Amateur Reader (Tom)
@amateurreader.bsky.social
A Distinguished Crankologist
WutheringExpectations.blogspot.com
WutheringExpectations.blogspot.com
What I read in November: Elizabethan stuff but also two genuinely new novels.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/what...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/what...
What I Read in November 2025 – The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike
I only have one Marlowe play left to revisit. I should start thinking about a set of plays for this winter. I will likely read up to 1603,...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:10 PM
What I read in November: Elizabethan stuff but also two genuinely new novels.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/what...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/what...
My next round of Not Shakespeare reading, if anyone would like to join in here or there. Lots of John Marston and Ben Jonson. I especially recommend Marston's "The Malcontent":
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/not-...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/not-...
Not Shakespeare for next year - Jonson, Marston, satire, revenge
With one Marlowe play left to write up, The Massacre at Paris , next week, I am thinking about what I will read in the winter and spring. ...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:07 PM
My next round of Not Shakespeare reading, if anyone would like to join in here or there. Lots of John Marston and Ben Jonson. I especially recommend Marston's "The Malcontent":
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/not-...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/not-...
The anonymous "Edward III" has one great act - maybe written by Shakespeare! Or not, but still it is good:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/edwa...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/edwa...
<i>Edward III</i> - This fellow is well read in poetry
I logically followed Christopher Marlowe’s Edward II with the anonymous, but see below, Edward III (published 1596). The first two acts l...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:06 PM
The anonymous "Edward III" has one great act - maybe written by Shakespeare! Or not, but still it is good:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/edwa...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/edwa...
Christopher Marlowe plays:
Dr. Faustus, the best one:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/marl...
Dr. Faustus, the best one:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/marl...
Marlowe's restless <i>Doctor Faustus</i> - I’ll burn my books!
In Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus the great scholar sells his soul to the devil in exchange for twenty-four years of power and knowle...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
January 12, 2026 at 10:04 PM
Christopher Marlowe plays:
Dr. Faustus, the best one:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/marl...
Dr. Faustus, the best one:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/12/marl...
I have neglected my self-promotion. How will I ever accomplish whatver that is supposed to accomplish?
So here come many links.
So here come many links.
January 12, 2026 at 10:02 PM
I have neglected my self-promotion. How will I ever accomplish whatver that is supposed to accomplish?
So here come many links.
So here come many links.
I have neglected posting links to Wuthering Expectations so I will put the recent ones here. Hope it is not too annoying.
On "The Famous Victories of Henry V," the earlier, not as good Henry V play.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/11/hist...
On "The Famous Victories of Henry V," the earlier, not as good Henry V play.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/11/hist...
History before Shakespeare - <i>The Famous Victories of Henry V</i> - he hath taken the great raze of ginger that Bouncing Bess with the jolly buttocks should have had
The establishment in the 1570s of permanent theaters just outside of the walls of London led to a massive increase in the demand for new pla...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
November 26, 2025 at 10:20 PM
I have neglected posting links to Wuthering Expectations so I will put the recent ones here. Hope it is not too annoying.
On "The Famous Victories of Henry V," the earlier, not as good Henry V play.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/11/hist...
On "The Famous Victories of Henry V," the earlier, not as good Henry V play.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/11/hist...
WHAT I READ IN OCTOBER
MARLOWE ETC
The Famous Victories of Henry V (1580s?), ???
Tamburlaine, Pt. II (1587?), Christopher Marlowe
The Spanish Tragedy (1587?), Thomas Kyd
Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1590?), William Shakespeare
English Tragedy before Shakespeare (1955), Wolfgang Clemen
MARLOWE ETC
The Famous Victories of Henry V (1580s?), ???
Tamburlaine, Pt. II (1587?), Christopher Marlowe
The Spanish Tragedy (1587?), Thomas Kyd
Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1590?), William Shakespeare
English Tragedy before Shakespeare (1955), Wolfgang Clemen
November 26, 2025 at 10:15 PM
WHAT I READ IN OCTOBER
MARLOWE ETC
The Famous Victories of Henry V (1580s?), ???
Tamburlaine, Pt. II (1587?), Christopher Marlowe
The Spanish Tragedy (1587?), Thomas Kyd
Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1590?), William Shakespeare
English Tragedy before Shakespeare (1955), Wolfgang Clemen
MARLOWE ETC
The Famous Victories of Henry V (1580s?), ???
Tamburlaine, Pt. II (1587?), Christopher Marlowe
The Spanish Tragedy (1587?), Thomas Kyd
Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1590?), William Shakespeare
English Tragedy before Shakespeare (1955), Wolfgang Clemen
A little bit on Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy" followed by a bit more plus the brilliant, innovative masterpiece "Ur-Hamlet":
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
and then
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
and then
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
<i>The Spanish Tragedy</i> - Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds!
Poor Hieronimo. His son Horatio, a war hero and lover of the daughter of a duke, is murdered by the woman’s Machiavellian brother as part o...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
October 31, 2025 at 6:53 PM
A little bit on Kyd's "Spanish Tragedy" followed by a bit more plus the brilliant, innovative masterpiece "Ur-Hamlet":
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
and then
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
and then
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
A couple of posts on Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great" plays. What they are doing, what the language is like.
One part:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/marl...
One part:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/marl...
Marlowe's <i>Tamburlaine</i> plays - Threatening the world with high astounding terms
In Christopher Marlowe’s two Tamburlaine the Great plays (performed c. 1587, published 1590) the great Central Asian conqueror Tamburlaine ...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:16 PM
A couple of posts on Marlowe's "Tamburlaine the Great" plays. What they are doing, what the language is like.
One part:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/marl...
One part:
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/marl...
A surprising feeling to see the Nobel go to Krasznahorkai. Not only have I read almost everything in English but I have even *bought* many of his books.
October 9, 2025 at 8:35 PM
A surprising feeling to see the Nobel go to Krasznahorkai. Not only have I read almost everything in English but I have even *bought* many of his books.
My French vacation post with Robert Louis Stevesnson and several donkey photos.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/wher...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/wher...
Where I Walked in September 2025, and with Whom – The great affair is to move
I walked about a third of the Chemin de Stevenson in southern France, accompanied by eight other intrepid Mainers and three jolly donkeys. ...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
October 9, 2025 at 2:02 AM
My French vacation post with Robert Louis Stevesnson and several donkey photos.
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/wher...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/10/wher...
Also, some notes on Marlowe's tragicomic "Dido, Queen of Carthage" (1587?)
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/09/chri...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/09/chri...
Christopher Marlowe's <i>Dido, Queen of Carthage</i> - for I love thee not, – And yet I hate thee not.
Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe, a romantic comedy* based on Book IV of The Aeneid , is Marlowe’s first play, or his last, o...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com
October 7, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Also, some notes on Marlowe's tragicomic "Dido, Queen of Carthage" (1587?)
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/09/chri...
wutheringexpectations.blogspot.com/2025/09/chri...
WHAT I READ IN SEPTEMBER
MARLOWE ETC
Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
Gorboduc (1561), Thomas Sackville & Thomas Norton
Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) &
Tamburlaine the Great, Pt. I (1587? / 1590), Christopher Marlowe
The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600 (2000)
MARLOWE ETC
Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
Gorboduc (1561), Thomas Sackville & Thomas Norton
Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) &
Tamburlaine the Great, Pt. I (1587? / 1590), Christopher Marlowe
The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600 (2000)
October 7, 2025 at 8:15 PM
WHAT I READ IN SEPTEMBER
MARLOWE ETC
Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
Gorboduc (1561), Thomas Sackville & Thomas Norton
Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) &
Tamburlaine the Great, Pt. I (1587? / 1590), Christopher Marlowe
The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600 (2000)
MARLOWE ETC
Tottel's Miscellany (1557)
Gorboduc (1561), Thomas Sackville & Thomas Norton
Dido, Queen of Carthage (1587) &
Tamburlaine the Great, Pt. I (1587? / 1590), Christopher Marlowe
The Cambridge Companion to English Literature 1500-1600 (2000)
We climbed up a high ridge in the Jura to a scenic point.
After this walk we went to the spa. It's an old salt mining town so the water at the spa is salty.
Anyway the Jura is nice.
After this walk we went to the spa. It's an old salt mining town so the water at the spa is salty.
Anyway the Jura is nice.
October 1, 2025 at 4:42 PM
We climbed up a high ridge in the Jura to a scenic point.
After this walk we went to the spa. It's an old salt mining town so the water at the spa is salty.
Anyway the Jura is nice.
After this walk we went to the spa. It's an old salt mining town so the water at the spa is salty.
Anyway the Jura is nice.
Some of the babka this morning at La Tresse, the first Ottolenghi-inspired place I've noticed in Lyon. Note the pink praline babka 2nd right, adopting Lyon ingredients. Always good new things in food-crazy Lyon.
latresselyon.fr
latresselyon.fr
September 30, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Some of the babka this morning at La Tresse, the first Ottolenghi-inspired place I've noticed in Lyon. Note the pink praline babka 2nd right, adopting Lyon ingredients. Always good new things in food-crazy Lyon.
latresselyon.fr
latresselyon.fr
The donkeys are home & it was a travel day & it did not seem so interesting to photograph the laundromat so here is the jolly Ramen Vert in Lyon. Time for a change from the regional Cévenol country cooking of the past week.
September 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM
The donkeys are home & it was a travel day & it did not seem so interesting to photograph the laundromat so here is the jolly Ramen Vert in Lyon. Time for a change from the regional Cévenol country cooking of the past week.
Feeding oats to a donkey on the summit of Finiels. Not much food for donkeys up there.
Our last day with the donkeys.
Our last day with the donkeys.
September 28, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Feeding oats to a donkey on the summit of Finiels. Not much food for donkeys up there.
Our last day with the donkeys.
Our last day with the donkeys.
Very pleasant day to walk in the French countryside with donkeys. Except for the hornet incident. Luckily donkeys stop running eventually.
September 27, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Very pleasant day to walk in the French countryside with donkeys. Except for the hornet incident. Luckily donkeys stop running eventually.
Folk art Robert Louis Stevenson and Modestine on the Chemin de Stevenson.
For some reason RLS's hat is a crucial part of his iconography here.
For some reason RLS's hat is a crucial part of his iconography here.
September 26, 2025 at 4:57 PM
Folk art Robert Louis Stevenson and Modestine on the Chemin de Stevenson.
For some reason RLS's hat is a crucial part of his iconography here.
For some reason RLS's hat is a crucial part of his iconography here.
Staying in a convent guesthouse tonight. RLS stayed here when it was a monastery. In a break from donkeys, here is Floconde (Snowflake) and the bicycle of the nun who told us the rules. The donkeys are a ways to the left eating a big pile of hay.
September 25, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Staying in a convent guesthouse tonight. RLS stayed here when it was a monastery. In a break from donkeys, here is Floconde (Snowflake) and the bicycle of the nun who told us the rules. The donkeys are a ways to the left eating a big pile of hay.
How about donkey portraits. Our leader Upio who carries the most weight, less than Stevenson's sleeping bag alone. Think if he had had a lightweight modern sleeping bag - no book.
September 24, 2025 at 7:25 PM
How about donkey portraits. Our leader Upio who carries the most weight, less than Stevenson's sleeping bag alone. Think if he had had a lightweight modern sleeping bag - no book.
Three donkeys enjoying their rest after the first day of their long walk with me (and some others) on the Chemin de Robert Louis Stevenson in the Cévennes.
September 23, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Three donkeys enjoying their rest after the first day of their long walk with me (and some others) on the Chemin de Robert Louis Stevenson in the Cévennes.
The Beast of Gévaudan, the terror of the Cévennes region circa 1765. Maybe it was some kind of super-wolf?
Anyway, it is gone and will not bother me during the long walk with donkeys I start tomorrow. Donkey photos will follow.
Anyway, it is gone and will not bother me during the long walk with donkeys I start tomorrow. Donkey photos will follow.
September 22, 2025 at 8:02 PM
The Beast of Gévaudan, the terror of the Cévennes region circa 1765. Maybe it was some kind of super-wolf?
Anyway, it is gone and will not bother me during the long walk with donkeys I start tomorrow. Donkey photos will follow.
Anyway, it is gone and will not bother me during the long walk with donkeys I start tomorrow. Donkey photos will follow.
Back in Les Halles de Lyon, gluttonizing. New to me was this chicken paté en croûte decorated with chickens.
Even more interesting - see next photo -
Even more interesting - see next photo -
September 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Back in Les Halles de Lyon, gluttonizing. New to me was this chicken paté en croûte decorated with chickens.
Even more interesting - see next photo -
Even more interesting - see next photo -
The parade of Flags of the World outside of my room in Lyon. That's Philippines followed by Poland. And then a pantomime dragon surrounded by pink parasols. The things you see in the big city.
September 20, 2025 at 8:05 PM
The parade of Flags of the World outside of my room in Lyon. That's Philippines followed by Poland. And then a pantomime dragon surrounded by pink parasols. The things you see in the big city.