The opening line of Dante's Inferno sets up the Divine Comedy’s epic, allegorical journey through hell, purgatory and heaven. Everything about the story, structure, and poetry aims for symmetry and balance, and it's no accident that the poem begins exactly...
The final line of The Great Gatsby, the Fitzgerald novel that defined the jazz age. It was the era that ushered in modernity, a time of material excess, liberation and intoxication. But even in the midst of the party, Fitzgerald could sense the toll such...
"We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep." - William Shakespeare From Act IV of The Tempest, this line is spoken by Prospero, as he compares his magical illusions "melted into...
"How can I pluck my soul apart? How could it break away from you? Oh, for some remote place, Still and quiet, unmoved By your resounding depths. But every touch Draws us together, As a violin’s bow That from two...
The full quotation from Les Miserables reads: "To love or have loved, that is enough. Demand nothing more. There is no other pearl to be found in the shadowy folds of life. To love is a fulfillment." In this illustration,...
