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Jane Austen is one of the most prominent novelists of all ages. She had so much brilliant talent and her “Pride and Prejudice” is one great masterpiece, and simply one of the funniest novels ever written. It is filled with memorable characters brought visually to life as they both succeed and fail at the game…
Tag Archive: English literature
Battle of the Sexes in Pride and Prejudice
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is considered as the greatest masterpiece of Jane Austen. This novel is a sharp and witty comedy of manners set in early 19th century English society. This was the time and place where men were deemed to be all powerful and authoritative, whereas women were bound to negotiate mine-fields of social status,…
Geoffrey Chaucer and his Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer (1345-1400) was born in London to the son of a wealthy wine merchant. Chaucer’s father had enough influence in the King’s court such that at the age of twelve, the boy became a page in the service of the King’s second son. Before he turned twenty-five, Chaucer married an attendant of the queen….
Emerging Literary Types of the Anglo-Saxon Period
1. The drama started as a pantomime performed inside the church, and then it was transferred to the church yard. When it was transferred to the market place, it was no longer as pantomime but it was acted with words already. In the transfer to the market place and later to street corners, it was…
Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon Poetry
Some of the principal characteristics that distinctively mark Beowulf and the early Anglo-Saxon poetry are alliteration and the use of kennings. Alliteration pertains to initial and internal rhyming. It is the production of the same sound in some initially accented words in the same line of verse by the use of the same consonant but…
The Most Prominent English Literary Figures of 20th Century
Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) was a grand-nephew of Matthew Arnold. Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey. He attended Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. In his novels and essays he used a variety of literary forms: critical essay (Proper Studies, 1927), satire (Brave New World, 1932), semi-realism (Point Counter Point, 1928). Point Counter Point was his best…
How to Know the Elements of the Short Story
The writer of a short story has a purpose. Other than to gain publicity or compensation, the writer also wants to tell others something personal, such as his view of life, and social values. This is the meaning he wants to give to his story. Critics and professional writers call them the “theme” of the…
How Coleridge Came About Writing “Kubla Khan”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1872-1834) and William Wordsworth influenced each other. It was during their close companionship for six years that Coleridge wrote his most prominent poems. After they parted company, almost no poetry came from his pen. Weak of will, he acquired the habit of taking opium. In a sense, it can be said that…
William Wordsworth and Some of His Works
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was born in the Lake District of England. His first poems were about his wanderings in that region which is beautiful not only because of its lakes but more so because of its mountains. His sister who kept house for him was a great influence to his literary endeavors. She drew his…
Aspects of Romanticism in English Literature
Here are some aspects of romanticism worth remembering: 1. primitivism or the desire to return to origins historically, artistically, and psychologically 2. faith in the imagination, that is, faith in feeling and intuition as against reason 3. faith in the individual or an insistence on individual rights 4. an interest in the past rather than…