Victorian Villainy

Victorian Villainy
Author: Michael Kurland
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2013-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1434437507

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Among the world’s great fictional villains Professor James Moriarty stands alone. Doctor Fu Manchu, Hannibal Lecter, Count Dracula, Iago, Voldemort, Darth Vader, Bill Sikes, Inspector Javert, and the Wicked Witch of the West all have their fans, all have their place in popular fiction. But for every one who can tell you whose life Iago made miserable, fifty honor that Professor James Moriarty was the particular nemesis of Sherlock Holmes. But just how evil was he? These stories by Michael Kurland explore an alternate possibility: that Moriarty wasn’t evil at all, that his villainy was less along the lines of Fu Manchu and more like Robin Hood or Simon Templar. And the reason for Sherlock Holmes’ characterization of him as “the Napoleon of crime” was that the professor was one of the few men he’d ever met who was smarter than he—and he couldn’t stand it!

Neo-Victorian Villains

Neo-Victorian Villains
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2017-06-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9004322256

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Neo-Victorian Villains is the first edited collection to examine the afterlives of such Victorian villains as Dracula, Svengali, Dorian Gray and Jekyll and Hyde, exploring their representation in neo-Victorian drama and fiction. In addition, Neo-Victorian Villains examines a number of supposedly villainous types, from the spirit medium and the femme fatale to the imperial ‘native’ and the ventriloquist, and traces their development from Victorian times today. Chapters analyse recent theatre, films and television – from Ripper Street to Marvel superhero movies – as well as classic Hollywood depictions of Victorian villains. In a wide-ranging opening chapter, Benjamin Poore assesses the legacy of nineteenth-century ideas of villains and villainy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Contributors are: Sarah Artt, Guy Barefoot, Jonathan Buckmaster, David Bullen, Helen Davies, Robert Dean, Marion Gibson, Richard Hand, Emma James, Mark Jones, Emma V. Miller, Claire O’Callaghan, Christina Parker-Flynn, Frances Pheasant-Kelly, Natalie Russell, Gillian Piggott, Benjamin Poore and Rob Welch.

Victorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century

Victorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century
Author: Katie Kapurch
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2016-08-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137581697

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This book examines melodramatic impulses in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight Saga, as well as the series' film adaptations and fan-authored texts. Attention to conventions such as crying, victimization, and happy endings in the context of the Twilight-Jane Eyre relationship reveals melodrama as an empowering mode of communication for girls. Although melodrama has saturated popular culture since the nineteenth century, its expression in texts for, about, and by girls has been remarkably under theorized. By defining melodrama, however, through its Victorian lineages, Katie Kapurch recognizes melodrama's aesthetic form and rhetorical function in contemporary girl culture while also demonstrating its legacy since the nineteenth century. Informed by feminist theories of literature and film, Kapurch shows how melodrama is worthy of serious consideration since the mode critiques limiting social constructions of postfeminist girlhood and, at the same time, enhances intimacy between girls—both characters and readers.

An Underground History of Early Victorian Fiction

An Underground History of Early Victorian Fiction
Author: Gregory Vargo
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2017-12-07
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1108187285

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How does the literature and culture of early Victorian Britain look different if viewed from below? Exploring the interplay between canonical social problem novels and the journalism and fiction appearing in the periodical press associated with working-class protest movements, Gregory Vargo challenges long-held assumptions about the cultural separation between the 'two nations' of rich and poor in the Victorian era. The flourishing radical press was home to daring literary experiments that embraced themes including empire and economic inequality, helping to shape mainstream literature. Reconstructing social and institutional networks that connected middle-class writers to the world of working-class politics, this book reveals for the first time acknowledged and unacknowledged debts to the radical canon in the work of such authors as Charles Dickens, Thomas Carlyle, Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell. What emerges is a new vision of Victorian social life, in which fierce debates and surprising exchanges spanned the class divide.

The British 'B' Film

The British 'B' Film
Author: Steve Chibnall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2019-07-25
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 183871863X

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This is the first book to provide a thorough examination of the British 'B' movie, from the war years to the 1960s. The authors draw on archival research, contemporary trade papers and interviews with key 'B' filmmakers to map the 'B' movie phenomenon both as artefact and as industry product, and as a reflection on their times.

The Merchant of Venice: The State of Play

The Merchant of Venice: The State of Play
Author: M. Lindsay Kaplan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2020-05-14
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 135011023X

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The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most controversial plays, whose elements resonate even more profoundly in the current climate of rising racism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiment, queerphobia and right-wing nationalism. This collection of essays offers a 'freeze frame' that showcases a range of current debates and ideas surrounding the play. Each chapter has been carefully selected for its originality and relevance to your needs. Essays offer new perspectives that provide an up-to-date understanding of what's exciting and challenging about the play. Key themes and topics include: · Race and religion · Gender and sexuality · Philosophy · Animal studies · Adaptations and performance history

To the Stars—and Beyond

To the Stars—and Beyond
Author: Damien Broderick
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 227
Release: 2020-04-21
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1434437396

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n Damien Broderick’s haunting tale, “The Meek,” the survivors of humanity’s drive toward racial suicide must pay an awful price for their continued survival. John Glasby’s “Innsmouth Bane” tells how the alien entity Dagon first came to nineteenth-century America. In “Helen’s Last Will,” James C. Glass shows us that death may not always be “the end.” Charles Allen Gramlich’s “I Can Spend You” is a futuristic western which puts prospecting in a whole new light! “The Voice of the Dolphin in Air,” by Howard V. Hendrix, is a poignant tale of life and death on Mars and the LaGrange space stations. In Philip E. High’s “This World Is Ours,” David Hacket is given the task of revitalizing a declining city (and world), and finds himself facing an alien invasion. James B. Johnson’s “The Last American” is fighting to preserve the memory of the old U.S. of A.—in a last stand at the Alamo! In “Small World: A Small Story,” by Michael Kurland, Vanspeepe invents a new transportation device, hoping to change the world—and he does! “The Channel Exemption: A Sime~Gen Story,” by Jacqueline Lichtenberg, focuses on the tensions between Sime and Gen when a mixed party of humans is stranded on an alien planet. Gary Lovisi’s tale, “My Guardian,” tells how mankind is finally able to put an end to wars and mass killings. “Black Mist,” by Richard A. Lupoff, is a stunning mystery set at a Japanese research station on the Martian moon, Phobos. Don Webb, in his fascinating tale, “The Five Biographies of General Gerrhan,” demonstrates how easy it is for the professional writer to (mis)interpret, deliberately or otherwise, the story of a space hero. Twelve great reads by a dozen great writers!

Crafty Characters

Crafty Characters
Author: Mike Neville
Publisher: Fonthill Media
Total Pages: 311
Release: 2023-09-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN:

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Many Freemasons have made the world a better place, while some have been villainous criminals. Members of the Craft have developed forensic science, solved famous crimes and invented all manner of things. Several members of the Royal Family have also been members. Masons have been very active in the criminal justice system, both as 'goodies' and 'baddies': it was a mason who formed the Special Branch to fight terrorism and another who brought the Moors Murders to an end. In some cases, such as the Cleveland Street Scandal, masons found themselves on both sides of the law. The medical profession is also well represented in lodges. Happily, it was a member of the Craft who rescued the Elephant Man, while another masonic doctor was the first to identify an occupational cancer. On the other side of the coin, there have been several evil masonic doctors who committed murder, and one masonic surgeon may have committed regicide, although his motives were merciful. This tells the stories of weird and wonderful masons too - celebrities, film makers, soldiers, explorers, world-famous businessmen, politicians, forgers and scoundrels. There are masons of every character, and all are covered in this book.

Jack the Ripper in Film and Culture

Jack the Ripper in Film and Culture
Author: Clare Smith
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 219
Release: 2016-08-29
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137599995

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In 1888 the name Jack the Ripper entered public consciousness with the brutal murders of women in the East End of London. The murderer was never caught, yet film and television depicts a killer with a recognisable costume, motive and persona. This book examines the origins of the screen presentation of the four key elements associated with the murders – Jack the Ripper, the victims, the detective and Whitechapel. Nineteenth-century history, art and literature, psychoanalytical theories of Freud and Jung and feminist film theory are all used to deconstruct the representation of Jack the Ripper on screen.

Transmission Error

Transmission Error
Author: Michael Kurland
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Total Pages: 202
Release: 2013-03-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1434449394

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Daniel Godfrey has been sentenced to be transported to a prison planet for a crime he didn’t commit--but something goes wrong with the transmatter device, and Daniel and his companions are thrust onto an alien world whose people are more human than they have any right to be. This is a place where pirate ships fly, giant birds recite poetry and eat people, and the moving city of Beloparsus is slowly and ponderously approaching the sea. And somewhere on the planet, for a reason Daniel cannot guess, someone is trying to kill him. "Michael Kurland wanders along a tight-rope between story and style. His plots are imaginative and his relating of same is damnably clever. There are double and triple entendres and inside jokes about science fiction and its writers."--The Readers' Guide to Science Fiction. "American editor and author who writes adventure and spy novels as well as SF. Kurland's science fiction is fast paced, rich in descriptions of unusual societies, and filled with action."--The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. "Kurland has the talent to create and sustain interesting characters and he paces his fiction so well it sails along with the reader in tow--happily in tow. A good read."--Science Fiction Review. Another first-rate SF adventure by a master entertainer!