Eleanor Franzen
@eleanorfranzen.bsky.social
PhDing @BirkbeckUoL on Georgian/Regency courtesan-writers. First article now OA https://doi.org/10.14712/2571452X.2025.69.4
Book blogging https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/. Escaped bookseller, soprano, T1D, she/her 🇺🇸/🇬🇧
Book blogging https://ellethinks.wordpress.com/. Escaped bookseller, soprano, T1D, she/her 🇺🇸/🇬🇧
Pinned
Really loving how many people are on Bluesky all of a sudden. Welcome, bleeple! This place has been a bit quiet but hopefully it'll liven up now. Come hang out with me if you want to talk(/yell) about books, writing, the C18th, historic sex work, choral music. Not usually all at once.
Such a terrific, informative talk - I'd had no idea about the numbers of Black men we know voted in the 18th & 19th centuries, let alone that two of them were MPs! Particularly interested by William Cuffay/-ey: not an MP, but tailor, Chartist organiser, and short king (4'11").
Next Wednesday 3-12 we are holding a joint seminar with @histparl.bsky.social! Join us at 17:30 at the @ihr.bsky.social or online via zoom to hear Dr Helen Wilson discuss ‘Black & Political: Black Political Participation in Britain, 1750-1850’.
Register now! 👎
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Register now! 👎
www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
Black and Political: Reconstructing Black Participation in British Politics, 1750-1850
Hybrid | Online-via Zoom & IHR Wolfson Room NB01, Basement, IHR, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU
www.history.ac.uk
December 3, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Such a terrific, informative talk - I'd had no idea about the numbers of Black men we know voted in the 18th & 19th centuries, let alone that two of them were MPs! Particularly interested by William Cuffay/-ey: not an MP, but tailor, Chartist organiser, and short king (4'11").
November was a less slumpy reading month, although I also appear to be running out of things to read. Good thing Christmas is coming. You can see what I thought of this month's non-library reading here: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/n... #reading #books #bookreview #booksky
November 2025 Superlatives
Less slumpy in November – I read some excellent books this month. The real issue has been the feeling that I’m teetering on the verge of running out: my print TBR is down to zero, my Ki…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
December 1, 2025 at 3:36 PM
November was a less slumpy reading month, although I also appear to be running out of things to read. Good thing Christmas is coming. You can see what I thought of this month's non-library reading here: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/n... #reading #books #bookreview #booksky
Most of October's non-library reading. I've spent the month in varying degrees of physical pain and my reading has been slow but more or less successful. Here's what I thought: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/o... #bookstagram #reading #books #bookreview
October 2025 Superlatives
My reading really slowed down in October. I’ve been in pain for much of it – the chest/rib injury from late September, plus what appears to be fasciitis in my left foot, which is being …
ellethinks.wordpress.com
November 4, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Most of October's non-library reading. I've spent the month in varying degrees of physical pain and my reading has been slow but more or less successful. Here's what I thought: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/10/31/o... #bookstagram #reading #books #bookreview
There is precisely one defensible use case for ChatGPT in the humanities, and that is "clear, succinct explanations of literary theory concepts, with examples". Émile Benveniste's I-you polarity in 100 non-jargon words, please. Literally nothing else. #academia
October 13, 2025 at 10:26 PM
There is precisely one defensible use case for ChatGPT in the humanities, and that is "clear, succinct explanations of literary theory concepts, with examples". Émile Benveniste's I-you polarity in 100 non-jargon words, please. Literally nothing else. #academia
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
You will absolutely never guess what the context is for this rather ominous passage
www.thenational.scot/news/2553640...
www.thenational.scot/news/2553640...
October 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
You will absolutely never guess what the context is for this rather ominous passage
www.thenational.scot/news/2553640...
www.thenational.scot/news/2553640...
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
MAGA and its agenda are *wildly* unpopular, and media are hugely out of touch for not saying so. Politicians who tap into this reality will thrive, and media outlets that reflect this truth will earn enormous audiences.
A majority of adults oppose Trump’s use of the National Guard in America cities www.gelliottmorris.com/p/a-majority...
A majority of Americans oppose Trump sending the National Guard to Democratic-run cities
The president is defying the will of the people, federal judges, and the Constitution
www.gelliottmorris.com
October 10, 2025 at 11:53 PM
MAGA and its agenda are *wildly* unpopular, and media are hugely out of touch for not saying so. Politicians who tap into this reality will thrive, and media outlets that reflect this truth will earn enormous audiences.
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
Chuffed to be in vol.2 of @plantperspectives.bsky.social.
Thanks to all at the journal & @rbgkew.bsky.social for including my weird little piece about working-class C19th poet Eliza Cook, trees, illness& intertemporal weirdness.
Read it here:
www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/issue/vie...
Thanks to all at the journal & @rbgkew.bsky.social for including my weird little piece about working-class C19th poet Eliza Cook, trees, illness& intertemporal weirdness.
Read it here:
www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/issue/vie...
October 9, 2025 at 10:21 AM
Chuffed to be in vol.2 of @plantperspectives.bsky.social.
Thanks to all at the journal & @rbgkew.bsky.social for including my weird little piece about working-class C19th poet Eliza Cook, trees, illness& intertemporal weirdness.
Read it here:
www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/issue/vie...
Thanks to all at the journal & @rbgkew.bsky.social for including my weird little piece about working-class C19th poet Eliza Cook, trees, illness& intertemporal weirdness.
Read it here:
www.whp-journals.co.uk/PP/issue/vie...
I LOVE @overleaf.bsky.social's writing, both critical and creative. Now you can read it too! Her article is now out OA, exploring C19 poet Eliza Cook, the Slaugham Yew, and their C21 traces/resonances. doi.org/10.3197/WHPP... #19thcentury #poetry #ecopoetry #arborealhumanities #academia
doi.org
October 9, 2025 at 10:22 AM
I LOVE @overleaf.bsky.social's writing, both critical and creative. Now you can read it too! Her article is now out OA, exploring C19 poet Eliza Cook, the Slaugham Yew, and their C21 traces/resonances. doi.org/10.3197/WHPP... #19thcentury #poetry #ecopoetry #arborealhumanities #academia
Attending online! Full of interesting tidbits, from what a C18 valet did immediately after unpacking his master's belongings (find a fellow English servant and go drinking) to what these journals don't include (surprisingly, servants rarely wrote about their actual work). #18thcentury #academia
Just listening to @richardjansell.bsky.social talking eloquently about servants and their journals on the grand tour @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social
October 8, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Attending online! Full of interesting tidbits, from what a C18 valet did immediately after unpacking his master's belongings (find a fellow English servant and go drinking) to what these journals don't include (surprisingly, servants rarely wrote about their actual work). #18thcentury #academia
How cool does this lineup look! Thrilled to be part of Romanticism Across Borders's 25-26 series - thanks for asking me @paulinehortolland.bsky.social et al.!
Check out this year's program for 'Romanticism Across Borders' virtual speaker series. I'm on there along with some of my favorite people 👯✨
October 7, 2025 at 1:21 PM
How cool does this lineup look! Thrilled to be part of Romanticism Across Borders's 25-26 series - thanks for asking me @paulinehortolland.bsky.social et al.!
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
I knew they’d come for the archivists and librarians but honestly I assumed it would be for a reason better than “Our Special Boy wants to give his friend a sword! Give him a sword!”
“They asked for a sword, and we said, ‘Well, we do have swords, but we can’t give them away because they’re museum artifacts,’” said Todd Arrington, forced to resign as head of Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library.”
October 4, 2025 at 3:19 PM
I knew they’d come for the archivists and librarians but honestly I assumed it would be for a reason better than “Our Special Boy wants to give his friend a sword! Give him a sword!”
Can't make it this week, but this promises to be fascinating - d'Eon is a figure of enduring intrigue. I've signed up to attend the other seminars for the term online now! #c18 #long18thcentury #history #genderstudies #academia
Very much looking forward to Dan Gosling (TNA) speaking on 'A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon' this Wed. @long18thsem.bsky.social @ihrlibrary.bsky.social All welcome online or in person, but please register: www.history.ac.uk/news-events/...
A Question of Sex? Assessing Lord Mansfield’s “judgment” on the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon
www.history.ac.uk
September 23, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Can't make it this week, but this promises to be fascinating - d'Eon is a figure of enduring intrigue. I've signed up to attend the other seminars for the term online now! #c18 #long18thcentury #history #genderstudies #academia
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
The new LP issue has arrived: 'Romantic Shock and Surprise,' edited by David Duff (Queen Mary University of London) and Laurent Folliot @sorbonne-universite.fr. Université Cover design by Karolína Bendová. Read in open access: litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/magazin/2025...
September 3, 2025 at 8:15 AM
The new LP issue has arrived: 'Romantic Shock and Surprise,' edited by David Duff (Queen Mary University of London) and Laurent Folliot @sorbonne-universite.fr. Université Cover design by Karolína Bendová. Read in open access: litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/magazin/2025...
Sorry for never being on Bluesky anymore, BUT I had my first article published @litterariaprag.bsky.social! Here it is, free to read: Radical Reform and the Shock of the Past in Mary Robinson's Vancenza #gothic #C18 #romanticism #academia #womenwriters litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/u...
September 17, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Sorry for never being on Bluesky anymore, BUT I had my first article published @litterariaprag.bsky.social! Here it is, free to read: Radical Reform and the Shock of the Past in Mary Robinson's Vancenza #gothic #C18 #romanticism #academia #womenwriters litterariapragensia.ff.cuni.cz/wp-content/u...
#20booksofsummer 7 (forgot to link to reviews of 4-6 but they're on the blog too!): Passing, by Nella Larsen, a novel whose extreme self-awareness stops it from being too schematic, offering instead an exploration of safety and freedom ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/25/2... #books #reading
20 Books of Summer, 7: Larsen
Passing, by Nella Larsen (1929): Probably everyone knows the plot of this already because I seem to be the last person on earth to read it, so really I thought I knew the salient points of the prem…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
June 25, 2025 at 8:04 AM
#20booksofsummer 7 (forgot to link to reviews of 4-6 but they're on the blog too!): Passing, by Nella Larsen, a novel whose extreme self-awareness stops it from being too schematic, offering instead an exploration of safety and freedom ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/25/2... #books #reading
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
Remembering former weaver Finton Burgin, who died on this day in 1860 at the age of 18. He was the son of the widowed Catherine Burgin, died 23rd March 1866, aged 50.
June 5, 2025 at 11:16 AM
Remembering former weaver Finton Burgin, who died on this day in 1860 at the age of 18. He was the son of the widowed Catherine Burgin, died 23rd March 1866, aged 50.
So excited about this year's 20 Books of Summer project, I'm out of the blocks fast! Here's what I thought of the first three: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/2... #bookstagram #books #reading #bookreview #20booksofsummer
20 Books of Summer, 1-3: Vo, Sinclair, Bowen
I’m so excited about 20 Books of Summer, I’m already on my way! These first three have all been very different: a distinctly grownup fantasy novella, a sometimes brutally realist memoir…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
June 5, 2025 at 8:57 AM
So excited about this year's 20 Books of Summer project, I'm out of the blocks fast! Here's what I thought of the first three: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/06/05/2... #bookstagram #books #reading #bookreview #20booksofsummer
I clung on to May by my fingernails—this is everything I read that WASN'T from the library, including three re-reads, two gripping new/forthcoming releases, and one 99p Kindle punt: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/31/m... #reading #books #bookreview
May 2025 Superlatives
May. I clung on by my fingernails. Deadlines came and were met. Mental gears were shifted every other day or so. Requirements seemed to cluster mid-month, in one particularly exhausting ten-day spr…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
May 31, 2025 at 9:40 AM
I clung on to May by my fingernails—this is everything I read that WASN'T from the library, including three re-reads, two gripping new/forthcoming releases, and one 99p Kindle punt: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/31/m... #reading #books #bookreview
The pleasure was all mine! What a fantastic weekend at the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar's annual symposium, this year at the Sorbonne on Romantic Shock and Surprise. A convivial group of brilliant and, above all, generous scholars—much to ponder and follow up on.
& also thank you to my fellow panelists @eleanorfranzen.bsky.social & Pauline Hortolland for our fun panel on “Varieties of Gothic Shock”! 🫶🏼
May 18, 2025 at 12:23 PM
The pleasure was all mine! What a fantastic weekend at the London-Paris Romanticism Seminar's annual symposium, this year at the Sorbonne on Romantic Shock and Surprise. A convivial group of brilliant and, above all, generous scholars—much to ponder and follow up on.
Everything else I read in April, from fifth-century Northumbria to rural Massachusetts: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/a...
April 2025 Superlatives
April was… not the cruellest month! My fiancé had a birthday, which we celebrated with steak and Old Fashioneds in Mayfair. I was in Lyon for a few days for work (it’s really one of my …
ellethinks.wordpress.com
May 1, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Everything else I read in April, from fifth-century Northumbria to rural Massachusetts: ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/05/01/a...
April's library reading: brief, but magical. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/l... #loveyourlibrary #reading #books #bookreview
#LoveYourLibrary, April 2025
Hosted, as always, by Rebecca at Bookish Beck, posting on the last Monday of every month. There’s no set formula to this; you can post anything about libraries, whether you’ve recently been to an e…
ellethinks.wordpress.com
April 28, 2025 at 7:16 AM
April's library reading: brief, but magical. ellethinks.wordpress.com/2025/04/28/l... #loveyourlibrary #reading #books #bookreview
The demonisation of trans people isn't normal. People pretend that it is, but it's a culture war that's been manufactured in the past decade. Trans people are here and real and who they say they are. Get with it.
not to invalidate my trans siblings but, personally, cis allies loudly declaring support for us right now does help keep despair at bay even if it changes nothing. I don’t care how you phrase it, how clumsy. Please be there for/with us, loudly. It fights the voices that scream everyone hates us.
April 18, 2025 at 11:58 AM
The demonisation of trans people isn't normal. People pretend that it is, but it's a culture war that's been manufactured in the past decade. Trans people are here and real and who they say they are. Get with it.
Reposted by Eleanor Franzen
not to invalidate my trans siblings but, personally, cis allies loudly declaring support for us right now does help keep despair at bay even if it changes nothing. I don’t care how you phrase it, how clumsy. Please be there for/with us, loudly. It fights the voices that scream everyone hates us.
April 17, 2025 at 2:33 PM
not to invalidate my trans siblings but, personally, cis allies loudly declaring support for us right now does help keep despair at bay even if it changes nothing. I don’t care how you phrase it, how clumsy. Please be there for/with us, loudly. It fights the voices that scream everyone hates us.
James Clifford, writing on C18 biography in 1968: "The purpose of this essay is to attempt some hasty generalisations." I'll know I've made it when I can write *that* in an academic essay with confidence.
April 18, 2025 at 9:10 AM
James Clifford, writing on C18 biography in 1968: "The purpose of this essay is to attempt some hasty generalisations." I'll know I've made it when I can write *that* in an academic essay with confidence.