BRITISH WRITERS

A. CHARLES DICKENS
Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812–1870)) was a nineteenth-century
British/English author/writer, social critic and editor who wrote novels, short stories,
comics, and novellas. He wrote some of the most famous novels of his time, including
“Oliver Twist”, “Great Expectations”, “A Tale of Two Cities”, “Bleak House,” “David
Copperfield,” and “A Christmas Carol.”
He wrote about things that many people before him had avoided and ignored
writing about. He wrote a lot about people who lived in poverty, who were ill, or who had
to fight for their place in society - a lot like he had to do as child. He is also remembered
as a great pioneer who pushed for real changes in society. Many of his characters were
based on real people and their lives. That made people understand his stories more, and
reflect on what Britain was like at that time.
Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is
regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed
unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars
had recognized him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.
He wrote fifteen novels, five novellas and hundreds of short stories. His most
famous work is probably “A Christmas Carol”. It was first published just before
Christmas in 1843, and its first print of 6,000 copies sold out in just 8 days. “Oliver Twist”
was turned into a musical that is still being performed now, and there have been several
film versions of “Great Expectations.”

Famous Charles Dickens quotes

1. “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.” (A Tale of Two Cities)
2. “Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch
that never hurts.” (Our Mutual Friend)
3. “It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.” (A Tale of Two Cities)
4. “The pain of parting is nothing to the joy of meeting again.” (Nicholas Nickleby)
5. “The most important thing in life is to stop saying, ‘I wish’ and start saying, ‘I
will’. Consider nothing impossible, then treat possibilities as probabilities.”
(David Copperfield)

B. VIRGINIA WOOLF
Adeline Virginia Stephen Woolf (1882–1941) was an English writer considered
as one of the most important modernist 20th-century authors and a pioneer in the use of
stream of consciousness as a narrative device. Her ‘stream of consciousness’ technique
enabled her to portray the interior lives of her characters and to depict the montage-like
imprint of memory. She is recognized as one of the most innovative writers of the 20th
century. She was also a prolific writer of essays, diaries, letters and biographies.
Both in style and subject matter, her work captures the fast-changing world in
which she was working, from transformations in gender roles, sexuality and class to
technologies such as cars, airplanes and cinema. Her work explores the key motifs of
modernism, including the subconscious, time, perception, the city and the impact of war.
Woolf is undoubtedly one of the most important literary figures in both English
literature and feminist literature. Her novels, essays, criticism, and work toward education
reform have made her a frequent subject of study, even today. She was an outsider for
her incredibly actual and free vision of the woman in the society. She was the pioneer of
the early twentieth century feminism, and with her job as journalist and writer, she
increased the self-confidence of many women during the Nineteenth century.
While she is best known for her novels, especially “Mrs. Dalloway” (1925)
and “To the Lighthouse” (1927), Woolf also wrote pioneering essays on artistic theory,
literary history, women’s writing, and the politics of power. A fine stylist, she experimented
with several forms of biographical writing, composed painterly short fictions, and sent to
her friends and family a lifetime of brilliant letters. She also wrote the novels “The Voyage
Out” (1915), “Jacob’s Room” (1922), “Orlando” (1928), and “The Waves” (1931). Her
most famous essay was “A Room of One’s Own” (1929).

Some Virginia Woolf Quotes

1. “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you
can set upon the freedom of my mind.” (A Room of One's Own)
2. “Books are the mirrors of the soul.” (Between the Acts)
3. “Nothing thicker than a knife's blade separates happiness from melancholy.”
(Orlando)
4. “If you do not tell the truth about yourself, you cannot tell it about other people.”
5. “As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman,
my country is the whole world.”

C. RUDYARD KIPLING
Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English journalist, short-story
writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work.
He is remembered for his stories and poems of British soldiers in India and for his tales
for children. His poems included “Mandalay,” “Gunga Din,” and “If—.” His children’s
fictional stories included “The Jungle Book” which had eight short stories revolving
around the main character, Mowgli. (1894) and “Just So Stories” (1902). His most
successful novel was “Kim” (1901).
He soon became famous for volumes of stories, beginning with “Plain Tales from
the Hills” (1888; including “The Man Who Would Be King”), and later for the poetry
collection Barrack-Room Ballads (1892; including “Gunga Din” and “Mandalay”). His
poems, often strongly rhythmic, are frequently narrative ballads. During a residence in
the U.S., he published a novel, “The Light That Failed” (1890); the two Jungle Books
(1894, 1895), stories of the wild boy Mowgli in the Indian jungle that have become
children’s classics; the adventure story “Captains Courageous” (1897); and “Kim”
(1901), one of the great novels of India.
He wrote six other volumes of short stories and several other verse collections.
His children’s books include the famous “Just So Stories” (1902) and the fairy-tale
collection “Puck of Pook’s Hill” (1906). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1907.

Rudyard Kipling Quotes

1. “Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.”
2. “Most amusements only mean trying to win another person's money.”
(Plain Tales from the Hills)
3. “I always prefer to believe the best of everybody; it saves so much trouble”
 4. “I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where And Who”
5. “Of all the liars in the world, sometimes the worst are our own fears.”
(The Collected Works)

D. CHARLOTTE BRONTE
Charlotte Brontë, whose married name is Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls,
pseudonym Currer Bell, (1816-1855) was an English novelist and poet best known for
“Jane Eyre” (1847), a strong narrative of a woman in conflict with her natural desires
and social condition. It is the story of an independent young governess who overcomes
hardships while remaining true to her principles. The novel gave new truthfulness to
Victorian fiction. It blended moral realism with Gothic elements.
She first wrote “The Professor” (published posthumously in 1857), followed by
“Jane Eyre”, then “Shirley” (1849) and “Villette” (1853). She started writing in her
childhood shortly after the deaths of her two young sisters. Aged 16, her writing abilities
were questioned by Robert Southey, a famous poet. To him, literature is not a business
of a woman’s life but she continued her struggle and won a reputable place in the literary
world.
Two sisters of hers who survived to adulthood also became writers: Emily Brontë
(pseudonym Ellis Bell; famous for her only novel “Wuthering Heights”) and Anne Brontë
(pseudonym Acton Bell; first of two novels “Agnes Grey”). Together, the three sisters also
published poems. They used pseudonyms to ensure their privacy and to eschew celebrity.
Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, made her be ranked among prominent
authors of her time. The novel is still very relevant today for Jane is a strong feminist
symbol, arguing through the whole novel that women should be free to fulfill their desires,
express their true natures, and chart their own destinies.

Charlotte Bronte Quotes

1. “Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart
whose
soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there,
firm as weeds among stones.” (Jane Eyre)
2. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an
independent will.” (Jane Eyre)
3. “Life appears to me too short to be spent in nursing animosity or registering
wrongs.” (Jane Eyre)
4. “But life is a battle: may we all be enabled to fight it well!”
(The Letters of Charlotte Brontë)
5. “Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.”

[Now let us listen to volunteer/selected classmates of yours discuss one British

short story (“A Haunted House”) guided by the basic elements of a story we
tackled the past week. This short story is by Virginia Woolf and is found in your
textbook.]
AMERICAN WRITERS

A. EDGAR ALLAN POE

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is an American short-story writer, poet, literary
critic, and editor who is famous for his cultivation of mystery and the macabre. His tale
“The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (1841) initiated the modern detective story, and the
atmosphere in his tales of horror is unrivaled in American fiction. His “The Raven” (1845)
numbers among the best-known poems in the national literature. He is widely regarded
as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States, and of American literature.
His best-known works include the poems “To Helen” (1831), “The Raven”
(1845), and “Annabel Lee” (1849); the short stories of wickedness and crime “The Tell-
Tale Heart” (1843) and “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846); and the supernatural horror
story “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839).
Poe is best known for evocative short stories and poems that captured the
imagination and interest of readers around the world. His imaginative storytelling and
tales of mystery and horror gave birth to the modern detective story. He is credited with
initiating the modern detective story, developing the Gothic horror story, and being a
significant early forerunner of the science fiction form. His literary criticism, which put
great stress upon correctness of language, meter, and structure; and the importance of
achieving a unity of mood or effect, shaped literary theory.

Edgar Allan Poe Quotes

1. “Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their
reality.” (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, 1838)
2. “Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who
dream only by night.” (Eleonora, 1841)
3. “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in
the world.” (The Philosophy of Composition, 1846)
4. “I was never really insane except upon occasions when my heart was touched.”
(Letter to Maria Clemm, 1849)
5. “We loved with a love that was more than love.” (Annabel-Lee, 1849)

B. SHIRLEY JACKSON
Shirley Hardie Jackson (1916-65) is an American novelist and short-story
writer, known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. She is best known for her
story “The Lottery” (1948), written in a single morning and the novel “The Haunting of
Hill House.” “The Lottery,” a chilling tale whose meaning has been much debated,
provoked widespread public outrage when it was first published in The New Yorker in
1948. It is said to be arguably the most famous short story in American literature.
This dystopian mini-masterpiece portrays a dark and unsettling side to tranquil small-town
America. It was published early in Shirley Jackson’s career and threw her to the forefront
of the American literary scene.
Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she
composed six novels: [1] “The Road through the Wall” (1948), [2] “Hangsaman”
(1951), [3] “The Bird’s Nest” (1954), [4] “The Sundial” (1958), [5] “The Haunting of Hill
House” (1959) and [6] “We Have Always Lived in the Castle” (1962), the last two further
established her reputation as a master of gothic horror and psychological suspense, two
memoirs, and more than 200 short stories. Supernatural, sinister and mysterious
elements played significant role in her works.
“Come Along with Me” is a posthumous collection her works containing 1) the
incomplete titular novel, on which she was working at the time of her death, 2) three
lectures she delivered, and 3) sixteen short stories, mostly in the gothic genre, including
her best-known work, "The Lottery". Her most recently published collections
(published a full fifty years after her death), is a mix of works, an introduction into
the mind of Jackson, with a pick of over fifty pieces of writing, including essays and short
stories.

Shirley Jackson Quotes

1. “When shall we live if not now?” (The Sundial, 1958)
2. “My dear, how can I make you perceive that there is no danger where there is
nothing but love and understanding?” (The Haunting of Hill House, 1959)
3. “A pretty sight, a lady with a book.” (We Have Always Lived in a Castle, 1962)
4. “In the country of the story the writer is king.” (Come Along with Me, 1968)

C. WILLIAM SYDNEY PORTER/O. HENRY

William Sydney Porter (1862-1910), better known by his pen name O. Henry,
was an American short story writer whose short stories are known for wit, wordplay and
clever twist endings. He wrote nearly 600 stories about life in America. The classic short
story “The Gift of the Magi” is the most famous of his stories. His tales romanticized the
commonplace—in particular, the life of ordinary people in New York City. His stories often
had surprise endings, a device that became identified with his name and cost him critical
favor when its vogue had passed.
He was a prolific author, publishing nearly three hundred short stories and some
poems in his brief literary career. He wrote stories inspired by ordinary people and
everyday life, and his tales about middle- and lower-class residents of New York City were
extremely popular during and shortly after his lifetime.

10 of the Best O. Henry Short Stories

1. “The Gift of the Magi” (1906)
2. “Mammon and the Archer” (1906)
3. “Memoirs of a Yellow Dog” (1903)
4. “The Duplicity of Hargraves” (1902)
5. “The Last Leaf” (1907)
6. “The Sleuths” (1911)
7. “After Twenty Years” (1906)
8. “The Skylight Room” (1906)
9. “Conscience in Art” (1907)
10. “The Ransom of Red Chief” (1907)

O. Henry Quotes
1. “No friendship is an accident.” (Heart of the West)
2. “The true adventurer goes forth aimless and uncalculating to meet and greet
unknown fate.”
1. “Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence”
(Selected Stories)
2. “Write what you like; there is no other rule.”
3. “Life is full of sniffles sobs and smiles. With sniffles predominating.”
(The Gift of the Magi)
D. KATE CHOPIN
American author Kate Chopin, born Katherine O'Flaherty, (1850–1904) wrote
two published novels and about a hundred short stories in the 1890s. Most of her fiction
is set in Louisiana and most of her best-known works focus on the lives of sensitive,
intelligent women. She is best known for her stories about the inner lives of sensitive,
daring women. Her novel “The Awakening” and her short stories are read today in
countries around the world, and she is widely recognized as one of America's essential
authors.
She is considered by scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th-
century feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald,
and is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage.
She is best known today for her 1899 novel “The Awakening.”

Kate Chopin’s Most Popular Short Stories

1. “The Story of an Hour”
2. “The Storm”
3. “Desiree’s Baby”
4. “A Pair of Silk Stockings”
5. “A Respectable Woman”

Kate Chopin Quotes

1. “The artist must possess the courageous soul that dares and defies”
(The Awakening and Selected Stories)
2. “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.” (The Awakening)
3. “It is greater than the stars - that moving procession of human energy; greater
than the palpitating earth and the things growing thereon.”
(Reflection – 1899)
4. “She missed him the days when some pretext served to take him away from
her, just as one misses the sun on a cloudy day without having thought much
about the sun when it was shining.” (The Awakening)
5. “Some people are born with a vital and responsive energy. It not only enables
them to keep abreast of the times; it qualifies them to furnish in their own
personality a good bit of the motive power to the mad pace.”
(The Awakening and Selected Stories, 1899)