Lambent: (literary) (of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance.
Lucent: (literary) glowing with or giving off light.
Refulgent: (literary) shining very brightly
Charles Robinson (English, 1870-1937) with Leprechaun disguised as a flame from a short story ‘The Bog-Wood Box’ by Marjorie L.C. Pickthall, 1914
HEARTH
For more on the significance and symbolism of the home hearth, see this post.
Another one from Louis Wain, Cats by the Fire. I’m pretty sure the black cat started a conflagration.
Manuel Delosas poster c 1942 NYFD Midnight Alarm Giant Demonstration
George Martin Ottinger – Sugar Refinery Burning 1885Attack on the Armada Invincibile by Jean-Leon Huens, Belgium
Krystyna Turska, 1972
1937 February, cover by Antonio Petruccelli
BURN OFFS
A PRAIRIE BOY’S SUMMER (1975) William KurelekEdna Eicke (1919-1979)Ruth Ruhman (American, 1925-2011) for a poem called Autumn Fires, A Child’s Garden of Verses, Robert Louis Stevenson, 1964
CONFLAGRATION
Fire in the Admiralty line jobs, 1673, Romeyn de Hooghe (attributed to), after Jan van der Heyden, 1690 – 1735Cover by Achille Beltrame 1906
1973 The Great Fire Weekly Reader book by Monica Dickens illustrated by Rocco NegriThe Great Sea Horse 1909 by Isabel Anderson
N. Zeitlin – Tales of the Brothers Grimm Three Lucky Ones
Battle of Çesme at Night (1848) by Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900) depicting a battle during the Russo-Turkish War‘Stampede’ This Western painting was salvaged from the Coney Island House of Horrors, c. 1935 artist unknown, fireJohn Atkinson Grimshaw, In Peril, 1879Illustration by Ed Emberley in ‘Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home’ written by Judy Hawes. First published 1967, this reprint in Butler and Tanner, 1970Huckle’s Mum sets the house on fire while ironing Daddy’s shirt, Richard ScarryAnastasia Arkhipova – The Steadfast Tin Soldier
By Kay Nielsen (1886-1957) ‘The Lovers Perish in the Fire’ f. Arabian Nights, 1917
‘Bonfire Night’ (1951) John Bull magazine by Ronald LampittTom Adams (1926 – 2019) 1973 book cover illustration for ‘Destination Unknown’ by Agatha Christie
DAYS OF HEAVEN TERRENCE MALICK (1978)
CORPSE BURNING
Corpse burning at a tribe in a distant land, Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, 1623 – 1628A woman jumps on the stake of her dead husband, 1597, anonymous, after Johannes of Lucas van Doetechum, 1646.
HELL FIRE
Devil stokes the fire in France and Holland, 1830, William Heath, 18301909 Frank Pape, for Anatole France’s Penguin IslandWeird Tales v05 n02 (1925-02)
FIRE AS LIGHTING
Lennart Helje (1940)Charles Santore, William the Curious: Knight of the Water Lilies
EXPLOSION
from the film Hell Or High Waterfrom the film The ThingJivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan’s fall. Lovely–an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor–has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear.
BURN OFF
from the film Hell Or High Water
WHAT EVEN IS THIS
Edward Gorey, probably a big bowl of wassail lit on fire. It might be a game of Snap-dragon.Nineteenth Century German Tales illustrated by Edward Gorey 1959
Lucille Corcos ‘The Sorcerer’, A Treasury of Gilbert & Sullivan. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1941. Edited by Deems Taylor
European Expressionist painter Marianne von Werefkin, Police Post, Wilna, 1914
De Coulanges, 1928-Christmas Fontanet (1898-1982)
Fire can be a powerful and sometimes all consuming force. Helpful and dangerous in equal measure, the ability to use fire sets man apart from the animals. It should not be too surprising then that fire features heavily in our folklore and traditions.
Murder In The Calais Coach by Agatha Christie artwork by Tom Adams
Stella lives in the segregated South; in Bumblebee, North Carolina, to be exact about it. Some stores she can go into. Some stores she can’t. Some folks are right pleasant. Others are a lot less so. To Stella, it sort of evens out, and heck, the Klan hasn’t bothered them for years. But one late night, later than she should ever be up, much less wandering around outside, Stella and her little brother see something they’re never supposed to see, something that is the first flicker of change to come, unwelcome change by any stretch of the imagination. As Stella’s community – her world – is upended, she decides to fight fire with fire. And she learns that ashes don’t necessarily signify an end.
