literary classics e blog

War and Peace - A Concise Review and Summary

By Luke Bodell An infamously thick book, War and Peace is described by Tolstoy himself as being too big to be considered a novel. It describes, with great accuracy and detail both historically and descriptively, Napoleon's charge towards Moscow, and...

The Idiot - A Book Review and Summary of the Great Dostoevsky Novel

By Luke Bodell Another of Dostoevsky's great novels, The Idiot concerns one, good-natured young man caught up in the midst of an immoral, unscrupulous society in 19th century Russia. It contains Dostoevsky's signature dialogue discussing a whole range...

Fantastic Literatures in English - Where Facts Meet Fiction

By Dharmendar Kumar Fantastic literature encompasses three different literary streams namely science fiction, fantasy fiction, and weird fiction, each of which has a unique rhetoric and narration style. Fantasy literature is thought to have evolved in...

"Up at the Villa" by W Somerset Maugham

By Irina PonomarevaMary is very fond of Sir Edgar Swift. When she was a girl of nineteen and he a man of forty-three, he seemed an old man, but now when she is thirty and he is fifty-four, the difference doesn't look so great. So, when he proposes to...

The Wisdom of the Story of Sleeping Beauty

By Jeanine Byers Hoag Have you ever felt like you were knocked flat by the negative energy coming your way? That is what happens as this story begins.Some say that the stories we loved in childhood become the template for our lives as adults. If Sleeping...

Title - Field of Blackbirds - Author - ES Hoover - Book Review

By Gary R. SorkinIn "Field of Blackbirds," E. S. Hoover begins with the discovery of a historical Roman document laying claim to the sovereignty of Serbia by a French professor Dr. Jean-Pierre Fournier. Immediately thereafter Hoover started a chapter...

The Old Man and the Sea - The Cuban Inspiration Behind the Novel

By Pollux ParkerThe novel "Old Man and the Sea" was written by Ernest Hemingway in 1951. It is considered as one of Hemingway's famous works and his last work of fiction during his lifetime. The story centers on the epic battle between an aging Cuban...

Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte - The Popular Victorian Writers Who Were Sisters

By Inez Calender Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte originally published their novels under the pen names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. They felt that book publishers and the reading public would take them more seriously if they used the names of...

Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann - A Book Review - Profound and Poetic

By Joanne PProfound. Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin should take a bow. One of my favourite authors, Frank McCourt, has described this work 'a symphony of a novel'. I agree with this description whole-heartedly. I felt like applauding...

Book Review - The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald

By Elizabeth JosephNick Carraway makes a living in New York in bond business. He happens to be living in a quite affluent area though his house is a modest place. There is a mansion next door to him which belong to Mr Gatsby. Mr Gatsby is a very popular...

America As Seen Through the Eyes of to Kill a Mockingbird and the Crucible

By Paul Thomson To Kill a Mockingbird and "The Crucible" are two classic American works that, though set centuries apart, have a remarkable amount in common: both use children as a means of exploring the social mechanisms behind wrongful persecution...

Huckleberry Finn's Shout-Outs to Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet

By Paul ThomsonWhile it's nearly impossible to find a literary work that doesn't reference another literary work, it isn't always easy to tell why such references are included. Sometimes they foreshadow important plot points, sometimes they help characterize...

Descriptive Language in Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son

By Ben H Wright Dombey and Son is a novel rich in descriptive detail, with both the exteriors and interiors in which its many characters feature being vividly realized. However it is arguable that such detail isn't intended to be merely decorative but...

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

By Cara Lane I finished this amazing novel admittedly a few days before deciding I would start this 100 books, 1 year thing. But because I finished it so close to when I came up with my ingenious plan, I see no reason not to include it. I don't think...

Vampires and Twentieth Century Literature

By Kathy Mercado The idea for using vampires as characters in the literary works of the twentieth century was taken from the famous Dracula by Bram Stoker. The novel was then adapted into cinema which was an emerging medium during that time period. Stoker's...

"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte

By Irina Ponomareva "Jane Eyre" was the joy of my childhood - the book that supported me when I was sad and inspired my imagination when I was feeling creative. Needless to say, in those days I read it in Russian - the original came later, much later....

Review - 'A Day's Wait' by Ernest Hemingway

By Mico Jonathan EllisonA day's wait is an excellent story written by 'Ernest Hemingway'. This simple story revolves round a nine year old child named "Schatz", his father and his doctor. The story excellently portrays the emotions of fears in the mind...

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

By Irina Ponomareva"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a beautiful and cozy fairy tale that has been making generations of children and adults alike smile and feel happier. Very unusual for the genre, it's not really a fairy tale, but a child's dream...

Women and the Law in the Crucible, the Scarlet Letter, and to Kill a Mockingbird

By Paul Thomson Elena Kagan's recent confirmation to the US Supreme Court is a powerful reminder of just how far women have come in the American legal system; from being disenfranchised until 1920 to being unable to serve as jurors nationwide until 1975,...

"Through the Looking-Glass" By Lewis Carroll

By Irina Ponomareva "Through the Looking-Glass" is the second book dedicated to Alice and her wonderful adventures in her dreams. This time Alice finds herself inside a weird chess game and meets a lot of funny characters who do and say strange things...