#ingoldsby legends

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

Arthur Rackham design endpapers Ingoldsby Legends

[enchantedbook]

'Dancing with the Mephisto' from the Ingoldsby Legends by Arthur Rackham, 1907

[illustratus]

A Saint, from the 'Jackdaw of Rheims' by Briton Rivière

[chronivore]

1870 Beautiful Binding - INGOLDSBY LEGENDS Illustrated by Cruikshank, Leech and Tenniel.

[innervoiceartblog]

The Ingoldsby Legends (1907) Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

[thethirdromana]

Just how bad were 1890s bestsellers?

Inspired by this post, I was curious to know exactly what the competition looked like for Dracula and The Beetle. Bestselling doesn't always mean good (4 of the 5 bestselling adult fiction books in the UK from 2000 to 2010 were by Dan Brown) so I was wondering... just how not good?

Here are some bestselling books, mostly taken from 'Nineteenth-Century English Best-Sellers: A Further List' by Richard D Altick.

King Solomon's Mines by H Rider Haggard Published 1885, sold 100,000 copies by 1895 and 650,000 by 1925.

It is a curious thing that at my age—fifty-five last birthday—I should find myself taking up a pen to try to write a history. I wonder what sort of a history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip! I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other boys are at school I was earning my living as a trader in the old Colony. I have been trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And yet it is only eight months ago that I made my pile. It is a big pile now that I have got it—I don’t yet know how big—but I do not think I would go through the last fifteen or sixteen months again for it; no, not if I knew that I should come out safe at the end, pile and all. But then I am a timid man, and dislike violence; moreover, I am almost sick of adventure. I wonder why I am going to write this book: it is not in my line. I am not a literary man, though very devoted to the Old Testament and also to the “Ingoldsby Legends.” Let me try to set down my reasons, just to see if I have any.

This is the opening. King Solomon's Mines is lively and readable, but also profoundly misogynistic and racist from start to finish.

The Mystery of a Hansom Cab by Fergus Hume Published 1887, sold 377,000 copies by 1898.

Mr. Gorby was shaving, and, as was his usual custom, conversed with his reflection. Being a detective, and of an extremely reticent disposition, he never talked outside about his business, or made a confidant of anyone. When he did want to unbosom himself, he retired to his bedroom and talked to his reflection in the mirror. This method of procedure he found to work capitally, for it relieved his sometimes overburdened mind with absolute security to himself. Did not the barber of Midas when he found out what was under the royal crown of his master, fret and chafe over his secret, until one morning he stole to the reeds by the river, and whispered, "Midas, has ass's ears?" In the like manner Mr. Gorby felt a longing at times to give speech to his innermost secrets; and having no fancy for chattering to the air, he made his mirror his confidant. So far it had never betrayed him, while for the rest it joyed him to see his own jolly red face nodding gravely at him from out the shining surface, like a mandarin. This morning the detective was unusually animated in his confidences to his mirror. At times, too, a puzzled expression would pass over his face. The hansom cab murder had been placed in his hands for solution, and he was trying to think how he should make a beginning.

I've never read this but it seems great. Might need to download the whole thing from Project Gutenberg.

The Murder of Delicia by Marie Corelli Published 1896, sold 43,000 copies in its first year and another 52,000 when a cheaper edition was released in 1899.

As a writer, she stood quite apart from the rank and file of modern fictionists. Something of the spirit of the Immortals was in her blood—the spirit that moved Shakespeare, Shelley and Byron to proclaim truths in the face of a world of lies—some sense of the responsibility and worth of Literature—and with these emotions existed also the passionate desire to rouse and exalt her readers to the perception of the things she herself knew and instinctively felt to be right and just for all time. The public responded to her voice and clamoured for her work, and, as a natural result of this, all ambitious and aspiring publishers were her very humble suppliants. Whatsoever munificent and glittering 'terms' are dreamed of by authors in their wildest conceptions of a literary El Dorado, were hers to command; and yet she was neither vain nor greedy. She was, strange to say, though an author and a 'celebrity,' still an unspoilt, womanly woman.

Hi my name is Marie Delicia and I am an unspoilt womanly woman and a lot of people tell me I write like Byron (AN: if u don’t know who he is get da hell out of here!).

Beside the Bonnie Briar Bush by Ian Maclaren Published 1894, sold 256,000 copies by 1907.

... my thoughts drift to the auld schule-house and Domsie. Some one with the love of God in his heart had built it long ago, and chose a site for the bairns in the sweet pine-woods at the foot of the cart road to Whinnie Knowe and the upland farms. It stood in a clearing with the tall Scotch firs round three sides, and on the fourth a brake of gorse and bramble bushes, through which there was an opening to the road. The clearing was the playground, and in summer the bairns annexed as much wood as they liked, playing tig among the trees, or sitting down at dinner-time on the soft, dry spines that made an elastic carpet everywhere.

Some proper twee Victorian twaddle, now with added Scottishness!

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I wish I could find out how many copies Dracula or The Beetle sold; all I can find is the same stat repeated that The Beetle sold more in the first 30 years of publication.

For the Jekyll and Hyde Weekly folks, that was a bestseller, selling 40,000 copies in the first six months.

[mysterious-secret-garden]

George Cruikshank - A lay of St. Nicholas, from 'The Ingoldsby Legends' by Thomas Ingoldsby, 1887.

[mythical-art]

The Ingoldsby Legends: Frontispiece by Arthur Rackham (pen and black ink and watercolour)

[casino-bunker]

Abracadabra, from The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth and Marvels, by Thomas Ingoldsby, published in 1865

[grunklejam]

"Now my little boy Ned, Brush off to your bed, Tie your night-cap on safe, or a napkin instead, Or these terrible nights you'll catch cold in your head; And remember my tale, and the moral it teaches, Which you'll find much the same as what Solomon preaches. Don't flirt with young ladies! don't practise soft speeches; Avoid waltzes, quadrilles, pumps, silk hose, and kneebreeches;-- Frequent not grey ruins,--shun riot and revelry, Hocus Pocus, and Conjuring, and all sorts of devilry;-- Don't meddle with broomsticks,--they're Beelzebub's switches; Of cellars keep clear,--they're the devil's own ditches; And beware of balls, banquettings, brandy, and -- witches! Above all! don't run after black eyes,-- if you do,-- Depend on't you'll find what I say will come true,-- Old Nick, some fine morning, will 'hey after you!"

~ The Witches' Frolic, taken from The Ingoldsby Legends - written by the fictional Thomas Ingoldsby, who was actually the Rev. Richard H. Barham of Chapel Royal.

The Ingoldsby Legends is one of the more oddly forgotten pieces of Victorian literature. Once a household name, the book deals with several poems and stories of the paranormal and bizarre, presented in a beautifully luxurious volume. Every poem or story was a pastiche of common folklore, though often inspired by Kentish folk stories.

The book was attributed to Sir Thomas Ingoldsby of Tappington Manor, but in reality was the work of a priest, who found himself with a stable private income and little in the way of strenuous duties. As a result, he adopted a pen name and started writing short stories. These were published by Bentley’s Miscellany beginning in 1837, and by 1840 was being published across multiple books.

The works were soon adopted into popular culture, and for a brief while were even taught in schools. Works include “Jackdaw of Rheims", concerning the tale of a jackdaw who inadvertently becomes a saint.

[lets-talk-story]

On the lone bleak moor,  At the midnight hour, Beneath the Gallows Tree, Hand in hand  The Murderers stand By one, by two, by three! And the Moon that night  With a grey, cold light Each baleful object tips; One half of her form  Is seen through the storm, The other half's hid in Eclipse! And the cold Wind howls,  And the Thunder growls, And the Lightning is broad and bright; And altogether  It's very bad weather, And an unpleasant sort of a night! "Now mount who list,  And close by the wrist Sever me quickly the Dead Man's fist!— Now climb who dare Where he swings in air, And pluck me five locks of the Dead Man's hair!"

The Hand Of Glory, The Ingoldsby Legends

[michaelmoonsbookshop]

The Ingoldsby Legends

[enchantedbook]

Illustration from 'The Ingoldsby Legends' by Arthur Rackham, 1907

[illustratus]

''Hey! Up the chimney, lass! Hey after you!'' Rob Gilpin and the three witches, Old Goody Price, Old Goody Jones and the young Madge Gray taking to the air on broomsticks with three black cats.

The Witches' Frolic, from The Ingoldsby Legends, or Mirth and Marvels by Thomas Ingoldsby [Pseudonym of Richard Harris Barham] — Illustration by Arthur Rackham.

[chronivore]

The Ingoldsby Legends (1907) Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

[detroitlib]

From our stacks: Illustration “A Pentacle” from The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth & Marvels By Thomas Ingoldsby Esquire. Illustrated by Arthur Rackham. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1930.