Adam RobertsinAdam’s Notebook‘France! à l’heure où tu te prosternes’ (1853)I don’t propose (with reference to this) to turn this Notebook wholly over to drafts and sketches of Hugoesque translation. But I have…4 min read·3 hours ago----
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookRipley in the FiftiesOver on Lawyers, Guns and Money Abigail Nussbaum has a characteristically insightful essay on Ripley, the current Netflix adaptation of…5 min read·10 hours ago----
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookHugo’s ‘Châtiments’ (1853)Les Châtiments means something more forceful than the English ‘chastisements’, although that is what is going on in this poem: Victor Hugo…8 min read·4 days ago--2--2
Adam RobertsinAdam’s Notebook“Break, break, break/On thy prosody, O sea!”In yesterday’s instalment of the (excellent: you should subscribe!) Poems Ancient and Modern blog, Joseph Bottum talks about Tennyson’s…8 min read·Apr 20, 2024----
Adam RobertsinAdam’s Notebook‘Lake of Darkness’ (2024)Here’s the cover that goes with the proofs which were mentioned on this very Notebook a few days ago. Publication date: 25 July 2024. Its…2 min read·Apr 19, 2024----
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookTantalus KeyPolice at the Funeral is certainly ingenious. It takes Allingham’s sort-of detective, the private gentleman Albert Campion, up to…8 min read·Apr 16, 2024--1--1
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookProofsI’m not very good at doing proofs. It’s not that I’m intentionally sloppy, or that I shirk the work; it’s important. But I find it hard to…2 min read·Apr 12, 2024----
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookNature PoemI chanced upon this in my reading, and was very struck by it. If you don’t recognise it, you might think it written by Basil Bunting…2 min read·Apr 7, 2024--1--1
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookRichard Dadd, ‘The Fairy Feller’s Master-Stroke’ (1855–64)Dadd painted this extraordinary Fantasy masterpiece in the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum of Bethlem Royal Hospital — Bedlam — where he was…4 min read·Apr 4, 2024--2--2
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookEmilia Lanier’s ‘Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum’ (1611)Emilia Lanier (1569–1645; her name was sometimes spelled Aemilia Lanyer) has the distinction of being the first named female published poet…6 min read·Apr 3, 2024--1--1