English Literature

NOTES & EXERCISE: About Ruskin Bond: Born in Kasauli in 1934, Ruskin Bond is an eminent Indian author of British descent. He is one of the most loved authors of our country. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards for his literary contribution. In 1992 he got the Sahitya Akedemi Award. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999 and Padma Bhushan in 2014. He now lives with his family in Landour near Mussoorie. His first novel, The Room on the Roof, received the prestigious John Llewellyn Rhys award in 1957. He has written many novellas, stories, essays and poems. Most of his works are influenced by life in the hill stations at the foothills of the Himalayas, where he spent his childhood. Summary of The Cherry Tree: The protagonist of the story Rakesh plants a seed of a cherry tree and forgets. The seed continues to grow. One day he notices the plant and remembers that he had planted it a year ago. The plant has grown into a twig with one or two leaves. He shows it to his grandf...

Geoffrey Chaucer Birth - c.1342 or c.1343 (London?, England) Death - October 25, 1400 (London, England) Popular Works: 1. The Book of the Duchess 2. Hous of Fame (The House of Fame) 3. Legend of Good Women 4. The Canterbury Tales 5. The Parlement of Foules (The Parliament of Fowls) 6. A Treatise on the Astrolabe 7. Troilus and Criseyde

CHARACTERS: MAURYA (An old woman); BARTLEY (her son); CATHEEN (her daughter); NORA (a young daughter);MEN AND WOMEN ACT - I SCENE. -- An Island off the West of Ireland. (Cottage kitchen, with nets, oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing by the wall, etc. Cathleen, a girl of about twenty, finishes kneading cake, and puts it down in the pot-oven by the fire; then wipes her hands, and begins to spin at the wheel. NORA, a young girl, puts her head in at the door.) NORA [In a low voice.] Where is she? CATHLEEN She's lying down, God help her, and may be sleeping, if she's able. [Nora comes in softly, and takes a bundle from under her shawl.] CATHLEEN [Spinning the wheel rapidly.] What is it you have? NORA The young priest is after bringing them. It's a shirt and a plain stocking were got off a drowned man in Donegal. [Cathleen stops her wheel with a sudden movement, and leans out to listen.] NORA We're to find out if it's Michael's they are, s...

Close by those meads, for ever crown'd with flow'rs, Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, There stands a structure of majestic frame, Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name. Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom Of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home; Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea. Hither the heroes and the nymphs resort, To taste awhile the pleasures of a court; In various talk th' instructive hours they pass'd, Who gave the ball, or paid the visit last; One speaks the glory of the British queen, And one describes a charming Indian screen; A third interprets motions, looks, and eyes; At ev'ry word a reputation dies. Snuff, or the fan, supply each pause of chat, With singing, laughing, ogling, and all that. Meanwhile, declining from the noon of day, The sun obliquely shoots his burning ray; The hungry judges soon the sentence sign, And ...

Here bygynneth the Book of the tales of Caunterbury Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote, The droghte of March hath perced to the roote, And bathed every veyne in swich licóur Of which vertú engendred is the flour; Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth Inspired hath in every holt and heeth The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne, And smale foweles maken melodye, That slepen al the nyght with open ye, So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages, Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages, And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes, To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes; And specially, from every shires ende Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende, The hooly blisful martir for to seke, That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke. Bifil that in that seson on a day, In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay, Redy to wenden on my pilgrymage To Caunterbury with ful devout corage, At nyght were come into that hostelrye Wel nyne and twenty in a compaign...