My Science School

Russian literature

Here is my list of translated works. Written in the Dutch language, "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank has been translated in more than 70 languages and needs no introduction. This beautifully written memoir showcases how difficult life was during the Holocaust. Anne's life in seclusion seems hopeless. Despite this, she always stays cheerful and happy. Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a happy ending, but teaches me to always stay cheerful against the adversities in life. The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, is best known for his two longest works ("War & Peace" and "Anna Karenina') which are regarded among the finest novels ever written. His stories are extremely powerful. They convey human values and morals in simple words. "War & Peace" is a literary work mixed with chapters on history and philosophy, while "Anna Karenina" is an account of the doomed love affair between Anna and Count Vronsky.

Not lost in translation

I enjoy reading books. The best translated works I have read till now are "The Little Prince", "The Dragon Rider", "The Rainbow Fish", "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", and "The Little Red Riding Hood". "The Rainbow Fish" is really good. It is a fiction translated from German into English by J Ellison James. The book is best known for its message on selfishness and sharing. The characters in this book help each other through thick and thin. The moral of this story is we should always be helpful. I enjoy reading this story because it has a good moral and reading this book also improves my vocabulary.

The Tin Soldier

Originally written by Hans Christian Andersen and retold by Russell Punter. "The Steadfast Tin Soldier' is a beautiful story about a one-legged tin soldier who comes alive at night and falls in love with a paper ballerina. But the jack in the box is jealous and pushes the tin soldier out of the window. He is found by a group of children who make a paper boat and place him on the river. He has to go through a sewage area and even gets eaten up by a fish! But he doesn't give up, and luck comes on his side. The original version had an unfortunate ending: the tin soldier and ballerina melted in a fireplace, but in the retold story, they lived happily ever after, which makes me like the latter one more than the original. The story's moral is whatever happens. if your intentions are good, you will succeed.

Pippi Longstocking

Astrid Lindgren's most famous and loved book, "Pippi Longstocking" was translated to English from Swedish. I enjoyed reading the book. Pippi is the strongest girl in the world. She stays alone with no grown-ups around. She has two pets, a monkey and a horse. Pippi is funny. She eats caramel candy instead of taking vitamins. She cleverly covers her mistakes as facts that others don't know. I like the thing finder game they play as it is similar to my favourite game treasure hunt.

A translation by Satyajit Ray

The best translated work I have ever read is "Braziler Kalo Bagh (The Brazilian Black Tiger), which is a Bengali translation by Satyajit Ray of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Brazilian Cat". It is a great crime adventure story with some interesting plot twists. The protagonist here is Marshall King, nearly bankrupt and the only successor of his uncle Lord Southerton. Due to his financial problems and an invitation from his long lost cousin Everard King, who has returned to England after a long stay in South America, Marshall he goes to his house. There after some days of leisure he falls into a great trap set up by his cousin. Everard has called his cousin to his home and made arrangements to kill him in way that looks like an accident. Everard does this because he finds out that if Marshall dies he will become the next Lord Southerton. Luckily our protagonist escapes and Everard dies in the paws of his pet Tommy, a ferocious Brazilian tiger. The story is a great example of a crime adventure story. And also I have to admit that the great writer Ray has translated the story in his unqine writing style. This is truly the best translated work I have ever read.

A spiritual guide

The best translated work I ever read is "The Alchemist" originally written in Portuguese and later beautifully rewritten in English by Paulo Coelho. Santiago, a shepherd boy, wants to travel the world to collect wonderful treasures. On his way, he meets an alchemist in a life-changing encounter.

Coelho mixes spiritualistic views and magic in his book, which I found was pretty distinctive from all the other books I have read so far. His books will surely have a strong impact on everyone's lives.

This book stimulates and enhances the positive energy in me. I wish to read many similar books.

Scandinavian fiction

These are the best translated works I have ever read - The Martin Beck" series by Maj sjowall and Per Wahloo and The Crow Girl" by Erik Axl Sund. They are both Swedish novels. "Martin Beck" is a series of books collectively titled "The Story of a Crime". I recently started reading translated books and this is the first book I fell in love with. Martin Beck, the protagonist of series, is a fictional Swedish detective. He solves crimes and mysteries. I have read lots of detective and crime novels but this series is my personal favourite. Although it's a bit gory, it has lots of mysteries. Each book has a different storyline which makes it really good.

"The Crow Girl" is a crime and psychological horror novel. It is the Everest of Scandinavian crime fiction. This was my first time reading a psychological thriller and it actually scared me a little. It follows Detective Jeanette Kihlberg as tries to find the answers for the murder of a young boy.

The adventures of Amir Hamza

My favourite translated work is "The Adventures of Amir Hamza". It was originally written in Persian, by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami and translated in English by Musharraf Ali Farooqi. This is a major Indo-Persian epic. The book. falls under adventure and fairy tale genre. It follows an adventurer, Amir Hamza, who is under the Persian king and fights many campaigns. He goes to the supernatural

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin”

The "Pied Piper of Hamelin" is a book written by Robert Browning in the German language in 1248. The story was later translated into English. This is a superb story and it tells us that we should always keep our promises and never go back on our word and cheat anyone.

In this story, there is a town named Hamelin which ir infested by rats. So, the realm and fights enemies even there, and dies heroically. I love this book because it has a great deal of imagination and we can easily pass our time as this book is highly engrossing. It is like an odyssey of the Middle East. This book involves sages, prophets, spies, demons, mad emperors and so on. This novel reminds me of the story of King Arthur.

A French fairytale

One of the best translated works I have read is "Little Red Riding Hood". The story, a fairytale for children, has been translated from French to English by Sarah Ardizzone. The book has been short listed for UKLA children's book. In the story, Little Red Riding Hood is a girl, who lives with her mother. Once she leaves her house to visit her grandmother. On the way, she meets a big, bad wolf in the forest. She continues walking and reaches the house. Once she is there, she realises that something is different. She sees the wolf, who has dressed up as her grandmother. He tells her has eaten her grandma and now she is scared because she thinks he would eat her, too. In the end, the neighbours come and help her. The moral of the story is we should never talk to strangers. I enjoyed this story because it has good lessons.

"Old Arthur and "The Chess Players"

My most favourite translated works are "Old Arthur (written in English by Liesel Moak Skorpen, and translated to Tamil by Siragini and Athithan), and "The Chess Players (originally written in Hindi by Munshi Premchand and translated by T.C Ghai), "Old Arthur is a story about an old dog named Arthur, who works for a farmer. He helps the farmer, and does all his work skillfully. But as Arthur grows old, he can't work as efficiently as before. The farmer becomes angry with him day by day, and one day, decides to shoot the old dog. He somehow escapes and one day, a boy named William buys Arthur. He washes Arthur, gives him good food, and they soon become friends. The story couls with, "William and Arthur lived happily ever after. I read the translated Tamil version first. Though I later also read the original work in English, I'll never forget the Tamil version.

"The Chess Players is about two best friends Mir Sahib and Mirza, who play chess every day. The English East India Company invades Lucknow. But the friends are not worried. They are interested only in chess, and continue playing, hiding in an old mosque. One day. Mirza loses two consecutive matches and the two friends start arguing. The argument soon turns into a swordfight killing both the men, I like this story very much, and it has deep thoughts, and philosophical ideas.

A little girl with a free mind

The translated works I loved the most are "Totto Chan: The Little Girl at the Window and "Where the Mind is Without Fear.

"Totto Chan" originally written in Japanese by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, has been translated into more than 30 languages. As the title suggests, it is the story of a little girl named Totto Chan. It takes place during WWII. Totto is a really curious girl and is always asking questions, which results in her getting expelled from her school. She has an extremely active mind. For instance, one moment she is thinking of becoming a teacher and just ten minutes later she starts thinking of becoming a musician. This book describes her life and her journey in her new and extraordinary school.

"Where the Mind is Without Fear is a poem written by Rabindranath Tagore. Originally written in Bengali, it was translated into English by Tagore himself. This poem is masterpiece. This poem was written by Tagore during the Indian freedom struggle. It is an indication of what free India should look like.

Picture Credit : Google

In Anne of Green Gables, her teacher, Miss Stacy, has unorthodox and liberal teaching methods that others’ criticize, but she becomes a much-needed role model and mentor for Anne. In the second book, Anne begins her job as the new schoolteacher and the real test of her character begins. Along with teaching the three Rs, she learns how complicated life can be.

She has blonde hair which she often wears pinned up on her head.

She first wore trousers when she arrived in Avonlea and again at the meeting in the town hall.

She was advised against wearing trousers and was told she must wear a corset in school by the Progressive Mothers Society and Mrs. Lynde

Ms. Stacey is motivated, creative and bright. She genuinely cares about her students and always has new and exciting ways of teaching the curriculum, much to the dismay of the Progressive Mothers Society and Rachel Lynde. She dislikes gossip.

Credit : Fandom 

Picture Credit : Google

Thomas Browne is a teacher in R.J. Palacio 's book, Wonder, along with its film adaptation. He is an English teacher at Beecher Prep, where he has taught August Pullman, Jack Will, Julian Albans, and Charlotte Cody, along with many other students.

He is portrayed by Daveed Diggs in Wonder.

Mr Browne is described as a crazy person by Julian, in the film. Mr Browne is a kind and inspirational person. This is shown through his constant delivery of positive thinking and he sets a good role model for his students.

Mr. Browne's Precepts are an important part of his class. Every month, there is a new precept, which the students have to write about at the end of the month. In addition to Mr. Browne's precepts, his students are given the chance to offer some of their own. After the school year ends, they can send him a postcard with a precept, which may be their own original one or from elsewhere, over the summer.

Picture Credit : Google

In the book, Matilda, most of the adult characters are not presented in the best light. Usually kids look up to adults, learn from them, and depend on them--but the kids in Matilda cannot count on Matilda's parents or the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull. Thankfully, Miss Jennifer Honey is different. She is a breath of fresh air and a beacon of hope for Matilda. In case you don't remember, a beacon is a highly visible light that's set up for warning people or, in this case, for guiding people.

She ended up rescuing Matilda from her family and adopting her. She was a hero.

She looked young when she first appeared as Miss Honey back in 1996, but now, 20 years later, she still looks so fresh and youthful.

She's now 50 years old and is still acting in movies, seen most recently in The Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2 as Mary Parker, alongside Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone.

Picture Credit : Google

Easy to read

My favorite hobby is reading short stories. They are easy to read and simple to understand. You can find short stories in books, newspapers or magazines. Short stories often make you curious about various subjects and so they are preferred by the children. These stories are based on a range of topics from mystery to history. Also, another advantage of reading short stories is that it can sharpen our imagination and help us come up with new stories on our own. Sometimes, I dream of visiting those cool places from the stories.

Fun and relaxing

I like reading short stories because they describe the plot in a very crisp way, They also include morals which teach us a lesson or convey a message. Short stories contain less words but they are very meaningful short stories are better to read when you have a short break or when you are travelling. I like reading "Akbar and Birbal", "Aesop Fables' and "The Panchatantra stories. Stories about Tenali Raman, Akbar and Birbal are witty and humorous. They also give us a different perspective on solving our problems. The Panchatantra" and "Aesop Fables" tell us about how different animals behave and teach us many life lessons. I enjoy reading short stories before going to bed because they are fun and relaxing.

Like watching a T20 match

I like reading fiction because it is filled with adventures and the stories are alluring. Fiction makes me curious to know what happens next and stops me from putting the book aside till I get to the end. Fictional stories are full of creativity, invention. The authors pour their ideas and imagination into the stories. We can read numerous stories in a short span of time. Reading such stories is like watching a T20 cricket match. But I think that novels are bit like ODIS - which are relatively longer- and so can get boring. Short stories also teach us morals. Short stories can also be used as topics of discussion with our friends and family. Short stories play a major role in the developing our vocabulary.

Sweet and simple

1 I like short stories because they focus on a single event and are easy to explore as they have a simple plot. They are easy to understand and do not take much time to read. Short stories always have a moral at the end and are simple to comprehend. "The Thirsty Crow" is one of the short stories with a moral that I liked. A well written short story provides all the ingredients of a good novel, albeit in fewer words. These stories offer an escape from our everyday lives and are easier to finish as compared to a novel. They are ideal for modern readers.

Ruskin Bond, Stephen Leacock and Premchand

I like reading short stories because we can read those in a very short time. Short stories bring out the true ability of an author and they teach the author how to fold a superb event and accommodate it in a small space. My favorite short stories are The Man in Asbestos by Stephen Leacock “The Daffodil Case" and "Going Home" by Ruskin Bond, and also the "Chess Players" by Munshi Premchand (Translated from Hindi by T.C Ghai). I like humorous short stories and thrillers too. "Never stop on the motorway" and "High heels" by Jeffrey Archer are some of my favorites. When I come back for a 15-minute break between online classes, I read one of the stories and feel rejuvenated for the next class.

Morals and messages

Short inspirational stories are powerful reads. The great thing about them is that they are easy to digest. Many of them really do get you thinking and even leave you speechless at times. I have been reading plenty of these stories and found the lessons behind them truly wonderful.

Many children's stories and fables are written in the form of short stories. They tell a story in just a few words. Many of these stories have morals and messages woven into them. Hans Christian Andersen has written a lot of short stories such as The Princess and The Pea" and "The Garden of Paradise".

Some short stories that might spark a lifelong love for the genre are "A Christian Carol" by Charles Dickens. The Gift of Magi" by O. Henry,"The Lady with the Little Dog" by Anton Chekhov.

Saves time

I like reading short stories because it takes less time.

Short stories contain too many explanations and dialogues. They can be read in just a day, while it usually takes longer to read a novel. I find collections of short stories such as "Malgudi Days" and "Children's Omnibus" interesting. And when someone calls you to play while you are reading, you can easily reply, There is only one line to go!" not

For all ages

Short stories are of the most staple forms of literature. For people across age groups short stories have always been a source of enjoyment, education and enlightenment. Most people who know me would say I read a lot. Though many haven't seen me read short stories I prefer reading novels - but they also have a place in my heart. These stories although short, have a peculiar ability to lay out situations, backdrops and plot within a few pages. Morals or deeper meanings are left to the readers to glean.

For all these reasons, I enjoy short stories. When reading a long book, we have to wait for the story to end to figure out what it means. But I think short stories is make us think a more than we usually do.

Imaginative

I like reading short stories because I can finish them in one day. They are fast paced and have a single-minded plot. As short stories do not go deep into the characters and plot, I'm free to imagine them on my own. Since short stories have lesser number of words, we can pay attention to new words. This improves our vocabulary. Short stories contain vivid details humour, memorable characters and also surprise endings. I like reading short stories written by O Henry, Mark Twain, H. H Munro and Charles Dickens. The Storyteller, "The Last Leaf and "Cabbages and Kings" are some of the masterpieces I loved reading as a child.

A perfect cure for boredom

One of the reasons why I like short stories is that they are perfect when I don't have much time to read. For instance, I love having something to read while eating. And with short stories I am able to complete them by the time I finish my meal. Short stories are also a great cure for boredom. I find the collection of stories by Usborne publications to be intriguing. The collection includes shortened (abridged) versions of long stories. This makes the stories simpler and easier to read the originals. The short versions are written in a simplified language, which helps in reading fast and better understanding the story. These light weight books are best travel companions. I also enjoy reading short stories based on adventures. They give us a taste of adventures in just a few pages.

Short is beautiful

Beauty lies in small things! There are times when we prefer something short and crisp over something long and complex. And this is true in case of short stories. Short stories are refreshing and we can read multiple stories at once. They can even lift our mood. They often have an open ending and this ignites our imagination as we end up thinking more about the story. The cool part about short stories is that they are usually not interlinked. Another reason I like them is that if a story is boring or too difficult to understand, we can just stop reading it and move on to the next story.

Many authors across the world including Ruskin Bond, Sudha Murty, Premchand have penned beautiful collections of short stories. Short stories like "Panchtantra" and "Jatak Kathaye" impart basic moral values to the generation next.

Stories with depth

 I like reading short stones because they require the writer’s best effort. Telling a compelling story in just a few words is no piece of cake. One has to plan the stories effectively and efficiently to get the reader’s attention.

Well written short stories are like still waters that nun deep. Unlike a novel there is no time to highlight and describe every minuscule plot point in detail so the writers use literary devices and heavy symbolism to get their morals across The best part is probably that these stories are interesting to everyone- people who read for fun and people who like to dig deeper into the true meaning of the story.

My favorite short stories are those written by R.K Narayan, Ruskin Bond, Edgar Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. All these writers are veterans in the fine art of weaving plot and atmosphere together in a compelling way that entertains readers.

Good for short attention spans

I don't like reading certain novels because I have a short attention span. I don't like stories that are too long. Also, I prefer books that use a simple and crisp language. I find that most short stories fit this description. Short stories are also my go-to-reads before bed as my attention span is shorter than usual because I am sleepy.

Easier to finish

I love to read short stories because they are not time consuming. These stories are entertaining unlike novels, which can feel boring at times as they take long to finish. But we are never bored with short stories. Short stories include morals that teach us lessons for our future. Short stories occupy less space-one book can contain many stories.

Sampling new genres

I like reading short stories because they are a great way of sampling an unfamiliar author or genre. A few years ago, publishers couldn't bear the cost of printing and distributing a 25-page short story as a separate publication. But nowadays, authors can publish any piece of writing - no matter how long or short - in the digital form. Short stories are excellent for busy readers, who want something quick to read. A well-written short story provides you with all the ingredients of a good novel. An overriding theme, authentic characters, fast-paced and engrossing plot with tension and resolution.

Funny and interesting

I love short stories because they are simple and easy to read. Also, we don't have to remember many characters and plots. Short stones also contain morals that teach us life lessons. Every week, I attend a storytelling programme, where we share a lot of stories with each other. We also discuss the morals we learnt from the short stories we read. I enjoy listening, reading and telling stories.

Picture Credit : Google

The cunning Shakuni

My favorite negative character is Shakuni from the Mahabharata. What I like about Shakuni is the slow yet steady manner in which he destroyed almost the whole Kuru clan. The reason was anger towards Bheeshma who forced him to give his sister in marriage to the blind prince Dhritarashtra. As a loving relative to the Dhritarashtra family, he nurtured the Kauravas to start a family feud because of which many people of the Kuru clan died. Shakuni's dream was fulfilled but both he and his son suffered a painful death for it. Shakuni's life still guides mankind on the consequences of holding hatred.

The power-hungry Octavian

Octavian is a character in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. He is shown to be a legacy of Apollo, granting him prophetic powers, and is the augur, that is the seer of Camp Jupiter. However, he is very power hungry and constantly tries to rile the Romans to fight the Greeks. He constantly blackmails Hazel and argues with Reyna so he can get elected as the new Praetor. He defies Reyna's orders and tries to provoke and attack Camp Half-Blood. He is a diabolical character who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. I feel Rick Riordan had given a lot of thought to this character. His power-seeking nature is similar to real, historical senators of Rome. He is a character anyone would love to hate, with his twisted sense of morality and blood lust. Octavian is one of my favourite negative characters because of his every flaw.

Mr. Poopypants

My favourite negative character is Professor Pee Pee Diarrheastein Poopypants Esquire. He is a small, weird haired man who comes from New Swissland to wipe out laughter. He, throughout the story, is a funny guy with dialogues like "Hiya class. I am your cool new science teacher not some guy with a secret evil agent. In the story he teams up with Melvin Sneedly, the school brainiac, who I think does have a sense of humour. Poopypants is the most brilliant evil genius in the world.

A change of heart

My favourite negative character is Janja from The Lion Guard series. In the series Janja is the main antagonist. He is bad in everyone's eyes, but inside him, he has a kind heart. He and his clan lived in outlands, a place where there is no drop of water, no trees, no plants and no soil, only a place full of large rocks and in the middle of it, a large volcano. When Scar returned, Janja thought Scar will make him powerful, and followed his bad, misguiding commands, which hurt the animals of the Pride Lands. Sometimes Janja failed to follow Scars orders and one-day Scar got angry and made a trap for Janja and his clan. When Janja knew this, he thought that he should not have trusted Scar. He reflected on the damage he had done and how his greed made him do this. And at last, Janja made the decision that he and his clan will help the pride landers defeat Scar. This is why I like Janja.

Hot-headed Hazell

My favourite negative character would be Mr. Victor Hazell from the book "Danny, the champion of the world" written by Roald Dahl. Mr. Victor Hazell is described as piggy-eyed and a roaring snob. These words make me chuckle and are funny. I consider Mr. Hazell as a negative character as he is always disrespectful towards Danny and his father. He also spoke foul and filthy language. He owned many pheasants and often hosted shooting parties where many pheasants were killed. He also owned a brewery where he used to drink beer every-day.

In short, Mr. Victor Hazell is an entertaining man, but with absurd qualities.

The antagonist you will love

Meruem is one of the most compelling and complex antagonists of Hunter x Hunter. He is the king of the Chimera Ants (human-animal hybrids, in simple terms). Even though he is not completely a human, his absolutely spectacular character development captures the struggle between human and animal. When he was born, he was a prideful and conceited creature who killed his own mother and had no mercy for his kin or humans. Over the course of time, he starts showing changes due to his surroundings, comrades, enemies, and his meeting with a girl called Komugi who he wasn't able to beat in a board game. Because of her kindness and neutrality, he learns to respect others and starts to become concerned for poor and weak people. All the while, he is shown in contrast to the protagonist, who starts becoming inhumane. At the later stages, Meruem's character conflicts a lot with his ideals and his supposed role. Some fights and moments also make him wonder on which side he is and what his purpose is: What makes it all the more worthwhile is that at the end, we almost begin to think that it is not Meruem who is the real villain but humanity itself that is unfair to him. Even in death, he is away from violence and war, and meets his end in satisfaction, with a human, who shouldn't be of any worth to him. Meruem is not only an antagonist, but the most noble and respectable king you would ever see.

The God of Mischief

Marvel has given us a fair number of "villains" who end up stealing the spotlight from the protagonists. These antagonists have caught my eye on many occasions owing to their unusual ambitions and quests. One such negative character would be Loki, who first appeared in the Thor movies.

Loki Laufeyson, who later considered himself to be an Odinson, isn't a typical villain who enjoys physical battles with his rivals. Being the God of Mischief, his strength lies in his wit and cunning schemes. Loki has been my favourite negative character ever since I saw him in the Avengers, where his goal was to invade earth and subjugate its people, claiming that freedom is a lie. Loki's hunger for power and recognition stems from his intense jealousy for his brother, Thor. His elaborate schemes are interesting to analyse.

He who must not be named

My favourite negative character is Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series. I liked Lord Voldemort at first sight, for it's hard to comprehend how he manages to be such a courageous character. Whenever Voldemort comes to fight Harry, he has this very sarcastic and graceful attitude, which I think is very cool indeed. His shrewd intelligence, which, combined with his magic, can make people do things for him, like when he makes Ginny Weasley open the Chamber of secrets by putting her in a trance and instructing her on what to do, just by the aid of a small black diary. This may look crooked, but when we sit and think about it, it is quite amazing and thoughtful. And then, I'm sure you will start liking Lord Voldemort just like me. He, in my opinion, is one of the most intelligent and splendid negative characters, unlike other villains who literally get themselves caught and destroyed.

The funny antagonist

My favourite negative would be Rodrick Heffley from the Diary of the Wimpy Kid series written by Jeff Kinney. Although the protagonist, Greg Heffley describes his brother to be unfair and rude, Rodrick often manages to tickle a funny bone as he manages to get himself into unpredictable and funny situations. His dry humour and trickery amuses me. One day, when Rodrick and Greg were left alone in the house, the former threw a wild party and locked Greg in the basement! Later, of course, his family found out and he was grounded. His unbothered personality irks the whole family, but I think that it makes the series even more humorous and awesome. So if I were to choose my favourite negative character, it would be him.

The impressive Meredith

Meredith Blake from the 1998 movie The Parent Trap is my favourite negative character, a villain in her own way. The way Meredith uses her charm and flattery to impress her fiancé Nick, while using her strictness and sarcasm to get her own way with his daughters, Hallie and Annie, gets us to dislike but be impressed by her ruthless cunningness. Her attitude and reactions to meeting the twins, along with their pranks on her, adds to the comedy in the movie. In the end, when Nick realises that Meredith is a child-hating. gold digger, he chooses his daughters over her, leaving us laughing at her shocked reaction and failed plans.

Picture Credit : Google

Daniel Defoe's novel Robinson crusoe, published in 1719, was based on the true story of a Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk. After a quarrel at sea, he was left, at his own request, on the island of Juan Fernandez, Chile. He was rescued four years later.

Crusoe is the novel’s narrator. He describes how, as a headstrong young man, he ignored his family’s advice and left his comfortable middle-class home in England to go to sea. His first experience on a ship nearly kills him, but he perseveres, and a voyage to Guinea “made me both a Sailor and a Merchant,” Crusoe explains. Now several hundred pounds richer, he sails again for Africa but is captured by pirates and sold into slavery. He escapes and ends up in Brazil, where he acquires a plantation and prospers. Ambitious for more wealth, Crusoe makes a deal with merchants and other plantation owners to sail to Guinea, buy slaves, and return with them to Brazil. But he encounters a storm in the Caribbean, and his ship is nearly destroyed. Crusoe is the only survivor, washed up onto a desolate shore. He salvages what he can from the wreck and establishes a life on the island that consists of spiritual reflection and practical measures to survive. He carefully documents in a journal everything he does and experiences.

After many years, Crusoe discovers a human footprint, and he eventually encounters a group of native peoples—the “Savages,” as he calls them—who bring captives to the island so as to kill and eat them. One of the group’s captives escapes, and Crusoe shoots those who pursue him, effectively freeing the captive. 

Defoe probably based part of Robinson Crusoe on the real-life experiences of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who at his own request was put ashore on an uninhabited island in 1704 after a quarrel with his captain and stayed there until 1709. But Defoe took his novel far beyond Selkirk’s story by blending the traditions of Puritan spiritual autobiography with an insistent scrutiny of the nature of human beings as social creatures. He also deployed components of travel literature and adventure stories, both of which boosted the novel’s popularity. From this mixture emerged Defoe’s major accomplishment in Robinson Crusoe: the invention of a modern myth. The novel is both a gripping tale and a sober wide-ranging reflection on ambition, self-reliance, civilization, and power.

Credit : Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

This legendary hero was said to have lived in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire during the reign or Richard I who was King from 1189-1199.

During this time, Richard the Lionheart was away from England on crusades in the holy land and neglected his duties as King. He left his brother Prince John in charge of the country who, together with the Sheriff of Nottingham, declared Robin Hood an outlaw.

According to legend, Robin then became the leader of an outlaw band dressed in Lincoln green and armed with longbow, who robbed the rich to help the poor.

From the 14th century onward, tales and ballads of this popular hero began to appear, but no one has really been able to prove that Robin Hood existed.

Picture Credit : Google

Julius Caesar (102-44BC) was a Roman statesman and a general who conquered Gaul (now France and Belgium), and invaded Britain in 55BC.

He became the sole ruler and dictator of the Roman Empire, but was never the emperor.

He was stabbed to death in the Senate House by enemies who believed that he had too much power.

Caesar changed the course of the history of the Greco-Roman world decisively and irreversibly. The Greco-Roman society has been extinct for so long that most of the names of its great men mean little to the average, educated modern person. But Caesar’s name, like Alexander’s, is still on people’s lips throughout the Christian and Islamic worlds. Even people who know nothing of Caesar as a historic personality are familiar with his family name as a title signifying a ruler who is in some sense uniquely supreme or paramount—the meaning of Kaiser in German, tsar in the Slavonic languages, and qaysar in the languages of the Islamic world.

Caesar’s gens (clan) name, Julius (Iulius), is also familiar in the Christian world, for in Caesar’s lifetime the Roman month Quintilis, in which he was born, was renamed “July” in his honour. This name has survived, as has Caesar’s reform of the calendar. The old Roman calendar was inaccurate and manipulated for political purposes. Caesar’s calendar, the Julian calendar, is still partially in force in the Eastern Orthodox Christian countries, and the Gregorian calendar, now in use in the West, is the Julian, slightly corrected by Pope Gregory XIII.

Credit :  Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

In 1284 the town of Hamelin in Germany was plagued by rats.

One day an odd looking piper appeared offering to rid the town of rats, and the Mayor gladly agreed to pay him. As he played his pipe the rats followed the stranger towards the river, where they fell in and drowned.

When the Piper asked for his fee, the Mayor refused. As the piper played once more, all the children of the town followed him, dancing towards Koppelberg mountain. An enormous cavern opened up, the children ran inside and were never seen again!

The Pied Piper of Hamelin plays out in the Germanic town of Hamelin (now called Hameln) in 1284. The town had been suffering from a severe rat infestation when a man arrived carrying a musical pipe and wearing 'pied' or multicoloured clothing. He promised the mayor to rid the town of its rats in exchange for a fee.

The music he played on his pipe attracted all the town's rats towards him, after which, he led the entranced animals to the Weser River nearby, where they all dove in and drowned.

However, the mayor refused to pay the piper and he went away planning revenge. On June 26, the day of St John and also of St Paul, the piper returned, dressed as a hunter and wearing a red hat. He was playing a different tune.

This time, all the town's children followed him hypnotised. The piper led them to a mountain cave, and the children were never heard from again. The story notes that the mayor's grown up daughter was among the children who were lost.

Credit : India Today 

Picture Credit : Google

The American writer's real name was Samuel L. Clemens. For a time he worked on a Mississippi steamboat as a river pilot. The boatmen shouted 'mark twain' (second mark) as they measured the shallow water to a depth of two fathoms (3.6m or 12ft).

Best known of his humorous books are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry finn.

After a brief two weeks as a Confederate enlistee, he joined his brother Orion in Nevada Territory where Orion served as secretary to the governor. He tried mining but failed and instead took up as a journalist for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. This is when he began to use the pen name of Mark Twain. The original user of the pseudonym died in 1869.

In Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain says: "I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands—a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say."

Further, in his autobiography, Clemens noted that he wrote several satires of the original pilot's postings that were published and caused embarrassment. As a result, Isaiah Sellers stopped publishing his reports. Clemens was penitent for this later in life.

Credit : Thought Co.

Picture Credit : Google

The puzzle of this strange writing was solved in 1799 when a large black stone was discovered near Rosetta in Egypt. It told the same story repeated in hieroglyphics, ancient Greek and demotic. It was finally deciphered in 1822 by Jean Champollion when the riddle of the Rosetta Stone was solved.

In 1801 the English, who were at war with France, captured the Rosetta Stone and brought it to the British Museum in England. Egyptologists, people who study the culture of ancient Egypt, traveled to the British Museum to try to crack the code of the Rosetta Stone, pieces of which had cracked off and been lost. A well-known and gifted English doctor named Thomas Young (1773–1829) was the first to try. He translated the Greek and then tried to match patterns in that language to patterns in the two lost Egyptian languages. He discovered a great deal about how the languages worked. For example, he learned that the symbols stood for sounds and that the demotic script was closely related to the hieroglyphs. But he couldn't quite make the languages match up.

Beginning in 1807 a Frenchman named Jean François Champollion began to study the Rosetta Stone. For fifteen years he tried to break the code, racing against Young to see who would succeed first. Finally in 1822 Champollion made a breakthrough. He understood that the pictures didn't stand for the single sounds of individual letters but for more complex sounds. For example, he discovered that the hieroglyph of a bird known as an ibis stood for the Egyptian god Thoth. He substituted the sound "thoth" for the bird picture and did the same with other sounds. His plan worked. He had cracked the code of the Rosetta Stone, and people could finally understand Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Champollion traveled to Egypt to confirm his discovery. He visited vast temples whose walls were covered with hieroglyphs, and he poured over ancient scrolls of papyrus, a form of ancient paper. He was the first man to "read" the history of ancient Egypt in well over a thousand years. Champollion made a translation dictionary and explained the grammar of Egyptian writing. Soon others learned to read the lost languages. Today we know a great deal about ancient Egypt thanks to the work of the scholars who discovered the secrets of the hieroglyphs.

Credit : Fashion Encyclopedia 

Picture Credit : Google

Late one night on the shores of Lake Geneva, Lord Byron suggested his friends wrote ghost stories. So Mary Shelley, wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, created the frightening monster Frankenstein - she was just 19.

Mary Shelley’s best-known book is Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818, revised 1831), a text that is part Gothic novel and part philosophical novel; it is also often considered an early example of science fiction. It narrates the dreadful consequences that arise after a scientist has artificially created a human being. (The man-made monster in this novel inspired a similar creature in numerous American horror films.) She wrote several other novels, including Valperga (1823), The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck (1830), Lodore (1835), and Falkner (1837); The Last Man (1826), an account of the future destruction of the human race by a plague, is often ranked as her best work. Her travel book History of a Six Weeks’ Tour (1817) recounts the continental tour she and Shelley took in 1814 following their elopement and then recounts their summer near Geneva in 1816.

Late 20th-century publications of her casual writings include The Journals of Mary Shelley, 1814–1844 (1987), edited by Paula R. Feldman and Diana Scott-Kilvert, and Selected Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1995), edited by Betty T. Bennett.

Credit : Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

He is thought to have been a slave who lived in Asia Minor in the 6th century BC. He is remembered for the stories that he wrote and collected.

One tradition holds that he came from Thrace, while a later one styles him a Phrygian. Other sources supposed that he was Ethiopian. An Egyptian biography of the 1st century CE places him on the island of Samos as a slave who gained his freedom from his master, thence going to Babylon as riddle solver to King Lycurgus and, finally, meeting his death at Delphi. The probability is that Aesop was no more than a name invented to provide an author for fables centring on beasts, so that “a story of Aesop” became synonymous with “fable.” The importance of fables lay not so much in the story told as in the moral derived from it.

The first known collection of the fables ascribed to Aesop was produced by Demetrius Phalareus in the 4th century BCE, but it did not survive beyond the 9th century CE. A collection of fables that relied heavily on the Aesop corpus was that of Phaedrus, which was produced at Rome in the 1st century CE. Phaedrus’s treatment of them greatly influenced the way in which they were used by later writers, notably by the 17th-century French poet and fabulist Jean de La Fontaine.

Credit :  Britannica 

Picture Credit : Google

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm, two language professors, collected old folk tales told in Germany. They published them as a collection of fairy tales. Snow white, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin and Rapunzel were just a few.

The Brothers Grimm didn't actually write any of the stories their name has become synonymous with. Instead, these stories existed as part of a longstanding oral tradition in Germany and had been passed down from one generation to another for many years.

The Brothers Grimm interviewed friends and relatives, writing down these stories to save them from extinction. Eventually, they published their collection of folklore and fairy tales as Children's and Household Tales in 1812.

In addition to the famous tales mentioned previously, the collection contained many other famous tales, including The Frog Prince, Little Red Riding Hood, and Hansel and Gretel. The collection, which would over time become known as Grimm's Fairy Tales, was republished many times, eventually growing from an initial collection of 86 stories to over 200 stories in the seventh edition.

To date, the fables and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm have been translated into more than 160 different languages. The stories are so timeless and popular that one language can have many versions. In the United States, for example, you can find more than 120 different editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales.

The enduring popularity of these stories can be seen in the number of the stories that have been made into movies. Even though many people would consider these popular fairy tales to be children's stories, they weren't originally meant for kids.

The earliest editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales did not contain illustrations and were targeted at adults. Many of the stories contained violence and other dark content not meant for children. Over time, many of the stories were modified to resemble to the tales we know today.

Although the Brothers Grimm published many other works, including books about mythology, linguistics, and medieval studies, Grimm's Fairy Tales was their enduring, signature work. It was a bestseller during their lifetimes and has maintained its popularity throughout the ages.

Credit : Wonderopolis 

Picture Credit : Google