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Academic Novel
A campus novel, also known as an academic novel, is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university. The genre in its current form dates back to the early 1950s. ''The Groves of Academe'' by Mary McCarthy, published in 1952, is often quoted as the earliest example, although in ''Faculty Towers: The Academic Novel and Its Discontents'', Elaine Showalter discusses C. P. Snow's '' The Masters'', of the previous year, and several earlier novels have an academic setting and the same characteristics, such as Willa Cather's ''The Professor's House'' of 1925, Régis Messac's '' Smith Conundrum'' first published between 1928 and 1931 and Dorothy L. Sayers' '' Gaudy Night'' of 1935 (see below). Many well-known campus novels, such as Kingsley Amis's '' Lucky Jim'' and those of David Lodge, are comic or satirical, often counterpointing intellectual pretensions and human weaknesses. Some, however, attempt a serious treatment of university life; examples include C. P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Disgrace (novel)
''Disgrace'' is a novel by J. M. Coetzee, published in 1999. It won the Booker Prize. The writer was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature four years after its publication. Plot David Lurie is a white South African professor of English who loses everything: his reputation, his job, his peace of mind, his dreams of artistic success, and finally even his ability to protect his own daughter. He is twice-divorced and dissatisfied with his job as a 'communications' lecturer, teaching a class in romantic literature at a technical university in Cape Town in post-apartheid South Africa. Lurie's sexual activities are all inherently risky. Before the sexual affair that will ruin him, he becomes attached to a sex worker and attempts to have a romantic relationship with her (despite her having a family), which she rebuffs. He then seduces a secretary at his university, only to completely ignore her afterwards. His "disgrace" comes when he seduces one of his more vulnerable students, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kate Fansler
Kate Fansler is the main character in a series of fourteen mystery novels written by Carolyn Gold Heilbrun from 1964-2002, under the pseudonym Amanda Cross. Overview Like Heilbrun, Fansler was a literature professor at a prestigious New York university. In the books, she is called upon to solve mysteries set in an academic context, usually involving the murder of a professor or student. Her work is accomplished through conversation with the people involved, rather than through the physically adventurous antics preferred by other fictional detectives. Midway through the series, she married her partner, district attorney Reed Amhearst, but as she tells another character in ''A Trap For Fools'', she "neither uses his name nor wears his ring". Echoing Heilbrun's personal views, she has little sentimental attachment to children, enjoys smoking, drinking, and fatty food, and in later books such as ''Sweet Death, Kind Death'', meditates on the nature of middle age In the histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carolyn Gold Heilbrun
Carolyn Gold Heilbrun (January 13, 1926 – October 9, 2003) was an American academic at Columbia University, the first woman to receive tenure in the English department, and a prolific feminist author of academic studies. In addition, beginning in the 1960s, she published numerous popular mystery novels with a woman protagonist, under the pen name of Amanda Cross. McFadden, Robert D.br>"Carolyn Heilbrun, Pioneering Feminist Scholar, Dies at 77" ''The New York Times'', October 11, 2003. Accessed December 18, 2007. These have been translated into numerous languages and in total sold nearly one million copies worldwide. Early life and education Heilbrun was born in East Orange, New Jersey, to Archibald Gold and Estelle (Roemer) Gold. The family moved to Manhattan's Upper West Side when she was a child. Heilbrun graduated from Wellesley College in 1947 with a major in English. Afterwards, she studied English literature at Columbia University, receiving her M.A. in 1951 and Ph.D in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gervase Fen
Gervase Fen is a fictional amateur detective and Oxford Professor of English Language and Literature created by Edmund Crispin. Fen appears in nine novels and two books of short stories published between 1944 and 1979. Fen is an unconventional detective who is often faced with a locked room mystery to solve. Character Fen is described as lanky, cheerful and ruddy with a clean shaven face and hair which is always plastered down with water, but with stray hairs spiking from his crown. He is middle-aged, married, has children, and is often noted as wearing an extraordinary hat. Fen is alternately "charming, frivolous, brilliant and badly behaved" and in the stories acts on his own as an amateur detective as well as frequently assisting the police with their investigations. Fen often exhibits his surprise or shock by quoting ''Alice in Wonderland'' – "Oh my fur and whiskers!". Fen makes his first appearance in ''The Case of the Gilded Fly'' and is introduced as wishing to be invo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edmund Crispin
Edmund Crispin was the pseudonym of Robert Bruce Montgomery (usually credited as Bruce Montgomery) (2 October 1921 – 15 September 1978), an English crime writer and composer known for his Gervase Fen novels and for his musical scores for the early films in the ''Carry On'' series. Life and work Montgomery was born at "Blackwood", Bois Lane, Chesham Bois, Buckinghamshire, fourth child and only son of Robert Ernest Montgomery (1878-1962) and Marion Blackwood, née Jarvie. His father was principal clerk- formerly secretary to the High Commissioner of India- in the India Office; of Irish birth, his family later settled at Hanwell, in the London Borough of Ealing. Montgomery's mother was Scottish, of a family claiming illegitimate descent from Bonnie Prince Charlie. When Montgomery was two years old, his family moved round the corner to "Domus", a "big house in a rural setting" that was built according to his father's instructions. He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whodunit
A ''whodunit'' or ''whodunnit'' (a colloquial elision of "Who asdone it?") is a complex plot-driven variety of detective fiction in which the puzzle regarding who committed the crime is the main focus. The reader or viewer is provided with the clues to the case, from which the identity of the perpetrator may be deduced before the story provides the revelation itself at its climax. The investigation is usually conducted by an eccentric, amateur, or semi-professional detective. Concept A whodunit follows the paradigm of the classical detective story in the sense that it presents crime as a puzzle to be solved through a chain of questions that the detective poses. In a whodunit, however, the audience is given the opportunity to engage in the same process of deduction as the protagonist throughout the investigation of a crime. This engages the readers so that they strive to compete with or outguess the expert investigator. A defining feature of the whodunit narrative is the so-c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crime Fiction
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct. Crime fiction has multiple subgenres, including detective fiction (such as the whodunit), courtroom drama, hard-boiled fiction, and legal thrillers. Most crime drama focuses on crime investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre. History The '' One Thousand and One Nights'' (''Arabian Nights'') contains the earliest known examples of crime fiction. One example of a story of this genre is the medieval Arabic tale of "The Three Apples", one of the tales narrated by Scheherazade in the ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Varsity Novel
A varsity novel is a novel whose main action is set in and around the campus of a university and focuses on students rather than faculty. Examples include Evelyn Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited'', Donna Tartt's ''The Secret History'', Tom Sharpe's ''Porterhouse Blue'' and Stephen Fry's '' The Liar'' and '' Making History''. Novels that focus on faculty rather than students are often considered to belong to a distinct genre, termed campus novels. Aida Edemariam, analyzing David Lodge's novels, identifies that varsity novels " reset at Oxbridge, and usually among students." For his part, Lodge considers that the varsity novel was called as such " fore World War II... elatingthe exploits of young men at Oxbridge, of which Max Beerbohm’s ''Zuleika Dobson'' was a classic instance, and the first section of Evelyn Waugh's ''Brideshead Revisited'' was perhaps the swan-song." However, '' The National's'' Malcolm Forbes, asserts "that...all modern varsity novels, have an antecedent in ''B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brideshead Revisited
''Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder'' is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder, most especially his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle. Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Sebastian and Julia. The novel explores themes including nostalgia for the age of English aristocracy and Catholicism. A faithful and well-received Brideshead Revisited (TV serial), television adaptation of the novel was produced in an 11-part miniseries by Granada Television in 1981. Plot The novel is divided into three parts, framed by a prologue and epilogue. ''Prologue'' The prologue takes place during the final years of the Second World War. Charles Ryder and his battalion are sent to a country estate called Brideshead, which prompts hi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh (; 28 October 1903 – 10 April 1966) was an English writer of novels, biographies, and travel books; he was also a prolific journalist and book reviewer. His most famous works include the early satires ''Decline and Fall'' (1928) and ''A Handful of Dust'' (1934), the novel ''Brideshead Revisited'' (1945), and the Second World War trilogy ''Sword of Honour'' (1952–1961). He is recognised as one of the great prose stylists of the English language in the 20th century. Waugh was the son of a publisher, educated at Lancing College and then at Hertford College, Oxford. He worked briefly as a schoolmaster before he became a full-time writer. As a young man, he acquired many fashionable and aristocratic friends and developed a taste for country house society. He travelled extensively in the 1930s, often as a special newspaper correspondent; he reported from Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia at the time of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935 Italian invasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
I Am Charlotte Simmons
''I Am Charlotte Simmons'' is a 2004 novel by Tom Wolfe, concerning sexual and status relationships at the fictional Dupont University. Wolfe researched the novel by talking to students at North Carolina, Florida, Penn, Duke, Stanford, and Michigan. Wolfe suggested it depicts the American university today at a fictional college that is "Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Duke, and a few other places all rolled into one." Plot ''I Am Charlotte Simmons'' is the story of college student Charlotte Simmons's first semester-and-a-half at the prestigious Dupont University. A high school graduate from a poverty-stricken rural town, her intelligence and hard work at school have been rewarded with a full scholarship to Dupont. As Charlotte prepares to say goodbye to her family and leave for college, an event happens at Dupont that will play an important role in her future. Hoyt Thorpe, member of the exclusive and powerful fraternity Saint Ray, and fellow frat brother Vance, stumble upon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
