Shreya's Treasures

LOLITA EROTIC LITERATURE, TRAGICOMEDY VLADIMIR NABOKOV FIRST PUBLISHED: 1955 Vladimir Nabokov is probably one of the very few writers who wrote a book which is so shocking yet remains to be a  favorite  among the readers. Lolita, his disturbing masterpiece, revolves around the story of middle aged Humbert Humbert, and his tragic love story with his 12 year old step daughter. What's interesting is, the entire novel has been written considering H. H 's opinions - his feelings, his thoughts, his actions, his introspection. Not once has Nabokov mentioned about what Lolita feels, what is she going through, or what she actually thinks of her relationship with her stepfather. As a consequence, we know Humbert is wrong(evil so as to say) , but we also know that he knows he is wrong(he considers himself a murderer in fact).So we actually hate him and also strangely develop a sense of pity for him (due to his childhood incident) at the end of the novel when Lolit...

HANDMAID'S TALE DYSTOPIAN LITERATURE MARGARET ATWOOD FIRST PUBLISHED: 1985 The story is about a woman Offred, who lives in a dystopian age. The population is shrinking due to a toxic environment, and the ability to have viable babies is at a premium. (In today’s real world, studies are now showing a sharp fertility decline in Chinese men.) Under totalitarianism, the ruling class monopolizes valuable things, so the elite of the regime arrange to have fertile females assigned to them as Handmaids. This name Offred is composed of a man’s first name, “Fred,” and a prefix denoting “belonging to”. Within this name is concealed another possibility: “offered,” denoting a religious offering or a victim offered for sacrifice. Offred’s real name is not revealed; probably because she represents the multitude and also, it doesn’t really matter.  The Handmaids are forced by the Aunts to join in what is called the “slut-shaming” of one of their members who is being made to recount how s...