Newest Questions
7,577 questions
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Who is Mr Epstein?
In book "Five little pigs", there is line Miss Williams says to M. Poirot in book 1, chapter This little pig had none
Possibly, So is one of Mr Epstein's statues, I believe
Whom is she ...
- 573
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1
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Was his name really “Faustus” in “Clouds of Witness” by Dorothy L. Sayers?
In Clouds of Witness by Dorothy L. Sayers, the Dowager Duchess of Denver makes the following remark:
“Well, dear, I thought so. What oft was thought and frequently much better expressed, as Pope says—...
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What was Danglars' plan for imprisoning Dantès in "The Count of Monte Cristo"?
In The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Danglars is jealous of his crewmate Dantès and denounces him to the magistrate Villefort as a Bonapartist. This leads to Villefort sending Dantès to ...
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Canon and classification of Shakespeare's plays
The First Folio of 1623 classifies Shakespeare's plays under three heads: Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies. Some modern editions of the complete works, such as the RSC's, retain this classification. ...
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Point of view in Nella Larsen's Passing
Most of Nella Larsen's Passing is narrated from the third person limited point of view of Irene Redfield. We see people and events as she sees them. Her thoughts and feelings are described, but not ...
- 35k
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How does Passing make use of its epigraph from Countee Cullen's "Heritage"?
Nella Larsen's novel Passing (1929) uses as its epigraph the following quotation from Countee Cullen's celebrated poem "Heritage":
One three centuries removed
From the scenes his fathers ...
- 35k
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In what ways is Rudolph Fisher the model for Dave Freeland?
One of the minor characters in Nella Larsen's Passing is a writer named Dave Freeland, whom the narrator describes as "the author of novels that revealed a man of perception and a devastating ...
- 35k
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Why is the Macbeth quote about "doth unfix my hair" so important?
I'm confused about what this quote means and why it's popular. Could someone explain it?
From Act 1 Scene 3:
Macbeth If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
...
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1
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What does it mean by "if frappés were plant-based" in Holly?
In chapter 1 (October 17,2012) of Holly by Stephen King, Jorge Castro was kidnapped and put in a cage by his colleagues in the college. And Jorge was provided by Mrs. Harris with something called Ka’...
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What does "B-I-T-sweetie" mean in Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes's play "The Mule-Bone"?
This question was originally asked in EL&U but after almost two years sitting in that Stack Exchange no one has been able to offer a definitive answer, although there are some interesting ...
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Where was the "Hope of the Wicked" passage taken from in the second Before The Incal book?
In the book series "Before The Incal", there is a robot who recites quotes from the current era that are long forgotten in the Incal universe(s). He often quotes the Bible, previously using ...
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Why did the star give the idea of suicide in "The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man" by Fyodor Dostoevsky?
In The Dreams of a Ridiculous Man, written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, there is this quote:
As I was thinking about the gas lamps in the street I looked up at the sky. The sky was horribly dark, but one ...
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1
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What was a "silver churn" in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera "Patience"?
In Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Patience we have a song of which the first verse is
A magnet hung in a hardware shop,
And all around was a loving crop
Of scissors and needles, nails and knives,
...
- 2,773
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Why did Olga Shartse title her translation of Aitmatov’s novella ‘To Have and to Lose’ and not ‘My Little Poplar in a Red Scarf’?
Chingiz Aitmatov’s 1961 novella Тополёк мой в красной косынке (my little poplar in a red scarf) was translated by Olga Shartse (1989) as To Have and to Lose. The original title is the narrator’s ...
- 68.9k
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Which is right, “ever dreams of” or “dreams of ever”, in Byron’s ‘Don Juan’?
In the first (1821) publication of canto 5 of Byron’s Don Juan, stanza 48 reads:
Some talk of an appeal unto some passion,
Some to men’s feelings, others to their reason;
The last of these was ...
- 68.9k
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Dostoevsky on Tyutchev
I read that Dostoevsky was the first one to call Tyutchev "a poet-philosopher", but no sources were given. Can you cite a reference where Dostoevsky called him that?
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Shakespeare's use of the word "excursion"
I've come across the word "Excursion" (and plural "Excursions") in stage directions by William Shakespeare, especially in battle or fight scenes. I am not sure I understand what he ...
- 143
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Setting in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" - background or integral?
I've been having a debate with a colleague whether the setting in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is backdrop or integral.
These terms, as far as I know and as far as the debate ...
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‘To Certain Critics’ by Countee Cullen
Here’s the poem ‘To Certain Critics’ by Countee Cullen:
Then call me traitor if you must,
Shout treason and default!
Say I betray a sacred trust
Aching beyond this vault.
I'll bear your censure as ...
- 68.9k
2
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1
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138
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When is the setting of Aitmatov's "To Have and to Lose"?
Yesterday I read Chingiz Aitmatov's To Have and to Lose (freely available online in English), which was originally published in 1961. How precisely can we figure out when this story is set? The ...
- 79.6k
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What is the meaning and significance of Urmat-ake's phrase to Ilyas?
In Chingiz Aitmatov's To Have and to Lose (freely available online in English), when Ilyas meets the aksakals after getting together with Asel, the elderly driver Urmat-ake greets him as follows:
&...
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27
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How is Gandhi's influence seen in Bessie Head's fiction?
The Wikipedia page for Bessie Head cites the The Norton Anthology of World Literature (4th ed., 2013) to claim that her work was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. The page also references an article by ...
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Short story, possibly by Frank O'Connor, about a boy puzzled by Tennyson
I think, at the age of 9 in 1961, I read a comprehension piece in an English textbook by Ronald Ridout. It was an extract from a short story by, I think, possibly Frank O'Connor. It described the ...
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"Unarmed if any meet her" in Emily Dickinson's "The Past is such a curious Creature"
This is poem 1273 in The Poems of Emily Dickinson (1998), edited by R. W. Franklin:
The Past is such a curious Creature
To look her in the Face
A Transport may receipt us
Or a Disgrace -
Unarmed if ...
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2
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156
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‘Medusa’ by Countee Cullen
Here’s the sonnet ‘Medusa’ (1935) by Countee Cullen:
I mind me how when first I looked at her
A warning shudder in the blood cried, “Ware!
Those eyes are basilisk’s she gazes through,
And those are ...
- 68.9k
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55
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Novel about a boy walking home after a bus breaks down, then the bus catches up to him
What I remember is the bus breaking down, and the boy chooses to walk the way home. When he has almost arrived home, he realises the bus has caught up with him, and decides to race it the rest of the ...
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What does "agai" mean in Aitmatov's "To Have and to Lose"?
In Chingiz Aitmatov's To Have and to Lose - available in English through the Internet Archive - in the not-prologue, the truck driver addresses the speaker as "agai" a number of times. For ...
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Why was Victoria Amelina so "indirect" about which health condition a specific writer had?
Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina referred to a writer whose "health was impacted" by trauma:
Volodymyr had a disability himself: his health was first impacted by the ...
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1
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Is "The Street of the Involved" available outside of Ukraine?
Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina mentions a newly-published nonfiction book The Street of the Involved by Vira Kuryko, which
...told the story of ordinary Soviet people who lived ...
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Why did the spirits visit Scrooge exactly seven years after Marley's death?
In the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by the British author Charles Dickens the three spirits visited Ebenezer Scrooge exactly seven years after Jacob Marley's death.
I know seven is a significant ...
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Why is Kat "temporarily without a name" at the end of Atwood's "Hairball"?
At the end of Margaret Atwood's "Hairball", after sending off Hairball itself, Kat goes for a walk in the snow:
She puts on her coat and goes out, foolishly. She intends to walk just to the ...
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Was it a norm in 19th century Britain to call an uncle by his last name?
In the 1843 novel A Christmas Carol by British author Charles Dickens, Fred always calls his uncle by his last name: Uncle Scrooge.
He doesn't call him Uncle Ebenzer even once.
Was it a norm back then ...
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What does it mean by "envelope" here? Is this a metaphor? A nutrient powder sealed in a small packet shaped like an envelope？
In chapter 1 (October 17,2012) of Holly by Stephen King, Jorge Castro was kidnapped and put in a cage by his colleagues in the college. And Jorge was confronting one of his colleagues, Emily Harris, ...
- 693
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1
answer
55
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Have any nuns ever been named with a male name?
In Kathryn Hulme's 1956 novel The Nun's Story, Gabrielle Van der Mal enters a covent and is named Sister Luke. Luke is a masculine name which was one of the apostles of the Christ.
Also, in the 2021 ...
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What does "wind" signify in The Wind and a Boy?
Bessie Head's short story "The Wind and a Boy" begins:
Like all the village boys, Friedman had a long wind blowing for him, but perhaps the enchanted wind that blew for him, filled the ...
- 35k
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Old short story where a new homeowner finds jars with the remains of mutated animals
Trying to identify a story I read years ago (closer to 50 than 10 years ago). It was in an English-language non-illustrated anthology of short stories I borrowed from a library.
The story centred on ...
2
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1
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102
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What does the narrator of Lie With Me mean when he says the Bordeaux evenings have a Spanish flair?
In a scene set in 2007, the unnamed narrator of Philippe Besson's Lie With Me has returned to Bordeaux, where he was a student some twenty years earlier. Among the other changes he sees in the town, ...
- 35k
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In Batuman's "The Idiot," why is Selin surprised that Ivan's photograph captures Ivan's likeness?
In Elif Batuman's The Idiot, Selin and Ivan have the following exchange:
I picked up his wallet and looked at his school ID and driver's license. He wasn't smiling in either picture.
"Does it ...
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"I did once hold it, as our statists do, a baseness to write fair" in "Hamlet"
In act 5, scene 2, Hamlet says to Horatio:
Being thus be-netted round with villanies,—
Ere I could make a prologue with my brains,
They had begun the play,—I sat me down,
Devised a new commission, ...
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Did Isabel Allende intend her book "Of Love and Shadows" to be a Greek tragedy?
When I read Isabel Allende's Of Love and Shadows, I noticed that in some ways it resembles a Greek tragedy. It contains a chorus—the inhabitants of the old people's home; the heroine has fatal flaws (...
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Candy and Curley -- is it significant that Lennie mangles Curley's hand? And why was Crooks crippled?
Candy is the first person on the farm that George and Lennie meet. He has lost his hand in an accident.
Candy also describes Curley as "handy" (as a boxer) and also reveals that he wears a ...
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Is this Game of Thrones scene about the usage of "m'lord" in the novels too?
In GOT S02E07 when Arya Stark calls Tywin Lannister my lord he corrects her:
Tywin Lannister: Girl, m'Lord. Low-born girls say m'Lord, not my Lord. If you're going to pose as a commoner, you should ...
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What is the meaning of the phrase "whooping–anon–anon" in Wordsworth's Written in March?
Here is a link to the full poem. The following stanza shows the line in context:
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated,
And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The ploughboy is ...
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1
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78
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Is Detective Sergeant Troy a reference to Hardy's Sergeant Troy?
Caroline Graham's Chief Inspector Barnaby series (adapted to TV as the Midsomer Murders) features a sidekick/assistant to Tom Barnaby, who's called Sergeant Troy. As soon as I saw this name and title, ...
- 79.6k
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Where does the quotation "Murder being once done" come from?
Spoiler alert: this question reveals a major plot point in Caroline Graham's The Killings at Badger's Drift.
In The Killings at Badger's Drift, Inspector Barnaby explains to his deputy Sergeant Troy ...
- 35k
3
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1
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114
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Meaning of "he keeps his knickers in the fridge"
Spoiler alert: this question reveals some major plot points.
In The Killings at Badger's Drift, an unnamed old lady describes the character Dennis Rainbird thusly:
"And a slimy little wart he is ...
- 35k
8
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1
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Why does Arrian always specify who was archon of Athens when giving a date?
In the Anabasis written by Arrian, when there is a mention of time, the author always mentions the archon of Athens. For example, from the English translation by E. J. Chinnock (1884):
It is said ...
- 325
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Kid's book series where each character had their own book - the one I had was purple and centered around a little Asian girl
It was a series of books centering around a group of friends. Each character had their own book. I don't remember much about it but I know the one I had was purple and centered around a little Asian ...
6
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1
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227
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"There is no rock so senseless" in Petrarch's sonnet 162
I don't understand the last two lines in this sonnet from Petrarch, translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1903) (emphasis added):
O joyous, blossoming, ever-blessed flowers!
’Mid which my pensive ...
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35
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Short story where a man is hanged in his jail cell using a child's toy
I have a vague feeling this might have been in a paperback Alfred Hitchcock anthology, but I can't pin down which one (I read several as a child). I probably read it in the late 1980s to early 1990s. ...
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