Figurative expression as an aspect of the novel found in the novels of D.H.Lawrence and Thomas Hardy: Both the novelists engaged intensely with their subject and were also poets. Poems of D.H. Lawrence like ‘ The Snake’ and ‘Ship Of Death’ have a vitality and ardour which can be observed to a greater extent in…
What a delightful novel! What an astounding array of characters. It is remarkable how Dickens does not leave out even one strand unraveled or no character rounded off towards the end. When I finished the novel, I felt I had had a repast. Dickens is truly at the height of his powers; be it the…
This week’s post on fiction is about two novels which occupy an important place in the history of 18th century fiction and are the earliest examples of ingenious skill and mastery of the craft of fiction. Both the novels belong to the picaresque tradition of which ‘Don Quixote’ is the most famous example. Humphrey Clinker…
andom reflections on the novel (Part-24) This week my reflections are about one of the most profound novels that I have read –“Brothers Karamazov” In the world not everything is rational. If everything in the world was rational, nothing would happen. So, it would be unwise or foolish to look for solutions, logical outcomes as…
andom reflections on the novel- (Part-23) Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle maintenance. Robert.M.Pirsig Culture and Science or more precisely Art and Science shape different visions in each individual. What dominates our thought is what determines our world vision. Can people make quick adjustments between these two narrative veins: Art which is more about…
It has been hailed as a wonderful piece of fiction which employs philosophy, theology and logic in the building up of its narrative. As I started the first pages, I was reminded of Mann’s Magic Mountain and Cervantes’s Don Quixote. As the author remarks in his post script the reader who doesn’t contemplate the first…
The Man in the Iron Mask is a sad novel for me. Here there are the deaths of Porthos, Athos, Raoul and D’Artagnan. My first acquaintance with D’Artagnan was in my 7th standard when we had ‘The Three Musketeers’ as our English non-detailed text. Since then D’Artagnan: the fearless warrior, that unrivalled swordsman has grown…
Mark Twain’s. The Prince and the Pauper is an old tale of two people who look alike and change places, to experience life in both the worlds. Here it is King Edward VIII and Tom Canty, the pauper who swap places. The king in his sojourn into the world of his subjects is informed harshly…
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende is a novel which spans four generations of the Del Valle family, starting from Nivea, to Clara, to Blanca and Alba. Taking us through momentous events in the history of the world and the country at the turn of the 20th century and afterwards, the novel chronicles…
Charlotte Bronte’s novel ‘The Professor’ is a simple and steady novel about the life of Mr. William Crimsworth, a young man from an aristocratic family with no reliable connections or fortune. He is left to find his way in life. Although of not a very handsome nature, and endowed only with simple and plain features,…