Cuppa Classics brings together classic brews and timeless reads. Each edition is crafted for moments of reflection, discovery, and quiet joy.
Know MoreThere is something deeply reassuring about imagining great writers at work—not as distant geniuses struck by lightning bolts of inspiration, but as disciplined craftspeople sitting at a desk, day after day, doing the work. Few images capture this better than that of John Steinbeck methodically sharpening a pencil before beginning a new page. It sounds almost obsessive. Why pause the flow of a novel to shave cedar and graphite into a fine point? Why interrupt momentum for ritual? But with Steinbeck, the ritual was the work. Also read: Celebrating Charles Dickens: His Most Unforgettable Characters and Why They Endure
In an age where literary culture is often wrapped in cafés, curated bookshelves, and soft lamplight, it’s easy to imagine great writers as figures of refined restraint. But history, as it often does, refuses to cooperate with our aesthetic fantasies.
If you have ever picked up a thick Russian novel and wondered whether you were ready for it, chances are the name Fyodor Dostoevsky was printed on the cover. His books have a reputation: intense, philosophical, morally unsettling. They are often described not just as stories, but as experiences. But who was this man whose fiction continues to disturb and illuminate readers nearly two centuries later? Also read: Toni Morrison’s Legacy: From Beloved to Becoming the First Black Woman Nobel Laureate in Literature