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This remains one of my favourite books and so it feels fitting to post it here on ANZAC Day, a day that is so important to Australia and New Zealand. Wish I was in Sydney now on a scorching hot day, in some pub, watching folk play two-up.
Hope the Dawn Services around the world went well for everyone.
Lest We Forget.
The story begins in July on a mountain crag in northwestern Norway along the coast of the Norwegian Sea at 68 degrees latitude in the Arctic Circle. The crag overlooks a group of islands and a treacherous tidal channel called Moskenstraumen. In “A Descent Into the Maelström," Poe refers to this channel by a Norwegian name, Moskoe-strom, and a Dutch name, Maelström. Poe’s use of the latter term popularized it among speakers of English, and it entered English dictionaries as a synonym for whirlpool. In 1851, author Herman Melville refers to the Maelström in his great sea novel, Moby Dick, when Captain Ahab says he will chase the white whale (Moby Dick) around the world, including "round the Norway Maelström." In 1870, author Jules Verne mentioned the Maelström in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, calling it a "whirlpool from which no vessel ever escapes." The Maelström is a real phenomenon occurring off the coast of Norway. However, in the story, Poe greatly exaggerates the danger it poses to seafarers.
This is the first and only book published under the imprint “A Phantom Mystery.” The book was reprinted by Dell in 1952 with a new cover by Robert Stanley and the author's real name, Anthony Boucher:
www.flickr.com/photos/57440551@N03/12396444623/in/set-721...
In the Introduction to his book “The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin” Houdini says:
“This book is the natural result of the moulding, dominating influence which the spirit and writing of Robert-Houdin have exerted over my professional career. My interest in conjuring and magic and my enthusiasm for Robert-Houdin came into existence simultaneously. From the moment that I began to study the art, he became my guide and hero. I accepted his writings as my text-book and my gospel. What Blackstone is to the struggling lawyer, Hardee’s “Tactics” to the would-be officer, or Bismark’s life and writings to the coming statesman, Robert-Houdin’s books were to me.
“…When it became necessary for me to take a stage name, and a fellow player, possessing a veneer of culture, told me that if I would add the letter ‘i’ to Houdin’s name, it would mean, in the French language, ‘like Houdin,’ I adopted the suggestion with enthusiasm. I asked nothing more of life than to become in my profession ‘like Robert-Houdin.’”
That is high praise indeed! But the rest of Houdini’s book is not so flattering. It exposes his hero and the source of his name as a thief and fraud. Houdini judges Robert-Houdin harshly after discovering that a number of the effects that he claimed to have invented were not invented by him at all. Houdini uncovered the evidence only after a great deal of research. He even offered a prize of $250 if anybody could name a book that had taken as much time, energy, travel and money, “with such authentic data regarding real magical inventions.” He traced the origins of some effects decades, even a century before Robert-Houdin.
Houdini built a strong case against his former hero. Effects that Robert-Houdin claimed to be his own invention were almost identical to effects invented by earlier magicians. Could he have reasonably believed himself to have created those effects? No one can know for sure. Robert-Houdin didn’t devote anywhere near as much “time, travel, energy and money” as did Houdini in researching the effects, so he may well have believed them to be his own. In any case, Houdini’s book was roundly castigated, especially in France, the home of Robert-Houdin.
Houdini could have avoided the controversy if he had simply called the book the “The History of Magic” instead of “The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin.” It contains a great deal of historical research into the illusions and effects of magic. The effort that went into it was considerable. But, it seems, Houdini wanted the public to know of his disenchantment with his former hero who he, in effect, accuses of stealing and lying.
Robert Bonfils was the art director and cover artist for the San Diego-based Hamling Organization during the sixties and seventies and, for a decade, he worked exclusively for them. He produced some of his best covers during this period. The books were published under imprints such as Nightstand Books, Leisure Books, Adult Books, Candid Readers, Companion Books and other lines within the Hamling group. Before then, he produced book covers for the Chicago-based Merit Books and Newsstand Library and Las Vegas’ Playtime Books. He retired from doing cover art in the mid seventies, but he remained active as a painter of fine art in San Diego. Bonfils covers are now incredibly popular and sought after by book collectors, particularly fans of what is called “good girl art” (or GGA).
Published in September 1952 and often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, “East of Eden” brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors. The Hamilton family in the novel is said to be based on the real-life family of Samuel Hamilton, Steinbeck's maternal grandfather.
A 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan is loosely based on the second half of Steinbeck’s novel. It is about a wayward young man played by James Dean in his first major screen role who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel. [Source: Wikipedia]
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
Percival Lowell (1855-1916) was an American businessman, author, mathematician, and astronomer who fueled speculation that there were canals on Mars. In 1894, he chose Flagstaff, Arizona as the home of his new observatory, the now famous Lowell Observatory. For the next fifteen years, he studied Mars extensively, and made intricate drawings of the surface markings as he perceived them. He was particularly interested in the canals of Mars, as drawn by Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who was director of the Milan Observatory. Lowell published his views in three books: “Mars” (1895), “Mars and Its Canals” (1906), and “Mars As the Abode of Life” (1908).
Lowell’s works include a full account of the “canals,” single and double, the “oases,” as he termed the dark spots at their intersections, and the varying visibility of both, depending partly on the Martian seasons. He theorized that an advanced but desperate culture had built the canals to tap Mars’ polar ice caps, the last source of water on an inexorably drying planet.
While this idea excited the public, the astronomical community was skeptical. Many astronomers could not see these markings, and few believed that they were as extensive as Lowell claimed. In 1909 the sixty-inch Mount Wilson Observatory telescope in Southern California allowed closer observation of the structures Lowell had interpreted as canals, and revealed irregular geological features, probably the result of natural erosion. The existence of canal-like features was definitely disproved in the 1960s by NASA’s Mariner missions. Today, the surface markings taken to be canals are regarded as an optical illusion.
Lowell's greatest contribution to planetary studies came during the last decade of his life, which he devoted to the search for Planet X, a hypothetical planet beyond Neptune. In 1930 Clyde Tombaugh, working at the Lowell Observatory, discovered Pluto near the location expected for Planet X. Partly in recognition of Lowell's efforts, a stylized P-L monogram – the first two letters of the new planet's name and also Lowell's initials – was chosen as Pluto's astronomical symbol.
Although Lowell's theories of the Martian canals are now discredited, his building of an observatory at the position where it would best function has been adopted as a principle for all observatories. He also established the program and an environment which made the discovery of Pluto by Clyde Tombaugh possible. Craters on the Moon and on Mars have been named after Percival Lowell. He has been described by other planetary scientists as "the most influential popularizer of planetary science in America before Carl Sagan". Lowell is buried on Mars Hill near his observatory. [Source: Wikipedia]
MFAMILY Erasmus Mundus, European Master in Social Work with Family and Children graduation ceremony of the first edition took place at ISCTE-IUL J. J. Laginha auditorium on august 3rd. Fotografia Hugo Alexandre Cruz.
Lee de Forest (1873-1961) was an American inventor, self-described "Father of Radio", and a pioneer in the development of sound-on-film recording used for motion pictures. He had over 180 patents, but also a tumultuous career — he boasted that he made, then lost, four fortunes. He was also involved in several major patent lawsuits, spent a substantial part of his income on legal bills, and was even tried (and acquitted) for mail fraud. His most famous invention, in 1906, was the three-element "grid Audion", which, although he had only a limited understanding of how it worked, provided the foundation for the development of vacuum tube technology. [Source: Wikipedia]
Illustration of Perspective theory.
Copperplate engraving from the First Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, or Dictionary of the Arts and Sciences, founded in 1768 and printed in 1771. 3 Volumes, this is Volume 3.
The largest encyclopedia of general knowledge published to date, with contributions by leaders in their fields.
Printed for Bell and Macfarquhar, Edinburgh. Original half leather binding, 970 pages this volume. 26cm x 21cm.
“We swooped down, now, all of a sudden.”
“Tom Sawyer Abroad” features Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in a parody of adventure stories like those of Jules Verne. In the story, Tom, Huck, and Jim set sail to Africa in a futuristic hot air balloon, where they survive encounters with lions, robbers, and fleas to see some of the world’s greatest wonders, including the Pyramids and the Sphinx. The story is told using the first-person narrative voice of Huck Finn and is a sequel, set in the time following the title story of the Tom Sawyer series, “Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” [Source: Wikipedia]
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
John Carter of Mars is the eleventh and final book in the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is not actually a novel but rather a collection of two John Carter of Mars stories.
The first story was originally published in 1940 by Whitman as a Better Little Book entitled John Carter of Mars. Although credited to Edgar Rice Burroughs, it was written (and illustrated) by his son, John Coleman Burroughs and was later expanded and re-published in Amazing Stories as "John Carter and the Giant of Mars", the name it goes under in the collection.
The second story, "Skeleton Men of Jupiter", was first published in Amazing Stories in 1943. Intended as the first in a series of novelettes to be later collected in book form, in the fashion of Llana of Gathol, it ends with the plot unresolved, and the intended sequels were never written. Several other writers have written pastiche endings for the story.
The first edition of John Carter of Mars (a title that Burroughs never actually used for any book in the Barsoom series) was published in 1964 by Canaveral Press, fourteen years after Burroughs's death.
[Source: Wikipedia]
This is a nonfiction title from the renowned crime writer, a revised version of his Master’s thesis in which he discusses the rise of the immobilized hero in modern fiction. Willeford traces its popularity from Dostoevsky’s “Underground Man” to the bestselling novels of Beckett, Bellow, Kafka, Camus, and many others. Charles Willeford is the author of fourteen novels, including “Miami Blues” and the Sgt. Hoke Moseley series.
My handmade replica of Shakespeare's 1623 first folio is now complete. This book is bound in hand-dyed calf leather and features a gilt spine with false raised bands, Cambridge panel on covers (in the style of Master Bookbinder, Paul Tronson), blind tooled edges, and hand marbled paper on the insides of the covers. The text block was sewn on recessed cords which were also used to lace-in the cover boards.
Click here to see the rest of the set: www.flickr.com/photos/14275763@N08/sets/72157623987012149/
See more projects here:
Credits: Project inspired by and created in the style of Master Bookbinder, Paul Tronson.
Today, illustrator Mahlon Blaine (1894-1969) is pretty much unknown, but in the roaring 20s and the early 30s his work was published in everything ranging from children’s books and mainstream magazines to erotic portfolios. Though phenomenally popular back then, his output declined sharply over time and, by 1969, he died penniless and mostly forgotten.
Blaine was a master of erotic and grotesque illustrations, reminiscent of Aubrey Beardsley. He did paintings but he is best known for pen and ink drawings. “Nova Venus” features 38 of his decadent and erotic (by 1930’s standards) pen and ink drawings with a Creation theme. They are tipped to peach color mounts and assembled loosely in a green cloth portfolio, along with two pages of text, a title page and a limitation page. My copy is the first edition published in 1938, limited to 300 copies and signed by the artist.
“Set in a Catholic monastery in the desert of the Southwestern United States after a devastating nuclear war, the story spans thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself. The monks of the fictional Albertian Order of Leibowitz take up the mission of preserving the surviving remnants of man's scientific knowledge until the day the outside world is again ready for it.
“Considered one of the classics of science fiction, ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’ has never been out of print and has seen over 25 reprints and editions. Appealing to mainstream and genre critics and readers alike, it won the 1961 Hugo Award for best science fiction novel.” [Source: Wikipedia]
Ten members of von Braun’s rocket team have signed the page. They are Erich Engler, Willie Prasthofer, Konrad Dannenberg, Fritz Mueller, Werner Sieber, Ernst Stuhlinger, Julius Braun, Max Novak, William Schulze and Heinz Lahser.
Wernher von Braun’s rocket team was one of the most influential technological forces in the 20th century. The von Braun team forever changed warfare with its 200-mile-range V-2 missile. Despite the constant allied bombing of Germany during World War II which cut supply lines and forced manufacturing operations underground, the scientists and engineers on von Braun’s team refined and developed their work to the point that, when they arranged their surrender to the Americans at the end of the war, von Braun announced that he had a rocket on the drawing board that could fly from Germany to New York. Little wonder, then, that the rivalry was so keen between the U.S., Russia and Britain to gain their services.
After World War II, von Braun’s rocket team created the first long-range ballistic missiles for the U.S. They worked on the Explorer program that resulted in the first American satellite to orbit the Earth. And within a decade they developed and built the huge 363-foot-tall Saturn rocket that sent man to the Moon.
The book “The Rocket Team” provides insight into the wartime growth of rocketry and tells how the men were brought to the U.S., and established first at White Sands, NM, and then at Hunstville, AL. Included, too, is a chapter on the development of post-war Soviet rocketry, based on the work of the members of the von Braun team who chose to go East instead of West.
1996 First Edition
Heaviest die-cast ever made by HotWheels. Love this version so much I have four of this!!!
Written by William Shakespeare, published in 1623. View all four folios at digital.lib.MiamiOH.edu/folios.
All 12 special edition (genteiban / tokusouban) volumes of Shugo Chara! The manga series has ended, so this is the COMPLETE set! Yaaay! ...and also the three volumes of Shugo Chara!-chan.
These are referred to as the "Special Editions" but they are limited availability, volume one is labeled "Limited Edition" (genteiban) and 2 ~ 12 are labeled "Special Edition" (tokusouban). Also, of course, they are all first editions (first printings).
*note: not to be confused with, volume 10 and 12's "Limited Editions" (which I did not waste money on) they seem to just be the regular editions paired with a limited dorama DVD.
I've since gotten #4 of shugo chara-chan! too lazy to do the update pic. :P
The novelist Ernest Hemingway once remarked that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn,” and other writers such as poet T. S. Eliot and African American novelist Ralph Ellison have added their acclaim. Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, worked for eight years on the story of an outcast white boy, Huck, and his adult friend Jim, a runaway slave, who together flee Missouri on a raft down the Mississippi River in the 1840s. The book has been controversial since the day it was published, opinions ranging from “the book is a masterpiece” to the book is “trash and suitable only for the slums.” The free-spirited and not always truthful Huck narrates the colorful stories in the book in his own coarse and ungrammatical voice. He shows a lack of respect for religion and adult authority and repeatedly uses the “n” word. Some readers view the book as satire and consider it a powerful attack on racism. Others believe it contributes to a “racially hostile environment” and are offended by the language and the portrayal of the slave Jim. In spite of it all, Huck Finn remains the Great American Novel to the many people who have read it and loved it.
UPDATE 8/25/13. Brandon swung by after a pretty serious world tour on a mission to kick start his time in Chicago with style. This entire Lane set is a heckuva good start. Thx.
Contact me 24/7. All day. Every day. Kenny K. kinzco@domain900.net Convenient hours.
"The many men, so beautiful!
And they all dead did lie:
And a thousand thousand
slimy things
Lived on; and so did I"
William Andrew Pogány (1882-1955) was born in Hungary, studied art in Budapest, and worked in Paris briefly before moving to London in 1905 where he worked as a book illustrator for ten years. He moved to New York in 1915 and had success as a book illustrator and designer of stage sets and hotel interiors. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” is one of Pogany’s best-known books. It is a bold artistic experiment in unifying text and images. Every page is elaborately decorated in Pogany’s distinctive style, which attempts to create a printed version of a medieval illuminated manuscript. He was responsible for the beautiful calligraphic text, green and mauve page decorations and borders, and the many black and white drawings and tipped-in plates in full color.
"In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories of African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose 'In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria' are his account of what happened." [www.biblio.com/in-darkest-africa-by-stanley-henry-m/work/...]
"In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories of African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose 'In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria' are his account of what happened." [www.biblio.com/in-darkest-africa-by-stanley-henry-m/work/...]
The bloody death toll of WWI had left so many bereaved that people who had never been able to say goodbye to loved ones flocked to mediums in hopes of re-establishing contact. One of the key figures stirring the revival in Spiritualism was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had himself lost a son, a brother and nine other relatives in the war. He became a proselytizer for Spiritualism, writing books about it, including two in 1918 alone, and became one of the public leaders of the movement.
Contemptuous of frauds and fakes, Houdini desperately wanted to believe in things undreamt of in his philosophy, but he was continually disappointed. His time at the carnivals had made him aware of many of the tricks used by unscrupulous mediums, and his experience as an illusionist made it easy for him to disprove them. He began to resent how he and bereaved people in general had been bamboozled by scam-artists who preyed on vulnerability, and he grew active in exposing them. He stepped up his exposure of dishonest mediums with his book “A Magician Among the Spirits,” which revealed the secrets behind floating handkerchiefs, “spirit hands,” and messages from the beyond. Following the deaths of Houdini and Doyle, Spiritualism fell into disrepute, once again the province of carnival fortune tellers and con men. [Source: www.biography.com/news/houdini-arthur-conan-doyle]
Robert Bonfils was the art director and cover artist for the San Diego-based Hamling Organization during the sixties and seventies and, for a decade, he worked exclusively for them. He produced some of his best covers during this period. The books were published under imprints such as Nightstand Books, Leisure Books, Adult Books, Candid Readers, Companion Books and other lines within the Hamling group. Before then, he produced book covers for the Chicago-based Merit Books and Newsstand Library and Las Vegas’ Playtime Books. He retired from doing cover art in the mid seventies, but he remained active as a painter of fine art in San Diego. Bonfils covers are now incredibly popular and sought after by book collectors, particularly fans of what is called “good girl art” (or GGA).
Here, for the first time since their initial appearance in the pulp magazines of over seventy years ago, are two humorous mysteries by Lester Dent, the author of the Doc Savage series. "Hades" foreshadows the last Doc Savage novel with a film producer's discovery of a seeming entrance to Hell. "Hocus Pocus" focuses on the activities of a sinister cult. The plots are elaborate , the devices fantastic, the characters pure pulp. The action never stops.
The jacket illustration is by Frank Hamilton.
"My idea of a good picture," writes Andy Warhol, "is one that's in focus and of a famous person doing something unfamous." This is a book of candid photos and profiles of Andy Warhol's friends, which include many icons of the sixties and seventies. They are caught at moments when only Andy Warhol could catch them.
Consigned to work for a London wine merchant by his stepfather after his mother dies, young David runs away and is taken in by his great-aunt Betsey Trotwood. At first, she seems to harbor a dislike of the boy and she has a formal, often brisk nature. But at heart she is a sympathetic person. She becomes David's guardian and a good provider during his early years of schooling, placing him at a good school in Canterbury.
“David Copperfield” is one of Dickens’ most popular and critically acclaimed novels. The story follows David’s life from childhood to maturity and many of its elements follow events in Dickens’ own life, especially in the early chapters describing David’s provincial upbringing. The story is filled with vivid characters such as Uriah Heep, Mr. Micawber, the Pegottys, and eccentric Aunt Betsey and it ranks as the finest of Dickens’ works. “Of all my books,” Dickens wrote in the preface to the 1867 edition, “I like this the best… like many fond parents, I have in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”
Publisher Bradbury & Evans first released the story in monthly parts from May, 1849 through November, 1850, and in book form in 1850. The text was embellished with full-page, black & white engravings by H. K. Browne (“Phiz”). Subscribers who wished a hardcover edition for their libraries would either purchase a copy from the publisher when available or have the serial parts bound into book form, often in leather.
"In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories of African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose 'In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria' are his account of what happened." [www.biblio.com/in-darkest-africa-by-stanley-henry-m/work/...]
Picture taken in June, 2011 at an exhibition of Shakespeare First Folios at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC. The "First Folio" is the first collected edition of William Shakespeare's plays. It earned its iconic status because it contains the plays of an author widely regarded as the world's greatest playwright and because it is the first edition and sole source for half of those plays. This copy was a posthumous gift from the printer William Jaggard to his friend Augustine Vincent, a herald in the College of Arms.
"In Darkest Africa (1890) is Henry M. Stanley’s own account of his last adventure on the African continent. At the turn of that century, the interior of the African continent was largely unknown to the American and European public. With the accounts of great explorers like Stanley, readers became thrilled by stories of African expeditions and longed to follow in the footsteps of these explorers. In 1888, Stanley led an expedition to come to the aid of Mehmed Emin Pasha. The two volumes that compose 'In Darkest Africa; or, The Quest, Rescue, and Retreat of Emin, Governor of Equatoria' are his account of what happened." [www.biblio.com/in-darkest-africa-by-stanley-henry-m/work/...]
Among the many interesting features of the pageant given on special occasions by the Blackfeet Indians on their reservation in Canada, the most spectacular is the Pony War Dance, or the Departure for Battle. In this scene about sixty young men take part riding horses as wild as themselves. The acting is fierce - not like the conduct of a mimic battle - but performed with the desperate zest of men who hope for distinction in war.
From "The Book of the American Indian" by Hamlin Garland. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1923. 1st ed
“A Hopi child is torn from his parents and sent off to boarding school; white settlers encroach on the Cheyenne reservation, and the Cheyenne vow to fight to the death rather than give up their land; Howling Wolf witnesses the brutal murder of his brother and, when he protests, is in turn brutalized; after Sitting Bull’s triumph over Custer’s forces, he vows to fight to the death rather than submit to the white invaders.
“In these and other stories written from 1890–1905, Hamlin Garland sought to capture his vision of the spirit of the Native American Indian in transition. Based on ten years of visits to reservations in the American West, these stories are of interest for readers today in part because they illustrate a sincere and well-intentioned white reformer coming to understand a culture radically at odds with his own—and discovering in the process that his own culture is less “advanced” than he had supposed.” [Quote from the University of Nebraska Press for the 2005 paperback edition]
The text is accompanied by 35 full-page illustrations by Frederic Remington, most of which had first appeared in Harper's Magazine or Harper's Weekly during the late 1800's.
Published in September 1952 and often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel, “East of Eden” brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½ years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors. The Hamilton family in the novel is said to be based on the real-life family of Samuel Hamilton, Steinbeck's maternal grandfather.
A 1955 film directed by Elia Kazan is loosely based on the second half of Steinbeck’s novel. It is about a wayward young man played by James Dean in his first major screen role who, while seeking his own identity, vies for the affection of his deeply religious father against his favored brother, thus retelling the story of Cain and Abel. [Source: Wikipedia]
The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious moonstone gem). It gained its name from its association with the Hindu god of the moon, Chandra. Originally set in the forehead of a sacred statue of the god at Somnath, and later at Benares, it was said to be protected by hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and to wax and wane in brilliance along with the light of the moon.
Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who served in India. The diamond is of great religious significance as well as being extremely valuable, and three Hindu priests have dedicated their lives to recovering it. The story incorporates elements of the legendary origins of the Hope Diamond (or perhaps the Orloff Diamond). Rachel's eighteenth birthday is celebrated with a large party, whose guests include her cousin Franklin Blake. She wears the Moonstone on her dress that evening for all to see, including some Indian jugglers who have called at the house. Later that night, the diamond is stolen from Rachel's bedroom, and a period of turmoil, unhappiness, misunderstandings and ill-luck ensues. Told by a series of narratives from some of the main characters, the complex plot traces the subsequent efforts to explain the theft, identify the thief, trace the stone and recover it. [Source: Wikipedia]
No less an authority than T.S. Eliot called “The Moonstone "the first, the longest, and the best of modern English detective novels. (He must not have read Edgar Allan Poe.) The story was originally serialized in Charles Dickens' magazine “All the Year Round” between January and August 1868. “The Moonstone” and “The Woman in White” are considered Wilkie Collins' best novels.
C. Auguste Dupin is a man in Paris who solves the mystery of the brutal murder of two women. Numerous witnesses heard a suspect, though no one agrees on what language was spoken. At the murder scene, Dupin finds a hair that does not appear to be human.
"The Murders in the Rue Morgue" has been recognized as the first modern detective story. Poe's Dupin displays many traits which became literary conventions in subsequent fictional detectives, including Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. Many later characters, for example, follow Poe's model of the brilliant detective, his personal friend who serves as narrator, and the final revelation being presented before the reasoning that leads up to it. Dupin himself reappears in "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt" and "The Purloined Letter".
[Source: Wikipedia]
Here is what Arthur Conan Doyle says of this collection of his short stories:
"I have written 'Impressions and Tales' upon the title-page of this volume, because I have included within the same cover two styles of work which present an essential difference. The second half of the collection consists of eight stories, which explain themselves. The first half is made up of a series of pictures of the past which may be regarded as trial flights towards a larger ideal which I have long had in my mind. It has seemed to me that there is a region between actual story and actual history which has never been adequately exploited. I could imagine, for example, a work dealing with some great historical epoch, and finding its interest not in the happenings to particular individuals, their adventures and their loves, but in the fascination of the actual facts of history themselves. These facts might be colored with the glamour which the writer of fiction can give, and fictitious characters and conversations might illustrate them; but nonetheless the actual drama of history and not the drama of invention should claim the attention of the reader. I have been tempted sometimes to try the effect upon a larger scale; but meanwhile these short sketches, portraying various crises in the story of the human race, are to be judged as experiments in that direction." -- Arthur Conan Doyle.
"In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America “Uncle Tom's Cabin” exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on 'the Southern way of life.' Whatever its weakness as a literary work -- structural looseness and excess of sentiment among them - the social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the United States was greater than of any book before or since." (Source: Printing and the Mind of Man).
When Abraham Lincoln met its author at the White House in 1862, he is said to have exclaimed, “So this is the little lady who made this big war?” For Harriet Beecher Stowe, the battle against slavery was a God-ordained crusade to cleanse the United States of an evil affront to humanity. Stowe presented her story in the style of popular works of the day, melodramatically and with religious undertones, but the themes of the novel – the breaking up of families, violence, the naive idea of a return to Africa – are historically significant. Stowe had not only witnessed incidents like the ones described in her novel, but had long been concerned about slavery, having read the autobiographies of Frederick Douglass and Louis Clark, as well as the abolitionist tracts.
When the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850, Stowe began writing “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It first appeared in serial installments in the abolitionist newspaper “The National Era.” Boston publisher John P. Jewett published the novel in book form on March 20, 1852, two installments before the conclusion of the serial in “The National Era.” The initial printing of the book sold out immediately upon publication and the book went through continual reissue for years. The book eventually sold more copies in the 19th century than any other book except the Bible. The Fugitive Slave Act, in combination with her book, were arguably the catalysts for the Civil War, as even Lincoln implied upon meeting Stowe.