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Customs at Calais in “The Mystery of the Blue Train”
In chapter 9 of Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train, which takes place in the late 1920s, one of the characters goes to a travel agency in London and asks for the best way to get to Nice. The clerk advises the titular Blue Train because…
Kevin Troy
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What does the narrator really mean by the following quote from the novel Cranford?
In the novel Cranford, there's a particular line that I'm having trouble understanding:
If a married couple come to settle in town, somehow the gentleman disappears.
I thought about it, and I came up with the following hypotheses:
The men are…
Hero
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Does the blackness in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader have any religious significance?
In Chapter 12, "The Dark Island", of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the ship reaches a patch of mysterious blackness in the ocean. Nobody wants to enter it, but after a speech from the ever-heroic Reepicheep, they begin sailing into the blackness.…
Rand al'Thor
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Why do vultures unexpectedly start talking in Their Eyes Were Watching God?
In Their Eyes Were Watching God (which is a fantastic book that is also [shameless plug] a proposed topic challenge), there's a strange scene on pages 61-62 where several vultures (a type of bird) start talking:
He finally lit on the ground and…
user111
8
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2 answers
What does "Happy man be his dole" mean in The Taming of the Shrew?
In The Taming of the Shrew, after Baptista decrees that Bianca cannot marry while Kate remains single, Hortensio proposes to Gremio that they set aside their rivalry over Bianca and work together to find Kate a husband:
But come, since this bar in…
pygmalian
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Seeking story about chess in Soviet Union, probably Playboy c.1980?
I actually read some girlie mags for the stories growing up...this was probably in Playboy, with a lower chance of it being from Penthouse. A Soviet apparatchik has commissioned a ceremonial chess set in honor of some anniversary or perhaps a gift…
scottef
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Did Humbert kill a female pedestrian towards the end of Lolita?
Towards the end of the novel Lolita when Humbert has just killed Quilty and starts driving like a maniac, he says this:
I turned off the road, and after two or three big bounces, rode up a grassy slope, among surprised cows, and there I came to a…
Paajnah -
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When and why did the spelling "Shakespeare" become standardized?
Six specimens of William Shakespeare's signature survive. In none of them does he spell his own name "Shakespeare". Three of the signatures abbreviate his name. Of those that do not, two use the spelling "Shakspere" and one "Shakspeare". None of the…
verbose
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When Friday asks Robinson "Why God no kill the devil", why can't Robinson find a proper answer?
After listening to a long lecture, Friday asked a question that took Crusoe aback. Here is CliffsNotes summarising that particular scene:
"If God, much strong, much might as Devil, why God no kill Devil, so make him no more do wicked?" Crusoe, not…
user19514
8
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Is there a real-life inspiration for these death-scenes in Kincaid's novels?
Annie John, Kincaid’s 1985 novel, contains a description of the death of Annie’s Uncle Johnnie. When he fell ill, his mother was convinced that traditional (obeah) medicine was the way to cure him, while his father preferred Western medicine. His…
Clara Diaz Sanchez
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Do "The Sandman" and "Lucifer" deliberately share the number of published issues?
Neil Gaiman's The Sandman ran for 75 issues; there was one "special" issue which told Orpheus' story, but it's not numbered. According to Neil Gaiman in The Sandman Companion, he was intending to end the series at some point, but it's not clear…
Gallifreyan
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What could be the possible reason behind "live in fear" and "move at liberty" in the fourth stanza of "A German Requiem"?
The fourth stanza of the poem "A German Requiem" indicates that the widow lived in fear and the young man could not move at liberty between the armchairs. I cannot figure out why. What does the widow fear? And who is the young man? Does that mean…
Emilie
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8
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What does "Let nothing unite us, so that nothing can separate us" mean?
Let nothing unite us, so that nothing can separate us.
This quote is from the second stanza of the poem "Farewell" (English translation) — the original Spanish text is
Para que nada nos amarre que no nos una nada.
Does this mean that if you love…
fasfsadf
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Definition of "Victorian vandal"
I'm reading Agatha Christie's book "Dumb witness", in which there is a passage after Poirot and Hastings have their lunch and head to the church.
Though an attractive specimen of what the guidebook calls Early Perp., it had been so conscientiously…
Akash Jain
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8
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Were there any clues given about Shadow's father?
The protagonist of American Gods, Shadow Moon, has never met his father. His mother had refused to share information about his father with him as well:
— Tell me about my father.
— He’s dead. Don’t ask about him.
— But who was he?
— Forget…
Gallifreyan
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