Comparison of the Novels “Jane Eyre” and “Anna Karenina”
Jane Eyre is feisty and not very pretty, so we are told. But we fall in love with a little girl who has a sensitive heart willing to forgive and pray for those who torment…
Tag: Classic Literature
Through My Most Grievous Fault: A Hunchback of Notre Dame Story
They say a monster lives in the bell tower of Notre Dame. They say he is hideous to look upon, that his skin is melted like the wax of altar candles, as if fire, hellfire,…
A Christmas Carol Staves
By Patrick Hilleary Image: Pixabay Hello and Seasons Greetings to you all. I hope you are having a very Merry Christmas Season and are able to spend it with those you love. It’s been some…
Change and Rest: A Reflection on the Work of Edmun Spenser
In 2019 and 2020 I had the privilege of having a teaching position at the University of Warwick, where despite my academic work being in Maths I was able to work with people from many…
Between Life and Death: A Hunchback of Notre Dame Story
“I knew well that it was he again! The assassin, the one who killed my Phoebus. Oh, Phoebus!” The priest mustered all his strength not to break the poor girl's wrist, which had been in…
Shades of Stories, Shards of Time
When I was young, I traveled round the world, As all adventurers are wont to do, And noticed a most curious occurrence That, as I went, still curiouser grew. In London as I hailed a…
Eponine’s Last: A Les Misérables Poem
The girl with the tattered dress Thought of Marius How his smile lit up her heart How his words ignited the stars The Jondrette girl with the brave brother Thought of Cosette and how she…
Plautus and Tarzan
The plays of Plautus all repose in peacenext to my boyhood’s tattered Tarzan books,University classes, and summer days.I suppose Mercury brought his own vines. Kafka is up against Rilke and Parzival;they seem to get along…
“Wyrd Wonder”: Mystical Integration of the Great Story in Tolkien’s Play
Cynicism, mercilessness, despair, apathy and parody: these are not the way of the Holy Spirit. In Tolkien’s legendarium evil often takes the path down this route, and Tolkien’s heroes struggle relentlessly in the fray of…
Tolkien and Shakespeare: Counterparts and Comparisons
Tolkien hated Shakespeare. Pity, as they’re two of my favourite authors. Humphrey Carpenter says that Tolkien felt that Shakespeare – whom he disliked from schooldays – missed a big opportunity in Macbeth when a wood…