Aleksandra Ugelstad Elnæs
@aleksandraue.bsky.social
Writer, historian & reclusive escapist haunted by all things lost, fragmented and shipwrecked. Lapsed 18th centuryist interested in antiquity, queer classical reception, gothic fiction & the sea.
https://linktr.ee/aleksandraue
https://linktr.ee/aleksandraue
Sir John Soane's Museum, former home and showroom of the architect and collector, kept intact since his death in 1837.
November 2, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Sir John Soane's Museum, former home and showroom of the architect and collector, kept intact since his death in 1837.
Autumns of yore. 🍂
November 2, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Autumns of yore. 🍂
Happy belated Halloween, ghouls! Spooky kittens, October 2020. 🍂🦇🎃
November 2, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Happy belated Halloween, ghouls! Spooky kittens, October 2020. 🍂🦇🎃
John Rylands Library & Chetham’s Library, Manchester. Rylands opened in 1900 and is gloriously neo-gothic, while Chetham’s was founded in 1653.
October 19, 2025 at 8:30 PM
John Rylands Library & Chetham’s Library, Manchester. Rylands opened in 1900 and is gloriously neo-gothic, while Chetham’s was founded in 1653.
Goodbye and good riddance, summer.
September 21, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Goodbye and good riddance, summer.
Summer reading (selected).
September 21, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Summer reading (selected).
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began; but I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Lyme Park, June 2025.
September 13, 2025 at 11:40 PM
“It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly know when it began; but I believe I must date it from my first seeing his beautiful grounds at Pemberley." - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice. Lyme Park, June 2025.
‘Ought we to be drunk every night?’
Sebastian asked one morning.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘I think so too.’
Sebastian asked one morning.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘I think so too.’
September 13, 2025 at 11:33 PM
‘Ought we to be drunk every night?’
Sebastian asked one morning.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘I think so too.’
Sebastian asked one morning.
‘Yes, I think so.’
‘I think so too.’
The Temple of the Four Winds, Castle Howard, June 2025.
September 13, 2025 at 10:45 PM
The Temple of the Four Winds, Castle Howard, June 2025.
“You're to come away at once, out of danger. I've got a motor car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Chateau Peyraguey—which isn't a wine you've ever tasted, so don't pretend. It's heaven with strawberries.” - Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited. Castle Howard, June 2025.
September 12, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“You're to come away at once, out of danger. I've got a motor car and a basket of strawberries and a bottle of Chateau Peyraguey—which isn't a wine you've ever tasted, so don't pretend. It's heaven with strawberries.” - Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited. Castle Howard, June 2025.
Castle Howard, June 2025 @castlehowardestate.bsky.social
September 6, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Castle Howard, June 2025 @castlehowardestate.bsky.social
“I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer.”
- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Castle Howard, June 2025
- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Castle Howard, June 2025
September 6, 2025 at 9:35 PM
“I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were creamy with meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer.”
- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Castle Howard, June 2025
- Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
Castle Howard, June 2025
Sebastian contra mundum. Castle Howard filming locations for Brideshead Revisited (1981).
September 4, 2025 at 1:07 AM
Sebastian contra mundum. Castle Howard filming locations for Brideshead Revisited (1981).
"It is poetry that I want now-long poems. […] I want the concentration & the romance, & the words all glued together, fused, glowing: I have no time to waste any more on prose. [...] It's poetry I want, so I repeat like a tipsy sailor in front of a public house." - Diary of Virginia Woolf,
15.8.1924
15.8.1924
July 12, 2025 at 12:20 AM
"It is poetry that I want now-long poems. […] I want the concentration & the romance, & the words all glued together, fused, glowing: I have no time to waste any more on prose. [...] It's poetry I want, so I repeat like a tipsy sailor in front of a public house." - Diary of Virginia Woolf,
15.8.1924
15.8.1924
“And then he spoke of the rain and the wind by which all things are changed, of the air through which all things live, and of the woods in which all things can be hidden.” - E.M. Forster, The Story of a Panic.
May 25, 2025 at 2:41 PM
“And then he spoke of the rain and the wind by which all things are changed, of the air through which all things live, and of the woods in which all things can be hidden.” - E.M. Forster, The Story of a Panic.
Spring reading.
May 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
Spring reading.
Began in autumn and finished in spring. Perfect seasonal companion by @slipperyjack.bsky.social.
May 10, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Began in autumn and finished in spring. Perfect seasonal companion by @slipperyjack.bsky.social.
Maurice (1987) filming locations at King’s College, Cambridge, which was E.M. Forster’s own college.
May 9, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Maurice (1987) filming locations at King’s College, Cambridge, which was E.M. Forster’s own college.
Sunlight on a broken column. 🏛️ Athens, March 2025.
May 7, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Sunlight on a broken column. 🏛️ Athens, March 2025.
Athens, March 2025.
May 2, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Athens, March 2025.
“To what purpose, April, do you return again? / Beauty is not enough. […] / Life in itself / Is nothing, / An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. / It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, April / Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” - Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring
April 30, 2025 at 7:19 PM
“To what purpose, April, do you return again? / Beauty is not enough. […] / Life in itself / Is nothing, / An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs. / It is not enough that yearly, down this hill, April / Comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers.” - Edna St. Vincent Millay, Spring
Sambourne House, June 2024. The preserved Victorian townhouse was a filming location for the 1987 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel Maurice, notably the deleted scenes set before Clive leaves for Greece. Might need to do a post on all the Maurice-locations I’ve visited!
April 15, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Sambourne House, June 2024. The preserved Victorian townhouse was a filming location for the 1987 adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel Maurice, notably the deleted scenes set before Clive leaves for Greece. Might need to do a post on all the Maurice-locations I’ve visited!
At home, in winter. 🌲❄️🕯️🔥 Art by @marlowelune.bsky.social & @johannaost.com.
April 14, 2025 at 11:20 PM
At home, in winter. 🌲❄️🕯️🔥 Art by @marlowelune.bsky.social & @johannaost.com.
Excited to learn that my gothic short story Spolia, originally published by Egaeus Press, has made the shortlist for Brave New Weird!
Congratulations to all the brilliant authors on the BRAVE NEW WEIRD shortlist! And a hearty & exhausted thanks to the nearly 1000 submissions we had to agonize over.
Full list here: tenebrouspress.com/blog/2025/3/...
Or in the screenshots🖤☠️
Final Table of Contents will be announced...one day.
Full list here: tenebrouspress.com/blog/2025/3/...
Or in the screenshots🖤☠️
Final Table of Contents will be announced...one day.
![The BRAVE NEW WEIRD SHORTLIST:
Ainsley Hawthorn - Big Cats of Newfoundland
Aleksandra Ugelstad Elnæs - Spolia
Alex Fox - The City of Cities, Inverted; A Shadow Cast By Many Hands
Angela Liu - A Contract of Ink and Skin
Ann LeBlanc - Memories Held Against a Hungry Mouth
Avra Margariti - Unbirthday Means You Wish Yourself Unborn
Azure Arther - Reciprocity
Briar Ripley Page - Birth Of a Sucker
Calla Eris Orion - Kiss of a Toad
Casey Lawrence - Ten Things I Have Learned About Human Skin: A Presentation
[sarah] Cavar - Mad Studies
Dane Erbach - Something Else
David Corse - The Amassing Man
E.G. Condé - Sibilance
E.M. Linden - Mangrove Daughter
Elad Haber - End of Line
Elana Gomel - Mother Black Hole
Eleanna Castroianni - Zarghána](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hzezf3upipcqfyabakveo4ub/bafkreif4g5ufdn52dkb3a5gm3lhgslinhv5yq6azkeuiiptdf3rbbcoiwq@jpeg)
![Emma Burnett - Plastic-eating fungus caused doomsday[2][3]
Emma E. Murray - An Angel of God
Emmett Nahil - Vining
Erik McHatton - The Man Who Collected Ligotti
F. J. Bergmann - The Museum of Etymology
Faith Allington - Teacakes for Foxes
Guan Un - Painted Surfaces
Hannah Greer - To Be Human
Ira Rat - Soft
Jack Klausner - Cardboard Faces
Jack Lennon - The Scottish Welfare Fund Application Form
James Cato - Wonders of a Plastic Ocean
Jes Malitoris - The House of Coiled Earth
Jess Elizabeth Reed - The Belly
K. A. Roy - Welcome to Rebirth Grove
K.A. Wiggins - The Tangle (Did Not Kill Kitsault)
Kay Vaindal - Pig House
Kelsea Yu - Creature
Lena Ng - The Halloween Horror Show
Leo Oliveira - They Remember Faces
Leslie What - Wayback](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:hzezf3upipcqfyabakveo4ub/bafkreiaqg4pvbmizoysrvsneyiafydojomf72sg7iq4qj7lahtrsakvrli@jpeg)
April 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Excited to learn that my gothic short story Spolia, originally published by Egaeus Press, has made the shortlist for Brave New Weird!
Miscellaneous snaps from the heady Pre-Raphaelite fever dream that is Leighton House Museum, once the studio home of the painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton.
March 20, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Miscellaneous snaps from the heady Pre-Raphaelite fever dream that is Leighton House Museum, once the studio home of the painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton.