Robinson Crusoe, often called the first English novel, was written by Daniel Defoe and published in 1719. The novel is the tale of one man’s survival on a desert island following a shipwreck. Published in 1719, the book didn’t carry Defoe’s name, and it was offered to the public as a true account of real
Literature
February 23, 2021, 2:04pm Surprisingly, despite the heavy toll taken by the COVID-19 pandemic on brick and mortar bookstores (especially independent brick and mortar bookstores) nationwide, US book sales actually increased by 8 percent in 2020. What demographic is responsible for keeping the industry alive and thriving against all odds? Why, the much-maligned Millennials of
February 22, 2021, 1:02pm Despite having watched several seasons of Outlander I confess I eventually gave up. Sure, the scenery is gorgeous (The Grampians! The Highlands!), and the leads are very easy on the eyes, but the incessantly soap operatic twists built around a highly dubious time-travel premise eventually wore me out (not to mention
The ‘St Crispin’s Day’ speech is one of the most famous speeches from William Shakespeare’s Henry V, a history play written in around 1599 and detailing the English king’s wars with France during the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). Henry V himself delivers the St Crispin’s Day speech in the play. He delivers the speech on
February 22, 2021, 1:04pm Today, the Horror Writers Association—dedicated to promoting horror and dark fantasy writers—announced the finalists for the annual Bram Stoker Award, which honors the best work in horror and dark fiction published in the last year. The Award is named in honor of Irish writer Bram Stoker, author of Dracula, and comes with
TODAY: In 1958, Helen Fielding, who wrote a weekly column about urban life in London designed to appeal to young professional women which she later published as a book (Bridget Jones’s Diary) is born. Interview with an Indie Press: Milkweed staffers talk reader relationships, working together during political turmoil, and what having a mega-hit (Braiding
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a successful poet, playwright, novelist, short-story writer, and writer of fairy tales for children. And this, of course, is to say nothing of his sparkling wit and conversation, and the many memorable quotations he is known for. Below, we consider Oscar Wilde’s writing, bringing together the best of his work across
February 19, 2021, 11:45am Food, like a great novel, can tell a story. The storytelling opportunities are endless: the way we eat, the culinary traditions we pass down from one generation to the next, and communal rituals can provide deeper insight into ourselves and the world around us. For the Spring 2021 edition of Oxford
February 19, 2021, 2:09pm I have always been an outsider at Winter Institute, the American Booksellers Association’s annual conference—and yet I love it so. Having only attended four of the last six I am a relative newcomer compared to many of the legendary booksellers who’ve been attending for decades. I’m thinking here of the likes
Writers can get ideas from the strangest of places. Omelas, the distinctive-sounding but entirely fictional city in Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1973 short story ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’, came from her reading a road sign for Salem, Oregon, (‘Salem, O.’) in her car’s rear-view mirror. But the idea behind the story came
TODAY: In 1924, South African novelist Alex La Guma is born. Emily Temple recommends 50 classic novels under 200 pages—because what is an attention span and where can we buy one? | Lit Hub Reading Lists “Am I prepared? Is anyone, ever?” Oncology nurse Nina Solis reflects on turning to Mary Oliver as she watches her first patient
February 19, 2021, 3:19pm If you’re like me, the millions of dollars you set aside for travel and leisure in 2020/2021 are now burning a hole in your pocket. These days, it feels like there’s little for a twenty-first century robber baron to spend his vast fortune on but shortened stocks, surreptitious trips to Cancún,
In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle analyses Wordsworth’s famous line about poetry and ‘spontaneous overflow’ 1798 was the key year for Romantic poetry in Britain, for it saw the publication of the Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems by the two brightest new stars in English verse: William Wordsworth and
February 19, 2021, 2:09pm I have always been an outsider at Winter Institute, the American Booksellers Association’s annual conference—and yet I love it so. Having only attended four of the last six I am a relative newcomer compared to many of the legendary booksellers who’ve been attending for decades. I’m thinking here of the likes
On this day, 90 years ago, the great Toni Morrison was born; and in a span of 88 years, she not only managed to publish 11 groundbreaking novels, which earned her a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize, but also championed some of the most enduring Black literary voices of our time. To celebrate her birthday, I
Greek and Roman mythology has been a constant source of inspiration for poets down the centuries. Whether it’s tragic figures or love stories, or tales of magic and the supernatural, classical myths have retained their power down the millennia, and poets have often made use of these memorable tales when writing everything from love lyrics
February 18, 2021, 1:54pm New Turing test just dropped: The first play written entirely by a robot. AI: When A Robot Writes A Play, will be performed at Czech Centre London on February 26., and will be followed by a debate with both theater and artificial intelligence experts. Czech Centre London created the project in
In Greek mythology and literature, Tiresias was a seer or soothsayer. In other words, he was a prophet. How he attained the gift of prophecy, however, is a curious one, and worth exploring, so in this post we’re going to take a look at the myths surrounding the figure of Tiresias, and his role in