If I were to describe the Discreet Hero by Mario Vargos Llosa, I would call it contemporary. Don Ishmael Carrera and Fanatio Yanaque, both prominent businessmen face a threat and a challenge of sorts from their children. Betrayal, deceit and incest are common and these old men; harbingers of hard work and examples of dedicated…
It has been a long time since I have left my village to live in a city. A city dweller left without anything to do has to find ways to consume time. A village has its charms and interests which give a feeling of time standing still and an unchanging scene. After a long time I made a chance visit to a village and could see a fair.
Irony penetrates the structure of the novel Pride and Prejudice. The irony of Jane Austen is very subtle and we can understand it only when we understand the emphasis and the tone of her language. The very opening sentence of the novel is a fine specimen of verbal irony. “It is a truth universally acknowledged…
A close reading of Jane Eyre as a novel of conscience, independence, moral resolve, deprivation and the sustaining presence of nature.
The Great Gatsby is an American novel. It is a ripping and incendiary tale about the single minded pursuit of a love interest and the stoic determination to renew the strands of an existence interrupted by misfortune, loss, war or in equal social position. Jay Gatsby, a self-made millionaire, pursues Daisy Buchanan, his love-mate, idol…
An excerpt from the notes I had prepared long ago for my Post Graduate study. It gives an interesting perspective about what is so fascinating about Jane Austen and especially Pride and Prejudice. ” Irony penetrates the whole structure of the novel Pride and Prejudice. The irony of Jane Austen is very subtle and we…
Gabriel Marquez was an unknown writer for me in the year 1991. One of my friends casually mentioned that I should read this book and gave me One Hundred years of Solitude. I remember having read it in less than 72 hours and when my friend asked me about it, I had no words to…
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…
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…
Though not unputdownable, Mansfield Park has the stamp and class of Jane Austen. Like all other Austen novels, the principal events concern the fortunes of a family;Mr Bertrand’s four children and his niece Fanny Price. Fanny Price stands out from all the other characters. She is sensible and intelligent,compassionate and caring. She is pretty,though in…