Dr Adam James Smith

Haunted by Persuasion: When Old Books Become Old Friends | Guest Host: Dr Adam J. Smith On 1 November, Rach left the following comment on my first Persuasion post: “I think there is such magic in going back to these books and reading them again.” Then, This Reading Life added: “I’ve a…

“They said we were crazy. They said we couldn't put HAUNTOLOGY inside of JANE AUSTEN. They were wrong.”

Here's my final post for The Classics Club #ReadingAusten2025 readalong, playfully proposing a hauntological reading of Persuasion:

theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/2025/11/30/h...

#JaneAusten

"To take [Poe] with more than a certain degree of seriousness is to lack seriousness one's self."

Henry James on Edgar Allen Poe.

#19C #EdgarAllenPoe #HenryJames

"There is no bearing the driveling idiotism of the Mankin"

Lord Byron on the "P*ss a bed poetry" of "Johnny Keats"

#18C #19C #Romanticism

Jane Austen perfected the love story – but kept her own independence In the second episode of Jane Austen’s Paper Trail, we speak to Austen experts about her views on love, and the role of romance in Pride & Prejudice.

“The more I read Austen, the more I feel that all of the books are really about how to read and understand and interpret the world.”

I love contributing to Jane Austen's Paper Trail, alongside esteemed colleagues Meg Kobza & Octavia Cox:

theconversation.com/jane-austen-... #18thC #18C #JaneAusten

We so much enjoyed talking to Leigh about this delightful novel, the state of satiric literacy, what BookTok is doing to the publishing industry & the ways we read & the best way to celebrate Halloween 👻

#halloween #books #authorinterview #satire

"When it comes to Jane, so many images have been danced before us.. The effect of all of them together is to make us read novels that aren't actually there." - Helena Kelly

Glorious meeting of the York Georgian Book Club, following a brill lecture by Lizzie Rogers!

#18C #18thCentury #JaneAusten

This may be of interest to @sharpnews.bsky.social? ☝️

We are thrilled to share the CFP for our Symposium, Politics and Culture of the Late Stuart Court, 1649-1714. We hope to bring together a range of interdisciplinary research on this complex and understudied period! #EarlyModern #CfP

@cecs-york.bsky.social @cecspgforum.bsky.social This might be of interest to your members? ☝🏻

The People of Print | Cambridge University Press & Assessment

The book is also available to buy in paperback and as an eBook at the bargain price of £14.99: www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...

Join us for the online launch of The People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England, a collection of biographical essays about lesser-known figures from 18C book history!

The event is free to attend but booking is essential: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/book-launc...

#18thC #18c #18thCentury #BookHistory

It’s a pleasure to appear alongside such a great group of scholars in ‘The People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England’, overseen by the brilliant @elementaladam.bsky.social, Rachel Stenner and Kaley Kramer.

You can read it for free over the next two weeks here: doi.org/10.1017/9781...

My essay is on Winifred Gales, the wife of the radical Sheffield printer, Joseph Gales, who apparently escaped from Pirates whilst fleeing across the Atlantic...

The People of Print Cambridge Core - Printing and Publishing History - The People of Print

People of Print: Eighteenth-Century England is out today and free to download until 7 Oct:

www.cambridge.org/core/element...

Edited by Rachel Stenner, Kaley Kramer & I, this volume collects 10 new biographical essays about lesser known, diverse figures involved in the #18C print trade.

#18thc #skystorians! Help! Was faux nudity a thing during Restoration masques or plays or early 18thC theatrical productions? Looking for context for a masq habit of a 'naked' Adam (he was wearing sarsinet) & trying to determine how shocking this actually would have been...

Austen 250 - The World of Jane Austen - Yale University Press London 30% off the listed prices - and free postage in the UK - on our selected World of Jane Austen books. Use the code JA250 when prompted in the checkout to

@yalebooks.bsky.social are celebrating Jane Austen's 250th birthday by offering a 30% discount on their 'World of Jane Austen' books using discount code JA250 #skystorians #18thC
yalebooks.co.uk/austen-250-t...

Good morning fellow #18thCentury #Romanticism and #DigitalHumanities friends! My monograph, British Women Novelists and the Review Periodical will be out in March 2026! I hope you'll request that your library purchases a copy, & snag one for yourself!
www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/...

Thrilled to be joining a digression of Sternean colleagues later in the year - I’ll be presenting a paper titled ‘’Travelling Is To Be Recncil’d To Mankind In General’ - An Early Reading of A Sentimental Journey’

Poster advertising talk with time, date and place details

Planning the first month of term? Don’t miss @elementaladam.bsky.social at UCD, speaking as part of the Drinking Cultures project!

All are welcome to this in-person seminar: “Hate, Shame, and Boozy Banter in the Eighteenth Century” 🍻 Full abstract here: texerenetwork.com/drinkingcult...

🚨 NEW EPISODE🚨

EP78. Cartoon Comebacks: Animated Satire from #kingofthehillreboot to #SouthPark

Jo & Adam (@elementaladam.bsky.social) take a look at the ways American adult animated comedy is satirising Donald Trump's administration:

creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/...

Very nice!

Very exciting: the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography published a cluster of new entries on women stationers. See the intro by Valerie Wayne: www.oxforddnb.com/newsitem/906...

ODNB entries are so helpful in identifying women from traces on printed material. So happy to see this work ❤️

Thanks Robert!!

Interesting student-led project (a model of its kind, I should think). Good to see many of the longer Lyrical Tales that I had to exclude from my Shearsman edition of MR, here available, in clear readable and annotated versions.

Download our new student-led @yorkstjohn.bsky.social critical edition of Mary Robinson's Lyrical Tales for free, here:

blog.yorksj.ac.uk/ysjucritical...

Featuring a critical introduction, annotated poems, example readings, timelines, a delightful Foreword by Prof Andy McInnes & a Preface by me.

Read Mary Robinson's Lyrical Tales - York St John University Critical Editions Mary Robinson’s Lyrical Tales, A Modern Edition   Lyrical Tales YJSU Critical Edition    Mary Robinson’s Lyrical Tales, A Modern Edition  (fully accessible version) Lyrical Tales Accessible YJSU Criti...

Delighted to be asked to write the foreword for the York St John University Critical Edition of Mary Robinson’s Lyrical Tales which you can now read here!

Now on the BARS Blog: CfP: 'Sex in the Long Nineteenth Century' - Romance, Revolution and Reform Journal 2026 Conference

See all the details here: www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=6071

Please share widely!!

Ahead of the first meeting of the York Georgian Book Club tomorrow, where we'll be discussing Persuasion, here are my quick initial thoughts on the novel after re-reading it for the first time in 10+ years.

TLDR version: I loved it.

#JaneAusten #18C #18thC #18thCentury

Still looking for others wanting to present at @bsecs.bsky.social 2026 and form a panel. Message me if interested by end of August 2025 though it might be that others have got in touch and a panel is formed by then so don’t delay! #18c #comfort #discomfort #skystorians

Terraqueous Globe: Land & Sea in the Age of Sterne
University of Liverpool, 5-7 Nov 2025
CFP open until 15 Sept 2025
More info: terraqueousglobe.wordpress.com
#18thC #18C #18thCentury #Sterne #LaurenceSterne @bsecs.bsky.social @cecs-york.bsky.social