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Hard Times - For These Times (commonly known as Hard Times) is the
tenth novel by Charles Dickens, first published in 1854. The book
appraises English society and is aimed at highlighting the social
and economic pressures of the times.
Literary significance & criticism
Critics have had a diverse range of opinions on the novel. The
critic John Ruskin declared Hard Times to be his favourite Dickens
work due to its exploration of important social questions. However,
Thomas Macaulay branded it "sullen socialism," on the grounds that
Dickens did not fully comprehend the politics of the time. This
point was also made by George Bernard Shaw, who decreed Hard Times
to be a novel of "passionate revolt against the whole industrial
order of the modern world." Shaw criticised the novel for its
failure to provide an accurate account of trade unionism of the
time, deeming Dickens's character of Slackbridge, the poisonous
orator, "a mere figment of middle-class imagination." However,
believing it to be very different from Dickens's other novels, he
also said: "Many readers find the change disappointing. Others find
Dickens worth reading almost for the first time."
F. R. Leavis, in The Great Tradition, described the book as
essentially a moral fable, and said that 'of all Dickens' works (it
is) the one that has all the strengths of his genius - that of a
completely serious work of art'. This, however, was a view which he
later revised in Dickens the Novelist, which recognised that
Dickens's strengths and artistry appeared fully in other works.
Walter Allen, in an introduction to an alternative edition,
characterised Hard Times as being an unsurpassed "critique of
industrial society," which was later superseded by works of D. H.
Lawrence. Other writers have described the novel as being, as G. K.
Chesterton commented in his work Appreciations and Criticisms, "the
harshest of his stories"; whereas George Orwell praised the novel
(and Dickens himself) for "generous anger."
Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Bronte, written between
October 1845 and June 1846, and published in 1847 under
thepseudonym "Ellis Bell." It was her first and only published
novel: she died aged 30 the following year. The decision to publish
came after the success of her sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre.
After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of Wuthering
Heights, and arranged for the edited version to be published as a
posthumous second edition in 1850.
Wuthering Heights is the eponymous farmhouse on the Yorkshire
moors where the story unfolds. Its core theme is the enduring love
between the heroine, Catherine Earnshaw, and her father's adopted
son, Heathcliff and how it eventually destroys their lives and the
lives of those around them.
Although Wuthering Heights became a classic of English literature,
it received mixed reviews when first published, and was considered
controversial because its depiction of mental and physical cruelty
was so unusually stark. In the second half of the 19th century,
Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre was considered the best of the Bronte
sisters' works, but later critics argued that Wuthering Heights was
superior. Wuthering Heights has inspired adaptations, including
film, radio and television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J.
Taylor, a ballet, operas (by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and
Frederic Chaslin), a role-playing game, and the 1978 chart-topping
song by Kate Bush.
The Wings of the Dove is a 1902 novel by Henry James. This novel
tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with
a serious disease, and her effect on the people around her. Some of
these people befriend Milly with honorable motives, while others
are more self-interested.
Literary significance and criticism
The Wings of the Dove has one of the strongest critical positions
of any of James' works, although James himself sometimes expressed
dissatisfaction with it. In his preface to the New York Edition,
James spent much time confessing to supposed faults in the novel:
defective structure, characters not as well presented as they could
be, and a general failure to realize his initial plan for the book.
By and large, critics have regarded these faults as venial or
nonexistent. Instead, they've concentrated on the central
characters and supporting cast, and the technique that James uses
in their presentation.
In 1998, the Modern Library ranked The Wings of the Dove 26th on
its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th
century.
Jane Eyre (originally published as Jane Eyre: An Autobiography) is
a novel by English writer Charlotte Bronte. It was published on 16
October 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. of London, England, under
the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released
the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York.
Primarily of the bildungsroman genre, Jane Eyre follows the
emotions and experiences of its eponymous character, including her
growth to adulthood, and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic
master of fictitious Thornfield Hall. In its internalisation of the
action - the focus is on the gradual unfolding of Jane's moral and
spiritual sensibility and all the events are coloured by a
heightened intensity that was previously the domain of poetry - the
novel revolutionised the art of fiction. Charlotte Bronte has been
called the 'first historian of the private consciousness' and the
literary ancestor of writers like Joyce and Proust. The novel
contains elements of social criticism, with a strong sense of
morality at its core, but is nonetheless a novel many consider
ahead of its time given the individualistic character of Jane and
the novel's exploration of classism, sexuality, religion, and
proto-feminism.
Reception]
According to a review of Jane Eyre in The Quarterly Review, it was
found to be "pre-eminently an anti-Christian composition." Although
Bronte clearly intended for the book to be a protest against
Victorian lifestyle, which caused a great unrest with the Quarterly
Review, they found Jane Eyre to be more radical than its original
intent: "We do not hesitate to say that the tone of mind and
thought which has overthrown authority and violated every code
human and divine abroad, and fostered Chartism and rebellion at
home, is the same which has also written Jane Eyre." Although Jane
Eyre is now commonly accepted into the canon of high-school English
literature, its immediate reception was in stark contrast to its
modern-day reception.
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Rhetoric (Paperback)
W. Rhys Roberts; Illustrated by Emily Lam; Aristotle
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R235
Discovery Miles 2 350
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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De Profundis (Paperback)
Emily Lam; Oscar Wilde
bundle available
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R148
Discovery Miles 1 480
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Summer (Paperback)
Emily Lam; Edith Wharton
bundle available
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R234
Discovery Miles 2 340
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