English literature diversions
All work and no play... well, you know how it goes. From time to time, in the course of looking for new and even better web pages for my English literature site, I come across a gem.
On this page I propose to share with you some of my favourites. Suggestions for additions to this page will, of course, be very happily received!
DailyLit
DailyLit is an American blog that provides readers with daily excerpts of contemporary and classic literature: via email.Working on the assumption that "we all have time to check our email" but somehow can't find enough time to read, DailyLit sends brief excerpts straight to your in-box (or RSS reader). Each email can be read in less than five minutes, so if you've always meant to read Pride and prejudice or War and peace, this is one way to do it! Most books are available for free.
- Bundey Prize for English verse
- The Bundey Prize of $200.00 is offered for the best poem or group of poems by a graduate or undergraduate of the University of Adelaide.
Entries must be delivered to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science Office.
If you need an incentive to enter your poems, the successful entry is deposited in the Barr Smith Library's Special collections.
You never know, your effort may sit cheek by jowl with Max Harris' 1941 Bundey Prize-winning poem, 'Myth'...
- The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
- Where "WWW" Means Wretched Writers Welcome.
Since 1982 the English Department at San Jose State University has sponsored the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels. The contest was the brainchild (or Rosemary's baby) of Professor Scott Rice, whose graduate school excavations unearthed the source of the line "It was a dark and stormy night." Sentenced to write a seminar paper on a minor Victorian novelist, he chose the man with the funny hyphenated name, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, who was best known for perpetrating The Last Days of Pompeii, and - not least - Paul Clifford, whose famous opening line has been plagiarised repeatedly by the cartoon beagle, Snoopy.
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Survive Dickens' London
- Dare you take a tour of Dickensian London? You could meet Mr Micawber, Mr Pickwick or Fagin. Or you might catch smallpox and end up in jail. If you do well, you'll get to meet Charles Dickens. From the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
- Book-A-Minute
- Don't have time to read it all?
The people at Book-A-Minute understand that your time is valuable. You want to experience the wonder and excitement of the fine art of literature, but reading actual books requires a significant time investment. They've got the solution for you. Their ultra-condensed books are just the ticket. In just one minute, you can read entire books and learn everything your lecturer will expect you to know.
As if...!!
- Internet anagram server
- Did you know that 'In one of the Bard's best-thought-of tragedies, our insistent hero, Hamlet, queries on two fronts about how life turns rotten' is an anagram of 'To be or not to be: that is the question, whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune' ? No, I didn't either, until I found this page.
You can type in your own word(s) and a program will immediately give you the anagrams; useful for inveterate crossword puzzlers. My favourite part of the site is the Anagram Hall of Fame. Enjoy!
This page is maintained by Jennifer Osborn
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