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… How Victorians Fell in Love with American Rebels 17 Apr 202017 Apr 2020 By Stephen Basdeo The much vaunted ‘special relationship’ between the USA and the UK is a fairly recent invention. For much of the Victorian period, relations between the two nations…
20th Century… “They had never heard of Robin Hood”: Remarks from George Orwell’s “A Clergyman’s Daughter” (1935) 3 Mar 2020 By Stephen Basdeo Robin Hood has on occasion been accused of being a hero who appears mainly in literature for the middle classes. The first ever printed copies of A…
18th century… The First Robin Hood Novel: Robert Southey’s “Harold, or, The Castle of Morford” (1791) 13 Jun 2017 (This is an updated version of an earlier post I made) Scholars generally point to 1819 as the year that the first Robin Hood novels appeared, these being the anonymous…
19th Century… When “Upperworld” and “Underworld” Meet: Social Class and Crime in “The Mysteries of London (1844-46) 15 Mar 2017 [The following is the text of a talk given at Lancaster University's 'Class and the Past Conference' on 16 March 2017]. Introduction George William MacArthur Reynolds’ The Mysteries of London,…
18th century… Rob Roy (1671-1734) 13 Jan 2017 A famous man is Robin Hood, The English ballad-singer's joy! And Scotland has a thief as good, An outlaw of as daring mood; She has her brave ROB ROY! Then…
