Artwork: Domain of Arnheim, Rene Magritte / Writings: The Domain of Arnheim Edgar Allen Poe

The American master of gloomy romanticism Edgar Allen Poe notes in his writings The Domain of Arnheim that “No such mixture of scenery exists in nature as the painter of genius may invent”. Magritte’s artwork Domain of Arnheim is his own interpretation of the perfect domain formed in the mind’s eye. Poe imagines this is his story.

Where to see it: Gelender Gallery, New York

Artwork: I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold, Charles Demuth / Writings: The Great Figure, William Carlos Williams

This artwork made with graphite, ink, oil and gold leaf on paperboard is one of eight abstract portraits of friends by Charles Demuth. The initials W.C.W. the names Bill and Carlos with an allusion to Williams’ poem The Great Figure ( in which a fire engine painted with the number 5 rumbles through a dark city); are all used to signify poet William Carlos Williams.

Where to see it: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Artwork: Mad Tea Party, Salvador Dalí / Writings: Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

For artwork to accompany Lewis Carroll’s equally hypnagogic Alice in Wonderland, Dalí’s surrealism is a perfect complement. The Mad Tea Party is part of a set of 12 heliogravures, one for each chapter of the book. The rarely seen images are beautiful, drawing you down the rabbit hole into Carroll’s enthralling (and horrifying) universe.

Where to see it: William Bennet Gallery

Artwork: Myself and My Heroes, David Hockney / Writings: I Hear It Was Charged Against Me, Walt Whitman

A youthful Hockney slouches next to two of his idols, American poet Walt Whitman and Mahatma Ghandi, in the painting Myself and My Heroes. The sentence “For the dear love of comrades” (from Whitman’s poem, I Hear It Was Charged Against Me) is inscribed above the haloed Whitman. The words, “I am 21 years old and wear glasses” are above Hockney’s self-portrait, on the other hand. The self-deprecating and funny tone is typical of Hockney. The sentiment is familiar to many new artists who may be under the pressure of expectation from those who came before them.

Where to see it: Tate Collection, London

Artwork: Ophelia, Sir John Everett Millais / Writings: Hamlet, Shakespeare

Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, is in this 19th-century oil paint on canvas artwork by Millais. She is singing just before drowning. Many admire Millais’ picture for its realism in landscape and is one of many depictions of the doomed damsel in distress.

Where to see it: Tate Britain, London

Artwork: Ubu Tells the Truth, William Kentridge / Writings: Ubu Roi, Alfred Jarry

Ubu Tells the Truth, a short theatrical film by William Kentridge. It combines documentary footage of South African state police charging unarmed apartheid demonstrators with pictures, moving puppets, and violent animated drawings to create a short dramatic film. The film was initially made in 1997 for the multi-media theater piece Ubu and the Truth Commission. The work is was partially based on and alludes to French writer Alfred Jarry’s proto-absurdist play Ubu Roi from 1896. It holds everyone responsible for human rights violations during the apartheid era, including institutions that fostered it, bystanders who were complicit by their inactivity, and even the viewer.

Where to see it: Tate Modern, London

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Here are some of the best novels that you must read…

A Passage to India, E. M. Forster

After numerous travels to the countryside during his childhood, Forster penned this novel. The novel depicts a Muslim Indian doctor named Aziz and his connections with an English professor named Cyril Fielding and a visiting English schoolteacher named Adela Quested, and was published in 1924.

Tensions between the Indian community and the colonial British community rise when Adela believes that Aziz has molested her while on a tour to the Marabar caverns near fictional city Chandrapore; where the narrative is set. Despite their cultural differences and colonial tensions, the battle explores the possibility of friendship and connection between English and Indian people.

The novel’s vivid depictions of nature and the Indian environment, as well as the figurative power given to them inside the text, establish it as a great work of fiction.

Beloved, Toni Morrison

Morrison’s spiritual and melancholy novel Beloved, published in 1987, portrays the narrative of Sethe, a fugitive slave who flees to Cincinnati, Ohio, in the year 1873.

Sethe’s guilt and emotional suffering after killing her own kid, whom she named Beloved, to prevent her from enduring a life as a slave are depicted in the novel. In the lives of the characters, a spectral entity with the same name as the child arrives, encapsulating the family’s sorrow and hardship and making their sentiments and past unavoidable.

The novel received praise for tackling the psychological impacts of slavery and emphasizing the significance of family and community in the healing process. In 1988, Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes

Don Quixote was initially published in its entirety in 1615, making it one of the most significant and well-known works of Spanish literature.

Frequently recognized as one of the best novels of all time, follows the narrative of a man who takes the name Don Quixote de la Mancha and embarks on a quest to revive the tradition of chivalry by becoming a hero himself, inspired by romantic writings about chivalry.

Since the novels publication, Don Quixote has become a hero and archetypal figure, influencing a plethora of great works of art, music, and literature.

The literature has had such an impact that a word, quixotic, was coined to characterize someone who is naively unrealistic, especially in the pursuit of ideals; notably: distinguished by impulsive lofty idealistic beliefs or extravagantly chivalrous deeds, based on the Don Quixote persona.

Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison

Ellison’s Invisible Man is a landmark novel in the expression of African American male identity, sometimes confused with H.G. Wells’ science-fiction novella of the same name.

The novels narrator, an unnamed man who believes he is socially invisible to others, recounts his journey from the South to college and finally to New York City. He encounters great adversity and discrimination in each region, falling in and out of work, relationships, and dubious social movements in a wayward and ethereal attitude.

This work is known for its strange and experimental literary style, which delves into the symbolism of African American culture and identity. In 1953, Invisible Man won the National Book Award for Fiction in the United States.

Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë

Eyre, on of the novels that is frequently recommended for classroom reading, was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell to hide the fact that the author was a woman. Thankfully, a lot has changed in terms of women in literature.

Brontë has been given the acclaim that she deserves as one of history’s most important novelists about women since 1847. Jane Eyre gave a story of autonomy for women at a time when the novelist felt obligated to conceal her own identity.

The protagonist of the novel goes from being orphaned and poor to becoming a successful and self-sufficient woman. The novel revolutionizes the art of the novel by emphasizing on Jane’s growth in sensitivity with internalized action and writing, combining themes from Gothic and Victorian literature.

Mrs. Dalloway, Virgina Woolf

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is possibly the most eccentric novel that descrbes a day in the life of British socialite named Clarissa Dalloway.

The work is written in a stream-of-consciousness format throughout, using a blend of third-person narration and the thoughts of numerous characters. This technique produces a profoundly personal and revealing glimpse into the brains of the characters, with the novel depending mainly on character development rather than plot to tell its story.

Constant regrets and thoughts of the past, their struggles with mental illness and post-traumatic stress from World War I, and the impact of social expectations are all present in the characters’ minds. The novel’s distinct style, theme, and historical setting have earned it a place among the most admired and revered works of all time.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez

One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by the late Colombian author Márquez in 1967, is his most famous work.

The novel chronicles the Buenda family over seven generations, from the founding of their town Macondo until its destruction, along with the last of the family’s descendants.

The novel examines the genre of magical realism in fantasy form by emphasizing the remarkable character of regular things while mystical things are shown to be mundane.

In presenting history and Latin American culture, Márquez emphasizes the existence and force of myth and folktale. Márquez earned numerous honors for the novel, which helped him win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 for his complete body of work, with One Hundred Years of Solitude being widely regarded as his most triumphant.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is regarded as one of the most important novels for teaching students how to read literature critically (which means you may have read it in school). The story is recounted through the eyes of Nick Carraway, a young man who has recently relocated to New York City and is befriended by Jay Gatsby, an eccentric nouveau riche neighbor with enigmatic roots.

The Great Gatsby gives readers an inside glimpse at Jazz in the United States during the 1920s while also criticizing the American Dream. The novel’s most notable feature is its cover art, which has a piercing face projected into a dark blue night sky with lights from a cityscape—an picture that appears in the narrative as a key sign in a slightly different form.

Things fall apart, Chinua Achebe

Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, is an example of African literature that had to overcome prejudice in some literary circles and, despite this, has gained international reputation.

The work follows Okonkwo, an Igbo man who describes his family, his town in Nigeria, and the effects of British colonization on his homeland.

The novel is an example of African postcolonial literature, a genre that has grown significantly in size and prominence since the mid-nineteenth century. This is due to Africans have been able to express their often unheard stories of empire from the perspective of the colonized. In classes on international literature and African studies, the novel is commonly assigned reading.

To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

Lee is widely regarded as one of the most significant writers of all time, famously produced only one novel until its controversial sequel in 2015 just before her death. To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, was released in 1960 and immediately became a literary classic.

Through the naive wide eyes of a brilliant young girl named Jean Louise (“Scout”) Finch, the story tackles prejudice in the American South. Its legendary characters, most notably Atticus Finch, a sympathetic lawyer and father; served as role models and shifted attitudes in the USA at a period when racial tensions were high.

To Kill a Mockingbird won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961 and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning picture in 1962, giving the novel and its characters new life and sway in American society.

Who are the best street photographers of all time? Here is Buzz sector’s A-Z list of our favourite Street photographers from past and present.

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