A Beloved Classic Of All Time, With One Of The Most Favorite Love Stories Of All Time

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, although Jane Austen had written it between October of 1796 and August of 1797. This was at a time when women were expected to stay at home and just be a pretty face, not think for themselves, and not involve themselves in politics or careers (read: “men’s work”). Men were authors; women were not. Austen’s father first submitted Pride and Prejudice to a publisher in 1797, under the title First Impressions, but it was rejected probably for the sole reason that it had been written by a woman. Even when Pride and Prejudice was finally published in 1813, Austen’s name did not appear as the author of the book, and in fact, Austen was never given credit for being the author of any of her works while she was alive. The title page of Pride and Prejudice, when published, read “by the author of Sense and Sensibility.”
　　
Regardless, Jane Austen is one of the most widely read authors of English literature and there is no doubt in my mind as to why this is true. She had a lot to say about women and society in England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Pride and Prejudice is quite comic and it paints a clear picture of how women who lacked their own fortune oftentimes had to forsake love to marry for economic security and social status.
　　
It's a very sweet story in which the authoress has picturized the glamoures society of England during the 17th century. It has made me experience the world enchanted by true love and the attraction of a man towards a girl. We can understand the different relationships like sister, mother, child and a lover.
　　
-Srishti, Delhi
　　
I feel that after reading the book I have learned a lot about the old times and how life used to be. For example, most girls married not for love but for security. I've recently watched the new film and many parts that are in the book aren't in the film that I felt should be. Overall very sweet love story.
　　
-Jessica, Isle of Wight
　　
I had to read this book for a high school project. Being 16 and growing up as a woman in today's society it is nice to read a book about the old days. Sometimes I feel that I can be a lot like the protagonist of the story. Social inferiority (much like Darcy's) still can be found these days. Overall I give this book 100% on my scale, I'm not one for the sappy novels but this one is for sure a page-turner!
　　
-Alpana, Canada
　　
I first read this book when I was just 10 and from that time on it has been my favorite book. The book conveys the feelings and emotions of all its different characters very well and charms all its readers with the wit and liveliness of Elizabeth Bennet, the misunderstood character of Mr. Darcy, the beautiful, sensible Jane, and the agreeable Mr. Bingley as well as all the other characters. This book, with its many different types of characters is definitely a must read for everyone.
　　
It is a satisfying love story, if that’s what you’re after, but it’s also much more than that. The characters are great—even the ones whose personalities I can’t stand—and the book really has a lot to say about people’s pride, vanity and prejudices in general.
　　
I love this book because I love the characters. A few of them really work my nerves, but I still love how well-written they are. Elizabeth is my favorite because she is so independent, headstrong and outspoken. She refuses to marry for any reason other than love, even if that means she doesn’t end up marrying someone who can give her a better economic and social status. She has her faults, but she is not afraid to admit to them when she knows she’s wrong. Her mother and two of her younger sisters annoy her as much as they annoy me, and she can’t stand the snotty sisters of Mr. Bingley, whom I despise every time I read the book.

It is apparent from the first chapter that Elizabeth takes after her father, who is also headstrong and outspoken. He loves to put his annoying wife in her place, but he does it in very humorous ways without being too nasty. I get a lot of laughs out of Pride and Prejudice every time I read it, and most of those laughs are courtesy of Mr. Bennet. Mrs. Bennet annoys the heck out of me and I find myself audibly telling her to shut up throughout the book. Seriously, if she would only just shut up. I avoid people like the snotty Bingley sisters like the plague in real life because if anyone deserves a good slap across the face, they do. People who think they’re better than everyone else because of money or social status, like the Bingley sisters and Lady Catherine (Mr. Darcy’s aunt), just disgust me. Mr. Collins could use a nice piece of duct tape over his mouth, as well, since he really makes himself look like a fool every time he speaks. Finally, Mr. Darcy is infuriating and endearing at the same time.

Wit against wit, pride against prejudice, the continued encounters each grew into something more. It was the belief then that society could not tolerate a relationship such as theirs, and while one (in the beginning) struggled against his feelings, another was entirely ignorant of his affection towards her. It could not be overlooked however when in light of his feelings, his mistakes that caused the sadness of a loved one were shown, and his unjust actions towards an acquaintance were clarified. What appeared to be pride and prejudice on both sides eventually gave way in the story, leading to respect, modesty and even love.
　　
Truly a love story what one would like to believe, still existed in our modern world.
　　
What I loved most about the book is the witty dialogue between the characters, with a detailed relay of events and presentation of characters throughout the entire story, I believe it to be a much more interesting presentation than the movies themselves. One of the best things in the book is that despite the use of somewhat classical English, each sentence in itself is a presentation of the artful language of such a time. It was also a great thing to have to watch how slowly each of the characters evolved within the story, and also how eventually they came either to love, accept, and feel dislike for each other.
　　
A book I wholly recommend, this book is honestly not an easy read and may need more concentration in reading it than other books. Really a wonderful classic. Now I see why many people fell in love with the book, the author and its characters. Definitely a book one must read at least once in their life.

One Thousand And One Nights May Company Your Children

There was a time, once, when the life of the Arabian Nights was lived more fully and more consequentially in places very remote from even the loosest notions of what might be called Arabia. It was 18th-century Europe where the stories' first print publications saw the light, and Europe, too, where the tales were so highly prized - while back home they were frequently dismissed as trifles, vulgar and insubstantial.

Before Galland, the stories had existed for centuries in a constantly shape-shifting collection. It came to be known as Alf Laylawa-Layla One Thousand and One Nights, and it was a manuscript of this text (from the Syrian recension) which Galland took as his primary source. But he added stories not found in any of his predecessors, too, among them "Aladdin" and "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves", which have since become perhaps the Nights' most familiar components to Western readers.

Not that they ever had one "home" at all, of course. The component stories have roots in Iraq, Egypt, India, Syria, Iran and elsewhere, and were strapped together as a miscellaneous bundle that Europeans labelled "Arabian", which meant simply that they had some approximately Eastern exoticism in common, slightly weird colours and tastes, and people in a far-off land behaving in ways that we probably wouldn't here.

On the following morning, the merchant and his wife went to the bull’s crib, and sat down there; and the driver came, and took out the bull; and when the bull saw his master, he shook his tail, and showed his alacrity by sounds and actions, bounding about in such a manner that the merchant laughed until he fell backwards. His wife, in surprise, asked him, At what dost thou laugh? He answered, At a thing that I have heard and seen; but I cannot reveal it; for if I did, I should die. She said, Thou must inform me of the cause of thy laughter, even if thou die.—I cannot reveal it, said he: the fear of death prevents me.—Thou laughedst only at me, she said; and she ceased not to urge and importune him until he was quite overcome and distracted. So he called together his children and sent for the Kadi and witnesses, that he might make his will, and reveal the secret to her, and die: for he loved her excessively, since she was the daughter of his paternal uncle, and the mother of his children, and he had lived with her to the age of a hundred and twenty years. Having assembled her family and his neighbours, he related to them his story, and told them that as soon as he revealed his secret he must die; upon which every one present said to her.

We conjure thee by Allah that thou give up this affair, and let not thy husband, and the father of thy children, die. But she said, I will not desist until he tell me, though he die for it. So they ceased to solicit her; and the merchant left them, and went to the stable to perform the ablution, and then to return, and tell them the secret, and die. 16

Now he had a cock, with fifty hens under him, and he had also a dog; and he heard the dog call to the cock, and reproach him, saying, Art thou happy when our master is going to die? The cock asked, How so?—and the dog related to him the story; upon which the cock exclaimed, By Allah! our master has little sense: I have fifty wives; and I please this, and provoke that; while he has but one one wife, and cannot manage this affair with her: why does he not take some twigs of the mulberry tree, and enter her chamber, and beat her until she dies or repents? She would never, after that ask him a question respecting anything.—And when the merchant heard the words of the cock, as he addressed the dog, he recovered his reason, and made up his mind to beat her.—Now, said the Wezir to his daughter Shahrazad, perhaps I may do to thee as the merchant did to his wife. She asked, And what did he? He answered, He entered her chamber after he had cut off some twigs of the mulberry tree, and hidden them there; and then said to her, Come into the chamber, that I may tell thee the secret while no one sees me, and then die:—and when she had entered, he locked the chamber door upon her, and beat her until she became almost senseless and cried out, I repent:—and she kissed his hands and his feet, and repented, and went out with him; and all the company, and her own family, rejoiced; and they lived together in the happiest manner until death.

One Thousand and One Nights: A New Re-imagining, By Hanan Al-Shaykh

Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights, By Marina Warner

Just as any act of translation is by its nature a creative, or re-creative act, so storytelling itself is always fundamentally an enchantment. The reader of the Nights – like Shahrazad's king – is enchanted by stories that are themselves about enchantments. It's largely this inner wheel – the magical "content", if you like, with magicians, transformations, flying carpets and all – that is Warner's subject.

With the text of the Nights as her anchor, Warner's widely referenced argument spins outwards and back again - to some close relations, such as Lotte Reiniger's "shadow film", The Adventures of Prince Achmed, but also further to The West-Eastern Divan (Goethe's collection of lyric poems), and even to the symbols on the Persian rug covering Freud's couch. "The Persian rug, the Arabian nights and the psychoanalytic process," she writes, "are all forms of storytelling."

Where Al-Shaykh gives us a translation that, like any translation, reveals and acknowledges its origins as it simultaneously dissembles, Warner cracks open the frame to expose the workings of the component parts. She dismantles and rearticulates them on an exhilarating scale, in a book dense with allusions and wide-ranging new associations. Which is, I suppose, a sort of re-creation too.

In the late 1920s, the art publisher H. Piazza produced a twelve-volume version of The 1001 Nights that was one of the most beautiful ever made. It included splendid illustrations by Mohammed Racim and wonderful miniatures by painter Leon Carre. Today, Assouline is publishing an abridged version of this masterpiece, which includes the most famous and enchanting of the tales, from the story of King Shahryar, to the story of Sinbad the sailor, Ali Baba and the forty thieves, or Aladdin and the magic lamp...all told by the beautiful and sensual Shahrazad.

Jane Eyre Teaches You How To Love

A superficial reading of Jane Eyre would consider the novel a romance, in the most obvious sense of the term. Yet such an interpretation overlooks Bronte's innovative use of different literary genres. Several genres compete within this essentially hybrid text, none of them gaining complete ascendancy over the others. Jane Eyre could be considered a realist novel, however this definition omits the other genres which comprise the text, most notably the Gothic. How we go about recognizing the genres in Jane Eyre inevitably affects our interpretation of the novel.

Jane Eyre reads like an autobiography, a quality observed by its earliest critics; some of whom actually believed that it was a factual account of a person's life. Some of Jane's experiences do mirror those of the author, such as the scenes set in Lowood School in which Bronte drew on her own childhood experiences. Assessed from this standpoint, the novel could be viewed as a fictional autobiography, a genre which emerged in the 18th century, with Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722) being an early example. Charles Dickens's David Copperfield (1850) is another fictional autobiography, and a close contemporary of Jane Eyre.

The fictional autobiography has close parallels with the Bildungsroman, a genre concerned with the moral and spiritual development of the protagonist. Bildungsromanis a German word meaning "formation novel". Literary historians generally consider Goethe's Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795-96) as being the first Bildungsromannovel. These types of narrative are generally written in the first person and feature a mature narrator recounting their life from childhood to adulthood by relating significant experiences to the reader. Bronte's novel utilizes this genre to effectively filter a young protagonist's experiences through the mature voice of an adult narrator. Charles Dickens employed a similar narrative device in Great Expectations (1860-61).

As a young adult Jane gains employment as a governess at Thornfield Hall. The vocation of governess was the subject of many 19th century novels and came to be regarded as a specific genre in its own right. Basically there were two types of governess novel, the 'romantic' and the 'providential', and both were generally rooted within the realist domestic mode. The first type chronicles how a governess's positive qualities are noticed by a gentleman and the novel concludes with their marriage. The second type follows the governess's moral development and acknowledgment of God's providence. Jane Eyre is arguably a combination of the two types, in that her attributes are recognized by Rochester, and the reader learns that she married him. However the narrative frequently illustrates how Jane is conscious of her own morality.

Social commentary is a persistent theme of Jane Eyre and Bronte utilizes the figure of the governess as a means to critique the attitudes of her time. On account of its ambiguity, the vocation of governess was a controversial position. Such women were educated to roughly the same level as their employers, yet they were wage earners similar to their household's servants. The awkwardness towards governesses is manifest in the character of Blanche Ingram, and her disdainful assessment of the profession. Bronte voices her contempt of this attitude through her narrator when Jane remarks on Blanche's superficial qualities.

Whereas the Bildungsroman and the governess novels are generally considered realist, the genre of the Gothic is decidedly non-realist. Right from the beginning of Jane Eyre, Bronte makes significant use of the Gothic. The heroine's detailing of the sinister and fantastical illustrations in Bewick's History of British Birds in the opening chapter and her subsequent imprisonment in the red-room at Gateshead Hall, where she believes she witnesses her late uncle's ghost, set the tone for the rest of the narrative, where the Gothic is never far away from the seemingly realist proceedings.

Incarceration was a common theme in Gothic fiction of the late 18th century, such as in the novels of Ann Radcliffe. It is also apparent with the character of Bertha Mason, who has been imprisoned in a remote chamber on the third floor of Thornfield Hall. When Jane first hears Bertha's unearthly laugh resounding round Thornfield's upper storey the narrative has taken a decisive step into the realms of the Gothic. Bertha is a distinctly Gothic creation: her preternatural laugh, late-night wanderings around Thornfield, and her attempts on the lives of her brother and Rochester, portray a character much removed from the familiar domesticity of realist fiction.

Bertha's presence at Thornfield also invokes an uncanny feel to the narrative. The uncanny is used to broadly describe an eerie atmosphere, although it more specifically refers to a sense of unease brought about by the presence of the unfamiliar within the familiar, or vice versa. In Jane Eyre, the presence of the mad wife could be regarded as the unfamiliar, residing within the familiarity of a family home. Other uncanny events also feature within the text, perhaps the most prominent being Jane and Rochester's strange telepathic link. This is evinced towards the end of the narrative, when they are both separated and Rochester calls to her and she psychically receives his message.

The Immense Popularity Of Les Misérables Has Not Diminished Over Time

Les Misérables was first published in France and Belgium in 1862, a year which found Victor Hugo in exile from his beloved France. Enemies and admirers throughout the world devoured his works—poetry, political tracts, and fiction—and the effect of these works upon the public was always sensational. On the morning of 15 May, a mob filled the streets around Pagnerre's book shop, eyeing the stacks of copies of Les Misérables that stretched between floor and ceiling. A few hours later, they had all—thousands of books—been sold. Hugo's critics were quick to condemn him for making money by dramatizing the misery of the poor, while the poor themselves bought, read, and discussed his book in unprecedented numbers. True to Hugo's political stance, he had written a book about the people that was for the people, a book that demanded a change in society's judgement of its citizens.

The story is set between 1815 and 1832, the years of Hugo's youth. The descriptions of Paris, the characterizations of Gavroche and other Parisian stock characters, and such statements as, "To err is human, to stroll is Parisian" all attest to Hugo's unswerving adoration of his home city. Exile no doubt encouraged the romantic meanderings of Hugo's prose. The protagonist of Les Misérables, Jean Valjean, is also in exile from the world of men because of the desperate crime he committed in his youth. Liberated from prison, Valjean hides his identity and becomes a successful man, as charitable as he is rich and powerful. His altruism leads him to promise Fantine, a dying prostitute, that he will seek out her exploited young daughter Cosette after her death. The ensuing love between "father" and "daughter" (Cosette) is miraculous, redeeming Valjean and bestowing happiness on his otherwise grim life. To some extent, Hugo also was seeking redemption, having, for much of his youth, ignored the populist concerns of Republican France. He sacrificed his lifestyle in Paris for justice, andLes Misérables, "the Magna Carta of the human race," is a testament of this humanitarian awakening.

The story of Les Miserables is about four people; Famine, Bishop Myriel, and Marius Pontmercy and Jean Valjean. The story revolves around the lives of these four French people and how was their experience of meeting each other in the most restless era of the French history. The story tells a lot about the 1832 revolution and it also shows distasteful side of Paris. The novel promotes human rights and the theory of impartiality among all citizens.

Marius' life has a happier ending. He recuperates from his wounds and overcomes his grandfather's hostility to his marriage. The marriage, however, is a mortal blow to Valjean. He has confessed his past to Marius, and the latter, in spite of his magnanimity, slowly estranges Cosette from Valjean. Marius does not know that Valjean is the man who saved his life in the sewers. Without Cosette, Valjean's life loses its meaning and he slowly withers away. Thénardier, however, unwittingly reveals to Marius that Valjean is his savior, and Marius and Cosette arrive in time to console Jean Valjean on his deathbed.

Les Misérables vindicates those members of society forced by unemployment and starvation to commit crimes—in Jean Valjean's case, the theft of a loaf of bread—who are thereafter outcast from society. It is fairly common parlance today to suggest that prison creates more hardened criminals than it reforms, but the idea was radical to Hugo's contemporaries. "Perrot de Chezelles, in an 'Examination of Les Misérables,' defended the excellence of a State which persecuted convicts even after their release, and derided the notion that poverty and ignorance had anything to do with crime. Criminals were evil." Jean Valjean morally surpasses characters working on behalf of this excellent State. The poor and the disenfranchised understood Hugo's message, accepted the affirmation he gave them, and worshipped him as their spokesman. Workers pooled their money to buy the book not one of them could afford on their own. The struggling people of France had found an articulate illustration of the unjust forces arrayed against them.

The immense popularity of this story has not diminished over time. Since the original 1935 film version, there have been several other international films entitled Les Misérables including a Spring 1998 release starring Liam Neeson and Uma Thurman. The "most popular musical in the world" has toured the globe several times and has been running on Broadway since March 1987. Why does this story continue to charm and inspire audiences and readers? In our time, as there was in Hugo's, there is cause for despair: greed and violence undermine true progress; human life is rendered meaningless through materialism and nihilism; children the world over suffer neglect, poverty, and ignorance. Who does not identify with Jean Valjean's arduous journey through the sewers, and who does not long for an escape like his emergence into the pristine Parisian dusk? Hugo illustrates how the most profound revolution takes place in our individual consciences, how every moment we are faced with decisions to do right or wrong, and how to make in our hearts pitched battles against our own worst impulses.

Les Misérables incites us to make the best fight of our lives the fight to become authentically good people and gives us hope that our efforts will not be in vain. Time cannot change the necessity or urgency of that message—only people can.

The Old Man And The Sea As A Good Book To Read And Reflect Upon

Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea is a classic work that brought him the 1954 Nobel Prize in literature. It has been translated and read in many different languages. It is a book that is familiar, at least by name, to almost anyone who has had a primary education. Growing up, I too heard a great deal about this book. Frankly, I wondered what all the fuss was about. It was met with the reply, as all kids will know, that I was too young to understand. Eventually, I decided to read the book and discover for myself.

The story of The Old Man and the Sea, as the name may suggest, revolves around an aged man named Santiago. He is a fisherman in Cuba who has come upon some hard times, in that he has not caught a decent fish in eighty four days. He has been so unlucky that his young apprentice, Manolin, has been forbidden by his parents to sail with Santiago any more. Santiago believes that his bad luck is drawing to an end and sets out on his eighty-fifth day to search for a fish far into the Gulf. He travels farther than all other fisherman and casts his lines. A very powerful fish, which he believes to be a marlin, takes his bait. The fish is so powerful that it pulls Santiago's skiff along. Santiago does not let go and braces the lines with his body. So starts an arduous journey for both the fish and the old man that lasts two days and two nights. On the third day, the marlin is so tired out that Santiago, who himself is delirious with pain, manages to pull it close to the skiff and kill it.

The fish is too big for his skiff and so he ties it to the side and starts for Cuba. However, the trail of blood oozing from the slain fish draws in sharks. Initially Santiago is able to defend his catch against the sharks but it is not long before the inevitable happens and Santiago has to watch as sharks completely devour the marlin, leaving only a skeleton and the head of the once great fish. Eventually Santiago reaches shore and drags himself to his hut and falls asleep. In the morning groups of fishermen and tourists notice Santiago's skiff and the skeleton of the enormous fish, measured at eighteen feet. Manolin rushes to Santiago's hut and cries when he sees the old man fast asleep with the injuries received from his battle with the marlin. He brings the old man coffee and newspaper and upon waking the old man promises they will fish together again. He falls back to sleep and dreams of his youth, of lions on the African beach.

During my reading it was difficult to keep an open mind, my mind being filled with preconceptions of my mother's and sister's opinions. Their opinion was that The Old Man and the Sea was a testament to the resilience of human nature and our ability to endure pain and suffering in our battle against nature. Of course the old man has to endure a lot of pain and hardship to catch the marlin. The marlin represents nature and the old man humanity. Humanity's resilience and endurance are certainly showcased but there are other characteristics of the human species which have been showcased more prominently. I assume that the old man is quite an experienced fisherman, seeing as he had been fishing for some time and some of his feats of skill have been mentioned. I do not question his bout of bad luck but his attempt to try to fight against the marlin even after its strength had been revealed when it started pulling the skiff. The old man is an experienced fisherman and he knew how powerful the marlin was. Despite that the old man still carries on with his efforts.

Readers are reminded of the old man's past, how he was called 'Santiago the champion' and how strong he once was, how he dreamed of lions playing on the African beaches. I think that his efforts push into the spotlight a quality of humanity that is evident to anyone who but looks: arrogance and pride. The fisherman refers to the marlin in a tone of respect, as a brother, and acknowledges its strength and that it is a worthy opponent. But I think that is just to comfort himself and convince himself that there is another reason why he is trying to catch it. It is conveyed that Santiago yearns for the strength that he once had. He knows that he would have been able to catch the marlin by himself when he was younger. He yearns for acceptance in his community and, most of all, he wishes to prove to himself that he still has the strength that he once had.

It may be evident that Santiago, in fact, does still have the strength and endurance to bring the fish in himself. But take a look at what happens afterwards. Santiago knows that at one point, if he manages to bring the fish in, he will have to slay the fish. He knows that in order to slay the fish he has to harpoon it and he knows that harpooning the fish will release its blood which will bring in sharks. He knows all that and still he cannot bring himself to let the fish go. He goes through hell and back to catch that fish and in the end he can do nothing but satisfy himself with the thought that he still can bring a large marlin in as he helplessly sees his effort and hard work dissolving in bloody water as the sharks munch on it. It seems pathetic, the lengths to which he will go to satisfy his ego, which is almost as big as the marlin. In the end, it is all for an 18-foot skeleton lying on a beach which shows that "yes, the old man caught this". Does nature not reclaim itself? One wonders what would have happened if Santiago had kept on fishing near the bay. As he says himself, his bad luck cannot last forever. Everything that he does is the act of a desperate man who lets his emotions get the better of him. Santiago's actions are not so distant from a depiction of humanity's tendency to act without thinking about the consequences or often ignoring the consequences all together.

Hemingway's style of writing is precise. It is simple, yet elegant and succinct. One would recommend it as a good book to read and reflect upon. One's reactions may seem critical and pessimistic but one is entitled to one's own opinions.