About stories of all kinds
Ten years apart, set in two very different periods of Poe's life, the films The Raven (2012) and The Pale Blue Eye (2022) may not seem very similar portrayals of the American poet. Yet, when I rewatched them recently in anticipation of the 175th anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe's death, I found more correlation than… Continue reading “The man you’re looking for is a poet”: Edgar Allan Poe in Film
Ann Radcliffe, then Ann Ward, was born 260 years ago today: July 9, 1764. First published at age twenty-five, within the next ten years she became the most highly paid professional writer of the 1790s and her works had an incredible influence on popular culture, novels, and writers of that time and for many years… Continue reading ‘I can see as if in a glass’
We’ve all heard of them—Crime and Punishment, Treasure Island, Pride and Prejudice, and their fellow classics—but what of the others? The overlooked works by authors of an enduring treasure? It’s a different feeling altogether when you’ve associated an author with one or two works for as long as you've known about them and then learn… Continue reading 12 Books by Famous Authors You’ve Never Heard Of
"Will the real John Donne please stand up?" This was the question that greeted the class on the forum during our study of the works of John Donne. If you know anything about John Donne, it's probably that his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions: Meditation 17 is the text from which Ernest Hemingway got the title… Continue reading On-Line English Literature Discussion: John, I’m Donne
Canadian literature. Yawn. Why are we like this? Probably because Canadian art, like that of other British Commonwealth nations, is a) recent: comparatively speaking to other literary traditions; b) slow to develop: why make your own art when your "mother" nation has a pre-established canon?; and c) difficult to maintain: why patronize upstarts when, again,… Continue reading On-Line English Literature Discussion: Canadian Authors
Fictitiously Yours 