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A Traveler From Altruria
''A Traveler from Altruria'' is a Utopian novel by William Dean Howells. It was first published in installments in '' The Cosmopolitan'' between November 1892 and October 1893, and eventually in book form by Harper & Brothers in 1894. The novel is a critique of unfettered capitalism and its consequences, and of the Gilded Age. Introduction Set during the early 1890s in a fashionable summer resort somewhere on the East Coast of the United States, the book is narrated by a Mr Twelvemough, a popular author of light fiction who has been selected to function as host to a visitor from the faraway island of Altruria called Mr Homos. Homos has come all the way to the United States to experience first-hand everyday life in the country which prides itself to represent democracy and equality, to see for himself how the principle that "all men are created equal" is being practiced. However, due to Altruria's secluded existence very little is known about that state, so Twelvemough and his ci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Dean Howells
William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of ''The Atlantic Monthly'', as well as for his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novels ''The Rise of Silas Lapham'' and '' A Traveler from Altruria''. Biography Early life and family William Dean Howells was born on March 1, 1837, in Martinsville, Ohio (now known as Martins Ferry, Ohio), to William Cooper Howells and Mary Dean Howells, the second of eight children. His father was a newspaper editor and printer who moved frequently around Ohio. In 1840, the family settled in Hamilton, Ohio,Lynn, 36 where his father oversaw a Whig newspaper and followed Swedenborgianism. Their nine years there were the longest period that they stayed in one place. The family had to live frugally, although the young Howells was encou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both natural philosophy and the scientific method and his works remained influential even in the late stages of the Scientific Revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. He argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. He believed that science could be achieved by the use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his most specific proposals about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes Bacon one of the later founders of the scientific method. His portion of the method ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egotism
Egotism is defined as the drive to maintain and enhance favorable views of oneself and generally features an inflated opinion of one's personal features and importance distinguished by a person's amplified vision of one's self and self-importance. It often includes intellectual, physical, social, and other overestimations. The egotist has an overwhelming sense of the centrality of the "me" regarding their personal qualities. Characteristics Egotism is closely related to an egocentric love for one's imagined self or narcissism – indeed some would say "by egotism we may envisage a kind of socialized narcissism". Egotists have a strong tendency to talk about themselves in a self-promoting fashion, and they may well be arrogant and boastful with a grandiose sense of their own importance. Their inability to recognise the accomplishments of others leaves them profoundly self-promoting; while sensitivity to criticism may lead, on the egotist's part, to narcissistic rage at a se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1894 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1894. Events *February – Oscar Wilde's play '' Salome'' is first published in English, with illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley. *February 15 – French anarchist Martial Bourdin accidentally kills himself while attempting to plant a bomb at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, a fictionalised version of which appears in Joseph Conrad's novel ''The Secret Agent'' ( 1907). *Early Spring – Mary Antin emigrates from White Russia (Belarus) to the United States with her mother. *April – ''The Yellow Book'' imprint, edited by Henry Harland, begins publication by John Lane and Elkin Mathews – The Bodley Head – in London. *April 21 – George Bernard Shaw's play ''Arms and the Man'' is premièred at the Avenue Theatre in London. *May – The Scottish writer William Sharp publishes ''Pharais'', his first novel under the pseudonym Fiona MacLeod. *June – The German novelist Hermann Hesse begins an appre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1893 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1893. Events *January 14 – Kate Chopin's short stories "Désirée's Baby" and "A Visit to Avoyelles" appear in ''Vogue (magazine), Vogue'' magazine in the United States. *February/March – The 22-year-old Stephen Crane pays for publication of his first book, the Bowery novella ''Maggie: A Girl of the Streets'', under the pseudonym "Johnston Smith" in New York city, New York. Coming to be considered a pioneering example of American literary realism, the first trade edition (rewritten) comes out in 1896 in literature, 1896 after Crane has attained fame with ''The Red Badge of Courage''. *April 19 – Oscar Wilde's social comedy ''A Woman of No Importance'' receives its first performance at the Haymarket Theatre, London, with Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Mrs. Bernard Beere and Julia Neilson. *May 2 – Swedish dramatist August Strindberg, 44, begins a brief marriage with Austrian writer Frida Uhl, 21. *May ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1892 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1892. Events *January – The Schauspielhaus Zürich opens as the ''Volkstheater am Pfauen'', a music hall. *January 18 – Rudyard Kipling marries Caroline Starr Balestier. *February 22 – Oscar Wilde's comedy ''Lady Windermere's Fan'' is premièred at St James's Theatre in London, starring Winifred Emery and Marion Terry. *April 27 – The magazine ''Isis'' is established by students at the University of Oxford. *June – Rehearsals for the première of Oscar Wilde's play ''Salome'' for inclusion in Sarah Bernhardt's London season (in French) are halted when the British Lord Chamberlain's licensor of plays prohibits it for including Biblical characters. *July 15 – The Bibliographical Society is established in London. *September 12 – The 11-year-old Virginia Stephen, the later novelist Virginia Woolf, takes a boat trip to Godrevy Lighthouse on a family holiday in Cornwall. *October 14 – The fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord High Chancellor of England from October 1529 to May 1532. He wrote ''Utopia'', published in 1516, which describes the political system of an imaginary island state. More opposed the Protestant Reformation, directing polemics against the theology of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin and William Tyndale. More also opposed Henry VIII's separation from the Catholic Church, refusing to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. After refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy, he was convicted of treason and executed. On his execution, he was reported to have said: "I die the King's good servant, and God's first". Pope Pius XI canonised More in 1935 as a martyr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plato
Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution of higher learning on the European continent. Along with his teacher, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato is a central figure in the history of Ancient Greek philosophy and the Western and Middle Eastern philosophies descended from it. He has also shaped religion and spirituality. The so-called neoplatonism of his interpreter Plotinus greatly influenced both Christianity (through Church Fathers such as Augustine) and Islamic philosophy (through e.g. Al-Farabi). In modern times, Friedrich Nietzsche diagnosed Western culture as growing in the shadow of Plato (famously calling Christianity "Platonism for the masses"), while Alfred North Whitehead famously said: "the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the 15th century. Originally a phrase (the common-wealth or the common wealth – echoed in the modern synonym "public wealth"), it comes from the old meaning of "wealth", which is "well-being", and is itself a loose translation of the Latin res publica (republic). The term literally meant "common well-being". In the 17th century, the definition of "commonwealth" expanded from its original sense of "public welfare" or "commonweal" to mean "a state in which the supreme power is vested in the people; a republic or democratic state". The term evolved to become a title to a number of political entities. Three countries – Australia, the Bahamas, and Dominica – have the official title "Commonwealth", as do four U.S. states and two U.S. territo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
News From Nowhere
''News from Nowhere'' (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris. It was first published in serial form in the ''Commonweal'' journal beginning on 11 January 1890. In the novel, the narrator, William Guest, falls asleep after returning from a meeting of the Socialist League and awakes to find himself in a future society based on common ownership and democratic control of the means of production. In this society there is no private property, no big cities, no authority, no monetary system, no marriage or divorce, no courts, no prisons, and no class systems. This agrarian society functions simply because the people find pleasure in nature, and therefore they find pleasure in their work. The novel explores a number of aspects of this society, including its organisation and the relationships which it engenders between people. Morris fuses Marxism and the romance tradition when ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts and methods of production. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he helped win acceptance of socialism in ''fin de siècle'' Great Britain. Morris was born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy middle-class family. He came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying Classics at Oxford University, there joining the Birmingham Set. After university, he married Jane Burden, and developed close friendships with Pre-Raphaelite artists Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and with Neo-Gothic architect Philip Webb. Webb and Morris designed Red House in Kent where Morris lived from 1859 to 1865, before moving t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
