Shakespeare's sonnets are first published in London, perhaps illicitly, by the publisher Thomas Thorpe.
However, there are six additional sonnets that Shakespeare wrote and included in the plays Romeo and Juliet, Henry V and Love's Labour's Lost. There is also a partial sonnet found in the play Edward III. The sonnets are almost all constructed using three quatrains followed by a final couplet. The rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG.
Danish writer Sigrid Undset was born #OTD in 1882.
Born in Denmark and raised in Norway, Undset had her first books of historical fiction published in 1907. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945.
"Through the pitchy darkness that was coming she saw the glimmer of another, milder sun, she smelt the scent of the herbs in the garden at the world's end."
French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac was born #OTD in 1799.
He is best known for his magnum opus, "La Comédie Humaine", a vast collection of interlinked novels and stories that provide a detailed panorama of French society in the first half of the 19th century. The series is divided into three major parts: "Études de Mœurs", "Études Philosophiques", and "Études Analytiques".
"Le roman, qui veut le sentiment, le style et l’image, est la création moderne la plus immense. Il succède à la comédie qui, dans les mœurs modernes, n’est plus possible avec ses vieilles lois."
"The novel, which strives for feeling, style and image, is the most immense modern creation. It is the successor to comedy, which, in modern times, is no longer possible with its old laws."
“THE DYNAMITER is a hugely inventive & brilliant book, at once a political thriller, a blackly comic satire, & a female adventure”
Robert Louis Stevenson & Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne married #OTD, 19 May, 1880. In this article, Prof Penny Fielding explores the dangerous #collaboration between RLS & his wife: granting female agency on the page & in life
American novelist and short story writer Nathaniel Hawthorne died #OTD in 1864.
Hawthorne's early career was marked by relative obscurity. He self-published his first work, a novel titled "Fanshawe," in 1828, but later sought to suppress it. Throughout the 1830s and 1840s, he wrote numerous short stories and sketches which were later collected in volumes such as "Twice-Told Tales" (1837, 1842).
"No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true."
Chapter XX: The Minister in a Maze - The Scarlet Letter (1850)
~Nathaniel Hawthorne (July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864)
"Destiny stands behind people, veiled in a veil of mystery, and in her hand she holds a quiver with a thousand events..."
Gloria Victis
Polish novelist Eliza Orzeszkowa died #OTD in 1810.
Orzeszkowa was a leading writer of the Positivism movement during foreign Partitions of Poland. In 1905, together with Henryk Sienkiewicz, she was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
British mathematician, logician, philosopher, & public intellectual Bertrand Russell was born #OTD in 1872.
One of Russell's most significant achievements is the co-authorship of "Principia Mathematica" (1910-1913) with Alfred North Whitehead. His works, such as "The Problems of Philosophy" (1912) & "Our Knowledge of the External World" (1914), explored issues related to knowledge, perception, & the scientific method.
He is best known for his classic plays, particularly "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro," which form part of the Figaro trilogy. These works were adapted into famous operas by Gioachino Rossini and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart respectively.
Rosalía de Castro publishes Cantares Gallegos, the first book in the Galician language.
The book is framed between poems 1 and 36, which constitute respectively the prologue and epilogue. It also manifests a circular structure as it begins with a composition in which a young girl who is invited to sing takes the voice and ends with the same voice of the girl who apologizes for her lack of ability to sing the beauties of Galicia.
The first copies of the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum were printed by the George M. Hill Company.
During the subsequent decades after the novel's publication in 1900, it received little critical analysis from scholars of children's literature. This lack of interest stemmed from the scholars' misgivings about fantasy, as well as to their belief that lengthy series had little literary merit.
A Book from the Sky is a 600-page book published in 1988 by Chinese artist Xu Bing, consisting entirely of nonsense, using only meaningless, imaginary Chinese characters, printed in the style of medieval woodblock editions. According to Xu, his main purpose was to "expose the fact that Chinese literary culture is boring”. 😄 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Book_from_the_Sky#art#literature#Chinese
English poet, author and critic Edmund Gosse died #OTD in 1928.
Gosse's father, Philip Henry Gosse, was a renowned naturalist, and their complex relationship is detailed in Edmund Gosse's memoir, "Father and Son" (1907), which remains one of his most famous works. In addition to "Father and Son," he wrote numerous other works, including poetry collections, biographies, and literary criticism.
“Since the beginning of #Israel’s war on #Gaza, academics in fields including #politics, #sociology, Japanese #literature, public #health, Latin American and Caribbean studies, Middle East and African studies, #mathematics, #education, and more have been fired, suspended, or removed from the classroom for pro-#Palestine, anti-Israel speech.”
—“Mr. Johnson, (said I) I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.”
—“That, Sir, I find, is what a very great many of your countrymen cannot help.”
May 16 is Biographers Day – marking the 1st meeting of James Boswell & Samuel Johnson in 1763
British poet Felicia Dorothea Hemans died #OTD in 1835.
Some of her most famous poems include "Casabianca," which begins with the memorable line "The boy stood on the burning deck," and "The Homes of England," which celebrates the virtues of home and family. Hemans also wrote historical and romantic poetry, drawing inspiration from literature, history, and mythology.
"Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,
By the winds which tell of the violet's birth,
By the primrose-stars in the shadowy grass,
By the green leaves, opening as I pass."
The Poetical Works of Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1914)
~Felicia Dorothea Hemans (25 September 1793 – 16 May 1835)