Rambles in Germany and Italy is a travel narrative by the British Romantic author Mary Shelley (pictured). Issued in 1844, it describes two European trips that she took with her son and some of his friends. She had lived in Italy with her husband, Percy Bysshe Shelley, between 1818 and 1823 and it was associated with joy and grief: she had written much there but had also lost her husband and two children. Shelley presented her material from what she describes as "a political point of view", challenging the convention that it was improper for women to write about politics. Her aim was to arouse English sympathy for Italian revolutionaries, having associated herself with the "Young Italy" movement when in Paris on her second trip. Although Shelley herself thought the work "poor", it found favour with reviewers who praised its independence of thought, wit, and feeling, and her political commentary on Italy. However, for most of the 19th and 20th centuries, Shelley was usually known only for Frankenstein and her husband. Rambles was not reprinted until the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s provoked a wider interest in her entire corpus.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambles_in_Germany_and_Italy
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1689:
Glorious Revolution: Mary Stuart and her husband William III of Orange were proclaimed co-rulers of England and Ireland. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_III_of_England
1931:
New Delhi (India Gate pictured) was inaugurated as the new capital of British India by Viceroy Lord Irwin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Delhi
1960:
African American college students staged the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, part of a nonviolent direct action campaign to end racial segregation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins
1970:
The English rock band Black Sabbath released their eponymous debut album, which is recognised as the first major album to be credited with the development of the heavy metal genre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath_(album)
2008:
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd apologised to Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generations
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
troika: 1. A Russian carriage drawn by a team of three horses abreast. 2. A party or group of three. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/troika
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Mine is the sunlight, Mine is the morning Born of the one light Eden saw play. Praise with elation, Praise every morning, God's re- creation Of the new day! --Eleanor Farjeon https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eleanor_Farjeon