Deidre Lynch
@drbibliomane.bsky.social
6.4K followers 2.7K following 3.8K posts
She/her, 1st gen, Canadian who's at Harvard but isn't OF Harvard-posts mainly about books (w/ cats & flowers thrown in for good measure). Now writing an itty-bitty book that aims to be a literary & media history of scrap. Website: https://deidrelynch.org
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drbibliomane.bsky.social
A JANE AUSTEN GUIDE TO FACULTY MEETINGS
(an intermittent series)

"He said it, she knew, to be contradicted"--Persuasion, ch. 7

(on the distribution of service commitments)
"Every body allows that the talent of writing agreeable letters is peculiarly female."--Northanger Abbey, ch. 3
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
zannavanloon.bsky.social
☞☞ Hands-on reading ☜☜

The manicules in #rarebooks are fantastically diverse. Some are tiny & discreet, others take up half the margin; some have flowing sleeves, or even little faces.

They’re glimpses into the personality of readers/scribes highlighting passages worth reading.
#bookhistory 💙📚📜
Detail of a manicure and a little face gesturing towards the handwritten text of a manuscript in gothic script written on parchment. The man depicted seems angry. The manicure has a sleeve A manicule with a stretched sleeve drawn in red in the margins pointing towards a text in Gothic script written on parchment A manicule used to highlight a rubricated section title in a medieval manuscript written in gothic script on parchment A very large vaguely drawn manicule pointing towards text in gothic script written on parchment
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Me, to the weather (a windy day):

It is not every one . . . who has your passion for dead leaves.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
The stories have been great so far too. I especially enjoyed "From Above" (which 1st appeared in the New Yorker in 1941): a not yet exploded time bomb found in a London neighbourhood & the housewife who enjoys a bit too much the day of wandering that happens after she evacuates her house.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Today's #tinyjoy, because every little bit counts, is the end papers (recreating a calico print called "Sailors" from 1940-41) you can find in the Persephone Books edition of English Climate, Sylvia Townsend Warner's Wartime Stories.
Sample of red, pink, green and black striped calico: sailors, with their wide legged pants, anchors, sailboats in one stripe, alternating with a stripe showing us fish.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
chrisloar.bsky.social
Scholars of eighteenth-century topics: consider submitting your work to *Digital Defoe*. We publish essays on Defoe, but also on his "contemporaries," which we're inclined to interpret broadly. More info here:
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/10/...
cfp | call for papers
call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu
drbibliomane.bsky.social
So maybe in 2025 undergraduates are recognizing that a humanistic education can provide resources for grappling with the current crisis? Maybe?
Fwiw, a friend who teaches Classics at U of Toronto reports that there's been an unexpected boom in their enrollments this year.
annakornbluh.bsky.social
week 7, in a city under siege for 32 days and counting, and the students who are able to come to class despite the blitz are showing up like their lives depend on those 50 minutes of togetherness, poetry, and big questions
miriamposner.com
IDK, man. School started 2 weeks ago for us, and once again students remind me that they’re so curious and interested in the world and anxious to ask big questions. We hear that these questions are no longer useful or relevant, but wherever that’s coming from, it’s not what students believe.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Thank you for writing this. So powerful; I share your heartbreak.
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
lindseckert.bsky.social
2025, the year in which I earnestly email colleagues the phrase, "Well this seems terrible; I'd rather not be assessed by robots."

We're living in the future, and I hate it here.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
I wonder whether there might be something for you in Muriel Spark's A Far Cry from Kensington. The character who is denounced by the narrator as a "pisseur de copie" is not exactly a critic, but the phrase itself is kind of useful!
drbibliomane.bsky.social
With its "medico-electrical apparatus," was Dr. James Graham's "celestial bed" in his "Temple of Health" in 1779 London a prototype for DJT's "med bed"?
There are just too many ways in which the #18thc is a useful guide to the hucksterism of 2025 America.
daily.jstor.org/the-prince-o...
Black and white image showing a nubile woman, in deshabille, reclining on the Celestial Bed, a kind of couch with a canopy over it. Statue of Mercury in a niche behind her.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
thank you! I just got it! I’m very excited to sit down with it.
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Remembering a good line in a satire that a clever sophomore published in the Harvard Crimson about a year and a half ago:
"I didn't know when my calculus midterm was, so I asked a New York Times reporter."
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
tomkeirstead.bsky.social
A film crew has taken over a block nearby and lined it with vintage cars. They’ve even erected a couple of phone booths. Any Torontonians around who know what’s going on?
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Also in T’ronna, “Queens Quay.”
drbibliomane.bsky.social
I have been trying to buy that very book! Should I?
Reposted by Deidre Lynch
carolinelevine.bsky.social
Cornell alums!
Cornell continues to be pressured by the current administration in DC to reach a deal to restore federal research funding.
Please consider signing this petition!
Please also share widely with any Cornell graduates you know!
Alumni in Support of Cornell’s Independence, Democracy, and Academic Freedom
Please add your name below if you agree to be a signatory of the following message to be delivered to the Cornell Board of Trustees: Dear Members of the Cornell Board of Trustees, Ongoing attacks on A...
docs.google.com
drbibliomane.bsky.social
@emilyherring.bsky.social , I think you would like this too!
ivan812.bsky.social
Happened on this 1919 edition of Henri Bergson’s Matter and Memory with amazing annotations thruout. There’s a coding system distinguishing between comments made: (1) At Home, Sept 22, 1925; (2) at Berea, KY, Feb 11, 1928; (3) At Home, Sept 29, 1930; & (4) Cottage, July 22, 1933 😮
drbibliomane.bsky.social
Amazing! Thank you, Ivan!
drbibliomane.bsky.social
#litcrit pals, a really interesting question about the history of discipline from a graduate student here, a question that has me totally stumped:
"which journal in literary criticism was the first to implement modern peer review?" (I think he might mean blind review)
Thank you for your suggestions!