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Five ways Dickens expanded the English language

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A mong the 9,218 quotations from {Dickens’} works in the OED, 265 words and compounds are cited as having been first used by him in print and another 1,586 as having been used in a new sense. Source

Four differences between parody and satire?

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The words parody and satire are often used interchangeably but they are not synonymous .

Where does the word Oz come from?

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"Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." According to legend, the writer L Frank Baum was stuck for a name for his magical land. Looking up from his desk for inspiration, he saw a filing cabinet with two drawers.  One was labelled A-L and the other O-Z.  Baum wrote down OZ, meaning to replace this later. Christmas-related posts

Top 10 most quoted lines of poetry in English?

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Photo by  Taylor Ann Wright  on  Unsplash Mark Forsyth ( The Inky Fool )  has analysed Google Search query result data for lines of verse requested online. Here is the Top Ten: 10 .  Tis better to have loved and lost 2,400,000 Tennyson 9. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair 3,080,000 Shelley 8. To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield 3,140,000 Tennyson 7. Tread softly because you tread on my dreams 4,860,000 W.B. Yeats Anthony Hopkins recites He Wishes For The Cloths Of Heaven by W.B Yeats 6. Not with a bang but a whimper 5,280,000 T.S. Eliot 5. And miles to go before I sleep 5,350,000 Robert Frost 4. I wandered lonely as a cloud 8,000,000 Wordsworth 3. The child is father of the man 9,420,000 Wordsworth 2. I am the master of my fate 14,700,000 William Ernest Henley 1. To err is human; to forgive, divine 14,800,000 Alexander Pope Complete Top 50 Commentary English:Fun Facts & FAQ Teaching Pack

What is Ulysses about? Is it worth reading?

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Mr Bloom prepares breakfast for himself, his wife & his cat. Photo by  Vital Sinkevich  on  Unsplash Ulysses (1922) is long novel in which, on the surface, very little happens. Over a single summer's day (June 16, 1904) we share the lives of three Dubliners: Stephen Dedalus  (a recently bereaved young graduate), Leopold Bloom (a middle-aged sales representative of Jewish origin) and Molly Bloom (unfaithful wife of Leopold and occasional singer).  All the action takes place in and around Dublin. Within this framework, Joyce experiments with a multitude of literary techniques in a daring attempt to find a literary form to express the complexity of the modern world. This demands a lot of the reader but offers rich rewards.  Read More

What is Bloomsday?

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On June 16, 1904 James Joyce met his future wife, Nora. He later memorialised the date as Bloomsday - the day of  Leopold Bloom 's  twenty-four hour mock-odyssey around Dublin in Ulysses (1922).  Ulysses  is renowned for the daunting challenge it poses readers ( see here for a brief beginner's guide). It also weighs in at at close to a thousand pages in the paperback edition.  What happens on Bloomsday? Joyce - whose self-importance  matched his monumental talent - believed Ulysses would provide scholars with 'a lifetime' of material. Doubtless, he would think it fitting that thousands now attend public readings of his work - most famously in Dublin where Bloomsday is a major tourist event.   What happens in Ulysses? English Language Teaching Pack   -  only £1.99

What is the key to good writing?

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According to George Orwell there are six rules that all writers should observe. The first five can be linked back to Fowler's  Dictionary of Modern English Usage  first published in 1926: Never use a metaphor , simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. Never use the passive where you can use the active . Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. The sixth rule is a little more controversial: 6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. Orwell's definition of 'barbarous' is brilliantly displayed in 1984 and is centred on the idea that political thought and language control was a sinister tool and  by-product of totalitarianism. Why I Write (Penguin Great Ideas)

What makes Philip Larkin one of the greatest poets in the English language?

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Larkin outside the university library where he worked in Hull.  Larkin was not given to blowing his own trumpet (nor listening to ones played by the 'sour' Miles Davis). He was doggedly self-deprecatory, referring to himself as   “the dude/ Who lets the girl down before/ The hero arrives, the chap/ Who’s yellow and keeps the store.” Since his death, however, Larkin has been increasingly been recognised as the preeminent poet of his generation - heading  a recent Times poll of the best (post-1945) British writers  But what makes for literary greatness. According to Martin Amis there are two key qualifications: memorability and originality. I would add a third: humour. He married a woman to stop her getting away Now she’s there all day, And the money he gets for wasting his life on work She takes as her perk To pay for the kiddies’ clobber and the drier And the electric fire ... From  'Self's the Man' The Whitsun Weddings    Michael Dirda gives