Aristocracy · Books · Observations · Mores

The wife of Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy was called Sofya Andreyevna Tolstaya, just like the wife of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy

Counts Alexei Konstantinovich (1817-1875) and Lev Nikolayevich (1828-1910) were second cousins to one another

Miniature of a teacher in an orange robe seated in a courtyard, surrounded by pupils with books and sheets on a patterned carpet beneath white domes.

The East · Art · Books · Education · Humour

A schoolroom scene in a miniature from Saadi's “Gulistan” manuscript, 1567/8

Disorder in the classroom. A pupil does not obey his teacher. A tale as old as time. From a manuscript of Saadi's «Gulistan», 1567/8, attributed to Mir Ali Husayni of Bukhara

NB! · Observations · People

It's Just That Sort of Day

It's just that sort of day. Dmitri Shostakovich

Black and white still of a creature in heavy make-up with tangled hair reaching forward, beside the words “Frankenstein 1910”.

Cinema · Observations · Pop Culture · Humour

The first screen adaptation of “Frankenstein” in 1910 runs for 12 minutes

A Hundred Years Ago the TikTok Girls Were More Talented. Poster for the first screen adaptation of Frankenstein, 1910. The film runs for 12 minutes and is packed with metaphors of the meaning of existence and the search for the capacity to feel in earnest. The Monster looks more modern

Archive · Books · People

Glinka on how the partisan Davydov burned his own house in Borodino before the battle

It turns out that the village of Borodino belonged to Denis Davydov, who became famous in the war of 1812. Sergey Nikolayevich Glinka recalls that the partisan Davydov set fire to his own house in Borodino with his own hands, before a battle had even been appointed to take place

Faith · Art · Books

When, like the high-soaring Icarus, we beat our way up towards the heavens, the Almighty singes our wings a little, that we may fly somewhat lower

When, like the high-soaring Icarus, we beat our way up towards the heavens, the Almighty singes our wings a little, that we may fly somewhat lower. Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who knew not by what means to bring his son out of the labyrinth (that is, out of

NB! · Faith · Art

The Italian painter of the Bolognese school Guercino, presumably a portrait of Francis of Assisi, 1618

Monarchies · Mores · Ethnography

Princess Anne, King Charles and Queen Camilla at the annual Highland gathering at Balmoral, the Braemar Gathering

Princess Anne is the only member of the royal family to have taken care to cover her knees. Though, the rules of etiquette for men wearing the kilt call for bare knees, since the length of a kilt, when the wearer stands, should reach the middle of the knee; when

Newspaper clipping with the grid of crossword No. 78, showing numbered rows and columns and black squares, with part of a decorative heading above.

NB! · Archive · Books · Mores

Krestoslovitsa No. 78 in a 1943 émigré newspaper, the forgotten Russian name for a crossword

Krestoslovitsa ("cross-wordery") is the forgotten Russian name for the crossword. If you are sure of your breadth of knowledge and pride yourself on your erudition, do try your hand at this puzzle from an émigré newspaper of 1943.

Painting of the rear facades of brick and white stucco townhouses with chimneys and slate roofs under a pale sky.

NB! · Archive · Art · London

View behind the houses on Harley Street in London, a 1925 painting by Algernon Cecil Newton

Behind the houses on Harley Street, London. 1925. Algernon Cecil Newton

NB! · Art

Pascal Monda's Naples ❤️

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