English Literature - Read Mode
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‘Adonais’ is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley in 1821 to mourn the death of John Keats. Shelley eulogizes Keats, attacking the critics he believed contributed to the young poet's death.
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A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two different things using connective words such as ‘like’ or ‘as’ (e.g., ‘brave as a lion’), making descriptions more vivid.
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The Restoration period began in 1660 when King Charles II was restored to the English throne, ending the Puritan Commonwealth. This era is marked by the reopening of theatres and a shift in literary style.
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‘The Sun Also Rises’ (1926) is a classic novel by Ernest Hemingway. It depicts the lives of the ‘Lost Generation’, a group of expatriates traveling from Paris to Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls.
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‘David Copperfield’ is a quintessential Victorian novel by Charles Dickens. Published in 1850, it reflects the social structures, industrialization, and moral values typical of 19th-century Victorian England.
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This celebrated poem was written by Thomas Gray. It is an elegy that honors the simple, obscure lives of villagers buried in a country churchyard, contrasting their potential with their lack of opportunity.
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‘Measure for Measure’ is often classified as a tragi-comedy or a ‘problem play’. It deals with serious themes like justice, corruption, and morality but ends in marriage and forgiveness rather than death.
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The publication of ‘Lyrical Ballads’ in 1798 by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is traditionally seen as the beginning of the Romantic Age, marking a shift towards nature, emotion, and common language.
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‘The Return of the Native’ is a major novel by Thomas Hardy, published in 1878. Set on the brooding Egdon Heath, it explores the tragic conflict between characters and their environment.
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This famous line is from William Shakespeare's ‘Hamlet’. Prince Hamlet speaks it in a soliloquy in Act 1, Scene 2, expressing his disgust at his mother Gertrude's hasty marriage to his uncle Claudius.