DK-Literature-ajk*$17.76# 1,695,695,nof,eng,20210409,20210418,4,DK:The Literature Book Big Ideas ama,https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AKTG1P8/ref=docs-os-doi_0 eng, 00112 CONTENTS 01112 INTRODUCTION 0141q "Some books leave us free and some books make us free." Ralph Waldo Emerson 0142i so it is unsurprising 0151h Geoffrey Chaucer and Giovanni Boccaccio made everyday life the subject of literature. 01513 The rise of the novel 0181q "Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul." Joyce Carol Oates 01911 HEROES AND LEGENDS • 3000BCE–1300CE 02312 Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight • The Epic of Gilgamesh 02512 To nourish oneself on ancient virtue induces perseverance • Book of Changes, attributed to King Wen of Zhou 02712 What is this crime I am planning, O Krishna? • Mahabharata, attributed to Vyasa 0281h Mahabharata was written by a poet and wise man called Vyasa. Said to have lived in the 3rd millennium BCE, Vyasa was an avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu god Vishnu. 0311q "Man is not the master of destiny, but a wooden doll that is strung on a string." Mahabharata 0351b 20210410 = 0+35 6% DK-Literature 03612 Sing, O goddess, the anger of Achilles • Iliad, attributed to Homer 0411q "Victory passes back and forth between men." Iliad 05012 How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there’s no help in truth! • Oedipus the King, Sophocles 0541h Delphi’s theatre has three spaces: the stage, the orchestra or chorus (in front), and the amphitheatre. It was built in the 4th century BCE and could seat about 5,000 people. 0571q "The greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves." Oedipus the King 06112 The gates of hell are open night and day; smooth the descent, and easy is the way • Aeneid, Virgil 06612 Fate will unwind as it must • Beowulf 07112 So Scheherazade began… • One Thousand and One Nights 07512 Since life is but a dream, why toil to no avail? • Quan Tangshi 0751h China has a tradition of poetry that can be traced back to the 11th century BCE. 07712 Real things in the darkness seem no realer than dreams • The Tale of Genji, Murasaki Shikibu 07912 A man should suffer greatly for his Lord • The Song of Roland 08112 Tandaradei, sweetly sang the nightingale • “Under the Linden Tree”, Walther von der Vogelweide 0821h the noble entertainers emerged in Germany as Minnesänger, or minnesingers. Foremost among these was Walther von der Vogelweide (c.1170–c.1230), who also wrote political and satirical poetry. He is best known for his charming “Under the Linden Tree”, a love poem in the courtly tradition 08312 He who dares not follow love’s command errs greatly • Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart, Chrétien de Troyes 08912 Let another’s wound be my warning • Njal’s Saga 09312 Further reading 1031b 20210410 = 35+68 16% DK-Literature 10311 RENAISSANCE TO ENLIGHTENMENT • 1300–1800 1041w vernacular /vərˈnakyələr/ I. noun 1. (usu. the vernacular) — the language or dialect spoken by the ordinary people in a particular country or region • he wrote in the vernacular to reach a larger audience. 2. [with modifier] — the terminology used by people belonging to a specified group or engaging in a specialized activity • gardening vernacular. 3. architecture concerned with domestic and functional rather than monumental buildings • buildings in which Gothic merged into farmhouse 10712 I found myself within a shadowed forest • The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri 1131h Dante journeys through Heaven’s nine spheres, each of which is linked with a celestial body, in line with medieval Earth-centric ideas about the structure of the universe, and with the hierarchy of angels. Beyond the spheres is God in the Empyrean – a heaven beyond time and space. 1171h Many editions of Romance of the Three Kingdoms were richly illustrated, which helped to make the text and stories accessible to ordinary Chinese people, not just the elite. 11512 We three will swear brotherhood and unity of aims and sentiments • Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong 11912 Turn over the leef and chese another tale • The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer 1221h Chaucer describes the pilgrims as “sondry folk”, people of all social classes and occupations. 12912 Laughter’s the property of man. Live joyfully • Gargantua and Pantagruel, François Rabelais 1331h Using the pseudonym Alcofribas Nasier (an anagram of his name), in 1532 Rabelais published Pantagruel, the first of the five books that would make up Gargantua and Pantagruel, although Rabelais’ authorship of the fifth book is doubtful. All five books were condemned by the Sorbonne and the Church, and despite being protected by powerful patrons, Rabelais was forced to live abroad from 1545 to 1547, fearing persecution. He later received a papal pardon. He died in Paris in 1553. 13412 As it did to this flower, the doom of age will blight your beauty • Les Amours de Cassandre, Pierre de Ronsard 13612 He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall • Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe 13812 Every man is the child of his own deeds • Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes 1391h Lazarillo de Tormes featured a picaro (young rascal) narrator of mixed fortunes, giving the world a new literary genre – the picaresque novel. 1392h https://www.askokorpela.fi/AjkMye/ajk/aaa/Cervantes-DonQuijote-ajk.htm 1401h Giants of the imagination Despite this realism, illusion has its place in the novel – but only in the mind of its central character. Don Quixote’s encounters with innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers are magnified by his imagination into the kind of chivalrous quests that might be undertaken by the knight Amadis of Gaul, in the romances that bear his name. Donning his rusty armour, mounting the ancient horse he renames Rocinante, and enlisting the simple labourer Sancho Panza as his “squire”, Don Quixote – in the best tradition of chivalric romances – announces his love for the peasant girl he calls Dulcinea. 1411h second part of his novel, which was published 10 years after the first part. In Cervantes’ Part Two, the characters – including Don Quixote himself – have read, or at least heard of, the first part of the novel in which they appear. When strangers encounter Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in person, they already know their famous history. A duke and duchess, for example, are excited when they meet Don Quixote, having read all about his adventures. 1412q "Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind." Don Quixote 1421h In the second part of Don Quixote, Cervantes himself appears as a character, and other versions of Quixote are introduced. Reality is reflected by these various mirrors, deliberately confusing life and literature. 1431h with a format familiar to readers of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and Boccaccio’s Decameron, and of the canon of tales from the East that entered southern Spain in the long centuries of Arab rule. 1441h Luis Borges to write “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote” (about a writer who re-creates Cervantes’ novel), which Borges described, mischievously, as “more subtle than Cervantes’ [story]”. Don Quixote is also immortalized as an English adjective for erratic if idealistic behaviour – quixotic. 1442q "‘Tell me, Senor Don Alvaro,’ said Don Quixote, ‘am I at all like that Don Quixote you talk of?’" Don Quixote 1443h For revolutionaries, Don Quixote was an inspiration – a man who was right when the system was wrong; and the Romantics transformed him into a tragic character – a man with noble intentions, defeated by the second-rate. This re-evaluation of the work over time points to the enduring power of its story and its writing, and guarantees the text a central place in literary history. 14712 One man in his time plays many parts • First Folio, William Shakespeare 1472h 1560 Published in an English translation, the Geneva Bible is one of the major reference sources used by Shakespeare. 1565 The Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, translated by Arthur Golding, is published and is a major literary source for Shakespeare. 1473h Shakespeare’s name is known across the globe, and he continues to be regarded as one of the most iconic writers of all time. His works have been translated into more than 80 languages; his dramas have been transformed into movies, animations, and musicals; and his words have inspired politicians, artists, and advertisers around the world. 1491h Enduring appeal In 1999 Shakespeare was voted “Man of the Millennium” Millennium” in the UK, and speeches from The Tempest were used in the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games. He is one of the UK’s greatest cultural exports, and each year around 800,000 visitors make the trip to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit the houses where his life story began. 1511h Shakespeare was born in the market town of Stratford-upon-Avon. He lived in this house on Henley Street into adulthood, including the first five years of marriage to Anne Hathaway. 1512h Shakespeare’s plays were designed to be enjoyed in the theatre, but readers could also experience some of them in print after they had appeared on stage: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Henry V were printed as individual works (known as quartos) during Shakespeare’s lifetime. However, other plays such as Julius Caesar, Macbeth, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night do not seem to have been printed before the dramatist died, and would have disappeared completely had it not been for the publication in 1623 of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, otherwise known as the First Folio. 1521h The First Folio There are only some 240 copies of the First Folio still in existence and it has become one of the world’s most valuable books, with a price of around US $6 million at auction. Were it not for this book, many of Shakespeare’s masterpieces would have been lost forever. 1561h The Globe theatre, co-owned by Shakespeare, opened in 1599 on the south bank of the Thames, but by 1644 it had been demolished. A re-created Globe opened at the site in the 1990s. 1562h While Shakespeare’s comedies share many similarities, they also differ markedly from one another. They almost all end with the prospect of marriage, 1621h Shakespeare’s works have burst beyond the generic confines in which they were first published, but it is thanks to the First Folio that Shakespeare’s works have survived at all. 1622h https://www.askokorpela.fi/harraste/teatteri/teatteri00s.htm 16412 To esteem everything is to esteem nothing • The Misanthrope, Molière 1651h A comedy of manners Molière’s major contribution was the “comedy of manners”, satirizing the mores of the time with larger-than-life characters such as Alceste, the protagonist of The Misanthrope, whose cantankerous rejection of politesse (superficial, insincere politeness) is challenged when he falls for a society girl, Célimène. 1652w cantankerous /kanˈtaNGk(ə)rəs/ I. adjective bad-tempered, argumentative, and uncooperative • a crusty, cantankerous old man. II. derivatives 1. cantankerously /kanˈtaNGk(ə)rəslē / adverb 2. cantankerousness /kanˈtaNGk(ə)rəsnəs / noun – origin mid 18th cent.: of unknown origin; perhaps a blend of Anglo-Irish cant ‘auction’ and rancorous (see rancor). 16612 But at my back I always hear Time’s winged chariot hurrying near • Miscellane+ous Poems, Andrew Marvell 16812 Sadly, I part from you; like a clam torn from its shell, I go, and autumn too • The Narrow Road to the Interior, Matsuo Bashō 17012 None will hinder and none be hindered on the journey to the mountain of death • The Love Suicides at Sonezaki, Chikamatsu Monzaemon 17212 I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of York, of a good family • Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe 1741q "[H]e kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and … set my foot upon his head; this it seems was in token of swearing to be my slave forever." Robinson Crusoe 17612 If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others? • Candide, Voltaire 1762h The philosophes – who included Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Denis Diderot, and Montesquieu – were part of the widespread 1771h intellectual shift in Europe that was known as the Enlightenment: the assault on superstition, intolerance, and injustice in the name of reason and intellectual freedom that lasted from the late 17th century to the French Revolution of 1789. 1781h Gullible and naive, Candide is incapable of forming his own opinions on life: his vision of the world – his ideas on determinism, optimism, and free will, for example – is constructed by the views of the people around him. 1782h https://www.askokorpela.fi/harraste/kirjat/Luetut/Ajklue-tek-fi.htm#Vittorini 1801p VOLTAIRE Son of a notary, François-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, France, in 1694. A dramatist and poet, he adopted “Voltaire” as a nom de plume. His satirical verse earned him a spell in the Bastille prison, Paris, in 1717–18. After two years in England (a country that he found more tolerant and rational than France), his Letters Concerning the English Nation Nation (1733) was suppressed in his homeland; it was seen as a critique of the government. A study of Louis XIV restored him to favour at Versailles, where he became royal historiographer in 1745. Later, in Berlin, he become close friends with the Prussian king, Frederick the Great. He wrote his philosophical tales at his estate at Ferney, France, when in his 60s – including Candide. He also worked for agricultural reform as well as for greater justice for wronged individuals. He died in Paris in 1778, aged 84. 18112 I have courage enough to walk through hell barefoot • The Robbers, Friedrich Schiller 1821h The Robbers is regarded as one of the finest examples of dramatic writing in German literature. It is still considered a masterpiece today, and many critics also see in it the beginnings of European melodrama. 1851h He is still considered by many to be Germany’s greatest classical playwright. 18612 There is nothing more difficult in love than expressing in writing what one does not feel • Les Liaisons dangereuses, Pierre Choderlos de Laclos 19112 Further reading 1912q "A kissed mouth does not lose its freshness, for like the moon it always renews itself." The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1941h Paradise Lost (1667), John Milton Milton’s masterwork, and a supreme triumph of rhythm and sound, the epic poem Paradise Lost 1961h Gulliver’s Travels (1726), Jonathan Swift An influential satirical novel by Anglo-Irish writer Jonathan Swift (1667–1745), Gulliver’s Travels is narrated by ship’s surgeon Lemuel Gulliver, who visits various fantasy regions: Lilliput, where inhabitants are six inches tall; 1981q "It is certain that nothing on earth but love makes a person necessary." The Sorrows of Young Werther Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2001b 20210410 = 103+97 29% DK-Literature 20111 ROMANTICISM AND THE RISE OF THE NOVEL • 1800–1855 20512 Poetry is the breath and the finer spirit of all knowledge • Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge 20712 Nothing is more wonderful, nothing more fantastic than real life • Nachtstücke, E T A Hoffmann 20912 Man errs, till he has ceased to strive • Faust, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2161p JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE Born on 28 August 1749 in Frankfurt to a wealthy middle-class family, Goethe was not only a great writer and literary figure but also knowledgeable in many fields from law and philosophy through to botany, zoology, science, and medicine. 21712 Once upon a time… • Children’s and Household Tales, Brothers Grimm 2171h 1835–49 Finnish folklore is celebrated in the epic poem the Kalevala by Elias Lönnrot. 1841 Norwegian Folktales, by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, is published. 22212 For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn? • Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen 22712 Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley 23212 All for one, one for all • The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas 2331q "Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures." The Three Musketeers 2332w DERRING-DO | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionaryhttps://dictionary.cambridge.org › der... derring-do definition: 1. brave action taken without considering the danger involved: 2. brave action taken without…. 23712 But happiness I never aimed for, it is a stranger to my soul • Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin 2341w swashbuckle /ˈswôSHˌbəkəl, ˈswäSH-/ I. verb — [no obj.] (usu. as adj. swashbuckling) 1. engage in daring and romantic adventures with ostentatious bravado or flamboyance • a crew of swashbuckling buccaneers. – origin late 19th cent.: back-formation from swashbuckler. swashbuckler /ˈswôSHˌbək(ə)lər ˈswäSHˌbək(ə)lər/ I. noun a swashbuckling person. – origin mid 16th cent.: from swash1 + buckler. 2361p ALEXANDRE DUMAS Alexandre Dumas was born Alexandre Davy de la Pailleterie in Picardy, France, in 1802. His father was the son of the governor of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) and an Afro-Caribbean slave woman, Marie-Cessette Dumas. Like his father, Alexandre later adopted the surname of his grandmother, but it was his aristocratic ancestry that helped to launch his career as a writer. He found work with the Duke of Orléans (who later became the “Citizen King” Louis-Philippe), and after initial success with historical drama, turned to writing novels. These included the adventures of d’Artagnan, for which he became famous. When Louis-Philippe was deposed, Dumas fled France in 1851 and did not return until 1864. Dumas had many affairs, and is said to have fathered at least four children, including a son Alexandre, who also became a writer and is often known as fils (son). 2371h 1859 Idle dreamer Oblamov, in Ivan Goncharov’s novel of the same name, epitomizes the laziness and inertia of the superfluous man’s character. 23912 Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes • Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman 2392h The Transcendentalist movement thrived in the USA in the mid-19th century, inspired by German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s idea that knowledge is concerned “not with objects, but our mode of knowing objects”. 24112 You have seen how a man was made a slave; you shall see how a slave was made a man • Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, Frederick Douglass 2441h The writing of narratives by slaves had a dual effect: as well as furthering the cause of the abolitionists, the texts marked the beginning of a uniquely African-American literature. 24612 I am no bird; and no net ensnares me • Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë 2511q "Women are supposed to be very calm generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do." Jane Eyre 25412 I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul! • Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë 2551q "Oh I am burning! I wish I were out of doors – I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free." Wuthering Heights 2571h The house in Wuthering Heights is symbolic of the tumult of the story, and of the emotional turmoil of its protagonists. Rather than functioning as a place of refuge from the outside, the home is transformed into a Gothic site of abuse, fear, claustrophobia, exploitation, and oppression. 2572q "Terror made me cruel; and finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro until the blood ran down and soaked the bed-clothes." Wuthering Heights 2571h Dickens himself often depicted clichéd domestic scenes where the respectability of the bourgeois space was contrasted with the literal and moral poverty of the streets outside. Brontë, however, brought the raw realities of the outside into the home, recalling earlier Gothic narratives where households were not sites of refuge or comfort, but spaces of familial abuse. In doing so, she reveals to her contemporary reader that the “slavery” and “homelessness” associated with Heathcliff are also evident within the idealized domestic sphere: in effect, the home is no safer than the crime-ridden Gothic streets. 2581w waif /wāf/ I. noun 1. a homeless and helpless person, especially a neglected or abandoned child • she is foster-mother to various waifs and strays. 2. an abandoned pet animal. 3. [Law] a piece of property thrown away by a fleeing thief and held by the state in trust for the owner to claim. II. derivatives waifish adjective – origin late Middle English: from an Anglo-Norman 2591w Bliss Family Care & Perheen hyvinvointi ... 2631p EMILY BRONTË Born on 30 July 1818, Emily Brontë was the fifth daughter of the Reverend Patrick Brontë. The family lived in the village of Haworth, on the edge of the moors in Yorkshire, a location that had a profound influence on Emily’s writing, and that of her literary sisters, Charlotte and Anne. 2651w sinew /ˈsinyo͞o/ I. noun 1. a piece of tough fibrous tissue uniting muscle to bone or bone to bone; a tendon or ligament. 2. (usu. sinews) — the parts of a structure, system, or thing that give it strength or bind it together • the sinews of government. II. verb — [with obj.] (usu. as adj. sinewed) 1. ‹literary› strengthen with or as if with sinews • the sinewed shape of his back. 26412 There is no folly of the beast of the Earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men • Moby-Dick, Herman Melville 2671h Transcendentalism and Dark Romanticism were two opposing sides of the American Renaissance of the mid-19th century. The Transcendentalists saw both nature and people as inherently good; conversely, for the Dark Romantics, nature was a potentially sinister force and humans infinitely fallible. 2751h The Nantucket whaling ship Essex encountered a large sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1820 and sank. It was one of several events that inspired Melville to write Moby-Dick. 2781h A family saga addressing race and other social tensions, such as Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1852) and, later, Beloved (Toni Morrison, 1987), was deemed appropriate. Some candidates for the label focused on self-creation, which in the 20th century became the cornerstone of the American Dream; these themes were scrutinized in The Great Gatsby (F Scott Fitzgerald, 1925) and Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison, 1952). Another suitable type was the so-called “mega-novel”, with multiple characters and plot lines presenting a microcosm of contrasting social and philosophical ideas. Moby-Dick, the first Great American Novel, belongs to both the second and the third of these categories; the next major contender, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain, 1884), largely to the second. 28012 All partings foreshadow the great final one • Bleak House, Charles Dickens 2811h The Pickwick Papers. It was a huge success, and from then on Dickens published all of his novels in serial form. Despite the stress involved in meeting a weekly or monthly deadline, the serial format perfectly suited Dickens’ energetic and dramatic storytelling style. It also helped to create an intimacy between him and his readers – he sometimes even altered the plot of later instalments in response to his readers’ reactions. 2891p CHARLES DICKENS Born in Portsmouth, England, on 7 February 1812, Charles Dickens was the second of eight children. When he was 12, his father was imprisoned for debt. Charles left school and worked in a shoeblacking factory, a grim experience that he would describe in David Copperfield. Later he worked as a legal clerk and started writing as a journalist. In 1836 Dickens married Catherine Hogarth and began work on The Pickwick Papers, establishing his reputation as a novelist. Over the next 30 years, he published 12 major novels; he also edited periodicals and wrote numerous articles, short stories, and plays. He separated from Catherine in 1858, having fathered 10 children. Dickens died in 1870 and was buried in Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey. 29112 Further reading 2931h The Red and the Black (1830), Stendhal Told over two volumes, The Red and the Black describes the formative years of Julien Sorel, a provincial young man who attempts to scale the social order in 19th-century France. 2932h Old Goriot (1834–1835), Honoré de Balzac 2933h Fairy Tales (1835–1837), Hans Christian Andersen Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) created some of his fairy tales by retelling tales he heard as a child and others by inventing his own bold, original stories. Published in three volumes, Fairy Tales consists of nine tales, including classics such as “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Little Mermaid”, and “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. 2934h Kalevala (1835–1849), Elias Lönnrot Taken from folklore tales of the Karelian and Finnish indigenous peoples, the Kalevala – meaning “the land of Kaleval” – is a collection of epic poetry that is considered one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. Brought together by the ethnographic research of Finnish doctor and philologist Elias Lönnrot (1802–84), who travelled across the expanses of Finland and Karelia recording oral folksongs, the Kalevala is written in a distinctive metre, with each line featuring four pairs of stressed and unstressed syllables. It retold mythological tales, building a literary and cultural heritage that awakened Finnish nationalism in the 19th century. 2941h Oliver Twist (1837–1839), Charles Dickens In his second novel, English writer Dickens paints a bold depiction of the social underclass of Victorian Britain, 2941h A Hero of Our Time (1840), Mikhail Lermontov In A Hero of Our Time, Russian writer, poet, and painter Lermontov (1814–41) introduces the protagonist Grigory Pechorin, an idle, nihilistic, “superfluous man” figure. 2951h The Black Sheep (1841–1842), Honoré de Balzac 2961h Dead Souls (1842), Nikolai Gogol Dead Souls is often seen as the first great novel of the Russian Golden Age. 2971h The Count of Monte Cristo (1844–1845), Alexandre Dumas The most popular book throughout Europe 2981h (1844–1845), Alexandre Dumas The most popular book throughout Europe 2991h Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852), Harriet Beecher Stowe The hugely successful anti-slavery tale by US writer Stowe (1811–96) helped to persuade readers that Christian beliefs and slavery were incompatible. Uncle Tom’s Cabin tells of noble slave Tom, who is sold and forced to leave his wife and family, yet never loses his moral values. In its first year of publication Stowe’s story sold some 300,000 copies in the USA, highlighting the country’s race issue and North–South division. It was even seen by some as a spark for the US Civil War (1861–65). 3001b 20210413 = 200+100 43% DK-Literature 30111 DEPICTING REAL LIFE • 1855–1900 3031w humdrum /ˈhəmˌdrəm/ I. adjective lacking excitement or variety; dull; monotonous • humdrum routine work. II. noun dullness; monotony • an escape from the humdrum of his life. – origin mid 16th cent.: probably a reduplication of hum1. 30512 Boredom, quiet as the spider, was spinning its web in the shadowy places of her heart • Madame Bovary, Gustave Flaubert 3161p GUSTAVE FLAUBERT Gustave Flaubert was born in Rouen, France, on 12 December 1821. His father was chief surgeon at the main hospital in Rouen. Flaubert began writing while still at school, but in 1841 he went to Paris to study law. At age 22 he developed a nervous disorder, and he left the law to devote himself to writing. 31712 I too am a child of this land; I too grew up amid this scenery • The Guarani, José de Alencar 31912 The poet is a kinsman in the clouds • Les Fleurs du mal, Charles Baudela12 ire 32112 Not being heard is no reason for silence • Les Misérables, Victor Hugo 3212h An immense novel, Les Misérables is comprised of five volumes, each of which is subdivided into books of several chapters. 3221h Hugo’s book features a huge cast of characters and a vast historical sweep, spanning as it does the era from 1815 to the June 1832 uprising in Paris. It is a panoramic novel that embraces themes of hardship, poverty, greed, bitterness, politics, compassion, love, and redemption. 3222q "Social prosperity means man happy, the citizen free, the nation great." Les Misérables 3231h Although it did not directly bring about change, its historical sweep and powerful description of social injustice meant that, like all great protest novels, it provoked thought and helped to raise social consciousness. 3251p VICTOR HUGO Victor Hugo, one of France’s leading writers, was born in 1802 in Besançon, eastern France, the son of an officer in Napoleon’s army. Raised in Paris and well educated, by the age of 20 he had published his first volume of verse. Hugo was a prodigious writer, producing some 20 volumes of poetry, 10 plays, nine novels, as well as many essays. A liberal republican and supporter of universal suffrage, he was also active politically. Following the revolutions of 1848 that shook Europe, he was elected to the National Assembly. He was, however, highly critical of the Second Empire of Louis Napoleon and went into exile in 1851 with his wife, Adèle, and his long-standing mistress, Juliette Drouet. Returning to Paris as a national hero in 1870, Hugo became a senator in the Third Republic. He died in 1885 and was buried in the Pantheon. Other key works 1827 Cromwell 1831 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame 1859–83 The Legend of the Ages 32612 Curiouser and curiouser! • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll 3262i morally didactic. 3271h Hans Christian Andersen, who wrote his Fairy Tales (1835–37) specifically for children, caused an outcry by failing to include a moral. 32913 Escape from rules 33512 Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart • Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 3451p FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY Fyodor Dostoyevsky was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1821 to parents of Lithuanian descent. He trained and worked as an engineer before writing his first novel, Poor Folk (1846), which depicts the mental as well as the material condition of poverty. 3451b 20210414 = 300+45 48% DK-Literature 34612 To describe directly the life of humanity or even of a single nation, appears impossible • War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy 3501q "There’s nothing stronger than those two old soldiers – Time and Patience." War and Peace 3531p LEO TOLSTOY Leo Tolstoy was born near Moscow in 1828 to a noble Russian family. After leaving Kazan University early, Tolstoy led a dissolute life in Moscow and St Petersburg, running up significant gambling debts. He toured Europe in 1860–61, meeting the novelist Victor Hugo and the political thinker Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. Both inspired Tolstoy to return to Russia to write and educate the impoverished serfs. In 1862, Tolstoy married Sophia Andreevna Behrs with whom he had 13 children. Sophia looked after their financial matters, although their marriage became increasingly unhappy. After completing War and Peace and Anna Karenina, Tolstoy sought spiritual and moral truth through his Christianity and by espousing pacifism, influencing figures such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King. He died of pneumonia in 1910, aged 82. 35412 It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view • Middlemarch, George Eliot 35912 We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne 3601h Frenchman Jules Verne (1828–1905) is the best remembered of the 19th-century scientific romance writers, demonstrating in his works a prescient and imaginative taste for futuristic travel. Verne’s travelogue Five Weeks in a Balloon (1863) established his style of action-packed adventure, playing with the possibilities of exploration. From journeying into the air, Verne turned terrestrial with Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), but it was in the oceans that he achieved his greatest success in the genre. 36112 In Sweden all we do is to celebrate jubilees • The Red Room, August Strindberg 36312 She is written in a foreign tongue • The Portrait of a Lady, Henry James 3670h 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe creates multiple vernacular voices in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a sentimental story that inflames the anti-slavery debate. 1939 John Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath mixes local colour with 36712 Human beings can be awful cruel to one another • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain 3691h The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which gives his account the credibility of social history. He feigns death to escape the civilizing folk of Missouri and the brutality of his father, and begins his journey down the Mississippi on a raft, in the company of Jim, a runaway slave. 3701h Although it was condemned as “coarse” when it was first published in 1884, Huckleberry Finn injected American writing with a new energy, style, and colour. Its focus on the speech of real Americans stretched on through the voices of John Steinbeck’s dispossessed farmers in The Grapes of Wrath (1939) to recent first-person narratives 3711p MARK TWAIN Born on 30 November 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which served as the model for “St Petersburg” in Huckleberry Finn. 37212 He simply wanted to go down the mine again, to suffer and to struggle • Germinal, Émile Zola 3761p ÉMILE ZOLA Émile Zola was born in Paris in 1840; his father died in 1847, leaving the family to struggle financially. In 1862 Zola got a job at the publishing firm Hachette and supplemented his income by writing critical articles for periodicals. Three years later, his reputation established, he made the decision to support himself by literary work alone, and in 1865 published his first novel, Claude’s Confession. 37712 The evening sun was now ugly to her, like a great inflamed wound in the sky • Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy 38212 The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it • The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde 3821h 1901 German novelist Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks details the decline of bourgeois culture in the 19th century. 1912 Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice charts the succumbing to temptation of Gustav von Aschenbach, an artist who goes down a self-destructive path of erotic infatuation and excess. 3841h 1909 French writer Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera takes the Gothic novel to the heart of Paris. Stage and film adaptations later bring the story to a huge audience. 38422 There are things old and new which must not be contemplated by men’s eyes • Dracula, Bram Stoker 38512 One of the dark places of the earth • Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad 39112 Further reading 3831h Little Women (1868–1869), Louisa May Alcott Originally published in two volumes, Little Women by US author Alcott (1832–88) is set in New England during the US Civil War of 1861–65. 3931h The Idiot (1868–1869), Fyodor Dostoyevsky 3941h Seven Brothers (1870), Aleksis Kivi Ten years in the writing, Seven Brothers by Finnish writer Kivi (1834–72) describes the boisterous and often disastrous adventures of seven brothers who, rejecting social conventions, escape into the forest to live as hunters. Combining Romanticism, realism, and a great deal of humour, the novel was harshly received by critics, which may have contributed to Kivi’s early death. Today it is regarded as a masterpiece and the first significant novel to be written in the Finnish language, breaking the dominance of Swedish literature in Finland. Anna Karenina (1875–1877), Leo Tolstoy A novel described by Dostoyevsky as “flawless”, Anna Karenina by Russian author Leo Tolstoy traces the adulterous liaison between Anna, the beautiful and intelligent wife of Aleksy Karenin, and Count Vronsky, a young bachelor. 3961h A Doll’s House (1879), Henrik Ibsen A three-act play by Norwegian playwright, poet, and theatre director Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House sparked outrage and controversy when it was first performed. 3971h The Brothers Karamazov (1880), Fyodor Dostoyevsky Some two years in the writing, The Brothers Karamazov by Russian writer Dostoyevsky was the author’s final novel, and is often considered to be his masterpiece. 3981h Treasure Island (1881–1882), Robert Louis Stevenson 3991h The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886), Robert Louis Stevenson 4011h The Jungle Book (1894–1895), Rudyard Kipling 4021h Uncle Vanya (1897), Anton Chekhov 4031p Anton Chekhov Celebrated as one of the greatest Russian playwrights, Anton Chekhov was born in 1860. He qualified as a doctor and, despite writing prolifically, continued practising medicine, once describing the latter as “his lawful wife” and literature as his “mistress”. 1897 The Seagull 1897 Uncle Vanya 1904 The Cherry Orchard 40611 BREAKING WITH TRADITION • 1900–1945 41012 The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes • The Hound of the Baskervilles, Arthur Conan Doyle 41212 I am a cat. As yet I have no name. I’ve no idea where I was born • I Am a Cat, Natsume Sōseki 4131h Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) is arguably the greatest writer in modern Japanese history and his I Am a Cat is a major (and witty) example of the I-novel. 4132q "Living as I do with human beings, the more I observe them, the more I am forced to conclude that they are selfish." I Am a Cat 41412 Gregor Samsa found himself, in his bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin • Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka 4142h Existentialism BEFORE 1864 Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Notes from the Underground is published; it is later celebrated as early existentialist writing. 1880 Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov focuses on the father–son relationship. 4161h Kafka’s heroes do not usually conquer angst; instead, they continually seek empirical solutions to outlandish puzzles, often under extraordinary conditions. His longer works, such as The Trial and The Castle, describe unresolved quests, defined by paradox and instability of meaning and interpretation. 4181p FRANZ KAFKA Franz Kafka was the eldest of six children of Ashkenazi Jewish parents in Prague. Born in 1883, he was educated in a German elementary school followed by the state gymnasium (selective school). He studied law at university in Prague, where he met Max Brod, who posthumously edited and published most of Kafka’s works. 1913 The Judgement 1922 A Hunger Artist 1925 The Trial 1926 The Castle 41912 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori • Poems, Wilfred Owen 42112 Ragtime literature which flouts traditional rhythms • The Waste Land, T S Eliot 42312 The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit • Ulysses, James Joyce 4231h 1913–27 Marcel Proust, in his seven-volume In Search of Lost Time, delves deep into memory and the free-floating associations that help to shape the content of consciousness. 4251h Joyce abandoned complete coherence for the realism of the interior monologue, although the flow of thoughts may indirectly evoke action. “Postal order stamp. Postoffice lower down. Walk now” suggests that Leopold Bloom, walking through the city in Ulysses, is reminding himself of what he needs to buy and where to buy it. 4261h The entire action of Ulysses takes place in and around Dublin on 16 June 1904 (now celebrated as “Bloomsday”), as three main characters cross paths: Stephen Dedalus, a teacher and would-be writer, aged 22; Leopold Bloom (usually just referred to as Bloom in the text), an advertising canvasser, half Hungarian-Jewish and half Irish, aged 38; and his wife Molly, a singer, aged 34, whom Leopold rightly suspects of having an affair with a man-about-town known as “Blazes” Boylan. 4311q "Listen: a fourworded wavespeech: seesoo, hrss, rsseeiss, oos." Ulysses 4371p JAMES JOYCE Born in a suburb of Dublin, Ireland, in 1882, James Joyce was brought up in poverty after his father lost his job as a tax collector. Joyce read English, French, and Italian at University College Dublin, then moved to Paris, intending to study medicine. 4371w elope /əˈlōp/ I. verb — [no obj.] 1. run away secretly in order to get married, especially without parental consent • later he eloped with one of the maids. II. derivatives 1. elopement /əˈlōpmənt ēˈlōpmənt / noun 2. eloper noun – origin late 16th cent. (in the general sense ‘abscond, run away’): from Anglo-Norman French aloper, perhaps related to leap. University Press. Kindle Edition. 43812 When I was young I, too, had many dreams • Call to Arms, Lu Xun 44012 Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself • The Prophet, Kahlil Gibran 44212 Criticism marks the origin of progress and enlightenment • The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann 4422h Widely considered to be Thomas Mann’s masterpiece, The Magic Mountain has many claims to greatness: it is regarded as one of the best German novels of all time; one of the finest works of the 20th century; a sublime dark comedy and rumination on death and disease; and a key work of Modernism. It is also a fine example of a Bildungsroman (“novel of formation”), a genre that had its roots in 18th-century Germany, and is still going strong today. 45012 Like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars • The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald 4581p F SCOTT FITZGERALD Francis Scott Fitzgerald was born in 1896 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. In 1917 he dropped out of Princeton University to join the army. He fell in love with Zelda Sayre, the daughter of a judge, marrying her after his first novel, This Side of Paradise, brought him success, at the age of 24. He supported the family (they had one daughter) by writing stories for popular magazines. 4591b 20210415 = 345+114 65% DK-Literature 45912 The old world must crumble. Awake, wind of dawn! • Berlin Alexanderplatz, Alfred Döblin 46112 Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board • Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston 46312 Dead men are heavier than broken hearts • The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler 46812 It is such a secret place, the land of tears • The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 4691q "Here is my secret, very simply: you can only see things clearly with your heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye." The Little Prince 47312 Further reading 4732h The Call of the Wild (1903), Jack London 4741hDeath in Venice (1912), Thomas Mann 4751h In Search of Lost Time (1913–1927), Marcel Proust 4771h The Trial (1925), Franz Kafka 4781h The Counterfeiters (1926), André Gide 4801h The Man Without Qualities (1930, 1933, 1943), Robert Musil 4821h Of Mice and Men (1937), John Steinbeck 4831h The Grapes of Wrath (1939), John Steinbeck 4841h The Outsider (1942), Albert Camus 4871b 20210416 = 459+28 69% DK-Literature 48811 POST-WAR WRITING • 1945–1970 49212 BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU • Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell 4931q "He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past." Nineteen Eighty-Four 4971q "In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it." Nineteen Eighty-Four 4972i goatee beard 4981q "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever." Nineteen Eighty-Four 501p GEORGE ORWELL George Orwell was born as Eric Arthur Blair in India in 1903 to British parents. He was schooled in England before heading back to the East, to enrol with the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. In 1928, he moved to Paris, returning to London in 1929 to write Down and Out in Paris and London (1933). In 1936, Orwell travelled to Wigan, northern England, to experience the poverty forged by the Depression. That same year he married Eileen O’Shaughnessy before going to fight in Spain’s civil war and getting shot through the throat. Orwell returned to England in 1937 and in 1941 he joined the BBC, only to resign in 1943. He returned to writing with Animal Farm (1945), which proved an immediate success. His wife died unexpectedly that same year, and Orwell isolated himself on Jura, a Scottish isle, where he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). He died of tuberculosis in 1950, aged 46. Other key works 1934 Burmese Days 1937 The Road to Wigan Pier 1938 Homage to Catalonia See also: Candide • Gulliver’s Travels • Brave New World • Fahrenheit 451 • Lord of the Flies • A Clockwork Orange • The Death of Artemio Cruz • The Handmaid’s Tale 5031w bully1 /ˈbo͝olē/ I. noun a person who uses strength or power to harm or intimidate those who are weaker. II. verb — [with obj.] 1. use superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants • a local man was bullied into helping them. – origin mid 16th cent.: probably from Middle Dutch boele ‘lover.’ The original usage was as a term of endearment applied to either sex; later 50212 I’m seventeen now, and sometimes act like I’m about thirteen • The Catcher in the Rye, J D Salinger 50712 Death is a gang-boss aus Deutschland • Poppy and Memory, Paul Celan 50912 I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me • Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison 51112 Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul • Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov 5141p VLADIMIR NABOKOV Born into an aristocratic family in St Petersburg, in April 1899, Vladimir Nabokov spent his childhood in Russia and grew up trilingual in English, French, and Russian. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the family was exiled to England in 1919, where Nabokov studied at Trinity College, Cambridge. Following a further move to Berlin, Nabokov’s father, a journalist and politician, was assassinated at a political rally. Living in Berlin and in Paris, Nabokov wrote novels, short stories, and poems in Russian, while working as a tennis coach and tutor. He married Véra Slonim in 1925; they had one son, Dmitri. After fleeing to the USA during World War II, Nabokov wrote Lolita in English. He taught at Wellesley College and Cornell University and, as an authority on butterflies, held a position at the Museum of Comparative Comparative Zoology at Harvard. He died in Montreux, Switzerland, in 1977. Other key works 1937 The Gift 1962 Pale Fire See also: Gargantua and Pantagruel • Madame Bovary • Ulysses • Nineteen Eighty-Four • The Tin Drum • Howl and Other Poems • American Psycho • The Satanic Verses 51512 He leaves no stone unturned, and no maggot lonely • Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett 51712 It is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other • The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Yukio Mishima 51912 He was beat – the root, the soul of beatific • On the Road, Jack Kerouac 52412 What is good among one people is an abomination with others • Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe 5251h The Igbo people celebrate different festivals throughout the year. In Things Fall Apart, the Feast of the New Yam is held just before the yam harvest to give thanks to the Earth goddess, Ani. 5331b 20210417 = 487+46 75% DK-Literature 53312 Even wallpaper has a better memory than human beings • The Tin Drum, Günter Grass 53812 I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks. • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee 5411w tomboy /ˈtämˌboi/ I. noun a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys. II. derivatives 1. tomboyish /ˈtämˌboiiSH / adjective 2. tomboyishness noun The New Oxford American Dictionary (Kindle Locations 555210-555217). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition. 54212 Nothing is lost if one has the courage to proclaim that all is lost and we must begin anew • Hopscotch, Julio Cortázar 54812 He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt • Catch-22, Joseph Heller 55012 Everyday miracles and the living past • Death of a Naturalist, Seamus Heaney 55212 There’s got to be something wrong with us. To do what we did • In Cold Blood, Truman Capote 55612 Ending at every moment but never ending its ending • One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez 56512 Further reading 5661h The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Ernest Hemingway 5711h Doctor Zhivago (1957), Boris Pasternak 5751w drone /drōn/ I. verb — [no obj.] 1. make a continuous low humming sound • in the far distance a machine droned. 2. speak tediously in a dull monotonous tone • he reached for another beer while Jim droned on. 3. [with adverbial of direction] — move with a continuous humming sound • traffic droned up and down the street. II. noun 1. a low continuous humming sound • he nodded off to the drone of the car engine. 2. ‹informal› a monotonous speech 5761h The Master and Margarita (1966–67), Mikhail Bulgakov Written by Russian author Bulgakov (1891–1940) between 1928 and 1940 but only published almost 30 years later, The Master and Margarita is set both in 1930s’ Moscow and – as told in a novel by lead character the “Master” – in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. Through both story lines, the book can be seen as a historical validation of religious tenets, a critique of overly bureaucratic rules, and a satire of the Soviet authorities, catalyzed in the characters of Professor Woland – an anarchic but scholarly manifestation of Satan – and his devilish entourage. 57911 CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE • 1970–PRESENT 5801h Towards the end of the 20th century, the world was becoming a smaller place. The accelerating pace of technological advances, particularly in transport and communications, brought about a globalization of trade and cultures on a scale never seen before. 58312 Our history is an aggregate of last moments • Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon 58812 You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino’s new novel • If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller, Italo Calvino 5882h writers to draw attention to how fiction and reality interrelate, emphasizing the nature of the text as a constructed work, an artefact of the author. 59312 To understand just one life you have to swallow the world • Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie 60212 Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another • Beloved, Toni Morrison TONI MORRISON Toni Morrison is one of the USA’s most powerful literary voices, and the first African-American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1993), among her numerous other awards. Born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931 into a working-class Ohio family, she grew up with a love of reading, music, and folklore. She gained a BA degree from Howard University and an MA from Cornell. She was married for a short time to Jamaican architect Harold Morrison, with whom she had two sons. Morrison wrote her first four novels while working as an editor in New York. Her fifth, Beloved, was widely acclaimed and adapted into a film. From 1989 to 2006 Morrison held a professorship at Princeton University. In 2005 she wrote the libretto for Margaret Garner, an opera based on the story that inspired Beloved. She continues to write, and to speak against censorship and repression of history. 61012 Heaven and Earth were in turmoil • Red Sorghum, Mo Yan 61212 You could not tell a story like this. A story like this you could only feel • Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey 61412 A historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment • Omeros, Derek Walcott 61612 I felt lethal, on the verge of frenzy • American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis 61812 Quietly they moved down the calm and sacred river • A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth 6201h Towns along the river Ganges pulsate with life and colour, providing a vibrant backdrop to the interweaving stories and multiple realities of the India evoked by Seth’s narrative. 62712 It’s a very Greek idea, and a profound one. Beauty is terror • The Secret History, Donna Tartt 62912 What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world • The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami 63112 Perhaps only in a world of the blind will things be what they truly are • Blindness, José Saramago 6351p JOSÉ SARAMAGO José de Sousa Saramago was born in Portugal in 1922, the son of poor rural workers. His parents could not afford to send him to school, so he trained as a mechanic; only later did his talent for writing lead him into work as a translator, journalist, and editor. A politically engaged man, Saramago found that his first novel, Land of Sin (Terra do Pecado, 1947), was not well received by the conservative Catholic regime of Estado Novo (New State), which blocked the book’s production. He resurfaced in 1966 with Possible Poems (O Poemas Possìveis) and, after writing more novels, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. He moved to Spain following the Portuguese government’s censorship of one of his books in 1992. He lived there until his death in 2010. Other key works 1982 Baltasar and Blimunda 1984 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis 1991 The Gospel According to Jesus Christ 2004 Seeing See also: The Divine Comedy • The Canterbury Tales • Don Quixote • Candide • Gulliver’s Travels • Animal Farm • Lord of the Flies 63612 English is an unfit medium for the truth of South Africa • Disgrace, J M Coetzee 6401p J M COETZEE Novelist, linguist, essayist, and translator John Michael Coetzee was born in 1940 to English-speaking Afrikaner parents. Coetzee spent his early life in Cape Town and Worcester in the Western Cape. After graduating in the 1960s, he worked as a computer programmer in London. He has a PhD in English, Linguistics, and Germanic languages from the University of Texas. From 1972 Coetzee held posts at the University of Cape Town, finishing in 2000 as Distinguished Professor of Literature, and taught frequently in the USA. He has won a raft of literary awards, including the Booker Prize (twice) and the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. Coetzee now lives in South Australia and is an advocate for animal rights. 64112 Every moment happens twice: inside and outside, and they are two different histories • White Teeth, Zadie Smith 64512 The best way of keeping a secret is to pretend there isn’t one • The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood 65012 There was something his family wanted to forget • The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen 65512 It all stems from the same nightmare, the one we created together • The Guest, Hwang Sok-yong 65712 I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live • Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer 65912 Further reading 6661h The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), Margaret Atwood 6662h Love in the Time of Cholera (1985), Gabriel García Márquez 6721h My Name is Red (1998), Orhan Pamuk 6741h The Kite Runner (2003), Khaled Hosseini 67812 GLOSSARY 6782d Aestheticism A movement, originating in the late 19th century in England, which valued “art for art’s sake”, and rejected the idea that art or literature should offer a moral message or social purpose. 6783d ballad A form of popular verse that narrates a story, often set to music, and widespread throughout 6791d dystopia The opposite of utopia: a vision (usually in novel form) of a future in which society is dominated by a totalitarian state, or has broken down, often through environmental disaster or war. Life in a dystopia usually involves fear and hardship. 6801d epistolary novel A type of novel popular in 18th-century European literature in which the narrative is told entirely via letters or other documents written by the characters. 6821d Naturalism A literary movement that went further than realism in trying to recreate human behaviour in exact and precise detail. 6831d novella A work of prose fiction that is shorter than a novel, but longer than a short story. 6841w plot The main story, or the sequence and interrelationship of crucial events, in a work of literature. 6842d Postmodernism In literature, a movement that began after World War II, developing from the experimentation of the Modernist era. 6861d soliloquy A device in a play in which a character speaks his or her innermost thoughts aloud, which has the effect of sharing them directly with the audience. 6871d vernacular The language of a specific country; ordinary language as it is actually spoken, as opposed to formal literary language. 68912 CONTRIBUTORS 69312 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 69412 COPYRIGHT 6951b 20210418 = 533+162 100% DK-Literature ### 20210418 4* #eng A highway to reading literature This Literature is my sixth revolutionary DK Big Ideas book after Philosophy, Politics, Economics, Religions, Mathematics. Philosophy I have diligently studied for past 20 years since my retirement as a lecturer (professor) of economics. So in those two disciplines, I expected to be so well current in the subject matter that I could not learn much new, but only check what was included, whatnot. But I was surprised: learned lots of new matters so well presented, above all in a pedagogical sense. Hundreds, maybe thousands of internal cross-linkings make these DK books excellent textbooks, encyclopedias, popular means of enlightenment both for laymen and for professionals. I did not expect that I could digest or understand enough Mathematics, but surprise again. Except only in some cases of really deep-going nutcracker specialties of number theory did I feel me a mere onlooker. Instead found solid foundations of that narrow but important field of mathematics I had learned when lecturing twenty years and learning myself mathematical economics, differential and integral calculus, and dynamics of economic and econometric models. No difficulties in understanding Politics and Religion although only everyday life contact with those matters. I did not expect so neutral and balanced text about such a sentimental subject as religion. Fantastic colorful details. In the end, when telling about my reading experiences, I came to name my three favorite religions, two of which unknown to me before reading DK Religions. So far about other DK-books, all deserving full five stars as my assessment. But what about Literature? I am, after all, an eager reader - and a foolish statistician - having made a list of all over thousand books I have read during the past 55 years, almost 1000 paper books with assessment 1-3 stars, and now more than 200 ebooks with the scale of 1 to 5 stars and more than 130 reviews in pursuit of learning languages, made so easy and pleasant with ebooks. Again, no difficulty of matter-of-fact understanding. The first part, first 500 pages, all known classics spiced with many known by titles, arising desire of acquiring and reading, ok, introducing some principles of division to genre classification. But then, the last part, history since 1900, approximately, in general, of course with many exceptions, did and does not inspire me, dropping my stars to four instead of five. Modernism and post-modernism have not acquired my consent. I have tried some, but have experienced bitter disappointments, even in cases of events of general admiration. Here I find a suitable context of expressing my wide disagreement with the Nobel committee. Starting from Joyce, Gárcia, Llora and others not having at school learned subject-predicate sentences and punctuation. I am also fiercely accusing the Nobel committee for not giving the price to our Mika Waltari for his Sinuhe or the Estonian master Jaan Kross. My favorites are books with a documentary approach to a wide variety of human life, history, science, romance, everyday life. Instead, no scifi, neither war nor violence. These Big Ideas of Literature history, four stars. #rus Дорога к чтению литературы Эта литература - моя шестая революционная книга DK Big Ideas после философии, политики, экономики, религии, математики. Философию я прилежно изучал последние 20 лет после выхода на пенсию в качестве лектора (профессора) экономики. Поэтому в этих двух дисциплинах я ожидал, что буду настолько хорошо осведомлен в предмете, что не смогу узнать много нового, а только проверить, что было включено, и еще много чего. Но я был удивлен: узнал много нового, так хорошо изложенного, прежде всего в педагогическом смысле. Сотни, может быть, тысячи внутренних перекрестных ссылок делают эти книги DK отличными учебниками, энциклопедиями, популярным средством просвещения как для непрофессионалов, так и для профессионалов. Я не ожидал, что смогу переварить или понять достаточно математики, но снова удивил. За исключением некоторых случаев, когда я действительно глубоко разбирался в теории чисел как щелкунчик, я чувствовал себя просто сторонним наблюдателем. Вместо этого нашел прочную основу этой узкой, но важной области математики, которую я изучил, читая лекции двадцать лет и изучая математическую экономику, дифференциальное и интегральное исчисление, а также динамику экономических и эконометрических моделей. Нет трудностей в понимании Политики и Религии, хотя только повседневная жизнь касается этих вопросов. Я не ожидал столь нейтрального и сбалансированного текста о таком сентиментальном предмете, как религия. Фантастические красочные детали. В конце концов, рассказывая о своем опыте чтения, я назвал три мои любимые религии, две из которых были мне неизвестны до чтения DK Religions. Итак, о других DK-книгах, которые, по моей оценке, заслуживают полных пяти звезд. А как же литература? Я, в конце концов, заядлый читатель - и глупый статистик - составил список из более чем тысячи книг, которые я прочитал за последние 55 лет, почти 1000 бумажных книг с оценкой 1-3 звезды, а теперь более 200 электронных книг. со шкалой от 1 до 5 звезд и более 130 обзоров, посвященных изучению языков, что стало так легко и приятно с электронными книгами. Опять же, нет никаких сложностей в понимании фактов. Первая часть, первые 500 страниц, вся известная классика, приправленная многими известными названиями, вызывающими желание приобрести и прочитать, хорошо, знакомство с некоторыми принципами разделения по жанровой классификации. Но потом, последняя часть, история с 1900 года, примерно, в целом, конечно за многими исключениями, меня вдохновляла и не вдохновляет, опустив мои звезды до четырех вместо пяти. Модернизм и постмодернизм не получили моего согласия. Я пробовал некоторые, но испытал горькие разочарования даже в случаях всеобщего восхищения. Здесь я нахожу подходящий контекст, чтобы выразить свое несогласие с Нобелевским комитетом. Начиная с Джойса, Гарсиа, Ллоры и других, не обучавшихся в школе предметно-предикатным предложениям и пунктуации. Я также яростно обвиняю Нобелевский комитет в том, что он не назвал цену нашему Мика Валтари за его Синухе или эстонскому мастеру Яану Кроссу. Мои фавориты - это книги с документальным подходом к широкому спектру человеческой жизни, истории, науки, романтики, повседневной жизни. Вместо этого ни научной фантастики, ни войны, ни насилия. Эти большие идеи истории литературы, четыре звезды. #swe En motorväg till litteraturläsning Denna litteratur är min sjätte revolutionerande DK Big Ideas-bok efter filosofi, politik, ekonomi, religioner, matematik. Filosofi Jag har studerat flitigt de senaste 20 åren sedan min pensionering som lektor (professor) i ekonomi. Så i dessa två discipliner förväntade jag mig att vara så väl aktuell i ämnet att jag inte kunde lära mig mycket nytt, utan bara kontrollera vad som inkluderades, vad inte. Men jag blev förvånad: lärde mig massor av nya saker så väl presenterade, framför allt i pedagogisk mening. Hundratals, kanske tusentals interna tvärbindningar gör dessa DK-böcker till utmärkta läroböcker, uppslagsverk, populära upplysningsmedel både för lekmän och för yrkesverksamma. Jag förväntade mig inte att jag kunde smälta eller förstå tillräckligt med matematik, men överraskade igen. Förutom bara i vissa fall av riktigt djupgående nötknäppningsspecialiteter inom talteorin kände jag mig bara en tittare. Istället hittade solida grundvalar för det smala men viktiga matematikfält som jag hade lärt mig när jag föreläste tjugo år och lärde mig själv matematisk ekonomi, differentiell och integrerad beräkning och dynamik i ekonomiska och ekonometriska modeller. Inga svårigheter att förstå politik och religion, även om det bara är vardagens kontakt med dessa frågor. Jag förväntade mig inte så neutral och balanserad text om ett sådant sentimentalt ämne som religion. Fantastiska färgglada detaljer. Till slut, när jag berättade om mina läsupplevelser, kom jag att namnge mina tre favoritreligioner, varav två var okända för mig innan jag läste DK Religions. Så långt om andra DK-böcker, alla förtjänar hela fem stjärnor som min bedömning. Men hur är det med litteratur? Jag är trots allt en ivrig läsare - och en dåraktig statistiker - som har gjort en lista över alla över tusen böcker jag har läst under de senaste 55 åren, nästan 1000 pappersböcker med bedömning 1-3 stjärnor, och nu mer än 200 e-böcker med skalan 1 till 5 stjärnor och mer än 130 recensioner för att lära sig språk, gjort så enkelt och trevligt med e-böcker. Återigen, inga svårigheter med faktisk förståelse. Den första delen, de första 500 sidorna, alla kända klassiker kryddade med många kända av titlar, uppstår en önskan att förvärva och läsa, ok, introducera några principer för uppdelning i genreklassificering. Men sedan, den sista delen, historien sedan 1900, ungefär, i allmänhet, naturligtvis med många undantag, inspirerade mig inte och släppte mina stjärnor till fyra istället för fem. Modernism och post-modernism har inte fått mitt samtycke. Jag har provat några men har upplevt bittra besvikelser, även i händelser av allmän beundran. Här hittar jag ett lämpligt sammanhang för att uttrycka min stora oenighet med Nobelkommittén. Från och med Joyce, Gárcia, Llora och andra som inte i skolan har lärt sig ämnespredikatmeningar och skiljetecken. Jag anklagar också våldsamt Nobelkommittén för att inte ge priset till vår Mika Waltari för sin Sinuhe eller den estniska mästaren Jaan Kross. Mina favoriter är böcker med en dokumentär inställning till ett stort antal mänskliga liv, historia, vetenskap, romantik, vardagsliv. Istället ingen scifi, varken krig eller våld. Dessa stora idéer om litteraturhistoria, fyra stjärnor.#est #est Kiirtee kirjanduse lugemiseni See kirjandus on minu kuues revolutsiooniline DK suurte ideede raamat pärast filosoofiat, poliitikat, majandust, usundeid, matemaatikat. Filosoofia, mida olen majanduse õppejõu (professori) pensionile minekust hoolega õppinud viimased 20 aastat. Nii et eeldasin, et nendel kahel erialal oleksin õppeaines nii hästi kursis, et ei saanud palju uut õppida, vaid ainult kontrollida, mida see sisaldab, mis veel. Kuid ma olin üllatunud: õppinud palju uusi asju, mis olid nii hästi esitatud, ennekõike pedagoogilises mõttes. Sajad, võib-olla tuhanded sisemised ristsidemed muudavad need DK-raamatud suurepärasteks õpikuteks, entsüklopeediateks, populaarseteks valgustusvahenditeks nii võhikutele kui ka professionaalidele. Ma ei eeldanud, et suudan piisavalt matemaatikat seedida või aru saada, kuid üllatasin taas. Välja arvatud ainult mõnedel juhtudel, kui numbriteooria tõeliselt sügavad pähklipurejad olid, tundsin end pelgalt pealtnägijana. Selle asemel leidsid kindlad alused sellele kitsale, kuid olulisele matemaatikavaldkonnale, mille olin õppinud kahekümne aasta jooksul loengute pidamise ajal ning õppisin endale matemaatilist majandusteadust, diferentsiaal- ja integraalarvutust ning majanduslike ja ökonomeetriliste mudelite dünaamikat. Poliitika ja religiooni mõistmisel pole raskusi, ehkki nende asjadega puutub kokku vaid igapäevane elu. Ma ei oodanud nii neutraalset ja tasakaalustatud teksti sellise sentimentaalse teema kohta nagu religioon. Fantastilised värvilised detailid. Lõpuks jõudsin oma lugemiskogemustest rääkides nimetada oma kolm lemmikreligiooni, millest kaks olid mulle enne DK Religioonide lugemist tundmatud. Siiani teiste DK-raamatute kohta, mis kõik väärivad minu hinnangul viit tärni. Aga kuidas on kirjandusega? Lõppude lõpuks olen innukas lugeja - ja rumal statistik -, kes on koostanud loetelu kõigist tuhandetest raamatutest, mida olen viimase 55 aasta jooksul lugenud, ligi 1000 paberraamatut, mille hinnang on 1-3 tärni, ja nüüd üle 200 e-raamatu 1–5 tärnise skaala ja rohkem kui 130 arvustusega keelte õppimiseks, mis on e-raamatute abil nii lihtne ja meeldiv. Jällegi pole asjaliku mõistmise raskusi. Esimene osa, esimesed 500 lehekülge, kõik tuntud klassikud, mida on vürtsitatud paljude pealkirjade järgi, tekitades soovi omandada ja lugeda, ok, tutvustades žanriklassifikatsiooni mõningaid jagunemispõhimõtteid. Kuid siis, viimane osa, ajalugu alates 1900. aastast, üldiselt, muidugi, muidugi paljude eranditega, inspireeris ja ei inspireeri mind, langedes tähed viie asemel nelja peale. Modernism ja postmodernism pole minu nõusolekut omandanud. Olen proovinud mõnda, kuid kogenud kibedaid pettumusi isegi üldise imetlusega sündmuste korral. Siit leian sobiva konteksti väljendada oma laialdast erimeelsust Nobeli komiteega. Alates Joyce'ist, Gárciast, Llorast ja teistest, kes pole koolis õppinud aine- ja predikaatlauseid ning kirjavahemärke. Samuti süüdistan ägedalt Nobeli komiteed selles, et ta ei andnud hinda meie Mika Waltarile tema Sinuhe või Eesti meistri Jaan Krossi eest. Minu lemmikud on raamatud, milles käsitletakse dokumentaalset lähenemist väga erinevale inimelule, ajaloole, teadusele, romantikale, igapäevaelule. Selle asemel ei mingit scifi, ei sõda ega vägivalda. Need kirjanduse ajaloo suured ideed, neli tärni. #fin Valtatie kirjallisuuden lukemiseen Tämä kirjallisuus on kuudes vallankumouksellinen DK Big Ideas -kirjani filosofian, politiikan, taloustieteen, uskontojen, matematiikan jälkeen. Filosofia Olen opiskellut ahkerasti viimeiset 20 vuotta eläkkeelteni lähtien taloustieteen luennoitsijana (professorina). Joten noilla kahdella tieteenalalla odotin olevan niin hyvin ajankohtainen aiheessa, että en voinut oppia paljon uutta, vaan vain tarkistaa, mitä siihen sisältyi, mitä ei. Mutta olin yllättynyt: opin paljon uusia asioita, jotka olivat niin hyvin esiteltyjä, ennen kaikkea pedagogisessa mielessä. Sadat, ehkä tuhannet sisäiset linkitykset tekevät näistä DK-kirjoista erinomaisia ​​oppikirjoja, tietosanakirjoja, suosittuja valaistumisen keinoja sekä maallikoille että ammattilaisille. En odottanut voivani sulattaa tai ymmärtää tarpeeksi matematiikkaa, mutta yllätin taas. Paitsi vain joissakin tapauksissa todella syvällisiä pähkinänsärkijöitä lukuteoriassa, tunsin minut vain katsojana. Sen sijaan löysi vankan perustan sille kapealle, mutta tärkeälle matematiikan alalle, jonka olin oppinut luennoidessani 20 vuotta ja oppinut itselleni matemaattista taloustiedettä, differentiaali- ja integraalilaskennan sekä taloudellisten ja ekonometristen mallien dynamiikan. Ei vaikeuksia politiikan ja uskonnon ymmärtämisessä, vaikka vain arki koskettaa näitä asioita. En odottanut niin neutraalia ja tasapainoista tekstiä niin sentimentaalisesta aiheesta kuin uskonto. Upeat värikkäät yksityiskohdat. Loppujen lopuksi, kun kerroin lukukokemuksistani, tulin nimeämään kolme suosikkiuskontoni, joista kaksi minulle tuntematonta ennen DK: n uskontojen lukemista. Toistaiseksi muista DK-kirjoista, jotka kaikki ansaitsevat arvioni viisi tähteä. Mutta entä kirjallisuus? Olen loppujen lopuksi innokas lukija - ja tyhmä tilastotieteilijä - joka on tehnyt luettelon kaikista yli tuhannesta kirjassa, jotka olen lukenut viimeisten 55 vuoden aikana, lähes 1000 paperikirjaa, joissa on arvioitu 1-3 tähteä, ja nyt yli 200 e-kirjaa asteikolla 1–5 tähteä ja yli 130 arvostelua kielten oppimiseksi, tehty niin helpoksi ja miellyttäväksi e-kirjojen avulla. Jälleen ei ole tosiasiallisen ymmärtämisen vaikeuksia. Ensimmäinen osa, ensimmäiset 500 sivua, kaikki tunnetut klassikot, maustettu monilla nimillä, herättävä halu hankkia ja lukea, ok, esitellään joitain jakamisperiaatteita tyyliluokitukseen. Mutta sitten, viimeinen osa, historia vuodesta 1900 lähtien, yleensä, tietysti lukuun ottamatta monia poikkeuksia, inspiroi ja ei inspiroi minua pudottaen tähteni neljään viiden sijasta. Modernismi ja postmodernismi eivät ole saaneet suostumustani. Olen kokeillut joitain, mutta olen kokenut katkeria pettymyksiä, jopa yleisissä ihailuissa. Täältä löydän sopivan kontekstin ilmaista laaja-alainen erimielisyyteni Nobelin komitean kanssa. Alkaen Joycesta, Gárcia, Llora ja muut, joilla ei ole koulussa oppinut aihepiirien lauseita ja välimerkkejä Syytän myös kiihkeästi Nobelin komiteaa siitä, että se ei antanut hintaa Mika Waltarillemme hänen Sinuhesta tai virolaisesta mestarista Jaan Krossista. Suosikkini ovat kirjat, joissa on dokumentaarinen lähestymistapa monenlaiseen ihmiselämään, historiaan, tieteeseen, romantiikkaan, arkeen. Sen sijaan ei scifi, ei sotaa eikä väkivaltaa. Nämä kirjallisuuden historian suuret ideat, neljä tähteä.@@@ *** DK (2016-04-20T23:58:59). The Literature Book (Big Ideas) . Dorling Kindersley Ltd. Kindle Edition. DK (2016-04-20T23:58:59). The Literature Book (Big Ideas) . Dorling Kindersley Ltd. Kindle Edition.