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Practice your writing by typing out classic literature. This method not only enhances your understanding of rhythm, structure, and nuances but also connects you deeply with the timeless flow of literary history.This is a BETA version.
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is a novel set in the Jazz Age on Long Island near New York City in 1922. It tells the story of the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and his passion and obsession with the beautiful former debutante Daisy Buchanan. The novel explores themes of decadence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the Roaring Twenties that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding the American Dream.
“ ‘I don’t want to do anything out of the way!’ he kept saying. ‘I want to see her right next door.’ “When I said you were a particular friend of Tom’s, he started to abandon the whole idea. He doesn’t know very much about Tom, though he says he’s read a Chicago paper for years just on the chance of catching a glimpse of Daisy’s name.” It was dark now, and as we dipped under a little bridge I put my arm around Jordan’s golden shoulder and drew her toward me and asked her to dinner. Suddenly I wasn’t thinking of Daisy and Gatsby any more, but of this clean, hard, limited person, who dealt in universal scepticism, and who leaned back jauntily just within the circle of my arm. A phrase began to beat in my ears with a sort of heady excitement: “There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy, and the tired.” “And Daisy ought to have something in her life,” murmured Jordan to me. “Does she want to see Gatsby?” “She’s not to know about it. Gatsby doesn’t want her to know. You’re just supposed to invite her to tea.” We passed a barrier of dark trees, and then the façade of Fifty-Ninth Street, a block of delicate pale light, beamed down into the park.
Other classics
Jane Austen
Emma
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Victoria Benedictsson
Modern
August Strindberg
Inferno
August Strindberg
Röda Rummet
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
Louisa May Alcott
Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag Vol. 1
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
Ernest Hemingway
In Our Time
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment
Marcel Proust
Swann's Way
Hjalmar Söderberg
Förvillelser
Marcel Proust
Within a Budding Grove
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cranford
Franz Kafka
The MetamorphosisWhy Type a Masterpiece?
Typing out classical literature is not just an exercise in patience; it's a deeply immersive way to understand the rhythm, structure, and nuances of great writing. By manually reproducing the works of renowned authors, you engage with the text on a level that reading alone cannot offer. This method allows you to feel the flow of sentences, the choice of words, and the intricate construction of paragraphs that make these works timeless.
Style is a very simple matter; it is all rhythm. Once you get that, you can't use the wrong words.
– Virginia Woolf
literati is a unique platform where writers can select from a vast collection of public domain classics to type out. This practice is akin to a musician playing pieces by the masters to internalize the elements of composition and performance. Just as the musician learns the subtleties of each note and chord, the writer learns the power of each word and sentence.
Prose is like hair; it shines with combing.
– Gustave Flaubert
Engaging directly with masterpieces allows writers to absorb the rhythm of the text, the ebb and flow of its pacing, and the beauty of its imagery. It cultivates an appreciation for the craft of writing and provides invaluable lessons in how to construct compelling narratives, develop characters, and evoke emotions in readers. Happy typing!
The only truth is music.
– Jack Kerouac