Ulysses references Corelli a few times i think, which may have extended her longevity and would imply that at least in Dublin in 1904 people were ignoring the New York Times Book Review
― Bitchin Doutai (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 9 April 2024 15:53 (two months ago) link
In 2007, the British film Angel, based on a book by Elizabeth Taylor, was released as a thinly-veiled biography of Corelli. The film starred Romola Garai in the Corelli role and also starred Sam Neill and Charlotte Rampling. It was directed by François Ozon, who stated, "The character of Angel was inspired by Marie Corelli, a contemporary of Oscar Wilde and Queen Victoria's favourite writer. Corelli was one of the first writers to become a star, writing bestsellers for an adoring public. Today she has been largely forgotten, even in England."
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 15:56 (two months ago) link
Horror critic R. S. Hadji placed The Sorrows of Satan at number one in his list of the worst horror novels ever written.[2]
Brian Stableford, discussing Corelli's "narcissistic" novels, described The Sorrows of Satan thus: "as delusions of grandeur and expressions of devout wish-fulfilment go, the fascination of the Devil was an unsurpassable masterstroke"
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 15:58 (two months ago) link
On Wormwood:
The Times described it as "a succession of tedious and exaggerated soliloquies, relieved by tolerably dramatic, but repulsive incidents", and criticized Corelli's writing as having a "feminine redundancy of adjectives".[2] The Standard described the book as "repulsive".
― President Keyes, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:01 (two months ago) link
"Corelli’s heaving blend of overheated romance, vitalist metaphysics, and occultism, with plentiful hints of clairvoyance, reincarnation, mesmerism, Egyptian mysticism, and mysterious psychic powers and traditions, had secured her position as one of the most popular and successful authors of the Edwardian period, outselling writers like H. G. Wells, J. M. Barrie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Rudyard Kipling."
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/radioactive-fictions/
― Brad C., Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:07 (two months ago) link
sounds rad tbh
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 9 April 2024 16:12 (two months ago) link
Margaret Mackie Morrison "achieved international acclaim in 1932 with the publication, under her pen name March Cost, of her first novel A Man Named Luke," says Wikipedia. Someone must have read her stuff.
― alimosina, Wednesday, 10 April 2024 00:40 (two months ago) link
Ulysses references Corelli a few times i think,
The Guardian Angel by Paul de Kock IntroductionThose who have heard of Paul de Kock at all will have probably have come across the name in Ulysses; Molly Bloom asks her husband Leopold to get her one of his books, and there are several other references to him in various places in the novel. (Though Sweets of Sin, the book Bloom bought, is apparently not by him.) Even to Joyceans it may come as a surprise to realise that Paul de Kock really existed; at least one (amateur) Joyce fan assured me that he didn't. But he did; he was a well-known and popular French author of the first half of the nineteenth centry. His books were translated into several languages, and popular in Britain for many years. Collected editions in English translation were published in both England and the USA in 1902-1904. Paul de Kock - a Brief Biography(From the 11th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica [1911])KOCK, CHARLES PAUL DE (1793-1871), French novelist, was born at Passy on the 21st of May 1793. He was a posthumous child, his father, a banker of Dutch extraction, having been a victim of the Terror. Paul de Kock began life as a banker's clerk. For the most part he resided on the Boulevard St Martin, and was one of the most inveterate of Parisians.
Introduction
Those who have heard of Paul de Kock at all will have probably have come across the name in Ulysses; Molly Bloom asks her husband Leopold to get her one of his books, and there are several other references to him in various places in the novel. (Though Sweets of Sin, the book Bloom bought, is apparently not by him.) Even to Joyceans it may come as a surprise to realise that Paul de Kock really existed; at least one (amateur) Joyce fan assured me that he didn't. But he did; he was a well-known and popular French author of the first half of the nineteenth centry. His books were translated into several languages, and popular in Britain for many years. Collected editions in English translation were published in both England and the USA in 1902-1904.
Paul de Kock - a Brief Biography
(From the 11th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica [1911])KOCK, CHARLES PAUL DE (1793-1871), French novelist, was born at Passy on the 21st of May 1793. He was a posthumous child, his father, a banker of Dutch extraction, having been a victim of the Terror. Paul de Kock began life as a banker's clerk. For the most part he resided on the Boulevard St Martin, and was one of the most inveterate of Parisians.
― dow, Wednesday, 10 April 2024 03:08 (two months ago) link
Gonna try a drib of Drabble tonight
― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 23 April 2024 17:14 (two months ago) link
lol what does this mean: "was one of the most inveterate of Parisians"
i mean i realise it's just an arch joke really but what exactly are we meant to conclude abt m.de kock from it?
― mark s, Tuesday, 23 April 2024 18:12 (two months ago) link
Maybe it refers to people who are about Paris the way some New Yorkers are about New York - it's the center of the universe and why would anyone ever leave for any reason?
― Lily Dale, Wednesday, 24 April 2024 22:48 (two months ago) link
this popped up in an episode of Dixon of Dock Green
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/984016.Ice_Bomb_Zero
17,000,000 Nick Carter books in print. number 63 in the Killmaster series.
more herehttps://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Nick-Carter/author/B001HP8G0I?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
turns out Nick Carter is the character name and was in more there 260 books
i have heard of none of them
― koogs, Sunday, 28 April 2024 10:58 (one month ago) link
lol a friend of mine has read some of these but he's fascinated by pulps and men's magazine stories in general
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 28 April 2024 11:12 (one month ago) link
The definitive description of Nicholas J. Huntington Carter is given in the first novel in the series, Run, Spy, Run. Carter is tall (over 6 feet (1.8 m)), lean and handsome with a classic profile and magnificently muscled body. He has wide-set steel gray eyes that are icy, cruel and dangerous. He is hard-faced, with a firm straight mouth, laugh-lines around the eyes, and a firm cleft chin. His hair is thick and dark. He has a small tattoo of a blue axe on the inside right lower arm near the elbow—the ultimate ID for an AXE agent. At least one novel states that the tattoo glows in the dark. Carter also has a knife scar on the shoulder, a shrapnel scar on the right thigh. He has a sixth sense for danger.Carter served as a soldier in World War II, then with the OSS, before he joined his current employer AXE.[2]Carter practices yoga for at least 15 minutes a day. Carter has a prodigious ability for learning foreign languages. He is fluent in English (his native tongue), Cantonese,[3] French,[4] German,[4][5] Greek,[6] Hungarian,[7] Italian,[4] Portuguese,[8] Putonghua (Mandarin),[9] Russian,[9][10] Sanskrit,[11] Spanish[12] and Vietnamese.[13][14] He has basic skills in Arabic,[15] Hindi,[16] Japanese, Korean,[11] Romansch,[4] Swahili,[15] and Turkish.[17] In the early novels, Carter often assumes a number of elaborate disguises in order to execute his missions.
Carter served as a soldier in World War II, then with the OSS, before he joined his current employer AXE.[2]
Carter practices yoga for at least 15 minutes a day. Carter has a prodigious ability for learning foreign languages. He is fluent in English (his native tongue), Cantonese,[3] French,[4] German,[4][5] Greek,[6] Hungarian,[7] Italian,[4] Portuguese,[8] Putonghua (Mandarin),[9] Russian,[9][10] Sanskrit,[11] Spanish[12] and Vietnamese.[13][14] He has basic skills in Arabic,[15] Hindi,[16] Japanese, Korean,[11] Romansch,[4] Swahili,[15] and Turkish.[17] In the early novels, Carter often assumes a number of elaborate disguises in order to execute his missions.
I'd probably read one of these if I found it at a charity shop.
― jmm, Sunday, 28 April 2024 13:30 (one month ago) link
The Nick Carter character was around in different forms long before the Killmaster series:
Nick Carter first appeared in the story paper New York Weekly (Vol. 41 No. 46, September 18, 1886) in a 13-week serial, "The Old Detective's Pupil; or, The Mysterious Crime of Madison Square" ...
I don't think anyone reads the dime novel or pulp magazine Nick Carter stories anymore either.
― Brad C., Sunday, 28 April 2024 13:42 (one month ago) link
I used to see these books a lot at the Swap meet book trailers
― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Sunday, 28 April 2024 13:49 (one month ago) link
the pulp versions are all public domain now so are available in the normal places. the killmaster stuff seems to go for over $20 a pop on Amazon, often much more (based on a random sample of half a dozen)
― koogs, Sunday, 28 April 2024 15:29 (one month ago) link
oddly Corelli got a passing mention on bbc4 last night, a repeat of the Victorian Sensations thing, Philippa Perry talking about seances etc
― koogs, Monday, 29 April 2024 07:44 (one month ago) link
Does anyone read Edward Upward anymore?
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Monday, 29 April 2024 08:17 (one month ago) link
I'm not sure anyone ever really read Upward apart from The Railway Accident for the Isherwood connection
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 29 April 2024 08:55 (one month ago) link
Just looked at his Wiki page - he was older than Evelyn Waugh, yet only died in 2009!!
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 29 April 2024 08:59 (one month ago) link
Fair point.That's the only one I've read, and that's why I read it... Such a strange book....2009?! did not know that...
― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Monday, 29 April 2024 09:03 (one month ago) link
I read The Railway Accident a long time ago, but remember being quite fascinated by it. There's a lot about the Mortmere stories in Isherwood's autobiography, the name of which escapes me...
Wiki says Upward wrote his final short story shortly before his 100th birthday... there's hope for us all!
― Zelda Zonk, Monday, 29 April 2024 09:10 (one month ago) link
I love Edward Upward, particularly the Spiral Ascent trilogy which is like a mini Dance to the Music of Time but with fretful middle class communists instead of the poshos. (Love ADttMoT also, fwiw). The most recent of his books I read was The Scenic Railway from the late 90s(?)- I enjoyed that too, though I recall noticing the emergence of gerontophilia as something covered in his later stories!
― Tim, Monday, 29 April 2024 11:21 (one month ago) link
Somebody here - dow? - at some point recommended Women Crime Writers of the 1940s & 1950s and I can't thank them enough. I snagged the second volume - the 50s - and just finished "Mischief" by somebody named Charlotte Armstrong. It's very suspenseful, very 50s, extremely well described, lots of great interiority for everyone, frankly pretty hair-raising in its depiction of jeopardy and threat to a child.
Crouching near the floor in the dark he could hear the city crying, its noise tossing and falling like foam on the sea, as restless, as indifferent, as varied, and as constant. And he saw himself, a chip, thrown, blown, attracted to another chip, to swirl, to separate, to grow arms and be, not a chip, but a swimmer, and push away.
― Humanitarian Pause (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 25 June 2024 16:04 (yesterday) link
that's poetry!
― scott seward, Tuesday, 25 June 2024 16:27 (yesterday) link