Thomas Hardy has always been the otherwise favourite of many readers who begin to read him. For the absolute beginners as well as for those who have been reading him for a while, Hardy’s aura is his art of weaving his stories from the ordinary lives of ordinary people and making it connect with the world in such a way that readers think the stories to be theirs rather than of the characters who are characterised in the novel. How many of you (the readers) have read Far from the Madding Crowd by him? A stunning novel which depicts fancy as well as truth – what we desire is not always granted and what we are granted cannot always be our desire. There is one Oak and one Bathsheba Everdene. There are others – Boldwood and Troy. And we are made to sympathise with Oak… there’s the art of Thomas Hardy – arousing pity.
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Charles Dickens has written many novels and most of them are very well-known. The prominent among his novels are mostly the works which discuss the plights of the poor people in enormously increasing England – industrially and intellectually. With no space or the minimum space left for the have-nots, this novelist took the charge and began writing with the perspective in mind. His novel Hard Times discusses two very important things – one is how the poor people saw rich England and how the rich people saw poor England. As a reader, you can apparently find two sections of characters in the novel. There is a visible contrast. Let’s discuss the same.READ MORE
Franz Kafka’s short stories are always amazing to read. There is no doubt about it that Kafka’s influence on English Literature (with the help of translations) can ever be reduced. Much is not known about his life and habits but the least we know, we can be sure that the gentleman was more a man of words than sentences (most powerful). Longer short stories or writings might be well but the shorter short stories of Franz Kafka were always more powerful and more impactful than anything else he wrote. This Sunday, I thought to read his short stories and pulled out the classic edition from my medium-height book shelve. And then, the excursion began.READ MORE
Who doesn’t read Shakespeare? When it comes to him, there is no question like ‘to be or not to be’. There is always one solid answer only – yes, that’s like it! Today, on the first day of this month, we have brought to you the best dramas by Shakespeare (according to our judgment) that you MUST read if you want to explore the real side of Shakespearean writing bit by bit and reach the layer where you can proudly say – yes, I know HIM! Here goes the list by BooksToRead:READ MORE
The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh is a book which, by most of the critics in India and abroad, is considered one of those novels who could successfully classify themselves to be called an ecological novel and it’s true as well… reading his novel, in case of The Hungry Tide, gradually removes the shroud from the concerns which we often ignore but only realise when it’s too late already. The human beings deported from their homes; the animals beguiled from their native land and the bystanders musing over the loss… this is all in his book and it makes the novel even complex – far, far away from the ones which are being read and written in the present day in our country.READ MORE