Literary Criticism
Electricity
1999 - Aston Somerfield, casual smoker and part-time alcoholic, has come to London to find himself. He knows who he's looking for, he's seen…
A London Life
A devoted sister attempts to check her sibling's scandalous behavior in the world of British high society. A delightful comedy of Anglo-Ame…
Shakespeare Identified
That one who is not a recognized authority or an expert in literature should attempt the solution of a problem which has so far baffled spec…
The Power of a Lie
Norby is requested to guarantee a bank loan for Wangen and he obliges, signing the loan document in the presence of a witness. Some time lat…
Jacob's Room
The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders, and is presented entirely by the impres…
The Good Soldier
The Good Soldier (1915) "... is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedies of the lives of two seemingly perfect couples.…
Pierre & Jean
This short novel’s titular characters are brothers. An old family friend dies, leaving without explanation his entire fortune to Jean, the y…
Hagar's Daughter
Hagar's Daughter was first published serially in "The Colored American Magazine" in 1901-1902 by Pauline E. Hopkins, a prominent A…
The House of Mirth
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton explores the intricate social dynamics of New York's high society in the early 20th century through the …
The Red and the Black
Stendhal - a German pen-name for a French writer who hated the English. Contemporary to some of the great names of French literature like Ba…
Three Lives
Three Lives tells the stories of three women from the same fictitious town of Bridgeport. The first story is of Anna, a servant to the wealt…
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a groundbreaking novel by Laurence Sterne that defies conventional storytelling. Thro…
The Autobiography of Goethe
A literary celebrity by the age of 25, Goethe was ennobled by the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Carl August in 1782 after first taking up residence t…
The Welsh And Their Literature
Originally an article in the US Edition of the London Quarterly Review, George Borrow offers a sweeping history of Welsh literature, beginni…
The Man Who Found the Truth
An old man, accused of having murdered his family as a young man, spends a lifetime in prison. With brilliant psychological insight so chara…
Lady Susan
Jane Austen demonstrated her mastery of the epistolary novel genre in Lady Susan, which she wrote in 1795 but never published. Although the …
Elective Affinities
Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) was Goethe's third novel. It depicts human relationships in a Romantic crucible, and is the s…
Mardi
Mardi is Melville's first purely fictional work. In it he contemplates man's beliefs, and questions whether or not one faith has value over …
Confidence
This light and somewhat awkward comedy centers on artist Bernard Longueville, scientist Gordon Wright, and the sometimes inscrutable heroine…
The Altar of the Dead
A fable of literally life and death significance, the story explores how the protagonist tries to keep the remembrance of his dead friends, …