Back to DORIAN GRAY

Like in Elizabethan drama where the setting is elaborately described in the course of the dialogue, in Oscar Wilde's THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, the setting is not described in the narrative but in the witty conversation of the characters. Like in Greek tragedy where there are two or three characters speaking, in DORIAN GRAY, Wilde depends on three characters, Dorian, Lord Henry and Basil, in the construction of the novel

Lord Byron and Bob Southey

Robert (whom, out of belittling and not intimacy, Byron addressed Bob) Southety was neighbour of Wordsworth, class-mate of Coleridge, friend of Charles Lamb and foe of Lord Byron. The two had a long public quarrel, Byron accusing him of impotence and he accused Byron of incest. Southey went to Oxford where, after leaving it, he only learned, to quote him, "swimming and boating". Southey championed the French Revolution and in his heart he had seeds of Communism

"Conversational" Literature and Letters

Two characteristics of my my reading and writing habits include: (1) I prefer "conversational" literature to "compositional" literature. ie I prefer Wordsworth's lyrics to Milton's epics, and (2) as my only literary output is letters, I am attracted to letters as the chief genre of my literary preference in both reading and writing letters. This is a prologue to express (in relation to point 1 above) my admiration of William Cowper who, after the Metaphysicals, changed the direction of 18th century poetry by writing of everyday life scenes, leading up to Robert Browning and Ezra Pound, and my admiration of Cowper (in relation to point 2 above) that Cowper's letters to friends are considered among the most delightful letters in the whole range of English literature