If only they had had African Dads

[d000hg]

we are talking about GCSE not evening class poetry appreciation.

Whose purpose is to give a wide but simple foundation/cross-section.

[vetran]

Whose purpose is to give a wide but simple foundation/cross-section.

indeed so the great authors need to be in the mix, there is no reason they can't include Dante & Voltaire to see how English literature is different and more recent ones to see how it has evolved. Maybe a poem from each poet laureate?

[Gibbon]

indeed so the great authors need to be in the mix, there is no reason they can't include Dante

Did you know that until his 'Inferno' there was no real homogenous view of what hell was, before it was just not being with god in heaven. All the visual depictions of hell post date Dante. Yet as he acknowledges in the poem he was guided by Virgil and his passage from the Aeneid where Aeneas is guided through the underworld by his father.

[vetran]

Did you know that until his 'Inferno' there was no real homogenous view of what hell was, before it was just not being with god in heaven. All the visual depictions of hell post date Dante. Yet as he acknowledges in the poem he was guided by Virgil and his passage from the Aeneid where Aeneas is guided through the underworld by his father.

I discovered that after leaving school it would have been nice if such things had been shared during lessons. The influences of the classics are worthwhile exploring in context as well.

[hugebrain]

I firmly believe that English Literature should involve the study of literature written in English, not necessarily written by the English.

We had to read Dubliners which was some foreign crap.

[SueEllen]

As I said the Tories wouldn't complain if Dickens was removed
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...y-unpublished/

Charles Dickens condemned the slave trade as “inhuman” and an “atrocity” in a previously unpublished letter that has been discovered.

In 1850, he wrote to Captain Joseph Denman, who had served in the Royal Navy’s anti-slavery squadron that patrolled the coast of West Africa, part of the “African Blockade”, whose effectiveness in stopping the transportation of slaves sparked debate at the time.

Addressing him as “My dear Sir,” Dickens told him in no uncertain terms: “You cannot too strongly represent to yourself the horror with which I contemplate that atrocity the Slave Trade, – although I have (I must confess to you) had my doubts of the efficiency of the African Blockade. Of the truth and devotion of those engaged in it, I have never had a grain of distrust.”

He continued: “I am sure we shall agree in denouncing the inhuman traffic with our utmost might.”

The letter’s authenticity has been confirmed by a leading expert, Dr Leon Litvack, principal editor of The Charles Dickens Letters Project, an online resource for his correspondence.

He told The Telegraph that it adds to what we know about Dickens’ attitude to slavery: “There’s great passion in this letter. The language that he uses is striking in its forcefulness.”

He will deliver a paper on it on July 8 at a Dickens conference at City University in London.

The letter was spotted among Denman family papers by Dr Pieter van der Merwe, Greenwich Curator Emeritus of the National Maritime Museum, while conducting unrelated research. It was in a volume of miscellaneous examples from notable people of the time.

As a specialist in Clarkson Stanfield, the marine-artist friend of Dickens, Dr van der Merwe realised its significance: “I suspected it wasn’t known. It’s just serendipity, the art of finding things you’re not looking for.”

He contacted Dr Litvack to whom the Denman family has given permission to publish it on Dickensletters.com.