‘The Lottery in Babylon’, a short story by Jorge Luis Borges first published in 1941, is among his most ‘Kafkaesque’ tales, bearing the influence of the Czech writer in a number of its key aspects. At the time, Borges was working a rather unfulfilling library job refilling the bookshelves, and […]
Great Expectations is one of Dickens’s most popular novels: perhaps only Oliver Twist and David Copperfield are equally well-known and well-regarded among his full-length novels (A Christmas Carol, technically a novella, is surely his most famous book of all). Not bad for a novel which Dickens only started writing because […]
Diamonds have long been regarded as the most precious of all of the precious gemstones. For this reason, diamonds often symbolise perfection, purity, and rarity; however, because of the durability of diamond – it is famously capable of cutting glass – diamonds also sometimes symbolise imperviousness and indestructibility. The word […]