The stories of the US short-story writer O. Henry, real name William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), are characterised by their irony and by their surprise endings, which became something of a signature of a good O. Henry short story. The 1907 story ‘The Last Leaf’ is among his most famous: along […]
The tale of St George and the Dragon, or ‘St George of Merrie England’ as it’s also known in some versions, is a classic English fairy tale. And yet its origins aren’t English, and St George accomplished this feat not in England but in another land (usually either Libya or […]
‘Romanticism is spilt religion’ is a famous phrase from the writings of T. E. Hulme (1883-1917), who has been described as the first modernist poet writing in English and whose prose writings – on modern poetry, politics, and modern art among other things – are among the most important early […]
‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’ is a classic example of the American short story. Its author, Ambrose Bierce, was himself a fascinating figure, who is also remembered for his witty The Devil’s Dictionary and for his mysterious disappearance in around 1914. Published by The San Francisco Examiner in 1890, […]
‘To thine own self be true’ is a well-known proverbial expression which means ‘be true to yourself’ or ‘don’t do anything that would go against your true nature’. But what are the origins of this phrase? To discover those, and why they may come tinged with irony in their original […]