Nowadays, there are few of us to read a book, or at least to open it. There’s no wonder why, since the computer takes a lot from our time and… it never gives it back to us. In this case, keeping an eye on the following lines will help you get a better understanding of the situation.
By the way it treats certain issues and by the tragic tinge that surrounds the fight of the characters in general and especially the denouement, Tess of the d’Urbervilles of Thomas Hardy approaches the novel Far from the Madding Crowd of the same writer. Tess is the older daughter of the Durbeyfield, a poor family from Britain of the late 18th century, but who find out at some point that they would be descendants of an aristocratic family, d’Urbervilles. The [ Read More ]
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life was written by George Eliot, the pen name of Mary Anne Evans, and its first volume was published in 1874 attracting huge success. The novel is rather unusual, as it is mainly a Victorian novel that has many modern characteristics. Unlike women writers of her period, Eliot did not write conventional romance fictions filled with stereotypical fantasies, but realistic novels. She adopted an obscure tone and refused happy endings. Middlemarch is considered one of [ Read More ]
Written by Mikhail Bungakov, The Master and Margarita is regarded as one of the most valuable novel of the 20th century. Through his fantastic elements, the Russian author satirizes the corruption of the Soviet Union under Stalin`s rule. Because of its satiric content pointing the government bureaucracy and decay, the manuscript was hidden for more than twenty years before publication. Plot summary The story is divided between two settings: Moscow in the 30`s and Jerusalem of Pontius Pilate during the [ Read More ]
The original title of this book is Del Amor y Otros Demonios by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Of Love and Other Demons is part of his short novels, which came to light in recent years, and which have been criticized somewhat because of the progressive decrease in the number of pages of each one. What has however nothing to do with the number of pages is the story itself, inspired by a true story and transformed by magical realism in the [ Read More ]
Gustave Flaubert`s first published novel, Madame Bovary is a masterpiece you do not want to miss reading. The value of this book comes from its attention to details and hidden patterns, even if the plot is quite simple. Written in 1856, Madame Bovary was accused of obscenity by public prosecutors at first, went to trial and became very popular because of the controversial story around it. Despite the notoriety achieved by the scandal, Madame Bovary is one of the most [ Read More ]
Written by the American writer, Gene Wolfe, Nightside of the Long Sun is the first book in a series of four books collectively named The Book of the Long Sun. The action takes place in one of the poor districts in the city of Viron, located on a world called the Whorl. A priest named Silk is charged by a dark god to save his parish threatened by a mobster. From here starts a series of adventures or rather a [ Read More ]
A veritable milestone of modernism, To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf is skillfully written through the stream-of-consciousness technique from several narrators and includes a lot of psychological elements. The novel is considered one of the most influential books. Plot Summary To the Lighthouse has three sections – “The Window”, “Time Passes”, and ‘The Lighthouse” – and focuses on the Ramsay family and their stay on the Isle of Skye, at their summer home. The novel starts with Mrs. Ramsay planning [ Read More ]
War and Peace was published in 1869 and is considered Leo Tolstoy`s finest literary achievement. Subdivided into four books of volumes, War and Peace is extremely long for a novel, but reading it is a delight. In writing the book, Tolstoy got inspired also from his military experience as he served in the Crimean War. The novel is a historical fiction, but Tolstoy made it more than that by developing his own views of history and the interconnection between events [ Read More ]
The Grapes of Wrath is written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The novel received both Pulitzer Prize and Nobel Prize for Literature, entering the world literature elite. The book comes from a seven-article series, “The Harvest Gypsies”, the author wrote on migrant workers during the Great Depression. When it was published, The Grapes of Wrath generated a lot of controversy, as it was banned and burned, but heavily read. Plot Summary The Grapes of Wrath is focused on [ Read More ]
