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James Joyce

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For Your Calendar: James Joyce’s Nation Of Ulysses

By Jason Diamond on

It is a book that can go from completely confounding to illuminating in the span of one sentence. It is one of the (if not the) great masterpieces of modernist literature, and also a book that has given many college English students nightmares. Some say it is one of those books that you must read, while others will tell you that you’re just better off reading the mounds and mounds of criticism written on the tome. At some points it is absolute brilliance, and at others it is one of the most challenging, and sometimes annoying, books written in the 20th century. The fact is that there are very few books in the English language that can generate the type of dialogue that James Joyce’s Ulysses still does to this very day. … Read More

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Books

Handwritten Manuscript Pages From Classic Novels

By Emily Temple on

These days, almost all works of literature are written on computers — from their first inklings, saved in a document called “notes,” to their final, emailed-out drafts — and even, increasingly, read on them. In such a climate, we are even more fascinated by the handwritten drafts and original manuscripts of classic literature, from which much can be inferred via handwriting, paper choice, and strength of pen marks. But mostly, they’re nice to look at, so with more than a little help from awesome Tumblr Fuck Yeah, Manuscripts!, we’ve collected a few of our favorite… Read More

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Pop Culture

20 Irish Writers on Being Irish

By Alison Nastasi on

We’d like to interrupt your regularly scheduled St. Patrick’s Day celebrations with a few words of wisdom. Put down that green beer — you never really liked it anyway — and cozy up with these authors from the Emerald Isle that have shared poetic anecdotes on what it means to be Irish. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be glad you weren’t shamed into dressing like a leprechaun. Happy reading! … Read More

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Books

10 of the Most Gloriously Frustrating Endings in Literature

By Tom Hawking on

While some readers may not agree, here at Flavorpill we love a good ambiguous ending. Here, a few favorites that we’ve found thrilling, maddening, or just thought-provoking — what are… Read More

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Books

10 Notorious Literary Slogs That Are Worth the Effort

By Emily Temple on

There has been much discussion over the years as to whether Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick is The Great American Novel, simply A Great American Novel, or is just a lengthy collection of complaints about whales (not that many people admit to thinking the latter). But if you’ve been meaning to read it for years and have never quite gotten up the nerve (or the time), an awesome marathon reading begins tonight at WORD in Greenpoint, which also happens to be one of our very favorite bookstores. To celebrate the event, we’ve put together a list of notorious literary slogs — long, difficult, and/or complicated enough to scare even the strongest reader — that are definitely worth the effort. Read our list after the jump, and add on your own favorites in the comments! … Read More

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Books

Read the Letter HG Wells Sent Joyce After Reading Part of ‘Finnegans Wake’

By Caroline Stanley on

Like most people who have dared to pick up copy of James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, we struggled our way through the weighty tome. (If we’re being completely honest, we might not have made it all the way to the end.) As a post over on Letters of Note explains, HG Wells found early… Read More

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Books

10 More Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels

By Emily Temple on

Well, we can never get enough of poking fun at the unduly critical, can we? Last week, we shared fifteen scathing early reviews of classic novels, and some of you pitched in with some of your own favorites. We took a few of your suggestions, both here and at Metafilter, added a few more of our own, and put together a second list of a few more critics who got it wrong, this time hating on Hemingway, Tolkien, Steinbeck and more. Now don’t get us wrong — everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to judge the past from the future. Click through to read ten more scathing early reviews of books we now consider to be classics, and chuckle over how you know better (or admit that you secretly agree) in the comments. … Read More

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Books

15 Postcards from Famous Authors

By Emily Temple on

Summer may seem like the ideal postcard-writing season, what with cruises and camp, but we’ve always been most inspired to write them in the fall, when the leaves are changing and we’re feeling wistful. So to amp up that wistful feeling a bit — and since as you’ve probably noticed, we just can’t get enough of ogling literary ephemera — we went on the hunt for interesting postcards written by famous authors, from Jack Kerouac to Franz Kafka to Rainer Maria Rilke. Click through and admire the penmanship, doodles, and forceful words of a few of your favorite… Read More

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Books

15 Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels

By Emily Temple on

There are some literary classics that are near unimpeachable. We’re thinking Lolita, Ulysses, The Great Gatsby: the best of the best. Except that they’re decidedly not unimpeachable — or at least they weren’t when they first hit bookshelves. These books and many others that are now considered masterpieces got their fair share of scathing reviews when they first came out, and in reputable publications no less. Sure, hindsight is 20/20, but we can’t help having this to say to these brutal reviewers: ha, ha. Click through to read 15 harshly negative early reviews of classic novels, and feel free to register your outrage (or your agreement) in the comments. … Read More

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