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1-800-1800

Mandylion Press

Brought to you by Mandylion®, 1-800-1800 is your guide to 19th-century history, art, literature, culture, and scandal. Each episode, we dial into a random year of the 1800s to gab about the chaos that shaped the modern world. Hosted by Madeline Porsella and Mabel Taylor, two Victorian Nightgown Girls and historians of art and design, 1-800-1800 delivers rigorous research with a healthy dose of gossip. So pick up the phone, the nineteenth century’s calling! More Mandylion®: mandylionpress.com mandylion.substack.com instagram.com/mandylionpress Music by Jeronimo Ezquerro Aguilar-Alvarez.

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  • 33 episodes
  • weekly
  • Avg 51 min
  • English

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  • Tuesday · 1 hr 11 min

    1-800-1873: “The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World”

    Dearest friends, welcome back to 1-800-1800, your personalized guide to the very very long nineteenth century. Each episode we call up a random year and say, “you up?” This week we called 1873, aka we read Liaquat Ahamed’s new book 1873: The Rothschilds, the First Great Depression, and the Making of the Modern World. Did you know people write books with year titles? How helpful for our purposes! In 1873, Pulitzer Prize-winning Ahamed looks back to the year which birthed the first global financial crisis and considers the family at its center: THE ROTHSCHILDS. Keep scrolling to see images mentioned on the episode. You’re going to want to open this in your browser to see the images, it may be truncated by your email and it won’t show up on Spotify/Apple! Don’t forget to like and subscribe and tell all of your friends and oh BTW this episode was edited by the one and only Jack Gorman. Go Jack! XOXO The Boom Before the Bust The Rothschilds Constantinople and Cairo, 1871-1873 The Bust This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • November 5 · 5 min

    1-800-Sense and Sensibility

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com Hello dolls. Welcome back to 1-800-1800, everyone’s favorite guide to the nineteenth century. Every episode we call up a random year of the 19th century and simply say, “what’s up?” We also do special bonus episodes about pressing topics facing nineteenth-century obsessives such as yourselves. This week we are talking about the latest addition to the Ja…

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  • October 31 · 1 hr 9 min

    1-800-The Murders in the Rue Morgue

    Happy halloween girls and ghouls. Welcome back to 1-800-1800. On today’s special haunted episode we are joined by the writer Grace Byron to discuss Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Grace is a real 19th-century reader as well as the author of Herculine, an amazing novel published last year about a secluded camp for demonic trans girls named after Herculine Barbin. It’s so good, order your copy now!! Also, subscribe to Grace’s Substack! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • October 27 · 1 hr 39 min

    1-800-1800: Maria Edgeworth invented political economy

    Yes, you read that episode year correctly! We are taking it back to the first year of the nineteenth century this week. For this major year, we read Jeanna Smailek’s new book The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics. Smialek argues that Edgeworth pioneered the field of political economy by “hid[ing] her version of economics in storybooks,” earning her a place among the greats of early economic theory, including Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and Thomas Malthus. Edgeworth was a prolific writer, publishing over two dozen novels and short story collections between 1795 and 1848. She was encouraged to write by her father, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, an absolute kook who Smialek describes as “a law student turned philosopher turned gentleman farmer who would go on to have four wives, twenty-two children, and a lifelong interest in seemingly every idea the Scottish and English Enlightenments had to offer.” Together, Maria and Richard implemented the ideas of Adam Smith, the author of The Wealth of Nations (1776), on their estate in Ireland. In 1800, Maria published Castle Rackrent, a rollicking story of life on an Irish estate narrated by Thady Quirk, a servant to the foolish Rackrent family who utterly mismanage their property and tenants. After reading Castle Rackrent, King George III apparently commented, “I know something of my Irish subjects” Maria Edgeworth was read by monarchs (Queen Victoria was raised on Edgeworth’s children fiction), and was one of the best-selling and most famous authors of her generation, at a time when novels were a major form of mass media. Despite her prolific career, Edgeworth is often overlooked today, perhaps because she infused her fiction with complex ideas about political economy. Listen and get a taste of Edgeworth’s world! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. If you like 1-800-1800, subscribe to Mandylion’s substack to hear paid bonus episodes! If you want more… Jeanna Smialek, The Invisible Hand of Maria Edgeworth: How a Nineteenth-Century Novelist Taught the World Economics, 2026. Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776. Order the book or read online for free. Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, 1800. Order the book or read online for free. Maria Edgeworth, Belinda, 1801. Order the book or read online for free. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • October 22 · 5 min

    1-800-Salter House

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com This is a very special episode of 1-800-1800 because it is our first ever LIVE episode! We were honored to be in conversation at Salter House & Picture Room on October 15. It was a truly one-of-a-kind night. We were joined by old and new friends alike, and had the chance to take our little act out into the real world. Thank you to everyone who came and …

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  • October 13 · 1 hr 34 min

    1-800-1894: Queen Victoria Woodhull

    Welcome back to 1-800-1800. This week, we are talking 1894, the year that Victoria Woodhull (Spiritualist medium, Wall Street broker, Presidential candidate, newspaper publisher, etc.) sued the British Museum for harboring libelous material about her. For this special episode we were joined by Alex Sujong Laughlin, podcaster, writer, and co-owner of Defector Media. Alex is the author of the forthcoming book The Talent Cult: Ambition, Visibility, and Power in the Attention Economy, coming 2027 from One World/Penguin Random House!!! Find more information about her book here and listen to her podcast Try Hard!!! Victoria Woodhull was a truly singular 19th-century figure. Born into poverty in Homer, Ohio, Victoria California Claflin transformed herself several times over. First, following in their Mesmerist mother’s footsteps, she and her sister performed as Spiritualist mediums as a traveling roadshow. After a few unsuccessful marriages, Victoria remade herself as a clairvoyant to Cornelius Vanderbilt, ultimately running a Wall Street brokerage and opening a newspaper with her sister Tennessee. The sisters became the subject of huge scandal when they broke the Beecher-Tilton Affair, one of the biggest controversies of their time. In her spare time, Victoria advocated for free love and women gaining the vote. She even ran for president in 1872. In her final act, Victoria remade herself as a fine English lady, not unlike her namesake, Queen Victoria. You can take the girl out of Homer, Ohio, but you can’t take the Homer, Ohio out of the girl, and Victoria ended up suing the British Museum for (maybe) harboring (allegedly) libelous material about her. Listen and enjoy!!! This episode was edited by Jack Gorman. :) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • October 6 · 4 min

    1-800-Gangs of New York

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com Welcome back to 1-800-1800. On this week’s special bonus episode, Madeline and Mabel travel back in time to 2002, and from there head to New York City circa 1846-1863, when violent gangs ruled the town. From the guys that brought you the #MeToo movement, Gangs of New York is an epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese that Madeline has se…

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  • September 29 · 1 hr 28 min

    1-800-1872: Abby and the chocolate factory

    Welcome back to 1-800-1800! This week we are joined by the one and only Abigail Sandler, architect and author of Price Upon Request, a newsletter exploring the role of ornament in our modern lives. Abby delights us with discussion of her favorite building, the Menier Chocolate Factory in Noisiel, France. Designed by Jules Saulnier (1817-1881), the building is distinguished by its iron frame and ornamental brick infill. Listen, like, and subscribe! Xo Herman Melville statue in New Bedford. Claude Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1872. Charles Frederick Worth, Ball gown, 1872 Edgar Degas, Dance Class at the Opera, 1872 Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets, 1872 1-800-1871 with Sara Hinckley, for background on the Paris Commune. France’s colonial expansion. Did you know chocolate is a tree? Loveman, Kate. “The Introduction of Chocolate into England: Retailers, Researchers, and Consumers, 1640-1730.” Journal of Social History 47, no. 1 (2013): 27–46. http://www.jstor.org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/43306044. Featuring the Earl of Sandwich’s recipe for a frozen choclate treat: “Prepare the chocolatti [to make a drink] . . . and Then Putt the vessell that hath the Chocolatti in it,into a Jaraffa[i.e. a carafe] of snow stirred together with some salt, & shaike the snow together sometyme & it will putt the Chocolatti into tender Curdled Ice & soe eate a with spoons.” Chocolatier, the Game. Eplett, Layla. “For Oompa-Loompas, Orange Was the New Black.” Gastronomica 16, no. 2 (2016): 12–17. https://www-jstor-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/26362342. Charles Osborne for Tiffany & Co., Chocolate Pot, 1879. 1893 poster by Firmin Bouisset. Now, what you’ve all been waiting for: the chocolate factory! As documented by Abby. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • September 22 · 4 min

    1-800-The Awakening

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com “It was not necessary for a writer of so great refinement and poetic grace to enter the over-worked field of sex-fiction” — said one critic of Kate Chopin’s landmark 1899 novel The Awakening. Mabel and Madeline dip their toes into the controversy in this week’s special bonus episode of 1-800-1800. * Kate Chopin: A Reawakening * “Kate Chopin: The Awakening, T…

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  • September 15 · 1 hr 55 min

    1-800-1891: basketball is our favorite sport

    This week, Harry Krinsky of Nothing But Respect joins us to talk about the invention of basketball. We discuss the rules of the game (you won’t believe how they dribbled), the cages they played in, and a hot controversy about its inventor. Listen now & follow Harry @lexaprotools on Substack & IG<3M+M Show Notes: “1-800-PODCAST” from 99% Invisible Football by Chuck Klosterman From Cages to Jumpshots by Robert W. Peterson Richard Sandomir, “Basketball’s Birth, in James Naismith’s Own Spoken Words,” New York Times. Dan Barry, “Who Really Invented Basketball, ‘The Human Calculator’ Thinks He Knows” New York Times. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • September 8 · 5 min

    1-800-The Tenant of Yesteryear

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com On this week’s bonus episode of 1-800-1800, the girls dare to discuss a contemporary novel, Caro Claire Burke’s Yesteryear (2026), a novel about a tradwife influencer who time travels to 1855. To avoid being too modern with it, Mabel and Madeline compare Burke’s #1 New York Times bestseller with the least-popular Brontë novel, Anne Brontë’s The Tenant …

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  • September 1 · 1 hr 3 min

    1-800-1849: A quick history of the state of California

    On this week’s episode of 1-800-1800, Mabel goes home…to California. After a brief debate about what sport the Forty-Niners play, the girls discuss the history of California before and after the Gold Rush. Captain Constable and the crew of the Balclutha ship circa 1887. Source. David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. Sir Francis Drake’s Landing in California circa 1579. Source. Postcard of Mission Santa Cruz, after 1898. NYPL. Tour the Sophisticated Spanish-Style Homes of 8 Celebrities, Architectural Digest. California as I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California’s Early Years, 1849 to 1900 Sutter’s Fort, Source. Sailing card for the clipper ship California, circa 1850. Source. Merchant ships in the San Francisco Harbor, circa 1850-51. Source. Fremont Raising the Bear Flag (engraved, c. 1860). Source. Metrics of the flag for the Republic of California. Source. First photo of James K. Polk. Joan Didion, Memoirs & Later Writings. N. Currier, The Independent Gold Hunter on His Way to California: I neither borrow nor lend, 1849-1852. Library of Congress. Henry R. Robinson, “Mose, Lize, & Little Mose Going to California,” 1849. Metropolitan Museum. Jessie Benton Frémont, A Year of American Travel, 1878. Source. Frémont was the daughter of Thomas Hart Benton (1782-1858), great-granduncle to the painter of the same name. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • August 25 · 5 min

    1-800-Late Fame

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com This week, Mabel and Madeline read Late Fame, a perfect little novella written by Arthur Schnitzler, and saw Late Fame, a perfect little indie movie directed by Kent Jones. More importantly, because the story tackles the rediscovery of a forgotten poet, both the novella and its contemporary adaptation make for the perfect little Mandylion conversation. …

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  • August 11 · 1 hr 19 min

    1-800-1861: Death Becomes Her w/ Jessica DeFino

    This week on 1-800-1800, we’re discussing life’s inevitabilities—death and unrealistic beauty standards—with Jessica DeFino of one of our all time favorite Substacks, Flesh World!! Join us to learn more about Prince Albert’s death, Queen Victoria’s resulting mourning period as well as the ways death is trending in contemporary beauty culture. This one goes crazy! Show Notes * Flesh World * Ask Ugly * Mess World * “World Exhibition.” Free Library. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/feature/centennial/exhibition. * Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in March 1861, Royal Collection Trust. https://www.youngqueenvictoria.co.uk/queenvictoriarevivalthe-courtship-of-queen-victoria-and-prince-albert * The Prince Consort in his deathbed, December 1861, Wikimedia Commons.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albert,_Prince_Consort_%281819-61%29_after_death,_the_Blue_Room,_Windsor_Castle_16_-_16_Dec_1861.jpg * Queen Victoria in mourning, with a portrait of Prince Albert c. 1862. * Victoria - Widowhood, reforms, Legacy | Britannica. Accessed August 11, 2026. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Victoria-queen-of-United-Kingdom/Widowhood. * Queen Victoria’s Mourning Dress, 1894. The Costume Institute. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/155840 * Mitford, Jessica. The American Way of Death. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963. * DeFino, Jessica. “Cadaver Fat Filler & the Ethics of Necrocosmetics.” FLESH WORLD , March 26, 2026. https://jessicadefino.substack.com/p/cadaver-fat-filler-and-the-ethics. * Washington Post. Peptide Boom has States Scrambling to Protect Consumers, Post Investigation Finds - The Washington Post. Accessed August 11, 2026. https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/07/24/peptide-boom-has-states-scrambling-protect-consumers-post-investigation-finds/. * The Work of the Dead: A Cultural History of Mortal Remains. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015. * Hair bracelet with photograph, 1858, Royal Collection Trust/© His Majesty King Charles III 2022 https://albert.rct.uk/explore/themes/photographic-technologies/hair-bracelet-with-photograph * Lina, Katharina. “Woven in Hair.” INFRINGE, February 4, 2020. https://www.infringe.com/woven-in-hair/. * “Prescribed Periods of Mourning .” Victorian Web. Accessed August 11, 2026. https://victorianweb.org/history/mourning/6.html. * Taylor, L. (1983). Mourning Dress (Routledge Revivals): A Costume and Social History (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/10.4324/9780203871324 * Wildgoose, Jane. “Ways of Making with Human Hair and Knowing How to ‘Listen’ to the Dead.” West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 23, no. 1 (2016): 79–101. https://www-jstor-org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/26466679. * Lutz, Deborah. “DEATH BECOMES HER: A CENTURY OF MOURNING ATTIRE.” Death Becomes Her: A Century of Mourning Attire. The Metropolitan Museum of Art; My Lady Ludlow; Death in the Victorian Family; Death, Dissection, and the Destitute; Mourning Dress: A Costume and Social History; Vanity Fair, by Harold Koda, Jessica Regan, Elizabeth Gaskell, et al. Victorian Literature and Culture 44, no. 1 (2016): 217–22. http://www.jstor.org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/43923421. * Lutz, Deborah. “THE DEAD STILL AMONG US: VICTORIAN SECULAR RELICS, HAIR JEWELRY, AND DEATH CULTURE.” Victorian Literature and Culture 39, no. 1 (2011): 127–42. http://www.jstor.org.yale.idm.oclc.org/stable/41307854. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • July 28 · 4 min

    1-800-Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com This week, Mabel and Madeline dig into the painting that has appeared most frequently in Mandylion’s visual glossaries, Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog from 1818. She’s in The Gadfly, The Morgesons, The Hill of Dreams, and our upcoming title, Love Days. Listen to find out why we can’t get enough of this Romantic masterpiece. **note: Madeline got basically every first name she said in this episode wrong, just listen to last names. Thank you for understanding, she’s doing her best.

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  • July 14 · 1 hr 30 min

    1-800-1876: America, the sequel

    Yoohoo, Welcome to America, the sequel. In this episode we look back at the Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. We talk about the giant engines and sexy corsets on display, the unfinished revolutionary projects in civil rights and labor movements, and what, exactly, an acre is. Like, subscribe, drop us a line. XOXO, M&M Show Notes * The Flying Horses, Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. * Paine, Thomas, and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Of The Religious Society Of Friends. Meeting For Sufferings. Common Sense. London, J. Watson, 1850. Pdf. https://www.loc.gov/item/18016803/. * Bordewich, Fergus M. Centennial: The Great Fair of 1876 and the Invention of America’s Future. New York: Random House, 2026. [1] * Eliot, George [Mary Ann Evans]. Daniel Deronda. 1876. Ed. Graham Handley. Oxford: Clarendon, 1984. * Oldest continuously operational carousel: Flying Horses Carousel. https://vineyardtrust.org/property/flying-horses-carousel/ * An early (circa 1789) French carousel where the riders speared the ring. From Fried, 1964. https://vintagecarousels.com/briefhistoryofthecarousel.htm * Early “Flying” Carousels. From Benjamin, William and Barbara Williams. 2016. Andrew Christian and Charles W. F. Dare. Carousel History. * Frank Leslie’s Historical Register of the United States Centennial Exposition, 1876. Library of Congress. * Invention of the Dewey Decimal System. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/dewey-decimal-classification-ddc * Party Girl (1995) Dewey Decimal System Clip. * Hubert, Rosario. “Sinology on the Edge: Borges’s Reviews of Chinese Literature (1937-1942).” Variaciones Borges, no. 39 (2015): 81–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24881628. * Centennial Exposition * Railroad Tycoon Thomas Scott. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_A._Scott * 1-800-1800 First Episode: 1851 * Bennett, Tony. 1995. The Birth of the Museum: History, Theory, Politics. London: Routledge. * Michael Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, trans. A. Sheridan, London, Allen Lane, 1977, pp. 115-16 * Bennett, Tony. “The Exhibitionary Complex .” Columbia University Libraries , 1996. https://www.columbia.edu/itc/anthropology/schildkrout/6353/client_edit/week1/bennett.pdf. * “World Exhibition.” Free Library. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/feature/centennial/exhibition. * “National Unemployment Rate.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/cps/. * Foner, Eric. Reconstruction and the Constitution - YouTube, 2020. * The Electoral Vote Count of the 1876 Presidential Election | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-electoral-vote-count-of-the-1876-presidential-election/. * The bust of Richard Allen, displayed at the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876. http://elfrethsalley.org/blog/2020/8/13/centennial-or-bust * Foner, Eric. Reconstruction America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2015. * Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, 1989. * Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States, July 4, 1876. Susan B. Anthony Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress (035.00.00) * Jeff Bridgman Collection. “The 1876 Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia - Museum of the American Revolution.” Museum of the American Revolution. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://www.amrevmuseum.org/virtualexhibits/when-women-lost-the-vote-a-revolutionary-story/pages/the-1876-centennial-celebration-in-philadelphia. * Lueth, Elmar S. “Centennial Exposition (Philadelphia).” The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 14 July 2026. * “Financial Panic of 1873.” U.S. Department of the Treasury. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/freedmans-bank-building/financial-panic-of-1873. * Victoria Woodhull. First publisher of the Communist Manifesto in English. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/victoria-woodhull. * Women’s Pavilion. The National Cookery Book. * Centennial Photographic Co. “The Sons of Temperance. Temperance Fountain.” Free Library of Philadelphia Digital Collections. * Centennial Photographic Co. “Main Building-north entrance.” Free Library of Philadelphia Digital Collections. * Royal Worcester Corset Company, Corset, 1876. On display at the World fair in 1876. Won First Prize. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. * Corliss Centennial Steam Engine. https://libwww.freelibrary.org/digital/item/1715 * Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone patent. * “Memorial Hall (Philadelphia) .” Wikipedia. Accessed July 14, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Hall_(Philadelphia). * Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, 1876. Submission to the World Fair. Smithsonian Museum of Art. * Edmonia Lewis. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/edmonia-lewis * Japan Pavillion at the World Fair * Forseth, Irwin N., and Anne F. Innis. 2004. “Kudzu (Pueraria Montana): History, Physiology, and Ecology Combine to Make a Major Ecosystem Threat.” Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 23 (5): 401–13. doi:10.1080/07352680490505150. * Cattelino, Jessica R. “Loving the Native: Invasive Species and the Cultural Politics of Flourishing.” Essay. In The Routledge Companion to the Environmental Humanities, 2021. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • July 2 · 1 hr 40 min

    1-800-1776: The Shot Heard Round the World

    I’m a yankee doodle dandy and you’re on the precipice of learning all that Mabel and Madeline have to say about the American Revolution in this special episode about 1776. Its a World War, its a Civil War, its a tax scheme, its an inspiration to us all! Enjoy it and have a happy fourth of July, k <3 M&M This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • May 19 · 1 hr 13 min

    1-800-1871 (feat. Sara Hinkley)

    This week we are very excited to welcome the brilliant Sara Hinkley onto 1-800-1800 to discuss her forthcoming novel The Red Sacrament. Sara’s brilliant debut tells the story of a theater troupe of vampires, set against the backdrop of the Siege of Paris and the Commune. We had simply the best time discussing the book, Sara’s research process, and our shared obsession with the last days of the Second Empire. Pre-order The Red Sacrament here! and find Sara on: Instagram Bluesky Twitter XOXO, M&M This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • May 5 · 1 hr 19 min

    1-800-1841: London's Charivari

    Madeline and Mabel discuss the founding of Punch Magazine, the most popular satirical magazine of the 19th century, and muse on its enduring influence. The girls also touch on a sensational murder/botched abortion case, Summer House, a US president you’ve never heard of, and more!! Show notes: Births, Deaths * Renoir, Blousy Nudes * https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/08/26/renoirs-problem-nudes * Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr * https://www.mandylionpress.com/shop/p/elsievenner Mary Rogers Murder, Restellism, and the Great Moon Hoax * Mary Rogers Disappearance and Murder * Great Moon Hoax of 1835 * Madame Restell “Lunar animals and other objects Discovered by Sir John Herschel in his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope and copied from sketches in the Edinburgh Journal of Science.” An illustration for The New York Sun, credited to Benjamin Day, 1835. * Penny press image of Madame Restell, “The Female Abortionist, March 13 1847. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madame_Restell#/media/File:National_Police_Gazette_Restell.jpg * Poe, Edgar A. 1842. The Mystery of Marie Roget. The Thirty-Day Presidency and Questionable 19th-Century Medical Practices * Nathaniel Currier, Death of Harrison, 1841. https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.81.49 * “US Const”. Section 1, Article 2, Section 6. https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-2/ * Gran Columbia https://www.britannica.com/place/Gran-Colombia#/media/1/241012/99781 * The Election of 1840, National Park Service Tyler receiving the news of Harrison’s death, [April 5, 1841]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/00650917/ Punch Magazine; Revolutionary Satire & Cartoons * Punch was founded by Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells in 1841; it was a magazine of humour and satire. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_(magazine) * Sketch of Henry Mayhew, Co-Founder of Punch Magazine * Maidment, B. (2013). The Presence of Punch in the Nineteenth Century. In: Harder, H., Mittler, B. (eds) Asian Punches. Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28607-0_2 * Sperrin, Dan. State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature. Princeton University Press, 2025. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.22679818. * Ebenezer Landells (13 April 1808 – 1 October 1860) was a British wood-engraver, illustrator, and magazine proprietor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebenezer_Landells * Mark Lemon * The Illustrated London News https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Illustrated_London_News * Punch Magazine Archival Listings: browse through! https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=punch * Ye olde morality-enforcement brigades. https://daily.jstor.org/ye-olde-morality-enforcement-brigades/. * Le Charivari: European Folk Custom of Public Shaming * Cashmere, John. “The Social Uses of Violence in Ritual: Charivari or Religious Persecution?” European History Quarterly, (1991). Accessed July 13, 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/026569149102100301. Punch & Judy Book illustration of Pulcinella in 1700 (1860) by Maurice Sand, found in Masques et bouffons: comédie italienne. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulcinella * Mr Punch depicted on the cover of Punch magazine, 26 April 1916. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_and_Judy * Punch or May Day, 1829 painting by Benjamin Robert Haydon depicting a street scene in London including a Punch and Judy show * “That’s the Way to do it!” A History of Punch & Judy . Accessed July 13, 2026. https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/thats-the-way-to-do-it-a-history-of-punch-and-judy. * Photograph of a Punch and Judy show at Ilfracombe, by Paul Martin, about 1895, England. Museum no. PH.1900-1980. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London * The History of Punch Magazine * The Punch Prospectus: The text of the Prospectus is repeated in the first issue, published on July 17, 1841. https://archive.org/details/sim_punch_1841-1846_1/page/4/mode/1up * Punch Prospectus. * Punch, “Boots” Chapter. Vanity Fair It was printed in 20 monthly parts between January 1847 and July 1848 for Punch by Bradbury & Evans in London. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mandylion.substack.com/subscribe

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  • April 30 · 1 min

    1-800-The Princess Cassamissima

    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit mandylion.substack.com Book Club Alert !! This week the girls recap Henry James's The Princess Cassamissima, the story of a young man of mysterious parentage who tries to take on the world's inequities but instead just ends up smoking cigarettes on a magenta divan. We were delighted, we were puzzled, we were forced to ask "are beauty and revolution compatible pursuits."

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