Essay on “Books that Have Moved Me” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Books that Have Moved Me

Outline: I love reading classics – Dostoevsky’s crime and punishment -Shakespeare’s the Merchant of Venice – Tagore’s poems – I sometimes read books of the hour.

“Reading maketh a full man” said Bacon. I love books and have always devoted a part of my leisure to reading books, especially classics, which Ruskin calls “books for all time”, as distinguished from ‘books of the hour’. Good books profoundly influence man’s character, deepen his understanding of life, and widen his sympathies and tastes.

Several are the books which have moved me. One of them is a novel called “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky, a Russian novelist. In this novel the hero commits a murder in circumstances of the utmost secrecy. There is absolutely no chance of his crime being detected by the police. Yet his own sense of guilt torments him till it becomes intolerable and he hands himself over to the police. The title signifies that crime is its own punishment. The novel finely depicts the psychology of a man who was not wicked but who was driven to commit a crime in certain circumstances.

Another book which has appealed to me is Shakespeare’s

“The Merchant of Venice”. Everybody knows the story of this play. Bassanio requests his friend Antonio to lend him a large sum of money which he needs in order to marry Portia. As Antonio has no money at the moment, he approaches Shylock, the Jew, a cruel money-lender, who lends the required amount of money to Antonio on the condition that if he fails to return the money by a certain date, he should insist on his pound of flesh from his body. As Antonio is unable to repay the money by the appointed date, Shylock insists on his pound of flesh and seeks justice in a court of law. Portia appears in the court disguised as a lawyer and appeals to Shylock to show mercy. But Shylock refuses to budge, believing that the law is on his side. Portia then turns the tables on him by asking him to take a pound of flesh without shedding a drop of blood. If he sheds a single drop of Antonio’s blood he will violate the agreement and lose all his property according to law. Shylock leaves the court in utter despair.

I was familiar with this story before I read Shakespeare’s play. Reading the play, I felt that it breathed life into the dry bones of the story. Portia was a lively, witty, charming character. Shylock was not a villain I had thought him to be, but a Jew who was ill-treated by Christians. His desire to take revenge on a Christian was natural. I was particularly moved by the way Shakespeare’s imagination had risen above racial difference and changed the villain of the legend into a human being.

Tagore’s poems in the Gitanjali and the Gardener have moved me deeply. These poems on love and God and children are so deeply rooted in Indian life and traditions that I instinctively respond to them.

I sometimes read books of the hour. I confess that I have enjoyed reading the detective novels of Canon Doyle. But such books can’t be reread. One can read the classics again and again and find fresh meaning and pleasure in them.

Difficult Words: Classics – great books which have stood the test of time. depicts – describes. appointed date – fixed date. to turn the tables on one – to gain a position of victory from one of defeat.