In Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, there is always this repeating motif of "smiling", a facial practice that Raskolnikov does a lot of. "poisonous smile" -"sardonic smile" -"ugly, ironic smile" What is one supposed to make of this? like, what does an ugly ironic smile look like, and what do...

I am looking for the book title of a recently translated book by a Chinese author who wrote the notes for the book while she was imprisoned in China. The contents seemed to be a light novel and the first scene in the book was of several characters in a train. I tried looking for recent titles fro...

I have read the Animal Farm novel of George Orwell and I was aware beforehand about the historical events it satirized/symbolized (the Russian revolution,Joseph Stalin and others). I am curious to know how someone who had no idea about these felt and how much s/he could understand of the message ...

The Spanish Gypsy (1868) by George Eliot is a closet drama in blank verse, set in Spain in the late 15th century, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. Duke Silva of Bedmár is engaged to Fedalma, but he knows that his uncle Isidor hopes to prevent the marriage by denouncing Fedalma to the I...