POEMS IN PROSE by Oscar Wilde THE ARTIST ONE evening there came into his soul the desire to fashion an image of THE PLEASURE THAT ABIDETH FOR A MOMENT. And he went forth into the world to look for bronze. For he could think only in bronze. But all the bronze of the whole world […]
Classic Articles on Writing
Joseph Addison Thank God I am an Englishmen
Let brevity despatch the rapid thought. I have somewhere read of an eminent person who used in his private offices of devotion to give thanks to Heaven that he was born a Frenchman: for my own part I look upon it as a peculiar blessing that I was born an Englishman. Among many other reasons, […]
My Thoughts on July by Alice Meynell
One has the leisure of July for perceiving all the differences of the green of leaves. It is no longer a difference in degrees of maturity, for all the trees have darkened to their final tone, and stand in their differences of character and not of mere date. Almost all the green is grave, not […]
The Poet and His Ego by Elizabeth Atkins from The Poet’s Poet 1922
Most of us, mere men that we are, find ourselves caught in some entanglement of our mortal coil even before we have fairly embarked upon the enterprise of thinking our case through. The art of self-reflection which appeals to us as so eminent and so human, is it after all much more than a […]
Henry James is Awesome! by Willa Cather
Henry James is Awesome! by Willa Cather Their mania for careless and hasty work is not confined to the lesser men. Howells and Hardy have gone with the crowd. Now that Stevenson is dead I can think of but one English speaking author who is really keeping his self-respect and sticking for perfection. Of […]
Household Superstitions by Joseph Addison
Visions and magic spells, can you despise, And laugh at witches, ghosts, and prodigies? Going yesterday to dine with an old acquaintance, I had the misfortune to find his whole family very much dejected. Upon asking him the occasion of it, he told me that his wife had dreamt a very strange dream the night […]
The Rights And Involved Duties of Mankind Considered by Mary Wollstonecraft
In the present state of society, it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as […]
My Impressions of New York by Robert Louis Stevenson
NEW YORK As we drew near to New York I was at first amused, and then somewhat staggered, by the cautious and the grisly tales that went the round. You would have thought we were to land upon a cannibal island. You must speak to no one in the streets, as they would not leave […]
Of Wisdom For A Man’s Self by Francis Bacon
Of Wisdom For A Man’s Self by Francis Bacon AN ANT is a wise creature for itself, but it is a shrewd thing, in an orchard or garden. And certainly, men that are great lovers of themselves, waste the public. Divide with reason; between selflove and society; and be so true to thyself, as thou […]
My Fear of Tolstoy’s Death. A Letter by Anton Chekhov
TO M. O. MENSHIKOV. YALTA, January 28, 1900. … I can’t make out what Tolstoy’s illness is. Tcherinov has sent me no answer, and from what I read in the papers and what you write me now I can draw no conclusion. Ulcers in the stomach and intestines would give different indications: they are not […]
A Review of Hamlet by WILLIAM HAZLITT
A Review of Hamlet by WILLIAM HAZLITT It is the one of Shakespeare’s plays that we think of the oftenest, because it sounds most in striking reflections on human life, and because the distresses of Hamlet are transferred, by the turn of his mind, to the general account of humanity. Whatever happens to him, we […]
William Dean Howells’ Latest Books Are Boring! by Willa Cather
Certainly now in his old age Mr. Howells is selecting queer titles for his books. A while ago we had that feeble tale, “The Coast of Bohemia,” and now we have “My Literary Passions.” “Passions,” literary or otherwise, were never Mr. Howells’ forte and surely no man could be further from even the coast of […]
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson “Ne te quaesiveris extra.” “Man is his own star; and the soul that can Render an honest and a perfect man, Commands all light, all influence, all fate; Nothing to him falls early or too late. Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk […]
Emerson Is a Flippin’ Genius! by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Emerson’s was an Asiatic mind, drawing its sustenance partly from the hard soil of our New England, partly, too, from the air that has known Himalaya and the Ganges. So imprest with this character of his mind was Mr. Burlingame, as I saw him, after his return from his mission, that he said to me, […]
William Shakespeare’s Influence by William Dean Howells
William Shakespeare’s Influence by William Dean Howells The establishment of our paper in the village where there had been none before, and its enlargement from four to eight pages, were events so filling that they left little room for any other excitement but that of getting acquainted with the young people of the village, and […]