Classic Literature

Love letters express seemingly inexpressible emotions. Have you ever read the volumes of love letters by Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning (their romance is legendary, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, James Joyce, Franz Kafka, George Sand, George Bernard Shaw, Anne Bradstreet, Oscar Wilde, and Lewis Carroll.

Romance--in all its complexity--is interwoven into so many works of literature, but love letters are passionate missives by the greatest literary writers (more "real" and more expressive). Have you stopped to imagine their lives and loves (based on those letters)?

Katherine Mansfield wrote: "My love for you tonight is so deep and tender that it seems to be outside myself as well. I am fast shut up like a little lake in the embrace of some big mountains. If you were to climb up the mountains, you would see me down below, deep and shining - and quite fathomless, my dear. You might drop your heart into me and you'd never hear it touch bottom."

And, then there's her poem (Secret Flowers): "Is love a light for me? A steady light, / A lamp within whose pallid pool I dream / Over old love-books? Or is it a gleam, / A lantern coming towards me from afar / Down a dark mountain? Is my love a star?"

Heloise ended a letter to Abelard with this line: "I beg you, think what you owe me, give ear to my pleas, and I will finish a long letter with a brief ending: farewell, my only love."

What are you reading today...?

Jude the Obscure features one of those catch-in-your-throat, tragic scenes in literature, particularly when you aren't prepared for it. In 1895, when Thomas Hardy first published his novel, the book was so controversial that he never wrote another book--instead devoting his energies to poetry.

It's not shocking that his characters are tragic (his novels are peopled with tragic characters); it's not shocking that Jude died alone and unhappy, or that he was never able to fulfill his dreams. So, why was it so controversial?

Why did Little Father Time write: "Done because we are too menny"?

Why is this one of those novels that sticks in the back of your brain?

Are we ever really the same again?

In Jude the Obscure, Thomas Hardy writes: "Their lives were ruined...; ruined by the fundamental error of their matrimonial union: that of having based a permanent contract on a temporary feeling."

Cover Art © W.W. Norton & Co.

You don't have to read Romeo and Juliet to get your fill of "star-crossed" lovers this Valentine's Day season.

Astrophil and Stella, by Sir Philip Sidney, is a sonnet sequence that is a commentary on love, and the very nature of poetry. Sidney writes: "Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show, / That she (dear She) might take some pleasure of my pain: / Pleasure might cause her read, reading might make her know, / Knowledge might pity win, and pity grace obtain..."

In his essay about the sonnet sequence, James Topham writes, "Astrophil and Stella very much follows the generic conventions of Elizabethan love poetry, and speaks convincingly of the power that love has to affect the life of an individual. However the sonnet sequence stands in marked contrast with the love poetry that precedes it. Astrophil and Stella particularly finds itself in opposition to--and in parody of--the notion of love poetry as created by the Italian poet Petrach. "

What works would you compare with Shakespeare's famous play about star-crossed lovers?

Cover Art © Oxford University Press.

Charles Dickens is one of the most famous writers in literary history. He's representative of the Victorian period (a time when Robert Browning was painting beautiful portraitures like My Last Duchess; George Eliot was penning her famous The Mill on the Floss and Middlemarch; Thomas Hardy imagined Jude the Obscure and Tess of the d'Urbervilles). But his mark extends far beyond the confines of his own time (it's been 200 years since his birth, and we're still reading and LOVING his novels)...

So, why?

Charles Dickens drew from an early life of poverty, loneliness and exile. He gathered up his experiences with the comic-tragic-villainous mix of human beings--all to create his magic of fiction (with a universality that still touches us today): Hard Times, David Copperfield, A Christmas Carol, Our Mutual Friend, A Tale of Two Cities, Oliver Twist, and beyond. With all those unforgettable characters and engaging plots, Dickens still manages to draw us all into his flights of imagination.

We're introduced into his world of hard times, with all those divine moments of laughter, tears, loneliness, and depression... the ecstasy of romance and the utter devastation of love lost. No wonder his novels are still such favorites in (and out of) the classroom! They've become part of our dreams, our cherished imaginings.

In Nicholas Nickleby, he wrote, "Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport on the earth in the night season, and melt away with the first beam of the sun which lights grim care and stern reality on their daily pilgrimage through the world."

Happy Birthday to the master of storytelling! Join us in celebrating 200 years of great novels--with thousands of pages, filled with the stories that we hope to never forget... May we forever remember!

Christopher Marlowe was born on February 6, 1564, but he was baptized on February 26. Beyond his fame as a spy for the Queen's Privy Council, he was a poet and dramatist, who is known for works like The Jew of Malta and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus. There are also those who believe that Christopher Marlowe was actually William Shakespeare.

The span of his dramatic career lasted a short 6 years. At the age of 29, Marlowe was killed in a tavern brawl. In The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, Marlowe writes:

"Come live with me, and be my love;
And we will all the pleasures prove
That valleys, groves, hills and fields,
Woods or steepy mountain yields."

Time has played a part in reshaping the Christopher Marlowe's myth and legend. His works have--from time to time--fallen out of fashion. But, as Park Honan says, "even when Marlowe's reputation was at its lowest, the beauty of his verse drew attention--a sign that he would keep his power." In the end, he "belongs to us." He dramatized human existence--with all the frailties and foibles--and he "affirmed human strengths."

So much has been said (and written) about the simplest of gestures: a kiss. Is it a kiss to say hello? Goodbye? Is it the kiss of betrayal, or an expression of friendship? Perhaps, it express some spoken (or unspoken) passion? It could be the author's way of building passionate intensity.

We want and need to know: Where do we go from here. Is the kiss an end, or just a beginning of everything that will unfold for the characters in the pages to follow? For some characters, it would appear safer to let the story unfold--without analyzing the kiss too much. At least we--as readers--are not in danger of jinxing the relationship as we try to decipher the lines. We can let our imaginations go wild, and then let ourselves be drawn back to the text: the poem, story, novel--to see what the final authorial intent is.

There's so much imagery surrounding the advent of a kiss...

Victor Hugo wrote: "How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said."

Percy Bysshe Shelly wrote, "What are all these kissings worth, / If thou kiss not me?"

In The Kiss, Kate Chopin's Harvey quietly tells the girl, "I've stopped kissing women; it's dangerous."

Yes, books must be dangerous too. We are haunted by the most beautiful passages--so many experiences, seen through the lives of those indelibly and artfully drawn lovers. So, let the lines draw you forward. Dream a little dream, and imagine all those moments in literary history. Which one is your favorite? Do you remember a particular kiss?

In Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand wrote: "And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever.'"

Groundhog Day (or Groundhog's Day) is an interesting story in itself. Just think for a moment... People get together and watch to see whether a little rodent-looking creature (okay, he's known as a woodchuck, marmot, or ground squirrel) casts a shadow. It doesn't really matter whether he does or not, because it's a conversation piece for at least the entire day of February 2nd.

I guess that's what we get for buying into all these stories we're told. We jump at shadows...

• Walt Whitman once wrote: "That shadow my likeness that goes to and fro seeking a livelihood...."
• Madeleine L'Engle wrote: "It has only recently struck me that we need our shadow-casters, metaphorically as well as physically. What in me casts shadows, and what kind?"
• Lord Byron wrote: "The dread of vanished shadows --Are they so? Is not the past all shadow?"
• Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: "I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me."

What shadows do you see today? What are you reading?

James Joyce is one of the masters of world literature. Exiled from Ireland, he was fated to write, revise and re-work his greatest masterworks--in his mission to create perfect exemplifications of literary styling. He wasn't bothered by controversy--his famous Ulysses is one of the most famously banned novels of its time (it's got sex, violence, inner turmoil/angst...).

Today, we celebrate the 130th birthday of James Joyce and the 90th anniversary of the publication of Ulysses. To commemorate the illustrious events of the day, Frank Delaney is reading part of Ulysses in Madison Square Park, as well as via video. He's been dubbed "The Most Eloquent Man in the World" by NPR--you can listen to his podcast, Re: Joyce, a eloquent deconstruction of James Joyce's Ulysses in 5-minute, bite-size pieces. He also created a rap tribute to James Joyce.

In his memoir, Stanislaus Joyce writes, "In our world today, serious literature has taken the place of religion. People with liberty of choice go... to literature for enlightened understanding... And it answers in parables."

A library is the grand place where books live. For those that love reading and collecting literature, a library can be a magical place of the imagination. It's a great place to find volumes on almost every imaginable topic. Library patrons may have a variety of reasons for visiting the library. Why do you visit the library?

John Alfred Landford once said, "No possession can surpass, or even equal a good library, to the lover of books. Here are treasured up for his daily use and delectation, riches which increase by being consumed, and pleasures that never cloy."

Lemony Snicket said, "A good library will never be too neat, or too dusty, because somebody will always be in it, taking books off the shelves and staying up late reading them."

Horace Mann wrote: "A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a right to bring up children without surrounding them with books.... Children learn to read being in the presence of books."

Take a look at quotes and more about libraries. Celebrate Library Lovers' Month.

Do you love libraries? How do you show it?

In this book, Lauren Henderson tiptoes through the minefields of love and relationships with some of Jane Austen's most vivacious and unforgettable characters. Read what to do (and not to do) in dating, based on the examples from Elizabeth (Pride and Prejudice), Fanny (Mansfield Park), Emma (Emma), Anne (Persuasion), Elinor (Sense and Sensibility), or Catherine (Northanger Abbey).
Read more about Jane Austen at the movies: Jane Austen in Hollywood.
Also read Jane Austen Humor Books. Don't forget to join our discussion: Which is Your Favorite?

Explore the world of Jane Austen.

Cover Art © Hyperion.