Beyond the Letters

Biographies are generally a non-fiction genre, for even though they have some place for imagination and emotionality within them, they are mostly a collection of facts presented in an attractive way. But many writers, especially modern ones, try to reconsider this quite old genre and give a new life to it. Here I will tell you about some novels that depict images of famous people, and whose main aim is not to tell the story of someone’s life but to let the reader see these personalities through the author’s eyes. 1. Miss Charity by Marie-Aude Muriel Loosely based on the life of Beatrix Potter this little comedy however managed to create a very credible image of the acclaimed children author. Beatrix Potter was a talented writer with her own unique vision of the world and her own ideas about woman’s position in society. Living in highly conventional Victorian society, she dared to state that any woman could be more than just a wife or a housekeeper. The book is written in th...

The topic I have chosen might seem sulky or too depressive for some readers but sometimes it is highly essential to read something like that as such novels not only help to raise awareness and form a positive attitude towards people with mental issues, but also provide the reader with an emotional and memorable story definitely worth your time and patience. In this list I have made an attempt to collect the novels of different forms and genres which at the same time discuss different conditions so that each reader could pick something to his/her liking. 1. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time” gives the reader an insight into a life of a teen boy, Christopher, who has a condition of autistic spectrum , supposedly Asperger’s syndrome. Although the features of this disorder are described very accurately, the main aim of the author here is to describe the teen’s personality and make the character r...

However far away the life brings us from our native place, there is always a moment when we need to return to the roots. In this very moment we meet the narrator of “The Italian Girl” written by Iris Murdoch, a prominent representative of postmodern British literature. Having escaped from the oppressive influence of his mother, Lydia, in his youth, Edmund couldn’t find enough strength to get back to his family up to her sudden death. Now, many years later, Edmund comes to the funeral, where he will meet his relatives, about the life of which he has only a vague knowledge based on a few brief letters. He doesn’t notice any changes at first glance – the same old house, the same family of his brother and the unchangeable Italian servant. But one occasional confession of Edmund’s niece makes him see that the relations between his relatives are more confused than they seemed to be and Lydia’s house keeps m any more secrets… The Gothic atmosphere One of the most interesting features...

As we get hold of sharp and sliding border And listen to the buzzing sound of chime,- Don’t we go mad amidst the motley order And change of made-up reasons, space and time?.. Alexander Blok It took me eight years and a degree in literary studies to get to love this great postmodernist but it was definitely worth it. I must confess that the first books by Barnes I read as a student were beyond my understanding and therefore beyond my interest but since than I discovered a lot of his works that made me fall in love with his writing. “The Noise of Time” is definitely one of them. This book is  a perfect example of intermediality  (several types of art combined) and it throws its reader into the majestic world of classical music  telling about one of the most prominent composers of the previous century Dmitri Shostakovich  and his complicated relations with Soviet authorities. It’s widely known that Soviet Union was not the most creative environm...

It’s is difficult to evaluate a book which tells about a culture so different from your own, and it’s even more difficult to review it, but nevertheless, I decided to try. I have struggled to read Asian authors for the last two years and each time I picked a book and started reading, I had real troubles analyzing the text as the symbolism and inner meanings were indecipherable to me due to the lack of appropriate cultural background. This novel written by an American author turned out to be an encyclopedia of Chinese culture and answered a lot of questions that have previously arisen, so now I’m much more prepared to read something by a Chinese writer. Lisa See has done a profound research preparing to write this novel and I really appreciated that, for this text managed to preserve Chinese symbols and cultural peculiarities but present them in a way understandable to a western reader. “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” gives you an insight into the life of Chinese women in...

Imagine a little town in American South. A town, which is carefully covered from the bright sunlight by the branches of ancient oaks, a town where every garden is decorated with azaleas, camellias and roses, where all people know each other and secrets are impossible to keep for more than two days. All the inhabitants here are very different, with unique fancies and skeletons in the cupboards, they have their own social ladder as well as social divisions but the life seems to go on quietly and peacefully. And it looks like nothing important can happen in this place… but precisely here, in Maycomb, Alabama, Harper Lee set her acclaimed novel. Adult world in the eyes of a child “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a little trip to the land of childhood. Of a childhood sunny and warm, with lemonade on a hot day, with secrets behind the high fence of the Radley’s place, with Miss Maudie’s colourful garden and Mrs. Dubose’s endless moralizing. The novel is narrated by Jean Louise Finch (o...