#albert smith

Thanks again to Albert Smith and his Natural History of the Gent (1847).

Embers shot up into the air, filling the navy blue sky with bits of red and orange fire as they floated higher into what some might call the divine heavens.  Albert didn't know if there was a heaven or even a hell for that matter, but of a part of him didn't care either.  He was stuck in limbo here.

It'd been two week since he'd come to the island and things were going well enough with his supplies as well his own sanity.  The house had been built perfectly to his specifications for his solitude, and thankfully the solar panels were doing just as the salesman had promised.  Living in a kind of vacation home was not how imagined he'd spend the rest of his life, but it wasn't bad either.

Just lonely.

Time was the enemy now as he found himself puttering about home, desperate not to fall into ambivalence.  He'd been reading a lot. And fishing.  Fishing a lot, which thankfully was helping with the supplies as he poked at the burning fish bones of his campfire.  Worry wasn't in him though as he closed his eyes listening to the waves all around him, letting the calm of the ocean settle his mind.

But not his heart.

Never his heart, which only ached with the emptiness.  It's a tragedy to be trapped in paradise but still unable to find happiness.

Maybe this was hell.  

Status Post #8278: Power Rangers (TV show only) Archive 14 of 16

Row 1: Riley Griffin (Michael Taber, Dino Charge Green), Shelby Watkins (Camille Hyde, Dino Charge Pink) and Ivan of Zandar (Davi Santos, Dino Charge Gold)

Row 2: Phillip III of Zandar (Jarred Blakiston, Dino Charge Graphite) and Albert Smith (Arthur Ranford, Dino Charge Purple I)

Row 3: Kendall Morgan (Claire Blackwelder, Dino Charge Purple II), James Navarro (Reuben Turner, Dino Charge Aqua) and Zenowing (Alistair Browning, Dino Charge Silver)

Every Power Ranger

Do I ever!

I love to recommend the collection of John Leech's cartoons that I have used heavily for @is-the-19thcentury-man-okay: John Leech's Pictures of Life and Character, Volume 1 on Google Books. At this time it looks like the John Leech Archive web site is down. That's really a shame because it was searchable by year and (limited) keywords/subjects. It's still on the Internet Wayback Machine although I'm not sure how much is preserved.

The Victorian writer and entertainer Albert Smith (sadly forgotten today) is another great source for 1840s and 1850s fashions and foibles. I highly recommend The Natural History of the Gent and The Natural History of the Idler Upon Town.

For fashion history references to go with the cartoons, you can't go wrong with A History of Men's Fashion by Farid Chenoune, and the classic Handbook of English Costume in the 19th Century by Phillis Cunnington and C. Willett Cunnington.

Happy Eighteen-Forties Friday, my friends!

Typical 1840s problems: Your upstairs polka party is raining destruction on parties below.