Best Of MetaFilter

detail of etching, Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, G.G. & J.Robinson of London, 1794.

"She was all but forgotten. Now the 18th-century author's republished novels reveal why she made such an extraordinary contribution to literature." Kliuless posted about author Anne Radcliffe, credited with inventing the psychological novel of suspense (plus two more women in publishing who have virtually been written out of the popular genres they helped create).

pursued by a Hartz?

chavenet's post on I Understand Thee, and Can Speak Thy Tongue: California Unlocks Shakespeare’s Gibberish, is not only a cool theory about the mystery language in "All’s Well That Ends Well," it also sets the stage (the STAGE, get it?) for the official winner of this week's Best Dad Joke Pun Using Third Person Plural Present Tense Latin in 16th Century Stage Instruction. Congratulations, Ishbadiddle!

Detail from a cover of Paul Auster's The New York Trilogy

In the Paul Auster obit thread, Kattullus commented with a lovely personal remembrance of the author, and the enduring resonance Auster has had in his life.

Have you ever heard of the book, “The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” ? Part philosophy, part woodworking guide, it's about building an ethical life by creating furniture that will last for generations. It is now free to download, as noted in this post by slogger!

Photo by Steven Miller, via Flicker: https://www.flickr.com/photos/aloha75/

Cupcakeninja posted a link to 30 of the best fantasy novels of all time and we're drawn in by the comments. There's various opinions about what is and isn't on the list, come share your thoughts!

Please allow autopilot to introduce you to Margaret Cavendish, science researcher, fashion designer, and writer, who crafted science fiction stories back in 1666! Come explore her "Blazing World"!

A selection of Kathleen Sully’s novels via neglectedbooks.com

"Kathleen Sully's name appears in no encyclopaedia, in no dictionary of biography, in no other survey of the English novel" ... BenAstrea posted Brad Bigelow's NeglectedBooks.com article "Kathleen Sully, the Vanished Novelist," a nice bit of detective work on an author who seemed to continually mystify her contemporaries.

These “forgotten papyrus” scrolls existed circa 1100 B.C. ... 1100 B.C.!! (*feeling very small*) Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Art History) Vienna, Austria by Sharon Hahn Darlin (cc by)

Love in an Orchard, as Written by the Trees. Donating Kittens to the Goddess Bastet. Parental Grief. Same-Sex Love Spells. A Runaway Child Bride. Rumple's post highlights various vignettes of ancient Middle Eastern life from the Papyrus Stories Group Blog.

All done by Kit4na (cc by)

Literaryhero posted a story about plumbing and people, and a man called Fran by John Jeremiah Sullivan, and it's a great plunge into life, the loo, and everything.

Image via Canva

Come take a moment or more with the collaborative post created by brainwane and JHarris about the online poetry magazine called Light.

Moby Dick - Herman Melville (Club français du livre, 1964) by -ep- (cc by)

I'm reading Moby Dick. It's fun! But I'm sure I'm missing a lot. This is where you come in ... wooh is looking for good explanations and analyses for our favorite great white whale.

Image via Dreamstime

In Ask Metafilter, sonofsnark is looking for "recommendations for amazing fiction writers that I am unlikely to have heard of before"

Photo by whitewall

An interesting discussion on the origins of some printed mystery notations in a 1966 Penguin book: "The bottom of page 33—and only page 33 – in my 1966 Penguin edition of Saul Bellow’s “Seize the Day” has “T—S.T.D.—B” written on the bottom left, opposite the page number. What does it stand for?"

In case you missed it, be sure to check out Kattullus' post on "A Space of Her Own by Mary E. Papke," an essay about Pamela Zoline and her 1967 science fiction story "The Heat Death of the Universe."

Two Years Ago by esotericsean (cc by-nc-nd)

Some fascinating advice from grumblebee on how to read a script