British Literature Archives - Words To That Effect

March 22, 2022March 22, 2022 Conor18th Century Literature, British Literature

A Word To That Effect: Serendipity (Bonus Ep)

A Word To That Effect is a new series of bonus mini-episodes about a single word or phrase with a distinctly literary origin. This week, is a 2001 romantic comedy with Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack. It’s a baby clothes shop I passed the other day. It’s a song by read more…

March 8, 2022March 8, 2022 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature

A Word To That Effect: Cliffhanger (Bonus Ep)

A Word To That Effect is a new series of bonus mini-episodes about a single word or phrase with a distinctly literary origin. This week: cliffhanger! Find out about the cliffhanger story. Hint: it’s related to all that sensation fiction that was featured in the last WTTE episode There will read more…

February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, Crime

Ep 57: The Sensation Novel

The sensation novel was a phenomenon of the 1860s. The novels were incredibly popular with the reading public and just as passionately derided by many critics. Sensation fiction was so called for a number of reasons. Firstly, the stories, in serialized and then in book form, were a publishing and pop read more…

Arthurian Romance (Words To That Effect Ep 55)

February 8, 2022February 10, 2022 ConorBritish Literature, History, Old & Middle English

Ep 56: Arthurian Romance

Think of King Arthur and the medieval romance and a huge number of images and tropes and clichés spring to mind: knights in shining armour and damsels in distress, castles and chivalry and courtly love, heroic quests and fierce dragons. Camelot, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy read more…

March 11, 2020March 11, 2020 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, British Literature, History

Ep 43: Lost Books

There are countless great works of literature we have tantalising glimpses of, works we know exist but, as far as anyone can tell, have been lost to history. Huge swathes of ancient Greek literature, a vast Chinese encyclopedia, a lost Shakespeare play based on the story of Don Quixote. And read more…

October 15, 2019October 22, 2019 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, Horror, Literature and Science, Medicine

Ep 35: Jekyll and Hyde

For most people today, I think it’s fair to say, the story of Jekyll and Hyde is a rough outline of a tale, a fairly straightforward allegory of the potential dark side within us all. Read Robert Louis Stevenson’s original novella, however, and you immediately realise there is so much read more…

Golden Age Detective Fiction - Words To That Effect Ep32

May 7, 2019May 7, 2019 Conor20th Century Literature, British Literature, Crime, Detective Fiction

Ep32: Golden Age Detective Fiction

An English country estate. A detective pacing the room, explaining how they have solved the crime, revealing the solution to a puzzle and the clues which were there all along. It’s so easy to parody this scene because it’s so familiar. It’s Reverend Green in the drawing room with the read more…

January 28, 2019February 7, 2019 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, History, Horror, Supernatural, Victorian

Ep 26: Unwrapping the Egyptian Mummy

In the 19th century, a very popular form of entertainment was the mummy unwrapping party. You could go to a private or public event at which an ancient Egyptian mummy would be unrolled and examined. Bandages would be passed around, touched and smelled, ancient jewellery would be admired, and a read more…

Words To That Effect Ep 21 Invention of Victorian Time

June 18, 2018April 9, 2020 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, History, Victorian

Episode 21: The Invention of Time

Time in the Victorian Era Time, as we understand it today, was only really invented in the Victorian era. We take it for granted today that our phones and watches and other devices are accurate to the second. That time zones are clear and fixed – when it’s 3pm in read more…

June 4, 2018February 17, 2019 Conor21st Century Literature, American Literature, British Literature, Crime, Irish Literature

Episode 20: Domestic Noir

Why Are There So Many Crime Thrillers With ‘Girl’ in the Title? Gone Girl, The Girl on the Train, Luckiest Girl Alive, Final Girls… There’s no shortage of crime novels with ‘girl’ in the title since the huge success of Gillian Flynn’s 2012 thriller Gone Girl. But what do these read more…

February 26, 2018February 26, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, British Literature, Detective Fiction, Victorian

Episode 15: The Scarlet Pimpernel & Baroness Orczy

The Scarlet Pimpernel The Scarlet Pimpernel is a character now long disconnected from his origins in a 1903 novel. The Pimpernel is a mysterious Englishman who uses elaborate disguises to heroically rescue French aristocrats from the guillotine during the French Revolution. Naming himself after a small red flower, the enigmatic read more…

January 5, 2018January 6, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, 20th Century Literature, British Literature, Fantasy

Notes on a Selection of Fictional Countries [Article]

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to invent a new country. In the 18th and 19th centuries there were still places unknown to European society – “blank spaces on the earth”, as Marlow in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness once put it. New, unheard of countries were begging to be discovered, mapped, read more…

October 30, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor18th Century Literature, British Literature, Popular Culture

Episode 10: From Robinson Crusoe to Survivor: The Robinsonade

Daniel Defoe’s classic novel, The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, is without doubt one of the most recognizable stories in our culture. It is a book which has had hundreds, if not thousands, of editions. It has been translated into over 100 languages, adapted for stage and read more…

October 16, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, Popular Culture, Victorian

Episode 9: Imaginary Countries and the Ruritanian Romance

Imaginary Countries Writers make up imaginary countries all the time, and for a variety of reasons. It’s relatively straightforward to slip in a familiar-sounding name into a part of the world your reader or viewer may not be too familiar with. Livonia, Wallaria, Tazbekistan… They could be countries, right? But read more…

September 18, 2017January 25, 2018 Conor19th Century Literature, British Literature, History, Literature and Science, Science, Victorian

Episode 7: Overpopulation from Malthus to Manila

7 Billion People A baby girl was born in a hospital in the Philippines, on 30th October, 2011. However, unlike all the other children born that day, the arrival of Danica May Camacho was witnessed by a crowd of photographers and journalists. The world’s media were gathered in a read more…