Esther's Classic Literature Blog

Number and words and whatever comes in between...The Phantom Tollbooth is a modern fairy tale--famous for its wordplay and witty interplay. Instead of a wardrobe or a looking glass, young Milo travels to the Kingdom of Wisdom through a magic tollbooth, where he must make sense of a war between the people of words (from Dictionopolis) and the people of numbers (from Digitoplis).

In The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster writes: "Expectations is the place you must always go to before you get to where you're going. Of course, some people never go beyond Expectations, but my job is to hurry them along whether they like it or not."

Have you read The Phantom Tollbooth? What did you think? Are there other books with which you would compare it? And, there's something else... when you looked at the cover, and/and or read about the book, what did you expect? Does the cover art ever influence your choice in books?

Cover Art © Random House.

I don't always like to think about it, but lots of us are heading back to school--elementary, middle, high school, college, and the school of life. It's all a never-ending adventure in learning when you are enamored with literature. But, this time of the year sets a tone, makes me remember that I need to pursue my course of reading and thinking (regardless of whether a teacher is standing over me).

But, oh, think of those days...

Do you remember all of those first days of school? Every year, I'd get that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then, after a few days, the school routine would kick in... What are your memories of heading back to school? In An Old Man's Thought of School, Walt Whitman writes,

"An old man's thought of school,
An old man gathering youthful memories and blooms that youth itself cannot.
Now only do I know you,
O fair auroral skies--O morning dew upon the grass!
And these I see, these sparkling eyes,
These stores of mystic meaning, these young lives,
Building, equipping like a fleet of ships, immortal ships,
Soon to sail out over the measureless seas,
On the soul's voyage."

Join our discussion: Back-to-School Memories. Then, take a look at how to succeed in literature. And, read How To Study.

What do you recall? What about your learning experience do you never want to forget? And, how do you continue learning? Do you consciously make an effort to read and learn every day?

Alex Haley was born on August 11, 1921. And, he was to go on in acclaim as the writer of scripts and novels. He's most famous for Roots, which was awarded the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize in 1977. Haley once said: "What Roots gets at in whatever form, is that it touches the pulse of how alike we human beings are when you get down to the bottom, beneath these man-imposed differences."

Some events, or books or people have a way of bringing us all together in ways the extent of which are difficult to pin down or define. We know that some books are just phenomenons. They touch us to the core with a universality, and they stand the test of time.

Everyone has a definition for a classic (and many "great books" become classics) but what is your definition of a "great book"? How do you differentiate "great" from "good"? Have you read many books you've considered great? Or, do you believe that every book partakes in the greatness that is literature? (Some readers refuse to say that they've ever read a truly horrible book). What's your take?

I love night! There's something about the play of light and shadows--the sometimes almost-perfect silence... until the crickets start their song. I love the spots of light: fireflies flashing back and forth in the gathering darkness, the lights off down the road (or on the hillside. Night is filled with mystery, and it's all about the unknown/unknowable--the unseen.

The coming of night, the sounds of night, and the dreamy quality of experiencing the darkness are all part of literature. Night is that period from sunset to sunrise. The darkness sometimes seems to engulf everything with gloom or despair (or perhaps just the reflective feel). Read on:

• Night - Percy Bysshe Shelley
• She Walks in Beauty - Lord Byron
• Meeting at Night - Robert Browning
• Voices of the Night - Henry Wadesworth Longfellow
• On the Beach at Night - Walt Whitman
• The Night Journey - Rupert Brooke
• At Night - George Edgar Montgomery

Discover the literature of night.

Orson Scott Card once wrote: "Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them. Most people don't see any."

Do you ever see something happen and say: "That would be a great story... or poem... or novel." Or, do you see something happen, and remember an episode in a novel." In everyday life, we see examples of universal experiences. We see the stuff that writers have used as fodder for the great novels in literary history. Do you ever compare your life to the universality of fiction and poetry?

A 2007 Time poll places Madame Bovary at the forefront of classic novels in world literature (along with Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. And, it's no wonder. The novel offers something for everyone: a coming of age story, a whirlwind "romance" with a doctor, and (well) a whole series of other events that really throws the novel into the ranks of banned literature. Who could love a woman who dreams outside of her accepted role? And, who could appreciate the dolt of a husband who tirelessly accompanies her through the pages of Madame Bovary? Her actions could be considered idiotic, romanticized, and careless--her adultery and eventual escape throws the lives of those around her into utter chaos, destroying the very ones she "should" have loved. Her goals seemed so simple, so clear. All she wanted was the dream. She wanted the man from her novels. She wanted the life promised in those stories. Even Charles seemed to fit into her dream: "She compared and likened him to the characters in the books. But the circle of which he was the centre, gradually enlarged around him, and the aureole which encompassed him withdrew farther and farther from him, to shed its light on other dreams."

Here are more resources related to Madame Bovary:

• Madame Bovary Discussions
• Madame Bovary Text
• Madame Bovary Quiz
• Madame Bovary Quotes
• Madame Bovary Review
• Madame Bovary Vocab
• Madame Bovary Questions

But, here's the real question... Do novels encourage us to dream unreasonably? Have you ever wished you could transport yourself into the pages of your favorite novel--to live the dream, to walk down those golden, garden paths, to experience everything with the characters? Have you wished that you could meet (and love?) a character from a book? How "real" does literature become? Even if you have a clear delineation between fiction and "reality," books leave marks on all of us--often in ways we may not even realize. Perhaps you're looking for your Mr. Darcy. Perhaps, you're just wishing for sisters like in Little Women; or a bosom friend like in Anne of Green Gables.

Many of our most secret and dear wishes have been explored in literature: love, friendship, mystery, adventure, and beyond!

It's been a sweltering hot day, but now the lights o the city are spread out before me--from this 6th-story window... And, August is just a few days away. What then?

The month of August has been associated with bad luck. It's the "month of the crazy dog." What has your experience been with the month of August?
In "August," Dorthy Parker wrote:
When my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;

Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces' pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.

What are you reading in August? Happy Reading!

I'm always a bit troubled by my strange fascination with the whole discussion about ebooks and my old favorite standby books.

On the one hand, I love technology. I get excited about the thought of new gadgets, and I spend far too much time on my computer. I embrace the technological revolution. I really do LOVE the idea of ebooks. I enjoy the thought of browsing a book via electronic means. I've spent a good deal of time posting electronic versions of books and poems and essays. And, I use the electronic forms on a regular basis.

But, when I buy a new book, I go for the paperback/hardback--which some must see as being an ancient and rather outmoded form. When I enter a bookstore, I love browsing the stacks--lingering on particular volumes I have enjoyed, or discovering books that appear to be of particular interest.

Of course, I enjoy discussions like the one by Naomi Alderman (for The Observer), who talks of her "teetering piles of books." I feel her excitement, and the geek in me yearns for the untold possibilities of this "new art form."

But, there's something that occurs to me, and I don't know if it makes sense... I don't dream of reading an ebook, or even an electronic version of a book. I sometimes do dream of reading--sometimes curled up in Uncle John's old green chair, or sitting out on the grass, or perhaps by a roaring fire. When I dream of reading, I'm holding one of my rather dog-eared, well-loved volumes. I'm holding a book, and it's comfortable.

What do you think about the ebook versus book debate? Do you love or hate the advances? Will you ever accept the exchange of a book for the ebook?

All day, the rain has been coming by fits and starts--sprinkles now, then a bit more of a shower, then less. I yearn for the moisture--it seems to engulf me. And, I can't help but think of all the poets and writers who have been enchanted and inspired by the rain's song:

• "Proud music of the storm... Personified dim shapes--you hidden orchestras, / You serenades of phantoms with instruments alert, / Blending with Nature's rhythmus all the tongues of nations" - Walt Whitman, Proud Music of the Storm
  
  
• "I am the Poem of Earth, said the voice of the rain, / Eternal I rise impalpable out of the land and the bottomless sea, / Upward to heaven, whence, vaguely form'd, altogether changed" - Walt Whitman, The Voice of the Rain
  
  
• "the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spiderwebby; and here would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they was just wild" - Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  
  
• "Darkness had come, and it was still raining. He could hear the rain dashing against the window-panes, and could see it falling through the dull yellow rim of light cast by the lighted street lamp." - Kate Chopin, Her Letters
  
  

Hopefully, if a storm finds you, you're curled up by the fire with a good book!

What can we learn from a rat, a mole, a toad, and other creatures?

I still remember when I first read The Wind in the Willows. It's a great entertainment experience for readers of all ages. And, once you've read it, you're not likely to forget the read.

In The Wind in the Willows, we read: "Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves about the past - they never do; they're too busy."

Read more quotes from the novel, or read the entire text. Also take a look at a review. Have you read this book? What did you think? Would you recommend it to others? And, what does this tale say about our society?

Cover Art © Penguin.