All Questions

In chapter 3 of The Phantom of the Opera, it says that the retiring managers had determined to “die game”, as we now say. What does that mean? I have searched the web with no luck.

Question summed up: Can anyone help me find the part of Eugène Sue's 'The Mysteries of the People' wherein a sinister Jesuit plot is unveiled, which may have, through a game of 'telephone' by ...

In "The Vampire of the Village" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing Father Brown while visiting some persons, saying: The conversation of Miss Carstairs-Carew, on whom he called ...

In Youth: A Narrative, Joseph Conrad writes: “We had fair breezes, smooth water right into the tropics, and the old Judea lumbered along in the sunshine. When she went eight knots everything cracked ...

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes contains the following passage: "Did I ever go to District Two?" Maude Ivory asked. "No, baby, that's out west. The Covey stayed more east," ...

In The Fellowship of the Ring, the character Bilbo Baggins recites a poem beginning with these lines: Eärendil was a mariner that tarried in Arvernien; he built a boat of timber felled in Nimbrethil ...

In the below passage sourced from Joseph Conrad's Youth: A Narrative, Conrad describes a "conical flame with a twisted top". What exactly is it? Of course they very soon found out in the ...

In Joseph Conrad's short story Youth: A Narrative, Conrad writes What made them do it—what made them obey me when I, thinking consciously how fine it was, made them drop the bunt of the foresail ...

In Joseph Conrad's short story Youth: A Narrative, Conrad writes “The night was fine. In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hull down,—the first we had seen for months; but we were nearing ...

In "The Vampire of the Village" by G. K. Chesterton, Dr. Mulborough was talking to Father Brown about a Great Scandal in their village, while they were going to a village by a train, saying: ...

I’m quite familiar with novels and stories, if my personal view is concerned I would say that story is just a compact and summarised form of novel. The level of detail in novels is, obviously, much ...

Miroslav Krleža was one of the most important 20th-century Croatian authors. The Wikipedia article about him lists several influences on his work, including "key authors like (...) Proust". ...

I'm reading Ted Hughes' "The Smile" (text version), and I'm trying to understand its plotline. More specifically: what's the nature of the scenes wherein the poem's protagonist, the smile, ...

When Macduff's son defends his father's honor when the murderers sent by Macbeth call Macduff a traitor in Macbeth, they wind up stabbing the son: Enter Murderers. FIRST MURDERER: Where is your ...

Can someone tell what this metaphor means: You can die on St. Helena without being Napoleon. It seems to be related to history, and the life of Napoleon. I found this metaphor on Quora in Paul ...

From The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter II, page 273: 'And not so many, nor so fair, as when Thangorodrim was broken, and the Elves deemed that evil was ended for ever, and it was not so.' ...

I am currently reading Improvement of the Mind (1741) by Isaac Watts, and at various instances in the book he mentions people whom I have a hard time tracking down. For example, on Page 14: Sobrino ...

This phrase has been taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter II, page 271: Yet it is not so. Believe rather that it is so ordered that we, who sit here, and none others, we must find ...

I am wondering about what Dostoyevsky means by the word 'propaganda' in part six, chapter four of Crime and Punishment. None of the meanings that I understand make sense in the context of the book. ...

Many years ago (late '60s to '70s), I read a story about a boy with a group of hikers on a ridge who get caught in a lightning storm. They all run off the ridge, and, apparently, the boy went down the ...

Miroslav Krleža was one of the most important 20th-century Croatian authors. The Wikipedia article about him lists several influences on his work, including "key authors like (...) Nietzsche"...

I have a 2005 First Harper Perennial Modern Classics edition. These are the typos I found: Page 160: .... he'd be a lot less at lease. (should be "ease") Page 306: Soo I hear deep breathing.....

In the short story "Expendable" by Philip K. Dick, the protagonist is a man who can communicate with spiders. At one point, after fighting off a home invasion by an army of ants, the ...

I'm studying for an exam, and I find the whole play intriguing. However, I can't seem to find anything the delves into Macbeth's psyche or state of mind in depth. Hopefully someone could help

Regarding Brecht's play The life of Galileo. There is a part where Andrea says 'unhappy the land that has no heroes' and Galileo says 'No, unhappy the land that needs heroes' Can you make reference to ...

Miroslav Krleža was one of the most important 20th-century Croatian authors. He published poetry, novels, novellas, short stories and plays. The English Wikipedia article about him has the following ...

At a school I no longer go to (Sydney, Australia, early 2010s, the book was in English), I read this book in the library that was a collection of Aesop's fables. The author had this very distinctive ...

What does G.K. Chesterton mean when in the beginning of "A Defence of Skeletons" in The Defendant he says: trees that seemed to take hold upon the stars like a brood of Ygdrasils I know ...

I am reading Crime and Punishment, and as you might expect am really enjoying it. Fascinating book. But there is one passage that is a little confusing to me, in particular the use of the word '...

The following part from Barack Obama's Dreams from My Father I cannot understand and it relates to history and some figures. These people, per my Wiki search, were influential in literature; but the ...

I read this book about 10 years ago in either late elementary/middle school. It was a light fantasy novel (perhaps YA) and I'll try to summarize all the main points I remember. The main character was ...

Simone de Beauvoir writes in The Second Sex (emphasis mine) Lawrence adds that to merit this devotion, man must be authentically invested with a higher purpose; if his project is but a sham, the ...

In "The Crime of The Communist" by G. K. Chesterton, there is a conversation between many persons about the communism: ‘Well, you’re all very down on Communism, of course,’ said the Master, ...

Connie Willis' "Ado" is a short story in which language is censored to an absurd degree so as to not offend anyone. The protagonist is a school teacher who decides to cover Shakespeare, but ...

In literary criticism one can sometimes read statements such as the following: "Helena’s love therefore is overdetermined to a degree unusual even in Shakespeare" (Michael Delahoyde quoting ...

Related: Why does Tigris call Coriolanus Snow a "good person"? The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes contains the following: Coriolanus felt disconnected from their "romantic notions"...

Throughout the book, Snow is seen repeatedly trying to manipulate other characters, such as him appearing to fake friendship with Sejanus Plinth (and his unsuccessful attempt to manipulate Plinth for ...

Upon learning about Coriolanus Snow being forced to join the Peacekeepers due to his cheating in the Hunger Games, Tigris said the following: "You were set up to fail," said Tigris. "...

I’ve come across the following passage in Chapter 1 of Bleak House by Charles Dickens: On such an afternoon the various solicitors in the cause, some two or three of whom have inherited it from their ...

According to Wikipedia, the American poet and literary critic Yvor Winters (1900 – 1968) attacked Romanticism, particularly in its American manifestations, and assailed Emerson's reputation as that ...

In "The Crime of The Communist" by G. K. Chesterton, the author was describing three men and the surrounding architecture of Mandeville College, saying: They themselves, in a curious quiet ...

So, in Roger Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber", when Corwin's in the dungeon he tries to figure out how long it would be before it would be noticed, were he to go missing. [There was an] ...

This is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1, page 266: If he had the cheek to make verses about Eärendil in the house of Elrond, it was my affair.

This phrase is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1, page 265 (emphasis added): "You needn't," said Bilbo. "As a matter of fact it was all mine. Except that ...

This poem is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1 (page 265): As a matter of fact it was all mine. Except that Aragorn insisted on my putting in a green stone.

I am looking for the general name or literature examples of the following common psychological phenomenon, its nomenclature: When someone is accused of something, i.e. prostitution or murder, after a ...

In the BBC mini-series Little Dorrit there is a scene in which Mrs. General tells Amy the correct opinions which she is to express concerning the sites that she and other English tourists visit on the ...

The following is an extract from Frankenstein. What does the "habits" in "returned to my old habits" mean? It does not seem to refer to habits like drinking, staying up late, etc. ...

One of the first questions in the Guy de Maupassant reading challenge was Political backdrop to “The Lancer's Wife” (Franco-Prussian War)?. After I was unable to find the story in French, it turned ...

This poem is taken from The Fellowship of the Ring, book II, chapter 1 (page 263): Through Evernight he back was borne on black and roaring waves that ran o'er leagues unlit and foundered shores that ...