An introduction to the history of the detective story Since this is a short history of the detective story, it will, inevitably, make some pretty glaring omissions. We’d love to hear from detective fiction aficionados in the comments section below, for any other interesting takes on mystery and detective tales. […]
Literature
Guest Blog: In Search of Samuel Beckett
By Kenneth Hickey, University College Cork L to R: A young Samuel Beckett, his wife Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil and Beckett in later life. Samuel Beckett is one of those figures who, despite being known to almost anyone with even a passing interest in English literature, always somehow remain elusive. Despite several […]
Surprising Facts about Aladdin and the Arabian Nights
By Dr Oliver Tearle The story of Aladdin is one of the most familiar narratives in all of literature, a classic ‘rags to riches’ tale featuring a young hero who has to learn an important lesson; an exotic setting; a good healthy dose of magic; a beautiful heroine; and an […]
Interesting Facts about Robin Hood
Robin Hood is first mentioned in print in the late fourteenth-century poem Piers Plowman, which is commonly attributed to William Langland, a contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer. It was a timely moment for the outlaw to enter literature: English literature as we know it was starting to emerge, and the Peasants’ […]
The Word ‘Hobbit’
The word ‘hobbit’ was supposedly invented by J. R. R. Tolkien. This fact both is and is not true. To explain why this is the case (or isn’t the case) we must do a bit of delving into the world of witchcraft … Tolkien’s book was published in 1937, but […]