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What does "much worse fed and lodged and treated altogether than" mean in chapter 12 from Dickens's Little Dorrit?
Chapter 12 in Dickens's Little Dorrit contains the following passage:
There was old people, after working all their lives, going and being shut up in the workhouse, much worse fed and lodged and treated altogether, than—Mr Plornish said…
anjan
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What is the meaning of this paragraph from Philip Lombard's introduction in "And Then There Were None"?
I was reading this paragraph in Agatha Christie's mystery novel And Then There Were None, from Chapter One and the character introduction of Philip Lombard:
By Jove, he'd sailed pretty near the wind once or twice! But he'd
always got away with it!…
slimylotion1331
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What can be gleaned from Lovecraft's usage of the words "obscene" and "blasphemous"?
Throughout his collective writings, the author H. P. Lovecraft makes frequent use of the words "obscene" and "blasphemous" in order to convey a sense that something is the object of disgust or that it is debased in some fashion.
As an example, in…
Aaargh Zombies
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What is "taughtly aristocratic"?
I was just introduced to the sci-fi short story "The Jackson Killer", thanks to this ID answer on another site. It can be read freely online at the Internet Archive. One of the paragraphs near the start of the story runs as follows:
Lassen was…
Rand al'Thor
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Where did Doyle write that the Hound of the Baskervilles was originally intended as a "Victorian creeper", and what does this mean?
According to Wikipedia (section "Technique" in the Wikipedia page for the famous Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles"; emphasis mine):
The novel incorporates five plots: the ostensible 'curse' story, the two red-herring subplots…
Rand al'Thor
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What does it mean to "floor peculiarities parabolous" in conics, from The Pirates of Penzance?
In his song in The Pirates of Penzance, the Major-General states that he can "floor peculiarities parabolous," and do it "in conics."
I know our mythic history, King Arthur's and Sir Caradoc's;
I answer hard acrostics, I've a pretty taste for…
Moira Jones
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Which Kipling poem is this an allusion to?
My great-grandfather wrote lots of poems, and among them a small verse called "Apologies to Rudyard Kipling". It seems that the verse is a travesty on, or reference to, a Kipling poem, but I can't find which one.
My great-grandfather wrote:
Your…
Wilhelm
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Do any of J. D. Salinger's short stories share locations or characters?
J. D. Salinger is a well-known 20th century author, most notably of Catcher in the Rye.
He was fairly prolific, writing many stories. Do any of these stories share the same universe?
user72
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Why is Philoktetes specifically hunting "doves"?
I am reading James Scully's translation of Philoktetes (also known as Philoctetes), in The Complete Plays of Sophocles, translated by Robert Bagg & James Scully. Twice it is mentioned that the titular character hunts "doves" as a food source. Here…
bobble
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What is Belle's secret?
The final pages of Death of a Ghost describe Mrs. Lefcadio looking at a self-portrait of her husband, and much is made of how different it is from the famous Sargent portrait of the man. And then she turns it over:
Written across the back in the…
BESW
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Is there any deeper significance to Borges's "The South"?
"The South" is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges about a man, Dahlmann, who is injured by bashing his head against a window, but makes an almost miraculous recovery after a long stint in hospital. He heads out to the countryside in the hope of…
Rand al'Thor
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Identify Source of Quote on Running Out of Breath and Commas
I've got a quote rattling around in my head that I am trying to identify. Unfortunately, I don't know the exact wording. The scenario is the "narrator" commenting on a character's run-on sentence saying something like this:
At this point…
Keverly
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Hidden-away man found dead, was addicted to a fancy/medical form of opioids
I read this as an English-language paperback book, bought from a discount bookstore in an Australian (likely Melbourne) shopping mall late 2019. No idea how old it was at the time. The title was bland and "literary" (as opposed to cool and…
bobble
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8
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How were plays in Shakespeare's time advertised?
How were plays in Tudor or Jacobean England advertised (e.g. did they use posters, street-hawkers, etc.)? And how much information would these advertisements have contained?
Would an advertisement have said "Much Ado About Nothing is about two…
IglooMaster
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Fantasy Novel Involving Magical Colored Thread
What
A medium length paperback fantasy novel, probably YA, with a chosen-one style male main character. The setting is fantasy, but not high fantasy and did not contain elves, dragons, etc.
There are two distinct parts that I remember.
Magical Rope…
Kyle B
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