#Robert Hume

[thepastisalreadywritten]

By Parissa DJangi

August 18, 2023

Some say he was a surgeon. Others, a deranged madman — or perhaps a butcher, prince, artist, or specter.

The murderer known to history as Jack the Ripper terrorized London 135 years ago this fall.

In the subsequent century, he has been everything to everyone, a dark shadow on which we pin our fears and attitudes.

But to five women, Jack the Ripper was not a legendary phantom or a character from a detective novel — he was the person who horrifically ended their lives.

“Jack the Ripper was a real person who killed real people,” reiterates historian Hallie Rubenhold, whose book, The Five, chronicles the lives of his victims. “He wasn’t a legend.”

Who were these women? They had names: Mary Ann “Polly” Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly.

They also had hopes, loved ones, friends, and, in some cases, children.

Their lives, each one unique, tell the story of 19th-century London, a city that pushed them to its margins and paid more attention to them dead than alive.

Terror in Whitechapel

Their stories did not all begin in London, but they ended there, in and around the crowded corner of the metropolis known as Whitechapel, a district in London’s East End.

“Probably there is no such spectacle in the whole world as that of this immense, neglected, forgotten great city of East London,” Walter Bessant wrote in his novel All Sorts and Conditions of Men in 1882.

“It is even neglected by its own citizens, who had never yet perceived their abandoned condition.”

The “abandoned” citizens of Whitechapel included some of the city’s poorest residents.

Immigrants, transient laborers, families, single women, thieves — they all crushed together in overflowing tenements, slums, and workhouses.

According to historian Judith Walkowitz:

“By the 1880s, Whitechapel had come to epitomize the social ills of ‘Outcast London,’ a place where sin and poverty comingled in the Victorian imagination, shocking the middle classes."

Whitechapel transformed into a scene of horror when the lifeless, mutilated body of Polly Nichols was discovered on a dark street in the early morning hours of August 31, 1888.

She became the first of Jack the Ripper’s five canonical victims, the core group of women whose murders appeared to be related and occurred over a short span of time.

Over the next month, three more murdered women would be found on the streets of the East End.

They had been killed in a similar way: their throats slashed, and, in most cases, their abdomens disemboweled.

Some victims’ organs had been removed. The fifth murder occurred on November 9, when the Ripper butchered Mary Jane Kelly with such barbarity that she was nearly unrecognizable.

This so-called “Autumn of Terror” pushed Whitechapel and the entire city into a panic, and the serial killer’s mysterious identity only heightened the drama.

The press sensationalized the astonishingly grisly murders — and the lives of the murdered women.

Polly, Annie, Elizabeth, Catherine, and Mary Jane

Though forever linked by the manner of their death, the five women murdered by Jack the Ripper shared something else in common:

They were among London’s most vulnerable residents, living on the margins of Victorian society.

They eked out a life in the East End, drifting in and out of workhouses, piecing together casual jobs, and pawning their few possessions to afford a bed for a night in a lodging house.

If they could not scrape together the coins, they simply slept on the street.

“Nobody cared about who these women were at all,” Rubenhold says. “Their lives were incredibly precarious.”

Polly Nichols knew precarity well. Born in 1845, she fulfilled the Victorian ideal of proper womanhood when she became a wife at the age of 18.

But after bearing five children, she ultimately left her husband under suspicions of his infidelity.

Alcohol became both a crutch and curse for her in the final years of her life.

Alcohol also hastened Annie Chapman’s estrangement from what was considered a respectable life.

Annie Chapman was born in 1840 and spent most of her life in London and Berkshire.

With her marriage to John Chapman, a coachman, in 1869, Annie positioned herself in the top tier of the working class.

But her taste for alcohol and the loss of her children unraveled her family life, and Annie ended up in the East End.

Swedish-born Elizabeth Stride was an immigrant, like thousands of others who lived in the East End.

Born in 1843, she came to England when she was 22. In London, Stride reinvented herself time and time again, becoming a wife and coffeehouse owner.

Catherine Eddowes­­, who was born in Wolverhampton in 1842 and moved to London as a child, lost both of her parents by the time she was 15.

She spent most of her adulthood with one man, who fathered her children. Before her murder, she had just returned to London after picking hops in Kent, a popular summer ritual for working-class Londoners.

At 25, Mary Jane Kelly was the youngest, and most mysterious, of the Ripper’s victims.

Kelly reportedly claimed she came from Ireland and Wales before settling in London.

She had a small luxury that the others did not: She rented a room with a bed. It would become the scene of her murder.

Yet the longstanding belief that all of these women were sex workers is a myth, as Rubenhold demonstrates in The Five.

Only two of the women — Stride and Kelly — were known to have engaged in sex work during their lives.

The fact that all of them have been labeled sex workers highlights how Victorians saw poor, unhoused women.

“They have been systematically ‘othered’ from society,” Rubenhold says,"even though this is how the majority lived.”

These women were human beings with a strong sense of personhood. According to biographer Robert Hume, their friends and neighbors described them as “industrious,” “jolly,” and “very clean.”

They lived, they loved, they existed — until, very suddenly on a dark night in 1888, they did not.

A long shadow

The discovery of Annie Chapman’s body on September 8 heightened panic in London, since her wounds echoed the shocking brutality of Polly Nichols’ murder days earlier.

Investigators realized that the same killer had likely committed both crimes — and he was still on the loose. Who would he strike next?

In late September, London’s Central News Office received a red-inked letter that claimed to be from the murderer. It was signed “Jack the Ripper.”

Papers across the city took the name and ran with it. Press coverage of the Whitechapel Murders crescendoed to a fever pitch.

Newspapers danced the line between fact and fiction, breathlessly recounting every gruesome detail of the crimes and speculating with wild abandon about the killer’s identity.

Today, that impulse endures, and armchair detectives and professional investigators alike have proposed an endless parade of suspects, including artist Walter Sickert, writer Lewis Carroll, sailor Carl Feigenbaum, and Aaron Kosminski, an East End barber.

"The continued fascination with unmasking the murderer perpetuates this idea that Jack the Ripper is a game,” Rubenhold says.

She sees parallels between the gamification of the Whitechapel Murders and the modern-day obsession with true crime.

“When we approach true crime, most of the time we approach as if it was legend, as if it wasn’t real, as if it didn’t happen to real people.”

“These crimes still happen today, and we are still not interested in the victims,” Rubenhold laments.

The Whitechapel Murders remain unsolved after 135 years, and Rubenhold believes that will never change:

“We’re not going to find anything that categorically tells us who Jack the Ripper is.”

Instead, the murders tell us about the values of the 19th century — and the 21st.

[marleneoftheopera]

Wishing (a tad belated) happy trails to the departing members of the 2022-23 London company!

(In order) Holly-Anne Hull, Matt Blaker, Greg Castiglioni, Ellie Young, Connor Carson, Michelle Cornelius, Edward Court, Emma Harris, Olivia Holland-Rose, James Hume, Michael Robert-Lowe, Manon Taris, Anouk van Laake, and Skye Weiss.

[borealopelta]

ATTENTION!

I have to speak my mind. I care so much about the Don Hume x Bobby Moch fanfics, it's so cool and fun and hot. They are obviously not just FRIENDS!

If Jack or Luke saw this, that'd probably make them feel like whatever because they're not actually Bobby and Don, they just played them in a mediocre movie. It's okay if Luke is MARRIED! AND STRAIGHT! Both of them can be! So, to all the Don x Bobby fans out there, please know I mean no hate towards the straight community (I have good straight friends myself) I just want NORMAL fanfictions about Don Hume and Bobby Moch, together, not apart, as more than friends, please.

Thanks for reading.

[angelofmusicals87614]

Auctioneers of the West End Revival Production of The Phantom of the Opera

James Gant (Principle, 2021 - Present)

James Hume (Understudy, 2021 - 2022)

Donald Craig Manuel (Understudy, 2021 - 2022)

Edward Court (Understudy, 2022 - 2023)

Michael Robert Lowe (Understudy, 2021 - 2023)

Leonard Cook (Understudy, 2023 - Present)

NOT DEPICTED: Tim Southgate (Understudy, 2021 - Present)

[newtonian-tragedy]

In case you needed proof that the Royal Society is just a gay club

[sophs-style]

sophs-style:

The 2022 Glamour Women of the Year Awards took place on Tuesday (8th November) in London. Many famous faces attended the event.

Cynthia Erivo (wearing Louis Vuitton), Charithra Chandran (wearing Rokh), Rita Ora (wearing Jacquemus), Dina Asher-Smith (wearing Nensi Dojaka), Rochelle Humes (wearing Mônot), Nicola Coughlan (wearing Emilia Wickstead), Ashley Roberts, Jasmine Sanders, Charli Howard and Georgia Toffolo.

[dimepicture]

[mariocki]

New Scotland Yard: Hoax (2.12, LWT, 1972)

"The hoax at school. Letters, threatening to plant bombs all over London - I can understand that, at least I think I can. Then to do it? To put at risk the lives of hundreds of innocent people, to actually do that! What happened?"

"It was you."

"Me?"

"That lecture. 'You don't have to go it alone, there are people who care'. Nobody cares! Same bloody hypocrisy I've heard ever since he died. I felt sick! Everything you said made me sick!"

[davidblaska]

The senile Biden cover up scandal

‘Growing limitations’ were ‘long apparent’! Pardon us all to hell if we seem obsessed by President Biden’s meltdown, televised in prime time four months before Election Day. Because we are amazed, astonished, agog, and gob-smacked! (!!!) This is a constitutional crisis akin to Watergate. Or January 6, if we may insist. America must now ask: What did all the President’s men know and when did…

[alevelrs]

"Critically discuss the view that Christians can discover truths about God using reason"

36/40, A*

Natural theology is the manner and extent by which God can be known through the natural order. It requires the use of reason, and so is general and inclusive (in that it is accessible to everyone). Many theologians, such as William Paley and Thomas Aquinas argue that God can be known through reason, with Roman Catholicism agreeing and suggesting that God can be known through the 'light of natural theology'. In this essay, I will argue that whilst Christians can discover truths about God using reason, this alone is not sufficient, so revelation is necessary for a full knowledge of God.

William Paley, in his analogy of the watch, proposes a strong argument for God's existence using nature. He argues that if we found a watch on a heath, we could infer that this is not a natural occurrence for it is so different from the naturally occurring components of the health and has intricacy and design, therefore it must have a creator - the watchmaker. In the same way, when we observe the universe, we can see that it's unique and has purpose and regularity, therefore there must be a designer: God. So, by using reason alone, we can deduce that God is the creator of the universe, discovering truths about him.

Paley's argument is an example of a design argument, which Aquinas also proposes in his fifth way. He observes that the universe has a purpose, telos, and agrees that it can only be achieved with a guiding presence: God. Richard Swinburne agrees with this suggestion. He argues that the world shows order, regularity and purpose, and so there must be an intelligent being behind it. Aquinas also has three cosmological arguments in which he argues that everything in the universe has a cause, or a mover, or a necessary being, which is God. He says that a study of natural theology leads to an 'introduction of God's sublime power, and consequently inspires reverence for God in human hearts'. Therefore, he is arguing that truths about God are discoverable through reason. Natural theology is also supported in the Bible where it says 'the Heavens declare the glory of God; the Heavens proclaim the work of God's hands. Here it is argued that by observing the universe, we can conclude that God exists, and He is the one that created the universe.

The problem with natural theology is that although it can argue the existence of God, this is the only truth about God that Christians can discover through it. The study of nature cannot teach us about God's qualities*. God could be evil, hence the flaws in the universe, or there could be more than one God. God could have created the universe years ago and abandoned it, or God could be unintelligent. Roman philosopher Cicero argued that humans have always had a sense of divinity despite what era they lived in, or their culture/traditions. However, this again doesn't reveal anything apart from the fact God exists: the Romans interpreted God much different to Christians.

*teacher comment: can't it?

Calvin agreed with Cicero in that everyone had a subjective 'sensus divinitas' (seed of divinity) which was an innate sense of God which had the potential to grow into informed truth. However there are consequences to this subjective approach, so whilst reason can be used to discover truths about God, revelation is also necessary to have a full knowledge. The first consequence is the universality of religion: religion can degenerate into idolatry without Christianity, which for example, occurred in Roman timed where sacrifices to statues took place. Next is a troubled conscience: whilst we know that God exists, we do not know what is right and wrong and so may make immoral decisions. Finally, we may develop a servile fear of God which is not taught in Christianity, making revelation necessary.

Because natural theology only gives us a limited knowledge of God, it is necessary to take a leap of faith, and gain a revealed knowledge of God. This is specific, doctrinal and exclusive to Christians as it relies on revelation and suggests God can only be known when He lets Himself be known. Many Christians agree that reason can be used to gain some knowledge, but it must be used in conjunction to faith, which is a virtue. Aquinas argued that faith both compliments and differs from other kinds of knowledge, because it doesn't have certainty and so is a choice. The view that faith is necessary alongside reason is supported in the Bible where it says 'we have come to know and come to believe that you are the Holy one of God.'

Within the Bible, God also reveals truths about Himself to His prophets such as when He tells Abraham to sacrifice his son and saves Moses from the burning bush. These are examples of immediate revelation, where God makes Himself directly known. Mediate revelation is when knowledge of God is gained through other people, such as those who trusted Moses to take them to the promised land. These truths cannot be known through reason, thus revelation is necessary.

The most common view is that reason and revelation complement each other: they are both necessary and both reveal truths about God. Faith is not held in a vacuum but builds upon the knowledge we gain through reason: the fact we live, breathe and eat are all evidence of God. Robert Boyle argues that God has two great books: the natural world and the Bible. They have the same author, and both reveal knowledge of God and so are complementary. These views are supported by Polkinghome and Bonaventure, who aregue that we have several eyes or ways of 'seeing' God that need to work together for us to discover truths about Him.

However Karl Barth, who builds upon St Augustine's argument, suggests that truths about God can never be discovered through reason. He argues that our reason is so distorted because of the Fall, we cannot know God through our own human efforts. Natural knowledge is unnecessary because God fully revealed Himself through Christ, which tells us everything we need to know about Him.

This argument is not one supported by the Bible - the Bible doesn't distinguish between natural and revealed theology, suggesting God communicates in many ways. For example, the Bible suggests using reason by traditional wisdom is a means to understanding God, such as where it says 'trust in the Lord with all of your heart [...] and He will make your pain straight'. Of course, the Bible also stresses that revealed theology is important, such as in Genesis when God revealed Jacob in a dream, but the point is, by complementary dismissing natural theology, you are dismissing the words of the Bible.

Also linking back to Aquinas's five ways, God gave us the ability to use our natural knowledge for a reason. Kant's argument is dangerous because it encourages people to be lazy and rely on faith alone, rather than seeking certainty through observation. Richard Dawkins argues that belief in God through faith alone is foolish, similar to belief in the tooth fairy: it cannot be conclusively disproved but there is no reason to support the argument and so there is no reason to commit. David Hume also argued that we shouldn't allow faith or superstition to cloud our judgement; we need to look at empirical evidence to decide what to believe.

In conclusion, whilst I agree that reason can allow us to discover truths about God, this is only to a certain extent. Therefore, the use of revealed theology is necessary, and should be used in conjunction to natural theology for a balanced approach towards leaning about God.

teacher comments: This essay gets better as it progresses! The start is very 'arguments' topic - reduce this part; the end is full of information! You have answered the set question, but I'd like some examples of different 'truths'.

14/16 + 22/24 = 36/40 A*

[illimitable-freedom]

"Almost all the governments which exist at present, or of which there remains any record in story, have been founded originally, either on usurpation or conquest, or both, without any pretense of a fair consent or voluntary subjection of the people."

-David Hume, Of the Original Contract (1748)

[anghraine]

This is a great resource and the article actually uses it! :D

A bunch of other people asked for the name of the article, btw, which I had meant to re-read to make sure it was as good as my first impression, but I had trouble concentrating on the many numbers it includes while I was sick. I'm re-reading it now, though, and the full and entertainingly unwieldy title is:

"The Value of Money in Eighteenth-Century England: Incomes, Prices, Buying Power—and Some Problems in Cultural Economics" by Robert D. Hume, published in the Huntington Library Quarterly in their winter 2014 edition (vol. 77, no. 4).

There are definitely parts that get well into the economic weeds and can be a bit dense if you're looking for more immediate literary analysis, which covers a few pages after pg. 408 in my PDF version.

I finally read a good article about Austen and eighteenth-century socioeconomics that gives rough approximations of eighteenth-century prices/incomes in modern (I think c. 2014) currency, but is appropriately emphatic about just how rough those approximations must always be given drastic differences in the economic worlds we live in. It's actually much more about the economics than Austen, and particularly about how much descriptions of "middling" incomes and what was affordable to people who had those incomes is still a conversation about a tiny, tiny elite in terms of the overall population at the time.

Austen-wise, though, the author also found room for a tangent in which he goes off on a scathing condemnation of Mr Bennet in socioeconomic terms, which I do love to see. Most baronets generally had land and incomes far closer to Mr Bennet's than Darcy's and yet Mr Bennet can't be bothered to even slightly provide for his children's futures beyond what was legally required by his marriage settlement (even the girls' meagre inheritances mostly come from Mrs Bennet's money rather than his). The author acknowledges the passage about Mr Bennet saving to counteract Mrs Bennet's extravagance and also how this is an indictment of Mr Bennet as well as Mrs Bennet, something that criticisms of him often skate past, and even points out how enthusiastic Mr Bennet is about the convenience of Darcy paying for it all in a way that can be read as funny and endearing, but also as distastefully shameless.

Anyway, it was nice to enjoy an academic text again, lol.

[lauralot89]

19th Century Vampire Lit I'm Gonna Read

Because I've lost my mind.

Most of these texts were found with the aid of these two posts. I did not include any of the stories listed as "not technically about vampires," except for "Let Loose," because it concerns a specter seeking blood, and "Vampirismus," because it's called "Vampirismus."

A strikethrough indicates that I've already read the work. Bold text indicates that I cannot find an English translation, whether online or for purchase. If you know of English translations of any bolded titles, please let me know.

Thalaba the Destroyer, Robert Southey (1801)

"The Vampire," John Stagg (1810)

The Giaour, Lord Byron (1813)

"A Fragment of a Novel," Lord Byron (1816)

"The Vampyre," John William Polidori (1819)

The Black Vampyre, Uriah Derick D'Arcy (1819)

The Vampire Lord Ruthwen, Cyprien Bérard (1820)

The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles, J.R. Planché (1820)

The Vampire, Charles Nodier (1820)

"Vampirismus," E.T.A. Hoffman (1821)

Smarra, or Demons of the Night, Charles Nodier (1821)

"Wake Not the Dead," Ernst Raupach (1823)

The Vampire, or the Hungarian Virgin, Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon (1825)

Der Vampyre und seine Braut, Karl Spindler (1826)

La Guzla, ou Choix de Poesies Illyrique, Prosper Merimee (1827)

"Pepopukin in Corsica," Arthur Young (1827)

The Vampire, Heinrich Masrschner and Wilhelm August Wohlbrück (1828)

The Skeleton Count, or the Vampire Mistress, Elizabeth Caroline Grey (1828)

Der Vampyre, oder die Totenbraut, Theodor Hildebrand (1828)

"The Vampire Bride," Henry Thomas Liddell (1833)

Clarimonde, Théophile Gautier (1836)

The Family of the Vourdalak, Aleksey Tolstoy (1839)

The Vampire, Aleksey Tolstoy (1841)

"The Vampyre," James Clerk Maxwell (1845)

Varney the Vampire, or The Feast of Blood, James Macolm Rymer (1845-1847)

The Pale Lady/The Carpathian Mountains/The Vampire of the Carpathian Mountains, Alexandre Dumas (1849)

"The Vampyre," Elizabeth F. Ellet (1849)

The Phantom World [select chapters], Augustin Calmet (1850)

The Vampire, Alexandre Dumas (1851)

The Vampires of London, Angelo de Sorr (1852)

The Dead Baroness/The Vampire and the Devil's Son, Pierre Alexis Ponson du Terrail (1852)

"The Vampire," Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1857)

Knightshade/The Shadow Knight, Paul Féval (1860)

"The Mysterious Stranger," Karl von Wachsmann (1860)

"Metamorphosis of a Vampire," Charles Pierre Baudelaire (1860)

The Vampire of the Val-de-Grace, Leon Gozlan (1861)

"The Vampire; Or, Pedro Pacheco and the Bruxa," William H.G. Kingston (1863)

The Vampire/The Vampire Countess, Paul Féval (1865)

Vampire City, Paul Féval (1867)

"The Last Lords of Gardonal," William Gilbert (1867)

Vikram and the Vampire, Sir Richard Francis Burton (1871)

"The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima," Algernon Bertram Freeman-Mitford (1871)

Carmilla, Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1872)

"Ghosts," Mihail Eminescu (1876)

Der Vampyr – Novelle aus Bulgarien, Hans Wachenhusen (1878)

Captain Vampire, Marie Nizet (1879)

"The Fate of Madame Cabanel," Eliza Lynn Linton (1880)

After Ninety Years, Milovan Glišic (1880)

"The Vampyre," Owen Meredith (1882)

"The Vampire," Jan Naruda (1884)

"Manor," Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1884)

"The Vampyre," Vasile Alecsandri (1886)

The Horla, Guy de Maupassant (1887)

"Ken's Mystery/The Grave of Ethelind Fionguala," Julian Hawthorne (1887)

"A Mystery of the Campagna," Anne Crawford (1887)

"Romanian Deaths and Burials-Vampires and Werewolves," Emily Gerard (1888)

"The Old Portrait," Hume Nisbet (1890)

"The Vampire Maid," Hume Nisbet (1890)

"Let Loose," Mary Cholmondeley (1890)

The Castle of the Carpathians, Jules Verne (1892)

"The Vampire," Felix Dahn (1892)

The Parasite, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1884)

"The True Story of a Vampire/The Sad Story of a Vampire," Count Eric Stenbock (1894)

"A Kiss of Judas," Julian Osgood Field (1894)

Lilith, George MacDonald (1894)

"The Prayer," Violet Hunt (1895)

"Good Lady Duncayne," Mary Elizabeth Braddon (1896)

"The Vampire of Croglin Grange," Augustus Hare (1896)

"Phorfor," Matthew Phipps Shiel (1896)

Dracula, Bram Stoker (1897)

"Dracula's Guest," Bram Stoker (1914*)

The Blood of the Vampire, Florence Marryat (1897)

*"Dracula's Guest" was first published in 1914 but was written either concurrent to or before the writing of Dracula.

I'm going to be honest. When I began, I thought there were four nineteenth century vampire stories. Five if you count Dracula's Guest. I've made a huge mistake.

[hotvintagepoll]

THE TOURNAMENT IS OVER! Eartha Kitt lounges in her deck chair in the sun, dipping her toes in the pool with Toshiro Mifune and sipping a brightly colored fruity something with an umbrella in it.

Far below in the shadow realm, however, the fallen hotties dance in the dark—let's take a minute to look back at them under the cut.

PRELIM PRETTIES:

Claude Gensac, Silvia Pinal, Ewa Aulin, Rita Tushingham, Annette Funicello, Norma Bengell, Catherine Spaak, Brigitte Auber, Micheline Presle, Nanette Fabray, Libertad Lamarque, Vera Miles, Martha Raye, Catherine McLeod, Virginia Mayo, Elizabeth Allan, Belle Bennet, Virginia Cherill, Mary Brian, Ruth Chatterton, Agnes Ayres, Merna Kennedy, Marie Prevost, Corinne Griffith, May Allison, Virginia Brown Faire, Alice Brady, and Jetta Goudal

ROUND ONE WONDERS:

Angie Dickinson, Thelma Ritter, Geraldine Chaplin, Evelyn Preer, Vanessa Brown, Betty Blythe, Susan Hayward, Mae Clarke, Sally Ann Howes, Ossi Oswalda, Adrienne La Russa, Hermione Gingold, Barbara Bouchet, Melina Mercouri, Anna Karina, Edwige Fenech, Charmian Carr, Pina Pellicer, Marlène Jobert, Tsuru Aoki, Alice Roberts, Leila Hyams, Lady Tsen Mei, Geneviève Bujold, Dolores Hart, Anita Berber, Bonita Granville, Vonetta McGee, Claire Windsor, Zizi Jeanmaire, Tuesday Weld, Grace Darmond, Carol Channing, Deanna Durbin, Laraine Day, Mariette Hartey, Wendy Hiller, Candy Darling, Hermione Baddely, Valeria Creti, Ella Raines, Ann Miller, Dana Wynter, Dalida, Martine Beswick, Gale Storm, Simone Signoret, Cristina Gaioni, Mabel Normand, Stéphane Audran, Ruth Weyher, Anna Wiazemsky, Ann Sheridan, Sandhya Shantaram, Alice White, Anne Francis, Gena Rowlands, Lyda Borelli, May Whitty, Cathleen Nesbitt, Jessica Walter, Virna Lisi, Barbara Shelley, Iris Hall, Heather Angel, Anne Shirley, Joanna Pettet, Virginia O'Brien, Joan Collins, Greer Garson, Gracie Allen, Peggy Ryan, Frances Dee, Shirley Maclaine, Geraldine Farrar, Kathleen Byron, Margaret Hamilton, Eva Gabor, Francesca Bertini, Julie Adams, Olga Baclanova, Misa Uehara, Yvette Vickers, Milena Dravić, Jenny Jugo, Madeleine Carroll, Benita Hume, Olive Borden, Shirley Jones, Miyoshi Umeki, Dorothy Lamour, Gale Sondergaard, Mary Anderson, Charlotte Greenwood, Sybil Seely, Mona Barrie, Kathryn Grayson, Katharine Ross, Madge Bellamy, Rhonda Fleming, Sally Gray, Jana Brejchová, Debra Paget, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Evelyn Brent, Zelma O'Neal, Marie Laforêt, Türkan Şoray, Beatriz Costa, Irene Zazians, Eleanor Powell, Susan Luckey, Patsy Kelly, Lil Dagover, Norma Talmadge, Dorothy Mackaill, Madge Evans, Virginia McKenna, Amália Rodrigues, Mamie Van Doren, Valerie Hobson, Isabel Jeans, Beata Tyszkiewicz, Claire Luce, Aleksandra Khokhlova, Nieves Navarro Garcia, Janet Leigh, Carmen Miranda, Jean Harlow, Aud Egedge-Nissen, Nina Foch, Jean Simmons, Piper Laurie, Katy Jurado, Jayne Mansfield, Anita Garvin, Frances Farmer, Lizabeth Scott, Joan Greenwood, Una Merkel, Arlene Francis, Ethel Merman, Doris Day, Suzanne Pleshette, Ruta Lee, Carolyn Jones, June Richmond, Eva Nil, Diana Dors, Anna Chang, Colleen Moore, Alexis Smith, Yvette Mimieux, Ruby Keeler, Viola Dana, Dolores Grey, Marie Windsor, Danielle Darieux, Jean Parker, Julie Christie, Acquanetta, Leatrice Joy, Ghita Nørby, Julie Newmar, Joanne Woodward, Sandra Dee, Eva Marie Saint, Simone Simon, Katherine Dunham, Birgitte Price, Lee Grant, Anita Page, Flora Robson, Martha Sleeper, Elsie Ames, Isabel "Coca" Sarli, Glenda Farrell, Kathleen Burke, Linden Travers, Diane Baker, Joan Davis, Joan Leslie, Sylvia Sidney, Marie Dressler, June Lockhart, Emmanuelle Riva, Libertad Leblanc, Susannah Foster, Susan Fleming, Dolores Costello, Ann Smyrner, Luise Rainer, Anna Massey, Evelyn Ankers, Ruth Gordon, Eva Dahlbeck, Ansa Ikonen, Diana Wynyard, Patricia Neal, Etta Lee, Gloria Stuart, Arletty, Dorothy McGuire, Mitzi Gaynor, Gwen Verdon, Maria Schell, Lili Damita, Ethel Moses, Gloria Holden, Kay Thompson, Jeanne Crain, Edna May Oliver, Lili Liliana, Ruth Chatterton, Giulietta Masina, Claire Bloom, Dinah Sheridan, Carroll Baker, Brenda de Banzie, Milú, Hertha Thiele, Hanka Ordonówna, Lillian Roth, Jane Powell, Carol Ohmart, Betty Garrett, Kalina Jędrusik, Edana Romney, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Kay Kendall, Ruth Hussey, Véra Clouzot, Jadwiga Smosarska, Marge Champion, Mary Astor, Ann Harding, María Casares, Maureen O'Sullivan, Mildred Natwick, Michèle Morgan, Romy Schneider, Elisabeth Bergner, Celeste Holm, Betty Hutton, Susan Peters, Mehtab, Leslie Caron, Anna Sten, Janet Munro, Nataša Gollová, Eve Arden, Ida Lupino, Regina Linnanheimo, Sonja Henie, and Terry (what a good girl)

ROUND TWO BEAUTIES:

Evelyn Nesbit, Thelma Todd, Tura Satana, Helen Gibson, Maureen O'Hara, Rocío Dúrcal, Mary Nolan, Lois Maxwell, Maggie Smith, Zulma Faiad, Ursula Andress, Musidora, Delphine Seyrig, Marian Marsh, Leatrice Joy, Sharon Tate, Pina Menichelli, Teresa Wright, Shelley Winters, Lee Remick, Jane Wyman, Martita Hunt, Barbara Bates, Susan Strasberg, Marie Bryant, Diana Rigg, Jane Birkin, Rosalind Russell, Vanessa Redgrave, Brigitte Helm, Gloria Grahame, Rosemary Clooney, Bebe Daniels, Constance Bennett, Lilian Bond, Ann Dvorak, Jeanette Macdonald, Pouri Banayi, Raquel Welch, Vilma Bánky, Dorothy Malone, Olive Thomas, Celia Johnson, Moira Shearer, Priscilla Lane, Dolores del Río, Ann Sothern, Françoise Rosay, June Allyson, Carole Lombard, Jeni Le Gon, Takako Irie, Barbara Steele, Claudette Colbert, Lalita Pawar, Asta Nielsen, Sandra Milo, Maria Montez, Mae West, Alma Rose Aguirre, Bibi Andersson, Joan Blondell, Anne Bancroft, Elsa Lanchester, Nita Naldi, Suchitra Sen, Dorothy Van Engle, Elisabeth Welch, Esther Williams, Loretta Young, Margueritte De La Motte, Ita Rina, Constance Talmadge, Margaret Lockwood, Barbara Bedford, Josette Day, Stefania Sandrelli, Jane Russell, Doris Dowling, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Donna Reed, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands, Billie Burke, Kyōko Kagawa, Françoise Dorléac, Hend Rostom, Monica Vitti, Lilian Harvey, Marjorie Main, Jeanne Moreau, Lola Flores, Ann Blyth, Janet Gaynor, Jennifer Jones, Margaret Sullavan, Sadhana, Ruby Myers, Lotus Long, Honor Blackman, Marsha Hunt, Debbie Reynolds, Michèle Mercier, Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Judy Holliday, Tippi Hedren, Susse Wold, Vera-Ellen, Carmelita González, Nargis Dutt, Purnima, Harriet Andersson, Yvonne De Carlo, Miroslava Stern, Sheila Guyse, Helen, Margaret Dumont, Betty Grable, Joan Bennett, Jane Greer, Judith Anderson, Liv Ullman, Vera Zorina, Joan Fontaine, Silvana Mangano, and Lee Ya-Ching

ROUND THREE ELECTRIFIERS:

Jean Hagen, Sumiko Mizukubo, Mary Philbin, Ann-Margret, Margaret Rutherford, Claudia Cardinale, Eleanor Parker, Jessie Matthews, Theresa Harris, Brigitte Bardot, Alla Nazimova, Faye Dunaway, Marion Davies, Anna Magnani, Theda Bara, Myrna Loy, Kay Francis, Fay Wray, Barbra Streisand, Bette Davis, Hideko Takamine, France Nuyen, Claudine Auger, Miriam Hopkins, Maylia Fong, Samia Gamal, Maude Fealy, Machiko Kyō, Sharmila Tagore, Lucille Ball, Ginger Rogers, Juanita Moore, Anna Fougez, Waheeda Rehman, Ruan Lingyu, Nina Mae McKinney, Ethel Waters, Nadira, Olivia de Havilland, Abbey Lincoln, Louise Beavers, Agnes Moorehead, Lana Turner, Norma Shearer, Maria Falconetti, Reiko Sato, Marie Doro, Clara Bow, Margaret Lindsay, Catherine Denueve, Madhabi Mukherjee, Rosaura Revueltas, Hu Die, Mary Pickford, Fredi Washington, Louise Brooks, Leonor Maia, Merle Oberon, Paulette Goddard, Vivien Leigh, Francine Everett, Savitri, Tita Merello, and Meena Kumari

ROUND FOUR STUNNERS:

Judy Garland, Dorothy Dandridge, Yoshiko Yamaguchi, Marilyn Monroe, Irene Papas, Lupe Vélez, Pola Negri, Gene Tierney, Barbara Stanwyck, Gina Lollobrigida, Lena Horne, Nutan, Jean Seberg, Kim Novak, Gladys Cooper, Tallulah Bankhead, Linda Darnell, Julie Andrews, Carmen Sevilla, Gloria Swanson, Glynis Johns, Anne Baxter, Angela Lansbury, Anita Ekberg, Toshia Mori, Deborah Kerr, Hazel Scott, Chelo Alonso, Cyd Charisse, Nancy Kwan, Devika Rani, Shima Iwashita, and Anouk Aimée

ROUND FIVE SMOKESHOWS:

Setsuko Hara, Pearl Bailey, Joan Crawford, Madhubala, Marpessa Dawn, Keiko Awaji, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Ava Gardner, Greta Garbo, Grace Kelly, Xia Meng, Suraiya, Natalie Wood, María Félix, and Mbissine Thérèse Diop

ROUND SIX SEXY LADIES:

Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Vyjyanthimala, Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Josephine Baker, Elizabeth Taylor, and Ingrid Bergman

QUARTER FINALIST GLAMAZONS:

Audrey Hepburn, Marlene Dietrich, Anna May Wong, and Lauren Bacall

SEMIFINALIST ICONS:

Rita Moreno, Diahann Carroll

FINALIST FABULOSITY:

Hedy Lamarr

ULTIMATE CHAMPION OF THE HOT & VINTAGE MOVIE WOMAN TOURNAMENT:

Eartha Kitt

[poemaseletras]

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Autores Desconhecidos

Adélia Prado

Adrian Tchaikovsky

Affonso Romano de Sant’anna

Alain de Botton

Albert Einstein

Aldous Huxley

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Anaïs Nin

Andy Warhol

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Aristóteles

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C. JoyBell C.

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Katrina Mayer

Kurt Cobain

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L.M. Montgomery

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Lord Byron

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Perina

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Platão

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Wale Ayinla

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William C. Hannan

William Shakespeare

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Yasmin Mogahed

Yoke Lore

Yoko Ogawa

[thethirdromana]

Books I read for the first time this year - 2024 edition

I did this last year, and even though no one read it, it was fun so I'm doing it again.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins I loved The Woman in White so much that I had to have more Wilkie Collins right away. It is aggressively of its time, but very readable and gripping all the same. And I found the ending deeply satisfying. I should read more Wilkie Collins.

Julia by Sandra Newman This is the story of 1984 retold from Julia's perspective, with extra bleakness and a somewhat odd take on the ending. I think this would have benefitted from me having read 1984 more recently. I'm glad I read it; I don't think I will ever read it again.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells I merely liked this, and feel oddly guilty for not loving it as much as the rest of tumblr seems to. Possibly this would have benefitted from me bingeing the series instead of stopping at one.

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen In the spring I decided it was time to read the two Austen novels I hadn't read before. I enjoyed Mansfield Park, though it's not destined to replace Sense and Sensibility as my favourite Austen novel. This is because Edmund, unfortunately, is a drip.

Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro I loved Remains of the Day so much that I thought I should read more Ishiguro. There's the usual unreliable narrator and glimpses of hidden darkness that you'd expect from Ishiguro in Klara and the Sun, but it's a lighter read overall, which is to say it didn't devastate me in the way that the Remains of the Day did.

Persuasion by Jane Austen One of these novels that's so totemic it feels weird to review it. It's like saying I quite liked the ocean; the ocean doesn't care.

I quite liked it, though.

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik The first of several recommendations from tumblr. I read the whole series one after another without a break. The amount that I enjoyed each novel was directly proportional to how much it was the Aubreyad with dragons - so the first and final books were my favourites.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Lots of people have this as their favourite Andy Weir novel but I am not among them. It was just a little bit too cuddly for me, I think, and I was also well into Time To Orbit: Unknown at this point (a web serial, so I've not included it on this list), which is in a similar style but better. The title pun is great, though.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume This is an early detective novel from before people had really figured out how the genre should work. An interesting read but not a particularly satisfying one.

The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin An incredible book, but I found myself wishing I could have read the version of it that Le Guin might have written later on in her career, when she came to focus less on male characters.

The Riverside Trilogy by Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman This was another tumblr recommendation and I loved these, with the sole exception of the ending of the Fall of Kings. Queer love, sword-fighting and some of the most lavish and enticing descriptions of food that I've ever read - this is a significant percentage of I want in a novel.

The Documents in the Case by Dorothy Sayers and Robert Eustace I can't believe I hadn't read this earlier. I love Dorothy Sayers, I love the way she observes people, and I particularly love the way this novel brings a slice of the 1920s bohemian world to life. This means I have now read all of Dorothy Sayers' novels and should probably getting cracking on the short stories.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland Another tumblr recommendation! This felt a lot like reading fanfic - the tropes (enemies to lovers!), the writing style, the way the characters bounced off each other. I enjoyed it, though I did find myself wondering how readers who weren't used to fanfic norms would feel about it.

Spirit Level by Richy Craven This was a debut novel by someone who I've followed on Twitter (and subsequently Bluesky) for ages. It's a comedy novel about a man who can only see the ghost of his dead friend when he's drunk. I found it more sweet than funny.

Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott Jeeves and Wooster fanfiction, but with an official licence! Entirely readable, but the best of AO3 is better.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller A gorgeous retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of Patroclus. The prose is lovely; the ending, a little wobbly.

Tall and Dark by Suzannah Rowntree Sometimes I download novels onto my Kindle, forget any of the context, and pick them up without any prior info. Usually that's great, but it served Tall and Dark badly. I thought that it was going to be the kind of novel that the opening made it seem (a governess who can see spirits fakes being a medium in a non-fantasy setting) instead of what it was (a romp with fantastical monsters). The monster romp was fun, but I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I'd read the blurb and been prepared for what to expect.

The Night Raven by Sarah Painter More women who can see ghosts, but this time in an urban fantasy context. I was not really in the mood for urban fantasy when I read this, which did a disservice to another readable book.

A Pale View of Hills by Kazuo Ishiguro This was Ishiguro's first novel, where he hadn't quite figured out the fine line between an unreliable narrator who hides things from the reader, and just not telling you what the fuck is going on.

The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro I did not finish this, but I got about two-thirds of the way through before giving up, so it's going on the list. This is where I went from "I like Kazuo Ishiguro" to "I like some of Kazuo Ishiguro's novels". Amazing that it's possible to make an Arthurian romp set in the early Middle Ages (two of my favourite things!) so dull.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute This was the best novel I read all year. It's the story of a small group of people in Australia, waiting for a cloud of nuclear radiation that has already killed the rest of humanity to reach them. Other writers might have shown people having crazed reactions to the end of the world; Nevil Shute shows ordinary people responding in dignified and quiet ways. It was utterly devastating.

So Disdained by Nevil Shute This was a lot lighter than On the Beach and generally fun, though the heroic role played in it by Italian fascists was uncomfortable.

Circe by Madeline Miller Good, if a little bit less well-constructed than The Song of Achilles, though some of that has to be down to the source material.

The Autobiography of Mr Spock by Una McCormack It's a truly impressive feat to synthesise the assorted contradictory Spock lore into something that makes coherent sense. Una McCormack sees the world of Star Trek as a darker place than I prefer to, and as a dedicated Spirk shipper, maybe I was never going to be entirely happy with this. It's very well-written but perhaps not quite for me.

The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris I realised I'd got to nearly the end of the year without reading any non-fiction. This was a great way to address that. I already knew a fair bit about the Anglo-Saxon period but this was a very enjoyable way to fill in the gaps.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir I gave in to the need to know what everyone on tumblr seemed to be raving about. Lesbian necromancers in space was always going to be a winner with me, though at times it was a bit Warhammer 40k-esque (mountains of skulls! rivers of blood!) for my tastes.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus Overtly feminist fiction is usually my bag, but I didn't vibe with this. It's patronising towards its autistic-coded protagonist, and I wish it didn't spend quite so much time emphasising how hot she is. I could have done without the sapient dog, too.

Learned by Heart by Emma Donoghue Lesbian historical fiction featuring Anne Lister? Obviously on to a great start. The plot was a little constrained by the messiness of historical events, and there were a couple of bizarre modern references that threw me out of immersion when I reached them, which was particularly odd given how meticulous most of the research was. But I'm nitpicking: this was a gorgeous novel overall.