Just…just GO if you want to glimpse England in a very human light!
Five Stars!
Slang Dictionary of Victorian London: A
Abbess: Female brothel keeper. A Madame.
Abbot: The husband, or preferred man of an Abbess.
Acushla: An Irish term of endearment
Albert-chain: A heavily linked watch-chain
Alderman: Half-Crown
Alehouse: Where only malt liquors can be sold.
Area: The below-ground servant’s entrance in the front of many London town-houses. (Not underworld slang)
Area Diving: A method of theft that necessitates sneaking down area steps, and stealing from the lower rooms of houses.
B
Bacca-pipes: Whiskers curled in small, close ringlets.
Banyan days – This phrase is employed by sailors to denote the days when no animal food is served out to them.
Barkers (Barking Irons): Guns. Pistols, esp. Revolvers.
Barney: A noisy argument; a row
Bang: Drug. From Bhang (more bang for your buck?)
Barney: a noisy argument; a row
Beak: Magistrate
Beak-hunting: Poultry stealing
Bearer up: Person that robs men who have been decoyed by a woman accomplice.
Beef: (1) (v) Raise hue-and-cry. (2) (n) Thief. (cr) = Hot Beef! = Stop Thief!
Bend: Waistcoat, vest
Betty: A type of lockpick
Bile-shot: Ill-tempered
Billet: A situation of employment
Billy: Handkerchief (often silk)
Bit Faker: Remember six bits? A coiner. A counterfeiter of coins.
Blackleg: a scab
Blag: To steal or snatch, usually a theft, often by smash-and-grab
Blob, on the (Blab): Begging by telling hardluck stories.
C
So Jane Austen and H. P. Lovecraft Marry and have a Baby…
…well what the h-e-double-toothpicks am I supposed to say?
Time to test your favorite Librarian’s insulin levels…not to mention the tensile structure of their arteries.
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem! (Paperback)
Co-written by Jane Austen, who has fittingly been dead for quite some time, and a person named Seth Grahame-Smith. Who knows what they really do in their spare time.
I’ll give you my favorite reviewer’s take on this:
“The literary community should never be too proud to laugh at itself. I own three copies of the original “Pride & Prejudice” plus all the movies, so my husband and I bought this the moment we spotted it on the shelf (and laughed all the way to the register).
Fans need to read this book tongue-in-cheek and prepare to laugh WITH it. If you don’t like zombies or consider yourself a Jane Austen purist, if you admire only the most intricate writing and consider this sort of work irreverent, then you’ll be appalled more than amused. The level of writing IS degenerated from the original but, considering the subject matter, I don’t think “quality” was the forethought of the day. “Brains” is more like it.
On a literary note, the juxtaposition of familiar classic and farcical horror makes for harmless, laugh-out-loud comedy. I applaud this idea and hope the “Quirk Classics” line hammers out more spoofs on stories I love.
The only thing I find annoying is the last line of the blurb: “transforms a masterpiece of world literature into something you’d actually want to read.” I’m perfectly capable of enjoying BOTH, thankyouverymuch. (EA Blevins)”
Best quote EVER:
“few thought it worth the expense to dress the dead in finery when they would only soil it upon crawling out of their graves.”
Rarely can one say that the reading of the book reviews is as entertaining and witty as reading of the book itself. But see for yourself. Honest, folks. Austen hasn’t given me such a horror since I saw the identical twins of Austen’s book hiding out in the anarchist forestlands of Ray Bradbury’s movie version of FAHRENHEIT 451.
Fear not, gentle reader, Jane Austen WROTE A SEQUEL…with a little help from her (ghostwriter??) friend Ben H. Winters:
“Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters is a multiplayered study of love, sisterhood, and giant octopi. We hope these questions will deepen your appreciation and enjoyment of this towering work of classic sea-monster literature.”
Let me say in passing, if you page to the back of this book and read the Readerer’s Discussion Guide, please do so without eating, drinking, or attempting to hold a conversation. It is full of poignant thoughts, such as, “Have you ever been attacked by giant lobsters, figuratively or literally?”
Oh, heavens.
Codswallop!
Because everyone needs a fresher course in how differently the British talk from us weird Americans…
Warning…the author of this site DOES do translating. Some persnickety parents might not like the factual language, or worse, learn the hard way their kids already know what the word means…
The French Republican Calendar: The Perfect Writing Meme
The French Republican Calendar is no more or less accurate than any other out there, but the sheer brilliance of its design stands out. Each day of the year has a “name” based on something natural for the season.
Going to the conversion link, Calendar Converter I put in
1929, October 20th
And found this:
The 138th day of the French Republican Calendar, in the season of Vend miaire, (Month of the Grape Harvest), the ninth day of the 3rd week.
On the Wikipedia page this is called orge, or, “Day of Barley.”
So I am OFF TO WRITE A FIC NOW!
Victorian Money: A Sherlock Holmes Explanation
This is an excerpt of the Studium–a serious hobbyist reference! Holmes lovers ought to enjoy the explanation of the coins mentioned in Canon, as well as the images of said coins and which Adventures used the money. I especially like the paragraph in the opening, for it was oh, so true:
“To a small extent, it was their dealing with the coinage of Victorian England that made them a little more real, a little more human, a little more legendary.”
Late Victorian Coinage and how it Applies to Sherlock Holmes
Help! I Need a Canon Illustration of Sherlock Holmes!
A website with the goal of representing the visual aspects of the Sherlock Holmes Canon as well as possible. Camden House: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
The artists on this site:
Sydney Paget; Frederic D. Steele; R. Gutschmidt; Josef Friedrich; Frank Wiles; H. W. Hyde
Other Artists: F. H. Townsend; A. Twidle; G. Halliday; J. Simpson; H. M. Brock; A. Ball; W. Paget;A. Gilbert; H. K. Elcock
Modern Artists: Lysander; R. Wilcox; Oliver Mundy
Help! I need Victorian Life Photos!
I still cannot believe the size of this website. They were very, very good at scouring out the old archives for photographs of England! I recommend hours of surfing; some of these shots are frankly eerie and thought-provoking.
Help! I don’t have a World Calendar for 1895!
Are you a Research Addict? Does it BOTHER you when you’re writing out a really good piece of fan fiction when you stop and go, “gak! What DAY did October 12th, 1882 fall on? I need to be accurate!
Check out this website. It not only gives you the day in Gregorian or Julian calendar, but Afghan, Kurdish, Hebrew, French Republic…and a whole bunch of others. I really suggest you check ‘em out…it gives one’s birthday a whole different perspective to see when they were born on the Mayan Calendar…
Were you born on the day of the Crocus, or donkey, or billy goat, or billhook on the French Republican Calendar? You owe it to yourself to find out…especially because interesting people from Karl Marx to Zola used the dates for inspiration…did you know the origin of Lobster Thermidor? Go have an inspirational moment:
Help! I’ve Lost My Sacred Text in the Airport!
God(s) forbid, but it can happen. I know one guy who lost his Medicine Pipe in a Greyhound.
From African to Zoroastrianism, please use this site when you are researching. You won’t be sorry. Since 1999, this has been a hard-working labor of love and religious tolerance.
