English Literature Made Easy for Students

L-1: 'How I Taught My Grandmother To Read': by Sudha Murti Detailed Summary of the lesson: 1. The narrator used to stay in a village with her grandmother in north Karnatka when she was about twelve. They used to get their morning paper in the afternoon as the transport system was not good.  They had to wait for the bus anxiously It would fetch the news papers, weekly magazine and the post in the afternoon for the weekly magazine for a week. 2. In those days Triveni was a very popular writer in the language of Kannada. Her style was very easy to understand and very satisfying one. She usually took complex psychological problems of ordinary people as the subject-matter of her stories. Unfortunately she died very young at the age of forty years and it was a big loss to Kannada literature. Her novels are much appreciated now-a-days also. 3. One of her popular novels titled ‘Kashi Yatra’ was appearing as a serial in the Kannada weekly Karamaveera at that time. It was...

The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde: Chapter 7 The funeral procession of the ghost started at about 11 p.m. from Canterville Chase. The hearse (the vehicle in which the coffin is carried) was driven by eight black horses, each of which had a tuft of ostrich plumes. The coffin was covered by a pall (shroud) of rich purple colour. The servants walked with lighted torches by the side of the hearse. The whole procession was wonderfully impressive. Lord Canterville, who had come up especially from Wales to attend the funeral, was the chief mourner. He sat in the first carriage along with little Virginia. Then the US Minister and his wife, Washington and the three boys followed. Mrs. Umney, who had been frightened by the ghost for the last fifty years, was in the last carriage. A deep grave had been dug in the corner of the churchyard just under the yew-tree and the service was read in the most impressive manner by the Rev. Augustus Dampier. The servants extinguished the torches when th...

Two Gentlemen of Verona by A. J. Cronin (For CBSE CLASS X) About the Author  A.J. Cronin was a doctor by occupation. He wrote his first novel Hatter’s Castle while he was recovering from ill-health. The novel was a grand success. After that he wrote a number of novels and short stories. Among his best known novels are: The citadel, The Key of the Kingdom and The Spanish Gardener. About the Story: This story is about two brothers who were made orphans in the days of war by the Germans. Their father, who was a famous singer was killed in the early days of the war and their house was destroyed by a bomb. They had a sister of twenty years and she suffered from tuberculosis of the spine. As she was in a hospital, the teen aged boys had to work very hard to save money to clear the bills of the hospitals. So the main theme of the story is devotion and sympathy for the sibling. The secondary theme also runs in the story and that proves that the appearances are not a...