Classic Books - Blog Posts
"Maybe there is a Beast.... Maybe It's only US."
“Hell is eternal apartness”
- Harper Lee, Go Set A Watchman
"Come away, come away!"
The example book cover for my Peter Pan and Wendy personal project.
My design for Peter's outfit here actually has elements from the stage play, because I thought the vines would make a wonderful belt and the autumn colours add a bit of pizzazz!
Some Mina and Jonathan Harker for the end of spooky season. ♥
Classics are so weird because you will be reading the most beautiful writing known to mankind, absolutely heartwrenching quotes and brilliant themes, and then you will be hit with the most VIOLENT RACISM AND SEXISM
Vector Frankenstein.
Original:
wow I’m not even a full 15 pages into The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde and I already ship Dorian x Basil wholeheartedly. I haven’t shipped anyone this fast since Larry Stylinson and Wolfstar
I do not miss childhood, but I miss the way I took pleasure in small things, even as greater things crumbled. I could not control the world I was in, could not walk away from things or people or moments that hurt, but I took joy in the things that made me happy.
-Neil Gaiman
Pc- Pinterest
Writing Embellishments?
Once you have a finished fanfiction/novel (assuming its fully edited for basic things like grammar mistakes, plot holes, POV consistency, etc.) what is the next step to making it more literary? I'm talking about extra embellishments for way beyond a first draft. Here's what I usually (try to) add:
Plot twists Uniqueness to character voices Improved description and heightened stakes
More meaningful philosophical dilemma and moral conflict
What else do you think would be a nice extra embellishment to add, assuming you had all the time in the world to do anything you wanted to make a masterpiece? Let's say you wanted to make it read like an absolute literary classic. Let's say your goal is to shock and impress people with how good it is. What are some extra amazing qualities to add in a story that would take it to another level?
If I loved you less, I would talk more about my love.
~Jane AUSTEN
Classic Book Recommendations For Each Hogwarts House
Gryffindor
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Henry V by William Shakespeare
Beowulf
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Histories by Herodatus
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Hufflepuff
East of Eden by John Stenbeck
Othello by William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
Love In the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
White Fang by Jack London
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Ravenclaw
Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
The Odyssey by Homer
Middlemarch by George Eliot
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Slytherin
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Dracula by Bram Stoker
"DEATH IS THE MOTHER OF BEAUTY"
- literary examples of death as tragic and beautiful in its terror
Ophelia, a beautiful, innocent girl created by Shakespeare, torn by emotions so much that in despair for her lost love, she throws herself into the arms of the river, drowning. This is clearly seen in Millais's painting. Despite her death, a young girl resists the influence of filthy water on the human body. Pale but healthy skin, rosy cheeks and pink lips desperately taking their last breath. A tragic moment captured in such a calm way. Ophelia remains forever beautiful and immortal in the eyes of the viewer.
"Perfume" by Patrick Süskind, a novel about a murderer who tries to capture the most beautiful smell. The smell of death in the form of perfume made from a young body. His victims are again little girls who die in a tragic, sometimes even parodic way, being brutally mercilessly harmed. But in the main character's eyes they still shine like stars in the sky, filling him with pure exhilaration. Especially that one woman who is his eternal inspiration.
Baudelaire creates something similar in the poem "the death of lovers". The couple on its deathbed is not concerned about the coming end. Their love seems to bloom even more, surrounded by fragrant flowers that fill their souls with peace and joy.
Finally, the story of Tristan and Isolde, another lovers, on whose grave a hawthorn grows. A symbol of their eternal love. From their dead bodies, corrupted by decay, something amazing in its beauty is created bearing witness to their everlasting connection.
It reminds me of the words of Edvard Munch: "From my rotting body, flowers shall grow and I am in them and that is eternity"
Writers, poets, whole literature itself create death in various ways. But showing it as a gateway to beauty is something particularly special. How death can it be glamorous, artistic and pleasing for our eyes. How to find it among tragedy, mourning, rotten skin and that disgusting smell of decay. And why show it this way at all?
"Because the world is so full of death and horror, I try again and again to console my heart and pick the flowers that grow in the midst of hell" - Hermann Hesse
READING DATE WITH MY BESTFRIEND
"the tired sunsets and the tired people-it takes a lifetime to die and no time at all".
–Charles Bukowski