The Inspector-General  |
| Nikolai V. Gogol (1809 - 1852) |
The Inspector-General is a satirical masterpiece portraying greed, stupidity, and the endemic corruption of power in tsarist Russia. It caused such uproar when published in 1836 that only the personal intervention of Tsar Nicholas I allowed it to be staged. Although it used the forms, elements, and premises of plays written before, it marks the beginning of a new tradition. Widely adapted. Seemingly the clear inspiration for the hotel inspector episode of the TV series, Fawlty Towers. |
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| The Life of Teresa of Jesus |
| Teresa of Avila (1515 - 1582) |
Teresa of Avila was major figure of the Catholic Reformation - a prominent mystic, writer, and reformer. At age seven she ran away from home to 'find martyrdom amongst the Moors'. At twenty she joined the Carmelite nuns. She resolved to found a new convent based on the principal of absolute poverty and renunciation of property. This, and the three kinds of ritual flagellation used at services, disturbed the laity. Later, the Carmelites tried to suppress her movement. After Don Quixote this is Spain's mode widely read prose classic. |
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| The Odyssey |
| Homer (700BC - 700BC) |
The Odyssey is one of the two major ancient Greek epic poems of Homer. The action takes place after Homer's Iliad and details the journey home of the Greek hero Odysseus (Ulysses). The journey takes years, in part due to the Gods' disagreements over his eventual fate, and it is only when he is finally home that his troubles really begin. |
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| The Sorrows of Young Werther |
| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832) |
This was Goethe's first major success, though it also lead to some difficulties. It started "Werther Fever"; some young men so identified with Werther that that they began dress like him. It also lead to more than 2,000 copycat suicides. The problem became so concerning to the authorities that a rival 'happy ending' was published by Friedrich Nicolai, another author. Goethe was incensed and published a poem in which Nicolai defecates on Werther's grave, starting a literary war that lasted all his life. |
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| The Underground Railroad |
| William Still (1819 - 1902) |
The Underground Railroad says of itself: "An authentic record of the wonderful hardships, hairbreadth escapes, and death struggles which mark the track from slavery to freedom in the United States." The Underground Railroad was a network of secret routes helping African Americans escape to 'free states' or Canada. Between 1810 and 1850 the Railroad may have moved as many 100,000 people to freedom. |
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| Typhoon |
| Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924) |
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| Uncle Tom's Cabin |
| Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811 - 1896) |
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best selling novel of the nineteenth century. The book is named for the central character and depicts the harsh reality of slavery. The book had such a significant impact that on meeting Stowe, Abraham Lincoln said; "So this is the little lady who made this big war". A product of it's time, the book is interesting also for it's illustration of stereotypes that even abolitionists could not recognise. |
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