AbeBooks just made another fun video filled with little-known facts about a famous author. The subject of this video is the ever-popular Jane Austen.
The Great Charles Dickens Scandal
One of my Twitter followers alerted me to upcoming publication of this book. The Great Charles Dickens Scandal by Professor Michael Slater addresses Dickens’ affair with Ellen Ternan.
Charles Dickens was regarded as a pillar of respectability in Victorian Britain, but in 1858 this image was nearly shattered. With the break-up of his marriage that year, rumours about a scandalous relationship he may have conducted with young actress Ellen “Nelly” Ternan flourished. For the remaining twelve years of his life, Dickens struggled to quash the gossip. After his death, surviving family members did the same. But when the author’s last living son died in 1934, there was no one to discourage rampant speculation. Dramatic revelations seemed to come from every corner – over Nellie’s role as Dickens’ mistress, the financial help he gave her, their clandestine meetings, their coded messages, and even his fathering of an illegitimate child with her. This book presents the most complete account of the scandal and ensuing coverup ever published. Drawing on the author’s letters and other archival sources not previously available, Dickens scholar Michael Slater investigates what Dickens did or may have done, then traces the way the scandal was elaborated over succeeding generations. Slater shows how various writers concocted outlandish yet plausible theories while newspapers and book publishers vied for sensational revelations. With its tale of intrigue and a cast of well-known figures from Thackeray and Shaw to Orwell and Edmund Wilson, this engaging book will delight not only Dickens fans but also readers who appreciate tales of mystery, cover-up, and clever detection.
New Quotes and Thanks
Recently a reader named Julie contributed some lovely quotes from Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (Thanks so much!!) I’ve added them to the quotation collection along with two quotes that I found from A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
If you have a quote from classic literature that you’d like to add to the LitQuotes site, check out our quotation submission page. In the meantime here’s a sample of today’s new quotes:
“There is such a thing as looking through a person’s eyes into the heart, and learning more of the height, and breadth, and depth of another’s soul in one hour than it might take you a lifetime to discover, if he or she were not disposed to reveal it, or if you had not the sense to understand it.” ~ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble the foe. ~ The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
Other LitQuotes Features
- Random Quote – Shakespeare? Dickens? Austen? What quote will you get?
- Random Love Quote – It’s all about love on the random love quote page.
- Random Funny Quote – Need a laugh? Check out the random funny quote.
- Random Spooky Quote – You’ll get the shivers! View a random spooky quote from our large collection of scary quotes.
Quote Photo
Thanks Liz!
Thanks so much to Liz, a fan of the LitQuotes Daily Quote page. She alerted me to a problem and the quotes are now displaying normally.
If you ever see a problem I’d be grateful if you would contact me. I publish five other websites in addition to this one. The only thing that prevents me from having more websites is the fact that cloning technology hasn’t been perfected. In other words, any help is much appreciated. 🙂
7/6 Kindle Daily Deal – Macbeth: A Novel
Shakespeare fans will be interested in today’s Kindle Daily Deal. The Kindle version of Macbeth: A Novel is available for less than the cost of a latte.
This is not your parents’ Macbeth or the one you read in high-school English class. A dark and bloody tale of a Scottish lord and his beloved wife, Macbeth: A Novel hurtles toward readers in gripping contemporary prose, thanks to novelists David Hewson and A. J. Hartley.
Set in eleventh-century Scotland, Macbeth: A Novel is rich with ancient clans battling fiercely against one another and against the foreign marauders raiding their borders. Macbeth, Lord of Moray, and his wife, Skena, are loyal patriots, willing to kill or be killed to protect the Scottish kingdom. Yet the greatest danger to their beloved homeland is proving to be the king himself, Duncan, whose corrupt, bloody reign threatens to destroy the country. After Macbeth meets a trio of witches, the frustrated hero begins to think that perhaps Scotland needs a new king—him. But what begins as a plan fueled by the best of intentions soon spirals into murder, treachery, and personal collapse. In the language of today’s fast-paced thrillers, Hewson and Hartley create an electrifying tapestry out of Shakespeare’s tale, relaunching two of the most powerful characters ever created.
You might want to bookmark the Kindle Daily Deal. You never know what they’ll have.
LitQuotes Duo – We All Have a Purpose
It’s reassuring to think that we all have a place and a purpose.
“No one is useless in this world,” retorted the Secretary, “who lightens the burden of it for any one else.” ~ Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The complex affair we call the world requires a great variety of people to keep it going. ~ The Golden House by Charles Dudley Warner
Don’t MIss Out, Follow Us on Twitter
If you like our daily quote, be sure to follow us on Twitter. There’s a separate daily quote:
Change begets change. Nothing propagates so fast. ~ Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens http://t.co/f6hzuvDe
— LitQuotes (@LitQuotesSite) June 17, 2012
Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom. ~ Elizabeth Gaskell http://t.co/Ck43B1N0
— LitQuotes (@LitQuotesSite) June 16, 2012
As well as other interesting items:
Scottish National Portrait Gallery and a pint at The Conan Doyle http://t.co/itDkHpdt
— LitQuotes (@LitQuotesSite) June 16, 2012
A List of 27 Surprisingly Bizarre Objects Used as Bookmarks http://t.co/wl6C2p0i
— LitQuotes (@LitQuotesSite) May 2, 2012
Goodbye Ray Bradbury
On June 5th Ray Bradbury passed away. He entertained us with work like Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man.
Bradbury’s grandson said, “His legacy lives on in his monumental body of books, film, television and theater, but more importantly, in the minds and hearts of anyone who read him, because to read him was to know him. He was the biggest kid I know.”
Here’s a documentary about Bradbury from 1963. I especially liked hearing about the early years of his writing. Thank heavens he stuck with writing!
Lost – Season One
I love Netflix. One of the shows that I’m watching on it is Lost. The first season of Lost was the start of a huge adventure. I absolutely loved it. It was exciting. It kept me guessing. And there were loads of literary references.
- Walkabout, the fourth episode of season one, features Jack asking Kate, “Tell me something, how come every time there’s a hike into the Heart of Darkness you sign up?”
- The fifth episode, was titled White Rabbit after Alice in Wonderland.
- During the flashback to Charlie’s life did you notice a similarity between him and Eddie from The Dark Tower, Book 2?
- At one point Kate finds Sawyer reading Watership Down.
- Speaking of Sawyer reading, Hurley commented on Sawyer’s reading glasses, “Dude, looks like someone steamrolled Harry Potter.”
- In the 17th episode Sawyer states, “Folks down on the beach might have been doctors and accountants a month ago, but it’s Lord of the Flies time, now.”