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Kami_Arts5, Leiah Punjab, Leiah (2025)

02/08/2025

What if the heaviest burden in life isn’t suffering or responsibility—but the unbearable lightness of existence without meaning? In The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1984), Milan Kundera turns this haunting question into a deeply layered meditation on love, identity, politics, and the fragility of human choice, all set against the stormy backdrop of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Prague.

At the novel’s center are four entangled lives:

Tomas, a gifted surgeon and unapologetic womanizer, who clings to sexual freedom as proof of his autonomy.

Tereza, his sensitive, tormented wife, whose love for him is shadowed by dreams of drowning and the inescapable shame of embodiment.

Sabina, Tomas’s lover and a rebellious artist, who sees betrayal not as a flaw but as a path to authenticity.

Franz, Sabina’s romantic, politically naïve lover, who longs for meaning in grand gestures and collective ideals.

Kundera dissects their choices with philosophical sharpness: Is love about possession or surrender? Is kitsch—the aesthetic that denies suffering—the true enemy of art and truth?

As the Prague Spring collapses under Soviet tanks, each character is forced to face the illusions they’ve clung to. Tomas loses his career by refusing to sign a loyalty oath. Tereza, camera in hand, captures the invasion as if trying to reclaim her own lost self. Sabina escapes to Geneva but finds exile no freer than home. Franz, seeking moral clarity in protest, ends up chasing shadows.

The novel’s central paradox rests on Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence: if life is lived only once, then everything becomes unbearably light—nothing matters. And yet, Kundera’s characters suffer under the weight of this very insignificance. Their struggles—Tereza’s dreams, Tomas’s compulsions, Sabina’s flight—are desperate attempts to impose meaning where there is none.

By the novel’s end, meaning does not arrive in the form of revolution or revelation. Instead, it emerges in the quiet: a dog, a bowler hat, the shared laughter of lovers in a country barn. In that final, tender image of Tomas and Tereza dancing—just before their deaths—Kundera finds grace in the ephemeral, suggesting that perhaps what gives life weight is not permanence, but presence.

English with Kamran Abbas

02/08/2025

The House of the Spirits (1982) is the debut novel of Chilean author Isabel Allende, a cornerstone of magical realism and one of the most celebrated works in Latin American literature. Inspired by her own family history and the political turmoil of Chile, Allende weaves a multi-generational saga that blends the personal with the political, the real with the supernatural.

The novel follows the Trueba family across four generations in an unnamed Latin American country (resembling Chile), from the early 20th century to the 1970s. The story is narrated by Alba, the youngest descendant, and her grandfather Esteban Trueba, a proud, violent landowner whose life intertwines with the country’s turbulent history. Key characters include Clara del Valle, Esteban’s clairvoyant wife, whose spiritual powers shape the family’s destiny; Blanca, their daughter, who defies her father by loving Pedro Tercero, a revolutionary; Pedro Tercero García himself, a peasant leader symbolizing social change; and Alba, Blanca’s daughter, who becomes a victim of political repression but carries forward the family’s legacy.

The novel explores themes of magical realism, where supernatural elements like Clara’s premonitions, ghosts, and telekinesis blend seamlessly with reality. It also delves into political conflict, mirroring Chile’s upheavals from oligarchic rule to socialist reform (embodied by "the Candidate," alluding to Salvador Allende) and military dictatorship (similar to Pinochet’s 1973 coup). The story critiques patriarchy and champions feminism, contrasting Esteban’s tyrannical masculinity with Clara’s mystical independence and Alba’s resilience. Class struggle is another central theme, as the exploitation of peasants on Esteban’s hacienda, Tres Marías, reflects broader social inequities. Finally, memory and storytelling play a crucial role, as Alba reconstructs family history through Clara’s journals, showing how stories preserve truth.

The novel established Allende as a major literary voice, often compared to Gabriel García Márquez. It was adapted into a 1993 film starring Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, and Antonio Banderas, and it remains a seminal work in feminist and postcolonial literature. Allende’s lush prose, unforgettable characters, and fusion of personal and political drama make The House of the Spirits a powerful exploration of love, violence, and redemption.

English with Kamran Abbas Kami_Arts5

02/08/2025

Daddy-Long-Legs (1912) is an epistolary novel by American author Jean Webster that tells the heartwarming and witty story of an orphan's transformation through education and unexpected generosity. Written entirely through letters, this charming classic follows Jerusha "Judy" Abbott, a bright-eyed 17-year-old who has spent her entire childhood in the dreary John Grier Home. When an anonymous benefactor - whom Judy nicknames "Daddy-Long-Legs" after catching just a glimpse of his tall shadow - offers to send her to college, her life takes a dramatic turn. The only condition? She must write him regular letters about her progress, though he'll never reply.

Through Judy's lively, often humorous correspondence, readers experience her intellectual awakening and growing confidence as she navigates college life, makes friends, and discovers her talent for writing. The novel cleverly builds romantic tension as Judy develops feelings for Jervis Pendleton, the uncle of her wealthy roommate, completely unaware of his true connection to her mysterious patron. Webster crafts a delightful twist ending that satisfyingly ties all the threads together while maintaining the story's warmth and charm.
Beyond its engaging plot, the novel explores thoughtful themes about women's education and independence during the early 20th century. Judy's journey from institutionalized orphan to self-assured college graduate reflects the growing feminist ideals of the era. The story also examines class differences and social mobility, showing how education can transform lives. Judy's letters themselves become a powerful tool of self-expression and personal growth, demonstrating Webster's belief in the transformative power of writing. The unconventional family structure that develops between Judy and her unseen benefactor adds emotional depth, suggesting that meaningful connections can form in unexpected ways.

This beloved classic has endured for over a century due to its irresistible combination of humor, heart, and hopeful message. Its unique epistolary format creates an intimate reading experience that makes Judy feel like a personal friend. The novel has inspired numerous adaptations, including film versions, a 1955 musical called Love from Judy, and even a Japanese anime series. Webster later wrote a sequel, Dear Enemy (1915), focusing on Judy's friend Sallie McBride and her efforts to reform the orphanage they grew up in. With its plucky heroine, witty observations, and ultimately uplifting story about opportunity and personal growth, Daddy-Long-Legs continues to captivate readers of all ages who appreciate character-driven stories with both humor and heart. Its enduring popularity speaks to the universal appeal of Judy's journey toward self-discovery and the timeless hope that kindness and education can transform lives.

English with Kamran Abbas Kami_Arts5

02/08/2025

When Franz Kafka wrote *Letter to His Father*, he wasn’t just writing a letter. He was tearing open every wound that had never healed. This wasn’t a message—it was a quiet cry from a son who never felt like he belonged in his own home.

Kafka never actually gave the letter to his father. He handed it to his mother, hoping she’d pass it along. She didn’t. Maybe she knew it would break something beyond repair. And maybe it already had.

In the letter, Kafka explains how his father’s towering presence made him feel like nothing. How fear replaced love. How his voice got smaller and smaller until it almost disappeared. He wasn’t asking for pity. He just wanted to be heard—for once in his life.

Reading this letter doesn’t feel like reading at all. It feels like witnessing something too raw, too real. You start thinking about all the sons who never get to speak, and all the fathers who never learn how to listen.

This isn't just Kafka's truth. It's the silent truth of millions. And it hurts because it's real.

English with Kamran Abbas

02/08/2025

The Complete Stories of Franz Kafka isn’t just a book — it’s a mirror held up to the parts of us we’d rather not see.

These stories don’t follow the rules. They don’t give you heroes or happy endings. They give you guilt, absurdity, fear, and silence. And somehow, they feel more real than most stories with neat conclusions ever could.

Kafka had a way of turning the smallest things into quiet nightmares. A man wakes up as an insect. Another is punished for a crime he doesn’t understand. A hunger artist slowly disappears while the crowd loses interest. You read these stories, and something inside you whispers: this isn’t fiction — this is what it feels like to be unseen, unheard, and slowly slipping into the background.

He wrote about people trapped in systems, families, jobs, and even their own bodies. Stories where the more you try to make sense of things, the more everything twists around you. And what makes it even heavier is knowing Kafka didn’t want most of these stories published. He asked his friend Max Brod to burn them. But Max didn’t. And maybe that’s why we still get to read the kind of pain that feels too personal to be printed.

Reading this collection doesn’t make you feel better. It makes you feel exposed. But in that exposure, you realize you’re not alone in your confusion, your helplessness, your quiet ache to be understood.

English with Kamran Abbas

02/08/2025

Following the Equator isn’t just a travel book — it’s the journal of a man who’s watching the world with open eyes and a heavy heart.

Mark Twain wrote it during a time when he was drowning in debt, emotionally exhausted, and far from home. He took a year-long lecture tour across the globe, and instead of simply writing about beautiful landscapes or exotic places, he gave us something far more honest — a deep, sometimes bitter reflection of humanity.

He travels through Australia, India, South Africa, and the Pacific Islands, and what he sees leaves him disturbed. He doesn't romanticize empire or excuse injustice. He speaks openly about colonial cruelty, racism, greed, and the hypocrisy of so-called civilization. And yet, he does it with the same wit that made people laugh — a dangerous kind of humor that hides razor-sharp truth under every sentence.

One of his most haunting lines came from this book: “Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.” That tells you everything about the tone — it’s a journey through the world, but also through everything that’s wrong with it.

This isn’t the Mark Twain of boyhood adventures. This is an older Twain, wounded and wiser, who’s stopped pretending that the world is a fair place. But even as he writes with frustration, you can feel his deep hope that exposing truth might still matter.

You don’t finish this book feeling entertained. You finish it feeling like someone just took you behind the curtain and showed you what the world really looks like — both stunning and shameful.

English with Kamran Abbas

02/08/2025

Mark Twain’s aphorisms don’t feel like quotes written for applause — they feel like truths whispered by someone who’s seen too much and still knows how to smile.

They’re short, but they hit like punches. He had this rare ability to make you laugh and then immediately feel the sting behind the joke. And the best part? He wasn’t trying to sound wise. He was just honest — painfully, beautifully honest.

When he said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything,” it wasn’t just clever. It was a quiet observation of how we complicate life with lies. Or when he wrote, “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect,” it wasn’t rebellion — it was a gentle warning to think for yourself before the world does it for you.

Twain’s aphorisms come from a man who lived through war, fame, poverty, loss, and incredible change. His daughter died young. His fortune disappeared. Yet even in his final years, he kept writing with that same sharp humor — like someone who knew the world would never make sense, but still believed in pointing out its nonsense.

You don’t read his aphorisms to be inspired. You read them to feel less alone in your confusion. Because sometimes, the deepest wisdom comes with a smile that’s just a little too sad.

English with Kamran Abbas Kami_Arts5

02/08/2025

Tom Sawyer Abroad feels like a wild daydream told by a kid who’s never seen the world but swears he’s figured it all out.

Mark Twain brings Tom, Huck, and Jim back again — this time not on a raft, but in a hot air balloon drifting over oceans, deserts, pyramids, and strange lands. It’s part parody, part adventure, and part subtle truth hidden behind the laughter.

Tom, of course, acts like he knows everything. He explains camels, geography, ancient history — all with complete confidence and almost no accuracy. Huck watches and wonders, just like the reader. And Jim, wise in his own quiet way, often says the most important things while everyone else is caught up in nonsense.

But beneath the silly excitement, Twain is doing something clever. He’s poking fun at the way people talk about “exploration” and “discovery” without really understanding the cultures they’re talking about. He’s showing how the world is seen through American eyes — often proud, often wrong, and sometimes painfully unaware.

It’s a lighter book, yes. But even in its humor, there’s an undercurrent of reflection. The same three characters, now older, now seeing more, and yet still shaped by their old ways of thinking. Twain doesn’t preach. He lets the absurdity speak for itself.

Tom Sawyer Abroad makes you laugh — but if you read closely, it also makes you pause. And maybe that’s what Twain always wanted.

English with Kamran Abbas

02/08/2025

Northanger Abbey is Jane Austen’s most mischievous novel—a witty, tongue-in-cheek love letter to Gothic fiction and a sharp-eyed satire of the way young imaginations can run wild. Picture this: a sheltered country girl, Catherine Morland, who devours sensational novels like The Mysteries of Udolpho, steps into the real world expecting hidden passageways, sinister villains, and tragic heroines. Instead, she finds something far more dangerous—ordinary people with ordinary secrets, and the realization that life doesn’t follow the plot of a novel.

When Catherine gets invited to Bath, she’s swept into a whirl of balls, new friendships, and flirtations with the clever Henry Tilney. But her head is so full of Gothic drama that when she visits his family’s home—the ominously named Northanger Abbey—she starts seeing mysteries where none exist. Is General Tilney a tyrant hiding a dark past? Is there a forbidden chamber holding a terrible secret? Or has Catherine let her imagination turn everyday life into a penny dreadful?

Austen gleefully skewers the melodramatic tropes of the novels she herself enjoyed, while crafting a story that’s both a charming romance and a sly lesson in growing up. Catherine isn’t Elizabeth Bennet—she’s not brilliantly witty or fiercely independent. She’s an ordinary girl who makes mistakes, trusts the wrong people, and learns that real heroism isn’t about uncovering ancient curses, but about seeing people as they truly are.

And then there’s Henry Tilney—arguably Austen’s most underrated hero—who teases Catherine with a grin, lectures her on muslin, and proves that a man can be both playful and deeply kind. Their romance isn’t a stormy Gothic affair; it’s built on shared laughter and the quiet understanding that love doesn’t need hidden skeletons or dramatic rescues to be real.

With its playful narration (Austen herself steps in to mock novelistic conventions) and a climax that hinges on a laundry list, Northanger Abbey is a delight from start to finish. It’s a story about the dangers of confusing fiction with reality—and the joy of finding your own story anyway. If you’ve ever gotten lost in a book and half-expected life to turn into one, this is the novel for you.

English with Kamran Abbas Kami_Arts5

01/08/2025

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01/08/2025

English Literature notes
English Novel: 19th Century Novel!!
: Pride & Prejudice!!

29/07/2025

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck is a deeply introspective and morally complex novel that explores the corrosion of integrity in the pursuit of wealth, status, and acceptance in modern America.
Set in a small Long Island town, the story follows Ethan Allen Hawley, a once-wealthy man who now works as a grocery clerk after his family's fortune has faded. Though honest and hardworking, Ethan finds himself surrounded by a society obsessed with material success and social climbing. Pressured by his ambitious wife, the changing values of his children, and the judgment of his community, Ethan begins to question whether decency and honesty still matter—or if they’ve become liabilities in a world that rewards cunning over character.
Temptation grows as Ethan begins to manipulate, lie, and scheme his way toward regaining his lost status. As his moral compass wavers, Steinbeck masterfully shows the slow, internal unraveling of a man torn between what he knows is right and what he feels he must do to survive.
Unlike the sweeping landscapes of The Grapes of Wrath or the close-knit relationships of Of Mice and Men, The Winter of Our Discontent is more intimate and psychological. It’s a quiet tragedy told with biting irony and empathy, challenging readers to examine the cost of success and the quiet erosion of personal values.
Steinbeck’s final novel, it serves as a piercing critique of postwar American society—and a warning about what happens when a culture loses its moral BEarings.

English with Kamran Abbas Kami_Arts5

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