#edwardian humor

[yesterdaysprint]

Brooklyn Life, New York, January 2, 1909

#1909 #1900s #edwardian era #historic #vintage #history #brooklyn #new york #nyc #1900's #gardening #edwardian humor #edwardian jokes #jokes #garden hose

[thebeautifulbook]

CATS OF MANY LANDS by Louis Wain (New York/Paris/London: Raphael Tuck, 1914).

source

#beautiful books #book blog #books books books #book cover #books #vintage books #illustrated book #children’s book #edwardian books #louis wain #cats #humor #book design

[fictionadventurer]

Reasons that buying a pocket watch was an excellent life choice

Aesthetic

Seriously, so much my aesthetic that it's a crime I haven't had one before now

Helpful way to check the time without having to dig my phone out of my purse

It isn't strapped to my wrist where it can bump into things and get wet when I wash my hands

I can see if that A.A. Milne story was right about babies loving pocket watches. (Can find out for myself if baby will "Hark to the tick-tick.")

#random thought of the day #those milne humor shorts about relatable everyday problems were a great way to learn what edwardians considered relatable everyday problems #fascinated by his claim that 'everyone knows' babies love pocket watches. like it was a cliche part of parenting culture #i've been curious about it ever since #(and 'hark to the tick-tick' is one of the funniest phrases i've ever heard in my life) #i was so bummed when i thought my battery powered pocket watch didn't tick #but when i got alone in my car i learned it very much does tick so the experiment is back on #okay actually it is a necklace watch but there is nothing stopping me from carrying it in a pocket #and the chain will be useful for 'dangling over baby' purposes

[bywandandsword]

The universe needs to hurry up and get me with a partner. Not for any romantic reasons or anything, but so I can send them all the horny jokes I think of through out the day that I feel would be inappropriate to share with anyone else

#truly spending my teen years on military bases has ruined my sense of humor #my unshakable sense of Edwardian propriety vs. my internal feral gutter raccoon : FIGHT #Sword speaks

[hobbyarchivist]

A 1907 guide to talking on the telephone:

From the Lawrence Daily Herald

#vintage #newspaper #20th century #history #black and white #retro #technology #historical #edwardian era #1900s #1907 #funny #humor #october #autumn #text #halloween

[myobt]

Grandfather of Goth

Edward Gorey (more…)

View On WordPress

#art #cartoons #drawing #Edward Gorey #Edwardian #etching #gothic #graphic novel #humor #illustration #Postaday #Victorian

[doctorcrowley]

Me when my dad tries to correct my fashion history knowledge (I like it in an autistic way)

#we were watching doctor who and I was gushing over the historical accuracy of one episode #he tried to tell me it was the early Victorian period #it was not #it was the transitional period between the Victorian and Edwardian periods #funny #memes #humor #dr who #doctor who

[elvisflowerchild]

am i sad?

yes.

what will i do about it?

watch historical fashion videos about my current hyperfixation.

#history humor #history #fashion #fashion aesthetic #gibson #edwardian

[5-minutes-2-midnight]

The [holds up electric iron] irony… Of my sweating through the clothes that I am wearing now to do the laundry, which means I will inevitably have more laundry to do when I am finished with this, because these clothes will be very sweaty, which means I will have to sweat through more clothes to do more laundry…

#quotes #humor #life quotes #home #laundry room #laundry #ironing #youtube #Bernadette Banner #August 13 2022 #OK but how did the Edwardians WASH these dresses? #timestamp: 29:49 #a beautiful rant

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Marie Doro (Lost and Won)—I had never heard of this woman before the prelims a couple of weeks ago, but oh my GOD I have not been able to stop thinking about her since. Look at her!! She was often typecast as delicate, fragile types on stage and screen, but in real life she was "intelligent, an expert on Shakespeare and Elizabethan poetry, and possessed a penetrating humor and a sometimes acid wit"(!!!!) and known for bringing vibrancy and intelligence to all of her roles. Unfortunately most of her films have been lost, but she was considered a highly sought-after lead actress through the '20s, at which point she retired from acting. In her later years, she went back to school, taking university courses in theology, physics, metaphysics, and philosophy. She was also reportedly close friends with Maude Adams and Mercedes de Acosta, both known for their lesbian relationships, which has led some (me) (but also others) to speculate that she may have been lesbian or bi herself. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame! She was Charlie Chaplin's first love! She was so beautiful??? I want her to recite poetry for me while we picnic in the park.

Pina Menichelli (The Fire, Padrone delle Ferriere)—ITALIAN SILENT MOVIE STAR!!! SHES HOT!!!

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman. (remember that our poll era starts in 1910, so please don't use propaganda from before that date.)

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Marie Doro:

Unfortunately nearly all of Marie Doro’s movies are lost, and I don’t know a lot about her, but as soon as I came across Marie for the first time, I fell in love with her. The early Edwardian era is my favourite decade for fashion, and Marie wears it all so well! In every photo she looks like an angel made out of porcelain, too perfect to be real. She was Charlie Chaplin’s first love, and he remained in love with her for years after their first encounter, and let’s be honest, who can blame him? He said about her in his biography:

‘She was so devastatingly beautiful that I resented her. I resented her delicate, pouting lips, her regular white teeth, her adorable chin, her raven hair and dark brown eyes. But, oh God, she was beautiful! It was love at first sight. At the theatre I would time the moment that she left her dressing room so as to meet her on the stairs and gulp 'good-evening.' When I met Marie Doro again, it was like the second act of a romantic play. After we were introduced I said: 'But we've met before. You broke my heart. I was silently in love with you.' Marie, looking as beautiful as ever, said: “How thrilling”.

Doro retired from filmmaking in the 1920s and became very reclusive after that, so unfortunately there’s hardly any footage of her to watch. I feel sad that more people don’t know who Marie Doro is, because she’s very important to me.

Linked gifset to see Marie in action

Pina Menicelli:

#pina menicelli #marie doro #hotvintagepoll #fuck that old woman #ladies 2 #i think i hauve covid

[sgiandubh]

Such unsmiling people

The comment that moved me the most after posting that August 10 diatribe came from a very special blogger, @myrthil23. I promised her a longer, thoughtful answer, so here it is.

I share with her way more than meets the eye and with a bit of deductive skills, you could easily place us very specifically on an European map. To be honest, I was surprised (and then absolutely thrilled, of course) to find someone like her hanging on in here. But this is not the only reason prompting a response - her comment made me think a lot about a couple of relevant things.

For those who loathe foraging for reblogs, here goes:

In the colorful Shipper family, the Eastern Europeans are (supposedly) the unsmiling ones. This is one of the stubborn clichés that informed the Western gaze, especially in Communist times. Unsmiling, foreboding and unfathomable people: I am not smiling, I am laughing while writing it, because if anything, Myrthil, @zeya-zg, a couple of others and I do share a superb ability to use bullshit-o-meters, an unsinkable sense of humor and a hefty dose of sarcasm. All of these are basic, compulsory street smarts if you want to survive, God knows how, a nuclear winter of sorts.

Imagine you grow up in a world with empty supermarket shelves but permanently sold-out concert halls, where trivial details such as cotton swabs, potato chips (crisps, heh), political parties or The Last Tango in Paris are virtually unknown. Imagine your family is either cautiously aligned to some public idiocy they loathe everyday at home, teaching you at the same time to never talk to strangers. Or even worse, a political pariah, for reasons that have everything to do with the way you sip your tea, as Ella Fitzgerald would say. The latter situation (mine) was something very much akin to a civil death. And you just knew you could never be, for imbecile but firm reasons, an architect, a lawyer or even an epidemiologist: jobs way too sensitive to entrust the enemies of the people (and their spawn) with.

What is left for you, then, when the view from your window, in 1982, is something not very different from this photograph:

(side note: these people are staying in line to buy 1 kilogram of sugar for each person, which was the monthly allowance fixed by law in my country, from 1980 to 1989; you could only buy those with Government-issued tickets, not unlike what happened in the UK during WWII or what you can see in series like The Handmaid's Tale)

When all is seemingly lost, you will still have, in no particular order: books. Music (including piano lessons). Sports. Each other (although that was overall more complicated than it seemed). Going to the opera and never taking off your winter coat inside, but enjoying every second of it. Impromptu dinners by candlelight during power outages ("wir machen ein bisschen Stimmung"/let's make a bit of atmosphere, grinned my aunt). Foreign languages (a must). Fits and giggles and jokes galore. And the ability to adapt to just about anything, anywhere.

When change finally reached us, many had the almost surreal opportunity to go West. Some came back, others didn't, simply because they chose to continue elsewhere their pursuit of happiness. And yes, Myrthil is right, that fabled West was always something to behold and measure up to. In my case, it was almost too easy, but then I consider myself really lucky: going to live in Paris, at 18, felt both as homecoming and being left alone (and with unlimited credit) in a candy store.

So, here we are. We may have discovered Sylvia Plath a bit late, but I think we are decently knowledgeable about Chaucer. We sometimes may sound Edwardian and if we do, you should probably blame C.E. Eckersley's Essential English (this is how that life-long affair started, for me). And if anything, we bring another, perhaps even more inquisitive, angle to these strange things we are dealing with daily, in here.

But for the love of Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ, don't you ever dare tell us what to think and with whom to talk. Don't call us stupid. Don't call us liars. Historical reasons prompted a durable allergy to sanctimonious speech and yes (I can only speak for myself) I will always, always react. Because we do not deserve the arrogance of people who have no idea of how it really was to grow up somewhere in Eastern Europe during the Eighties. Oh, and something else, lest I forget: being pariahs never bothered us - we can cope.

Other than that, we should go along just fine. :)

PS: @claraisabelcampohermoso, you probably don't know how your gif made me smile. Nadia will always be Nadia: a humble, warm person with a terribly heartbreaking story.

#fandom #Youtube

[thebeautifulbook]

FARMING IT by Henry A. Shute (Boston/New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1909). Illustrations by Reginald B. Birch.

source

#beautiful books #book blog #books books books #book cover #books #vintage books #illustrated book #edwardian era #humor #book design #reginald b. birch #henry a. shute

[finalpam8000]

How I think Charley would get on with all of the other 8th Doctor Companions I’m familiar with

Grace: They’d get along great! A bit of a Steven and Vicki situation where the slightly older Grace would be a bit more protective and cautious, where as Charley “I’m Gonna Stowaway on a Dirigible” Pollard throws caution to the wind to explore! But they still look out for eachother!

Benny: Charley has a Bisexual Awakening.m4a

Stacy and Ssard: This season on Doctor Who, the TARDIS becomes the vehicle for double dates! She would be a bit intimidated by Ssard and try to befriend Stacy, but I think once Ssard shows his sense of humor they’d get along quite well!

Izzy: They’d get along great. I think Charley would really respect Izzy’s enthusiasm about scifi and comics (even if she doesn’t really get it) and Izzy would love Charley’s spirit of adventure. They’d probably kiss about it.

Feyde: Charley would be really intimidated by Fade being a super spy and all, especially if this after the transition for Sade to Feyde. But I think they would respect eachother and make a good team.

Kroton: She would be like “Woah Big Metal Man” and Kroton would be like “Woah Edwardian Adventuress” and then they’d be besties. :]

Destrii: Charley would very much not be a fan of the whole body swapping thing and would not want her on board. However she would help the Doctor carry Destrii into to the TARDIS after she got mortally wounded that one time and begrudgingly accept her onto the team.

Sam: Very much depends how they were introduced. Either their meeting goes well, they see how similar they are and become fast friends. Or Charley says something dated, Sam starts an argument about it, and it just escalates, until the Doctor breaks them up. In that timeline they wouldn’t really see eye to eye for a long time because they’re both so similar. Narcissism of small differences and all. But in the long run they would be friends.

Fitz: Oh they’d HATE eachother. Everything about one drives the other bonkers. And then they would sense they’re both in love with the Doctor and as such would fight to the death about it. Charley would win. Two utterly incompatible beings, I wish they would meet in a Big Finish boxset.

Compassion: Charley: “Doctor! That’s fucked up! That’s a fucked up thing you did to a person!!!”

Romana II (She was in the Shada audio, it counts): I think if they met while Romana was a regular companion they’d get on swimmingly. Charley would really admire how Romana can just so effortlessly understand what’s happening and take charge of a situation. And Romana would really admire Charley’s boldness and spontaneity. Maybe they’d kiss about it.

Mary: I think Charley would be a bit star struck by having THE Mary Shelly on board! (Finally, she can do some name dropping herself!) But would be a bit, excitable for Mary. They’d still get along well but I’m not sure how close they would get.

Lucie: The levels of biting comments at the Doctor’s expense would be the an all time high since Peri left. 8 would not survive both of them at peak sass.

River (She’s been in quite a few audios with 8 she counts.): Charley has a Bisexual Awakening (2).m4a

#doctor who #classic doctor who #8th doctor #eighth doctor #charley pollard #big finish #edas #doctor who comics #sorry I didn’t mention Anji Trix or any of the post Dark Eyes BF companions I know litterally nothing about any of them

[the-dust-jacket]

Hello. I've already read the Kingston Cycle, Half a Soul and I'm about to finish the Stariel books. Do you have more recommendations? Thank you in advance.

Oh absolutely!

A Matter of Magic, by Patricia C. Wrede (for cross-country Regency romps, rogues, magicians, spies, and Ladies of Quality)

A Marvellous Light, by Freya Marske (for murder and mystery and secret Edwardian wizardry, romance, grand old houses and creepy curses)

Spellbound, by Allie Therin (for forbidden love, found family, and frightening magic in 1920s New York)

Shades of Milk and Honey, by Mary Robinette Kowal (for frothy and impeccably evocative Regency magic)

Sorcerer to the Crown, by Zen Cho (for schemes both magical and mundane and the world of fairy crossing into the world of the tonne)

To Say Nothing of the Dog, by Connie Willis (for laugh-out-loud time travel shenanigans and questionable Victorian aesthetic choices)

Soulless, by Gail Carriger (for vampire assassins, werewolf aristocrats, interrupted tea time, and other terrible inconveniences which may beset a young lady)

A little darker:

The Magpie Lord, by KJ Charles (for semi-secret magical society, creepy family estate, steamy romance all in an Extremely Victorian Gothic setting)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke (clever and deeply atmospheric tour of a magical 19th century England, but definitely not romance)

Salt Magic, Skin Magic, by Lee Welch (for curses and magical bonds and frightening fairies)

Widdershins, by Jordan L Hawk (for Gilded Age mystery and romance featuring Lovecraftian horror and humor)

More fantasy:

Uprooted, by Naomi Novik (for fairytale magic and whimsy, adventure and romance and creepy trees)

Seducing the Sorcerer, by Lee Welch (for wizard fashion, romance and humor and whimsical magic)

Stardust, by Neil Gaiman (for wild romps in the fairyland next door, alternately humorous and haunting)

More historical:

The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting by KJ Charles (for saucy Regency romance and determined social scheming)

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons (for dry humor, wacky hijinx, and extended family shenanigans)

Hither Page or The Missing Page by Cat Sebastian (village and manor house mysteries respectively, featuring lots of queer romance and found family with a dash of jaded post-war espionage)

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (for yearning and laughs and first love and an eccentric family living in an increasingly run down castle)

A little farther from the brief, but might be worth checking out On Vibes:

The Left Handed Booksellers of London, by Garth Nix

The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, by Diana Wynne Jones

His Majesty's Dragon, by Naomi Novik (more Regency fantasy, but full on Age of Sail adventure rather than comedy of manners, romance, or secret magic)

Among Others, by Jo Walton

Arabella of Mars, by David D. Levine

A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan

It also sounds like a Georgette Heyer or Jeeves and Wooster binge would be really fun right now!

#ask a bookseller #love that? read this!

[resplendentoutfit]

Mary Leiter, Lady Curzon, wearing a 1903 gown, The Peacock Dress", by Jean-Philippe Worth (House of Worth) • Portrait by William Logsdail (English,1859-1944) • 1909

The Peacock Dress today behind glass at the Curzon family seat in of Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire, England. Via/ Flickr

Lord and Lady Curzon (who was American) would end up in India, then a part of the English Empire. Lord Curzon was made Viceroy of India, which made his wife the Vicereine- the highest title that a woman in India could hold at the time.

To celebrate the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII, Lord Curzon decided to hold a grand party in honor of the new monarch in 1903, known as the Delhi Durbar. For the occasion, Mary was to have the most incredible gown created which would showcase the talents of Indian artisans, a personal passion of the Vicereine. However, the dress was to be designed and sewn by famed French couturier, House of Worth. The Edwardian gown was made from fabric painstakingly embroidered in India, which was then sent to France to be fashioned before being sent back to India. What makes this gown so unbelievably unique is that every part of the gown and train is embroidered in alternating peacock feather patterns, earning it the nickname of the "Peacock Dress". The decoration comes from metal threads expertly affixed to the fabric. The gown is also embellished with glass beads, rhinestones, and shimmering iridescent green beetle wings. The gown is so covered in embroidery that it weighs 10 pounds, more than the weight of a small load of laundry!

The Resplendent Outfit: The outrageous, extravagant, often humorous, and sometimes beautiful outfits worn by the subjects of old portraits.

Outrageous ? (It depends on where you sit.)

Extravagant ✅️

Humorous. ❎️

Beautiful. ✅️

#portrait #art #painting #royal portraits #english artist #peacock dress #early 20th century fashion #house of worth #historical fashion #the resplendent outfit #william logsdail #edwardian fashion

[isfjmel-phleg]

February 2024 Books

Westmark by Lloyd Alexander (reread)

According to GoodReads, I read this years ago. Had zero memory of it. I had a hard time getting into it this time around, so I suspect that was the case last time too.

Emily Wilde's Encyclopedia of Fairies by Heather Fawcett

Such a pretty cover, such an interesting premise. I wanted to love this one. I really did. But sorry, everyone, I struggled with this book.

I had a hard time with its being set ostensibly in 1909 but doing absolutely nothing to ground the narrative and world in that time period. A magical world with vaguely historical flair, like in HMC, would work fine, but the moment you evoke a particular year, you're committing to a definite setting and need to incorporate features of that time into your worldbuilding. No one in this book was living in the Edwardian Era or its equivalent; their thinking and society were very contemporary, so I don't understand what the point was of the 1909 setting.

Besides that, I had a hard time connecting with the characters and I'm not sure why?

The Last Dragon by Silvana De Mari

Featuring the most endearing little elf I have ever encountered. Yorsh is adorable.

Between Homes by W. R. Gingell

I continue to get further and further invested in the characters while having nothing intelligent to say about the series.

Pog by Pádraig Kenny

Not bad, but not as strong thematically as Kenny's other books that I've read.

Illuminations by T. Kingfisher

Loved the premise of the characters and a lot of the interactions, less captivated by the plot.

The Bellwoods Game by Celia Krampien

Very effective at the intended creepy tone, but I failed to connect with it.

The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth edited by Leonard S. Marcus (reread)

Picked this up at a bookstore a while back and enjoyed getting to revisit the creative process behind a book I loved as a child. (It is deeply appropriate that Juster wrote the book while procrastinating on another project!)

Ann of Sunflower Lane by Julie A. Sellers

An innocuous book that leans way too hard into its connections with Anne of Green Gables. The eponymous Ann reads AoGG for the first time and is obsessed (relatable), but unfortunately this means that the narrative and many of the characters are constantly drawing parallels between events and people in her life and those in the book. This doesn't allow the story to develop very strongly in its own right. Ann has a different past and some different struggles from Anne, with potential for a distinct story, and the Kansas setting is lovingly depicted and definitely different from Avonlea, but everything keeps coming back to Anne. The supporting cast tend to be pale imitations of Montgomery's characters (for instance, when Ann meets a group of other girls, she mentally designates them as "the practical one...the sweet one...the Ruby Gillis one...the nasty one" and their characterization goes no further than these stock roles). What makes Montgomery's novel work is its very human characters, its sense of humor, and its earnestness. This book was less successful at capturing these elements, so it was harder to get actually emotionally invested.

(I've already mentioned this elsewhere, but the index in the back of every quotation, from AoGG and other books was a little much, especially since the quotations in the narrative were self-conscious enough already.)

Lands End by Mary Stolz

I think this book was making some statements about childhood emotional neglect, which was intriguing, but honestly I'm not sure what the conclusion was. The narrative was contemplative and took quite a while to get to an actual plot. I mind that much less as an adult, but I can't really imagine most children really getting much out of this book, despite its intended middle-grade audience (presumably).

Secret of the Emerald Star by Phyllis A. Whitney

More character-focused and among Whitney's more engaging middle-grade mysteries.

Mystery of the Strange Traveler by Phyllis A. Whitney

But I was less interested in this one. Connected less with the cast and the mystery.

Comics

The Flash by Mark Waid Book Six

Gradually making my way through this series. The stories of course vary in interest, but Waid's characterization of Wally is always well done, and Wally and Linda's relationship is genuinely sweet.

Reading/skimming Tim Drake's every significant appearance, which is still a work in progress.

I am having emotions and tucking things away in drafts, so brace yourselves. Also discovering things that quite frankly are more interesting than fanon (and sometimes funnier).

#random personal stuff #I apologize for the tone #there were not a lot of books this month that I loved #maybe this month will be better!