Literary History

bookshelves: Literature and Psychology

Review: “Winesburg, Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson

Anderson, Sherwood. Winesburg, Ohio Original publication date: 1919 Rpt. New York: Random House, 1947 Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, is a collection of 23 interrelated sketches—Anderson calls them “tales”—that portray life in a Midwestern town in the early years of the twentieth century. The unifying thread throughout is the coming-of-age story of George Willard, an […]

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The Joan Didion Documentary by Griffin Dunne and Susanne Rostock — Kickstarter

We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live is the first and only documentary being made about Joan Didion. While her writing is fierce and exposed, Joan herself is an incredibly private person. We have the privilege to know Joan as a subject and also as a member of our family. Our director, Griffin Dunne,

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The Classics Club

Gothic Elements in Shirley Jackson’s “We Have Always Lived in the Castle”

Gothic literature features characteristics such as magic, mystery, chivalry, horror, clanking chains, ghosts, and dark castles to create a spooky atmosphere rife with foreboding and possibility. Over time Gothic emphasis changed from reliance on these external trappings for their own sake to a focus on the inner workings of the human psyche that the Gothic

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Monday Miscellany

INFOGRAPHIC: How Long Does It Take to Read Popular Books? For visually oriented readers: Ever wondered how long it takes to read The Great Gatsby (2.62 hours) compared to Atlas Shrugged (31.22 hours)? If so, you’ll like this infographic by Personal Creations. William Golding Flies classic holds true 60 years on It’s 60 years this

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Monday Miscellany

SEPTEMBER 2014’S BEST BOOKS: 12 FICTION MUST-READS FOR YOUR IMAGINATION TO RUN WILD THIS FALL It’s fall—the start of a new school year and the time for a new reading list. Morgan Ribera’s got you covered with a list of a dozen books to be published during September that will keep you reading at least

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Monday Miscellany

Required Reading: 10 Books We Read For Class That Will Change Your Life As summer winds down, many students turn with desperation to those lists of required summer reading that they put aside a couple of months ago. But not all assigned reading is dull and unfulfilling, the editors at Huffington Post say: Sometimes reading

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Monday Miscellany

Reading Literature on Screen: A Price for Convenience? I love my Kindle because it allows me to carry a lot of books around without having to carry a lot of books around. And having recently downsized to a retirement home game me another reason: I no longer have room for enough bookcases to hold every

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Monday Miscellany

THE STARS OF THESE YOUNG ADULT BOOKS SWEAR, STRUGGLE, AND GENERALLY ACT LIKE REAL TEENS In the new novel Aspen by Rebekah Crane, the teenage title character is an awkward, artsy kid who gets into a car accident that kills the most popular girl at school. The book traces the bizarre fallout in her Boulder,

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Monday Miscellany

Death of Maya Angelou The biggest story of the literary world this past week has been the death of Maya Angelou at age 86. The coverage has been extensive, but here are a few stories I’ve chosen as providing a good overview of her influence and significance: Maya Angelou: The essential reading list From USA

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Monday Miscellany

When the Water’s Too Cold, Something Else to Dive Into: A Critic’s Survey of Summer Books As for this summer’s brand-new reading, if there’s one overriding motif, it’s this: the crazier, the better. Here’s a whole long list of recommended summer reading. Norman Mailer’s A Fire on the Moon: a giant leap for reportage On the

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