Monthly Literature Challenge

[TSherbs]

I've actually not even heard off this title before. But what do I know. I'll try to get to a passage sometime this weekend. 

[InesF]

November Monthly Literature Challenge

 

Inks and fountain pens are:

Pelikan Edelstein Ruby (in Waterman Carené M-stub)

Rohrer & Klingner Sepia (in Stipula La22 V-flex)

Pelikan Edelstein Aquamarine (in Aurora Antarctica M)

Diamine Sargasso Sea (in Waterman Hemisphere F)

 

The text in the photo is written with the Stipula fountain pen which has a semi-flexible and highly reactive steel nib. With light pressure (not much more than the weight of the pen) it draws a beautiful saturated fine line; with a bit mor pressure it still draws a fine line but much wetter. It requires remarkable pressure to spread its tines, than it can draw an almost 1mm broad line. My usual (almost unreadable) handwriting consists of comparably small letters written in fast strokes so that I have next to no reaction time for applying more or less pressure within one letter. All that aside, I love this fountain pen from the first moment on and I can not stop using it.

Good luck deciphering November text. 😇

Hint: I made the drawing less cryptic … 🤭

 

The first chapter of the book, decorated for a bit worse readability ...

 

 

 

And here the four fountain pens and inks used for the literature riddle and which I will be using throughout all of November.

 

 

The author

Spoiler

is Joules Verne.

As he is born in France. I decided to use two fountain pens of french production: the Waterman Carené and the Waterman Hemisphere.

Knowing only scanned handwritten documents and letters, Verne may have used either black or brown ink. Sepia from Roher & Klingner seems to be an adequate modern ink.

 

The book

Spoiler

is Vingt mille lieus sons les mers, in the English translation named Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea.

The marine theme is represented by Sepia, Aquamarine and Sargasso Sea inks but also in the Aurora Antarctica and in the Waterman Carené fountain pens. The word ruby appears only once in the novel, when the colour of a hogfish is described.

 

 

The November ink set consists of four colours which fit nicely together, especially Aquamarine and Sepia combine excellently, much to my pleasure.

 

Looking forward to your handwritten replies with either a fountain pen or an ink related to either the auchtor or to the book or to both!

[essayfaire]

 

The ink color is Taccia Hokusai-koiai, which I thought fit the environment of the book.  Look at the box it comes in!

Edited November 5, 2022 by essayfaire
additional information

[Carrau]

Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, n’est-ce pas?

[essayfaire]

1 hour ago, Carrau said:

Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, n’est-ce pas?

Je crois que oui ^

[inkstainedruth]

Never read the book, but was guessing it from the artwork, because it looked like an early type of submarine.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[LizEF]

On 11/5/2022 at 4:02 AM, InesF said:

 

I love this, @InesF!   Fantastic under-sea borders and a great hint.

[InesF]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:15 PM, essayfaire said:

The ink color is Taccia Hokusai-koiai, which I thought fit the environment of the book.  Look at the box it comes in!

Well done, @essayfaire, you cited the French text with a perfectly fitting ink!

I never before had a look at the french original and during my search I found a scanned file of Joule Vernes handwritten original (see here). Always excited to learn something new.

 

[InesF]

Thank you @Carrau, @inkstainedruth and @LizEF for participating in the monthly riddle and for your comments.

You are always welcome!

 

Looking again at my handwriting, I admit I can do better than that. I promise to put a bit more time into the riddle for December ... 😊

[essayfaire]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Well done, @essayfaire, you cited the French text with a perfectly fitting ink!

I never before had a look at the french original and during my search I found a scanned file of Joule Vernes handwritten original (see here). Always excited to learn something new.

 

That's really neat!  I love seeing the editing process.  Had he lived today perhaps he would have used a second color as an "editing" ink, as I do when I revise.

[Carrau]

18 hours ago, InesF said:

Well done, @essayfaire, you cited the French text with a perfectly fitting ink!

I never before had a look at the french original and during my search I found a scanned file of Joule Vernes handwritten original (see here). Always excited to learn something new.

 

Yet another dimension to your work, showing us the manuscript. You’ve thought this out so magnificently.  Thank you so much, Ines.

[essayfaire]

11 hours ago, Carrau said:

Yet another dimension to your work, showing us the manuscript. You’ve thought this out so magnificently.  Thank you so much, Ines.

^Seconded!

[TSherbs]

Ack! Even though I am retired, I have been so busy that I have fallen behind! New grandchild, new foster dog, kaboom! I have done far less journaling and writing than I had hoped over the last month....

[amberleadavis]

Wow, this is cool. 

[InesF]

8 hours ago, amberleadavis said:

Wow, this is cool. 

Thank you @amberleadavis, you are welcome!

[InesF]

No, I can not!

 

Short story of a disaster:

When I tried to refill my Waterman Carène with Pelikan Edelstein Ruby, I managed to kick the inkbottle from the table, caused a crime scene in my home office and left me with an empty fountain pen. I had to go back to my ink collection and mix a new ink with a colour closest to the spilled Ruby as possible. The third attempt succeeded with 4 parts Waterman Red plus 1 part F.Schimpf Morgenröte. Perfect hue, only a bit darker than the original. That started domino-day: Now the already filled Conway Stewart wrote too pale with Pelikan Edelstein Tanzanite. I had to make it darker to fit the set. So I made the second new mixture, consisting of 5 parts P.E. Tanzanite plus 2 parts deAtramentis Black-Blue plus one part deAtramentis Ebony. Perfect hue again; it was 30th of November. Now my green was too light, forcing me to switch to a wet Pelikam M605 pen and to Diamine Holly.

I barely finished yesterday, an OK set, that now casts its shadow ahead to January ...

 

The December pen and ink set consists of only three fountain and one calligraphy pen:

InesF Winter Blue in Conway Stewart Jack Row Mirage M

InesF Ruby replacement ink in Waterman Carène M-stub

Diamine Holly in Pelikan M605 Green-White EF

Herbin Cornaline d’Egypte in Pilot Parallel 2.4mm

 

Here is the December writing sample

 

Here are the ink swatches with pens

 

 

Only one ink is dedicated to the Author:

Spoiler

who is Charles Dickens and the ink is Winter Blue.

As far as my search for handwriting documents went, it seems to me, Charles Dickens wrote either with black or with blue-black. One of his handwritings is especially interesting, see the image below (source: dickenscode.org) 

 

 

The other three inks are related to the book:

Spoiler

which is A Christmas Carol,

with the classic season colours of Red, Green and Gold.

The ebook can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg USA

 

I have to admit, I expected a bit more from using the Herbin shimmer ink in the Pilot Parallel pen. Previously I used it only with dip pens where it performs great. Only the first fife letters after a refill have shimmer particles and look beautiful. Then it stops and no more shimmer is released until all ink is consumed. I’m looking forward to what I may discover when I clean the Pilot pen – the shimmer must be there somewhere ...

 

[LizEF]

6 hours ago, InesF said:

I managed to kick the inkbottle from the table

Oh noooo!!!   Sorry you had to deal with that.  But what a great "domino" story.

 

6 hours ago, InesF said:

Waterman Carène

I don't know why, but some piece of my brain has become obsessed with this pen.  I don't really like the look of it, and the only color scheme that I really like is absurdly expensive and hard (perhaps impossible) to find.  And most importantly (and perhaps the best part, if I'm honest), is that the cap doesn't seal well enough for life in a desert.   So, please enjoy yours vicariously on my behalf.

 

Your quote was far too easy to place - the tale too widely known, I suppose. But a perfect choice for the season!  And that "code" writing was fascinating, certainly related to shorthand. (I really wish I'd retained the shorthand I learned my last year of high school - I took the class for fun, and promptly forgot all of it.  )

 

It's a very nice set of winter colors - your hard work paid off.  If you used a converter in the Parallel, in addition to the mandatory rocking and rolling to keep the glitter in suspension, try slowly saturating the feed and then sucking the ink back into the converter - this may redistribute some of the glitter caught in the massive ink collector.

[inkstainedruth]

@LizEFYeah, I got it at "Marley"....  It's Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol".  I think the first time I ran across it was when I was around 6, when one of my great aunts sent my brother and me a scrapbook she had made with some illustrated rendition of the story done sort of as cartoon or film-strip format.

@InesFTOTAL bummer about the ink.  But at least it's one in the standard lineup and not one of the "Ink of the Year" colors....  Some of which are now "unobtanium"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[TSherbs]

A story of the superstar doing a 90-minute reading/performance in Boston, and the famous hotel he stayed at as home base for his 5-month reading tour of America: Spoiler link

[essayfaire]