Publisher: Bu Classics Books
This seminal collection presents a gritty, unsentimental look at British colonial life in India, revealing the complex social strata and hidden tensions of the Raj.
These essays, based on Hawthorne’s stay in England from 1853 to 1857 as American Consul in Liverpool, were first published in the form of a series of travel articles for The Atlantic Monthly.In these writings, he displays his humor, his empathetic nature, his pride in his country, and sometimes his sharp judgment of others. He shares with us the difficulties of being a consul in the 1850’s, takes us on a tour with him through rural England and Scotland, shows us the splendors of London, and the horrors of the poverty that so many suffered. (Introduction by Margaret)Show book
Luigi Pirandello was born on 28th June 1867 into an upper-class family in Agrigento, in Sicily. In 1880, the family moved to Palermo and there he completed high school and thence to the University of Palermo, at that time the centre of what became the Fasci Siciliani movement. Although not an active member he had close friendships with many of its leading ideologists. Pirandello then completed his university studies in Rome and Bonn, receiving his Doctorate in March, 1891. His time in Rome had provided him with the opportunity to visit its many theatres. "Oh the dramatic theatre! I will conquer it. I cannot enter into one without experiencing a strange sensation, an excitement of the blood through all my veins..." 1894 brought marriage, at his father's suggestion, to a shy, withdrawn girl: Mara Antonietta Portulano. The marriage encouraged his studies and writings and, the following year, the first part of the ‘Dialoghi tra Il Gran Me e Il Piccolo Me’ was published. In 1903 the flooding of the sulphur mines in which his father had invested the family capital and Antonietta's dowry, brought financial catastrophe. She, on hearing the news, was mentally broken. Pirandello would now work a full day and then watch over his troubled wife at night. Somehow he found time to write ‘The Late Mattia Pascal’. It was an immediate and resounding success. In 1909, Pirandello began his collaboration with the prestigious Corriere della Sera. Whilst his fame as a writer was increasing his private life was poisoned by the suspicion and jealousy of Antonietta who now turned physically violent. His plays were now being regularly performed but, within a decade, Antonietta had to be placed into an asylum from which she never left. In 1921, in Rome his play, ‘Six Characters in Search of an Author’ debuted. It was a failure. However, when presented in Milan it was a great success, as it also was in London and New York. In 1925, Pirandello, with Mussolini’s help, assumed the artistic direction and ownership of the Teatro d'Arte di Roma. He now described himself both as ‘a Fascist because I am Italian’ and ‘I'm apolitical, I'm only a man in the world...’ However his later conflicts with fascist leaders meant he fell under close surveillance by the OVRA, the secret police. In 1934 he won the Nobel Prize but asked that the medal be melted down for Italy’s occupation of Abyssinia Campaign to which he had given his support. Pirandello's canon stretches across novels, short stories, poetry, essays and some 40 plays. His tragic farces are often cited as forerunners of the Theatre of the Absurd. Luigi Pirandello died on the 10th December 1936 at his home at Via Bosio, Rome, Italy. He was 69.Show book
Adeline Virginia Woolf was born on the 25th January 1882 in South Kensington in London. Although lauded as a founder of modernist writing with such classics as ‘Orlando’, ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and ‘To the Lighthouse’ and, of course, many classic short stories, her background is filled with elements of tragedy that she somehow overcame to become such a revered writer. Her mother died when she was 13, her half-sister Stella two years later and with it her first of several nervous breakdowns. Appallingly it was later found that three of her half-brothers had sexually abused her so darkness must have seemed ever present. She began writing professionally at age 20 but her father’s death two years later brought a complete mental collapse and she was briefly institutionalised. Somehow she found within herself a literary career and with it great innovations in writing; she was a pioneer of “stream of consciousness”. Her tight circle of friends were the founders of the Bloomsbury Group, a movement whose legacy still influences across the arts and society in many way to this day. Whilst the dark periods continued to interrupt her emotional state her rate of work never ceased. Until, on 28th March 1941, Woolf put on her overcoat, filled up its pockets with stones, and walked into the River Ouse, in Lewes, East Sussex and drowned herself. Her body was not recovered until the 18th April. She was 59. She left behind a note which read in part “Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do”.Show book
The bookshelves of British literature are incredible collections that have gathered together centuries of very talented authors. From these Isles their fame spread and whilst among their number many are now forgotten or neglected their talents endure. Among them is Ada Esther Leverson.Show book
This is a collection of translations of six short stories of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. These six short stories are selected from his book ‘Galpaguchha’. The stories are, 'Alive and Dead' (Jeebita o Mreeta), 'Suva', 'The First Look' (Shuvadrishti), 'Hoimantee', ‘Letter from Your Wife' (Streer Patra) and 'The Anonymous Lady' (Aparichita). I have selected these stories, because first of all I enjoyed reading these stories and secondly all these six stories are concerned about the position of women in the family and in the society at that time, that is, during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century. These stories depict the vulnerability of women, their lack of control over their marriage and life as a whole. Show a glimpse of life of another time and of another culture. The line of thinking may seem much different from today’s life, but in many parts of the world still there are some people who like to suppress the rights of women in the name of religion or culture. So, these stories are still relevant. Excerpts from Alive and Dead, Kadambinee cannot tolerate any more, she says sharply, ‘Oh, please, I didn’t die, did not die! How will I make you understand that I didn’t die? Let me show you that I am alive.’ From Hoimantee, ‘My life was so full to the brim on all sides, that I could not notice any gap anywhere. Suddenly, I witnessed a large void of hopelessness so near me! I couldn’t understand how and with what I would fill up this void.’ From Letter from Your Wife, Mreenal, ‘I can never understand the logic behind that it’s okay not to please me, but it’s not okay to make you unhappy.’Show book
This is a volume of poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, published in 1919. - Summary by CarolinShow book
