Life Lessons from Literature

curse.
‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’

Watership Down (1972)

People and Society, but this is naturally because novels are inhabited by characters with human personalities

I have been trying to remember what was the first book I ever read. By first book, I mean first proper book, first ‘grown up’ book, the first novel of over two hundred pages

‘I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.’

The list is largely arbitrary – as all lists of this type are – and makes no pretence to be in any way authoritative and set in stone

Watership Down (1972)

Books teach us lessons about life, the world around us and the people that inhabit it, and those lessons enrich our understanding of ourselves and others.

All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

‘Deep down, all the while, she was waiting for something to happen. Like a shipwrecked sailor, she kept casting desperate glances over the solitude of her life, seeking some white sail in the distant mists of the horizon. She had no idea by what wind it would reach her, toward what shore it would bear her, or what kind of craft it would be – tiny boat or towering vessel, laden with heartbreaks or filled to the portholes with rapture. But every morning when she awoke she hoped that today would be the day; she listened for every sound, gave sudden starts, was surprised when nothing happened; and then, sadder with each succeeding sunset, she longed for tomorrow.’