William Sydney Porter, or more famously known by his pen name O. Henry, was a popular short story writer during the early twentieth century. A writer whose personal life paralleled his fictional works, Porter lived a varied life throughout the South, Honduras, and New York City. In 1895 William worked as a columnist at the Houston Daily Post, but he was soon ordered to court in Austin on charge... Read More
O. Henry received widespread acclaim because of his trademark tales of gentle, warm-hearted characters and ironic plot twists at the end of the story. These iconic plot transitions were soon referred to as “O. Henry Endings.” Also, O. Henry wrote some of his stories based off of where he has lived. His smooth way of writing about the places he’s been is a big component of what has made him such... Read More
O. Henry is the pen name of American writer William Sydney Porter. O. Henry short stories are known for wit, wordplay, warm characterization, and clever twist endings. The reputation of O. Henry never accepted in serious literary criticism. But only he could write stories that could make people laugh as much as they do and feel speechless. Stories with gentle, warm-hearted characters and ironic... Read More
O. Henry is best known for his witty short stories with unexpected endings. Born William Sydney Porter, this author decided to use a pen name for his writings while he was in prison and afterwards. O. Henry brought his own information about prison and “the life of crime” into his stories. This paired with wit and plot twists is what made him such a renowned author. While O.Henry’s style is to u... Read More
We grow up hearing the phrase ''Love conquers all.'' O. Henry's short story ''A Service of Love'' is a great example of how love drives two people to sacrifice their ambitions for the sake of each other. O. Henry wrote about this kind of sacrifices before. In his story "The Gifts of the Magi”, a tale about a young couple, who are short of money but desperately want to buy each other Christmas g... Read More
An American short story writer William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry, was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina. Porter used a number of pen names in the early part of his writing career. Nevertheless, the name "O. Henry" seemed to garner the most attention from editors and the public, and was used exclusively by Porter for his writing by about 1902. A... Read More
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish writer, poet, theatre director, and literary translator. He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". Murphy, Samuel Beckett's first published novel, was written in English and published in London in 1938. Beckett himself subsequentl... Read More
Of all the English-language modernists, Samuel Beckett's work represents the most sustained attack on the realist tradition. He opened up the possibility of theatre and fiction that dispense with conventional plot and the unities of time and place in order to focus on essential components of the human condition. Molloy, the first of the three masterpieces which constitute Samuel Beckett’s famou... Read More
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish novelist and playwright, who was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his writing, which - in new forms for the novel and drama - in the destitution of modern man acquires its elevation". Also, he was elected Saoi of Aosdána in 1984. During the 15 years following the WWII, Beckett produced four major full-length stage plays: En attendant Godot, Fin... Read More
Erich Maria Remarque was a German novelist who created many works about the horrors of war. During World War I, Remarque was conscripted into the German Army at the age of 18. On 31 July, he was wounded by shrapnel in the left leg, right arm and neck, and was repatriated to an army hospital in Germany where he spent the rest of the war. With All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque emerged as a... Read More
Before Francis Scott Fitzgerald died at the age 44, he thought he was a failure. His obituaries described him as an obscure writer who never fulfilled his early promise. Twenty years later, Fitzgerald was universally recognized as one of the great literary figures of the century and The Great Gatsby was widely acclaimed as one of the greatest novels of the modern era. Tender Is the Night is the... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer. He is now best remembered for his science fiction novels and is often called a "father of science fiction", along with Jules Verne and Hugo Gernsback. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. The World Set Free is a remarkable example of... Read More
H. G. Wells' influence on the emerging field of science fiction is almost impossible to overstate. Wells's earliest specialised training was in biology, and his thinking on ethical matters took place in a specifically and fundamentally Darwinian context. In October 1879, Wells's mother arranged through a distant relative, Arthur Williams, for him to join the National School at Wookey in Somerse... Read More
H.G. Wells was a famous science fiction writer. The science fiction historian John Clute describes Wells as "the most important writer the genre has yet seen", and notes his work has been central to both British and American science fiction. Science fiction author and critic Algis Budrys said Wells "remains the outstanding expositor of both the hope, and the despair, which are embodied in the t... Read More
Herbert George Wells was an English writer, who is now best remembered for his science fiction novels. In Britain, Wells's work was a key model for the British "Scientific Romance", and other writers in that mode, such as Olaf Stapledon, J. D. Beresford, S. Fowler Wright, and Naomi Mitchison, all drew on Wells's example. The Flowering of the Strange Orchid is a cautionary tale, the moral of whi... Read More
H. G. Wells was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction. His writing career spanned more than sixty years, and his early science fiction novels earned him the title of "The Father of Science Fiction". Wells’ first, The Time Machine, is a critique of utopian ideas, set in the year 802701. The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the... Read More
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, known as Marcel Proust, was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past. In Search of Lost Time follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and experiences into adulthood during the late 19th century to early 20th century aristocratic France,... Read More
Marcel Proust was born in the Paris Borough of Auteuil on 10 July 1871, two months after the Treaty of Frankfurt formally ended the Franco-Prussian War. He was born during the violence that surrounded the suppression of the Paris Commune, and his childhood corresponded with the consolidation of the French Third Republic. Much of In Search of Lost Time concerns the vast changes, most particular... Read More
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust, known as Marcel Proust, was a French novelist, critic, and essayist. Proust was involved in writing and publishing from an early age. In addition to the literary magazines with which he was associated, and in which he published while at school, from 1890 to 1891 he published a regular society column in the journal Le Mensuel. Marcel Proust is best kn... Read More
Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel In Search of Lost Time. Sodome et Gomorrhe, sometimes translated as Cities of the Plain, was originally published in two volumes. It was the last volume over which Proust supervised publication before his death in November 1922. The publication of the remaining volumes was carried out by his brother, R... Read More