Published in 1748 under the title Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Fanny Hill tells the story about a young woman, orphaned at 15, who travels to London to make her way. She intended to find employment as a domestic servant, but instead she fell in with madams, prostitutes, and pleasure seekers, who steered...
In the society of the future, people live for twenty-one years, before they turn themselves in for Sleep, a socially demanded suicide. As can be imagine, not everyone is onboard with this idea. Many people want more than twenty-one years, so when the imbedded flower in their palm begins to blink red and black,...
To show a man has nothing, give him everything men want. That formula, it seems, had been in my thoughts for as long as I’ve been writer, but I’m uncertain where it came from. It doesn’t feel like something I created myself. Perhaps one of my writing professors said it, or I read it...
About halfway through The Circle, Mae Holland’s exboyfriend, Mercer, called her boring. Yes, she is boring, but having another character point it out did little to save this novel from itself. Mae is the protagonist; she’s not supposed to be boring. Her goal is to have a successful career at the Circle, the hot...
Though homely in the face and wearing the largest glasses most people have every seen, Isserley has large breasts. They’re modeled after the breasts of a centerfold model, and in all her travels, she had never encountered another woman with a pair that even approaches her size. She needs them because she has a...
During one of my writing classes at Eastern Washington University, John Keeble assigned us to read a novel each by three writers whom we had never read before. I do not remember the other two writers I chose, but Bernard Malamud was the third, and I chose to read his debut novel, The Natural....
Though I wouldn’t call myself an expert in 19th Century English gothic literature, I had read the main works in that genre. Dracula? Check. Frankenstein? Check. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Check. The Picture of Dorian Gray? Oh, wait! There’s one I’ve neglected. At least, I’ve neglected it until now. I don’t know why...
Chances are, if you live on Earth, particularly in the United States, when I say Ben-Hur, you think Charlton Heston. He starred in the 1959 movie that might’ve been the favorite of your grandmother. It might even had been a favorite of your parents. Perchance even you consider it a favorite Classic. Since the...
