The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: history

  • Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe

    I finished reading Comenius and the Beginnings of Educational Reform by Will S. Monroe (published in 1900). John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), sometimes referred to as the “father of modern education,” was referenced in something else I was reading. When researching who he was, I ended up coming across this book and decided to check it…

  • New Atlantis by Francis Bacon

    I finished reading New Atlantis written by Francis Bacon and published after his death in 1626. It is regarded as an early example of a utopian novel. In it, a ship of sailors, lost at sea, stumbles upon an island nation. The narrator, one of the sailors, introduces the reader to the land of Bensalem,…

  • The Life of a Simple Man by Émile Guillaumin

    Here is a book jot from February, 2021: I just finished reading The Life of a Simple Man, written by Émile Guillaumin and published in 1904 (translated by Margaret Holden; revised translation by Margaret Crosland). It is a fictional memoir about Tiennon, a peasant born in 1823 in rural France. He tells the story of…

  • The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter

    I finished reading The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter (edited and with an introduction by Marc Raeff). This was an amazing read. The author was a German stonemason who was conscripted into Napoleon’s Grande Armée and served in multiple campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars, including the ill-fated 1812 Russian campaign. At…

  • Boris Godunov by Alexander Pushkin

    Here is a book jot from 2022 (I’m getting close, I think, to being caught up with posting these older book jots)… I just finished reading Boris Godunov (1831) by Alexander Pushkin, translated by James E. Falen. This has been described as a “tragicomedy of history,” and is a play of more than twenty scenes…

  • Bajazet by Jean Racine

    I recently read Bajazet, a tragedy in five acts written by Jean Racine (translated by Robert Bruce Boswell) and first staged in 1672. The setting is the Ottoman Empire in the early 17th century. The characters and plot are inspired by what was, at the time, recent history, which is unusual for Racine’s historical plays.…

  • Northern Lights by Anna Katarina Boberg

    I just happened upon this incredible painting while perusing some comic book related blogs, specifically Sevasblog: things I like (which is not comics related, but which I found by clicking on one of the bloggers who followed a comics-blog I was checking out!). I was unfamiliar with this artist and am so pleased to have…

  • Mithridates by Jean Racine

    I just finished reading the play Mithridates (1673) by Jean Racine. This tragedy is set near the end of the Third Mithridatic War, a ten year conflict between the forces of Mithridates VI of Pontus and the Roman Republic. The story involves star-crossed lovers and a web of love and deceit, betrayal and loyalty. At…

  • Alexander the Great by Jean Racine

    I finished reading Alexander the Great, a five-act tragedy written by Jean Racine and first produced in 1655. The version I read was a translation published in 1890 by Robert Bruce Boswell. I haven’t always enjoyed translations I’ve found in the public domain, but found this one to be excellent. The action of the play…

  • My Life As an Indian by J. W. Schultz

    I just finished reading My Life As an Indian (1907), a memoir written by J. W. Schultz. This was a fantastic and moving read. The story begins in the late 1870s, as a teenage Schultz leaves his family home in St. Louis on a steamship, bound for present-day Montana. He befriends a trader named Berry…