Literary Criticism
The House of Dust
The House of Dust is a poem written in the four-movement format of a classical symphony. Hauntingly beautiful despite its bleak post-World …
The Wings of the Dove
"The Wings of the Dove," published in 1902, represents to my memory a very old--if I shouldn't perhaps rather say a very young--mo…
Clayhanger
This first of a trilogy of novels is a coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England, following Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves…
The Last of the Valerii
An unnamed American painter resident in Rome serves as narrator in this story, watching as his god-daughter Martha, becomes the wife of Prin…
The Lost Art of Reading
Gerald Stanley Lee speaks here-in of books and self in the time of factories, tall buildings and industry and big city making, the effects o…
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 Naturewoman
The Mastersons, a wealthy Bostonian family, await the arrival of their cousin Anna in the wake of her grandfather's death. Though born in Bo…
New Grub Street
"The story deals with the literary world that Gissing himself had experienced. Its title refers to the London street, Grub Street, whic…
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…
Mademoiselle Ixe
This is a story by the English writer Mary Elizabeth Hawker (1848-1908) entitled Mademoiselle Ixe, by[pseudonym] Lanoe Falconer. The manuscr…
A Tale of a Tub
A Tale of a Tub was the first major work written by Jonathan Swift, composed between 1694 and 1697, that was eventually published in 1704. I…
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 …
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
Harriett Frean is a well-to-do, unmarried woman living a life of meaningless dependency, boredom, and unproductivity as she patiently cares …
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 Last Day of a Condemned
A man who has been condemned to death writes down his cogitations, feelings and fears while he is waiting for his execution. He does not bet…
The Death of Society
A weary survivor of the Great War, Major Rane Smith wanders in a great ennui amidst the mystical beauties of the fjords of Norway after the …
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.…
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…
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 …