Literary Giants: Authors and Their Masterpieces

Posted on Feb 23, 2025 in English Language and Literature

H.G. WELLS: (21/9/1866-13/8/1946) (Father: Joseph Wells, mother: Sarah Neals) Last of four brothers. At 14, became a teacher’s assistant, then a journalist, and later wanted to “write novels.” In 1891, Wells married his cousin Isabel Mary Wells. Left her in 1894 for a student (Amy Catherine Robbins), whom he married in 1895. Had 2 sons: George Philip in 1901 and Frank Richard in 1903. During his marriage, he had liaisons with Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth von Armin, Amber Reeves (daughter: Anna-Jane), Rebecca West (son: Anthony West), Odette Keun & Moura Budberg. WWI: He was a war correspondent, coined the term: “the war to end all wars.”

  • The Time Machine (1895)
  • The Invisible Man (1897)
  • War of the Worlds (1898)
  • The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)
  • The Shape of Things to Come

JOSEPH CONRAD: (3/12/1857-3/8/1924) Heart of Darkness (published in 1902): novella; genre: symbolism, colonial lit, adventure tale, frame story, almost a romance; time and place: England, 1898-1899, Conrad’s journey to Congo in 1890; 2 narrators in first person of plural and his first person; Charlie Marlow protagonist.

D.H. LAWRENCE: (11/9/1885 Eastwood-2/3/1930) The autobiographical novel Sons and Lovers (1913), The Rainbow (1915) and its sequel Women in Love (1916), Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1928)

JAMES AUGUSTINE ALOYSIUS JOYCE: (2/2/1882-13/1/1941) Dubliners (1913), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914-1915 serialized & printed in 1916 in NY & in 1917 in London), Ulysses (in Paris in 1922)

J.R.R. TOLKIEN: (3/1/1982-2/9/1973) The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954)

ALDOUS HUXLEY: (26/7/1894-22/11/1963) Bloomsbury Group. Works:

Poetry:

  • The Burning Wheel (1916)
  • The Defeat of Youth and Other Poems (1918)
  • Leda (1920)
  • Selected Poems (1925)
  • Arabia Infelix (1929)
  • The Cicadas and Other Poems (1931)

Fiction:

  • Limbo (1920)
  • Crome Yellow (1921)
  • Antic Hay (1923)
  • Point Counter Point (1928)
  • Brave New World (1932)
  • Eyeless in Gaza (1934)
  • Time Must Have a Stop (1944)
  • Ape and Essence (1949)
  • The Devils of Loudun (1952)
  • The Genius and the Goddess (1955)
  • Island (1962)

Essays:

  • Grey Eminence A Study in Religion and Politics (1941)
  • The Art of Seeing (1942)
  • The Perennial Philosophy (1945)
  • Themes & Variations (1950)
  • The Doors of Perception (1954)
  • Brave New World Revisited (1958)

BRAVE NEW WORLD (1932): about Soviet communism and American capitalism, Mustapha Mond (resident controller of western Europe), government bureau (the predestinators) decides all roles, only 10,000 surnames, children are raised and conditioned by the state, citizens must not fall in love, marry, or have their own kids. Time and place written: 1931, England; settings (place & time): England, savage reservation in New Mexico at 2540 AD (632 AF “after Ford”); narrator: 3rd person omniscient from the point of view of Bernard or John, but also Lenina, Helmholtz Watson and Mustapha Mond

Characters: Bernard Marx, John the Savage, Lenina Crowne, Fanny Crowne, Helmholtz Watson, Henry Foster, the director Tomakin, Linda & Mustapha Mond

GEORGE ORWELL (Eric Arthur Blair): (25/6/1903-21/1/1950) 1984 (1949), Animal Farm (1945)

1984: Big Brother, The Party (totalitarianism), Newspeak, Ingsoc: war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, Oceania, telescreens, hidden microphones, spies, four ministries to control (Ministry of Peace, Love, Plenty & Truth), thought Police, thoughtcrime (promiscuity & sex);

Major characters: Winston Smith (39 years, employee at Ministry of Truth), Julia (26 years, Winston’s lover, member of Junior Anti-Sex League), O’Brien (the human face of power, inner party member as a decoy), Big Brother (supreme leader of the Party, controlling force of Oceania, never physically appears but is a permanent presence), Emmanuel Goldstein (enemy of the people, commander of the Brotherhood, former member of the Party, author of the Book), Syme (Winston’s friend, specialist in Newspeak), Tom Parsons (Winston’s neighbor, devoted to the Party, arrested for thoughtcrime), Mrs. Parsons (about 30, denounced by her children to the thought police), Mr. Charrington: 63 years, shopkeeper, rents hideaway to Winston, secret member of the thought police)

Themes & Ideas: totalitarism & the suffering it causes, manipulation of language, loneliness of the dissenter, freedom vs repression, vitality vs stagnation, cruelty vs humanity, sanity vs madness, beauty vs ugliness, overwhelmingly bleak view of humanity & the rewriting of history

Setting: London, England, 1984, government (totalitarian dictatorship = Big Brother: symbol and glorified person, inner party: intellectuals devoted to Party, outer party: powerless middle class, the proles: the subhuman workers), genre: dystopia, Orwell warns against what could happen in the future based on the atrocities and dictators that gained power in WWII

ANTHONY BURGESS (Anthony Burgess Wilson): (25/2/1917-22/9/1993) A Clockwork Orange (1962)

Structure & narrative: split into 3 sections, with 21 total chapters, 21 signifying the age of adulthood, 1st person subjective narrative (Alex’s retrospective point of view) language: combination of proper English and Nadsat (fictional language that combines English with Russian slang, it’s used by teens in the novel)

Themes: free will (Alex believes that the freedom to choose is the core tenet of morality), conformity (falling in line with the masses means relinquishing the freedom to choose) & humanity (the “goodness” the State imposes on Alex deprives him of essential elements of his humanity)

Characters: Alex (15 years, narrator, commits violent acts), F. Alexander (opposed to behavior modification, severely beaten by Alex), Minister of Interior (disregards personal liberties, selects Alex for treatment), Pete, Dim & Georgie (Alex’s gang)

GREAT WAR POETRY: Wilfred Owen (18/3/1893-4/11/1918)

Poems: Mental Cases, Anthem for Doomed Youth, Disabled, Futility, Insensibility

Dulce et Decorum Est (it is sweet and right to die for your country) Theme: there is neither dignity in war, nor honor in fighting for your country. Instead, there is tragedy, futility, and waste of human life. Owen’s objective was to tell people who were not in the midst of fighting, specifically those who were back home in England, the reality and misery of war. He also wanted them to stop telling future generations the “old lie” that “it is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country.”

Siegfried Sassoon (8/9/1886-1/9/1967)

Jessie Pope (18/3/1868-14/12/1941) When Wilfred Owen wrote Dulce et Decorum Est, he dedicated it to her. Her poems were originally published in the Daily Mail to encourage enlistment.