The book titled The French Mathematician by Tom Petsinis is one of the best of its genre. It is not often that biographies are written in the form of fiction. The author, having adopted the form of novel for this work, captures the essence of the character of Evariste Galois, the brilliant young French Mathematician…
Category: Classics
Two Lives of Charlemagne by Einhard and Notker the Stammerer: Summary and Analysis
Charlemagne, translated into English as Charles the Great, was the King of the Franks, who expanded his empire to as further south as Italy. We learn from the two biographies that Charlemagne was instrumental in the spread of culture and arts to all corners of his kingdom. By closely associating himself with the Papacy, he…
Response to Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed
Wild Seed is a novel written by Octavia Butler. It belongs to the science fiction genre and was published in 1980. The book belongs to what the author calls the Patternmaster series – a sequence of novels that expand or continue a common storyline. The book is set at a period when the peoples of…
Response to the narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass is one of the most prominent African American heroes in the history of the United States. He was among the small group of pioneers who, through the example of their lives and brave political actions, advocated the abolition of slavery. During his lifetime, he gained popularity as a charismatic and eloquent speaker. He…
How were Sunset Boulevard and North by Northwest affected by the Hays code?
The history and evolution of Hollywood makes for an interesting subject of inquiry. The origins of film industry in the United States can be traced back to the 1920s, when the first silent movies were opened for public viewing. The movies released in the first decade were free of any censorship and hence contained controversial…
Report of a Censor sent to check on Judge Dee
It makes sense academically to measure the competency of Judge Dee with respect to his role as a high ranking Chinese official of the Tang period. What follows is an attempt to make an evaluation of Judge Dee from the eyes of an equally high ranking Chinese Censor of the same period. Here the author…
Death Be Not Proud by John Donne
John Donne’s poem Death Be Not Proud is typical of the religious/metaphysical genre employed by the poet. All human beings have a lurking fear of death. As we get older, this fear increases and ultimately dominates our thoughts. But contrary to the negative connotations attached to the event of death, Donne presents to the readers…
The Iliad and the Odyssey
Both the Iliad and the Odyssey remain the oldest known literary works in Western Civilization. Written around eighth century B.C. the Iliad is an epic poem totaling 16000 lines. Its central theme is warfare in ancient Greece, especially those waged by King Agememnon and his rivals. It also has several references to the Trojan War. …
How the past influences the present in the novel ‘The Reader’ and the play ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’?
The two works of literature discussed in this essay have several similarities in their underlying themes and narratives. The Street Car Named Desire, written by Tennessee Williams in 1947, was not only well received by critics, but also adapted into several stage productions. The post Second World War period in which the play is set…
Book Report on “Freedom in Exile: An Autobiography of the Dalai Lama by His Holiness the Dalai Lama XIV”
The book titled Freedom in Exile is the autobiographical account of the life of the fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet’s erstwhile theocracy. Born as Tenzin Gyatso, the life of this popular religious leader is intertwined with the political developments in his country of birth. Buddhists believe in the concept of reincarnation, whereby the soul of…