Esther's Classic Literature Blog

How do you react to literature? Does a book or a poem ever strike you in a powerful way? Do you ever feel like writing about it: getting all of ... Read More

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 ... Read More

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 ... Read More

Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen, was written between 1811 and 1813. It's a rags-to-riches story of Fanny Price. Born in poverty and raised in riches, Fanny still retains her high ... Read More

Macbeth is one of the most famous plays by William Shakespeare. There's murder, battles, supernatural portents, and all the other elements of a well-worked drama. Of course, superstition also surrounds the ... Read More

With A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain displaces a 19th-century man in time. So, we get a tale of Camelot, King Arthur, the Knights of the Round ... Read More

In case you haven't heard, it's Mardi Gras! Mark Twain once wrote about Mardi Gras in his Life on the Mississippi. He writes: "in their train all manner of giants, ... Read More

Apparently, it does take much to get a book censored, and placed on the list of banned books. According to The Guardian, Susan Patron's award-winning book has been controversial because ... Read More

Carson McCullers is famous for novels like The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, which was a featured selection for the Oprah Book Club. McCullers wrote in the Southern Gothic tradition. ... Read More

In Charlotte Gordon's fascinating biography, Mistress Bradstreet, Anne Bradstreet emerges as "an electrifying personality"--the first New World poet with her bestselling volume of American poetry. Experience Anne Bradstreet like never ... Read More

The Reef is not one of the most well-known works by Edith Wharton. In fact, you may not even be familiar with the title at all. Usually, when I think ... Read More

What is it they say: "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely"? In Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, we see the end result when a man gives into the enticements ... Read More

Are readers born, or are they made--through encouragement, good books, and the other enticements of literature? When one is passionate about reading, it's hard to imagine a life that doesn't ... Read More

Is it forbidden, lost, found, or just plain romance? Read more the love, romance, and also about Valentine's Day in literature... Take a look at a few books about ... Read More

Mark Twain continued the boy's tale that he started in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The novel is one of the greatest classics in ... Read More

When I first read The Scarlet Letter, I loved the book. But, other readers I've talked to seem to hate Nathaniel Hawthorne--more than any other author. I guess that's one ... Read More

Aaron's Rod, by D.H. Lawrence, was first published in 1922. A Romantic tragicomedy, this work takes place in England and Italy. According to Ernest Dempsey, "The work stands as a ... Read More

The Canterbury Tales is one of the most studied works in English literature, but you may find his Middle English challenging. If you've never experienced Chaucer, be wary no more. ... Read More

Love letters express the unexpressible emotions between two individuals. These collections feature the letters of writers like Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Jack London, Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, Franz Kafka, George Sand, ... Read More

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 ... Read More

It's not Treasure Island, but The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is filled with pirates, adventures, and treasure of a completely different sort. This novel was another of the many classics ... Read More

Howards End is a Romantic novel by E.M. Forster. The book was first published in 1910. In the novel, E.M. Forster writes: "Only connect! That was the whole of her ... Read More

El Dorado is a mythical city of gold. Edgar Allan Poe also wrote about El Dorado in this famous poem. Gaily bedight, A gallant knight, In sunshine and in shadow, Had journeyed long, Singing a ... Read More

Mrs. Dalloway is about one day in the life of an ordinary woman, but the novel also dips into the depths of controversy and madness. Out of that fathomness dive ... Read More

Black History Month is a time when we celebrate the accomplishments of African-Americans. In literature, we look at writers like James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Charles W. Chesnutt, Rita Dove, ... Read More

Do you remember the first adventure story that you read? Was it filled with pirates and treasure, or nautical adventure? Well, Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, offers something ... Read More

In The Lost Girl, D.H. Lawrence writes: "Alvina felt herself swept... into a dusky region where men had dark faces and translucent yellow eyes, where all speech was foreign, and ... Read More