From Yen Nguyen Thi Ngoc:
What the point here of coyping my whole verbal diarrhoe? Please forgive if I didn't bother checking whether you corrected my comment or not.
By the way, speaking of old English literature: I think 'Moby Dick' is a great, largely underestimated piece of literature, a gem, a masterpiece. I tried to read it, but the archaic language is difficult to read, I may admit - but I think it's worth scrambling through - once I manage to gather the guts and perseverance - and the time.
I love old literature - and I am a sucker for the 19th century. Once, I read Dickens 'David Copperfield', a wonderful, heart-wrenching 'coming-of-age story' (as it it would be called nowadays)y about a deprived, poor child. I read it one decade ago, and cannot remember the details off the cuff - but I know that reading such writers adducts you to a completely different world. And, not to do Dickens wrong, he had a wonderful sense of humor, which come to the forth even in his saddest narrations.
Especially the English society of the 19th century has a certain attraction for us. Mainly due to novelists like Dickens, we have a romantic notion about that period, succinctly put as 'poor people where the good people, rich people weree ruthless, greedy people with a heart of stone.' That's a very simplified account about what can be considered the essence of such narrations is. And it is historically intelligible: The English society of the 19th century was a liberal one, but not a democratic one. The economy was liberal, but the common people didn't have a say in political decisions. And the downstream consequences was a sweeping impoverishment of large parts of society, and, since there was no democratic process, a selfishness even amongst the deprived people. And writers like Dickens offered a valve for the depressing situation. Still today, we tend to associate a romantic notion about that period, espoused by narrations like 'David Copperfield' and 'Oliver Twist'. Of course, this is predominantly only a hypothesis.
It's an interesting thought. Historically, there has always been a coherence between what kind of literature was successful and sought after at a specific time and the circumstance the society where in. Personally, I consider Charles Dickens predominantly a writer for the heart. Surely, he is also a good sketcher of human characters. Another writer of the 19th century, who is a master of psychologically analysis and depiction was the Russian novelist Dostojewski. The 19th century has brought about stellar literature.
Hi,
I like english litterature too and I have read books by Charles Dickens when I was younger. George Eliot, I just know his name. Antony Trollop, I had never heard of him. I am going to look at (english) wikipedia ! As I am still working, I just read a few pages of an english, american or indian author every evening. If you present to us books by Dickens, Eliot or Trollop, I will read the topic and answer if I am able to do it !
It's really good to find someone who is interested in English literature.Do you know "the old man and the sea"'s story?
hi I also like this story . especially, I can learn more about many good moral lessons from this story
From Kalthoum Abdeljaouad:
It's really good to find someone who is interested in English literature.Do you know "the old man and the sea"'s story?
Posts: 19
6 Oct. 2010