Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Image via Wikipedia After reading, in the past months, the short stories of Turgenev, Chekhov, Maupassant, James Joyce, and Hemingway, I found O. Henry‘s stories to be remarkably different. They were refreshingly delightful, poignant, and easy to read, and yet, I was struck by the inferiority of O. Henry’s actual writing in comparison to the
Image via Wikipedia Hemingway’s stories are poetry: that is my first and lasting impression of Ernest Hemingway’s short stories. In his short stories, Hemingway treats words as sparsely as do poets. I don’t usually understand or enjoy poetry because it feels so much must be inferred or interpreted. (After I finish reading the HTR&W short
[amazon_link asins=’0446310786′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’debcb40e-17f3-11e7-ba88-d5e79d61f198′]Harper Lee wrote one novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and it won the Pulitzer prize in 1961. Its themes still resonate with readers and her novel has become a part of our culture. That, I believe, is success. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee almost perfectly captures the main
Mirth, noun: gladness or gaiety as shown by or accompanied with laughter [amazon_link asins=’0140187294′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’09ffaf72-17f4-11e7-81e6-99323011447d’]If you are looking for “mirth,” The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton is not the book for you. The House of Mirth is about a woman searching for happiness where true happiness will not to be found:
[amazon_link asins=’0156012197′ template=’RightAlignSingleImage’ store=’rebereid06-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f3a6edd3-17f1-11e7-97db-ef76e45e61e2′]I didn’t understand The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at all. I guess I’m not a child. A pilot has crashed his plane in the desert. While striving to repair it, he meets a young boy from a asteroid-star planet. The little prince’s planet has 44 sunsets a day,
Edith Wharton’s 1921 Pulitzer prize-winning novel, The Age of Innocence, carefully illustrates the social stigmas prevalent in 1870s New York. I loved Wharton’s ability to draw me in to the internal battles the main characters faced, and I empathized with their desires to find belonging. While today’s social stigmas differ, the emotions remain the same.
I don’t usually reread children’s fantasy, but as I read one of Madeleine L’Engle’s memoirs, I decided to reread her most well-known novel, A Wrinkle in Time. A Wrinkle in Time was rejected by a number of publishers before it was finally accepted and published in 1962. It subsequently won the 1963 Newbery medal. This
John Steinbeck’s East of Eden has been banned before. I’m not surprised. It deals with attempted fratricide, prostitution, and murder. One character, Cathy, is described as a monster. But as I read it and recognized the obvious references and echoes of Genesis, I was overcome and enlightened. Combining the plot with the incredibly well written
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