Rowling recently came out as a radical feminist, but the book series she is famous for seems to have some problems from that perspective. For instance, the main character is a male, anointed as the chosen one. (He even bears a stigmata, a tiny scar, but nothing extreme like Sparrowhawk's horrific...

In Reginald on Tariffs, Saki writes: [Reginald]: I’m not going to discuss the Fiscal Question (said Reginald); I wish to be original. At the same time, I think one suffers more than one realises from the system of free imports. I should like, for instance, a really prohibitive duty put upon th...

In Reginald in Russia, Saki writes: Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess’s salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. How are mentioning the figures Louis Quinze and Wilhelm...

In The Reticence of Lady Anne, Saki writes: Don Tarquinio lay astretch on the Persian rug, basking in the firelight with superb indifference to the possible ill-humour of Lady Anne. His pedigree was as flawlessly Persian as the rug, and his ruff was coming into the glory of its second winter. T...

In The Reticence of Lady Anne, Saki writes: Both Egbert and Lady Anne would have preferred something from The Yeomen of the Guard, which was their favourite opera. In matters artistic they had a similarity of taste. They leaned towards the honest and explicit in art, a picture, for instance, tha...

In The Lost Sanjak, Saki Writes: ! and, in the midst of a string of questions on indifferent topics, the examining counsel asked me with a diabolical suddenness if I could tell the Court the whereabouts of Novibazar. I felt the question to be a crucial one; something told me that the answer was ...

In A Living Chattel, Anton Chekhov writes: [Impersonal Witness] I pressed Groholsky's hand, and got into the train. He bowed towards the carriage, and went to the water-barrel—I suppose he was thirsty! What is implied when Groholsky is seen heading toward the water barrel? That he is intending ...

In An Enigmatic Nature, Anton Chekhov writes: "I am a suffering soul in some page of Dostoevsky. Reveal my soul to the world, Voldemar." and "Happiness comes tapping at my window, I had only to let it in - but -" And later concludes the story with the following passage: "But what—what stands...

From Wikipedia: Aristocratic Heian women lived restricted and secluded lives, allowed to speak to men only when they were close relatives or household members. Murasaki's autobiographical poetry shows that she socialized with women but had limited contact with men other than her father and broth...

A line from Donald Keene's introductory text about The Tale of Genji piqued my curiosity: We know little else about Murasaki’s early years, though her poems suggest that she fell in love at least once. Keene goes on to talk about Murasaki Shikibu's marriage. It is clear that Murasaki Shikibu di...

I'm putting together an effort on Science Fiction & Fantasy to give users guidance for when they should migrate1 a question from SFF to a different site on the network. Literature has a decent amount of overlap with SFF which means there is potential for a lot of migration of off topic content on...

The works of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida (1930 – 2004) had a significant impact on literary theory, leading to the development of a method of analysis known as deconstruction. (Derrida said deconstruction in his own writings did not refer to a method, but that is a different minefield....

I would like to know what "Hoo's fully resolved t' sew up meawth an' eend" means in the following stanzas: VII. Eawr Marget declares had hoo cloo'as to put on, Hoo'd goo up to Lunnon an' talk to th' greet mon; An' if things were na awtered when there hoo had been, Hoo's fully resolved t' sew up ...

I remember reading this English (could be a translation) short story ~20 years ago in my school, where an executioner who executed convicts on an electric chair, never cared (or looked into) the convicts, comes across the fact the next convict is a young man of a cheerful nature (I don't remember...

I read this book in elementary school (less than 10 years old) so I think it was a young adult or children's book. It's about inhabitants of a valley that were cut off from the outside world. The main characters were kids in school. It was like an agrarian society of some sort, like a small villa...

I would like to know what "An' hoo says hoo can tell when hoo's hurt" means in the following stanzas: VII. Eawr Marget declares had hoo cloo'as to put on, Hoo'd goo up to Lunnon an' talk to th' greet mon; An' if things were na awtered when there hoo had been, Hoo's fully resolved t' sew up meawt...

While answering another question, I read Saki's short story The Reticence of Lady Anne" from his Reginald in Russia collection. Inasmuch as a story this short can be said to have "plotlines", there are two parts of this story (spoiler alert!): The main plot is Egbert trying to resolve an argumen...

When Shadow is trying to tell Wednesday about his dream with the thunderbirds, Wednesday gets quite angry and then says they're heading to San Francisco: "I dreamed of thunderbirds...," said Shadow. "And a tower. Skulls..." It seemed to him very important to recount his dream. "I know what you w...