Portal:Literature

Portal topics - (Random portal)

Activities

Culture

Geography

Health

History

Mathematics

Nature

People

Philosophy

Religion

Society

Technology

---

The Literature Portal

Introduction

The Library of the Palais Bourbon in Paris

Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. 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. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.

Literary criticism is one of the oldest academic disciplines, and is concerned with the literary merit or intellectual significance of specific texts. The study of books and other texts as artifacts or traditions is instead encompassed by textual criticism or the history of the book. "Literature", as an art form, is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, fiction written with the goal of artistic merit, but can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within this broader definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)

• Outline
• Index

General images - load new batch

The following are images from various literature-related articles on Wikipedia.

• 
  Image 1The Crescent Moon by Rabindranath Tagore illus. by Nandalal Bose, Macmillan 1913 (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 2Folio from the Shah Jahan Album, c. 1620, depicting the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (from History of books)
• 
  Image 3Illustration from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 coming-of-age pirate adventure Treasure Island (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 4The Book of the Dead of Hunefer, c. 1275 BCE, ink and pigments on papyrus, in the British Museum (London) (from History of books)
• 
  Image 5Selma Lagerlöf, the first female author awarded the prize. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 6A Tagore illustration of a Hindu myth (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 7Galway Kinnell performing a poetic piece in Vermont (from Performance poetry)
• 
  Image 8Postal stamp of Russia celebrating children's books. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 9A late 18th-century reprint of Orbis Pictus by Comenius, the first children's picture book. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 10Octavio Paz helped to define modern poetry and the Mexican personality. (from Latin American literature)
• 
  Image 11Walter Crane's chromolithograph illustration for The Frog Prince, 1874. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 12An early Mexican hornbook pictured in Tuer's History of the Horn-Book, 1896. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 13Beauty and the Beast, illustration by Warwick Goble (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 14The first page of Beowulf (from Medieval literature)
• 
  Image 15Goethe's Italian Journey between September 1786 and May 1788 (from Travel literature)
• 
  Image 16J. K. Rowling reads from her novel Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 17Page from a Jain manuscript depicting the birth of Mahavira, c. 1400 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 18A 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
• 
  Image 19Hemingway's telegram in 1954 (The academy has alternately used for Literature and in Literature over the years, the latter becoming the norm today.) (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 20Chinese Bookseller, illustration, c. 1824 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 21Hop-o'-My-Thumb and the ogre in an 1865 illustration (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 22Statue of C. S. Lewis in front of the wardrobe from his Narnia book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 23Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 24Page 49 of the Dresden Codex (from History of books)
• 
  Image 25Statue 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)
• 
  Image 26A mother reads to her children in a mid- to late 19th century lithograph by Jessie Willcox Smith. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 27Thomas Mann´s Buddenbrooks (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 28The Story of Mankind (1921) by Hendrik van Loon, 1st Newbery Award winner (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 29A poet with a few enraptured fans (from Performance poetry)
• 
  Image 30The character which means "poetry", in the ancient Chinese Great Seal script style. The modern character is 詩/诗 (shī). (from History of poetry)
• 
  Image 31European output of manuscripts 500–1500 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 32H. O. Tanager performs at a bookstore in Boise, Idaho. (from Performance poetry)
• 
  Image 33John Bauer's illustration of trolls and a princess from a collection of Swedish fairy tales (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 34Estimated medieval output of manuscripts in terms of copies (from Medieval literature)
• 
  Image 35Handwritten notes by Christopher Columbus on a Latin edition of The Travels of Marco Polo (from Travel literature)
• 
  Image 36Pages from the 1819 edition of Kinder- und Haus-Märchen by the Brothers Grimm (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 37The Fairy Tale, a painting by James Sant in 1845 (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 38The 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)
• 
  Image 39Rudyard Kipling, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 40Illustration from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1865 (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 41A twentieth-century copyright imprint from McLoughlin Bros that features three rams and the copyright year, 1903 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 42Peruvian poet César Vallejo, considered by Thomas Merton "the greatest universal poet since Dante" (from Latin American literature)
• 
  Image 43Kings' Fairy Tale, 1909, by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 44The Nobel diploma awarded to Hermann Hesse in 1946. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 45The 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)
• 
  Image 46A 15th-century incunable. Notice the blind-tooled cover, corner bosses, and clasps. (from History of books)
• 
  Image 47The oldest known love poem. Sumerian terracotta tablet#2461 from Nippur, Iraq. Ur III period, 2037–2029 BCE. Ancient Orient Museum, Istanbul (from History of poetry)
• 
  Image 48Wole Soyinka, the first African writer awarded the prize. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 49Jikji, 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)
• 
  Image 50The Violet Fairy Book (1906)
• 
  Image 51European output of books 500–1800 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 52John Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, originally published in 1744 (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 53The philosopher Confucius was influential in the developed approach to poetry and ancient music theory. (from History of poetry)
• 
  Image 54An author portrait of Jean Miélot writing his compilation of the Miracles of Our Lady, one of his many popular works. (from History of books)
• 
  Image 55Calliope, the muse of heroic poetry (from History of poetry)
• 
  Image 56Gabrielle Roy was a notable French Canadian author. (from Canadian literature)
• 
  Image 57Children's books author Maria Elena Walsh in 1952. (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 58Ivan Bilibin (1876–1942)'s illustration of the Russian fairy tale about Vasilisa the Beautiful. (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 59Number of children's books titles published by the trade sector in 2020 (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 60Woman holding wax tablets in the form of the codex. Wall painting from Pompeii, before 79 CE. (from History of books)
• 
  Image 61Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most renowned Latin American writers (from Latin American literature)
• 
  Image 62The New England Primer (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 63The European fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in a painting by Carl Larsson in 1881. (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 641900 edition of the controversial The Story of Little Black Sambo (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 65Cutlery for children. Detail showing fairy-tale scenes: Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel. (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 66Hugo Ball performing at the Cabaret Voltaire (from Performance poetry)
• 
  Image 67Sculpture of Alfonso Reyes writer of influential pieces of Mexican surrealism. (from Latin American literature)
• 
  Image 68A picture by Gustave Doré of Mother Goose reading written (literary) fairy tales (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 69Author Margaret Atwood has suggested that during the 1970s Canadian literature was still looking for a national identity.. (from Canadian literature)
• 
  Image 70In 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)
• 
  Image 71Father Frost acts as a donor in the Russian fairy tale Father Frost, testing the heroine before bestowing riches upon her (from Fairy tale)
• 
  Image 72Poet Charles G. D. Roberts belonged to an informal group known as the Confederation Poets. (from Canadian literature)
• 
  Image 73Illustration from the Codex Manesse, a German book from the Middle Ages (from History of books)
• 
  Image 74Statuta 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)
• 
  Image 75Cover of the Argentine children's magazine Billiken N° 1 (1919) (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 76Roberto Bolaño is considered to have had the greatest United States impact of any post-Boom author (from Latin American literature)
• 
  Image 77Two people in costumes inspired by Willy Wonka (from Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), and the Hatter (from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) in London (from Children's literature)
• 
  Image 7812-metre-high (40 ft) sculpture of a stack of books at the Berlin Walk of Ideas, commemorating the invention of modern book printing (from History of books)
• 
  Image 79European output of printed books c. 1450–1800 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 80A Chinese bamboo book, The Art of War, commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor in 18th-century China (from History of books)
• 
  Image 81Short story writer Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013. (from Canadian literature)
• 
  Image 82An early Chinese poetics, the Kǒngzǐ Shīlùn (孔子詩論), discussing the Shijing (Classic of Poetry) (from History of poetry)
• 
  Image 83The Swedish Academy's permanent secretary Peter Englund at the announcement of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 84Photograph of a printing press in Egypt, c. 1922 (from History of books)
• 
  Image 85French author Albert Camus was the first African-born writer to receive the award. (from Nobel Prize in Literature)
• 
  Image 86Natias Neutert performing Diogenes Synopsis as at Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin, 1986 (from Performance poetry)
• 
  Image 87The intricate frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra from Tang dynasty China, i.e. 868 CE, the oldest known dated printed book in the world (British Library) (from History of books)

Refresh with new selections below (purge)

Selected work

Featured articles are displayed here, which represent some of the best content on English Wikipedia.

---

La Peau de chagrin (The Magic Skin or The Wild Ass's Skin) is an 1831 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin shrinks and consumes a portion of his physical energy. La Peau de chagrin belongs to the Études philosophiques group of Balzac's sequence of novels, La Comédie humaine.

Although the novel uses fantastic elements, its main focus is a realistic portrayal of the excesses of bourgeois materialism. Balzac's renowned attention to detail is used to describe a gambling house, an antique shop, a royal banquet, and other locales. He also includes details from his own life as a struggling writer, placing the main character in a home similar to the one he occupied at the start of his literary career. The central theme of La Peau de chagrin is the conflict between desire and longevity. The magic skin represents the owner's life-force, which is depleted through every expression of will, especially when it is employed for the acquisition of power. Ignoring a caution from the shopkeeper who offers him the skin, the protagonist greedily surrounds himself with wealth, only to find himself miserable and decrepit at the story's end.

More selected works

Read more...

Selected biographies - load new batch

Featured articles are displayed here.

---

• 
  Image 1

  

  17th-century depiction of Murasaki by Tosa Mitsuoki

  
  Murasaki Shikibu (紫式部; [mɯ.ɾa.sa.kʲi ɕi̥.kiꜜ.bɯ, -ɕi̥ꜜ.kʲi-], c. 973 – c. 1014 or 1025), or Shijo (紫女; [ɕiꜜ.(d)ʑo], lit. 'Lady Murasaki'), was a Japanese novelist, poet and lady-in-waiting at the Imperial court in the Heian period. She was best known as the author of The Tale of Genji, widely considered to be one of the world's first novels, written in Japanese between about 1000 and 1012. Murasaki Shikibu is a descriptive name; her personal name is unknown, but she may have been Fujiwara no Kaoruko (藤原香子), who was mentioned in a 1007 court diary as an imperial lady-in-waiting.
  
  Heian women were traditionally excluded from learning Chinese, the written language of government, but Murasaki, raised in her erudite father's household, showed a precocious aptitude for the Chinese classics and managed to acquire fluency. She married in her mid-to-late twenties and gave birth to a daughter, Daini no Sanmi. Her husband died after two years of marriage. It is uncertain when she began to write The Tale of Genji, but it was probably while she was married or shortly after she was widowed. In about 1005, she was invited to serve as a lady-in-waiting to Empress Shōshi at the Imperial court by Fujiwara no Michinaga, probably because of her reputation as a writer. She continued to write during her service, adding scenes from court life to her work. After five or six years, she left court and retired with Shōshi to the Lake Biwa region. Scholars differ on the year of her death; although most agree on 1014, others have suggested she was alive in 1025. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 2

  

  
  Robert Marshall (January 2, 1901 – November 11, 1939) was an American forester, writer and wilderness activist who is best remembered as the person who spearheaded the 1935 founding of the Wilderness Society in the United States. Marshall developed a love for the outdoors as a young child. He was an avid hiker and climber who visited the Adirondack Mountains frequently during his youth, ultimately becoming one of the first Adirondack Forty-Sixers. He also traveled to the Brooks Range of the far northern Alaskan wilderness. He wrote numerous articles and books about his travels, including the bestselling 1933 book Arctic Village.
  
  A scientist with a PhD in plant physiology, Marshall became independently wealthy after the death of his father in 1929. He had started his outdoor career in 1925 as forester with the U.S. Forest Service. He used his financial independence for expeditions to Alaska and other wilderness areas. Later he held two significant public appointed posts: chief of forestry in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, from 1933 to 1937, and head of recreation management in the Forest Service, from 1937 to 1939, both during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. During this period, he directed the promulgation of regulations to preserve large areas of roadless land that were under federal management. Many years after his death, some of those areas were permanently protected from development, exploitation, and mechanization with the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 3

  
  

  

  Daguerreotype taken at Mount Holyoke, December 1846 or early 1847; only authenticated portrait of Dickinson after early childhood.

  
  Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) was an American poet. Little-known during her life, she has since been regarded as one of the most important figures in American poetry.
  
  Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, into a prominent family with strong ties to its community. After studying at the Amherst Academy for seven years in her youth, she briefly attended the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary before returning to her family's home in Amherst. Evidence suggests that Dickinson lived much of her life in isolation. Considered an eccentric by locals, she developed a penchant for white clothing and was known for her reluctance to greet guests or, later in life, even to leave her bedroom. Dickinson never married, and most of her friendships were based entirely upon correspondence. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 4

  
  

  

  Title page of the first edition of Wright's Certaine Errors in Navigation (1599)

  
  Edward Wright (baptised 8 October 1561; died November 1615) was an English mathematician and cartographer noted for his book Certaine Errors in Navigation (1599; 2nd ed., 1610), which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection by building on the works of Pedro Nunes, and set out a reference table giving the linear scale multiplication factor as a function of latitude, calculated for each minute of arc up to a latitude of 75°. This was in fact a table of values of the integral of the secant function, and was the essential step needed to make practical both the making and the navigational use of Mercator charts.
  
  Wright was born at Garveston in Norfolk and educated at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow from 1587 to 1596. In 1589 the college granted him leave after Elizabeth I requested that he carry out navigational studies with a raiding expedition organised by the Earl of Cumberland to the Azores to capture Spanish galleons. The expedition's route was the subject of the first map to be prepared according to Wright's projection, which was published in Certaine Errors in 1599. The same year, Wright created and published the first world map produced in England and the first to use the Mercator projection since Gerardus Mercator's original 1569 map. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 5

  
  

  

  Rowling at the White House in 2010

  
  Joanne Rowling (/ˈroʊlɪŋ/ ^ⓘ ROH-ling; born 31 July 1965), better known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is the British novelist who wrote Harry Potter, a seven-volume series about a young wizard. Published from 1997 to 2007, the fantasy novels are the best-selling book series in history, with over 600 million copies sold. They have been translated into 84 languages and have spawned a global media franchise including films and video games. She writes Cormoran Strike, an ongoing crime fiction series, under the alias Robert Galbraith.
  
  Born in Yate, Gloucestershire, Rowling was working as a researcher and bilingual secretary for Amnesty International in 1990 when she conceived the idea for the Harry Potter series. The seven-year period that followed saw the death of her mother, the birth of her first child, divorce from her first husband, and relative poverty until the first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, was published in 1997. Six sequels followed, concluding with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007). By 2008, Forbes had named her the world's highest-paid author. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 6

  
  

  

  Tolkien in the 1920s

  
  John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (/ˈruːl ˈtɒlkiːn/, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-55).
  
  From 1925 to 1945 Tolkien was the Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon and a Fellow of Pembroke College, both at the University of Oxford. He then moved within the same university to become the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature and Fellow of Merton College, and held these positions from 1945 until his retirement in 1959. Tolkien was a close friend of C. S. Lewis, a co-member of the Inklings, an informal literary discussion group. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 7

  
  

  

  Achebe in Lagos, 1966

  
  Chinua Achebe (/ˈtʃɪnwɑː əˈtʃɛbeɪ/ ^ⓘ; born Albert Chinụalụmọgụ Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as a central figure of modern African literature. His first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), occupies a pivotal place in African literature and remains the most widely studied, translated, and read African novel. Along with Things Fall Apart, his No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964) complete the "African Trilogy". Later novels include A Man of the People (1966) and Anthills of the Savannah (1987). Achebe is often referred to as the "father of modern African literature", although he vigorously rejected the characterization.
  
  Born in Ogidi, Colonial Nigeria, Achebe's childhood was influenced by both Igbo traditional culture and colonial Christianity. He excelled in school and attended what is now the University of Ibadan, where he became fiercely critical of how Western literature depicted Africa. Moving to Lagos after graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and garnered international attention for his 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. In less than 10 years, he would publish four further novels through the publisher Heinemann, with whom he began the Heinemann African Writers Series and galvanized the careers of African writers, such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Flora Nwapa. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 8

  
  

  

  Posthumous portrait

  
  Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫; pinyin: Dù Fǔ; Wade–Giles: Tu Fu; 712–770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. Together with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai, Du is often considered one of the greatest Chinese poets of his time. His greatest ambition was to serve his country as a successful civil servant, but Du proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like all of China, was devastated by the An Lushan rebellion of 755, and his last 15 years were a time of almost constant unrest.
  
  Although initially he was little-known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages. He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire". (Full article...)
• 
  Image 9

  
  

  

  Lie, c. 1900

  
  Lie Kim Hok (Chinese: 李金福; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Kim-hok; pinyin: Lǐ Jīnfú; 1 November 1853 – 6 May 1912) was a peranakan Chinese teacher, writer, and social worker active in the Dutch East Indies and styled the "father of Chinese Malay literature".
  
  Born in Buitenzorg (now Bogor), West Java, Lie received his formal education in missionary schools and by the 1870s was fluent in Sundanese, vernacular Malay, and Dutch, though he was unable to understand Chinese. In the mid-1870s he married and began working as the editor of two periodicals published by his teacher and mentor D. J. van der Linden. Lie left the position in 1880. His wife died the following year. Lie published his first books, including the critically acclaimed syair (poem) Sair Tjerita Siti Akbari and grammar book Malajoe Batawi, in 1884. When van der Linden died the following year, Lie purchased the printing press and opened his own company. (Full article...)
• 
  Image 10

  
  

  

  Wollstonecraft c. 1797

  
  Mary Wollstonecraft (/ˈwʊlstənkræft/, also UK: /-krɑːft/; 27 April 1759 – 10 September 1797) was an English writer and philosopher best known for her advocacy of women's rights. Until the late twentieth century, Wollstonecraft's life, which encompassed several unconventional (at the time) personal relationships, received more attention than her writing. Wollstonecraft is regarded as one of the founding feminist philosophers, and feminists often cite both her life and her works as important influences.
  
  During her brief career she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book. Wollstonecraft is best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), in which she argues that women are not naturally inferior to men but appeared to be only because they lack education. She suggests that both men and women should be treated as rational beings and imagines a social order founded on reason. (Full article...)

More selected biographies

Selected excerpt

“	Away with your fictions of flimsy romance,      Those tissues of falsehood which Folly has wove; Give me the mild beam of the soul-breathing glance,      Or the rapture which dwells on the first kiss of love.	”
— Lord Byron, "The First Kiss of Love"

More excerpts...

Read at Wikisource...

More Did you know

• ... that Samuel Minturn Peck was the first Poet Laureate of Alabama, a title created for him, from 1930 until his death in 1938?
• ... that James McBride was described as "clearly stunned" when his novel The Good Lord Bird won the National Book Award for Fiction?
• ... that Arishima Ikuma, Japanese novelist, published his new-style poems and short stories as a vehicle to introduce the works of the French impressionist painter Paul Cézanne to the Japanese public?
• ... that German-born Jewish Egyptologist Käte Bosse-Griffiths published a novel in the Welsh language?
• ... that John Fowles' postmodern novel The French Lieutenant's Woman both emulated and parodied popular Victorian novels, like those of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy?

More Did you know facts

Selected illustration

• 
  Image 1

  Ivanhoe

  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.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 2

  Midas

  Artist: Walter Crane; Restoration: Lise Broer

  An illustration from an 1893 version of A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys by Nathaniel Hawthorne, which recounted the tale of King Midas. In Greek mythology, Midas was given ability to turn everything he touched into gold by the god Bacchus. However, he soon discovered that he was unable to even eat. Bacchus told him to wash in the river Pactolus, and the power flowed in the river, which was supposedly the reason for why the river was so rich in gold in later years. In Hawthorne's version, Midas' touch even turned his daughter to gold (pictured here).

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 3

  Caterpillar, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

  Artist: Sir John Tenniel

  Sir 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.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 4

  Rob Roy

  Engraving: Dalziel Brothers; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  A scene from Sir Walter Scott's 1817 historical novel Rob Roy, which tells the story of Frank Osbaldistone, the son of an English merchant who travels to Scotland to collect a debt stolen from his father. On the way he encounters the larger-than-life title character of Robert Roy MacGregor. Though Rob Roy is not the lead character (in fact the narrative does not move to Scotland until halfway through the book) his personality and actions are key to the story's development. The novel is a brutally realistic depiction of the social conditions in Highland and Lowland Scotland in the early 18th century.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 5

  The Last of the Mohicans

  Illustration: Frank T. Merrill; restoration: Chris Woodrich

  An 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.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 6

  The Song of Los

  Illustration: William Blake

  The Song of Los is an epic poem by William Blake first published in 1795 and considered part of his prophetic books. The poem consists of two sections, "Africa" and "Asia": in the first section Blake catalogues the decline of morality in Europe, which he blames on both the African slave trade and enlightenment philosophers, whereas in the second section he describes a worldwide revolution, urged by the eponymous Los.
  
  The illustration here is from the book's frontispiece and shows Urizen presiding over the decline of morality.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 7

  Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith

  Artist: Francis S. Walker; Engraving: Brothers Dalziel
  Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  Hermann Vezin in the title role of Dan'l Druce, Blacksmith, an 1876 play by W. S. Gilbert. In the story, Druce begins as a miser and drunkard whose wife has left him. Two army deserters find shelter at his house, but they rob him and abandon a baby girl there. Many years later, Druce has become a blacksmith, and the two men return to try to claim the girl. The play was a success, running for about 100 performances and enjoying tours and several revivals.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 8

  An Ideal Husband

  Artist: Unknown; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  A scene from Oscar Wilde's 1895 play An Ideal Husband, originally published in a 1901 collected edition of Wilde's works. The comedy, which opened January 3, 1896, at the Haymarket Theatre in London, revolves around blackmail and political corruption, and touches on the themes of public and private honour. It has been adapted into television, radio/audio, and three films. The published version differs slightly from the performed play, for Wilde added many passages and cut others. Prominent additions included written stage directions and character descriptions. Wilde was a leader in the effort to make plays accessible to the reading public.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 9

  The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

  Illustration: George Cruikshank; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  In 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.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 10

  The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania

  Painting: Joseph Noel Paton

  The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania is an oil painting on canvas by the Scottish artist Joseph Noel Paton. Painted in 1849, it depicts the scene from William Shakespeare's comedy play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which the fairy queen Titania and fairy king Oberon quarrel. When exhibited in Edinburgh in 1850, it was declared the "painting of the season". The painting was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1897, having initially been bought by the Royal Association for Promoting the Fine Arts.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 11

  Guy Mannering

  Artist: Norman Mills Price; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  A scene from Chapter XXVII of Guy Mannering, a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott that was originally published anonymously in 1815. It is set in the 1760s to 1780s, mostly in the Galloway area of southwest Scotland. The eponymous character of Guy Mannering is actually only a minor character in the story, the plot being mostly concerned with Harry Bertram, the son of the Laird of Ellangowan, who is kidnapped at the age of five by smugglers. It follows the fortunes and adventures of Harry and his family in subsequent years, and the struggle over the inheritance of Ellangowan. The novel also depicts the lawlessness that existed at the time, when smugglers operated along the coast and thieves frequented the country roads. The book was a huge success, selling out the day after its first edition.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 12

  Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

  Engraving: I. H. Jones; Restoration: Adam Cuerden

  The frontispiece to a c. 1825 edition of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a lengthy narrative poem by Lord Byron. The poem describes the travels and reflections of a world-weary young man who, disillusioned with a life of pleasure and revelry, looks for distraction in foreign lands. In a wider sense, it is an expression of the melancholy and disillusionment felt by a generation weary of the wars of the post-Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras. This poem proved to be quite popular upon its publication in 1812. Byron himself said of this, "I awoke one morning and found myself famous."

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 13

  The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby

  Artist: Jessie Willcox Smith; Restoration: ErikTheBikeMan

  Mrs. 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.

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 14

  The Hunting of the Snark

  Illustration credit: Henry Holiday; restored by Adam Cuerden

  The Hunting of the Snark is a nonsense poem written by English writer Lewis Carroll between 1874 and 1876. The plot follows a crew of ten trying to hunt the Snark, which may turn out to be a highly dangerous Boojum. This original illustration by Henry Holiday accompanies the verse:
  

  
  '"`UNIQ--poem-00000030-QINU`"'
  

  More selected pictures
• 
  Image 15

  "Jabberwocky"

  Illustration: John Tenniel

  The 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.

  More selected pictures

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

• ... that literary critic Qian Xingcun brought several Communist writers into the Shanghai film industry?
• ... that the literary magazine Adabijoti Soveti was the sole remaining publication in the Jewish-Bukharian language by the time of the switch to the Cyrillic script in 1939–1940?
• ... that The Inland Whale, by Theodora Kroeber, sought to demonstrate the literary merit of Indigenous American oral traditions?
• ... that Imagining Mars: A Literary History "presents a compelling case that 'Mars matters'"?
• ... that despite a career writing queer literature, Chen Xue's 2019 novel Fatherless City had a "putatively straight premise"?
• ... that scholar Mohja Kahf stated that there is no Syrian literature?

Today in literature

16 November

• 1773 - John Hawkesworth, English writer died
• 1839 - Louis-Honoré Fréchette, French Canadian poet born
• 1880 - Alexander Blok, Russian poet born
• 1889 - George S. Kaufman, American playwright born
• 1892 - Guo Moruo, Chinese writer born
• 1906 - Henri Charrière, author of Papillon born
• 1922 - José Saramago, Portuguese writer born
• 1930 - Chinua Achebe, Nigerian author born
• 1946 - Terrence McKenna, American writer born
• 1952 - Robin McKinley, American writer born
• 1954 - Andrea Barrett, American writer born
• 1967 - Craig Arnold, American poet born
• 1973 - Alan Watts, English writer died
• 1976 - Danny Wallace, British author born
• 1995 - Jack Finney, American author died

Archive (November)

Topics

Literature:	History of literature · History of the book · Literary criticism · Literary theory · Publishing
By genre:	Biography · Comedy · Drama · Epic · Erotic · Fable · Fantasy · Historical fiction · Horror · Mystery · Narrative nonfiction · Nonsense · Lyric · Mythopoeia · Poetry · Romance · Satire · Science fiction · Tragedy · Tragicomedy · more...
By region:	African literature · Asian · European · Latin American · North American · Oceanic
By era:	Ancient literature · Early medieval · Medieval · Renaissance · Early Modern · Modern
By century:	10th century in literature · 11th · 12th · 13th · 14th · 15th · 16th · 17th · 18th · 19th · 20th · 21st
Recent:	2018 in literature· 2017 · 2016 · 2015 · 2014 · 2013 · 2012 · 2011 · 2010 · 2009 · 2008 · 2007 · more...

Categories

Category puzzle

Select [►] to view subcategories

Literature

Literature by ethnicity

Literature by form

Literature by genre

Literature by language

Literature by location

Literature by medium

Literature by period

Literature by source

Literature by topic

Literature by women

Fiction literature

Non-fiction literature

Literature lists

Literary awards

Literary organizations

Aviation literature

Books

Economics of the arts and literature

Grey literature

History of literature

Images of literature

Literary characters

Literary collaborations

Literary education

Literary events

Literary genres

Literary theory

Literary translation

Literary works

Literature databases

Literature franchises

Literature in popular culture

Literature records

Literature timelines

Miscellanies

Nicknames in literature

Occupations in literature

People in literature

Professorships in literature

Quotations from literature

References in literary works

Self-portraiture

Stylistics

Unfinished literature

Versions of literary works

Wikipedia categories named after texts

Works about literature

Works based on literature

Literature stubs

Wikipedia categories named after literary texts

Related portals

Portals related to literature

Concepts:
Genres:
Religions:

Things you can do

Create:	Requested literature articles · Requested photographs of writers · Requested photographs of publications
Expand:	Literature stubs · Writer stubs · Start class literature articles · C class literature articles · Literature lists
Polish:	B class literature articles
More:	Open tasks at WikiProject Literature

Related WikiProjects

WikiProjects related to literature:

Concepts:	Biographies · Books · Comics · Magazines · Manga · Novels · Poetry · Short stories · Translation studies
Genres:	Alternate history · Children's literature · Crime · Fantasy · Horror · Mythology · Romance · Science fiction
Authors:	Honoré de Balzac · Roald Dahl · William Shakespeare
Series:	Artemis Fowl · Chronicles of Narnia · Discworld · Harry Potter · His Dark Materials · Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy · Inheritance Cycle · James Bond · King Arthur · Middle-earth · Percy Jackson · Redwall · A Series of Unfortunate Events · Shannara · Sherlock Holmes · A Song of Ice and Fire · Star Wars · Sword of Truth · Twilight · Warriors · Water Margin · Wizard of Oz
Regions:	Australian literature · Indian literature · Persian literature

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

• 

  Commons
  Free media repository

• 

  Wikibooks
  Free textbooks and manuals

• 

  Wikidata
  Free knowledge base

• 

  Wikinews
  Free-content news

• 

  Wikiquote
  Collection of quotations

• 

  Wikisource
  Free-content library

• 

  Wikiversity
  Free learning tools

• 

  Wiktionary
  Dictionary and thesaurus

Discover Wikipedia using portals

• 

  List of all portals
• 
  The arts portal
• 
  Biography portal
• 
  Current events portal
• 
  Geography portal
• 
  History portal
• 
  Mathematics portal
• 
  Science portal
• 
  Society portal
• 
  Technology portal

• 

  Random portal

• 

  WikiProject Portals