Writing was not easy for the French novelist Gustave Flaubert. Because of his concern for form and precise detail, he often struggled for days searching for “exactly the right word”. He took five years to write Madame Bovary, his best-known work. Flaubert’s goal was to write faultless prose. In Madame Bovary, which tells of Emma […]
The mystique of the Kennedy family in United States politics was due in great part to the glamorous and attractive wife of President John F. Kennedy, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. They were the first presidential couple born in the 20th century. She brought grace, style, and a flair for beauty to the White House, quickly […]
China is the only country in the world with a literature written in one script for more than 3,000 consecutive years. This continuity results largely from the nature of the written language itself. It is the use of characters, not letters as in Western languages, that is most important in the Chinese language. The characters […]
For many years, the name of the Thracian slave Spartacus struck fear into the hearts of the Roman people. It served to remind them of the danger that constantly menaced the continued existence of their state – the danger of an uprising of the enormous slave population, which might destroy the Roman nation. Scholars have […]
Ian Fleming’s evil globefish – also known as a puffer, blowfish, swellfish, or, in Japanese, fugu – is one of the most mysterious creatures of the sea. It is perhaps the world’s most deadly fish, yet in Japan the honorable fugu is the perfect example of gourmet dining. With its lazy, almost feeble way of […]
Loch Ness is an immensely deep lake in the northeastern Highlands of Scotland. It is overlooked by brooding hills and wild moorland – the perfect setting for strange and unexplained events. In 1933, a motorist on the new lakeside road saw a tremendous upheaval in the loch*. The waters churned and boiled as a huge […]
This is a skeptical age, but although our faith in many of the things in which our forefathers fervently believed has weakened, our confidence in the curative properties of the bottle of medicine remains the same as theirs.The majority of the patients attending the outpatient departments of our hospitals feel that they have not received […]
This sketch is by Peter Andrews Imagine living next door to Luciano Pavarotti. You love the big guy, but his full- throated practice sessions are rattling the china. To silence the booming tenor, you could do one of three things: ask him to practice his Puccini outside; wear earplugs around your apartment; or put some […]
On the basis of research I have carried out, I believe that there are male and female versions of the same temperament. Temperamentally there are male as well as female introverts and extroverts, fiercely brave women as well as fiercely brave men, shy and gentle men as well as shy and gentle women. Every society […]
In Japan, there is a close relationship between the worker and his company. Employees work hard and do hours of unpaid overtime to make their firms more efficient. If necessary, they give up weekends with the family to go on business trips. They are loyal to their organizations and they are totally involved with them. […]