Franklin Expedition
I owe Monica (I think it was) an apology. In last week’s Novel class (on David Copperfield) I asked if anybody knew what was especially memorable about the year 1848. Several people offered suggestions, and Monica brought up the Franklin Expedition. I pooh-poohed, but I had my dates wrong: indeed, as you’ll see if you click the link, in that last sentence there, the Franklin Expedition (two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, jointly under the command of a naval veteran of the Napoleonic Wars, Sir John Franklin) set off in 1845 to sail round the north of Canada to the Pacific, and thereby establish a less circuitous and less dangerous route to the lucrative Pacific than going south round South America — which is to say, they were searching for the fabled ‘Northwest Passage’. They were hoping their journey would be like this:
In fact it was like this:
They all died. By 1848 people were aware that the expedition was lost, but it was still hoped that it, or survivors from it, might still be located. By the mid 1850s, after various search-and-rescue expeditions, it became clear that there were none. Dickens was particularly interested in this expedition. In Autumn 1854 the Hudson’s Bay Company surveyor Dr. John Rae brought back Inuit reports of cannibalism among Franklin’s men; Dickens refused to believe that Englishmen would sink so low, and debated the matter with Rae in the pages of his weekly journal, Household Words. Two years later, he and his friend Wilkie Collins put on a performance of a play based on the expedition, The Frozen Deep.
Collins ‘wrote’ the play, although Dickens’ input was so pronounced (he rewrote stretches of it, adapted it, acted in it) that it is sometimes cited as co-authored by the two of them. At the centre of the play is an act of noble self-sacrifice, out on the arctic wastes, by a character called Wardour; a dry-run for the same device (in a very different environment) in Tale of Two Cities.
Here’s a facsimile of the Times from 1859, reporting the fate of the expedition. And here’s more newspaper coverage, this time from 2008, proof that for some the story is still news.
So, the Franklin Expedition was contemporaneous with 1848 (sorry Monica!) although it’s unlikely it fed into the cultural climate behind Copperfield. What I was actually angling for was the ‘year of revolutions’. [AR]
The Quickening Maze
I’d like to reiterate the general greeting, and say hello to everybody: good to see you all at this afternoon’s meeting! And in the spirit of interdisciplinarity, I’d also to direct you to a review I’ve written of Adam Foulds’ new novel, The Quickening Maze (2009) … it has been shortlisted for this year’s Man Booker Prize, and has accordingly been in the news a little bit. This is not coursework, of course; but it’s an example of contemporary Victoriana that might be of interest to you nevertheless: John Clare, the poet, and Alfred Tennyson, also a poet, are both characters; and the mileu of the 1840s is well-captured. I’ve reviewed it over at The Valve; the same review, but with different readers’ comments, is also at my own reviews blog. I’d be interested to know your opinion, if you’ve read it. Feel free, indeed feel actively encouraged, to put your thoughts in the comments to the post below.
This year’s Booker has a couple of Victorian-y titles on the shortlist, actually: I’m in the middle of A S Byatt’s The Children’s Book right now, and will blog about it when I’ve finished. [Adam Roberts]
[7th October, update; I finished the Byatt, but didn't think overmuch of it: you can read my thoughts here. But neither it nor the Foulds won the prize in the end ... the 2009 Man Booker went, as I'm sure you know, to Hilary Mantel's excellent Wolf Hall. I've a review of that too, here.]
Welcome 2009-10 students!
Welcome to the RHUL Victorian MA blog.
We use this site to post materials and weblinks related to seminar texts and to post notices of interest to RHUL Victorianists, including notices of relevant exhibitions and talks in and around London.
There’s also a facility to post your comments so it’s a great place to follow up on seminar discussions and continue your conversations outside of class.
We look forward to meeting you at the MA Induction, Thurs 24th.
The RHUL Victorian MA team.
National Gallery study day: the city (London and Paris) in 19thC art
Dear All,
Please see below for notice of an interesting study day at the National Gallery on depictions of the city in 19thC art.
Best,
Vicky
Student Study Day
Thursday 30 April 2009
Sainsbury Wing Theatre, 10.30am–4.15pm
Tickets £6
LONDON/ PARIS:
SEX IN THE MODERN CITY
Concepts of modernity and Modernism inform this study day as we explore the seamy underbelly of these two cities. We will focus on Ideas of town and country, leisure and pleasure, and the inventions and innovations which impacted so dramatically on life and art throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. National Gallery works by Hogarth, Courbet, Monet and Manet will be placed in their social and artistic context drawing on notions of gendered spaces, radical techniques and ‘the gaze’.
Programme
10.30–11am Registration and coffee
11–11.15am Introduction to the Day
Colin Wiggins – Head of Education, National Gallery
11.15–11.45am Whores, Colourmen and Coffee Houses: Hogarth’s London and London in Hogarth
James Heard – National Gallery
11.45am–12.15pm Many Little Harmless and Interesting Adventures…’ Men, Women and Streets in Victorian London
Lynda Nead – Birkbeck
12.15–1.15pm Talks in the Gallery
1.15-2.15pm Lunch (not provided)
2.15pm–2.45pm Two Women on the Banks of the Seine: Courbet and ‘The Gaze’
Jo Rhymer – National Gallery
2.45–3.15pm Manet and Morisot: Modern Life and Modernism in Late C19th Paris
Kathleen Adler – Independent Scholar
3.15-3.45pm Degas’ Little Ballet Dancer Aged 1 Desire, Contempt and the Fate of the Rat Girl
Colin Wiggins
3.45-4.15pm Questions/Plenary discussion
To book
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/what/events/2009/apr/3004_sexinthemoderncity.htm
For further information Tel 020 7747 2891 Email lee.riley@ng-london.org.uk
Lee Riley, Education Department, The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN.
For institution group bookings, contact Lee Riley to arrange invoicing.
Funded PhD studentship: 19thC Pantomime
Dear All,
See below for a funded PhD opportunity at The University Birmingham, on British Pantomime in the Victorian period.
Deadline for applications is 27th March.
Best,
Vicky
AHRC DOCTORAL STUDENTSHIP
I’m happy to announce that as part of an AHRC-funded large grant project “A Cultural History of British Pantomime, 1837-1901″ the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at the University of Birmingham has a fully-funded doctoral studentship to start in October, 2009, to run for three years.
The doctoral project will be a study of pantomime in England in the nineteenth century, with particular focus on the industrial centres of Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester, in relation to the performance culture of the metropolitan centre of London. The chosen candidate will be based in Birmingham, supervised by Professor Kate Newey, and will benefit from working with other experienced scholars in the project team, including Co-Investigator, Professor Jeffrey Richards (Lancaster University), and contact with national and international experts through the larger research project. There will be opportunities to present work in progress at annual conferences hosted by the project, and for professional development as a member of the project team.
Applicants should normally have, or be studying for, a Master’s degree in Drama, English Literature, Victorian Studies, cultural history, or a related discipline.
Intending applicants are strongly advised to discuss their application informally with Kate Newey: k.newey@bham.ac.uk
The standard tuition fees and maintenance grant will be paid by the AHRC for eligible candidates. Non-UK students should check with the University and/or the AHRC for their eligibility. Further details about the application process are available at http://www.alpg.bham.ac.uk/funding
Further information and studentship application forms can be obtained from:
The Graduate School,
College of Arts and Law,
University of Birmingham,
Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT
tel : 0121 414 3189
or email L.A.Robinson.1@bham.ac.uk.
The deadline for applications is 27 March, 2009. Those short-listed will be asked to prepare a detailed research proposal and interviews will be held in early April.
Dr Margaret Reynolds lectures on George Eliot
To all Victorian MA students: you are all invited to the Dabis Lecture by Dr Margaret Reynolds, Broadcaster and academic at Queen Mary, University of London:
‘George Eliot and the Classics’
Thursday 5 February
Windsor Building Auditorium, 6pm
2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Adam Bede, the first novel by George Eliot, who studied at Bedford College. This lecture addresses the inspiration which she found in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, especially Greek tragedy.
Merry Christmas Victorianists!
And what better way to celebrate the festive season than with a bit of Dickens? Over at The Valve Rohan Maitzen has set-up a reading group for The Chimes (1844): not as well known as God-bless-us-every-one A Christmas Carol (1843), but interesting nevertheless. Go Valvewards, why don’t you, and check it out; feel free to contibute to the ongoing discussion. (The Everyman edition of Dickens’s Christmas Books is even edited by our very own Professor Sally Ledger). And for an added bonus, check Rich Puchalsky’s account of going up a bell tower.
Merry Christmas to all, with a ho and a ho. And (why not?) another ho. [AR]
Some Victorian Links
A little pre-Christmas Victorian-y reading:
The Victorian Peeper has an interesting piece on George Frederic Watts‘ 1885 painting Hope (above), ‘The Victorian Painting That Inspired Barack Obama’.
Rohan Maitzen thinks Silas Marner is ‘every bit as good a secular fable for the holidays as A Christmas Carol–better, even.’
Adam Roberts writes about Zola’s 1892 novel The Debacle.
Miriam Burnstein considers Paz’s 2006 study Dickens and Barnaby Rudge, and in particular the differences between historians reading literature and literary critics doing it.
Charles Dickens Action Figure
The coolest thing in the world, and the best Christmas present a boy could hope for. Wonderful!
Thank you, mysterious present-fairy, who may or may not work at the Dickens House. [AR]
Chesterton on Scott and Dickens
My favourite passage from Chesterton’s (still) excellent 1906 monograph on Dickens is quoted, and very briefly discussed, here. [AR]
