I don’t remember whether I already mentioned the exhibition currently at the Scottish National Gallery, Edward Lear in Greece, featuring pictures from the collection of Steven Runciman. The Gallery will also offer a free lecture on “Edward Lear: Painter of Poetical Topography” by Senior Curator of British Prints and Drawings Charlotte Topsfield; at Hawthornden Lecture Theatre – Gardens Entrance (SNG) on 25 April 2014.

Edward Lear, Palaiukhora, Crete. 29 April 1864. Christie’s.

Stephen Duckworth will be giving a talk on “Edward Lear and his Cretan Drawings” at the Historical Museum of Crete, Andreas & Maria Kalokerinos House (27 Sofokli Venizelou Ave / 7 Lysimachou Kalokerinou Street 71202 Heraklion, Crete) on Wednesday, 14 may 2014 at 19.30.

Meanwhile, issue 10 of the New Escapologist, dedicated to Absurdity has been published.

Aeon Magazine has a very interesting article on repetition in music with some relevance to Nonsense: One more time: Why do we listen to our favourite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains.

And here is an essay discussing Lear, Lewis Carroll and W.S. Gilbert:

Banerje, Sreeradha. “Elements of Social Concern and Absurdity in Non-sense Poetry of the Late-Victorian Period.” Literary Spectrums: Recent Studies in English Literature. Ed. Partha Kumar Mukhopsfhysy. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2007. 153-166. Google Books.

This is added to the Studies on Nonsense page, together with the results of the latest attempts at refreshing my German:

Lang, Peter Christian. Literarischer Unsinn im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhundert: Systematische Begründung und historische Rekonstruktion. Frankfurt am Main: Verlag Peter Lang, 1982.

Köhler, Peter. Nonsens: Theorie Und Geschichte Der Literarischen Gattung. Heidelberg: Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag, 1989.

Finally, though not strictly related to Nonsense literature, the following book contains a long chapter on Edward Lear as an illustrator of his own work (pp. 205-264), together with analyses of illustrators Linley Sambourne (The Water Babies), Arthur Hughes (At the Back of the North Wind), Tenniel (Alice books), Caldecott, Greenaway and Crane:

Esser-Hall, Gabriele. Untersuchung Zu Formen Visueller Textinterpretation Im Englischen Kinderbuch Von 1846 Bis 1890. Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 1997.