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Kalidasa: Life and Works

Source: Introduction to Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works, by Arthur W. Ryder (London: J.M. Dent, 1920).

 

INTRODUCTION . KALIDASA—HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS

 

Kalidasa probably lived in the fifth century of the…

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Petrarch

 

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Petrarch

Source: Introduction to Some Love Songs of Petrarch, translated and annotated with a Biographical Introduction by William Dudley Foulke (Oxford University Press, 1915).

INTRODUCTION AND…
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Pope, Alexander: A Biographical Sketch

 

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Alexander Pope

Source: The Complete Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Cambridge Edition, ed. Henry W. Boynton (Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1903). BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

Copyright: The…

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Welcome Home, Quasimodo! A Tale of Two Notre Dames

Setting: Present-day Notre Dame Cathedral. It is nightfall.
The great, long-silent bells toll, their resonant voices echoing across the Paris sky. Now, a lone figure moves among the towering spires, the freshly restored stonework,…

The Logic of Desire: From Homer’s Odyssey to Alice in Wonderland

While one idly day-dreams, one frequently imagines how the world and all within it might be different. What if the clouds were red? What if I won a million dollars, tax-free? What if I did not have to wake up at 5 a.m. during the…

Careless People in the Great American Novel

The Great Gatsby ends on a sad note. The book's namesake, Gatsby, lies dead in a pool. He experiences a second death when his funeral is sparsely attended. The house that was so full when he was alive lies empty in his death. George…

Rousseau Dissents from the Modern World

“I ask: which of the two, civil or natural life, is more likely to become insufferable to those who live it? We see about us practically no people who do not complain about their existence...[but] has anyone ever heard of a savage…

The Three Theological Virtues Revealed: The Wife of Bath’s Tale

The Wife of Bath’s Tale is likely the single-most selected work from Chaucer’s corpus to be used in the classroom. Yet this tendency to single it out also works to obscure the Tale’s role in the larger story, the connections which…

Crouchbackus Contritus: Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor Trilogy as a Chivalric Romance

Several far-better known and experienced reviewers than I have written on Evelyn Waugh’s Sword of Honor Trilogy, noting the resemblance of its major romantic sub-plot to the prophet Hosea while at the same time generally consigning…

John Milton—Secret Fan of The Crown?

For those of you who, like me, became hooked on Netflix’s award-winning drama about Queen Elizabeth II and the modern British monarchy during the Covid lockdown (or, in my case, shortly thereafter), the end of The Crown was somewhat…

Our Traditional Shakespeare’s Birthday Post

The Logic of Desire: From Homer’s Odyssey to Alice in Wonderland

When one idly day-dreams one frequently imagines how things might be different. What if the clouds were red? What if I had a million dollars, tax-free? What if I did not have to wake up at 5 a.m. during the week? Generally, one…

Evil In Plato’s Republic and Dante’s Paradiso

In Plato's Republic, Socrates confidently asserts to Glaucon, Plato’s older brother, that evil cannot be done consciously, or rationally, for one doing evil believes himself to be doing good, and one cannot do evil to another,…

A Tale of Two Antonios

The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night both end in double marriages, featuring the kind of comedy Disney would later seize upon: boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy and girl live happily ever after. But what of the other boy?…

The Strained Quality of Mercy in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice

At the end of The Merchant of Venice, Shylock gets himself into quite a legal pickle. Unlike many tragedies (and many proverbial pickles), Shylock’s situation is entirely of his own making –due to his rigid adherence to law, not his…

A Dirty, Filthy, Book Review

Book review: A Dirty, Filthy Book: Sex, Scandal, and One Woman's Fight in the Victorian Trial of the Century, by Michael Meyer, Penguin UK
Publication date: February 8 2024

The Freedom of Poets 2: Thomas Wyatt and Petrarch

Shannon Chamberlain, in her Reading Room post on the character of Thomas Wyatt in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall trilogy, offers a lovely reading of the historical Wyatt’s brilliant sonnet, “Whoso List to Hunt.” 

Marriage, Cake, and the Paradox of Twelfth Night

It shouldn’t be surprising chez Shakespeare, but whenever I pick up Twelfth Night, I am amazed by the continual invitation to play – the ludic dare to experiment with gender, sexuality, crossdressing, feasting, drinking, and social…

Twelfth Night: Feasting Gone Wrong?

To drink or not to drink? To laugh or not to laugh? To jest or not to jest? These are the questions that run through Sir Toby Belch’s mind during the entirety of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Yet, beneath his jocular, inebriated…

Twelfth Night: Feasting Gone Wrong?

To drink or not to drink? To laugh or not to laugh? To jest or not to jest? These are the questions that run through Sir Toby Belch’s mind during the entirety of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Yet, beneath his jocular, inebriated…

Thinking about Literature: Not just Good and Evil

The story repeats itself every time I teach literature. The discussion about texts, almost inexorably, ends up with students trying to figure out whether the text is 'good' or 'bad'. As if, in the end, as judges on a pedestal, our…

Folks is Folks

Sarah Skwire doesn’t say YOU MUST READ SHAKESPEARE…but if you do, you’ll probably learn from him. And then you can reread him later to learn more and different things. In this hour-long conversation with Sabine El-Chidiac at The…

Jonathan Swift’s Resolutions

In 1699, Jonathan Swift, one of our favorite writers, made a list of resolutions for his life. While they weren't technically New Year's resolutions, we present them here for the entertainment and edification of our readers.

Causes of the Trojan War: Agamemnon’s Grisly Choice

The final cause of the Trojan War was Agamemnon's choice to sacrifice Iphigeneia at Aulis after the goddess Artemis bound the troops there due to a perceived slight. The goddess insisted that the blood of Atreus be spilt, or no…

Me and My Shadow: Liberty, “Breaking Bad”, and Shadow Possession

What is the nexus between liberty and Breaking Bad, named by Rolling Stone as the third-best television show of all-time?  The archetypal tale of Walter White’s “transformation from Mr. Chips to Scarface” teaches that there is…