Maria Francesca Rossetti was without doubt the least well known member of her family: and this probably suited her very well. Born in 1827, she was the eldest sibling of Dante Gabriel, William Michael and Christina, and was by general consent the most gifted of them all. Taught at home by her mother, she and her sister were denied the opportunity to learn Latin and Greek, which frustrated Maria, as she adored Homer in translation. Continue reading
One of the most popular subjects in which we publish in CLC is polar exploration. Inevitably, given the time period we cover, most of our books are about the Arctic rather than the Antarctic, though many of the early voyages to Australasia and the ‘Southern Ocean’ are represented. Continue reading
There has been a lot about Wagner in the media recently, and in October there will no doubt be a lot about Verdi: it’s always useful to have an anniversary (in this case a bicentenary) as a hook on which to hang productions, re-interpretations and books. Continue reading
The Revd Thomas Hugo (1820–76) was not very successful in his clerical career – he spent ten years as the perpetual curate of the chapel of All Saints within the parish of St Botolph without Bishopsgate in London, a positively Trollopian-sounding cure of souls. This might have been because he made no secret of his high-church views, or because he spent a lot of time in non-clerical pursuits. Continue reading
It’s Chelsea Week again, and I’ve been reading Practical Hints upon Landscape Gardening by William Sawrey Gilpin, nephew of the more famous William Gilpin. Continue reading
