Saying Hello

Saying Hello

Hi All, some of you may recognise my name "Aleyn"? What you may not know is that I love the written word!

My current favourite is Victorian Erotica which obviously includes spanking as part of it's wide range and, it's quite possible that you'll find a few such books in this library soon...

Yes, after the editors have got over spinning heads & pop-eyes you'll find some of my contributions apearing here, enjoy your reading!

Oh, considering other authors, I love the works of Straparola, Fiorentino, Balzac, Chaucer et.al. but as far as I'm concerned Shakespeare can go to the devil!

BTW - I've found a lot of Public Library sites on the internet, I'm always on the look out for more and...

I do have a rather good scanner so, providing there's no copyright issues, I am willing to attempt to recover texts from "Forgotten Books".

Have you ever come across a book titled: "A man with three maids." Now...I don't mean, "A man with a maid," which was very popular as a Victorian Erotica classic. I only saw this book once.

There have been a few attempts to do the Victoria style stories that have landed here. I've written one called "The Magistrate" and imreadonly2 has written some modern takes on the Victorian style woman's prison.

Goodgulf

Hi Sebastian

A man with three maids

No, not come across that title though I do dig deeply on the internet for possible sources. I'll be putting in on my "Specific List" to find though.

Hi Goodgulf

I'll have a look for yours - Thanks!

Found "A Man with Three Maids" - Olympia Press is selling an ecopy of it for $1.

http://www.olympiapress.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=799&osCsid=84b53349b 0674fd048b35f555e769ec4&keywords=man%20with%20three%20maids

If you like the victorian stuff, checkout www.olympiapress.com . They have a huge collection of victorian and pseudo victorian books, with ecopies costing $1 each.

Aleyn you have just taken my breath away with that comment about Shakespeare. You should go back and read him again, I really should, you owe it to yourself. If you love literature you must love the old Bard of Avon! Start with Lear, then read Othello, then Hamlet. It's just as relevant now as it was when he wrote it. The human condition, it's all there for you. I wish I had his talent I really do!

I agree - almost. But I would say not 'read' but 'watch'. Shakespeare didn't write closet drama; his plays are meant to be seen, and a good production brings it all to life, and makes the sometimes difficult language clear.

There is a glorious film version of Othello with Kenneth Branagh as the evil Iago. Personally, I would go for Julius Caesar first, because in Cassius one can see a precursor of Iago, in the way he manipulates the noble Brutus.

In my opinion there is no finer speech in English literature than Antony's funeral oration - 'I am no orator, as Brutus is; But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man' - my bum!

[font#08088A][b]ATTENTION GOODGULF: That's the book. I read that book, over 40 years ago. Great book. I had to do research on Victorian Erotica for a court case, in the USA. Most of these books have unknown authors. Therefore, no copyright. Besides, the expense of copyrighting, at that time, was very expensive. Also, the government would arrest the author for these types of books. I found out that most noted authors wrote erotic novels, for additional income, except Charles Dickens, who was very popular and had a good income.In the USA, Edger Allen Poe wrote underground books. Through out the years, I read a great many Victorian Erotic books. One of the best, was "THE PEARL", which was published in magazine format, in the 1880's. Another interesting thing is that some books were authored by the name, "Max Van Heller". This name was used by many authors. [b/]

Hey there, I wondered when someone would rile against my dislike of himself from Stratford!

Well, I have tried to read, and watch both the "In Period" and "Modern Settings" of his plays and his style of language just "Doesn't speak to me"...

That doesn't mean to say that I'm blind to different forms of English, take Chaucer for instance.

My name 'Aleyn' is taken from "The Reeves Tale" in the Canterbury Tales and, until the 90's that's all that I knew - Poor excuse, my parents never explained any further so I was "Stuck with it"...

So I decided to find the link which caused me to be named Aleyn so visited the public library and found a copy of The Tales in the original English language of the 1300's and wow, I was hooked...

Without any prior knowledge except perhaps those silly "Yea Olde Englishe Mappes" etc., I understood completely what the tales were saying and, when I came to "The Reeves Tale" I was delighted to read about "My Exploits during that time" so to speak.

But back to Shakespeare

The language has moved on since Chaucer, spellings have become standardised, words have been dropped from the language and poetry starts to become as we know it today and...

There's just nothing I can get a grip on and for me it bears no relevance to anything I "know about" and for a moment, I'll go back to the "Relevance of Chaucer"...

In His Time:

A Poll Tax stated at "So Much Per Person" was introduced, this was re-stated as "So much per family".

A King who was a "Strong Leader" was replaced by the "Boy King Richard" who was a weak ruler...

Think not so far back, didn't Mrs Thatcher introduce a Poll Tax per person and re-state it to "Per Family"?

And, wasn't she "The Strong Ruler" who was replaced by mild mannered John Major?

Now that's relevent to me and, a further relevance if you like is the Moral Aspect of The Tales since essentially they did explain to the public "The Better Way To Live"...

And that's something I never found in Shakespeare.

Aleyn, Chaucer is a wonderfully acute observer of humanity and a great satirist but I don't think he is a writer you can compare to Shakespeare. If you can understand the Middle English Chaucer is written in you should have no trouble with understanding Shakespeare. The key to Shakespeare is either to study a play in depth or as Linda suggests actually go and see a play. As for finding no relevance. You must look harder! I think you will find Shakespeare explores all the universal themes of life and death. His words must move us if we take the trouble to read him and in these days of celebrity culture it is good to see someone who is not over hyped and over praised. Please don't take this the wrong way Aleyn. I expect you think I am a dogmatic self opionated old fossil. And of course you are not far wrong!