very doubtful company.

Maritime history, men's fashion history, the Franklin Expedition, and the long 19th century. Claims to be a capital-R Romantic, but won't shut up about the War of 1812. I have a Captain Frederick Marryat sideblog at @marryat92, and I'm the person behind Is the 19th Century Man Okay? My name is Shaun, and if we have interests in common I would love to be friends!

[clove-pinks]

Accessing my blog content control panel and turning the dials labeled ROMANTIC and MILHIST waaaaaay up

[lgarts55]

Lighthouse Storm (2026)

[clove-pinks]

I jumped right into Sharpe's Revenge after Sharpe's Siege, and Cornwell pulls a classic Marryat Move in the duel between Sharpe and Bampfylde. If you need a duel to conclude in a humiliating yet non-lethal way for a pompous character, shooting him in the ass is a pretty classic solution.

Bernard Cornwell is the right generation to have read Mr. Midshipman Easy as a schoolboy, so I'm sure the homage was no accident.

[clove-pinks]

I dilly-dallied while reading Sharpe's Siege (volume 9 out of 11 in my set) and only finished it last night. My edition does not have a forward by Bernard Cornwell, but a 1999 copy on Internet Archive has Cornwell declaring, "For reasons that I can never quite understand, this is my favourite novel in the Sharpe series." And then he talks a bit about the War of 1812, which is clearly present in the background of Sharpe's Siege—yet in a way that left me wanting more, like a single conversation debating it. You have an American privateer right there, Cornwell!

Rifleman Thomas Taylor from Tennessee is one my favorite minor characters, and I was happy to see him survive, but sad to see him make THE WRONG CHOICE at the novel's conclusion. Grizzled veterans usually survive in Sharpe books, but if a soldier is a fresh-faced teenage lad who needs to be reassured by Sharpe as he enters his first real battle, watch out!!

[blessedbeyondallbelief]

[clove-pinks]

"He raised one clenched fist the size of a small cannon-ball," Bernard Cornwell writes of the imposing General Calvet.

So... his fist is the size of a 4-pound iron round shot, which is about 3 inches in diameter? His teeny tiny fist the size of a tangerine??

[chic-a-gigot]

Les Modes parisiennes, no. 69, vol. 8, 23 juin 1844, Paris. Costumes de Humann, rue Croix des Petits Champs, No. Cravattes de Clément, rue Vivienne, No. 6, au coin de la galrie. Chapeau d'homme et d'amazone de Mugniev, Place de la Bourse, No. 31. Canne et Cravache de Verdiev, r. Richelieu, No. 102. Coiffures d'Auguste Faisandiev, Place de la Bourse, 31 et reu Feydeau, 15. Bottes de Martin, succr d'Amick, Boulevart des Italiens, No. 2. Bibliothèque nationale de France

[clove-pinks]

Adding The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War by Peter Guardino to my TBR pile. I have been looking for a good Mexican-American War book and this one seems to fit the bill (academic chops, focused on the social and cultural aspects of military history, well-regarded, and from a university press.) This passage is from the introduction:

Neither the high human costs of the Mexican-American War nor its important consequences have brought it much attention in either country. There is no memorial to the fallen of this war in the American capital, and its place in American textbooks is minimal. Americans have generally wanted to see their country as one in which democracy and prosperity have both increased over time. Wars of conquest, unfortunately, are associated with tyranny and immorality, not the advance of democracy. There is a certain guilty ambivalence that follows from being successful thieves.

In a way, it's like War of 1812 2.0: This Time We Win! (The expansionist motivations of the War of 1812 are swept under the rug for making it look unjust and illegitimate, and the conquest of Canada didn't go so well). Also, Winfield Scott was there.

It also strikes me how little I know about Mexican history, in contrast to Canadian history. It's like my education left off before Mexican independence from Spain, even though War of 1812-era Americans identified with Latin American independence movements of the early 19th century, to a certain degree.

[boobookittenartblog]

Lake Superior by Jef Bourgeau 

[preppynewenglandmoms]

[antoniettabrandeisova]

Coucher de Soleil Sur la Mer, Constantin Westchiloff (Russian, 1877–1945)

[clove-pinks]

New rule where if you create a fictional guy from the late 18th century, you CANNOT just give him a sleazy ponytail: it has to be some period-correct weird shit like a mullet with a braid pinned to the back of his head.

[divorcedwife]

royalist & revolution youth

[clove-pinks]

Why is 1999, specifically, the year that everyone* decided to make a Mexican-American War movie? (*everyone meaning exactly two movies, which are Ravenous (1999) and One Man's Hero (1999); but it's weird that it happened twice...)

[ltwilliammowett]

Scrimshawed whale tooth, 1836

Ship Wiscasset “Richard Macy Master on the coast of New Zealand April 1836”, the verso engraved with a speaking porpoise “A Porpoise you see In this likeness of me”. The ship Wiscasset commanded by Captain Richard Macy (1797-1850) hailed from Nantucket, and manned by men from the Wiscasset area in Maine.

[clove-pinks]

Shipwreck off the Norwegian coast, Johan Christian Dahl, 1830.

[periodinteriors]

Wilhelm Bendz (Danish, 1804-1832), Artists in Finck's Coffee House, 1832, oil on canvas.