Discover Top Posts Tagged with #tom brightwind

A small, desolate-looking town stood upon the opposite bank. The road reappeared on the other side of the town and it was odd to see how it grew broader and more confident as it left the town and travelled on to happier places.

- Susanna Clarke, Tom Brighwind, or How the Fairy Bridge Was Built at Thoresby in The Ladies of Grace Adieu and other stories

#the ladies of grace adieu and other stories #tom brightwind #susanna clarke #currently reading

TOM BRIGHTWIND

i've finally finished my first fully PhSh drawing

#art #fanart #jsmn #jonathan strange and mr norrell #jsamn #Ladies of Grace-Adieu #Tom Brightwind #Faery #susanna clarke #photoshop #digital drawing #digital art #Artist on tumblr

Piranesi and the Fairy Bridge at Thoresby

Lately I’ve been thinking about Piranesi (which is perhaps to be expected), but as well as the (oh so close) upcoming Clarke book I’ve been thinking about the actual artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, and how Clarke has used him previously.

He is mentioned briefly in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell when Strange is complaining to Childermass that the engravers aren’t getting the King’s Roads quite right because they are “too Roman, too like the work of Palladio and Piranesi”, but has a much more active "appearance” in the Ladies of Grace Adieu story, Tom Brightwind, or How the Fairy Bridge was Built at Thoresby.

Piranesi (actual-person-Piranesi) is named outright as the inspiration for Tom’s bridge, and we even know which of his collections it comes from:

Basically, I wanted to find out which bridge was built at Thoresby. Why? Because I am a nerd on furlough with nothing better to do with my time, and there’s nothing like a bit of digging.

Now, Princeton University Art Museum has great hi-def images of the Imaginary Prisons collection with great zooming potential, so I spent some time pottering around there and pondering.

Now, if you had asked me to choose a bridge from memory of the story (which is how I started this whole thing), I would have chosen this one from The Grand Piazza:

Tom’s a fancy dude who likes fancy things, like cherubs floating around in little sailboats singing Italian music, right? There would definitely be some carvings or decoration on that bridge, right?

Brilliant, I thought. Job done!

But then I decided to double-check the story for corroboration, and realised it couldn’t be such an ornate one (the most ornate of the bridges in the collection, as it happens):

We’ve got the semi-circular arches, but also “rough-hewn blocks of stone” and no mention of sculpture or decoration. Given that this story is narrated from David Montefiore’s POV, who likes his friend but also affectionately drags him frequently (at least in his inner monologue), I’m sure he would have pointed out the ridiculous sculptures and little towers.

In fact, Tom himself highlights the bridge’s lack of ornamentation, still riding high after an evening of showing Mrs Winstanley the time of her life, and David hurriedly stays his hand:

So it seems the arches are the defining characteristic of this bridge. It’s a beast, enough of a beast to cause the architect distress:

This is where things get more difficult. If you’ve looked through the prison drawings you will know what the problem is. If you haven’t, I can only explain it by saying: the prison drawings are 90% bridges.

The only clues we have are “fucking massive”, “rough-hewn stone” and “semi-circular arches”, and “we can see enough of it that an architect (albeit under some kind of spell) can work with it”. The arches are actually the most helpful.

So, basically, there are now a number of contenders:

The Pier With the Lamp seemed a good shout at first - the arches are very semi-circular - but eliminated due to being too ornate and also not rough-hewn enough. Too smooth, too dainty:

The Arch with a Shell Ornament had potential for being detailed enough for an architect to work from, but has only one arch:

Then came The Lion Bas-Reliefs, which is suitably rough-hewn and detailed, but the arches are not semi-circular, they’re too tall for that:

But, I think this might be the one.

If we go back to poor Mr Cornelius’ despair, the bridge in the picture is clearly too tall for the river. If Mr Wakeley is making adjustments, then surely the most sensible way to alter this bridge would be to lower it. And if we do that...

... then the arches could quite easily become semi-circular.

This, I have decided, is the “Distract a Cuckold” Thoresby bridge.

Now, there are, as I said, very, very many bridges in these drawings, so do have a look at them! Many of them, I thought, were either too ornate, too smooth, only have one arch, or are not seen fully enough to give an architect a good enough idea to construct it from the image. I would be really interested to hear/see anyone else’s interpretations!

#Piranesi #the ladies of grace adieu #jonathan strange and mr norrell #susanna clarke #jsamn #jsmn #tom brightwind #long post #meta #op

Joanwind (and Uskglass) & the color blue

Here you go!

angel, angel, whathave I done

I’ve faced the quakes,the wind, the fire

I’ve conquered countrycrown and throne

Why can’t I cross thisriver?

Pay no mind to thebattles you’ve won

It’ll take a lot morethan rage and muscle

Open your heart andhands, my son,

Or you’ll never makeit o’er the river.

He has been between them from the start. He was there inLost-hope’s raging winter, carrion-crow screaming from the towers – he wasthere in the swirling of her hair as she danced and in the sharpness of her tongue,and there in his endless, depthless eyes, in his grip on her hand as they ranbetween the blue-cast trees.

And he was there in his insistence on the old roads, in theburning whiskey of his grief, and he was there in her cold, hard anger, in hershouting and screaming and swearing. Innumerable ravens for innumerable towers asshe left him, as she let winter break her bones.

He runs like a river between them, hard and fast anduncrossed. Frothed with rapids and ready to drown.

#I'd just written the last word when i remembered #uskglass = bluewater (more or less)#black joan #tom brightwind #joanwind #john uskglass #jonathan strange and mr norrell #Anonymous