Accidents and Empires

An interesting day today... as this afternoon I dropped the metal base of a table-umbrella-stand on my foot, and had to go to A&E. Eeps. Turns out no breakages, just lots of bruising and blood - I'm as squeamish as they come, and was rather relieved that it all worked out ok, praise the Lord. But some considerable pain for a while... and has called a halt to driving practice for a day or two, at least.

So! I don't think I've shared the reading list for my module next term on Literature and Empire 1880-1930. Truth be told, the choice hasn't been confirmed - but apparently nobody has been turned away from a module choice yet, so I'm confident. The range of books is quite exciting, and I'm especially excited about studying Katherine Mansfield again. A comparitive essay on Katherine Mansfield and Scouting for Boys... well, I wonder. Here's the list; I've only read Mansfield so far, and that was a few years ago, so lots to explore. Any recommendations for first off the pile?

Olive Schreiner, The Story of an African Farm (1883) and Thoughts on South Africa

R. L. Stevenson, South Sea Tales, 1891, 1892

Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness (1899) and ‘Youth’ (1902)

Rudyard Kipling, Kim (1901)

Robert Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys (1908)

J.M Barrie, Peter Pan and Wendy (1911)

Katherine Mansfield, Collected Short Stories

W.B. Yeats, Responsibilities (1914)

E.M. Forster, A Passage to India (1924)

Sol T. Plaatje, Mhudi (1930)

Mulk Raj Anand, Untouchable (1935)