By Laura Inman John Keats lived for twenty-five years, from 1795 to 1821. He is considered one of the great Romantic poets, along with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron and Shelley. Unlike those other poets of his era, most notably in contrast with Byron and Shelly, Keats was a middle-class commoner, whose parents were inn keepers, a … Read more
What follows are 20 of our favourite quotes about just about everything under the sun. By turns witty, poignant, and hilarious, they are always nothing short of eloquent. We hope you enjoy these quotes (or ‘quotations’, if you’re a purist!). Live all you can; it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what … Read more
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) was once described as the last person to have read everything, so steeped in literature, philosophy, and learning was he. Certainly, he gave us a very useful phrase concerning good fiction: the expression ‘suspension of disbelief’ is a coinage of his, and describes the unofficial contract we all enter into when we read, or watch, fictional narratives.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
We at Interesting Literature felt it was about time we saluted a truly modern man, Thomas Paine (1737-1809).
A story from the 1960s shows just how inflammatory this champion of freedom, equality, and independence still is, even in more recent times. In 1964 the mayor of Thetford in Norfolk (Paine’s hometown) said he would only approve a statue of Paine if it was stamped with the words ‘convicted traitor’.
By Dr Hugh Mercer Curtler, Cottonwood, Minnesota, USA I firmly believe that there is truth in fiction and, indeed, profound truth in the fiction of people like Fyodor Dostoevsky, Joseph Conrad, and George Eliot. Eliot is one of my favorite writers and she always provides a wealth of food for thought. There is depth and … Read more