Tag Archives: literature

The Wealth of a Nation

Posted on December 18, 2010 by Fred Bubbers

“Let me tell you about the very rich.  They are different from you and me.  They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | Comments Off

The Art of the Novella: First Love by Ivan Turgenev

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Fred Bubbers

In the late 1850′s, three wealthy Russians have supper at the home of one of the men.  After the plates are cleared away and the middle-aged gentlemen are enjoying cigars, they trade stories of their first loves.  Two of them … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off

Shackles, Chains, and Canon

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Fred Bubbers

In his essay, “In Praise of Dead White Men,” Lindsay Johns argues that efforts to make education more “relevant” to black people can be both patronizing and harmful, and that western literary canon should be taught to everyone.  While I … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , | Comments Off

The Art of the Novella: The Ghost Writer by Philip Roth

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Fred Bubbers

Philip Roth’s The Ghost Writer was first published in two parts in The New Yorker in 1979.  Later that year it was published in book form by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.  It was the first book of his Zuckerman Bound … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off

The Art of the Novella: Seize the Day by Saul Bellow

Posted on May 30, 2010 by Fred Bubbers

Originally published in 1957, Saul Bellow’s Seize the Day is considered one of the twentieth century’s finest works of fiction. It chronicles a single day in the life of one Tommy Wilhelm, a failed middle-aged actor, living on a precipice. … Continue reading →

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments