Write as |
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.
Evidently she had reason to be. I waited but she didn’t say any more, and after a moment I returned rather feebly to the subject of her daughter. “I suppose she talks, and—eats, and everything.” “Oh, yes.” She looked at me absently. “Listen, Nick; let me tell you what I said when she was born. Would you like to hear?” “Very much.” “It’ll show you how I’ve gotten to feel about—things. Well, she was less than an hour old and Tom was God knows where. I woke up out of the ether with an utterly abandoned feeling, and asked the nurse right away if it was a boy or a girl. She told me it was a girl, and so I turned my head away and wept. ‘All right,’ I said, ‘I’m glad it’s a girl. And I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.’ “You see I think everything’s terrible anyhow,” she went on in a convinced way. “Everybody thinks so—the most advanced people. And I know. I’ve been everywhere and seen everything and done everything.” Her eyes flashed around her in a defiant way, rather like Tom’s, and she laughed with thrilling scorn. “Sophisticated—God, I’m sophisticated!”
Other classics
Hjalmar Söderberg
Förvillelser
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment
August Strindberg
Inferno
Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
Jane Austen
Emma
Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Victoria Benedictsson
Modern
Ernest Hemingway
In Our Time
Franz Kafka
The Metamorphosis
Marcel Proust
Within a Budding Grove
William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
August Strindberg
Röda Rummet
Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Marcel Proust
Swann's Way
Louisa May Alcott
Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag Vol. 1
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
Cranford
Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The WhaleWhy 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