1.
Westcar Papyrus
–
The Westcar Papyrus is an ancient Egyptian text containing five stories about miracles performed by priests and magicians. In the text, each of these tales are told at the court of Pharaoh Cheops by his sons. The story in the papyrus is usually rendered in English as King Cheops, in German, in which the text of the Westcar Papyrus was first translated, it is rendered as Die Märchen des Papyrus Westcar. The surviving material of the Westcar Papyrus consists of columns written in hieratic script. Miriam Lichtheim dates the document to the Hyksos period and states that it is written in classical Middle Egyptian, linguist and Egyptologist Verena Lepper thinks it may be possible that the Westcar Papyrus had already been written during the 13th dynasty. The papyrus has been used by historians as a resource for reconstituting the history of the 4th dynasty. The papyrus is now on display under low-light conditions in the Egyptian Museum of Berlin, in 1823 or 1824, a British adventurer, Henry Westcar, apparently discovered the papyrus during travels in Egypt. For unknown reasons he didnt note the exact circumstances under which he obtained the artifact, in 1838 or 1839, German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius claimed to have received the papyrus from Westcars niece. As Lepsius was able to read signs of Hieratic, he recognized some of the royal cartouche names of the kings. There are inconsistencies about the nature of the acquisition and the subsequent whereabouts of the Westcar Papyrus. Furthermore, Lepsius never made the text of the Westcar Papyrus public, he stored the papyrus at home in the attic and these inconsistencies led to wide speculation, Many British historians speculate that Lepsius may have stolen the papyrus. In 1886, German Egyptologist Adolf Erman purchased the papyrus from Lepsius son, as the hieratic signs were still insufficiently investigated and translated, the Westcar Papyrus was displayed as some kind of curiosity. Since Ermans first attempt at a translation in 1890, the Westcar Papyrus has been translated numerous times. The dating of the text also varies, Papyrus Westcar is a reused papyrus made of the plant Cyperus papyrus. The scroll of Westcar has been separated into three parts, during the life of Lepsius and Erman it was in two parts, it is not known when and why the scroll was separated into three fragments. The text written on the papyrus includes twelve columns in all, the papyrus textile is grainy, of greyish-yellowish colour and very fragile. Part one was fixed onto linen and placed between two glass panes, at five spots the papyrus was fixed to the glass with methyl cellulose. Part two was fixed to a cardboard and wooden plate and is covered by a glass pane, part three was simply placed between two glass panes and was completely glued to them
2.
Indian subcontinent
–
Geologically, the Indian subcontinent is related to the land mass that rifted from Gondwana and merged with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago. Geographically, it is the region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west. Politically, the Indian subcontinent usually includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, sometimes, the term South Asia is used interchangeably with Indian subcontinent. There is no consensus about which countries should be included in each and it is first attested in 1845 to refer to the North and South Americas, before they were regarded as separate continents. Its use to refer to the Indian subcontinent is seen from the twentieth century. It was especially convenient for referring to the region comprising both the British India and the states under British Paramountcy. The term Indian subcontinent also has a geological significance and it was, like the various continents, a part of the supercontinent of Gondwana. A series of tectonic splits caused formation of basins, each drifting in various directions. The geological region called the Greater India once included the Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, as a geological term, Indian subcontinent has meant that region formed from the collision of the Indian basin with Eurasia nearly 55 million years ago, towards the end of Paleocene. The Indian subcontinent has been a particularly common in the British Empire. The region, state Mittal and Thursby, has also labelled as India, Greater India. The BBC and some sources refer to the region as the Asian Subcontinent. Some academics refer to it as South Asian Subcontinent, the terms Indian subcontinent and South Asia are sometimes used interchangeably. There is no accepted definition on which countries are a part of South Asia or Indian subcontinent. In dictionary entries, the term subcontinent signifies a large, distinguishable subdivision of a continent, the region experienced high volcanic activity and plate subdivisions, creating Madagascar, Seychelles, Antartica, Austrolasia and the Indian subcontinent basin. The Indian subcontinent drifted northeastwards, colliding with the Eurasian plate nearly 55 million years ago and this geological region largely includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The zone where the Eurasian and Indian subcontinent plates meet remains one of the active areas. The English term mainly continues to refer to the Indian subcontinent, physiographically, it is a peninsular region in south-central Asia delineated by the Himalayas in the north, the Hindu Kush in the west, and the Arakanese in the east
3.
Mahabharata
–
The Mahābhārata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Rāmāyaṇa. The Mahābhārata is a narrative of the Kurukṣetra War and the fates of the Kaurava. It also contains philosophical and devotional material, such as a discussion of the four goals of life or puruṣārtha, traditionally, the authorship of the Mahābhārata is attributed to Vyāsa. There have been attempts to unravel its historical growth and compositional layers. The oldest preserved parts of the text are thought to be not much older than around 400 BCE, the text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period. The title may be translated as the tale of the Bhārata dynasty. According to the Mahābhārata itself, the tale is extended from a version of 24,000 verses called simply Bhārata. The Mahābhārata is the longest known epic poem and has described as the longest poem ever written. Its longest version consists of over 100,000 śloka or over 200,000 individual verse lines, and long prose passages. About 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, or about four times the length of the Rāmāyaṇa. W. J. Johnson has compared the importance of the Mahābhārata in the context of civilization to that of the Bible, the works of Shakespeare. The epic is traditionally ascribed to the sage Vyāsa, who is also a character in the epic. Vyāsa described it as being itihāsa and he also describes the Guru-shishya parampara, which traces all great teachers and their students of the Vedic times. The first section of the Mahābhārata states that it was Gaṇeśa who wrote down the text to Vyasas dictation, the epic employs the story within a story structure, otherwise known as frametales, popular in many Indian religious and non-religious works. It is recited by the sage Vaiśampāyana, a disciple of Vyāsa, the text has been described by some early 20th-century western Indologists as unstructured and chaotic. Hermann Oldenberg supposed that the poem must once have carried an immense tragic force. Moritz Winternitz considered that only unpoetical theologists and clumsy scribes could have lumped the parts of disparate origin into an unordered whole, Research on the Mahābhārata has put an enormous effort into recognizing and dating layers within the text. Some elements of the present Mahābhārata can be traced back to Vedic times, the background to the Mahābhārata suggests the origin of the epic occurs after the very early Vedic period and before the first Indian empire was to rise in the third century B. C
4.
Ramayana
–
The Ramayana is an ancient Indian epic poem which narrates the struggle of the divine prince Rama to rescue his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. Along with the Mahabharata, it forms the Sanskrit Itihasa, the Ramayana is one of the largest ancient epics in world literature. It consists of nearly 24,000 verses, divided into seven Kandas, in Hindu tradition, it is considered to be the adi-kavya. It depicts the duties of relationships, portraying characters like the ideal father, the ideal servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife. The Ramayana was an important influence on later Sanskrit poetry and Hindu life, like the Mahabharata, the Ramayana is not just a story, it presents the teachings of ancient Hindu sages in narrative allegory, interspersing philosophical and ethical elements. The name Ramayana is a compound of the name Rāma and ayana. According to Hindu tradition—and according to the Ramayana itself—the epic belongs to the genre of itihasa like Mahabharata, the definition of itihāsa is a narrative of past events which includes teachings on the goals of human life. According to Hindu tradition, Ramayana takes place during a period of known as Treta Yuga. In its extant form, Valmikis Ramayana is a poem of some 24,000 verses. The text survives in several thousand partial and complete manuscripts, the oldest of which is a manuscript found in Nepal. A Times of India report dated 18 December 2015 informs about discovery of a 6th-century manuscript of the Ramayana at the Asiatic Society library, the Ramayana text has several regional renderings, recensions and subrecensions. Goldman differentiates two major regional recensions, the northern and the southern, scholar Romesh Chunder Dutt writes that the Ramayana, like the Mahabharata, is a growth of centuries, but the main story is more distinctly the creation of one mind. There has been discussion as to whether the first and the last chapters of Valmikis Ramayana were composed by the original author. Most Hindus still believe they are parts of the book, in spite of some style differences. Some cultural evidence, such as the presence of sati in Mahabharata but not in the body of Ramayana. By tradition, the text belongs to the Treta Yuga, second of the four eons of Hindu chronology, Rama is said to have been born in the Treta yuga to king Dasharatha in the Ikshvaku dynasty. The names of the characters are all known in late Vedic literature, however, nowhere in the surviving Vedic poetry is there a story similar to the Ramayana of Valmiki. Also, in the epic Mahabharata, there is a version of Ramayana known as Ramopakhyana and this version is depicted as a narration to Yudhishthira
5.
Vishnu Sharma
–
Vishnu Sharma was an Indian scholar and author who is believed to have written the Panchatantra collection of fables. The exact period of the composition of the Panchatantra is uncertain, some scholars place him in the 3rd century BCE. Panchatantra is one of the most widely translated non-religious books in history, the Panchatantra was translated into Middle Persian/Pahlavi in 570 CE by Borzūya and into Arabic in 750 CE by Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn al-Muqaffa as Kalīlah wa Dimnah. In Baghdad, the commissioned by Al-Mansur, the second Abbasid Caliph, is claimed to have become second only to the Quran in popularity. As early as the century this work reached Europe, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland, in France, at least eleven Panchatantra tales are included in the work of Jean de La Fontaine. The prelude to the Panchatantra identifies Vishnu Sharma as the author of the work, since there is no other independent external evidence about him, it is impossible to say whether he was the historical author. or is himself a literary invention. Based on analysis of various Indian recensions and the features and animals described in the stories. The prelude narrates the story of how Vishnu Sharma supposedly created the Panchatantra, there was a king called Sudarshan who ruled a kingdom, whose capital was a city called Mahilaropya, whose location on the current map of India is unknown. The king had three sons named Bahushakti, Ugrashakti and Anantashakti, though the king himself was both a scholar and a powerful ruler, his sons were all dullards. The king despaired of his three princes inability to learn, and approached his ministers for counsel and they presented him with conflicting advice, but the words of one, called Sumati, rang true to the king. He said that the sciences, politics and diplomacy were limitless disciplines that took a lifetime to master formally. Instead of teaching the scriptures and texts, they should somehow be taught the wisdom inherent in them. Vishnu Sharma was invited to the court, where the king offered him a land grants if he could teach the princes. Vishnu Sharma declined the award, saying he did not sell knowledge for money. Vishnu Sharma knew that he could never instruct these three students through conventional means. He had to employ a less orthodox way, and that was to tell a succession of animal fables – one weaving into another – that imparted to them the wisdom they required to succeed their father. These five discourses — titled The Loss of Friends, The winning of friends, Of Crows and Owls, Loss of Gains and Imprudence — became the Panchatantra, meaning the five treatises
6.
Panchatantra
–
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian collection of interrelated animal fables in verse and prose, arranged within a frame story. The original Sanskrit work, which scholars believe was composed around the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma. It is based on oral traditions, including animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine. It is certainly the most frequently translated literary product of India, to quote Edgerton. there are recorded over two hundred different versions known to exist in more than fifty languages, and three-quarters of these languages are extra-Indian. As early as the century this work reached Europe, and before 1600 it existed in Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, German, English, Old Slavonic, Czech. Its range has extended from Java to Iceland and it has been worked over and over again, expanded, abstracted, turned into verse, retold in prose, translated into medieval and modern vernaculars, and retranslated into Sanskrit. And most of the contained in it have gone down into the folklore of the story-loving Hindus. Thus it goes by names in many cultures. In India, it had at least 25 recensions, including the Sanskrit Tantrākhyāyikā and it was translated into Middle Persian in 570 CE by Borzūya. This became the basis for a Syriac translation as Kalilag and Damnag, a New Persian version by Rudaki in the 12th century became known as Kalīleh o Demneh and this was the basis of Kashefis 15th century Anvār-i Suhaylī or Anvār-e Soheylī. The book in different form is known as The Fables of Bidpai or The Morall Philosophie of Doni. The Panchatantra is a series of fables, many of which involve animals exhibiting animal stereotypes. According to its own narrative, it illustrates, for the benefit of three ignorant princes, the central Hindu principles of nīti, while nīti is hard to translate, it roughly means prudent worldly conduct, or the wise conduct of life. Apart from a short introduction — in which the author, Vishnu Sharma, is introduced as narrating the rest of the work to the princes — it consists of five parts. Each part contains a story, called the frame story. Often these stories contain further emboxed stories, the stories thus operate like a succession of Russian dolls, one narrative opening within another, sometimes three or four deep. Besides the stories, the characters also quote various epigrammatic verses to make their point, Karataka and Damanaka are two jackals that are retainers to the lion king. Against Karatakas advice, Damanaka breaks up the friendship between the lion and the out of jealousy
7.
Seven Wise Masters
–
The Seven Wise Masters is a cycle of stories of Sanskrit, Persian or Hebrew origins. The Sultan sends his son the young Prince to be educated away from the court in the seven liberal arts by Seven Wise Masters, on his return to court his stepmother the empress seeks to seduce him. To avert danger he is bound over to a weeks silence by Sindibad, finally the princes lips are unsealed, the truth exposed, and the wicked empress is executed. The frame narrative served as the way to transmit tales to other listeners. Hundreds of surviving European texts are known, the cycle of stories, which appears in many European languages, is of Eastern origin. An analogous collection occurs in Sanskrit, attributed to the Indian philosopher Sindibad/Syntipas in the first century BC, other suggested origins are Persian and Hebrew. Runte, Hans R. J. Keith Wikeley and Anthony J. Farrell, The Seven Sages of Rome and the Book of Sindbad, An Analytical Bibliography, New York, Garland Publishing, Inc.1984. The Seven Sages Society, founded in 1975, maintains a perpetual scholarly bibliography, with updates in its on-line and printed Newsletter, at <http. This was translated into French about 1210 by a trouvère named Herbers as Li romans de Dolopathos, another French version, the German, English, French and Spanish chapbooks of the cycle are generally based on a Latin original differing from these. Three metrical romances probably based on the French, and dating from the 14th century, the most important of these is The Sevyn Sages by John Rolland of Dalkeith edited for the Bannatyne Club. History later, The collection later supplied tales that circulated in both oral and written traditions, giovanni Boccaccio used many of them for his famous work, the Decameron. The Latin romance was frequently printed in the 15th century, the Seven Sages, in Madieval Folklore, A Guide to Myths, Legends, Beliefs, and Customs, Carl Lindahl, John McNamara and John Lindow, eds. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
8.
Fable
–
A fable differs from a parable in that the latter excludes animals, plants, inanimate objects, and forces of nature as actors that assume speech or other powers of humankind. Usage has not always been so clearly distinguished, a person who writes fables is a fabulist. The fable is one of the most enduring forms of literature, spread abroad, modern researchers agree. Fables can be found in the literature of almost every country, epicharmus of Kos and Phormis are reported as having been among the first to invent comic fables. Many familiar fables of Aesop include The Crow and the Pitcher, The Tortoise and the Hare and The Lion and the Mouse. The need of instructors to teach, and students to learn, African oral culture has a rich story-telling tradition. As they have for thousands of years, people of all ages in Africa continue to interact with nature, including plants, animals and earthly structures such as rivers, grandparents enjoy enormous respect in African societies and fill the new role of story-telling during retirement years. Children and, to some extent, adults are mesmerized by good story-tellers when they become animated in their quest to tell a good fable, India has a rich tradition of fabulous novels, mostly explainable by the fact that the culture derives traditions and learns qualities from natural elements. Most of the gods are some form of animals with ideal qualities, also hundreds of fables were composed in ancient India during the first millennium BC, often as stories within frame stories. Indian fables have a mixed cast of humans and animals, the dialogues are often longer than in fables of Aesop and often witty as the animals try to outwit one another by trickery and deceit. In Indian fables, man is not superior to the animals, the Indian fable adhered to the universally known traditions of the fable. The best examples of the fable in India are the Panchatantra, ben E. Perry has argued controversially that some of the Buddhist Jataka tales and some of the fables in the Panchatantra may have been influenced by similar Greek and Near Eastern ones. Earlier Indian epics such as Vyasas Mahabharata and Valmikis Ramayana also contained fables within the main story, the most famous fables from the Middle East were the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights. Fables had a long tradition through the Middle Ages. During the 17th century, the French fabulist Jean de La Fontaine saw the soul of the fable in the moral — a rule of behavior. Starting with the Aesopian pattern, La Fontaine set out to satirize the court, the church, in modern times, while the fable has been trivialized in childrens books, it has also been fully adapted to modern adult literature. Felix Saltens Bambi is a Bildungsroman — a story of a protagonists coming-of-age — cast in the form of a fable, władysław Reymonts The Revolt, a metaphor for the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, described a revolt by animals that take over their farm in order to introduce equality. George Orwells Animal Farm similarly satirized Stalinist Communism in particular, and totalitarianism in general, in the guise of animal fable
9.
Baital Pachisi
–
Vetala Panchavimshati or Baital Pachisi, is a collection of tales and legends within a frame story, from India. It was originally written in Sanskrit, one of its oldest recensions is found in the 12th Book of the Kathasaritsagara, a work in Sanskrit compiled in the 11th century by Somadeva, but based on yet older materials, now lost. This recension comprises in fact twenty four tales, the narrative itself being the twenty fifth. The two other major recensions in Sanskrit are those by Śivadāsa and Jambhaladatta, the Vetala stories have been popular in India, and have been translated into many Indian vernaculars. Several English translations exist, based on Sanskrit recensions and on Hindi, Tamil, probably the most well-known English version is that of Sir Richard Francis Burton which is, however, not a translation but a very free adaptation. King Vikrama faces many difficulties in bringing the vetala to the tantric, each time Vikram tries to capture the vetala, it tells a story that ends with a riddle. If Vikrama cannot answer the question correctly, the vampire consents to remain in captivity, if the king knows the answer but still keeps quiet, then his head shall burst into thousand pieces. And if King Vikrama answers the question correctly, the vampire would escape and he knows the answer to every question, therefore the cycle of catching and releasing the vampire continues twenty-four times. On the twenty-fifth attempt, the Vetala tells the story of a father and they find the queen and the princess alive in the chaos, and decide to take them home. In due time, the son marries the queen and the father marries the princess, eventually, the son and the queen have a son, and the father and the princess have a daughter. The vetala asks what the relation between the two children is. Satisfied, the vetala allows himself to be taken to the tantric, on their way to the tantric, Vetala tells his story. His parents did not have a son and a tantric blessed them with twin sons on a condition that both be educated under him, Vetala was taught everything in the world but often ill treated. Whereas his brother was taught just what was needed but always well treated, vetal also reveals that now the tantrics plan is to sacrifice Vikram, beheading him as he bowed in front of the goddess. Then tantric could then control over the vetala and sacrifice his soul. The vetala suggests that the king asks the tantric how to perform his obeisance, vikramāditya does exactly as told by vetala and he is blessed by Lord Indra and Devi Kali. Having killed them, Vikrama is offered a reward by the goddess, the childrens Chandamama, featured a serial story titled New Tales of Vikram and Betal for many years. As the title suggests, the premise of the story is maintained
10.
One Thousand and One Nights
–
One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, the work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Jewish, the stories proceed from this original tale, some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more, the bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used for songs and riddles and to express heightened emotion. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer, the main frame story concerns Shahryār, whom the narrator calls a Sasanian king ruling in India and China. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of only to execute each one the next morning. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, Scheherazade, the viziers daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, the king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins a new one, so it goes on for 1,001 nights. The tales vary widely, they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques, numerous stories depict jinns, ghouls, apes, sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally. The different versions have different individually detailed endings but they all end with the giving his wife a pardon. The narrators standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature, the history of the Nights is extremely complex and modern scholars have made many attempts to untangle the story of how the collection as it currently exists came about. Most scholars agreed that the Nights was a work and that the earliest tales in it came from India and Persia. At some time, probably in the early 8th century, these tales were translated into Arabic under the title Alf Layla and this collection then formed the basis of The Thousand and One Nights. The original core of stories was quite small, then, in Iraq in the 9th or 10th century, this original core had Arab stories added to it – among them some tales about the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Devices found in Sanskrit literature such as stories and animal fables are seen by some scholars as lying at the root of the conception of the Nights. Indian folklore is represented in the Nights by certain animal stories, the influence of the Panchatantra and Baital Pachisi is particularly notable. The Jataka Tales are a collection of 547 Buddhist stories, which are for the most part moral stories with an ethical purpose
11.
The Decameron
–
The Decameron, subtitled Prince Galehaut, is a collection of novellas by the 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio probably conceived the Decameron after the epidemic of 1348, the various tales of love in The Decameron range from the erotic to the tragic. Tales of wit, practical jokes, and life lessons contribute to the mosaic, in addition to its literary value and widespread influence, it provides a document of life at the time. Written in the vernacular of the Florentine language, it is considered a masterpiece of classical early Italian prose. The books primary title exemplifies Boccaccios fondness for Greek philology, Decameron combines two Greek words, δέκα, déka and ἡμέρα, hēméra, to form a term that means ten-day, ten days is the period in which the characters of the frame story tell their tales. Boccaccios subtitle, Prencipe Galeotto, refers to Galehaut, a king portrayed in the Lancelot-Grail who was sometimes called by the title haut prince. Galehaut was a friend of Lancelot and an enemy of King Arthur. When Galehaut learned that Lancelot loved Arthurs wife, Guinevere, he set aside his own ardor for Arthur in order to arrange a meeting between his friend and Guinevere, at this meeting the Queen first kisses Lancelot, and so begins their love affair. In Canto V of Inferno, Dante compares these fictional lovers with the real-life paramours Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta, in Infierno, Francesca and Paolo read of Lancelot and Guinevere, and the story impassions them to lovemaking. Dantes description of Galehauts munificence and savoir-faire amidst this intrigue impressed Boccaccio and he contrasts this life with that of the menfolk, who enjoy respite in sport, such as hunting, fishing, riding, and falconry. In Italy during the time of the Black Death, a group of seven young women, thus, by the end of the fortnight they have told 100 stories. Each of the ten characters is charged as King or Queen of the company for one of the ten days in turn. Only Dioneo, who tells the tenth tale each day, has the right to tell a tale on any topic he wishes. Many authors have argued that Dioneo expresses the views of Boccaccio himself, each day also includes a short introduction and conclusion to continue the frame of the tales by describing other daily activities besides story-telling. These frame tale interludes frequently include transcriptions of Italian folk songs, the interactions among tales in a day, or across days, as Boccaccio spins variations and reversals of previous material, forms a whole and not just a collection of stories. Throughout Decameron the mercantile ethic prevails and predominates, the commercial and urban values of quick wit, sophistication, and intelligence are treasured, while the vices of stupidity and dullness are cured, or punished. Beyond the unity provided by the narrative, Decameron provides a unity in philosophical outlook. Throughout runs the common theme of Lady Fortune, and how quickly one can rise
12.
The Canterbury Tales
–
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387–1400. In 1386, Chaucer became Controller of Customs and Justice of Peace and and it was during these years that Chaucer began working on his most famous text, The Canterbury Tales. The prize for this contest is a meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. He uses the tales and descriptions of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society at the time, Chaucers use of such a wide range of classes and types of people was without precedent in English. Although the characters are fictional, they offer a variety of insights into customs. Often, such insight leads to a variety of discussions and disagreements among people in the 14th century, structurally, the collection resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372. It is unclear to what extent Chaucer was seminal in this evolution of literary preference, while Chaucer clearly states the addressees of many of his poems, the intended audience of The Canterbury Tales is more difficult to determine. Chaucer was a courtier, leading some to believe that he was mainly a court poet who wrote exclusively for nobility, the Canterbury Tales is generally thought to have been incomplete at the end of Chaucers life. In the General Prologue, some thirty pilgrims are introduced, according to the Prologue, Chaucers intention was to write two stories from the perspective of each pilgrim on the way to and from their ultimate destination, St. Thomas Beckets shrine. Although perhaps incomplete, The Canterbury Tales is revered as one of the most important works in English literature, not only do readers find it entertaining, but it is also open to a wide range of interpretations. The question of whether The Canterbury Tales is finished has not yet been answered, there are 83 known manuscripts of the work from the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, more than any other vernacular literary text with the exception of The Prick of Conscience. This is taken as evidence of the popularity during the century after Chaucers death. Fifty-five of these manuscripts are thought to have been complete at one time, even the earliest surviving manuscripts are not Chaucers originals, the oldest being MS Peniarth 392 D, compiled by a scribe shortly after Chaucers death. The most beautiful of the manuscripts of the tales is the Ellesmere Manuscript, the first version of The Canterbury Tales to be published in print was William Caxtons 1478 edition. Only 10 copies of this edition are known to exist, including one held by the British Library, since this print edition was created from a now-lost manuscript, it is counted as among the 83 manuscripts. In 2004, Professor Linne Mooney claimed that she was able to identify the scrivener who worked for Chaucer as an Adam Pinkhurst. No authorial, arguably complete version of the Tales exists and no consensus has been reached regarding the order in which Chaucer intended the stories to be placed, textual and manuscript clues have been adduced to support the two most popular modern methods of ordering the tales. Some scholarly editions divide the Tales into ten Fragments, however, between Fragments, the connection is less obvious
13.
Odyssey
–
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the Odyssey is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second-oldest extant work of Western literature, the Iliad is the oldest. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the poem mainly focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his journey home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War. In his absence, it is assumed Odysseus has died, and his wife Penelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of suitors, the Mnesteres or Proci. The Odyssey continues to be read in the Homeric Greek and translated into languages around the world. Many scholars believe the poem was composed in an oral tradition by an aoidos, perhaps a rhapsode. The details of the ancient oral performance and the conversion to a written work inspire continual debate among scholars. The Odyssey was written in a dialect of Greek—a literary amalgam of Aeolic Greek, Ionic Greek. Among the most noteworthy elements of the text are its non-linear plot, in the English language as well as many others, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage. The Odyssey has a lost sequel, the Telegony, which was not written by Homer and it was usually attributed in antiquity to Cinaethon of Sparta. In one source, the Telegony was said to have stolen from Musaeus by either Eugamon or Eugammon of Cyrene. The Odyssey begins ten years after the end of the ten-year Trojan War, and Odysseus has still not returned home from the war. Odysseus protectress, the goddess Athena, requests to Zeus, king of the gods, to finally allow Odysseus to return home when Odysseus enemy, then, disguised as a Taphian chieftain named Mentes, she visits Telemachus to urge him to search for news of his father. He offers her hospitality, they observe the suitors dining rowdily while the bard Phemius performs a poem for them. Penelope objects to Phemius theme, the Return from Troy, because it reminds her of her missing husband and that night Athena, disguised as Telemachus, finds a ship and crew for the true prince. The next morning, Telemachus calls an assembly of citizens of Ithaca to discuss what should be done with the suitors. Accompanied by Athena, he departs for the Greek mainland and the household of Nestor, most venerable of the Greek warriors at Troy, now at home in Pylos
14.
Odysseus
–
Odysseus, also known by the Latin name Ulysses, was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homers epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homers Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. Husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea, Odysseus is renowned for his brilliance, guile, and versatility and he is most famous for the Odyssey, ten eventful years he took to return home after the decade-long Trojan War. The name has several variants, in Greek the character was called Olysseus, Oulixeus, Oulixes, hence, there may originally have been two separate figures, one called something like Odysseus, the other something like Ulixes, who were combined into one complex personality. The etymology of the name is unknown, ancient authors linked the name to the Greek verbs odussomai to be wroth against, to hate, or to oduromai to lament, bewail. Homer in references and puns, relates it to various forms of this verb and it has also been suggested that the name is of non-Greek origin, probably not even Indo-European, with an unknown etymology, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin. In Book 19 of the Odyssey, where Odysseuss early childhood is recounted, Euryclea tries to guide him to naming the boy Polyaretos, for he has much been prayed for. Autolycus apparently in a sardonic mood, decided to give the child a name that would commemorate his own experience in life. Because I got odium upon myself before coming here, let the childs name be Odysseus to signify this. The pun was prophetic as well as commemorative, Odysseus often receives the patronymic epithet Laertiades, son of Laërtes. In the Iliad and Odyssey there are several epithets used to describe Odysseus and his name and stories were adopted into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze. Hence, Odysseus was the great-grandson of the Olympian god Hermes, according to the Iliad and Odyssey, his father is Laertes and his mother Anticlea, although there was a non-Homeric tradition that Sisyphus was his true father. The rumor went that Laertes bought Odysseus from the conniving king, Odysseus is said to have a younger sister, Ctimene, who went to Same to be married and is mentioned by the swineherd Eumaeus, whom she grew up alongside, in Book 15 of the Odyssey. Homers Iliad and Odyssey portray Odysseus as a hero, but the Romans. In Virgils Aeneid, written between 29 and 19 BC, he is referred to as cruel Odysseus or deceitful Odysseus. Turnus, in Aeneid ix, reproaches the Trojan Ascanius with images of rugged, forthright Latin virtues, declaring, You shall not find the sons of Atreus here, nor need the frauds of sly Ulysses fear. While the Greeks admired his cunning and deceit, these qualities did not recommend themselves to the Romans, who possessed a rigid sense of honour. His attempts to avoid his sacred oath to defend Menelaus and Helen offended Roman notions of duty, the majority of sources for Odysseus pre-war exploits—principally the mythographers Pseudo-Apollodorus and Hyginus—postdate Homer by many centuries
15.
Alcinous
–
Alcinous was, in Greek mythology, a son of Nausithous, or of Phaeax, and father of Nausicaa, Halius, Clytoneus and Laodamas with Arete. His name literally means mighty mind and he married his brother Rhexenors daughter after Rhexenor was killed. In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, Alcinous is represented as living with his wife Arete in Drepane, the Argonauts, on their return from Colchis, came to his island, and were hospitably received. The Colchians were obliged, by the contrivance of Arete, to depart without their princess, and he was also the King of the Phaeacians. According to Homer, Alcinous is the ruler of the Phaiacians in the island of Scheria. JC Loudon on the Garden of Alcinous
16.
Conceit
–
In literature, a conceit is an extended metaphor with a complex logic that governs a poetic passage or entire poem. By juxtaposing, usurping and manipulating images and ideas in surprising ways, extended conceits in English are part of the poetic idiom of Mannerism, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. In English literature the term is associated with the 17th century metaphysical poets. The metaphysical conceit differs from an analogy in the sense that it does not have a clear-cut relationship between the things being compared. An example of the latter occurs in John Donnes A Valediction, Forbidding Mourning, the metaphysical conceit is often imaginative, exploring specific parts of an experience. John Donnes The Flea is a poem seemingly about fleas in a bed, when Sir Philip Sidney begins a sonnet with the conventional idiomatic expression My true-love hath my heart and I have his. He takes the metaphor literally and teases out a number of possibilities in the exchange of hearts. The result is a fully formed conceit, the Petrarchan conceit is a form of love poetry wherein a mans love interest is referred to in hyperbole. For instance, the lover is a ship on a stormy sea, the paradoxical pain and pleasure of lovesickness is often described using oxymoron, for instance uniting peace and war, burning and freezing, and so forth. But images which were novel in the sonnets of Petrarch became clichés in the poetry of later imitators, romeo uses hackneyed Petrarchan conceits when describing his love for Rosaline as bright smoke, cold fire, sick health. In the Renaissance, the term indicated any particularly fanciful expression of wit, within this critical sense, the Princeton Encyclopedia makes a distinction between two kinds of conceits, the Metaphysical conceit, described above, and the Petrarchan conceit. (1989} More than Cool Reason, A Field Guide to Poetic Metaphor, Princeton, NJ, University of Chicago Press Preminger, Alex and T. V. F. The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press George Herbert, Praise Shakespeares Sonnet 130, from Wikisource
17.
Mise en abyme
–
Mise en abyme is a French term derived from heraldry, and literally means placed into abyss. The term has developed a number of senses in modern criticism since it was picked up from heraldry by the French author André Gide. A common sense of the phrase is the experience of standing between two mirrors, then seeing as a result an infinite reproduction of ones image. Another is the Droste effect, in which a picture appears within itself and that is named after the 1904 Droste cocoa package, which depicts a woman holding a tray bearing a Droste cocoa package, which bears a smaller version of her image. The phrase has other meanings, however, in the realms of the creative arts. In Western art history, mise en abyme is a technique in which an image contains a smaller copy of itself, in a sequence appearing to recur infinitely. In the terminology of heraldry, the abyme is the center of a coat of arms, the term mise en abyme then meant put in the center. It described a coat of arms appears as a smaller shield in the center of a larger one. A complex example of mise en abyme is seen in the coat of arms of the United Kingdom for the period 1816–1837, as used by King George III. The crown of Charlemagne is placed en abyme within the escutcheon of Hanover, which in turn is en abyme within the arms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Another example is the eagle in the modern coat of arms of Russia. While art historians working on the period adopted this phrase and interpreted it as showing artistic self awareness. Many examples, however, can be found in the pre-modern era, to the left, Justinian I offers the Virgin Mary the Hagia Sophia, which contains the mosaic itself. To the right, Constantine I offers the city of Constantinople, an example of this self-referential gift-giving appears in the Stefaneschi Triptych in the Vatican Museum, which features Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi as the giver of the altarpiece. The modern meaning of the phrase originates with the author André Gide who used it to describe self-reflexive embeddings in various art-forms and this use of the phrase mise en abyme was picked up by scholars and popularized in the 1977 book Le récit spéculaire. Essai sur la mise en abyme by Lucien Dällenbach, mise-en-abîme occurs within a text when there is a reduplication of images or concepts referring to the textual whole. Mise-en-abîme is a play of signifiers within a text, of sub-texts mirroring each other and this mirroring can get to the point where meaning may be rendered unstable and, in this respect, may be seen as part of the process of deconstruction. The film-within-a-film is an example of mise-en-abîme, the film being made within the film refers, through its mise en scène, to the real film being made
18.
Scheherazade
–
Scheherazade /ʃəˌhɛrəˈzɑːd, -də/, or Shahrazad, is a character and the storyteller in One Thousand and One Nights. This book includes the tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba and many more, the story goes that Shahryar found out one day that his first wife was unfaithful to him. Therefore, he resolved to marry a new virgin each day as well as behead the previous days wife and he had killed 1,000 such women by the time he was introduced to Scheherazade, the viziers daughter. Against her fathers wishes, Scheherazade volunteered to spend one night with the king, the king lay awake and listened with awe as Scheherazade told her first story. The night passed by, and Scheherazade stopped in the middle of the story, the king asked her to finish, but Scheherazade said there was no time, as dawn was breaking. So, the king spared her life for one day to finish the story the next night, the next night, Scheherazade finished the story and then began a second, even more exciting tale, which she again stopped halfway through at dawn. Again, the king spared her life for one day so she could finish the second story. And so the king kept Scheherazade alive day by day, as he anticipated the finishing of the previous nights story. At the end of 1,001 nights, and 1,000 stories, during these 1,001 nights, the king had fallen in love with Scheherazade. He spared her life, and made her his queen, the earliest forms of Scheherazades name include Shirazad in Masudi, and Shahrazad in Ibn al-Nadim, the latter meaning the person whose realm/dominion is free. It is shortened as Shahrzad in Persian, in explaining his spelling choice for the name, Burton says, Shahrázád = City-freer, in the older version Scheherazade. The Bres Edit corrupts the former to Sháhrzád or Sháhrazád, I have ventured to restore the name as it should be. Having introduced the name, Burton does not continue to use the diacritics on the name, Scheherazade in popular culture The Arabian Nights Entertainments — Project Gutenberg
19.
Fairy tale
–
Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicitly moral tales, including beast fables. The term is used for stories with origins in European tradition and, at least in recent centuries. In less technical contexts, the term is used to describe something blessed with unusual happiness. Colloquially, a tale or fairy story can also mean any far-fetched story or tall tale, it is used especially of any story that not only is not true. Legends are perceived as real, fairy tales may merge into legends, Fairy tales are found in oral and in literary form, the name fairy tale was first ascribed to them by Madame dAulnoy in the late 17th century. Many of todays fairy tales have evolved from stories that have appeared, with variations. The history of the tale is particularly difficult to trace because only the literary forms can survive. Still, according to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, such stories may date back thousands of years, Fairy tales, and works derived from fairy tales, are still written today. Folklorists have classified fairy tales in various ways, the Aarne-Thompson classification system and the morphological analysis of Vladimir Propp are among the most notable. Other folklorists have interpreted the significance, but no school has been definitively established for the meaning of the tales. It moves in a world without definite locality or definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdoms, a fairy tale with a tragic rather than a happy end is called an anti-fairy tale. Although the fairy tale is a genre within the larger category of folktale. The term itself comes from the translation of Madame DAulnoys conte de fées, Vladimir Propp, in his Morphology of the Folktale, criticized the common distinction between fairy tales and animal tales on the grounds that many tales contained both fantastic elements and animals. Were I asked, what is a fairytale, I should reply, Read Undine, that is a fairytale. of all fairytales I know, I think Undine the most beautiful. As Stith Thompson points out, talking animals and the presence of magic seem to be common to the fairy tale than fairies themselves. However, the presence of animals that talk does not make a tale a fairy tale, especially when the animal is clearly a mask on a human face. Steven Swann Jones identified the presence of magic as the feature by which fairy tales can be distinguished from other sorts of folktales, davidson and Chaudri identify transformation as the key feature of the genre
20.
Sinbad the Sailor
–
Sinbad the Sailor is a fictional sailor and the hero of a story-cycle of Middle Eastern origin, he is described as living in Baghdad, during the Abbasid Caliphate. During his voyages throughout the seas east of Africa and south of Asia, he has fantastic adventures going to places, meeting monsters. The first known point at which they are associated with the Nights is a Turkish collection dated 1637, One of several possible etymologies of the name is Sindh and the Persian word bâd, which means wind. This would give a meaning of India-wind. More recent sources include Abbasid works such the Wonders of the Created World, the Sinbad cycle is set in the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid. It first appeared in English as tale 120 in Volume 6 of Sir Richard Burtons 1885 translation of The Book of One Thousand, the owner of the house hears and sends for the porter, finding that they are both named Sinbad. The rich Sinbad tells the poor Sinbad that he became wealthy by Fortune and Fate in the course of seven wondrous voyages, after dissipating the wealth left to him by his father, Sinbad goes to sea to repair his fortune. He sets ashore on what appears to be an island, but this island proves to be a gigantic sleeping whale on which trees have taken root ever since the world was young. Awakened by a fire kindled by the sailors, the whale dives into the depths, the ship departs without Sinbad and he is washed ashore on a densely wooded island. While exploring the island he comes across one of the kings grooms. When Sinbad helps save the Kings mare from being drowned by a sea horse, the king befriends Sinbad and so he rises in the kings favour and becomes a trusted courtier. One day, the ship on which Sinbad set sail docks at the island. Sinbad gives the king his goods and in return the king gives him rich presents, Sinbad sells these presents for a great profit. Sinbad returns to Baghdad where he resumes a life of ease, with the ending of the tale, Sinbad the sailor makes Sinbad the porter a gift of a hundred gold pieces, and bids him return the next day to hear more about his adventures. Accidentally abandoned by his shipmates again, he finds himself stranded in an island which contains roc eggs and he attaches himself to a roc and is transported to a valley of giant snakes which can swallow elephants, these serve as the rocs natural prey. The wily Sinbad straps one of the pieces of meat to his back and is carried back to the nest along with a sack full of precious gems. Rescued from the nest by the merchants, he returns to Baghdad with a fortune in diamonds, restless for travel and adventure, Sinbad sets sail again from Basra. Moreover, he had long loose lips like camels, hanging down upon his breast and this monster begins eating the crew, beginning with the Reis, who is the fattest
21.
Ovid
–
Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists and he enjoyed enormous popularity, but, in one of the mysteries of literary history, was sent by Augustus into exile in a remote province on the Black Sea, where he remained until his death. Ovid himself attributes his exile to carmen et error, a poem and a mistake and his poetry was much imitated during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and greatly influenced Western art and literature. The Metamorphoses remains one of the most important sources of classical mythology, Ovid talks more about his own life than most other Roman poets. Information about his biography is drawn primarily from his poetry, especially Tristia 4.10, other sources include Seneca the Elder and Quintilian. Ovid was born in Sulmo, in an Apennine valley east of Rome, to an important equestrian family and that was a significant year in Roman politics. He was educated in rhetoric in Rome under the teachers Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro with his brother who excelled at oratory and his father wanted him to study rhetoric toward the practice of law. According to Seneca the Elder, Ovid tended to the emotional, after the death of his brother at 20 years of age, Ovid renounced law and began travelling to Athens, Asia Minor, and Sicily. Ovids first recitation has been dated to around 25 BC, when he was eighteen and he was part of the circle centered on the patron Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, and seems to have been a friend of poets in the circle of Maecenas. 4.10. 41–54, Ovid mentions friendships with Macer, Propertius, Horace, Ovid was very popular at the time of his early works, but was later exiled by Augustus in AD8. He married three times and divorced twice by the time he was thirty years old and he had one daughter, who eventually bore him grandchildren. His last wife was connected in some way to the influential gens Fabia, the first 25 years of Ovids literary career were spent primarily writing poetry in elegiac meter with erotic themes. The chronology of early works is not secure, tentative dates. 2.18. 19–26 that seems to describe the collection as a published work. The authenticity of some of these poems has been challenged, between the publications of the two editions of the Amores can be dated the premiere of his tragedy Medea, which was admired in antiquity but is no longer extant. Ovid may identify this work in his poetry as the carmen, or song. The Ars Amatoria was followed by the Remedia Amoris in the same year and this corpus of elegiac, erotic poetry earned Ovid a place among the chief Roman elegists Gallus, Tibullus, and Propertius, of whom he saw himself as the fourth member
22.
Metamorphoses
–
The Metamorphoses is a Latin narrative poem by the Roman poet Ovid, considered his magnum opus. Comprising fifteen books and over 250 myths, the chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar within a loose mythico-historical framework. Although meeting the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple classification by its use of varying themes and tones. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the Metamorphoses has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in acclaimed works of sculpture, painting, and music. The work has been the subject of numerous translations into English, Ovids decision to make myth the dominant subject of the Metamorphoses was influenced by the predisposition of Alexandrian poetry. However, whereas it served in that tradition as the cause for reflection or insight, he made it instead the object of play. There are three examples of the Metamorphoses by later Hellenistic writers, but little is known of their contents, the Heteroioumena by Nicander of Colophon is better known, and clearly an influence on the poem —21 of the stories from this work were treated in the Metamorphoses. However, in a way that was typical for writers of the period, the Metamorphoses was longer than any previous collection of metamorphosis myths and positioned itself within a historical framework. Some of the Metamorphoses derives from literary and poetic treatment of the same myths. This material was of varying quality and comprehensiveness — while some of it was finely worked, scholars have found it difficult to place the Metamorphoses in a genre. However, the handles the themes and employs the tone of virtually every species of literature, ranging from epic and elegy to tragedy. Commenting on the debate, G. Karl Galinsky has opined that. It would be misguided to pin the label of any genre on the Metamorphoses and it begins with the ritual invocation of the muse, and makes use of traditional epithets and circumlocutions. But instead of following and extolling the deeds of a human hero, the recurring theme, as with nearly all of Ovids work, is love—be it personal love or love personified in the figure of Amor. Apollo comes in for particular ridicule as Ovid shows how love can confound the god out of reason. The work as a whole inverts the order, elevating humans and human passions while making the gods and their desires. The Metamorphoses ends with an epilogue, one of two surviving Latin epics to do so. Book I – The Creation, the Ages of Mankind, the flood, Deucalion and Pyrrha, Apollo and Daphne, Io, Book II – Phaëton, Callisto, the raven and the crow, Ocyrhoe, Mercury and Battus, the envy of Aglauros, Jupiter and Europa
23.
Wuthering Heights
–
Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontës only novel. Written between October 1845 and June 1846, Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Brontë died the following year, Wuthering Heights and Anne Brontës Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas Newby before the success of their sister Charlottes novel, Jane Eyre. After Emilys death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering Heights, the novel has inspired adaptations, including film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, operas, and a 1978 song by Kate Bush. In 1801, Lockwood, a young man from the South of England who is seeking peace and recuperation. He visits his landlord, Heathcliff, who lives in a remote moorland farmhouse, snowed in, Lockwood is grudgingly allowed to stay and is shown to a bedchamber where he notices books and graffiti left by a former inhabitant named Catherine. He falls asleep and has a nightmare in which he sees the ghostly Catherine trying to enter through the window and he cries out in fear, rousing Heathcliff, who rushes into the room. Lockwood is convinced that what he saw was real, Heathcliff, believing Lockwood to be right, examines the window and opens it, hoping to allow Catherines spirit to enter. When nothing happens, Heathcliff shows Lockwood to his own bedroom, at sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about the family at Wuthering Heights, thirty years earlier, the owner of Wuthering Heights is Mr. Earnshaw, who lives with his son Hindley and younger daughter Catherine. On a trip to Liverpool, Earnshaw encounters a homeless boy and he adopts the boy and names him Heathcliff. Hindley feels that Heathcliff has supplanted him in his fathers affections, Catherine and Heathcliff become friends and spend hours each day playing on the moors. Three years later Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes the landowner, he is now master of Wuthering Heights and he returns to live there with his new wife, Frances. He allows Heathcliff to stay but only as a servant, a few months after Hindleys return, Heathcliff and Catherine walk to Thrushcross Grange to spy on Edgar and Isabella Linton, who live there. After being discovered they try to run away but are caught, Catherine is injured by the Lintons dog and taken into the house to recuperate, while Heathcliff is sent home. The Lintons are landed gentry and Catherine is influenced by their fine appearance, when she returns to Wuthering Heights her appearance and manners are more ladylike, and she laughs at Heathcliffs unkempt appearance. Catherine tries to comfort Heathcliff, but he vows revenge on Hindley, the following year, Frances Earnshaw gives birth to a son, named Hareton, but she dies a few months later. Two more years pass, and Catherine and Edgar Linton become friends, Edgar visits Catherine while Hindley is away and they declare themselves lovers soon afterwards. She hopes to use her position as Edgars wife to raise Heathcliffs standing, Heathcliff overhears her say that it would degrade her to marry him, and he runs away and disappears without a trace
24.
Epistolary novel
–
An epistolary novel is a novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings, recently, electronic documents such as recordings and radio, blogs, and e-mails have also come into use. The word epistolary is derived from Latin from the Greek word ἐπιστολή epistolē, the epistolary form can add greater realism to a story, because it mimics the workings of real life. It is thus able to demonstrate differing points of view without recourse to the device of an omniscient narrator, there are two theories on the genesis of the epistolary novel. The first claims that the genre originated from novels with inserted letters, the other theory claims that the epistolary novel arose from miscellanies of letters and poetry, some of the letters were tied together into a plot. The first truly epistolary novel, the Spanish Prison of Love by Diego de San Pedro, other well-known examples of early epistolary novels are closely related to the tradition of letter-books and miscellanies of letters. The founder of the novel in English is said by many to be James Howell with Familiar Letters, who writes of prison, foreign adventure. The first novel to expose the complex play that the genre allows was Aphra Behns Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, which appeared in three volumes in 1684,1685, and 1687. The novel shows the results of changing perspectives, individual points were presented by the individual characters. Behn furthermore explored a realm of intrigue with letters that fall into the hands, faked letters, letters withheld by protagonists. The epistolary novel as a genre popular in the 18th century in the works of such authors as Samuel Richardson, with his immensely successful novels Pamela. In Germany, there was Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, the first North American novel, The History of Emily Montague by Frances Brooke was written in epistolary form. Starting in the 18th century, the form was subject to much ridicule. The most notable example of these was Henry Fieldings Shamela, written as a parody of Pamela, in it, the female narrator can be found wielding a pen and scribbling her diary entries under the most dramatic and unlikely of circumstances. Oliver Goldsmith used the form to satirical effect in The Citizen of the World, so did the diarist Fanny Burney in a successful comic first novel, Evelina. The epistolary novel slowly fell out of use in the late 18th century, although Jane Austen tried her hand at the epistolary in juvenile writings and her novella Lady Susan, she abandoned this structure for her later work. The epistolary form nonetheless saw continued use, surviving in exceptions or in fragments in nineteenth-century novels, in Honoré de Balzacs novel Letters of Two Brides, two women who became friends during their education at a convent correspond over a 17-year period, exchanging letters describing their lives. Mary Shelley employs the epistolary form in her novel Frankenstein, in the late 19th century, Bram Stoker released one of the most widely recognized and successful novels in the epistolary form to date, Dracula
25.
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
–
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the second and final novel by the English author Anne Brontë. It was first published in 1848 under the pseudonym Acton Bell, probably the most shocking of the Brontës novels, it had an instant and phenomenal success, but after Annes death her sister Charlotte prevented its re-publication. The novel is framed as a series of letters from Gilbert Markham to his friend, a mysterious young widow arrives at Wildfell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion which has been empty for many years, with her young son and servant. She lives there in strict seclusion under the assumed name Helen Graham, refusing to believe anything scandalous about her, Gilbert Markham, a young farmer, discovers her dark secrets. In her diary, Helen writes about her husbands physical and moral decline through alcohol, and this novel of marital betrayal is set within a moral framework tempered by Annes optimistic belief in universal salvation. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is mainly considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, may Sinclair, in 1913, said that the slamming of Helens bedroom door against her husband reverberated throughout Victorian England. In leaving her husband, Helen violates not only social conventions, some aspects of the life and character of the authors brother Branwell Brontë correspond to those of Arthur Huntingdon in The Tenant. He resembles Branwell Brontë in three ways, physical good-looks, sexual adventures, and especially in his alcoholism, another character in the novel, Lord Lowborough, has an association with opium that may also reflect Branwells behaviour. Mr Brontës counsel was that she should leave her husband, Mrs Collins returned to Haworth in the spring of 1847, while Anne was writing The Tenant, and told how she had managed to build a new life for herself and her two children. The Brontё biographer Winifred Gérin believed that the original of Wildfell Hall was Ponden Hall, Ponden shares certain architectural details with Wildfell, including latticed windows and a central portico with a date plaque above. However, neither Blake Hall nor Thorpe Green, another house where Anne was employed as a governess, Linden-Car, the village that Wildfell Hall stands close to, is in Yorkshire. Car in northern dialect means pool, pond or low-lying and boggy ground, Lindenhope hope in Northeastern English means a small enclosed valley. The novel is divided into three volumes, part One, Gilbert Markham narrates how a mysterious widow, Mrs Helen Graham, arrives at Wildfell Hall, a nearby mansion. A source of curiosity for the community, the reticent Mrs Graham. Initially Gilbert Markham casually courts Eliza Millward, despite his mothers belief that he can do better and his interest in Eliza wanes as he comes to know Mrs Graham. In retribution Eliza spreads scandalous rumours about Helen, with gossip flying, Gilbert is led to believe that his friend Mr Lawrence is courting Mrs Graham. At a chance meeting on a road Gilbert strikes the mounted Lawrence with a whip handle, though she is unaware of this confrontation, Helen Graham still refuses to marry Gilbert, but when he accuses her of loving Lawrence she gives him her diaries. Part two is taken from Helens diaries, in which she describes her marriage to Arthur Huntingdon, the handsome, witty Huntingdon is also spoilt, selfish and self-indulgent
26.
Mary Shelley
–
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley was an English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and her father was the political philosopher William Godwin, and her mother was the philosopher and feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. When Mary was four, her father married a neighbour, with whom, as her stepmother, in 1814, Mary began a romance with one of her fathers political followers, Percy Bysshe Shelley, whom she eventually married. Together with Marys stepsister Claire Clairmont, Mary and Shelley left for France, upon their return to England, Mary was pregnant with Percys child. Over the next two years, she and Percy faced ostracism, constant debt, and the death of their prematurely born daughter and they married in late 1816, after the suicide of Percy Shelleys first wife, Harriet. In 1816, the couple spent a summer with Lord Byron, John William Polidori, and Claire Clairmont near Geneva, Switzerland. The Shelleys left Britain in 1818 for Italy, where their second and third died before Mary Shelley gave birth to her last and only surviving child. In 1822, her husband drowned when his boat sank during a storm near Viareggio. A year later, Mary Shelley returned to England and from then on devoted herself to the upbringing of her son, the last decade of her life was dogged by illness, probably caused by the brain tumour that was to kill her at the age of 53. Recent scholarship has yielded a comprehensive view of Mary Shelley’s achievements. Mary Shelleys works often argue that cooperation and sympathy, particularly as practised by women in the family, were the ways to reform civil society. This view was a challenge to the individualistic Romantic ethos promoted by Percy Shelley. Mary Shelley was born as Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London and she was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft, and the first child of the philosopher, novelist, and journalist William Godwin. Wollstonecraft died of fever shortly after Mary was born. Godwin was left to bring up Mary, along with her older half-sister, Fanny Imlay, a year after Wollstonecrafts death, Godwin published his Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which he intended as a sincere and compassionate tribute. However, because the Memoirs revealed Wollstonecrafts affairs and her illegitimate child, Mary Godwin read these memoirs and her mothers books, and was brought up to cherish her mothers memory. Marys earliest years were happy ones, judging from the letters of William Godwins housekeeper and nurse, but Godwin was often deeply in debt, feeling that he could not raise the children by himself, he cast about for a second wife. In December 1801, he married Mary Jane Clairmont, a woman with two young children of her own—Charles and Claire
27.
Frankenstein
–
Shelley started writing the story when she was 18, and the first edition of the novel was published anonymously in London in 1818, when she was 20. Her name first appeared on the edition, published in France in 1823. Mary, Percy, Lord Byron and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see who could write the best horror story. After thinking for days, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created life and was horrified by what he had made, Frankenstein is infused with elements of the Gothic novel and the Romantic movement. At the same time, it is an example of science fiction. It has had an influence in literature and popular culture and spawned a complete genre of horror stories, films. Since the novels publication, the name Frankenstein has often used to refer to the monster itself. This usage is considered erroneous, but usage commentators regard it as well-established. In the novel, the monster is identified by such as creature, monster, demon, wretch, abortion. Speaking to Victor Frankenstein, the wretch refers to himself as the Adam of your labours, and elsewhere as someone who would have been your Adam, Frankenstein is written in the form of a frame story that starts with Captain Robert Walton writing letters to his sister. It takes place at a time in the 18th century. The novel Frankenstein is written in form, documenting a fictional correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Walton is a writer and captain who sets out to explore the North Pole. During the voyage, the spots an dog sled driven by a gigantic figure. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen, Frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Waltons crew. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion, he sees in Walton the same obsession that has destroyed him, the recounted story serves as the frame for Frankensteins narrative. Victor begins by telling of his childhood, as a young boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories that focus on simulating natural wonders. When Victor is five years old, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, weeks before he leaves for the University of Ingolstadt in Germany, his mother dies of scarlet fever, Victor buries himself in his experiments to deal with the grief
28.
Victor Frankenstein
–
Victor Frankenstein is the title character of Mary Shelleys 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. The character of Frankenstein was born in Naples and raised in Geneva and he was the son of Alphonse Frankenstein and Caroline Beaufort, who died of scarlet fever when Frankenstein was 17. He describes his ancestry thus, I am by birth a Genevese and my ancestors had been for many years counsellors and syndics, and my father had filled several public situations with honour and reputation. Frankenstein has two younger brothers—William, the youngest, and Ernest, the middle child, Frankenstein falls in love with Elizabeth Lavenza, who became his adoptive sister and, eventually, his fiancée. As a boy, Frankenstein is interested in the works of such as Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus, and Albertus Magnus. Assembling a humanoid creature through means, Frankenstein successfully brings it to life. He flees his creation, who disappears and swears revenge on his creator, when William is found murdered, Frankenstein knows instantly that his creation is the killer, but says nothing. The creature approaches Frankenstein and begs him to create a companion for him. Frankenstein agrees, but ultimately destroys this creation, aghast at the idea of a race of monsters. Enraged, the creature swears revenge, he kills Henry Clerval, Frankensteins best friend, the creature keeps his promise by strangling Elizabeth on her matrimonial bed. That same night, Frankensteins father dies of grief, with nothing else left to live for, Frankenstein dedicates his life to destroying the creature. Frankenstein pursues the fiend or Demon to the Arctic with the intent of destroying it, he fails in his mission, as he falls through an ice floe. He is rescued by a ship undergoing an expedition to the North Pole, while many subsequent film adaptations have portrayed Frankenstein as the prototypical mad scientist, the novel portrayed him as a tragic figure. Percy Shelley, Marys husband, served as an influence for the character. Victor was a pen name of Percy Shelleys, as in the collection of poetry he wrote with his sister Elizabeth, Original Poetry by Victor and Cazire. As stated in the novel, Frankensteins family is one of the most distinguished of the Genevese republic and his ancestors were counselors, Percy had a sister named Elizabeth, Frankenstein had an adopted sister, named Elizabeth. On 22 February 1815, Mary Shelley delivered a baby two months premature, the child died two weeks later, soon after, Percy left with Claire, Marys stepsister, with whom he was having an affair. The question of Frankensteins responsibility to the creature – in some ways like that of a parent to a child – is one of the themes of the book
29.
Frankenstein's monster
–
Frankensteins monster, sometimes known as Frankenstein, is a fictional character who first appeared in Mary Shelleys 1818 novel Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus. Shelleys title thus compares the monsters creator, Victor Frankenstein, to the mythological character Prometheus, although nameless in Shelleys novel, the creature is often referred to by his creators surname, Frankenstein. In Shelleys Gothic story, Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory through an ambiguous method consisting of chemistry, Shelley describes the monster as 8-foot-tall, hideously ugly, but sensitive and emotional. The monster attempts to fit into society but is shunned. According to the scholar Joseph Carroll, the monster occupies a territory between the characteristics that typically define protagonists and antagonists. Mary Shelleys original novel never ascribes an actual name to the monster, although when speaking to his creator, Victor Frankenstein, Victor refers to the monster as creature, fiend, spectre, the demon, wretch, devil, thing, being, and ogre. It has become common vernacular to refer to the creature by the name Frankenstein, as in Shelleys story, the monsters namelessness became a central part of the stage adaptations in London and Paris during the decades after the novels first appearance. In 1823, Shelley herself attended a performance of Presumption, the first successful adaptation of her novel. The play bill amused me extremely, for in the list of dramatis personae came _________, by Mr T. Cooke and this nameless mode of naming the unnameable is rather good. Within a decade of publication, the name of the used to refer to the monster. The story was adapted for the stage in 1927 by Peggy Webling, however, the monster has no name in the Universal film series starring Boris Karloff during the 1930s, which was largely based upon Weblings play. The 1931 Universal film treated the monsters identity in a way as Shelleys novel, in the opening credits. Nevertheless, the creature soon enough became best known in the imagination as Frankenstein. This usage is considered erroneous, but usage commentators regard the monster sense of Frankenstein as well-established. Thumbing through a book of the works of William Shakespeare, the monster chooses Proteus from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as told by Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein builds the creature in his laboratory through an ambiguously described scientific method consisting of chemistry and alchemy. Frankenstein is disgusted by his creation, however, and flees from it in horror, frightened, and unaware of his own identity, the monster wanders through the wilderness. He finds brief solace beside a remote cottage inhabited by a family of peasants, eavesdropping, the creature familiarizes himself with their lives and learns to speak, whereby he becomes eloquent, educated, and well-mannered. The creature eventually introduces himself to the blind father, who treats him with kindness
30.
Comic book
–
A comic book or comicbook, also called comic magazine or simply comic, is a publication that consists of comic art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by brief descriptive prose and written narrative, although comics has some origins in 18th century Japan and 1830s Europe, comic books were first popularized in the United States during the 1930s. Comic books are reliant on their organization and appearance, authors largely focus on the frame of the page, size, orientation, and panel positions. These characteristic aspects of books are necessary in conveying the content. The key elements of comic books include panels, balloons, text, balloons are usually convex spatial containers of information that are related to a character using a tail element. The tail has an origin, path, tip, and pointed direction, there are many technological formulas used to create comic books, including directions, axes, data, and metrics. Following these key formatting procedures is the writing, drawing, Comics as a print medium have existed in America since the printing of The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck in 1842 in hardcover, making it the first known American prototype comic book. The introduction of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shusters Superman in 1938 turned comic books into a major industry, the Golden Age originated the archetype of the superhero. Historians generally divide the timeline of the American comic book into eras, the Golden Age of Comic Books began with the introduction of Superman in 1938, spurring a period of high sales. The Silver Age of comic books is considered to date from the first successful revival of the then-dormant superhero form. The demarcation between the Silver Age and the era, the Bronze Age of Comic Books, is less well-defined. The Modern Age of Comic Books runs from the mid-1980s to the present day, in response to attention from the government and from the media, the U. S. comic book industry set up the Comics Magazine Association of America. The CMAA instilled the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the self-censorship Comics Code that year and it was not until the 1970s that comic books could be published without passing through the inspection of the CMAA. In the early 1970s, a surge of creativity emerged in what known as underground comix. Published and distributed independently of the comics industry, most of such comics reflected the youth counterculture. Underground comics were almost never sold at newsstands, but rather in such youth-oriented outlets as head shops and record stores, frank Stacks The Adventures of Jesus, published under the name Foolbert Sturgeon, has been credited as the first underground comic. The rise of comic book specialty stores in the late 1970s created/paralleled a dedicated market for independent or alternative comics in the U. S, some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics. A few represented experimental attempts to bring closer to the status of fine art
31.
Neil Gaiman
–
Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre, and films. His notable works include the book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline. He has won awards, including the Hugo, Nebula. He is the first author to win both the Newbery and the Carnegie medals for the work, The Graveyard Book. In 2013, The Ocean at the End of the Lane was voted Book of the Year in the British National Book Awards and his father, David Bernard Gaiman, worked in the same chain of stores, his mother, Sheila Gaiman, was a pharmacist. He has two sisters, Claire and Lizzy. His other sister, Lizzy Calcioli, has said, Most of our social activities were involved with Scientology or our Jewish family and it would get very confusing when people would ask my religion as a kid. I’d say, I’m a Jewish Scientologist, Gaiman says that he is not a Scientologist, and that like Judaism, Scientology is his familys religion. About his personal views, Gaiman has stated, I think we can say that God exists in the DC Universe, I would not stand up and beat the drum for the existence of God in this universe. I dont know, I think theres probably a 50/50 chance and it doesnt really matter to me. Gaiman was able to read at the age of four, when he was about ten years old, he read his way through the works of Dennis Wheatley, where especially The Ka of Gifford Hillary and The Haunting of Toby Jugg made an impact on him. One work that made an impression on him was J. R. R. Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings from his school library. He consistently took them out and read them and he would later win the school English prize and the school reading prize, enabling him to finally acquire the third volume. For his seventh birthday, Gaiman received C. S. Lewiss The Chronicles of Narnia series and he later recalled that I admired his use of parenthetical statements to the reader, where he would just talk to you. Id think, Oh, my gosh, that is so cool, when I become an author, I want to be able to do things in parentheses. I liked the power of putting things in brackets, Narnia also introduced him to literary awards, specifically the 1956 Carnegie Medal won by the concluding volume. Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland was another favourite. Alice was default reading to the point where I knew it by heart and he also enjoyed Batman comics as a child
32.
The Sandman (Vertigo)
–
The Sandman is a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics imprint Vertigo. Its artists include Sam Kieth, Mike Dringenberg, Jill Thompson, Shawn McManus, Marc Hempel,47, it was placed under the Vertigo imprint. It tells the story of Dream of the Endless, who rules over the world of dreams, the original series ran for 75 issues from January 1989 to March 1996, with Gaimans contract stipulating that the series would end when he left it. The main character of The Sandman is Dream, also known as Morpheus and other names, the other Endless are Destiny, Death, Desire, Despair, Delirium–who was once Delight–and Destruction–who turned his back on his duties. The Sandman is a story about stories and how Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, is captured and subsequently learns that sometimes change is inevitable. Critically acclaimed, The Sandman was one of the first few graphic novels ever to be on the New York Times Best Seller list, along with Maus, Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. It was one of five novels to make Entertainment Weeklys 100 best reads from 1983 to 2008. Norman Mailer described the series as a strip for intellectuals. The series is noted for having an influence over the fantasy genre. Various film and television versions of Sandman have been developed unsuccessfully since the 1990s, in a panel at the San Diego Comic-Con International in 2007, Gaiman remarked that rather see no Sandman movie made than a bad Sandman movie. In 2013, Warner Bros. announced that David S. Goyer will be producing an adaptation of the comic book series with Joseph Gordon-Levitt within its upcoming Vertigo film slate. Gordon-Levitt dropped out on March 5,2016, after Eric Heisserer was brought on as screenwriter, the Sandman grew out of a proposal by Neil Gaiman to revive DCs 1974–1976 series The Sandman, illustrated by Jack Kirby and Ernie Chua and written by Joe Simon and Michael Fleisher. Gaiman had considered including characters from the Dream Stream in a scene for the first issue of his 1988 miniseries Black Orchid, while the scene did not make it into later drafts because Roy Thomas was using the characters in Infinity, Inc. Gaiman soon began constructing a treatment for a new series, Gaiman mentioned his treatment in passing to DC editor Karen Berger. While months later Berger offered Gaiman a comic title to work on, weeks later, Berger asked Gaiman if he was interested in doing a Sandman series. Gaiman recalled, I said, Um. yes, but the rest is up to you. Gaiman crafted the new character from an image of a man, young, pale and naked, imprisoned in a tiny cell. Deathly thin, with dark hair, and strange eyes
33.
Geoffrey Chaucer
–
Geoffrey Chaucer, known as the Father of English literature, is widely considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. He was the first poet to be buried in Poets Corner of Westminster Abbey, among his many works are The Book of the Duchess, The House of Fame, The Legend of Good Women and Troilus and Criseyde. He is best known today for The Canterbury Tales, Chaucers work was crucial in legitimizing the literary use of the Middle English vernacular at a time when the dominant literary languages in England were French and Latin. Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London sometime around 1343, though the precise date and his father and grandfather were both London vintners, several previous generations had been merchants in Ipswich. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffreys father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the fine levied suggests that the family was financially secure. In the City Hustings Roll 110,5, Ric II, dated June 1380, Geoffrey Chaucer refers to himself as me Galfridum Chaucer, filium Johannis Chaucer, Vinetarii, Londonie. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant, as well as working for the king from 1389 to 1391 as Clerk of the Kings Works. In 1359, in the stages of the Hundred Years War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, Elizabeths husband. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Rheims, Edward paid £16 for his ransom, a considerable sum, and Chaucer was released. After this, Chaucers life is uncertain, but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain, around 1366, Chaucer married Philippa Roet. She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward IIIs queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford and it is uncertain how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but three or four are most commonly cited. His son, Thomas Chaucer, had a career, as chief butler to four kings, envoy to France. Thomass daughter, Alice, married the Duke of Suffolk, thomass great-grandson, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III before he was deposed. Geoffreys other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun at Barking Abbey, Agnes, an attendant at Henry IVs coronation, Chaucers Treatise on the Astrolabe was written for Lewis. According to tradition, Chaucer studied law in the Inner Temple at this time and he became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet de chambre, yeoman, or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail a wide variety of tasks. His wife also received a pension for court employment and he travelled abroad many times, at least some of them in his role as a valet. In 1368, he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante Visconti, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, two other literary stars of the era were in attendance, Jean Froissart and Petrarch
34.
Giovanni Boccaccio
–
Giovanni Boccaccio was an Italian writer, poet, correspondent of Petrarch, and an important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio wrote a number of works, including The Decameron. The details of Boccaccios birth are uncertain and he was born in Florence or in a village near Certaldo where his family was from. He was the son of Florentine merchant Boccaccino di Chellino and an unknown woman, Boccaccios stepmother was called Margherita de Mardoli. His father worked for the Compagnia dei Bardi and, in the 1320s, married Margherita dei Mardoli, Boccaccio may have been tutored by Giovanni Mazzuoli and received from him an early introduction to the works of Dante. In 1326, his father was appointed head of a bank, Boccaccio was an apprentice at the bank but disliked the banking profession. He persuaded his father to let him study law at the Studium and he also pursued his interest in scientific and literary studies. His father introduced him to the Neapolitan nobility and the French-influenced court of Robert the Wise in the 1330s, at this time, he fell in love with a married daughter of the king, who is portrayed as Fiammetta in many of Boccaccios prose romances, including Il Filocolo. Acciaioli later became counselor to Queen Joanna I of Naples and, eventually and it seems that Boccaccio enjoyed law no more than banking, but his studies allowed him the opportunity to study widely and make good contacts with fellow scholars. His early influences included Paolo da Perugia, humanists Barbato da Sulmona and Giovanni Barrili, in Naples, Boccaccio began what he considered his true vocation of poetry. Works produced in this period include Il Filostrato and Teseida, The Filocolo, the period featured considerable formal innovation, including possibly the introduction of the Sicilian octave, where it influenced Petrarch. Boccaccio returned to Florence in early 1341, avoiding the plague of 1340 in that city and he had left Naples due to tensions between the Angevin king and Florence. His father had returned to Florence in 1338, where he had gone bankrupt, the pastoral piece Ninfale fiesolano probably dates from this time, also. In 1343, Boccaccios father remarried to Bice del Bostichi and his children by his first marriage had all died, but he had another son named Iacopo in 1344. In Florence, the overthrow of Walter of Brienne brought about the government of popolo minuto and it diminished the influence of the nobility and the wealthier merchant classes and assisted in the relative decline of Florence. The city was further in 1348 by the Black Death. From 1347, Boccaccio spent much time in Ravenna, seeking new patronage and, despite his claims and his stepmother died during the epidemic and his father was closely associated with the government efforts as Minister of Supply in the city. His father died in 1349 and Boccaccio was forced into an active role as head of the family
35.
Rip Van Winkle
–
Rip Van Winkle is a short story by American author Washington Irving published in 1819. Written while Irving was living in Birmingham, England, it is part of a collection entitled The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Although the story is set in New Yorks Catskill Mountains, Irving later admitted, When I wrote the story, the storys title character is a Dutch-American villager living around the time of the American Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle is set in the years before and after the American Revolutionary War, in a pleasant village, at the foot of New Yorks Catskill Mountains, lives kindly Rip Van Winkle, a Dutch villager. Van Winkle enjoys solitary activities in the wilderness or hanging out at the inn with his friends and he is loved by all in town—especially the children to whom he tells stories or for whom he repairs toys. However, he tends to shirk hard work, to his wifes dismay. One autumn day, to escape his wifes nagging, Van Winkle wanders into the mountains with his dog, hearing his name called out, Van Winkle sees a man wearing antiquated Dutch clothing, he is carrying a keg up the mountain and requires help. Together, the men and Wolf proceed to a hollow in which Rip discovers the source of thunderous noises, Van Winkle does not ask who they are or how they know his name. Instead, he begins to drink some of their Hollands and soon falls asleep, when he awakens, Van Winkle discovers shocking changes, his musket is rotting and rusty, his beard is a foot long, and his dog is nowhere to be found. He returns to his village, where he recognizes no one, Van Winkle returns just after an election, and people are asking how he voted. King Georges portrait on the sign has been replaced with one of George Washington. Van Winkle learns the fact that most of his friends were killed fighting in the American Revolution. He is also disturbed to find another man called Rip Van Winkle, it is his son, Van Winkle also discovers that his wife died some time ago but is not saddened by the news. His grown daughter takes him in, the henpecked husbands in the area often wish they could have a sip of Van Winkles elixir to sleep through their own wives nagging. After a failed venture with his brothers, Irving filed for bankruptcy in 1818. Despondent, he turned to writing for financial support, although he had difficulty thinking of stories to write. He stayed in Birmingham, England with his brother-in-law Henry Van Wart, the two were reminiscing in June 1818 when Irving was suddenly inspired by their nostalgic conversation. Irving locked himself in his room and wrote all night
36.
John Quidor
–
John Quidor was an American painter of historical and literary subjects. John Quidor was born in 1801 in Tappan, New York and his family moved to New York City in 1810. In 1818, at the age 17, he began an apprenticeship with John Wesley Jarvis, the apprenticeship was not a success. Quidor felt that Jarvis did not pay sufficient attention to him, favoring Inman over him, leading Quidor in 1822 to sue Jarvis for breach of indenture, because he had to admit that he had received inadequate training, the lawsuit damaged his reputation more than Jarvis. Following his apprenticeship, Quidor earned a living by painting banners and doing work on steamboats. None of his work is known to have survived. During this part of his career, he took on Thomas Bangs Thorpe and he would absent himself from his studio for days and weeks together. When present, if not painting on a banner or engine back, a fire destroyed Quidors studio, located at 46 Canal Street, on December 16,1835. That incident, combined two major cholera outbreaks in the area and a financial crash in the late 1830s, led Quidor to abandon New York. He moved to Quincy, Illinois, in 1837, and, in 1844, purchased an $8,000 farm and these canvases were exhibited in New York in 1847, but their whereabouts and status are currently unknown. In 1851 Quidor returned to New York where he stayed until his retirement in 1869, during this period, his style changed. He simplified his compositions and used a range of colors. He apparently stopped painting in 1868 and he lived in Jersey City, New Jersey, where his eldest daughter lived, from 1869 until his death in 1881. Little appreciated in his time, in 1942, an exhibition of his works at the Brooklyn Museum of Art led to his rediscovery as an important figure in American art and his paintings establish a mysterious romantic setting for scenes in which he mingled macabre elements with an earthy humor. Many of his works, such as The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, were inspired by the writings of Washington Irving and these show Quidors characteristic mellow and harmonious color, poetic imagination, and naïve humor. Also in the Brooklyn Museum of Art are his three paintings Dorothea, Money Diggers, and Wolferts Will and he sometimes painted religious subjects, such as Jesus Blessing the Sick. Brooklyn Museum, & Baur, J. I. H. John Quidor, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. Thurston, H. T. Colby, F. M. eds. article name needed
37.
Washington Irving
–
Washington Irving was an American short story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving served as the U. S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. He made his debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle. After moving to England for the business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon. He continued to publish regularly—and almost always successfully—throughout his life, and just eight months before his death, Irving was also admired by some European writers, including Walter Scott, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Francis Jeffrey, and Charles Dickens. Washington Irvings parents were William Irving, Sr. originally of Quholm, Shapinsay, Orkney and they married in 1761 while William was serving as a petty officer in the British Navy. They had eleven children, eight of whom survived to adulthood and their first two sons, each named William, died in infancy, as did their fourth child, John. Their surviving children were, William, Jr. Ann, Peter, Catherine, Ebenezer, John Treat, Sarah, and Washington. At age six, with the help of a nanny, Irving met his namesake, the president blessed young Irving, an encounter Irving later commemorated in a small watercolor painting, which still hangs in his home today. The Irvings lived at 131 William Street at the time of Washington Irvings birth, the family later moved across the street to 128 William St. An uninterested student, Irving preferred adventure stories and drama and and it was in Tarrytown that Irving became familiar with the nearby town of Sleepy Hollow, with its quaint Dutch customs and local ghost stories. Irving made several trips up the Hudson as a teenager, including an extended visit to Johnstown, New York, where he passed through the Catskill mountain region. F all the scenery of the Hudson, Irving wrote later, the 19-year-old Irving began writing letters to the New York Morning Chronicle in 1802, submitting commentaries on the citys social and theater scene under the name of Jonathan Oldstyle. The name, which evoked the writers Federalist leanings, was the first of many pseudonyms Irving would employ throughout his career. The letters brought Irving some early fame and moderate notoriety, concerned for his health, Irvings brothers financed an extended tour of Europe from 1804 to 1806. Irving bypassed most of the sites and locations considered essential for the development of an upwardly mobile young man, William wrote that, though he was pleased his brothers health was improving, he did not like the choice to gallop through Italy. Leaving Florence on your left and Venice on your right, instead, Irving honed the social and conversational skills that would later make him one of the worlds most in-demand guests. I endeavor to take things as they come with cheerfulness, Irving wrote, while visiting Rome in 1805, Irving struck up a friendship with the American painter Washington Allston, and nearly allowed himself to be persuaded into following Allston into a career as a painter
38.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
–
Written while Irving was living abroad in Birmingham, England, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was first published in 1820. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, the story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. Sleepy Hollow is renowned for its ghosts and the atmosphere that pervades the imaginations of its inhabitants. Some residents say this town was bewitched during the days of the Dutch settlement. Other residents say an old Native American chief, the wizard of his tribe, Crane, a Yankee and an outsider, sees marriage to Katrina as a means of procuring Van Tassels extravagant wealth. Bones, the hero, vies with Ichabod for Katrinas hand, playing a series of pranks on the jittery schoolmaster. The tension between the three is soon brought to a head, on a placid autumn night, the ambitious Crane attends a harvest party at the Van Tassels homestead. He dances, partakes in the feast, and listens to ghostly legends told by Brom and the locals, after having failed to secure Katrinas hand, Ichabod rides home heavy-hearted and crestfallen through the woods between Van Tassels farmstead and the Sleepy Hollow settlement. As he passes several purportedly haunted spots, his imagination is engorged by the ghost stories told at Baltus harvest party. After nervously passing under a lightning-stricken tulip tree purportedly haunted by the ghost of British spy Major André, unsettled by his fellow travelers eerie size and silence, the teacher is horrified to discover that his companions head is not on his shoulders, but on his saddle. However, to Cranes horror, the ghoul clambers over the bridge, rears his horse, the next morning, Ichabod has mysteriously disappeared from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was said to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related. Indeed, the relics of the schoolmasters flight are his wandering horse, trampled saddle, discarded hat. Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, Irving wrote The Sketch Book during a tour of Europe, and parts of the tale may also be traced to European origins. Usually viewed as omens of ill-fortune for those who chose to disregard their apparitions, one particularly influential rendition of this folktale was recorded by the German folklorist Karl Musäus. During the height of the American Revolutionary War, Irving writes that the country surrounding Tarry Town was one of those places which abound with chronicle. The British and American line had run near it during the war, it had, therefore, been the scene of marauding, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of border chivalry. After the Battle of White Plains in October 1776, the south of the Bronx River was abandoned by the Continental Army. The Americans were fortified north of Peekskill, leaving Westchester County a 30-mile stretch of scorched and desolated no-mans land, vulnerable to outlaws, raiders, besides droves of Loyalist rangers and British light infantry, Hessian Jägers—renowned sharpshooters and horsemen—were among the raiders who often skirmished with Patriot militias
39.
Donald Westlake
–
Donald Edwin Westlake was an American writer, with over a hundred novels and non-fiction books to his credit. He specialized in fiction, especially comic capers, with an occasional foray into science fiction. He was a three-time Edgar Award winner, one of three writers to win Edgars in three different categories. In 1993, the Mystery Writers of America named Westlake a Grand Master, Westlake was born in Brooklyn, New York, and was raised in Albany, New York. Westlake wrote constantly in his teens, and after 200 rejections, sporadic short story sales followed over the next few years, while Westlake attended Champlain College of Plattsburgh, New York and Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. He also spent two years in the United States Air Force, Westlake moved to New York City in 1959, initially to work for a literary agency while writing on the side. By 1960, he was writing full-time and he was married three times, the final time to Abigail Westlake, a writer of nonfiction. The couple moved out of New York City to Ancram in upstate New York in 1990, abby Westlake is a well-regarded gardener, and the Westlake garden has frequently been opened for public viewing in the summer. Westlake died of an attack on December 31,2008, while on the way to a New Years Eve dinner, while he. In addition to writing consistently under his own name, Westlake published under several pseudonyms, in the order they debuted, Richard Stark, Westlakes best-known continuing pseudonym was that of Richard Stark. Stark debuted in 1959, with a story in Mystery Digest, four other Stark short stories followed through 1961, including The Curious Facts Preceding My Execution, later the title story in Westlakes first short-story collection. Then, from 1962 to 1974, sixteen novels about the relentless and remorseless professional thief Parker, Stark was then inactive until 1997, when Westlake once again began writing and publishing Parker novels under Starks name. The University of Chicago began republishing the Richard Stark novels in 2008, when Stephen King wrote the novel The Dark Half in 1989, he named the central villain George Stark as an homage to Westlake. Before…the end of 1961…six other people, friends of mine, published books as Alan Marshall, with my permission, James Blue, One-shot pseudonym, used as a third name circa 1959 when both Westlake and Stark already had stories in a magazine issue. In actuality, the name of Westlakes cat, ben Christopher, One-shot pseudonym for a 1960 story in 77 Sunset Strip magazine, based on the characters from the TV show. John Dexter, A house pseudonym used by Nightstand Books for the work of numerous authors, like John Dexter, Andrew Shaw was a house pseudonym used by a wide variety of authors. Edwin West, Brother and Sister, Campus Doll, Young and Innocent, all 1961, Strange Affair,1962, Campus Lovers,1963, allan, Elizabeth Taylor, A Fascinating Story of Americas Most Talented Actress and the Worlds Most Beautiful Woman,1961, biography. Don Holliday, Pseudonym used by Westlake for two collaborative soft-core novels in 1963/64, curt Clark, Debuted in 1964 with the short story Nackles
40.
Unreliable narrator
–
An unreliable narrator is a narrator, whether in literature, film, or theatre, whose credibility has been seriously compromised. The term was coined in 1961 by Wayne C, booth in The Rhetoric of Fiction. Sometimes the narrators unreliability is made immediately evident, a more dramatic use of the device delays the revelation until near the storys end. In some cases, the reader discovers that in the foregoing narrative, such a twist ending forces readers to reconsider their point of view and experience of the story. In some cases the narrators unreliability is never revealed but only hinted at, leaving readers to wonder how much the narrator should be trusted. Attempts have been made at a classification of unreliable narrators, william Riggan analysed in a 1981 study discernible types of unreliable narrators, focusing on the first-person narrator as this is the most common kind of unreliable narration. Examples in modern literature are Moll Flanders, Simplicius Simplicissimus or Felix Krull, the Madman a narrator who is either only experiencing mental defense mechanisms, such as dissociation and self-alienation, or severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia or paranoia. The Clown a narrator who does not take seriously and consciously plays with conventions, truth. Examples of the type include Tristram Shandy and Bras Cubas, the Naïf a narrator whose perception is immature or limited through their point of view. Examples of naïves include Huckleberry Finn, Holden Caulfield and Forrest Gump, the Liar a mature narrator of sound cognition who deliberately misrepresents themselves, often to obscure their unseemly or discreditable past conduct. John Dowell in Ford Madox Fords The Good Soldier exemplifies this kind of narrator, for example, in the three interweaving plays of Alan Ayckbourns The Norman Conquests, each confines the action to one of three locations during the course of a weekend. He writes, I have called a narrator reliable when he speaks for or acts in accordance with the norms of the work, unreliable when he does not. Peter J. Rabinowitz criticized Booths definition for relying too much on the extradiegetic facts such as norms and ethics and he consequently modified the approach to unreliable narration. An unreliable narrator however, is not simply a narrator who does not tell the truth – what fictional narrator ever tells the literal truth, in other words, all fictional narrators are false in that they are imitations. But some are imitations who tell the truth, some of people who lie, Rabinowitz main focus is the status of fictional discourse in opposition to factuality. Although there are ways to understand this duality, I propose to analyze the four audiences which it generates. Similarly, Tamar Yacobi has proposed a model of five criteria which determine if a narrator is unreliable, to determine a narrators unreliability one need not rely merely on intuitive judgments. It is neither the readers intuitions nor the implied authors norms and values that provide the clue to a narrators unreliability and these include both textual data and the readers preexisting conceptual knowledge of the world
41.
P. G. Wodehouse
–
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse KBE was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. Born in Guildford, the son of a British magistrate based in Hong Kong, Wodehouse spent happy years at Dulwich College. After leaving school he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and his early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction, creating several regular characters who became familiar to the public over the years. Although most of Wodehouses fiction is set in England, he spent much of his life in the US and used New York and Hollywood as settings for some of his novels and short stories. During and after the First World War, together with Guy Bolton and Jerome Kern and he began the 1930s writing for MGM in Hollywood. In a 1931 interview, his revelations of incompetence and extravagance at Hollywood studios caused a furore. In the same decade, his career reached a new peak. In 1934 Wodehouse moved to France for tax reasons, in 1940 he was prisoner at Le Touquet by the invading Germans. After his release he made six broadcasts from German radio in Berlin to the US, the talks were comic and apolitical, but his broadcasting over enemy radio prompted anger and strident controversy in Britain, and a threat of prosecution. From 1947 until his death he lived in the US, taking dual British-American citizenship in 1955 and he was a prolific writer throughout his life, publishing more than ninety books, forty plays, two hundred short stories and other writings between 1902 and 1974. He died in 1975, at the age of 93, in Southampton, Wodehouse worked extensively on his books, sometimes having two or more in preparation simultaneously. He would take up to two years to build a plot and write a scenario of about thirty thousand words, after the scenario was complete he would write the story. Early in his career he would produce a novel in three months, but he slowed in old age to around six months. Some critics of Wodehouse have considered his work flippant, but among his fans are former British prime ministers, the Wodehouses, who traced their ancestry back to the 13th century, belonged to a collateral branch of the family of the earls of Kimberley. Eleanor Wodehouse was also of ancient aristocratic ancestry and she was visiting one of her sisters in Guildford when Wodehouse was born there prematurely. The boy was baptised at the Church of St Nicolas, Guildford, Wodehouse wrote in 1957, If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the name Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, I must confess that I do not. I was named after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it, the first name was rapidly elided to Plum, the name by which Wodehouse became known to family and friends. Mother and son sailed for Hong Kong, where for his first two years Wodehouse was raised by a Chinese amah, alongside his elder brothers Peveril and Armine
