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In A Glass Darkly
''In a Glass Darkly'' is a collection of five stories by Sheridan Le Fanu, first published in 1872, the year before his death. The second and third stories are revised versions of previously published stories. The first three stories are short stories, and the fourth and fifth are long enough to be called novellas (the fourth is over 44,500 words long, and the fifth is over 27,500 words long). The title is an allusion to 1 Corinthians 13:12, a Biblical passage which describes humanity as perceiving the world "through a glass, darkly". Stories The stories, which belong to the Gothic horror and mystery genres, are presented as selections from the posthumous papers of the occult detective Dr. Martin Hesselius. "Green Tea" An English clergyman named Jennings confides to Hesselius that he is being followed by a demon in the form of an ethereal monkey, invisible to everyone else, which is trying to invade his mind and destroy his life. Hesselius writes letters to a Dutch colleag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Henry Friston
David Henry Friston (1820–1906) was a British illustrator and figure painter in the Victorian Era. He is best remembered as the creator of the first illustrations of Sherlock Holmes in 1887, as well as his illustrations of the female vampire story ''Carmilla'' (1872). He is also remembered for his illustrations accompanying reviews of Gilbert and Sullivan operas and plays of W. S. Gilbert in ''The Illustrated London News'' and the '' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News'' in the 1870s and 1880s. Biography Friston produced illustrations and artworks from the 1850s to the late 1880s. His professional career appears to have started by 1853, when he exhibited ''Mazeppa'' at the Royal Academy of Art. Friston exhibited at the Royal Academy of Art a total of 14 times between 1853 and 1869, though he was never elected a member of the Academy. He also exhibited at least six examples of his work at the British Institution (between 1854 and 1867). In their critical companion to the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ghost Story
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature''. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2006. (p. 404-5). The "ghost" may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic. Linked to the ghost is the idea of a "haunting", where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. Ghost stories are commonly examples of ghostlore. Colloquially, the term "ghost story" can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has been developed as a short story format, within genre fiction. It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story. While ghost stories are often explicitly meant to scare, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Vampire Lovers
''The Vampire Lovers'' is a 1970 British Gothic film, Gothic horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, George Cole (actor), George Cole, Kate O'Mara, Madeline Smith, Dawn Addams, Douglas Wilmer and Jon Finch. It was produced by Hammer Film Productions. It is based on the 1872 Sheridan Le Fanu novella ''Carmilla'' and is the first film in the Karnstein Trilogy, the other two films being ''Lust for a Vampire'' (1971) and ''Twins of Evil'' (1971). The three films were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting Lesbian vampire, lesbian themes. Plot In Styria, 1794, a female vampire in a diaphanous gown materialises from a misty graveyard and kills a man she lures out of a tavern. While going back to her grave, she finds her shroud missing. She is thus forced to face Baron Hartog, a vampire hunter who was stalking her in order to avenge the death of his sister. He decapitates her. Decades later, Austrian General Spielsdorf is throwing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hammer Film Productions
Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classic horror characters such as Victor Frankenstein, Baron Victor Frankenstein, Count Dracula, and the Mummy (undead), Mummy, which Hammer reintroduced to audiences by filming them in vivid colour for the first time. Hammer also produced science fiction, Thriller film, thrillers, film noir and Comedy film, comedies, as well as, in later years, television series. During its most successful years, Hammer dominated the horror film market, enjoying worldwide distribution and considerable financial success. This success was, in part, due to its distribution partnerships with American companies such as United Artists, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, American Internationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vampyr
''Vampyr'' () is a 1932 Gothic horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. It was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on elements from Sheridan Le Fanu's 1872 collection of supernatural stories '' In a Glass Darkly''. The film was funded by Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, who (credited as Julian West) also played the starring role of Allan Gray, a student of the occult who wanders into the French village of Courtempierre, which is under the curse of a vampire. Most of the other members of the cast were also non-professional actors. The film presented a number of technical challenges for Dreyer, as it was his first sound film and was recorded in three languages. To simplify matters, he decided to use very little dialogue in the film, and much of the story is told with title cards, like a silent film. The film was shot entirely on location, and to enhance the atmospheric content, Dreyer opted for a washed out, soft focus photographic technique. The soundtrack ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish film director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers in history, his movies are noted for emotional austerity and slow, stately pacing, frequent themes of social intolerance, the inseparability of fate and death, and the power of evil in earthly life. His 1928 movie '' The Passion of Joan of Arc'' is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time, renowned for its cinematography and use of close-ups. It frequently appears on '' Sight & Sounds lists of the great films ever made, and in 2012's poll, it was voted the ninth-best film by film critics and 37th by film directors. His other well-known films include ''Michael'' (1924), '' Vampyr'' (1932), '' Day of Wrath'' (1943), '' Ordet'' (''The Word'') (1955), and '' Gertrud'' (1964). Life Dreyer was born illegitimate in Copenhagen, Denmark. His birth mother was an unmarried, Scanian maid ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dracula
''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking a business trip to stay at the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman, Count Dracula. Harker flees after learning that Dracula is a vampire, and the Count moves to England and plagues the seaside town of Whitby. A small group, led by Abraham Van Helsing, hunts and kills him. The novel was mostly written in the 1890s, and Stoker produced over a hundred pages of notes, drawing extensively from Folklore of Romania, folklore and History of Romania, history. Scholars have suggested various figures as the inspiration for Dracula, including the Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler and the Countess Elizabeth Báthory, but recent scholarship suggests otherwise. He probably found the name Dracula in Whitby's public l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bram Stoker
Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of the most famous classics of English literature. The primary antagonist of the novel, Count Dracula, is often ranked among the most iconic and best-known fictional figures of the entire Victorian era, and the character's popularity has led to over 700 adaptations for films, movies, plays, comics, video games, cartoons, stage performances, and other forms of media. Although he was the author of 12 mystery novels and novellas, Stoker's reputation as one of the most influential writers of Gothic horror fiction lies solely with ''Dracula''. During his life, he was better known as the personal assistant of the actor Sir Henry Irving and business manager of the West End's Lyceum Theatre, which Irving owned. Stoker was also a distant relative o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchy Of Styria
The Duchy of Styria (; ; ) was a duchy located in modern-day southern Austria and northern Slovenia. It was a part of the Holy Roman Empire until its dissolution in 1806 and a Cisleithanian crown land of Austria-Hungary until its dissolution in 1918. History It was created by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1180 when he raised the March of Styria to a duchy of equal rank with neighbouring Carinthia and Bavaria, after the fall of the Bavarian Duke Henry the Lion earlier that year. Margrave Ottokar IV thereby became the first duke of Styria and also the last of the ancient Otakar dynasty. As Ottokar had no issue, he in 1186 signed the Georgenberg Pact with the mighty House of Babenberg, rulers of Austria since 976, after which both duchies should in perpetuity be ruled in personal union. Upon his death in 1192, Styria as stipulated fell to the Babenberg Leopold V, Duke of Austria. The Austrian Babenbergs became extinct in 1246, when Duke Frederick II was killed in bat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Corydalis Cava
''Corydalis cava'' is a species of flowering plant in the family (biology), family Papaveraceae, native plant, native to moist, shady, woodland habitats throughout most of mainland Europe, although commonest in central and southeast Europe. Its range extends from Spain in the west to Ukraine, Belarus and the Caucasus in the east and as far north as Sweden. It is absent from (though may sometimes be found in a naturalised state in) Iceland, the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Finland, Russia and Greece. Description ''Corydalis cava'' grows to tall. It is a ephemeral plant, spring ephemeral—foliage that grows in the spring dies down to its tuberous rootstock in summer. It has long-spurred flowers which appear in spring. The flowers may be mauve, purple, red, or white. The seeds contain an elaiosome that attracts ants, which transport the seeds into their ant colony. This seed transportation is called myrmecochory. Toxicity Many of the species in ''Corydalis'' contain alkaloids ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bulbocapnine
Bulbocapnine is an alkaloid found in ''Corydalis'' (notably the European species C. cava) and ''Dicentra'', genera of the plant family Fumariaceae which have caused (notably the American species ''Corydalis caseana'') the fatal poisoning of sheep and cattle. It has been shown to act as an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, and inhibits biosynthesis of dopamine via inhibition of the enzyme tyrosine hydroxylase. Like apomorphine, it is reported to be an inhibitor of amyloid beta protein (Aβ) fiber formation, whose presence is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Bulbocapnine is thus a potential therapeutic under the amyloid hypothesis. According to the ''Dorlands Medical Dictionary'', it "inhibits the reflex and motor activities of striated muscle. It has been used in the treatment of muscular tremors and vestibular nystagmus". A psychiatrist at Tulane University named Robert Heath carried out experiments on prisoners at the Louisiana State Penitentiary using bulbocapnine to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alkaloid
Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large variety of organisms including bacteria, fungus, fungi, Medicinal plant, plants, and animals. They can be purified from crude extracts of these organisms by acid-base extraction, or solvent extractions followed by silica-gel column chromatography. Alkaloids have a wide range of pharmacology, pharmacological activities including antimalarial medication, antimalarial (e.g. quinine), asthma, antiasthma (e.g. ephedrine), chemotherapy, anticancer (e.g. omacetaxine mepesuccinate, homoharringtonine), cholinomimetic (e.g. galantamine), vasodilation, vasodilatory (e.g. vincamine), Antiarrhythmic agent, antiarrhythmic (e.g. quinidine), analgesic (e.g. morphine), antibacterial (e.g. chelerythrine), and anti-diabetic, antihyperglycemic activities (e.g. berb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
