Abb(e)y/E(a)rnest

Hey Sherlockians, and also Granadians, I have something for you: ACD’s “A Scandal in Bohemia”, “Silver Blaze”, and “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches” as read by Edward Hardwicke. <3 Before you listen, I feel it’s necessary to tell you that at the beginning Ted dedicates his reading “to the memory of Jeremy Brett.” Do what you need to prepare your heart, and have tissues nearby. I haven’t listened to it all yet, but so far I can guarantee that you will LOVE his voice of the King of Bohemia, or your money back. (And do you recognize the pic I used?) ;)

soo sorry i didn't see this sooner, anon 😭 I tried to word out my interpretation of it for you

"When [Lawrence of Arabia] was in production, screenwriter Michael Wilson was not paying much attention to Lawrence's sexuality. Wilson was more concerned with the theme of colonialism versus nationalism, and Lawrence's scholastic pursuits. This clearly displeased Lean, who wanted to paint more of a controversial character study, albeit on a large canvas, than Wilson had so far achieved. As far as one can judge from Wilson's notes, Lean had two overriding concerns - Lawrence's sexual make-up, and the scene that he would film in Petra. As far as the former is concerned, Wilson noted that Lean had, revealingly, compared the Lawrence-Ali relationship to Brief Encounter, his 1945 film about an unconsummated love affair starring Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson." - Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930 – 1971 by Stephen Bourne

He is your friend?

I got a bit carried away so

Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley and Robert Louis Stevenson reading like that Edgar Allan Poe meme

No one will find the picture in your attic.

It's not your fault the person made of cadavers you sew together and you revived killed your family.

It's perfectly normal to enter your house climbing like a lizard.

The fact that you killed a man doesn't make you guilty, it was just your silly alter ego.

That raven who won't stop saying "nevermore" is an asshole, don't listen to it.

Your fiancé is definitely NOT hiding his mad spouse in his attic.

The big ass dog that killed members of your family isn't real, dw.

You deserve revenge for having been abused as a child, go back to moors and show them!

After meandering through it for months—I cracked this book open in March—I finally picked my way through Terrifying Transformations: An Anthology of Victorian Werewolf Fiction, edited by Alexis Easley and Shannon Scott. The categories I parted them into:

SPOILERS BELOW

Stories I Would Return to Out of Enjoyment

“The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains” by Frederick Marryat– Actually a segment taken from a larger novel, The Phantom Ship, but an excellent classic Beware of the New Woman who is Scary and Evil horror. Has a good helping of Fair Folk elements too. 

“Lycanthropy in London; or, The Wehr-Wolf of Wilton-Crescent” by Dudley Costello – A rare somewhat comedic take, displaying what looks to be Mr. Costello gleefully calling bullshit on the entirety of physiognomy and the type of people who latch onto pseudoscience and faux mystic intuitions to declare a stranger has Bad Vibes ™ and is probably a vicious werewolf in disguise! Has a happy ending though.

“The Gray Wolf” by George Macdonald – Leans almost in a folktale direction. Hot wolf girl seeks wandering young man. Some blood is shed. It’s fine.

“The Were-wolf of the Grendelwold” by F. Scarlett Potter – A rare case of the werewolf having something like the usual vampiric seductive-coercive power over a target, nearly to the point of a devilish archetype. A lot of corpses by the end.

“Dracula’s Guest” by Bram Stoker – Proto-Jonathan Harker being a proud and haughty Englishman disregarding the locals’ fears only to nearly get chomped by a vampire horde! Dracula in a werewolfish role! Sharing wine with the manly soldier who shared his horse with you! Fun stuff. 

“Where There is Nothing There is God” by William Butler Yeats – Period typical problematic bits with the poor kid involved, but a surprising twist on dubbing the werewolf-adjacent character a kind and magical holy figure in disguise.

“A Ballad of the Were-Wolf” by Rosamund Marriott Watson – A decent Victorian stab at ye olde English poetry regarding a bloody werewolf tale.

Stories I Would Return to Only to Reference in a Period Piece to Highlight What a Terrible View People of the Time Had Regarding People They Want to Demonize By Calling Them Werewolves (or Were Otherwise Just Not That Engaging)

“Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf” by G.W. M. Reynolds – Skipped entirely! The intro pointed out the guy was a plagiarist. Immediate pass.

“The White Wolf of Kostopchin” by Gilbert Campbell – Dragged too much for me to get interested. More imperiled children, more Scary Evil Powerful Lady wolf.

“The Mark of the Beast” by Rudyard Kipling – Old-fashioned Scary Magic Retaliation Curse from Scary Indian (actual India, not Native American) after an Englishman was a jackass in a temple. Too much colonialism glaze on this one for me. Pretty straightforward man-to-beast gimmick, nothing fancy. 

“The Were-Wolf” by Clemence Housman – Starts out as a promising Nordic-flavored shapeshifter tale, but ultimately peters out into an incredibly on-the-nose ‘Christlike sacrifice for the Greater Good!’ end. Good effort on characterization, but ultimately felt like a letdown.

“The Other Side: A Breton Legend” by Eric Stenbock – Once again, comes with the Christianity cure-all sledgehammer at the end. Has a refreshingly witchy buildup, at least. Fairy tale angles.

“Morraha” a Celtic tale recorded by Joseph Jacobs – Not great, not terrible. Would have been more enjoyable if the telling was worded less like a rambling Madlibs game of ‘and then this happened and then this and then this.’ It does have a cadence pretty close to old fairy tale recitations which are notoriously incredibly condensed and very hit or miss for me, so I could just be biased.

Stories About Regular People Being Mistaken for Werewolves via Trickery, Idiocy, or Belief in Lycanthropy/‘Wolf Madness’ as an Actual Mental Illness

“Hugues the Wer-Wolf” by Sutherland Menzies – Every other paragraph had me going, “Hmm. That’s a bit fucked up. (depressing)”

“A Story of a Weir Wolf” by Catherine Crowe – Simultaneously vindicating and deeply saddening.

“Lycanthropy in London; or, The Wehr-Wolf of Wilton-Crescent” by Dudley Costello – See above.

“A Pastoral Horror” by Arthur Conan Doyle – Crazy murderer in the Alps. Bit of a stretch to include this one, I think. No real wolfish traits on display, but it does nod to the old ‘if you wound a werewolf in lupine form, it will show the mark in human shape!’ trope a little. Not Doyle’s best, not his worst.

Not Stories, Just Victorian Attempts at ‘Educating’ on Lycanthropy

“Wolf-Children” from Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal

“Wolf Lore” from Once a Week

“The Book of Were-Wolves: Being an Account of a Terrible Superstition” (Excerpt) by Sabine Baring-Gould

BBC Play of the Month - The Picture of Dorian Gray (1976)