Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookChristina Scull and Wayne G Hammond (eds) ‘The Collected Poems of J R R Tolkien’ (HarperCollins…A big book, in three volumes: fully 1500 pages of Tolkienian verse. It’s a very handsome piece of book production: good quality paper, well…2d ago2d ago
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookViktor Rydberg, ‘The Freebooter of the Baltic’ (1857)Viktor Rydberg was, perhaps, the most important Swedish novelist of the nineteenth-century, though he’s little known in the UK, what with…3d ago3d ago
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookMusée des Prole ArtsAbout suffering they were often wrong, the Old Masters: distracted by wealth and rank, as if pain only matters when it afflicts the high…6d ago6d ago
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookCities as CurrencyEarly in El Cid (directed Anthony Mann, 1961) — which we watched the other day — the King of Aragon comes to the court of Castile ruled by…6d ago6d ago
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookEadgar of Poe, ‘Þe Hræfn’Midniht wæs ond ful dreoriġ, hwīl biþoht-mi, wac ond weriġ, Uppan monig an ascung wyrdig boc of lār forgoten al — Ich ġedrusod, eallmæst…Sep 51Sep 51
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookOn the name ‘Hamlet’There are, it seems, three theories as to the meaning of the name ‘Hamlet’.Sep 23Sep 23
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookWalter Scott, ‘Ivanhoe’ (1819)[Also in this very Notebook: The Bride of Lammermoor (1819); A Legend of Montrose (1819); Kenilworth (1821); The Pirate (1821/22); The…Sep 11Sep 11
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookArnold to Clough, 6th March 1848Arnold, writing to his best friend Arthur Hugh Clough, concerning the situation in France: the revolution of 1848, a new nation being…Aug 31Aug 31
Adam RobertsinAdam’s NotebookThe Skull in Waterhouse’s ‘Crystal Ball’ (1902)Waterhouse exhibited this painting at Burlington House in 1902, and sold it soon after. The purchaser, however, did not like one detail…Aug 27Aug 27
Adam RobertsinAdam’s Notebook“Zone of Interest”: book (2014) and film (2023)Over on Bluesky I replied to one of those fishing-y questions the people of social media sometimes post: ‘tell me a movie or TV show that…Aug 253Aug 253
