Bloomsbury Literary Studies

The Greatest Literary Moustaches!

It’s Movember and we love a good literary moustache. So much so, we’ve put together a collection of our all-time favourites! From the Walrus to the Mexican, and the Handlebar to the Horseshoe, it seems there is no end to the amount of creative facial topiary in the literary world… Something tells me Shakespeare set a trend.

Mark Twain

‘There has been nothing as good since’ said Ernest Hemingway about Mark Twain’s legendary book Huckleberry Finn. But, he could just as well have been talking about Twain’s famous moustache.

Mark Twain wasn’t without opinion when it came to facial hair, directing the following vitriol towards the beard: ‘it performs no useful function; it is a nuisance and a discomfort; all nations hate it; all nations persecute it with the razor’. Must have been why he plumped for this rather impressive looking moustache. And with matching eyebrows too.

Read our Bedside, Bathtub & Armchair guide to Mark Twain. It reveals all sorts of fantastic facts about this intriguing writer... did you know that he started smoking at 7 and often smoked 40 cigars a day? Nope, me neither. Pretty impressive shocking.

Rudyard Kipling

‘Being kissed by a man who didn’t wax his moustache was like eating an egg without salt’. We couldn't agree more Rudyard Kipling.

This 'tash is so impressive that we've opted for a side portrait shot so you can really see the full depth of this impressive literary bush. Look out for our new book on Rudyard Kipling and Japan - no other leading English literary figure of his day spent so long in that country or wrote so fully about it.

George Orwell

George Orwell said, in his famous 6 Rules for Writing, ‘Never use a long word where a short one will do’. It would seem he had the same approach to moustaches. I’m calling this one... modest yet confident.

George Orwell also wrote an essay in the Evening Standard in 1946 about his rules for drinking tea. Whilst not related in any way to moustaches, I still think it deserves a special mention. Orwell employed the essay as a tool to entertain, illuminate and provoke readers as well as help him fashion his distinctive 'literary' voice. George Orwell the Essayist by Peter Marks gives these compelling pieces the critical attention they merit.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

What can we say about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s moustache? It’s a wonder he had any time to write considering the hours he must have put in taming and trimming this sublime example of facial topiary.  I know what you must be thinking, ‘I WISH I could get my hands on some of his moustache trimmings’. Well, I’m afraid the opportunity has been and passed, with one moustache & ACD fan purchasing his moustache trimmings. They came neatly packaged up in the original envelope they were kept in for so many years with the following inscription: ‘My beloved moustache hairs’. I'm sure the new owner feels the same.

Walt Whitman

Is it a moustache or a beard? Are there side-burns in there? We can't quite figure it out. And that's what makes Walt Whitman's contributions to facial topiary so impressive.

In Whitman’s Queer Children, Catherine Davies looks at 'the anxious relationship between the homosexual and his American home'  in the work of four gay twentieth-century poets - Hart Crane, Allen Ginsberg, James Merrill and John Ashbery. Dwelling on the nurturing adaptable heritage of Walt Whitman, she considers Whitman’s renegotiation of the dialectic between the public and the private as a context for the project of the homosexual epic.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche sports the unique looking walrus-handlebar moustache. Otherwise known as the moustache that launched a thousand philosophical arguments (and its own facebook page). 

In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Nietzsche posits the Übermensch as a goal that humanity can set for itself. Did he set this goal for his own facial hair? There is one thing we can be sure of – he set the philosophical world alight with this revolutionary 'tash.

Still a bit confused? Nietzsche: A Guide for the Perplexed will tell you everything you need to know.

Edgar Allen Poe

It's fair to say that EAP employed his moustache in a rather gothic manner. An article in Scribner’s Magazine in 1878 reveals that 'He wore a dark mustache, scrupulously kept, but not entirely concealing a slightly contracted expression of the mouth and an occasional twitching of the upper lip, resembling a sneer. This sneer, indeed, was easily excited — a motion of the lip, scarcely perceptible, and yet intensely expressive. There was in it nothing of ill-nature, but much of sarcasm … '

So impressive was his moustache that is spawned this imaginative looking t-shirt. If anyone could let me know where to buy it, I’d really appreciate it.

An inescapable black pit, an innocent buried alive, and the deranged hallucinations of a murderer all haunt Tales of Mystery and Imagination - a collection of Edgar Allan Poe's most celebrated chilling stories.

Ernest Hemingway

All hail Ernest Hemingway's contribution to the moustache world! We know that he loved hunting in Africa, bullfighting in Spain, deep-sea fishing in Florida and this is the perfect moustache to match. Hemingway married four times, often falling for one woman while still married to another. With this dashing moustache I think we can see why he was so irresistible to women.

Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez once characterised common European perceptions of Latin America as ‘a man with a moustache and a guitar and a revolver’. He might have kept the moustache, but he certainly broke other pre-existing stereotypes by putting Latin American writing on the literary map.

If a moustache could ever be described as ‘friendly’ then this is certainly it. You can find out more about this compelling man by reading our biography by Gerald Martin and literary guide to Love in the Time of Cholera by Tom Fahy.

Stefan Zweig

Born in Vienna in 1881, Stefan Zweig was one of the most respected authors of his time. And not just for his epic looking moustache. The Economist hailed him as a 'Secret Superstar' and the New Yorker called him an 'Escape Artist' earlier this year.

Foreseeing Nazi Germany's domination of Europe, Zweig and his wife left Austria in 1933. Despairing at Europe's future and feeling increasingly isolated, they committed suicide together in 1942. As Zweig's correspondence all but ceased with the outbreak of World War II, little is known about his final years. Stefan and Lotte Zweig's South American Letters, edited by Darién J. Davis and Oliver Marshall, reproduces personal letters written by the couple during this time and creates a fascinating picture of the last years of this famed author, cast adrift by the rise of Nazism and enforced exile.

Joseph Conrad

Some critics have commented that Joseph Conrad was known for his pessimistic writing style and stark presentation of the human condition. I don’t think he helped matters with this harsh looking moustache. There is one thing that the critics certainly agree upon - Heart of Darkness is a landmark text of 20th century literature that continues to resonate to this day. We certainly love it. One of our latest books, Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ and Contemporary Thought by Nidesh Lawtoo brings this book into philosophical dialogue and includes the first publication in English of Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe's essay, 'The Horror of the West', described by J. Hillis Miller as 'a major essay on Conrad's novel, one of the best ever written'.

That's it for our literary moustache round up! Of course we couldn't include everyone - Dostoevsky, James Joyce, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Gustave Flaubert... the list could go on and on. It would also be impossible to choose a favourite. But we want to hear from you -  who would get your vote for the most impressive literary moustache? Who can't you believe that we have left out? Is there any obscure Russian writer with a more impressive offering than Nietzsche (probably)?  Let us know so we can add it to our literary moustache hall of fame.

In the meantime, good luck to anyone still plugging away at their Movember efforts. The crowd above would be very proud.

Jenny Tighe

In Conversation with John Schad: Walter Benjamin Revealed

John Schad is Professor of Modern Literature at the University of Lancaster and author of our new fictional narrative The Late Walter Benjamin. 'Set partly in Watford and partly in the haunted wing of the English language' (Ian Macmillan, on BBC Radio 3's 'The Verb'), this documentary novel juxtaposes the life and death of Walter Benjamin with the days, hours and minutes of a working-class council estate on the edge of London in post-war Austerity England. Here John talks about his research for the book, the funny side of Walter Benjamin and why ‘The Metaphysics of Youth’ is his Benjamin essay of choice.

What was the most exhilarating aspect of your research for The Late Walter Benjamin?

Exploring what happened in the final hours of Benjamin’s life, before committing suicide on the Spanish border.  We know, for instance, that he made four telephone calls on the last night of his life; whom, though, did he call?  Again, we know that he once wrote that ‘Erotic motives may be at the bottom of suicide’; so, then, what role did the erotic play, at the last, for the dying philosopher?

Was there any exotic travel or exciting people you met and discussed Walter Benjamin with?

Alas, no - I went to Watford and was bored, but you have to be: ‘People who are not bored cannot tell stories,’ said Walter Benjamin.   Moreover, ‘we penetrate mystery,’ he says, ‘only to the degree that we recognize it in the everyday world.’

What does your book about Walter Benjamin do differently?

It sees the funny side of Walter Benjamin, hypnotised as I am by his ‘clowning of despair.’  To put it another way, the book revolves around his remark that ‘the comic figure is the only angel suited to this world.’ 

What originally inspired you to study Walter Benjamin? What do they mean to you professionally? And personally?

I'm not sure I can remember.  I had just written Someone Called Derrida. An Oxford Mystery, which is novelistic, albeit real-life, murder-mystery about not only the extraordinary philosopher but also the final years of my father’s very ordinary life.  I wanted to take further the trick of juxtaposing high, continental philosophy and low, English life and death.

Many people think they know Walter Benjamin but what – to your mind – still makes him so special and still relevant to modern readers?

It is , I think, that he is writing about us, always writing about us, and (indeed) has observed that, together, we are the secret Messiah:  ‘Our coming,’ he wrote, ‘was expected on earth, and we have been endowed with Messianic power.’

If readers only had time to read one book by Walter Benjamin, what would you suggest and why?

His 1914 essay, ‘The Metaphysics of Youth,’ (Selected Writings, vol.1). It teaches us how to dance and die, at the same time.

How would you describe your contribution to the immense amount of scholarship on Walter Benjamin? 

It is, I think that I attempt to misread him, to get him ‘wrong,’ if you like; in the sense that the book has him living in 1948, eight years after his death, and in a place he never even visited.  In short, I wrench him out of context, but in so doing I am, I hope, responding to his astonishing insistence that ‘Citation summons the word by its name, wrenches it destructively from its context, but precisely thereby calls it back to its origin.’  

In fifty years time, what will resonant with future generations about the life, works and philosophy of Walter Benjamin?

His insistence that ‘the solution to the riddle of the universe is to be found where we least expect it’ - for example, Watford.

What quote typifies Walter Benjamin? 

‘Every second was the straight gate through which the Messiah might enter’

What will your next book explore?

What happened in June 1956 when Waiting for Godot was performed at the Grand Theatre in Blackpool and nearly everyone walked out, declaring it to be nonsense. It's called GodotOnSea, and like the Late Walter Benjamin it’s a documentary novel.  The first chapter can be read in a book I edited called Crrritic!

The Late Walter Benjamin is now available to buy. You can read the first 2 chapters from the book by clicking on the preview button to the left. Tomorrow on our twitter, we will be giving away a copy of this exciting new book! Follow us to be in with a chance of winning!

Jenny Tighe

Nine Lives of William Shakespeare - Out Now!

With the weekend fast approaching, I thought I'd offer up a quick (but enthusiastic) suggestion for anyone looking for some stimulating weekend reading. Here at Continuum, we have just published a book that, for me personally, just might be one of the highlights of our publishing year: Graham Holderness's Nine Lives of William Shakespeare.

Famously, despite the enormous impact that Stratford-upon-Avon's most famous son has had on western culture, we have very little hard evidence about Shakespeare's life. Needless to say, this fact (or lack of it) has not stopped a veritable industry of Shakespearean biography from springing up and hardly a year seems to go by without a new life of Shakespeare appearing on the shelves.

This is where Nine Lives of William Shakespeare comes in. In this book, Graham Holderness looks at nine different aspects of Shakespeare's life, from Shakespeare as actor and playwright to Shakespeare the lover and businessman. Taking each 'life' in turn, Holderness looks at what we actually know about that aspect of Shakespeare's life and then at the speculations that later biographers have built on those facts (in the process, often telling us more about their own lives and attitudes than those of their subject). Uniquely, each chapter takes this biographical speculation to its logical conclusion by offering a short fictional story that offers readers a creative re-imagination of each aspect of Shakespeare's life.

'Unique' is a terribly overused word in advertising, but I really think that this book is one of a kind and I'm delighted that it's been published. I would urge any fellow Shakespeare fans to take a look at it and to help you do just that we'll be posting a free preview very soon. In the meantime, you can find more information about the book here.

Have a great weekend!

David

Senior Editor,
Continuum Literary Studies

Stephen Burn praises The Novel: An Alternative History in The New York Times Book Review

In an essay for the series “Why Criticism Matters,” Stephen Burn heralded Steven Moore’s The Novel: An Alternative History as a potential starting point for literary criticism in the age of digital media.  Burn argues that the Amazon.com review has ended the time of the critic as a 'cultural arbiter,' passing down informed opinions to a population of lay readers.  In a day when the common reader has his own voice, the critic should work more to illuminate and elucidate a work than to offer a judgment.  An essential part of this task is situating a novel within literary history, as part of an ongoing dialogue with its predecessors.  Burn offered The Novel: An Alternative History as a paradigm for this approach:

'Steven Moore’s recent encyclopedic study…dramatically amplifies our understanding of what the novel can and cannot do, and highlights living currents that sprang into existence 40 centuries ago and continue to flow into the contemporary novel.' -- The New York Times Book Review

We are thrilled to hear that one of our most recent publications has made such a timely intervention in the critical scene!  Check out the full article here.

The Wit and Wisdom of GK Chesterton

There was much excitement in the Continuum UK office today as finished copies of The Wit and Wisdom of G K Chesterton arrived on my desk! Already described by Christopher Howse in The Daily Telegraph as a 'delightful read', this book shines a light into the margins of Chesterton's work and gives a sense of the distinctive flavour of his mind.

In this new collection, Bevis Hillier (the acclaimed biographer of John Betjeman), draws on Chesterton's most humorous and serious writing not only from his most popular works, the Father Brown stories, but also his contributions to the Illustrated London News and GK's Weekly as well as his numerous novels and poems. Some of his remarkable drawings are included, including an unpublished caricature of Winston Churchill, c. 1919. This funny and insightful book will be a wonderful present for Chesterton fans everywhere!

'A man's friends like him but they leave him as he is. A man's wife loves him and is always trying to change him' - quoted by Masie Ward, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, London 1944

If that quote has whetted your appetite and you want to read more Chesterton gems then click on the 'preview' button above.

Jenny Tighe, Marketing Executive