#ClassicsinContext

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During December, we honored Louisa May Alcott as our Author of the Month to tie in with the latest adaptation of #LittleWomen, released last month in theatres. Alcott was born on November 29th 1832 in Pennsylvania and some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

Louisa May Alcott was the daughter of transcendentalists, abolitionists, and early feminists. While growing up in poverty, the author worked as a seamstress, servant, governess, and anonymous writer in order to help support the family.

She was neighbours with the Hawthorne’s, the Emerson’s, and Henry David Thoreau.

Alcott had her breakthrough after publishing 'Hospital Sketches' in 1863, working as a nurse for the Civil War. The collection of letters depicted her experiences as a wartime nurse and later several abolitionist interracial romances and war stories.

Her most notable novel, ‘Little Women’ remains as a popular piece for women's lives throughout the centuries. Revolving around female characters that aspire to achieve successful careers and loving families, Alcott's revolutionary novel shows the complications of trying to maintain professional dreams and societal norms.

Aside from her literary career, Alcott was one of the founders of the Women's Educational and Industrial Union in Boston. It was March 6, 1888 when Alcott passed away from a stroke at the early age of 55, just two days after her father's death.

For the month of January, we are exploring the life and work of Anne Brontë. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter and Facebook to learn more!

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During December, we honored Charles Dickens as our Author of the Month. Dickens created some of the best-known fictional characters, ones we have all come to know and love. He was born in Portsmouth on February 7, 1812. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

Dickens’s father was imprisoned for debt in the Marshalsea, and Charles himself at the age of 12 worked in a blacking warehouse. This inspired much of his fiction, particularly in the early chapters of David Copperfield.

With the publication of ‘A Christmas Carol’ in 1843, Dickens had successfully established a connection between himself and the popular celebration of a religious festival.

Dickens died suddenly in 1870, leaving his last novel ‘The Mystery of Edwin Drood’ unfinished.

Charles Dickens’s is buried in a tomb in Poets’ Corner of Westminster Abbey, this went against his wish to be buried in a small graveyard ‘in an inexpensive, unostentatious and strictly private manner’.

For the month of January, we are exploring the life and work of Edith Wharton. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikimedia 

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During October, we honored Mary Shelley as our Author of the Month. The author of the most famous and disturbing literary work of the Romantic period, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin was born on August 30, 1797. Some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

On June 16, 1816 Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Clair Clairmont, and John Polidori decide to have a contest in which each would compete to write the most frightening story

The relationship between Mary and Percy Bysshe Shelley, begun at the graveside of Mary Wollstonecraft, spanned only eight years of Mary Shelley's life, yet from the moment of their elopement in 1814 its intensity informed the central events of her experience

Frankenstein is also a political argument. Mary was convinced that a political goal did not justify the use of violent means. Frankenstein's creature embodies the French Revolution: originally “good” in his intentions, the creature becomes increasingly violent

After Percy Bysshe Shelley's death by drowning in 1822, Mary Shelley returned to England and continued to write fiction and nonfiction while devoting herself to the editing and publication of her husband's works. Her editions are still used by modern scholars

For the month of November, we are exploring the life and work of Edgar Allan Poe. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikipedia 

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During November, we honored Edgar Allan Poe as our Author of the Month. Poe’s contribution to Gothic literature was his use of the genre to explore the psychology of humans under abnormal conditions. Edgar Poe was born in Boston on January 19, 1809. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

After the death of his mother, Poe was taken in by John Allan, adopting his foster-father’s name as his middle name.

He was educated in London and for a brief period, at the University of Virginia. In 1827 Poe entered the U.S Army.

After dropping out from West Point, Poe lived with his aunt, Maria Clemm and her young daughter Virginia. In 1836 Poe married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia is thought to be the inspiration behind his poem ‘Annabel Lee’.

Poe evidently believed that ‘Eureka’ published in 1848, was his greatest achievement. He had written to his mother-in-law: “I have no desire to live since I have done ‘Eureka’…I could accomplish nothing more.”

For the month of December, we are exploring the life and work of Charles Dickens. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikimedia

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? The Oxford World's Classics Team is excited to announce the launch of our #ClassicsInContext series! Each month, we will have a new Author of the Month who we will share various facts about their lives and their works over on Twitter.

For October, we’ve been focusing on Oscar Wilde. We’ve learned about his family, his time at Oxford, and more. Some of the most interesting things were…

Both of Oscar Wilde's parents wrote Celtic folklore. His father, of the Irish Sidhe and his mother, of fairies.

In 1877, while at Oxford, Wilde had the idea for his play Salome. However, the play wouldn't be performed until 1896.

Wilde was prosecuted for homosexual offences and sentenced to two years' hard labor in May 1895.

Oscar Wilde lived out the remaining years of his life in Europe under the assumed name of Sebastian Melmoth.

Feeling confident about your Wilde knowledge now? Test yourself with a quiz!

Next month, we’ll move from Ireland to Russia with a focus on Fyodor Dostoevsky. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn all about this 19th century novelist.

Image: Oscar Wilde, photographic print on card mount: albumen. Photo by Napoleon Sarony. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During January, we honored Anne Brontë as our Author of the Month to tie in with the bicentenary of Brontë’s birth. Anne was born on January 17th 1820 in Yorkshire and some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

Anne is the youngest sibling and was known to be the most delicate of all the Brontë children, and after the death of her eldest sisters she was educated at home rather than at Cowan Bridge with Emily and Charlotte. 

In 1839, Anne Brontë began work as a governess for the Ingham family. This experience influenced Anne to write her first novel, 'Agnes Grey,' which described the experience of being a governess as being a miserable one--spending all day with spoiled children she was forbidden to punish. 

In 1845, Charlotte discovered a manuscript of Emily's poems and made it her mission to publish a collection of the sisters’ poetry. By May 1846, at the sisters’ expense, a collection of the poems of 'Curer, Ellis, and Acton Bell' was published.

After Branwell Brontë's death on 24 September 1848 and Emily's on 19 December, symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis became evident in Anne's declining health. Charlotte took her to the sea to recover, and it was there Anne Brontë died on 28 May 1849 at their lodging at 2 St Nicholas Cliff, Scarborough—with almost her last breath saying she was happy, and thanking God that 'death was come, and come so gently.'

For the month of February, we are exploring the life and work of Victor Hugo. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter and Facebook to learn more!

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During November, we honored George Eliot as our Author of the Month. She was born on November 22nd 1819 in Nuneaton and 2019 marks the bicentenary of Eliot’s birth. Some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

Mary Ann Evans, known more widely by her pen name George Eliot was the third child of Robert Evans, the manager of the large estates of the Newdigate family. The young Mary Ann was strongly religious, in contrast with her only somewhat observant Anglican family.

While living in London, Eliot fell in love with George Henry Lewes. Lewes was a regular contributor to the magazine Eliot wrote for, the Westminster Review. Lewes had an open marriage but by 1853 Eliot and Lewes were living together as man and wife despite his married status. It was in 1856, encouraged by Lewes, that Eliot began to write fiction.

Eliot did not achieve fame until the publication of her first novel, Adam Bede. Charles Dickens admired the novel and guessed that its author was a woman; Elizabeth Gaskell was flattered when she was asked if she were the author. 

George Henry Lewes died in November of 1878, sending Eliot into a deep depression. She married a friend, John Walter Cross, whose mother had died at the same time as Lewes in an attempt to get over her grief, however Cross became depressed on the honeymoon and fell, or threw himself, from the balcony of their Venice hotel into the Grand Canal.

On December 22nd 1880, Eliot died of a kidney disease she had suffered from for several years. She was buried beside Lewes in Highgate Cemetery, and is known to this day as one of the greatest Victorian writers who deftly and unflinchingly captured the social change that occurred in her lifetime.

For the month of December, we are exploring the life and work of Louisa May Alcott. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter and Facebook to learn more!

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During September, we honored H. G. Wells as our Author of the Month. He was born on September 21st 1866 in Kent. An English writer best remembered for his science fiction novels. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

H.G. Wells's passion for the written word began at an early age when he broke his leg at the age of seven. Laid up in bed, his father brought Wells (known in the house as Bertie) library books ranging from Wood's illustrated Natural History to the bound volumes of Punch. 

He wanted to be a public intellectual, and wrote a series of semi-autobiographical novels as well as books that leaned towards political theory. 

Wells was far from monogamous, expounding a utopian ideal of free love and having affairs with a wide-range of female novelists, including the writer Rebecca West.

Wells was known as a political thinker, one who promoted a kind of utopian thinking that many saw and being in line with his science fiction work. He met multiple U.S. presidents, as well as Lenin and Stalin, and viewed world peace as his end goal. 

He died at his home in London on the 13th of August, 1946, aged 79.

For the month of October, we are exploring the life and work of Bram Stoker. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image 1 via Wikimedia Commons. Image 2 by Abigail Luke for Oxford University Press.

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During July, we honored Franz Kafka as our Author of the Month. He was born on July 3rd 1883 in Prague. Kafka’s work often depicts a nightmarish world full of impenetrable bureaucracies, bewildering judges, and oppressive architectures. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

In his youth, Kafka studied law and worked at a state Workers' Accident Insurance Institute. In his spare time, he wrote sketches of prose stories, some of which were published in magazines and as small books. Kafka's adult life was marked by bad health and romantic turmoil.

After breaking off his strained engagement to Felice Bauer in 1917, following his contraction of tuberculosis, he retired to the country where he would return, on and off, for the remainder of his life.

Kafka’s father, Hermann was inspiration for much of his writing. Much of what is known about Kafka's father comes from the son's 103 page handwritten letter, addressed to his father but never sent. Anticipating Freud, the letter's almost psychoanalytical style paints a picture of Kafka as deep in the double bind of the Oedipal conflict. The greatest source of anxiety in his life was his father, and the only way to escape, in his mind, was to become like his father and to marry and have a family. Kafka never achieved either of these things.

In 1924, he died as a result of the tuberculosis he contracted some 7 years prior. Kafka told his close friend and fellow writer, Max Brod, that upon Kafka's death, all of his manuscripts were to be destroyed. It is only because Brod defied his friend's wishes that we have 'The Trial,' 'The Castle,' and fragments of the unfinished novel 'Amerika.'

For the month of August, we are exploring the life and work of Herman Melville. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image 1 via Wikimedia Commons   Image 2 taken by Eleanor Chilvers for Oxford University Press

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During August, we honored Herman Melville as our Author of the Month. He was born on August 1st 1819 in New York City. Melville is a renowned American novelist, poet, and short story writer, most notably for 'Moby Dick' and 'Bartleby, the Scrivener.'Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

 At the start of his life, he and his family lived in luxury, only to plunge into poverty once his father died shortly after the failure of his import business in 1832. The author later embarked on a whaling voyage in the South Seas that inspired his early novels 'Typee' and 'Omoo.'

Herman Melville's most notable piece of literature, 'Moby Dick,' did not receive fame when it first published. It was highly criticized and failed commercially. 

A year after Melville published 'Moby Dick,' his work 'Pierre' was released. This novel was less serious and even mentioned a possibility of having an illegitimate sister. This novel plummeted after receiving strong criticisms by readers.

Herman Melville lived out the rest of days writing until his death in September 28, 1891. His unfinished novel, ‘Billy Budd, Sailor,’ was discovered and later published in 1924. Melville's literary legacy was revived in 1919 and took hold into the future.

2019 marks the 200th anniversary of Herman Melville’s birth.

For the month of September, we are exploring the life and work of H. G. Wells. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image 1 via Wikimedia Commons Image 2 by Eleanor Chilvers for Oxford University Press

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During June, we honored Alexander Pushkin as our Author of the Month. He was born on June 6th 1799 in Moscow. A Russian poet, playwright, and novelist who is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

Alexander Pushkin, at the age of 8, reputedly wrote little plays in French, which he acted with his sister. It is evident from his letters and other sources that Alexander Pushkin contemplated writing a series of dramatic works but only ever completed one play.

In 1817 Alexander Pushkin entered government service. However, he had gradually become committed to social reform and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from the capital in May 1820.

After he finished school, Alexander Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of the capital, Saint Petersburg. In 1820, he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila, with much controversy about its subject and style.

In 1823, Alexander Pushkin moved to Odessa, where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile until 1826. During this time, he wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Malorossia's General-Governor.

In 1831 he married Natalia Goncharova and it was the attentions paid to her by Baron Georges D'Anthès, a French royalist in Russian service, that led to the duel in which Pushkin was fatally wounded

For the month of July, we are exploring the life and work of Franz Kafka. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During May, we honored J.M. Barrie as our Author of the Month. He was born in the small Scottish town of Kirriemuir, near Dundee, on May 9th, 1860. He was the ninth of ten children born to David Barrie, a handloom weaver, and Margaret Ogilvy. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

In 1894, J.M. Barrie married Mary Ansell. It was rumored that their marriage had never been consummated, although this has been contested. As a childless wife, Mary sought companionship in her St. Bernard, Porthos, whom Barrie later fictionalized in Peter Pan.

In 1897, while walking in Kensington Gardens, J.M. Barrie made the acquaintance of two boys named George and Jack and their baby brother Peter. Later in the year, he met the boys’ mother, Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. They became fast friends.

On November 23, 1903, he began the first draft of what he initially called Anon, A Play. After many changes, Peter Pan opened on the London stage the following Christmas and was hailed almost unanimously as the finest play ever written for children.

In April 1912, quite without warning, a statue of Peter Pan appeared overnight in Kensington Gardens. The work of Sir George Frampton, it was commissioned by J.M. Barrie and was erected in secrecy to give the impression that it had come there by magic.

In 1929, J.M. Barrie assigned the royalties from his most famous and lucrative work, Peter Pan, to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. He died of pneumonia at a nursing home in the West End of London on June 19, 1937.

For the month of May, we are exploring the life and work of Alexander Pushkin. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided byWikimedia Commons

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During March, we honored Ovid as our Author of the Month. He was born in Sulmo, Italy on March 20th 43 BC. After holding some minor judicial posts, Ovid apparently abandoned public life for poetry. With early backing from Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus, he quickly gained prominence as a writer and became the leading poet of Rome. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

Before Ovid, erotic elegy had featured a disjunction in the first-person voice between a knowing poet and unknowing lover. By featuring a protagonist who loves as knowingly as he write, Ovid closed the gap and achieved a closer fit between literary and erotic conventions. 

In 8 CE, Ovid was working on his masterpiece when he witnessed something the emperor Augustus found prejudicial. At first, Ovid said nothing and left Rome, but he was eventually summoned back to face Augustus’ wrath. The reason for his trial is unknown, but Ovid attributed it to “carmen et error” (”a poem and a mistake”). 

Subjecting Ovid to no public proceedings, Augustus personally tried him and sentenced him to take up residence in Tomis (modern Costanza in Romania) on the Black Sea. Ovid left Rome, as required, in December of 8 CE and reached Tomis the following summer. There, he set about trying to win a pardon from Augustus.

Despite his early fame as a love poet, Ovid asserted that his personal life lacked notoriety, and he recorded three marriages. He had a daughter and a stepdaughter, the latter of whom he addressed in one of his poems that was written in exile.

For the month of April, we are exploring the life and work of Charlotte Brontë. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons 

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During February, we honored Jules Verne as our Author of the Month. He was born in Nantes on February 8th, 1828. Jules Verne surprises the contemporary reader with the precision of his foresight—a great number of his inventions materialized in the twentieth century. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

Verne was by no means the first writer of science fiction; but he had a remarkable understanding of the possibilities of science. His description of the details of space travel is very close to what actually happened in the 60s.

Though Jules Verne did not write his books with children in mind, they immediately became popular with young readers and many of his stories first appeared in English in the pages of juvenile magazines.

'Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Seas' owed much to the exploits of the huge experimental French submarine Le Plongeur and to the work of Verne’s friend Jacques-François Conseil, who developed a steam-driven submarine.

While Jules Verne worked on many literary projects, his most commercially successful works were adventure tales. They usually exploited the public interest in the 19th- century age of discovery.

Many mourned Jules Verne’s passing at Amiens on March 24, 1905, and a very large crowd came out for the funeral of the creator of the Nautilus and of its commander, Captain Nemo.

For the month of March, we are exploring the life and work of Ovid. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons.

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

During January, we honored Edith Wharton as our Author of the Month. She was born in New York on January 24th 1862. Wharton drew upon her insider’s knowledge of the upper class New York “aristocracy”. Some of the most interesting things we learned about her this month were…

Edith Wharton's parents arranged for private publication of a collection of twelve poems, Verses, in 1878. In 1879, Allen Thorndike Rice, wrote to poet Henry Longfellow on her behalf; he sent her poems to the editor of the Atlantic Monthly who published them.

Edith Wharton wrote The House of Mirth for serial publication at the invitation of William Brownell, an editor at Scribners. The book appeared in October 1905; by early 1906 it was at the top of the best-seller list.

The year 1907 marks the beginning of a passionate love affair between Edith Wharton and journalist Morton Fullerton. In 1908 Wharton writes about the experience of one of their trysts in a fifty-two line, Whitman like poem she titled Terminus.

During World War I in France, Edith Wharton organized relief efforts for the refugees and orphans displaced by the advancing German army. In 1916, Wharton was named a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest honor given to a foreigner in France.

In April 1935 Edith Wharton suffered a mild stroke. The following two years were marked by uneven health. She suffered a heart attack in June of 1937. Surrounded by the beauty of her gardens and her friends, she died on August 11, 1937.

For the month of February, we are exploring the life and work of Jules Verne. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image provided by Wikimedia Commons

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Have you ever wanted to know more about your favorite classic authors? Each month, we share various facts about the lives and works of our Author of the Month.

For August, we honored Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as the Author of the Month. Goethe was born in Frankfurt am Main to an affluent Lutheran family. He studied at the University of Leipzig from 1765 to 1768 and began his literary career in 1773. Some of the most interesting things we learned about him this month were…

The Sorrows of Young Werther is an epistolary novel that Goethe published anonymously in 1774. It recounts the psychological disintegration and suicide of a youthful artist through a disappointed love affair, compounded by the world

Goethe's scientific studies opposed Isaac Newton's mathematical approach to science, which is especially evident in his Theory of Colors. Goethe was especially proud of his contribution to optics, though he was plainly wrong

Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre provided the model of the Bildungsroman (a novel of individual formation and development). Goethe did not coin the term Bildungsroman but has been credited with inventing this genre

Goethe's concept of Weltliteratur (“world literature”) is considered the most telling example of his commitment to the Enlightenment. He wanted writers and literary participants to form a community of intellectuals who emphasized dialogue and diversity

For the month of June, we are exploring the life and work of Leo Tolstoy. Be sure to follow the #ClassicsInContext hashtag on Twitter to learn more!

Image credit: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe by Joseph Kar Stieler. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.