10 June 2026
I finished reading Heart of Darkness, so I’ve moved onto reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins. I initially struggled to understand what on earth was going on, but when I got going, the pages started to go by quite quickly. I’m nearly halfway through, and onto the third narrator. It’s a curious text.
I’ve put a bid in for the Norton Critical Edition of Milton’s Paradise Lost on a popular online auction site. I’ll see if I manage to get it.
14 June 2026
Not so much formal study but continued reading and informal browsing.
I’m aware that there is a theme of tragedy in the early part of the module which I’m really looking forward to. With this in mind, I had a quick look at the synopsis for Behn’s play Abdelazer (Wikipedia). There was a curious reference to an earlier play by Thomas Dekker, who I don’t know anything about.
To contrast this, I thought it would be interesting to think about the genre of comedy, and remembered there is a subgenre of the city comedy which I don’t know too much about (other than I know that Behn wrote a couple of plays that could be thought of in this genre). Dekker gets a mention in this summary, along with other playwrights: Jonson, Middleton, Heywood and Webster. I later realised that you have download the entire works of Dekker for practically next to nothing from a popular online book retailer.
There’s something else that is quite curious that I saw whilst browsing: the war of the theatres. A further click takes me to Project Gutenberg and a play by Ben Jonson.
I looked up Dekker on the BBC Sounds website. Nothing.
Do I have a topic for my MA? I have no idea.
I will trust the process.
15 June 2026
Following on from the previous entry, what follows is a set of links to various resources that look both useful and interesting.
There’s something called DraCor; a Drama Corpus. In a previous life, I worked alongside computational linguists and lexicographers, who used computers to analyse the use and change of language. DraCor can be analysed and interrogated. Interestingly, there does appear to be a recent conference by researchers who have started to study it.
Linked to DraCor is the EarlyPrint archive, which is also a corpus. Using it, you can download copies of early plays, which are saved in using the TEI-XML format. To convert TEI files into PDF files, you apparently need to use a tool called oXYgen. There must be a whole toolchain of tech tools that can be used to work with and manipulate TEI files. That might well be for another blog.
Onto a different type of resources: podcasts. I’ve been aware of Emma Smith’s podcasts about Shakespeare, but I was intrigued by a series called Not Shakespeare (Oxford University) . I’m gradually working though these, which are fascinating. Each podcast is very resource dense.
I’ve also found a series called The History of European Theatre which runs to a couple of hundred episodes. I’ve listened to only one episode so far. I would like to listen to every single one. The website contains a very impressive reading list. There’s also an app you can download.
This reminds me. I have another book on my shelves: A New Companion to Digital Humanities. I’ve started it, but I haven’t got very far.
I have a lot of listening (and reading) ahead of me.
19 June 2026
In my attempt to get ahead, I’ve finished reading The Moonstone. My concise critical evaluation is: ‘I quite liked it’.
I’ve started to read (and listen to) Milton’s Paradise Lost, which runs to 12 books, and ten hours of briskly read audio. I have a feeling that my concise critical evaluation might start with: ‘fancy; a lot of words’. I look forward to getting properly stuck in.
Yesterday I took delivery of a clutch of second hand books that I ordered after loosely deciding on my study pathway. Reflecting an earlier entry, I continue to be drawn to the early modern period.
24 June 2026
Whilst waiting for exam marking to arrive, I’ve managed to get up to book 8 of Paradise Lost. On a first reading (and listen), there are big chunks I don’t ‘get’ where I have no idea what is going on. For now, I’m just letting everything wash all over me.
I quite like it. It’s a beast of a book. Spending time with it is really emphasising the importance of story and fable.
29 June 2026
I’ve finally finished Paradise Lost. If anyone ever reads this, I really recommending reading it whilst listening to an audio book. Not only do you hear the rhythm of the language, it helps you to power through the mildest of distractions.
There’s a comment in the introduction of the Norton edition that begins to spell out the scale of the text: ‘Growing to understand Paradise Lost is a lifelong adventure. The same may be said of the rhythms’ (p.xvii). What I haven’t read is the multitude of footnotes the editor has left. I must, however, thank the previous owner of my book. Your light unreadable scribble has helped me to begin to understand some of the sections.
I reckon I understood about 60% of it. There are big chunks of it where I have no idea what is going on. I’m now curious about how the module materials are going to cover it.
Next up is Anita Desai’s The Complete Stories. I have no idea what I have in store, but my friend told me she has shortlisted for the booker prize a few times.