The sci-fi/fantasy author Mary Gentle's first novel, A Hawk in Silver, is set in the small town of 'Surcombe' on the south coast of England. Although Surcombe is fictional, the description of it is so precise, so detailed, so consistent in tiny minor details that don't matter to the story itself,...

I've heard a variety of interpretations of Hotel California by The Eagles: the "high life" in Los Angeles, a journey from innocence to experience, greed in the music industry, drug addiction. (Confusingly enough, the band seems to have confirmed several of these interpretations). Regardless of wh...

An Internet-article (in Russian) refers to “the Chesterton's short story, in which its character, who demanded from the people to be constantly cheerful, could not stand his own requirements, ruined himself by drink and committed suicide” (translated quote). What work of Chesterton's (I suppose ...