Life and Literature Series

Life and Literature Series: Tolkien described his work on The Lord of the Rings as escapism: “really transforming experience into another form.” In this series we will explore how the life stories of five well-loved authors intertwined with and influenced their novels. We will also consider how the films inspired by these authors shape their current reputations.

Tolkien: Myth-making was intricately connected to language for Tolkien and the mythology of The Lord of Rings owes its genesis to the languages he created, although his experiences in WWI also deeply influenced how he described war in his trilogy. 

Gaskell: Elizabeth Gaskell was an active humanitarian, and her novels, such as North and South, show her interest in improving conditions for workers; she is known for portraying the dialects of workers and middle-class characters with accuracy.

Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, was so ashamed of his great-great-grandfather, John Hathorne, who was deeply involved in the Salem witch trials, that he added a “w” to his last name to distance himself from his ancestors.

Doyle: Like Sherlock Holmes' inestimable side-kick Watson, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a doctor as well as a writer. Doyle tried to kill off Holmes in “The Final Problem” so he could move on to other things but his fans’ response urged him to bring him back.

Christie: When he died, Agatha Christie's beloved character, Hercule Poirot, was given a full-page obituary in The New York Times; Christie herself found Poirot "insufferable” and described him as a "detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep.”