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Sergeant Cuff
Sergeant Richard Cuff is a fictional character in Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel ''The Moonstone''. He represents one of the earliest portrayals of a police detective in an English novel. Description Cuff is described within the novel as confident and intelligent, with a piercing gaze and a self-possessed manner. Physically, he is "a grizzled, elderly man... his face was as sharp as a hatchet, and the skin of it was as yellow and dry and withered as an autumn leaf". He is characterised as having a passionate interest for growing roses, and has the habit of whistling ''The Last Rose of Summer'', a traditional Irish song, when investigating. Inspiration Wilkie Collins worked alongside Charles Dickens on the weekly newspaper ''All the Year Round'', and evidence suggests that both were individually inspired by police detective Charles Frederick Field. While Dickens used Field as the basis for the character as Inspector Bucket in ''Bleak House'' (1853), it is likely that Collins was al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Moonstone
''The Moonstone: A Romance'' by Wilkie Collins is an 1868 British epistolary novel. It is an early example of the modern detective novel, and established many of the ground rules of the modern genre. Its publication was started on 4 January 1868 and was completed on 8 August 1868. The story was serial (literature), serialised in Charles Dickens's magazine ''All the Year Round.'' Collins adapted ''The Moonstone'' for the stage in 1877. Etymology The Moonstone of the title is a diamond (not to be confused with the semi-precious Moonstone (gemstone), moonstone gem). It has gained its name from its association with the Hindu mythology, Hindu god of the Moon, Chandra. It is protected by three hereditary guardians on the orders of Vishnu, and waxes and wanes in brilliance along with the light of the Moon. Plot outline Rachel Verinder, a young English woman, inherits a large Indian diamond on her eighteenth birthday. It is a legacy from her uncle, a corrupt British army officer who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John Dickens, John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed Penny reading, readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Male Characters In Literature
Male (symbol: ♂) is the sex of an organism that produces the gamete (sex cell) known as sperm, which fuses with the larger female gamete, or ovum, in the process of fertilisation. A male organism cannot reproduce sexually without access to at least one ovum from a female, but some organisms can reproduce both sexually and asexually. Most male mammals, including male humans, have a Y chromosome, which codes for the production of larger amounts of testosterone to develop male reproductive organs. In humans, the word ''male'' can also be used to refer to gender, in the social sense of gender role or gender identity. Overview The existence of separate sexes has evolved independently at different times and in different lineages, an example of convergent evolution. The repeated pattern is sexual reproduction in isogamous species with two or more mating types with gametes of identical form and behavior (but different at the molecular level) to anisogamous species with gamete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fictional British Police Detectives
Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with fact, history, or plausibility. In a traditional narrow sense, fiction refers to written narratives in prose often specifically novels, novellas, and short stories. More broadly, however, fiction encompasses imaginary narratives expressed in any medium, including not just writings but also live theatrical performances, films, television programs, radio dramas, comics, role-playing games, and video games. Definition and theory Typically, the fictionality of a work is publicly expressed, so the audience expects a work of fiction to deviate to a greater or lesser degree from the real world, rather than presenting for instance only factually accurate portrayals or characters who are actual people. Because fiction is generally understood as not adhering to the real world, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Godfrey Ablewhite
Godfrey Ablewhite is a character in Wilkie Collins' 1868 novel ''The Moonstone''. A vocal philanthropist, he is one of the rival suitors of Rachel Verinder, to whom he is briefly engaged before his mercenary motives are revealed. Religiosity challenged? Godfrey is explicitly and repeatedly linked to Exeter Hall, site of the most theatrical elements in evangelical preaching: "Exeter Hall again....the performance with the tongue". His unmasking as the villain of the piece has therefore been taken by some as a literal demonstration on the author's part of the hypocrisy inherent in sermonising - the gap between words preached and actual actions. Others, however, point out that Collins has softened his attack on Victorian morality Victorian morality is a distillation of the moral views of the middle class in 19th-century Britain, the Victorian era. Victorian values emerged in all social classes and reached all facets of Victorian living. The values of the period—which ... in at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constance Kent
Constance Emily Kent (1844–1944) was an English woman who confessed to the murder of her half-brother, Francis Saville Kent, in 1860, when she was aged 16 and he aged three. The case led to high-level pronouncements that there was no longer any ancient priest-penitent privilege in England and Wales. Kent's death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, and she was released after serving twenty years. In later life, she changed her name to Ruth Emilie Kaye, became a nurse and for twenty years was matron of a nurses' home in East Maitland, New South Wales. She died at the age of 100. Early life Constance Kent was born in Sidmouth, Devon, England, on 6 February 1844, the fifth daughter and ninth child of Samuel Saville (or Savill) Kent (1801–1872), an Inspector of Factories for the Home Office, and his first wife, Mary Ann (1808–1852), daughter of prosperous coachmaker and expert on the Portland Vase, Thomas Windus of Stamford Hill, London. Crime Sometime during the nig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bleak House
''Bleak House'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode Serial (literature), serial between 12 March 1852 and 12 September 1853. The novel has many characters and several subplots, and is told partly by the novel's heroine, Esther Summerson, and partly by an omniscient narrator. At the centre of ''Bleak House'' is a long-running legal case in the Court of Chancery, ''Jarndyce and Jarndyce'', which comes about because a testator has written several conflicting wills. In a preface to the 1853 first edition, Dickens said there were many actual precedents for his fictional case. One such was probably ''Thellusson v Woodford'', in which a will read in 1797 was contested and not determined until 1859. Though many in the legal profession criticised Dickens's satire as exaggerated, ''Bleak House'' helped support a judicial reform movement that culminated in the enactment of Judicature Acts, legal reform in the 1870s. Some scholars debate when ''Ble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Frederick Field
Charles Frederick Field (1805 – 27 September 1874) was a British police officer with Scotland Yard and, following his retirement, a private detective.Douglas G. Browne, ''The Rise of Scotland Yard: A History of the Metropolitan Police'' (Greenwood Press, 1977), 153. Field is perhaps best known as the basis for Inspector Bucket in Charles Dickens's novel ''Bleak House''. Life Joining the police Born the son of the proprietor of a pub from Chelsea, Field had hoped to become an actor, but his impoverished circumstances led him to join the Metropolitan Police on its establishment in 1829, though no evidence supports Dickens' assertion that Field had previously been a Bow Street Runner. Initially joining E (Holborn) Division, where he rose to sergeant, he soon moved on to L (Lambeth) Division and later a section of R (Greenwich) Division devoted to the Woolwich Dockyards as an Inspector. Around 1846 he joined the Detective Branch (on the retirement of Shackell), and retired as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Rose Of Summer
"The Last Rose of Summer" is a poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore. He wrote it in 1805, while staying at Jenkinstown Castle in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was said to have been inspired by a specimen of Rosa 'Old Blush'. The poem is set to a traditional tune called "Aisling an Óigfhear", or "The Young Man's Dream", which was transcribed by Edward Bunting in 1792, based on a performance by harper Denis Hempson ( Donnchadh Ó hAmhsaigh) at the Belfast Harp Festival. The poem and the tune together were published in December 1813 in volume 5 of Thomas Moore's ''A Selection of Irish Melodies''. The original piano accompaniment was written by John Andrew Stevenson, several other arrangements followed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The poem is now probably at least as well known in its song form as in the original. Poem Musical settings Classical The following is an incomplete selection of "theme and variations" created during the 19th and 20th centuries. *Ludwig van ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Thomson (comedian)
John Patrick Thomson (born Patrick Francis McAleer; 2 April 1969) is an English comedian, narrator and actor best known for his roles in ''The Fast Show'', ''Men Behaving Badly'', ''Cold Feet'', '' 24 Hour Party People'', '' The Brothers Grimsby'' and ''Coronation Street''. Early life Thomson was born in 1969 in Walkden, Worsley, Lancashire, to Mary McAleer, who gave him up for adoption six weeks later. He was adopted from the Catholic Children's Rescue Society by Andrew and Marita Thomson, a businessman and a bookseller from Didsbury. He has one younger brother, Ben (born to his adoptive parents).Cooke, Rachel (2003-05-11"Infamy, infamy ..." ''The Observer''. Retrieved on 2007-02-17 He attended All Hallows Catholic High School near Preston, Lancashire, leaving with three O-levels. He then attended Runshaw College between 1985 and 1987, studying for four A-levels, including theatre studies. He was described as "clearly avinga talent for comedy". Following this, he turned ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kenneth Cranham
Kenneth Cranham (born 12 December 1944) is a British film, television, radio and stage actor. His most notable screen roles were in '' Oliver!'' (1968), '' Up Pompeii'' (1971), '' Hellbound: Hellraiser II'' (1988), '' Chocolat'' (1988), '' Layer Cake'' (2004), '' Gangster No. 1'' (2000), ''Hot Fuzz'' (2007), '' Maleficent'' (2014) and '' Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool'' (2017). On television he appeared in '' Budgie'' (1972), '' Boon'' (1989), '' Minder'' (1993), '' Merlin'' (2008), ''Rome'', '' Death in Paradise'' (2013), '' War & Peace'' (2016) and '' The White Princess'' (2017). On stage he has twice been nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Play, winning it in 2016, for his performance in '' The Father''. Early life Cranham was born in Dunfermline, Fife, the son of Lochgelly-born Margaret McKay Cranham (née Ferguson) and Ronald Cranham, a London-born civil servant. Cranham trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
