Charles Dickens’ novels were hugely popular even among the illiterate poor. They would pool their money to hire a reader, and then gather together to listen to the stories.
0
0
literature
A writer was caught for a murder…
A writer was caught for a murder only after a detective read his book about a fictional murder which contained similarities and details to the real life murder that only the killer would know about. Authorities also learned he was also planning to commit another murder to write book about.
8
0
True History is considered the earliest form of science…
True History is considered the earliest form of science fiction written in 2nd century about adventurers who travel to outer space and get involved in interplanetary warfare between the king of the Moon and the king of the Sun.
0
0
A book, called Ella Minnow Pea, is set on an island where the government…
A book, called Ella Minnow Pea, is set on an island where the government slowly bans letters. As the letters are banned, they disappear from the writing in the book as well.
0
0
The Iliad and the Odyssey are just two parts out of an eight-part…
The Iliad and the Odyssey are just two parts out of an eight-part epic, but the other six parts have been almost entirely lost to history.
0
0
Some Cuban cigar factories employed a “Lector” who would read newspapers….
Some Cuban cigar factories employed a “Lector” who would read newspapers, political treatises and classical literature aloud to help break the monotony of the cigar-rollers’ work, thus even illiterate cigar-rollers would be well-informed and familiar with great literature.
0
1
The Japanese have a word (tsundoku [積ん読]) for the habit of buying…
The Japanese have a word (tsundoku [積ん読]) for the habit of buying a lot of books and never reading them.
0
0
There is a surviving fantasy novel written in the 2nd century AD in Roman Syria that features…
There is a surviving fantasy novel written in the 2nd century AD in Roman Syria that features explorers flying to the moon, a first encounter with aliens, interplanetary war between imperialistic celestial kingdoms, and the discovery of a continent across the ocean
0
0
The earliest piece of great literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh…
The earliest piece of great literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, includes a story in which Utnapishtim is told to build a ship to save the animals of the world from a “great flood”. Nearly 2,000 years later, a similar tale with different names appeared in the Bible’s book of Genesis.
0
0
There are fake Harry Potter books writte …
There are fake Harry Potter books written and distributed in China, masquerading as additional works of J.K. Rowling. They shamelessly rip off other authors’ work in tandem with hers, with amazing titles like “Harry Potter and the Leopard Walk-Up-To Dragon” and “Harry Potter and the Big Funnel.”
0
0