Most Popular
1500 questions
9
votes
1 answer
What exactly are masques and bergamasques?
In Verlaines's "Claire de Lune" he speaks of:
Que vont charmant masques et bergamasques
They play musical instruments, so one assumes them to be musical artists, but what exactly are masques and bergamasques?
andersj
- 91
- 1
- 3
9
votes
2 answers
What was "standard shift" in the 1920's?
I am reading The Great Gatsby, and encountered these sentences:
"Shall we all go in my car?" suggested Gatsby. He felt the hot, green
leather of the seat. "I ought to have left it in the shade." "Is it
standard shift?" demanded Tom. "Yes." …
Pasta Addict
- 2,217
- 1
- 16
- 21
9
votes
0 answers
What is the deeper meaning of Blake's "The Lily"?
The poem "The Lily" by William Blake must be one of the shortest of his Songs of Innocence and of Experience collection, only four lines long:
The modest Rose puts forth a thorn,
The humble sheep a threat’ning horn:
While the Lily white shall…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
9
votes
1 answer
Predecessors/Inspirations of Scheinriesen (Illusionary Giants)
A "Scheinriese" (illusory giant), most notably Mr. Tur-Tur from Michael Ende's Jim Button and Luke the Engine Driver, is a being which when seen from a distance appears to be a giant, inadvertently frightening everyone who beholds them, yet…
Narusan
- 877
- 5
- 15
9
votes
2 answers
What does Gulzar actually mean by saying that Earth can hide a river inside?
The poem "The Magical Earth" by Gulzar (from Green Poems, 2014) contains these lines (in the English translation by Pavan K. Varma):
There is something indeed in the earth of my garden
Is this earth magical?
The earth knows how to do magic! …
Krishna Deshmukh
- 193
- 1
- 6
9
votes
1 answer
Has there been any criticism of Bryan Smith's depiction in The Dark Tower series?
At some point during The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower Roland's ka-tet has to save Stephen King, who ultimately seems to be a representation of one of the tower's beams, from getting hit by a car during one of his walks.
This part, like others of…
Cahir Mawr Dyffryn æp Ceallach
- 1,391
- 1
- 16
- 37
9
votes
2 answers
Was Captain Hook an Etonian in the original text?
The character Captain Hook, main protagonist of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, definitely attended a British public school:
Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze; but as those who read…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
9
votes
1 answer
How autobiographical are Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books?
The Little House series of books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, including perhaps the most famous Little House on the Prairie, tell the story of her childhood in the American West.
How autobiographical are they, really? How closely do they stick to her…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
9
votes
2 answers
Use of "limited third-person point of view", vs "omniscient third person point of view" over the past century or so
I notice that a lot of popular recent fiction,
for example Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" , and George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" are written in limited/subjective third-person point of view (POV); both were written after 1990. In this…
Frames Catherine White
- 151
- 9
9
votes
3 answers
Was Thomas Hardy expressing his own religious intolerance or commenting on the general anti-Semitic sentiment of the time?
While reading Jude the Obscure, I came across this bit in Part First, chapter 3:
People said that, if you prayed, things sometimes came to you, even though they sometimes did not. He had read in a tract that a man who had begun to build a church,…
Mithical
- 24,015
- 16
- 94
- 184
9
votes
2 answers
How much of Ariadne Oliver's character is self-insertion by Agatha Christie?
The recurring character Ariadne Oliver (present in a number of Agatha Christie's novels) seems to be at least partially self-insertion by Christie. At the very least, both write mystery fiction stories featuring a foreign detective. Besides this…
lzam
- 191
- 3
9
votes
2 answers
What does "Printed for..." mean?
Sometimes, when I see old books on Archive.org, I see mysterious "Printed for..." and can't understand what does it mean.
For example, here is a link to 1817 reprint of Le Morte D'Arthur, prepared by William Upcott.
At the title page, you can see…
john c. j.
- 377
- 1
- 11
9
votes
4 answers
What are the 'holy' and 'broken' Hallelujahs?
The third verse of "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen goes like this:
You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did well really what's it to you
There's a blaze of light in every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
…
Mithical
- 24,015
- 16
- 94
- 184
9
votes
1 answer
Meaning of "I shut my tongue against my fly"
From Aurora Leigh:
Poor child! I would have mended it with gold,
Until it gleamed like St. Sophia's dome
When all the faithful troop to morning prayer:
But he, he nipped the bud of such a thought
With that cold Leigh look which I fancied…
CopperKettle
- 2,829
- 1
- 11
- 27
9
votes
0 answers
Was the Charles Calthrop plot-element in The Day of the Jackal an example of pure coincidence or good detection?
Frederick Forsyth's 1971 novel "The Day of the Jackal" remains an immortal political thriller that defined the 'assassination novel' in popular consciousness. What has always intrigued me is the small but significant Charles Calthrop plot-element.…
English Student
- 493
- 3
- 15