Bantam Classics Literary Quotation-of-the-Week

THE TELL-TALE HEART AND OTHER WRITINGS

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:37:42 -0500

Written by Edgar Allan Poe

"TRUE!—NERVOUS—very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am! But why will you say that I am mad?"
—Page 3, The Tell-Tale Heart

Fun Facts

Poe is credited with bringing Gothic literature to America. His work fused death, nightmares, and ghosts, with the haunted landscapes of his American South.
While Poe was already a well known author, having published many short stories, it was the publication of his novel, The Raven in 1845 that made him really famous.
In addition to Gothic horror, Poe also wrote satires, humor tales, and hoaxes, as well as poems, which Poe said to be the passion of his life.

FOUR GREAT PLAYS

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 14:40:27 -0500

"Exactly as before, I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile. (Getting up.) Torvald—it was then it dawned upon me that for eight years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three children—."
—Page 80, A Doll's House

Fun Facts

Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts was first performed at the Independent Theatre Society, a theater without censorship. Other playwrights in the society included George Bernard Shaw, Thomas Hardy, and Henry James.
Ibsen's plays of realism were controversial and often deemed to be too radical for nineteenth century playgoers.
Ibsen believed that Emperor and Galilean (1873) was his most important work, though his other plays like A Doll's House and The Wild Duck were far more acclaimed pieces.

MACBETH

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 15:10:47 -0500

Written by Shakespeare
Edited by David Bevington and David Scott Kastan

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air."
—The Witches, page 5, Act 1, Scene 1

Fun Facts

In the theater world, there is a myth that the play is cursed and some people will not mention its name aloud, referring to it instead as "The Scottish play".
Macbeth is the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies leading some to speculate that the modern day version was altered quite a bit from the original.
Written in the early reign of James I, the Scottish setting is seen as Shakespeare paying homage to his patron.

MANSFIELD PARK

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:11:17 -0500

Written by Jane Austen

"Depend upon it, you see but half. You see the evil, but you do not see the consolation. There will be little rubs and disappointments every where, and we are all apt to expect too much; but then, if one scheme of happiness fails, human nature turns to another; if the first calculation is wrong, we make a second better; we find comfort somewhere."
—page 46

Fun Facts

Mansfield Park is perhaps, for Jane Austen fans, the most controversial and yet the least popular of her major novels.
The name of Harry Potter character, Mrs. Norris, is J.K. Rowling's nod to Jane Austen's Mrs. Norris the officious, skinflint sister of Lady Beltram and reveals Austen's influence on Rowling's writing.
Mansfield Park was the first of her novels that was not a revision of an earlier work.

THE AENEID OF VIRGIL

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:51:19 -0500

Written by Virgil

Translated by Allen Mandelbaum

"Trojans, do not trust in the horse. Whatever it may be, I fear the Greeks, even when they bring gifts."
—Book II, lines 69-70, page 30

Fun Facts

The Aeneid was written in a time of major political and social change, when many Romans' faith in the greatness of Rome was severely crumbling.
The main character, Aeneas, first appears in the Iliad. Virgil took the stories and expanded them.
Legend says that Virgil would write just three lines of the poem a day. Regardless of whether this is true, it is commonly accepted that Virgil had unlikely been able to finish the poem himself especially on that schedule.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE NOVELS AND STORIES, VOLUME I

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:14:46 -0500

Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"For answer Holmes clapped the hat upon his head. It came right over his forehead and the bridge of his nose 'It is a question of cubic capacity,' said he; a man with so large a brain must have something in it.'"
—Page 379, The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, Volume I

Fun Facts

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote four novels and fifty-six short stories that feature Sherlock Holmes.
Dr. John Watson narrates all but four stories, two are narrated by Sherlock Holmes himself, and two others are written in the third person.
Conan Doyle killed off Holmes in The Final Problem. However, after resisting public pressure for eight years, he wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles, setting it before Holmes' death. But the public still wanted more, so he resuscitated Holmes two years later in The Return.

DUBLINERS

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:42:11 -0500

Written by James Joyce

"One by one, they were all becoming shades. Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age."
—The Dead, Page 191

Fun Facts

The Dubliners is a collection of fifteen stories about Irish middle class life in and around Dublin in the early 20th century.
Many of the characters in Dubliners reappear in minor roles in James Joyce's Ulysses.
Although all of his fiction is based in London, James Joyce spent most of his life outside Ireland.

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:45:07 -0500

Written by Oscar Wilde

"For there would be a real pleasure in watching it. He would be able to follow his mind into its secret places. This portrait would be to him the most magical of mirrors. As it had revealed to him his own body, so it would reveal to him his own soul."
—Oscar Wilde The Picture of Dorian Gray Ch. 8, page 102

Fun Facts

The Picture of Dorian Gray was the only novel that Oscar Wilde published and it first appeared in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
It is considered one of the last works of gothic horror fiction.
When the book was published it caused a sensation due to its themes of homoeroticism.

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:27:45 -0500

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

"'We don't own your laws; we don't own your country; we stand here as
free, under God's sky, as you are; and, by the great God that made us,
we'll fight for our liberty till we die.'"
—Chapter 17, page 224

Fun Facts

Uncle Tom's Cabin has always been controversial. At first it was because it stirred up sympathy for slaves in the South, and in more recent years because people are unhappy with the characters' stereotypes.
The book first appeared in 40 installments of the National Era, an anti-slavery publication. In 1852, Uncle Tom's Cabin was published in book form and was immediately a big success.
Langston Hughes called Uncle Tom's Cabin America's "first protest novel" because it served as an outcry against slavery after the Fugitive Slave Act was passed in 1850.

TREASURE ISLAND

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:43:20 -0500

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson

“Fifteen men on the dead man's chest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!
Drink and the devil had done for the rest—
Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!”
—Chapter 1, Page 7

Fun Facts

Robert Louis Stevenson got a law degree to please his father but never practiced any law.
A common theme in Stevenson's work is the tension between upstanding duties and reckless abandon, which is exemplified in Treasure Island by the conflict between the respectful gentleman and carefree pirates.
Stevenson came up with the idea for Treasure Island when drawing a map with his stepson.

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Wed, 27 May 2009 15:35:28 -0500

Written by Leo Tolstoy

“Ivan Ilyich's life had been most simple and commonplace—and most horrifying.”
—pg. 43, chapter 2

Fun Facts

Leo Tolstoy wrote The Death of Ivan Ilyich shortly after he converted to Christianity.
Tolstoy was plagued with questions of the meaning of life and death and many see The Death of Ivan Ilyich as the answers to his own questions.
Both of Tolstoy's parents died before he was nine years old.

The Story of My Life

Mon, 18 May 2009 10:01:05 -0500

Written by Helen Keller

“Have you ever been at sea in a dense fog, when it seemed as if a tangible white darkness shut you in, and the great ship, tense and anxious, groped her way toward the shore with plummet and sounding-line, and you waited with beating heart for something to happen? I was like that ship before my education began, only I was without compass or sounding-line, and had no way of knowing how near the harbour was. ‘Light! give me light!’ was the wordless cry of my soul, and the light of love shone on me in that very hour.”
—pg 14, Ch. 4

Fun Facts

Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a bachelor's degree.
She was not born deaf or blind, but contracted an illness at nineteen months old that left her that way. People speculate that it might have been meningitis or scarlet fever.
Annie Sullivan, Helen's teacher, was also visually impaired herself. Her relationship with Helen lasted 49 years.

Inferno

Wed, 13 May 2009 11:51:19 -0500

Written by Dante Alighieri

"Love, that releases no beloved from loving"
—line 103, pg 45, Canto V

Fun Facts

Inferno is one of three 'canticas' that make up The Divine Comedy which is an allegorical poem about the Christian afterlife. It is considered the most important epic poem of Italian literature.
It helped establish the Tuscan dialect as the Italian standard.
There are many mathematical and numerological patterns throughout the book particularly with threes and nines.

Persuasion

Thu, 07 May 2009 15:36:47 -0500

Written by Jane Austen

"She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older—the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning."
—page 30, chapter 4

Fun Facts

Jane Austen contracted her final illness while writing Persuasion and would not live to see Persuasion or Northanger Abbey published.
Because Jane died before it was published, her brother Henry Austen came up with the title and made sure to include a biographical sketch in each of her novels.
Persuasion is often seen as a tribute to the self-made man because of the character of Captain Wentworth.

Candide

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:25:40 -0500

Written by Voltaire

" 'Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always slaughtered each other as they do today, that they've always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates and thieves, weak, fickle, cowardly, envious, greedy, drunken, miserly, ambitious, bloodthirsty, slanderous, lecherous, fanatical, hypocritical, and foolish?' 'Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they find them'."
—Chapter XXI, page 76

Fun Facts

Candide is taught more than any other book in French literature.
When the book was first published, Voltaire did not openly admit to having published it. Instead he signed it "Monsieur le docteur Ralph" or "Doctor Ralph."
In the first forty years after publication, there were a least 10 imitations of Candide written by people other than Voltaire.

Bantam Classics Literary Quotation-of-the-Week

THE TELL-TALE HEART AND OTHER WRITINGS

Written by Edgar Allan Poe

Fun Facts

FOUR GREAT PLAYS

Written by Henrik Ibsen

Fun Facts

MACBETH

Written by Shakespeare Edited by David Bevington and David Scott Kastan

Fun Facts

MANSFIELD PARK

Written by Jane Austen

Fun Facts

THE AENEID OF VIRGIL

Written by Virgil

Translated by Allen Mandelbaum

Fun Facts

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE COMPLETE NOVELS AND STORIES, VOLUME I

Written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Fun Facts

DUBLINERS

Written by James Joyce

Fun Facts

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY

Written by Oscar Wilde

Fun Facts

UNCLE TOM'S CABIN

Written by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Fun Facts

TREASURE ISLAND

Written by Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun Facts

The Death of Ivan Ilyich

Written by Leo Tolstoy

Fun Facts

The Story of My Life

Written by Helen Keller

Fun Facts

Inferno

Written by Dante Alighieri

Fun Facts

Persuasion

Written by Jane Austen

Fun Facts

Candide

Written by Voltaire

Fun Facts

Written by Shakespeare
Edited by David Bevington and David Scott Kastan