Aleksandra Ugelstad Elnæs
@aleksandraue.bsky.social
Writer, historian & reclusive escapist haunted by all things lost, fragmented and shipwrecked. Lapsed 18th centuryist interested in queer classical reception, gothic fiction & the sea.
https://linktr.ee/aleksandraue
https://linktr.ee/aleksandraue
Pinned
Infernal Mysteries, or A Compendium of Gothic Reveries & Dolorous Tales, published by Egaeus Press. Buried among its tales you’ll find my story “Spolia” inspired by a fragment from the Giovanni Barracco museum in Rome.
In the bleak midwinter.
January 9, 2026 at 6:43 PM
In the bleak midwinter.
Reposted by Aleksandra Ugelstad Elnæs
what's on my desk today is unfortunately topical: the first collection of folk-tales in Kalaallisut (Greenlandic), printed on the first major printing-press in Nuuk in 4 volumes from 1859 to 1856, illustrated by the Inuk hunter and artist Aron of Kangeq
January 7, 2026 at 3:37 PM
what's on my desk today is unfortunately topical: the first collection of folk-tales in Kalaallisut (Greenlandic), printed on the first major printing-press in Nuuk in 4 volumes from 1859 to 1856, illustrated by the Inuk hunter and artist Aron of Kangeq
Infernal Mysteries, or A Compendium of Gothic Reveries & Dolorous Tales, published by Egaeus Press. Buried among its tales you’ll find my story “Spolia” inspired by a fragment from the Giovanni Barracco museum in Rome.
December 16, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Infernal Mysteries, or A Compendium of Gothic Reveries & Dolorous Tales, published by Egaeus Press. Buried among its tales you’ll find my story “Spolia” inspired by a fragment from the Giovanni Barracco museum in Rome.
Lullaby of the leaves. 🍂
December 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
Lullaby of the leaves. 🍂
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