Is there a distinction that one can make with certainty? Literature is generally what has stood the test of time and can appeal to a number of people because of its inherent greatness, that transcends region, language, culture or genre. The great epic poems of the world, the great tragedies of Shakespeare, the novels of…
I had visited this place in the year 1985. We had heard about this from friends and others. A large group had set out at that time with my Uncle. I remember having traveled by a Van. There was no road as such and we had to negotiate stones and boulders en route.
The other day I went to kovvur. It was an opportunity to see the river Godavari again. I contemplated about the river on the same lines that Huck Finn does in the novel “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Huck sees the Mississippi as awesome, grand and still. Perhaps there is a language that unites the rivers.
The Rainbow is a wonderful novel. The novel portrays the life of three generations of Brangwens. Tom Brangwen, the farmer of Cossethay, who marries Lydia Lensky; the Polish widow, Anna Brangwen, the daughter of Lydia Lensky, who marries Will Brangwen and Ursula Brangwen, the first child of Anna and Will Brangwen. The novel is wondrous…
Hamlet by Shakespeare When I read Hamlet or when it was taught to us, I was not moved by any overwhelming feeling. But when I watched the celluloid version (Hamlet played by Lawrence Olivier) I was overwhelmed by the ringing resonance of Shakespeare’s diction and by the powerful presence of a noble human being fitted…
The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding is one example of stark animal imagery. A group of British boys stranded on an island start showing a tendency of extremely feral behavior in their struggle for survival, and revert to the primitive state of human kind when life was lawless and only might was…
An enthralling and riveting work. It is a biography which does justice not just to Charlotte but also to the sisters, Haworth in Keighley, Bradford, and the rest of the West Yorkshire countryside. So much of the personal character; their behaviour, the world view of the Bronte sisters was shaped by the natural scene around…
If you have not read it, please read Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose: the explosive mystery staggered in a metaphysical plot which is again an esoteric mix of history, philosophy, theology, religion and all that belongs to the medieval and unknown is gasping and breathtaking. The detection unleashed by the inquisitor William is…
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is an entrancing novel. It is about the virtuosity and genuineness of Mark Twain’s experience of the Mississippi, the richness of the language, the honesty of the characters and the expansiveness of the novel itself. Huck Finn’s rejection of civilization, his yearning for paternal love, the kindness of Ole Jim…
There cannot be a best book because every book offers a different perspective on reading and understanding Literature. For a beginner An introduction to the study of Literature by William H Hudson is very useful. The book offers a precise introduction to the various forms of Literature, storytelling, genres, forms of expression, movements, technique, art…