Tag Archives: English Literature

If we lose this, we lose all.

Posted on November 22, 2025 by Brian D. Butler

You may have noticed that the books you really love are bound together by a secret thread. You know very well what is the common quality that makes you love them, though you cannot put it into words: but most … Continue reading →

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It was a dark and stormy night

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

“She had a body that reached out and slapped my face like a five-pound ham-hock tossed from a speeding truck.” 2024 Grand Prize Winner Founded in 1982 at San Jose State University in California, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest challenges entrants … Continue reading →

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Jane Austen : Revolutionary

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Brian D. Butler

I never thought that the English novelist Jane Austen was a revolutionary, but what do I know. In the video below, Evan Puschak explains, with examples, what free indirect speech is, why Austen employed it, and why it was so … Continue reading →

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Breaking the Dickens Code

Posted on December 29, 2022 by Brian D. Butler

An international campaign to decipher the complex code that Charles Dickens used to write his notes has won a Times Higher Education Award, one of the most prestigious prizes in UK Higher Education. The University of Leicester, in collaboration with … Continue reading →

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Primary Source

Posted on July 16, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

It’s now possible to read one of the oldest books of English literature in the world  online.The Exeter Book is a 1oth century anthology of poetry in Old English and one of  only four manuscript books containing virtually all the English … Continue reading →

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A Strange Case

Posted on March 28, 2021 by Brian D. Butler

New York City’s amazing Morgan Library has scanned the entire handwritten manuscript to Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde  and it’s now available for paging through and reading online. The manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella “The Strange … Continue reading →

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Oh, but it’s weird and wonderful

Posted on April 9, 2020 by Brian D. Butler

I generally avoid making many reading recommendations as people’s tastes and interests are so varied. However, in these strange days with some much time on our hands, many folks are clamoring for book suggestions. Fortuitously, I stumbled on an endorsement … Continue reading →

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America 2018

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Brian D. Butler

The Land of the Living Dead: a Narrative of the Perilous Sojourn therein of George Cowper, Mariner, in the Year 1835. Neal Fyne. London: Henry J. Drane, n.d. [1897]. Illustrations by E. A. Holloway. First edition. Fantastic adventure fiction. Castaways … Continue reading →

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A Village After Dark

Posted on October 6, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

This year’s Nobel prize for literature was announced yesterday. I don’t usually pay much attention to these types of awards, but I really thought that this would be Margaret Atwood’s year. Still, even though I was surprised by the selection … Continue reading →

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It was a dark and stormy night

Posted on August 8, 2017 by Brian D. Butler

Each year, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest receives hundreds of entrants all competing to craft the worst opening sentence for an imaginary novel. The annual event celebrates English author and politician Edward Bulwer-Lytton, who once penned the infamous line “It was … Continue reading →

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