October 21, 2020 / Leave a comment
Gustave Flaubert 1857 (An unhappily married woman pursues a lifelong quest for the fulfillment of her romantic desires, by any means necessary.) When a novelist is said to rebel against romanticism, anyone with an imaginative, adventurous, passionate, chivalrous, or spiritual streak may be forgiven for wanting to give it a pass. Such a writer sounds […]
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July 2, 2015 / 2 Comments on Hippolytus
(Ἱππολυτος) Euripides 429 BC (Disaster ensues when Phaedra falls for her stepson!) The gods will have their play, and we piteous humans must suffer in double jeopardy. First, vice will eventually bring destruction, and yet we are by nature weak and prone to vice. Second, everyone is subject to fate, which is not kinder to […]
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December 16, 2014 / Leave a comment
John Donne d. 1631 (An earthy, imaginative, thoughtful soul reveals his view of love, steeped in metaphor and emotion.) Crop of Francesca da Rimini with her lover Paolo, by the Scottish painter William Dyce (1837). This painting can be seen in the National Galleries of Scotland. Though not quite as scandalous as Paolo, who is here courting his brother’s […]
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November 18, 2014 / Leave a comment
(Une nuit de Cléopâtre) Théophile Gautier 1838 (A young hunter is willing to die to be with queen Cleopatra for just one evening.) Word for word, this little novella (three times the length of a typical short story at about 12,700 words) probably paints the most vibrant description of ancient Egypt in all of literature. […]
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October 4, 2014 / 2 Comments on First Love
(Первая любовь) Ivan Turgenev 1860 (A young man is thrown into the sweet agony of unrequited love for his beautiful new neighbor.) Woldemar, a young man of sixteen, experiences the whirlwind of love descending on him for the first time, as he becomes acquainted with the beautiful and elegant Zinaida, the daughter of a princess, […]
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Madame Bovary
October 21, 2020 / Leave a comment
Gustave Flaubert 1857 (An unhappily married woman pursues a lifelong quest for the fulfillment of her romantic desires, by any means necessary.) When a novelist is said to rebel against romanticism, anyone with an imaginative, adventurous, passionate, chivalrous, or spiritual streak may be forgiven for wanting to give it a pass. Such a writer sounds […]
Continue Reading →