The Reading Room

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6:42 AM

Q: In 'The Sign of the Four', what happened to the sikh accomplices at the end?

[Spoiler Alert] Jonathan Small always maintained how he was loyal throughout to his other three sikh/indian accomplices. The last we read of them was when they all met with Sholto and Mortsan and told them about the treasure. But later on when Jonathan Small managed to escape with Tonga, he didn...

Rand al'Thor

7:33 AM

@Bookworm This question has ripped through the HNQ as at a distance.

CowperKettle

8:29 AM

Now burst above the city's cold twilight
The piercing whistles and the tower-clocks:
For day is done. Along the frozen docks
The workmen set their ragged shirts aright.
Thro' factory doors a stream of dingy light
Follows the scrimmage as it quickly flocks
To hut and home among the snow's gray blocks. -
I love you, human labourers. Good-night!
Good-night to all the blackened arms that ache!
Good-night to every sick and sweated brow,
To the poor girl that strength and love forsake,
To the poor boy who can no more! I vow

When I see a sunset or a sunrise against a city background with pipes and stacks, I recall this poem.

3 hours later…

b_jonas

11:10 AM

The Agatha Christie book that I have just re-read is Death on the Nile. I remembered the main twist, but not most of the other details.

There's still a lot of Agatha Christie books that I have never read and will want to read at least once at some point, and some that I will want to re-read. But the originals aren't easy to get hold of here, and I don't want to read her in translation anymore.

1 hour later…

Rand al'Thor

12:24 PM

I saw a screen adaptation of Death on the Nile some time in the early 2000s. Vaguely remember the main twist.

Eng Lit Learner

1:14 PM

Q: Meaning of "the possibility of a shared relation to music"

Nobody in this book is a musical genius. Garner takes her title from a textbook Athena keeps on her piano. Elizabeth mocks it: “God, listen to this—how pompous. ‘Bach is never simple, but that is one reason why we should all try to master him.’ ” Nobody in this book is a master: Athena describes...

meaning literature interpretation

2 hours later…

Bookworm

3:05 PM

Q: Can anyone explain? "Mockingbird" poem by Charles Bukowski

the mockingbird had been following the cat all summer mocking mocking mocking teasing and cocksure; the cat crawled under rockers on porches tail flashing and said something angry to the mockingbird which I didn’t understand. yesterday the cat walked calmly up the driveway with the mockingbird al...

poetry german-literature charles-bukowski

2 hours later…

Bookworm

4:48 PM

Q: Has the Maltese poem "Fuq Għoljiet Dingli" ("On Dingli Cliff ") by Victor Fenech been ever translated into any other language?

I've been reading some if the poems of the collection Ċirasa (Under the Cherry Tree) by John Peter Portelli, available at the author's website with a translation to English. I especially liked the poem Irdumijiet (Cliffs, page 40 on the above linked document), a text that makes me feel so close a...