A South African historian, writing about a pimp from the 19th Century named Joseph Silver, has averred that circumstantial evidence points to the possibility that Silver was the Ripper.

In other news, the introduction (Chapter 1) of my diss is underway and I plan to visit the university's archives of Strand Magazine to contextualize the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. My dissertation deals with the notion of "home" in ACD's works and the destabilizing influence of the uncanny on that notion. As far at Jack is concerned, mention will be made of him (as the ultimate domestic destabilizer) when speaking about how Holmes re-stabilizes domesticity by solving crimes and Victorian Britain's need for him to do so.

This fall, I'm teaching two honors course in English Comp, with the theme being the iconic figures of Victorian horror (zombie, mummy, vampire, ghost) with stories by Stoker, ACD, LeFanu, etc. I'd love to have a specific werewolf story, but the only one that kind of fits is Jekyll and Hyde, which may be too long a read for this course. Funny that everyone knows the werewolf, especially as part of the panthenon of Universal monsters, but there is no definitive werewolf story that we all point to when discussing its appeal. Dracula, Frankenstein, etc., have them, and the mummy popped up quite often in Vic. lit; but the werewolf is, I would say, almost completely formed by movies. I also plan to use movies to historicize the period for the students.

We have a wedding to go to tomorrow, with a chance of rain. What is it with rain and weddings? Is it some sort of cosmic law that it has to rain at least a little on that day?