ReviewOnViral

This is a brilliant novel and George Gissing deserves more credit. He should be as famous as Dickens or Eliot. As the title suggests it is about the working class, set in Clerkenwell which was, in the Victorian era,one of the most deprived areas of London. Gissing came from a middle-class background and this shows, but his life was a difficult one and he experienced poverty at first hand. There are many characters, all strongly drawn and if some tend to be a little grotesque, this reflects the horror of their surroundings. Gissing sets up expectations only to destroy them, and the more heroic characters are eventually crushed by their baser neighbours. Unlike other social realists of the period, Gissing had little faith in either religion or philanthropy, and in this he resembles his French contemporary, Emile Zola. ' The Nether World' also seems to anticipate later works such as Hardy's Jude The Obscure. It is a long book and may seem a bit slow at firs...

Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed The Commerce Comet and The Mick,was an American professional baseball player.  Mantle played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the New York Yankees as a center fielder and first baseman, from 1951 through 1968.  Mantle was one of the best players and sluggers, and is regarded by many as the greatest switch hitter in baseball history. Mantle was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 and was elected to the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in 1999. Source : Wikipedia  Image : Wikipedia, Amazon

What a treat! Bryson Tiller, 24, surprised fans by dropping his highly anticipated sophomore album on May 25, suitably titled  True to Self .  The R&B singer’s new full-length release includes 19 catchy and unique songs, each offering their own flavor. Even though it was scheduled to drop next month, he took to Twitter to reveal the exciting news. “I know we said June 23rd… but i say we Set it Off Tonight!! ALBUM OUT NOW @AppleMusic,” he wrote. Bryson continually proves he’s a force to be reckoned with, delivering an epic follow-up to his 2015 album  T R A P S O U L . The singer managed to surpass expectations with his surprise album! Prior to his release, Bryson shared an Instagram post with the definition of “True to Self,” explaining his choice for the title. “When you are being true to yourself, you are completely honest with what you feel, deeply value, and desire,” he captioned the pic, giving insight to his muse....

The Time Machine a social doom prophecy. The future is presented as a place where the privileged have finally gotten a world where they can lead utterly carefree lives of leisure.  Unfortunately, the centuries of soft living have turned the rich into weak and stupid creatures. Meanwhile, the working class has speciated into subterranean horrors that finally seek revenge on their former masters. This is to serve as an extrapolation of what Wells surely saw as a widening gulf between the rich and poor in Victorian England. Wells exaggerated the difference between the Morlocks and Eloi to warn the well-to-do and the British government that the social injustices of the day would prove ruinous if not corrected. Also, Wells warns everybody that the attainment of our ideal world, one with no pressure or work, would probably be fatal to the human race. The Time Machine  seems to compare favorably with mainstream literature of its day. When compared with more modern novels...

The Book of Tea , by Okakura Kakuzo is interesting because it was written for the West, and in English. It’s a classic tea book, from 1906. After reading the book, I realized that it really doesn’t talk much about tea itself. It’s more about art and culture in Japan, and how it relates to tea through the concept of  teaism. Quoting from Wikipedia: “When tea is more than a drink and the tea ceremony is understood and practiced to foster harmony in humanity, promote harmony with nature, discipline the mind, quiet the heart, and attain the purity of enlightenment, the art of tea becomes teaism.” When I looked at the Japanese version of  The Book of  Tea, it translates  teaism  as  sadou  which is none other than The Way of Tea, or the Tea Ceremony. The Cup Of Humanity The first chapter,  The cup of humanity , is an introduction to the whole book. It also talks a bit about the differences between the East and the West. Remember t...