In In our class, we considered the life Dickens needed to have before he could have had the experiences, skills, and maturity to write a novel that would stand out as one of the best ones in literature…Sorry there will be no spoilers here about how well he succeeded. You will have to read or re-read the book when you are seasoned enough to comprehend it.
Author: Murray Ellison
Murray Ellison is a Lifelong Learner of Literature, Music, and Poetry. He teaches those subjects at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute of the University of Richmond. He is a Board Member of The Edgar Allan Poe Museum in Richmond, and Coordinator of The RVA (Richmond) Classic Book Club. He is the Founder and Chief Editor of Litchatte.com and does professional editing. Before all of that he, retired as the Director of Community Corrections for the Virginia Department of Correctional Education. He has taught at every level from elementary and special education through college.
He earned a Master of Arts in English Literature at Virginia Commonwealth University and a Doctorate Degree in Special Education at Virginia Tech.
Dickens and Being Recalled to Life
Thinking about this boy who was once me, it is very tough to approach him because he has been buried in my mind for over 70 years and now must be recalled to life. It helps me to dredge up this painful memory by thinking about how Dickens wrote about young boys who were neglected and mistreated by their parents.
Being Guided by E.A. Poe
Most people likely associate Edgar Allan Poe as a writer of some of the world’s scariest horror stories. His most famous poem, “The Raven,” creates moods of terror as the
Postmodernism in Milan Kundera’s, The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Kundera leaves us with some thought-provoking ideas. The novelist is neither a historian nor a prophet: he is an explorer of existence.
Parenting Our Three or Four Daughters
I can’t remember many difficult parts about raising our three daughters. We didn’t expect the delight that an unexpected fourth daughter about 17 years later would bring. However, each one had a few challenges.
Planning the 2nd Half of My Life with Falling Upward by Richard Rohr
In this reflection, I consider the effects that Falling Upward (2011) had on me after I first read it in 2014. In this book by Franciscan monk Richard Rohr, comments on
Reconsidering What is a Modern Classic Book: The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
In this article, Murray Ellison considers how we might consider books written in the last 70 years as Classics and considers Kazuo’s, The Remains of the Day as a modern classic.
THE POLITICS, MATHEMATICS, AND STRATEGIES OF POTLUCKS
Some interesting mathematics and strategies around potluck meals
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is Drawn from Muriel Spark’s Life
Don Wilms lead the Richmond, Virginia (RVA) Classic Bookclub Discussion of The Prime of Miss Brodie in April 2022
Race and Gender in Kate Chopin’s Short Story, “Desiree’s Baby”
by Mary Ramsey Evans… While Kate Chopin is most often remembered for her controversial novel, The Awakening (1898), she also wrote almost one hundred short stories, many of them published
