Interesting Literature

Eloisa to Abelard: Alexander Pope the Romantic

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

In 1707, the young Alexander Pope wrote a verse epistle on the theme of unhappy love, and written in the Latin vein. The female speaker of the poem is a real-life figure who lived and died centuries before Pope. In the poem, she addresses her male lover, expressing her grief and sadness over their separation from each other.

What Was the Original ‘Oldest Profession’?

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Here’s a question to begin this week’s blog post. What was the original ‘oldest profession’?

a) prostitution
b) farming
c) law
d) soldiering
e) tailoring
f) humbugging

I’ll come to the correct answer in due course, but it most definitely is not a).

The Satyricon, Michael Heseltine, and T. S. Eliot

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Readers of The Waste Land encounter texts in four different languages before they even make it to the opening line of the poem. T. S. Eliot’s 1922 poem about post-war Europe begins with an epigraph from the Roman writer Petronius, followed by a dedication to Eliot’s fellow poet (and fellow American-in-Europe), Ezra Pound.

The Original Meaning of Liff

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Have you ever heard of a radlett? It’s defined as the ‘single hemisphere of dried pea which is invariably found in an otherwise spotlessly clean saucepan’. Or how about a lulworth, a ‘measure of conversation’ which ‘defines the amount of the length, loudness and embarrassment of a statement you make when everyone else in the room unaccountably stops talking at the same moment’? Or a skoonspruit, the ‘tiny garden sprinkler thing your mouth sometimes does for no apparent reason’?

John Cheever’s ‘The Chaste Clarissa’: An Analysis

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Chaste Clarissa’ (1952) is a story of seduction. Baxter, a promiscuous twice-divorced man, finds himself drawn to a young married redhead named Clarissa while holidaying at Martha’s Vineyard, as is his wont every summer. The story ends with Baxter finally unlocking the key that might – might – just make Clarissa break her marriage vows.