Power and intrigue in Georgian England's royal court
Courtiers is Lucy Worsley’s study of the courts of George I and George II and their time at Kensington Palace. She explains how Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts, failed to produce any children; therefore, the Act of Settlement in 1701 proclaimed the Protestant House of Hanover would be Anne’s successor. However, this law was also designed to further restrict the powers of the king. It prevented him from awarding peerages to his fellow Germans; he could not declare war or leave the country without the consent of Parliament and could not change his religion.
The nature of hate / A Hazlittian perspective
Religion Mural in Lunette from the family and education series, Charles Sprague Pearce
The nature of hate: a Hazlittian perspective
Exploring malevolence, civilizational veils, and societal roles
William Hazlitt was the youngest of three surviving children born to William and Grace Hazlitt. Known as an essayist and critic, he was first published in 1791 after sending a letter to the Shrewsbury Chronicle condemning the Birmingham riots following Joseph Priestly’s support for the French Revolution. On the Pleasure of Hating was included in The Plain Speaker in 1823.
The fable of the bees / Mandeville's critique
Vue du Pont de Westminster du Côte du Nord de Londres“ (London, Westminster Bridge); Copperplate print, colorized, printed by B. F. Leizelt, Augsburg, 2nd half of 18th century
The fable of the bees: Mandeville's critique
Exploring Mandeville's critique of morality, self-love, and societal constructs in 18th-century London
Bernard Mandeville was born in Rotterdam in 1670 and qualified as a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Leyden. He then settled in London, where he practiced as a physician. The Grumbling Hive, along with An Enquiry into the Origin of Moral Value, was published in 1714. Together with remarks and further essays, it made up a much longer work entitled The Fable of the Bees. Mandeville stated he intended to expose the vices of his countrymen and the false pretenses that are made to virtue. For him, the most prominent vices of his fellowman were fraud, luxury, and pride. He claimed lawyers would overbill their clients, doctors would extort fees for conditions they could not cure, the clergy were ignorant and lazy, and the general population indulged in their appetite for luxury.
Monday, July 28, 2025
A gothic critique of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
Photo from the movie of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
A gothic critique of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
Analyzing historical context, novel criticism, and literary references
Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey was not published until 1818, five months after her death, yet it was believed to have been written in the 1790s, at the time when the gothic novels it so famously criticises were being produced. It was sent to the publishers Crosby and Company under the title Susan in 1803 but was never published. Another novel by the same name was later published anonymously. Based in the remote isles of Scotland, it drew criticism from Anna Laetitia Barbauld, suggesting it was overrun with fevers, faintings, two duels, and deaths. Austen would therefore change the name of the book to distance herself from such criticism, but first, she had to reclaim the rights from the publisher. In 1809, she wrote to them under the pseudonym Mrs. Ashton Dennis (MAD), requesting they either publish the book or she would. They replied, stating they owned the copyright and she could buy it back at the same price they paid.
A view of Jane Austen’s life and work by Lucy Worsley
Evening reading by Georg Pauli
A view of Jane Austen’s life and work by Lucy Worsley
How Jane Austen's home life shaped her fiction
This book is meticulously researched using letters from the family. Lucy Worsley explores the impact of Jane Austen's experiences in different homes. She points out that readers enjoy Jane Austen for her themes of love and romance, but she suggests that a happy home is equally important. Her evidence for this is that her heroines are often displaced from their homes or families. In Pride and Prejudice, the Bennet sisters face the fact that their home will pass to a male relative upon their father's death.
Sensibility and reason in "The memoirs of Emma Courtney"
Mary Tisdal Reading, by Angelica Kauffmann, Joslyn Art Museum, USA
Sensibility and reason in "The memoirs of Emma Courtney"
Passion, morality, and the pursuit of virtue in Mary Hayes' 18th century novel
The memoirs of Emma Courtney (1796) by Mary Hayes is one of the most philosophical of eighteenth-century novels. In the preface, she states that anything that sets the mind in motion is good. That free speaking and thinking are a virtue and the characteristic of a rational being. Her aim is not to represent her heroine as an idea of perfection but as a human being, presenting her errors as an offspring of sensibility, a warning, not an example.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Corneille / Women
Corneille
WOMEN
Corneille – Guillaume Cornelis van Beverloo (3 July 1922 – 5 September 2010), better known under his pseudonym Corneille, was a Dutch artist.
Corneille was born in Liège, Belgium, although his parents were Dutch and moved back to the Netherlands when he was 12. He studied art at the Academy of Art in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. He was one of the founders of the REFLEX movement in 1948 and in 1949 he was also one of the founders of the COBRA movement, which has had great influence on Scandinavian art. He was active within the group from the beginning, not only painting but also publishing poetry in the Cobra magazine. He was a cofounder of the Experimentele Groep in Holland. Corneille was inspired by the drawings of children, and believed in the importance of approaching children with art that connects with their experience. When he heard during a Cobra Museum visit in the nineties that there was an “Art Lending for Children” he talked with the founder Roby Bellemans and asked him to send more information to his home in Paris about this project. He decided to promote the initiative. He started with a support list and persuaded other artists such as Shinkichi Tajiri to sign.
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