Comic History of England… The Comic History of the Peasants’ Revolt 17 Apr 2021 For Pen and Sword Books I am producing a new annotated edition of The Comic History of England (originally published in 1846). I thought I’d give readers a taste of…
Battle of Vannes… “Mysteries of the People” (1848): Eugene Sue’s Epic Socialist Novel 13 Apr 2021 By Stephen Basdeo In 1848 the master of the “mysteries” novels, Eugene Sue, began the weekly serialisation of a new novel: Mysteries of the People. It was a chronicle of…
19th Century… M.P. Shiel’s “The Purple Cloud” (1901) 9 Apr 2021 By Stephen Basdeo The book was a legend … out of space, out of time … he had the character of a poet and a prophet — a prophet, I…
Chartism… The Glorious Trio: Robin Hood, Wat Tyler, and Hereward the Wake 8 Apr 2021 I recently had the honour to have a chapter appear in a book edited by Mike Sanders (Twitter @bronterre1) and David Matthews titled Subaltern Medievalisms: Medievalism 'from Below' in Nineteenth-Century…
Charles Dickens… The Pont-Neuf: or, Mr Pickwick Attends an Execution 25 Mar 2021 Written by George W.M. Reynolds Transcribed by Jessica Elizabeth Thomas [Of all the evil associations of the vice of drinking, gambling is one of the most constant and the most…
History Jack London’s “The Scarlet Plague” (1912): Eugenics, Socialism, and a Deadly Pandemic 10 Mar 2021 Stephen Basdeo In the May and June issues of the London Magazine in 1912 an interesting short story titled The Scarlet Plague appeared from one of the most famous American…