February 12, 2026
Introduction Charles Lamb’s The Praise of Chimney Sweepers opens with an affectionate paradox—Lamb calls the sweepers “dim specks” and “poor blots,” yet he treats them like royalty. In an age when society looked down upon these sooty little figures, Lamb saw something luminous in them. The essay reflects on the lives of climbing boys—young children forced to crawl up narrow, scorching chimneys to clean them. It was one of the most brutal jobs in early nineteenth-century England. Yet, rather...
Introduction “Everything is a remix.” Just think of your favourite hip-hop track—Drake sampling older soul hits, or memes like the Distracted Boyfriend that endlessly recycle classic tropes. Movies do it too: The Matrix borrows from Japanese anime and Plato’s cave. These aren’t...
Introduction “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall, / Looking as if she were alive.” These haunting opening lines from Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess immediately pull you into a world of aristocratic menace, where a Renaissance duke casually reveals his dark...
Introduction “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” This iconic opening line from John Keats’ Ode to Autumn instantly evokes the rich, hazy beauty of the harvest season. Written in September 1819 after an inspiring walk near Winchester, England, it became Keats’ final...
Introduction “We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all.” This devastating line from Charles Lamb’s Dream Children: A Reverie shatters the fragile illusion of family bliss. However, it captures the essay’s haunting core. Charles Lamb, a lifelong...
Introduction Charles Lamb’s The Praise of Chimney Sweepers opens with an affectionate paradox—Lamb calls the sweepers “dim specks” and “poor blots,” yet he treats them like royalty. In an age when society looked down upon these sooty little figures, Lamb saw something...
Introduction Edward Said’s Orientalism begins with a striking idea: “The East is not a place on a map; it is an idea invented by the West.” This idea captures the heart of Said’s 1978 work. His book reshaped how readers understand power, culture, and...
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