The debut novel of Swedish author Selma Lagerlof, «The Saga of Gosta Berling» was first published in 1891. It is the story of its titular character Gosta Berling, a deposed minister. Gosta Berling becomes one of the pensioners in the manor at Ekeby when he is saved by the Mistress of Ekeby from freezing to death. Set on the shores of Lake Fryken, Lake Loven in the story, in Varmland, a historical province in Sweden, the novel employs elements of ...
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880) was a French novelist and short story writer who is counted among the greatest Western writers. Flaubert was considered to be a master of style, obsessively devoted to finding the right word («le mot juste»), in every piece of literature he produced. Solitary by nature and not of a happy temperament, Flaubert became absorbed with literature and history and early became aware of his vocation as a writer. He is known e ...
The first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her novel «The Age of Innocence», Edith Wharton was discouraged by her mother from pursuing her writing at an early age. Despite this she would go on to produce a prolific body of work which included many novels and short stories. Characteristic to her work is the subtle use of dramatic irony and having grown up in a prominent New York family she would become one the most astute critics of pre-World W ...
Henry James's «The Awkward Age» is the coming of age story of Nanda, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward Brookenham, a couple who travel in a rather decadent and corrupt social circle. Originally serialized in «Harper's Weekly» during 1898-1899, the novel is a biting attack on the English fin de siecle society life, what James personally believed to be an increasingly immoral and irresponsible time in English history. ...
"Sense and Sensibility" is the story of two sisters, Elinor and Marianne Dashwood, who have contrasting temperaments. On the surface Elinor, the older sister represents sense or reason while Marianne represents sensibility or emotion, however upon closer examination we find that they both exhibit varying aspects of each characteristic. A classic coming of age story «Sense and Sensibility» was Jane Austen's first published novel. ...
Lyman Frank Baum (1856-1919) was an American writer of children's books, best known for creating the marvelous Land of Oz in «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz». This fanciful kingdom was catalogued in a series of children's books beginning with the publication of «The Wonderful Wizard of Oz». Baum's Oz series compasses the first fully developed fantasy world created by an American author. In 1900, Baum and Denslow, famous illustrator wi ...
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) was a celebrated French novelist, poet, playwright, dramatist, essayist and statesman whose work ushered in the Romantic literary movement in France, one of the most influential movements in French and all European literary history. Like many of his time, Hugo promoted the virtues of liberty, individualism, spirit and nature in rebellion of the conservative political and religious establishments of Imperial France, and ev ...
Wilkie Collins (1824-1889) is best known as the innovator of the English detective novel, whose sensational novels, plays, and short stories were hugely popular in the Victorian Era. Today, readers enjoy Collins' intricate and suspenseful plots, and his penetrating social commentary on the plight of women and domestic issues of the time. Unfortunately Collins suffered from rheumatic gout, for which he took the opiate laudanum, and which eve ...
Regarded by Dickens himself as his best novel upon publication, the experiences of Martin Chuzzlewit relate a tale of familial selfishness and eventual moral redemption. While he is in love with the young Mary Graham, Martin alienates himself from his grandfather and begins working for the corrupt and dishonest Seth Pecksniff. Though he meets the unequivocally kind Tom Pinch during this apprenticeship, Martin is fired and decides to travel to th ...
