The Dashwoods of West Wycombe


Book Description

A genealogy and a history of the Dashwood family of West Wycombe who are descendants of John Dayshwode of Iwerne Minster in the county of Dorset, Eng. and Richard Dashwood of the nearby parish of Tarrant Gunville. Both lived in the 1480's.







Matters of Fact in Jane Austen


Book Description

Discover the links between characters in Jane Austen novels and real-life celebrities of the time. Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRL In Matters of Fact in Jane Austen: History, Location, and Celebrity, Janine Barchas makes the bold assertion that Jane Austen’s novels allude to actual high-profile politicians and contemporary celebrities as well as to famous historical figures and landed estates. Barchas is the first scholar to conduct extensive research into the names and locations in Austen’s fiction by taking full advantage of the explosion of archival materials now available online. According to Barchas, Austen plays confidently with the tension between truth and invention that characterizes the realist novel. Of course, the argument that Austen deployed famous names presupposes an active celebrity culture during the Regency, a phenomenon recently accepted by scholars. The names Austen plucks from history for her protagonists (Dashwood, Wentworth, Woodhouse, Tilney, Fitzwilliam, and many more) were immensely famous in her day. She seems to bank upon this familiarity for interpretive effect, often upending associations with comic intent. Barchas re-situates Austen’s work closer to the historical novels of her contemporary Sir Walter Scott and away from the domestic and biographical perspectives that until recently have dominated Austen studies. This forward-thinking and revealing investigation offers scholars and ardent fans of Jane Austen a wealth of historical facts, while shedding an interpretive light on a new aspect of the beloved writer's work.







The Oxfordshire Dashwoods


Book Description




Libertines and Harlots


Book Description

One of the clubs explored in this book is The Calf’s Head Club who celebrated the death of Charles I every year on the 30th January. A book of this nature would also be incomplete without the Earl of Rochester, the Duke of Wharton, Sir Francis Dashwood and Charles II who loved nothing more than a leg of mutton and a whore. In the 18th century the notorious members of the Hell Fire Clubs, the Knights of St. Francis and the Demoniac Club all fornicated around Scotland, England and Ireland. However, out of all the clubs in the 18th century that were in and out of vogue the Beggar’s Benison in the kingdom of Fife had to be the strangest. Their initiation ritual was rather bizarre and for most people unthinkable, to say the least. Norman was born in Edinburgh on the 21st July 1961. At sixteen Norman went into the sheet-metal working industry. He has also worked as a registered silversmith with Edinburgh Assay Office, been bouncer, a tour guide and has lectured on Scottish history. In 2001 he decided to accomplish something more arduous. He studied part time at the Open University for two years then at Edinburgh Napier University full time for four years. Norman’s academic achievements are a certificate in social science, an LLB (Bachelor of Laws) and an MSc in (Business Management). Both degrees inspired Norman to write his first book Scottish Culture and Traditions which was published in 2010 (ISBN 978-1-899820-79-5). His other interests are the restoration of classic motorbikes, cooking, history, and trying to play the violin. He is currently a 5th Dan in Shotokan Karate and has taught adults and children for nearly thirty years.










Romantic Paganism


Book Description

This book addresses the function of the classical world in the cultural imaginations of the second generation of romantic writers: Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Thomas Love Peacock, John Keats, Leigh Hunt, and the rest of their diverse circle. The younger romantics inherited impressions of the ancient world colored by the previous century, in which classical studies experienced a resurgence, the emerging field of comparative mythography investigated the relationship between Christianity and its predecessors, and scientific and archaeological discoveries began to shed unprecedented light on the ancient world. The Shelley circle embraced a specifically pagan ancient world of excess, joy, and ecstatic experiences that test the boundaries between self and other. Though dubbed the “Satanic School” by Robert Southey, this circle instead thought of itself as “Athenian” and frequently employed mythology and imagery from the classical world that was characterized not by philosophy and reason but by wildness, excess, and ecstatic experiences.




Bourgeois and Aristocratic Cultural Encounters in Garden Art, 1550-1850


Book Description

Developments in garden art cannot be isolated from the social changes upon which they either depend or have some bearing. Bourgeois and Aristocratic Cultural Encounters in Garden Art, 1550 - 1850 offers an unparalleled opportunity to discover how complex relationships between bourgeois and aristocrats have led to developments in garden art from the Renaissance into the Industrial Revolution, irrespective of stylistic differences. These essays show how garden creation has contributed to the blurring of social boundaries and to the ongoing redefinition of the bourgeoisie and the aristocracy. Also illustrated is the aggressive use of gardens by bourgeois in more-or-less successful attempts at subverting existing social hierarchies in renaissance Genoa and eighteenth-century Bristol, England; as well as the opposite, as demonstrated by the king of France, Louis XIV, who claimed to rule the arts, but imitated the curieux fleuristes, a group of amateurs from diverse strata of French society. Essays in this volume explore this complex framework of relationships in diverse settings in Britain, France, Biedermeier Vienna, and renaissance Genoa. The volume confirms that gardens were objects of conspicuous consumption, but also challenges the theories of consumption set forth by Thorstein Veblen and Pierre Bourdieu, and explores the contributions of gardens to major cultural changes like the rise of public opinion, gender and family relationships, and capitalism. Garden history, then, informs many of the debates of contemporary cultural history, ranging from rural management practices in early seventeenth-century France to the development of a sense of British pride at the expansive Vauxhall Gardens favored equally by the legendary Frederick, Prince of Wales, and by the teeming London masses. This volume amply demonstrates the varied and extensive contributions of garden creation to cultural exchange between 1550 and 1850. -- Publisher's description.




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