literary history
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Literary Namesakes
Sometimes, an eponym has a literary origin from a famous character. Over at the Guardian, Paul Anthony Jones takes us on a tour of literary eponyms and introduces us to the original brainiac, gargantuan, and svengali.
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Dear Diary, A History
The diary novel is an understudied genre dating back to the Victorian era, often associated with young women, that includes (and sometimes combines) fiction and non-fiction. At The Hairpin, Johannah King-Slutzky traces the history of this literary niche.
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A Million Pound Book
The first printed book in the English language was just sold at auction for £1,082,500. Coming in at 540 years old, The Recuyell of the Histories of Troye revamps Greek mythology idols as chivalric heroes and is considered the crowning…
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On the Particular Origins of Some Literary Cliches
The phrase “little did she/he/they know” has plenty of history. The question is, when did it start being used for cheap suspense? The inversion of subject and verb sounds stilted and melodramatic, so the obvious culprit would be 19th century…
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The Great War Poets
World War I produced a number of important literary figures. Now, coming upon the war’s centennial, a new blog called A Century Back aims to present that era’s major literary events in real time. Read more about it at The…