Questions tagged [literature]
Questions citing excerpts from works of literature.
418 questions
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What does 'to' mean in this sentence? [closed]
What does "to" mean in this:
Roared out by hundreds of voices to the tramp of marching feet, it was terrifying
From 1984
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Grammar Error in Frank Herbert's Children of Dune?
Copied below is a section of a paragraph from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune.
I am very curious to know if the second sentence is grammatically correct. I do not see how it can be but several people ...
- 109
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I cannot make sense of this quote by Virginia Woolf in "The Waves"
In "The Waves", page 74 in Wordsworth Editions Limited (2000), Virginia Woolf writes
Veined as I am with iron, with silver and streaks of common mud, I cannot contract into the firm fist ...
- 215
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“Sivilize”: use of non-standard spelling in “Huckleberry Finn”
On the last page of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn we can read:
I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I ...
- 540
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Meaning of stage direction "Shakes hands with himself"
NOTICE TO CLOSE-VOTERS: This question asks for the meaning-in-context of a specific idiomatic phrase (Ngrams) from a prior century. If you haven't heard it used in your own life and/or don't know what ...
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How to refer to terminology of an author in a different verb conjugation for reviews
This is a question regarding both manner of reference as well as literature formatting practices (according to a style guide) for the scenario described. I have run across a situation multiple times ...
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Comma uncommon usage
At the beginning of The Magician's Nephew, CS Lewis wrote:
In those days Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still living in Baker Street and
the Bastables were looking for treasure in the Lewisham Road. In ...
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Understanding the joke, "Make an 'ell, I say" (from The Crux)
Reading chapter 1 of The Crux, there is a joke that I don't understand about the three "Foote girls," who are in their 50s and visiting Mr. and Mrs. Lane. Here is the paragraph in question:
...
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What's the meaning of "sing'lar"?
And a mighty sing'lar and pretty place it is, as ever I saw in all the days of my life!" said Captain Jorgan, looking up at it.
The term is mentioned in the first line of Charles Dickens's A ...
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In H. P. Lovecraft's work - how is "The Prolonged of Life" understood when it comes to meaning?
I'm translating one of the stories into my mother tongue and I'm struggling with the name of one of the elder gods - "The Prolonged of Life". I do not really understand how this is meant to ...
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What does "the jeering claque of the State police" mean?
I found this phrase in John Le Carré's novel Smiley's People. The whole sentence is:
The chattering customers in the café became the jeering claque of the State police; the slamming of the bagatelle ...
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Meaning of "teen" in Aeschylus's play "The Persians"
I came across the phrase "how shall I bear my teen?" in Aeschylus' play "The Persians". I also saw "the children of teen" in "Seven against Thebes". What ...
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Which work of Shakespeare "oftentimes better than a master of one" appears in if it it accredited to him? [duplicate]
A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one is apparently accredited to William Shakespeare.
Just to clarify - I mean the FULL quote, not just 'Jack of all ...
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What is the meaning of "the granite moulding of the inflexible jaw"?
I am quoting from the Return of Sherlock Holmes, The Missing Three Quarter by Arthur Conan Doyle :
"Yet even without knowing his brilliant record one could not fail to be impressed by a mere ...
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Meaning of the structure [be + to + verb] in this context
I’m trying to understand the meaning of “whom they are to admire” in this long sentence:
From these causes it results that the advocates of drastic reform divide themselves into opposing schools, ...
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