Her own thoughts and reflections were habitually her best companions. Jane Austen, ‘Mansfield Park’ (1814) Jane Austen, b. December 16, 1775, d. July 18, 1817 Born 250 years ago today, Jane Austen was an English writer who first presented the novel with ordinary...
‘If we cross the Irwell to Salford, we find. . . one large working men's quarter, penetrated by a single wide avenue. . . All Salford is built in courts or narrow lanes, so narrow, that they remind me of the narrowest I have ever seen, the little lanes of Genoa. . ....
I went from one to the other holding my sorrow, no, not my sorrow but the incomprehensible nature of this our life, for their inspection. Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends, I to my own heart, I to seek among phrases and fragments something...
‘Alright then, I'll go to hell.’ Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Huck has been made to believe it would be sinful to help his friend Jim, who is as you likely know, a runaway slave. In this chapter, Huck finds his personal moral compass and decides to...
December 1, 1887 Sherlock Holmes makes his first appearance in print in ‘A Study in Scarlet’. or did he? There are a various Internet sites that say that Beeton's Christmas Annual, which first published A Study in Scarlet, printed the story on December 1, 1887. It...
Jonathan Swift, b. November 30, 1667, d. October 19, 1745 Books, the children of the brain. A Tale of a Tub and Other Writings (1704) Irish satirist and clergyman. Swift grew up under the care of his uncle and received a Bachelor’s degree from Trinity College. He was...
Turns out, 2025 marks 160 years since the publication of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. The story behind the book and its publication is detailed and complex. Alice Pleasance Liddell (1852 – 1934) was four years old when she first met the...
Margaret Atwood, in full Margaret Eleanor Atwood, CC OOnt CH FRSC FRSL, b. November 18, 1939 Stupidity is the same as evil if you judge by the results. Surfacing (1971) In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt. Bluebeard's Egg (1982) Nolite te...
On November 24, 1859, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection’ by Charles Darwin was published. This book caused us change how we view ourselves. In it, as you may know, Darwin posits that natural selection is the engine that drives the evolution of the...
On November 24, 1877, Black Beauty: His Grooms and Companions / The Autobiography of a Horse; Translated from the original equine was published, Anna Sewell’s only novel. The book is considered to be the first major animal story in children’s literature and in the...