By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Good Country People’ is one of the best-known and most widely studied short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64).
The story, which focuses on a woman with a wooden leg who is befriended by a young and innocent-seeming bible salesman, takes in many themes, including innocence versus knowledge and our perceptions of others: perceptions which are often quite false.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘Remember Sascha?’ is a short story by the American writer Ray Bradbury (1920-2012), included in his 1996 collection Quicker Than the Eye. The story hasn’t attracted much in the way of critical commentary, either in academic studies or analyses of Bradbury’s work or more widely in the blogosphere, so this review is a small attempt to remedy that. First, to summarise this charming little story though.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Here are a couple of pop trivia questions for you. What connects Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’? And what, for that matter, connects ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ with Abba’s ‘Mamma Mia’?
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Albert Camus (1913-60) was one of the most important and influential writers of the twentieth century. Born in Algeria, which at the time was still part of the French empire, Camus studied philosophy at the University of Algiers, and his fiction and essays are both ‘philosophical’ in their outlook and their approach to understanding the modern world.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘One Dollar’s Worth’ is a short story by the American writer O. Henry, whose real name was William Sydney Porter (1862-1910). A trademark of the O. Henry story is the surprise twist ending, and ‘One Dollar’s Worth’ certainly has a few surprises in store for the reader in its closing paragraphs. The story is about a criminal who seeks vengeance on the judge who put him in prison, by intending to kill the judge’s daughter.