Tag: Castalia Library

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

We’re very pleased to announce that both editions are now bound and shipping to the warehouse. We printed 250 more than usual knowing that there would be additional demand. If you want to pick up one of these magnificent reproduction of the spectacular Peacock first edition, you can do so at Arkhaven.

There are more pictures of both editions at the Castalia Library substack. And speaking of which, I would be remiss if I did not mention the amazing adventures of the celebrated Major Grant, the scout whom Wellington declared was worth more than a brigade of troops, which are being serialized there and are very well worth reading.

These documents took one back at once to one of the most daring escapes of a British prisoner which can be found in the annals of the Napoleonic Wars—an escape carried out with an almost absurd nonchalance and readiness of wit. The tale was known to Napier, who thought it so curious that he spared four pages for it in a chapter of his fourth volume. And Mr. John Buchan made an excellent story out of it in one of his volumes of miscellaneous adventures, with confirmatory detail out of his fertile imagination, and an exciting account of Grant’s dealings with Spanish guerrilleros, who sought to rescue him, and were refused his permission to carry him off.

What really happened I can give from the memoirs of Colquhoun Grant’s brother-in-law, Sir James McGrigor, who devoted a chapter to the exploits of his evasive and resourceful relative.

Colquhoun Grant, of the IIth Foot, was one of four officers whom Wellington employed on special reconnoitring and Intelligence duties. They were all good horsemen, good linguists in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and noted for resourcefulness and cool heads. Whenever the French were on the move it was their duty to hang about the advancing army, on its flank sometimes, not infrequently in its rear, and to report to headquarters all important developments. These officers were Colquhoun Grant, Waters of the Portuguese Staff, Leith Hay of the 29th Foot, and Charles Somers Cocks of the 16th Light Dragoons. The pitcher that goes often to the well ends by being broken, and all these gallant Intelligence officers came to their day of ill-luck; it was impossible to foresee all possible dangers. Waters was captured on the Coa in April 1811, Leith Hay near Toledo in April 1813, Somers Cocks was killed in action (not while scouting) at Burgos in October 1812. Of Colquhoun Grant’s extraordinary capture and escape this screed must suffice to tell the tale.

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The History of the Byzantine Empire

If you’re a Castalia History subscriber, you just might want to visit the Castalia Library substack today, as there is an announcement there concerning the fifth book in the Castalia History series, the April-May-June subscription book.

Also for Castalia History subscribers: there are about 20 Annual subscribers who still need to renew their subscriptions manually since we are not permitted to do so automatically in this particular situation. If your subscription has not been renewed, or if you need to make a catchup payment, you will receive an email shortly informing you of the need to do so.

And since we’re talking about Castalia History, I strongly recommend the daily excerpt from STUDIES IN THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, as the chapters on the tales of the secret services feature stories worthy of an action-adventure movie. The recently completed chapter on Brother James, who travelled through the enemy empire searching for a missing Spanish army that found itself surrounded by allies turned enemies in the aftermath of Napoleon’s decision to replace the Bourbon King of Spain with his brother Joseph, really has to be read to be believed.

In April La Romana had begun to be perturbed at the way in which the stream of dispatches and private letters from Spain, which had hitherto arrived regularly, had suddenly dried up. An officer who got through from Madrid with details of the accession of Ferdinand VII brought a complaint that the Home Government had got no dispatch from the expeditionary force for many weeks. Napoleon had stopped the post at both ends. This caused much alarm and evil surmises. They were more than fulfilled when on June 24th there was delivered to the Marquis a dispatch from Bayonne, announcing that the Bourbons had abdicated, that Joseph Bonaparte had been proclaimed King of Spain, that he had been acknowledged by the whole realm, and that he was to transmit the news to his army, and order the regiments to swear allegiance to their new sovereign.

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Pride, Prejudice, and Peacocks

Castalia Library has posted information, complete with pictures, about the successful test stampings of both the Library and Libraria editions of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE at the substack.

In producing the Castalia Library limited editions of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, we started the process by acquiring an original first edition of the famous Peacock edition illustrated by Hugh Thomson. We wanted to reproduce the original design, but we also wanted to ensure that the spine of the book looked good on the shelf next to the other Library books. This necessitated a modification of the spine layout. We also needed to clean up the lines of the feathers on the cover, since the fine lines on the cloth original would not translate well to the gold stamping featured on the leather covers.

Due to the unusually high level of interest in this book, we are making it available for purchase ahead of its scheduled shipping in the second week of April to subscribers and non-subscribers alike. The usual discount codes apply for subscribers who wish to purchase an extra copy or two as gifts or for their collections.

It may be interesting to contemplate the fact that while Pepsi replaced its 32oz Gatorade bottle with a 28oz for the same price, Nabisco shrunk the family-size box of Wheat Thins by 12 percent, and Easton Press increased the price of a signed first edition by 72.7 percent, Castalia Library subscription books are still available for the same price at which they were first introduced in 2019. We’ve managed to do this by making improvements in the efficiency of our production process while steadily improving the quality. And although we will eventually charge for shipping, we haven’t found it necessary to do so yet.

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Go Away, Gamma

In case I haven’t made it entirely and absolutely clear, being “a longtime reader”, being a “supporter”, being a “subscriber”, being a “backer”, or even being “your biggest fan” cuts absolutely no ice with me. In fact, to the contrary, if you are any of those things, I have higher expectations of you than I do of some random drive-by commenter who knows nothing of me or of this community.

Today at Sigma Game, I asked women who had experience of raising, dating, or marrying Deltas to share their opinions concerning some of the pros and cons of Delta males. I also specifically told men to not share their own opinions or experiences, but to limit themselves to commenting on what the women were saying.

Needless to say, there were a few Gammas who were too emotionally incontinent to restrain themselves and simply let the women talk. One, in particular, didn’t hesitate to ignore my directions and go right off the deep end.

Elwin Ransom: Comments are interesting, but as I read them I can’t help feeling that many classifications by commenters are very likely skewed by perception and situational biases. I have long thought about a Myers-Briggs style test for SSH, but instead of just creating one and guessing what certain types will answer, thereby invoking the “this is what me the Alpha/Sigma would say” type response, a better proposal would be to create such a test, then administer it to a known set including all types, then correlate responses based on what the known set of answers. Hard part would be to find and agree upon the classification of the set of base answerees – but once complete, would be more quantitative way of self-assessment.

Man of the Atom: What does your husband do?

[Very long digression by a few commenters on why Man of the Atom, as a commenter, would attempt to keep the comments on track and on topic redacted.]

Elwin Ransom: He’s providing an unasked-for service, anonymously, on a comment board on the internet. That makes him a loser. Not Gamma on your part, and no further contemplation required.

Vox Day: It’s fascinating how the Gammas always identify themselves so quickly. Do you simply not have any idea how transparent all your little machinations are to everyone, ESPECIALLY women, who play those games much better than you do?

Man of the Atom: You still haven’t told us what your husband does.

Elwin Ransom: He shuts the fuck up when no one asked for his opinion, that’s what he does.

Vox Day: You didn’t. Why should he? Also, you’re permanently banned. I don’t wish to turn this into a no-Gammas zone, but it’s probably going to end up that way over time.

But wait, there’s more! Because of course there is. Within 11 minutes of my banning Mr. Ransom from Sigma Game, I received an email which led to the following exchange.

“Elwin Ransom” (real name redacted): The commenter on your Sigma Game thread that you just banned was me. I have been a reader for close to two decades, and subscriber to both Castalia series since they started. No longer.

Vox Day: Excellent. You clearly learned nothing over those two decades. Your behavior was unwanted, disrespectful, vulgar, and you should be embarrassed for yourself. But you won’t be, because you’ll just fire up your Gamma delusion bubble and convince yourself that you were justified. We’ll be pleased to refund you for any books you haven’t received yet. Just email [the usual address] to make the request.

So, for those who didn’t subscribe early enough, if it turns out there is an extra Thucydides, we’ll let you know.

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The Thucydides Stamp

No, it’s not some bizarre permutation on the so-called Thucydides Trap now en vogue with regards to the challenge being posed by China to Clown World’s imperialist hegemony, it’s the report on the successful test-stamping of the first Castalia History book, complete with pictures.

The successful test means that the books should be going out to the warehouse early next week, so some of you might even have them as soon as next weekend. We’ve seen the first reports of the two volumes of the Cambridge Medieval History showing up in the wild on SocialGalactic already, so March is clearly going to be a very big month for Castalia History subscribers.

We’ve also got some good news for Castalia Library subscribers. Check out the update at the bottom. And due to the unique nature of, and exceptionally high level of general interest in, THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF, we are going to depart from our usual policy and allow non-subscribers to purchase a preordered copy for $199 for a very limited period of time beginning later this month.

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THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF

Castalia Library is very pleased to announce that the March-April subscription book is THE ILLUMINATED BEOWULF illustrated and hand-scripted by our frequent collaborator Joel Trumbo of the Tamburn Bindery. 

The Beowulf text will be laid out so the illuminated modern English text will be facing pages with the unadorned Old English (West Saxon) text, which is actually modelled closely on the original Beowulf manuscript of which we only have one surviving copy. This presents a beautiful and visually pleasing layout that is easy to follow whether you want to just read the story straight through or use it to compare and familiarize the Old English verbiage. The modern English text, using the Francis Gummere translation, will be fully illuminated in the Anglo-Saxon style of the Lindisfarne Gospels, with eight full page illuminations and numerous illuminated initials throughout.

For more information and additional pictures of the interior pages being produced for this edition, please visit the Castalia Library substack.

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Library and History Reminder

If you a) have not been charged for your Castalia Library, Libraria Castalia, or Castalia History subscription yet this month and b) were previously paying for your subscription using the Credit Card payment option and c) have not yet started a new subscription using the Mastercard/VISA option, please do so today or tomorrow.

Approximately 10 percent of History subscribers and 12 percent of Library/Library subscribers have not yet relaunched their subscriptions, and if you do so before the end of the month, you will not have to make a catchup payment next month. However, please note that if you are a subscriber whose Credit Card subscription was cancelled after you were charged this month, please do NOT relaunch your subscription with the Mastercard/VISA option until March 2nd.

If you’d like to switch to an Annual subscription, please note that with a new Annual subscription, you will also receive the Library book of your choice from the books that remain in stock. New is defined as either a) no previous subscription of that type or b) a shift from monthly to annual. This book offer does not apply to Annual renewals.

On the production side, the two volumes of The Cambridge Medieval History will arrive at the warehouse tomorrow and begin shipping on Friday, the pages of The Landmark Thucydides have been sewn, trimmed, and gathered preparatory for binding on March 8th, Pride and Prejudice is scheduled for binding on April 12th, and The Junior Classics leather volumes 7 and 8 are both bound and will be arriving at the warehouse for shipping out next week.

We will announce the next Castalia Library book on Friday. Pretty sure you’re going to like it.

Thanks to all of the subscribers who were so quick in responding to the situation, and in doing so, prevented us from missing a beat in the operations. Also, at the Castalia Library stack today is a fascinating excerpt from Sir Charles Oman on the first historical example of a fair fight between column and line, a comparison of the rival tactics upon which the end result of the Napoleonic wars ultimately turned.

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Collections and Cancellations

First, if you’re a Library/Libraria/History subscriber and you have not yet restarted your subscription, please read this in order to know if you need to do so now or not, and if you do need to do so, when to do it.

Second, we have a rather esoteric announcement that will be of limited interest to most people, but will be of tremendous interest to the serious book collectors and those interested in Asian history.

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF JAPAN is the first major collaborative synthesis to present the current state of knowledge of Japanese history for the English-reading world. The series draws on the expertise and research of leading Japanese specialists as well as the foremost Western historians of Japan. From prehistory to the present day, the series encompasses the events and developments in Japanese polity, economy, culture, religion and foreign affairs. In the distinguished tradition of Cambridge histories, the completed series provides an indispensable reference tool for all students and scholars of Japan and the Far East.

The massive historical set, which is published by Cambridge University Press in 4,740 pages divided into six books, is very highly regarded as the definitive work on the subject of Japanese history.

Also on Castalia Library today is the daily serialization of Sir Charles Oman’s STUDIES ON THE NAPOLEONIC WARS, which is the current History subscription book. We’ve reached the third chapter, which concerns a largely forgotten battle of the Peninsular War that didn’t even take place in Spain, but in the south of Italy, and yet is deemed to be of tactical significance to the insightful student of military history.

The Battle of Maida is essentially of tactical and not of strategical importance. It was the forerunner of all the great battles of the Peninsular War so far as tactics go; it only differed from them in results because the British Army was commanded by Sir John Stuart and not Sir Arthur Wellesley. The troops and the tactics were the same if the generalship was different. The first clash of Kempt’s British light brigade and Compere’s heavy battalion columns, of which I have to tell in this screed, gives the key to the whole tactical superiority of the British infantry which lay at the base of Wellington’s victorious schemes during the years 1808–15. The battle passed without much notice at the time, because the Neapolitan campaign of 1806 forms a piece of by-play between the campaign of Austerlitz and the campaign of Jena; which few British and hardly a single continental commentator have cared to investigate. Its strategical and political results were nil; its moral results passed unperceived at the time, save among the handful of British officers of ready intelligence who laid to heart what they had seen and stored up its teaching for future use.

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A Library Survey

We already know what the next book in the Castalia Library/Libraria subscription series will be, and will announce it on the first of March. We’re also working on obtaining the rights to some works we are very confident will please everyone. And we know the two volumes of A SEA OF SKULLS will be in the mix later this year after we get the regular hardcover edition out. But we’re interested in hearing from you what other books might be of interest to you this year; here are some of the books we’re considering.

We are also offering a first look at some very rare books indeed.

Also on the Library stack today is the seventh and final part of Oman’s first chapter. And while I agree with the great historian with regards to the chief lesson of history, thanks to our advantage of 95 years of hindsight, I think we can safely conclude Oman’s hopes for the “new and vigorous age” were dashed to pieces, and that the Pessimists were entirely correct about the prospects for modernity.

From the outlook of the ordinary man we are no longer at the end of a feeble and moribund Christendom, but at the start of a new and vigorous age, full of ideals, moral, cultural, philosophical, religious, and materialistic. As I said in an earlier page, it would take a whole book to discuss the question how far the Revival of Learning, the Reformation, the discovery of America and the Cape Route to the Indies, or scientific discovery which knocked the Geocentric Theory on the head, were each of them responsible for the new historical perspective of the civilized world. But the change was complete and astounding; and the foundations of the modern ways of thought had been laid, while the “Seven Ages” in their depressing series had dropped out of men’s conception of the Universe. A new visualization of the world had begun…

The Pessimist, incidentally, has enjoyed one of those periods in which he is able to snarl “I told you so” to a disconcerted world. But all down history the Pessimist has never had the last word. I prefer to range myself with the Optimists, and hope to survive long enough to see another vista of hope before my own generation has passed away.

I know not whether the change of perspective will come by means of the League of Nations, which has provoked so much enthusiasm in so many quarters, or whether it will be the result of a saner nationalism which can combine true patriotism with a proper regard for the rights of one’s neighbours. All I know is that the world-mind works by action and reaction, and that a swing of the pendulum in one direction will ultimately be followed by a swing in the other.

That to my mind is the teaching of history.

Man’s Outlook on History, Sir Charles Oman, 1929

Needless to say, the globalist neoliberal modernity that has come to be known as Clown World did not turn out to be an improvement upon Christendom, its moral, cultural, philosophical, religious, and materialistic ideals notwithstanding.

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