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Jack Ketch
John Ketch (died November 1686), generally known as Jack Ketch, was an infamous English executioner employed by King Charles II. He became famous through the way he performed his duties during the tumults of the 1680s, when he was often mentioned in broadsheet accounts that circulated throughout the Kingdom of England. He is thought to have been appointed in 1663. He executed the death sentences against William Russell, Lord Russell, in Lincoln's Inn Fields on 21 July 1683, and James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, on 15 July 1685, after the Monmouth Rebellion. Ketch's notoriety stems from "barbarity at the execution of Lord Russell, the Duke of Monmouth, and other political offenders". Because of his botched executions, the name "Jack Ketch" is used as a proverbial name for death, Satan and executioners. Appointment Ketch took office in 1663, succeeding the late Edward Dun, to whom he had been apprenticed. He is first mentioned in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for 14 Ja ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tower Hill
Tower Hill is the area surrounding the Tower of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is infamous for the public execution of high status prisoners from the late 14th to the mid 18th century. The execution site on the higher ground north-west of the Tower of London moat is now occupied by Trinity Square Gardens. Tower Hill rises from the north bank of the River Thames to reach a maximum height of 14.5 metres (48 ft) Ordnance Datum. The land was historically part of the Liberties of the Tower of London, an area the Tower authorities controlled to keep clear of any development which would reduce the defensibility of the Tower. Building has encroached to a degree, but a legacy of this control is that much of the hill is still open. The hill includes land on either side of the London Wall, a large remnant of which is visible. Definition Generally speaking, the name Tower Hill informally applies to those parts of the Liberties of the Tower of London, Tower ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Punch And Judy
Punch and Judy is a traditional puppet show featuring Mr. Punch and his wife Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically Mr. Punch and one other character who usually falls victim to Punch's slapstick. ''The Daily Telegraph'' called Punch and Judy "a staple of the British seaside scene". The various episodes of Punch comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—are dominated by the clowning of Mr. Punch. The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "professor" or "punchman", and assisted sometimes by a "bottler" who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance, and collects the money ("the bottle"). The bottler might also play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar, and engage in back chat with the puppets, sometimes repeating lines that may have been difficult for the audience to understand. In Victorian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Willingham
William Willingham (born 1956) is an American writer and artist of comics, known for his work on the series ''Elementals (Comico Comics), Elementals'' and ''Fables (comics), Fables''. Career William Willingham was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. During his father's military career the family also lived in Alaska, California, and finally three years in Germany. Willingham got his start from the late 1970s to early 1980s as a staff artist for TSR, Inc., where he illustrated a number of their role-playing game products. He was the cover artist for the ''AD&D Player Character Record Sheets'', ''Against the Giants'', ''Secret of Bone Hill'', the Gamma World book ''Legion of Gold'', and provided the back cover for ''Scourge of the Slave Lords, In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords''. He was an interior artist on ''White Plume Mountain'', ''Scourge of the Slave Lords, Slave Pits of the Undercity'', ''Ghost Tower of Inverness'', ''Secret of the Slavers Stockade'', ''Secret of Bone Hill'', '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Baroque Cycle
''The Baroque Cycle'' is a series of novels by American writer Neal Stephenson. It was published in three volumes containing eight books in 2003 and 2004. The story follows the adventures of a sizable cast of characters living amidst some of the central events of the late 17th and early 18th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Central America. Despite featuring a literary treatment consistent with historical fiction, Stephenson has characterized the work as science fiction, because of the presence of some anomalous occurrences and the work's particular emphasis on themes relating to science and technology. The sciences of cryptology and numismatics feature heavily in the series, as they do in some of Stephenson's other works. Books The ''Baroque Cycle'' consists of several novels "lumped together into three volumes because it is more convenient from a publishing standpoint"; Stephenson felt calling the works a ''trilogy'' would be "bogus". Appearing in print in 2003 and 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The System Of The World (novel)
''The System of the World'' is a novel by Neal Stephenson and is the third and final volume in ''The Baroque Cycle''. The title alludes to the third volume of Isaac Newton's ''Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica'', which bears the same name. ''The System of the World'' won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel and the Prometheus Award in 2005, as well as a receiving a nomination for the Arthur C. Clarke Award the same year. Plot Solomon's Gold Daniel Waterhouse returns to England from his "Technologickal College" project in Boston in order to try to resolve the feud between Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz over who invented calculus. Someone attempts to assassinate him with an "Infernal Device" (a time bomb), and Waterhouse forms a club to find out who did it and prosecute them. It later turns out that the bomb was intended for his friend Isaac Newton. Jack Shaftoe, under the alias Jack the Coiner, attempts a heist at the Tower of London. Currency Danie ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quicksilver (novel)
''Quicksilver'' is a historical novel by Neal Stephenson, published in 2003. It is the first volume of ''The Baroque Cycle'', his late Baroque historical fiction series, succeeded by '' The Confusion'' and ''The System of the World'' (both published in 2004). ''Quicksilver'' won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was nominated for the Locus Award in 2004. Stephenson organized the structure of ''Quicksilver'' such that chapters have been incorporated into three internal books titled "Quicksilver", "The King of the Vagabonds", and "Odalisque". In 2006, each internal book was released in separate paperback editions, to make the 900 pages more approachable for readers. These internal books were originally independent novels within the greater cycle during composition. The novel ''Quicksilver'' is written in various narrative styles, such as theatrical staging and epistolary, and follows a large group of characters. Though mostly set in England, France, and the United Provinces in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neal Stephenson
Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, cyberpunk, postcyberpunk, and baroque. Stephenson's work explores mathematics, cryptography, linguistics, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as ''Wired''. He has written novels with his uncle, George Jewsbury ("J. Frederick George"), under the collective pseudonym Stephen Bury. Stephenson has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (founded by Jeff Bezos) developing a spacecraft and a space launch system, and is also a cofounder of Subutai Corporation, whose first offering is the interactive fiction project ''The Mongoliad''. He was Magic Leap's Chief Futurist from 2014 to 2020. Early life Born on October 31, 1959, in Fort Meade, Maryland, Stephenson came from a family of engineers and scient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Marching Morons
"The Marching Morons" is a science fiction story by American writer Cyril M. Kornbluth, originally published in ''Galaxy'' in April 1951. It was included in ''The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two'' after being voted one of the best novellas up to 1965. Background In the "Introduction" to '' The Best of C. M. Kornbluth'', Frederik Pohl (Kornbluth's friend and collaborator) explains some of the inspiration to "The Marching Morons". The work was written after Pohl suggested that Kornbluth write a follow-up story that focuses on the future presented in the short story "The Little Black Bag". In contrast to the "little black bag" arriving in the past from the future, Kornbluth wanted to write about a man arriving in the future from the past. To explain sending a man to the future, Kornbluth borrowed from David Butler's 1930 science fiction film, ''Just Imagine'', in which a man is struck by lightning, trapped in suspended animation, and reanimated in the future. In "The March ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyril M
Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various variant forms of the name ''Cyril'' such as ''Cyrill'', ''Cyrille'', ''Ciril'', ''Kirill'', ''Kiryl'', ''Kirillos'', ''Kuriakose'', '' Kyrylo'', ''Kiril'', ''Kiro'', and ''Kyrill''. It may also refer to: Christian patriarchs or bishops * Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 313 – 386), theologian and bishop * Cyril of Alexandria (c. 376 – 444), Patriarch of Alexandria * Cyril the Philosopher (link to ''Saints Cyril and Methodius''), 9th century Greek missionary, co-invented the Slavic alphabet, translated the Bible into Old Church Slavonic * Pope Cyril II of Alexandria reigned 1078–1092 * Greek Patriarch Cyril II of Alexandria reigned in the 12th century * Cyril of Turaw (1130–1182), Belorussian bishop and orthodox saint * Pope Cyril III of Alexandri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Copperfield (novel)
''David Copperfield'' Dickens invented over 14 variations of the title for this work, see is a novel in the bildungsroman genre by Charles Dickens, narrated by the eponymous David Copperfield, detailing his adventures in his journey from infancy to maturity. It was first published as a serial in 1849 and 1850 and as a book in 1850. ''David Copperfield'' is also an autobiographical novel: "a very complicated weaving of truth and invention", with events following Dickens's own life. Of the books he wrote, it was his favourite. Called "the triumph of the art of Dickens", it marks a turning point in his work, separating the novels of youth and those of maturity. At first glance, the work is modelled on 18th-century "personal histories" that were very popular, like Henry Fielding's ''Joseph Andrews'' or '' Tom Jones'', but ''David Copperfield'' is a more carefully structured work. It begins, like other novels by Dickens, with a bleak picture of childhood in Victorian England, f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Pickwick Papers
''The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'' (also known as ''The Pickwick Papers'') was Charles Dickens's first novel. Because of his success with ''Sketches by Boz'' published in 1836, Dickens was asked by the publisher Chapman & Hall to supply descriptions to explain a series of comic "cockney sporting plates" by illustrator Robert Seymour (illustrator), Robert Seymour, and to connect them into a novel. The book became a publishing phenomenon, with bootleg copies, theatrical performances, Sam Weller (character), Sam Weller joke books, and other merchandise. On its cultural impact, Nicholas Dames in ''The Atlantic'' writes, “'Literature' is not a big enough category for ''Pickwick''. It defined its own, a new one that we have learned to call “entertainment.” Published in 19 issues over 20 months, the success of ''The Pickwick Papers'' popularised Serial (literature), serialised fiction and cliffhanger endings. Seymour's widow claimed that the idea for the novel was or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dombey And Son
''Dombey and Son'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens. It follows the fortunes of a shipping firm owner, who is frustrated at the lack of a son to follow him in his footsteps; he initially rejects his daughter's love before eventually becoming reconciled with her before his death. The story features many Dickensian themes, such as arranged marriages, Child abuse, child cruelty, betrayal, deceit, and relations between people from different Social class in the United Kingdom, British social classes. The novel was first published in monthly parts between 1846 and 1848, with illustrations by Hablot Knight Browne ("Phiz"). Development Dickens started writing the book in Lausanne, Switzerland, before returning to England, via Paris, to complete it. The full title is ''Dealings with the Firm of Dombey and Son: Wholesale, Retail and for Exportation.'' Plot summary The story concerns Paul Dombey, the wealthy owner of the shipping company of the book's title, whose dream i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
