Portal:Literature Information
Introduction
Literature broadly is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject. ( Full article...)
General images -
John Bauer's illustration of trolls and a princess from a collection of Swedish fairy tales (from Fairy tale)
Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 CE. (from History of books)
Statuta Mutine Reformata, 1420–1485; parchment codex bound in wood and leather with brass plaques worked the corners and in the center, with clasps. (from Medieval literature)
Galway Kinnell performing a poetic piece in Vermont (from Performance poetry)
Octavio Paz helped to define modern poetry and the Mexican personality. (from Latin American literature)
Ivan Bilibin's illustration of the Russian fairy tale about Vasilisa the Beautiful (from Fairy tale)
Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London (from Children's literature)
Postal stamp of Russia celebrating children's books. (from Children's literature)
The New England Primer (from Children's literature)
The Violet Fairy Book (1906)
Photograph of a printing press in Egypt, c. 1922 (from History of books)
Jikji, Selected Teachings of Buddhist Sages and Seon Masters, the earliest known book printed with movable metal type, 1377. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. (from History of books)
Albert Edelfelt's illustration of Adalmina's Pearl, a Finnish fairy tale by Zachris Topelius. (from Fairy tale)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883) is a canonical piece of children's literature and one of the best-selling books ever published. (from Children's literature)
A Chinese bamboo book (from History of books)
A picture by Gustave Doré of Mother Goose reading written (literary) fairy tales (from Fairy tale)
The Book of the Dead of Hunefer, c. 1275 BCE, ink and pigments on papyrus, in the British Museum (London) (from History of books)
Illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 pirate adventure Treasure Island (from Children's literature)
Folio from the Shah Jahan Album, c. 1620, depicting the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (from History of books)
A Sumerian clay tablet, currently housed in the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago, inscribed with the text of the poem Inanna and Ebih by the priestess Enheduanna, the first author whose name is known
Calliope, the muse of heroic poetry (from History of poetry)
H. O. Tanager performs at a bookstore in Boise, Idaho. (from Performance poetry)
1900 edition of the controversial The Story of Little Black Sambo (from Children's literature)
Dresden Codex (page 49) (from History of books)
Page from a Jain manuscript depicting the birth of Mahavira, c. 1400 (from History of books)
An author portrait of Jean Miélot writing his compilation of the Miracles of Our Lady, one of his many popular works. (from History of books)
A poet with a few enraptured fans (from Performance poetry)
Kings' Fairy Tale, 1909, by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (from Fairy tale)
Father Frost acts as a donor in the Russian fairy tale Father Frost, testing the heroine before bestowing riches upon her (from Fairy tale)
The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore illus. by Nandalal Bose, Macmillan 1913 (from Children's literature)
A mother reads to her children, depicted by Jessie Willcox Smith in a cover illustration of a volume of fairy tales written in the mid to late 19th century. (from Children's literature)
Alfonso Reyes writer of influential pieces of Mexican surrealism. (from Latin American literature)
The codex Manesse, a book from the Middle Ages (from History of books)
Page from the Blue Quran manuscript, ca. 9th or 10th century CE (from History of books)
Gabriel García Márquez, the most famous of the Boom writers (from Latin American literature)
The first page of Beowulf (from Medieval literature)
Estimated medieval output of manuscripts in terms of copies (from Medieval literature)
The former Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate George Elliott Clarke (2015) (from Canadian literature)
The character which means "poetry", in the ancient Chinese Great Seal script style. The modern character is 詩/ 诗 (shī). (from History of poetry)
Roberto Bolaño is considered to have had the greatest United States impact of any post-Boom author (from Latin American literature)
A 15th-century Incunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses, and clasps. (from History of books)
The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik van Loon, 1st Newbery Award winner (from Children's literature)
In 1901, French poet and essayist Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907) was the first person to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, "in special recognition of his poetic composition, which gives evidence of lofty idealism, artistic perfection and a rare combination of the qualities of both heart and intellect." (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
Gabrielle Roy was a notable French Canadian author. (from Canadian literature)
Selma Lagerlöf, the first female writer to be awarded a Nobel Prize in literature, faced major controversies. Illustration from Svenska Dagbladet, 11 December 1909 (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
A page from Marco Polo's Il Milione (from Travel literature)
The scene in Botticelli's Madonna of the Book (1480) reflects the presence of books in the houses of richer people in his time. (from History of books)
Cutlery for children. Detail showing fairy-tale scenes: Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. (from Fairy tale)
Goethe's Italian Journey between September 1786 and May 1788 (from Travel literature)
Short story writer Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. (from Canadian literature)
Peruvian poet César Vallejo, considered by Thomas Merton "the greatest universal poet since Dante" (from Latin American literature)
Charles G. D. Roberts was a poet that belonged to an informal group known as the Confederation Poets. (from Canadian literature)
A late 18th-century reprint of Orbis Pictus by Comenius, the first children's picture book. (from Children's literature)
Statue of Minnie the Minx, a character from The Beano. Launched in 1938, the comic is known for its anarchic humour, with Dennis the Menace appearing on the cover. (from Children's literature)
French author Albert Camus was the first African-born writer to receive the award. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
Handwritten notes by Christopher Columbus on the Latin edition of Marco Polo's Le livre des merveilles. (from History of books)
1865 illustration of Hop-o'-My-Thumb and the ogre by Alexander Zick (from Fairy tale)
Statue of C. S. Lewis in front of the wardrobe from his Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (from Children's literature)
A Tagore illustration of a Hindu myth (from Children's literature)
European output of books 500–1800 (from History of books)
An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer's History of the Horn-Book, 1896. (from Children's literature)
Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744 (from Children's literature)
12-metre-high (40 ft) stack of books sculpture at the Berlin Walk of Ideas, commemorating the invention of modern book printing (from History of books)
First printed book in Georgian was published in Rome, in 1629 by Niceforo Irbachi. (from History of books)
Walter Crane's chromolithograph illustration for The Frog Prince, 1874. (from Children's literature)
Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865 (from Children's literature)
Handwritten notes by Christopher Columbus on the Latin edition of Marco Polo's Il Milione (from Travel literature)
Beauty and the Beast, illustration by Warwick Goble (from Fairy tale)
Folio from a manuscript of the Shanamah (Book of Kings) (from History of books)
Pages from the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Haus-Märchen by the Brothers Grimm (from Children's literature)
European output of manuscripts 500–1500 (from History of books)
Willy Wonka (from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and the Mad Hatter (from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) (from Children's literature)
European output of printed books c. 1450–1800 (from History of books)
J. K. Rowling reads from her novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (from Children's literature)
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Selected work
Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories of other characters revolve. The sentimental novel depicts the reality of slavery while also asserting that Christian love can overcome something as destructive as enslavement of fellow human beings.
Uncle Tom's Cabin was the best-selling novel of the 19th century, and the second best-selling book of that century, following the Bible. It is credited with helping fuel the abolitionist cause in the 1850s. In the first year after it was published, 300,000 copies of the book were sold in the United States; one million copies were sold in Great Britain. In 1855, three years after it was published, it was called "the most popular novel of our day." In recent years, however, negative associations with Uncle Tom's Cabin have, to an extent, overshadowed the historical impact of the book as a "vital antislavery tool."
Selected figure
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Gilbert also wrote the Bab Ballads, an extensive collection of light verse accompanied by his own comical drawings. His creative output included over 75 plays and libretti, numerous stories, poems, lyrics and various other comic and serious pieces. His plays and realistic style of stage direction inspired other dramatists, including Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. According to The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, Gilbert's "lyrical facility and his mastery of metre raised the poetical quality of comic opera to a position that it had never reached before and has not reached since".
Selected excerpt
| “ | When can their glory fade? O the wild charge they made! All the world wonder'd. Honour the charge they made! Honour the Light Brigade, Noble six hundred! |
” |
| — Alfred Tennyson, " The Charge of the Light Brigade" | ||
More Did you know
- ... that literary critics credit William Shakespeare's Hamlet as a significant contributor to Sigmund Freud's idea of the Oedipus complex?
- ... that the only copy of the book La Promenade du sceptique by Denis Diderot was confiscated by police on two occasions?
- ... that shenmo, the " gods and demons" genre of Chinese literature, includes fantasy novels such as Journey to the West and Investiture of the Gods?
- ... that singer Morrissey's Autobiography was published in Penguin Classics, an imprint normally reserved for venerated and long-dead authors?
- ... that The Gentleman Usher is the only play in which late 16th-century playwright George Chapman takes a positive view of women?
Selected illustration
Illustration: William Edward Frank Britten; restoration: Adam CuerdenŒnone is a poem written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, in 1829. Inspired by the Greek mythological figure Oenone, first wife of Paris of Troy, the poem is a dramatic monologue following the lead-up to the Trojan War and the war itself. This illustration, by William Edward Frank Britten, is accompanied by the lines "O mother Ida, many-fountain'd Ida, / Dear mother Ida, harken ere I die".
Illustration: Frank T. Merrill; restoration: Chris WoodrichAn illustration from 1896 edition of James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans. Set during the French and Indian War, the novel details the transport of two young women to Fort William Henry. Among the caravan guarding the women are the frontiersman Natty Bumppo, the Major Duncan Heyward, and the Indians Chingachgook and Uncas. In this scene, Bumppo (disguised as a bear) fights against the novel's villain, Magua, as two of his compatriots look on.
Engraving: John Masey Wright (artist) and John Rogers (engraver); restoration: Adam CuerdenA mid-19th century illustration for " Auld Lang Syne", a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to a traditional melody. It is traditionally used in the English-speaking world to bid farewell to the old year at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve; this has led to the song being used to close other activities as well.
Artist: Albert RobidaA typical 20th-century aerial rotating house, as drawn by Albert Robida. The drawing shows a dwelling structure in the scientific romance style elevated above rooftops and designed to revolve and adjust in various directions. An occupant in the lower right points to an airship with a fish-shaped balloon in the sky, while a woman rides a bucket elevator on the left. Meanwhile, children fly a kite from the balcony as a dog watches from its rooftop doghouse.
Painting: John QuidorThe Headless Horseman is a mythical figure who has appeared in folklore around the world since at least the Middle Ages. Depending on the legend, the Horseman is either carrying his head, or missing it altogether, and is searching for it. Examples include the dullahan from Ireland, who is a demonic fairy usually depicted riding a horse and carrying his head under his arm; the titular knight from the English tale Gawain and the Green Knight; and " The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," a short story written in 1820 by American Washington Irving which has been adapted into several other works of literature and film including the 1999 Tim Burton movie Sleepy Hollow.
This picture, titled The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, is an 1858 painting by American artist John Quidor, depicting a scene from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". It is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
" Jabberwocky"Illustration: John TennielThe Jabberwock, the titular creature of Lewis Carroll's nonsense poem " Jabberwocky". First included in Carroll's novel Through the Looking-Glass (1871), the poem was illustrated by John Tenniel, who gave the creature "the leathery wings of a pterodactyl and the long scaly neck and tail of a sauropod". "Jabberwocky" is considered one of the greatest nonsense poems written in English, and has contributed such nonsense words and neologisms as galumphing and chortle to the English lexicon.
Illustration: George Cruikshank; Restoration: Adam CuerdenIn this scene from Laurence Sterne's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, Uncle Toby's colonel invents a device for firing multiple miniature cannons at once, based on a hookah. Unfortunately, he and Toby find the puffing on the hookah pipe so enjoyable that they keep setting the cannons off. The novel was published in nine volumes over ten years, starting in 1759. Although it was not always held in high esteem by other writers, its bawdy humour was popular with London society, and it has come to be seen as one of the greatest comic novels in English, as well as a forerunner for many modern narrative devices and styles.
Artist: Wallace Goldsmith; Restoration: Adam CuerdenA scene from " The Canterville Ghost", Oscar Wilde's first published story, which is about an American family that moves into a haunted house in England. However, instead of being frightened of the eponymous ghost, they turn the tables and prank him, such as in this scene, where the twin boys have set up a butter-slide, causing the ghost to slip down the staircase. The story satirises both the unrefined tastes of Americans and the determination of the British to guard their traditions.
Caterpillar, Alice's Adventures in WonderlandArtist: Sir John TennielSir John Tenniel's illustration of the Caterpillar for Lewis Carroll's classic children's book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The illustration is noted for its ambiguous central figure, which can be viewed as having either a human male's face with pointed nose and protruding lower lip or as the head end of an actual caterpillar, with the right three "true" legs visible. The small symbol in the lower left is composed of Tenniel's initials, which was how he signed most of his work for the book. The partially obscured word in the lower left-center is the last name of Edward Dalziel, the engraver of the piece.
Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn engraving of Charon, in Greek mythology the ferryman of Hades who carried souls of the newly deceased across the River Styx that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. This illustration is from French engraver Gustave Doré's 1857 set of illustrations for Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, an Italian epic poem depicting an allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife. Here, Charon is shown coming to ferry souls across the river Acheron to Hell. The caption is from Henry Francis Cary's translation, from which this particular copy is taken:
And, lo! toward us in a bark
Comes on an old man, hoary white with eld,
Crying "Woe to you, wicked spirits!"
Restoration: Adam CuerdenAn engraving by Gustave Doré of a scene from Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote, the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age in the Spanish literary canon. The scene illustrated here occurs early in the novel, when Alonso Quixano (Quixote's real name) has become obsessed with books of chivalry, and believes their every word to be true, despite the fact that many of the events in them are clearly impossible. Don Quixote was published in two separate volumes, ten years apart. It is considered a founding work of modern Western literature, and it regularly appears high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published.
Artist: Jessie Willcox Smith; Restoration: ErikTheBikeManMrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, a character named after the Golden Rule, from The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby, a children's novel by Charles Kingsley. Published in 1863, the book was extremely popular in England, and was a mainstay of British children's literature for many decades. The book had been intended in part as a satire, a tract against child labour, as well as a serious critique of the closed-minded approaches of many scientists of the day in their response to Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.
Engraver: J. Cooper; Restoration: Adam Cuerden"Le Noir Faineant in the Hermit's Cell", an illustration from an 1886 edition of Sir Walter Scott's 1819 novel Ivanhoe. Here, we see Le Noir Faineant, or the Black Knight ( Richard the Lionheart in disguise) with Friar Tuck. Scott was an early pioneer in the development of the modern novel, and largely created the genre of historical fiction by weaving together legends and characters into his own creations. Ivanhoe, the story of one of the remaining Saxon noble families at a time when the English nobility was overwhelmingly Norman, was greatly influential on the modern view of the English folk hero Robin Hood, and has inspired many adaptations around the world in theatre, opera, film, and television.
Illustrator: Harold Robert Millar; restoration: Adam CuerdenAn illustration from the story "The Winged Hats" from the first printing of Rudyard Kipling's 1906 fantasy book Puck of Pook's Hill, featuring the legend "'The Wall must be won at a price'".
The book consists of a number of stories, all narrated to two children living near Burwash, in the area of Kipling's own house Bateman's, by people magically plucked out of history by the elf Puck, or told by Puck himself.
Restoration: JujutacularAn illustration of Humpty Dumpty by American artist William Wallace Denslow, depicting the title character from the nursery rhyme of the same name. He is typically portrayed as an egg, although the rhyme never explicitly states that he is, possibly because it may have been originally posed as a riddle. The earliest known version is in a manuscript addition to a copy of Mother Goose's Melody published in 1803.
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Did you know (auto-generated) -
- ... that the cultural and literary journal Morgenblatt für gebildete Stände was most successful under its only female editor, Therese Huber?
- ... that Marion Hartog founded the first Jewish women's periodical in 1855?
- ... that Charles Larson became one of the first Americans to teach African literature, after working in Nigeria for the Peace Corps to avoid the Vietnam draft?
- ... that Super Mario 64 has been the subject of medical literature showing a correlation between habitual playing of 3D platformers and increased grey matter in the brain?
- ... that Swedish writer Hedda Anderson began her literary career at the age of 58, following her husband's death in 1888?
- ... that the 7th-century drama Bhagavadajjukam is the earliest-surviving satirical play in Sanskrit literature?
Today in literature
- 1627 - Anne, Duchess of Montpensier, French writer born
- 1874 - G. K. Chesterton, English novelist born
- 1892 - Alfonsina Storni, Argentine writer born
- 1906 - T. H. White, British author born
- 1911 - William S. Gilbert, English dramatist died
- 1933 - Edward Whittemore, American writer born
- 1958 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer died
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