The River Between is the first novel, though the second published work, by author Ngugi wa Thiong’o. The book represents a foray into the complex exploration of intracultural Gikuyu struggle expressed in the language of the English colonialist power that… Read More ›
Novel Analysis
Analysis of Miroslav Krleža’s The Return of Philip Latinovicz
The Return of Philip Latinovicz is the major fictional work of the Croatian novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist Miroslav Krleža (1893– 1981). Krleža, who was to become a preeminent cultural and political figure in post–World War II Yugoslavia, wrote his… Read More ›
Analysis of Rachid Boudjedra’s The Repudiation
Rachid Boudjedra (1941– ) began writing in the 1960s, a period during which the Algerian novel in French shifted from a critique of colonialism to a questioning of social, political, and religious structures. Like most of the Algerian Francophone writers,… Read More ›
Analysis of Euclides da Cunha’s Rebellion in the Backlands
One of the most significant cultural currents in the mid- to late 19th century was an increasing interest in defining national characteristics as part of the development of nationalism. In the Czech lands this activity took the form of a… Read More ›
Analysis of Camara Laye’s The Radiance of the King
Originally published in French, The Radiance of the King is the most famous novel of Camara Laye (1928–80), whose name is sometimes listed as Laye Camara. In contrast with a number of early African novels that focused on an African… Read More ›
Analysis of Joseph Roth’s The Radetzky March
The Radetzky March, first published in Berlin in 1932, is regarded as the most significant novel by Joseph Roth (1894–1939) and the work that clearly defines the author’s public image as a Hapsburg nostalgist. Joseph Roth was born in Brody,… Read More ›
Analysis of Mikhail Sholokhov’s Quiet Flows the Don
Regarded as the definitive novel by Russian author Mikhail Sholokhov (1905–1984), Quiet Flows the Don was both a significant contribution to the corpus of work that earned Sholokhov the Nobel Prize in 1965 and a source of extensive and long-standing… Read More ›
Analysis of Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet
The Prophet, by the Lebanese-American author Khalil Gibran, occupies a peculiar place in 20th-century world literature. The Prophet has been translated into more than 100 languages, making it one of the most translated books in history. By 2012, it had… Read More ›
Analysis of Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales’s The President
The most popular novel by Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias Rosales (1899–1974), The President is a classic of Latin American literature. The novel examines the political phenomenon of dictatorship by exploring the ways in which authoritarian regimes oppress subjects… Read More ›
Analysis of Albert Camus’s The Plague
The Plague was written by Albert Camus (1913–60), one of the most gifted and influential writers and philosophers in the French language of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957. Camus was born in… Read More ›
Analysis of Patrick Süskind’s Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
The late 20th-century novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (Das Parfum. Die Geschichte eines Mörders) by Patrick Süskind (1949– ) is probably the best-known German literary text to appear in the last half of the century. It is a… Read More ›
Analysis of Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo
Pedro Páramo was voted by literary critics in the Spanish newspaper El País (May 5, 2001) as the most important book written in Spanish in the 20th century. It is generally understood that the technique of the novel of the… Read More ›
Analysis of Władysław Reymont’s The Peasants
The Peasants is undoubtedly the greatest narrative achievement by the Polish author Władysław Reymont (1867–1925). The four volumes of the novel, titled after the four seasons, were serialized in a weekly magazine for nearly a decade and finally earned him… Read More ›
Analysis of André Gide’s The Pastoral Symphony
La symphonie pastorale, translated as The Pastoral Symphony (1931), but just as often called by its French title by English-speaking critics, is part of a group of firstperson narratives called récits. Récits are characterized by a simple and ironic text… Read More ›
Analysis of Karen Blixen’s Out of Africa
The Danish author Karen Blixen (1885–1962) wrote Out of Africa originally in English, publishing this novelistic memoir in Denmark, Sweden, and England in 1937, and in the United States in 1938. This was her second book, following Seven Gothic Tales…. Read More ›
Analysis of Gao Xingjian’s One Man’s Bible
The second novel of Nobel Prize–winning novelist Gao Xingjian (1940– ), first published in Taipei in 1999, One Man’s Bible is often considered as a companion to his celebrated Soul Mountain (Ling shan). As autobiographical as Soul Mountain, One Man’s… Read More ›
Analysis of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1962 was interested in exposing the flaws of Stalinism for political purposes; when the editor of Novyi Mir brought him a copy of the manuscript by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008), Khrushchev approved of its publication. Soon… Read More ›
Analysis of Carlos Fuentes’s The Old Gringo
The first novel by a Mexican author to make the New York Times best-seller list, The Old Gringo both discusses and exemplifies the conflicting streams of influence between American and Latin American authors. Written by longtime novelist and former diplomat… Read More ›
Analysis of Isabel Allende’s Of Love and Shadows
Originally published in Spain as De amor y de sombra in 1984, Of Love and Shadows continues the interest of Isabel Allende (1942– ) in both transcendent romantic love and devastating social oppression. The first of her novels written after… Read More ›
Analysis of José Donoso’s The Obscene Bird of the Night
The fourth novel by Chilean writer José Donoso (1924–96), The Obscene Bird of the Night, is widely regarded as his masterpiece. His other significant novels include Coronation (Coronación, 1957), This Sunday (Este Domingo, 1966), The Space without Limits (El lugar… Read More ›
You must be logged in to post a comment.