Unit 8: Appetite

Stylistic features
Exposition

through definition Comparison & contrast Metaphorical language

About the author Laurie Lee (1914-1997)

British novelist and poet
Laurie

Lee was born in the village of Slad, near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Before he became famous with Cider with Rosie(1959), the first volume of his autobiography, Lee had been known mainly for his poetry and had worked as a scriptwriter for documentaries.

About the author

Abandoned by his father when he was three, Lee was educated at the local village school and at Stroud, leaving when he was fifteen. In 1934, he went to London to seek his fortune and then continued on to Spain. There he traveled on foot, playing his fiddle to earn his keep, before being caught up later in the Spanish Civil War. These youthful adventures provided the material for his celebrated autobiographical trilogy. Returning to London, he worked for the Ministry of Information during World War Two.

About the author

Lee's poems are generally about the English countryside and proved only reasonably successful. Cider with Rosie, on the other hand, was an immediate best-seller, reaching a wide public with its images of village life from a bygone era of innocence and simplicity. Its success was such that Lee could buy his childhood home, where he died. He was buried in the local churchyard. His other noted works are As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969) and I Can't Stay Long (1975).

The author

About the author

Comments on Laurie Lee:

he was a legend in his own lifetime. An immensely gentle and kind man, with a great sense of humour and a tremendous appreciation of beauty, his works are read, enjoyed and admired the world over. But the horse was king, and almost everything grew around him ...This was what we were born to, and all we knew at first. Then, to the scream of the horse, the change began. The brass-lamped motor-car came coughing up the road.

-- Cider With Rosie, "Last Days"

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

 Oscar

who was the chief proponent of the aesthetic movement, based on the principle of art for arts sake. Wilde was a novelist, playwright, poet, and critic.

Wilde (1854-1900), Irish-born writer and wit,

quick facts
Birth October 16, 1854 Death November 30, 1900 Place of Birth Dublin, Ireland Known for witty, often paradoxical, sayings that lampoon the social mores and behavior of the English upper classes of his time

Oscar Wilde (Bio-notes)

1878: Graduated from the University of Oxford with a degree in Classics 1881: Published Poems, a collection of poetry January - October 1882 : Lectured on English aestheticism in the United States and Canada 1891: Published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which portrayed the moral decay of its title character February 1895: The Importance of Being Earnest, the last and most popular of his comedies, was produced in London. May 1895 : Convicted of homosexual acts following three sensationalized trials, and received a sentence of two years' hard labor 1897: Released from prison, financially bankrupt and spiritually downcast. He spent the rest of his life in Paris, publishing only the poem The Ballad of Reading Goal (1898). November 30, 1900: Died a pauper of meningitis ( ) in Paris, converted to Roman Catholicism before his death.

Quotations from Oscar Wilde

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. Illusion is the first of all pleasures. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend's success. Art never expresses anything but itself.

On appetite

Subdue your appetites my dears, and you've conquered human nature. Charles Dickens (1812 - 1870) ORSINO If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die.

William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 1

Definition
A

common formula of definition

thing to be defined + verb + class word + characteristics

Formal definition
A school is an institution where children are

educated. Steel is an alloy that is produced from iron and carbon. An encyclopedia is a book that gives information on subjects in alphabetical order. An engineer is a person who designs machines, building or public works.

Extended definitions
(for abstract, controversial, ambiguous concepts/notions ) Sociology is a branch of science which studies the development and principles of social organization. It is concerned with group behavior as distinct from the behavior of individuals in the group.

Ways to extend definition

1. Give descriptive details 2. Exemplify and narrate, i.e. give examples of

instances in which the definition would be appropriate. 3. Compare; or contrast; e.g.

-- What is an egoist? An egoist is like a miser, keeping love and admiration, instead of money, all for himself.. Both the egoist and the miser are lonely, insecure and neurotic.

No as negation

- Are you sure you dont want anything? - Yes. Im sure. - Dont you want anything? - No. thanks. - -

No in negation
Compare : -- Are you sure you dont want anything? - Yes, Im sure.