We can be relatively sure that Catherine, the heroine of Northanger Abbey, would not have approved of the name of Hugh Walpole’s estate. Strawberry Hill? Are you kidding me? Could not the owner have devised a more amazingly horrible name for a Gothic castle? But what do you think that Catherine would have thought of […]
Bath is a curious tourist attraction because its historical significance is as a tourist attraction. Relatively wealthy people in the modern world travel to Bath to find out what it is was like for relatively wealthy people in the 18th or 19th (or 1st!) century to travel to Bath. I’d like you to be an […]
Focusing on the exhibits that provide detail about London in the 19th century, find one particular object that vividly captures an aspect of life in this place and time. Be sure to fully explain and describe the artifact and offer analytical comments that help the rest of us understand its significance. Unfortunately, the comment box does not […]
Check out the interesting similarity between the image at left, capturing, we assume, an iconic moment, with the classic still from the 1931 film version of Dracula. What is it about the heroine’s body language in these images? In the title song, which accompanies the first appearance of the Phantom on stage, he emphasizes his […]
What is it like to be a mudlark for an hour? What did you find? How do you think the experience would have been different in 1850? The brief Wikipedia article on mudlarks is worth checking out.
Through a carefully detailed description of just one 19th-century picture at the Tate, discuss how British culture at this time represents female sexuality and/or feminine gender roles. It is often said that women at the time are represented either as virginal angels or devilish whores, and that perhaps offers a good place to start (but […]
Find a passage or two in the novel where Stevenson describes Hyde, his appearance, his effect on others. Also check out the various visual representations of Hyde that I have posted in the Texts section of our site. Focusing on particular words and specific visual details, explain how Stevenson and others who have interpreted his […]
Freud’s House is full of objects that he has collected. What kind of images does he seem to prefer? Which one catches your eye in relation to “The Uncanny”? More images of his Study . . .