Open in app

Sign In

Write

Sign In

Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts

351 Followers

Home

About

Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·2 days ago

Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’ (1855)

[Note: I did my PhD on Robert Browning, and for the first decade or so of my academic career I used to teach a ‘Special Author’ third-year course on him. So I’ve done a fair bit o’ Browning. But over the last quarter century I’ve moved on to teaching other…

Robert Browning

16 min read

Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’ (1855)
Browning’s ‘A Grammarian’s Funeral’ (1855)
Robert Browning

16 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·6 days ago

‘Lenten ys come with love to toune’ (c. 1400)

This anonymous lyric describes the coming of spring: the birds singing, flowers blooming, randy (male) poets complaining that they’re not getting any action. Wikipedia thinks it ‘possibly the most famous of the Middle English lyrics’ and ‘one of the best lyrics in the language.’ …

Lenten Is Come

3 min read

‘Lenten ys come with love to toune’ (c. 1400)
‘Lenten ys come with love to toune’ (c. 1400)
Lenten Is Come

3 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 21

Edna Heidbreder, ‘Psychoneurotic Sapphics’ (1926)

Edna Frances Heidbreder (1890-1985) was an American psychologist who researched psychometrics, systematic psychology, and concept formation, and who also developed a theory of history. She took a Masters in philosophy at the University of Wisconsin in 1918, and afterwards did a PhD in Psychology at Columbia University in New York…

2 min read

Edna Heidbreder, ‘Psychoneurotic Sapphics’ (1926)
Edna Heidbreder, ‘Psychoneurotic Sapphics’ (1926)

2 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 16

‘Succession’s Immaturity of Evil

In Perelandra (1943), the second volume of C S Lewis’s ‘Space Trilogy’, there’s a scene that has never landed for me, never quite worked. Perelandra is Lewis’s SFnal retelling of the Eden story. On planet Venus (the native name for which is the novel’s title) an alien Adam and an…

Succession

7 min read

‘Succession’s Immaturity of Evil
‘Succession’s Immaturity of Evil
Succession

7 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 15

Demetrius’ Giant Mechanical Snail

In the late fourth-century BC, Athens had fallen in power from her former glory-days and was under the control of Macedonia. When Alexander the Great died in 323 BC rule passed to two of his generals, Antipater and Craterus. Craterus died in 320, leaving Antipater in sole charge, but only…

Polybius

7 min read

Demetrius’ Giant Mechanical Snail
Demetrius’ Giant Mechanical Snail
Polybius

7 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 12

Robert Browning, ‘Cleon’ (1855)

‘Cleon’ was first published in Men and Women (1855): a lengthy dramatic monologue put into the mouth of a fictional Greek poet from the first century AD. In the poem he is writing a letter, replying to an epistle he has just received (along with various gifts) from another fictional…

Robert Browning

20 min read

Robert Browning, ‘Cleon’ (1855)
Robert Browning, ‘Cleon’ (1855)
Robert Browning

20 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 7

Horace’s ‘Diffugere nives’ [Odes 4:7]

One of Horace’s most famous odes, this. In this post, after the Latin, there are three versions: literal prose; an attempt by me to render the poem in terms of its dactylic rhythm, line by line; and A E Housman’s famous Englishing. First: Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis arboribusque comae; mutat…

Horace

5 min read

Horace’s ‘Diffugere nives’ [Odes 4:7]
Horace’s ‘Diffugere nives’ [Odes 4:7]
Horace

5 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 6

Housman’s Low Enjoyments

A E Housman spent much time and labour editing Manilius, and nobody knows why. Marcus Manilius was a 1st century AD astrologer and very minor poet, author of a five book mini-epic called Astronomicon which is very dull. It’s not that he is entirely devoid of interest to the modern…

Housman

12 min read

Housman’s Low Enjoyments
Housman’s Low Enjoyments
Housman

12 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 2

On “Micromégas” (1752)

So here’s a remarkable thing. Mars has two moons. That’s not the remarkable thing (although, you know: I suppose in a sense it is) — though these moons, Phobos and Deimos, were not discovered until 1877: Asaph Hall discovered Deimos on 12 August 1877 at about 07:48 UTC and Phobos…

Voltaire

8 min read

On “Micromégas” (1752)
On “Micromégas” (1752)
Voltaire

8 min read


Published in

Adam’s Notebook

·May 1

On Voltaire’s Name

No-one knows where the name Voltaire came from. The man himself was born François-Marie Arouet. …

Voltaire

4 min read

On Voltaire’s Name
On Voltaire’s Name
Voltaire

4 min read

Adam Roberts

Adam Roberts

351 Followers

Writer and academic. London-adjacent.

Following
  • Ian Sales

    Ian Sales

  • Jonathan Lethem

    Jonathan Lethem

  • Art Kavanagh

    Art Kavanagh

  • J. Dianne Dotson

    J. Dianne Dotson

  • Mineo Takamura

    Mineo Takamura

See all (17)

Help

Status

Writers

Blog

Careers

Privacy

Terms

About

Text to speech