Author Archives
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Analysis of André Breton’s Nadja
Written when the French writer André Breton (1896–1966) was 32 years old, Nadja is a novel that lies between poetry and fiction and thus embodies, as do all of Breton’s writings, what he set out to reveal in his Manifesto… Read More ›
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Analysis of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red
My Name Is Red, the recipient of the International Impac Dublin Literary Award in 2003, is perhaps the most celebrated book by the Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk (1952– ), who won the Nobel Prize in literature in 2006. The novel,… Read More ›
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Analysis of Amos Oz’s My Michael
My Michael was Israeli writer Amos Oz’s second novel and first translated work. The Hebrew edition was published in Israel in 1968, shortly after the Six-Day War (ArabIsraeli War) in 1967, and in English with translator Nicholas de Lange in… Read More ›
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Analysis of Georges Simenon’s My Friend Maigret
A man is murdered on the island paradise of Porquerelles, located off the southern French coast in the Mediterranean Sea, in this novel by the Belgium-born author Georges Simenon (1903–89). Maigret, the famous detective, is notifi ed, and decides to… Read More ›
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Analysis of A. B. Yehoshua’s Mr. Mani
Mr. Mani is the masterwork of the 20th-century author A. B. Yehoshua (1936–2022), an Israeli novelist considered the most outstanding literary figure of his generation. The author’s fourth novel, Mr. Mani achieved instant acclaim upon publication. A rich, dense narrative… Read More ›
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Analysis of Maxim Gorky’s The Mother
Among the important novels by Maxim Gorky (1868–1936), The Mother remains the best known and, ironically, one of the most flawed aesthetically. Gorky wrote the novel while on a trip to the United States in 1906, when the defeat of… Read More ›
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Analysis of Marin Preda’s The Morometes
The Morometes, Marin Preda’s signature book, makes a remarkable contribution to 20th-century Romanian literature, redefining the tools of the rural fiction genre. Masterfully crafted, The Morometes explores the radical transformation of the southern Romanian village before and after World War… Read More ›
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Analysis of Cesare Pavese’s The Moon and the Bonfires
The Moon and the Bonfires is the famed Italian author Cesare Pavese’s (1908–50) last novel. Published in June 1950 by the Italian publishing house Einaudi (where Pavese held a prominent position), the novel met immediate critical and commercial success. “To… Read More ›
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Analysis of Mongo Beti’s Mission to Kala
Published to great critical acclaim under the French title Mission terminée, Mission to Kala, by Mongo Beti (1932–2001), echoes the European forms of the picaresque novel and the bildungsroman in describing the experiences of its “hero,” Jean-Marie Medza. This protagonist… Read More ›
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Analysis of Jean Genet’s The Miracle of the Rose
The French novel The Miracle of the Rose was written by Jean Genet (1910–86) in 1943 while the author was imprisoned in La Santé penitentiary in Paris for theft. Published in 1946, this autobiographical work is based on the author’s… Read More ›
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Analysis of Mao Dun’s Midnight
This is an important political and cultural novel by famed Chinese author Mao Dun (1896–1985). The story surrounds the business tycoon Wu Sun-fu and his struggles in China during the great changes in the country during the 1930s. The novel… Read More ›
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Analysis of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis
“As Gregor Samsa awoke from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a giant insect.” So begins The Metamorphosis, a sinister allegory of dehumanization and hopelessness in the modern world by Franz Kafka (1883–1924). Once rendered an… Read More ›
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Analysis of Ghassan Kanafani’s Men in the Sun
The novel Men in the Sun is the first and perhaps best-known novel by Ghassan Kanafani (1936–72). Kanafani is widely considered today as one of the most influential Palestinian writers of the 20th century. Before being killed by a car… Read More ›
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Analysis of Yaşar Kemal’s Memed My Hawk
Memed, My Hawk, which first appeared in Turkish with the original title Ince Memed, is considered one of the most significant novels in Turkish literature. An immediate international success, the novel by Yaşar Kemal’s (1923–2015) has been translated into as… Read More ›
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Analysis of Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Matigari
Published in the African Writers Series by Heinemann, Matigari is a deeply felt call to workers, peasants, and students to rise up against what the Kenyan-born author Ngugi wa Thiong’o (1938– ) refers to as “imperialism.” In keeping with the… Read More ›
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Analysis of Jacques Roumain’s Masters of the Dew
Originally titled Gouverneurs de la rosée and published four months after the death of its author, the Haitian writer Jacques Roumain (1907–44), Masters of the Dew has remained a timeless and lyrical novel of human suffering, loss, and redemption. When… Read More ›
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Analysis of Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita
The Russian author Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) wrote The Master and Margarita (Master i Margarita) between 1928 and early 1940 in a time when the official ideology of the Soviet state was based on militant atheism and obligatory historical optimism. In… Read More ›
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Analysis of Fumiko Enchi’s Masks
Masks by the Japanese writer Fumiko Enchi (1905–86) tells the story of two rivals who pursue a young widow and of the inscrutable relationship between the widow and her mother-in-law, a woman of many secrets who holds her own malevolent… Read More ›
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Analysis of Julio Cortázar’s A Manual for Manuel
A Manual for Manuel has the distinction of being the most overtly political novel by Argentine author Julio Cortázar (1914–84); it would also be his last novel published in his lifetime. The book is Cortázar’s attempt, as he explains in… Read More ›
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Analysis of André Malraux’s Man’s Hope
Man’s Hope by the French writer André Malraux (1901–76) was first serialized in the communist daily Ce Soir from November 3 to December 7, 1937. The novel was then published in book form at the end of 1937. Owing to… Read More ›
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