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Is Jack (in Lord of the Flies) actually 'bad'?
For me, the real 'evil' in The Lord of the Flies was Roger. From the beginning the story shows how he has 'revelations' about how there is no one to stop him bullying and hurting.
Jack, for me, simply goes mad, and the apparent lack of punishment…
Mirte
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What is the pun in Fowles' The Magus?
Google has not helped me figure this out. This is from the first or second page of the book (I'm not sure exactly since my electronic copy of the book doesn't seem to have page numbers):
I saw very little of my father during the war, and in his…
Novice
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Is Jonathan Culler saying that literary theory is effectively the same subject as cultural studies?
In chapter 3 of the second edition of Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, we find the following paragraph:
Theory has enormously enriched and invigorated the study of literary works, but... theory is not the theory of literature. If you had…
EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine
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Are Nicholas's sentiments on playwrights those of his creator?
In chapter 48 of Nicholas Nickleby, Dickens expresses quite strong views on writers of plays adapted from books:
'Shot beyond him [Shakespear], I mean,' resumed Nicholas, 'in quite another
respect, for, whereas he brought within the magic circle…
Mirte
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8
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Is there an east bloc analogue to Tom Clancy?
Tom Clancy wrote many speculative works on confrontation between the blocs during the Cold War, most notably the "Cold War gone hot" scenario Red Storm Rising, together with Larry Bond.
I'm wondering, were there any similar or analogous authors…
hexamon
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8
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What does Victor Hugo mean by "the red ant heaps of Toulon"?
In his novel "The Last Day of a Condemned Man", Victor Hugo writes the following sequence in reference to poor people who turn to crime out of hunger:
Unfortunate beings, whom, by means of a school and a workshop, you might have rendered good,…
DLCom
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Why does Poe's "Arthur Gordon Pym" become so Technical and Scientific all of a sudden?
I was re-reading Edgar Allen Poe's magnificently disturbing novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, this last month and began to wonder why suddenly, starting with Chapter 14 and going all the way into chapter 18, (chapters 14-17 are…
Tom O' Bedlam
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Was it common that the bridges of ditches or creeks had guarding gates in 1924?
In "The Funeral Pyre" in Dr. Thorndyke's Case-Book by R. Austin Freeman (1924), Thorndyke found a dental plate of a dead man by a gate at the crossing of a ditch, and he wanted to know whether he come through this gate or was he only passing…
Ahmed Samir
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What does this gesture mean?
In Scott Turow's legal mystery The Last Trial, the point of view character is an old man. Pinky is his grand-daughter. The following passage occurs near the end of the book:
Pinky says nothing to him [Lep], but instead strikes one index finger…
Peter Shor
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What is being satirized in Witold Gombrowicz's Trans-Atlantyk?
Trans-Atlantyk by Witold Gombrowicz is a satire of Polish identity. However, it is difficult to know what exactly is being satirized if you're not Polish, and not intimately acquainted with Polish history and society.
The story starts off quite…
Your Uncle Bob
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In Pride and Prejudice, how did Lady Catherine find out about Darcy's proposal?
In Pride and Prejudice, there is a part where Lady Catherine visited the Bennets. She wished to ward off Elizabeth and wanted her to refuse Darcy's proposal and was stumped.
How did Lady Catherine find out about Darcy's proposal?
Muskaan Madan
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Was the One Ring's malevolent nature foreshadowed in the Hobbit? If so, how?
Tolkien's legendary series The Lord of the Rings is centered around a magical artifact known as the "One Ring", and part of this story recounts the tale of a Hobbit traveling to destroy this Ring. The ring was first "re-discovered", if you will, by…
North Læraðr
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At what temperature can I safely iron the fabric bookmarks in the volumes of the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade?
I recently acquired a volume from the famous Bibliothèque de la Pléiade from an antiquarian bookseller. These volumes always have two fabric bookmarks and as you can see from the image below, the bookmarks in this volume are creased.
I would like…
Tsundoku
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What is the significance of a raised black flag?
In The Lost Sanjak, Saki Writes:
and, in the midst of a string of questions on indifferent topics, the examining counsel asked me with a diabolical suddenness if I could tell the Court the whereabouts of Novibazar. I felt the question to be a…
TomDot Com
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What does "precious rascals" mean in "The Blue Scarab"?
In "The Blue Scarab" in Dr. Thorndyke's Case-Book by R. Austin Freeman, Mr. Blowgrave, whose deed-box was stolen, was talking to Dr. Thorndyke:
"The story concerns my great-grandfather Silas Blowgrave, and his doings during the war with France. It…
Ahmed Samir
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