Literary Classics: Key Novels and Their Themes

Literary Classics and Their Themes

Doris Lessing
The Grass Is Singing (1950) (a novel) tells the story of a white woman named Mary who is obsessed with her Black servant Moses. At the end of the story, Moses kills Mary and admits his guilt. Mary may have wanted Moses to kill her.

In the novel, the author explores the issue of racism in the British colonies in Africa.

The singing grass recalls the hard life of farmers. It also talks about how the social system set up by white men lacks spiritual depth.

Anthony Burgess

A Clockwork Orange
A dystopian horror and black comedy (dark humor).

The author created a new language, based on Russian words, for its characters. For example: chai, ptitsa, mesto.

It is about a boy named Alex and his gang who commit crimes just for fun. Alex is jailed and is chosen to undergo an experimental behavioral modification treatment. After that, Alex is returned and he becomes the victim of his prior victims. In the final chapter he realizes his bad deeds and changes his bad behavior. (He sees the violence as juvenile and boring.)

Douglas Adams

Julian Barnes

A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
A non-linear novel. A book with short stories in different styles which have some connection points.

Postmodern literature is a type of literature that uses metafiction, unreliable storytelling, self-awareness, connections with other texts, and often talks about historical and political issues.

The portrayal of ships is one of the numerous repeating motifs found throughout the book. For example, the Noah's Ark in the first chapter and the cruise liner in the second chapter.

The first chapter is told from the point of view of the woodworms. They serve as a prevalent connecting element (appearing in nearly every chapter), suggesting the erosion of knowledge and historical understanding.

Jeanette Winterson

The Passion
A historiographic metafiction.

The novel explores themes like passion, constructions of gender and sexuality. The theme of passion is perceived as any kind of passion.

Historiographic metafiction incorporates fiction, theory and history. It refers to fictional works that blend elements of metafiction with historical fiction.

It is about a man named Henri who serves Napoleon. The French people are passionate about Napoleon. Napoleon's passions are Josephine and chicken.

David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas
A fantastical genre-bending epic fiction.
There is a "mirror" in the center of the book.
Each story is read by a main character of the next story.

Part 1 consists of five stories, each interrupted at a pivotal moment, and a sixth, that is the only uninterrupted one.
Part 2 consists of the same five stories that are closed in reverse chronological order.

Vocabulary