Events

Middlemarch is a novel that is set in a provincial town in England in the years leading up to the Reform Act of 1832, which broadly increased voting rights in Britain (but women still could not vote). Middlemarch deals with many themes, including "the woman question" and the nature of marriage, as well as religion … Continue reading George Eliot: Middlemarch

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair.  He was a novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, and critic. His memoir Homage to Catalonia recounts his participation in the forces of the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) during th Spanish Civil War and his consequent disillusionment with Marxist politics.  In 1945, Orwell wrote Animal Farm: … Continue reading George Orwell: Nineteen Eighty-Four

Geoffrey Chaucer was the author of the Canterbury Tales, which is an anthology of 24 short stories that are supposedly being told by people who are traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral.  The Canterbury Tales were mostly in verse and were written in Middle English. … Continue reading Geoffrey Chaucer: The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales (April Showers)

The Metamorphoses was the most famous work of the Roman poet Ovid. The Metamorphoses is Ovid's attempt to tell the history of the world, from Creation to the deification of the murdered Roman Emperor Julius Caesar.  The Metamorphoses retells 250 myths. In his retellings, Ovid often departs from traditional accounts. Yet his poem was the … Continue reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses: the Tale of Narcissus and Echo