Quotations and Literature Forum

Odd thing to ask for i know! But recently I read 'House of Sleep' (Jonathon Coe- i think! ) and for my A level literature course we have to pick two books to compare in an essay. I loved the novel but found nothing to go with it!!! Help greatly appreciated.

I have since decided to go with 'Little Women' and 'Pride and Prejudice'. I would like to do a question on the evidence of feminism in the novels or Jo and Elizabeth's roles as the '2nd daughter/sisters'.

Any comments on my ideas or any thoughts would be very helpful
thanks

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Emily- "We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

Hmmm, sleeping..... There is a horror novel called "Insomnia" by Dean Koontz, i've not read it but appartently its about someone who cant sleep (hence the title!) and has a nightmare never being fully awake and reality distortioning existence. Dont know if it will count for A-level though, cos its hardly a classic. only one i can think of though.

good idea with the feminism topic, always stuff to go on there. comparing feminism by authors of different centuries, putting it into the context of the time. the whole "a book is only as radical as the era its written in" idea. you could work on "the role of women" "women as second class citizens".... something along those lines. You could read something by George Sands (poet) A woman who wrote under a man's name in order to get published, because she would have been discredited as a female writer.

Thanks! Thats really helpful! I think i am going to do "Little Women" and "Pride and Prejudice" not sure about the q's yet i'll run some ideas by my tutor.

"Insomnia" sounds good, i'll give it a read, when i have more time on my hands!

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Emily- "We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

annelies verbeke, the writer
i am not sure about the book's original name but it must be something like "sleep" according to the summary of book, maya cant sleep at nights and somehow she meet with Benoit who cant sleep at nights.. (what a coincidence !) the writer says the people arent able to understand the reasons of being insominia of others. and th ones who has a problem with sleeping, are bad tempered, who feel alone.. etc.
hmm. maybe she is trying to explain "learned helplessness"..

Probably aren't any parallels to Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

I read Little Women and as far as I know it has nothing to do with sleep. Perhaps I misread, but isn't that what you are looking for?

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that made me giggle! No, i know little women isn't about sleep! I was looking for two books to compare for my course at college, but i ditched the 'sleep' idea coz i couldnt find anything to go with it! So i then went for 'little women' and 'pride and prejudice' sorry- most of the time i dont understand myself, so i dunno why others should!!!!!!

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Emily- "We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us."
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)