Abbie Roberts

“Does such a thing as ‘the fatal flaw’, that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside of literature? I used to think it didn’t.” The Secret History, a modern Greek tragedy at heart, is a 600 page exploration of the existence of man’s inborn hamartia, and the disastrous consequences that…

A collection of social criticisms, ‘The Wanderings of an Albatross’ casts a sorrowful eye upon the fundamentals of humanity and the far reaches of its universal suffering and injustice. From school shootings in America to the European burqa ban, the growing refugee crisis and the Alabama heartbeat law, this debut anthology turns its attention from…

Commonly, the Greeks used the term ‘hamartia’ to describe a tragic flaw in the personality or character of a hero, eventually leading to their downfall or demise. However, the word also has roots in the Greek concept of ‘fate’, in that our destinies are determined not by the will of the gods, but by our…

Whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to call Riders of the Purple Sage the best Western novel of all time, Zane Grey’s first bestseller, set against the backdrop of Mormon and non-Mormon conflict in the 1870s, is definitely a curious and engaging read. Grey’s command of prose is perhaps the biggest benefit to the…

Arms and the Boy is easily one of the defining masterpieces of war poetry. Unlike the works of other wartime poets, it is set away from the battlefield, and in keeping with Owen’s poetic style, casts a reproving glance over the manipulation of youth to further a purely political cause. Owen himself brings to light…

Though Jane Eyre, as a vital piece of literature within the literary canon, is quite obviously widely popular amongst both a contextual and contemporary audience, the true complexities of the novel, its plot, and its characters are perhaps overpowered by the overriding romance between Bronte’s protagonists. Bronte’s novel cannot simply be described as a romance,…