WOMAN IN FRANCE: MADAME DE SABLÉ by George Eliot In 1847, a certain Count Leopold Ferri died at Padua, leaving a library entirely composed of works written by women, in various languages, and this library amounted to nearly 32,000 volumes. We will not hazard any conjecture as to the proportion of these volumes which a […]
Classic Articles on Writing
How to Draw Lightning from the Clouds by Benjamin Franklin
How to Draw Lightning from the Clouds by Benjamin Franklin As frequent mention is made in public papers from Europe of the success of the Philadelphia experiment for drawing the electric fire from clouds by means of pointed rods of iron erected on high buildings, etc., it may be agreeable to the curious to be […]
A Look at Poets and Poetry of the 1800s from 1888 by William Davenport Adams
A Look at Poets and Poetry of the 1800s from 1888 by William Davenport Adams The succession of the Hon. J. Leicester Warren to the barony of De Tabley was something more than a change in the personnel of the House of Lords; it amounted to a conspicuous addition to the Chamber’s intellectual power, and […]
Alpine Diversions by Robert Louis Stevenson
Alpine Diversions by Robert Louis Stevenson There will be no lack of diversion in an Alpine sanitarium. The place is half English, to be sure, the local sheet appearing in double column, text and translation; but it still remains half German; and hence we have a band which is able to play, and a company […]
Literary Composition by H. P. Lovecraft
Literary Composition H. P. Lovecraft In a former article our readers have been shewn the fundamental sources of literary inspiration, and the leading prerequisites to expression. It remains to furnish hints concerning expression itself; its forms, customs, and technicalities, in order that the young writer may lose nothing of force or charm in presenting his […]
THE DEATH OF SOCRATES by Plato
“Me, already, as the tragic poet would say, the voice of fate calls. Soon I must drink the poison; and I think that I had better repair to the bath first, in order that the women may not have the trouble of washing my body after I am dead.” When he had done speaking, Crito […]
The House Beautiful by Jack London
Speaking of homes, I am building one now, and I venture to assert that very few homes have received more serious thought in the planning. Let me tell you about it. In the first place, there will be no grounds whatever, no fences, lawns, nor flowers. Roughly, the dimensions will be forty-five feet by fifteen. […]
THE REAL WAR WILL NEVER GET IN THE BOOKS by Walt Whitman
THE REAL WAR WILL NEVER GET IN THE BOOKS by Walt Whitman And so good-bye to the war. I know not how it may have been, or may be, to others—to me the main interest I found, (and still, on recollection, find,) in the rank and file of the armies, both sides, and in those […]
The Death of My Wife by Mark Twain
The Death of My Wife by Mark Twain To-morrow will be the thirty-sixth anniversary of our marriage. My wife passed from this life one year and eight months ago, in Florence, Italy, after an unbroken illness of twenty-two months’ duration. I saw her first in the form of an ivory miniature in her brother Charley’s […]
English Poetesses by Oscar Wilde
English Poetesses by Oscar Wilde (Queen, December 8, 1888.) England has given to the world one great poetess, Elizabeth Barrett Browning. By her side Mr. Swinburne would place Miss Christina Rossetti, whose New Year hymn he describes as so much the noblest of sacred poems in our language, that there is none which comes near […]
Friendship by Joseph Addison
Ovid, Met. i. 355. We two are a multitude. One would think that the larger the company is, in which we are engaged, the greater variety of thoughts and subjects would be started in discourse; but instead of this, we find that conversation is never so much straitened and confined as in numerous assemblies. When […]
Threatening Letter to Thomas Hood from An Ancient Gentleman by Charles Dickens
MR. HOOD. SIR,— The Constitution is going at last! You needn’t laugh, Mr. Hood. I am aware that it has been going, two or three times before; perhaps four times; but it is on the move now, sir, and no mistake. I beg to say, that I use those last expressions advisedly, sir, and not […]
Chicago by Rudyard Kipling
CHICAGO by Rudyard Kipling “I know thy cunning and thy greed, Thy hard high lust and wilful deed, And all thy glory loves to tell Of specious gifts material.” I HAVE struck a city—a real city—and they call it Chicago. The other places do not count. San Francisco was a pleasure-resort as well as […]
The Literary Regimen by H. G. Wells
The Literary Regimen by H. G. Wells At the risk of offending the young beginner’s illusions, he must be reminded of one or two homely but important facts bearing upon literary production. Homely as they are, they explain much that is at first puzzling. This perplexing question of distinction; the quality of being somehow fresh—individual. […]
Friendship by Ralph Waldo Emerson
We have a great deal more kindness than is ever spoken. Maugre all the selfishness that chills like east winds the world, the whole human family is bathed with an element of love like a fine ether. How many persons we meet in houses, whom we scarcely speak to, whom yet we honor, and who […]