Wylder’s Hand (J. Sheridan Le Fanu, 1864)

 

This pastoral mystery is one of the less-read works of the prolific and (then) popular Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. In the true Le Fanu style, there is an abundance of natural beauty, a pervasive sense of foreboding, and a deep mystery with an air of the supernatural.

Charles de Cresseron, our narrator, is visiting the town in which he grew up to advise on the estate issues of an old acquaintance, and shortly becomes peripherally involved with mysterious happenings surrounding the intertwined and feuding families of the Lakes, the Wylders, and the Brandons. It’s a fun and interesting book, yet with much to criticize.

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Vocabulary: Perpetual Pebble Edition

psephology: the study of elections (from psephos, pebble, once used to vote in Greece)
hobbledehoy: a clumsy, awkward youth (one literal etymology yields “hedge-goblin”)
pelmet: ornamentation over windows or doors to conceal curtain fastenings
compony : in heraldry, alternating squares of color and metal (also gobony)
anteambulo: one who walks before an important person to clear the way
gamboge: strong yellow pigment, made from a resin used as a purgative
Cencian: patricidal or fratricidal, after an infamous Italian noblewoman
manumission: the act of freeing a slave, or the state of a slave freed
tufa: porous limestone usually deposited by mineral-rich streams
exuviae: cast-off parts, skins, or moltings, such as shells or wings
ormolu: alloys made to imitate gold on jewlery and decorations
consol: a type of government bond yielding perpetual interest
curule: of the highest rank (occupier of the eponymous chair)
claque: sycophants, or hired applause (fr. claquer, to clap)
meteoria: ancient roman term for scatter-brainedness
jorum: a large bowl or vessel, or its contents
tenebrous: dark or gloomy (also tenebrose)
persiflage: light banter, or a frivolous style
raddled: interwoven or wattled; unkempt
paletot: a loose outer garment

The Twelve Caesars (Suetonius, 121 AD)

Creasy wrote in his Battles that the obscure machinations of warring east Asia “appear before us through the twilight of primaeval history, dim and indistinct, but massive and majestic, like mountains in the early dawn.” So one would expect the lives of such rulers as the Caesars to exhibit likewise such mythical prominence. But the stories provided by Suetonius, while they must be read with a skeptical eye now and then, feel too minutely detailed, too personal and arbitrary, to be anything but truth. It’s a mountain of anecdote and hearsay, so as history it is somewhat unreliable, but it’s as vivid a collection of character portraits as has ever been assembled.

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SCNTST – “Percee Scan”
Self Therapy

I don’t always go in for these songs that use real-world sounds as their basis (Matmos and M.I.A. are exceptions), but this one repurposes a scanner it for more than just rhythm, assembling several distinct voices from it. The beat could stand to be a little less house-y, but otherwise it’s a solid and highly original sound. “So Tough” is another amazing track if you’re looking for something less weird. (insound)

Riches are held in esteem, but may be enjoyed by the worst as well as the best of men; Glory is a thing deserving of respect, but unstable; Beauty is a prize that men fight to obtain, but, once obtained, is of little continuance; Health is precious, but easily impaired; Strength is a thing desirable, but apt to be the prey of disease and old age. (And, in general, let any man who values himself upon strength of body know that he makes a great mistake; for what indeed is any proportion of human strength compared to that of other animals, such as elephants and bulls and lions?)

But learning alone, of all things in our possession, is immortal and divine. For reason alone grows youthful by age; and time, which decays all other things before it carries them away with it, leaves learning alone behind.

Pseudo-Plutarch, De liberis educandis