This poem from José Emilio Pacheco’s volume Los trabajos del mar (The Labors of the Sea, 1978–83) describes urban pollution. Mexico City has only one river that has not been turned into a sewer and covered by concrete. That river,… Read More ›
Literary Criticism
Analysis of Aimé Césaire’s It Is the Courage of Men Which Is Dislocated
In this unrhymed prose poem, Césaire develops the central image of torrential rain and its effects—both destructive and cathartic—on island cultures: “The rain, it’s the testy way here and now to strike out everything that exists, everything / that’s been… Read More ›
Analysis of Kamau Brathwaite’s The Arrivants
Kamau Brathwaite’s poetic trilogy, The Arrivants (1988), consists of three previously published long poems: Rights of Passage (1967), Islands (1968), and Masks (1969), each comprised of many constituent parts. Critic Pamela Mordecai labels the trilogy’s structural elements in descending order… Read More ›
Analysis of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Archaic Torso of Apollo
Archaic Torso of Apollo We cannot know his legendary head with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso is still suffused with brilliance from inside, like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, gleams in all… Read More ›
Analysis of L. P. Hartley’s The Go-Between
In 1953, this novel—Hartley’s seventh—received the Heinemann Foundation Prize; it is widely regarded as Hartley’s best novel. In 1971, director Joseph Losey chose it for a film adaptation with a screenplay by the noted British dramatist Harold Pinter. The film… Read More ›
Analysis of Doris Lessing’s The Four-Gated City
Volume five in the Children of Violence series, this novel follows Landlocked (1965) and concludes the adventures of Martha Quest in an apocalyptic vision of a future in which human beings overcome the limitations of communication and mutual understanding through… Read More ›
Analysis of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw
One of Henry James’s shortest novels, The Turn of the Screw first appeared in Collier’s Weekly. When published in a volume titled The Two Magics, it appeared with another story titled Covering End. Although brief, it captured readers’ imagination and… Read More ›
Analysis of Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey
Published only a few weeks before Laurence Sterne’s death, A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick featured a parson character made famous in Sterne’s first novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, the title later shortened… Read More ›
Analysis of Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy
A Robin Hood figure, the factual individual named Rob Roy, formed the basis for Sir Walter Scott’s historical fiction Rob Roy. The real Rob Roy (literally “Red Robert,” for his red hair) was a drover who became an outlaw, leading… Read More ›
The Quest in Literature
The quest story has existed for centuries, with Homer’s The Odyssey serving as the prototypical example. Also known as the hero’s journey, plot aspects of the quest often appear in the modern English-language romance novel and may be identified in… Read More ›
The Quarterly Review
Founded in 1809 by John Murray of the powerful publishing house of the same name, as a Tory rival to the Whig periodical The Edinburgh Review, the Quarterly Review was distinguished through association with Sir Walter Scott, among others. Many… Read More ›
Analysis of James Hogg’s Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, long acknowledged as the best of the many works by James Hogg (1770–1835), focuses on the religious and political conflict in Scotland at the end of the 18th century. The first portion,… Read More ›
Analysis of Henry James’s The Princess Casamassima
Henry James first published The Princess Casamassima as a serial in The Atlantic Monthly between September 1885 and October 1886. He reintroduces the princess as a character from a previous novel, Roderick Hudson (1875), in which the sculptor Hudson dies in… Read More ›
Analysis of Anthony Trollope’s The Prime Minister
The Prime Minister took its place as Anthony Trollope’s fifth book in the Palliser sequence. It first appeared as a serial between November 1875 and June 1876, before its issue in four volumes. While many of Trollope’s contemporaries, including Henry… Read More ›
Analysis of Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop
As one of Charles Dickens’s early works, The Old Curiosity Shop, first published in the periodical Master Humphrey’s Clock from April 1840 to February 1841, was a favorite among his contemporary readers. That favorable reception changed over time, as readers… Read More ›
Analysis of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen had begun writing her final book, Northanger Abbey, in 1798. It was accepted by a publisher in 1803 but would not be published until 1818, one year following her death. The book was a satire on the wildly… Read More ›
Analysis of Thomas Love Peacock’s Nightmare Abbey
In his third and most popular novel, Nightmare Abbey, Thomas Love Peacock supplied a parody of contemporary literature and authors that greatly resembled in format his previous satires, Headlong Hall (1816) and Melincourt (1817). All three contain little by way… Read More ›
Analysis of Catherine Grace Gore’s Mrs. Armytage
Despite criticism of Catherine Grace Gore’s work by notables such as William Makepeace Thackeray, it proved highly popular in its day and included some novels deemed superior to others. One of her best works, Mrs. Armytage, or, Female Domination, excels… Read More ›
Analysis of Frederick Marryat’s Mr. Midshipman Easy
Captain Frederick Marryat’s Mr. Midshipman Easy proved extremely popular. Informed by Marryat’s own naval experience, all his work allowed a gifted writer the opportunity to shape realistic adventure tales in which he expressed himself in a vigorous style undergirded by… Read More ›
Analysis of Thomas Love Peacock’s Melincourt
Thomas Love Peacock wrote his second novel, Melincourt or Sir Oran Hautton, with the goal of lambasting various political and literary figures. The book proved more ambitious, particularly in its length, than its predecessor, Headlong Hall (1816). Some critics found its… Read More ›
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