Books on the Wall blog posts featuring books quotes in either graphical or deep dive format.
This quote is spoken by Helena from William Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream, believed to have been written in the 1590s. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is set during the festive wedding weekend of the duke of Athens and the queen of the Amazons, and the play follows the love triangle (better said, love square?) between the four main characters: Demetrius, Lysander, Hermia and Helena. Hermia’s father wants her to marry Demetrius, who loves her, but Hermia loves Lysander. Helena, who is Hermia’s friend, still loves Demetrius, her ex. The lovers run into the forest to sneak away, but end […]
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This quote comes from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Published in 1960, the novel follows two young children, Scout and Jem, and their lawyer father, Atticus Finch, as he defends a wrongfully accused black man in Depression era-Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird met instant critical acclaim and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird was long Harper Lee’s only published work. However, in 2015, she released Go Set a Watchman, a sequel of sorts to her previous work. Regardless of the literary quality of the novel, many critics felt that Lee—now 89 years old, deaf, and […]
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These are the last words of Hemingway’s 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises. Loosely based on Ernest Hemingway’s real-life group of friends, the novel follows American expatriate Jake Barnes and his love interest, Englishwoman Brett Ashley. Often considered Hemingway’s finest novel, The Sun Also Rises captures readers with its depiction of glitzy Parisian cafes, excessive drinking, women’s sexual liberation and the tragic seduction of Pamplona bullfighting. Beyond a single work, though, Ernest Hemingway is remembered for writing about the Lost Generation and for his distinctly sparse, action-driven prose. (His unique writing style has even inspired an eponymous editing app.) “Isn’t it […]
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This quote is spoken by Elizabeth Bennet in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Published in 1813, Pride and Prejudice has become Austen’s most famous work, due in no small part to the BBC mini-series and 2005 movie of the same name. Pride and Prejudice follows Elizabeth Bennet as she navigates British society’s (and her family’s) expectations for marriage, manners and morals. “What are men to rocks and mountains?” Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
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This quote comes from Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, published in 1890. A brilliant wordsmith, Oscar Wilde is perhaps most known for his sharp turn of turn-of-phrase and memorable one-liners which hide a kernal of truth in a pithy joke. When The Picture of Dorian Gray was published, British reviewers were scandalized by its so-called moral impropriety, and some even suggested that Wilde be prosecuted for violating public morality. Wilde’s reply to these critics, published in the print version of the novel, has become as famous as the novel itself: “There is no such thing as a moral […]
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This quote comes from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. Originally published in French in 1862, the historical novel follows several characters, including ex-convict Jean Valjean and orphaned Cosette, during France’s June Rebellion. One of longest novels ever written, critics have argued that the length of Les Misérables is in fact its greatest strength. Numerous movie and Broadway adaptations have helped Victor Hugo’s masterpiece remain as popular and relevant as ever. If you’re a big Les Mis fan—or you haven’t started reading it yet—check our Les Misérables text poster!
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This quote comes from The Tempest. Written and published in the early 1600s, The Tempest follows the powerful sorceror, Prospero, and his daughter Miranda, who have been exiled to a faraway island by Prospero’s brother, Antonio. Prospero summons the titular tempest at the beginning of the play to bring his traitorous brother and conspirators to the island. Interested in what happens next? Read the full play of The Tempest here.
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Some books take a while to really get into. You slog through the first few chapters until, finally, something pulls you in and convinces you to finish it. Some books never get there at all. But a few books reach out to you from the very first words on the very first page. What is it that makes an opening line stand out? Some opening lines are effective because they succinctly introduce some major element of the novel: maybe the hero, the villain, the conflict or all of those at once. Some opening lines linger in our minds as poetry, […]
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Published in 1998, The Poisonwood Bible follows the lives of the Price family, missionaries who move from the state of Georgia to the Belgian Congo in 1959. Throughout the novel, The Poisonwood Bible delves into the lives and minds of each member of the Price family as they build their lives in Africa. The novel ultimately explores themes of religion, guilt, humanity and the tragic consequences of colonialism. Barbara Kingsolver’s novel was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1999.
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This quote comes from Zadie Smith’s novel, White Teeth. Published in 2000, White Teeth follows the London lives of two friends: Samad Iqbal, originally from Bangladesh, and Archie Jones, an Englishman. Like many of Smith’s other works, White Teeth explores themes of personal and societal identity, immigration and homeland, class, and race. Zadie Smith’s sharp sense of humor and multiple narrative viewpoints have earned her several literary prizes, including the Whitbread Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. Smith also frequently contributes both fiction and non-fiction essays to the New Yorker.
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