Literature Stack Exchange

13 votes

3 answers

3k views

What is an epic and why is there “only one epic in English Language so far”?

A medievalist

1

answered 33 mins ago

1 vote

1 answer

40 views

Where does this Dostoevsky quote come from? "There is only one thing I dread: ..."

Gareth Rees

52.1k

answered 3 hours ago

3 votes

1 answer

43 views

+50

Are romantic relationships where one character has fair skin and the other dark a motif of Ismat Chughtai's stories?

CDR

1,272

modified 4 hours ago

2 votes

1 answer

129 views

Who are the '12 children of Aiolos Hippotadês', as introduced in Book 10, The Grace of the Witch, of Homer's Odyssey?

Gareth Rees

52.1k

modified 6 hours ago

0 votes

1 answer

36 views

What former rulers of the region were mentioned by Gomez in The Addams Family (1965) by Jack Sharkey?

Clara Diaz Sanchez

8,086

modified 7 hours ago

7 votes

1 answer

129 views

"The legend of the oyster and the pearl" by Dario Fo

Segorian

578

modified 9 hours ago

-1 votes

0 answers

22 views

A Supernatural or Horror Novel set in a Vast Mansion

Gareth Rees

52.1k

modified 12 hours ago

1 vote

0 answers

13 views

What was the location of Hill House in The Haunting of Hill House (1959) by Shirley Jackson?

M. A. Golding

270

asked 18 hours ago

14 votes

4 answers

7k views

Was Tess raped?

Valark

1

answered 21 hours ago

2 votes

0 answers

27 views

Book about 13 year old befriending computer hacker

CDR

1,272

modified 2 days ago

4 votes

2 answers

307 views

Why did Andromache call the men of Sparta ‘devious plotters and the master of lies’?

Gareth Rees

52.1k

answered 2 days ago

2 votes

0 answers

23 views

Where's Waldo-style picture book about a field trip time traveling to Ancient Egypt

bobble

9,505

modified 2 days ago

2 votes

0 answers

114 views

Why did Coleridge criticise Cowley, Marini, and Darwin in his "Biographia Literaria"?

Gareth Rees

52.1k

modified 2 days ago

0 votes

0 answers

16 views

BL manga about a boy exiled from his family, who goes to school in the hopes of getting back in

Laurel

1,749

modified 2 days ago

1 vote

1 answer

97 views

Where else did Rilke mention John on Patmos?

Christoph Mark

113

modified 2 days ago

11 votes

0 answers

143 views

+100

80s? Infected Man trapped in an Office tower with people trying to kill him

NJohnny

291

modified 2 days ago

-2 votes

0 answers

21 views

TTRPG or Video Games history book on itch.io for >=$25 Canadian Dollars and was promoted by either Kotaku or Polygon, about 3 months ago

Malady

580

asked 2 days ago

4 votes

0 answers

101 views

Is "Uncle Tom's Cabin" read in American high schools?

WS2

141

modified 2 days ago

-2 votes

0 answers

26 views

What are some good novels based on Bible? [closed]

Aslam Mir

1

asked Oct 1 at 4:43

2 votes

1 answer

113 views

In George Meredith's "Ode to the Comic Spirit", what does "Thou guardian issue of the harvest brain !" mean?

Matthew Christopher Bartsh

265

modified Sep 30 at 19:42

1 vote

0 answers

48 views

Crime and Punishment - what's with the smiles?

bobble

9,505

modified Sep 30 at 16:31

7 votes

1 answer

150 views

What significance does the opening grid illustration of Burton’s 1,001 Nights have?

schweppz

141

modified Sep 30 at 14:56

4 votes

0 answers

56 views

How does the figure of “dropping oil to catch the air-borne motes” work in George Eliot’s “The Spanish Gypsy”?

Gareth Rees

52.1k

asked Sep 30 at 14:50

0 votes

0 answers

33 views

How was your understanding after reading 'Animal Farm' not knowing about its background history? [closed]

bobble

9,505

modified Sep 30 at 14:20

2 votes

0 answers

50 views

Seeking circular novel, begins & ends with man waking from a dream

bobble

9,505

modified Sep 30 at 14:20

1 vote

0 answers

30 views

Looking for book written by imprisoned Chinese author, first page setting is on a train

Clara Diaz Sanchez

8,086

modified Sep 30 at 11:00

7 votes

1 answer

435 views

What do these metaphors about hardship in "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" mean?

schweppz

141

answered Sep 30 at 10:57

3 votes

1 answer

185 views

What did J. B. Priestley mean by, "Comedy, we may say, is society protecting itself—with a smile."

Matthew Christopher Bartsh

265

modified Sep 29 at 19:12

2 votes

1 answer

239 views

Seeking origin and original wording of a quotation attributed to Shakespeare

Gareth Rees

52.1k

modified Sep 29 at 15:17

4 votes

0 answers

66 views

Why are titles written top to bottom on the spine of English books, while they are written bottom to top on the spine of French books?

b_jonas

1,730

modified Sep 29 at 12:27

10 votes

2 answers

9k views

Is the name Crowley in Good Omens a reference to the famous occultist?

bobble

9,505

modified Sep 27 at 17:10

2 votes

1 answer

159 views

What if it were named 'The Animal Farm'?

Kate Bunting

321

answered Sep 27 at 12:43

6 votes

1 answer

967 views

Fantasy children's story where they suspect someone is a vampire

Valorum

4,686

modified Sep 27 at 8:24

4 votes

3 answers

133 views

What does this mean? "To die before being painted by Sargent is to go to Heaven prematurely."

CDR

1,272

modified Sep 26 at 13:59

10 votes

2 answers

2k views

Book of short stories I read as a kid; one story about a starving girl, one about a boy who stays forever young

Clara Diaz Sanchez

8,086

modified Sep 26 at 13:17

1 vote

1 answer

580 views

Why doesn't Shams give Kimya any closure?

CommunityBot

1

modified Sep 26 at 6:07

4 votes

2 answers

101 views

What are "devices of orthodoxy" in this context?

Sean Duggan

10.3k

answered Sep 26 at 4:52

3 votes

1 answer

255 views

What is the relation (if any) of Fanny Buitrago to her biographer Letty Buitrago?

user1118

35

modified Sep 25 at 18:09

6 votes

1 answer

128 views

Poet who asserted that poets lack personality and collect objects to give them one

user254694

539

modified Sep 25 at 13:31

7 votes

2 answers

269 views

Why is the 1820 Indicator version of La Belle Dame Sans Merci seen as more "politically correct"?

verbose

21.2k

modified Sep 25 at 0:15

7 votes

3 answers

4k views

Where does the quote “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right” come from?

Andrew

1

modified Sep 24 at 19:05

4 votes

2 answers

861 views

Why did Dunbar consider a life of intentional boredom worth living?

EJoshuaS - Stand with Ukraine

17k

modified Sep 24 at 14:30

15 votes

4 answers

15k views

Why is the king 'baffled' in "Hallelujah"?

Jeff Dell

1

answered Sep 24 at 13:56

7 votes

2 answers

544 views

What's the meaning of "well over the fast" in the following passage?

Peter L

41

answered Sep 24 at 11:02

12 votes

0 answers

296 views

About Sappho's epigram for the little girl Aithopia: first line (manuscript tradition and experts' take), and authorship

CDR

1,272

modified Sep 23 at 14:18

7 votes

1 answer

777 views

Why has this Premchand story been translated as both "Catastrophe" and "A Positive Change"?

CDR

1,272

modified Sep 23 at 13:12

2 votes

2 answers

88 views

To what folklore about rats and skirts does this allude?

bobble

9,505

modified Sep 22 at 23:07

1 vote

1 answer

77 views

What is the CIA document mentioned in Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol?

Rand al'Thor♦

70.7k

modified Sep 22 at 13:00

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