Category: Literature

King John by William Shakespeare

This play is surprisingly good for one of Shakespeare’s lesser known works. It is a story of shifting alliances and treachery in a world that is constantly uncertain. Surprisingly, a character known simply as “the Bastard,” who is surely fictional, is the central and most sympathetic character in the story, proving himself a pole of …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2012/04/19/king-john-by-william-shakespeare/

Death on the Installment Plan by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

Celine has a way of writing about perfectly horrible experiences in a way that makes you laugh out loud. This book is a work of genius, although not quite as good as *Journey to the End of Night*. It’s too bad he didn’t write more. He has an uncanny way of finding humor in all …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2011/08/12/death-on-the-installment-plan-by-louis-ferdinand-celine-2/

Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

The title character is that rare example of a man who is honorable to the point where his honor is insufferable. He distinguishes himeself in war–no small thing among the naturally warlike Romans–but cannot abide lowering himself to curry favor with the public. The story features some memorable passages from both the popular and the …

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2010/10/22/coriolanus-by-william-shakespeare/

Journey to the End of the Night by Louis-Ferdinand Celine

This novel was BRILLIANT. I laughed out loud all the way through it. Celine is part Vonnegut and part Bukowski, a French genius of both tragedy and comedy.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.thefrumiousconsortium.net/2009/11/22/journey-to-the-end-of-the-night-by-louis-ferdinand-celine/