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eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
Eleanor Franzen
@eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
510 followers 540 following 170 posts
PhDing @BirkbeckUoL on Georgian and Regency courtesan-writers. Blogging on books at https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/. Escaped bookseller, soprano, T1D, she/her 🇺🇸/🇬🇧
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Nov 14
Really loving how many people are on Bluesky all of a sudden. Welcome, bleeple! This place has been a bit quiet but hopefully it'll liven up now. Come hang out with me if you want to talk(/yell) about books, writing, the C18th, historic sex work, choral music. Not usually all at once.
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · 8h
Yes, it was recorded! I'm sure you could DM the seminar account and get the deets
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · 10h
Attending online! Full of interesting tidbits, from what a C18 valet did immediately after unpacking his master's belongings (find a fellow English servant and go drinking) to what these journals don't include (surprisingly, servants rarely wrote about their actual work). #18thcentury #academia
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Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 10h
Just listening to @richardjansell.bsky.social talking eloquently about servants and their journals on the grand tour @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social
A photo of a seminar room with an audience facing forward. The speaker is at the front behind a podium
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · 1d
How cool does this lineup look! Thrilled to be part of Romanticism Across Borders's 25-26 series - thanks for asking me @paulinehortolland.bsky.social et al.!
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deven parker @devenparker.bsky.social · 1d
Check out this year's program for 'Romanticism Across Borders' virtual speaker series. I'm on there along with some of my favorite people 👯✨
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kevinmkruse.bsky.social
Kevin M. Kruse @kevinmkruse.bsky.social · 4d
I knew they’d come for the archivists and librarians but honestly I assumed it would be for a reason better than “Our Special Boy wants to give his friend a sword! Give him a sword!”
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Jess Piper @piperformissouri.bsky.social · 5d
“They asked for a sword, and we said, ‘Well, we do have swords, but we can’t give them away because they’re museum artifacts,’” said Todd Arrington, forced to resign as head of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.”
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · 15d
Can't make it this week, but this promises to be fascinating - d'Eon is a figure of enduring intrigue. I've signed up to attend the other seminars for the term online now! #c18 #long18thcentury #history #genderstudies #academia
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Tim Hitchcock @timhitchcock.bsky.social · 16d
Very much looking forward to Dan Gosling (TNA) speaking on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' this Wed. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome online or in person, but please register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon
www.history.ac.uk
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litterariaprag.bsky.social
Litteraria Pragensia: Studies in Literature & Culture @litterariaprag.bsky.social · Sep 3
The new LP issue has arrived: 'Romantic Shock and Surprise,' edited by David Duff (Queen Mary University of London) and Laurent Folliot @sorbonne-universite.fr. Université Cover design by Karolína Bendová. Read in open access: litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/magazin/2025...
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · 21d
Sorry for never being on Bluesky anymore, BUT I had my first article published @litterariaprag.bsky.social! Here it is, free to read: Radical Reform and the Shock of the Past in Mary Robinson's Vancenza #gothic #C18 #romanticism #academia #womenwriters litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/u...
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Jun 25
#20booksofsummer 7 (forgot to link to reviews of 4-6 but they're on the blog too!): Passing, by Nella Larsen, a novel whose extreme self-awareness stops it from being too schematic, offering instead an exploration of safety and freedom ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/25/2... #books #reading
20 Books of Summer, 7: Larsen
Passing, by Nella Larsen (1929): Probably everyone knows the plot of this already because I seem to be the last person on earth to read it, so really I thought I knew the salient points of the prem…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Jun 7
🌊 me please!
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
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Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery (KAVS) @listerlanecem.bsky.social · Jun 5
Remembering former weaver Finton Burgin, who died on this day in 1860 at the age of 18. He was the son of the widowed Catherine Burgin, died 23rd March 1866, aged 50.
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Jun 5
So excited about this year's 20 Books of Summer project, I'm out of the blocks fast! Here's what I thought of the first three: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/2... #bookstagram #books #reading #bookreview #20booksofsummer
20 Books of Summer, 1-3: Vo, Sinclair, Bowen
I’m so excited about 20 Books of Summer, I’m already on my way! These first three have all been very different: a distinctly grownup fantasy novella, a sometimes brutally realist memoir…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 31
Indeed! The only thing that might make me consider a deal with a fairy for immortality...
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 31
Definitely read Forster! This one would be a great place to start—it was the first one of his that I read, back in the day.
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 31
I clung on to May by my fingernails—this is everything I read that WASN'T from the library, including three re-reads, two gripping new/forthcoming releases, and one 99p Kindle punt: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/31/m... #reading #books #bookreview
May 2025 Superlatives
May. I clung on by my fingernails. Deadlines came and were met. Mental gears were shifted every other day or so. Requirements seemed to cluster mid-month, in one particularly exhausting ten-day spr…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 21
🪨🪨🪨
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 18
The pleasure was all mine! What a fantastic weekend at the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar's annual symposium, this year at the Sorbonne on Romantic Shock and Surprise. A convivial group of brilliant and, above all, generous scholars—much to ponder and follow up on.
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Dr Sharon Choe @sharonchoe.bsky.social · May 18
& also thank you to my fellow panelists @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social & Pauline Hortolland for our fun panel on “Varieties of Gothic Shock”! 🫶🏼
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · May 1
Everything else I read in April, from fifth-century Northumbria to rural Massachusetts: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/a...
April 2025 Superlatives
April was… not the cruellest month! My fiancé had a birthday, which we celebrated with steak and Old Fashioneds in Mayfair. I was in Lyon for a few days for work (it’s really one of my …
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Apr 28
April's library reading: brief, but magical. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/l... #loveyourlibrary #reading #books #bookreview
#LoveYourLibrary, April 2025
Hosted, as always, by Rebecca at Bookish Beck, posting on the last Monday of every month. There’s no set formula to this; you can post anything about libraries, whether you’ve recently been to an e…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Apr 18
The demonisation of trans people isn't normal. People pretend that it is, but it's a culture war that's been manufactured in the past decade. Trans people are here and real and who they say they are. Get with it.
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Alex @dirtbagboyfriend.bsky.social · Apr 17
not to invalidate my trans siblings but, personally, cis allies loudly declaring support for us right now does help keep despair at bay even if it changes nothing. I don’t care how you phrase it, how clumsy. Please be there for/with us, loudly. It fights the voices that scream everyone hates us.
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dirtbagboyfriend.bsky.social
Alex @dirtbagboyfriend.bsky.social · Apr 17
not to invalidate my trans siblings but, personally, cis allies loudly declaring support for us right now does help keep despair at bay even if it changes nothing. I don’t care how you phrase it, how clumsy. Please be there for/with us, loudly. It fights the voices that scream everyone hates us.
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eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Apr 18
James Clifford, writing on C18 biography in 1968: "The purpose of this essay is to attempt some hasty generalisations." I'll know I've made it when I can write *that* in an academic essay with confidence.
eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Mar 31
March's library reading: from Dostoevsky to carnivorous aliens. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/03/31/l... #loveyourlibrary #books #bookreview
#LoveYourLibrary, March 2025
Hosted, as always, by Rebecca at Bookish Beck, posting on the last Monday of every month. There’s no set formula to this; you can post anything about libraries, whether you’ve recently been to an e…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Feb 28
Here are my thoughts on everything that I read in February that wasn't from libraries. It was a good month. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/02/28/f... #loveyourlibrary #reading #bookreview
February 2025 Superlatives
At the end of 2024 I said I only had a few reading goals for 2025. One was reading The Pickwick Papers, which happened this month (the link to my review in February’s #LoveYourLibrary post is…
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Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Feb 24
I read five books from libraries in February, ranging from one of the thicker—and more brilliant—19th century classics to theory of education as revolutionary praxis to a 21st-century classic of how what we remember makes us ourselves. Here's what I thought: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/l...
#LoveYourLibrary, February 2025
Hosted, as always, by Rebecca at Bookish Beck, posting on the last Monday of every month. There’s no set formula to this; you can post anything about libraries, whether you’ve recently been to an e…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
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eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
Eleanor Franzen @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social · Feb 20
This year I got some book tokens for Christmas as well as some actual, physical books! Here's how I ended up spending them. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/02/20/p...
Post-Christmas Gift Card Book Haul
At Christmas I got two bookshop gift cards, as well as a bunch of physical books, so I really did pretty well; my complaint that “no one buys me books” does not apply in this instance. …
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