Most Popular
1500 questions
9
votes
1 answer
Is there any significance to Major Major being a Henry Fonda lookalike?
One of the big jokes in Catch-22 is Major Major's striking resemblance to Henry Fonda. Why did Joseph Heller choose Henry Fonda in particular? Is there any significance to the choice, or was it a somewhat arbitrary choice of someone that the…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
- 17,886
- 7
- 39
- 123
9
votes
1 answer
Shakespeare King Henry IV Part 1: What is the "money joke" in these lines?
In Act 2 Scene 4, Prince Hal takes interest in a noble man as a "joke about money". My text (Cambridge) explains that a noble was worth one third of £1 sterling and a royal worth half of £1.
I don't get it.
It's also curious that he mentions his…
user71207
- 193
- 4
9
votes
2 answers
In what way is the poem 'Tissue' by Imtiaz Dharker related to power / conflict?
For GCSE English in Britain, the language section involves 15 poems we have to write about in the exam. In 45 minutes, we get one of the poems, and we have to compare it to another of the 14 poems from memory based on a question that could be…
Parallax Sugar
- 846
- 6
- 13
9
votes
3 answers
What does "a stroke a hole" refer to in "The Thirty-Nine Steps"?
I have a question about a passage in The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. In Chapter 10, "Various Parties Converging on the Sea", Richard Hannay watches two people playing tennis, after which one of them says to the third one, who is carrying golf…
vtrubnikov
- 327
- 1
- 5
9
votes
1 answer
Is the Erewhonian Nosnibor a satire on a real person?
The novel Erewhon published by Samuel Butler in 1872 is said to be one of the first dystopian novels.
The middle section of the book reads as a satire on the English Judicial system. By making the Erewhonian judicial system almost an inverse of…
Chenmunka
- 2,307
- 2
- 21
- 36
9
votes
1 answer
Story ID: Brother and sister go back to colonial times
This was a Scholastic-type book, probably about 5th-grade level. I would have read it in the 1980s.
I remember there were a brother and sister, possibly in upstate New York. They either found or fell into a cave, inside of which were hazelnuts.…
Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
- 4,276
- 2
- 14
- 30
9
votes
1 answer
"Marry, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs."
From The Comedy of Errors, Act III Scene II:
DROMIO OF SYRACUSE: No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.
ANTIPHOLUS OF SYRACUSE: In what part of her body stands…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
9
votes
4 answers
Meaning of the phrase "If ever a man leaped across time into the raw..."
I'm reading Hearts of Three written by Jack London. Right in Chapter I, I found the following sentence:
If ever a man leaped across time into the raw, red drama and tragedy of the primitive and the medieval melodrama of sentiment and passion of the…
Ivan Dolvich
- 93
- 1
- 5
9
votes
1 answer
Should Go Set a Watchman change our view of Atticus defending Tom Robinson?
I do realize that the passage of To Kill a Mockingbird where Atticus defended Tom Robinson has been heavily analyzed elsewhere at this point. However, it seems like most people got the impression that Atticus's choice to give Tom Robinson a…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
- 17,886
- 7
- 39
- 123
9
votes
2 answers
Where in the New York City metro area does Ludwik live?
In Tomasz Jedrowski's Swimming in the Dark, set in the early 1980s, the narrator, Ludwik, commutes to midtown Manhattan for work. The text makes clear that he has to cross a river to get there:
This morning, like every morning, I took the subway…
verbose
- 26,907
- 2
- 63
- 159
9
votes
0 answers
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle": English vs. Russian translation?
I recently started reading "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami in English and I'm quite enjoying it.
However, I learned that the English version — although well-translated — omits several whole chapters from the original! I also happen…
Archagon
- 215
- 1
- 1
9
votes
1 answer
How was the free-born Englishman prevented from taking his ease in his inn in 1922?
In The Markenmore Mystery (1922) by J. S. Fletcher, Blick, a detective who had booked rooms at "Sceptre Inn", which belonged to Grimsdale, was cheerful after reaching an important conclusion.
Arrived at this conclusion, Blick felt somewhat…
Ahmed Samir
- 4,093
- 7
- 25
9
votes
1 answer
What's the difference between a five-act play and a three-act play?
Many stage plays - including all thirty-seven/thirty-nine of Shakespeare's - consist of five acts, while others consist of only three acts. (Are there any other common numbers of acts?)
What's the difference between a three-act play and a five-act…
Rand al'Thor
- 72,435
- 26
- 236
- 488
9
votes
1 answer
Does Aldonza Lorenzo appear as a real character in Don Quixote?
I just finished Don Quixote and I'm confused about the status of "Aldonza Lorenzo" the peasant. Obviously, "Dulcinea of Toboso" is a figment of Don Quixote's imagination, but insofar as she is supposed to be a fantasy version of Aldonza Lorenzo,…
TransparentBlue
- 191
- 2
9
votes
5 answers
Is "I'm glad you think it's funny" meant sarcastically or literally?
This passage is from The Children's Bach by Helen Garner.
At night, when they had put the children to bed, Athena and Dexter walked. They were ruthless about going, and would barely even check that the boys were asleep before they set out. They…
Viser Hashemi
- 947
- 5
- 10