Portfolio 2 Columns

The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a poem written by English writer Lewis Carroll. It is typically categorised as a nonsense poem. Written from 1874 to 1876, the poem borrows the setting, some creatures, and eight portmanteau words from Carroll’s earlier poem “Jabberwocky” in his children’s novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). 

The House the Beatles Built: A Memoir of My Time Working for Geoffrey Giuliano is a witty, irreverent, turbulent take on a young man’s internship as the literary associate of rock biographer Giuliano. Set in 1991, during the last gasp of the white glove publishing industry, this was a time before the Internet, before authors were interviewed in their living rooms on Skype but rather traveled the world like kings, bedding down in exotic locales the world over at the publishers’ expense. Journeyman author Brandon Stickney gives us a glimpse into the narcissistic, upside-down world of the outrageous tabloid biographer in the last golden moments of an industry now decimated by the digital revolution. It was a time of riches for even moderately successful authors caught here as a snapshot of avarice, vice, and unrestrained ego, served up in a delightfully funny and engaging narrative. Narrated by his old boss.

One of the first psychic vampire novels of its time – where the vampire feeds off of more than just blood – The House of the Vampire is an early classic in its genre. This Victorian novel operates in the continuum of life and death. What has been can be again, though often terribly transformed. Energetically inventive and infused with a relish for the supernatural, especially the trappings of the dark, The House of the Vampire delivers a horror which we know does not – but none the less conceivably might – exist and threaten ourselves. Blurring the lines between fact and fiction, The House of the Vampire is considered a classic among Victorian Gothic stories. 

The Baskerville family curse tells of how a terrifying, supernatural hound roams the moors around Baskerville Hall and preys on members of the family in revenge for a terrible crime committed by one of their ancestors. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead in his grounds, with a large animal footprint near his lifeless body, the locals are convinced that the hound is back. It is up to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to uncover the truth and keep the new heir to Baskerville Hall safe from danger. This is the third of four crime novels by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring Sherlock Holmes. Originally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England’s West Country.

Walter Besant was a novelist and historian, and his topographical and historical writings, ranging from prehistoric times to the nineteenth century, were probably best known through the detailed 10-volume Survey of London published after his death. This earlier single volume covers, in less depth, the whole period from prehistory until the 19th century. The book appears originally to have been written for boys, and, indeed, the chapters are called “Lessons”. However, it is a very readable history and provides a fascinating insight into both London’s past and the government of the City at the time the book was written.

The Bhagavata-purana, (Sanskrit: “Ancient Stories of God [Vishnu]”) is the most-celebrated text of a variety of Hindu sacred literature known as the Puranas and the specific text held sacred by the Bhagavata sect. The Purana is made up of some 18,000 stanzas divided into 12 books, but it is Book X, which deals with Krishna’s childhood and his years spent among the cowherds of Vrindavana, that accounts for its immense popularity with Vaishnavas throughout India. The attempts on Krishna’s life made by his wicked uncle Kamsa, the childhood pranks he played on his foster mother Yashoda, his love for the gopis (the wives and daughters of the cowherds), and their passionate abandonment to him are treated with endearing charm and grace, even while transfused with deep religious significance. It is the essence of all yogic literature.

The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain, A Fancy for Christmas-Time (better known as The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain is a novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens’s Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of Christmas than about the holiday itself, harking back to the first in the series, A Christmas Carol. 

A charming novella by Charles Dickens first published in 1848. It is the fifth and last of Dickens’s Christmas novellas. The story is more about the spirit of the holidays than about the holidays themselves, harking back to the first in the series, A Christmas Carol. The tale centres on a Professor Redlaw and those close to him.