Janet Lewison

3 August 1873 I was never so frightened as I am now. They have left me sitting in the dark, with only the light from the window to write by.… Read More »Sarah Waters Affinity

My name, in those days, was Susan Trinder. People called me Sue. I know the year I was born in, but for many years I did not know the date,… Read More »Fingersmith -Sarah Waters

There is a city suurounded by water with watery alleys that do for streets and roads and silted up back ways that only rats can cross. Miss your way, which… Read More »Venice: Winterson's very visible city!

The Artist“If life has a base that it stands upon, if it is a bowl that one fills and fills and fills—then my bowl without a doubt stands upon this… Read More »Sketch of the past – Woolf

‘The only real purpose of a goal is to inspire youto fall more deeply in love with your life.’

Any thoughts on this magical novel? Worth it just for the conclusion to the Queen Of Sades section: ‘ If you should leave me, my heart would turn to water… Read More »The Passion by Jeanette Winterson

How fresh like frilled linen clean from a laundry laid in wicker trays the roses looked; and dark and prim the red carnations, holding their heads up; and all the… Read More »Moments of being

Everything seemed possible. Everything seemed right. Just now (but this cannot last, she thought, dissociating herself from the moment while they were talking about boots) just now she had reached… Read More »Mrs Ramsay

Cities & Desire 5 From there, after six days and seven nights, you arrive at Zobeide, the white city, well exposed to the moon, with streets wound about themselves as… Read More »Winterson and Italo Calvino : Cities of Desire

1. A Haunted House   WHATEVER hour you woke there was a door shunting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure—a ghostly couple.… Read More »A Haunted House – Woolf

There is a city surrounded by water with watery alleys that do for streets and roads and silted up back ways that only the rats can cross. Miss your way,… Read More »The Passion 1998

BACK

Like so many relationships, Bleak House begins in the fog: ‘Fog everywhere. Fog up the river…fog down the river…chance people on the bridges…with fog all round them.’  Repetition breeds a… Read More »Bleak House and Relationships

Would that the ill-fated Marie Antoinette had had such a friend at her execution.The girl looks pale enough to be MA.

The ancients built Valdrada on the shores of a lake, with houses all verandas one above the other, and high streets whose railed parapets look out over the water. Thus… Read More »Winterson and Calvino: Correspondences and mirrors!

Whilst looking at the opening to Our mutual friend a student asked why gaffer hexman’s vulture-like identity is only hinted at rather than told: The girl turned her face towards… Read More »A Quality Question on Our Mutual Friend

AS GREGOR SAMSA awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armor-plated,… Read More »Is this the best opening ever ?

“For me the research that underlies the writing is the best part of the scribbling game. . . . On Jumbly shelves in my house I can find directions for… Read More »Four dimensional Thinking!

To Sherlock Holmes she is always the woman. I have seldom heard him mention her under any other name. In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her… Read More »Sherlock Holmes : A Scandal In Bohemia

Here are two famous openings to Nineteenth Century Stories. When they are brought together they can operate as critiques of each other and can thus generate excellnt ideas with ease!… Read More »Make connections:The Joy of Juxtaposition!

 DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone,… Read More »Juxtaposition ( Continued)

How can the bird that is born for joy Sit in a cage and sing ? (William Blake)

A successful essay requires a very sharp focus  In fact it needs a very fixed even retentive focus. This is one area when retentiveness in terms of obsession is GREAT!… Read More »All you need is a word!

Mr and Mrs Veneering were bran-new people in a bran-new house in a bran-new quarter of London. Everything about the Veneerings was spick and span new. All their furniture was… Read More »the Veneerings: Chapter 2 Our Mutual Friend Dickens

ON THE LOOK OUT In these times of ours, though concerning the exact year there is noneed to be precise, a boat of dirty and disreputable appearance,with two figures in… Read More »Our Mutual Friend – Dickens

Henry James didn’t like Our Mutual Friend. And he never would or could have written it. So there! But one day will write a blog on the dishonesty of Henry… Read More »Henry James on Dickens