Famous writers and their fantastico works. Part 1

For a book lover, nothing is more interesting than discussing about books. Talking about the authors. Or most loved books. Reviewing them or reading reviews. 

Basically any discussion regarding books is most welcome and enjoyed. Not to mention, enlightening too.

Taking forward this loved and common passion of book reading, I decided to write a post dedicated to those amazing people who have worked hard to bring out the masterpieces. And some who have churned out not just one but many of them.

It is evident that I may not be able to mention all the great ones. But I will try my best to cover up all the major literary figures. 

The is the first post of the series and shall cater my favourites and hugely popular ones. 

1)OSCAR WILDE

This controversial writer was the king of satire. Apart from his work, he gave the world other historical and political reasons to remember him too. 

'The picture of Dorian Gray' was the only novel written by the Irish author and quite a controversial one too. It was alleged to contain matters pertaining to homosexuality and explicit texts related to the same. 

Oscar was even sent to prison was being indecent and gay. 

As for his works. He is well known for his plays and became famous in the 1890's. 

A woman of no importance and the importance of being earnest are my favourite works of his. 

2)ERNEST HEMINGWAY

A Nobel prize winner for Literature, Ernest was one of the greatest American author and journalist.  

He has published around seven novels, six short stories and two non-fiction works. 

In 1951, Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea, which would become perhaps his most famous book, finally winning him the Pulitzer Prize he had long been denied.

He had a sad fate and early on the morning of July 2, 1961, Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in his Ketchum home.

The most favourite works by this author are Farewell to the arms and The old man and the sea. 

3)VIRGINIA WOOLF

I must confess that when I first began reading her book 'Mrs. Dalloway' I couldn't understand a sentence. Such was the class of literary work.

She was an American writer but had a British nationality. Her most famous works include To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dalloway, Orlando: A Biography and A Room of One’s own. She died on the 28th March in 1941 when she was 59 years old.

Woolf still remains one of the most well known authors of 21st century. 

4)CHARLES DICKENS 

Charles John Huffan Dickens was an English writer and social critic.

I have been a great admirer of his stories since the childhood days.

He has made me cry on the plight and hardships of so many of his protagonist notably Oliver Twist and David Copperfield.

He is most notable for his works The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. Each and every work of this author is special and it is very difficult to name a favourite. 

That's all for the first part of the series. 

In the coming posts I will be sharing more such fantastico authors and their outstanding works. 

Recommendations if any, are most welcome. 

Keep reading!

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.

Hidden, screened, walled - the real us!

“To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up”.  Oscar Wilde

Have you ever been to a party and managed to be genuinely yourself? Without adjusting your tie or smoothing off your hair. No apprehensions when you walked, no mental counter checking of the words spoken or no suppression of overwhelming desire to laugh? I am sure most of the socially conscious people are able to understand the underlying meaning and will respond in negative. We all try to appear as the most ‘culturally sophisticated’ beings in a social gathering and neglect our ‘real selves’ entirely for a while.

And that’s precisely what happens when we sit in front of our PC and chit chat with a stranger, a colleague or even a friend on a ‘social platform’. Maybe our mental attire alters more than physical one but there are changes nonetheless.

Scientific studies too point out that a person is most comfortable when he is alone, amidst his own self or with people extremely close to him. And his level of ease declines when the number of people in his vicinity increases. Then how can one except his mind to be in a state of tranquility and natural true self in front of virtually a whole wide world??!!

The fact is that our brain automatically starts manipulating itself so as to ‘fit in’ the moment we type in www i.e., World Wide Web.

So much so for the ‘sub conscious’ state of mind.

Now, coming to the ‘conscious’ mortal chatting or putting up ‘updates’ on the various social networking sites.

Majority of us put forward our best foot much similar to how we act in our real lives when going to a marriage or a party, your first day at college or on a newly secured job. We tend to pick out the most apt words and present ourselves as a gentle, liberal friendly guy/girl even though our own genuine self maybe poles apart.

There is another class of people who believe in the mantra that virtual world is a place to crib and so they tend to pile up all their melancholy via various updates and uploads. These people are generally the ones who either suffer from an extremely low self-esteem or aren’t well adapted to the highs and lows of a life in reality.

Then there also exists a group of morons who are a malaise to the ‘virtual world’ identical to the ones we encounter in reality.

The point is that ‘whatever be the class of people, they are neither consciously nor sub-consciously themselves on any part of the World Wide Web’.

Reasons could range from our extreme dependency to easy popularity gained on social platforms. Plus it often happens that when we meet people in bone and flesh , imperfections are bound to appear while on the contrarily virtual media conceals all such human faults so the idea of faking perfect identity is not just more luring but also a sort of necessary gesture.

As Eddie Murphy said “All men are sculptors, constantly chipping away the unwanted parts of their lives, trying to create their idea of a masterpiece”.

The problem is the too much of sculpting can create even greater and more prominent flaws.

Such identity crisis is dismantling the idea of ‘being human’ and relations seem to loose their essential flavours.  Unconsciously, sub-consciously and more often consciously we are engaged in preparing a ‘tasteless curry’ without emotions and reality has already taken a back seat.

I began by quoting the great Oscar Wilde, and now I would like to end it by another quote of his:

“One's real life is often the life that one does not lead”.

In the tech savvy era of ours this quote somehow seems to make a lot more sense. Don’t you think so?

PS: this is an old post which couldn't get posted on my blog due to some reasons.