Reynolds's News and Miscellany

Life of Victor Hugo | Isabel Hapgood

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 9 Jun 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

Whilst he was dying in May 1885, Paris was but the first mourner for all France; and the magnificent funeral pageant which conducted the pauper’s coffin, antithetically enshrining the remains considered worthy of the highest possible reverence and honours from the Champs Elysées to the Panthéon, was the more memorable from all that was foremost in French art and letters having marched in the train, and laid a leaf or flower in the tomb of the protégé Chateaubriand, the brother-in-arms of Dumas, the inspirer of Mars, Dorval, Lemaitre, Rachel, and Bernhardt, and, above all, the Nemesis of the Third Empire.

Mister Spectator’s Coffeehouse Club | Stephen Basdeo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

It was these interesting characters that represented the new cosmopolitan elite of 18th-century London. In the characters of Mister Spectator’s club was a microcosm of the people who mattered in society: the aristocracy and the middle classes.

To Canaris, the Greek Patriot | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantinos_Kanaris#/media/File:Konstantinos_Kanaris_by_Karl_von_Krazeisen.png

A poem written by Victor Hugo and translated by G.W.M. Reynolds that celebrates the Greek freedom fighter Konstantinos Kanaris.

Invocation | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021

Written by Victor Hugo and published in Les Chants des Crepuscules in 1835; Translated by George W.M. Reynolds and published in Songs of Twilight in 1836: Say, Lord! for Thou alone canst tell / Where lurks the good invisible / Amid the depths of discord’s sea— / That seem, alas! so dark to me!

Out of the Darkness: “The Catacombs of Paris” (1840) by George W.M.Reynolds | Louis James

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021

Distinguished G W M Reynolds specialist, Prof. Louis James, talks about Reynolds’s only known play.

The Land of Fable | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021

Written by Victor Hugo and published in Les Chants des Crepuscules in 1835 and Translated by George W.M. Reynolds and published in Songs of Twilight in 1836: Now, vot’ries of the Muses, turn your eyes, / Unto the East, and say what there appears! / “Alas!” the voice of Poesy replies, / Mystic’s that light between the hemispheres!”

The Baroness: A Novel (Part III)

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021

The anxiety and interest which were depicted on the countenances of Eugenie and Clemence, as the count made this declaration, were most pungent in the breasts of both; and as they knew that the young nobleman was particularly cautious in the statements he usually advanced, they naturally fancied he had some just reasons to authorize the expression of his opinion with regard to the Abbé.

Reynolds Studies: A Personal History | Rohan McWilliam

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 8 Jun 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

Professor Rohan McWilliam gives his own account of how he was introduced to the life and work of George W M Reynolds

George W.M. Reynolds’s Italian Chartist Republic | Stephen Basdeo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 6 Jun 2021 • ( 9 Comments )

What would a Chartist republic look like in practice? Very few Chartist novelists discussed this question in depth, as most of them merely shined a light on social issues of the day. G W M Reynolds, however, used the fictional Italian state of Castelcicala in The Mysteries of London as a ‘laboratory’ in which his progressive theories of government might be tested.

The Lovers: A Legend of Guernsey | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 5 Jun 2021

Written by G.W.M. Reynolds in 1837 and originally published in The Monthly Magazine: On Sarnia’s shores the gales are soft / And all the maids are passing fair / That wander in her gardens oft, / To meet their own true lovers there.

The Baroness: A Novel (Part II) | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 5 Jun 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

Having made vast inroads on the copious repast which was shortly placed upon his table, and having thought it expedient to wash down the same with a couple of bottles of old Chambertin, Sans-géne not only felt himself considerably refreshed, but also made a point of communicating that important fact to the waiter, whose toilet he had so materially disarranged a short time before. He then wrote a very short note, in a very unsteady hand, to a certain quarter, which missive was immediately despatched, and the following reply was returned:—

The Baroness: A Novel (Part I) | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 4 Jun 2021 • ( 3 Comments )

The individual who occupied the second place in the Calais mail was a man who had probably seen fifty summers. His cheeks were florid, his hair still dark, his teeth well preserved, and his large black eye seemed capable of piercing to the very soul, and of scanning the secret thoughts of the most wary and the most skilful in concealing their intentions beneath a mask of hypocrisy.

The History of the Bastille | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 31 May 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

There have been many brief and detached accounts of the Bastille current in the English sphere of literature; but this is the first connected and important history that has hitherto satisfied the curiosity of the public regarding an event that must be considered with no ordinary degree of attention. The throne of him whom the French deemed a despot was only to be essentially shaken by the destruction of the worst engine of its tyranny; and when the adamantine bars of the gates of that terrible castle were destroyed—when the secrets of the prison-house were displayed—when the dark dungeon of slavery was illuminated by the torch of popular vengeance—then emanated from that dismal abode young Liberty.

The Wandering Jew’s Tale | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 31 May 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

Originally written by G.W.M. Reynolds and published in The Monthly Magazine in 1837: List awhile, and I will tell / Crimes that caus’d a doom so fell / I Know, then, that as we led afar / The Saviour unto Golgotha, / Where, as the ban of all our race, / The cross was rear’d tow’rds heay’n’s face.

The Progress of Civilization in Belgium | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 29 May 2021 • ( 1 Comment )

Belgium is now an independent kingdom, which, although circumscribed to exceedingly narrow limits, may still one day stand conspicuously amongst the nations of the European continent, if its government continue to be wisely administered, and its vast resources appreciated and brought into action, as they are at present.

Outside the Ballroom | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 29 May 2021

A poem written by Victor Hugo in 1833 and translated by G.W.M. Reynolds: Behold the ball-room flashing on the sight, / From step to cornice one grand glare of light; / The noise of mirth and revelry resounds, / Like fairy melody on haunted grounds.

Prelude to “Songs of Twilight” | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 29 May 2021 • ( 7 Comments )

Written by Victor Hugo in 1835 and translated by G.W.M. Reynolds: How shall I note thee, line of troubled years, / Which mark existence in our little span? / One constant twilight in the heaven appears— / One constant twilight in the mind of man!

To a Newborn Child | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 29 May 2021

Frail plant, condemn’d to crouch beneath the storm, / Of earthly ills, and shiver to the blast, / That rules in this cold world, / Th’ungenial atmosphere.

19th-century French Poets and Novelists (Part II) | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 28 May 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

If the attractions of any art can cause the soul of man to feel itself suddenly lifted afar from the grosser joys of earth, and wrapped in a species of blissful delirium—it is poetry. If there be any author who has complete power over the minds of his readers, to enchain them in the mystic bonds that his effusions cast around them, and actually to implicate them and their feelings, their sympathies, and their passions, in the scenes that he depicts in glowing colours—it is the poet.

19th-century French Poets and Novelists (Part I) | G.W.M. Reynolds

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 27 May 2021 • ( 2 Comments )

If Walter Scott consecrated the actions of the savage and licentious ruffians of the olden time, who were called “gentle knights,” P. de Kock has not at least been guilty of exaggeration in his delineation of the good and bad qualities of ancient characters, morals, and manners. But as de Kock is one of the most important and most celebrated of French novelists, we shall proceed to examine his principal works in detail.

Litany in a Time of Plague | Thomas Nashe

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 27 May 2021

As part of pandemic poetry season we present Thomas Nashe (1567–1601) who was an Elizabethan poet, playwright, and fiction author and wrote a poem during an outbreak of plague.

The “Receipts” | Stephen Basdeo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 26 May 2021

“Always keep the receipt”—that’s what my grandmother told me. It was usually uttered after she’d bought me something from a toy shop—probably because she was worried that whatever she purchased might be faulty and have to have it exchanged. Its meaning does appear to have changed over time.

A Tale of the Plague | William Harrison Ainsworth

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 25 May 2021

The deepest despair now seized upon all the survivors. Scarcely a family but had lost half of its number—many, more than half—while those who were left felt assured that their turn would speedily arrive. Even the reckless were appalled, and abandoned their evil courses. Not only were the dead lying in the passages and alleys, but even in the main thoroughfares, and none would remove them. The awful prediction of Solomon Eagle that “grass would grow in the streets, and that the living should not be able to bury the dead,” had come to pass. London had become one vast lazar-house, and seemed in a fair way of becoming a mighty sepulchre.

Marriage and Feasts | Victor Hugo

By Dr Stephen Basdeo on 25 May 2021

A poem written by Victor Hugo in 1835: The hall is gay with limpid lustre bright/The feast to pampered palate gives delight/The sated guests pick at the spicy food,/And at that table—where the wise are few/Both sexes and all ages meet the view;/The sturdy warrior with a thoughtful face—/The am’rous youth, the maid replete with grace,/The prattling infant, and the hoary hair.

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