I had no idea about this novel. I should have read it long ago but it has been reserved for me after I have read the other Bronte novels; Villette, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Bronte. This is my first novel of Anne Bronte and I have ‘The Tenant of…
How many times should one read a novel? This is a question that has been in my mind for a long time. With the amount of time at my disposal, after professional and personal work has been fulfilled and the large number of books which ought to be read, it is indeed very difficult to…
The setting in film Noir movies of Hollywood of the 1950s and 60s, portrayed the cynical attitude and dark motivation of the characters. The “Wrong Man, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Maltese falcon, The Woman in the window, Scarlet street, Detour, Touch of Evil, Diabolique (French), The Stranger, The Innocents (British), Woman on the Run…
In my Plus 2 Advanced English course, we had a one act play titled ‘The Little Man ‘written by John Galsworthy. It is a play about the Universality of the little man who is far taller than all the other characters in the play. What he lacks in terms of physical attributes is more than…
Coming to the different forms of narrative, one has to look closely at an epic convention called ‘Medias res.’ In the Iliad Homer plunges directly into the action in the middle of the Trojan War. More famously in ‘Paradise Lost’ Milton takes us directly to Satan ruminating and wallowing in Hell with his comrades. The…
A novel that I had wanted to read for a very long time; a story about the dictator Trujillo who ruled the Dominican Republic for 30 years. The novel is arranged as an episodic narrative tale which follows the events of the deadly, brutal regime from three points of view, that of Urania Cabral, the…
Plot is the way in which a story is narrated. The domain of the plot belongs entirely to the craft of the novelist where as the story belongs to the imagination of the novelist. To generate interest and also to sustain it, the novelist has to make use of this device, as a story told…
I remember a book by G.K.Chesterton that I had read in fragments. I couldn’t complete it because of the untidiness of the book and the small typeset that strained my eyes. I was extremely impressed by the small bits that I read. Chesterton describes his travels on horseback across the English country side. He is the most carefree traveler who lets place and time take care of all his needs.
When India won the World cup in 1983, I was in Madras in my 10th standard and I can recall the headiness and excitement in the air as we ran from the hostel to a neighbor’s house to catch glimpses of the Indian team lifting the cup. I have followed nearly all the matches that India have played here or abroad mostly on T V or in the news columns, but I have never been to watch a match live. There was a time in 1980 when Pakistan toured India; I went into the Chepauk stadium with my Dad to watch the action.
I was deeply enchanted after reading Nelson Mandela’s ‘Long walk to Freedom.’ What I found most interesting was the question the author poses to himself; Should an individual live for his family or the society; a question obviously confronted by many great freedom fighters. Mandela’s life belongs to the category of saints and apostles for…