In your day, riches debauched one class with idleness of mind and body, while poverty sapped the vitality of the masses by overwork, bad food, and pestilent homes…Instead of these maleficent circumstances, all now enjoy the most favorable conditions of physical life; the young are carefully nurtured and studiously cared for; the labor which is …
Continue reading Looking Backward 2000-1887, Edward Bellamy (1888)
It was our purpose…to give up whatever we had heretofore attained, for the sake of showing mankind the example of a life governed by other than the false and cruel principles on which human society has all along been based. The Blithedale Romance is Nathaniel Hawthorne’s not so thinly based autobiographical account of his 8 …
Continue reading The Blithedale Romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1852)
Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone; it keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion. I like good strong words that mean something, replied Jo. Apparently, Louisa May Alcott was not happy when her …
When one really knows a village like this and its surroundings, it is like becoming acquainted with a single person. The process of falling in love at first sight is as final as it is swift…but the growth of true friendship may be a lifelong affair. Most biographical descriptions of Sarah Orne Jewett include the …
Continue reading The Country of the Pointed Firs, Sarah Orne Jewett (1896)
Finney never left anything alone, not when it was well enough, not when it was perfect. “Let’s go jump in the river,” he said under his breath as we went out of the sunporch. He forced compliance by leaning against me as we walked along, changing my direction; like a police car squeezing me to …
Shall we never, never get rid of this Past? It lies upon the Present like a giant’s dead body! In fact, the case is just as if a young giant were compelled to waste all his strength in carrying about the corpse of the old giant, his grandfather, who died a long while ago, and …
Continue reading The House of the Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne (1851)
Classic Laurie 