Viewing: Famous Stories - View all posts

Work Without Hope, written by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, published in The Bijou: An Annual of Literature and The Arts in 1825.

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair— 
The bees are stirring—birds are on the wing— 
And Winter, slumbering in the open air, 
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! 
And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, 
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. 

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, 
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. 
Bloom, O ye…

This short story by Kate Chopin was written in the Louisiana Bayou country in the late 1890s. It was published in Vogue, and is considered to be a forerunner of modern feminism. Fifteen dollars back then would be getting close to $500 today. Blowing it all one afternoon in town would be hard to justify in a society where women were expected to sacrifice for their families. It is reminiscent of the 1980s "shop 'till you drop" mentality. It's interesting that pretending to have money again for an afternoon…