Today I am delighted to bring to your attention the incomparable creator of tiny cartoon tube socks, known around the internet as Devon is a Devon. Artist Devon Sherman brings colour and comedy to the black bile of Burton’s Melancholy, and explains why it is not as depressing an endeavour as it may sound! Robert… Read More Devon is a Devon is a Burton: The Anatomy of Melancholy and the Artist
Millennia ago in ancient Greece a medical system evolved, out of even earlier Egyptian and Hindu beliefs, which aimed to understand the inner workings of the human body. At the hands of Hippocrates, (Greek physician, and ‘Father of Medicine’, c.460-370BC), the four humours were born. Hippocrates believed that the human body was composed of four… Read More The Physician, the Philosopher, the Poet: Ode on Melancholy
It has been almost three weeks since I finished Donna Tartt’s The Secret History (1992), slowly, dragging it out for as long as I could. On first finishing it, I thought that I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. I quickly came to realise that, whilst maybe I don’t think it’s quite perfect, it was the… Read More Always, Always, Live Forever: ‘The Secret History’
Leaving the modern glass front on Evans Way, Boston, behind, a dimly lit tunnel transports its visitors deep into an inner-city oasis. An opulent garden blooms under a glass roof far above. Walls rise on every side with windows and archways beckoning to the inside beyond. Everything is lavish, palatial, and foreign to Massachusetts. This… Read More Deliriously Glorious: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
In the Middle Ages, medical physicians favoured academia and aristocracy, working at universities or in private residence for the castle-dwelling wealthy. They offered consultations, but turned their noses up at surgery. With Europe frequently in battle during this long era, however, soldiers required more than consultation. ππππππ-πΎπππππππ Out of necessity, barbers, with their steady hands… Read More Medical Men and Murderers: The Barber-Surgeons, Burke & Hare
As the world’s population becomes increasingly locked away indoors, many of us are feeling panic or anxiety in the face of change and uncertainty. Whilst we all strive to maintain our collective physical well-being, it’s important not to let our mental health slip. The Bookstagram community thrives on indoor activity and online connection, but it’s… Read More Generally Gothic Book Club Readalong: ‘The Masque of the Red Death’
Frida Kahlo was a painter.Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera. Divorced him. Married him again.Frida Kahlo was still a painter. The 1933 headline, below, hopefully shocks in its blatant sexism and denigration of a widely adored artist. It also serves as a stark reminder that, during her own lifetime, Kahlo was not the celebrated icon we… Read More Viva la Vida: the Endurance of Frida
Cited alongside Vlad the Impaler as an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s eponymous vampire, Dracula, the blood-thirsty version of ‘The Blood Countess’ is the one most ingrained in the collective memory. Some scholars, however, now question the validity of numerous accusations, suggesting that rather than a murderer, as a powerful & recently widowed female figure, Bathory… Read More Stoker’s Muse: The Blood Countess
Generally Gothic 