Prolific Living

literary

Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

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Aside from a handful of reading assignments in high school and a few beloved thick classics which slipped through, I turned my back to literature and the classics for the sake of science, engineering, and a career in technology.

“How on earth would English Literature or any other classic help me toward excelling in grad school or getting the next promotion?”, I thought, tossing aside even the remote possibility of engaging in such an activity. Quite rightly, it probably would not have helped me. Jane Austen or Emily Brontë would have never been instrumental in writing my thesis on “Effects of pulse shape on performance of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Multiple Access communication systems“! Or in getting that next promotion, for that matter. [Read more…] about Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

Edith Wharton: “Age of Innocence”

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Be it naïveté or lack of insight, I have never understood all the fuss about New York and its self-proclaimed greatness. Try as I might, I cannot recollect a single memory of a warm encounter, a nice experience or a kind human interaction during my visits. Sadly, I do have a few sour such memories, but you learn to write those off as exceptions, especially if the good ones balance things out. After all, the amalgamation of dozens of religions and cultures is bound to produce its challenges anywhere on earth, particularly in big cities. Even so, New York’s inadequate impression on me remains unchanged as yet.

Reading Wharton's Age of Innocence at home

Reading is the best pastime for an active mind! If you like to see the other book reviews, check the index of In Print.

So it is with great reluctance that I started Edith Wharton’s classic short novel on high society life in New York city at the close of 19th century (1870s). Wharton’s Pulitzer-prize winning “Age of Innocence” depicts all the hypocrisy and convention, duty and criticism, propriety and snobbery of the New York elite as it tells the story of protagonist Newland Archer [Read more…] about Edith Wharton: “Age of Innocence”

Henry James: “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square”

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Henry James

I read “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square” because Azar Nafisi mentioned them in “Reading Lolita in Tehran“. I had set out to complete the reading list of all the books mentioned in Nafisi’s tales of Iran, and next on my list were these two short novels of Henry James. They came in the same book. I read “Daisy Miller” first, and while it’s a tiny 62 pages, it took me weeks to get past the first few alone. I remember starting out the same way with “Jane Eyre” and fell in love with her gradually. So I stuck it out. I remember hearing about Eleanor Roosevelt’s theory that motivation will come to you if you are already working, so put yourself in autopilot of the task at hand at first, go through the motions, and motivation will come to you then but not any sooner. [Read more…] about Henry James: “Daisy Miller” and “Washington Square”

Charlotte Brontë: “Jane Eyre”

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Reading Jane Eyre marks one of my most bittersweet journeys into a novel and into a character’s life and psyche.

Reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte at the pool

I read Charlotte Brontë‘s masterpiece of accomplishment for an unusual reason. I wanted to find a way to get closer to her sister, Emily Brontë. I devoured Emily’s singular publication of “Wuthering Heights“, a story that is at the same time gripping, disturbing, addictive, tragic and sublimely written. Emily Brontë sadly lived her own version of tragedy by departing the world far too soon at the hands of a cruel disease. The excerpt at the beginning of Wuthering Heights explains the close relationship of the sisters, and implies the lonely life that must have followed for Charlotte Brontë after losing Emily and her other siblings. After learning that Charlotte Brontë particularly disliked one of my favorite authors, Jane Austen [Read more…] about Charlotte Brontë: “Jane Eyre”

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