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December 20, 2008
Charles Dickens is one of the best known authors of the 19th Century and probably one of the best all time story tellers. His imagination has given birth to classics such as A Christmas Carol, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and many more.The amazing thing about the stories of Dickens is the ..
December 17, 2008
Anyone who has read George Orwell's 1984 may find some resonance in Ayn Rand's Anthem. They both depict a futuristic world where those in power exploit the collective mass in the name of brotherhood, although the two stories differ in plots, emphasis and style.The terror of collectivism is vividly ..
December 17, 2008
I doubt any students to the elusive subject of economics have actually read the ingenious masterpiece of Adam Smith - “The Wealth of Nations". I was tempted but, frankly, never have the courage to test out my perseverance in ancient prose - though attracted by the ancient but timeless wisdom. .
October 30, 2008
There was a time when books were considered to be strictly the domain of nerds, of those who spent about 90% of their waking moments in their rooms, and generally of those who would probably work at universities or at NASA twenty years from now. Not that there is anything wrong with any of these ..
October 27, 2008
Nick Carraway, the narrator, makes much of Daisy's beauty and her sultry voice. But it is through dialogue and action --through her own words and duplicitous behavior-- that we can detect her mental flaws.Lord Francis Bacon in his essay on Beauty said, “There is no excellent beauty that hath ..
October 27, 2008
In The Great Gatsby Scott Fitzgerald presents a study of wealth and ambition through the prism of pathetic characters for which one can find almost no socially redeeming values.What The Great Gatsby portrays is the sordid story of small band of feeble characters engaged in cheating, adultery, ..
October 10, 2008
Why should you read literary classics? Why should anyone study the literature of past periods? Well, because it reveals things about human nature that are fundamental and timeless, because you can learn from the great works of others and brilliant minds of past periods.There are things that people ..
October 01, 2008
"Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas" (1957) By Theodore S. Geisel I have memorized every single line without looking at every single page in this timeless classic since I was five years old. Nough said?"Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal" (2001) By Eric Schlosser ..
September 27, 2008
Thomas Paine shocked early America with his writing, almost to the point of getting himself in trouble or killed. What possesses a man to do such a thing? Was it his strong convictions, why did he attack the bible, point out its contradictions and print his findings? Why was he so adamant about ..
September 27, 2008
Iodine By Haven Kimmel Free Press ISBN: 978-1-4165-7284-8 221 PagesIodine by Haven Kimmel, New York Times bestselling author, was a very disturbing book for me. I could not say I liked it, but I feel compelled to give it high praise for what Kimmel has created in this portrayal of her character, ..
September 26, 2008
Have you ever read a historical text or a Shakespearian Play in old English and it is so hard to understand that it seems almost as if it is in another language. Have you noticed it takes forever and a day to read and then when you have completed reading each page, you shake your head and ask what ..
September 24, 2008
Dracula is a book one has to revisit once in a while. Finally it dawned on me that Dracula scares us not because of his appearance or ill-fame, but because the fiend knows something we don't: non-human knowledge.Bram Stoker's Dracula is one of the scariest books ever written, and the reasons for ..
August 28, 2008
1984 is an English novel written in 1949 - envisaging life in 1984 under a totalitarian regime. It tells the story of Winston Smith, a middle-aged, unhealthy person who is a protagonist, working at the Ministry of Truth. His job is to edit historical accounts to tailor to the policies laid out by ..
August 27, 2008
Macbeth by William ShakespeareMacbeth is one of most famous plays and a great tragedy of Shakespeare. It is also named as ‘The Scottish play’. The title itself suggests the name of the protagonists. The whole play revolves around the protagonists Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. ..
August 25, 2008
The perceptionIn general, the popular perception is that every book needs to be bought and read - if one wanted to read legally.Evolution of sources of booksThe obvious choice is to buy the books from the bookstore as and when they are released. Or, even many days, months and years after they are ..
August 20, 2008
50 years ago in 1958 a young Nigerian, Chinua Achebe, at the young age of 28, made major breakthrough for African Literature with the publication of his novel Things Fall Apart. This novel became widely read and recommended in schools and colleges all over the world. I could remember reading it for .
August 18, 2008
The mid-nineteenth century dystopian novel Erewhon ‘caused a sensation’ (Erewhon, Wordsworth Classics, pbk1996, back page) when it was first published annonymously by its then little known author, Samuel Butler. It had taken him more than a decade to complete (1860 - 1871) with finally ..
August 09, 2008
Jules Verne (February 8, 1828 - March 24, 1905) - the French author who pioneered Science Fiction ("Sci-Fi") writing - had created one of his best works ever work in form of “Around the World in Eighty Days". This is a novel where a man goes all around the world in only 80 days at an era ..
August 03, 2008
It's 1940's America. African Americans are sitting in the backseat of city buses, toileting in designated ‘For Coloreds Only’ public restrooms; banned from voting, segregated geographically, psychologically, and banned from most tertiary universities. A national issue, segregation at ..
August 01, 2008
"All's Well That Ends Well": it's a phrase that rolls off the tongue without stirring much more than a pleasant sensation, but with layer upon layer of thought encoded in its monosyllables. One could write an entire doctoral thesis on the significance of this modest yet rich phrase. Too, one could ..
July 29, 2008
Don Quixote is often nominated as one of the world's greatest works of fiction.(Most recently in a poll of leading authors around the world conducted by the Norwegian Book Clubs in 2002).The novel's landmark status in literary history has meant it has had a rich and varied influence over later ..
July 29, 2008
So the Library of America's great coffee-table book, American Writers at Home, comes as a delight to those of us who yearn to see where the masterpieces we read were created.And the book is a treasure-trove of such delights. Here the reader explores Robert Frost's Derry, New Hampshire farmhouse, ..
July 18, 2008
First published in 1816 and generally considered Jane Austen's finest work, Emma is a comic portrayal of a heroine whose insensible interferences in the life of a young live-in servant in a nearby village often lead to misunderstanding and embarrassment.Emma was written and published in less than ..
July 14, 2008
A recent and very successful BBC production of Jane Austen's “Sense and Sensibility" has brought to the fore one of England's most successful authors although, her six novels remain popular throughout the world. The writer, George Eliot, has said that Jane Austen was “The greatest ..
July 02, 2008
As in all of Hawthorne's writings when one finishes reading his stories you come up with more questions than answers. No other writer makes you question like Hawthorne. The philosophical question of what is true perfection and can it be achieved through physical means or is it a state of the spirit .
July 02, 2008
What created Goodman Brown? A man so tormented by what even he considered to be a dream that it changed his life in a profound negative way forever. Goodman Brown was man plagued by his own conscious; he was someone who believed himself to have committed grave sin by meeting with the devil and ..
July 02, 2008
I believe Washington Irving's purpose in writing Rip Van Winkle was to teach his readers a lesson as well as entertain. Irving is telling his readers through this story that if you live an idle life, never accomplishing anything, and are always satisfied with the bare minimum life will pass you ..
June 22, 2008
The autobiographical account of Richard Wright's life ends in “American Hunger" the sequel novel to “Black Boy" when Richard finally realizes the incredible power that his words will eventually have. He decides that he will use his words as weapons, appealing to the humanistic and ..
May 15, 2008
In his novel ‘Foe', J.M.Coetzee has reconsidered the events of ‘Robinson Crusoe’ from a new point of view. Almost everybody in the field of literature is acquainted with the hardships which Robinson Crusoe had to bear in his adventurous journeys. Crusoe had spent 28 years, 2 ..
April 01, 2008
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte - 5 things you should know.Well, six actually if you include the fact that there are now four different Jane Eyre audio books you can download. This is a great way to learn Jane Eyre quotes and get to know the characters and how they pronounce the Victorian English, ..
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