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The Darkness of ‘The Secret Agent’
Joseph Conrad’s ‘The Secret Agent’ is a dark novel of human despair set in the muddy streets of early 20th century London.
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Who Owns the Narrative of McGlue?
Ottessa Moshfegh’s first published work, “McGlue”, is the story of one man’s enlightenment or a study on how the psyche works. Depends on how you…
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Dorian Gray’s Life & Art
The Picture of Dorian Gray is a piece of classic gothic literature, but it’s also a portrait of how intricately life & art are entwined…
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Happy Returns to and in ‘Great Expectations’
Returning to ‘Great Expectations’, I read Pip’s journey of self-discovery as a dark novel of making sense of a past which slips further away.
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Creature and Creation in ‘Frankenstein’ and 19th Century Horror
‘Frankenstein’, ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. True terror can only lie in classic 19th century horror.
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Nightwish, a Symphony of Story and Time Passing
“We are their heir, dust on their palm We are because of a million loves” (Nightwish, ‘Perfume of the Timeless’, 2024)
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The Grit and Heart of ‘Shuggie Bain’
‘Shuggie Bain’, Douglas Stuart’s 2020 Booker Prize winner is a dark and heavy story which will leave you emotionally drained. But the story has a…
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Animal Farm (or, How Stories Make the World)
George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” shows that you need only one thing to start a dictatorship: aggressive storytelling.
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5 Male Characters Who Stick
If literary characters were real people, I would love to sit down for a chat with these 5 male characters.
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‘The Waves’ – A Flower with Six Petals
Virginia Woolf’s The Waves is a tapestry of feelings and perceptions, knit together by 6 friends, a 7th absent one and a narrator who seems…
leseriana in English
Book reviews and recommendations, literary analyses, forgotten literary treasures, hints and suggestions how to live a meaningful reader’s life. This is an overview of all the blog posts I wrote in English.
