Literary Criticism
Elective Affinities
Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) was Goethe's third novel. It depicts human relationships in a Romantic crucible, and is the s…
The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter
As much as any other work of literature, Henri Murger’s 1851 collection of witty sketches Scènes de la vie de bohème shaped th…
Christmas Stories
Twenty stories originally published in the Christmas editions of the magazines “Household Words” and “All The Year Round”. Some of the stori…
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare: actor, poet, playwright. He is often called England's greatest writer, the Bard of Avon, a national treasure. But who w…
The Novels of Jane Austen
An 1859 essay by the prominent philosopher and literary critic, G. H. Lewes, who was an enthusiastic promoter of the novels of Jane Austen a…
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…
Companionable Books
Many books are dry and dusty, there is no juice in them; and many are soon exhausted, you would no more go back to them than to a squeezed o…
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…
An Old Man's Love
This was Trollope's last completed novel, and he may have acquired his sympathy for older lovers with age! A not-so-very-old man, Mr. Whittl…
The Passionate Friends
H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. The Passionate Friends is a love sto…
The Dark
The Dark is a novella about a desperate young man, a “terrorist and nihilist”, trying to avoid arrest by taking refuge in a brothel. The sto…
The Picture of Dorian Gray
The novel tells of a young man named Dorian Gray, the subject of a painting by artist Basil Hallward. Basil is impressed by Dorian's beauty …
A Far Country
The book follows the career of Hugh Paret from youth to manhood, and how his profession as a corporation lawyer gradually changes his values…
The Three Sisters
Fascinated as she was by the lives of the Brontë siblings, May Sinclair loosely based her subtly sensual, quietly insurrectionary 1914 …
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 Birthplace
Neither the name of Shakespeare nor that of Stratford appears directly in this short piece by James, and yet both are absolutely central to …
In a German Pension
The first collected volume of short stories of the New Zealand modernist. Inspired by her own travels, Mansfield begins to refine her craft …
El Filibusterismo
The Philippines, still a Spanish colony, are more or less run by the Catholic friars, and with an iron fist.. However, here and there are po…
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…
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…