The Public Domain Review

The introduction of street lighting to 17th-century London saw an explosion of nocturnal activity in the capital, most of it centring around the selling of sex. Matthew Beaumont explores how some writers, with the intention of condemning these nefarious goings-on, took to the city's streets after dark, and in the process gave birth to a peculiar new literary genre.

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The Night-Walker: Or, Evening Rambles in Search after Lewd Women, with the Conferences Held with Them (1696) by John Dunton To the Dutches of . . . MADAM, The Bounty of a Certain Prince, who was taken with your Charms, has made it familiar to you for many years, to be accosted with the usual Compliment of may it please your Grace: But most people are of opinion, that how�

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IMAGE: Highly elaborate ornament print from Cornelis Floris. On the one hand, prints such as these had a functional value, serving as inspiration for craftsmen, such as goldsmiths or carpenters, whose adorning of objects and buildings with ornate designs was in much demand at the time. On the other hand, they are stunning pieces of artwork in their own right, twisting as they do traditional motifs from Roman art and�

At the heart of American author Frank Norris' gritty turn-of-the-century fiction lies an essential engagement with the everyday shock and violence of modernity. Henry Giardina explores how this focus, combined with his unique approach to storytelling, helped to pave the way for a truly filmic style.

One remarkable symptom of scurvy, that constant bane of the Age of Discovery, was the acute and morbid heightening of the senses. Jonathan Lamb explores how this unusual effect of sailing into uncharted territory echoed a different kind of voyage, one undertaken by the Empiricists through their experiments in enhancing the senses artificially.

Dane Kennedy reflects on two disastrous expeditions into Africa organised by the British in the early-19th century, and how their lofty ambitions crumbled before the implacable realities of the continent.

Should we consider black a colour, the absence of colour or a suspension of vision produced by a deprivation of light? Beginning with Robert Fludd's attempt to picture nothingness, Eugene Thacker reflects* on some of the ways in which blackness has been used and thought about through the history of art and philosophical thought.

Between 1943 and 1945, with the help of Warner Bros.' finest, the U.S. Army produced a series of 27 propaganda cartoons depicting the calamitous adventures of Private Snafu. Mark David Kaufman explores the overarching theme of containment and how one film inadvertently let slip one of the war's greatest secrets.