Friday, December 28, 2012

A Midnight Tale

In the darkness of a winter's night, I lay in bed, fast asleep.  A sudden movement, and I am startled awake.  My wife is beside me.  She kicks the covers, then is still for a moment.  But in a sudden thrashing, she turns and spins.  In the gloom I can see her eyes.  She's staring at the ceiling.

A Word on Gothic Romances

We're not talking about goth kids and their weird vampire romance stuff.  That's not the definition of a Gothic Romance in literature.  No Buffy and Angel here.

Gothic Romance refers to a style of literature that arose in the 1700's and lasted until the early 1800's.  These works flourished in many parts of the western world, including England and Germany.  Black Forest mythos, for example, and medieval castles were popular subjects.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Book Review: A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens, 1843)

I review this because it's Christmas.  Plus, it's one of everyone's favorite Dickens' books.  Technically a novella, this is much smaller than some of his other works.

Three things about this book that I love are the well drawn character of Scrooge, the imagery of Victorian Britain, and the macabre subject matter.