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Loading... How Oscar Became Wilde: And Other Literary Lives You Never Learned About in Schoolby Elliot Engel
   None No current Talk conversations about this book.  m.belljackson | Nov 17, 2017 |  no reviews | add a review
They are the icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analysed in countless classrooms, homes and pubs. Yet for most readers, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown... until now! These concise and readable biographical profiles, anecdotes and behind-the-scenes tales will reveal why Sir Arthur Conan Doyle blamed his wife's death on Sherlock Holmes, how Charles Dickens's pet launched Edgar Allan Poe on his way to literary immortality and the strange connection between Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway. Chaucer, the Brontës, Wilde, Hardy and Lawrence, you'll never look at these literary giants in the same way again. No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)809Literature Literature, rhetoric & criticism History, description, critical appraisal of more than two literaturesRatingAverage: (4)
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Wikipedia in English
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of Hemingway's glorification of the obscene sickening cruelty of the "sport" of bullfighting.
This entry was extremely disappointing and unexpected in an otherwise eminently readable,
entertaining, and expansive collection of essays based on the author's college lectures.
The author gives 'essays' a new life compared with the endless (but great!) Emersons.
One odd thing is that he writes that Dickens is unrealistic, giving "No one in real life is as stingy as Scrooge"
as an example. Yet, he has just mentioned three who qualify: Robert Browning's paternal grandfather,
the selfish Edward Barrett, and cruel John Allan.
Similarly, he totally credits the superior role dominated by men as the main reason for women not excelling as writers.
What about early and forced marriages, frequent death in childbirth, dependence on men for support, and consumption
(affected women more than men at that time)...?
The essay on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was the most surprising; Frost, the most unusual, Wilde, the least revealing (because
so much time has passed since book was published); with Mark Twain the most fun.
Other enlightening favorites include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Poe, Dickens, and the Brownings. (