Category: Novels

It was Stevenson’s practise in composition “to keep several pots on the fire,” and to turn from one to the other for that variety which spices life, be it of cook or caterer of literature. In a letter to a friend he wrote: “Unconscious thought, there is the only method: macerate your subject, let it […]

This story is probably the most widely read of the author’s writings, after Anna Kargnina, owing to its controversial character. It was published shortly after Tolstoi became interested in the theories of the Shakers, and its strong denunciation of marriage for mere outward attractions, without intellectual union or sympathy, together with its advocacy of celibacy […]

In view of the last sentiment conveyed in this specimen of Tolstol’s realism in literary work, it may be recalled that in 1901 he was formally excommunicated by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. Tolstoi replied to this edict by a clear enunciation of his religious and theological views. He denies the Trinity, […]

This story, which Tolstoi wrote in the rough about the year 1894, was completed and published in 1899. After that he introduced corrections, and it appeared in 1902 in its final form. He has declared that 0ne of the chief aims which he had in mind in writing the book, was to express his abhorrence […]

In January, 1870, Robert Louis Stevenson, while on a tramp through Carrick and Galloway, spent a night at Ballantrae. Striking names always had a fascination for him, and the flowing, mellifluous sound of The Master of Ballantrae seemed to him specially fitted to convey the impression of elegance and smooth duplicity suggesting the character he […]

(United States, 1838–1905) The power of this book—dated 1880, but really appearing in the late autumn of 1879—was promptly recognized by an Ohio paper, which declared: “If it does not thrill the American people, nothing ever will.” The author, whose personal experiences and observations were the basis of the book, had been seventeen years in […]

This story was begun in March, 1885, while the author was living in his house called Skerryvore, at Bournemouth, Hants, England, but was soon laid aside and was not resumed till January, 1886. It was the earliest of Stevenson’s historical romances, and, being intended for a boys’ story, it made its first appearance in Young […]

Although several of the personages of Thackeray’s Henry Esmond figure in The Virginians, the later story is not a sequel to the former, since the chief of the dramatis persona are entirely new characters. The scene of this tale is alternately laid in Virginia and in England, and the period of the principal action is […]

Thackeray was the first editor of The Cornhill Magazine, the first number of which, January, 1860, contained the first instalment of his last novel, Lovel the Widower. It ran through six numbers. Thackeray embellished this novel with humorous vignettes drawn by himself, as he had done for some of his more important stories. I AM […]

In 1840 Thackeray published in Fraser’s Magazine for the months of June, July, August, September,. and October the brief fiction entitled A Shabby-Genteel Story, and when in 1857 it was reprinted with other sketches by its author, he added a note stating that when the tale was first written he had intended to complete it, […]