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Showing posts with label English Novels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English Novels. Show all posts
Sunday, 24 February 2013
Imran Series No. 10 - Larrkiyon ka Jazeerah (Women Island) By Ibn E Safi
Tuesday, 19 February 2013
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bront�
Jane Eyre
54 ratings, 30 reviews
Jane Eyre is a gothic romance novel by Charlotte Brontvɬ�, published in London in 1847. It follows the willful and passionate orphan Jane through her neglected childhood, her education at a strict girls' school, her time as a governess, and her eventual romance with the troubled yet dashing Mr. Rochester.
The central themes of Jane Eyre are morality, religion, social class and gender relations, but mainly passion and independence. The book might seem tame or out of date to modern readers, but it certainly caused a sensation at the time of its publication, yet it's still highly relevant and readable today. Throughout the story Jane fights against the affections of all the men in her life until she is certain that a relationship will be on equal ground. And in Victorian England, a woman so headstrong and independent, with her own selfhood and passions at the center of the narrative, was seen as a brave departure from the typical portrayal.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dracula
157 ratings, 86 reviews
Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey
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Queen Victoria
1 rating, 0 reviews
Queen Victoria, born Alexandrina Victoria (1819 - 1901) ruled the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death. At the age of 18 she inherited the throne, ruling for 63 years, longer than any other British monarch - the longest reign of any female monarch in history. She is remembered for her strict and stodgy moral standards, not to mention having an era named after her. Lytton Strachey (1880 - 1832) is remembered not only for his brilliant biography of Queen Victoria, but for changing the nature of biography all together. His new school approach incorporated psychological insight and a touching sympathy, coupled with a detached irreverence for his subject. Until this time, biographies - especially of dead monarchs - were dull, drawn-out eulogies with very little artistic flair.
The young Victoria, whose uncles had been scandalous louts, was reared under the tutelage of a strict governess, and she carried her propriety with her throughout her long reign. Shortly before becoming Queen she fell in love with her first Cousin, Prince Albert, an intelligent and sensitive man who was in love with the arts. They were married, and she was blissfully happy - Albert, however, was miserable. England, after decades of political intrigue, war, and excessive spending, had grown weary of its monarchy, but Victoria wasn't derailed. She carried on, relying on Albert more and more, as his behind-the-scenes political power began to grow. Queen Victoria remained happy until 1861, when her beloved husband died, a tragedy which cast her into a prolonged mourning. It wasn't until Disraeli became Prime Minister and began to dote on her that she was revived. She would be named �Empress of India" (despite never having gone there), would survive seven failed assassination attempts, preside over the height of British innovation and Empire, and help restore the beleaguered image of the monarchy. She would commemorate Albert, turning his room into a shrine, and love him until the end. A Queen, yes, but a woman, a mother, and wife as well. At its center, Strachey's brilliant and moving biography is not only the portrait of England's most eternal queen, but a tender love story as well
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
23 ratings, 13 reviews
It sounds like a joke, but if you look up Autobiography in Wikipedia you get the front cover of Benjamin Franklin's autobiography-that's how famous it is. Considered one of the first real autobiographies in American literature, Ben's "memoir" as he called it began as a collection of anecdotes for his son, but was later transformed into a complete book. Get down with one of America's best-loved forefathers in his renowned autobiography.
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
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Gulliver's Travels
11 ratings, 5 reviews
To this day, the classic Gulliver's Travels places Jonathan Swift as the master of both parody and satire. Fifteen years in the making, his book was published anonymously due to fear of prosecution. And rightfully so, as it basically made fun of everyone: the State, the Church, Big Science and the Aristocracy. It was an immediate smash hit. If Swift were alive today he'd probably be writing for Southpark.
This tale in four parts depicts shipwrecked castaway Lemuel Gulliver, who encounters the diminutive Lilliputians, the giants of Brobdingnag, the impractical scientists of Laputa, the philosophical horselike Houyhnhnms, and the base humaneseque Yahoos. Besides generating a few
unwieldy SAT words (Lilliputian, Brogdingnagian), Gulliver's Travels delves fantastically into the nature of man: exploring good vs. evil, optimism vs. misanthropy, and whether human corruption is innate or learned over time.
The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana by Sir Richard Francis Burton
The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana
77 ratings, 44 reviews
The Kama Sutra was like Maxim magazine for ancient Hindus. In this version we not only feature the classic Indian sex manual, but the version translated by everyone's favorite British Knight, Sir Richard Burton. Burton is famous for his knowledge of Eastern languages and culture, and his tendency to hold nothing back in his translations. So there's little wonder why the Kama Sutra's popularity among lovers has remained strong over the years. Tantalizing sections such as "On the Various Ways of Lying Down" and "Ways of Enlarging the Lingam" are sure to keep readers entertained (if not giggling).
Ulysses by James Joyce
Ulysses
12 ratings, 3 reviews
James Joyce's Ulysses is a conundrum of a book: some say it's unreadable stream-of-conscious gobbledegook, while others claim it to be the best book ever written. The 900 page work details a single day in the life of Jewish Irishmen Leopold Bloom (now known as "Bloomsday") as he carries on in Dublin.
Each of its 18 chapters correspond to an element of Homer's Ulysses, relate to a particular organ of the body, and is written in a different literary style. Thus it is certainly not for the casual reader. But when read in its entirety (once, maybe twice) Ulysses is certain to stand out as a cornerstone of Modernist literature.
The Call of the Wild by Jack London
The Call of the Wild
128 ratings, 74 reviews
Buck is bought and sold several times as a sled dog, but is eventually rescued from his inept owners by John Thornton, who's an experienced outdoorsman. The two bond immediately and carry on as companions in the great Alaska wild, but when disaster strikes, Buck is drawn back into the wilderness with a pack of wolves
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
3 ratings, 2 reviews
Beyond Good and Evil (1886) is a work by the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, in which he tackles similar issues from his previous book, Thus Spoke Zarathustra. If the prior work was one of philosophical literature, Beyond Good and Evil is pure philosophy: it's a collection of 296 aphorisms, each only one or two sentences, which are broken up into nine chapters based on common themes. Nietzsche's tenet that philosophers of the past lacked real critical abilities due to their blind acceptance of morality, especially Christian dogma, is here in full force. At the center of Nietzsche's philosophy is the "will to power," which he outlines in full.
Naturally Nietzsche has been labeled an "atheist," but if his line of thought is followed through, an ideal world of the mind and spirit would transcend both "theism" and "atheism," and old Platonic dualities which no longer have any benefit to mankind would be tossed. Thus what we need a new philosophy and a new kind of philosopher for the coming era. That said, he doesn't give us a new philosophy, he just states that the old ones are bunk. His work is not for everyone, certainly - Nietzsche will offend as many readers as he enlightens. It is immensely creative, powerful, and provocative, and should be read by anyone (albeit slowly) with a passion for the life of the mind. Beyond Good and Evil is dedicated to those who can break free of dogma and cut to the pure and unadulterated essence of the human condition, those "Philosophers of the Future."
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical novel written by Sir Walter Scott in 1819. Set in 12th-century England, Ivanhoe caused a resurgence in the popularity of the Romantic and Medieval ages. In it Scott recreates the cultural conflict between the Normans and the Saxons, placing fictional characters into real historical events who interact with actual historical figures. This isn't a new concept for us today, but in the early 19th century, when history came to readers as dry facts and figures, this was hot stuff. Other 19th century historians such as Thomas Carlyle would feel the fever for this new kind of historical fiction, embodied in his retelling of the French Revolution.
Ivanhoe is the story of one of the few remaining noble Saxon families amidst a domination of Norman nobility. Wilfred of Ivanhoe has fallen in love with his father's ward, Lady Rowena, and has pledged allegiance for the Norman king Richard The Lionheart; actions which caused Ivanhoe to be disinherited by his father. Ivanhoe battles it out in a tournament for the hand of Lady Rowena, a scene which also features Robin of Locksley, aka Robin Hood, and his "merry men." Placing Robin Hood at this period in history was a coup for Scott, as most believed him to have lived a few centuries later. If you love tales of chivalrous knights, fair damsels, and evil princes, you'll certainly enjoy Scott's Ivanhoe.
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan
1 rating, 0 reviews
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Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1 by Edward Gibbon
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 1
5 ratings, 3 reviews
Edward Gibbon's massive and masterful six volume work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, is a hefty undertaking. But it's cited as the model on which modern historians base their inquiries into the past. The books cover Roman history from 180 AD to 1590, a period from Marcus Aurelius to a time not too distant from Gibbon's own. The author spent a good part of his life working on Decline and Fall, and as each volume was undertaken he compared it to the birth of a child. His theory is not without criticism, but in general the causes of the Fall were the weakening of civic "Roman" virtues (such as their military spirit), the apathy that Christianity bred in its culture, and the eventual invasion of barbarian hordes that had become a fixture of Rome and its territories. Whatever the legacy of his work, Gibbon's use of primary sources over secondary texts cemented his fame as the "first modern historian."
Round the World by Andrew Carnegie
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Round the World
2 ratings, 0 reviews
Andrew Carnegie (1835 � 1919) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, and industrialist of Scottish extraction, known for his role as a major philanthropist. Carnegie's was the classic "rags to riches" tale, as he rose up by his bootstraps from a bobbin factory worker, a bill logger, and a messenger boy - eventually climbing his way through of the ranks of a telegraph company, where he made the leap into steel refining. When he sold the Carnegie Steel Company to J.P. Morgan for $480 million, it would become U.S. Steel. Carnegie donated most of his fortune to establish libraries, and other institutions the world over, including Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University and the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh.
Despite having set the standard for how the mega-rich should "spend it," Carnegie did go out and enjoy himself. His book Round the World is his first hand account of a year he spent traveling abroad. Yet Carnegie was no snob. His cheerful and witty travelogue is full of little gems: it's set up as a series of fast-paced, funny and highly eloquent diary entries, whose dialogue and quirky titles are a joy to read. How sweet, too, that when trying to decide which books from his massive library to take, he chooses the compact 13 volume set of Shakespeare his mother gave him. On his voyage Carnegie paints a vivid portrait of Japan, China, Singapore, Egypt, India, and many countries the world over.
What a Young Woman Ought to Know by Mary Wood-Allen
What a Young Woman Ought to Know
WHAT ARE YOU WORTH?
CARE OF BODY
FOOD
SLEEP
BREATHING
HINDRANCES TO BREATHING
ADDED INJURIES FROM TIGHT CLOTHING
EXERCISE
BATHING
CREATIVE POWER
BUILDING BRAINS
YOU ARE MORE THAN BODY OR MIND
BECOMING A WOMAN
FEMALE DISEASES
CARE DURING MENSTURATION
SOLITARY VICE
BE GOOD TO YOURSELF
FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS
FRIENDSHIP BETWEEN GIRLS
LOVE
RESPONSIBILITY IN MARRIAGE
THE LAW OF HEREDITY
HEREDITARY EFFECT OF ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, ETC.
EFFECTS OF IMMORALITY OF THE RACE
THE GOSPEL OF HEREDITY
ENGAGEMENTS
THE WEDDING
In a modern context this book might only be interesting to historians, fundamentalists, or for those looking for a giggle. Perhaps a shock here and there as well at such outdated thinking about such things as heredity (i.e., sins passed on to children as deformities). A quick skim of this book will make most everyone rejoice that it's 2010.
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
108 ratings, 55 reviews
What makes Shakespeare's work so timeless is its depth and varied interpretations. Scholars have never settled on an a grand, unifying theme for Romeo and Juliet, though its smaller elements can be seen as fate, time, the dualities of light and dark, and obviously - Love. It's been taught and performed countless times over its 400 year history, not to mention bowdlerized and plagiarized. This is the original, not-made-for-MTV version.
Downloads on Classicly are completely free- these books are public domain.
We don�t pay a cent, so neither do you.
Books on Shakespeare (Reviews)
Books on Shakespeare (Reviews)Featured Review: Berryman on ShakespearePoet John Berryman's engaging relationship with the Bard in lectures and essays. John Berryman, hailed as an American poet of remarkable insight and talent, sustained a life-long passion for Shakespeare matched by only a few. Much like Keats, Berryman had a consuming appetite for all things Shakespeare that shaped and nurtured his own writing, compelling him to cultivate his own poetic voice. Berryman won the Charles Oldham Shakespeare Scholarship at Cambridge University in 1937 when he was just 23 years old, and went on to give venerated lectures on Shakespeare at the finest institutions, including Harvard and Princeton, while maintaining a position on the faculty of the University of Minnesota. As his reputation as a distinguished lecturer developed, so too did his reputation as a gifted poet in his own right, culminating in the publication of Homage to Mistress Broadstreet (1956), praised by Edmund Wilson as "the most distinguished long poem by an American since The Waste Land." The volumes 77 Dream Songs (1964) and His Toy, His Dream, His Rest (1968) soon followed, and earned him many prestigious awards, including the National Book Award and the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. With Shakespeare always foremost on his mind, Berryman worked tirelessly on organizing his decades of research into one definitive book to be called Shakespeare's Reality. Tragically, Berryman committed suicide in 1972, before he could finish the manuscript. This is where editor John Haffenden steps in to sort out the publishable essays and memoirs left unfinished in a jumbled mass of thousands of pages of Berryman�s literary criticism. Haffenden has divided the collection into five major sections covering Berryman's work on Shakespeare from the late 1940s until the poet's death in 1972. The book includes Berryman�s biographical studies on Shakespeare in a series of eight lectures, and his impressions of Shakespeare�s plays in eight short essays (many of them unfinished) on The Sonnets, The Comedy of Errors, King John, 2 and 3 Henry VI, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Macbeth and 2 Henry IV. Berryman�s work on the true identity of the mysterious Mr. W.H. of the Sonnets and the possible co-author of The Taming of the Shrew is also featured in the collection, as is his exhaustive research on King Lear. Finally, as an addendum, Haffenden leaves us with Berryman�s last piece of writing on the Bard: the germ of Shakespeare's Reality. Despite some drawbacks (part three on the differences between the two major texts of "King Lear" is surprisingly dry and will overwhelm most readers, as will the work on the mystery of Mr. W. H., which has been branded by other scholars as "completely mistaken"), Haffenden�s selection of Berryman�s essays is appropriate and entertaining. The writings reveal Berryman�s profound understanding of Shakespeare's characters and imagery, and they are peppered with amusing personal reflections, such as his memory of seeing John Gielgud play Richard II "so exquisitely, so weakly, with such self-pity, such grotesquerie, so ridiculously, that the proper young lady with me threatened to leave me in my stall if I did not stop laughing." Of particular interest are Berryman�s essays on Shakespeare's life. The quality of writing surpasses most scholarly and tedious retellings of the biographical facts known to us. Berryman introduces us to the Bard all over again with his own inviting style: "suppose with me a time, a place, a man who was waked, risen, washed, dressed, fed, congratulated, on a day in latter April long ago -- about April 22, say, of 1594 -- whether at London in lodgings or at a friend's or a tavern, a small house in the market town Stratford some hundred miles by miry ways northwest, or at Tichfield House a little closer southwest, or elsewhere, but somewhere in England at the height of the Northern Renaissance; a different world. Alone at some hour in one room, his intellectual and physical presence not as yet visible to us although we know its name, seated or standing, highlone in thought. He is thirty years old today..." Above all, Berryman's Shakespeare allows us to witness the power of a literary demigod reaching through the centuries to ignite a fire in another poet's soul; a poet struggling to comprehend the boundlessness -- and limitations -- of his own creative genius: "We judge others by ourselves. On the other hand, before not only the grand mass of this creation but before some detailed triumph of imaginative design within a play, we do reasonably pause with astonishment. Sometimes, without warning, in a short speech, the soul of a man seems indeed to surface, for an instant, before it returns forever to the depths. Sometimes a series of poet's phrases will drag at our profoundest thought as if, truly, we overheard the soul of the world murmuring truths to herself. In the face of this fundamental problem, which I think it better to admit candidly than to take for granted, I think I must offer you some general reassurances. It is reassuring to consider that Shakespeare wrote four failures, plays that, notwithstanding the immense attractive power of their author's name, few have ever cared to produce and mostly scholars read. These failures are "The Two Gentlemen of Verona", "King John", "All's Well That Ends Well", and "Timon of Athens.... The reasons for his failure in each case were different, but at least he was always capable of failure, and it is pleasant to know this." More Reviews
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Shakespeare's Sweet Thunder: Essays on the Early Comedies has some great information on The Taming of the Shrew in particular. The chapter entitled "Kate, Bianca, Ruth, and Sarah: Playing the Woman's Part in The Taming of the Shrew" is an excellent resource for anyone interested in Shakespeare's female characters. 
A Pocket Guide to Shakespeare's Plays is useful for actors, directors, students, or anyone going to see a Shakespeare performance. It is affordable and handy for quick facts about the Bard. 
Stories from Shakespeare has been a tremendously popular book since it was first released in the 1950s. Author Marchette Chute re-tells the plot of each Shakespeare play in wonderfully entertaining and easy-to- understand prose. This would be an ideal book for children ages 9 to 13, and would really help give them a lifelong appeaciation for the work of Shakespeare. 
Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures On Hamlet, Othello, King Lear And MacBeth . This series of lectures by A.C. Bradley is one of the most important scholarly works in the entire canon of Shakespearean criticism. I have worn out my own copy of this brilliant discussion of Shakespeare's great tragedies. 
Rosalind (Bloom's Major Literary Characters Series). There are not many books written about this Shakespearean heroine, but luckily we have one that gives her the attention she deserves. Rosalind's role as both student and teacher of the ways of love is stressed in this volume, as are the the lessoned her from her gender experiments. 
Shakespeare's Shakespeare: How the Plays Were Made provides an interesting re-evaluation of some of the conceptions about Shakespeare's authorial intentions in the plays. His focus is on Romeo and Juliet; Hamlet; King Lear; A Midsummer Night's Dream; As You Like It; Richard II; and Henry IV, Part I. 
Women's Worlds in Shakespeare's Plays focuses on five of Shakespeare's plays, All's Well that Ends Well, Hamlet, Macbeth, Twelfth Night, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. It is a wonderful exploration into conceptions of Shakespeare's female characters, and their battles with morality and twisted notions of sexuality. 
Biblical References in Shakespeare's Plays contains all the passages from the Bible found in Shakespeare's plays, and examines the Bible in Shakespeare's day. It is a wonderful reference for scholars and anyone who is in need of interesting material for a great thesis. 
Moral Philosophies in Shakespeare's Plays is a guide to the prevailing themes and moral dilemmas presented in Shakespeare's plays. It would make a great gift for someone interested in the finer aspects of Shakespeare's work. 
William's Window: An Introduction to Shakespeare's Plays for Young People is a great introduction to the plays for children. At $2.80 the price is right too. 
The Moral Universe of Shakespeare's Problem Plays explains why some of Shakespeare's works are called problem plays, and provides the history of the plays, with interpretations as well. 
Playgoing in Shakespeare's London is a wonderful resource for anyone who needs to know anything or everything about the people who went to see Shakespeare's plays. It covers everything from performing conditions to auditorium behaviour. An invaluable resource! 
An Outward Show: Music for Shakespeare on the London Stage, 1660-1830 provides a detailed look at the music accompanying Shakespeare's plays during 170 years of performances. It also contains information about Shakespearean music on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage. Musical examples illustrate the text. Saturday, 16 February 2013
In The Line of Fire
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| Title: In The Line of Fire Author: Pervez Musharraf (Meet Author) Hits: 188439 | ||
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