“Even at the third-rate schools to which Gordon was sent nearly all the boys were richer than himself. They soon found out his poverty, of course, and gave him hell because of it. Probably the greatest cruelty one can inflict on a child is to send it to school among children richer than itself. AContinue reading “RKS British Literature: One Great Cruelty One Can Inflict on a Child (George Orwell)”
Tag Archives: RKS literature
RKS British Literature: Lorenheim the Lizard Like Lodger (George Orwell)
“On the second floor lived Lorenheim, a dark meagre lizard-like creature of uncertain age and race who made about thirty-five shillings a week by touting vacuum cleaners. Gordon always went hurriedly past Lorenheim’s door. Lorenheim was one of those people who have not a single friend in the world and who are devoured by lustContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Lorenheim the Lizard Like Lodger (George Orwell)”
RKS British Literature: Never Fat Just Stout (George Orwell)
“He was really horribly fat. He filled his trousers as though he had been melted and then poured into them. But of course, like other fat people, he never admitted to being fat. No fat person ever uses the word ‘fat’ if there is any way of avoiding it. ‘Stout’ is the word they use-orContinue reading “RKS British Literature: Never Fat Just Stout (George Orwell)”
RKS British Literature: Moneyless Unlovables (George Orwell)
“Money, once again; all is money. All human relationships must be purchased with money. If you have no money, men won’t care for you, women won’t love you; won’t, that is, care for you or love you the last little bit that matters. And how right they are after all! For, moneyless you are unlovable.”Continue reading “RKS British Literature: Moneyless Unlovables (George Orwell)”
RKS French Literature: The Capitalist Vultures Circling in on One of their Own Mortally Wounded (Émile Zola)
“He had listened to the various offers. People tried to beat him down, to minimize the value of this splendid prize, this pit that had been completely renovated and refitted, where only a lack of ready cash was preventing production. He would be jolly lucky to recoup a sufficient sum to pay off his creditors.Continue reading “RKS French Literature: The Capitalist Vultures Circling in on One of their Own Mortally Wounded (Émile Zola)”
RKS French Literature: Is the Leader of the French Coal Miner Strikers Corrupted by Bourgeois Refinement? (Émile Zola)
“His education was complete, and he was leaving newly armed, a philosopher soldier of the revolution, having declared war on the society he saw around him and condemned. In his delight at going to join Pluchart, at going to be Pluchart, a leader that was listened to, he started making speeches to himself rehearsing theContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Is the Leader of the French Coal Miner Strikers Corrupted by Bourgeois Refinement? (Émile Zola)”
RKS British Literature: A Frustrated Writer Blames Lack of Creativity on Lack of Money (George Orwell)
“Dull-eyed he gazed at the wall of books. He hated the whole lot of them. Old and new, highbrow and lowbrow, snooty and chirpy. The mere sight of them brought home to him his own sterility. For here he was supposedly a ‘writer’, and he couldn’t even write. It wasn’t merely a question of notContinue reading “RKS British Literature: A Frustrated Writer Blames Lack of Creativity on Lack of Money (George Orwell)”
RKS French Literature: Father Ranvier the Catholic Priest Exploits the Misery of the Striking Coal Miners (Émile Zola)
“He was using the strike-the terrible poverty, the sense of grievance, sharpened by hunger-with the ardour of a missionary preaching to savages for the greater glory of his religion. He said that the Church was on the side of the poor and that one day it would cause justice to triumph by calling down theContinue reading “RKS French Literature: Father Ranvier the Catholic Priest Exploits the Misery of the Striking Coal Miners (Émile Zola)”
RKS French Literature: The Workers’ Consciousness Germinating Like a Seed in Soil (Émile Zola)
“A worker shouldn’t think for himself? Ah, but that’s precisely why things were soon going to change, because now the worker had started thinking! In the old man’s day the miner lived down the pit like an animal, like a machine for extracting coal, always underground, his eyes and ears closed to what was goingContinue reading “RKS French Literature: The Workers’ Consciousness Germinating Like a Seed in Soil (Émile Zola)”
RKS French Literature: A Long Tale of Woe for the French Working Class After the 1789 French Revolution (Émile Zola)
“This time the three men were in agreement. One after the other they spoke in despairing tones, and theirs was a long tale of woe. The working man wouldn’t be able to survive; the Revolution had only made things worse for him; the bourgeoisie had been living off the fat of the land since 1789,Continue reading “RKS French Literature: A Long Tale of Woe for the French Working Class After the 1789 French Revolution (Émile Zola)”
