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9
votes
4 answers
Is there a useful "entry-level" annotated edition of Le Morte d'Arthur?
I've always been a huge fan of Arthurian legend, and have read many books and comics etc inspired by it. But I've always wanted to read a telling of the stories that was much closer to the source so to speak.
After some cursory googling the best…
user3776749
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9
votes
1 answer
Meaning of the slash ("/") in dialog in Ernst Toller's "Die Wandlung"
I have to translate German playwright Ernst Toller's drama Die Wandlung. In this drama, Toller uses slashes in the dialogues of some characters to separate the sentences, like this:
KRIEGSTOD: Zuviel des Lobs, Herr Kamerad. / Ihr Misstraun schien…
MMR
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9
votes
1 answer
What's the "Tower of Darkness" in the Rubaiyat referring to?
Stanza 26: (from the English version by FitzGerald)
A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries
"Fools! Your reward is neither Here nor There!"
What's the "Tower of Darkness" referred to?
I'm assuming the tower part is a minaret, but beyond that…
user72
9
votes
1 answer
How can "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" be read as a commentary on Scotland?
In the Wikipedia page for Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, one of the mentioned interpretations of the story is as a symbolic representation of Scottish nationalism vs union with England. This seems to stand out among other more…
Rand al'Thor
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9
votes
1 answer
What does Mark Twain mean by "keep hotel"?
The protagonist in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court uses this phrase:
But that should be nothing to his discredit; the man that can do THIS kind of miracle knows enough to keep hotel.
This led me to find another passage, this time in…
pavon
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9
votes
2 answers
The woods as a symbol in Young Goodman Brown
In the short story "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character spends a great deal of the story traveling through a "dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest". What do these woods represent?
librariman
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9
votes
2 answers
How do real-world languages exist in "The Library of Babel"?
In The Library of Babel by Jorge Luis Borges, the narrator tells us:
He showed his find to a wandering decoder who told him the lines were written in Portuguese; others said they were Yiddish. Within a century, the language was established: a…
Benjamin
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9
votes
1 answer
Do we know whether Hamilton's Federalist papers were ever edited or vetted?
After reading through The Federalist Papers, I've come to the general conclusion that Hamilton's essays are, by and large, a stream of consciousness. I don't know if I'd be able to say exactly why, but after running the Papers through a word…
user80
8
votes
1 answer
Where and how did James Joyce condemn Hamlet as a failure?
Earlier this year, someone asked Why did T.S. Eliot make a statement that 'Coriolanus' was Shakespeare's masterpiece and that 'Hamlet' was an artistic failure?
If the Wikipedia article about William H. Quillian's book Hamlet and the New Poetic…
Tsundoku
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8
votes
2 answers
What do you call a break in rhyming in the middle of a book / poem for dramatic effect?
I'm creating a children's book for a school project. I've been tasked to identify some literary devices used throughout the book.
There is a section of the book which I want to highlight because it represents a major event. There's rhyming…
Keith Davies
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8
votes
1 answer
Did T. S. Eliot write crime novels under a pseudonym?
T. S. Eliot has a reputation as a difficult and serious poet. He also wrote very serious essays about other serious authors. However, according to Johannes Kleinstück (T. S. Eliot - mit Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten. Reinbek bei Hamburg:…
Tsundoku
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8
votes
1 answer
Can the apparent age discrepancies in The Count of Monte Cristo be reconciled?
(Note: all emphases in quoted passages below are mine.)
Continuing the theme of confusing mathematics in The Count of Monte Cristo, here is another example that stymies me:
When Edmond Dantès is first described in Chapter One, right when the story…
Alex
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8
votes
1 answer
In George Orwell's Burmese Days, what word is the censored "b--s" supposed to be?
Here's a passage where Westfield talks about possibly having to allow Natives into the European club:
"Got to put up with it, I suppose", he said. "B--s of natives are getting into all the Clubs nowadays. Even the Pegu Club, I'm told. Way this…
Keno
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8
votes
2 answers
How did the story of Robin Hood pass from oral literature to written?
Robin Hood is a famous figure of English folklore, whose existence or fictionality is still a subject of debate. The stories about him started off as folk tales transmitted orally (ballads), but by now of course there are many written stories about…
Rand al'Thor
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8
votes
1 answer
A short story on two brothers meeting one a criminal one policeman
I read this around 15 years ago in English as a Second Language class in a summer class I was attending in Poughkeepsie.
We were reading short stories from a book (a collection of short stories by different authors) and I unfortunately can recall…
Koray Tugay
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