Unanswered Questions
1,494 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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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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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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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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 "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 ...
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