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The Siege of Trencher's Farm

Straw Dogs

George Magruder, an American professor of English, moves with his wife Louise and eight-year-old daughter Karen, to Trencher's Farm in Cornwall, England, so that George can finish a book he is writing. George accidentally hits a child killer with his car and takes him back to the farm, not knowing who he is. When the locals find out, they form to a mob to break into George's house and the professor has to fight them off and protect his family.

David Sumner , a timid American mathematician, leaves the chaos of college anti-war protests to live with his young wife, Amy ([[Susan George , in her hometown of Wakely, a fictional village in Cornwall, England. Almost immediately, there is tension between the couple as David becomes immersed in his academic work and differing ideas regarding the nature of their relationship come to light: David wants the traditional division of tasks, with the man earning wages, and the wife satisfying his needs in the kitchen and bed. Amy wants greater participation from David if she is going to accept such a role: she wants him to perform all the traditionally male tasks, like fixing the toaster, but also to involve himself in her community. Chris Cawsey ([[Jim Norton , Norman Scutt , Riddaway , and Amy's former lover, Charlie Venner , are Wakely locals hired to renovate the Sumners' isolated farmhouse. They openly resent David for his intellectual pursuits, and persistently harass him. When Amy discovers their cat strangled and hanging by a light chain in their bedroom closet, Amy claims the workmen did it to intimidate David. She presses him to confront the villagers, but he refuses. David tries to win their friendship, and they invite him to go hunting in the woods the next day. During the trip, David is taken to a remote forest meadow and left there, after the workmen promise to drive the birds towards him. Having ditched David, Venner returns to the couple's farmhouse where he rapes Amy. Scutt arrives, forces Venner to hold Amy down, and rapes Amy as well. After several hours, David realizes he's been tricked and returns home to find a disheveled and withdrawn Amy. She does not tell him about the rapes. The next day, David fires the workmen, claiming that they have performed poorly and wasted time. Later that week, the Sumners attend a church social where Amy becomes distraught after seeing the men who raped her. They leave the social early, and, while driving home through thick fog, accidentally hit the local village idiot Henry Niles ([[David Warner , whom they take to their home. David phones the local pub about the accident. However, earlier that evening Niles had accidentally strangled a flirtatious young girl from the village, Janice Hedden , and now her father, the town drunkard, Tom , and the workmen looking for him are alerted by the phone call to Niles's whereabouts. Soon the drunken locals, including Amy's rapists, are pounding on the door of the Sumners' home. After a few minutes of their breaking the windows and hammering on the door, the local magistrate, Major John Scott , arrives and after attempting to defuse the situation, is shot dead by Tom. At this point the father and the workmen agree that they cannot go back on what they have done, but only continue. David realizes that they will not allow anyone in the house to live and begins preparing to defend his home. First he heats two saucepans of cooking oil. Then, when one of the locals attempts to enter through the window, he ties his hands together at knifepoint. As more men appear at another window, he scalds them with the boiling oil, temporarily incapacitating them. Then he lays down a large mantrap in his living room and sends Amy upstairs to hide. When Tom and Cawsey enter and attempt to shoot David, he knocks the shotgun out of Tom's hands, causing it to fire and mangle the man's foot, mortally wounding him. He then engages in a fight with Cawsey, beating him to death with a fire poker. Finally, Charlie appears and holds David at gunpoint, but before he can shoot him, the two hear Amy screaming. As they both run upstairs, the fifth man, Scutt, is there. He tells Charlie to take David downstairs and kill him, so they can rape Amy again. Instead, Charlie shoots Scutt and David begins to fight Charlie. As they reach the living room, David, despite Amy's pleas not to, kills Charlie by springing the mantrap over his head, crushing his neck. As David looks at the carnage around him, he murmurs, "Jesus, I got 'em all." He is then attacked by another villager and, losing the struggle, asks Amy to fetch the shotgun and shoot him. Amy hesitates before retrieving the weapon and shooting the villager. David is driving Niles to town when the latter turns and says, "I don't know my way home." David smiles and replies, "That's okay. I don't either."

positive

positive

Journey to the West

The Forbidden Kingdom

The novel has 100 chapters. These can be divided into four very unequal parts. The first, which includes chapters 1–7, is really a self-contained introduction to the main story. It deals entirely with the earlier exploits of Sun Wukong, a monkey born from a stone nourished by the Five Elements, who learns the art of the Tao, 72 polymorphic transformations, combat, and secrets of immortality, and through guile and force makes a name for himself, Qitian Dasheng (), or "Great Sage Equal to Heaven". His powers grow to match the forces of all of the Eastern (Taoist) deities, and the prologue culminates in Sun's rebellion against Heaven, during a time when he garnered a post in the celestial bureaucracy. Hubris proves his downfall when the Buddha manages to trap him under a mountain, sealing the mountain with a talisman for five hundred years. Only following this introductory story is the nominal main character, Xuanzang (Tang Sanzang), introduced. Chapters 8–12 provide his early biography and the background to his great journey. Dismayed that "the land of the South knows only greed, hedonism, promiscuity, and sins", the Buddha instructs the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Guanyin) to search Tang China for someone to take the Buddhist sutras of "transcendence and persuasion for good will" back to the East. Part of the story here also relates to how Xuanzang becomes a monk (as well as revealing his past life as a disciple of the Buddha named "Golden Cicada" (金蟬子) and comes about being sent on this pilgrimage by Emperor Taizong, who previously escaped death with the help of an official in the Underworld). The third and longest section of the work is chapters 13–99, an episodic adventure story in which Xuanzang sets out to bring back Buddhist scriptures from Leiyin Temple on Vulture Peak in India, but encounters various evils along the way. The section is set in the sparsely populated lands along the Silk Road between China and India, including Xinjiang, Turkestan, and Afghanistan. The geography described in the book is, however, almost entirely fantastic; once Xuanzang departs Chang'an, the Tang capital, and crosses the frontier (somewhere in Gansu province), he finds himself in a wilderness of deep gorges and tall mountains, inhabited by demons and animal spirits, who regard him as a potential meal (since his flesh was believed to give immortality to whoever ate it), with the occasional hidden monastery or royal city-state amidst the harsh setting. Episodes consist of 1–4 chapters and usually involve Xuanzang being captured and having his life threatened while his disciples try to find an ingenious (and often violent) way of liberating him. Although some of Xuanzang's predicaments are political and involve ordinary human beings, they more frequently consist of run-ins with various demons, many of whom turn out to be earthly manifestations of heavenly beings (whose sins will be negated by eating the flesh of Xuanzang) or animal-spirits with enough Taoist spiritual merit to assume semi-human forms. Chapters 13–22 do not follow this structure precisely, as they introduce Xuanzang's disciples, who, inspired or goaded by Guanyin, meet and agree to serve him along the way in order to atone for their sins in their past lives. * The first is Sun Wukong, or Monkey, whose given name loosely means "awakened to emptiness" (see the character's main page for a more complete description), trapped by the Buddha for defying Heaven. He appears right away in chapter 13. The most intelligent and violent of the disciples, he is constantly reproved for his violence by Xuanzang. Ultimately, he can only be controlled by a magic gold ring that Guanyin has placed around his head, which causes him unbearable headaches when Xuanzang chants the Ring Tightening Mantra. * The second, appearing in chapter 19, is Zhu Bajie, literally "Eight Precepts Pig", sometimes translated as Pigsy or just Pig. He was previously the Marshal of the Heavenly Canopy, a commander of Heaven's naval forces, and was banished to the mortal realm for flirting with the moon goddess Chang'e. A reliable fighter, he is characterised by his insatiable appetites for food and sex, and is constantly looking for a way out of his duties, which causes significant conflict with Sun Wukong. * The third, appearing in chapter 22, is the river ogre Sha Wujing, also translated as Friar Sand or Sandy. He was previously the celestial Curtain Lifting General, and was banished to the mortal realm for dropping (and shattering) a crystal goblet of the Queen Mother of the West. He is a quiet but generally dependable character, who serves as the straight foil to the comic relief of Sun and Zhu. * The fourth is the third son of the Dragon King of the West Sea, who was sentenced to death for setting fire to his father's great pearl. He was saved by Guanyin from execution to stay and wait for his call of duty. He appears first in chapter 15, but has almost no speaking role, as throughout the story he mainly appears as a horse that Xuanzang rides on. Chapter 22, where Sha Wujing is introduced, also provides a geographical boundary, as the river that the travelers cross brings them into a new "continent". Chapters 23–86 take place in the wilderness, and consist of 24 episodes of varying length, each characterised by a different magical monster or evil magician. There are impassably wide rivers, flaming mountains, a kingdom with an all-female population, a lair of seductive spider spirits, and many other fantastic scenarios. Throughout the journey, the four brave disciples have to fend off attacks on their master and teacher Xuanzang from various monsters and calamities. It is strongly suggested that most of these calamities are engineered by fate and/or the Buddha, as, while the monsters who attack are vast in power and many in number, no real harm ever comes to the four travellers. Some of the monsters turn out to be escaped celestial beasts belonging to bodhisattvas or Taoist sages and deities. Towards the end of the book there is a scene where the Buddha literally commands the fulfillment of the last disaster, because Xuanzang is one short of the 81 tribulations he needs to face before attaining Buddhahood. In chapter 87, Xuanzang finally reaches the borderlands of India, and chapters 87–99 present magical adventures in a somewhat more mundane (though still exotic) setting. At length, after a pilgrimage said to have taken fourteen years (the text actually only provides evidence for nine of those years, but presumably there was room to add additional episodes) they arrive at the half-real, half-legendary destination of Vulture Peak, where, in a scene simultaneously mystical and comic, Xuanzang receives the scriptures from the living Buddha. Chapter 100, the last of all, quickly describes the return journey to the Tang Empire, and the aftermath in which each traveller receives a reward in the form of posts in the bureaucracy of the heavens. Sun Wukong and Xuanzang achieve Buddhahood, Sha Wujing becomes an arhat, the dragon horse is made a nāga, and Zhu Bajie, whose good deeds have always been tempered by his greed, is promoted to an altar cleanser (i.e. eater of excess offerings at altars).

In this film, which is based loosely on the ancient Chinese novel Journey to the West, South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas is a fan of martial arts films and he awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King, played by Jet Li and celestial soldiers in the clouds. He visits a pawn shop in Chinatown to buy Wuxia DVDs and discovers a golden staff. On his way home, Jason is harassed by some hooligans, who attempt to use him to help them rob the shop-owner Hop. Hop tries to fight the thieves with the staff, but is shot and wounded. He tells Jason to deliver the staff to its rightful owner and Jason flees with the staff. He is cornered on the rooftop by the hooligans and almost shot too, but he is pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt. When Jason regains consciousness, he finds himself in a village in ancient China that is under attack by armored soldiers. The soldiers see his staff and attempt to seize it. He is saved by the inebriated traveling scholar Lu Yan , a supposed "immortal," who remains alert and agile even when drunk. Lu brings Jason to a teahouse and tells him the story of the rivalry between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord. The Jade Warlord tricked the Monkey King into setting aside his magic staff Ruyi Jingu Bang and transformed him into a stone statue, but the Monkey King cast his staff far away before the transformation. Being an immortal, the Monkey King did not die, but got captured inside the statue. Lu ends the tale with a prophecy about someone, a "Seeker", who will find the staff and free the Monkey King. Just then, they are attacked by the Jade Warlord's men again but manage to escape with the help of Golden Sparrow, a young girl who refers to herself in the third person. She reveals that her family was murdered by the Jade Warlord, against whom she has therefore sworn revenge. Meanwhile, the Jade Warlord , upon learning that the staff has been sighted, sends the White-Haired Witch Ni-Chang to help him retrieve it in exchange for the elixir of immortality. Jason, Lu Yan and Golden Sparrow meet a strange man dressed in white, also played by Jet Li, who takes the staff away from them. Lu Yan fights with the man for the staff until the latter realizes that Jason is the prophesied Seeker, and he joins them in their quest to free the Monkey King. As the four travel to Five Elements Mountain, Lu Yan and the Silent Monk teach Jason Kungfu along the way. After crossing a desert, they encounter Ni-Chang and her henchmen and a battle ensues, in which Lu Yan is mortally wounded by Ni-Chang's arrow. The protagonists take refuge in a monastery, where they learn that Lu is actually not an immortal as he failed the test to become one. Only the Jade Warlord's elixir can save his life. In desperation, Jason goes to the Warlord's palace alone to exchange the staff for the elixir. In the palace, the Jade Warlord asks Jason to fight with Ni-Chang to the death, because he had promised to give the elixir to only one of them. Jason is defeated by Ni-Chang and the Warlord taunts him for his foolishness, and is about to decapitate him when the other protagonists and monks from the monastery arrive to join in the battle. Jason manages to grab the elixir and he tosses it to Lu Yan, who drinks it and recovers. The Silent Monk is wounded by the Jade Warlord's Guan Dao during the fight and he passes the staff to Jason, who uses it to smash the Monkey King's statue. The Monkey King is freed and the Silent Monk is revealed to be actually one of the Monkey's clones. Lu Yan battles Ni-Chang and kills her by throwing her off the cliff hundreds of feet below. After another long battle between the Monkey King and the Jade Warlord, the Warlord is eventually stabbed by Jason and falls into a lava pit to his death. However, Golden Sparrow has been seriously injured by the Warlord and she dies in Jason's arms, thanking him in the first person before dying. By then, the Jade Emperor has returned from his meditation and he praises Jason for fulfilling the prophecy and allows him for one wish, which he asked is to return home. Jason finds himself back in 21st century Boston after passing through a magical portal at the exact moment and location of his earlier fall. He defeats the hooligans easily by using the Kungfu moves he was taught and drives them away. He alerts the police and calls an ambulance for Hop, who survives from the gunshot wound and brushes off Jason's concerns, claiming that he is immortal. . Before the film ends, Jason is delighted to see a girl who resembles Golden Sparrow and speaks to her briefly, before she heads back to her shop, called "Golden Sparrow Chinese Merchandise". The final scene shows Jason on a rooftop at night practicing his staffwork and continuing to hone his kung fu skills.

positive

positive

The Beast Master

Beastmaster 2: Through the Portal of Time

It tells the story of Hosteen Storm, an ex-soldier who travels to a distant planet with his comrades, a group of genetically altered animals with whom he has empathic and telepathic connections. The team are hired to herd livestock, but Storm still harbors anger at his former enemies the Xik, and has sworn revenge on a man named Quade for actions against Storm's family in the past. In this novel and the following series, Norton explores aspects of Native American culture (specifically that of the Navajo) through metaphors in Storm's life and in the culture he adopts on his new home world.

Dar, the Beastmaster , is back and now he has to deal with his half-brother, Arklon , and a sorceress named Lyranna who have escaped to present day Los Angeles. Despite the name, the movie is not about traveling through a time portal, but traveling through a portal to a parallel universe that 1991 Earth exists in. Dar must follow them through the portal and stop them from obtaining a neutron bomb. During his visit, Dar meets a rich girl named Jackie Trent and they become friends.

positive

positive

The Blessing

Count Your Blessings

It is set in the post-war World War II period and concerns Grace, an English country girl who moves to France after falling for a dashing aristocratic Frenchman named Charles-Edouard who lusts after other women. Their son Sigi aims to keep his parents apart by engineering misunderstandings.

While visiting Grace Allingham in wartime London at the behest of Hugh Palgrave, his friend, Charles is charmed by her and abruptly proposes marriage. They marry, but during the honeymoon Charles reports back to military duty. He reportedly is shot and taken prisoner. Grace waits for his return while raising their young son. Charles returns after eight years, but over time, Grace comes to learn that during his long absence he has been seeing other women. She turns for comfort to her old love, Hugh. A divorce seems imminent while 8-year-old Sigi is torn between the two parents and their very different ways of life. Because of their commitment to him, Grace and Charles ultimately reconcile.

positive

positive

The Last Song

The Last Song

Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside down when her parents divorced and her father, Steve, moved to Wrightsville, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains distant from her parents, particularly Steve, until her mother decides it would be everyone’s best interest if she and her brother spent the summer with him. Resentful and rebellious, Ronnie rejects Steve’s attempts to reach out to her and threatens to return to New York before the summer’s end. But soon Ronnie meets Will, the last person she thought she’d ever be attracted to, and finds herself falling for him, opening herself up to the greatest happiness – and pain – that she has never known. Ronnie finds out that Steve has stomach cancer. She and her brother, Jonah, finish the window that Jonah started with Steve for the church. Jonah goes back to New York with their mother, but Ronnie stays back with Steve until his death. She completes the song on the piano that he began to write. She and Will part after the funeral and she believes that they will never meet properly again, she thought it was over, but after Christmas, he transfers and goes to college in New York, near where Ronnie goes to college, so he can spend more time with Ronnie.

At seventeen, Veronica "Ronnie" Miller remains as rebellious as she was the day her parents divorced and her father moved to North Carolina three years prior. Once a classical piano child prodigy under the tutelage of her father, Steve Miller , Ronnie now ignores the instrument and has not spoken with her father since he left. While Juilliard School has been interested in her since she was young, Ronnie refuses to attend. Now, Steve has the chance to reconnect with his estranged daughter when her mother, Kim Miller sends the rebellious teen and her younger brother, Jonah , to spend the summer with him. Steve, a former Juilliard School professor and concert pianist, lives a quiet life in Wrightsville Beach, the small beach town in North Carolina where he grew up, working on a stained glass window for the local church to replace the one the church lost in a fire. According to the locals, it was Steve who had set fire to the church one night. After arrival, Ronnie becomes miserable, defiant, and defensive toward all those around her, including handsome, popular Will Blakelee whose introduction involved crashing into her during a volleyball match, and accidentally spilling Ronnie's strawberry shake on her. She shrugs him off and meets Blaze, an outcast who lives with her boyfriend Marcus. While at a beach campfire, Marcus hits on Ronnie and Blaze mistakes this for Ronnie flirting with him. Angered by this, Blaze later frames Ronnie for shoplifting, causing her arrest. Later on, Ronnie discovers a Loggerhead Sea Turtle nest at the beach by her house and while protecting it, she meets Will again on his volunteer work for the aquarium. After a night of staying up to defend the turtle eggs from predators with Will, she discovers he is deeper than she believed, and begins to develop feelings for him. As Ronnie falls in love with Will, she also manages to form a better and stronger bond with her father. As their relationship deepens, Will invites her to his sister's wedding. Later that day, the turtle eggs hatch and her father collapses. Ronnie immediately has Steve rushed to a hospital and learns that he has stomach cancer that has spread to his lungs. She decides to start spending more time with her father since he is unlikely to survive much longer. Around the same time, Ronnie and Will get into an argument after Will confesses that Scott, his best friend, had actually set fire to the church. She is outraged that he let everyone believe that her father was the culprit. With Will soon leaving for college, there is no time to patch things up. Fall arrives and Jonah returns to New York for the school year, but Ronnie stays behind to take care of her father. Leading a slow life, she tries to make up for the time with her father that she's lost. She continues work on a composition he's been writing , after he loses the steadiness of his hands due to his illness. He dies just as she finishes it. At his funeral she stands to make a speech but declares that no words would ever be able to show how wonderful her father really was. Instead, she decides to share with them the song she helped finish. Before she sits down to play, sunlight shines through the stained glass window, making her smile, knowing that her father is with her. Later on, while talking to the attendants, she runs into Will. He says that he liked the song she played and that he knows her dad did too and Ronnie thanks him for coming. Having decided to attend Juilliard, Ronnie is packing up to return to New York when she sees Will standing outside. She goes outside to see him and Will apologizes to her for everything that had happened and Ronnie forgives him. Will surprises Ronnie by revealing that he will be transferring to Columbia in order to be with her and they share a kiss.

positive

positive

For Love of the Game

For Love of the Game

On the second to last day of the season, Chapel's team, the Atlanta Hawks, are about to play against the New York Yankees. Chapel receives news from a friend in the media that he is about to be traded. Just the night before, his girlfriend Carol did not show up at his hotel room, and Chapel reaches the conclusion that it is time to move on and finally make the transition from boyhood to manhood. Over half the book tells the story of that final game, with flashbacks from the pitching mound and dugout to incidents throughout Chapel's life. Chapel is determined that his last game will also be his greatest, even though, with all the young new players on the Yankees, they are a far superior team. As he strikes out his opponents one after the other, he soon becomes aware of the fact that he has held the Yankees at bay thus far, not allowing one hit from the more talented Yankees team. He soon becomes determined to pitch a perfect game. Meanwhile, he reflects on his personal life, and especially on Carol, whom he finally realizes that he loves, even though he has never shown her that he really does. That morning Carol told him she was going to London and was leaving immediately, so the two key passions of his life, Carol and baseball, are about to vanish forever. As the game proceeds, Chapel feels the sharp pain in his arm that comes with age. Nevertheless, he refuses to give up the pitching mound, and chooses instead to divert his attention by delving deeper into his life and his relationship. At the end of the game, he has pitched a perfect game and retires from baseball with a new dignity. After the celebrations, he heads to the hotel and dials Carol's home, where he plans to go to tell Carol his feelings. With baseball behind him, he has grown from a boy who has led a life into manhood. This short book was discovered after Shaara's death, and publishing was arranged by his son, author Jeffrey Shaara. The book was made into a movie by Sam Raimi. it:La partita perfetta nl:For Love of the Game

The Detroit Tigers travel to New York to play a season-ending series against the New York Yankees. At 63-97, the team has long since been eliminated from playoff contention and are playing for nothing but pride against the Yankees, who have a chance to clinch the American League East with a win. For 40-year-old pitcher Billy Chapel , however, this may end up being the most significant 24 hours of his life. In his Manhattan hotel suite, Billy awaits his girlfriend Jane Aubrey , but she doesn't show. The next morning, Billy is told by Tigers' owner Gary Wheeler ([[Brian Cox that the team has been sold and that the new owners' first move will be to end Billy's 19-year tenure with the Tigers by trading him to the San Francisco Giants. Billy also learns from Jane that she is leaving that same day to accept a job offer in London. Billy is a famous, accomplished pitcher, but has a losing record this season, is near the end of his career and is also recovering from a hand injury. Wheeler hints that Billy should consider retiring rather than join another team. As he goes to Yankee Stadium to make his last start of the year, Billy begins reflecting about Jane, detailing how they met five years prior. These flashbacks are interspersed within the game, along with glimpses of Jane watching the game on a television at the airport. As the game progresses, with friend and catcher Gus Sinski aware that something is on Billy's mind other than baseball, Billy dominates the Yankees' batters, often talking to himself on how to pitch each one. While in the dugout resting between innings, Billy also reflects how his relationship with Jane was strained by his shutting her out of his life after he suffered a career-threatening injury in the off-season. The pain of pitching is getting worse as the game goes on. Billy is so caught up in his thoughts that he does not realize he is pitching a perfect game until the bottom of the eighth inning. Gus confirms this and says that the whole team is rallying behind him to do whatever it takes to keep the perfect game bid alive. Before the Tigers take the field for the bottom of the ninth inning, Billy has final ruminations about his career and his love for Jane. He autographs a baseball for Wheeler, who has been like a father to him for many years. Along with the signature, Billy also writes on the ball that he will retire "for love of the game." After finishing the perfect game, Billy sits alone in his hotel room as the realization sinks in that everything he has been and done for the past 19 years is over. Despite his amazing accomplishment, Billy weeps not only for the loss of baseball, but for the other love of his life, Jane. The next morning, Billy goes to the airport to inquire about a flight for London. Jane has missed her flight so she could watch the end of his perfect game. Finding her there waiting for her plane, they embrace and reconcile.

positive

positive

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Elusive Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel is set in 1792, during the early stages of the French Revolution. Marguerite St. Just, a beautiful French actress, is the wife of wealthy English fop Sir Percy Blakeney, a baronet. Before their marriage, Marguerite took revenge upon the Marquis de St. Cyr, who had ordered her brother to be beaten for his romantic interest in the Marquis' daughter, with the unintended consequence of the Marquis and his sons being sent to the guillotine. When Percy found out, he became estranged from his wife. Marguerite, for her part, became disillusioned with Percy's shallow, dandyish lifestyle. Meanwhile, the "League of the Scarlet Pimpernel", a secret society of twenty English aristocrats, "one to command, and nineteen to obey", is engaged in rescuing their French counterparts from the daily executions (see Reign of Terror). Their leader, the mysterious Scarlet Pimpernel, takes his nickname from the drawing of a small red flower with which he signs his messages. Despite being the talk of London society, only his followers and possibly the Prince of Wales know the Pimpernel's true identity. Like many others, Marguerite is entranced by the Pimpernel's daring exploits. At a ball attended by the Blakeneys, a verse by Percy about the "elusive Pimpernel" makes the rounds and amuses the other guests. Meanwhile, Marguerite is blackmailed by the wily new French envoy to England, Citizen Chauvelin. Chauvelin's agents have stolen a letter incriminating her beloved brother Armand, proving that he is in league with the Pimpernel. Chauvelin offers to trade Armand's life for her help against the Pimpernel. Contemptuous of her seemingly witless and unloving husband, Marguerite does not go to him for help or advice. Instead, she passes along information which enables Chauvelin to learn the Pimpernel's true identity. Later that night, Marguerite finally tells her husband of the terrible danger threatening her brother and pleads for his assistance. Percy promises to save him. After Percy unexpectedly leaves for France, Marguerite discovers to her horror that he is the Pimpernel. He had hidden behind the persona of a dull, slow-witted fop in order to deceive the world. He had not told Marguerite because of his worry that she might betray him, as she had the Marquis de St. Cyr. Desperate to save her husband, she decides to pursue Percy to France to warn him that Chauvelin knows his identity and his purpose. She persuades Sir Andrew Ffoulkes to accompany her, but because of the tide and the weather, neither they nor Chavelin can leave immediately. At Calais, Percy openly approaches Chauvelin in a decrepit inn (the Chat gris), whose owner is in Percy's pay. Despite Chauvelin's best efforts, the Englishman manages to escape by throwing pepper in Chavelin's face. Through a bold plan executed right under Chauvelin's nose, Percy rescues Marguerite's brother Armand and the Comte de Tournay, the father of a schoolfriend of Marguerite's. Marguerite pursues Percy right to the very end, resolute that she must either warn him or share his fate. Percy, heavily disguised, is captured by Chauvelin, but he does not recognise him, and he is enabled to escape. With Marguerite's love and courage amply proven, Percy's ardour is rekindled. Safely back on board their schooner, the Day Dream, the happily reconciled couple returns to England. Sir Andrew marries the Count's daughter, Suzanne.

During the French Revolution, the Scarlet Pimpernel, , who is really Sir Percy Blakeney in disguise, risks his life to rescue French noblemen from the guillotine and take them across the English Channel to safety. As cover, Sir Percy poses as a fop at Court, and curries favor with the Prince of Wales by providing advice about fashion, but secretly he leads The League, a group of noblemen with similar views. Chauvelin, French Ambassador of the Revolution to England wants to find out who the Pimpernel is and bring him in to meet his fate under French justice. When evidence points to Sir Percy, Chauvelin blackmails Blakeney's wife, Marguerite by threatening to expose her criminal brother Armand , but Marguerite doesn't believe her husband is capable of being the daring Pimpernel.

positive

positive

Nevada

Nevada

A young boy, Meade Slaughter, works along with his uncle Charlie Brent as a carny barker at a carnival and amusement park in early 1900s San Diego. Charlie had retrieved Meade from the custody of a sheriff of a small Texas town where his mother, working in a whorehouse, was killed by a John. The story follows Meade and Charlie as they work various games of chance in various amusement parks all over the U.S. Meanwhile, Meade meets, falls for, courts and marries a comely young lady named Shirley Reed. By 1929, Meade is invested heavily in the Stock Market, and loses a great deal of money. Meade is in trouble because he owes thousands of dollars. Charlie bails him out, same as Meade did when Charlie's wife wanted half of their bankroll to divorce him a few years earlier. With only a few hundred dollars between them, Charlie and Meade start over running some new concessions. They run into long-time friend Bob Terhune, a major Nevada politician who tries to convince them to set up shop in Reno. Both Charlie and Meade believe that Nevada doesn't really have enough potential to be worth going there. Low on funds, and with his and Charlie's business hurting because of low turnout, Meade decides to go to Chicago and run a series of amusements while Charlie continues to run their spots in San Diego. The rigors of the trip are so severe that Shirley and David, Meade's new son, would not be able to go. Meade returns home months later with only a few hundred dollars. On the way back he decides to take a side trip through Reno, and after a short visit to the town deciding that the place is still lacking adequate interest to be worth starting business there. While working one day, Meade returns home early due to stomach flu to discover that his wife has been with a lover. Meade leaves in a hurry, then goes to see Charlie, only to discover not only that Charlie knew about it, but that she has had more than one. Meade realizes it is partially his fault, if he had given her more attention this would not have happened. A few months later, in a moment of tenderness he lets Shirley discover he knew about it, and holds no bitterness. Realizing they need to make a clean break, a few months later Meade takes his half of the money in their business, and moves his family to Reno to try to make it on his own. Meade starts a small gambling club, called the Plush Wheel, and is almost bankrupted his first day. One of the customers he meets is a very smart man who decides to let Meade know that some of his employees have been rigging the game to rob him blind. The man realizes that Meade is an honest operator, and he doesn't want to see his type chased away. Meade learns that the man who helps him is Frank Smith, a well-known wealthy Nevada real estate investor known as Smitty. As Meade builds his business, his family life suffers. His wife, unhappy by her lack of friends and activities to be interested in, becomes seriously depressed and turns to alcohol for solice. One of the issues that drove her to acoholism include a serious incident in which two thugs, in attempting to beat up and rob Meade, are killed by Meade while defending himself. He even asks Charlie to come to Reno to help run his club so he can spend more time with her. Unable to breach the gulf between himself and Shirley, they drift further apart, until, at one point, she is killed in a tragic accident while drunk in public. Smitty convinces Meade to visit Las Vegas for the Helldorado celebration, and to scout out possible future places to open a Las Vegas Plush Wheel. While there, Meade spots an extremely attractive lady named Sandra Farley. The two hit it off and over a few weeks become lovers. They make plans to marry. Janice Terhune, Bob's wife and friend of Meade and Charley, takes David under her wing, feeling that Meade really isn't capable of taking proper care of him. In the mean time, Carlo Guiliano, owner of a number of casinos, who has been the cause of sending "crossroaders" (crooked gamblers) to try to bankrupt Meade, and was responsible for sending the thugs who were killed tried to break up Meade's club, decides he wants to drive Meade out of the business. He sends some more thugs, who attack Meade on a side street. Sandra, waiting for Meade, sees the men and tries to stop them, but is murdered by one of them. Meade sees the face of one of the killers and realizes it's one of the top enforcers for Carlo. The men run, leaving Meade severely injured and paralyzed from the waist down. Meade decides to sell his business and move to San Francisco. Living in San Francisco, Meade's hatred and anger over the murder of his fiancee Sandra, drives him to hire a local carpenter to build him various devices to allow him to strengthen his wasted body. Over time, his body heals and he secretly regains the ability to walk, hiding his ability. He decides that he wants to be able to walk by August 10. A few days before, he goes back to Reno, and lying in an alley, pretends to be a bum as Carlo Guliano exits his casino. He pulls out a sawed-off shotgun, shoots and kills the man who killed Sandra, then speaks to Guliano, letting him recognize who he is, and to make him realize that he must die too. Meade shoots and kills Guliano a few minutes after midnight, August 10, 1938, two years to the day that Sandra was murdered by Guiliano's men. Smitty picks up Meade and they hole out for a few days until the police stop looking for the killer. Meade decides to come back to Nevada, only to stay away from Tony Guiliano, Carlo's son, Meade decides to reopen his business in Las Vegas. As Meade is believed to be crippled, Tony figures it was a mob hit. Later discovering that Meade is able to walk again, he is incensed and wants to have him killed, but because Meade now has bodyguards, he can't get to him. Tony decides to wait to exact revenge. Over the years, Meade meets a number of people involved in the gambling trade, including Moe Sedway, whom Meade literally throws out of his office when he discovers that Sedway wants kickbacks in exchange for anyone wanting race results for bookmaking. Meade becomes friends with Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, a mob-connected casino operator. Because of knowing Siegel, Meade meets an extremely attractive woman named Cindy Guest. They become attracted to each other and start a romance. This sours David because he sees Cindy's relationship with his father forcing a wedge between him and Meade as well. At one point, David, miserable, gets into a fight with Meade and when Meade confronts him about his attitude, asks Meade if he is going to "blow him away" like he did to Carlo Guliano, then turns white realizing he didn't mean to admit it. The fight can't be reconciled and David grows even more distant from his father; he runs home to "mama", that is, to Janice Terhune, who has been defacto mother to him and her own kids over the years. Meanwhile Tony Guliano tells one of his employees, Carlo Gatori, to become friends with David so Carlo can use it as an edge to try to go after Meade. Cindy discovers she's pregnant, then decides if she wants more out of her relationship with him, then decides to ask Meade (without telling him that she's pregnant) if he would want to get married. Meade asks for a day or two to think about it. He comes to the conclusion that no matter how much he loved Sandra, he does love Cindy and would want to marry her. He heads home to find a "Dear John letter"; Cindy has confused his reticence, believes she pushed too hard, and decides that since he doesn't want to get married, that it's best she leave. After considerable fruitless searches by detectives, Meade decides to give up looking for her: she has effectively dropped off the face of the earth. David joins the Marines, fights in the Korean War, and is wounded in his left arm. He returns and meets a Vegas Showgirl named Gari Carter, with whom he strikes up a romance. David and his father reconcile when Meade tells David everything, including why he had killed Carlo. David decides to ask Gari to marry him; she figures it would be a bad idea, in view of the fact that as a showgirl, it was well known that she also did part-time work as a high class hooker. David is persistent, until she tells him to stop asking or he won't see him any more. Meade goes to meet Gari, and tries to talk her into taking a bribe to leave town. A fight ensues and Meade, after unintentionally insulting her, leaves hastily. Realizing she does care about David, she later calls Meade, not wanting to drive a wedge between him and David, tells him that she told David she would marry him. Janice Terhune is killed in an automobile accident, which devastates her family as well as close friends, especially David, who saw her as his mother. Gari has a baby girl, named Ann. David's war injury becomes worse, requiring him to take pain pills. Tony Guliano has plans for a large casino in Lake Tahoe, only he is unable to buy the land after its owner died because Meade had bought it from the owner's daughter, who was executor of his will. In a rage, Tony decides to strike at Meade by paying Carlo Gatori to do something to David. Meade and Gari notice David's physiological and psychological deterioration, and decide to try to find out what is wrong, even going so far as to become friends as a result of their concern over him. They suspect Gatori may have something to do with it, David's friendship with him seeming unsavory. Charlie dies of a massive heart attack. David goes missing, and a few weeks later, Meade is informed by the San Francisco police that David has been picked up, suffering from an addiction to heroin. Meade puts David in one of the best sanitoriums in the country so he can go through withdrawal. Meade hires the best private detective he can find to discover who got David addicted. David will be in Holton Sanitarium for at least six months, so Meade convinces Gari to move out to his ranch and rebuild the place. He decides also to give her a job as Vice President of Special projects for the casino, because of her ability to get things done. Meade goes back to San Francisco to meet with Thorton, the private investigator he hired, who has discovered that Gatori had gotten David hooked. Meade goes to see Smitty, who knows some tough characters. Smitty asks Meade what he thinks should be done. Meade admits "Gatori can't live after what he's done." Tony Guliano is kidnapped and taken out to the desert, where he is forced by two men at gunpoint to dig a grave in the desert; he figures they are going to bury him in it. When he is forced at gunpoint to get in the hole, and believes his captors are about to kill him, another man appears above him. The man is Meade. He asks Tony about David; he claims not to know him. Meade says that Gatori said otherwise while being tortured, as Gatori's bullet-ridden corpse is dumped into the hole next to Tony. He then tells Tony that he's not killing him because he wants him to remember this if he ever tries to evoke revenge against Meade. David comes out of the sanitarium; Meade and Gari decide to try to make things easy for him, hopefully so he can go back into some work he can handle. The attempt fails and Meade ends up having to re-commit David to the sanitarium.

A feared gunfighter named Nevada breaks his friend Cash Burridge ([[Ernie Adams from the Lineville jail. When they reach the town of Winthrop, the two men decide to take respectable jobs on a ranch owned by Ben Ide , an Englishman they rescued from Cawthorne's gang of cattle rustlers. Fearing the rustlers, Ide hires Nevada to protect his daughter, Hettie , angering the ranch foreman, Clan Dillon , who is in love with Hettie. The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and soon Nevada and Cash join up with Cawthorne's gang in order to escape the sheriff. Unknown to Nevada, Cawthorne's gang takes its orders from Dillon, who is the leader of the rustlers. During a raid, Dillon shoots both Cash and Cawthorne, but Nevada learns of his treachery from his dying pal. Later in a confrontation, Nevada is wounded by Dillon but is saved by the arrival of the posse and the evidence given by the wounded Cawthorne against the leader. With his reputation restored, Nevada is free to marry Nettie.

positive

positive

Nevada

Nevada

Ben Ide, restless with the rancher life, moves his family to Arizona, ostensibly for his mother's health, but also to search for his missing partner Nevada. He buys a beautiful ranch, in a territory known for cattle rustling. The deal soon sours as he struggles to keep his cattle and prize horses from the network of rustlers about the wild country of Arizona, not sure who he can trust and who he can't. Hettie Ide pines away for the missing Nevada, meanwhile fending off a horde of suitors. Nevada, having escaped the end of Forlorn River with only his life, resumes the life of an outlaw, seeking a way out of his situation, but working his way deeper amidst the labyrinthine social network of Arizona, in which everyone is a rustler and no one will say who leads the gangs.

A feared gunfighter named Nevada breaks his friend Cash Burridge ([[Ernie Adams from the Lineville jail. When they reach the town of Winthrop, the two men decide to take respectable jobs on a ranch owned by Ben Ide , an Englishman they rescued from Cawthorne's gang of cattle rustlers. Fearing the rustlers, Ide hires Nevada to protect his daughter, Hettie , angering the ranch foreman, Clan Dillon , who is in love with Hettie. The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and soon Nevada and Cash join up with Cawthorne's gang in order to escape the sheriff. Unknown to Nevada, Cawthorne's gang takes its orders from Dillon, who is the leader of the rustlers. During a raid, Dillon shoots both Cash and Cawthorne, but Nevada learns of his treachery from his dying pal. Later in a confrontation, Nevada is wounded by Dillon but is saved by the arrival of the posse and the evidence given by the wounded Cawthorne against the leader. With his reputation restored, Nevada is free to marry Nettie.

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negative

The Queen of the Damned

Queen of the Damned

Part One follows several different people over the same period of several days. Several of the characters appear in the two previous books, including Armand, Daniel (the "boy reporter" of Interview with the Vampire), Marius, Louis, Gabrielle and Santino. Each of the six chapters in Part One tells a different story about a different person or group of people. Two things unify these chapters: a series of dreams about red-haired twin sisters, and the fact that a powerful being is killing vampires around the world by means of spontaneous combustion. Pandora and Santino rescue Marius, having answered his telepathic call for help. Marius informs his rescuers that Akasha has been awakened by Lestat, or rather his rock music, for he has joined a rock band of mortals whose names are Alex, Larry and Tough Cookie. Having been awakened by Lestat's rebellious music, Akasha destroys her husband Enkil and plots to rule the world. Akasha is also revealed as the source of the attacks on other vampires. Part Two takes place at Lestat's concert. Jesse, a member of the secret Talamasca and relative of Maharet, is mortally injured while attending the concert, and is taken to Maharet's Sonoma compound where she is made into a vampire. The vampires from Part One later congregate in the Sonoma compound. The only vampires not present are Akasha and Lestat. Akasha has abducted Lestat and takes him as an unwilling consort to various locations in the world, inciting women to rise up and kill the men who have oppressed them. Part Three takes place at Maharet's home in a Sonoma forest. There Maharet tells the story of Akasha and the red-haired twins (who are, in fact, Maharet and her sister, Mekare) to Pandora, Jesse, Marius, Santino, Eric, Armand, Daniel, Louis and Gabrielle. Also present are Mael and Khayman, who already know the story. In Part Four, Akasha confronts the gathered vampires at Maharet's compound. There she explains her plans and offers the vampires a chance to be her "angels" in her New World Order. Akasha plans to kill 90 percent of the world's human men, and to establish a new Eden in which women will worship Akasha as a goddess. If the assembled vampires refuse to follow her, she will destroy them. The vampires refuse, but before Akasha can destroy them, Mekare enters. Mekare kills Akasha by severing her head. Mekare then consumes Akasha's brain and heart, thereby saving the lives of the remaining vampires and becoming the new Queen of the Damned. In Part Five, the vampires leave Maharet's compound and assemble at Armand's resort, the Night Island, (according to Anne Rice, inspired by Fire Island) in Florida to recover. They eventually go their separate ways (as told in The Tale of the Body Thief). Lestat takes Louis to see David Talbot in London. After their brief visit with Talbot they depart into the night, an incensed Louis and his angry words filling Lestat with glee. The Queen of the Damned, deals with the origins of vampires themselves. The mother of all vampires, Akasha, begins as a pre-Egyptian queen, in a land called Kemet (which will become Egypt), many thousands of years ago. During this time two powerful witches (Maharet and Mekare) live in the mountains of an unnamed region. The witches are able to communicate with invisible spirits and gain simple favors from them. During this period there is a bloodthirsty, invisible spirit known as Amel who continually asks the two witches if they need his assistance, although they prudently decline the offer. The witches' village is destroyed and they are incarcerated by the king and queen, who desire their knowledge. When the witches offend Akasha, the Queen condemns the twins. Enkil then orders his chief steward (who is Khayman as a mortal man) to rape the twins in his stead, which would prove their lack of power, before the eyes of the court. Afterward the witches are cast out into the desert. While making her way back home with a pregnant Maharet, Mekare curses the king and queen secretly with the bloodthirsty spirit. Eventually this spirit inflicts such torment on Akasha and Enkil that they again demand advice and help from the two witches. Conspirators, unhappy with the young king's policies, assassinate the royal couple in Khayman's house whilst they were attempting to exorcise Amel, who had been tormenting Khayman. While the king and queen lie dying, the evil spirit sees its chance to ensnare the soul of the dying queen and pulls it back into her body. The spirit combines itself with the flesh and blood of the queen, transforming her into a vampire. Akasha allows the king to drink her blood, which saves his life. They then order Khayman to find the witches and bring them back to Egypt so that they could use their knowledge of spirits to help them, as they feel guilty because of their thirst for blood. However, when the witches admit that they cannot help the monarchs, Akasha orders the mutilation of the witches: Maharet loses her eyes and Mekare her tongue. Afterward, Khayman, who had been turned into a vampire by Akasha, comes to the witches' cell and turns them too. The three flee together, but are caught by Akasha's soldiers. Khayman escapes, but Maharet and Mekare are further punished. The witches are put into two separate coffins which are then set afloat on two separate bodies of water. They are only reunited near the end of the novel Queen of the Damned. In Mekare's absence, Maharet returns to watch over her daughter and her descendants. Maharet's descendants become what she calls the Great Family. A maternal line, the Great Family includes every culture, religion, ethnicity, and race. The Great Family represents all humanity and shows the vampires what Akasha would destroy with the creation of her New World Order. As the source of all vampires, Akasha is connected to all vampires by the blood and spirit they collectively share. In an experiment by the first Keeper, Akasha and Enkil are exposed to sunlight when they are several thousand years old. This merely darkens their skin. However, the result on all other vampires is extreme, and many of the weakest vampires die, thus confirming the legend that anything that harms Akasha will also directly affect all of her progeny.

Vampire Lestat is awakened from decades of slumber by the sound of a Nu Metal band, which he proceeds to take over as lead singer. Achieving international success and planning a massive live concert, Lestat is approached by Marius, and warned that the vampires of the world will not tolerate his flamboyant public profile. Jesse Reeves, a researcher for the paranormal studies group Talamasca, is intrigued by Lestat's lyrics and tells the rest of the group her theory that he really is a vampire. Her mentor, David Talbot, takes her aside and tells her they know he is and that a vampire called Marius made him.In the novels, an alchemist named Magnus is Lestat's creator. He also shows her Lestat's journal that he recovered and is now in the Talamasca library. In a flashback to his origins, Lestat recalls how he awoke Akasha, the first vampire, with his music. Jesse tracks him down to a London vampire club where he confronts her, and she follows him to Los Angeles for the concert, where she gives him his journal. Shortly after they leave London. Akasha, awakened by Lestat's new music, arrives and torches the club, and all the vampires inside, who want Lestat dead. At the concert in Death Valley, a mob of vampires attack Lestat and Marius. Akasha bursts through the stage and takes Lestat with her as her new King. Empowered by Akasha's blood, Lestat and the Queen confront the Ancient Vampires at the home of Maharet, Jesse's aunt, who is an Ancient Vampire herself. The Ancient Vampires were planning to kill Akasha, to save the human world from demise. Akasha then commands Lestat to kill Jesse. Lestat ostensibly obeys but then turns and begins to drain Akasha's blood with the help of the Ancients. Mael and Pandora are killed by Akasha's power, and Armand is almost killed, but is saved as her powers diminish. Maharet is the last to drink Akasha's blood, and thereby ends up becoming a marble "statue". Lestat then turns and walks to where Jesse is lying lifeless, and cradling her in his arms, gives her his blood, turning her into a vampire. Jesse, now a vampire, and Lestat then return the journal to the Talamasca, and walk away, among mortals, into the night. As they exit, Marius enters the Talamasca. The film closes with a scene of David reading the journal as Marius's voice catches his attention, cheerfully saying, "Hello, David."

positive

positive

My Friend Flicka

My Friend Flicka

Ken McLaughlin is a ten-year-old boy who lives on a remote Wyoming ranch, the Goose Bar, with his father, Rob; his mother, Nell; and his older brother, Howard. Rob is often unsatisfied with Ken because the boy daydreams when he should be attending to practical matters; Nell, however, shares her son's sensitive nature and is more sympathetic. Howard, the older son, was allowed to choose and train a colt from among the Goose Bar herd but, although Ken loves horses, Rob doesn't think his wool-gathering son deserves such a privilege yet. At the beginning of the novel, Ken has again angered his father by returning home from boarding school with failing grades, and will therefore have to repeat fifth grade, an expense Rob can ill afford. Nell persuades Rob to let Ken choose a colt of his own. Ken is unable to decide which of that year's yearlings he wants until one day he sees a beautiful sorrel filly running swiftly away from him, and makes his choice. Rob, once again, is annoyed with his son; this particular filly has a strain of mustang blood that makes her very wild – "loco", in ranch idiom. All the Goose Bar horses with this same strain have been fast, beautiful, but utterly untameable, and after many years of trying to break just one of them, Rob has decided to get rid of them all. Ken persists, however, and Rob reluctantly agrees to let him have the filly. When Rob and Ken go out to capture her, she lives up to her family reputation: she tries to escape by attempting to jump an impossibly high barbed wire fence and injures herself severely. Ken spends the rest of the summer nursing the filly. He names her Flicka – Swedish for "girl" – and spends hours every day tending to her needs and keeping her company. Flicka comes to love and trust the boy, but her wounds from the barbed wire fence fester and cause a dangerous blood infection. She begins to waste away and grows so thin and weak that Rob decides that she must be shot to put her out of her misery. The night before the order is to be carried out, Flicka wades into a shallow brook, stumbles, falls, and is unable to rise. Ken finds her there and spends the rest of the night sitting in the water, holding her head in his arms so she doesn't drown. Although Ken nearly dies from exposure, the cold running water cures Flicka's fever, and all ends well.

Wyoming ranchers Rob and Nell McLaughlin somewhat reluctantly give son Ken, 10, a chance to raise a horse and learn responsibility. He chooses a year-old filly and names her Flicka, which ranch hand Gus informs him is a Swedish word for "little girl." Rising debts and a "loco" strain have created problems for the McLaughlins. They accept a $500 offer from a neighboring rancher for the filly's mother, Rocket, but the mare is accidentally killed while being loaded into a van. The situation gets worse when Flicka is badly cut by barbed wire. Ken cares for her best he can, but the infection leads father Rob to conclude that the horse must be put down. A gunshot by his father makes Ken fear the worst, but it turns out he was warding off a mountain lion after being warned by Flicka. The filly's life is spared, and young Ken nurtures her back to health.

positive

positive

Laura

Laura

Like Wilkie Collins' groundbreaking detective novel The Moonstone (1868), Laura is narrated in the first person by several alternating characters. These individual stories all revolve around the apparent murder of the title character, a successful New York advertiser killed in the doorway of her apartment with a shotgun blast that obliterated her face. Detective Mark MacPherson, assigned to the case, begins investigating the two men who were closest to Laura: her former lover, a narcissistic middle-aged writer named Waldo Lydecker, and her fiance, the philandering Shelby Carpenter. As he learns more about Laura, Mark – not the most sentimental of men – begins to fall in love with her memory. When Laura turns out to be very much alive, however, she becomes the prime suspect. The novel has some autobiographical elements; Caspary, like Laura, was an independent woman who earned her living as an advertiser and who struggled to balance career and romance.

New York City police detective Mark McPherson is investigating the murder of beautiful, and highly successful, advertising executive, Laura Hunt . Laura has been killed by a shotgun blast to the face, just inside the doorway to her apartment, before the start of the film. He interviews charismatic newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker , an imperious, decadent dandy, who relates how he met Laura, became her mentor, and used his considerable influence and fame to advance her career. McPherson also questions Laura's parasitic playboy fiancé, Shelby Carpenter , her wealthy socialite aunt, Ann Treadwell , who'd been carrying on with Carpenter and giving him money, and her loyal housekeeper, Bessie Clary . Through the testimony of her friends, and the reading of her letters and diary, McPherson comes to know Laura and slowly becomes obsessed with her, so much so Lydecker accuses him of falling in love with the dead woman. He also learns that Lydecker was jealous of Laura's suitors, using his newspaper column and influence to keep them at bay. One night, the detective falls asleep in Laura's apartment, under her portrait, and is awakened by the sound of someone entering the apartment. He is shocked to discover it is Laura. Laura finds a dress in her closet belonging to one of her models, Diane Redfern. McPherson concludes that she, Diane Redfern, was the victim, brought there by Carpenter, while Laura was away in the country. Now it becomes even more urgent to unmask the murderer. A party is thrown to welcome Laura's return. At the party, McPherson arrests Laura for the murder of Diana Redfern. Upon questioning her, he is convinced of her innocence and that she does not love Shelby. He returns her to her apartment, and then goes to search Lydecker's apartment. There he finds a clock that is identical to the one in Laura's apartment. On closer examination he finds a secret compartment. He returns to Laura's apartment. Lydecker is there and it is apparent there is a growing bond between Laura and the detective. Lydecker insults McPherson and is sent away by Laura. After Lydecker has left, McPherson examines Laura's clock and finds the shotgun that killed Diane. Laura is confronted with the truth that Lydecker was the murderer. McPherson locks Laura in to her apartment, warning her not to let any one in. After he has left, Lydecker gains access to the apartment. Lydecker attempts to kill Laura, claiming if he cannot have her, no one can. He is shot down by McPherson's sergeant, who had told McPherson that Lydecker had never left the building, causing the two policemen to return to the apartment. Lydecker's last words are: "Goodbye, Laura. Goodbye, my love."

positive

positive

The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side

The Mirror Crack'd

Marina Gregg is a famous, temperamental, much loved movie star who has come to settle down in the village of St. Mary Mead after the death of Colonel Bantry, who used to live at Gossington Hall where Marina has taken up residence with her husband Jason Rudd. Heather Badcock, an ordinary albeit annoying woman, dies after drinking a cocktail at a party hosted by Marina. Shortly before her death, Heather was in conversation with Marina, giving her a long boring account of how she had met Marina many years ago - getting out of bed despite her illness and putting on lots of makeup, in order to seek Marina's autograph. Marina is seem with a 'frozen'look on her face for a moment while Heather talks to her; a look likened to the Lady of Shalott, as though 'doom has come upon her'. It then comes to light that Marina had handed her own drink to Heather after Heather's drink was spilled. Therefore it is surmised that Marina must be the intended victim. As a famous star who has married five times, she is a far more likely murder target. Suspicion is cast on many people including Marina's seemingly devoted husband, a big-shot American TV producer who is a former admirer, and an American actress who was previously Marina's rival in love. (Both Americans turn up unexpectedly at the party). It also comes to light that an arty photographer at the party is actually one of three children that Marina had adopted in the past for a while and then 'got tired of' (Marina does not recognize her as such at the party). It is known that 11-12 years before the events in the book, Marina desperately wanted children of her own but had difficulties conceiving. After adopting three children, she became pregnant but her baby was born mentally handicapped and abandoned to a lifetime of institutions, leaving Marina emotionally scarred. This misfortune was due to Marina contracting German measles in the early stages of her pregnancy. While police search for clues, two other murders take place - one of Marina's social secretary and the other of Marina's butler (both of whom were serving drinks at the party). Finally, Miss Marple deduces what Marina had instantly realised at the party, that Heather is the woman who was responsible for infecting Marina with German measles all those years previously when she put on make up to cover the rash and went to meet Marina for her autograph. Overcome by rage and grief at seeing her unwitting tormentor looking so happy and proud of her act, Marina impulsively poisons her own glass and hands it to Heather after making Heather spill her own drink. At the end of the book, Marina is found dead from a drug overdose.

Set in the fictional English village of St. Mary Mead, home of Miss Jane Marple , in 1953, a big Hollywood production company arrives to film a costume movie about Mary, Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I with two famous movie stars, Marina Rudd and Lola Brewster . The two actresses are old rivals who hate each other. Marina, who is making a much heralded comeback after a prolonged "illness" and retirement, when she, in reality, has had a nervous breakdown, and her husband, Jason Rudd , who is directing the movie they are making, arrive with their entourage. When she learns that Lola will be in the movie as well, she becomes enraged and vents her anger. Lola and her husband, Martin N. "Marty" Fenn , who is producing the movie they are making, then arrive. Excitement runs high in St. Mary Mead, as the locals have been invited to a reception held by the movie company in a manor house, Gossington Hall, to meet the celebrities. Lola and Marina come face to face at the reception and exchange some potent and comical insults, nasty one-liners, as they smile and pose for the cameras. The two square off in a series of hilarious and cleverly written and performed cat-fights throughout the movie. Marina however, has been receiving anonymous death threats. After her initial exchange with Lola at the reception, she is cornered by a gushing, devoted fan, Heather Badcock , who bores her with a long and detailed story about having actually met Marina in person during World War II. After recounting the meeting they had all those years ago, when she arose from her sickbed to go and meet the glamorous star, Babcock drinks a cocktail that was made for Marina and quickly dies from poisoning. The incident is unfortunate for Marina's mental state, and she is beside herself. Everyone is certain she was the intended murder victim. Once filming begins on the movie, she discovers that apart from threatening notes made up of newspaper clippings, her cup of coffee on the set has also been spiked with poison, sending her into fits of terror. The police detective from Scotland Yard investigating the case, Inspector Dermot Craddock , is baffled as he tries to uncover who is behind the attempt on the life of the actress and the subsequent murder of the innocent woman. The suspected are Ella Zielinsky , Jason's production assistant who is secretly having an affair with him and would like Marina out of the way, and the hotheaded actress Lola Brewster. Inspector Craddock asks his aunt, the renowned amateur detective Miss Jane Marple, who injured her foot at the reception and is confined to her home, for assistance. The main suspect, Zielinsky, is then killed by a lethal nose spray after going to a pay phone in the village, where she called the murderer and threatened to expose him. Miss Marple, now back on her feet, visits Gossington Hall, where Marina and Jason are staying, and views where Babcock's death occurred. Working from information received from her cleaning woman, Cherry Baker (played by [[Wendy Morgan , who was working as a waitress the day of the murder, the determined elderly sleuth begins to piece together the events of the fatal reception and solves the mystery. By the time she has collected all the evidence to indicate who committed the crime, however, another death occurs at Gossington Hall, which sadly closes the case on who the murderer in St. Mary Mead actually is: Marina Rudd, who has apparently committed suicide. In the film's denouement, Miss Marple explains the murders that have occurred. Heather Babcock's story was Marina's initial motive. Ms. Babcock suffered from German measles — a rather harmless disease to most adults, but problematic for a pregnant woman. Heather Babcock innocently infected Marina when she met her during World War Two. Marina was pregnant at the time; the disease caused her child to be born with mental retardation. Upon hearing Heather cheerfully tell this story, Marina was overcome with rage and poisoned her without thinking. She then spread the idea that she was the intended victim, delivering the death threats and poisoning her own coffee. Ella, who made phone calls to various suspects from the pay phone, accidentally guessed correctly, prompting Marina to murder her. As Marina is now dead, she will not be brought to justice. Jason, her devoted husband, confesses to Miss Marple that he actually administered the dosage of poison to save her from prosecution. However, Marina didn't touch the hot chocolate he made for her and rather poisoned herself.

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Red Alert

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

In paranoid delusion, a moribund U.S. Air Force (USAF) general, thinking to make the world a better place, unilaterally launches an airborne, preemptive, nuclear attack upon the USSR, from his command at the Sonora, Texas, Strategic Air Command (SAC) bomber base, by ordering the 843rd bomber wing to attack, per war plan "Wing Attack Plan R"—which would authorize a lower-echelon SAC commander to retaliate after an enemy first strike has decapitated the U.S. Government. He attacks with the entire B-52 bomber wing of new airplanes each armed with two nuclear weapons and protected with electronic countermeasures to prevent the Soviets from shooting them down. When the U.S. President and Cabinet become aware the attack is underway, they assist the Soviet defense interception of the USAF bombers; to little effect, because the Soviets destroy only two bombers and damage one, the Alabama Angel, that remains airborne and en route to target. The U.S. Government re-establishes the SAC airbase chain-of-command, but the suicidal general who launched the attack—the only man knowing the recall code—kills himself before capture and interrogation; however, his executive officer correctly deduces the recall code from among the general's desk pad doodles. The code is transmitted to and received by the surviving bomber airplanes and are successfully recalled, minutes before bombing their targets in the Soviet Union—save for the Alabama Angel—whose earlier-damaged radio prevents its recalling, and it progresses to its target. In a last effort to avert a Soviet–American nuclear war, the U.S. President offers the Soviet Premier the compensatory right to destroy a U.S. city, offering Atlantic City, New Jersey, however, at the final moment, the Alabama Angel fails to destroy its target and nuclear catastrophe is averted.

United States Air Force Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper is commander of Burpelson Air Force Base, which houses the SAC B-52 airborne alert bomber force just hours from the Soviet border. Ripper orders his executive officer, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake of the RAF , to put the base on alert, asserting that it is not a drill. The alert is sent to the patrolling aircraft, including one piloted by Aircraft commander Major T. J. "King" Kong and his crew. All the aircraft commence an attack flight on Russia, and lock out unauthorized external communications through the CRM 114 Discriminator. Mandrake discovers that no order for war has been received, and tries to stop Ripper, who locks them both in his office. Ripper reveals to Mandrake that he believes the Soviets have been using fluoridation of United States' water supplies to pollute the "precious bodily fluids" of Americans. At The Pentagon, General Buck Turgidson briefs President Merkin Muffley in the "War Room" along with several other top officers and aides about the attack. Muffley is shocked to learn that such orders could be given without his authorization, although he had OK'ed this in the case of Soviet first-strike attack on Washington D.C. Turgidson reports that his men are trying to cycle through every CRM code to issue the stand-down order but this could take over two days. Muffley orders Turgidson to storm the base and seize Ripper, though Turgidson warns that Ripper may have already alerted his men to this possibility. Gen. Turgidson attempts to convince Muffley to let the attack continue, as their first strike on the Soviets would wipe out the majority of the Soviet missiles, and the little they could retaliate with would only cost a few million American lives. Muffley refuses, and instead brings in the Soviet ambassador Alexei de Sadeski to get Soviet premier Dimitri Kisov on the "Hot Line". The President alerts the Premier to the situation, and authorizes the USSR to fire upon the US planes to stop the attack. After a heated discussion, the ambassador explains that the Soviet Union has created a doomsday device consisting of 50 buried bombs with "Cobalt Thorium G" set to detonate should any nuclear attack strike their country; the Soviets had conceived of this after reading a New York Times article claiming the United States was also working on such a device. The President's wheelchair-bound scientific advisor, a sinister German named Dr. Strangelove , considers that this is a ploy, as a secret doomsday device would be an ineffectual deterrent. Sadeski admits they had plans to reveal its existence the following week, as a surprise for the Premier's birthday. U.S. Army airborne forces arrive at Burpelson, but as predicted, the base's troops consider the troops to be Soviets in disguise and open fire. Despite many casualties, the Army forces eventually overtake the base. Before he can be restrained, Ripper shoots himself. Colonel "Bat" Guano forces his way into Ripper's office. He initially suspects Mandrake of being an enemy, but Mandrake convinces him otherwise. Mandrake has identified the proper recall code for the bombers from Ripper's desk blotter doodles, and SAC is able to contact the bomber planes and send them away from Soviet air space. The War Room celebrates. However, Sadeski reports that of the four planes that the Soviets had believed shot down, they cannot account for one of them - that of Major Kong. Anti-aircraft fire had ruptured the fuel tank and caused the CRM aboard Kong's plane to self-destruct, leaving the crew no way to receive the counter-order. President Muffley gives the plane's original destination to the Soviets, to allow them to concentrate on finding it. However, due to the fuel loss, Major Kong has changed the destination to a closer high-priority target, a ICBM complex at Kodlosk. On approaching the new target, the crew discovers that the bomb release mechanism has been damaged. Major Kong tries to repair the damage, but ends up falling out of the plane along with the bomb; he straddles the bomb and rides it like a rodeo cowboy as it falls and detonates. While discussing the aftereffects of the activation of the doomsday device, Sadeski notes that, within ten months, the surface of the earth will be uninhabitable. Dr. Strangelove recommends that the President gather several hundreds of thousands of people, with a high female-to-male ratio, to live in deep mineshafts in order to escape the radiation, and to then institute a breeding program to allow the United States to repopulate the surface after a hundred years have passed. Gen. Turgidson warns that the Soviets will likely do the same. At this point, Dr. Strangelove suddenly shouts that he has a plan, and miraculously gets up from his wheelchair, takes a few halting steps and shouts, "Mein Führer! I can walk!" The film then cuts to a montage of nuclear detonations, accompanied by Vera Lynn's recording of "We'll Meet Again."

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Zorba the Greek

Zorba the Greek

The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning in the 1930s. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Caucasus in order to help some ethnic Greeks who are undergoing persecution. He sets off for Crete in order to re-open a disused lignite mine and immerse himself in the world of peasants and working-class people. He is about to dip into his copy of Dante's Divine Comedy when he feels he is being watched; he turns around and sees a man of around sixty peering at him through the glass door. The man enters and immediately approaches him to ask for work. He claims expertise as a chef, a miner, and player of the santuri, or cimbalom, and introduces himself as Alexis Zorba, a Greek born in Romania. The narrator is fascinated by Zorba's lascivious opinions and expressive manner and decides to employ him as a foreman. On their way to Crete, they talk on a great number of subjects, and Zorba's soliloquies set the tone for a large part of the book. On arrival, they reject the hospitality of Anagnostis and Kondomanolious the café-owner, and on Zorba's suggestion make their way to Madame Hortense's hotel, which is nothing more than a row of old bathing-huts. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut. The narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of "good prose, carefully ordered, sober… powerful and restrained" and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table and get her to talk about her past as a courtesan. Zorba gives her the pet-name "Bouboulina" and, with the help of his cimbalom, seduces her. The protagonist seethes in his room while listening to the sounds of their impassioned lovemaking. The next day, the mine opens and work begins. The narrator, who has socialist ideals, attempts to get to know the workers, but Zorba warns him to keep his distance: "Man is a brute.... If you're cruel to him, he respects and fears you. If you're kind to him, he plucks your eyes out." Zorba himself plunges into the work, which is characteristic of his overall attitude, which is one of being absorbed in whatever one is doing or whomever one is with at that moment. Quite frequently Zorba works long hours and requests not to be interrupted while working. The narrator and Zorba have a great many lengthy conversations, about a variety of things, from life to religion, each other's past and how they came to be where they are now, and the narrator learns a great deal about humanity from Zorba that he otherwise had not gleaned from his life of books and paper. The narrator absorbs a new zest for life from his experiences with Zorba and the other people around him, but reversal and tragedy mark his stay on Crete, and, alienated by their harshness and amorality, he eventually returns to the mainland once his and Zorba's ventures are completely financially spent. Having overcome one of his own demons (such as his internal "no," which the narrator equates with the Buddha, whose teachings he has been studying and about whom he has been writing for much of the narrative, and who he also equates with "the void") and having a sense that he is needed elsewhere (near the end of the novel, the narrator has a premonition of the death of his old friend Stavridakis, which plays a role in the timing of his departure to the mainland), the narrator takes his leave of Zorba for the mainland, which, despite the lack of any major outward burst of emotionality, is significantly emotionally wrenching for both Zorba and the narrator. It almost goes without saying that the two (the narrator and Zorba) will remember each other for the duration of their natural lives.

Basil is a half-English half-Greek writer who has been raised in Britain and bears all the hallmarks of an uptight, middle-class Englishman. He is waiting at a port in mainland Greece one day when he meets a gruff, yet enthusiastic peasant and musician named Zorba . Basil explains to Zorba that he is traveling to a rural Cretan village where his father owns some land, with the intention of opening up a lignite mine and perhaps curing his writer's block. Zorba relates his experience with mining and convinces Basil to take him along. When they arrive at Crete, they take a car to the village where they are greeted enthusiastically by the town's impoverished peasant community. They stay with an old, French war widow named Madame Hortense in her self-styled "Hotel Ritz". The ever audacious Zorba tries to persuade Basil into making a move on Madame Hortense, but when he is reluctant, Zorba instead seizes the opportunity, and they form a relationship. Over the next few days, Basil and Zorba attempt to work the old lignite mine, but find it too unsafe and shut it down. Zorba then has an idea to use the forest opposite as a kind of logging area , however the land is owned by the powerful monastery of the village, so Zorba goes over there and befriends the monks by getting them drunk. Afterwards, he comes home to Basil and begins to dance in a way that mesmerizes Basil. Meanwhile, Basil and Zorba get their first introduction to "the Widow" , a young, widowed woman, who is incessantly teased by the townspeople for not remarrying, especially to a young, local boy who is madly in love with her, but whom she has spurned repeatedly. One rainy afternoon, Basil offers her his umbrella, which she reluctantly takes. Zorba suggests that she is attracted to him, but Basil, ever shy, denies this and refuses to pursue the widow. Basil hands Zorba some money, as he sends him off to the nearby town of Chania, where Zorba is to buy cable and other supplies for the implementation of his grand plan. Zorba says goodbye to Basil and Madame Hortense, who is by now madly in love with him. While in Chania, Zorba entertains himself at a cabaret and strikes up a brief romance with a much younger dancer. In a letter to Basil, he details his exploits and indicates that he has found love. Angered by Zorba's apparent irresponsibility and the squandering of his money, Basil untruthfully tells Madame Hortense that Zorba has declared his love to her and intends to marry her upon his return — to which she is ecstatic to the point of tears. Meanwhile, the Widow returns Basil's umbrella by way of Mimithos , the simple-minded village idiot. When Zorba eventually returns with supplies and gifts, he is surprised and angered to hear about Basil's lie to Madame Hortense. He also asks Basil concerning his whereabouts the night before. That night, Basil had finally gone to the Widow's house, made love to her and spent the night. The brief encounter comes at great cost. A villager catches sight of them, and word spreads, until the young, local boy who is in love with the Widow is taunted mercilessly about it. The next morning, the villagers find his body by the sea, where he has drowned himself out of shame. The boy's father holds a funeral which all the villagers attend. The widow attempts to come inconspicuously, but is blocked from entering the church. She is eventually trapped in the courtyard, where she is beaten and stoned by the villagers, who hold her responsible for the young boy's suicide. Basil, meek and fearful of intervening, tells Mimithos to quickly fetch Zorba. Zorba arrives just as a villager, a friend of the boy, tries to pull a knife and kill the widow. Zorba overpowers the much younger man and disarms him. Thinking that the situation is now under control, Zorba asks the Widow to follow him and turns his back. At that moment, the dead boy's father pulls his knife and cuts the widow's throat. She dies instantly, as the villagers shuffle away apathetically, whisking the father away. Only Basil, Zorba and Mimithos show any emotion at her murder. Basil proclaims his inability to intervene whereupon Zorba laments the futility of death. On a rainy day, Basil and Zorba come home and find Madame Hortense waiting for them. She expresses anger at Zorba for making no progress on the wedding. Zorba conjures up a story that he has ordered a white satin wedding dresses, lined with pearls and adorned with real gold. Madame Hortense pulls out two golden rings she had made and proposes their immediate engagement. Zorba tries to delay, but eventually agrees and goes along with gusto, to Basil's surprise. A while later, Madame Hortense who apparently has contracted pneumonia, is seen on her deathbed. Zorba stays by her side, along with Basil. Meanwhile, word gets round that "the foreigner" is dying, and that since she has no heirs, the State will take all her possessions and money. The desperately poor villagers crowd around her hotel, impatiently waiting for her demise so they can steal her belongings. Two old ladies enter her room and gaze expectantly at her, hoping to get first hands on all her belongings. Other women try to enter and raid her belongings, but Zorba can fight them off. In an instant of her death, the women re-enter Madame Hortense's bedroom to steal her most valued belongings. Zorba leaves with a sigh, as the hotel is ransacked and stripped bare by the shrieking and excited villagers. When Zorba returns to Madame Hortense's bedroom, the entire room is stripped bare apart from her bed and the bird in her birdcage. Zorba takes the birdcage with him. Finally, Zorba's elaborate contraption to ferry timber down the hill is complete. A festive ceremony is held, and all the villagers have turned out to see it. After a blessing from the local priests, Zorba gives the signal to start by firing a rifle in the air. A log comes hurtling down the zip line at a worrying pace, destroying the log itself and slightly damaging part of the contraption. Zorba remains unconcerned and gives orders for a second log. This one also speeds down and shoots straight into the sea. By now the villagers and priests have become fearful and run for cover. Zorba remains unfazed and orders a third log, which accelerates down with such violence that it dislodges the entire contraption, destroying everything the men had worked for. The villagers flee, leaving only Basil and Zorba behind. Basil and Zorba sit by the shore to eat a rack of lamb for lunch. Zorba pretends to tell the future from the lamb shank, saying that he foresees a great journey to a big city. He then asks Basil directly when he plans to leave, and Basil replies that he will leave in a few days. Zorba declares his sadness about Basil's now imminent return to England and tells Basil that he is missing madness. Basil asks Zorba to teach him how to dance. Zorba teaches him the sirtaki and Basil begins to laugh hysterically at the catastrophic contraption. The story ends with both men enthusiastically dancing the sirtaki on the beach.

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The End of the Affair

The End of the Affair

The novel focuses on Maurice Bendrix, a rising writer during World War II in London, and Sarah Miles, the wife of an impotent civil servant. Bendrix is loosely based on Greene himself, and he reflects often on the act of writing a novel. Sarah is based loosely on Greene's mistress at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated. Bendrix and Sarah fall in love quickly, but he soon realizes that the affair will end as quickly as it began. The relationship suffers from his overt and admitted jealousy. He is frustrated by her refusal to divorce Henry, her amiable but boring husband. When a bomb blasts Bendrix's flat as he is with Sarah, he is nearly killed. After this, Sarah breaks off the affair with no apparent explanation. Later, Bendrix is still wracked with jealousy when he sees Henry crossing the Common that separates their flats. Henry has finally started to suspect something, and Bendrix decides to go to a private detective to discover Sarah's new lover. Through her diary, he learns that, when she thought he was dead after the bombing, she made a promise to God not to see Bendrix again if He allowed him to live again. Greene describes Sarah's struggles. After her sudden death from a lung infection brought to a climax by walking on the Common in the rain, several miraculous events occur, advocating for some kind of meaningfulness to Sarah's faith. By the last page of the novel, Bendrix may have come to believe in a God as well, though not to love Him. The End of the Affair is the fourth and last of Greene's explicitly Catholic novels.

{{Expand section}} Maurice Bendrix , is the clandestine lover of married Sarah Miles .http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-end-of-the-affair-v90464

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Sheep

The Dark

A young family moves to rural Wales to renovate a farmhouse and recover from the drowning death of their daughter, Ruthie. While there, the family witnesses a series of terrible mutilations of sheep by an unknown perpetrator.

While in Wales visiting her husband James , Adele tries to fix her relationship with her daughter Sarah . By the side of a cliff, they see a strange memorial with evidence of a plate missing and with the name "Annwyn" marked on it. A local man Dafydd explains that, according to traditional Welsh mythology, Annwyn is a sort of afterlife. Later, Sarah vanishes on the beach, and another similar looking girl, named Ebrill , appears in her place. Ebrill is the long-dead daughter of a local shepherd who also served as the town's pastor fifty years prior. When Ebrill, who was a sickly child, died, her father gave her to the ocean, sending her to Annwyn. He then convinced his followers to throw themselves into the ocean, claiming that it was the way to Paradise, while he privately hoped that their sacrifice would return Ebrill to him from Annwyn. Ebrill did come back, but, as the film states, something came back with her. That something killed the sheep, something upon which the local newspapers remarked upon. Her father tried to draw the evil out of her, through trepanning and locking her in her room. Dafydd was one of the followers who did not throw himself off the cliff, though both his parents did. Ebrill's father took him in, and when Dafydd could no longer bear witnessing the shepherd hurting Ebrill, he set her free, which in turn allowed the evil within her to lash out and shove her father over the cliff. Realizing that Ebrill never should have been brought back from Annwyn, a young Dafydd sent her back by drowning her. Adele makes the connection that Ebrill is back once more because she has found a living substitute in Sarah, hence the film's tagline "One of the living for one of the dead". In an attempt to rescue her daughter, Adele throws both herself and Ebrill over the cliffs, despite James' protests, and sends them both to Annwyn, a sepia-toned, misty version of reality. While in Annwyn, the film reveals that Sarah attempted suicide following an argument with her mother, resulting in their trip to Wales. Adele begs for a second chance with her daughter. Ebrill informs her that the dead don't get second chances. Ebrill and her father perform trepannation on Adele, to draw out the evil within her. Adele eventually escapes her bonds and rushes to find Sarah, who is locked behind a door. Adele finds a key and tearfully apologizes for being so selfish. In unlocking the door, Adele is able to rescue Sarah from Annwyn, though, in doing so, Adele sacrificed herself, only to realize too late that the Sarah she brought back was tainted by the same evil that had tainted Ebrill all those years ago.

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Lolita

Lolita

The novel's fictional "Foreword" states that Humbert Humbert dies of coronary thrombosis upon finishing his manuscript, the events of the novel. It also states Mrs. Richard Schiller dies giving birth to a stillborn girl on Christmas Day, 1952. Humbert Humbert, a literary scholar, has harbored a long-time obsession with young girls, or "nymphets". He suggests that this was caused by the premature death of a childhood sweetheart, Annabel Leigh. After an unsuccessful marriage, Humbert moves to the small New England town of Ramsdale to write. He rents a room in the house of Charlotte Haze, a widow. While Charlotte shows him around the house, Humbert meets her 11-year-old daughter, Dolores, affectionately known as "Lo", "Lola", or "Dolly" with whom he immediately becomes infatuated, partly due to her uncanny resemblance to Annabel, and privately nicknames her "Lolita". Humbert stays at the house only to remain near her. While he is obsessed with Dolores, he disdains her crassness and preoccupation with contemporary American popular culture, such as teen movies and comic books. While Dolores is away at summer camp, Charlotte, who has fallen in love with Humbert, tells him that he must either marry her or move out. Humbert agrees to marry Charlotte in order to continue living near Lolita. Charlotte is oblivious to Humbert's distaste for her, as well as his lust for Lolita, until she reads his diary. Learning of Humbert's true feelings and intentions, Charlotte plans to flee with Lolita and threatens to expose Humbert as a "detestable, abominable, criminal fraud." However, fate intervenes on Humbert's behalf, for as she runs across the street in a state of shock, Charlotte is struck and killed by a passing car. Humbert picks Lolita up from camp, pretending that Charlotte has been hospitalized. Rather than return to Charlotte's home, Humbert takes Lolita to a hotel, where he gives her sleeping pills. As he waits for the pills to take effect, he wanders through the hotel and meets a man who seems to know who he is. Humbert excuses himself from the strange conversation and returns to the room. There, he tries molesting Lolita but finds that the sedative is too mild. Instead, she initiates sex the next morning, having slept with a boy at camp. Later, Humbert reveals to Lolita that Charlotte is dead, giving her no choice but to accept her stepfather into her life on his terms or face foster care. Lolita and Humbert drive around the country, moving from state to state and motel to motel. Humbert sees the necessity of maintaining a common base of guilt to keep their relations secret, and wants denial to become second nature for Lolita. He tells her if he is arrested, she will become a ward of the state and lose all her clothes and belongings. He also bribes her for sexual favors, though he knows that she does not reciprocate his love and shares none of his interests. After a year touring North America, the two settle down in another New England town, where Lolita is enrolled in a girls school. Humbert becomes very possessive and strict, forbidding Lolita to take part in after-school activities or to associate with boys. However, most of the townspeople see this as the action of a loving and concerned, though old-fashioned, parent. Lolita begs to be allowed to take part in the school play, and Humbert reluctantly grants his permission in exchange for more sexual favors. The play is written by Clare Quilty. He is said to have attended a rehearsal and been impressed by Lolita's acting. Just before opening night, Lolita and Humbert have a ferocious argument, and Lolita runs away while Humbert assures the neighbors everything is fine. He searches frantically until he finds her exiting a phone booth. She is in a bright, pleasant mood, saying that she tried to reach him at home and that a "great decision has been made." They go to buy drinks and Lolita tells Humbert she doesn't care about the play, rather, wants to leave town and resume their travels. As Lolita and Humbert drive westward again, Humbert gets the feeling that their car is being tailed and becomes increasingly paranoid, suspecting that Lolita is conspiring with others in order to escape. She falls ill and must convalesce in a hospital while Humbert stays in a nearby motel, without Lolita for the first time in years. One night, Lolita disappears from the hospital, with the staff telling Humbert that her "uncle" checked her out. Humbert embarks upon a frantic search to find Lolita and her abductor, but eventually gives up. During this time, Humbert has a two year relationship (ending in 1952) with an adult named Rita, who he describes as a "kind, good sport." She "solemnly approve[s]" of his search for Lolita. Rita figuratively dies when Humbert receives a letter from Lolita, now 17, who tells him that she is married, pregnant, and in desperate need of money. Humbert goes to see Lolita, giving her money in exchange for the name of the man who abducted her. She reveals the truth: Clare Quilty, an acquaintance of Charlotte's, the writer of the school play, and the man Lolita claims to have loved, checked her out of the hospital after following them throughout their travels and tried making her star in one of his pornographic films. When she refused, he threw her out. She worked odd jobs before meeting and marrying her husband, who knows nothing about her past. Humbert asks Lolita to leave her husband, Dick, and live with him, to which she refuses. He gives her a large sum of money anyway, which secures her future. As he leaves she smiles and shouts goodbye in a "sweet, American" way. Humbert finds Quilty, whom he intends to kill, at his mansion. Before doing so, he first wants Quilty to understand why he must die, for he took advantage of Humbert, a sinner, and he took advantage of a disadvantage. Eventually, Humbert shoots him several times (throughout which Quilty is bargaining for his life in a witty, though bizarre, manner). Once Quilty has died, Humbert exits the house. Shortly after, he is arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road and swerving. The narrative closes with Humbert's final words to Lolita in which he wishes her well, and reveals the novel in its metafiction to be the memoirs of his life, only to be published after he and Lolita have both died.

Set in the 1950s, the film begins with a confrontation between two men: one of them, Clare Quilty , drunk and incoherent, plays Chopin's Polonaises Op. 40 on the piano before being shot. The shooter is Humbert Humbert , a 40-something British professor of French literature. Four years earlier, Humbert arrives in Ramsdale, New Hampshire, intending to spend the summer before his professorship begins at Beardsley College, Ohio. He searches for a room to let, and Charlotte Haze , a blowsy, sexually frustrated widow, invites him to stay at her house. He declines until seeing her daughter, Dolores , affectionately called "Lolita". Lolita is a soda-pop drinking, gum-snapping, overtly flirtatious teenager, with whom Humbert falls in love. To be close to Lolita, Humbert accepts Charlotte's offer and becomes a lodger in the Haze household, but Charlotte wants all of "Hum's" time for herself and soon announces that she will be sending Lolita to an all-girl sleepaway camp for the summer. After the Hazes depart for camp, the maid gives Humbert a letter from Charlotte, confessing her love for him and demanding he vacate at once unless he feels the same way. The letter says that if Humbert is still in the house when she returns, Charlotte will know that her love is requited, and he must marry her. Though he roars with laughter while reading the sadly heartfelt yet characteristically overblown letter, Humbert marries Charlotte. Things turn sour for the couple in the absence of Lolita. Humbert becomes more withdrawn while Charlotte becomes more whiny. Charlotte then discovers Humbert’s diary entries detailing his passion for Lolita and characterizing her as "the Haze woman, the cow, the obnoxious mama, the brainless baba". She has an hysterical outburst and, while Humbert hurriedly fixes martinis in the kitchen to smooth over the situation, she runs outside, is hit by a car, and dies. Humbert drives to the camp to pick up Lolita, who doesn't yet know her mother is dead. They stay the night in a hotel that is handling an overflow influx of police officers attending a convention. One of the guests, Quilty, pretends to be a policeman and insinuates himself upon Humbert and keeps steering the conversation to his "beautiful little daughter," who is asleep upstairs, while repeating, too often, that he thinks Humbert is "normal." Humbert escapes the Quilty's advances, and, the next morning, Humbert and Lolita enter into a sexual relationship. The two commence an odyssey across the United States, traveling from hotel to motel. In public, they act as father and daughter. After several days, Humbert tells Lolita that her mother is not sick in a hospital, as he had previously told her, but dead. Grief-stricken, she stays with Humbert. In the fall, Humbert reports to his position at Beardsley College, and enrolls Lolita in high school there. Before long, people begin to wonder about the relationship between father and his over-protected daughter. Humbert worries about her involvement with the school play and with male classmates. One night he returns home to find Dr. Zempf, a pushy, abrasive stranger, sitting in his darkened living room. Zempf, speaking with a thick German accent, claims to be from Lolita's school and wants to discuss her knowledge of "the facts of life." Humbert is frightened and decides to take Lolita on the road again. He soon realizes they are being followed by a mysterious car that never drops away but never quite catches up. When Lolita becomes sick, he takes her to the hospital. However, when he returns to pick her up, she is gone. The nurse there tells him she left with another man claiming to be her uncle and Humbert, devastated, is left without a single clue as to her disappearance or whereabouts. Some years later, Humbert receives a letter from Mrs. Richard T. Schiller, Lolita's married name. She writes that she is now married to a man named Dick , and that she is pregnant and in desperate need of money. Humbert travels to their home and finds that she is now a roundly, expectant woman in glasses leading a pleasant, humdrum life. Humbert demands that she tell him who kidnapped her three years earlier. She tells him it was Clare Quilty, the man that was following them, who is a famous playwright and with whom her mother had a fling in Ramsdale days. She states Quilty is also the one who disguised himself as the policeman and Dr. Zempf as well as well as the anonymous phone caller from earlier. Lolita herself carried on an affair with him and left with him when he promised her glamor. However, he then demanded she join his depraved lifestyle, including acting in his "art" films. Humbert begs Lolita to leave her husband and come away with him, but she declines. Humbert gives Lolita $13,000, explaining that it is hers from the sale of her mother's house and leaves to shoot Quilty in his mansion, where the film began. The epilogue explains that Humbert died of coronary thrombosis awaiting trial for Quilty's murder.

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The Witches

The Witches

The book's witches, described as "demons in human form" are revealed in the opening chapters to be a constant threat to global security. While they look human, and look and act like normal human women, they are secretly plotting to kill every single child on Earth. No other reason for this is given, other than the foul stench children produce for witches. A young boy (whose name is never mentioned) goes to stay with his grandmother (also unnamed) after his parents are killed in a tragic car crash in the Norwegian mountains when they are on vacation. The boy is comforted by his grandmother, and then she says she will adopt him. The next night, she begins to warn him about witches, which she says are demons in human form, which seek to kill human children. The boy thinks she is bluffing, but she tells him the signs of how to recognize a witch, which include: hair which looks like a wig, because the witches, despite being female, are actually bald, and have to wear wigs to look human; gloves, because the witches actually have inch-long claws which they hide under gloves; inhuman eyes, because the eyes of a witch have a red-white glow; blue spit; and toeless feet, which force the witches to squeeze their feet into pretty tight women's shoes which causes them to limp very slightly. The grandmother also tells the boy that four of her childhood friends were taken and killed by witches, but one girl survived for a while because the witches only managed to turn her into a chicken. Another boy was turned into a porpoise and swam out to sea. The boy and his grandmother return to England, as per his parents' will. The grandmother warns the boy to be on his guard, since English witches are known to be among the cruellest in the world. Shortly afterward, the boy is building the roof on his treehouse and spots a strange woman in black staring up at him with an eerie smile. When he sees that she is wearing gloves, he instantly recognizes her as a witch; and he also notices her inhuman lips and teeth; her gums resemble "raw meat." When the witch offers him a snake to entice him, he climbs up the tree which he is in and stays there until his grandmother comes and gets him for supper. This persuades the boy and his grandmother to be wary. The boy then becomes conscious of all women he encounters in public and studies them from a distance to check whether they are witches or not. When the grandmother later becomes ill with pneumonia, the doctor orders her to cancel a planned holiday in Norway. Instead, they go to a luxury hotel in Bournemouth on the southern English coast. The boy goes to train his pet mice in the hotel ballroom when the members of the "Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" show up for their annual meeting. The boy notices one of the women reaching under her hair (with a gloved hand) to scratch at her scalp, and instantly realizes that the "RSPCC" is really the yearly convention of England's witches. A young woman shows up on stage, and removes her face mask to reveal a hideously deformed face underneath. The boy instantly recognizes her as the Grand High Witch. On her cue, the witches reveal their true, demonic forms: bald heads, clawed hands and toeless feet. The Grand High Witch was angry at her English minions' failure to destroy all of the country's children, and orders all of them exterminated by the end of the year. One brave or foolish witch states the obvious; that killing every child in the country is impossible; and the Grand High Witch instantly incinerates her using lasers which shoot from her eyes. The terrified witches do not dare to protest further. To help them along, she unveils a master plan calling for the witches to purchase sweet shops (with "homemade" money given to them by the Grand High Witch by her money-making machine) and give away free chocolate (for the grand opening) laced with Formula 86 Delayed-Action Mouse Maker, a potion which will change anyone who eats it into a mouse at a specific time. The witches are instructed by the Grand High Witch to set the formula to activate at nine a.m. the day after the children have eaten the chocolate, when they are at school. The teachers, she hopes, will panic and kill the mice, thereby doing the witches' work for them. She warns her followers to only put one dose on each bit of candy that they sell. An overdose could break the delay barrier and even cause a child (especially an adult) to turn into a mouse instantly. The Grand High Witch turns a gluttonous child named Bruno Jenkins (lured to the convention hall by the promise of free chocolate) into a mouse as a demonstration of her potion. The witches hurriedly put on their disguises as Bruno arrives. At precisely three thirty p.m., Bruno turns into a mouse. Shortly after, the witches smell the narrator's presence, forcing him to make a break for it. He is quickly captured by the witches and turned into a mouse immediately with an overdose of the formula which has the effect of instantly turning him into a mouse. The formula turns out to have a lucky change: the transformed child retains his or her sentience, personality and even his or her voice. After tracking down Bruno, the transformed boy returns to his grandmother's hotel room and tells her what he has learned. He suggests turning the tables on the witches by slipping Formula 86 into their food. With some difficulty, he manages to get his hands on a bottle of the potion from the Grand High Witch's room. After a failed attempt to return Bruno to his parents, the grandmother takes Bruno and the narrator to dinner in her handbag, whereupon after ordering her meal she slips the narrator onto the floor, allowing him to run to the kitchen. He espies the witches coming in to dinner on his way and enters the kitchen, where he pours the potion into the soup intended for the witches' dinner. The witches all turn into mice within a few minutes, having had massive overdoses. The hotel staff panic and, unknowingly, end up killing all of England's witches. The boy and his grandmother then concoct a plan to destroy all of the world's witches. Learning the location of the witches castle from the hotel's records, they will travel to the Grand High Witch's Norwegian castle (having stolen her notebook), use the potion to change her successor and retainers into mice, then release cats into the castle to kill them. Using the Grand High Witch's money-making machine and information on the whereabouts of all of the world's witches, they will repeat the process all over the world. The grandmother also reveals that as a mouse, the boy will probably only live about another nine years, but the boy doesn't mind it, because he doesn't want to live any longer than his grandmother.

{{plot}} An old Norwegian woman named Helga warns her American grandson Luke about witches, demonic females who hate and destroy children. Helga explains that witches reside in every country in the world. While they look and act like ordinary women, it is really an elaborate facade. About the only way to tell them apart when undisguised is by their purple eyes. She tells him of her childhood friend, Erika, who was ensnared by a witch and trapped inside an oil painting until the day she died. It is also hinted that Helga herself was nearly destroyed by a witch when she was younger, losing one of her fingers in the process. After Luke's parents are then killed in a car crash, he and Helga move to England. While playing in his treehouse, a black-clad woman approaches him from below, and from her purple eyes he realises that she is a witch. The woman tries to entice Luke with a snake. Luke hopes for his grandmother to come and get him, but then, the woman offers him a chocolate bar instead. Suddenly, Helga interrupts the witch's coaxing and the witch walks away. On Luke's ninth birthday, Helga falls ill and is diagnosed with diabetes, and the doctor recommends a holiday by the seaside to recover. They visit a hotel in Cornwall where it happens that a children's charity group called "The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children" is holding its annual meeting. Shortly after Luke and Helga arrive, the RSPCC's chairwoman Eva Ernst also books into the hotel. Helga first spots Miss Ernst at tea, and recognizes her from her past, although she cannot remember exactly who she is or where she knew her from. Luke wanders around the hotel with his pet mice. He ends up in a wide, deserted ballroom and hides behind a screen to train his mice. Suddenly, the RSPCC's members flood into the room. When Luke notices one woman with purple eyes, and another scratching under her wig , he realizes that the "RSPCC" is really a convention of witches. After the doors are securely locked, the witches unveil their true selves - peeling off their gloves to reveal their clawed hands and their wigs to reveal bald, pimpled scalps. "Miss Ernst" removes her beautiful human face mask to reveal a hideous and hunchbacked hag-like body beneath her elegant exterior. Luke now realizes that she is the witches' feared ruler, the Grand High Witch. The Grand High Witch reveals she has had enough with her English underlings' dithering and failure to eliminate enough children. She orders that all of the country's children be exterminated, and has come up with a master plan to help them along. A witch named Beatrice quietly scorns the idea, but the Grand High Witch overhears her. As punishment for the witch's insolence, the Grand High Witch incinerates Beatrice with magic beams projected from her eyes. Afterwards, the Grand High Witch goes on to discuss specifics of her plan. She orders the witches to resign from their jobs when they return to their homes and buy candy stores with money she will give them. She then tells them to lace their confectionery with a magic formula she has just brewed up, called "Formula 86," a potion which turns anyone who ingests it into a mouse. She plans to give each witch a bottle containing 500 doses — enough to wipe out an entire small town's population of children. The Grand High Witch explains that ingesting one dose of the formula causes delayed transformation two hours after it has been taken. However, more than five doses causes the formula to work instantly. To show how the formula works, the Grand High Witch lures another boy at the hotel called Bruno Jenkins , whom Luke had met earlier, to the conference room with the promise of chocolate. The Grand High Witch had given him one dose of a contaminated chocolate bar two hours earlier in the day and promised him more chocolate if he met her in the conference room later. His arrival time planned perfectly as a demonstration for the witches to see how the formula works. After the witches hurriedly put their disguises back on, Bruno walks in. At precisely 6:15 pm, Bruno turns into a mouse on the stage. Just as the witches are about to leave, one of them, a maid at the hotel, catches Luke's scent. The other witches sniff Luke out as well, forcing him to make a break for it before they can corner him. The witches chase him, hellbent on eliminating someone who has spied on their affairs, but Luke initially escapes back to his grandmother's hotel room after fleeing through a fire escape and onto the beach before re-entering the building. Helga remains in a deep sleep . The Grand High Witch then appears in Helga's room, and identifies Helga as a "very old adversary." She kidnaps Luke and returns to the conference room, somehow avoiding being caught on her way down. With all of the witches watching, she pours an entire bottle of Formula 86 down his throat, thus instantly transforming him into a second mouse, leaving behind his shirt, pants and underwear. He escapes through a hole in the wall before the witches can trample him to death. Luke finds Bruno, and the two reach Helga, now awake. They explain to her that all of England's witches, as well as the Grand High Witch, are in the hotel. Later, with Helga's help, Luke steals a bottle of Formula 86 from the Grand High Witch's room. Luke plans to turn the tables on the witches by slipping Formula 86 into their food. Helga then tries to tell Bruno's parents ([[Bill Paterson what has happened, but they don't believe her. All the witches attend the banquet, except the Grand High Witch's mistreated assistant Anne Irvine , who resigns after an argument. Helga slips Luke into the kitchen, and Luke drops the Formula 86 into a batch of cress soup specially prepared for the "RSPCC" party. Luke detects that one of the cooks in the kitchen preparing the soup is also a witch. She taste tests the spiked batch before it is served. Having ingested a massive overdose, she turns into a mouse several minutes later. The witch-cook races into the dining room to warn the other witches not to eat the soup. Mistaking the talking mouse for a transformed child, a witch seated next to the Grand High Witch squelches the mouse under her boot. Helga notices Bruno's father is about to eat the soup which he demanded from the manager, Mr. Stringer even though it was not on the standard menu. After Helga tips out his soup and returns Bruno to his parents, she offers to reveal to them who is responsible for Bruno's alteration. As she is preparing to tell them who did it, chaos breaks out as all the witches start turning into mice. The Grand High Witch is petrified as she watches all of her witches transform around her, as she herself seems to be unaffected at first. Noticing Helga across the room, the Grand High Witch advances menacingly upon Helga until Bruno leaps onto her and bites her. The formula finally begins to work and the Grand High Witch turns into a repulsive, snarling, hairless mouse. Soon both hotel staff and guests are attacking and killing the rodents, unknowingly getting rid of England's witches. After Helga traps the Grand High Witch under a water jug, she points her out to Mr. Stringer, who kills her with a meat cleaver. As Luke and Helga then return home from the hotel, Miss Irvine watches from a window and smiles as the taxi departs. Later on, Luke surprises Helga when a trunk is delivered to their house. In it is all of the money the Grand High Witch planned to use to turn England's children into mice, as well as an address book filled with the names and addresses of every witch in America. They discuss their plans to return there by ship. Later that night when both have gone to sleep, Miss Irvine drives up to Luke and Helga's house. She uses her magic to turn Luke back into a human and returns his glasses, clothes, underwear and pet mice. As Miss Irvine is in the car about to drive away, it is observed that she no longer wears gloves or square-toed shoes or wears a wig, as she has turned over a new leaf and decided to use her powers to do good. While Miss Irvine leaves to help Bruno, Luke and Helga look out of the window and wave goodbye.

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And Then There Were None

Ten Little Indians

Ten people—Lawrence Wargrave, Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur, Emily Brent, Anthony "Tony" Marston, Dr. Armstrong, William Blore, and the servants Thomas and Ethel Rogers—have been invited to a mansion on the fictional Soldier Island ("Nigger Island" in the original 1939 UK publication, "Indian Island" in the 1964 U.S. publication), which is based upon Burgh Island off the coast of Devon. Upon arriving, they are told that their hosts, a Mr and Mrs U.N. Owen (Ulick Norman Owen and Una Nancy Owen), are currently away, but the guests will be attended to by Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. Each guest finds in his or her room a framed copy of the nursery rhyme "Ten Little Soldiers" ("Niggers" or "Indians" in respective earlier editions) hanging on the wall. {| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; font-size: 85%; background:#E2DDB5; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 28%;" | style="text-align: left;"| The currently published, not the original, version of the rhyme goes: Ten little Soldier Boys went out to dine; One choked his little self and then there were nine. Nine little Soldier Boys sat up very late; One overslept himself and then there were eight. Eight little Soldier Boys travelling in Devon; One said he'd stay there and then there were seven. Seven little Soldier Boys chopping up sticks; One chopped himself in halves and then there were six. Six little Soldier Boys playing with a hive; A bumblebee stung one and then there were five. Five little Soldier Boys going in for law; One got in Chancery and then there were four. Four little Soldier Boys going out to sea; A red herring swallowed one and then there were three. Three little Soldier Boys walking in the zoo; A big bear hugged one and then there were two. Two little Soldier Boys sitting in the sun; One got frizzled up and then there was one. One little Soldier Boy left all alone; He went out and hanged himself and then there were none. |} After dinner that evening, the guests notice ten soldier boy figurines on the dining room table. During coffee, a gramophone record, unknowingly turned on by Mr Rogers, plays, accusing each of the ten of murder. Each guest acknowledges awareness of (and in some cases involvement with) the deaths of the persons named (except Emily Brent, who tells only Vera, who later tells the other guests what happened to Brent's former maid), but denies any malice and/or legal culpability (except for Lombard and Blore, the latter telling only the former). The guests realize they have been tricked into coming to the island, each of them lured with something special to them, like a job opportunity or mention of a mutual acquaintance. Unfortunately, they soon find they cannot leave: the boat which regularly delivers supplies has stopped arriving because of the storm. They are murdered one by one, each death paralleling a verse of the nursery rhyme, with one of the figurines being removed after each murder. The first to die is Anthony Marston, who chokes to death when his drink is poisoned with cyanide ("one choked his little self"). No one thinks much of this, although some people are suspicious. That night, Thomas Rogers notices that a figurine is missing from the dining table. Mrs Rogers dies peacefully in her sleep that night, which Dr. Armstrong attributes to a dose of sleeping aid, which the killer later comes in and attributes a sleeping aid, which she then overdosed,("one overslept himself"). Rogers reports another figurine gone. The guests become more on edge. General Macarthur fatalistically predicts that no one will leave the island alive, and at lunch, is indeed found dead from a blow to the back of his skull by a life preserver ("one said he'd stay there"). Finally, the point is driven home that these three deaths have been murder. Meanwhile, a third figurine has disappeared from the dining room. In growing panic, Armstrong, Blore, and Lombard search the island in vain for the murderer. Justice Wargrave establishes himself as the decisive leader of the group and asserts one of them must be the murderer playing a sadistic game with the rest. The killer's twisted humor is evidenced by the names of their "hosts": "U.N. Owen" is a pun and a homophone for "unknown". The next morning, Rogers is missing, as is another figurine. He is found dead in the woodshed, struck in the back of the head with an axe ("one chopped himself in halves"). Later that day, Emily Brent is killed in the dining room by an injection of potassium cyanide that leaves a mark on her neck ("A bumblebee stung one"), which at first appears to be a sting from a bumble bee placed in the room. The hypodermic needle is found outside her window next to a smashed china figurine. The five remaining people, Armstrong, Wargrave, Lombard, Claythorne, and Blore, appear to become increasingly frightened and paranoid as the noose tightens, both psychologically and in reality. Wargrave suggests they lock up any potential weapons, including Armstrong's medical equipment and the judge's own sleeping pills. Lombard admits to bringing a revolver to the island, but immediately discovers it has gone missing. Resolved to keep the killer from catching anyone alone, they gather in the drawing room and only leave one at a time. Vera goes up to her room for a shawl and is frightened by a strand of seaweed hanging on a hook in her bedroom in the dark: an allusion to the boy the gramophone alleged that she had drowned. Her screams attract the attention of Blore, Lombard, and Armstrong, who rush to her aid. When they return to the drawing room, they find Wargrave in a mockery of a judicial wig and gown with a gunshot wound in his forehead ("one got into Chancery"). Armstrong confirms the death, and they lay Wargrave's body in his room and cover it with a sheet. Shortly afterward, Lombard discovers his revolver has been returned. That night, Blore hears someone sneaking out of the house. He and Lombard investigate and, discovering Armstrong missing, assume the doctor is the killer. In the morning, Blore leaves for food and does not return. Vera and Lombard soon discover his body on the terrace, skull crushed by a bear-shaped clock ("a big bear hugged one"). At first, they continue to believe Armstrong is the killer until they find the doctor in the sea, drowned ("a red herring swallowed one"). Paranoid, each assumes the other is the murderer. In the brief but tense standoff that follows, Vera feigns compassion and gets Lombard to help her move Armstrong's body away from the water, using the opportunity to pick his revolver from his pocket. She kills Lombard with a shot through the heart on the beach ("one got frizzled up") and returns to the house. Dazed and disoriented, she finds a noose and chair waiting for her in her room. In an apparent trance, she hangs herself, kicking the chair out from underneath her, thus fulfilling the final verse of the rhyme. Inspector Maine, the detective in charge of the Soldier Island case, discusses the mystery with his Assistant Commissioner, Sir Thomas Legge, at Scotland Yard. There are no clues on the mainland—Issac Morris (mentioned to be responsible for crimes unprovable by the law), the man who arranged "U.N. Owen's" purchase of the island and sent out the invitational letters, covered his tracks quite well, and was killed the day the party set sail. Times of death cannot be found through autopsies, and the police have failed to link the nursery rhyme to the deaths. While guests' diaries establish a partial timeline that establish that Marston, Mrs. Rogers, Macarthur, Mr. Rogers, Brent and Wargrave were the first 6 to die (in that order), the police cannot determine the order in which Blore, Armstrong, Lombard, and Vera were killed. Blore could not have dropped the clock on himself, and it would also be a highly uncommon method of suicide; Armstrong's body was dragged above the high-tide mark; Lombard was shot on the beach, but his revolver was found on the floor in the upstairs hallway. Vera's fingerprints on the gun, the fact that hanging is a highly sensible method of suicide, and the clock that killed Blore having come from her room all point to Vera as "U.N. Owen"... but someone had to have been alive after she died because the chair Vera used to hang herself had been righted and replaced against the wall. Inclement weather, combined with the fact that Fred Narracott (the man who ferried the guests to the island) sent a boat to the island as soon as weather allowed (sensing something to be amiss), would have prevented the murderer from leaving or arriving separately from the guests: he or she must have been among them. But since the first six murders at least appear to be accounted for, and since the last four victims cannot have been the last ones alive, the inspectors are ultimately left dumbfounded, asking themselves: Who killed them? A fishing trawler finds a letter in a bottle off the Devon coast; it contains the confession of the late Justice Wargrave. He reveals a lifelong sadistic temperament juxtaposed uneasily with a fierce sense of justice: he wanted to torture, terrify, and kill, but could never justify harming an innocent person. As a judge, he directed merciless jury instructions/summations and guilty verdicts, but solely in those cases in which he had satisfied himself of the guilt of the defendant(s), thrilling at the sight of the convicted person crippled with fear, facing their impending death. He also saved a few defendants from suffering punishment when he was convinced they were innocent of their accused crime. But the proxy of the bench was unsatisfying: Wargrave longed to commit murder by his own hand. Prompted to action by the discovery that he was terminally ill, he sought out those who had caused the deaths of others but managed to escape justice, finding nine (not including Isaac Morris), whom he lured to the island using his financial resources to investigate his victims' backgrounds to come up with plausible invitations from sources they trusted or from people with whom they were acquainted. After the phonograph accusations were made the first night he carefully watched, as he had in the courtroom for so many years, the reactions of his guests to the accusations. Seeing their fear or anxiety, he was certain of their guilt. He decided to start with the less serious offenders (i.e. Marston, whom Wargrave determined was "amoral" and had committed the crime by accident, as well as Mrs. Rogers, who had acted under her husband's direction and had clearly been traumatized by guilt ever since), and to save "the prolonged mental strain and fear" for the colder-blooded killers. Wargrave arrived at the island with two drugs: potassium cyanide and chloral hydrate. After the gramophone recital, Wargrave slipped cyanide and chloral into the drinks of Marston and Mrs. Rogers respectively. Marston choked to death, and Mrs. Rogers was given another sleep medication, leading to death by overdose. The next day, after Macarthur made his fatalistic prediction, Wargrave sneaked up on him and killed him, although the specific weapon was never found or discussed. The next morning, he killed Rogers in the woodshed as he was cutting firewood. During breakfast, he slipped the rest of his chloral into Miss Brent's coffee to sedate her, and after she was abandoned at the table, Wargrave injected her with the rest of his cyanide using Armstrong's syringe. Having disposed of his first five victims, the judge persuaded the trusting Armstrong to fake Wargrave's own death, "the red herring", under the pretext that it would rattle or unnerve the "real murderer". Since Armstrong was the only person who would closely examine the judge's body, as well as having done preliminary autopsies for the other victims up to that point, the ruse went undetected. That night, he met Armstrong on the cliffs, distracted him by pretending to see something and pushed him into the sea, knowing the doctor's disappearance would provoke the suspicions of the others. From Vera's room, Wargrave later pushed the stone bear-shaped clock onto Blore, crushing his skull. After watching Vera shoot Lombard, he then set up a noose and a chair in her bedroom in the belief that after having just killed Lombard she was in a psychologically post-traumatic state and would hang herself under the right circumstances, i.e. a noose and chair waiting for her. He was right and watched (unseen in the shadows) as she hanged herself. Wargrave then pushed the chair she had stood on against the wall, wrote out his missive/confession, put the letter in a bottle and tossed it out to sea. Wargrave admits to a "pitiful human" craving for recognition that he had not initially counted on. Even if his letter is not found (he decides there is about a 1 in 100 chance of it being found), he believes there are three clues which implicate him, although he surmises (correctly) that the mystery will not have been solved: # Wargrave was the only one invited to the island who had not wrongfully caused someone's death, initial public speculation around the time of the trial of Edward Seton, whom the gramophone accused Wargrave of murdering, notwithstanding. Seton was, in fact, guilty of the murder for which he had been convicted, and overwhelming proof emerged after Seton's death confirming this. (When questioned about the Seton matter by his guests after the gramophone recital, Wargrave actually told the truth—albeit not very convincingly and not mentioning the posthumous evidence against Seton—to wit, that Seton was guilty and he had instructed the jury accordingly. Wargrave knew his fellow "guests" would not believe that and would, despite his judicial vocation, consider him a fellow escapee from justice.) Thus, ironically, the only innocent guest must be the murderer. # The "red herring" line in the poem suggests that Armstrong was tricked into his death by someone he trusted. Of the remaining guests, only the respectable Justice Wargrave would have inspired the doctor's confidence. # The red mark on Wargrave's forehead received from shooting himself is similar to the one God bestowed upon Cain as punishment for killing his brother Abel. He says the brand of Cain might lead the investigators to realize he was the murderer. Wargrave describes how he planned to kill himself: he will loop an elastic cord through the gun, tying one end of the cord to his eyeglasses, and looping the other around the doorknob of an open door. He will then wrap a handkerchief around the handle of the gun and shoot himself in the head. His body will fall back as though laid there by Armstrong. The gun's recoil will send it to the doorknob and out into the hallway, roughly where Vera dropped it while she walked to her room, detaching the cord and pulling the door closed. The cord will dangle innocuously from his glasses, and the stray handkerchief should not arouse suspicion. Thus the police will find ten dead bodies and an unsolvable mystery on Soldier Island.

The plot remains the same as in all previous adaptations. As he did in his other versions, producer Towers has yet again changed the locale of the action, this time to the African savanna. A group of 10 disparate people, strangers to each other, have all traveled to Africa believing they have won a fabulous vacation safari. Things turn ominous from the beginning, however. First their native guides abandon them, more natives cut a bridge line across a deep canyon , and their host is strangely absent. Then events go from being unsettling to deadly when the guests start dying one at a time, and those who remain realize that they are being slaughtered one by one — but who is responsible?

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer

In the 1840s an imaginative and mischievous boy named Tom Sawyer lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. After playing hooky from school on Friday and dirtying his clothes in a fight, Tom is made to whitewash the fence as punishment all of the next day. At first, Tom is disheartened by having to forfeit his day off. However, he soon cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for the privilege of doing his work. He trades the treasures he got by tricking his friends into whitewashing the fence for tickets given out in Sunday school for memorizing Bible verses, which can be used to claim a Bible as a prize. He received enough tickets to be given the Bible. However, he loses much of his glory when, in response to a question to show off his knowledge, he incorrectly answers that the first disciples were David and Goliath. Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades her to get "engaged" by kissing him. Becky kisses Tom, but their romance collapses when she learns that Tom has been "engaged" previously;— to a girl named Amy Lawrence. Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn, the son of the town drunk, to the graveyard at night to try out a "cure" for warts with a dead cat. At the graveyard, they witness the murder of young Dr. Robinson by the Native-American "half-breed" Injun Joe. Scared, Tom and Huck run away and swear a blood oath not to tell anyone what they have seen. Injun Joe frames his companion, Muff Potter, a helpless drunk, for the crime. Potter is wrongfully arrested, and Tom's anxiety and guilt begin to grow. Tom, Huck and Tom's friend Joe Harper run away to an island to become pirates. While frolicking around and enjoying their new found freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sounding the river for their bodies. Tom sneaks back home one night to observe the commotion. After a brief moment of remorse at the suffering of his loved ones, Tom is struck by the idea of appearing at his funeral and surprising everyone. He persuades Joe and Huck to do the same. Their return is met with great rejoicing, and they become the envy and admiration of all their friends. Back in school, Tom gets himself back in Becky's favor after he nobly accepts the blame for a book that she has ripped. Soon, Muff Potter's trial begins, and Tom, overcome by guilt, testifies against Injun Joe. Potter is acquitted, but Injun Joe flees the courtroom through a window. Summer arrives, and Tom and Huck go hunting for buried treasure in a haunted house. After venturing upstairs they hear a noise below. Peering through holes in the floor, they see Injun Joe enter the house disguised as a deaf and mute Spaniard. He and his companion, an unkempt man, plan to bury some stolen treasure of their own. From their hiding spot, Tom and Huck wriggle with delight at the prospect of digging it up. By an amazing coincidence, Injun Joe and his partner find a buried box of gold themselves. When they see Tom and Huck's tool, they become suspicious that someone is sharing their hiding place and carry the gold off instead of reburying it. Huck begins to shadow Injun Joe every night, watching for an opportunity to nab the gold. Meanwhile, Tom goes on a picnic to McDougal's Cave with Becky and their classmates. That same night, Huck sees Injun Joe and his partner making off with a box. He follows and overhears their plans to attack the Widow Douglas, a kind resident of St. Petersburg. By running to fetch help, Huck forestalls the violence and becomes an anonymous hero. Tom and Becky get lost in the cave, and their absence is not discovered until the following morning. The men of the town begin to search for them, but to no avail. Tom and Becky run out of food and candles and begin to weaken. The horror of the situation increases when Tom, looking for a way out of the cave, happens upon Injun Joe, who is using the cave as a hideout. Eventually, just as the searchers are giving up, Tom finds a way out. The town celebrates, and Becky's father, Judge Thatcher, locks up the cave. Injun Joe, trapped inside, starves to death. A week later, Tom takes Huck to the cave and they find the box of gold, the proceeds of which are invested for them. The Widow Douglas adopts Huck, and, when Huck attempts to escape civilized life, Tom promises him that if he returns to the widow, he can join Tom's robber band. Reluctantly, Huck agrees. The book leaves off where The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn begins.

After arguing with his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, Tom Sawyer seeks solace from his friend Huck Finn, who tells him about a mysterious cure for warts that requires them to visit the local cemetery at midnight. While there they witness a murder committed by Injun Joe, who convinces Muff Potter, who also was there but in an inebriated state, that he is guilty of the crime. Tom and Huck promise each other they will not divulge what they have seen. When Tom is caught lying about stealing his half-brother Sid's crabapples, his Aunt Polly punishes him by making him whitewash the fence on a Saturday morning. The boy leads his friends to believe he is enjoying the task, and before long they are giving him their treasures in exchange for the privilege of joining in the fun. Together with Huck and Joe Harper, Tom runs away from home to become a pirate. The three set off on a raft to Jacksons Island in the Mississippi River, where they remain for three days. Upon returning home, Tom discovers it was thought the three had drowned, and the boys attend their own funeral service at the church. At Muff Potter's trial, Tom admits the truth about the murder, but Injun Joe manages to escape. While attending the school picnic near a cavern, Tom and Becky decide to explore it and get lost. As they try to find their way out, they stumble upon Injun Joe and a chest of gold. While angrily pursuing the two children, he falls into a crevasse and is killed. Huck finds Tom and Becky and leads them to safety, together with the treasure.

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Man on Fire

Man on Fire

In Italy, wealthy families often hire bodyguards to protect family members from the threat of kidnapping. When Rika Balletto urges her husband Ettore, a wealthy textiles producer living in Milan, to hire a bodyguard for their daughter Pinta, he is doubtful but agrees. After some searching, he finally settles for an American named Creasy. Creasy, once purposeful and lethal, has become a burnt-out alcoholic. To keep him occupied, his companion Guido suggests that Creasy should get a job, and offers him to set him up as a bodyguard; thus he is being hired by the Ballettos, where he meets his charge, Pinta. Creasy barely tolerates the precocious child and her pestering questions about him and his life. But slowly, she chips away at his seemingly impenetrable exterior, his defenses drop, and he opens up to her. They become friends and he replaces her parents in their absences, giving her advice, guidance and help with her competition running; he is even spurred to give up his drinking and return to his former physical prowess. But Creasy's life is shattered when Pinta is kidnapped by the Mafia, despite his efforts to protect her. Creasy is wounded during the kidnapping, and as he lies in a hospital bed Guido keeps him informed of the goings on. Soon enough, Guido returns with the news that the exchange went bad, and Pinta was found dead in a car, suffocated on her own vomit. She had also been raped by her captors. Out of hospital, Creasy returns to Guido's pensione, and outlines his plans for revenge against the men who took away the girl who convinced him it was all right to live again; anyone who was involved, or profited from it, all the way to the top of the Mafia. Told by Guido he can stay with in-laws on the island of Gozo in Malta, Creasy accepts the offer, in order to train for his new mission. While on Gozo, Creasy trains for several months, getting into shape and re-familiarizing himself with weaponry. But, to his surprise, he also discovers he has another reason to live after his suicidal mission against the Mafia; he finds himself accepted by and admiring the Gozitans, and falls in love with Nadia, the daughter of his host. Soon enough, he is fit and leaves for Marseille where he stocks up on supplies, weapons and ammunition; from there he travels back to Italy, and then the war between Creasy and the Mafia begins. From low-level enforcers to the capos in Milan and Rome, and all the way to the head Don in Sicily, Creasy cuts through their organization, murdering anyone who had something even remotely to do with Pinta's kidnapping. After Creasy reveals to Rika that Ettore allowed her to be kidnapped for the insurance money, Ettore commits suicide. Finally, after killing the Don, a severely wounded Creasy is taken to hospital, but pronounced dead; a funeral is held and Creasy is thought to be gone. But, unknown to all, Creasy was in fact alive, and makes it back to Gozo where he is reunited with Nadia.

The opening portrays a man being declared dead in an Italian hospital by a police chief. The man is an ex-CIA agent, John Creasy. Eleanor Ringel of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that Creasy "introduces himself to us in a "Sunset Boulevard"-style opening."<ref nameAT&p_themesearch&p_maxdocs1&p_text_direct-0document_id&p_perpageYMD_date:D&s_trackvalc24sAAAAIBAJ&sjid6754,4500807&dqen Man on Fire]." Spartanburg Herald-Journal. Friday November 27, 1987. B7. Google News 11/28. In Italy, wealthy families often hire bodyguards to protect family members from the threat of kidnapping. A wealthy family that needs a bodyguard hires Creasy, a burned-out ex-CIA agent, to protect their daughter, Samantha "Sam" Balletto. Creasy has been broken down from all of the death and horror of combat he witnessed in the Vietnam War and in Beirut, Lebanon. Although Creasy is not interested in being a bodyguard, especially to a twelve year old youngster, he accepts the assignment because he has no better job offers. Creasy barely tolerates the precocious child and her pestering questions about him and his life. But slowly, she chips away at his seemingly impenetrable exterior, his defenses drop, and he opens up to her. They become friends and he replaces her parents in their absences, giving her advice, guidance and help with track. Creasy's life is shattered when Sam is kidnapped. Despite being seriously wounded during the kidnapping, Creasy vows her safe return, and vows vengeance on the kidnappers. Ringel said that the film "is actually two movies rather clumsily stitched together. The first - and better - half is a likable character study in which Sam and Creasy get to know and like each other and thereby get to know and like themselves. The second half, alas, is a routine vigilante flick, with Creasy surviving gunshots, explosions, car crashes and a most distracting production design in his quest to rescue Sam." The Lexington Herald-Leader said that the film "veers erratically between existential meditation and conventional vengeance drama.""GOOD, MEDIOCRE COMEDIES ARRIVE." Lexington Herald-Leader. Sunday March 5, 1989. H4 Arts and Leisure. Retrieved on April 2, 2012.

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Treasure Island

Pirates of Treasure Island

The novel is divided into 6 parts and 34 chapters: Jim Hawkins is the narrator of all except for chapters 16-18, which are narrated by Doctor Livesey. The novel opens in the seaside village of Black Hill Cove in south-west England (to Stevenson, in his letters and in the related fictional play Admiral Guinea, near Barnstaple, Devon) in the mid-18th century. The narrator, James "Jim" Hawkins, is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn, only paying for about the first week of his stay. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Some months later, Bones is visited by a mysterious sailor named Black Dog. Their meeting turns violent, Black Dog flees and Bones suffers a stroke. While Jim cares for him, Bones confesses that he was once the mate of the late notorious pirate, Captain Flint, and that his old crewmates want Bones' sea chest. Some time later, another of Bones' crew mates, a blind man named Pew, appears at the inn and forces Jim to lead him to Bones. Pew gives Bones a paper. After Pew leaves, Bones opens the paper to discover it is marked with the Black Spot, a pirate summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock to meet their demands. Bones drops dead of apoplexy (in this context, a stroke) on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones' sea chest to collect the amount due to them for Bones' room and board, but before they can count out the money that they are owed, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. The pirates, led by Pew, find the sea chest and the money, but are frustrated that there is no sign of "Flint's fist". Customs men approach and the pirates escape to their vessel (all except for Pew, who is accidentally run down and killed by the agents' horses).p. 27-8: "...{Pew} made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face, and moved no more." —Stevenson, R.L. Jim takes the mysterious oilskin packet to Dr. Livesey, as he is a &#34;gentleman and a magistrate&#34;, and he, Squire Trelawney and Jim Hawkins examine it together, finding it contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint&#39;s career, and a detailed map of an island with the location of Flint&#39;s treasure marked on it. Squire Trelawney immediately plans to commission a sailing vessel to hunt for the treasure, with the help of Dr. Livesey and Jim. Livesey warns Trelawney to be silent about their objective. Going to Bristol docks, Trelawney buys a schooner named the Hispaniola, hires a captain, Alexander Smollett to command her, and retains Long John Silver, a former sea cook and now the owner of the dock-side &#34;Spy-Glass&#34; tavern, to run the galley. Silver helps Trelawney to hire the rest of his crew. When Jim arrives in Bristol and visits Silver at the Spy-Glass, his suspicions are aroused: Silver is missing a leg, like the man Bones warned Jim about, and Black Dog is sitting in the tavern. Black Dog runs away at the sight of Jim, and Silver denies all knowledge of the fugitive so convincingly that he wins Jim&#39;s trust. Despite Captain Smollett&#39;s misgivings about the mission and Silver&#39;s hand-picked crew, the Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean. As they near their destination, Jim crawls into the ship&#39;s near-empty apple barrel to get an apple. While inside, he overhears Silver talking secretly with some of the crewmen. Silver admits that he was Captain Flint&#39;s quartermaster, that several others of the crew were also once Flint&#39;s men, and that he is recruiting more men from the crew to his own side. After Flint&#39;s treasure is recovered, Silver intends to murder the Hispaniolas officers, and keep the loot for himself and his men. When the pirates have returned to their berths, Jim warns Smollett, Trelawney and Livesey of the impending mutiny. On reaching Treasure Island, the majority of Silver's men go ashore immediately. Although Jim is not yet aware of this, Silver's men have demanded they seize the treasure immediately, discarding Silver's own more careful plan to postpone any open mutiny or violence until after the treasure is safely aboard. Jim lands with Silver's men, but runs away from them almost as soon as he is ashore. Hiding in the woods, Jim sees Silver murder Tom, a crewman loyal to Smollett. Running for his life, he encounters Ben Gunn, another ex-crewman of Flint's who has been marooned for three years on the island, but who treats Jim kindly. Meanwhile, Trelawney, Livesey and their loyal crewmen surprise and overpower the few pirates left aboard the Hispaniola. They row ashore and move into an abandoned, fortified stockade where they are joined by Jim Hawkins, who has left Ben Gunn behind. Silver approaches under a flag of truce and tries to negotiate Smollett's surrender; Smollett rebuffs him utterly, and Silver flies into a rage, promising to attack the stockade. "Them that die'll be the lucky ones," he famously threatens as he storms off. The pirates assault the stockade, but in a furious battle with losses on both sides, they are driven off. During the night Jim sneaks out, takes Ben Gunn's coracle and approaches the Hispaniola under cover of darkness. He cuts the ship's anchor cable, setting her adrift and out of reach of the pirates on shore. After daybreak, he manages to approach the schooner and board her. Of the two pirates left aboard, only one is still alive: the coxswain, Israel Hands, who has murdered his comrade in a drunken brawl and been badly wounded in the process. Hands agrees to help Jim helm the ship to a safe beach in exchange for medical treatment and brandy, but once the ship is approaching the beach Hands tries to murder Jim. Jim escapes by climbing the rigging, and when Hands tries to skewer him with a thrown dagger, Jim reflexively shoots Hands dead. Having beached the Hispaniola securely, Jim returns to the stockade under cover of night and sneaks back inside. Because of the darkness, he does not realize until too late that the stockade is now occupied by the pirates, and he is captured. Silver, whose always-shaky command has become more tenuous than ever, seizes on Jim as a hostage, refusing his men's demands to kill him or torture him for information. Silver's rivals in the pirate crew, led by George Merry, give Silver the Black Spot and move to depose him as captain. Silver answers his opponents eloquently, rebuking them for defacing a page from the Bible to create the Black Spot and revealing that he has obtained the treasure map from Dr. Livesey, thus restoring the crew's confidence. The following day, the pirates search for the treasure. They are shadowed by Ben Gunn, who makes ghostly sounds to dissuade them from continuing, but Silver forges ahead and locates where Flint's treasure is buried. The pirates discover that the cache has been rifled and the treasure is gone. The enraged pirates turn on Silver and Jim, but Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey and Abraham Gray attack the pirates, killing two and dispersing the rest. Silver surrenders to Dr. Livesey, promising to return to his duty. They go to Ben Gunn's cave where Gunn has had the treasure hidden for some months. The treasure is divided amongst Trelawney and his loyal men, including Jim and Ben Gunn, and they return to England, leaving the surviving pirates marooned on the island. Silver, through the help of the fearful Ben Gunn, escapes with a small part of the treasure, three or four hundred guineas. Remembering Silver, Jim reflects that "I dare say he met his old Negress [wife], and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint [his parrot]. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small."

The story opens on Skeleton Island, an uncharted island somewhere in the Falkland Islands chain, where Long John Silver and Billy Bones have staged a successful mutiny against Captain Flint . The group is attacked by gigantic insects, and retreats back to the ship. In the chaos, Long John has one of his legs torn off by a giant beetle. In the United States in 1782, Jim Hawkins is the owner of the Admiral Benbow Inn, but has grown tired of a life of monotony and seeks adventure. One of his customers, Billy Bones, dies in his inn and leaves Jim a treasure map showing the way to a treasure buried on Skeleton Island. After gaining the help of Dr. Livesey , Jim and Livesey recruit French mariner Captain Smollete , the captain of the schooner Hispaniola, to sail out to Skeleton Island, under the pretence of going to collect specimens of local wildlife. Jim and Livesey recruit Long John Silver, now using the alias of Barbecue, to act as ship's cook, with Long John providing the rest of the ship's crew. As the Hispanola makes its way to the island, Hawkins unintentionally discovers Long John's true intentions: to steal the map and to hijack the Hispaniola on behalf of his own band of pirates, whom make up the ship's crew. Long John plans to stage a mutiny upon arriving at Skeleton Island, and to kill the captain, Hawkins and Dr. Livesey so that all of the treasure will belong to the pirates. However, Hawkins is discovered, along with Anne Bonny , who had followed Jim from the inn, and gives him protection from Long John. On reaching Skeleton Island, the Hispanola is hijacked by Silver, with Smollette, Livesey and an American government official on the voyage kept prisoner on the ship whilst the others go ashore. With the help of marooned mariner Ben Gunn , Jim and Anne Bonney escape, and race to beat Long John and the pirates to the treasure.

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L.A. Confidential

L.A. Confidential

The story revolves around a group of LAPD officers in the early 1950s who become embroiled in a mix of sex, corruption, and murder following a mass murder at the Nite Owl coffee shop. The story eventually encompasses organized crime, political corruption, heroin trafficking, pornography, prostitution, institutional racism, and Hollywood. The title refers to the scandal magazine Confidential, which is fictionalized as Hush-Hush. It also deals with the real-life "Bloody Christmas" scandal. The three protagonists are LAPD officers. Edmund Exley, the son of legendary detective Preston Exley, is a "straight arrow" who informs on other officers in a police brutality scandal. This earns the enmity of Wendell "Bud" White, an intimidating enforcer with a personal fixation on men who abuse women. Between the two of them is Jack Vincennes, a flashy cop who is a technical advisor on a police television show called Badge of Honor (similar to the real life show Dragnet) and provides tips to a scandal magazine. The three of them must set their differences aside to unravel the conspiracy linking the novel's events.

In Los Angeles, California in 1953, three police officers become caught up in corruption, sex and murder following a multiple homicide at the Nite Owl coffee shop. Their story expands to encompass organized crime, political corruption, narcotics, pornography, prostitution, tabloid journalism and institutional racism. Sergeant Edmund Exley , the son of a legendary police detective, is determined to live up to his father's reputation. His intelligence, insistence on following regulations, and his cold demeanor contribute to his social isolation from other officers. He exacerbates this resentment by volunteering to testify in a police brutality case (based on the real-life [[Bloody Christmas , insisting on a promotion to Detective Lieutenant against the advice of Captain Dudley Smith . It is revealed that Exley's consuming ambition is fueled in large part by the murder of his father by an unknown assailant. Officer Wendell "Bud" White , whom Exley considers a "mindless thug," is a plainclothes officer violently obsessed with punishing woman-beaters. White comes to dislike Exley after his partner, Dick Stensland, is fired due to Exley's testimony in the "Bloody Christmas" scandal. White is sought out by Capt. Smith for a job intimidating out-of-town criminals trying to fill the void left in L.A. following the imprisonment of Mickey Cohen, the city's most successful and notorious gangster. The Nite Owl case becomes personal after Stensland is found to be one of the victims. Sergeant Jack Vincennes is a slick and likable narcotics detective who moonlights as the technical advisor on Badge of Honor, a popular Dragnet-type TV crime program. He is also connected with Sid Hudgens , publisher of Hush-Hush magazine, receiving kickbacks for tipping Hudgens off to celebrity arrests that will attract even more readers to the magazine. When a young actor winds up dead during one of these schemes, a guilt-ridden Vincennes is determined to find who did it. At different intervals, the three men investigate the Nite Owl killings and concurrent events which in turn begin to reveal indications of corruption all around them. Exley pursues absolute justice, all the while trying to live up to his family name. Bud White pursues Nite Owl victim Susan Lefferts, which leads him to Lynn Bracken , a Veronica Lake look-alike prostitute with ties to the case he and Exley are independently investigating. Meanwhile, Vincennes follows up on a pornography racket with ties to both the Nite Owl and Bracken's handler Pierce Patchett , operator of Fleur-de-Lis, a call-girl service that runs prostitutes altered by plastic surgery to resemble popular movie stars. All three men's fates are intertwined. A dramatic showdown eventually occurs with powerful and corrupt forces within the city's political leadership and the department.

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The Day of the Jackal

August 1

The book begins with the historical, failed attempt on de Gaulle's life planned by Col. Jean-Marie Bastien-Thiry in the Paris suburb of Petit-Clamart. After Bastien-Thiry's arrest, the French security forces wage a short but extremely vicious "underground" war with the terrorists of the OAS, a militant right-wing group who have labeled de Gaulle a traitor to France after his grant of independence to Algeria. The French secret service, a.k.a. Action Service, is remarkably effective in infiltrating the terrorist organization with their own informants, allowing them to kidnap and neutralize the terrorists' chief of operations, Antoine Argoud. The failure of the Petit-Clamart assassination, and a subsequent attempt at the Ecole Militaire, coupled with Bastien-Thiry's eventual execution by firing squad, likewise cripples the morale of the terrorists. Argoud's deputy, Lt. Col. Marc Rodin, carefully examines their few remaining options and determines that the only way to succeed in killing de Gaulle is to hire a professional assassin from outside the organization, someone completely unknown to either the French authorities or the OAS itself. After inquiries, he contacts an Englishman (whose name is never given), who meets with Rodin and his two principal deputies in Vienna, and agrees to assassinate de Gaulle for the sum of $500,000 (about $2.4 million in 2012). The four men agree on his code name, "The Jackal." The remainder of Part One describes the Jackal's exhaustive preparations for the assassination. First, he acquires a legitimate British passport under a false name, under which he plans to operate for the majority of his mission. He also steals the passports of two foreign tourists visiting London who superficially resemble the Jackal, for use in an emergency. Using his primary false passport, the Jackal travels to Belgium, where he commissions a specialized sniper rifle of great slimness and an appropriate silencer from a master gunsmith, and a set of forged French identity papers from a master forger. When picking up his fake identity papers, the master forger attempts to blackmail the Jackal but the Jackal kills him and locks the body in a large trunk inside the forger's house, where he correctly deduces it won't be found for a long time. After exhaustively researching a series of books and articles by, and about, de Gaulle, the Jackal travels to Paris to reconnoiter the most favorable spot and the most likely day for the assassination. After orchestrating a series of armed robberies in France, the OAS is able to deposit the first half of the Jackal's fee in his bank in Switzerland. At the same time, the French secret service, curious about the actions of Rodin and his subordinates, fake a letter that lures one of Rodin's bodyguards to France, where he is captured and interrogated, before dying. Interpreting his incoherent ramblings, the secret service is able to piece together Rodin's plot, but without knowing the name or the exact description of the assassin. When told about the plot, de Gaulle (who was notoriously careless of his personal safety) refuses, absolutely, to cancel his public appearances, modify his normal routines, or even allow any kind of public inquiry into the assassin's whereabouts to be made. Any inquiry, he orders, must be done in absolute secrecy. Roger Frey, the French Minister of the Interior, convenes a meeting of the heads of the French security forces. Since Rodin and his men have taken refuge at a hotel in Rome under heavy guard, they cannot be captured and interrogated. The rest of the meeting is at a loss to suggest how to proceed, except a Commissioner of the Police Judiciare, who reasons that their first and most essential step is to establish the Jackal's identity, which is a job for a detective. When asked to name the best detective in France, he volunteers his own deputy commissioner, Claude Lebel. Granted special emergency powers to conduct his investigation, Lebel does everything he can to discover the Jackal's identity. He first calls upon his "old boy network" of foreign intelligence and police contacts to inquire if they have any records of a top-class political assassin. Most of the inquiries are fruitless, but in the United Kingdom, the inquiry is eventually passed on to the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, and another veteran detective, Superintendent Bryn Thomas. A search through Special Branch's records turns up nothing, however one of Thomas's subordinates suggests that if the assassin was an Englishman, but primarily operated abroad, he'd be more likely to come to the attention of the Secret Intelligence Service. Thomas makes an informal inquiry with a friend of his on the SIS's staff, who mentions hearing a rumor from an officer stationed in the Dominican Republic at the time of President Trujillo's assassination. The rumor states that a hired assassin stopped Trujillo's car with a rifle shot, allowing a gang of partisans to finish him off; and moreover, that the assassin was an Englishman, named Charles Calthrop. To his surprise, Thomas is summoned in person by the Prime Minister (unnamed, but likely intended to represent Harold Macmillan), who informs him that word of his inquiries has reached higher circles in the British government. Despite the enmity felt by much of the government against France in general and de Gaulle in particular, the Prime Minister informs Thomas that de Gaulle is his friend, and that the assassin must be identified and stopped at all costs. Thomas is handed a commission much similar to Lebel's, with temporary powers allowing him to override almost any other authority in the land. Checking out the name of Charles Calthrop, Thomas finds a match to a man living in London, said to be on holiday in Scotland. While Thomas confirms that this Calthrop was in the Dominican Republic at the time of Trujillo's death, he does not feel it is enough to inform Lebel. But then one of his junior detectives realizes that the first three letters of his Christian name and surname form the French (and Spanish) word for Jackal, Chacal. Thomas calls Lebel immediately. Unknown to any member of the council in France, the mistress of one of them (an arrogant Air Force colonel attached to de Gaulle's staff) is actually an OAS agent. Through pillow talk, the colonel unwittingly feeds the Jackal a constant stream of information as to Lebel's progress. The Jackal enters France by way of Italy, driving a rented Alfa Romeo sports car with his special gun hidden in the chassis. On receiving word from the OAS agent that the French are on the lookout for him, he decides his plan will succeed nevertheless, and forges ahead. In London, the Special Branch raids Calthrop's flat, finding his passport, and deduce that he must be travelling on a false one. When they work out the name of the Jackal's primary false identity, Lebel and the police come close to apprehending the Jackal in the south of France. But thanks to his OAS contact, the Jackal checks out of his hotel early and evades them by only an hour. With the police on the lookout for him, the Jackal takes refuge in the chateau of a woman whom he seduced while she was staying at the hotel the night before. When she goes through his things and finds the gun, he kills her and escapes again. The murder is not reported until much later that evening, allowing the Jackal to assume one of his two emergency identities and board the train for Paris. Lebel becomes suspicious of what the rest of the council label the Jackal's "good luck," and has the telephones of all the members wiretapped, which leads him to discover the OAS agent. The Air Force colonel withdraws from the meeting in disgrace and later resigns from his post. When Thomas checks out and identifies reports of stolen or missing passports in London in the preceding months, he closes in on the Jackal's remaining false identities. On the evening of August 22, 1963, Lebel deduces that the Jackal has decided to target de Gaulle on Liberation Day, on 25 August, the day commemorating the liberation of Paris during World War II. It is, he realizes, the one day of the year when de Gaulle can be counted on to be in Paris, and to appear in public. Considering the inquiry all but over, the Minister orchestrates a massive, city-wide manhunt for the Jackal under his false name(s), and dismisses Lebel with hearty congratulations. However, the Jackal has eluded them yet again. By pretending to be homosexual in one of his false guises, he allows himself to be "picked up" by another man and taken to his apartment, where he kills the man and remains hidden for the remaining three days, thus avoiding identification through hotel registrations, which are examined by the police. On the day before the 25th, the Minister summons Lebel again and tells him that the Jackal still cannot be found. Lebel listens to the details of the President's schedule and security arrangements, and can suggest nothing more helpful than that everyone "should keep their eyes open." On the day of the assassination, the Jackal, disguised as a one-legged French war veteran, passes through the police checkpoints, carrying his custom rifle concealed in the sections of a crutch. He makes his way to an apartment building overlooking the Place du 18 Juin 1940 (in front of the soon-to-be-demolished facade of the Gare Montparnasse), where de Gaulle is presenting medals to a small group of Resistance veterans. As the ceremony begins, Lebel is walking around the street on foot, questioning and re-questioning every police checkpoint. When he hears from one CRS officer about a one-legged veteran with a crutch, he realizes what the Jackal's plan is, and rushes into the apartment building, yelling for the CRS man to follow him. In his sniper's rest, the Jackal readies his rifle and takes aim at de Gaulle's head. Yet his first shot misses by a fraction of an inch, when de Gaulle unexpectedly leans forward to kiss the cheeks of the veteran he is honoring. The Jackal begins to reload. Outside the apartment, Lebel and the CRS officer arrive on the top floor in time to hear the sound of the first, silenced shot. The CRS man shoots off the lock of the door and bursts in. The Jackal turns and fires, killing the young policeman with a shot to the chest. At last, confronting each other, the assassin and the police detective — who had developed grudging, mutual respect for each other in the long chase — briefly look into each other's eyes, each recognizing the other for who he is. The Jackal scrambles to load his third and last rifle bullet, while Lebel, unarmed, snatches up the dead policeman's MAT-49 submachine-gun. Lebel is faster, and shoots the Jackal with half a magazine-load of bullets, instantly killing him. In London, the Special Branch are cleaning up Calthrop's apartment when the real Charles Calthrop storms in and demands to know what they are doing. Once it is established that Calthrop really has been on holiday in Scotland and has no connection whatsoever with the Jackal, the British are left to wonder "If the Jackal wasn't Calthrop, then who the hell was he?" The Jackal is buried in an unmarked grave in a Paris cemetery, officially recorded as "an unknown foreign tourist, killed in a car accident." Aside from the priest, the only person attending the burial is Police Inspector Claude Lebel, who then leaves the cemetery to return home to his family.

Just after the election, K.G. Ramachandran , popularly known as KGR is elected as the new Chief Minister. A young Turk with a clean image, KGR overshadowed Kazhuthumuttam , another strong aspirant for CM's chair. Just after the meeting, Kazhuthumuttam joins with Eranjoly Aboobakkar and Mathai Chacko Pappachan at a hotel room, to plan out the next move. Vishwanathan, commonly referred as Vishwam , a high profile business tycoon and political lobbyist joins them at the hotel. Vishwam, the political sponsor of Kazhuthumuttam is now in deep trouble as he has several business ambitions in the state. Vishwam has collected several million rupees from several businessmen, whom he had also given promises. If KGR continues in power, his plans would be tarnished. KGR, on the other hand leads a simple life along with his wife Vatsala, a home maker. He brings out several revolutionary changes in the state, including dismissal of corrupt officers and changes in liquor policy of the state. Even Kaimal ([[Janardhanan , his party president finds him too arrogant to tame. The popularity of KGR is on sudden rise. It was then, Vishwan, decides to assassinate KGR. He puts out the plan in front of his friends, who also agrees. Vishwan contacts Muniyandi Thevar, a Malaysian based businessman and smuggler in Madras, who introduces him to a professional hit man . But after the payment of the amount is done, Kazhuthumuttam feels cheated as again, he has been denied the CM's post. Kazhuthumuttam, in a state of intoxication, calls up Gopu , a journalist and spits out the information that 'the Chief Minister will be assassinated shortly', but without committing his identity. Even though the caller does not give his name, the journalist identifies him as Kazhuthumuttam. He therefore passes the information to a friend of his, Perumal , a police officer . Perumal doesn't seem to take this serious at first, and since the identification of the voice of the caller by the journalist is not positive, they conclude it is a prank call. Still they convey the message to the higher officials. Th IG of Police, still not thoroughly convinced, orders a routine investigation into the matter. Perumal is assigned the case and he begins his investigation by arresting Vishwam. But Vishwam couldn't give them any further details as he was also unaware about the whereabouts or name of the killer, except that the killer has introduced himself as Gomes, a fake name. Perumal reaches Madras, from where, he arrests Thevar and brings him to Kerala. According to an eyewitness, Perumal issues a sketch of the killer and gets it broadcast on TV, but he skips from police miraculously. On the day of August 15, when the CM is checking the guard of honor, Perumal waits eagerly with all police facilities to grab the killer. While scanning the CCTV feeds, Perumal observes Gomes among the police in uniform, in the line for the guard of honour. . Perumal sprints from the Control room and shoots down Gomes, before he can hit the CM, thereby saving KGR. The final scene shows the burial of the assassin Gomes, where a deputy questions Perumal how he knew he was a Christian. Perumal replies that he doesn't and actually he is an unknown man , but he is paying respect to the assassin going by the last name he was known to Perumal, subtly implying that the assassin had earned some grudging respect from him, possibly for his determination.

positive

positive

Battlefield Earth

Battlefield Earth

In the year AD 3000, Earth has been ruled by an alien race, the Psychlos, for a millennium. Humanity has been reduced to a few scattered tribes in isolated parts of the world while the Psychlos strip the planet of its mineral wealth. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young member of one such tribe, lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Depressed over the death and disease affecting his tribe, he leaves his village to explore the lowlands and to disprove the superstitions long held by his people involving ancient gods and monsters. However, he is captured in the ruins of Denver by Terl, the Psychlo chief of security. The Psychlos, hairy high, 1,000-pound sociopaths, originate from a planet with an atmosphere very different from that of Earth. Their home world is in fact located in a different/parallel universe, and follows slightly different physical laws, with a slightly different table of elements. As a result, some interactions between the two worlds are problematic. Their "breathe-gas" explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive metals, such as uranium. Terl, a Psychlo, had been assigned to Earth, and he eventually learns that his term has been extended with no word of relief. Fearful at the thought of spending several more years on Earth, he decides to con his way off the planet and return home a wealthy Psychlo. Terl has discovered a lode of gold up in the Rocky Mountains that he wants to get his hands on "off the company books". However, it is surrounded by uranium deposits that make Psychlo mining impossible. Terl captures Jonnie while searching for "man-animals" that he can train to mine the gold for him. After a time, Terl captures Jonnie's childhood friend Chrissie and her little sister and threatens to kill them unless Jonnie helps him. Jonnie is afterwards free to move around the mining area. Shortly thereafter, Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland and recruit 83 Scottish youth, old women, a doctor, and a historian to help with the mining. Jonnie, however, has different plans. Because Terl does not understand English, Jonnie is able to convince the Scots to help him overthrow the Psychlo rule on Earth. During the next months, Jonnie and the Scots try to mine the gold as well as develop a means of defeating not only the Psychlos on Earth, but also nullifying the threat of counterattack from Psychlo (the Psychlos' home planet). During the semi-annual teleportation of personnel, goods, and coffins (all dead Psychlos are shipped home for burial) back to Psychlo, Jonnie and the Scots manage to pack several of the coffins with "dirty nukes" and "planet busters" in hopes of destroying the Psychlos' home planet. After the teleportation firing, the humans use the Psychlos' own weapons against them and regain control of Earth. This is, however, not the end of the story. Unsure as to whether the bombs sent even reached Psychlo and under the imminent threat of counterattack, Jonnie must now defend his newly-retaken planet against the predatory interests of several other interstellar races, including a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth in lieu of unpaid debts, as well as a longtime rival seeking to wrest control of Earth from him. In order to ensure the security and independence of humanity, he does something that no other race in 300,000 years has been able to do: uncover the secret of Psychlo mathematics and teleportation, a difficult task compounded by the destruction of planet Psychlo.

In the year 3000, Earth has been ruled for 1,000 years by the Psychlos, a brutal race of giant humanoid aliens. The remnants of humanity are either enslaved by the Psychlos and used for manual labor or survive in primitive tribes living in remote areas outside Psychlo control. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a member of one such tribe, leaves his home in the Rocky Mountains on a journey of exploration. He joins forces with Carlo, a hunter, but both men are captured by a Psychlo raiding party and transported to a slave camp at the Psychlos' main base on Earth, a giant dome built over the ruins of Denver, Colorado. Terl, the Psychlo security chief on Earth, has been condemned by his superiors to remain indefinitely at his post on Earth as punishment for an unclear incident involving "the Senator's daughter." Aided by his deputy, Ker, Terl devises a plan to buy his way off the planet by making a fortune using human slaves to mine gold in radioactive areas. Psychlos are unable to visit such areas due to the explosive interaction of the gas that they breathe with radionuclide particles. Terl selects Jonnie as his "foreman" for the project and gives him a Psychlo education using a rapid-learning machine. Terl gives Jonnie a party of slaves and a Psychlo flying shuttle and orders him to go out and find gold. After learning the Psychlos' language, history, and myriad other educational forms from the rapid learning machine, Jonnie plots a human uprising against the Psychlos. He obtains gold from Fort Knox to satisfy Terl's demands, instead of mining gold as ordered. Jonnie and his followers find an abandoned underground US military base with working aircraft, weapons, fuel, and nuclear weapons. They use the base's flight simulators to train themselves in aerial combat. After a week of training, the rebels launch a mass uprising against the Psychlos using Harrier jump-jets and other weapons. Carlo sacrifices himself to destroy the dome over Denver, and the Psychlos inside suffocate in Earth's atmosphere, which they are unable to breathe. Jonnie captures a Psychlo teleportation device and uses it to teleport an atomic bomb to the Psychlo home world. The ensuing detonation causes the entire Psychlo atmosphere to explode, wiping out the planet. Ker and Terl survive on Earth but face different fates: Ker sides with the victorious humans, while Terl is imprisoned as a hostage within a vault in Fort Knox. The film ends with the humans in control of Earth but facing an uncertain future.

positive

positive

No Country for Old Men

No Country for Old Men

The plot follows the interweaving paths of the three central characters (Llewelyn Moss, Anton Chigurh, and Ed Tom Bell), set in motion by events related to a drug deal gone bad near the Mexican-American border in southwest Texas, in Terrell County. While Llewelyn Moss is hunting antelope, he stumbles across the aftermath of a drug-deal gone bad, which has left everyone dead but a single badly wounded Mexican who pleads with Moss for water. Moss responds that he doesn't have any and searches the rest of the vehicles, finding a truck full of heroin. He searches for the "last man standing" and finds him dead some ways off under a tree, with a satchel containing $2.4 million in cash. He takes the money and returns back home. Later, however, he feels remorse for leaving the wounded man and returns to the scene with a jug of water, only to find that he has been shot and killed since he left him. When Moss looks back to his truck parked on the ridge overlooking the valley, another truck is there. As soon as he tries to run, he is seen, which sparks a tense chase by gunmen in the other truck. This is only the beginning of a hunt for Moss that stretches for most of the remaining novel. After escaping from the gunmen at the scene of the drug deal massacre, Llewelyn sends his wife, Carla Jean Moss, to her mother in Odessa while he leaves his home with the money. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell investigates the drug crime while trying to protect Moss and his young wife, with the aid of other law enforcement. The sheriff is haunted by his actions in World War II, leaving his unit to die, for which he received a Bronze Star. Now in his late 50s, Bell has spent most of his life attempting to make up for the incident when he was a 21-year-old soldier. He makes it his quest to resolve the case and save Moss. Complicating things is the arrival of Anton Chigurh, a hitman hired to recover the money. Chigurh uses a captive bolt pistol (called a "stungun" in the text) to kill many of his victims (and to destroy several cylinder locks to open doors), as well as a silenced shotgun. Carson Wells, a rival hitman and ex-Special Forces officer who is familiar with Chigurh, is also on the trail of the stolen money. After a brutal shootout that spills across the Mexican border and leaves both Moss and Chigurh wounded, Moss recovers at a Mexican hospital while Chigurh patches himself up in a hotel room with stolen supplies. While recuperating, Moss is approached by Wells, who offers to give him protection in exchange for the satchel and tells him his current location and phone number, instructing him to call when he has "had enough." After recovering and leaving the hotel room, Chigurh finds Wells and murders him just as Moss calls to negotiate the exchange of money. After answering Wells's phone, Chigurh tells Moss that he will kill Carla Jean unless he hands over the satchel. Moss remains defiant and soon after, calls Carla Jean and tells her that he will meet up with her at a motel in El Paso. After much deliberation, Carla Jean decides to inform Sheriff Bell about the meeting and its location. Unfortunately for her and her husband, this call is traced and provides Moss's location to some of his hunters. At the motel, Sheriff Bell arrives to find Moss murdered by a band of Mexicans, who also were after the drug deal cash. Later that night Chigurh arrives at the scene and retrieves the satchel from the airduct in Moss's room. He returns it to its owner and later travels to Carla Jean's house and shoots her after flipping a coin to decide her fate. Soon after, he is hit by a car, which leaves him severely injured but still alive. After bribing a pair of teenagers to remain silent about the car accident, he limps off down the road. After a long investigation that fails to locate Chigurh, Bell decides to retire and drives away from the local courthouse feeling overmatched and defeated. For the rest of the book, Bell describes two dreams that he had the previous night. In one, he met his father in town and borrowed some money from him. In the second, Bell was riding his horse through a snow-covered pass in the mountains. As he rode, he could see his father up ahead of him carrying a moon colored horn lit with fire, and he knew that his father would ride on through the pass and fix a fire out in the dark and cold and that it would be waiting for him when he arrived. And then he woke up.

West Texas in June 1980 is desolate, wide open country, and Ed Tom Bell laments the increasing violence in a region where he, like his father and grandfather before him, has risen to the office of sheriff. Llewelyn Moss , hunting pronghorn, comes across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry: several dead men and dogs, a wounded Mexican begging for water, and two million dollars in a satchel that he takes to his trailer home. Late that night, he returns with water for the dying man, but is chased away by two men in a truck and loses his vehicle. When he gets back home he grabs the cash, sends his wife Carla Jean to her mother's, and makes his way to a motel in the next countyThe sign in front of Moss' trailer park indicates its location in Sanderson, the seat of Terrell County. Del Rio is the seat of Val Verde County, approximately 120 miles from Sanderson. where he hides the satchel in the air vent of his room. Anton Chigurh is a hitman who has been hired to recover the money. He has already strangled a sheriff's deputy to escape custody and stolen a car by using a captive bolt pistol to kill the driver. Now he carries a receiver that traces the money via a tracking device concealed inside the satchel. Bursting into Moss' hideout at night, Chigurh surprises a group of Mexicans set to ambush Moss, and murders them all. Moss, who has rented the connecting room on the other side, is one step ahead. By the time Chigurh removes the vent cover with a dime, Moss is already back on the road with the cash. In a border town hotel, Moss finally finds the electronic bug, but not before Chigurh is upon him. A firefight between them spills onto the streets, leaving both men wounded. Moss flees across the border, collapsing from his injuries before he is taken to a Mexican hospital. There, Carson Wells , another hired operative, offers protection in return for the money. After Chigurh cleans and stitches his own wounds with stolen supplies, he gets the drop on Wells back at his hotel and kills him just as Moss calls the room. Picking up the call and casually raising his feet to avoid the spreading blood, Chigurh promises Moss that Carla Jean will go untouched if he gives up the money. Moss remains defiant. Moss arranges to rendezvous with his wife at a motel in El Paso to give her the money and send her out of harm's way. She reluctantly accepts Bell's offer to save her husband, but he arrives only in time to see a pickup carrying several men speeding away from the motel and Moss lying dead in his room. That night, Bell returns to the crime scene and finds the lock blown out in his suspect's familiar style. Chigurh hides behind the door of a motel room, observing the shifting light through an empty lock hole. His gun drawn, Bell enters Moss' room and notices that the vent cover has been removed with a dime and the vent is empty. Bell visits his Uncle Ellis , an ex-lawman. Bell plans to retire because he feels "overmatched," but Ellis points out that the region has always been violent. For Ellis, thinking it is "all waiting on you, that's vanity." Carla Jean returns from her mother's funeral to find Chigurh waiting in the bedroom. When she tells him she does not have the money, he recalls the pledge he made to her husband that could have spared her. The best he will offer is a coin toss for her life, but she says that the choice is his. Chigurh leaves the house alone and carefully checks the soles of his boots. As he drives away, he is injured in a car accident and abandons the damaged vehicle. Now retired, Bell shares two dreams with his wife , both involving his deceased father. In the first dream he lost "some money" that his father had given him; in the second, he and his father were riding horses through a snowy mountain pass. His father, who was carrying fire in a horn, quietly passed by with his head down, "going on ahead, and fixin' to make a fire" in the surrounding dark and cold. Bell knew that when he got there his father would be waiting.

positive

positive

The Life Before Us

Madame Rosa

Momo, a Muslim orphan boy, lives under the care of an old Jewish women named Madame Rosa. The young boy tells the story of his life in the orphanage and of his relationship with Madame Rosa as she becomes increasingly sick.

Madame Rosa is a frail, aging, retired Jewish prostitute and Auschwitz survivor who earns a meager living by caring for the children of younger female sex workers, as well as for Momo , a young Arab boy on the verge of adolescence. Momo hasn't seen his parents in years. He and Madame Rosa struggle to make ends meet, and as her body and mind start to fail, it becomes clear that Momo is the only person she has left in the world. Despite his young age, he has to help Madame Rosa who refuses to be hospitalized. He will stay with her as she faces her ultimate fears and prepares for her last and most difficult voyage.

positive

positive

The Stepford Wives

The Stepford Wives

The premise involves the married men of the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, and their fawning, submissive, impossibly beautiful wives. The protagonist is Joanna Eberhart, a talented photographer newly arrived from New York City with her husband and children, eager to start a new life. As time goes on, she becomes increasingly disturbed by the zombie-like, submissive Stepford wives, especially when she sees her once independent-minded friends&nbsp;&ndash; fellow new arrivals to Stepford&nbsp;&ndash; turn into mindless, docile housewives overnight. Her husband, who seems to be spending more and more time at meetings of the local men's association, mocks her fears. As the story progresses, Joanna becomes convinced that the wives of Stepford are being poisoned or brainwashed into submission by the men's club. She visits the library and reads up on the pasts of Stepford's wives, finding out that some of the women were once feminist activists and very successful professionals, while the leader of the men's club is a former Disney engineer and others are artists and scientists, capable of creating lifelike robots. Her friend Bobbie helps her investigate, going so far as to write to the EPA to inquire about possible environmental toxins in Stepford. However, eventually, Bobbie is also transformed into a docile housewife and has no interest in her previous activities. At the end of the novel, Joanna decides to flee Stepford, but when she gets home she finds that her children have been taken. She asks her husband to let her leave, but he takes her car keys. She manages to escape from the house on foot, and several of the men's club members track her down. They corner her in the woods and she accuses them of creating robots out of the town's women. The men deny the accusation, and ask Joanna if she would believe them if she saw one of the other women bleed. Joanna agrees to this, and they take her to Bobbie's house. Bobbie's husband and son are upstairs, with loud rock music playing&nbsp;&ndash; as if to cover screams. The scene ends as Bobbie brandishes a knife at her former friend. In the story's epilogue, Joanna has become another Stepford wife gliding through the local supermarket, and has given up her career as a photographer, while Ruthanne (a new resident in Stepford) appears poised to become the conspiracy's next victim.

Joanna Eberhart is a successful reality television executive producer. She is fired after her latest project, a show where spouses choose between each other or prostitutes, called "I Can Do Better", results in one of the jilted men going on a shooting spree, and she has a nervous breakdown. With her husband Walter and their two children, they move from Manhattan to Stepford, a quiet Connecticut suburb. Joanna becomes friends with Bobbie Markowitz , a writer and recovering alcoholic, and Roger Bannister , a flamboyant gay man who has moved to town with his longtime partner, Jerry . Joanna, Bobbie and Roger witness an incident in which Sarah Sunderson , violently dances and then collapses. A man named Mike arrives and directs all men to crowd around Sarah so that no one can see what's going on, although Joanna sees Mike touch Sarah and she puts off sparks. After Sarah is carried away, Claire , the town's leading lady, announces to Joanna that Mike essentially runs Stepford and says that she's his wife. Joanna argues with Walter about the incident with Sarah until Walter loses his temper and yells at her. He tells her that her children barely know her, that their marriage is falling apart, and that she's so domineering people want to kill her. Realizing how unhappy she is, Joanna apologizes and agrees to try and fit in with the other wives. The next day, as she cleans the house and tries wearing more makeup, she talks with Bobbie and Roger, and they decide to visit Sarah. Entering the house, they hear Sarah having loud, passionate sex with her husband. It sounds as though she is about to reach orgasm. Roger starts tiptoeing up the stairs to have a peek, and the two follow until they hear someone suddenly walking out of the room. They quickly return down the stairs to hide, and they find a remote control labeled SARAH. While playing with it, they inadvertently cause Sarah's breasts to enlarge before she falls on the staircase behind them. Frightened, they retreat to Bobbie's house, where Joanna suggests that they seriously try to live in Stepford. During this time, the Stepford women appear extremely vapid and shallow; in the Stepford book club, their story is a catalogue of Christmas and Chanukah collectibles and decoration tips. Meanwhile, Walter has been bonding with the Stepford Men's Association. When he wins $20 in a game from Ted, one of the Stepford Husbands, Ted summons his wife and puts a credit card in her mouth. She spits out $20 in one-dollar bills, revealing that she is a robot like the other women. One evening, Walter and Mr. Markowitz go to the Men's Association with Roger and Jerry, but Joanna and Bobbie hire a babysitter and follow them. Sneaking around the Men's Association, they find a long line of family portraits. They make a noise and Roger is sent out to see what's going on. Although he does not reveal their presence to the other men, he tells Joanna and Bobbie that nothing illegal is going on there, and Joanna and Bobbie leave. Roger is directed through a door and he finds himself on a balcony overlooking the main hall. Looking down, he sees something puzzling, turns to the camera and softly utters "Jerry?" The next day, he is completely transformed, running for state senate as a conservative gay Republican. Terrified, Joanna tells Walter that she wants to move. Walter apologizes, saying that if she's so miserable, they can leave tomorrow. She thanks him. That night, she is awakened by their robotic dog bringing her a bone. She is horrified to find that it's actually a remote control, like Sarah's but labeled JOANNA. She goes online to research the women of Stepford and learns that the women used to be scientists, engineers and judges. The next morning she runs to see Bobbie, only to find that Bobbie, too, has become fawning and stupid. Joanna realizes that Bobbie isn't human anymore when Bobbie fails to react to the open flame of a lit stove. Joanna tries to flee but finds that her children have been taken hostage by the men. She storms into the Men's Club demanding that the men return her children, but the men, who have been lying in wait for her, capture her. The men explain that when their wives were scientists and engineers, their wives reduced them to low-level support roles. Enraged, the men implanted microchips into their wives' brains and then transplanted their minds into cloned bodies, which became the men's patient, subservient and impossibly beautiful robot mistresses. As Mike reveals Joanna's new body, Walter voices his frustration at being second best to her. The men corner Joanna and Walter and force them toward the transformation room, but before Joanna enters, she makes a final appeal by asking whether the new wives really mean it when they tell their husbands that they love them. Later, Joanna appears at the grocery store, calmly purchasing groceries alongside the other wives. With Joanna and Walter as the guests of honor, Stepford hosts a formal ball. During the festivities, Joanna distracts Mike and entices him into the garden while Walter slips away. Walter returns to the transformation room where he destroys the software that makes the women obedient. This, in turn, burns out all the implanted microchips, causing all the Stepford Wives to revert to their original personalities. Walter returns to the ball, where the baffled husbands are cornered by their vengeful wives. Walter reveals that Joanna never received the microchip implant: Her argument during the struggle had won him over, and out of his love for and loyalty to the human being whom he married, he joined in her plan to infiltrate Stepford by pretending to be a robot. Mike threatens Walter, but before Mike can attack, Joanna hits Mike with a candlestick, decapitating him and revealing that he himself is a robot. It is revealed that his wife, Claire, is a real woman, not a Stepford Wife as implied earlier. Distraught over the loss of her husband, Claire explains that she created Stepford because she, too, was a bitter, career-minded woman, a tired brain surgeon. When she discovered that Mike was having an affair, she murdered Mike and his lover in a jealous rage. Deciding to make the world 'more beautiful', she created her robot husband, partly because he was someone other men would listen to. When Joanna wonders aloud why Claire didn't simply make the men into robots, she replies that she planned to turn the whole community into robots. Claire then electrocutes herself by kissing Mike's severed robotic head. Six months later Larry King is interviewing Joanna, Bobbie, and Roger. After their experiences in Stepford, they have all met with success; Joanna made a documentary, Bobbie wrote a book of poetry, and Roger won his state senate seat as an Independent. Joanna also notes that while her and Walter's relationship isn't perfect, it is still real, and that is what is important. The closing scene of the film reveals that the irate wives have taken over Stepford and forced their husbands to atone for their crimes by placing them under house arrest, making them complete many of the same domestic tasks that they had forced the women to do.

positive

positive

Death Wish

Death Wish

Paul Benjamin is a CPA in New York and lifelong liberal. However, his staid life is overturned when his daughter, Carol, and spouse, Esther, are attacked by muggers. His wife does not survive the attack, and his traumatized daughter is left in a vegetative state. Forced to reevaluate his views, Benjamin becomes paranoid and eager for vengeance. After a trip to Arizona, a friend gives him a revolver as a gift. Benjamin shoots a mugger who accosts him. Benjamin continues to take justice into his own hands, drawing would-be muggers into traps by using himself as the bait. In one case, he rents a car, pulls it over to the side of the road, and writes an "Out of Gas" sign on the vehicle. He then hides, waiting for someone to steal the car. When some lawbreakers do so, he shoots them. It is only within the last fifty pages of the first novel that Benjamin slays his first victim. The second novel, Death Sentence, states that Benjamin murdered seventeen people over five weeks.

Paul Kersey and his wife Joanna vacation in Hawaii. They return to New York City, where Paul works as an architect. Joanna and their daughter Carol Anne shop for groceries at D'Agostino's Market. Three bloodthirsty hooligans are creating havoc in the local grocery store. They catch Joanna's address after she asks that her groceries be delivered. They follow her to the apartment, burst in and trash the apartment. They search for money but find only $7. The hooligans then rape Carol and savagely beat Joanna, escaping scot-free. Paul's son-in-law Jack Toby calls to tell him only that Joanna and Carol are in the hospital. After waiting impatiently, Paul is told by a doctor that his daughter is OK and that she was sedated and put to bed, but Paul is also informed that his wife has died. Devastated, he is told by police that the likelihood of catching the criminals is small. The next day, Paul's boss gives him an extended business vacation to Tucson, Arizona to meet a client, Ames Jainchill , who shows him the ropes. Paul witnesses a mock gunfight at Old Tucson, a reconstructed Western frontier town used as a movie set. At a gun club, Ames is impressed when Paul shoots near bulls-eye accuracy. Paul reveals that he was a "CO" during the Korean War who served his country as a combat medic. Paul had been taught to handle firearms at a young age by his father, but after his father was killed in a hunting accident Paul decided to forswear the use of firearms for any purpose. After Paul makes substantial improvements to Ames' plans for a residential development, a thoroughly pleased Ames drops him at the airport, slipping a little going-away present into Paul's bag. Back in Manhattan, his daughter is catatonic. Paul opens his suitcase and discovers that Ames' "going-away present" is a nickel-plated .32 Colt Police Positive revolver. He pockets the gun and takes a stroll. Paul encounters a mugger, an ex-convict named Thomas Leroy Marston who attempts to rob him at gunpoint with a .38 Smith & Wesson Model 36 revolver. Paul shoots him with the revolver, killing him. Shocked that he just killed a human being, Paul runs home and throws up. But his vigilantism continues the following night, when he guns down three more men who are robbing a defenseless old man in a vacant alley. A few nights later, two muggers see Paul on a subway. They attempt to rob him at knife-point but Paul shoots them both with the revolver. The next scene has Paul then sitting in a sleazy Times Square coffee shop surrounded by prostitutes and assorted street people. He pays his bill to the cashier purposely revealing a wallet full of cash. He leaves followed by two thugs who have taken the bait. Yet again a robbery attempt is made. Paul shoots one but the other manages to stab him in his shoulder. As a wounded Paul stumbles off, the one who stabbed him gets away mortally wounded, dying at a hospital. NYPD Lt. Frank Ochoa investigates the vigilante killings. His department narrows a list to men who have had a family member recently killed by muggers and who are war veterans. The public, meanwhile, is happy that somebody is doing something about crime. Ochoa soon suspects Paul. He is about to make an arrest when the District Attorney intervenes and tells Ochoa to "let him loose" in another city instead. Ochoa doesn't like the idea, but relents. Paul shoots two more muggers before being wounded by a third mugger with a M1911A1 pistol at a warehouse. Hospitalized, he is ordered by Ochoa to leave New York, permanently. Paul replies, "By sundown?" Paul arrives in Chicago Union Station by train. Being greeted by a company representative, he notices a group of hoodlums harassing a young woman. He excuses himself and helps the woman. The hoodlums make obscene gestures, but Paul points his right hand like a gun and smiles, suggesting that his vigilantism will continue.

negative

negative

Clean Break

The Killing

The main character is a young girl called Emily, or Princess Emerald to her imaginative Dad, who lives with her mum Julie, her half sister Vita and her half brother Maxie in their grandmother Ellen's house. Although her dad is technically only her Step-dad, Em and her siblings all love him completely. Emily is highly sensitive (as a lot of characters are), and is very insecure about her weight. On Christmas Day Emily and her sister Vita receive their presents and get a special reindeer hand-puppet which they name dancer. Emily overhears a conversation her dad is having and realizes that he is having a secret affair. Emily confronts her father, and he owns up to his cheating, and by the next morning he has left. After Emily's step-dad walks out, the rest of the family struggle to get along without him. Emily takes up swimming, where she becomes more fit, loses weight and gains confidence within herself. The children go and visit Frankie at the home of his new partner Sarah, but she is rude, selfish and obnoxious. On a visit they take to a park, Em, Vita and Maxie are astounded to find their Dad passionately kissing Sarah, in a way that he would never do to their mum.Sarah is an aspiring actress and both she and Frankie move to Scotland quite soon into their relationship. When they arrive home, they all reject their Dad's goodbyes. The children all tell their mother that Sarah and their Dad don't get on very well, and will be home soon. Their Mum is quite depressed, and dependent on Frankie for emotional support. Their grandmother does not understand how much the family all love him and would take him back if he ever returned. Em's Gran decides to take them on a holiday and gets a boyfriend herself. Emily runs into her real dad at a fair, and was scared because he had always abused her mother when she was young. When Emily travels to London to meet her favorite author, the family runs into Frankie again, as he has apparently broken up with Sarah and found a new girlfriend, Hannah, before moving back to London. Emily runs after Frankie, falls and breaks her arm and Dancer(her reindeer puppet), but her dad stops and takes her to the hospital. The story ends on Christmas Eve just under one year after Frankie left, with Frankie sending dancer back to them as a Christmas present. It is implied that he doesn't return to the family but does visit them often.

Johnny Clay is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay . He plans to rob two million dollars from the money-counting room of a racetrack during a featured race. He assembles a team consisting of a corrupt cop , a betting window teller to give access to the backroom, a sharpshooter to shoot the favorite horse during the race to distract the crowd, a wrestler to provide another distraction by provoking a fight at the track bar, and a track bartender . George Peatty, the teller, tells his wife Sherry about the impending robbery. Sherry is bitter at George for not delivering on the promises of wealth he made her at the time of their marriage, and George hopes that telling her about the robbery will placate and impress her. Sherry does not believe him at first but, after learning that the robbery is real, she enlists her lover Val Cannon to steal the money from George and his associates. The heist is successful, although the sharpshooter is shot and killed by the police. The conspirators gather at the apartment where they are to meet Johnny and divide the money. Before Johnny arrives, Val appears and holds them up. A shootout ensues and a badly wounded George is the sole survivor. He goes home and shoots Sherry before dying. Johnny, on his way to the apartment, sees George staggering in the street and knows that something is wrong. He buys the biggest suitcase he can find to put the money in , and he and Fay go to the airport. At the airport however, they are told that they aren't allowed to take the suitcase along as hand luggage because of its size, and instead have to check it in as regular luggage. Johnny reluctantly complies. While waiting to board their plane, they watch as the suitcase falls off a cart, breaks open and the loose banknotes are swept away by the wind. They leave the airport but are unsuccessful at finding a cab. Fay urges Johnny to flee but he refuses, stating that there is no use trying to escape. The film ends with two officers coming to arrest him.

negative

positive

Vengeance

Munich

L.A. is divided between the haves and the have-nots. Those in luck seem to have tanned good looks, toned bodies, riches and more. Some have-nots are beginning to grow tired of it. Lily Pierce is a motivational speaker who founded New Life Foundation, an organization sweeping across the country. Its mantra is: "Erase doubt. Erase fear. Become pure of purpose. Perfect in execution. Attain your dreams." Cordy's not impressed with Lily's message, but she doesn't suspect Lily is holding a secret of epic proportions. Wolfram and Hart puzzlingly soon want Angel's help to stop the insanity, but is Lily's hope of a perfect world tempting to Angel?

{{Plot}} The film begins with a depiction of the events of the 1972 Munich Olympics. After the killings, the Israeli government devises an eye for an eye retaliation; and a target list of 11 names is drawn up. Avner Kaufman , an Israeli-born Mossad agent of German-Jewish descent, is chosen to lead the assassination squad and is given the assignment over tea at the home of Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. To give the Israeli government plausible deniability and, at the direction of his handler Ephraim , Avner resigns from Mossad; and the squad operates with no official ties to Israel. Avner is given a team of four Jewish men: Steve , a South African driver; Hans , a document forger; Robert , a Belgian toy-maker trained in defusing explosives; and Carl , a former Israeli soldier who "cleans up" after the assassinations. Avner and his team set about tracking down the 11 targets with the help of a shadowy French informant, Louis . In Rome, the group tracks down their first target, Abdel Wael Zwaiter, who is broke and living as a poet. The group follows him to his apartment building, and Avner and Robert shoot him dead. In Paris, Robert pretends to be a journalist interviewing their second target, Mahmoud Hamshari, about the Munich massacre. He plants a bomb in Hamshari's phone that is set to be detonated by a remote key. Carl is to dial Hamshari's number from a public telephone booth after Hamshari's wife and daughter have left. However, while a large truck obscures their view, the daughter runs back inside to retrieve something. Carl calls the number, and the girl picks up; but Avner aborts the mission before Robert, who cannot see what is going on, triggers the explosion. When the girl leaves, Carl telephones the number, asks the man who answers if he's Hamshari; and, upon affirmation of name, Robert detonates the bomb. In Cyprus, the team kills the next target, Hussein Al Bashir , by planting a bomb in his hotel room beneath his bed. Avner gets a room next to Al Bashir and turns off his bedroom light, the signal to proceed. When Robert detonates the bomb, the explosives almost kill Avner and injures a newlywed couple next door. The group meet later aboard a boat in the Cyprus harbour to discuss the errors in the mission. Robert insists that the explosives he used were far more powerful than what he expected. It is revealed at this juncture that Louis provided the explosives and that he is also helping with the logistics of the hits through Avner. Avner then meets with Louis in Paris and he gives the team information on three Palestinians in Beirut: Muhammad Youssef al-Najjar ; Kamal Adwan; and Kamal Nasser, a Palestine Liberation Organization spokesman. Ephraim refuses to let them handle the mission themselves. Avner insists that he will lose Louis' trust if the operation is carried out by the Israel Defense Forces . Ephraim relents, allowing the team to accompany the IDF commandos. In Beirut, Steve, Robert, and Avner meet up with a group of Sayeret Matkal IDF soldiers. They penetrate the Palestinians' guarded compound and kill all three. In Athens, Louis has provided the team with an apartment. During the night, four PLO members, who have rented the same apartment as a safe house, enter the dwelling. After a tense confrontation with guns drawn, Robert defuses the situation by claiming that his squad are members of the Basque separatist Euskadi Ta Askatasuna , Red Army Faction , and the African National Congress . Avner discusses Middle East politics with the group's leader. Avner's group carries out their next assassination, that of Zaiad Muchasi, by installing a remote-controlled bomb in Muchasi's TV set. However, the bomb does not detonate. Hans walks into the hotel, forces his way and throws a grenade that sets off the bomb, killing Muchasi. The squad exchanges gunfire with Muchasi's bodyguards. In the chaos, they are forced to take the hotel manager hostage; and Robert reveals that he doesn't actually build bombs, but just defuses them. Louis provides the squad with information on Ali Hassan Salameh, the organizer of the Munich Massacre. Avner learns from Louis that the CIA have a deal with Salameh wherein they protect and fund him in exchange for his promise not to attack US diplomats. The squad moves to London to track down Salameh, but they are not able to accomplish the assassination when Avner is suddenly approached by several drunken Americans. It is implied the said Americans are actually CIA agents. Avner is propositioned by a woman in the hotel but declines. Afterward, Carl is killed by the same woman, who Avner learns is an independent Dutch contract killer. Robert questions the morality of the entire mission; Avner listens to him and asks him to take a break. The remaining squad tracks the Dutch assassin to the Netherlands and kills her without a glitch. Afterwards Avner, Steve and Hans discuss the futility of the mission. Later, Hans is found stabbed to death and left on a park bench while Robert is killed in an explosion in his workshop. Avner and Steve finally locate Salameh in Spain; however, their assassination attempt is thwarted by Salameh's guards. A disillusioned Avner flies to Israel and then to his new home in New York City to reunite with his wife and their child. In a fit of paranoia, he storms into the Israeli consulate and screams at an employee whom he believes to be a Mossad agent to leave him and his family alone. Ephraim comes to New York to urge Avner to rejoin Mossad. In the final scene, Avner openly questions the basis and effectiveness of the operation, and Ephraim admits that there was no evidence linking any of the targets to the Munich massacre. In a show of respect, Avner asks Ephraim to break bread with him, but because he has refused to return to Israel, Ephraim rejects him and leaves. Avner leaves as well. During the last scene, the camera pans across the New York City skyline and stops with the Twin Towers in the center of the scene. A postscript notes that 9 of the 11 men targeted by Mossad were eventually assassinated, including Salameh in 1979.

positive

positive

Millennium

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Millennium features a civilization that has dubbed itself "The Last Age". Due to millennia of warfare of every type (nineteen nuclear wars alone), the Earth has been heavily polluted and humanity's gene pool irreparably damaged. They have thus embarked on a desperate plan; time travel into the past, collect healthy humans, and send them to an uncontaminated planet to rebuild civilization. The time travelers can only take people that will have no further effect on the timeline: those who have vanished without a trace, or died without being observed; otherwise they would be changing the past, which risks a temporal paradox and perhaps even a catastrophic breakdown of the fabric of time. Though they collect everyone they can, they exert a great deal of effort on those destined to die in various disasters such as sinking ships and crashing airplanes (and once a century of Roman soldiers lost and dying in the North African desert). As such incidents leave no survivors to report interference and change the timeline, they can freely remove the living but soon-to-die victims, and replace them with convincing corpses they have manufactured in the future. The novel deals with several of the raids, their inevitable discovery in the present day, and the fallout that results from changes to the present day reverberating into the future. The story follows Louise Baltimore, who is in charge of the "snatch team" that goes back into the past to kidnap people who would otherwise die. Because of the massive pollution and the genetic damage she has sustained, she is missing one leg and must get advanced medical treatment daily. Her appearance is quite ugly due to skin damage (from "paraleprosy") and other problems; however, she wears a special "skin suit" which makes her look whole and beautiful (which may or may not be real&mdash;she is an unreliable narrator), and gives her a functional artificial leg. The team she leads uses a "time gate" to appear in the bathroom aboard an airplane in flight. Dressed to look like flight attendants, they begin to bluff the passengers into entering the bathroom where they are pushed into the gate, to arrive in the future. After large numbers of people disappear, the remaining passengers become suspicious. The future team then uses special weapons to stun them before throwing them through the gate. During the removal of the passengers, they run into an unexpected hijacker. The ensuing gunplay is one-sided and one of the snatch team members is killed, her stunner lost. The rest of the team finishes removing the passengers and the real flight attendants. The team then scatters pre-burnt body parts around the plane so they will be found after the crash. As the plane approaches the moment when it is destined to crash, the lost weapon still has not been found. Upon returning to her present (our future), Louise is informed that the weapon that was left behind has caused a paradox and that it must be recovered to prevent a breakdown in the fabric of time. The novel then continues with her efforts to go back in time to fix the paradox created.

In December 2002, Mikael Blomkvist , publisher of Millennium magazine, loses a libel case involving allegations he published about billionaire financier Hans-Erik Wennerström . He is sentenced to three months in prison, and ordered to pay hefty damages and costs. Lisbeth Salander , who is a surveillance agent has been contracted to investigate Blomkvist by a lawyer, Dirch Frode , on behalf of his sole client, Henrik Vanger , the elderly patriarch of the wealthy Vanger family. Before the publisher is imprisioned, Vanger hires Blomkvist to investigate the disappearance of his great-niece, Harriet, who vanished on Children's Day in 1966. Vanger believes that Harriet was murdered by a family member. When Salander is told that her legal guardian has suffered a stroke, she is instructed to meet lawyer Nils Bjurman ([[Peter Andersson , who takes control of her finances. Bjurman, a sexual sadist, forces Salander to perform fellatio on him in return for access to her bank account. At their next meeting, he beats her, handcuffs her to his bed, and anally rapes her, not knowing that Salander is recording the incident with a hidden video camera. After Salander recovers from the rape, she pays Bjurman an unexpected visit. She stuns him with a taser and ties him up. She compels him to relinquish control of her finances and in one year's time to recommend termination of her state guardianship. Failure to comply with her demands will result in the release of the DVD evidence of her rape to the media. Salander tattoos Bjurman's abdomen with the message "I am a sadist pig and a rapist". Blomkvist moves into a cottage on the Vanger estate. Vanger tells him that his three brothers were all members of the Swedish Nazi Party. Of the three, only Harald is still living. Inside Harriet's Bible, Blomkvist finds a list of five names alongside what might appear to be phone numbers. He visits police inspector Morell , who informs him that his investigation team had been unable to decipher them. Using photographs taken during the Children's Day parade, Blomkvist believes that Harriet may have seen someone that day who may have killed her. Using her access to Blomkvist's computer, Salander interprets the meaning of the numbers next to the names and sends an email to Blomkvist. Upon discovering that his computer has been hacked, Blomkvist is directed by Dirch Frode to Salander's apartment. He convinces her to help him with the case, and she joins him at the cottage. Together, using the clue that Salander discovered, they connect all but one of the names on Harriet's list to murdered women. They are all Jewish names, leading Blomkvist and Salander to suspect that the murders were motivated by anti-Semitism. They suspect the reclusive Harald Vanger to be the culprit, as the two other Vanger brothers had already died by the time Harriet disappeared. Salander searches through Vanger's business records to trace Harald to the crime scenes, while Blomkvist breaks into Harald's house, believing it to be unoccupied. When Harald attacks Blomkvist,, Martin Vanger appears, thus saving him. He escorts Blomkvist to his home, where Blomkvist reveals what he and Salander have uncovered. Martin drugs him. In the meantime, Salander discovers that Martin and his father were responsible for the murders. She returns to the cottage to find Blomkvist missing. Blomkvist wakes to find himself bound in Martin's cellar. Martin confesses to decades of rape and murder of women, but denies killing Harriet, saying she disappeared. Salander appears and attacks the killer with a golf club. While she frees Blomkvist, Martin flees in his car. Salander gives chase on her motorcycle. Martin drives his car off the road and dies in a fiery crash as Salander watches without attempting to rescue him. Salander reveals there were two Anita's, only one of whom died. Blomkvist flies to Australia to seek out Harriet who is living under her dead cousin Anita's name. He and Harriet return to Sweden. Reunited with Henrik, Harriet reveals that she killed her father Gottfried, who, along with her brother Martin, had been sexually abusing her. Fearing the abuse by Martin would start again when she saw him at the Children's Day parade, she had fled the estate with Anita's help. Salander visits Blomkvist in prison and gives him new information on the Wennerström case. After his release from prison, Blomkvist publishes a new story on Wennerström in Millennium, which ruins Wennerström and makes the magazine a national sensation. Wennerström is found dead, and his offshore bank account in the Cayman Islands is raided. The police suspect a young woman caught on CCTV. Blomkvist is convinced that she is Salander in disguise. The film ends with the same woman walking along a sunny beach promenade.

positive

positive

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy is a young orphaned girl raised by her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in the bleak landscape of a Kansas farm. She has a little black dog Toto, who is her sole source of happiness on the dry, gray prairies. One day the farmhouse, with Dorothy and Toto inside, is caught up in a cyclone and deposited in a field in Munchkin Country, the eastern quadrant of the Land of Oz. The falling house kills the evil ruler of the Munchkins, the Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North comes with the Munchkins to greet Dorothy and gives Dorothy the silver shoes (believed to have magical properties) that the Wicked Witch had been wearing when she was killed. In order to return to Kansas, the Good Witch of the North tells Dorothy that she will have to go to the "Emerald City" or "City of Emeralds" and ask the Wizard of Oz to help her. Before she leaves, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, giving her magical protection from trouble. On her way down the road of yellow bricks, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole he is hanging on, restores the movements of the rusted Tin Woodman with an oil can, and encourages them and the Cowardly Lion to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City. The Scarecrow wants to get a brain, the Tin Woodman a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, courage. All four of the travelers believe that the Wizard can solve their troubles. The party finds many adventures on their journey together, including overcoming obstacles such as narrow pieces of the yellow brick road, vicious Kalidahs, a river, and the Deadly Poppies. When the travelers arrive at the Emerald City, they are asked to wear green spectacles by the Guardian of the Gates as long as they remain in the city. The four are the first to ever successfully meet with the Wizard. When each traveler meets with the Wizard, he appears each time as someone or something different. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a giant head; the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman; the Tin Woodman sees a ravenous beast; the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire. The Wizard agrees to help each of them—but only if one of them kills the Wicked Witch of the West who rules over the western Winkie Country. The Guardian of the Gates warns them that no one has ever managed to harm the very cunning and cruel Wicked Witch. As the friends travel across the Winkie Country, the Wicked Witch sees them coming and attempts various ways of killing them: * First, she sends her 40 great wolves to kill them. The Tin Woodman manages to kill them all. * Then the Wicked Witch of the West sends her 40 crows to peck their eyes out. The Scarecrow manages to kill them by grabbing them and breaking their necks. * Then the Wicked Witch summons a swarm of bees to sting them to death. Using the Scarecrow's extra straw, the others hide underneath them while the bees try to sting the Tin Woodman. * Then the Wicked Witch of the West uses her Winkie soldiers to attack them. They are scared off by the Cowardly Lion. * Using the power of the Golden Cap, the Wicked Witch of the West summons the Winged Monkeys to capture Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion and Toto, and to destroy the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. When the Wicked Witch gains one of Dorothy's silver shoes by trickery, Dorothy in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the Wicked Witch. To her shock, this causes the Witch to melt away, allowing Dorothy to recover the shoe. The Winkies rejoice at being freed of the witch's tyranny, and they help to reassemble the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. The Winkies love the Tin Woodman, and they ask him to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas. Dorothy, after finding and learning how to use the Golden Cap, summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions back to the Emerald City. and the King of the Winged Monkeys tells how he and the other monkeys were bound by an enchantment to the cap by the sorceress Gayelette. When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, he tries to put them off. Toto accidentally tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room, revealing the Wizard to be an ordinary old man who had journeyed to Oz from Omaha long ago in a hot air balloon. The Wizard has been longing to return to his home and be in a circus again ever since. The Wizard provides the Scarecrow with a head full of bran, pins, and needles ("a lot of bran-new brains"), the Tin Woodman with a silk heart stuffed with sawdust, and the Cowardly Lion a potion of "courage", respectively. Because of their faith in the Wizard's power, these otherwise useless items provide a focus for their desires. In order to help Dorothy and Toto get home, the Wizard realizes that he will have to take them home with him in a new balloon, which he and Dorothy fashion from green silk. Revealing himself to the people of the Emerald City one last time, the Wizard appoints the Scarecrow, by virtue of his brains, to rule in his stead. Dorothy chases Toto after he runs after a kitten in the crowd, and before she can make it back to the balloon, the ropes break, leaving the Wizard to rise and float away alone. Dorothy turns to the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz, subsequently wasting her second wish. The Soldier with the Green Whiskers advises that Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, may be able to send Dorothy and Toto home. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion journey to Glinda's palace in the Quadling Country. Together they escape the Fighting Trees, tread carefully through the China Country where they meet Mr. Joker, and dodge the armless Hammer-Heads on their hill. The Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest and he agrees to return there to rule them after Dorothy returns to Kansas. Dorothy uses her third wish to fly over the Hammer-Heads' mountain, almost losing Toto in the process. At Glinda's palace, the travelers are greeted warmly, and it is revealed by Glinda that Dorothy had the power to go home all along. The Silver Shoes she wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. She tearfully embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned, through Glinda's use of the Golden Cap, to their respective kingdoms: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Cowardly Lion to the forest. Then she will give the Golden Cap to the King of the Winged Monkeys, so they will never be under its spell again. Having bid her friends farewell one final time, Dorothy knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home. When she opens her eyes, Dorothy and Toto have returned to Kansas to a joyful family reunion.

Kansas farm girl Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em , Uncle Henry , and three farm hands, Hickory , Hunk , and Zeke . When Miss Almira Gulch is bitten by Dorothy's pet Cairn Terrier, Toto, she gets a sheriff's order and takes him away to be destroyed. He escapes and returns to Dorothy, who, fearing for his life, runs away with him. Dorothy soon encounters a traveling fortune teller named Professor Marvel , who guesses she has run away and tells her fortune. He convinces her to return home by falsely telling her that Aunt Em has fallen ill from grief. With a tornado fast approaching, she rushes back to the farmhouse, but is unable to join her family in the locked storm cellar. Taking shelter inside the house, she is knocked unconscious by a window frame blown in by the twister. Dorothy awakens to find the house being carried away by the tornado. After it falls back to earth, she opens the door and finds herself alone in a strange village. Arriving in a floating bubble, Glinda, the Good Witch of the North not the South as in the Oz books, informs her that her house landed on and killed the Wicked Witch of the East. The timid Munchkins come out of hiding to celebrate the Witch's demise by singing "Ding-Dong! The Witch Is Dead". Their celebration is interrupted when the Wicked Witch of the West suddenly appears in a cloud of smoke and tries to claim her dead sister's powerful ruby slippers. But Glinda magically transfers them onto Dorothy's feet and reminds the Witch of the West that her power is ineffectual in Munchkinland. She promises Dorothy "I'll get you, my pretty...and your little dog, too!" before vanishing. When Dorothy asks how to get back home, Glinda advises her to seek the help of the mysterious Wizard of Oz in the Emerald City, which she can reach by following the Yellow Brick Road, and warns her never to remove the ruby slippers. On her way to the city, Dorothy meets a Scarecrow , a Tin Man , and a Cowardly Lion , who lament that they lack respectively a brain, a heart, and courage. The three decide to accompany her in hopes that the Wizard will also fulfill their desires, although they demonstrate that they already have the qualities they believe they lack: the Scarecrow has several good ideas, the Tin Man is kind and sympathetic, and the Lion, though terrified, is ready to face danger. After Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion nearly succumb to one of the Witch's traps, the quartet enters the Emerald City and see the Wizard, who appears as a disembodied, intimidating head. In a booming voice, he states that he will consider granting their wishes if they bring him the Wicked Witch's broomstick. The group set out for the Witch's castle, but she detects them and dispatches her army of flying monkeys, who carry Dorothy and Toto back to her. When the Witch threatens to drown Toto, Dorothy agrees to give up the slippers, but a shower of sparks prevents their removal. While the Witch ponders, Toto escapes and leads Dorothy's companions to the castle. After overpowering some Winkie guards and disguising themselves in their uniforms, they free her. The Witch and the Winkies corner the group on a parapet, where she sets the Scarecrow's arm ablaze. Dorothy throws water on her friend and accidentally splashes the Witch, causing her to melt. The Winkies are delighted, and their captain gives Dorothy the broomstick. Upon their return to the Wizard's chamber, Toto opens a curtain, revealing the Wizard to be an ordinary man . Apologetic, he explains that Dorothy's companions already possess what they have been seeking all along, but bestows upon them tokens of esteem in recognition of them. Also born in Kansas, he was brought to Oz by a runaway hot air balloon. He offers to take Dorothy home in the same balloon, leaving the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion in charge of the Emerald City. As they are about to leave, Toto jumps out and Dorothy runs after him. The Wizard, unable to control the balloon, leaves without her. Glinda appears and tells her that she always had the power to return home. Following her instructions, Dorothy closes her eyes, taps her heels together three times, and repeats "There's no place like home". She awakens in her bedroom, surrounded by family and friends, and tells them of her adventures.

positive

positive

Night and the City

Night and the City

The protagonist of the novel is Harry Fabian, a morally reprehensible spiv determined to become the top wrestling promoter in London. During the course of the novel Fabian is embroiled in various unscrupulous money-making ventures. All those around him are treated as a means to an end without exception. However, while his acts of pimping, blackmail and deception are successful, the proceeds of crime soon slip from his hands. Eventually his world starts to come down around him. On one side the police are closing in; on the other those he has swindled come calling. Desperate and at rock bottom Harry will try anything to ensure he comes out on top.

The story tells the story of Harry Fabian , a two-bit hustler who dreams of the good life provided by money. He's tried a lot of go-nowhere schemes but he has what he believes is a chance of a lifetime. He plans to take control of the professional wrestling game from promoter and underworld boss Kristo by manipulating him through his father, the retired wrestling superstar Gregorius .

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Anna Karenina

Anna Karenina

The novel is divided into eight parts. Its epigraph is Vengeance is mine, I will repay, from Romans 12:19, which in turn is quoting from Deuteronomy 32:35. The novel begins with one of its most quoted lines: The novel opens with a scene introducing Prince Stepan Arkadyevitch Oblonsky ("Stiva"), a Moscow aristocrat and civil servant who has been unfaithful to his wife Darya Alexandrovna, ("Dolly"). Dolly has discovered his affair—with the family's governess—and the house and family are in turmoil. Stiva's affair and his reaction to his wife's distress show an amorous personality that he cannot seem to suppress. In the midst of the turmoil, Stiva reminds the household that his married sister, Anna Arkadyevna Karenina, is coming to visit from Saint Petersburg. Meanwhile, Stiva's childhood friend, Konstantin Dmitrievich Levin ("Kostya"), arrives in Moscow with the aim of proposing to Dolly's youngest sister, Princess Katerina Alexandrovna Shcherbatskaya ("Kitty"). Levin is a passionate, restless, but shy aristocratic landowner who, unlike his Moscow friends, chooses to live in the country on his large estate. He discovers that Kitty is also being pursued by Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, an army officer. Whilst at the railway station to meet Anna, Stiva bumps into Vronsky; he is there to meet his mother, the Countess Vronskaya. Anna and Vronskaya have traveled and talked together in the same carriage. As the family members are reunited, and Vronsky sees Anna for the first time, a railway worker accidentally falls in front of a train and is killed. Anna interprets this as an "evil omen." Vronsky, however, is infatuated with her. Anna is uneasy about leaving her young son, Seryozha, alone for the first time. She also talks openly and emotionally to Dolly about Stiva's affair, convincing her that Stiva stills loves her despite the infidelity. Dolly is moved by Anna's speeches and decides to forgive Stiva. Kitty comes to visit Dolly and Anna. Kitty, just eighteen, is in her first season as a debutante and is expected to make an excellent match with a man of her social standing. Vronsky has been paying her considerable attention, and she expects to dance with him at a ball that evening. Kitty is very struck by Anna's beauty and personality, and becomes infatuated with her just as Vronsky is. When Levin proposes to Kitty at her home, she clumsily turns him down, believing she is in love with Vronsky and that he will propose to her. At the ball, Vronsky dances with Anna, choosing her as a partner over a shocked and heartbroken Kitty. Kitty realises that Vronsky has fallen in love with Anna, and has no intention of marrying her despite his overt flirtations; Vronsky has regarded his interactions with Kitty merely as a source of amusement, and assumes that Kitty has acted for the same reasons. Anna, shaken by her emotional and physical response to Vronsky, returns at once to Saint Petersburg. Vronsky travels on the same train. During the overnight journey, the two meet and Vronsky confesses his love. Anna refuses him, although she is deeply affected by his attentions to her. Levin, crushed by Kitty's refusal, returns to his estate farm, abandoning any hope of marriage. Anna returns to her husband Alexei Alexandrovich Karenin, a senior government official, and their son Sergei ("Seryozha") in Saint Petersburg. On seeing her husband for the first time since her encounter with Vronsky, Anna realises that she finds him repulsive. The Shcherbatskys consult doctors over Kitty's health, which has been failing since Vronsky's rejection. A specialist advises that Kitty should go abroad to a health spa to recover. Dolly speaks to Kitty and understands she is suffering because of Vronsky and Levin, whom she cares for and had hurt in vain. Kitty, humiliated by Vronsky and tormented by her rejection of Levin, upsets her sister by referring to Stiva's infidelity, saying she could never love a man who betrayed her. Meanwhile, Stiva visits Levin on his country estate while selling a nearby plot of land. In Saint Petersburg, Anna begins to spend more time in the inner circle of Princess Betsy, a fashionable socialite and Vronsky's cousin. Vronsky continues to pursue Anna. Although she initially tries to reject him, she eventually succumbs to his attentions. Karenin reminds his wife of the impropriety of paying too much attention to Vronsky in public, which is becoming the subject of gossip. He is concerned about the couple's public image, although he believes that Anna is above suspicion. Vronsky – a keen horseman – takes part in a steeplechase event, during which he rides his mare Frou-Frou too hard and she falls and breaks her back. Anna is unable to hide her distress during the accident. Later, Anna tells Vronsky that she is pregnant with his child. Karenin is also present at the races, and remarks to Anna that her behaviour is improper. Anna, in a state of extreme distress and emotion, confesses her affair to her husband. Karenin asks her to break it off to avoid further gossip, believing that their marriage will be preserved. Kitty and her mother travel to a German spa to recover from her ill health. There, they meet the Pietist Madame Stahl and the saintly Varenka, her adopted daughter. Influenced by Varenka, Kitty becomes extremely pious, but becomes disillusioned by her father's criticism. She then returns to Moscow. Levin continues working on his estate, a setting closely tied to his spiritual thoughts and struggles. He wrestles with the idea of falseness, wondering how he should go about ridding himself of it, and criticising what he feels is falseness in others. He develops ideas relating to agriculture, and the unique relationship between the agricultural labourer and his native land and culture. He comes to believe that the agricultural reforms of Europe will not work in Russia because of the unique culture and personality of the Russian peasant. When Levin visits Dolly, she attempts to understand what happened between him and Kitty and to explain Kitty's behaviour. Levin is very agitated by Dolly's talk about Kitty, and he begins to feel distant from Dolly as he perceives her loving behaviour towards her children as false. Levin resolves to forget Kitty, and contemplates the possibility of marriage to a peasant woman. However, a chance sighting of Kitty in her carriage makes Levin realise he still loves her. Meanwhile, in Saint Petersburg, Karenin refuses to separate from Anna, insisting that their relationship will continue. He threatens to take away Seryozha if she persists in her affair with Vronsky. When Anna and Vronsky continue seeing each other, Karenin consults with a lawyer about obtaining a divorce. During the time period, a divorce in Russia could only be requested by the innocent party in an affair, and required either that the guilty party confessed &mdash; which would ruin Anna's position in society and bar her from re-marrying &mdash; or that the guilty party be discovered in the act of adultery. Karenin forces Anna to hand over some of Vronsky's love letters, which the lawyer deems insufficient as proof of the affair. Stiva and Dolly argue against Karenin's drive for a divorce. Karenin changes his plans after hearing that Anna is dying after the difficult birth of her daughter, Annie. At her bedside, Karenin forgives Vronsky. However, Vronsky, embarrassed by Karenin's magnanimity, unsuccessfully attempts suicide by shooting himself. As Anna recovers, she finds that she cannot bear living with Karenin despite his forgiveness and his attachment to Annie. When she hears that Vronsky is about to leave for a military posting in Tashkent, she becomes desperate. Anna and Vronsky reunite and elope to Europe, leaving Seryozha and leaving Karenin's offer of divorce unaccepted. Meanwhile, Stiva acts as a matchmaker with Levin: he arranges a meeting between him and Kitty, which results in their reconciliation and betrothal. Levin and Kitty marry and start their new life on his country estate. Although the couple are happy, they undergo a bitter and stressful first three months of marriage. Levin feels dissatisfied at the amount of time Kitty wants to spend with him, and dwells on his ability to be productive as he was as a bachelor. When the marriage starts to improve, Levin learns that his brother, Nikolai, is dying of consumption. Kitty offers to accompany Levin on his journey to see Nikolai, and proves herself a great help in nursing Nikolai. Seeing his wife take charge of the situation in an infinitely more capable manner than if he were without her, Levin's love for Kitty grows. Kitty eventually learns that she is pregnant. In Europe, Vronsky and Anna struggle to find friends who will accept them. Whilst Anna is happy to be finally alone with Vronsky, he feels suffocated. They cannot socialize with Russians of their own class, and find it difficult to amuse themselves. Vronsky, who believed that being with Anna was the key to his happiness, finds himself increasingly bored and unsatisfied. He takes up painting and makes an attempt to patronize an émigré Russian artist of genius. However, Vronsky cannot see that his own art lacks talent and passion, and that his conversation about art is really pretentious. Increasingly restless, Anna and Vronsky decide to return to Russia. In Saint Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky stay in one of the best hotels, but take separate suites. It becomes clear that whilst Vronsky is still able to move freely in Russian society, Anna is barred from it. Even her old friend, Princess Betsy &mdash; who has had affairs herself &mdash; evades her company. Anna starts to become anxious that Vronsky no longer loves her. Meanwhile, Karenin is comforted by Countess Lidia Ivanovna, an enthusiast of religious and mystic ideas fashionable with the upper classes. She advises him to keep Seryozha away from Anna and to tell him his mother is dead. However, Seryozha refuses to believe that this is true. Anna visits Seryozha uninvited on his ninth birthday, but is discovered by Karenin. Anna, desperate to regain at least some of her former position in society, attends a show at the theatre at which all of Saint Petersburg's high society are present. Vronsky begs her not to go, but is unable to bring himself to explain to her why she cannot attend. At the theatre, Anna is openly snubbed by her former friends, one of whom makes a deliberate scene and leaves the theatre. Anna is devastated. Unable to find a place for themselves in Saint Petersburg, Anna and Vronsky leave for Vronsky's own country estate. Dolly, her mother the Princess Scherbatskaya, and Dolly's children spend the summer with Levin and Kitty. The Levins' life is simple and unaffected, although Levin is uneasy at the "invasion" of so many Scherbatskys. He becomes extremely jealous when one of the visitors, Veslovsky, flirts openly with the pregnant Kitty. Levin tries to overcome his feelings, but eventually succumbs to them and makes Veslovsky leave his house in an embarrassing scene. Veslovsky immediately goes to stay with Anna and Vronsky at their nearby estate. When Dolly visits Anna, she is struck by the difference between the Levins' aristocratic-yet-simple home life and Vronsky's overtly luxurious and lavish country estate. She is also unable to keep pace with Anna's fashionable dresses or Vronsky's extravagant spending on a hospital he is building. In addition, all is not quite well with Anna and Vronsky. Dolly notices Anna's anxious behaviour and her uncomfortable flirtations with Veslovsky. Vronsky makes an emotional request to Dolly, asking her to convince Anna to divorce Karenin so that the two might marry and live normally. Anna has become intensely jealous of Vronsky, and cannot bear it when he leaves her even for short excursions. When Vronsky leaves for several days of provincial elections, Anna becomes convinced that she must marry him in order to prevent him from leaving her. After Anna writes to Karenin, she and Vronsky leave the countryside for Moscow. While visiting Moscow for Kitty's confinement, Levin quickly gets used to the city's fast-paced, expensive and frivolous society life. He accompanies Stiva to a gentleman's club, where the two meet Vronsky. Levin and Stiva pay a visit to Anna, who is occupying her empty days by being a patroness to an orphaned English girl. Levin is initially uneasy about the visit, but Anna easily puts him under her spell. When he admits to Kitty that he has visited Anna, she accuses him of falling in love with her. The couple are later reconciled, realising that Moscow society life has had a negative, corrupting effect on Levin. Anna cannot understand why she can attract a man like Levin, who has a young and beautiful new wife, but cannot attract Vronsky as she did once. Her relationship with Vronsky is under increasing strain, as he can move freely in Russian society while she remains excluded. Her increasing bitterness, boredom, and jealousy cause the couple to argue. Anna uses morphine to help her sleep, a habit she had begun while living with Vronsky at his country estate. She has become dependent on it. Meanwhile, after a long and difficult labour, Kitty gives birth to a son, Dmitri, nicknamed "Mitya". Levin is both horrified and profoundly moved by the sight of the tiny, helpless baby. Stiva visits Karenin to seek his commendation for a new post. During the visit he asks him to grant Anna a divorce (which would require him to confess to a non-existent affair), but Karenin's decisions are now governed by a French "clairvoyant" recommended by Lidia Ivanovna. The clairvoyant apparently had a vision in his sleep during Stiva's visit and gives Karenin a cryptic message which is interpreted that Karenin must decline the request for divorce. Anna becomes increasingly jealous and irrational towards Vronsky, whom she suspects of having love affairs with other women. She is also convinced that he will give in to his mother's plans to marry him off to a rich society woman. They have a bitter row and Anna believes the relationship is over. She starts to think of suicide as an escape from her torments. In her mental and emotional confusion, she sends a telegram to Vronsky asking him to come home to her, and then pays a visit to Dolly and Kitty. Anna's confusion and vengeful anger overcome her, and in a parallel to the railway worker's accidental death in part 1, she commits suicide by throwing herself in the path of an oncoming train. Levin's brother's latest book is ignored by readers and critics and he joins the new pan-Slavic movement. Stiva gets the post he desired so much, and Karenin takes custody of Vronsky's and Anna's baby Annie. A group of Russian volunteers, including the suicidal Vronsky, depart from Russia to fight in the Orthodox Serbian revolt that has broken out against the Turks. Meanwhile, a lightning storm occurs at Levin's estate while his wife and newborn son are outside, and in his fear for their safety Levin realizes that he does indeed love his son as much he loves Kitty. Kitty's family is concerned that a man as altruistic as her husband does not consider himself to be a Christian, but after speaking at length to a peasant, Levin decides that devotion to living righteously is the only justifiable reason for living. Unable to tell anyone about this revelation, Levin is initially displeased that this change of thought does not bring with it a complete transformation to righteousness. However, at the end of the story Levin comes to the conclusion that his new beliefs are acceptable and that other non-Christian religions contain similar views on goodness that are also entirely credible. His life can now be meaningfully and truthfully oriented toward goodness.

The story unfolds in its original late 19th century tsarist Russia high-society setting and powerfully explores the capacity for love that surges through the human heart, from the passion between adulterers to the bond between a mother and her children. As Anna Karenina questions her happiness, change comes to her family, friends, and community.

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The Magician

The Magician

Arthur Burdon, a renowned English surgeon, is visiting Paris to see his fiancée, Margaret Dauncey. Margaret is studying art in Parisian school, along with her friend Susie Boyd. On his first evening in Paris, Burdon meets Oliver Haddo, who claims to be a magician and is an acquaintance of Burdon's mentor, the retired doctor and occult scholar Dr Porhoët. While none of the company initially believe Haddo's claims, Haddo performs several feats of magic for them over the following days. Arthur eventually fights with Haddo, after the magician kicks Margaret's dog. In revenge, Haddo uses both his personality and his magic to seduce Margaret, despite her initial revulsion towards him. They get married and run away from Paris, leaving merely a note to inform Arthur, Susie and Porhoët. Arthur is distraught at the abandonment and promptly returns to England to immerse himself in his work. By this time Susie has fallen in love with Arthur, although she realizes that this love will never be returned, and she goes away to Italy with a friend. During her travels, Susie hears much about the new Mr. and Mrs. Haddo, including a rumour that their marriage has not been consummated. When she eventually returns to England, she meets up with Arthur and they go to a dinner party held by a mutual acquaintance. To their horror, the Haddos are at this dinner party, and Oliver takes great delight in gloating at Arthur's distress. The next day, Arthur goes to the hotel at which Margaret is staying, and whisks her away to a house in the country. Although she files for divorce from Haddo, his influence on her proves too strong, and she ends up returning to him. Feeling that this influence must be supernatural, Susie returns to France to consult with Dr Porhoët on a possible solution. Several weeks later, Arthur joins them in Paris and reveals that he visited Margaret at Haddo's home and that she suggested her life was threatened by her new husband. She implies that Haddo is only waiting for the right time to perform a magical ritual, which will involve the sacrifice of her life. Arthur travels to Paris to ask for Dr Porhoët's advice. A week later, Arthur has an overwhelming feeling that Margaret's life is in danger, and all three rush back to England. When they arrive at Skene, Haddo's ancestral home in the village of Venning, they are told by the local innkeeper that Margaret has died of a heart attack. Believing that Haddo has murdered her, Arthur confronts first the local doctor and then Haddo himself with his suspicions. Searching for proof of foul play, Arthur persuades Dr Porhoët to raise Margaret's ghost from the dead, which proves to them that she was murdered. Eventually, Haddo uses his magic to appear in their room at the local inn, where Arthur kills him. However, when the light is turned on Haddo's body has disappeared. The trio visit Haddo's abandoned home to find that he has used his magic to create life - hideous creatures living in tubes - and that this is the purpose for which he sacrificed Margaret's life. After finding the magician's dead body in his attic, Arthur sets fire to the manor to destroy all evidence of Haddo's occult experiments.

In the Latin Quarter of Paris, sculptress Margaret Dauncey is injured when the top of the huge statue of a faun she is working on breaks off and falls on her. After successful surgery by brilliant Dr. Arthur Burdon saves her from paralysis, she and Burdon fall in love. The surgery is watched by various doctors and others, including Oliver Haddo, a hypnotist, magician and student of medicine. Later, in the Library of the Arsenal, Haddo finds what he has been searching for: a magic formula for the creation of human life. One of the ingredients is the "heart blood of a Maiden". He rips out the page and presents the old book to Dr. Porhoet, Margaret's uncle and guardian, who has also been looking for it. When Margaret, Burdon and Dr. Porhoet go to the Fair at Leon de Belfort, they encounter Haddo, whom Margaret dislikes immediately. When Dr. Porhoet claims that the snake charmers use harmless snakes, Haddo refutes him and demonstrates his powers by letting a deadly horned viper bite him. He then magically makes the wound disappear. Porhoet remains unconvinced until the discarded viper strikes a young woman performer. Burdon has to rush her to a hospital. Later, Haddo visits Margaret uninvited. He hypnotizes her and tells her to concentrate on her statue. It seems to come to life to preside over an orgy. Two days before her wedding to Burdon, Margaret receives a note from Haddo, asking her to see him the next morning. She tries to resist the summons, but fails. On the day of the wedding, Burdon learns that Margaret has married Haddo instead. Porhoet is convinced it was against his niece's will, and Burdon tries to track them down. Burdon eventually encounters the couple at a casino in Monte Carlo. He and Porhoet free Margaret while Haddo is away. Porhoet places her in a sanatorium to recover. Haddo, however, finds her and takes her to his laboratory in a tower. Burdon and Porhoet employ a guide to take them there. Just as Haddo is about to stab a bound Margaret, Burdon bursts in. After a violent struggle, Haddo falls into a huge fire and is killed. Margaret emerges from her trance and is reunited with her true love. Porhoet finds the page with the formula. He burns it and sets the laboratory afire as well.

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The Magician

The Magician

The story takes place in Ossining, New York. Ed Japhet is sixteen years old, and he is a bright, articulate boy. His father Terence teaches at his school. Ed's hobby is performing magic tricks, hence he is the "magician" of the title. One evening, Ed performs in front of the school on prom night, and aggravates school hoodlum Urek. Urek and his gang wait for Ed that night as he is about to go home with his dad and girlfriend. Urek attacks Ed and nearly kills him. Urek is eventually arrested on a charge of serious assault. At first this looks like a straightforward case. But Urek's dad happens to have a lawyer named Thomassy, who has made it his life's work to defend the low-lifes and the criminals of the area - and to get them off the hook. When Thomassy started his promising career as a lawyer he joined a firm with WASP surnames deliberately. They took him on and he became their most brilliant lawyer. However, the senior partner told him that as an Armenian he would never get promoted, at least while he was alive. Thomassy, stung, left and decided to follow a controversial path defending the most undesirable characters in society. He sends a birthday card every year to the old senior partner, as if to say, "You still alive?" As the story unfolds, the reader becomes uncomfortably aware of how an event can be interpreted by the law. It seems as though Ed has the advantage, he is talented, with a nice family and girlfriend, horribly attacked and nearly killed by a brute. But Thomassy manages to play the attack down: he discredits witnesses, intimidates others, and portrays Urek as acting only in self defense. Now the reader is unsure who the actual "magician" of the title really is. Also involved is German Jewish Psychiatrist Koch, who has taken an interest in the case. His involvement gives the reader an opportunity to see Urek in more depth, as previously he is portrayed as a mindless, violent and inarticulate monster. Nothing can excuse what he has done, but Koch offers more insight as to why he did it. The book ends on a violent note. Urek walks free from the assault charge and proceeds to attack Ed again, this time by hiding in Terence's car and leaping out at Ed. Ed, newly trained in Karate, can now defend himself against the thuggish Urek, with devastating results. Terence Japhet knows exactly whom to call. The book is written in the third person narrative style, but interspersed at intervals throughout the story are "comments" provided by the key characters. They are written in the style of statements, but the reader never knows to whom they are directed.

In the Latin Quarter of Paris, sculptress Margaret Dauncey is injured when the top of the huge statue of a faun she is working on breaks off and falls on her. After successful surgery by brilliant Dr. Arthur Burdon saves her from paralysis, she and Burdon fall in love. The surgery is watched by various doctors and others, including Oliver Haddo, a hypnotist, magician and student of medicine. Later, in the Library of the Arsenal, Haddo finds what he has been searching for: a magic formula for the creation of human life. One of the ingredients is the "heart blood of a Maiden". He rips out the page and presents the old book to Dr. Porhoet, Margaret's uncle and guardian, who has also been looking for it. When Margaret, Burdon and Dr. Porhoet go to the Fair at Leon de Belfort, they encounter Haddo, whom Margaret dislikes immediately. When Dr. Porhoet claims that the snake charmers use harmless snakes, Haddo refutes him and demonstrates his powers by letting a deadly horned viper bite him. He then magically makes the wound disappear. Porhoet remains unconvinced until the discarded viper strikes a young woman performer. Burdon has to rush her to a hospital. Later, Haddo visits Margaret uninvited. He hypnotizes her and tells her to concentrate on her statue. It seems to come to life to preside over an orgy. Two days before her wedding to Burdon, Margaret receives a note from Haddo, asking her to see him the next morning. She tries to resist the summons, but fails. On the day of the wedding, Burdon learns that Margaret has married Haddo instead. Porhoet is convinced it was against his niece's will, and Burdon tries to track them down. Burdon eventually encounters the couple at a casino in Monte Carlo. He and Porhoet free Margaret while Haddo is away. Porhoet places her in a sanatorium to recover. Haddo, however, finds her and takes her to his laboratory in a tower. Burdon and Porhoet employ a guide to take them there. Just as Haddo is about to stab a bound Margaret, Burdon bursts in. After a violent struggle, Haddo falls into a huge fire and is killed. Margaret emerges from her trance and is reunited with her true love. Porhoet finds the page with the formula. He burns it and sets the laboratory afire as well.

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Islands in the Stream

Islands in the Stream

The first act, "Bimini", begins with an introduction to the character of Thomas Hudson, a classic Hemingway stoic male figure. Hudson is a renowned American painter who finds tranquility on the island of Bimini, in the Bahamas, a far cry from his usual adventurous lifestyle. Hudson’s strict routine of work is interrupted when his three sons arrive for the summer and is the setting for most of the act. Also introduced in this act is the character of Roger Davis, a writer, one of Hudson’s oldest friends. Though similar to Hudson, by struggling with an unmentioned internal conflict, Davis seems to act as a more dynamic and outgoing image of Hudson’s character. The act ends with Hudson receiving news of the death of his two youngest children soon after they leave the island. "Cuba" takes place soon thereafter during the Second World War in Havana, Cuba where we are introduced to an older and more distant Hudson who has just received news of his oldest (and last) son’s death in the war. This second act introduces us to a more cynical and introverted Hudson who spends his days on the island drinking heavily and doing naval reconnaissance for the US military aboard Hudson's yacht, converted to an auxiliary patrol boat. "At Sea", the final act, follows Hudson and a team of irregulars aboard their boat as they track and pursue survivors of a sunken German U-boat along the Jardines del Rey archipelago on the northern coast of Cuba. Hudson becomes intent on finding the fleeing Germans after he finds they massacred an entire village to cover their escape. The novel ends with a shoot-out and the destruction of the Germans in one of the tidal channels surrounding Cayo Guillermo. Hudson is presumably mortally wounded in the gun battle, although the ending is slightly ambiguous. During the chase, Hudson stops questioning the death of his children. This chapter rings heavily with influences of Hemingway’s earlier work For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Like the novel, the story is about artist Thomas Hudson, an American who has left the civilized world for the simple life in the Caribbean. Schaffner tells the tale in four parts: *The Island - Introduces Hudson and the people he knows. The area is The Bahamas, and the time is 1940. While he is glad to see his friends, Tom, as he is called, is concerned about his friend Eddy, who loves to drink and brawl with anyone he finds. Later the residents of the island and Tom celebrate the Queen Mother's Anniversary. *The Boys - Weeks after the celebrations for the Queen Mother, Tom sees his three sons for the first time. It is a bittersweet reunion as he had left them and his wife Audrey many years ago. Later, the four, including the youngest David, go on a challenging fishing trek to catch a Marlin. The segment ends as the boys return to the United States, while oldest son Tom joins the Royal Air Force in time for the Battle of Britain. Their father writes and tells them in a monolog how much he misses them. *The Woman - Tom's wife Audrey is introduced. Hoping she can give him companionship and love, Audrey returns to Tom to try to find what feelings may still exist between them. Tom finds he still loves his wife, but her real motive is revealed as the segment ends: she is there to tell him that young Tom is dead. The passing of their son spoils her attempt at a reconciliation. *The Journey - In an attempt to help others escape the Nazis, Tom decides to go on a search for refugees. He is accompanied by Joseph and Eddy. Leaving the British owned Bahamas for the waters near neutral Cuba, Tom finds the refugees and tries to get them near land so they can go to the port of Havana en route ultimately to the U.S. He comes to a set of conclusions, that he may not be able to trust "rummy" Eddy, the refugees may or may not make it, and this trip may be suicide for all concerned as they will face the Cuban Coast Guard. In the novel's actual climax, Tom battles a U-boat that is off the coast of Bimini.

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Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels

;4 May 1699 — 13 April 1702 The book begins with a short preamble in which Lemuel Gulliver, in the style of books of the time, gives a brief outline of his life and history before his voyages. He enjoys travelling, although it is that love of travel that is his downfall. During his first voyage, Gulliver is washed ashore after a shipwreck and finds himself a prisoner of a race of tiny people, less than 6 inches tall, who are inhabitants of the island country of Lilliput. After giving assurances of his good behaviour, he is given a residence in Lilliput and becomes a favourite of the court. From there, the book follows Gulliver's observations on the Court of Lilliput. He is also given the permission to roam around the city on a condition that he would not harm their subjects. Gulliver assists the Lilliputians to subdue their neighbours, the Blefuscudians, by stealing their fleet. However, he refuses to reduce the island nation of Blefuscu to a province of Lilliput, displeasing the King and the court. Gulliver is convicted of treason for "making water" in the capital (even though he was putting out a fire and saving countless lives)--among other "crimes." Gulliver is charged with treason and sentenced to be blinded. With the assistance of a kind friend, Gulliver escapes to Blefuscu, where he spots and retrieves an abandoned boat and sails out to be rescued by a passing ship which safely takes him back home. This book of the Travels is a topical political satire. ;20 June 1702 — 3 June 1706 When the sailing ship Adventure is blown off course by storms and forced to put in to land for want of fresh water, Gulliver is abandoned by his companions and found by a farmer who is tall (the scale of Brobdingnag is about 12:1, compared to Lilliput's 1:12, judging from Gulliver estimating a man's step being ). He brings Gulliver home and his daughter cares for Gulliver. The farmer treats him as a curiosity and exhibits him for money. The word gets out and the Queen of Brobdingnag wants to see the show. She loves Gulliver and she buys him and keeps him as a favourite at court. Since Gulliver is too small to use their huge chairs, beds, knives and forks, the queen commissions a small house to be built for Gulliver so that he can be carried around in it. This is referred to as his 'travelling box'. Between small adventures such as fighting giant wasps and being carried to the roof by a monkey, he discusses the state of Europe with the King. The King is not happy with Gulliver's accounts of Europe, especially upon learning of the use of guns and cannons. On a trip to the seaside, his travelling box is seized by a giant eagle which drops Gulliver and his box into the sea, where he is picked up by some sailors, who return him to England. This book compares the truly moral man to the representative man; the latter is clearly shown to be the lesser of the two. Swift, being in Anglican holy orders, was likely to make such comparisons. ;5 August 1706 — 16 April 1710 After Gulliver's ship is attacked by pirates, he is marooned close to a desolate rocky island, near India. Fortunately he is rescued by the flying island of Laputa, a kingdom devoted to the arts of music and mathematics but unable to use them for practical ends. ("La puta" is Spanish for "the whore". Swift was attacking reason and the deism movement in this book, the last one he wrote for the Travels.) Laputa's custom of throwing rocks down at rebellious cities on the ground seems the first time that aerial bombardment was conceived as a method of warfare. Gulliver tours Laputa as the guest of a low-ranking courtier and sees the ruin brought about by the blind pursuit of science without practical results, in a satire on bureaucracy and on the Royal Society and its experiments. At the Grand Academy of Lagado, great resources and manpower are employed on researching completely preposterous schemes such as extracting sunbeams from cucumbers, softening marble for use in pillows, learning how to mix paint by smell, and uncovering political conspiracies by examining the excrement of suspicious persons (see muckraking). Gulliver is then taken to Balnibarbi to await a trader who can take him on to Japan. While waiting for passage, Gulliver takes a short side-trip to the island of Glubbdubdrib, where he visits a magician's dwelling and discusses history with the ghosts of historical figures, the most obvious restatement of the "ancients versus moderns" theme in the book. In Luggnagg he encounters the struldbrugs, unfortunates who are immortal. They do not have the gift of eternal youth, but suffer the infirmities of old age and are considered legally dead at the age of eighty. After reaching Japan, Gulliver asks the Emperor "to excuse my performing the ceremony imposed upon my countrymen of trampling upon the crucifix", which the Emperor grants. Gulliver returns home, determined to stay there for the rest of his days. ;7 September 1710 – 2 July 1715 Despite his earlier intention of remaining at home, Gulliver returns to the sea as the captain of a merchantman as he is bored with his employment as a surgeon. On this voyage he is forced to find new additions to his crew whom he believes to have turned the rest of the crew against him. His crew then mutiny, and after keeping him contained for some time resolve to leave him on the first piece of land they come across and continue as pirates. He is abandoned in a landing boat and comes upon a race of hideous, deformed and savage humanoid creatures to which he conceives a violent antipathy. Shortly afterwards he meets a race of horses who call themselves Houyhnhnms (which in their language means "the perfection of nature"); they are the rulers, while the deformed creatures called Yahoos are human beings in their base form. Gulliver becomes a member of a horse's household, and comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, rejecting his fellow humans as merely Yahoos endowed with some semblance of reason which they only use to exacerbate and add to the vices Nature gave them. However, an Assembly of the Houyhnhnms rules that Gulliver, a Yahoo with some semblance of reason, is a danger to their civilization, and expels him. He is then rescued, against his will, by a Portuguese ship, and is surprised to see that Captain Pedro de Mendez, a Yahoo, is a wise, courteous and generous person. He returns to his home in England, but he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos and becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables. This book uses coarse metaphors to describe human depravity, and the Houyhnhms are symbolized as not only perfected nature but also the emotional barrenness which Swift maintained that devotion to reason brought.

Deeply depressed at his dead-end job in the mail room of a New York City newspaper, Lemuel Gulliver decides to talk to journalist Darcy Silverman . He convinces her he could write a report about his extensive world "travels" saying his dream is to become a writer. After suffering writer's block and thinking that Darcy will not want to hang out with a "guy from the mailroom", he plagiarises a report from other publications on the Internet. The next day, Darcy, impressed by his writing, presents Gulliver with a new task – to travel to the Bermuda Triangle and write an article confirming that the legend of ships mysteriously disappearing in the area being caused by extraterrestrials is not true. Upon arrival in Bermuda, Gulliver rents a boat and travels into the triangle. After falling asleep at the helm of his ship, he's caught in a freak storm and the boat is overwhelmed by a waterspout. He washes up unconscious on the shore of Lilliput, where he is immediately confirmed as a "beast" by the town's tiny people. He is captured and imprisoned in a cave, citizens claiming him to be dangerous because of his huge size. Here, he meets another prisoner named Horatio who was jailed by General Edward because he likes Princess Mary of Lilliput , whereas Edward wants her for himself. After the island across from Lilliput, Blefuscu, infiltrates commandos to kidnap Princess Mary, Gulliver manages to break free of the plough-machine he is forced to work and then rescues the princess from being kidnapped. Gulliver also saves her father, King Theodore from a fire by urinating on it. Gulliver is declared a hero by Lilliput's citizens and makes up a deal of lies saying he is the President of the United States, says Yoda is his Vice-President and a living legend in his homeland. Edward, however, becomes enraged due to the luxurious accommodations that have been built for him, and even being presented as an honorary general of the Lilliputian Army complete with uniform. When the townspeople find Gulliver's boat and his things, Gulliver gets angry voice mail messages from Darcy, saying she has to take his place and travel to Bermuda now, and also found out about his plagiarism and she no longer wishes to be friends with him. The next day, chaos ensues as the Blefuscian Navy lay siege on the city when Edward shuts down its defense system as an act of revenge for Gulliver's treatment. Gulliver defeats the armada, invulnerable to the cannonballs being fired at him . Embarrassed once more, and with Mary no longer wanting to do anything with him, Edward defects to the Blefuscians and brings with him blueprints of a robot coming from one of Gulliver's sci-fi magazines. The Blefuscians secretly build the robot based on Gulliver's magazine, with Edward as the pilot. The Blefuscians invade Liliput and the robot-wielding Edward makes Gulliver admit to the people that he is "just the guy from the mail-room" and nothing more. Edward banishes Gulliver on the shores of Brobdingnag , where he is captured by Glumdalclitch , a giant girl who is to Gulliver as Gulliver is to the people of Lilliput, and forced to become her doll complete with wig and dress. Horatio, who has gone to Brobdingnag after being spurned by Mary, reveals to Gulliver that Darcy has been imprisoned by the Blefuscians when she is lost in the Bermuda Triangle in the same manner as Gulliver. Gulliver narrowly escapes with him, using a parachute that he took from a dead U.S. Air Force pilot sitting in the dollhouse . Once again accepting a duel from Edward, this time not only for Lilliput's freedom but for its fate as well – as Edward threatens to destroy it should Gulliver fail – Gulliver ultimately defeats him with the assistance of Horatio, who disables the machine's electrocuting weapon. Horatio is hailed a hero and gets King Theodore's permission to court the princess. Edward, reaching the point of insanity, threatens to kill the princess, but the princess, finally having enough of Edward, beats the traitor up in frustration. Gulliver then helps to make peace between the rival island-nations by reciting Edwin Starr's "War" and he, along with Darcy, return to New York on their repaired boat. The film ends with Darcy and Gulliver holding hands walking away from the screen

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The Circus of Dr. Lao

7 Faces of Dr. Lao

The novel is set in the fictional town of Abalone, Arizona, the inhabitants of which epitomize ordinary Americans as they are simultaneously backhandedly celebrated and lovingly pilloried for their emergent reactions to the wonders of magic and of everyday life. A circus owned by a Chinese man named Dr. Lao pulls into town one day, carrying legendary creatures from all areas of mythology and legend, among them a sea serpent, Apollonius of Tyana who tells dark, yet always truthful, fortunes, a medusa, a satyr, and others. Through interactions with the circus, the locals attain various enigmatic peak experiences appropriate to each one's particular personality. The tale ends with the town becoming the site of a ritual to a pagan god whimsically given the name "Yottle", possibly an allusion to the Mesoamerican god Yaotl, whose name means "the enemy". The ritual ends when the god himself slays a virgin, her unrequited lover and the priest. The circus over, the townsfolk scatter to the winds. Apparently few of them profit from the surreal experiences. A "Catalogue" (similar to an appendix), notes all the people, places, items and mythological beings mentioned in the novel, summing up the characters pithily and sardonically, revealing the various fates of the townsfolk and listing a number of plot holes and unanswered questions not addressed in the book. List of Dr. Lao's Captured Animals: # Satyr: 2,300 years old, he was captured in Tu-jeng, China near the Great Wall. He was born of the union of a goatherd and one of his goats. # Medusa: She was very young and wore very little clothing. She had many species of snakes in her hair only three are mentioned: Tantillas, the brown, with black ring around their necks, Night Snakes, grey snakes with black spots on them, and Arizona elegans, faded brown snakes. She was a Sonoran Medusa from Northern Mexico. # Roc Chick: The roc chick had hatched from its egg (which would sweat salt water) Its feathers were the size of Ostrich's and the corners of the mouth were as yellow as butter. Its bill was yellow as well. The book describes a full grown roc as, "No where near as big as Sindbad said it was, but plenty big enough to do what Sindbad said it did!" # Hound of the Hedges: Created when water touched a dry ricefield for the first in many years, the hound was born. He was the only one of his species, no mate, no offspring. He had a tail that was made of ferns, his fur was green grass, instead of teeth he had rose thorns, his blood and saliva were chlorophyll. # Mermaid: She was captured in the Gulf of Pei-Chihli, the same day as the sea serpent. Her tail was sea-green and sleek scaled, her tail fin was as pink as a trout's. Her hair was seaweed green, her human half was young and slender with slight breasts. # Sphinx: A hermaphroditic, African Sphinx. Its head was blunt nosed and womanlike, it had breasts like a woman and had the voice of a man. It is not mentioned whether it had wings like the Greek sphinx, or no wings like an Egyptian sphinx. # Chimera: The chimera was male unlike the chimera in Greek myth thus its body was different. Although it still had a lion's body and a snake's tail, it had eagle's wings and a metal barb at the end of the tail. # Sea Serpent: He was almost a hundred feet long and was dark grey, his tongue was as thick as a man's arm and bright yellow. His eyes were bronze and had black slits for pupils. His tail was paddle shaped similar to a sea snakes. The Sea Serpent that is the only animal that did not become tame after being captured. He planned to escape with the mermaid and return to the sea. # Werewolf: She started her transformation as a large gray wolf. When she transformed she changed into an old woman, not the young lady the men were expecting. # Unicorn: a Kirin of Asian Myth. # Golden Ass: A man who had been extremely rude to Isis was transformed in to a golden haired donkey and was kept by the circus.

It is the dawn of the 20th century, and an elderly Chinese man rides a jackass into Abalone, Arizona, his only visible possession a fishbowl occupied by an innocuous-looking fish. This magical visitor, Dr. Lao , visits Edward Cunningham's newspaper and places a large ad for his traveling circus, which will play in Abalone for two nights only. Though quiet, Abalone is not peaceful; wealthy rancher Clinton Stark has inside information that a railroad is coming to town, and he is scheming to buy up the place while the land is cheap. Stark is opposed in this power grab by Cunningham, who is also romantically pursuing the town's librarian, Angela Benedict , a beautiful young widow still grieving the death of her husband. After doing some research, Cunningham visits the circus site which has sprung up at the edge of town, and confronts Lao with the fact that Lao's alleged hometown vanished centuries ago. Lao deflects Cunningham's questions. However, as Lao puts up posters around town advertising his circus, he is assisted by Angela's young son Mike , who learns that the mysterious wanderer is 7,322 years old. The circus opens its doors, and the townsfolk flock in. Along with the main cast, the gawkers include a shrewish wife and Mrs Cassan, a foolish widow who clings to her self-image of a young beauty. Lao uses his many faces to offer his wisdom to the visitors; only some of whom take heed of this advice. Mrs Cassan has, to her dismay, her dark future pretold by Apollonius of Tyana, a blind prophet who is cursed to tell the absolute truth, no matter how cruel and shocking it may be. Appollonius tells her she will never be married and will live a lonely, meaningless existence, having accomplished so little she might as well have never lived at all. Stark has a disquieting meeting with the Great Serpent, Mike befriends the pathetic Merlin and Angela is aroused from her emotional repression by Pan's intoxicating music. After Medusa turns the disbelieving shrew to stone, Lao calls an end to the proceedings and Merlin restores the now-reformed woman. Mike visits Lao and tries to get a job, displaying his novice juggling and conjuring skills. Lao instead offers some advice and observations about the world , which Mike doesn't understand, and Lao claims to not understand either. Meanwhile, Stark's two thuggish henchmen destroy the newspaper office. Cunningham and his pressman discover the devastation, go drown their sorrows, then stagger back to learn that the damage has been magically repaired by Lao. They rush out an abbreviated edition of the paper, which Cunningham delivers in person to Stark. The next night, Lao stages his grand finale, a magic lantern show in which the mythical city of "Woldercan," populated by doubles of the townfolk, is destroyed when it succumbs to temptation personified by Stark, . The show ends in explosions and darkness but as the house lights gradually come back up, the townsfolk find themselves now in a town meeting, voting on Stark's proposal. They reject it, and a redeemed Stark tells them about the coming railroad, while noting that they owe a debt of gratitude to Lao. A dust-storm blows up, and as the townsfolk scatter, Angela opens up to Ed, finally admitting that she is in love with him. Stark's henchmen, confused by their boss' apparent change of character, in a drunken spree decide to trash Lao's circus. Unfortunately, they shoot at, and break, Lao's fishbowl. The inhabitant is revealed to indeed be the Loch Ness Monster, which balloons to enormous size when exposed to the open air. After it chases the two thugs into the storm , reminding Mike that the Circus of Dr. Lao is life itself, and everything in it is a wonder.

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positive

The Secret Life of Bees

The Secret Life of Bees

Set in South Carolina in the months of July and August, 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of 14-year-old Lily Melissa Owens, who is in search of her mother's past. She lives in a house with a neglectful and abusive father, who she refers to as T. Ray. They have a black maid, Rosaleen, who acts as a surrogate mother for Lily. The book opens with Lily's memories of the day that her mother, Deborah, died. She vividly remembers her mother and father fighting. A gun fell to the floor and into the hands of four-year-old Lily, who accidentally shot Deborah. Lily is haunted by the fragmented memory of the incident. When the Civil Rights Act is put into effect, Rosaleen decides to register to vote. She and Lily walk into town, where Rosaleen is harassed by three white men. She gets into an argument with them, pours her spit jug on their feet, and is brutally beaten in return. Lily and Rosaleen are put in jail. After T. Ray takes Lily home from jail, they get into an argument and T. Ray tells Lily that her mother abandoned her. Lily is infuriated and believes that this revelation could not possibly be true. When T. Ray is outside, Lily runs away with all of her belongings. She escapes with Rosaleen by sneaking her out of the hospital where her injuries were being treated. They begin hitchhiking toward Tiburon, SC, a place written on the back of an image of the Virgin Mary as a black woman, which Deborah had owned. They spend a night in the woods with little food and little hope before reaching Tiburon. There, they buy lunch at a diner, and Lily recognizes a picture of the same "Black Mary", but on the side of a jar of honey. They receive directions to the origin of that honey, the Boatwright residence. They are introduced to the Boatwright sisters, the makers of the honey: August, May and June, who are all black. Lily makes up a story about being an orphan. Lily and Rosaleen are invited to stay with the sisters. They learn the ways of the Boatwrights, as well as the ways of beekeeping. With a new home and a new family for the time being, Lily learns more about the Black Madonna honey that the sisters make. Wanting to repay the Boatwrights for their kindness, August tells them they can work off their debt. Lily finds out that May had a twin sister, April, who committed suicide with their father's shotgun when they were younger. While Lily and Rosaleen are staying there, they get to see the sisters' form of religion. They hold service at their house which they call "The Daughters of Mary." They keep a figurehead of "Black Mary," or "our lady of chains" which was actually a statue from the bow of an ancient ship, and August tells the story of how a man by the name of Obadiah, who was a slave, found this figure. The slaves thought that God had answered their prayers asking for rescue, and "to send them consolation" and "to send them freedom." It gave them hope, and the figure had been passed down for generations. Lily meets Zach, August's godson. They soon develop intimate feelings for each other. Acknowledging the trouble that an interracial couple could cause in the South, they attempt to put their feelings aside. They share goals with each other while working the hives. Both Lily and Zach find their goals nearly impossible to meet, but still encourage each other to attempt them. Zach wants to be the "ass-busting lawyer", which means he would be the first black lawyer in the area.Lily wants to be a short story writer. Zach and Lily go out for a honey run, but Zach and some friends get arrested for "injuring" a white man. The Boatwright house decides not to tell May in fear of an unbearable emotional episode. The secret does not stay hidden for long, and May becomes catatonic with depression. May leaves the house and August, June, Lily and Rosaleen find her lying dead in the river with a rock on her chest, an apparent suicide. A vigil is held that lasts four days. In that time, Zach is freed from jail with no charges, and black cloth is draped over the beehives to symbolize the mourning. May's suicide letter is found and in it she says, "It's my time to die, and it's your time to live. Don't mess it up." August interprets this as urging June to marry Neil. May is later buried. Life begins to turn back to normal after a time of grieving, bringing the Boatwright house back together. June after several rejections, agrees to give her hand in marriage to Neil. Zach vows to Lily that they will be together someday. Lily finally finds out the truth about her mother. August was her mother's nanny, and helped raise her. After her mother and father's relationship began to sour, Deborah left and went to stay with the Boatwrights. She eventually decided to leave him permanently and returned to their house to collect Lily. While packing to leave, T.Ray returned home. Their ensuing argument turned into a physical fight during which Deborah gets a gun. After a brief struggle, the gun accidentally discharges, killing Deborah. T. Ray, having never been able to get over the fact that his wife was leaving him, lied to Lily about what happened, leading her to believe she had killed her own mother. While Lily is coming to terms with this information, T.Ray shows up at the pink house to take her back home. Lily refuses, and T.Ray flies into an enraged rampage. He has a violent flashback which brings him around. August steps in and offers to let Lily stay with her. T.Ray gives in and agrees. *Lily Owens: the narrator. She believes she accidentally killed her mother. *T.Ray Owens: the father of Lily and the widower of Deborah Fontanel-Owens. *Deborah Fontanel-Owens: the deceased mother of Lily Owens and wife of T.Ray Owens. *Rosaleen Daise: the maid of Lily's household and other neighbors, also acts as Lily's primary caregiver (surrogate mother). She is Lily's best friend for most of the book. *August Boatwright: the eldest of the Boatwright sisters, a beekeeper, a well-respected businesswoman in the community. *June Boatwright: the sister of May Boatwright and August Boatwright. She is a school teacher and musician. *May Boatwright: the sister of August and June Boatwright. She had a twin sister, April, who died when she was younger, and as a result of April's death she is hyper-sensitive. *Zachary "Zach" Taylor: August's godson who helps her with the hives. He is a football player who attends the local black high school. He wants to become a lawyer. *Neil: the principal at the school where June teaches. He has proposed multiple times to June. He becomes June's fiance. *The Daughters of Mary: Cressie, Queenie and her daughter Violet, Lunelle, Mabelee, and Sugar-Girl who attends with her husband, Otis, the one man of the group. They are followers of Our Lady in Chains.

{{Plot}} The movie opens in 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement. In the night, Lily sees many bees in her room and tells her father, but T-Ray yells at her to go back to bed. Frustrated, Lily runs into their peach tree orchard and digs up a box she buried there. The box contains her mother's gloves, a small photograph of her mother, and a flat wood carving of the Black Madonna. While Lily lies staring at the stars and talking to her mother's spirit, she hears her father calling. He accosts her. As there is no one else, T-Ray takes Lily home. The next morning, Rosaleen, the housekeeper surprises Lily with a cake for her 14th birthday. As T-Ray enters, Rosaleen states that she is going to take Lily into town to buy her a training bra. Lily asks him to tell her about her mother as her birthday gift, but he says very little. When Rosaleen and Lily walk uptown, they are confronted by three racist men who insult Rosaleen. She is beaten up and arrested. After T-Ray and Lily get home, T-Ray grounds Lily to her bedroom and he and Lily argue. When Lily calls him a liar, he again tells her to stay in her room. Lily waits until he is gone before she writes a letter saying "People who tell lies like you should burn in Hell. Don't bother to look for me." After setting the note on the table, she grabs the bag she has packed and goes to the hospital "colored ward" to find Rosaleen. They run away to a town where Lily's mother was thought to have once lived, called Tiburon. They find a honey jar with the same picture of the Virgin Mary that Lily had. When they ask who made the honey, they are led to the house of August Boatwright and her sisters, May and June. May had a twin, April, who is revealed to have died during their childhood. Her condition makes her have difficulties distinguishing others' problems from hers. She sees everyone's problems as her concern and she has difficulties coping with her "extra problems." Lily lies and says that she is an orphan, that Rosaleen is a nanny, and that they have no place to stay. August offers to let them help with the honey in exchange for shelter, much to June's dismay. Lily experiences growing up in their household. June has a boyfriend named Neil, who is trying to marry her, but she always refuses. Lily questions August as to why she uses "black" Mary pictures. She claims that she was sent by God to help African Americans have peace and equality. When Lily is introduced to the local church, Lily blacks out when the memories of the night her mother died begin to come to her. Lily discovers a wall outside of the house that has little pieces of paper stuffed between the holes. It was built for May after April died. August claimed that they were psychically linked to one another and were like a single person. After April died, May became very emotional and easily broken down by sad situations. She would write all the things that troubled her and put them into the wall. Lily and a boy named Zach who works with the bees become friends. On the ride to town to deliver honey, Lily confides in Zach the truth of their situation and the reason why she came to August. He gives her a notebook because she claimed to want to be a writer. They decide to watch a movie together but Lily sits in the "colored" section. This incites a racist mob who kidnap Zach and call Lily names for choosing to associate with him. Zach's mother and the Boatwright family are very worried and concerned. June and August decide not to tell May of Zach's disappearance for fear of what it would do to her fragile mental state. Incidentally, Zach's mother comes to the house to pray before the statue of the Black Madonna in the living room and runs into May afterwards. She confides in an unknowing May who subsequently goes into shock. It is later discovered that her upset and dismay led her to drown herself by placing a large rock upon her chest and lying down in a shallow section of the river by their home. She writes a suicide note to August and June, claiming that she was too tired of carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, and that she would be much happier with her sister and parents in Heaven. Soon after her death, Zach returns, albeit bruised and distraught. After her funeral, August and June slowly begin to recover from their loss, with June even finally agreeing to marry Neil, whom she had broken up with in a fit of indecisive anger and fear. Lily shows August the picture of her mother, and August instantly recognizes her as Deborah, Lily's mother. As August and Lily discuss Lily's mother, Lily confesses that she, while trying to help her mother, wound up killing her. She also confesses her belief that Zach's disappearance was all her fault, as well, so she needs to leave, convinced it is best for everyone that she leave since she is unlovable and destroys all that she comes across. Lily breaks down crying and runs to the honey house, where she breaks several jars. August finds her and gives over the things that her mother left when she went back to get Lily, though Lily doesn't believe her. Lily receives her mother's old comb, pin, a piece of poetry, and a picture of her mother with baby Lily. This shows that Deborah did love her daughter.Soon after Lily meets with Zach and they start to talk about each others futures. Lily confesses she loves English and wants to become a writer as Zach confesses he wants to become a lawyer. They share a kiss and Zach gives her a necklace telling Lily to never forget their story and she smiles and say she won't. Later on, T-Ray comes to the Boatwright home looking for Lily. When he sees Lily wearing her mother's pin, he mistakes her for her mother for a second and proceeds to grab and drag her out of the house, all the while telling her she can't leave him. In a moment of panic, Lily calls him 'Daddy', causing him to come to himself. Lily tells him she's staying there, and after August shows up to calm the scene and assure him they'll take care of her, he reluctantly gives August permission to take care of Lily for as long as she wanted to stay there. As T-Ray drives off, he admits that the day Deborah left, she wasn't only coming back for her stuff, but coming back for Lily. He says he lied because she wasn't coming back for him. Lily's voice-over states that she thought, as T-Ray drove off, saying "Good riddance", he was really saying "Lily, you'll be better off here with all of these mothers." Lily is shown writing the contents of the entire story into the notebook that Zach gave her, and she puts it in May's wall and is shown wearing Zach's necklace. She walks off into the honey house as the scene fades to black.

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positive

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

The story revolves around a poor young boy named Charlie Bucket born to a penniless, starving family. His two sets of grandparents reside in their children's dilapidated, tiny house and lead a bedridden existence, and Charlie is fascinated by the universally-celebrated candy factory located in his hometown owned by famous chocolatier Willy Wonka. His Grandpa Joe often narrates stories to him about the chocolate factory and about its mysterious proprietor, and the mysteries relating to the factory itself; how it had gone defunct for years until it mysteriously re-opened after Wonka's secret candy recipes had been discovered (albeit no employees are ever seen leaving the factory). Soon after, an article in the newspaper reveals that Willy Wonka has hidden a Golden Ticket in five chocolate bars being distributed to anonymous locations worldwide, and that the discovery of a Golden Ticket would grant the owner with passage into Willy Wonka's factory and a lifetime supply of confectionary. Charlie longs for chocolate to satisfy his hunger and to find a Golden Ticket himself, but his chances are slim (his father has recently lost his job, leaving the family all but destitute) and word on the discovery of the tickets keeps appearing in various news articles read by the Bucket family, each one discovered by far going to self-centered, bratty children: an obese, gluttonous boy named Augustus Gloop, a spoiled brat named Veruca Salt, a record-breaking gum chewer named Violet Beauregarde, and Mike Teavee, an aspiring gangster who is unhealthily obsessed with television. Charlie continues to grow in emaciation day by day, and is given money from his grandfather to buy chocolate and winds up discovering a 50p piece in the snow on his way to the corner store. Charlie uses the money to purchase two Wonka bars and winds up discovering a Golden Ticket in one of them, much to the shock of the shopkeeper and his family. Grandpa Joe even leaps out of bed in delight, offering to accompany Charlie to the factory. The following day, the discoverers of the Golden Tickets gather at Wonka's factory and are welcomed inside by the candy maker himself, who gives them a tour through his whimsically-designed factory. There, they learn of the unseen workers behind the re-opening of the factory; small, elfin beings known as Oompa-Loompas, who work in exchange for cocoa beans. However, while touring through a room designed as a meadow made of candy, Augustus Gloop is sucked through a pipe while drinking from a river of chocolate, resulting in his elimination from the competition. Not long afterward, Wonka unveils a product he's working on; chewing gum designed to replace any need for cooking or daily meals, which is stolen by Violet Beauregarde. However, because Wonka still needed to perfect the candy, she winds up inflating into a giant blueberry that must be juiced immediately, resulting in her elimination, and before long Veruca Salt is eliminated after falling down a garbage chute with her parents while trying to snatch one of Willy Wonka's specially-trained squirrels used for selecting the nuts baked into Wonka bars after being dismissed as a "bad nut." Soon, Wonka reveals one of his confectionary products in development; chocolate bars that can be transported to customers via television, which quickly captures Mike Teavee's interest. He escapes to test out the device on himself, only to be shrunken to an inch tall so that his original height must be restored by a taffy pull. The four eliminated children do receive their lifetime supplies of chocolate but leave the factory as: thin (Augustus), purple (Violet), covered in trash (Veruca), and overstretched to ten feet (Mike). Charlie, the only child who has not been eliminated, has won the contest and the legendary prize mentioned before as a result: the position of heir to Willy Wonka's factory. A thrilled Charlie rides in Wonka's glass flying elevator to deliver his family to the factory from their little home, no longer having to worry about poverty.

After school, kids go to a local candy shop, where the owner Bill serves chocolate to the kids . Charlie Bucket stares through the window as he sings, saddened that he has no money. The newsagent Mr. Jopeck gives him some money to buy a loaf of bread. On his way, he passes the chocolate factory of Willy Wonka , a local candy maker. A tinker tells him "nobody ever goes in, and nobody ever comes out". He brings the bread back to his Grandpa Joe , his widow mother , and his other three bedridden grandparents. That night, he tells Grandpa about the tinker and what he said, and Grandpa tells him about Wonka and how spies were trying to steal his life's work. He closed the factory, but three years later he started selling candy again, but is still unseen to this day. One day, the family, along with the rest of the world, learns that Wonka has hidden five Golden Tickets amongst his Wonka Bars. The finders of these special tickets will be given a full tour of his factory, as well as a lifetime supply of chocolate to the "winner". Charlie wants to take part in the search, but cannot afford to buy vast quantities of chocolate bars like other participants . Four of the tickets are found by: Augustus Gloop , a gluttonous German boy; Veruca Salt , a spoiled English girl; Violet Beauregarde , a gum-chomping American girl; and Mike Teavee , a television-obsessed American boy. As they find their tickets, a sinister-looking man is observed whispering in their ears, to whom they listen attentively despite their preoccupations with their particular obsessions. Charlie's hopes are dashed when news breaks that the final ticket had been found by a Paraguayan millionaire. The next day, as the Golden Ticket craze ends, Charlie finds a silver coin in a gutter and uses it to buy a Wonka Bar. Simultaneously, word spreads that the ticket found by the millionaire was forged and that one ticket is still about somewhere. When Charlie opens the bar, he finds the real golden ticket, and races home to tell his family, but is confronted by the same man who had been seen whispering to the other four winners. The man introduces himself as Arthur Slugworth, a rival confectioner who offers to pay Charlie a large sum of money for a sample of Wonka's latest creation, the Everlasting Gobstopper. Grandpa Joe gets out of bed to serve as Charlie's tour chaperone . The next day, Wonka greets the children and their guardians at the factory gates and leads them inside, requiring each to sign a contract before the tour can begin. Inside is a psychedelic wonderland full of chocolate rivers, giant edible mushrooms, lickable wallpaper and other ingenious inventions and candies, as well as Wonka's workers, the small, orange-skinned, green-haired Oompa-Loompas . As the tour progresses, each of the first four children ignore Wonka's warnings, resulting in serious consequences. Augustus is sucked through a chocolate extraction pipe system and sent to the Fudge Room, having fallen into a chocolate river from which he was trying to drink. Violet transforms into a giant blueberry after trying an experimental piece of Three-Course-Dinner Gum. Veruca is rejected as a "bad egg" and falls down a garbage chute in the Chocolate Golden Egg Sorting Room . Mike is shrunken to only a few inches in height after being transmitted by "Wonkavision", a broadcasting technology that can send objects through television instead of pictures. The Oompa-Loompas sing a song after each incident, describing that particular child's poor behaviour . While in Wonka's Inventing Room, the remaining children are each given a sample of Wonka's Everlasting Gobstoppers. Charlie also succumbs to temptation along with Grandpa Joe, as they stay behind in the Bubble Room and sample Fizzy Lifting Drinks. They begin floating skyward and are nearly sucked into a ceiling-mounted exhaust fan. To avoid this grisly fate, they burp repeatedly until they return to the ground. Wonka initially seems unaware of this incident. When Charlie becomes the last remaining child on the tour, Wonka dismisses him and Grandpa Joe and leaves for his office. When Grandpa Joe returns to ask about Charlie's lifetime supply of chocolate, Wonka irritably reveals that Charlie had violated the contract by sampling the Fizzy Lifting Drinks, and thus forfeited his prize, and Wonka furiously dismisses them. Grandpa Joe vows to give Slugworth the gobstopper in revenge. Charlie, however, cannot bring himself to hurt Wonka and places the gobstopper on his desk. Wonka recants and begs for his guests' forgiveness. He reveals that "Slugworth" is actually an employee named Wilkinson, whose offer to buy the gobstopper was all part of a morality test for the Golden Ticket winners, and Charlie was the only one who passed the test. The trio enter the "Wonkavator", a multi-dimensional glass elevator, and fly out of the factory in it. As they soar over the city, Wonka tells Charlie that his actual prize is not just the chocolate but the factory itself, as the Golden Ticket search was created to help Wonka search for an honest and worthy child to be his heir. Charlie and his family will reside in the factory and take over its operation when Wonka retires.

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positive

The Damned Utd

The Damned United

Told from Clough's point of view, the novel is written as his stream of consciousness as he tries and fails to impose his will on a team he inherited from his bitter rival, Don Revie, and whose players are still loyal to their old manager. Interspersed are flashbacks to his more successful days as manager of Derby County. Described by its author as "a fiction based on a fact", the novel mixes fiction, rumour and speculation with documented facts to depict Clough as a deeply flawed hero; foul mouthed, vengeful and beset with inner demons and alcoholism.

After failing to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, England manager Alf Ramsey is replaced by Don Revie , the highly successful manager of Leeds United. Revie's replacement is Brian Clough , the former manager of Derby County and a fierce critic of Leeds, because of their violent and physical style of play under Revie's management. Furthermore, Clough's longtime assistant, Peter Taylor , has not joined him. The roots of Clough's conflict with Leeds are depicted as happening in a 1968 FA Cup match between Leeds, the leaders of the First DivisionThough Leeds were leading the table, they did not win the league that season, eventually finishing fourth. The eventual winners were Manchester City and Derby, who were struggling near the bottom of the Second Division. Clough, assuming Revie to be a similar man to himself, as they grew up in the same part of Middlesbrough and both played for Sunderland, made many preparations for the match; come the day of the match however, Revie failed to even acknowledge Clough upon entering the Baseball Ground. Derby eventually lost 2&ndash;0.Although Leeds did beat Derby 2&ndash;0 in the FA Cup that season, in reality the game was played at United's Elland Road ground. It was the second of three games between the two sides that season, the FA Cup tie being sandwiched between the two legs of a Football League Cup Semi-Final. Although Clough initially blames the brutality of the Leeds players, he and Taylor recognise that their side are not good on a technical level. So they sign veteran Dave Mackay , along with several other young players. Chairman Sam Longson is extremely anxious about the investment, as well as the fact that Clough did not consult him before signing Mackay. However, in 1969 Derby are promoted. They once again face Leeds, only to lose 5&ndash;0. The club win their first ever League championship in 1972, meaning a European Cup campaign the following year. They go through to the semi-finals against Juventus. Unfortunately, against Longson's advice, Clough uses his best squad in the last match before the semi-final, against Leeds, purely out of pride and determination to beat Revie. They suffer injuries and Billy Bremner ([[Stephen Graham sarcastically wishes Clough well for the semi-final. Juventus defeat them easily, and Clough publicly lambasts Longson.In fact, the match between Derby and Leeds took place before Derby's quarter-final match, which they won despite their injury list. Their eventual defeat by Juventus was with a nearly full-strength squad, and Clough blamed Juventus's gamesmanship, rather than Sam Longson for Derby's exit. Later that year, after Taylor suffers a heart attack, Clough tries to secure his position by offering up his and Taylor's resignations. To his horror, the club's board call his bluff, terminates their contracts and bans them from entering the Baseball Ground again . Derby fans' outrage raises Clough's hopes of being reinstated, but Dave Mackay is appointed manager instead. Derby fans quickly lose interest and Clough loses all hope of getting his job back. He and Taylor are then offered jobs at Brighton & Hove Albion. They agree to take the jobs after taking an all-expenses-paid holiday in Majorca. During the holiday, Clough agrees to take control of Leeds after being approached by their representatives.The film shows him effectively reneging on his deal to take over at Brighton, although in reality he had nine relatively unsuccessful months as manager there. Taylor, however, argues the case for staying at Brighton, and after a bitter quarrel, the two go their separate ways. Back in the storyline's "present," Clough alienates his players in their first training session, first by telling them that they can throw away any awards they have won because they "never won any of them fairly," and then making them start with a 7-a-side game. The season starts with a Charity Shield match against FA Cup winners Liverpool, which is widely anticipated as both the final match of Liverpool manager Bill Shankly and Clough's debut as Leeds manager. Unfortunately, the event is marred when Leeds's captain, Billy Bremner gets into a fight with Kevin Keegan. Both are sent off, and in turn throw their shirts off and walk off the pitch bare-chested in defiance. Leeds lose the match on penalties, and Bremner is given a two-month suspension from football, forcing Leeds to start the season without their influential captain. As a result, Leeds suffer a horrendous start to the season and are in danger of relegation only one season after winning the title. After Bremner and the players air their grievances to the board, the club terminates Clough's contract - though he forces them to pay an enormous severance package. Afterwards, Clough agrees to do a final interview with Yorkshire Television, but finds Revie there to confront him, bringing the two face to face at last. Clough accuses Revie of being cold-hearted and fundamentally dishonest, both as a person and a football manager, and Revie in turn brands Clough as inflexible and egocentric. Clough brings up the incident in the 1968 FA Cup, and Revie claims to have not known who the rookie manager was at the time . After the interview, Clough drives down to Brighton to patch things up with Taylor. It involves Clough literally on his knees, grovelling at Taylor's dictation, but they reconcile. In the film's epilogue, the audience is told that Don Revie proved a complete failure as an England manager, and afterwards never worked in football in his home country again, spending the rest of his career working in the Middle East where he was accused of financial mismanagement. Brian Clough and Peter Taylor meanwhile reunited at Nottingham Forest, where he repeated his prior achievements with Derby by taking them up and winning the First Division, and this time bettered both Revie and his own spell at Derby by winning two European Cups in succession. The film ends by branding Clough "the best manager that the English national side never had."

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The Hustler

The Hustler

After losing to Fats, Eddie could spiral down to the scrapheap, but he meets Bert Gordon, a . Bert teaches him about winning, or more particularly about losing. Tautly written, it is a treatise on how someone, with all of the skills, can lose if he "wants" to lose; how a loser is beaten by himself, not by his opponent; and how he can learn to win, if he can look deeply enough into himself. The book was followed by the sequel The Color of Money.

Small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson from Oakland, California travels cross-country with his partner Charlie to challenge the legendary player "Minnesota Fats". Arriving at Ames, Fats's home pool hall, Eddie declares he will win $10,000 that night. Fats arrives and he and Eddie agree to play for $200 a game. After initially falling behind, Eddie surges back to being $1,000 ahead and suggests raising the bet to $1,000 a game; Fats agrees. He sends out a runner, Preacher, to Johnny's Bar, ostensibly for a bottle of whiskey, but really to get professional gambler Bert Gordon to the hall. Eddie gets ahead $11,000 and Charlie tries to convince him to quit, but Eddie insists the game will end only when Fats says it is over. Fats agrees to continue after Bert labels Eddie a "loser." After 25&nbsp;hours and an entire bottle of bourbon, Eddie is ahead over $18,000, but loses it all along with all but $200 of his original stake. At their hotel later, Eddie leaves half of the remaining stake with a sleeping Charlie and leaves. Eddie stashes his belongings at the local bus terminal, where he meets Sarah Packard, an alcoholic "college girl" who walks with a limp. He meets her again at a bar. They go back to her place but she refuses to let him in, saying he is "too hungry." Eddie moves into a rooming house and starts hustling for small stakes. He finds Sarah again and this time she takes him in, but with reservations. Charlie finds Eddie at Sarah's and tries to persuade him to go back out on the road. Eddie refuses and Charlie figures out he plans to challenge Fats again. Eddie realizes that Charlie held out his percentage and becomes enraged, believing that with that money he could have rebounded to beat Fats. Eddie dismisses Charlie as a scared old man and tells him to "go lie down and die" by himself. At Johnny's Bar, Eddie finds a poker game where Bert is sitting and Eddie loses $20. After the game, Bert tells Eddie that he has talent as a pool player but no character. He figures that Eddie will need at least $3,000 to challenge Fats again. Bert calls him a "born loser" but nevertheless offers to stake him in return for 75% of his winnings but Eddie refuses. Eddie hustles a local pool shark, whose friend breaks Eddie's thumbs. Sarah cares for him and tells him she loves him, but he cannot say the words in return. When his thumbs heal, Eddie agrees to Bert's terms, deciding that a "twenty-five percent slice of something big is better than a hundred percent slice of nothing." Bert, Eddie and Sarah travel to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, where Bert arranges a match for Eddie against a wealthy local socialite named Findley. The game turns out to be carom billiards, not pool. Eddie loses badly and Bert refuses to keep staking him. Sarah pleads with Eddie to leave with her, saying that the world he is living in and its inhabitants are "perverted, twisted and crippled"; he refuses. Seeing Eddie's anger, Bert agrees to let the match continue at $1,000 a game. Eddie comes back to win $12,000. He collects his $3,000 share and decides to walk back to the hotel. Bert arrives first and subjects Sarah to a humiliating sexual encounter. After, she scrawls "PERVERTED", "TWISTED", and "CRIPPLED" in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. Eddie arrives back at the hotel to learn that she has killed herself. Eddie returns to challenge Fats again, putting up his entire $3,000 stake on a single game. He wins game after game, beating Fats so badly that Fats is forced to quit. Bert demands a share of Eddie's winnings and threatens Eddie over the issue, but Eddie, invoking the memory of Sarah, shames Bert into giving up his claim. However, Bert warns Eddie never to walk into a big-time pool hall again.

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Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Buck Rogers

The main character and the narrator in Armageddon 2419 A.D. is Anthony Rogers, who later appears in the various comic strips, radio shows, and film serials that follow as "Buck Rogers". Rogers recounts the events of the “Second War of Independence” that precedes the first victory of Americans over Hans, in which he plays an important role. Born in 1898, He was a veteran of the Great War (World War I) and was by 1927 working for the American Radioactive Gas Corporation. He was investigating reports of unusual phenomena reported in abandoned coal mines near Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania. On December 15, while investigating one of the lower levels of a mine, there was a cave-in. Exposed to radioactive gas, Rogers fell into "a state of suspended animation, free from the ravages of catabolic processes, and without any apparent effect on physical or mental faculties." Rogers remained in “sleep” for 492 years. He awakes in 2419 and, thinking that he has been asleep for just several hours, wanders for a few days in unfamiliar forests (what had been Pennsylvania almost five centuries before). He finally notices a wounded boy-like-figure, clad in strange clothes and moving in giant leaps, who appears to be under attack by others. He defends the person, killing one of the attackers and scaring off the rest. It turns out that he is helping a girl, Wilma Deering, who, on “air patrol”, was attacked by an enemy gang, the "Bad Bloods", which is presumed to have allied themselves with the Hans. Wilma takes Rogers to her camp, where he is to meet the bosses of her gang. He is invited to stay with their gang or leave and visit other gangs. They hope that Rogers’ experience and knowledge he gained fighting in the First World War may be useful in their struggle with the Hans. Tony stays with the gang for several days, learns about the community life of Americans in the 25th century and makes friends with the people, especially with Wilma, with whom he spends a lot of time. He also experiences a Han air raid, during which he manages to destroy one of the enemy ships. Rogers and his friends hurry to the bosses to report the incident and explain the method he has used when shooting the aircraft. As the raid has caused much destruction, there is suspicion that the location of the gang’s industrial plants may have been revealed to the Hans by rival gangs. They await a fight with the Hans who will likely wish to take revenge for the destruction of their airship. The bosses direct Wilma and Rogers investigate the wreck. While there, a Han party arrives to investigate as well. Thanks to Tony’s quick and wise instructions, he and Wilma manage to escape and also manage to shoot down some more of the Han’s ships. The day after, Wilma and Anthony get married and Tony becomes a member of the gang. Meantime, knowing Rogers’ technique, the other gangs start the hunt for Han ships. The Hans better secure their ships and the Americans need to take up some further steps to have any chances in the fight and to find the traitors quickly. Anthony develops a plan to get the records of the traitorous transaction, which are kept somewhere in the Han city of Nu-Yok. With the help of other gangs, he creates a team that will go with him. They learn that the traitors are the Sinsings, the gang located not far from Nu-Yok. The Americans appreciate Rogers’ courage and brave deeds and, grateful to him, make him the new boss. He instantly reorganizes the governing structures of the gang by creating new offices and makes plans for the battle with the Sinsings, again using the knowledge he gained in the First World War. The raid on Sinsings turns out to be a great success and gives the Americans the confidence in their ability to overcome the Hans.

The story begins with Buck Rogers and Buddy Wade in the midst of a dirigible flight over the North Pole. They are caught in a savage storm and crash - but not before they release an experimental substance called Nirvano Gas that they hope will preserve them until rescue can arrive. The Nirvano Gas works, but the dirigible is buried in an avalanche and is not found until 500 years have passed. When Buck and Buddy are found, they awaken to a world ruled by the ruthless dictator, Killer Kane , and his army of "super-racketeers". Only those who live in the "Hidden City", run by the benevolent scientist Dr. Huer and his military counterpart, Air Marshal Kragg ([[William Gould , resist the criminal rulers of Earth. Buck and Buddy join the resistance, and they set out for Saturn, where they hope that they can find help in their fight against Kane. Saturn is run by Aldar and the Council of the Wise and Prince Tallen. To the dismay of Buck and Buddy, they also discover that Kane has dispatched ambassadors of his own, headed by his loyal henchman, Captain Laska ([[Henry Brandon . The serial then becomes a back-and-forth struggle between Buck and Kane to secure the military support of Saturn for the struggles on Earth.

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positive

The Iron Man

The Iron Giant

The Iron Man arrived from seemingly nowhere and his appearance is described in detail. To survive, he feeds off local farm equipment. When the farm hands discover their destroyed tractors and diggers, a trap is set consisting of a covered pit on which a tractor is set as bait. Hogarth, a local boy, lures the Iron Man to the trap. The plan succeeds, and the Iron Man is buried alive. The next spring, the Iron Man digs himself free of the pit. To keep him out of the way, the boy Hogarth takes charge and brings the Iron Man to a metal scrap-heap to feast. The Iron Man promises to not cause further trouble for the locals, as long as no one troubles him. Time passes, and the Iron Man is treated as merely another member of the community. However, astronomers monitoring the sky make a frightening new discovery; an enormous space-being moving from orbit to land on Earth. The creature (soon dubbed the "Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon") crashes heavily on Australia and demands that humanity provide him with food. Terrified, humans send their armies to destroy the dragon, but it remains unharmed. When the Iron Man hears of this global threat, he allows himself to be disassembled and transported to Australia where he challenges the creature to a contest of strength. If the Iron Man can withstand the heat of burning petroleum for longer than the space being can withstand the heat of the Sun, the creature must obey the Iron Man's commands forever more; if the Iron Man melts or is afraid of melting before the space being undergoes or fears pain in the Sun, the creature has permission to devour the whole Earth. After playing the game two rounds, the dragon is so badly burned that he no longer appears physically frightening. The Iron Man by contrast has only a deformed ear-lobe to show for his pains. The alien creature admits defeat. When asked why he came to Earth, the alien reveals that he is a peaceful "Star Spirit" who experienced excitement about the ongoing sights and sounds produced by the violent warfare of humanity. In his own life, he was a singer of the "music of the spheres"; the harmony of his kind that keeps the Cosmos in balance in stable equilibrium. The Iron Man orders the Star Spirit to sing to the inhabitants of Earth, flying just behind the sunset, to help soothe humanity toward a sense of peace. The beauty of his music distracts the population from its egocentricism and tendency to fight, causing the first worldwide lasting peace.

In 1957, a large alien robot crashes from orbit near the coast of Rockwell, Maine with no memory. Shortly after, the Iron Giant wanders off into the mainland. Nine-year-old Hogarth Hughes follows a trail of the forest's destruction and frees the robot, who is stuck in the power cables of an electrical substation. After being rescued by and befriended by Hogarth, the Giant follows him back to his house, where he lives with his mother Annie. Upon their return, the robot attempts to eat the iron off the nearby railroad tracks. Alarmed at the sound of an incoming train, Hogarth tells the giant to repair the tracks. The robot attempts this, but takes too long, causing the train to collide with his head. Hogarth hides the damaged robot in their barn where he discovers the robot is self repairing. Later that night, Hogarth returns to the barn with a stack of comic books to read to the Giant. The robot is impressed with Superman, but distressed when he discovers a comic about an evil robot; Hogarth tells the robot that it can be who he chooses to be. Investigating the destroyed substation, U.S. government agent Kent Mansley discovers evidence of the robot and decides to continue his inquiries in nearby Rockwell. Finding a BB gun Hogarth left near the substation the night he found the Giant, Mansley takes up a room for rent at Hogarth's home and trails the boy to learn more. Hogarth says to the robot to dive in the lake which it does, creating a tsunami that sweeps Dean onto the road. Mansley is paranoid about an alien invasion and alerts the U.S. Army to the possible presence of the robot. Worried that they will get caught, Hogarth evades Mansley and takes the robot to beatnik artist Dean McCoppin who passes off the robot as one of his works of art when Mansley and Lieutenant General Rogard investigate. Hogarth inadvertently activates a self-defense mechanism in the giant with a toy gun, but Dean saves Hogarth. Commanding the robot to leave, they soon realize that the robot cannot control the SDM, and they chase after it before reaching town. In Rockwell, the robot saves two boys, but Mansley, having seen it, orders an attack to stop it. The robot flees with Hogarth until he is shot down by a missile, and after crash landing, the robot believes Hogarth to be dead, causing the enraged robot to activate its weapons and attack the Army, who are no match for the advanced firepower. Mansley lies to Rogard that the robot killed Hogarth, before telling him to lure the robot out to sea so they can destroy it with a nuclear ballistic missile from the USS Nautilus. Hogarth wakes up and calms the robot down, causing it to deactivate its weapons. Dean tells Rogard and his men to stand down. Rogard, realizing that Mansley lied to him, is about to tell the Nautilus to stand down, but Mansley snatches the walkie-talkie and calls the Nautilus to launch the missile anyway. Realizing the deadly mistake, Rogard argues with Mansley and informs him that the robot, along with everybody in Rockwell will be destroyed when the missile falls. Mansley refuses to take note of the town's fate and tries to escape Rockwell in order to save himself, but the robot stops Mansley, who is then arrested by the Army. When Hogarth tells the robot about Rockwell's fate, the robot flies off to intercept the missile, as a hero, not a weapon. The robot and missile collide, causing a massive explosion high up in the atmosphere. The people of the town recognize the giant as a hero, but everyone, especially Hogarth is deeply saddened by the robot's sacrifice. Some time later, Annie and Dean have a romantic relationship and Dean creates a statue honoring the robot. Hogarth receives a package from Rogard, containing the only piece of the robot they found, a small jaw bolt. That night, Hogarth awakens to a familiar beeping coming from the bolt, which is trying to get out his window. He knows the robot is repairing itself somewhere and he opens it to let the bolt out. On the Langjökull glacier in Iceland various parts of the robot travel across there where his head rests, eyes glowing, as the robot wakes up and smiles.

positive

positive

Catch-22

Catch-22

The development of the novel can be split into segments. The first (chapters 1–11) broadly follows the story fragmented between characters, but in a single chronological time in 1943. The second (chapters 12–20) flashes back to focus primarily on the "Great Big Siege of Bologna" before once again jumping to the chronological "present" of 1943 in the third part (chapter 21–25). The fourth (chapters 26–28) flashes back to the origins and growth of Milo's syndicate, with the fifth part (chapter 28–32) returning again to the narrative "present" but keeping to the same tone of the previous four. In the sixth and final part (chapter 32 on) while remaining in the "present" time the novel takes a much darker turn and spends the remaining chapters focusing on the serious and brutal nature of war and life in general. While the first five parts "sections" develop the novel in the present and through use of flash-backs, the novel significantly darkens in chapters 32–41. Previously the reader had been cushioned from experiencing the full horror of events, but now the events are laid bare, allowing the full effect to take place. The horror begins with the attack on the undefended Italian mountain village, with the following chapters involving despair (Doc Daneeka and the Chaplain), disappearance in combat (Orr and Clevinger), disappearance caused by the army (Dunbar) or death (Nately, McWatt, Mudd, Kid Sampson, Dobbs, Chief White Halfoat and Hungry Joe) of most of Yossarian's friends, culminating in the unspeakable horrors of Chapter 39, in particular the rape and murder of Michaela, who represents pure innocence. In Chapter 41, the full details of the gruesome death of Snowden are finally revealed. Despite this, the novel ends on an upbeat note with Yossarian learning of Orr's miraculous escape to Sweden and Yossarian's pledge to follow him there.

Captain Yossarian , a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier is stationed on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa during World War II. Along with other members of his squadron, Yossarian is committed to flying dangerous missions, and after watching his friends die, he seeks a means of escape. Futilely appealing to his commanding officer, Colonel Cathcart , who keeps increasing the number of missions required to be sent home before anyone can reach it, Yossarian finds that even a mental breakdown is no release when Doctor Daneeka invokes the "Catch-22" that the US Army employs. As explained, an airman "would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he'd have to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't, he was sane and had to." Trapped by the convoluted logic of the Catch-22, Yossarian watches as individuals in the squadron resort to other means to cope; Lt. Milo Minderbinder concocts elaborate black market schemes while crazed Captain "Aarfy Aardvark" even commits murder. Nately falls for a prostitute, Major Danby delivers goofy pep talks before each bomb run and Nurse Duckett resorts to belting Yossarian once in a while. Following an attempt on his life, Yossarian flees the hospital and sets out in a raft, paddling to Sweden, a refuge for one of his other squadron mates who successfully escaped the madness.

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War Horse

War Horse

Joey is a young horse who has come to love Ted and Rose Narracott's son Albert and their horse Old Zoey. At the outbreak of World War I, Joey is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. His rider Captain Nicholls is killed while riding Joey. The horse is soon caught up in the war; watching death, disease and fate, taking him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in no man's land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist in the British Army, he embarks on a dangerous mission to find the horse and bring him home to Devon, England.

In 1912, a teenage boy named Albert Narracott from Devon, England, witnesses the birth of a Bay Thoroughbred foal and subsequently watches with admiration the growth of the young horse, galloping through the fields at his mother's side. Much to the dismay of his mother Rose , his father Ted buys the colt at auction, despite a friend pointing out a more suitable plough horse for his farm. Desiring to spite his landlord Mr Lyons , and retain his pride, Ted bids higher and higher for the colt. The high cost of the horse (30 [[Guinea means he is unable to pay rent to Lyons, who threatens to take possession of the farm if the money is not paid by autumn. Ted promises to meet the deadline, suggesting he could plough and plant a lower, rock-filled field with turnips. Albert names the horse Joey and devotes much time to training him. Albert's best friend, Andrew Easton , watches as Albert teaches his colt many things, such as to come when he imitates the call of an owl by blowing through his cupped hands. Ted, who has a bad leg from a war injury, is frequently shown drinking alcohol from a flask he carries. Rose shows Albert his father's medals from the Second Boer War in South Africa, where Ted served as a sergeant with the Imperial Yeomanry. Ted was severely wounded in action, and received the Distinguished Conduct Medal for bravery under fire. She gives Albert his father's regimental pennant, telling Albert that his father is not proud of what he did during the war, and that he had thrown the flag and medals away, though Rose saved and kept them hidden. Albert trains Joey for the plough and, to his neighbours' astonishment, prepares a stony hillside field to plant with turnips. However, a rainstorm destroys the turnip crop, so Ted, in order to pay the rent and without telling Albert, sells Joey to the young cavalry officer Captain James Nicholls as the First World War gets underway. Albert subsequently pleads with the officer and begs for him not to take the horse, but Nicholls can only promise that he will take care of Joey as his own horse and hopefully return him after the war. Albert tries to enlist in the army but is too young, and before the captain leaves with Joey, Albert ties his father's pennant to Joey's bridle. Joey is trained for military operations and becomes attached to Topthorn, a black horse with whom he is trained for his military role, and the two horses become friends. The two horses are deployed to France with a flying column under the command of Captain Nicholls, but the Cavalry charges are now hopelessly obsolete, a fact that becomes tragically clear when Captain Nicholls and his fellow cavalrymen charge through a German encampment and although achieving initial success, are met with the concentrated firepower of emplaced machine guns. Nicholls is killed along with most of his fellow cavalrymen, and the Germans capture the horses. On the German side a 14-year-old Michael convinces a superior that the two horses are fit to pull an ambulance wagon, and he and his brother Gunther drive the horses. Gunther gives the pennant to Michael as a good-luck "charm" when he is assigned to the German front, but Gunther ignores an order to remain behind and await call to a later position. Unable to persuade his brother to remain behind, he captures him from the column, on horseback, with Gunther riding Joey and Michael riding Topthorn. Their goal is to ride to Italy, but they stop for the night to hide in a farm's windmill and are discovered by their fellow German soldiers. Their status evident, they are executed by firing squad. The following morning, a young orphaned French girl named Emilie , who lives at the farm with her grandfather , finds the two horses inside the windmill and takes care of them. German soldiers arrive and confiscate all food and supplies from the property, but Emilie hides the horses in her bedroom to avoid them being taken by the Germans. Emilie suffers from a disease that makes her bones fragile and is not allowed to ride the horses for fear of falling. Nonetheless, Emilie's Grandfather, for her birthday, allows her to ride Joey, and she gallops the horse up the hill adjacent to the farm. This proves to be a dreadful mistake, and when Emilie does not return immediately, Topthorn races off towards the hill, with the Grandfather following behind. He sees that she has run into the German soldiers who ransacked their farm earlier. The German soldiers take the horses, despite Emilie's protests. The Grandfather keeps the pennant. Joey and Topthorn are put to pulling German heavy artillery, an exhausting task which kills horses quickly, either by gunfire or exhaustion. They serve in this brutal task under care of Private Friedrich , who loves horses and tries to help them survive. By 1918, Albert has enlisted and is fighting alongside Andrew in the Second Battle of the Somme, under the command of Lyons's son David . After a British charge into no-man's land, Albert, Andrew, and other British soldiers miraculously make it across into a deserted German trench, where a gas bomb explodes, filling the trench with mustard gas. Joey and Topthorn have survived years of hard service in the German army, much longer than most horses, but Topthorn finally succumbs to exhaustion and dies. Friedrich is dragged away by other German soldiers, leaving Joey to face an oncoming tank. The horse escapes and runs into the no-man's land, where he gallops through the devastated Somme and gets entangled in the barbed wire barriers. From their respective trenches, both British and German soldiers spot Joey in the night mist, and although disbelieving at first that a horse could have survived the battle, a British soldier from South Shields, named Colin , waves a white flag and crosses the no man's land, trying to free the horse and coax him to the British side. Pieter , a German soldier from Düsseldorf, comes over with wire cutters, and together they free Joey from the barbed wire. They flip a coin to decide who should take possession of the horse; Colin wins and guides Joey back to the British trench, now having formed an unexpected friendship with Pieter. Andrew has been killed by the gas attack, but Albert has survived, temporarily blinded and with bandages covering his eyes. While recuperating at a British medical camp, he hears about the "miraculous horse" rescued from no-man's land. The army doctor instructs Sgt. Fry to put Joey down, due to his injuries. But when Fry is about to shoot, Joey hears the owl call he learnt as a colt. Albert is led through the troops to Joey, again sounding his call, and Joey hurries to meet his long-missed friend. Albert explains that he raised Joey, and with bandages still covering his eyes, gives an exact description of the horse's markings, confirming his claim. Joey is covered in mud, so the veterinary surgeon at first dismisses Albert's statement, but he is astonished when soldiers wash away the grime, revealing the four white socks and diamond star on Joey's forehead. The armistice - on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 - that brings the end of the war coincides with Albert regaining his eyesight. When he learns that only officers' horses will be shipped home, he accepts funds from his fellow soldiers to purchase Joey at a scheduled highest-bidder auction, but finds himself losing a bidding war with a French butcher, reaching 30 pounds. Then a bid of 100 pounds is entered. The bidder is an older gentleman, Emilie's grandfather, who informs the butcher that if he is bid against, he will sell his coat and bid to 110 -- and should he be bid against again, he will sell his farm and bid to 1000. No other bid is placed, and the grandfather takes ownership of Joey, planning to return with him to his farm. He tells Albert that Emilie has died, and after hearing about the miracle horse, he has walked three days to get Joey back, for the sake of his beloved granddaughter's memory. Albert pleads for the horse with Emilie's grandfather, who at first remains stoic. The old man is surprised, however, when the horse chooses to return to Albert as if to say goodbye, and he subsequently presents Albert with the military pennant, asking him what it is. Albert's quick recognition of the pennant convinces the grandfather that Joey is indeed his horse, and that returning Joey to his care is a better tribute to the memory of Emilie. Finally, Albert is seen returning with Joey to his family's farm, where he hugs his parents and returns the pennant to his father. The elder Narracott extends his hand to the boy who has become a man.

positive

positive

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

In the first novel in the series, we are introduced to four high school students, Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Bridget Vreeland, and Carmen Lowell, who have been best friends "since birth" (their mothers attended prenatal exercise classes together). The summer before their junior year of high school, Carmen finds a pair of old jeans that fits each of them perfectly despite their different sizes, convincing the girls that the pants are magical. They share the "traveling pants" among themselves over the summer while they are separated. Lena spends the summer with her grandparents in Santorini, Greece. While there, she meets Kostos, the grandson of some of Lena's grandparents friends, and he becomes interested in Lena. Though she does reciprocate his feelings, she is shy and is unable to express them. Lena goes skinny-dipping and is accidentally seen by Kostos, and her grandparents assume she has been assaulted by him when she is unable to explain what happened. Later in the summer, Lena explains what happened in order to repair the rift between her and Kostos' grandparents, and confesses to Kostos that she loves him. Tibby spends the summer working at a department store, planning to make a documentary of her experiences there. She meets a 12-year-old girl named Bailey, whom she is initially annoyed with, but becomes close with by the end of summer as they work on Tibby's documentary. Bailey is hospitalized and dies at the end of the novel from leukemia, which results in Tibby refocusing her documentary to be about the summer they spent together. Carmen goes to South Carolina to spend the summer with her father, whom she has grown apart from since he and Carmen's mother divorced several years before. Carmen is surprised to learn that her father is engaged and lives with a woman with two grown children of her own. After being frustrated at feeling left out of her father's new family, she breaks a window in their house and returns home to her mother. She eventually reconciles with her father and attends his wedding at the urging of her friends. Bridget attends a soccer camp in Baja California, Mexico. While there, she meets Eric, one of the coaches, and immediately falls for him. Despite coach-camper relationships being completely off-limits, Bridget actively pursues him anyway by running with him and going to his room in her underwear. She eventually manages to seduce him and loses her virginity to him, which turns out to be too much for her to handle and after walking off the field during the championship, she takes to her bed for days. Eric later visits her and asks her to take a walk with him, where he tells her that if they had met under different circumstances, he would worship her the way she deserved to be worshiped. Lena comes to comfort her and takes her home.

Four teenage girls — Lena, Tibby, Bridget, and Carmen — are best friends from Bethesda, Maryland, who are about to separate for the summer for the first time in their lives. Lena is spending the summer in Greece with her grandparents; Tibby is staying at home; Bridget is going to soccer camp in Mexico; and Carmen is visiting her father in South Carolina. On one of their final days shopping together, the girls find a seemingly ordinary pair of jeans that fit them all perfectly and flatter their figures, despite their very different measurements. The girls dub them the Traveling Pants and decide to share them equally over the course of the summer. They part the next day, and the film focuses on each girl's journey separately. ;Lena Kaligaris Through the unexpected intervention of the Pants, Lena meets a boy named Kostos Dounas, a Greek-American like her. Lena learns from her grandparents that her family and Kostos' family are sworn enemies stemming from an old family feud. Despite this, Kostos continues to pursue Lena, and the two develop feelings for each other. Lena holds back, though, until one day when she admits to herself that she is afraid of love. Once she makes this realization, she begins a secret relationship with Kostos in earnest. On their last night together, while they are dancing, Kostos tells Lena that he loves her. Before Lena can answer, Lena's family barges in, angrily pulling Lena away. Lena later confronts her grandfather and asks to go see Kostos before he leaves, to which her grandfather agrees. Kostos and Lena share a passionate kiss, and Lena confesses her love for him. ;Tibby Rollins While on the job at a discount department store, Tibby hears a loud crashing sound, and finds a young girl who has fainted in the deodorant aisle. She frantically calls for help, and the girl is taken away in an ambulance. Later, when Lena from Greece mails the magical Pants to Tibby, they are delivered to the wrong house, and someone comes to Tibby's house to deliver them - coincidentally, Bailey Graffman, the girl who had fainted at the store. Fascinated by Tibby's movie, or "suckumentary", and her movie making, Bailey becomes Tibby's self-appointed assistant. Tibby is annoyed by this at first, but gradually grows to accept Bailey. She later learns from Bailey's neighbor that Bailey has leukemia. Bailey eventually goes to the hospital with a bad infection. Tibby avoids the hospital for a while, but eventually visits Bailey, bringing the Traveling Pants. She offers them to Bailey and pleads with her to take them so that they can help her. Bailey responds by saying that the pants have already worked their magic on Bailey by bringing her and Tibby together. Tibby spends a lot of time with Bailey in the hospital after that. A couple days later, Tibby receives a phone call in the morning from Mrs. Graffman, Bailey's mother, saying that Bailey died in the night. When Carmen comes back home from South Carolina, Tibby visits her to try and help her with her feelings of being snubbed by her father. Tibby later goes to Bridget's house along with Carmen in order to bring Bridget out of a period of sadness she's going through. Over the course of the movie, Tibby undergoes dramatic changes in outlook due to her time with Bailey. ;Bridget Vreeland Shortly after arriving at soccer camp in Baja California, Mexico, Bridget develops a crush on one of the coaches, Eric Richman. She reveals to Eric and the audience that a psychiatrist who evaluated her following her mother's suicide described her as "single-minded to the point of recklessness," presumably as a way of avoiding dealing with her mother's death. This statement aptly describes Bridget's pursuit of Eric, despite the fact that flings between coaches and campers are forbidden. She flirts with Eric, shows off for him during games, and more. When Bridget's turn with the Traveling Pants finally comes, she puts them on that night and walks around outside Eric's cabin, leading him to the beach. It is implied in the movie that Bridget loses her virginity to Eric. The event leaves Bridget feeling empty and listless, even once she returns home. After learning about this in a letter, Lena calls Carmen and Tibby, and they arrive at Bridget's house to cheer her up. She tells them she is worried she is like her mother, whose mood also swung easily from very up to very down, eventually resulting in deep depression and suicide. Carmen and Tibby comfort Bridget by reassuring her that she is stronger than her mother. Eric visits Bridget and apologizes for his behavior over the summer, and tells her that while she is too young for him now, he hopes she will give him a shot when she is older, giving Bridget some much-needed closure. ;Carmen Lowell During the summer Carmen goes to her dad's house in South Carolina. On arrival, she is shocked when her dad immediately introduces her to a new family that he is about to marry into; they are blonde White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, unlike Carmen who was raised by her Puerto Rican mother. During her time there her father and her new family neglect her emotionally, driving her to throw a stone through their dining room window, and catch a bus back to Maryland. At home she tells Tibby about her time with her dad and Tibby convinces her to confront her father with a phone call and finally tell him that she's mad at him. Carmen tells her father and he apologizes. Her summer ends with the four of them returning south where she is an attendant at her father's wedding, where at the reception he makes a public apology for having snubbed her.

positive

positive

Wonder Boys

Wonder Boys

Pittsburgh professor and author Grady Tripp is working on an unwieldy 2,611 page manuscript that is meant to be the follow-up to his successful, award-winning novel The Land Downstairs, which was published seven years earlier. On the eve of a college-sponsored writers and publishers weekend called WordFest, two monumental things happen to Tripp: his wife walks out on him, and he learns that his mistress, who is also the chancellor of the college, Sara Gaskell, is pregnant with his child. To top it all off, Tripp finds himself involved in a bizarre crime committed by one of his students, an alienated young writer named James Leer. During a party, Leer shoots and kills the chancellor’s dog and steals her husband’s prized Marilyn Monroe collectible: the jacket worn by the actress on the day of her marriage to Joe DiMaggio.

Professor Grady Tripp is a novelist who teaches creative writing at an unnamed Pittsburgh university . He is having an affair with the university chancellor, Sara Gaskell , whose husband, Walter ([[Richard Thomas , is the chairman of the English department in which Grady is a professor. Grady's third wife, Emily, has just left him, and he has failed to repeat the grand success of his first novel, published years earlier. He continues to labor on a second novel, but the more he tries to finish it the less able he finds himself to invent a satisfactory ending - the book runs to over two and a half thousand pages and is still far from finished. He spends his free time smoking marijuana. His students include James Leer and Hannah Green . Hannah and James are friends and both very good writers. Hannah, who rents a room in Tripp's large house, is attracted to Tripp, but he does not reciprocate. James is enigmatic, quiet, dark and enjoys writing fiction more than he first lets on. During a party at the Gaskells' house, Sara reveals to Grady that she is pregnant with his child. Grady finds James standing outside holding what he claims to be a replica gun, won by his mother at a fairground during her schooldays. However, the gun turns out to be very real, as James shoots the Gaskells' dog when he finds it attacking Grady. James also steals a very valuable piece of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia from the house. Grady is unable to tell Sara of this incident as she is pressuring him to choose between her and Emily. As a result, Grady is forced to keep the dead dog in the trunk of his car for most of the weekend. He also allows James to follow him around, fearing that he may be depressed or even suicidal. Gradually he realizes that much of what James tells him about himself and his life is untrue, and is seemingly designed to elicit Grady's sympathy. Meanwhile, Grady's editor, Terry Crabtree , has flown into town on the pretense of attending the university's annual WordFest, a literary event for aspiring authors. In reality, Crabtree is there to see if Tripp has written anything worth publishing, as both men's careers depend on Grady's upcoming book. Terry arrives with a transvestite whom he met on the flight, called Antonia Sloviak . The pair apparently become intimate in a bedroom at the Gaskells' party, but immediately afterwards Terry meets, and becomes infatuated with, James when Sloviak is unceremoniously sent home. After a night on the town, Crabtree and James semi-consciously flirt throughout the night, which eventually leads up to the two spending an intimate night together in one of Grady's spare rooms. Tired and confused, Grady phones Walter and reveals to him that he is in love with Walter's wife. Meanwhile, Walter has also made the connection between the disappearance of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia and James. The following morning the Pittsburgh Police arrive with Sara to escort James to the Chancellor's office to discuss the ramifications of his actions. The memorabilia is still in Grady's car, which has conspicuously gone missing. This car had been given to him by a friend as payment for a loan, and over the weekend Grady has come to suspect that the car was stolen. Over the course of his travel around town, Grady has been repeatedly accosted by a man claiming to be the car's real owner. He eventually tracks the car down, but in a dispute over its ownership the majority of his manuscript blows out of the car and is lost. The car's owner gives him a ride to the university with his wife, Oola, in the passenger seat, with the stolen memorabilia. Grady finally sees that making things right involves having to make difficult choices. Grady tells Oola the story behind the memorabilia and allows her to leave with it. Worried that Grady's choice comes at the expense of damaging James' future, Crabtree convinces Walter not to press charges by agreeing to publish his book, "a critical exploration of the union of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe and its function in American mythopoetics", tentatively titled The Last American Marriage. The film ends with Grady recounting the eventual fate of the main characters - Hannah graduates and becomes a magazine editor; James wasn't expelled, but drops out and moves to New York with Crabtree to rework his novel for publication; and Crabtree himself "goes right on being Crabtree." Grady finishes typing his new novel , then watches Sara and their child arriving home before turning back to the computer and clicking "Save."

negative

negative

The Invisible Man

Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man

A mysterious stranger, Griffin, arrives at the local inn of the English village of Iping, West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a long-sleeved, thick coat and gloves, his face hidden entirely by bandages except for a fake pink nose, large goggles and a wide-brimmed hat. He is excessively reclusive, irascible, and unfriendly. He demands to be left alone and spends most of his time in his rooms working with a set of chemicals and laboratory apparatus, only venturing out at night. While staying at the inn, hundreds of strange glass bottles arrive that Griffin calls his luggage. Many local townspeople believe this to be very strange. He becomes the talk of the village (one of the novel's most charming aspects is its portrayal of small-town life in southern England, which the author knew from first-hand experience). Meanwhile, a mysterious burglary occurs in the village. Griffin has run out of money and is trying to find a way to pay for his board and lodging. When his landlady demands he pay his bill and quit the premises, he reveals part of his invisibility to her in a fit of pique. An attempt to apprehend the stranger is frustrated when he undresses to take advantage of his invisibility, fights off his would-be captors, and flees to the downs. There Griffin coerces a tramp, Thomas Marvel, into becoming his assistant. With Marvel, he returns to the village to recover three notebooks that contain his records of his experiments. When Marvel soon attempts to betray the Invisible Man to the police, Griffin chases him to the seaside town of Port Burdock, threatening to kill him. Marvel escapes to a local inn, and is saved by the people at the inn, but Griffin escapes. Marvel later goes to the police and tells them of this "invisible man," then requests to be locked up in a high security jail cell. His furious attempt to avenge his betrayal leads to his being shot. Griffin takes shelter in a nearby house that turns out to belong to Dr. Kemp, a former acquaintance from medical school. To Kemp, he reveals his true identity: the Invisible Man is Griffin, a former medical student who left medicine to devote himself to optics. Griffin recounts how he invented medicine capable of rendering bodies invisible and, on an impulse, performed the procedure on himself. Griffin tells Kemp of his story of how he turned invisible. He tells of how he tries the invisibility on a cat, then himself. Griffin burns down the boarding house he is staying in along with all his equipment he used to turn invisible to cover his tracks, but soon realizes he is ill-equipped to survive in the open. He attempts to steal food and clothes from a large store, but eventually he steals some clothing from a theatrical supply shop and heads to Iping to attempt to reverse the effect. But now that he imagines he can make Kemp his secret confederate, describing his plan to begin a "Reign of Terror" by using his invisibility to terrorize the nation. Kemp has already denounced Griffin to the local authorities and is on the watch for help to arrive as he listens to this wild proposal. When the authorities arrive at Kemp's house, Griffin fights his way out and the next day leaves a note announcing that Kemp himself will be the first man to be killed in the "Reign of Terror". Kemp, a cool-headed character, tries to organize a plan to use himself as bait to trap the Invisible Man, but a note he sends is stolen from his servant by Griffin. Griffin shoots and kills a local policeman who comes to Kemp's aid, then breaks into Kemp's house. Kemp bolts for the town, where the local citizenry comes to his aid. Griffin is seized, assaulted, and killed by a mob. The Invisible Man's naked, battered body gradually becomes visible as he dies. A local policeman shouts to cover his face with a sheet, then the book concludes. In the final chapter, it is revealed that Marvel has secretly kept Griffin's notes. Griffin's name is not known by anyone (including the reader) until he meets Kemp whom he reveals his identity to. Until then, he is referred to as the stranger or the Invisible Man.

Lou Francis and Bud Alexander have just graduated from a private detective school. Tommy Nelson , a middleweight boxer, comes to them with their first case. Tommy recently escaped from jail, after being accused of murdering his manager, and asks the duo to accompany him on a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray . He wants her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray , to inject him with a special serum he has developed which will render Tommy invisible, and hopes to use the newfound invisibility to investigate his manager's murder and proved his innocence. Dr. Gray adamantly refuses, arguing that the serum is still unstable, but as the police arrive Tommy injects himself with it and successfully becomes invisible. Detective Roberts questions Dr. Gray and Helen while Bud and Lou search for Tommy. Helen and Tommy convince Bud and Lou to help them seek the real killer, after Tommy explains that the motive for the murder occurred after he refused to "throw" a fight, knocking his opponent, Rocky Hanlon , out cold. Morgan , the promoter who fixed the fight, ordered Tommy's manager beaten to death while framing Tommy for the crime. In order to investigate undercover, Lou poses as a boxer, with Bud as his manager. They go to Stillwell's gym where Lou gets in the ring with Rocky Hanlon. Tommy, still invisible, gets into the ring with them and again knocks out Hanlon with the illusion that Lou did it, and an official match is arranged. Morgan urges Lou to throw the fight, but when the match occurs , poor Hanlon is knocked out yet again. Morgan plans Bud's murder which is thwarted by Tommy, who unfortunately is wounded in the battle and begins to bleed badly. The protagonists rush to the hospital where a blood transfusion is arranged between Lou and Tommy. During the transfusion, Tommy becomes visible again. Unfortunately, some of Tommy's blood has apparently entered Lou,who briefly turns invisible, only to reappear with his legs inexplicably on backwards.

negative

positive

Wise Blood

Wise Blood

Recently discharged from service in World War II and surviving on a government pension for unspecified war wounds, Hazel Motes returns to his family home in Tennessee to find it abandoned. Leaving behind a note claiming a chifforobe as his private property, Motes boards a train for Taulkinham. The grandson of a traveling preacher, Motes grew up struggling with doubts regarding salvation and original sin; following his experiences at war, Motes has become an avowed atheist, and intends to spread a gospel of antireligion. Despite his aversion to all trappings of Christianity, he constantly contemplates theological issues and finds himself compelled to purchase a suit and hat that cause others to mistake him for a minister. In Taulkinham, Motes initially takes up residence with Leora Watts, a prostitute, and befriends Enoch Emery, a profane, manic, eighteen-year-old zookeeper forced to come to the city after his abusive father kicked him out of their house. Emery introduces Hazel to the concept of "wise blood," an idea that he has innate, worldly knowledge of what direction to take in life, and requires no spiritual or emotional guidance. Together, Emery and Motes witness a blind preacher and his teenage daughter crash a street vendor's potato peeler demonstration to advertise for their ministry. The preacher introduces himself as Asa Hawks and his daughter as Sabbath Lily; Motes finds himself drawn to the pair, which Hawks attributes to a repressed desire for religious salvation. Angry, Motes begins shouting blasphemies to the crowd and declares that he will found his own, anti-God street preaching ministry. Motes' declarations are lost on everyone except for Emery, who becomes infatuated with the idea. After a bored Leora destroys his hat for her own amusement, Motes moves into the boarding house where Asa and Lily live. Motes becomes fixated on the eerie Lily and begins spending time with her, learning that Asa blinded himself with lye at a revival in order to detach himself from worldly pursuits. Initially intending to seduce Lily in order to corrupt her spiritual purity, Motes discovers that she is in fact a sexually experienced nymphomaniac, which puts him off of sleeping with her. Now skeptical of hers and Asa's entire ministry, Motes slips into Hawks' room one night and finds him without his sunglasses on, with perfectly intact eyes: Hawks had faltered when he had attempted to blind himself because he did not have strong enough faith, and ultimately left the ministry to become a con-artist. His secret found out, Asa flees town, leaving Lily in Motes' care. The two begin a sexual relationship and Motes begins to more aggressively pursue his ministry, purchasing a dilapidated car to use as a mobile pulpit. Meanwhile, Enoch Emery, believing that Motes' church needs a worldly "prophet," breaks into the museum attached to the zoo where he works and steals a mummified dwarf, which he begins keeping under his sink. He ultimately presents it to Lily to give to Motes on his behalf; when Lily appears to Motes cradling it in her arms in a parody of the Madonna and Child, Motes experiences a violent revulsion to the image and destroys the mummy, throwing its remnants out the window. Inspired by Motes' fledgling street ministry, local con-artist Hoover Shoats renames himself Onnie Jay Holy and forms his own ministry, the "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ," which he encourages the disenfranchised to join for a donation of $1. The absurdity amuses passersby and they begin to join as a joke, angering Motes, who wants to legitimately—and freely—spread his message of antireligion. Despite Motes' protests, Holy moves to the next level in promoting his ministry, hiring a homeless, alcoholic man to dress up like Hazel and act as his "Prophet." Enoch, during a rainstorm, seeks refuge under a theater marquee, and learns that as a promotion, a gorilla will be brought to the theater to promote a new jungle movie. An excited Enoch stands in line to shake the gorilla's hand, but is startled to find that the gorilla is actually a man in a costume who, unprovoked, tells Enoch to "go to hell." The incident causes Enoch's "wise blood" to give him some inarticulated revelation, and he seeks out a program of the man in the costume's future appearances. That night, Enoch stalks the man to another theater, stabs him with a sharpened umbrella handle, and steals his costume. Enoch takes the costume out to the woods, where he strips naked and buries his clothes in a shallow "grave" before dressing up as the gorilla. Satisfied with his new appearance, Enoch comes out of the woods and attempts to greet a couple on a date by shaking their hand. Enoch is disappointed when they flee in terror, and finds himself alone on a rock overlooking the night sky of Taukinham. Back in town, Motes angrily watches as Holy begins to grow rich off of his new ministry. One night he follows Holy's "prophet" as he drives home (in a car resembling Hazel's), which he runs off the road; when the man exits the car, the stronger, more forceful Motes threatens him and orders him to strip. The man begins to comply, but Motes is overcome by a sudden rage and repeatedly runs the man over. Exiting the car to ensure he is dead, Motes is startled when the dying man begins confessing his sins to Motes. The next day, Motes is pulled over while leaving Taulkinham by a strange policeman with unnaturally blue eyes, who claims to be citing him for driving without a license. He orders Motes out of the car, then without explanation pushes it off of a nearby cliff, destroying it. The incident, coupled with the false prophet's death, causes Hazel to become sullen and withdrawn. On his walk back to Taulkinham, Motes purchases a bucket and lye and returns to the boarding house. Completing the action that Hawks couldn't finish, he blinds himself with lye. During an extended period of living as an ascetic at the boarding house, he begins walking around with barbed wire wrapped around his torso and shards of glass in his shoes, and after paying for his room and board, he throws away any remaining money from his military pension. Believing that Motes has gone insane, the landlady, Mrs. Flood, hatches a plot to marry him, collect on his government pension, and have him committed to an insane asylum. In attempting to seduce Motes, Mrs. Flood instead falls in love with him. After she suggests to Motes that they marry and she care for him, Motes wanders off into a thunderstorm. He is found three days later, lying in a ditch and suffering from exposure to the elements. Angry at being asked to return what they believe is a mentally-ill indigent, one of the police officers who finds him strikes him in the head with his baton while loading Motes into a police car, exacerbating Motes' rapidly deteriorating condition. Motes dies in the police car on his way back to the boarding house. When the dead Motes is presented to Mrs. Flood, she mistakenly thinks he is still alive. She has him placed in bed and cares for his lifeless corpse, telling him he can live with her for as long as he likes, free of charge. Looking into his empty eye sockets, Mrs. Flood thinks she sees a light twinkling inside them.

The story follows one Hazel Motes, who returns to the South after being away. Learning his family has left his home, he decides to be a minister and con man. Only a small number of people know what he is doing.

positive

negative

The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife

Using alternating first-person perspectives, the novel tells the stories of Henry DeTamble (born 1963), a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and his wife, Clare Anne Abshire (born 1971), an artist who makes paper sculptures. Henry has a rare genetic disorder, which comes to be known as Chrono-Displacement, that causes him to involuntarily travel through time. When 20-year-old Clare meets 28-year-old Henry at the Newberry Library in 1991 at the opening of the novel, he has never seen her before, although she has known him most of her life. Henry begins time traveling at the age of five, jumping forward and backward relative to his own timeline. When he leaves, where he goes, or how long his trips will last are all beyond his control. His destinations are tied to his subconscious—he most often travels to places and times related to his own history. Certain stimuli such as stress can trigger Henry's time traveling; he often goes jogging to keep calm and remain in the present. He also searches out pharmaceuticals in the future that may be able to help control his time traveling. He also seeks the advice of a geneticist, Dr. Kendrick. Henry cannot take anything with him into the future or the past; he always arrives naked and then struggles to find clothing, shelter, and food. He amasses a number of survival skills including lock-picking, self-defense, and pickpocketing. Much of this he learns from older versions of himself. Once their timelines converge "naturally" at the library—their first meeting in his chronology—Henry starts to travel to Clare's childhood and adolescence in South Haven, Michigan, beginning in 1977 when she is six years old. On one of his early visits (from her perspective), Henry gives her a list of the dates he will appear and she writes them in a diary so she will remember to provide him with clothes and food when he arrives. During another visit, he inadvertently reveals that they will be married in the future. Over time they develop a close relationship. At one point, Henry helps Clare frighten and humiliate a boy who abused her. Clare is last visited in her youth by Henry in 1989, on her eighteenth birthday, during which they make love for the first time. They are then separated for two years until their meeting at the library. Clare and Henry marry, but Clare has trouble bringing a pregnancy to term because of the genetic anomaly Henry may presumably be passing on to the fetus. After six miscarriages, Henry wishes to save Clare further pain and has a vasectomy. However a version of Henry from the past visits Clare one night and they make love; she subsequently gives birth to a daughter, Alba. Alba is diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement as well but, unlike Henry, she has some control over her destinations when she time travels. Before she is born, Henry travels to the future and meets his ten-year-old daughter on a school field trip and learns that he died when she is five years old. When he is 43, during what is to be his last year of life, Henry time travels to a Chicago parking garage on a frigid winter night where he is unable to find shelter. As a result of the hypothermia and frostbite he suffers, his feet are amputated when he returns to the present. Henry and Clare both know that without the ability to escape when he time travels, Henry will certainly die within his next few jumps. On New Year's Eve 2006 Henry time travels into the middle of the Michigan woods in 1984 and is accidentally shot by Clare's brother, a scene foreshadowed earlier in the novel. Henry returns to the present and dies in Clare's arms. Clare is devastated by Henry's death. She later finds a letter from Henry asking her to "stop waiting" for him, but which describes a moment in her future when she will see him again. The last scene in the book takes place when Clare is 82 years old and Henry is 43. She is waiting for Henry, as she has done most of her life, and when he arrives they clasp each other for what may or may not be the last time.

In the early 1970s, Henry DeTamble is in a car accident with his mother that results in her death. Henry survives by inadvertently time traveling back two weeks earlier to the scene. Moments later, Henry is helped by an older version of himself, who has also traveled back. Unable to control the timing or destinations of his traveling, Henry finds himself drawn to significant people, places, and events in his life but is incapable of changing events beyond the minor differences his presence creates. In 1991, Henry meets Clare, who is overjoyed to see him although he is actually meeting her for the first time. Clare explains that she has known Henry for most of her life and that he is her best friend. They begin a relationship, which is challenged by Henry's disorder. His sporadic time traveling is further complicated by the fact that he is completely naked when he arrives at his destination, and from a young age he has learned how to pick locks and steal in order to acquire clothes and survive his travels. Among his getaways are many visits to young Clare; from present-day Clare's diary he gets a list of dates when he visited her, and gives those to young Clare so that she can be waiting for him with clothes. Falling in love, Henry and Clare eventually marry, though he actually time travels away before the ceremony and an older version of himself arrives in time to step in. Henry's disappearances take their toll on his relationship with Clare. His disorder allows him to win the lottery by having the numbers in advance, but also makes having a child with Clare seemingly impossible, as Henry's genes cause their unborn fetuses to time travel. After numerous such miscarriages, Henry has a secret vasectomy to end their suffering. Clare soon gets pregnant one last time — by a visiting younger version of Henry — and is able to carry the baby full term. Henry travels forward in time before the child is born and meets their daughter Alba as a preteen; she tells him that she is a time traveler, too, but has increasing control over when and where she travels. She also tells Henry that he will die when she is five, a fact that Henry keeps from Clare upon his return to the present. Young Alba is visited sporadically by her preteen self, who ultimately tries to prepare the younger girl for Henry's death. A devastated Clare soon finds out what is to come. Later, Henry time travels and is shot by Clare's father as he hunts; he returns in time to die in Clare's arms. A younger Henry later visits Alba and Clare, giving Clare hope that he will visit again, but he tells her not to spend her life waiting for him.

positive

positive

Howards End

Howards End

The book is about three families in England at the beginning of the 20th century: the Wilcoxes, rich capitalists with a fortune made in the Colonies; the half-German Schlegel siblings (Margaret, Tibby, and Helen), who have much in common with the real-life Bloomsbury Group; and the Basts, a struggling couple in the lower-middle class. The Schlegel sisters try to help the poor Basts and try to make the Wilcoxes less prejudiced. The Schlegels frequently encounter the Wilcoxes. The youngest, Helen, is for a short period intensely attracted to the younger Wilcox brother, Paul; each rejects the other for his or her own reasons. The eldest, Margaret, becomes friends with Paul's mother, Ruth Wilcox. Ruth's most prized personal possession is her family house at Howards End. She wishes that Margaret could live there, as she feels that it might be in good hands with her. Ruth's own husband and children do not value the house and its rich history, because such abstractions, while being very dear to Margaret, are lost to them. As Ruth is terminally ill, and Margaret and her family are about to be evicted from their London home by a developer, Ruth bequeaths the cottage to Margaret in a handwritten note delivered to her husband from the nursing home where she has died, causing great consternation among the Wilcoxes. Mrs Wilcox's widowed husband, Henry, and his children burn the note without telling Margaret about her inheritance. However, over the course of several years, Margaret becomes friends with Henry Wilcox and eventually marries him. The more free-spirited Margaret tries to get Henry to open up more, to little effect. Henry's elder son Charles and his wife try to keep Margaret from taking possession of Howards End. Gradually, Margaret becomes aware of Henry's dismissive attitude towards the lower classes. On Henry's advice, Helen tells Leonard Bast to quit his respectable job as a clerk at an insurance company, because the company stands outside a protective group of companies and thus is vulnerable to failure. A few weeks later, Henry carelessly reverses his opinion, having entirely forgotten about Bast, but it is too late, and Bast has lost his tenuous hold on financial solvency. Bast lives with a troubled, "fallen" woman for whom he feels responsible and whom he eventually marries. Helen continues to try to help young Leonard Bast (perhaps in part out of guilt about having intervened in his life to begin with, as Leonard had not wanted it and Henry had explicitly stated beforehand that he advised no one) but it all goes terribly wrong; because of Bast's wife's adulterous connection with Henry, Henry will not countenance helping them. It is later revealed that ten years previously, as a young woman, she had been Henry's mistress in Cyprus, but he had then carelessly abandoned her, an expatriate English girl on foreign soil with no way to return home. Margaret confronts Henry about his ill-treatment, and he is ashamed of the affair but unrepentant about his harsh treatment of her. Because of Margaret's impending marriage into the Wilcoxes and situations such as these, the Schlegel sisters drift apart somewhat. In a moment of pity for the poor, doomed Bast, Helen has an affair with him. Finding herself pregnant, she leaves England to travel through Germany to conceal her condition, but eventually returns to England when she receives news of her Aunt Juley's illness. She refuses a face-to-face meeting with Margaret in an effort to hide her pregnancy but is fooled by Margaret – acting on the advice of Henry – into a meeting at Howards End. Henry and Margaret plan an intervention with a doctor, thinking Helen's evasive behavior is a sign of mental illness. When they come upon Helen at Howards End, they also discover the pregnancy. Margaret tries in vain to convince Henry that if he can countenance his own affair, he should forgive Helen hers. Mr. Bast arrives having been tormented by the affair wishing to speak with Margaret. He is not aware of Helen's presence. Henry's son, Charles, attacks Bast for the dishonor he has brought to Helen, and accidentally kills him when striking him with the flat edge of a sword, Leonard grabs onto a bookcase, which falls on top of him, and his weak heart gives out. Charles is charged with manslaughter and sent to jail for three years. The ensuing scandal and shock cause Henry to reevaluate his life and he begins to connect with others. He bequeaths Howards End to Margaret, who states that it will go to her nephew – Helen's son by Bast – when she dies. Helen reconciles with her sister and Henry and decides to raise her child at Howards End. Margaret is usually viewed as the heroine of the story because, in staying married to Henry despite the scandal, she acts as a uniting force, bringing all the characters peaceably together at Howards End. Henry is sometimes viewed as a hero because he triumphs over his inability to connect with the situations of others. In the end, the open-minded intellectuality of the Schlegels is reconciled or balanced with the practical economy of the Wilcoxes, each learning lessons from the other.

The story takes place in Edwardian England. Three families represent three social classes: the Wilcoxes are wealthy capitalists, the class that is displacing the aristocracy; the Schlegel sisters represent the enlightened bourgeoisie; and the Basts are in the lower middle class. The film asks the question 'Who will inherit England?' and answers it through the ownership of the house, Howards End, as it passes from person to person. At the start of the film, the younger sister, Helen Schlegel , rashly becomes engaged to the younger Wilcox son, Paul. The next day both realise their mistake and break it off, but Helen has told her older sister, who tells her family. Her Aunt Juley arrives at Howards End and so makes the Wilcox family aware of the engagement. Later, when the Wilcox family takes a house near to the Schlegels in London, the sister, Margaret Schlegel , feels compelled to visit because of the social embarrassment of the previous year. She befriends the mother, Ruth Wilcox . Ruth is descended from English yeoman stock and it is through her family that the Wilcoxes own Howards End, a house which she loves dearly and which is the symbol of rural England and English tradition. Over the course of a few months, the two women become close friends, and Ruth sees in Margaret a kindred spirit. Hearing that the lease on the Schlegels' London house is due to expire, and knowing she is soon to die, Ruth bequeaths Howards End to Margaret. This causes great consternation for the Wilcoxes, who refuse to believe that Ruth was in her "right mind" or intended her home to go to a relative stranger. The Wilcoxes burn the piece of paper that Ruth's bequest is written on, and decide to keep her will secret. Because he knows that he has prevented the Schlegels from finding a home in Howards End, Henry Wilcox offers to help Margaret find a new place to live. As a result, the two become close and Henry proposes. Margaret accepts. The Schlegels befriend a young, poor, yet intellectual clerk, Leonard Bast . Wishing to improve his lot, they pass along advice from Henry that Leonard should leave his post because his company is heading for a crash. Leonard does so, but finds himself in a worse position and eventually unemployed. The two plotlines converge at the marriage party of Evie Wilcox . Helen has found the Basts starving and brings them to the party. Jacky Bast becomes drunk; Margaret approaches her with Henry to find out who she is. Jacky recognises Henry and it becomes clear that years previously he had had an affair with her. Humiliated and suspicious, Henry breaks off the engagement, but that evening he and Margaret reconcile and she forgives his sexual impropriety. In accordance with Henry's wishes, she insists that Helen take the Basts away and refuses them help. Because of this, the Schlegel sisters drift apart. Helen has a brief affair with Leonard Bast. She becomes pregnant, and leaves the country, telling none of her condition. When Helen returns to take her possessions, she asks if she can stay one night at Howards End. When Henry Wilcox finds out that Helen is pregnant, he insists that she cannot stay in the house, and that the man responsible must be found out and punished for dishonouring her. Margaret and Henry argue bitterly about the different standards of sexual propriety applied to men and women, and Margaret says she is leaving Henry. Margaret, Leonard and the oldest Wilcox son Charles all make their way separately to Howards End and the final tragedy unfolds: Charles attacks and inadvertently kills Leonard, and is arrested. Henry's pride is shaken; his feelings break through at last, and he and Margaret become truly close. Ultimately, Ruth Wilcox's wish is fulfilled: Henry leaves Howards End to Margaret upon his death. Helen is reconciled with Margaret, and Helen will raise her son as heir. In both film and novel, the final ownership of Howards End is a symbol of new class relations in England: the wealth of the new industrialists married to the politically reforming vision of liberalism that will benefit the children of the lower classes .

positive

positive

Les Liaisons dangereuses

Valmont

The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous (and married) Madame de Tourvel, who is living with Valmont's aunt while Monsieur de Tourvel, a magistrate, is away on a court case. At the same time, the Marquise de Merteuil is determined to corrupt the young Cécile de Volanges, whose mother has only recently brought her out of a convent to be married – to Merteuil's recent lover, who has become bored with her and discarded her. Cécile falls in love with the Chevalier Danceny (her music tutor) and Merteuil and Valmont pretend to want to help the secret lovers in order to gain their trust, so that they can use them later in their own schemes. Merteuil suggests that the Vicomte seduce Cécile in order to exact her revenge on Cécile's future husband. Valmont refuses, finding the task too easy, and preferring to devote himself to seducing Madame de Tourvel. Merteuil promises Valmont that if he seduces Madame de Tourvel and provides her with written proof, she will spend the night with him. He expects rapid success, but does not find it as easy as his many other conquests. During the course of his pursuit, he discovers that Cécile's mother has written to Madame de Tourvel about his bad reputation. He avenges himself in seducing Cécile as Merteuil had suggested. In the meantime, Merteuil takes Danceny as a lover. By the time Valmont has succeeded in seducing Madame de Tourvel, it is suggested that he might have fallen in love with her. Jealous, Merteuil tricks him into deserting Madame de Tourvel – and reneges on her promise of spending the night with him. In response Valmont reveals that he prompted Danceny to reunite with Cécile, leaving Merteuil abandoned yet again. Merteuil declares war on Valmont, and in revenge she reveals to Danceny that Valmont has seduced Cécile. Danceny and Valmont duel, and Valmont is fatally wounded. Before he dies he is reconciled with Danceny, giving him the letters proving Merteuil's own involvement. These letters are sufficient to ruin her reputation and she flees to the countryside, where she contracts smallpox. Her face is left permanently scarred and she is rendered blind in one eye, so she loses her greatest asset: her beauty. But the innocent also suffer from the protagonist's schemes: hearing of Valmont's death, Madame de Tourvel succumbs to a fever and dies, while Cécile returns to the convent.

{{Unreferenced}} and, according to Amazon.com the fullscreen Region 4 DVD is one minute longer than the widescreen Region 1 DVD.{{cite web}} The script of Valmont differs significantly from the text. In Laclos's novel, Cecile is raped by Valmont and suffers a miscarriage; in Valmont she is seduced willingly and is pregnant at her wedding. The letters between Valmont and Merteuil that lead to Merteuil's downfall in the novel are not mentioned in the film; Merteuil has no downfall except in the eyes of Cecile and her mother. She also does not suffer from the physical disfigurement described by Laclos in the denouement. Madame de Tourvel's future is less tragic; instead of dying of a broken heart, she returns to her forgiving and understanding older husband.

negative

negative

The Comedians

The Comedians

The reader is introduced to the main characters on board the Medea, a Dutch ship serving Port-au-Prince and the Dominican Republic. The narrator is Mr. Brown, returning from an unsuccessful trip to the United States to sell his hotel, located in Port-au-Prince. Also present are Mr. Smith, (the Presidential Candidate), who ran on the vegetarian ticket in the American election of 1948; he and Mrs. Smith are on an optimistic journey to build a vegetarian center in Haiti. "Major" Jones is a likeable person of dubious history; he is full of stories about exploits that are not quite believable. Upon arriving in Haiti, Brown returns to his hotel to find that the secretary of social welfare, who it seems was on the run from the government, has committed suicide in his pool. Brown has to dispose of the body to avoid being implicated. Meanwhile, Jones is arrested as soon as he sets foot on Haitian soil. When Brown is made aware of this, he convinces Mr. Smith to use his 'political weight' to help Jones get out of prison. With only the help of a pen and some paper, Jones is able to forge his way into the Haitian government. When the body of Secretary Philipot is found, his family tries to hold a funeral, but the government's soldiers, the Tontons Macoute, ambush the procession and steal the body. The ex-secretary's nephew decides to join the rebel forces, and to do this he must first participate in a voodoo initiation ceremony. Brown reunites with his lover, Pineda, but finds that her child and husband still stand between them. And Mr. and Mrs. Smith continue to look into establishing a vegetarian centre in Haiti, before they finally realize that this country is in no way suited to such an enterprise. The Smiths pack up their bags and leave for the neighboring Dominican Republic. Just as quickly as he infiltrated the government, Jones is soon an enemy of the state, and Brown has an adventure trying to smuggle Jones out of the country. Brown first attempts to sneak Jones onto the Medea, and when that fails Jones is given sanctuary in Pineda's embassy. But Brown doesn't like it when Jones becomes too close to the Lady Pineda, so he convinces Jones to join the rebels in the north. Many sacrifices are made towards this end, as Jones has been proclaiming himself a great military hero and the rebels really believe that he will liberate their country. However, it seems that this was all a bluff on Jones' part and he is soon killed in action. The rebellion fails. Brown, unable to return to his hotel in Haiti, finds a new job in Santo Domingo as a mortician.

{{Plot}} A ship arrives in port with four passengers: Major H. O. Jones , a British businessman with a letter of invitation to do business with the government; an elderly American couple, Mr and Mrs Smith who have the idea of investing in the nation to set up a vegetarian complex for education and nutrition for the locals; and the central character, a cynical, washed-up individual named Brown, portrayed by Richard Burton. Upon arrival Major Jones presents his credentials to Captain Concasseur , a law enforcement officer, who notices that the official who invited Jones has been deposed and imprisoned. Concasseur and his men rough up and imprison Jones. Brown has been bequeathed a hotel in the capital from his late mother but has been unable to sell it in his trip to New York. Brown also has an ongoing affair with Martha , the wife of the British ambassador Pineda . When Martha and Brown have an argument, Brown goes to Mere Catherine's brothel where he discovers that not only has Jones been released, but he's a guest of Captain Concasseur and is being treated to enjoying the hospitality of Brown's favourite tart, Marie Therese . Jones has gained the favour of the new regime who are keen to receive a supply of arms that they have paid a down payment on. Jones claims the weapons are impounded in a warehouse in Miami, but the weapons may be imaginary and a confidence trick by Jones. The government will not allow Jones to leave the island until they are sure the weapons exist. Mr Smith, a former Vegetarian Party candidate for the Presidency of the United States against Harry S. Truman, is given a tour of the new capital, an empty shambles called Duvalierville. During the evening he and Mrs Smith follow a local procession that they believe is a religious ceremony but turns out to be an audience for executions by firing squad. The evening's fun and frivolities continue as Captain Concasseur and his men enter Brown's hotel and beat him up until Mrs Smith bluffs the thugs into leaving by announcing that she will inform her husband, the American Presidential Candidate. The Smiths depart the next day. Brown watches as the Duvalier regime seeks to put down any dissent with an iron fist. He becomes friends with Dr. Magiot , the rebel leader. As Brown becomes a reluctant participant in the planned insurrection, the rebels recruit Major Jones to provide military leadership. Jones has been regaling the other expatriates with his tales of heroism as a commando officer in the Burma Campaign that Brown does not quite believe. Brown hosts a meeting of the group, including Magiot, Jones, and Ambassador Pineda. But trouble ensues soon thereafter – Duvalier’s spies from the Tonton Macoute are watching Brown’s Hotel Trianon and his every step. The day after the meeting, three assassins confront Magiot while he’s performing surgery, and cut his throat with a scalpel knife in the operating theatre. Upon learning of the brutal murder, Brown reluctantly agrees to drive Jones, who escapes by dressing as Brown's female cook wearing drag and blackface, into the countryside to the rebel base under the cover of night. When picking him up that evening, he realizes that Jones has apparently become involved with Martha Pineda. Brown leaves town with him in a jealous rage, and the inebriated Jones makes matters worse by bragging about his conquest. Driving carelessly up the treacherous, winding road, Brown hits an embankment and breaks the car’s front axle. The two continue their journey on foot, arriving at a remote cemetery, the designated meeting point, too late. They settle in for the night with Jones admitting that his jungle war stories were total fabrication; his wartime career was running a cinema in India. In the morning, the omnipresent Captain Concasseur and Tonton Macoute accost Brown as he tries to find rebels in the area. They demand to know where Jones is, but Brown denies that the Major is there. As soon as Brown has finished speaking, a sleepy Jones approaches, unaware of the Macoute’s presence. The two command him to stop, but Jones turns around and runs uphill into the cemetery. They open fire, killing Jones. Then they order Brown to get into their jeep with them. As he does so, shots from rebels ring out, and the two drop dead. Upon being asked about Major Jones, Brown tells the two rebels in dismay: "You arrived two minutes too late." He then shows them the body of Jones. The two rebels then plead with Brown to assume the role of Jones, seeing this as the only hope they have left. Brown hesitates, commenting that he is no military man. But he finally relents after being asked whether he wants to continue living like this. After a long walk, the three meet up with a small, ragtag group of poorly equipped rebels. The group buys the deception, believing that Brown is Jones, and he gives a cynical, taunting speech, apparently without being understood, since the rebels speak French and he English. The camera then cuts to the Pinedas, as they are about to leave the island. Petit Pierre , a journalist friend of Brown, sees them off, telling them about a battle between government troops and rebels, and stating that two rebels have been killed noting that one of the rebels was "unidentified". The Pinedas’ plane takes off, and Martha notices smoke on a hillside of the island. The question whether Brown has survived the skirmish remains unanswered, although Petit Pierre's cryptic remarks on the two rebels killed in the recent battle between government forces and rebels seem to indicate that Brown was the unidentified rebel who was killed in the fighting.

positive

positive

Green Mansions

Green Mansions

Prologue: An unnamed narrator tells how he befriended an old "Spanish" gentleman who never spoke of his past. Piqued, the narrator finally elicits the story. Venezuela, c. 1840. Abel, a young man of wealth, fails at a revolution and flees Caracas into the uncharted forests of Guyana. Surviving fever and hostile Indian attacks, failing at journal-keeping and gold hunting, he settles in an Indian village to waste away his life: playing guitar for old Cla-Cla, hunting badly with Kua-Ko, telling stories to the children. After some exploring, Abel discovers an enchanting forest where he hears a strange bird-like singing. His Indian friends avoid the forest because of its evil spirit-protector, "the Daughter of the Didi." Persisting in the search, Abel finally finds Rima the Bird Girl. She has dark hair, a smock of spider webs, and can communicate with birds in an unknown tongue. When she shields a coral snake, Abel is bitten and falls unconscious. Abel awakens in the hut of Nuflo, an old man who protects his "granddaughter" Rima, and won't reveal her origin. As Abel recovers, Rima leads him through the forest, and Abel wonders about her identity and place of origin. Abel returns to the Indians, but relations become icy, because they would kill Rima, if they could. Rima often speaks of her dead mother, who was always depressed. Abel falls in love with Rima, but she (17 and a stranger to white men) is confused by "odd feelings". This relationship is further strained because Abel cannot speak her unknown language. Atop Ytaiao Mountain, Rima questions Abel about "the world" known and unknown, asking him if she was unique and alone. Abel sadly reveals that it is true. However, when he mentions the storied mountains of Riolama, Rima perks up. It turns out that "Riolama" is her real name. Nuflo must know where Riolama is, so a wroth Rima demands Nuflo to guide her to Riolama under threats of eternal damnation from her sainted mother. Old, guilty and religious, Nuflo caves in to the pressure. Abel pays a last visit to the Indians, but they capture him as a prisoner, suspecting that he is a spy for an enemy tribe or consorts with demons. Abel manages to escape and return to Rima and Nuflo. The three then trek to distant Riolama. Along the way, Nuflo reveals his past, and Rima's origin. Seventeen years ago, Nuflo led bandits who preyed on Christians and Indians. Eventually, forced to flee to the mountains, they found a cave to live in. Hiding in the cave was a strange woman speaking a bird-like language. She was to be Rima's mother (never named). Nuflo assumed the woman was a saint sent to save his soul. Nuflo left the bandits and carried Rima's mother, now crippled for life, to Voa, a Christian community, to deliver Rima. Rima and her mother talked in their magical language for seven years, until Mother wasted away in the dampness and died. As contrition, Nuflo brought Rima to the drier mountains. The local Indians found her queer, and resented how she chased off game animals, and therefore tried to kill her. A mis-shot dart killed an Indian, and they fled Rima's "magic". In the cave, Rima is eager to enter Riolama valley. Abel reveals sad news: her mother left because nothing remained. She belonged to a gentle, vegetarian people without weapons, who were wiped out by Indians, plague and other causes. Rima is indeed unique and alone. Rima is saddened but suspected it: her mother was always depressed. Now she decides to return to the forest and prepare a life for herself and Abel. She flits away, leaving Abel to fret as he and Nuflo walk home, delayed by rain and hunger. They return to find the forest silent, Nuflo's hut burned down, and Indians hunting game. Abel, exhausted, is again taken prisoner, but isn't killed, as he quickly makes a vow to go to war against the enemy tribe. On the war trail, he drops hints about Rima and her whereabouts. Kua-Ko explains how, thanks to Abel's "bravery", the Indians dared enter the forbidden forest. They caught Rima in the open, chased her up the giant tree. They heaped brush underneath it and burned Rima. Abel kills Kua-Ko and runs to the enemy tribe, sounding the alarm. Days later he returns. All his Indian friends are dead. He finds the giant tree burned, and collects Rima's ashes in a pot. Trekking homeward, despondent and hallucinating, Abel is helped by Indians and Christians until he reaches the sea, sane and healthy again. Now an old man, his only ambition is to be buried with Rima's ashes. Reflecting back, he believes neither God nor man can forgive his sins, but that gentle Rima would, provided he has forgiven himself.

A young man named Abel narrowly escapes Caracas, Venezuela after it is overtaken by rebels. He decides to seek revenge, as his father, the former Minister of War, was killed. After getting supplies, he takes a canoe to the far shore, where he is nearly killed by a leopard, but is saved by the native, Indian-like people. He decides to prove his bravery by not moving once he sees the chief, Runi and telling his story. The Indians are impressed, and do not kill him. After a while, Runi's son Kua-ko , who has lived with the missionaries of Caracas and speaks English, tells Abel that Runi has agreed so long as he does not harm them, they will not harm him. Abel agrees, and befriends Kua-ko, who tells him of the "Bird Woman", who killed his older brother, and that their tribe is not allowed in the nearby forest. Abel ignores the warning and ventures into the forest, where he sees a young woman ; however, she quickly disappears. He returns to the Indians, and Kua-ko tells him that Runi wishes Abel to use his gun and kill the girl. He returns to the forest, but decides to warn the girl instead. He sees her again, but is bitten by a coral snake. The girl takes Abel to her home and tends his wound. Upon waking up, he meets the girl's grandfather, Nuflo , who tells him her name is Rima. The next day, with his leg wounded by the snake, Abel meets Rima again and they begin to talk. Rima takes a liking to him, but Nuflo warns her that he will leave once his leg heals. Abel is soon able to walk without a cane, and Rima therefore begins showing him the forest. Abel tells her that he has come to like her as well, and Rima is confused. She goes to speak with her dead mother's spirit, and decides to return to where she came from to ask a village elder about her strange new feelings for Abel. Later, Abel and Rima travel to the edge of the forest, where he shows her Riolama, which she remembers as her village. Despite Nuflo's initial reluctance to take her, Rima forces him to show her the way by threatening his soul if he does not. Abel decides it is time for him to return to the Indians. He tells Runi of how Rima saved him, but neither he nor Kua-ko believe him. He quickly realizes that Kua-ko killed his brother and placed the blame on Rima, but is tied up. After a bravery test , Kua-ko and the Indians make ready to enter the forest and kill Rima. Abel escapes and warns Nuflo and Rima, and together they escape to Riolama, where Nuflo tells Abel that he cannot return to the village because he caused a massacre. He managed to help Rima and her mother, and promised to take care of Rima, but was ashamed at his part in the massacre. Rima overhears, and curses Nuflo. She then rushes down to Riolama, where she faints in the heat. Abel follows and takes her to safety. When she awakens, Abel tells her how he has come to love her, and Rima does also, having only come to decipher her strange feelings and now recognizing them as love for him. Rima steals away while Abel is asleep to go back to Nuflo and apologize, but when she finds him, the Indians have burnt their home and he is nearly dead. She asks his forgiveness, and with his last words Nuflo tries to warn her of the Indians. She quickly discovers for herself, and races through the forest to escape. Kua-ko burns the great tree where she has hidden. Meanwhile, Abel awakens and realizes what Rima has done. He quickly follows and finds Kua-ko, who teases that he killed her. The two fight into a stream, where Abel manages to drown Kua-ko. Abel remembers a flower Rima told him of, which, if it disappears in one place, blossoms in another close by. He finds the flower, and not far off, Rima herself, who extends her hand. He takes it, and they begin their life in the forest together.

positive

positive

Eye of the Needle

Fanaa

Operation Fortitude was an Allied counter-intelligence operation run during World War II. Its goal was to convince the German military that D-Day landings were to occur at Calais and not Normandy. As a part of Fortitude the fictitious First United States Army Group (FUSAG) was created. FUSAG used fake tanks, buildings and radio traffic to create an illusion of an army being formed to land at Calais. In 1940 Henry Faber is a German spy working at a London railway depot, collecting information on troop movements. Faber is halfway through radioing this information to Berlin when his landlady stumbles into his room hoping for intimacy. Faber fears that Mrs. Garden will eventually realize that he was using a transmitter and that he is a spy. Faber kills her with his stiletto. He then resumes his transmission. His repeated use of this stiletto leads to his nickname 'Die Nadel' ('The Needle'). The book then introduces David, a trainee RAF pilot, and his bride Lucy. On their honeymoon David and Lucy are involved in a car crash. David loses the use of both his legs. Unable to fly in the Battle of Britain David grows embittered as he and Lucy retire to the isolated Storm Island off the coast of Scotland. Meanwhile British Intelligence has executed or recruited all German spies. Faber is the only successful one still at large. A history professor, Godliman, and a widowed ex-policeman, Bloggs, are employed by MI5 to catch him. They start with the interrupted broadcast and his codename Die Nadel. They connect the landlady’s murder to Faber by him having used his ‘needle’ during the transmission. They then interview Faber’s fellow tenants from 1940. One identifies Faber from a photo of him as a young army officer. Faber is told by Berlin to investigate whether the FUSAG is real or not. Faber discovers the army is a fake. He takes photos of an army base constructed only to look real from the air. Faber realizes that Normandy is where D-Day is going to occur. Several soldiers try to arrest Faber, but he kills them with his stiletto. He then heads to Aberdeen, Scotland, where a U-boat will take him and his photos back to Germany. Godliman and Bloggs realize what Faber is trying to achieve. There follows a long chase across Northern England and Scotland with both Hitler and Churchill getting personally involved. Faber escapes many times but his repeated killings allow MI5 to track him to Aberdeen. Exhausted Faber finally sets out on a small trawler to meet the U-Boat. Caught by a fierce storm, he is shipwrecked on Storm Island. He collapses in front of the lonely house where David and Lucy live. He is tended to by Lucy. Stuck in a loveless marriage to the crippled David she begins a physical relationship with Faber. David soon discovers both Lucy's infidelity and Faber’s FUSAG photos. David then tries to kill Faber. After a struggle Faber kills David by rolling him and his Jeep off a cliff. Faber tells Lucy it was another accident. However, she discovers her husband's body and realizes the truth. Faber realizes he may be caught so he decides to radio the information about FUSAG directly to Germany. Lucy stops him by short-circuiting the electricity in the cottage. Unable to send a radio message, Faber attempts to descend the cliff and swim to the waiting U-boat. Lucy throws a rock at him, striking him and causing him to lose his balance and fall to his death. The RAF then appears and drives the U-boat away. A fictitious radio message is sent over Faber's call code, persuading the Germans that the invasion is targeting Calais. Bloggs comforts the widowed Lucy, eventually marrying her.

Zooni Ali Beg is a blind Kashmiri girl who travels without her parents for the first time with a dance troupe to Delhi to perform in a ceremony for Independence Day. On her journey, she meets Rehan Khan , a Casanova tour guide who flirts with her. Although her friends warn Zooni about him, she cannot resist falling in love. He takes her on a private tour of New Delhi. They both share a their first and last date where both share a romantic song and slip into bed together with no strings attached. The next day Rehan wakes up to realise he slept with Zooni and feels guilty but Zooni explains to Rehan that she does not have any regrets of having pre-marital sex. She also tells Rehan that she doesnt expect anything from him. However, as soon as the train departs, Rehan slips into the train and, with the blessing of her friends, carries Zooni away, seemingly signifying the beginning of their life together. With Rehan's encouragement, Zooni undergoes surgery to reverse her blindness. Rehan leaves to pick up Zooni's parents from the train station, promising to be there when she opens her eyes. When Zooni does come out of surgery, her parents are there, but Rehan is missing. A terrible accident has occurred, seemingly orchestrated by a terrorist group fighting for a separate Kashmiri state. The police bring her a scrap of cloth, which she recognizes as a sweater she'd made for Rehan, discovered amongst the debris. Rehan is presumed dead, and the mourning, guilt-ridden Zooni returns to Kashmir. It is revealed that Rehan is actually an agent working for the terrorist group and is to begin a new mission, vowing never to see Zooni again because their relationship can bring her nothing but heartbreak. Seven years later, the terrorists are about to pull off a huge strike as a part of their plan. With parts stolen from India, Pakistan and Russia, they hope to build a nuclear explosive device. This device is capable of destroying a whole city and they plan to use it pressure India and Pakistan into leaving Kashmir. A critical part is missing though: the detonator or electronic trigger device. A still-living Rehan, who had faked his death to cover up his tracks after the accident , is to bring in this trigger. Rehan has infiltrated the Indian army unit that is taking the trigger back to Delhi to safeguard it from theft by the insurgents. During a helicopter transport in a remote area, he drugs his colleagues, steals the trigger, destroys the helicopter with a hand grenade and escapes by parachute. A key intelligence operative named Malini Tyagi ([[Tabu realizes who he is and deploys forces to stop him. He is nearly killed by the troops but escapes. Tyagi orders a communications blackout in the area so that he will not be able to contact the IKF. Exhausted, wounded, and incommunicado with a storm building, Rehan seeks shelter in a remote house. He is shocked to find that the house belongs to Zooni, her father, and Zooni's young son, whom she has named Rehan after his supposedly deceased father. Zooni has never seen Rehan, as she was blind when they met, and her father had never met him, having not come to Delhi until the day of Rehan's supposed death, so neither of them recognizes him. The child Rehan is very taken with the man, whom he calls "the dead man" , and the adult Rehan likewise develops an affection for the little boy. Later, Rehan admits to his identity, though he cannot explain what he has done for the seven years since they parted, or why he played dead. Nevertheless, he still loves Zooni and she eventually realizes that she too loves him, and they marry in a simple ceremony performed by her father. Soon afterward, through a TV broadcast, Zooni and her father separately discover that Rehan is the terrorist for whom a manhunt is in progress. Zooni's father drives Rehan to an Army friend's house. supposedly so Rehan can contact the army, but when they arrive he tries to arrest Rehan. They struggle and Zooni's father falls off a cliff to his death. Rehan uses the radio to contact the IKF who tell him they will send a pick-up helicopter the next morning. When the army officer discovers Rehan in his home, Rehan kills him too. Zooni finds her father dead, floating by under the ice in the river near which Zooni and her son are playing. When Rehan returns home, and tells her that her father is at the army officer's house drinking rum, she suspects that Rehan killed him. She takes the trigger and young Rehan to the army friend's house, and upon finding the army officer dead, radios the army. Tyagi apprises her of the seriousness of the danger, and the risk to millions of lives should the IKF get the device. She tells Zooni she will send an army helicopter to pick her up in the morning. When morning comes, before the army or the terrorists arrive, Rehan appears, having walked all night from Zooni's house. He tries to convince Zooni to give him the trigger, saying that the terrorists will torture and kill young Rehan if they don't get it. Finally he takes the trigger, promising her that no one will actually set off the bomb and that this is the only way they can have a happy future together. Grieved, but determined to stop him, Zooni runs out of the house after him and shoots him, crying "I love you, Rehan". Rehan's grandfather, witnessing the event from a helicopter, trains his gun on Zooni, but Tyagi arrives in time in another helicopter and shoots the terrorist leader and the helicopter down. Rehan dies in Zooni's arms as Tyagi lands. The final scene shows Zooni and little Rehan laying flowers on the graves of Rehan and Mr. Ali Beg. Rehan asks if his father was a bad man, and Zooni tells him that he was doing what he felt was right. Rehan kisses his father's grave and tells him that he loves him. Zooni tells her son, "It is easy to choose between right and wrong. But to choose the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils... those are the choices of our life," recalling a line quoted by her father near the beginning of the film.

positive

positive

The Moon and Sixpence

The Moon and Sixpence

The novel is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, who is first introduced to the character of Strickland through his (Strickland's) wife and strikes him (the narrator) as unremarkable. Certain chapters are entirely composed of the stories or narrations of others which the narrator himself is recalling from memory (selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, as Strickland is said by the narrator to be limited in his use of verbiage and tended to use gestures in his expression). Strickland is a well-off, middle-class stockbroker in London sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris, living a destitute but defiantly content life there as an artist (specifically a painter), lodging in run-down hotels and falling prey to both illness and hunger. Strickland, in his drive to express through his art what appears to continually possess and compel him inside, cares nothing for physical comfort and is generally indifferent to his surroundings, but is generously supported while in Paris by a commercially successful but hackneyed Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve, a friend of the narrator's, who immediately recognizes Strickland's genius. After helping Strickland recover from a life-threatening condition, Stroeve is repaid by having his wife, Blanche, abandon him for Strickland. Strickland later discards the wife (all he really sought from Blanche was a model to paint, not serious companionship, and it is hinted in the novel's dialogue that he indicated this to her and she took the risk anyway), who then commits suicide - yet another human casualty (the first ones being his own established life and those of his wife and children) in Strickland's single-minded pursuit of Art and Beauty. After the Paris episode, the story continues in Tahiti. Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life there from the recollections of others. He finds that Strickland had taken up with a native woman, had two children by her (one of whom dies) and started painting profusely. We learn that Strickland had settled for a short while in the French port of Marseilles before traveling to Tahiti, where he lived for a few years before finally dying of leprosy. Strickland left behind numerous paintings, but his magnum opus, which he painted on the walls of his hut before losing his sight to leprosy, was burnt down after his death by his wife in accordance with his dying orders.

A London stockbroker, Charles Strickland , gives up his career, wife, and children to become a painter in Tahiti. A writer similar to Maugham tells Strickland's story.

positive

negative

Jaws

Jaws: The Revenge

The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on Long Island, New York. One night, a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins swims out in the open waters where she is attacked and killed by a great white shark. When her body is found by the police washed up on the beach, it is obvious that she had been attacked by a shark. Police chief Martin Brody orders Amity's beaches closed, but is overruled by mayor Larry Vaughan and the town's selectmen, fearing it would damage the summer tourism on which the town's economy is heavily dependent. With the connivance of Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, the attack is hushed up. A few days later, the shark kills a young boy and an old man not far from the shore. A local fisherman, Ben Gardner, is sent out to kill the shark, but disappears out on the water. Brody heads out with his loyal deputy Leonard Hendricks and finds Gardner's boat anchored off-shore, empty, and with large bite marks in the side. Hendricks pulls a massive shark's tooth from one of the holes. Blaming himself for these deaths, Brody again moves to close the beaches, and has Meadows investigate the people Vaughan is in business with to find out why the Mayor is so determined to keep the beaches open. Meadows uncovers his links to members of the Mafia, who are pressuring Vaughan to keep them open in order to protect the value of Amity's real estate, into which they had recently invested a great deal of money. Meadows also brings in ichthyologist Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Institute to advise them on how to deal with the shark. Meanwhile, Brody's wife Ellen is dissatisfied with life and misses the affluent life she left behind when she married Brody and had children. She immediately strikes up a friendship with Hooper, especially after learning that he is the younger brother of a man she dated years before. The two have a brief affair in a motel outside of town. Throughout the rest of the novel, Brody suspects they have had a liaison and is haunted by the thought. With the beaches still open, people begin pouring to the town, hoping to catch a glimpse of the killer shark. Still haunted by the guilt of the previous deaths, Brody sets up patrols on the beach and on the water to watch for the fish. After a boy (dared by his friends to go out into the water, with the promise of ten dollars) narrowly escapes being attacked by the shark close to the shore, Brody finally closes the beaches and hires Quint, a professional shark hunter, to find and kill the fish. Brody, Quint, and Hooper set out on Quint's vessel, the Orca; the trio soon find that they are struggling against each other as well as the shark. Hooper is angered by Quint's methods, which include disemboweling a blue shark they catch and his use of an illegally-fished unborn dolphin for bait. Quint taunts Hooper for refusing to shoot at beer cans with them, which are launched from the Orca at sea with a device similar to a skeet launcher. Brody and Hooper constantly bicker as Brody's suspicions about Hooper's possible affair with Ellen grow stronger. At one point, Brody attempts to strangle Hooper on the dock. Their first two days at sea are unproductive, and they return to port on each night. On the third day, Hooper reveals to Brody and Quint a shark proof cage that he had shipped from Woods Hole. Initially Quint refuses to allow the cage on the boat, suspecting that it will be useless for protection against this particular fish, but he relents when Hooper offers the captain an extra hundred dollars in cash. Once out on the ocean, after several unsuccessful attempts by Quint to harpoon the shark, Hooper goes underwater in the cage to attempt to kill it with a bang stick. He is so taken with the shark that he resolves to first take photos. However, the shark attacks the cage and, after ramming the bars apart, kills him. Brody is dispirited and also realizes that there is no more money to pay Quint to continue the hunt, but Quint no longer cares about his fee; he is now obsessed with killing the shark. Meanwhile, Larry Vaughan arrives at the Brody house before Brody himself returns home and informs Ellen that he and his wife are leaving Amity. Before he leaves, he reveals to Ellen that he always thought they would've made a great couple. When Brody and Quint return the following day, the shark repeatedly rams into the boat, and Quint harpoons it three times. The shark leaps onto the stern of the Orca and the boat starts sinking. Quint plunges another harpoon into it, but as it falls back into the water, his foot gets entangled in the rope, and when the shark drags him under, he drowns. Now floating on a seat cushion, Brody spots the shark swimming towards him and shuts his eyes, preparing for death. The shark gets to within a few feet of him before stopping and succumbing to the wounds inflicted by Quint. It sinks down out of sight, its dead body suspended in the water just beyond the light by the barrels attached to it, and with Quint's body still dangling from it. Using the cushion as a makeshift float, Brody starts to paddle back to shore.

On the island of Amity, sheriff Martin Brody, the hero of previous shark attacks, has died from a heart attack. His wife, Ellen Brody , thinks it was from fear of the shark. She now lives with their son Sean and his fiancee Tiffany . Sean works as a police deputy and is sent to clear a log from a buoy a few days before Christmas. As he does so, a massive great white shark bursts out of the water, rips off his arm, and then pulls him under the surface and kills him, sinking his boat in the process. Ellen is convinced that the shark targeted Sean on purpose. She decides to go to the Bahamas to spend time with her older son Michael , his wife Carla ([[Karen Young , and their five-year-old daughter Thea . There, Ellen meets carefree airplane pilot Hoagie . Michael&nbsp;– along with partners Jake , William, and Clarence – work as marine biologists. At one point, the shark that killed Sean unexpectedly appears and attempts "devouring" their boat but fails. The crew decides to keep quiet about the shark's presence due to Ellen's attempts of convincing Michael to find a job on land. Ellen becomes so obsessive that she starts having nightmares of being attacked by a shark. Then she starts getting psychic feelings when the shark attacks Michael. She and the shark seem to share a strange connection that is unexplained. The crew decides to attach a device to the shark that would track its heartbeat. Using chum to attract the beast, Jake stabs the device's tracking pole into the beast's side. The next day, Michael is chased by the shark and barely manages to escape unharmed, and soon enough, Thea goes on an inflatable banana boat with her friend Margaret and her mother. During Carla Brody's speech about her sculpture ... the shark suddenly attacks, kills Margaret's mother and scares Thea. Ellen Brody is horrified by the event and, to end the farce, goes on Jake's boat. She intends to sacrifice herself to stop the killing. Michael soon returns home and lets the truth slip about the shark, which doesn't turn out well. Michael and Jake are eventually flown by Hoagie to look for Ellen and they find her and the shark in pursuit of her boat. Hoagie lands the plane on the water, ordering Michael and Jake swim to the boat as the shark drags the plane and Hoagie underwater. Michael was upset with Ellen for putting herself in danger, and Ellen apologized for worrying him. Much to Ellen Brody's disbelief, Hoagie survives. Jake and Michael hastily put together an explosive powered by electrical impulses. Michael and Jake go back up on deck and begin blasting the shark with the impulses, which begin to drive the shark mad. As Jake moves to the front of the boat, the shark is absent until it unexpectedly lunges out from the water, giving it the chance to pull Jake under and maul him, although he manages to get the explosive into the shark's mouth before he is dragged under and attacked. Michael continues to blast the shark with the impulses, causing it to rise out of the water again, igniting the bomb right as Ellen thrusts the broken bowsprit into its stomach. The shark explodes upon impact and the front of the ship sinks to the bottom of the sea with the creature's corpse. Michael then hears Jake, severely injured but alive, floating in the water, and the four survive the harsh encounter and make it back to land. The film concludes as Hoagie flies Ellen back to Amity Island.

positive

positive

Airport

Airport '77

The story takes place at Lincoln International, a fictional Chicago airport based very loosely on O'Hare International Airport. The action mainly centers on Mel Bakersfeld, the Airport General Manager. His devotion to his job is tearing apart his family and his marriage to his wife Cindy, who resents his use of his job at the airport as a device to avoid going to various after-hours events she wants him to participate in, as she attempts to climb into the social circles of Chicago's elite. His problems in his marriage are further exacerbated by his romantically-charged friendship with a lovely divorcee, Trans America Airlines passenger relations manager Tanya Livingston. The story takes place mainly over the course of one evening and night, as a massive snowstorm plays havoc with airport operations. The storyline centers on Bakersfeld's struggles to keep the airport open during the storm. His chief problem is the unexpected closure of primary Runway 30 (runway 29 in the subsequent film), caused when a landing airliner turns off past the wrong side of a runway marker light, burying the plane's landing gear in the snow, and blocking the runway. This becomes a major problem as another airplane, Trans America Flight Two, experiences a midair emergency and returns to Lincoln. This requires that runway 30 be made operational---at any cost. The closing of runway 30 requires the use of shorter runway 25 (runway 22 in the subsequent film), which has the unfortunate consequence of causing planes to take off over a noise-sensitive suburb, whose residents picket the airport in protest. The shorter runway 25 is also later inadequate to land the returning airplane, which has suffered major structural and mechanical damage due to explosive decompression caused by the detonation of the bomb brought on board. The book presents an overview of the vast and complex operations involved in operating a major commercial airport, much of which is still applicable over 40 years later. Several major and minor characters appear, illustrating the vast complexity of the airport and its operations. They include Customs officers, lawyers, snow clearers, airport police, doctors, clerks etc.

A privately owned luxury Boeing 747-100, Stevens' Flight 23 complete with piano bar, office, and bedroom, is used to ferry invited guests to an estate owned by wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens . Valuable artwork from Stevens's private collection is also on board the jetliner, to be eventually displayed in his new museum. Such a collection motivates a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers to hijack the aircraft in the hopes of landing it on an abandoned airfield on St. George Island. Once Captain Don Gallagher leaves the cockpit and is knocked unconscious, the hijackers' plans go into motion. A sleeping gas is released into the cabin and the passengers lose consciousness. Knocking out the flight engineer, Chambers puts the plan in motion, and Stevens' Flight 23 "disappears" into the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, Flight 23 heading straight for it at close to 600 knots. Chambers pulls back on the yoke in a banking left turn but the engine number 4 clips the derrick, causing the engine to catch fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button and flames are momentarily extinguished. However, because the aircraft is at such a low altitude, the sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, Chambers is forced to use another fire-suppression bottle. But by this time, the aircraft stall alarm goes off and the aircraft's tail hits the water. All the passengers wake up, and most start to scream and panic. Chambers is able to pull up, but soon the plane's right wing hits the water again, and the plane lifts into the air for another moment, then hitting the water again. Because of the impact being so hard, the plane becomes grounded in the ocean. Eventually, the plane begins to slip beneath the waves. The ocean bottom is fortunately above the crush-depth of the fuselage. Many of the passengers are injured, some seriously. Two of the would-be thieves are killed in the initial crash. Banker is in the hold securing the art for the transfer when a cargo container causes a breach of the outer skin, crushing and drowning him. The second fatality is Wilson , who is killed when he is slammed into the flight panel on impact. Since the aircraft was off course, search and rescue efforts are focused in the wrong area. Involved in these efforts are Phillip Stevens and Joe Patroni . The only way to signal rescue efforts to the proper region is to get a signal buoy to the surface in a small dinghy. Captain Gallagher and diver Martin Wallace enter the main cargo in the attempt, but an unexpected triggering of the hatch crushes Wallace. Gallagher, out of oxygen provided by the reserve mask, makes it to the surface, and activates the beacon after he climbs into the dinghy. Getting a fix on the new signal, an S-3 Viking overflies the crash site, confirming the location of Flight 23. The navy then dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga along with the destroyer USS Agerholm and a flotilla of other vessels. The aircraft is ringed with balloons and once inflated, the aircraft rises from the bottom of the seafloor. Just before the plane breaks surface, one of the balloons breaks loose, prompting the Navy captain to reduce the air pressure of the remaining balloons, thus keeping the plane just beneath the waves. At that moment, one of the doors in the cargo hold bursts open, causing the plane to flood. The cascade of sea water sweeps through the passengers; First Officer Chambers is killed when he is pinned under a sofa. The deluge also sweeps away Wallace's widow , who drowns just as the Navy captain orders more air pressure into the balloons, finally raising the plane successfully. Once on the surface, the passengers are evacuated. With the survivors on their way to waiting ships, Captain Gallagher and Stevens' assistant, Eve are the last to evacuate from the aircraft as it slips under the waves for the last time.

negative

positive

Frankenstein

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Frankenstein is written in the form of a frame story that starts with Captain Robert Walton writing letters to his sister. The novel Frankenstein is written in epistolary form, documenting a correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame. During the voyage the crew spots a dog sled mastered by a gigantic figure. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion; he sees in Walton the same over-ambitiousness and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton as a warning. Victor begins by telling of his childhood. Born into a wealthy family in Geneva, he is encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world around him through science. He grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends. When he is around 4 years old, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan whose mother has just died (she is Victor's biological cousin in the first edition, but an adopted child with no blood relation in the 1831 edition). Victor has a possessive infatuation with Elizabeth. He has two younger brothers: Ernest and William. As a young boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories of science that focus on achieving natural wonders. He plans to attend the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. Weeks before his planned departure, his mother dies of scarlet fever. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, and develops a secret technique to imbue inanimate bodies with life. The details of the monster's construction are left ambiguous, but Frankenstein finds himself forced to make the creature roughly eight feet tall because of the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body. His creation, which he has hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous, with dull yellow eyes, and a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After bringing his creation to life, Victor is repulsed by his work: he flees the room, and the monster disappears. Victor becomes ill from the experience. He is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. After a four-month recovery, he determines that he should return home when his brother William is found murdered. Upon arriving in Geneva, he sees the monster near the site of the murder, and becomes certain it is the killer. William's nanny, Justine, is hanged for the murder based on the discovery of William's locket in her pocket. Victor, though certain the monster is responsible, doubts anyone would believe him, and does not intervene. Ravaged by his grief and self-reproach, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The monster approaches him, ignoring his threats and pleading with Victor to hear its tale. Intelligent and articulate, it tells Victor of its encounters with people, and how it had become afraid of them and spent a year living near a cottage, observing the DeLacey family living there and growing fond of them. Through observing the De Lacey family, the monster became educated and self-aware. It also discovered a lost satchel of books and learned to read. Seeing its reflection in a pool, it realized that its physical appearance is hideous compared to the humans it watches. Though it eventually approached the family with hope of becoming their fellow, they were frightened by its appearance and drove it off, and then left the residence permanently. The creature, in a fit of rage, burned the cottage and left. In its travels some time later, the monster saw a young girl tumble into a stream and rescued her from drowning. A man, seeing it with the child in its arms, pursued it and fired a gun, wounding it. Traveling to Geneva, it met a little boy — Victor's brother William - in the woods outside the town of Plainpalais. The monster hoped the boy was too young to fear deformity, but upon its approach, William cried out, threatening the monster with the weight of his family - the Frankensteins. The creature grabbed the boy by the throat to silence him, and strangled him. It is unclear from the text whether this was an accident on the monster's part or a deliberate murder, but in either case, the monster took this as its first act of vengeance against its creator. It removed a locket from the boy's body and placed it in the folds of the dress of a young woman — William's nanny, Justine — who had been sleeping in a barn nearby, assuming she would be accused of the murder. The monster concludes its story with a demand that Frankenstein create for it a female companion like itself. It argues that as a living thing, it has a right to happiness and that Victor, as its creator, has a duty to obey it, with the chilling words, "You are my creator, but I am your master. Obey!" It promises that if Victor grants its request, it and its mate will vanish into the wilderness of South America uninhabited by man, never to reappear. Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees and travels to England to do his work. He is accompanied by Clerval, but they separate in Scotland. Through their travels, Victor suspects that the monster is following him. Working on a second being on the Orkney Islands, he is plagued by premonitions of what his work might wreak, particularly as creating a mate for the creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of monsters that could plague mankind. He destroys the unfinished example after he sees the monster looking through the window. The monster witnesses this and, confronting Victor, vows to be with Victor on his upcoming wedding night. The monster murders Clerval and leaves the corpse on an Irish beach, where Victor lands upon leaving the island. Victor is imprisoned for the murder of Clerval, and becomes seriously ill, suffering another mental breakdown in prison. After being acquitted, and with his health renewed, he returns home with his father. Once home, Victor marries his cousin Elizabeth and prepares for a fight to the death with the monster. Wrongly believing the monster's vowed revenge was for his own life, he asks Elizabeth to retire to her room for the night while he goes looking for the fiend. He searches the house and grounds, but the creature murders the secluded Elizabeth instead. Victor sees the monster at the window pointing at the corpse. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and now Elizabeth, Victor's father dies. Victor vows to pursue the monster until one of them annihilates the other. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole. At the end of Victor's narrative, Captain Walton resumes the telling of the story. A few days after the vanishing of the creature, the ship becomes entombed in ice and Walton's crew insists on returning south once they are freed. In spite of a passionate speech from Frankenstein, encouraging the crew to push further north, Walton realizes that he must relent to his men's demands and agrees to head for home. Frankenstein dies shortly thereafter, not before imploring Captain Walton to carry his mission of vengeance to its completion. "The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When actuated by selfish and vicious motives, I asked you to take up my unfinished work; and I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue." Walton discovers the monster on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the monster's adamant justification for its vengeance as well as expressions of remorse. Frankenstein's death has not brought it peace. Rather, its crimes have increased its misery and alienation; it has found only its own emotional ruin in the destruction of its creator. It vows to exterminate itself on its own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of its existence. Walton watches as it drifts away on an ice raft that is soon lost in darkness.

Larry Talbot the "Wolf Man" is awakened from death by grave robbers. Seeking a cure for the curse that causes him to transform into a werewolf with every full moon, he goes to Frankenstein's castle, as he hopes to find there the notes of Dr. Ludwig Frankenstein so he might learn how to permanently end his own life through scientific means. By chance, during his transformations into a werewolf, he falls into the castle's frozen catacombs and revives Frankenstein's monster who had been frozen in ice. Finding that the Monster is unable to locate the notes of the long-dead doctor, Talbot seeks out Baroness Elsa Frankenstein , hoping she knows their hiding place. A performance of the life-affirming folk song "Faro-la Faro-Li" enrages Talbot into a fit before the Frankenstein Monster crashes the village festival. With the Monster revealed, Elsa gives the notes to Talbot and Dr. Mannering , who has tracked Talbot across Europe, so that they may be used in an effort to drain all life from both Talbot and the Monster. Ultimately, however, Dr. Mannering's desire to see the Monster at full strength overwhelms his logic, and to Elsa's horror he decides to fully revive it. As an unfortunate coincidence, the experiment takes place on the night of a full moon, and Talbot is transformed just as the Monster regains his strength. After the Monster lustfully carries off Elsa, the Wolf Man attacks him, she runs out of the castle with the doctor. The Wolf Man and the Monster then engage in a fight until they both get swept away in a flood that results after the local tavern owner blows up the town dam to drown the castle's inhabitants.

positive

positive

Strip Tease

Striptease

During a late-night bachelor party at The Eager Beaver, a striptease club in Fort Lauderdale Florida, the drunken groom-to-be, Paul Guber, climbs on stage and grabs one of the dancers. Before the club's bouncer can act, Guber is attacked by another customer, swinging a champagne bottle. Chaos ensues, during which the attacker disappears in a hurry, and the groom is hospitalized. The man with the bottle was U.S. Congressman David Lane Dilbeck, an incorrigible (yet secret) patron of strip bars, nude dancers, and other forms of erotic entertainment. Dilbeck's main function in Washington, D.C. is to rubber stamp lucrative price supports for Florida's sugar cane farming industry. His "handler," political fixer Malcolm Moldowsky, is furious at the Congressman's stupidity, since Dilbeck is up for re-election. The dancer is Erin Grant, a single mother engaged in a bitter legal fight with her ex-husband, Darrell, for custody of their young daughter, Angela. Erin was fired from her job as a secretary for the F.B.I. after Darrell was arrested for grand larceny (his "profession" is stealing and re-selling wheelchairs). The legal costs of her divorce impelled Erin to take up erotic dancing as a career. Ironically, her occupation has given the judge a prejudiced view of her, while Darrell's criminal record has been expunged after he has agreed to become an informant for the police. As a result, Darrell has been given custody of Angela, and Erin desperately needs even more money to reverse the court decision. One of Erin's lovestruck fans, a bookish man named Jerry Killian, recognizes Dilbeck from the club, and tries to blackmail the Congressman into influencing the judge in Erin's favor. But when the judge proves resistant to Dilbeck's probing, Moldowsky decides the only way to safeguard Dilbeck is to have Killian murdered. His body is found floating in the Clark Fork River in Montana - to be found by Miami homicide detective Al Garcia, on vacation with his family. Another blackmailer surfaces in the person of Mordecai, a sleazy lawyer related to Paul Guber's fiancee. One of Guber's friends from the bachelor party inadvertently snapped a picture of Dilbeck during the champagne-bottle attack, with which Mordecai demands hush money. But Mordecai and Paul's greedy fiancee are likewise murdered on Moldowsky's orders. The photo has indirectly sparked Dilbeck's memory of that night, and he becomes obsessed with Erin, refusing to continue with his reelection campaign until he can "possess" her. Moldowsky, conscious that Dilbeck is necessary to his employers' continued prosperity, is forced to assist him. Garcia returns to Florida and compares notes with Erin and her main ally, the club's bouncer Shad. Garcia discovers evidence linking Jerry Killian's murder to Moldowsky, but nothing that will stand up in court. At the same time, Darrell Grant, who is also a drug addict, becomes totally irresponsible and is busted for larceny yet again. Disgusted, the police drop him as an informant and restore his criminal record, tipping the dispute in Erin's favor. Deciding not to wait, she snatches Angela while Darrell is away, from her aunt's house. Moldowsky approaches Erin's boss and asks for her to give the Congressman a private performance. Erin agrees, knowing that it is the best way of gathering evidence. During her first private show, Dilbeck is rendered nearly helpless with lust, and Erin finds it easy to manipulate him. He offers her even more money for a repeat performance, and she agrees. Having realized that, under normal circumstances, Dilbeck will probably escape implication in Jerry Killian's murder, Erin comes up with a plan to "destroy" him. On the night of the second performance, Darrell follows Erin to the meeting place, where he comes upon Moldowsky, watch-dogging the show, and beats him to death in a drug-induced rage. Inside, Erin is dancing for Dilbeck again. Being used to women who are easily awed by his title, or by his extravagant favors, Dilbeck tries to seduce her, and is vexed when she proves unimpressed by either. Darrell enters, demanding to be taken to his daughter, and Erin moves to the next phase of her plan, drawing a pistol and ordering them both out. With the help of Dilbeck's limousine driver, Erin drives Dilbeck and Darrell to a sugar cane field owned by Dilbeck's most prominent supporters. When the car stops, Darrell takes off running into the cane (unknown to anybody at the time, he winds up falling into a drug-induced slumber in a bed of freshly cut cane, and is killed when the cane is fed into a milling machine). Erin offers to slow-dance with Dilbeck in the cane field. Dilbeck believes the dance is a prelude to "wild cowboy sex," but when he realizes it is not, he loses control and tries to rape Erin - at which point he is seized by a squad of F.B.I. agents, led by Erin's old boss, who received an anonymous call saying she had been kidnapped. Dilbeck, caught in the middle of an attempted rape, is now trapped. Erin gives him an ultimatum: in exchange for avoiding arrest and public exposure, he must resign from his Congressional seat. If he refuses - "have you ever been on Hard Copy?" With Darrell gone, and the threat to her from Dilbeck and his patrons removed, Erin resigns from the club and starts a new life with Angela. In the epilogue, it is said that she has gotten back her old job as a secretary with the F.B.I., and a night job dancing in the Main Street Parade at Walt Disney World, and is currently applying to become an F.B.I. Special Agent herself.

The film revolves around Erin Grant , a former FBI secretary, who loses custody of her young daughter Angela to her ex-husband Darrell . In order to afford an appeal, Erin becomes a stripper at the Eager Beaver, a Miami strip club. A Congressman named David Dilbeck visits the club and immediately begins to adore Grant. Aware of Dilbeck's embarrassing indulgences, another Eager Beaver patron approaches Erin with a plan to manipulate the Congressman to settle the custody dispute in Erin's favor. However, Dilbeck has powerful business connections who want to ensure he remains in office. Consequently, those who can embarrass him in an election are murdered. Meanwhile, Erin retrieves her daughter from her negligent husband. Dilbeck's personal interest in Erin persists, and she is invited to perform privately for him. He asks her to become his lover and later his wife, despite his staff's concerns that she knows too much. A debate occurs as to whether to kill Erin or simply keep her quiet by threatening to take away her daughter . However, Erin and a police officer begin to suspect the Congressman's guilt in the murders, and Erin concocts a plan to bring the Congressman to justice. She tricks him into confessing on tape, and he is soon after arrested. Thus, Erin regains full custody of Angela, and Darrell returns to prison.

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negative

Eye of the Needle

Eye of the Needle

Operation Fortitude was an Allied counter-intelligence operation run during World War II. Its goal was to convince the German military that D-Day landings were to occur at Calais and not Normandy. As a part of Fortitude the fictitious First United States Army Group (FUSAG) was created. FUSAG used fake tanks, buildings and radio traffic to create an illusion of an army being formed to land at Calais. In 1940 Henry Faber is a German spy working at a London railway depot, collecting information on troop movements. Faber is halfway through radioing this information to Berlin when his landlady stumbles into his room hoping for intimacy. Faber fears that Mrs. Garden will eventually realize that he was using a transmitter and that he is a spy. Faber kills her with his stiletto. He then resumes his transmission. His repeated use of this stiletto leads to his nickname 'Die Nadel' ('The Needle'). The book then introduces David, a trainee RAF pilot, and his bride Lucy. On their honeymoon David and Lucy are involved in a car crash. David loses the use of both his legs. Unable to fly in the Battle of Britain David grows embittered as he and Lucy retire to the isolated Storm Island off the coast of Scotland. Meanwhile British Intelligence has executed or recruited all German spies. Faber is the only successful one still at large. A history professor, Godliman, and a widowed ex-policeman, Bloggs, are employed by MI5 to catch him. They start with the interrupted broadcast and his codename Die Nadel. They connect the landlady’s murder to Faber by him having used his ‘needle’ during the transmission. They then interview Faber’s fellow tenants from 1940. One identifies Faber from a photo of him as a young army officer. Faber is told by Berlin to investigate whether the FUSAG is real or not. Faber discovers the army is a fake. He takes photos of an army base constructed only to look real from the air. Faber realizes that Normandy is where D-Day is going to occur. Several soldiers try to arrest Faber, but he kills them with his stiletto. He then heads to Aberdeen, Scotland, where a U-boat will take him and his photos back to Germany. Godliman and Bloggs realize what Faber is trying to achieve. There follows a long chase across Northern England and Scotland with both Hitler and Churchill getting personally involved. Faber escapes many times but his repeated killings allow MI5 to track him to Aberdeen. Exhausted Faber finally sets out on a small trawler to meet the U-Boat. Caught by a fierce storm, he is shipwrecked on Storm Island. He collapses in front of the lonely house where David and Lucy live. He is tended to by Lucy. Stuck in a loveless marriage to the crippled David she begins a physical relationship with Faber. David soon discovers both Lucy's infidelity and Faber’s FUSAG photos. David then tries to kill Faber. After a struggle Faber kills David by rolling him and his Jeep off a cliff. Faber tells Lucy it was another accident. However, she discovers her husband's body and realizes the truth. Faber realizes he may be caught so he decides to radio the information about FUSAG directly to Germany. Lucy stops him by short-circuiting the electricity in the cottage. Unable to send a radio message, Faber attempts to descend the cliff and swim to the waiting U-boat. Lucy throws a rock at him, striking him and causing him to lose his balance and fall to his death. The RAF then appears and drives the U-boat away. A fictitious radio message is sent over Faber's call code, persuading the Germans that the invasion is targeting Calais. Bloggs comforts the widowed Lucy, eventually marrying her.

A man calling himself Henry Faber is actually "the Needle," a German spy in England bearing critical information on Allied invasion plans that he must deliver personally to the Führer. He's so named because of his preferred method of assassination, the stiletto. He is a coldly calculating psychopath, emotionlessly focused on the task at hand, whether the task is to signal a U-boat or to gut a witness to avoid exposure. On his way back to Germany, a fierce storm strands him on Storm Island, occupied only by a woman named Lucy , her disabled husband, their son, and their shepherd, Tom. A romance develops between the woman and the spy, due to an estrangement of affections between Lucy and her husband, whose accident has rendered him emotionally crippled as well. The love affair suggests there's a sympathetic personality buried somewhere inside the Nazi spy, though he remains enigmatic. Early on, we discover that he may not enjoy the hand life has dealt him. When a courier asks him about the way he lives, and "What else can one do?" the Needle answers, "One can just stop." Lucy realizes that her lover has been lying after she discovers her husband's dead body. "The Needle" must get to Tom's radio in time to report to his superiors the exact location of the D-Day invasion. Lucy is the Allies' last chance. He is reluctant to harm her, but she has no such qualms and shoots him as he tries to escape in a boat. Additional footage tells of Faber's activities four years before and of David's accident, while another ending finds Lucy receiving help from British Intelligence.

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Treasure Island

Long John Silver

The novel is divided into 6 parts and 34 chapters: Jim Hawkins is the narrator of all except for chapters 16-18, which are narrated by Doctor Livesey. The novel opens in the seaside village of Black Hill Cove in south-west England (to Stevenson, in his letters and in the related fictional play Admiral Guinea, near Barnstaple, Devon) in the mid-18th century. The narrator, James "Jim" Hawkins, is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn, only paying for about the first week of his stay. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Some months later, Bones is visited by a mysterious sailor named Black Dog. Their meeting turns violent, Black Dog flees and Bones suffers a stroke. While Jim cares for him, Bones confesses that he was once the mate of the late notorious pirate, Captain Flint, and that his old crewmates want Bones' sea chest. Some time later, another of Bones' crew mates, a blind man named Pew, appears at the inn and forces Jim to lead him to Bones. Pew gives Bones a paper. After Pew leaves, Bones opens the paper to discover it is marked with the Black Spot, a pirate summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock to meet their demands. Bones drops dead of apoplexy (in this context, a stroke) on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones' sea chest to collect the amount due to them for Bones' room and board, but before they can count out the money that they are owed, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. The pirates, led by Pew, find the sea chest and the money, but are frustrated that there is no sign of "Flint's fist". Customs men approach and the pirates escape to their vessel (all except for Pew, who is accidentally run down and killed by the agents' horses).p. 27-8: "...{Pew} made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face, and moved no more." —Stevenson, R.L. Jim takes the mysterious oilskin packet to Dr. Livesey, as he is a &#34;gentleman and a magistrate&#34;, and he, Squire Trelawney and Jim Hawkins examine it together, finding it contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint&#39;s career, and a detailed map of an island with the location of Flint&#39;s treasure marked on it. Squire Trelawney immediately plans to commission a sailing vessel to hunt for the treasure, with the help of Dr. Livesey and Jim. Livesey warns Trelawney to be silent about their objective. Going to Bristol docks, Trelawney buys a schooner named the Hispaniola, hires a captain, Alexander Smollett to command her, and retains Long John Silver, a former sea cook and now the owner of the dock-side &#34;Spy-Glass&#34; tavern, to run the galley. Silver helps Trelawney to hire the rest of his crew. When Jim arrives in Bristol and visits Silver at the Spy-Glass, his suspicions are aroused: Silver is missing a leg, like the man Bones warned Jim about, and Black Dog is sitting in the tavern. Black Dog runs away at the sight of Jim, and Silver denies all knowledge of the fugitive so convincingly that he wins Jim&#39;s trust. Despite Captain Smollett&#39;s misgivings about the mission and Silver&#39;s hand-picked crew, the Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean. As they near their destination, Jim crawls into the ship&#39;s near-empty apple barrel to get an apple. While inside, he overhears Silver talking secretly with some of the crewmen. Silver admits that he was Captain Flint&#39;s quartermaster, that several others of the crew were also once Flint&#39;s men, and that he is recruiting more men from the crew to his own side. After Flint&#39;s treasure is recovered, Silver intends to murder the Hispaniolas officers, and keep the loot for himself and his men. When the pirates have returned to their berths, Jim warns Smollett, Trelawney and Livesey of the impending mutiny. On reaching Treasure Island, the majority of Silver's men go ashore immediately. Although Jim is not yet aware of this, Silver's men have demanded they seize the treasure immediately, discarding Silver's own more careful plan to postpone any open mutiny or violence until after the treasure is safely aboard. Jim lands with Silver's men, but runs away from them almost as soon as he is ashore. Hiding in the woods, Jim sees Silver murder Tom, a crewman loyal to Smollett. Running for his life, he encounters Ben Gunn, another ex-crewman of Flint's who has been marooned for three years on the island, but who treats Jim kindly. Meanwhile, Trelawney, Livesey and their loyal crewmen surprise and overpower the few pirates left aboard the Hispaniola. They row ashore and move into an abandoned, fortified stockade where they are joined by Jim Hawkins, who has left Ben Gunn behind. Silver approaches under a flag of truce and tries to negotiate Smollett's surrender; Smollett rebuffs him utterly, and Silver flies into a rage, promising to attack the stockade. "Them that die'll be the lucky ones," he famously threatens as he storms off. The pirates assault the stockade, but in a furious battle with losses on both sides, they are driven off. During the night Jim sneaks out, takes Ben Gunn's coracle and approaches the Hispaniola under cover of darkness. He cuts the ship's anchor cable, setting her adrift and out of reach of the pirates on shore. After daybreak, he manages to approach the schooner and board her. Of the two pirates left aboard, only one is still alive: the coxswain, Israel Hands, who has murdered his comrade in a drunken brawl and been badly wounded in the process. Hands agrees to help Jim helm the ship to a safe beach in exchange for medical treatment and brandy, but once the ship is approaching the beach Hands tries to murder Jim. Jim escapes by climbing the rigging, and when Hands tries to skewer him with a thrown dagger, Jim reflexively shoots Hands dead. Having beached the Hispaniola securely, Jim returns to the stockade under cover of night and sneaks back inside. Because of the darkness, he does not realize until too late that the stockade is now occupied by the pirates, and he is captured. Silver, whose always-shaky command has become more tenuous than ever, seizes on Jim as a hostage, refusing his men's demands to kill him or torture him for information. Silver's rivals in the pirate crew, led by George Merry, give Silver the Black Spot and move to depose him as captain. Silver answers his opponents eloquently, rebuking them for defacing a page from the Bible to create the Black Spot and revealing that he has obtained the treasure map from Dr. Livesey, thus restoring the crew's confidence. The following day, the pirates search for the treasure. They are shadowed by Ben Gunn, who makes ghostly sounds to dissuade them from continuing, but Silver forges ahead and locates where Flint's treasure is buried. The pirates discover that the cache has been rifled and the treasure is gone. The enraged pirates turn on Silver and Jim, but Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey and Abraham Gray attack the pirates, killing two and dispersing the rest. Silver surrenders to Dr. Livesey, promising to return to his duty. They go to Ben Gunn's cave where Gunn has had the treasure hidden for some months. The treasure is divided amongst Trelawney and his loyal men, including Jim and Ben Gunn, and they return to England, leaving the surviving pirates marooned on the island. Silver, through the help of the fearful Ben Gunn, escapes with a small part of the treasure, three or four hundred guineas. Remembering Silver, Jim reflects that "I dare say he met his old Negress [wife], and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint [his parrot]. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small."

{{context}} The movie is set some time after the events of Treasure Island. Long John receives grave news from Dod Perch of a massacre from Mendoza who in the process kidnaps Governor Strong's daughter Elizabeth for ransom along with Jim Hawkins. There is also a second treasure cache on the Treasure Island directed only by a pirate medallion. Long John visits Governor Strong and his wife to propose to give in the ransom before they pursue Mendoza. During the pickup of the ransom, Long John goes with Billy Bowlegs to Mendoza's ship and explains that Billy shot his two partners to hoard the ransom money for himself. Long John invited on the ship briefs a plan to Mendoza to leave Elizabeth on shore and mislead the Governor's warships in order to sack the king's warehouses. As Mendoza carries out the plan, Long John finds Jim possesses the very medallion of Treasure Island. As Mendoza begins to double cross Long John, he in turn summons his men to ambush and capture Mendoza along with the warehouse fortune, whilst Jim and Elizabeth make their escape. Back at the governor's Jim is offered the chance to go back to England, but Long John has plans to take Jim with him on the second voyage for Treasure Island. Long John seizes an opportunity to charter Captain MacDougall's ship for the voyage. Long John sets off missing Purity Pinker's hand in marriage and barely escaping the alert local sentries. Long John plots to start a mutiny on Captain MacDougall and take over his ship. MacDougall in response plans to have Long John and his men marooned on an island which is the secret hideout of Mendoza. Jim sets fire to Mendoza's warehouse so that Long John and his crew can capture Mendoza's ship. As Long John sails for Treasure Island, Mendoza awaits his next ship. Once on Treasure Island, Long John and his men take shelter in the stockade from Israel Hands, who survived Jim's shot some time ago, but is blind. Israel keeps Long John and his men trapped, killing them a few at a time. Soon Mendoza's men arrive and Israel offers service to Long John, in return for a passage to Cornwall and vengeance against Jim. After fleeing, Mendoza burns down the stockade. Long John follows the trail of the map to the caves where the treasure is buried. Israel tries to kill Jim, but Jim leads him to the coast where he plunges off to his death. As Jim heads back to the caves, he taken by Mendoza, who is going to use him as bait to get Long John, but Long John surrenders to Mendoza, giving his men the opportunity to make a gunpowder attack, cutting down Mendoza's forces and leaving the rest marooned. Long John returns as an honourable citizen, but he and Jim ride off.

positive

positive

Asylum

Asylum

A beautiful woman, Stella Raphael, lives an unimaginative family life: she runs the household and takes care of her son Charlie while her husband Max works as a deputy superintendent at a maximum security psychiatric hospital. This all changes when she becomes romantically involved with Edgar Stark, an artistic talented patient who restores the old Victorian conservatory. Edgar is committed for the violent murder of his wife but this does not influence Stella's feelings. Then Edgar escapes from the institution wearing Max's clothes and takes a hiding in a shabby building in London which he uses as an atelier. Stella's love for him grows stronger and while in London for "shopping" she manages to get back in contact with Edgar via his artist friend Nick. Her visits become more and more frequent and it starts to become suspicious so she decides to leave her family permanently. The asylum wants to keep this potentially scandalous situation out of the papers but informs the police. At first Stella enjoys the underground art life but Edgar starts to become violent and jealous as he sculpts a rather morbid bust of her head. He thinks she wants to go back to Max and fears being poisoned by her. So Stella, realizing the danger, finds shelter at Nick's place but she has to flee again as Edgar tries to locate her. As she feels her love again, she returns to Edgar's atelier where she gets arrested by the police who have lost track of Edgar. Stella reunites with her family. Max is fired from the asylum due to the affair, so they move to the Welsh countryside where Max can work for another mental hospital. She now has to gain the trust of her son and Max, but she doesn't make much of an effort as she is still in love with Edgar despite his disturbing behaviour. As the family gets more depressed Stella has simple sex with her neighbour to pass the time waiting for her lover to find her. Her hope for reunion with Edgar is strengthened when he is arrested by the police near their house. During a school trip with her son she fails to help him as he drowns in a swamp. She is found guilty of infanticide and institutionalised at the asylum where Max used to work. The asylum is now run by Peter Cleave, who wants to help her cure from her Medea complex their friendship to evolve into a marriage. She seems to agree, but Peter doesn't take into account that her love for Edgar - also in the hospital in solitary - still reigns. Stella commits suicide using the pills she didn't swallow as she can't be somebody else's lover. Peter keeps the head sculpture in black bronze of Stella that Edgar made in his desk's drawer.

Asylum is set in Britain in the early 1950s. It tells the story of Stella Raphael , the bored and unfulfilled wife of Max , a psychiatrist working at a remote mental asylum. Stella starts a passionate affair with Edgar one of the patients. Edgar is particularly dangerous, having gruesomely murdered his wife in a jealous rage. Not deterred by Edgar's violent past, Stella is beguiled by Edgar's passion and the affair intensifies. Although Max suspects nothing, Dr. Peter Cleve correctly guesses that the two are seeing each other. Cleave, who is fixated on Stella himself, attempts to get Edgar to admit to the affair—to no avail. Edgar, who has been denied release, can take it no longer and breaks out of the asylum. Stella attempts to continue life without her lover, playing mother to her son, Charlie, and wife. Around Christmas time, she receives a call from a friend of Edgar who arranges a rendezvous in London. The affair resumes with Stella using shopping trips as a pretext for her trips to the city. Edgar soon tires of the subterfuge—as well as sharing Stella's sexual attentions with Max—and demands that she choose to stay with him permanently or not return for another visit. Shortly thereafter, Cleave confronts her, telling him that he knows that she has been going to London to see Edgar. After unsuccessfully attempting to bully Stella into revealing his whereabouts, Cleave reminds her that Max can have her committed to the hospital. Stella then runs away to join Edgar and begins a loose, somewhat bohemian life together, remaining out of the public eye for fear of police. Soon, the lust of the relationship begins to wear off and Stella begins to see a darker side to Edgar's personality. He becomes obsessed with his work to Stella's chagrin. He also starts to become aggressive and violent both towards her, intensifying her fear of him. After shopping one day, Stella returns to the pair's squalid studio flat to be found by police and taken back to her husband and son. Her husband struggles to forgive her but accepts that their son needs a mother figure. Edgar observes Stella's capture from the shadows and flees. Max, who has lost his position at the hospital, moves the family to Wales and Stella struggles to settle back into 'normal' life with her family, trying especially hard to make amends with her son. Edgar tracks her down and a brief meeting with Edgar results in his capture. This sends Stella further into her thrown, distracted state. On a school outing with Charlie some weeks later, Stella takes her son away from the class teacher and other children and they go into the woods together. Stella perches herself upon a rock while Charlie searches for fish in the river. He suddenly loses his footing, falling into the river and begins to drown. Not noticing, Stella remains in a trance, not moving to help him. The class teacher arrives and attempts to help him, but Charlie is already dead. Stella is anguished over this and following this trauma, her husband and Dr. Cleave decide that she needs to be institutionalised. She is taken to the same asylum she met Edgar. Unbeknownst to Stella, Edgar is still held there. With the help of constant medication and care, Stella gets 'better', though she never fully recovers. She accepts Dr. Cleave's offer of a stable relationship, much to his delight. At the annual ball, where male and female inmates are permitted to socialise, Stella is anxious to share a dance with Edgar and desperately looks forward to seeing him. Unbeknown to her, Dr. Cleave forbids Edgar from attending the ball, gloating that he and Stella are to be married. Dr. Cleave later informs Stella that Edgar will not be attending. As a nurse escorts patients back to their rooms, Stella sneaks off up a stairway leading to the roof. Before anyone notices she has gone missing, she throws herself off the roof tower but does not die as she intends. Dr. Cleave rushes to her aid but she rejects his help and he steps away from her, allowing her to die from her injuries.

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positive

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist

Oliver Twist is born into a life of poverty and misfortune in a workhouse in an unnamed town (although when originally published in Bentley's Miscellany in 1837 the town was called Mudfog and said to be within 70 miles north of London - in reality this is the location of the town of Northampton). Orphaned almost from his first breath by his mother’s death in childbirth and his father’s unexplained absence, Oliver is meagerly provided for under the terms of the Poor Law, and spends the first nine years of his life at a baby farm in the 'care' of a woman named Mrs. Mann. Oliver is brought up with little food and few comforts. Around the time of Oliver's ninth birthday, Mr. Bumble, a parish beadle, removes Oliver from the baby farm and puts him to work picking oakum at the main workhouse. Oliver, who toils with very little food, remains in the workhouse for six months. One day, the desperately hungry boys decide to draw lots; the loser must ask for another portion of gruel. The task falls to Oliver, who at the next meal tremblingly comes forward, bowl in hand, and makes his famous request: "Please, sir, I want some more." A great uproar ensues. The board of well-fed gentlemen who administer the workhouse hypocritically offer five pounds to any person wishing to take on the boy as an apprentice. A brutal chimney sweep almost claims Oliver, however, when he begs despairingly not to be sent away with "that dreadful man", a kindly old magistrate refuses to sign the indentures. Later, Mr. Sowerberry, an undertaker employed by the parish, took Oliver into his service. He treats Oliver better, and because of the boy's sorrowful countenance, uses him as a mourner at children’s funerals. However, Mr. Sowerberry is in an unhappy marriage, and his wife takes an immediate dislike to Oliver — primarily because her husband seems to like him — and loses few opportunities to underfeed and mistreat him. He also suffers torment at the hands of Noah Claypole, an oafish but bullying fellow apprentice and "charity boy" who is jealous of Oliver’s promotion to mute, and Charlotte, the Sowerberrys' maidservant, who is in love with Noah. One day, in an attempt to bait Oliver, Noah insults Oliver's biological mother, calling her "a regular right-down bad ‘un". Oliver flies into a rage, attacking and even beating the much bigger boy. Mrs. Sowerberry takes Noah’s side, helps him to subdue, punching, and beating Oliver, and later compels her husband and Mr. Bumble, who has been sent for in the aftermath of the fight, into beating Oliver again. Once Oliver is sent to his room for the night, he does something that he hadn't done since babyhood — he breaks down and weeps. Alone that night, Oliver finally decides to run away, and, "He remembered to have seen the waggons, as they went out, toiling up the hill. He took the same route," until a well-placed milestone sets his wandering feet towards London. During his journey to London, Oliver encounters Jack Dawkins, a pickpocket more commonly known by the nickname the "Artful Dodger", although Oliver's innocent nature prevents him from recognising this hint that the boy may be dishonest. Dodger provides Oliver with a free meal and tells him of a gentleman in London who will "give him lodgings for nothing, and never ask for change". Grateful for the unexpected assistance, Oliver follows Dodger to the "old gentleman"'s residence. In this way, Oliver unwittingly falls in with an infamous Jewish criminal known as Fagin, the so-called gentleman of whom the Artful Dodger spoke. Ensnared, Oliver lives with Fagin and his gang of juvenile pickpockets in their lair at Saffron Hill for some time, unaware of their criminal occupations. He believes they make wallets and handkerchiefs. Later, Oliver naïvely goes out to "make handkerchiefs" because of no income coming in, with two of Fagin’s underlings: The Artful Dodger and a boy of a humorous nature named Charley Bates. Oliver realises too late that their real mission is to pick pockets. Dodger and Charley steal the handkerchief of an old gentleman named Mr. Brownlow, and promptly flee. When he finds his handkerchief missing, Mr. Brownlow turns round, sees Oliver, and pursues him. Others join the chase and Oliver is caught and taken before the magistrate. Curiously, Mr. Brownlow has second thoughts about the boy—he seems reluctant to believe he is a pickpocket. To the judge's evident disappointment, a bookstall holder who saw Dodger commit the crime clears Oliver, who, by now actually ill, faints in the courtroom. Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver home and, along with his housekeeper Mrs. Bedwin, cares for him. Oliver stays with Mr. Brownlow, recovers rapidly, and blossoms from the unaccustomed kindness. His bliss, however, is interrupted when Fagin, fearing Oliver might "peach" on his criminal gang, decides that Oliver must be brought back to his hideout. When Mr. Brownlow sends Oliver out to pay for some books, one of the gang, a young girl named Nancy, whom Oliver had previously met at Fagin's, accosts him with help from her abusive lover, a brutal robber named Bill Sikes, and Oliver is quickly bundled back to Fagin's lair. The thieves take the five-pound note Mr. Brownlow had entrusted to him, and strip him of his fine new clothes. Oliver, dismayed, flees and attempts to call for police assistance, but is ruthlessly dragged back by the Dodger, Charley and Fagin. Nancy, however, is sympathetic towards Oliver and saves him from beatings by Fagin and Sikes. In a renewed attempt to draw Oliver into a life of crime, Fagin forces him to participate in a burglary. Nancy reluctantly assists in recruiting him, all the while assuring the boy that she will help him if she can. Sikes, after threatening to kill him if he does not cooperate, sends Oliver through a small window and orders him to unlock the front door. The robbery goes wrong, however, and Oliver is shot and wounded in his left arm. After being abandoned by Sikes, the wounded Oliver ends up under the care of the people he was supposed to rob: Miss Rose and her guardian Mrs. Maylie Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Monks has found Fagin and is plotting with him to destroy Oliver's reputation. Monks denounces Fagin's failure to turn Oliver into a criminal and the two of them agree on a plan to make sure he does not find out about his past. Monks is apparently related to Oliver in some manner, although it's not mentioned until later. Back in Oliver's hometown, Mr. Bumble married Ms. Corney, the wealthy matron of the workhouse, only to find himself in an unhappy marriage constantly arguing with his domineering wife. After one such argument, Mr. Bumble walks over to a pub, where he meets Monks, who questions him about Oliver. Bumble informs Monks that he knows someone who can give Monks more information for a price, and later Monks meets secretly with the Bumbles. After Mrs. Bumble has told Monks all she knows, the three arrange to take a locket and ring which had once belonged to Oliver's mother and toss them into a nearby river. Monks relates this to Fagin as part of the plot to destroy Oliver, unaware that Nancy has eavesdropped on their conversation and gone ahead to inform Oliver's benefactors. Nancy, by this time ashamed of her role in Oliver's kidnapping, and fearful for the boy's safety, goes to Rose Maylie and Mr. Brownlow to warn them. She knows that Monks and Fagin are plotting to get their hands on the boy again and holds some secret meetings on the subject with Oliver's benefactors. One night Nancy tries to leave for one of the meetings, but Sikes refuses permission when she doesn't state exactly where she's going. Fagin realizes that Nancy is up to something and resolves to find out what her secret is. Meanwhile, Noah has fallen out with the undertaker Mr. Sowerberry, stolen money from him and fled to London. Charlotte has accompanied him — they are now in a relationship. Using the name "Morris Bolter", he joins Fagin's gang for protection and becomes a practicer of "the kinchen lay" (robbing children) while it is implied that Charlotte becomes a prostitute. During Noah's stay with Fagin, the Artful Dodger is caught with a stolen silver snuff box, convicted (in a very humorous courtroom scene) and transported to Australia. Later, Noah is sent by Fagin to "dodge" (spy on) Nancy, and discovers her secret: she has been meeting secretly with Rose and Mr. Brownlow to discuss how to save Oliver from Fagin and Monks. Fagin angrily passes the information on to Sikes, twisting the story just enough to make it sound as if Nancy had informed on him. Believing Nancy to be a traitor, Sikes beats her to death in a fit of rage and later flees to the countryside to escape from the police. There, Sikes is haunted by visions of Nancy's ghost and increasingly alarmed by news of her murder spreading across the countryside. He flees back to London to find a hiding place, only to be killed when he accidentally hangs himself while attempting to flee across a rooftop from an angry mob. Monks is forced by Mr. Brownlow to divulge his secrets: his real name is Edward Leeford, and he is Oliver's paternal half-brother and, although he is legitimate, he was born of a loveless marriage. Oliver's mother, Agnes, was their father's true love. Mr. Brownlow has a picture of her, and began making inquiries when he noticed a marked resemblance between her face and the face of Oliver. Monks has spent many years searching for his father's child—not to befriend him, but to destroy him (see Henry Fielding's Tom Jones for similar circumstances). Brownlow asks Oliver to give half his inheritance (which proves to be meagre) to Monks because he wants to give him a second chance; and Oliver, being prone to giving second chances, is more than happy to comply. Monks then moves to America, where he squanders his money, reverts to crime, and ultimately dies in prison. Fagin is arrested and condemned to the gallows. On the eve of his hanging, in an emotional scene, Oliver, accompanied by Mr. Brownlow, goes to visit the old reprobate in Newgate Gaol, where Fagin's terror at being hanged has caused him to come down with fever. As Mr. Brownlow and Oliver leave the prison, Fagin screams in terror and despair as a crowd gathers to see his hanging. On a happier note, Rose Maylie turns out to be the long-lost sister of Agnes; she is therefore Oliver's aunt. She marries her long-time sweetheart Harry, and Oliver lives happily with his saviour, Mr. Brownlow. Noah becomes a paid, semi-professional informer to the police. The Bumbles lose their jobs and are reduced to great poverty, eventually ending up in the same workhouse where they originally had lorded it over Oliver and the other boys; and Charley Bates, horrified by Sikes's murder of Nancy, becomes an honest citizen, moves to the country, and works his way up to prosperity.

An orphan boy in 1830's London is abused in a workhouse, then falls into the clutches of a gang of thieves. Despite the fact that the Sowerberrys and Noah Claypole appear in the cast list, the entire Sowerberry sequence is omitted from this film, as is Monks, Oliver's half-brother. Rose Maylie becomes Brownlow's daughter in this version, and it is Brownlow's house that Skes attempts to rob. It is possible that early releases of this film did include Noah Claypole and the Sowerberrys.

negative

positive

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz

Dorothy is a young orphaned girl raised by her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in the bleak landscape of a Kansas farm. She has a little black dog Toto, who is her sole source of happiness on the dry, gray prairies. One day the farmhouse, with Dorothy and Toto inside, is caught up in a cyclone and deposited in a field in Munchkin Country, the eastern quadrant of the Land of Oz. The falling house kills the evil ruler of the Munchkins, the Wicked Witch of the East. The Good Witch of the North comes with the Munchkins to greet Dorothy and gives Dorothy the silver shoes (believed to have magical properties) that the Wicked Witch had been wearing when she was killed. In order to return to Kansas, the Good Witch of the North tells Dorothy that she will have to go to the "Emerald City" or "City of Emeralds" and ask the Wizard of Oz to help her. Before she leaves, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, giving her magical protection from trouble. On her way down the road of yellow bricks, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole he is hanging on, restores the movements of the rusted Tin Woodman with an oil can, and encourages them and the Cowardly Lion to journey with her and Toto to the Emerald City. The Scarecrow wants to get a brain, the Tin Woodman a heart, and the Cowardly Lion, courage. All four of the travelers believe that the Wizard can solve their troubles. The party finds many adventures on their journey together, including overcoming obstacles such as narrow pieces of the yellow brick road, vicious Kalidahs, a river, and the Deadly Poppies. When the travelers arrive at the Emerald City, they are asked to wear green spectacles by the Guardian of the Gates as long as they remain in the city. The four are the first to ever successfully meet with the Wizard. When each traveler meets with the Wizard, he appears each time as someone or something different. To Dorothy, the Wizard is a giant head; the Scarecrow sees a beautiful woman; the Tin Woodman sees a ravenous beast; the Cowardly Lion sees a ball of fire. The Wizard agrees to help each of them—but only if one of them kills the Wicked Witch of the West who rules over the western Winkie Country. The Guardian of the Gates warns them that no one has ever managed to harm the very cunning and cruel Wicked Witch. As the friends travel across the Winkie Country, the Wicked Witch sees them coming and attempts various ways of killing them: * First, she sends her 40 great wolves to kill them. The Tin Woodman manages to kill them all. * Then the Wicked Witch of the West sends her 40 crows to peck their eyes out. The Scarecrow manages to kill them by grabbing them and breaking their necks. * Then the Wicked Witch summons a swarm of bees to sting them to death. Using the Scarecrow's extra straw, the others hide underneath them while the bees try to sting the Tin Woodman. * Then the Wicked Witch of the West uses her Winkie soldiers to attack them. They are scared off by the Cowardly Lion. * Using the power of the Golden Cap, the Wicked Witch of the West summons the Winged Monkeys to capture Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion and Toto, and to destroy the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. When the Wicked Witch gains one of Dorothy's silver shoes by trickery, Dorothy in anger grabs a bucket of water and throws it on the Wicked Witch. To her shock, this causes the Witch to melt away, allowing Dorothy to recover the shoe. The Winkies rejoice at being freed of the witch's tyranny, and they help to reassemble the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. The Winkies love the Tin Woodman, and they ask him to become their ruler, which he agrees to do after helping Dorothy return to Kansas. Dorothy, after finding and learning how to use the Golden Cap, summons the Winged Monkeys to carry her and her companions back to the Emerald City. and the King of the Winged Monkeys tells how he and the other monkeys were bound by an enchantment to the cap by the sorceress Gayelette. When Dorothy and her friends meet the Wizard of Oz again, he tries to put them off. Toto accidentally tips over a screen in a corner of the throne room, revealing the Wizard to be an ordinary old man who had journeyed to Oz from Omaha long ago in a hot air balloon. The Wizard has been longing to return to his home and be in a circus again ever since. The Wizard provides the Scarecrow with a head full of bran, pins, and needles ("a lot of bran-new brains"), the Tin Woodman with a silk heart stuffed with sawdust, and the Cowardly Lion a potion of "courage", respectively. Because of their faith in the Wizard's power, these otherwise useless items provide a focus for their desires. In order to help Dorothy and Toto get home, the Wizard realizes that he will have to take them home with him in a new balloon, which he and Dorothy fashion from green silk. Revealing himself to the people of the Emerald City one last time, the Wizard appoints the Scarecrow, by virtue of his brains, to rule in his stead. Dorothy chases Toto after he runs after a kitten in the crowd, and before she can make it back to the balloon, the ropes break, leaving the Wizard to rise and float away alone. Dorothy turns to the Winged Monkeys to carry her and Toto home, but they cannot cross the desert surrounding Oz, subsequently wasting her second wish. The Soldier with the Green Whiskers advises that Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, may be able to send Dorothy and Toto home. Dorothy, Toto, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion journey to Glinda's palace in the Quadling Country. Together they escape the Fighting Trees, tread carefully through the China Country where they meet Mr. Joker, and dodge the armless Hammer-Heads on their hill. The Cowardly Lion kills a giant spider who is terrorizing the animals in a forest and he agrees to return there to rule them after Dorothy returns to Kansas. Dorothy uses her third wish to fly over the Hammer-Heads' mountain, almost losing Toto in the process. At Glinda's palace, the travelers are greeted warmly, and it is revealed by Glinda that Dorothy had the power to go home all along. The Silver Shoes she wears can take her anywhere she wishes to go. She tearfully embraces her friends, all of whom will be returned, through Glinda's use of the Golden Cap, to their respective kingdoms: the Scarecrow to the Emerald City, the Tin Woodman to the Winkie Country, and the Cowardly Lion to the forest. Then she will give the Golden Cap to the King of the Winged Monkeys, so they will never be under its spell again. Having bid her friends farewell one final time, Dorothy knocks her heels together three times, and wishes to return home. When she opens her eyes, Dorothy and Toto have returned to Kansas to a joyful family reunion.

King Krewl ([[Raymond Russell is a cruel dictator in the Emerald City. He wishes to marry his daughter, Princess Gloria ([[Vivian Reed to a buffoonish pantaloon of an old courtier named Googly-Goo , but she is in love with Pon, the Gardener's boy ([[Todd Wright . Krewl employs Mombi to freeze the heart of Gloria so she will not love Pon any longer. This she does by pulling out her heart and coating it with ice. Dorothy runs away with the now heartless Gloria, accompanied by Pon and eventually the Scarecrow . Mombi catches up with the travelers and removes the Scarecrow's stuffing, but Dorothy and Pon are able to re-stuff him; Gloria wanders off. In an effective use of deep focus photography, they meet the lost little boy, Button-Bright . The party next arrive at the Tin Castle of the Tin Woodman , who has rusted solid. Mombi reaches the Tin Castle, and the Tin Woodman chops off her head; however, this merely slows her down as she hunts for it and places it back on. Having replaced her head, Mombi encounters Pon and turns him into a kangaroo. Dorothy, Button-Bright, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman escape from Mombi by crossing a river on a raft. As in the original novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Scarecrow's barge-pole gets stuck in the river bed and leaves him stranded, until he is rescued by a bird. At one point in this sequence, the Scarecrow slides down the pole into the river, resulting a brief "underwater" sequence featuring puppet fish and a mermaid; throughout, the Scarecrow makes asides to the camera, mostly without intertitles. The party encounter the Wizard , who tricks Mombi by letting the group hide in the Red Wagon, pulled by the Sawhorse; when Mombi attempts to follow them, the group escape out the back of the wagon. The four companions meet the Cowardly Lion, who joins them. The Wizard traps Mombi in a container of "Preserved Sandwitches" and paints out the "sand" and the plural, carrying her away in his pocket. The Scarecrow, taking a barrage of arrows, tosses Krewl's soldiers over the battlements to deal with the Cowardly Lion, who cannot climb the rope ladder over the city wall. With the support of the people, the Scarecrow is easily able to depose King Krewl. The Wizard releases Mombi, and compels her to restore Pon to his normal form and unfreeze Gloria's heart.

positive

positive

Rum Punch

Jackie Brown

Set in West Palm Beach and Miami, FL, Rum Punch follows Jackie Burke, a 44-year-old airline stewardess, who has been bringing cash into the country for a gunrunner named Ordell Robbie (whose nickname, Whitebread, comes from the fact that he's a light-skinned African-American). When the cops try to use Jackie to get at Ordell, she hatches a plan—with help from bail bondsman Max Cherry—to keep the money for herself.

Jackie Brown is a flight attendant for a small Mexican airline, the latest step down for her career. To make ends meet, she smuggles money from Mexico into the United States for Ordell Robbie , a gun runner under the close watch of the ATF. Ordell learns that another of his workers, Beaumont Livingston , has been arrested. Fearing that Livingston will become an informant in order to avoid jail time, Ordell arranges for his bail with bondsman Max Cherry . Following his release, Ordell promptly lures Livingston out to be killed. Acting on information Livingston had indeed shared, ATF agent Ray Nicolette and LAPD detective Mark Dargas intercept Jackie as she arrives in the United States with Ordell's cash and some cocaine that Brown was unaware was stashed in her bag. Initially refusing to deal with Nicolette and Dargas, she is sent to jail on possession of drugs with intent to sell. Sensing that Jackie may now be just as likely to inform as Livingston had been, Ordell goes back to Max to arrange her bail. Max arrives to pick her up and, only partly masking his attraction to her, offers to buy her a drink and help determine her legal options. Ordell later arrives at Jackie's house intending to murder her. She surprises him by pulling a gun she surreptitiously borrowed from Max's glove compartment, however, and barters a deal with Ordell whereby she will pretend to help the authorities while still managing to smuggle $500,000 of Ordell's money, enough to allow him to retire. To carry out this plan, Ordell employs Melanie Ralston , a woman he lives with, and Louis Gara , a friend and former cellmate. He also uses a naïve Southern girl, Sheronda. With Jackie's help, Nicolette and Dargas arrange a sting to catch Ordell, unaware that Jackie and Ordell plan to double-cross them by diverting the actual money before the authorities make an arrest. Unbeknownst to the others, Jackie plans to deceive all of them with the help of Max in order to keep the $500,000 for herself. After a trial run, during which Nicolette could observe the operation, the stage is set for the actual event. In a large shopping mall near Los Angeles, Jackie buys a new suit and enters a dressing room. Her role is to swap bags there with Melanie and Louis, supposedly passing off the $500,000 under Nicolette's nose. Instead, she gives Melanie only $50,000 and leaves the rest behind in the dressing room for Max to pick up. Jackie then feigns despair as she calls Nicolette and Dargas out from hiding and claims Melanie took all the money and ran. In the parking lot, Melanie annoys and mocks Louis until he loses his temper and shoots her. Ordell discovers that Louis has only $40,000 in the bag . Ordell realizes his money has been stolen and, also angered to learn that Louis shot Melanie, kills Louis. Ordell's next concern is the involvement of Max Cherry, having been told by Louis that he spotted Max in the store before the pickup. Lured back to Max's office, where Jackie is said to be frightened and waiting to hand over his money, Ordell arrives armed. Jackie yells out that Ordell has a gun and he is shot dead by Nicolette, who had been hiding in another room. In the clear with the law and in possession of the money, minus a 10% cut that Max has taken for himself, Jackie decides to leave the country and travel to Madrid, Spain. Jackie invites Max to leave with her, but he declines before Jackie kisses him goodbye and leaves.

positive

positive

Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher

Dreamcatcher is set near the fictional town of Derry, Maine. It is the story of four lifelong friends: Gary Ambrose "Jonesy" Jones, Pete Moore, Joe "Beaver" Clarendon and Henry Devlin, who save Douglas "Duddits" Cavell, a young teen with Down syndrome, from a group of sadistic bullies. The four friends grow up and away from Duddits, but maintain close bonds with each other, sharing memories of Duddits and their good times together. Each has his own troubles: Beaver is terrible in relationships, Pete is an alcoholic, Henry is suicidal (unknown to his friends), and Jonesy almost died from a severe car accident from when he walked into open traffic, having seen a vision of Duddits calling to him. The four go on a hunting trip together each year, and plan to visit Duddits on their return from this year's trip to the Hole-in-the-Wall (a cabin in the woods). While on the trip, Jonesy finds a disoriented and delirious stranger wandering in the woods during a blizzard, and talking about lights in the sky. The man exhibits dyspepsia and extremely foul flatulence but claims that these are the result of eating berries and lichen while he was lost; he has a reddish discoloration on his face, which he dismisses as an allergic rash. Beaver and Jonesy notice large numbers of animals, all with a similar reddish discoloration, migrating. Henry and Pete, driving back to the cabin, lose control of the car and crash when avoiding a woman sitting in the road. Pete's knee is badly injured while Henry only suffers minor injuries. They approach the woman, who mumbles about lights, mentions the man found by Jonesy, and displays the same foul flatulence and burps. Henry and Pete drag her to a safe clearing; Henry goes to find help and tells Pete to stay with the woman and not to go back to the car for the beer. Beaver attracts the attention of rescuers in helicopters, and is told that the entire area has been put under quarantine. The army quarantine is headed by Colonel Abraham Kurtz. On returning to the cabin, Beaver and Jonesey find the man dead on the toilet, and the floor covered with his blood. They hear the toilet water splashing; Beaver sits on the toilet lid, trapping something inside it. Jonesy rushes to the garage to find duct tape to seal off the toilet while Beaver holds the lid down with his body weight; the creature trapped inside keeps trying to escape. Beaver has a nervous habit of chewing on toothpicks; as he tries to take one from his pocket, the creature hits the seat, and Beaver spills all the toothpicks on the blood-covered floor. One toothpick lands on a clean tile, and Beaver bends down to retrieve it. The trapped creature hits the lid from inside the toilet; Beaver loses his balance and falls to the floor, freeing the creature, which then attacks him. The lost man, his hunting companion the woman, and the stampeding animals all have similar symptoms caused by infection with an extraterrestrial macro virus. Army scientists named this The Ripley, after the protagonist of the Alien series, partly because of its extreme resilience to destruction. The friends discover that eating or inhaling the red mold causes large worm-like aliens, called byrum (derived from the name of the alien mold, byrus) to infest the host. Byrum are red, lamprey-like creatures with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth; a second form of byrus grows on open wounds and mucous membranes. When an infestation is sufficiently established, the host develops a form of telepathy with other infested individuals. The friends name the byrum "shit weasel" because it exits the body through the anus, killing the host. Byrum are highly aggressive and, although small are more than capable of killing a human. The byrum matures into a form called a Gray; in their normal environment they would maintain a symbiotic relationship with their host, but the cold environment causes them to react badly and kill their earthly hosts. Once outside the host they die quickly in the cold, as does the byrus fungus. Colonel Kurtz states that the Grays have tried several times over the past century to attack and gain control of earth, but have failed. This time the Grays are outside a crashed spacecraft, sending radio messages stating that they come in peace and are helpless, to try to fool the Army. Several helicopters are sent to wipe out the Grays; they mainly succeed, but many of the soldiers are exposed to the byrus in the attack. Meanwhile, all people in the area who have been affected by the byrus fungus are rounded up by the Army, with the intention that they will later be executed. Jonesy returns to the bathroom, to discover Beaver being killed by the byrum. Beaver uses the last of his strength to hold onto the byrum to prevent it attacking Jonesy, who closes and bolts the door. The byrum begins to break through the door, and one of the escaped Grays appears behind Jonesy, takes over his body and controls itwith difficulty as the human body is so different to its own. Back in Derry, their childhood friend, Duddits, cries and screams to his mother, "Beaver's Dead! Beaver's dead!" Pete, who had returned to the car for the beer, makes his way back to the woman but finds her dead; the shit weasel has made its escape from her body and attacks Pete, who defeats it by throwing it into a fire they had built for warmth. His battle with the byrum exposes him to the byrus fungus, which begins to cover his body. Henry, meanwhile, gets to Hole-in-the-Wall, and discovers Jonesy taken over by the alien, Mr. Gray. Mr. Gray uses Jonesy's body to leave on a snowmobile. Inside the house, Henry finds Beaver's dead body and the shit weasel that killed him in the bedroom. The byrum is weak from the cold; Henry shoots it and burns a clutch of eggs which it had laid. Henry leaves to seek help, but is captured by the army and placed in quarantine. Flashbacks to their childhood reveal that each man gained a certain degree of telepathy from being in contact with Duddits, who has special powers. Through their friendship and Duddits' powers they find a missing girl, trapped from falling down a hole. Jonesy battles Mr. Gray in his mind, stealing and locking away his memories of Derry and Duddits from Mr. Gray. While Mr. Gray is in control, Jonesy can see everything happening, but can do nothing. Pete finds Jonesy/Mr. Gray who forces him to direct and accompany him to Derry, after which Mr. Gray makes Byrus fungus constrict and kill Pete. Henry convinces Army officer Owen Underhill to help him, revealing deep memories of the man through the telepathy gained from Duddits. Henry tells Underhill about Jonesy, that he thinks the alien is planning to infect the town's water supply with byrus, and that cold is fatal to the byrus, therefore infected people do not need to be executed. They form a plan. Henry communicates telepathically with the byrus-infected captives, showing them that the Army intends to execute them. They panic and riot; many are killed attempting to escape, but most flee into the woods. Kurtz discovers the plan formulated by Henry and Underhill; he gathers a few of his men, and an officer infected with a byrum, and pursues Henry and the "rogue" officer Underhill. Mr. Gray loses his way in the town, following old memories in place of the new ones stolen by Jonesy. Mr. Gray eventually becomes weak from hunger, not recognising what it is; Jonesy guides him to a diner to buy time. Henry and Underhill make their way to Duddits, as Henry believes he is the only hope to defeat Mr. Gray; they find Duddits already packed up and ready to go as he knew they were coming. Duddits is very sick with leukemia; his mother is reluctant to let him go, but she accepts that Duddits needs to help his friends, and that he would be much happier dying in their company than dying alone in his room. Mr. Gray eventually gets to the water supply for several cities in the area; Henry and Duddits confront him. Duddits uses his powers to force Henry and Jonesy into a place in which Mr. Gray, inside of Jonesy, will be vulnerable; he and Henry kill Mr. Gray. As Henry and Jonesy make their way back to their original bodies they find that Duddits has died from the combination of overusing his powers and leukemia. Outside, Kurtz finds Underhill and they are both killed. The byrum from the infected officer escapes but dies in the fire. The last of the alien byrus on earth dies.

Henry , Beaver ([[Jason Lee , Pete and Jonesy are four friends on an annual hunting trip in Maine. As children, they all acquired telepathy which they call "the line". A flashback shows them as they save a mentally handicapped boy named Douglas "Duddits" Cavell from bullies and befriend him. Jonesy sees Duddits beckoning him to cross the street, but as he does so Jonesy is hit by a car. His injuries heal with mysterious speed and 6 months later he is able to make the group's annual trip. Jonesy and Beaver meet a man lost in the forest named Rick McCarthy . He is very ill so the group lets him rest inside their cabin nearby. Military helicopters fly over the area and announce that the area will be quarantined. Jonesy and Beaver return to the cabin to find a deceased Rick in the bathroom, the room covered with moss and gore. A large worm tries to escape from the bathroom after being excreted into the toilet by Rick before he died. Beaver attempts to trap the creature under the toilet lid, but the lamprey-like worm, with multiple rows of razor-sharp teeth, kills him. Jonesy escapes from the cabin but runs into a large alien called Mr. Grey, who possesses Jonesy's body. Nearby, Henry and Pete crash their vehicle as they nearly avoid running over a frostbitten woman from Rick's original hunting party. Henry walks for help while Pete stays with the woman. She dies and also excretes a worm, which Pete barely manages to kill. Mr. Grey then captures Pete, but Jonesy telepathically warns Henry to stay hidden. Henry returns to the cabin to find Beaver dead and the worm that killed him now laying a group of eggs. In order to kill all of the alien larvae he sets fire to the cabin. Meanwhile, a military unit led by Curtis , seeks to contain everyone exposed to the aliens. Curtis sends Owen to lead an air strike against the aliens crashed spaceship. The aliens use telepathy to distract the pilots, but the four Apaches and Curtis' Little Bird massacre most of the aliens with miniguns and missiles. The alien ship then self-destructs destroying the remaining aliens and two helicopters. Henry arrives at the base as the remaining helicopters land and convinces Owen to reveal the camp to the U.S. Army. After tracking Owen through a chip in his gun, Curtis escapes in a helicopter. Jonesy retraces his memories of the area while watching Mr. Grey use his body. Mr. Grey tries to coerce Pete into cooperating but cannibalises him when he refuses. Jonesy realizes that Mr. Grey possessed him, not by chance, but to access past memories of Duddits which he needs. Henry and Owen go to Duddits' home, where he tells them that Mr. Grey is headed for Quabbin Reservoir to seed the water with alien larva. Arriving at the reservoir Owen is ambushed by Curtis' helicopter and mortally injured, but manages to ground Curtis. Henry takes Owen's weapon and kills Mr. Grey's worm. Duddits confronts Mr. Grey, who finally exits Jonesy's body. Duddits then reveals that he himself is an alien and attacks, causing both aliens to explode in a cloud of red dust which briefly resembles a dreamcatcher. Jonesy, now himself again, steps on the final worm that was just about to contaminate the water.

positive

positive

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Lord Voldemort has returned and his wrath has been felt in both the Muggle (non-magical) and Wizarding worlds. Severus Snape, a member of Dumbledore's anti-Voldemort Order of the Phoenix but formerly one of Voldemort's Death Eaters, meets with Narcissa Malfoy, mother of Harry Potter's school rival Draco. Snape makes an Unbreakable Vow to Narcissa, promising to assist and protect Draco. Meanwhile, Dumbledore collects Harry from his aunt and uncle's house and takes him to the home of Horace Slughorn, former Potions teacher at Hogwarts. Dumbledore tries to persuade a reluctant Slughorn to return to teaching and finally succeeds. Later, when shopping for schoolbooks, Harry and his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger follow Draco Malfoy to Dark Arts supplier Borgin and Burkes, where they overhear Draco insisting that the store-owner fix an unknown object. Harry is instantly suspicious of Draco, whom he believes to be a Death Eater like his father. The students return to school, where Dumbledore announces that Snape, the previous Potions teacher, will be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts, while Slughorn will resume his post as Potions teacher. This allows Harry to continue with a Potions course, in which he now excels, thanks mainly due to having received a used Potions textbook that once belonged to someone named "The Half-Blood Prince", which is heavily annotated. Harry falls in love with Ron's sister Ginny, and Ron and his girlfriend Lavender Brown break up, to Hermione's delight. Harry spends much of his time following Draco Malfoy for any proof of suspicious actions, though he often cannot find him on his magical map of Hogwarts. Harry realises that when Draco is not on the map, he is using the Room of Requirement on the seventh floor of Hogwarts, which transforms into whatever its user needs. Harry is unable to gain access to the room unless he knows for what exact purpose Draco is using the room. Believing that Harry needs to learn Voldemort's past to gain advantage in a foretold fight, Dumbledore schedules regular meetings with Harry in which they use Dumbledore's Pensieve to look at memories of those who have had direct contact with Voldemort. Harry learns about Voldemort's family and the influences that corrupted Voldemort. Harry eventually succeeds in retrieving one of Slughorn's memories about how he revealed the secrets about splitting one's soul and hiding it in several objects called Horcruxes. Dumbledore explains that two of these have already been destroyed but that others remain. He suspects three of those to be objects belonging to three of the Hogwarts founders (one for each except Gryffindor), and the last one to reside in Voldemort's snake. Harry and Dumbledore leave Hogwarts to fetch and destroy one of the Horcruxes. They journey into a cave important to Voldemort's youth that Dumbledore senses is protected with magic. They reach the basin where the purported Horcrux is hidden underneath a potion. Dumbledore drinks the potion and Harry fights off Voldemort's Inferi, an army of re-animated corpses. They take the Horcrux, Slytherin's locket, and return to Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Dumbledore is very weak, and when they reach Hogsmeade they can see the Dark Mark, Voldemort's symbol, visible above the astronomy tower. When they arrive at the tower, Dumbledore uses his magic to freeze Harry in place while Harry remains hidden by his cloak of invisibility. When Draco Malfoy arrives, he disarms and threatens to kill Dumbledore, acting on his mission from Voldemort. Dumbledore tries to stall Draco by telling him he is not a killer, but Snape bursts into the tower and kills Dumbledore. Because of Dumbledore's death, his spell on Harry is broken and Harry rushes after Snape to avenge Dumbledore's death. Snape reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince and manages to escape. Later, Harry finds out that the locket that he and Dumbledore retrieved is not the real Horcrux; containing only a note from someone named "R. A. B". After Dumbledore's funeral, Hermione explains to Harry that Snape was called the Half-Blood Prince because he had a Muggle father and a magical mother (whose maiden name was Prince). Harry is devastated to think that he trusted and took help from the man who would turn out to be Dumbledore's murderer. He tells his friends that he will not be returning to Hogwarts next year and will instead search out and kill Voldemort by destroying all of the Horcruxes. Ron and Hermione vow to join him.

{{further2}} Harry is shown bleeding in front of the Ministry of Magic, as the result of an attack that took place after the second-to-last scene of the previous film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Lord Voldemort is tightening his grip on both the Wizarding and Muggle worlds and has chosen Draco Malfoy to carry out a secret mission. Severus Snape accepts Bellatrix Lestrange's challenge to make an Unbreakable Vow with Draco's mother, Narcissa, to protect Draco and fulfill the assignment if he fails. Harry accompanies Albus Dumbledore to visit former potions professor Horace Slughorn, who has gone into hiding. Slughorn agrees to return to teach at Hogwarts as Dumbledore tells Harry that Slughorn's return to Hogwarts is crucial. Leaving Fred and George's new shop, Harry, Ron and Hermione notice Draco and Narcissa associating with Death Eaters in Borgin and Burkes. Harry believes Voldemort has made Draco a Death Eater, but Ron and Hermione are sceptical. On the Hogwarts Express, Harry spies on Draco, who hints to his friends that he does not plan to return to Hogwarts next year. Draco discovers Harry's presence and immobilises him, but Harry is rescued by Luna with her Spectrespecs. At Hogwarts, Harry and Ron are admitted to Slughorn's potions class at the last minute and have to borrow the needed textbooks because they don't have their own. Harry's copy is inscribed on the fly page as the "Half-Blood Prince." This owner, Harry finds, had annotated the book with additional instructions — tips and recommendations that allow Harry to excel in the class. As for Ron, he becomes the Keeper of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and, thinking he has been given a Good Luck potion by Harry, Ron becomes a sports hero and partially as a result, he forms a romantic relationship with Lavender Brown, leaving Hermione disconsolate. Harry discovers Hermione sobbing in the Astronomy Tower, where he reveals to her that he has feelings for Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley. Harry spends Christmas with the Weasleys and becomes closer to Ginny. They almost share a kiss on Christmas Eve but Bellatrix and Fenrir Greyback, intent on capturing Harry, attack and burn the Burrow, home of the Weasleys. Outnumbered, Bellatrix and Greyback abandon their attack as Order members Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin, together with Harry and the Weasleys, watch the structure burn. After being cured of a love potion meant for Harry, Ron is nearly killed by a drink originally intended for Dumbledore. While recovering, Ron murmurs Hermione's name in the hospital, in front of both Hermione and Lavender. Suspecting that Draco was responsible for two attempts on Dumbledore's life, one of which has almost killed Ron, Harry confronts Draco and severely injures him with a Sectumsempra curse taken from the textbook of the Half-Blood Prince. Harry, shocked that the curse has slliced open Draco's chest, retreats as Severus Snape enters and magically heals Draco's wound. Fearing the book may be filled with more Dark Magic, Ginny and Harry hide it in the Room of Requirement and, while doing so, share their first kiss. Dumbledore shows Harry memories of a young Tom Riddle and reveals that Slughorn retains a memory critical to Voldemort's defeat. Harry retrieves the memory, learning that Voldemort wanted information for creating seven Horcruxes. The Horcrux safeguards a portion of the creator's soul, granting him immortality unless the Horcrux is destroyed. Two of Voldemort's Horcruxes have already been destroyed: Tom Riddle's diary and Marvolo Gaunt's ring. Touching the ring, Harry has a vision of Voldemort, which is noticed by Dumbledore. After discovering the possible location of another Horcrux, Dumbledore requests Harry's help to retrieve it. They travel to a far-away cave where Harry is forced to make Dumbledore drink a mind-altering potion that hides the Horcrux, a locket. A weakened Dumbledore defends them from a horde of Inferi and apparates himself and Harry back to the Astronomy Tower at Hogwarts. In the meantime, Bellatrix, Greyback and several other Death Eaters enter the castle with Draco's help. Upon arriving at the tower, Dumbledore tells Harry to fetch Snape but as footsteps approach, he orders Harry to hide. Draco reveals that he has been chosen by Voldemort to kill Dumbledore, but he is unable to follow through. Snape arrives and casts the Avada Kedavra curse, killing Dumbledore. As Bellatrix casts the Dark Mark, Snape, Draco and the Death Eaters escape from the castle. Bellatrix destroys the Great Hall and sets fire to Hagrid's hut as Harry attempts to stop them. Snape overpowers Harry and reveals that he is the Half-Blood Prince before escaping. Harry returns to the school to find the staff and students mourning Dumbledore. Led by Minerva McGonagall, the students and teachers destroy the Dark Mark to honour Dumbledore whereupon Harry is comforted by Ginny. Harry later reveals to Ron and Hermione that the locket Horcrux was a fake. The locket contains a message from an "R.A.B." to Voldemort stating that he has stolen the real Horcrux with the intent of destroying it. His dying wish is that when Voldemort meets his match he will be mortal once more. Rather than return for their final year at Hogwarts, Harry, Ron and Hermione vow to seek out who R.A.B. was and to find the remaining Horcruxes.

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Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair

The story opens with Miss Pinkerton's Academy for Young Ladies, where Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley have just completed their studies and are preparing to depart for Amelia's house in Russell Square. Becky is portrayed as a strong-willed and cunning young woman determined to make her way in society, and Amelia Sedley as a good-natured, lovable though simple-minded young girl. At Russell Square, Miss Sharp is introduced to the dashing and self-obsessed Captain George Osborne (to whom Amelia has been betrothed from a very young age) and to Amelia's brother Joseph Sedley, a clumsy and vainglorious/boastful but rich civil servant fresh from the East India Company. Hoping to marry Sedley Becky entices him, but she fails because of warnings from Captain Osborne, Sedley's own native shyness, and his embarrassment over some foolish drunken behaviour of his that Becky had seen. Now, Becky Sharp says farewell to Sedley's family and enters the service of the crude and profligate baronet Sir Pitt Crawley, who has engaged her as a governess to his daughters. Her behaviour at Sir Pitt's house gains his favour, and after the premature death of his second wife, he proposes marriage to her. Then he finds she is already secretly married to his second son, Rawdon Crawley. Sir Pitt's elder half sister, the spinster Miss Crawley, is very rich, having inherited her mother's fortune of £70,000. How she will bequeath her great wealth is a source of constant conflict between the branches of the Crawley family who vie shamelessly for her affections; initially her favourite is Sir Pitt's younger son, Captain Rawdon Crawley. For some time, Becky acts as Miss Crawley's companion, supplanting the loyal Miss Briggs in an attempt to establish herself in favour before breaking the news of her elopement with Miss Crawley's nephew. However, the misalliance so enrages Miss Crawley that she disinherits her nephew in favour of his pompous and pedantic elder brother, who also bears the name Pitt Crawley. The married couple constantly attempts to reconcile with Miss Crawley, and she relents a little, but she will only see her nephew and refuses to change her will. While Becky Sharp is rising in the world, Amelia's father, John Sedley, is bankrupted. The Sedleys and Osbornes were once close allies, but the relationship between the two families disintegrates after the Sedleys are financially ruined, and the marriage of Amelia and George is forbidden. George ultimately decides to marry Amelia against his father's will, pressured by his friend Dobbin, and George is consequently disinherited. While these personal events take place, the Napoleonic Wars have been ramping up. George Osborne and William Dobbin are suddenly deployed to Brussels, but not before an encounter with Becky and Captain Crawley at Brighton. The holiday is interrupted by orders to march to Brussels. Already, the newly wedded Osborne is growing tired of Amelia, and he becomes increasingly attracted to Becky who encourages his advances. At a ball in Brussels (based on the Duchess of Richmond's famous ball on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo) George gives Becky a note inviting her to run away with him. He regrets this shortly afterwards and reconciles with Amelia, who has been deeply hurt by his attentions towards her former friend. The morning after, he is sent to Waterloo with Captain Crawley and Dobbin, leaving Amelia distraught. Becky, on the other hand, is virtually indifferent to her husband's departure. She tries to console Amelia, but Amelia responds angrily, disgusted by Becky's flirtatious behaviour with George and her lack of concern about Captain Crawley. Becky resents this snub and a rift develops between the two women that lasts for years. Becky is not very concerned for the outcome of the war, either; should Napoleon win, she plans to become the mistress of one of his marshals. Meanwhile she makes a profit selling her carriage and horses at inflated prices to Amelia's panicking brother Joseph seeking to flee the city, where the Belgian population is openly pro-Napoleonic. Captain Crawley survives, but George dies in the battle. Amelia bears him a posthumous son, who is also named George. She returns to live in genteel poverty with her parents. Meanwhile, since the death of George, Dobbin, who is young George's godfather, gradually begins to express his love for the widowed Amelia by small kindnesses toward her and her son. Most notable is the recovery of her old piano, which Dobbin picks up at an auction following the Sedleys' ruin. Amelia mistakenly assumes this was done by her late husband. She is too much in love with George's memory to return Dobbin's affections. Saddened, he goes to India for many years. Dobbin's infatuation with Amelia is a theme which unifies the novel and one which many have compared to Thackeray's unrequited love for a friend's wife (Jane Brookfield). Meanwhile, Becky also has a son, also named after his father, but unlike Amelia, who dotes on and even spoils her child, Becky is a cold, distant mother. She continues her ascent first in post-war Paris and then in London where she is patronised by the great Marquis of Steyne, who covertly subsidises her and introduces her to London society. Her success is unstoppable despite her humble origins, and she is eventually presented at court to the Prince Regent himself. Becky and Rawdon appear to be financially successful, but their wealth and high standard of living are mostly smoke and mirrors. Rawdon gambles heavily and earns money as a billiards shark. The book also suggests he cheats at cards. Becky accepts trinkets and money from her many admirers and sells some for cash. She also borrows heavily from the people around her and seldom pays bills. The couple lives mostly on credit, and while Rawdon seems to be too dim-witted to be aware of the effect of his borrowing on the people around him, Becky is fully aware that her heavy borrowing and her failure to pay bills bankrupts at least two innocent people: her servant, Briggs, whose life savings Becky borrows and fritters away, and her landlord Raggles, who was formerly a butler to the Crawley family and who invested his life savings in the townhouse that Becky and Rawdon rent (and fail to pay for). She also cheats innkeepers, milliners, dressmakers, grocers, and others who do business on credit. She and Rawdon obtain credit by tricking everyone around them into believing they are receiving money from others. Sometimes, Becky and Rawdon buy time from their creditors by suggesting Rawdon received money in Miss Crawley's will or are being paid a stipend by Sir Pitt. Ultimately Becky is suspected of carrying on an extramarital affair with the Marquis of Steyne, apparently encouraged by Rawdon to prostitute herself in exchange for money and promotion. At the summit of her success, Becky's pecuniary relationship with the rich and powerful Marquis of Steyne is discovered after Rawdon is arrested for debt. Rawdon's brother's wife, Lady Jane, bails him out and Rawdon surprises Becky and Steyne in a compromising moment. Rawdon leaves his wife and through the offices of the Marquis of Steyne is made Governor of Coventry Island to get him out of the way, but Rawdon challenges the elderly marquis to a duel. Becky, having lost both husband and credibility, is warned by Steyne to leave the United Kingdom and she wanders the continent. Rawdon and Becky's son is left in the care of Pitt Crawley and Lady Jane. However, wherever Becky goes, she is followed by the shadow of the Marquis of Steyne. No sooner does she establish herself in polite society than someone turns up who knows her disreputable history and spreads rumours; Steyne himself hounds her out of Rome. As Amelia's adored son George grows up, his grandfather relents and takes him from poor Amelia, who knows the rich and bitter old man will give him a much better start in life than she or her family could ever manage. After twelve years abroad, both Joseph Sedley and Dobbin return to the UK. Dobbin professes his unchanged love to Amelia, but although Amelia is affectionate she tells him she cannot forget the memory of her dead husband. Dobbin also becomes close to young George, and his kind, firm manner is a good influence on the spoiled child. While in England, Dobbin mediates a reconciliation between Amelia and her father-in-law. The death of Amelia's father prevents their meeting, but following Osborne's death soon after, it is revealed that he had amended his will and bequeathed young George half his large fortune and Amelia a generous annuity. The rest is divided between his daughters, Miss Osborne, and Mrs. Bullock, who begrudges Amelia and her son the decrease in her annuity. After the death of old Mr. Osborne, Amelia, Joseph, George and Dobbin go on a trip to Germany, where they encounter the destitute Becky. She meets the young George at a card table and then enchants Jos Sedley all over again. Becky has unfortunately deteriorated as a character. She is drinking heavily, has lost her singing voice and much of her looks and spends time with card sharps and con artists. The book suggests that Becky has been involved in activities even more shady than her usual con games, but does not go into details. Following Jos' entreaties, Amelia agrees to a reconciliation (when she hears that Becky's ties with her son have been severed), much to Dobbin's disapproval. Dobbin quarrels with Amelia and finally realizes that he is wasting his love on a woman too shallow to return it. However, Becky, in a moment of conscience, shows Amelia the note that George (Amelia's dead husband) had given her, asking her to run away with him. This destroys Amelia's idealized image of George, but not before Amelia has sent a note to Dobbin professing her love. Becky resumes her seduction of Jos and gains control over him. He eventually dies of a suspicious ailment after signing a portion of his money to Becky as life insurance. In the original illustrations, which were done by Thackeray, Becky is shown behind a curtain with a vial in her hand; the picture is labelled "Becky's second appearance in the character of Clytemnestra" (she had played Clytemnestra during charades at a party earlier in the book). Jos' death appears to have made her fortune. By a twist of fate Rawdon dies weeks before his older brother, whose son has already died; the baronetcy descends to Rawdon's son. Had he outlived his brother by even a day he would have become Sir Rawdon Crawley and Becky would have become Lady Crawley, a title she uses anyway in later life. The reader is informed at the end of the novel that although Dobbin married Amelia, and although he always treated her with great kindness, he never fully regained the love that he once had for her. There is also a final appearance for Becky, as cocky as ever, selling trinkets at a fair in aid of various charitable causes. She is now living well again as her son, the new baronet, has agreed to financially support her (in spite of her past neglect and indifference towards him).

{{Plot|dateAlternate ending Becky Sharp arrives at her brother-in-law's house . As Becky nears the house a servant questions her and tells her that the funeral of Sir Pitt Crawley is being held there. While talking to the servant, Becky spots a young man and asks the servant who it is. He replies: the new baronet, Sir Rawdon Crawley , Becky's son. Sir Rawdon notices her and asks if there is any way he may help. Thinking that he doesn't know who she is, Becky replies that she isn't sure he would want to help her if he knew who she was. Rawdon reveals that he knows who she is, and when Becky tries to reach out for her son, he steps back. Becky then tries to convince him that she still loves him, even though she abandoned him. Lady Jane appears, in mourning, and Rawdon exclaims that "she is here to claim me as her own." Lady Jane replies that he is. Rawdon says that it is too late for her to play the mother now, before he turns and leaves. Lady Jane explains to Becky what has happened and leads her to her late husband's grave, where she makes a speech about "love is vanity's conqueror." During the speech, Becky's son stands behind her and takes her hand in his. The scene ends with Becky repeating Lady Jane's words.

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Old Yeller

Old Yeller

Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother Arliss while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog. Though Travis initially loathes the "rascal" and at first tries to get rid of it, Old Yeller eventually proves his worth, saving the family on several occasions. Travis grows to love this dog named Old Yeller. And they become great friends. The rightful owner of Yeller shows up looking for his dog. The owner recognizes that the family has become attached to Yeller, and trades the dog to Arliss for a home-cooked meal prepared by Travis's mother, who is an exceptional cook. Old Yeller becomes exposed to rabies while defending the family from an infected wolf. They try to nurse Yeller back to health, but in the end Travis is forced to shoot the dog. Old Yeller's had puppies with one of Travis's friend's dogs, and the puppy helps Travis get over Old Yeller's death.

In 1860s post-Civil War Texas, Jim Coates leaves home to work on a cattle drive, leaving behind his wife Katie , older son Travis and younger son Arliss . The family is so poor the children have never seen a dollar bill, other than worthless Confederate dollars. While Jim is away, Travis sets off to work in the cornfield, where he encounters "Old Yeller", a Black Mouth Cur. Travis unsuccessfully tries to drive Old Yeller away, but Arliss likes the dog and defends him. However, Old Yeller's habit of stealing meat from smokehouses and robbing hens' nests does not endear him to Travis. Later, Arliss tries to capture a bear cub by feeding it cornbread and grabbing it. The angry mother bear hears her cub wailing and attacks, but Old Yeller appears and drives off the bear, earning the affection of the family. Travis eventually accepts the dog and a profound bond grows between the two. Old Yeller's owner, Burn Sanderson , shows up looking for his dog, but comes to realize that the family needs the dog more than he does, and agrees to trade the dog to Arliss in exchange for a horny toad and a home-cooked meal. One day, Travis sets out to trap wild boars. On the advice of Bud Searcy , he sits in a tree, trying to rope them from above as Yeller keeps them from escaping. Travis falls into the pack of boars below, one of which injures him. Yeller attacks the boar and rescues Travis, who escapes with a badly-hurt leg. Yeller is seriously wounded as well. Searcy warns the Coates family of hydrophobia in the area. Fortunately, the boars did not have hydrophobia, and both boy and dog fully recover. However, the family soon realize that their cow, Old Rose, has not been allowing her calf to feed, and may have rabies. Watching her stumble about, Travis confirms it and shoots her. While Katie and Lizbeth burn the body that night, a rabid wolf attacks. Yeller defends the family, but is bitten in the struggle before Travis can shoot and kill the wolf. The family pens Yeller in a corn crib for several weeks to watch him. Soon when Travis goes to feed Old Yeller, Yeller growls and snarls at Travis. After Yeller nearly attacks Arliss, who, not understanding the danger, had attempted to open the cage, a grieving Travis is forced to shoot Yeller. In doing so, he takes his first step towards adulthood. Heartbroken from the death of his beloved dog, Travis refuses the offer of a new puppy sired by Yeller. Jim comes home with a bagful of money and presents for the family. Having learned about Yeller's fate from Katie, he explains to his son the facts about life and death. When they get back to the farm, the young puppy steals a piece of meat, a trick he learned from his father. Travis adopts the puppy, naming him "Young Yeller" in honor of his sire.

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Casino Royale

Casino Royale

M, the Head of the Secret Service, assigns James Bond, Special Agent 007, to play against and bankrupt Le Chiffre, the paymaster for a SMERSH-controlled trade union, in a high-stakes baccarat game at the Royale-Les-Eaux casino in northern France. As part of Bond's cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, personal assistant to the Head of Section S (Soviet Union). The French Deuxième Bureau and the CIA also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into an intense confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond; Le Chiffre wins the first round, bankrupting Bond. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, CIA agent Felix Leiter helps Bond and gives him an envelope with thirty-two million francs and a note: "Marshall Aid. Thirty-two million francs. With the compliments of the USA." The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffre's minders to kill Bond. Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH. Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Vesper and subjects Bond to brutal torture, threatening to kill them both if he does not get the money back: before he does so, a SMERSH assassin bursts in and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders so to do, but cuts a Cyrillic 'Ш' (sh) to signify the SHpion (Russian for spy) into Bond's hand so that future SMERSH agents will be able to identify him as such. Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in the hospital and he gradually realises that he loves her; he even contemplates leaving Her Majesty's Secret Service to settle down with her. When Bond is released, they spend time together at a quiet guest house and eventually become lovers. One day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Vesper. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide. She leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the MVD. SMERSH had kidnapped her lover, a Polish RAF pilot, who had revealed information about her under torture; SMERSH then used that information to blackmail her into helping them undermine Bond's mission, including her own faked kidnapping. She had tried to start a new life with Bond, but upon seeing Gettler – a SMERSH agent – she realised that she would never be free of her tormentors and that staying with Bond would only put him in danger. Bond informs his service of Vesper's duplicity, coldly telling his contact, "The bitch is dead now."

The story of Casino Royale is told in an episodic format and is best outlined in "chapters". Val Guest oversaw the assembly of the sections, although he turned down the credit of "co-ordinating director".<ref nameOpening sequencePlot summaryon}} tall, leaving him as the "big man" who gets all the girls. Jimmy goes to check on The Detainer, and tries to convince her to be his queen, she apparently agrees, but foils his plan by poisoning him with one of his own atomic pills, which will cause him to hiccup till he explodes. Sir James, Moneypenny, Mata and Coop manage to escape from their cell and fight their way back to the Casino Director's office where Sir James establishes Vesper is a double agent. The casino is then overrun by secret agents and a battle ensues. Eventually, Jimmy's atomic pill explodes, destroying Casino Royale along with everyone inside. Sir James and all of his agents then appear in heaven and Jimmy Bond is shown descending to hell.

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Candy: A Novel of Love and Addiction

Candy

As with the movie version the book is broken down into three sections, excluding the prologue and epilogue. Part one: Invincibility, Part two: The Kingdom of Momentum, Part three: The Momentum of Change. In the beginning everything seems perfect for the unnamed narrator and Candy,(the girl and the drug), things are new and exciting. Of course in both relationships and addiction things do not remain so perfect or beautiful. Candy is introduced to heroin very gradually by snorting it, but soon she decides she wants to try it his way. This excites him as he believes it means she doesn't want "second best" and they truly are "soul mates". She nearly dies of an overdose but it does not prevent Candy from wanting to do more and more. Eventually the hunger leads to horrible choices to feed the addiction. When they try to get money by pawning a necklace Candy is offered a very small amount, but the pawnbroker thinks they can " work something out". She has sex with him for a pitiful sum. An action that is regretted by the narrator but he also knows they have held off the demons of withdrawal another day. From there brothel work, escort, and finally street prostitution become part of daily life. They try to get clean several times and Candy does in fact get detoxed early in the story but that lasts a very short time. After their attempts they "reward" themselves with a "blast", figuring it isn't really a bad idea after how far they have come. In one of their attempts to achieve normal lives they get married and it is in the narrators words "Obviously it was a big dope weekend. You want to be relaxed at your own wedding" They really do seem to love each other but is it only an illusion of heroin is the big question. They continue on their path of disaster through very high ups and extremely low downs. An unexpected pregnancy gives them a reason to get clean but they fail yet again and Candy prematurely delivers a baby boy who lives only seconds. Soon after Candy is tired of earning all the money while they share all the dope, and the narrator feels like he is less of a man for allowing her to do what she does to make the money. When a friend Candy knew in the past comes back from the US they feel as if their prayers have been answered. Casper is a chemistry genius and makes his own "Yellow Jesus". He is convinced to sell the recipe and give cooking lessons. Suddenly Candy only has to work when they need the cash for chemicals and equipment, and the narrator can keep them in all the heroin they need with extra to sell. There are a few disasters including a watered batch, and a fellow user with worse veins than the narrator spraying blood around the flat when his detachable head syringe blows off after he pierces his carotid artery trying to shoot up. Finally they decide to give methadone a try and things start to look better, for a while anyway. They move to the country thinking another fresh start is what they need but it goes very wrong. They begin fighting more and Candy begins acting strange. After she has an affair with a neighbor who deals pot, things fall apart. The narrator leaves and stays with an old friend who he angers, being kicked out after two days. He begins his own affair but is soon called by Candy's father. Candy has had a full nervous breakdown and is hospitalised. He makes his way home to find a very changed and very delusional Candy. After she is released they try one more time but he breaks the rules after running into Casper. Candy leaves him and shortly after Casper is caught making heroin. His employer sends him to rehab but Casper leaves, knowing it is the end of his career if he does. He gets anti-depressants, alcohol, goes to his lab and cooks one last batch, committing suicide. The narrator goes into rehab and gets sober. He sees Candy the first chance he is allowed and she tells him she knows they have to end. They have to stay apart to be clean.

A poet named Dan falls in love with an art student named Candy who gravitates to his bohemian lifestyle – and his love of heroin. Hooked as much on one another as they are on the drug, their relationship alternates between states of oblivion, self-destruction, and despair. The film is organized in three acts of roughly 3 scenes each, titled Heaven, Earth, and Hell: In Heaven, sex and drugs are experienced ecstatically by the young lovers. They continuously seek money to buy drugs, borrowing from Candy's parents or Casper , an eccentric university professor, selling things, stealing, and even prostituting when desperate. In Earth they are married and confront the realities of addiction and family life. For money, Candy becomes a prostitute; Dan purchases the drugs. Dan steals a credit card, gets the owner's PIN, and steals money out of the owner's bank funds. Candy mistakenly becomes pregnant, and despite their efforts to "go clean" the baby is delivered still born around 23 weeks into the pregnancy. They finally stop taking drugs with huge effort, going through agonizing withdrawal symptoms in the process. Despite poor living conditions, constant struggles for money, and frequent disputes, they love each other very much. In Hell they experience the dissolution of their relationship and recovery. Dan and Candy choose to move out into the country to "try methadone" as a way to ease into a more normal life. After a disastrous Sunday lunch, Candy fights with her parents, breaks down and screams at them to leave. Eventually, she becomes involved with one of their neighbors, who is also a drug user, and relapses to her previous lifestyle. Candy has a complete mental breakdown, and becomes extremely distant toward Dan. He returns to Casper only to find he has died of a drug overdose, forcing Dan to reconsider his life. While Candy recovers in a clinic, Dan gets clean and holds down a job as a dishwasher. When Candy returns to Dan he recognizes that their relationship is based on heroin, and the two can no longer communicate. As such, even though he is still in love with Candy, he decides to end the relationship for good rather than risk dragging her back into addiction.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424880/faq#.2.1.5

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negative

The Song of Bernadette

The Song of Bernadette

The story of Bernadette Soubirous and Our Lady of Lourdes is told by Werfel with many embellishments, such as the chapter in which Bernadette is invited to board at the home of a rich woman who thinks Bernadette's visionary "lady" might be her deceased daughter. In side-stories and back story, the history of the town of Lourdes, the contemporary political situation in France, and the responses of believers and detractors are delineated. Werfel describes Bernadette as a religious peasant girl who would have preferred to continue on with an ordinary life, but takes the veil as a nun after she is told that because "Heaven chose her", she must choose Heaven. Bernadette's service as a sacristan, artist-embroiderer, and nurse in the convent are depicted, along with her spiritual growth. After her death, her body as well as her life are scrutinized for indications that she is a saint, and at last she is canonized. The novel is laid out in five sections of ten chapters each, in a deliberate nod to the Catholic Rosary. Unusual for a novel, the entire first part, which describes the events on the day that Bernadette first saw the Virgin Mary, is told in the present tense, as if it were happening at the moment. The rest of the novel is in the past tense.

François Soubirous , a former miller now unemployed, is forced to take odd jobs and live at the city jail with his wife , his two sons, and his two daughters. One morning he goes to find work, and is told to take contaminated trash from the hospital and dump it in the cave at Lourdes. At the Catholic school which she and her sisters attend, fourteen-year old Bernadette Soubirous is shamed in front of the class by Sister Vauzous, the teacher , for not having learned her catechism well. Her sister Marie explains that Bernadette was out sick with asthma. Abbé Dominique Peyramale enters and awards the students holy cards, but is told by Sister Vauzous that Bernadette does not deserve one, because she has not studied, and that it would not be fair to the other students. Peyramale encourages Bernadette to study harder. Later that afternoon, on an errand with her sister Marie and school friend Jeanne ([[Mary Anderson to collect firewood outside the town of Lourdes, Bernadette is left behind when her companions warn her not to wade through the cold river by the Massabielle caves for fear of taking ill. About to cross anyway, Bernadette is distracted by a strange breeze and a change in the light. Investigating the cave, she finds a beautiful lady standing in brilliant light, holding a pearl rosary. She tells her sister and friend, who promise not to tell anyone else, but of course they do, and the story soon spreads all over town. Many, including Bernadette's Aunt Bernarde , are convinced of her sincerity and stand up for her against her disbelieving parents, but Bernadette faces civil and church authorities alone. Repeatedly questioned, she stands solidly behind her outlandish story and continues to return to the cave as the lady has asked. She faces ridicule as the lady tells her to drink and wash at a spring that doesn't exist, but digs a hole in the ground and uses the wet sand and mud. The water begins to flow later and exhibits miraculous healing properties. The lady finally identifies herself as "the Immaculate Conception". Civil authorities try to have Bernadette declared insane, while Abbé Peyramale, the fatherly cleric who once doubted her and now becomes her staunchest ally, asks for a formal investigation to find out if Bernadette is a fraud, insane, or genuine. The grotto is closed and the Bishop of Tarbes declares that unless the Emperor orders the grotto to be opened, there will be no investigation by the church. He says this will be a test for Bernadette's lady. Shortly thereafter, the Emperor's infant son falls ill and, under instructions from the Empress , the child's nanny obtains a bottle of the water. Arrested for violating the closure order, she appears in court, identifies herself as the Empress' employee, and pays the fines of the other persons who attempted to enter the grotto, so that they will not have to serve time in jail. The magistrate permits her to go and to take the bottle of water with her. The Emperor's son drinks the water and recovers. The Empress believes that his recovery is miraculous, but the Emperor is not sure. The Empress upbraids him for doubting God, and at her insistence, the Emperor gives the order to reopen the grotto. The Bishop of Tarbes then directs the commission to convene. The investigation takes many years, and Bernadette is questioned again and again, but the commission eventually determines that Bernadette experienced visions and was visited by the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. Bernadette prefers to go on with an ordinary life, work, and possible marriage, but Peyramale does not think it is appropriate to turn a saint loose in the world, and persuades her to become a nun at the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Nevers, the Saint Gildard Convent. She is subjected to normal although rigorous spiritual training and hard work, but also emotional abuse from a cold and sinister Sister Vauzous, her former teacher at school, and who is mistress of novices here. Sister Vauzous is skeptically jealous of all the attention Bernadette has been receiving as a result of the visions. She reveals this to Bernadette, saying she is angry that God would choose Bernadette instead of her when she has spent her life in suffering in service of God. She says Bernadette has not suffered enough and wants a "sign" proving Bernadette really was chosen by Heaven. Bernadette is diagnosed with tuberculosis of the bone, which causes intense pain, yet she has never complained or so much as mentioned it. The jealous sister, realizing her wrongness and Bernadette's saintliness, begs for forgiveness in the chapel, and vows to serve Bernadette for the rest of her life. Knowing she is dying, Bernadette sends for Abbé Peyramale and tells him of her feelings of unworthiness and her concern that she will never see the lady again. But the lady appears in the room, smiling and holding out her arms. Only Bernadette can see her, however, and with a cry of "I love you!. "I love you! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for me", she reaches out to the apparition, and falls back dead. Peyramale utters the final words of the film, "You are now in Heaven and on earth. Your life begins, O Bernadette".

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positive

The Hamlet

The Long, Hot Summer

CHAPTER ONE Part 1 (which is the only part) (pp.&nbsp;3–26) Frenchman's Bend/The Old Frenchman Place introduced: lawlessness; socioeconomic background of settlers. Will Varner, Jody Varner introduced. Ab Snopes rents a place from Jody; is discovered via gossip to be an alleged barn-burner. First glimpse of Eula (p.&nbsp;11). Jody plans to force Ab out after getting work out of him. Ab is discovered to be mixed up in a second incident of barn-burning, over a dispute with de Spain over his wife's expensive French carpet. Jody agrees to take on Flem as a clerk in the Varner store to keep Ab happy. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Ratliff is introduced, claims he knew Ab a long time ago. Part 2 Ratliff discusses Ab's past, before he was "soured." Ab trades horses with Pat Stamper. Ab's motive: to recover the eight Yoknapatawpha County dollars that Stamper had acquired from Beasly. Ab picks up his wife's milk separator; trades Pat Stamper several teams, and comes out much the worse. Part 3 Ratliff takes Ab a bottle of McCallum's whiskey. CHAPTER THREE Part 1 Flem settles in to clerking at Varner's store. Ratliff is established as a gossipmonger, a speculative capitalist, a traveler. Flem disrupts the normal business practices of the Varner store by insisting on payment up front and always calculating the bill correctly. Flem has a bow tie (64). Flem quickly establishes himself as upwardly mobile. Flem establishes a cow-trading sideline; I.O. and Eck Snopes appear on the Frenchman's Bend scene. The old blacksmith, Trumbull, is forced out. Jody wonders how much he'll have to pay in order to keep himself safe from the rumor of Ab's barn-burning. Part 2 Ratliff is recovering from an operation; catches up on local gossip. Flem is making usurious loans to Negroes; I.O. is to be the new schoolteacher. Mink Snopes appears for the first time; he trades a note bearing the name "Ike Snopes" for a sewing machine. Ratliff tells the story of the goat-scarcity caused by the Northerner's goat-ranching plans. Ike Snopes turns out to be an idiot; Flem redeems his note; Mrs. Littlejohn watches after Ike, as she can communicate with him somehow. Part 3 Flem "passes" Jody Varner at the store; apparently, he means to pass Will Varner, as well. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 (which is the only part) Eula's childhood described; she is the last of 16 children and is immediately established as a symbolic-mythological figure who has a privileged childhood. Refuses to walk or otherwise take action. Insofar as this is problematic for her parents, the solution is immediately seen in inserting her into the economy of marriage. She is supra-feminine, immediately noticeable when she is in public. Labove's recruitment as schoolmaster is described. Labove is the first person described as caught within Eula's orbit, even though she is only 11. Labove drawn back to teaching at the Frenchman's Bend school even after he receives his university degree. Labove tries to assault Eula (133); Eula is unafraid. Labove worries about retribution until he realizes that Eula does not even see the event as important enough to complain to her older brother. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Eula, now 14, is the center of teenage masculine attention in Frenchman's Bend; and though she is assaulted by proxy (resulting in attention paid to other girls in her social circle) none of the boys manages to gain access to her. Flem becomes closely acquainted with the Varner family. The background of Hoake McCarron is given. McCarron courts Eula. McCarron/Eula fight off a group of local boys determined to keep McCarron from deflowering Eula. McCarron's arm is broken; set by Varner; Eula then arranges to be deflowered by him. Eula turns out to be pregnant; Jody is furious but Will is unsurprised. The suitors flee Yoknapatawpha County. Flem reappears and is married to Eula, so that her bastard can have a name; he receives (a) money; (b) the old Frenchman place; (c) Eula's hand. Part 2 The history of Eula's relationship to Flem before marriage is recapped. Ratliff's knowledge of Frenchman's Bend is analyzed. Eula and Flem depart for a honeymoon in Texas. Ratliff's fantastic allegory of the Flem's sale of his soul. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 Varner tells Ratliff the story about Mink's attempt to retrieve his yearling. They wander down to Varner's store, where the verdict against Mink is discussed and the peep show in Mrs. Littlejohn's barn begins again. Ratliff's fantastic fable about Flem and the illiterate field hand. Part 2 Ike Snopes rises early and pursues Houston's cow; there are misadventures and he is chased off. Seeing fire in the direction of the cow, he becomes concerned and returns; he gets the cow out and travels with her, then is caught again by Houston, who curses him. When Houston leaves again, Ike abducts the cow and leaves. They travel together for several days, and Ike steals feed for the cow. They get rained on. Part 3 Houston comes home and finds the cow missing. At first he believes that he forgot to fasten the gate, but soon discovers that the cow has been led away. He gets his horse and waters it at Mrs. Littlejohn's house, The unnamed vicious farmer from whom Ike takes feed is described; he searches for Ike, the feed-thief; he captures the cow and Ike follows him home. Houston sells the cow to Mrs. Littlejohn; she purchases it with Ike's money. The establishment of the peep-show, presided over by Lump Snopes. Ratliff determines to stop the peep show; gets the other Snopeses involved, as they are concerned for the Snopes name. Whitfield Snopes, preacher, explains his plan to break Ike away from his perversion. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Houston's backstory: Early childhood, later schooling; meeting his future wife, who pushes him through school, and from whom he flees; his flight to the Texas railyard and abduction from a whorehouse of a prostitute with whom he lives for seven years. Houston is drawn back to Yoknapatawpha County; he marries his wife, and they move into the house he has built for her; his stallion kills her. Houston kills the stallion. Mink kills Houston. Part 2 Mink kills Houston; he strikes his wife and she leaves him, taking the children. Mink attempts to cover up the evidence; he kills Houston's hound and hides the body. Mink doesn't run because he doesn't have any money. Cousin Lump doesn't believe he didn't check Houston's body for money, claiming that Houston was carrying at least $50. Mink's wife gives him money; Lump Snopes keeps him company and won't be shaken off, hoping to collect some of the money that Houston was carrying. Mink is arrested trying to recover the money from Houston's body, which he had placed in a hollow oak. Mink injures his neck trying to escape from a moving carriage after his arrest, but is treated and placed in jail. Part 3 Mink is in jail; his wife and children stay with Ratliff. She makes money by keeping house at a boardinghouse and by prostituting herself. Mink refuses bond and counsel. I.O. Snopes is revealed as a bigamist. Mink hangs his hopes on being saved by Flem. CHAPTER ONE Part 1 Flem Snopes comes back into town, along with a Texan and his wild ponies. The ponies are continually demonstrated to be vicious. Flem's superiority as a trader is acknowledged by Ratliff, who is himself no mean trader. The ponies are auctioned off, with the townspeople nervous at first but gradually led into trading when the Texan offers Eck Snopes a pony for free just to make a bid. Henry Armstid bids his wife's last five dollars on one of the spotted ponies. Flem accepts the money for the pony that Henry had (arguably) bought from the Texan. Flem swaps a carriage for the last three Texan ponies. The men who purchased ponies attempt to get their purchases, but the wild ponies break free. One of Eck's ponies breaks into Mrs. Littlejohn's house; she breaks a washboard over its head and calls it a "son of a bitch." Henry is badly injured when the horses break free. Tull is injured when the horses surprise his mules on a bridge. Ratliff and Varner speculate about fertility while watching the horses spread out over the county. Lump inadvertently admits the horses belonged to Flem (although no consequences seem to follow from this admission). The men in front of the Varner store discuss the Armstids' lack of luck. Flem refuses to refund Mrs. Armstid the money for the horse, despite the fact that the Texan had assured her that he would. St. Elmo Snopes steals candy from the Varner store. Part 2 The Armstids and Tulls sue the Snopeses over the matter of the ponies. Flem declines to appear. Lump perjures himself, claiming that Flem gave Mrs. Armstid's money to the Texan, and that therefore he was not responsible for refunding it to Mrs. Armstid. Eck is held blameless in the injuring of Vernon Tull because, technically, he never owned the horse that injured him. Mink Snopes is brought to trial for killing Jack Houston, but fails to participate in the trial itself; he declines even to enter a plea because he is waiting for Flem to solve his legal problems. When Flem fails to appear, Mink is convicted and sentenced to life in prison; he promises to kill Flem. CHAPTER TWO Part 1 Ratliff, Armstid, and Bookwright go out to the old Frenchman place at night and find Flem digging in the garden. Armstid is emphatic that his previously broken leg is fine now, and quite touchy about the subject. Speculation about what is out in the garden at the old Frenchman place: local legend has it that Confederate treasure was buried there when the Union army came through. They agree to get Uncle Dick Bolivar, a local diviner, out to the property the next night, after Flem has gone to sleep. Uncle Dick manages to locate three cloth bags with money buried in the earth; the three men confederate to purchase the property. Ratliff rides out to find Flem and purchases the old Frenchman place from him; Flem refuses to negotiate and the three men own the property; they move out to find the treasure and discover that it is a "salted gold mine" when they finally examine the dollars that inspired them to purchase the property in the first place (none were manufactured before the Civil War). Part 2 Flem and Eula depart for Jefferson. The men outside Varner's store speculate on Flem's next move; his "horse-trading" has become proverbial.

Ben Quick hitches a ride to Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi from two young women in a convertible, Clara Varner and her sister-in-law Eula . Clara's father is Will Varner , the domineering owner of most of the town. Will sees in the brash newcomer a younger version of himself, ruthless and ambitious. These qualities are, in Will's opinion, lacking in his only son Jody . He is also disappointed with the choice of his daughter Clara, a schoolteacher. Clara's boyfriend Alan Stewart , a genteel Southern "blue blood," is a mama's boy, not the kind of son-in-law Will wants. He schemes to push his daughter and Ben together, to try to bring fresh, virile blood into the family. She is unimpressed with the crude, if magnetic upstart. Ben at first is attracted by the wealth Will offers, but eventually comes to see something in Clara beyond that. Meanwhile, Minnie Littlejohn , the widower Will's longtime mistress, is dissatisfied with her situation and wants to be married. The strained relationships come to a boil during the long, hot summer. Jody becomes increasingly alarmed when he sees his position in the family being undermined. Will hires Ben as a clerk in the general store, then invites him to live in the family mansion. When Jody finds Ben alone, he pulls a gun on him and tells him his body will be found downstream. Ben talks his way out by telling Jody about buried Civil War-era treasure he has found on some property that Will gave him, a down payment to seal their bargain over Clara. When the two men find a bag of coins, Jody is elated, thinking he might finally get out from under his father's thumb. He buys the land from Ben. Late that night, Will finds his son, still digging. After examining one of the coins, he notices that it was minted in 1910. Jody is crushed. Later finding his father alone in their barn, Jody bolts the entrance and sets the barn on fire. He cannot go through with it and lets Will out. The incident brings about a reconciliation. Meanwhile, the fire causes trouble for Ben, as people have learned of his barn-burning father. Townspeople assume he is the culprit and start toward him with a rope for a lynching. Clara drives up and rescues him. Will later claims responsibility for accidentally starting the fire. The smell of fire brings back bad memories for Ben. He tells Clara how, at the age of ten, he had to sound the warning against his father as he was about to set another fire. Thankful that she saved his life, he volunteers to leave town for good. Clara has other plans for him, much to her father's delight.

positive

positive

Far from the Madding Crowd

Far from the Madding Crowd

Gabriel Oak is a young shepherd. With the savings of a frugal life, and a loan, he has leased and stocked a sheep-farm. He falls in love with a newcomer eight years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. She comes to like him well enough, and even saves his life once, but when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses; she values her independence too much and him too little. Gabriel's blunt protestations only serve to drive her to haughtiness. After a few months, she moves to Weatherbury, a village some miles off. When next they meet, their circumstances have changed drastically. An inexperienced new sheep dog drives Gabriel's flock over a cliff, ruining him. After selling off everything of value, he manages to settle all his debts, but emerges penniless. He seeks employment at a work fair in the town of Casterbridge (a fictionalised version of Dorchester). When he finds none, he heads to another fair in Shottsford, a town about ten miles from Weatherbury. On the way, he happens upon a dangerous fire on a farm and leads the bystanders in putting it out. When the veiled owner comes to thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited the estate of her uncle and is now a wealthy woman. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she hires him. Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer: the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when – her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance – she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words "Marry me". Boldwood, not realising the valentine was a jest, becomes obsessed with Bathsheba, and soon proposes marriage. Although she does not love him, she toys with the idea of accepting his offer; he is, after all, the most eligible bachelor in the district. However, she postpones giving him a definite answer. When Gabriel rebukes her for her thoughtlessness, she fires him. When her sheep begin dying from bloat, she discovers to her chagrin that Gabriel is the only man who knows how to cure them. Her pride delays the inevitable, but finally she is forced to beg him for help. Afterwards, she offers him back his job and their friendship is restored. At this point, the dashing Sergeant Francis "Frank" Troy returns to his native Weatherbury and by chance encounters Bathsheba one night. Her initial dislike turns to infatuation after he excites her with a private display of swordsmanship. Gabriel observes Bathsheba's interest in the young soldier and tries to discourage it, telling her she would be better off marrying Boldwood. Boldwood becomes aggressive towards Troy and she goes to Bath to prevent Troy returning to Weatherbury, as she fears Troy may be harmed on meeting Boldwood. On their return, Boldwood offers his rival a large bribe to give up Bathsheba. Troy pretends to consider the offer, then scornfully announces they are already married. Boldwood withdraws humiliated and vows revenge. Bathsheba soon discovers that her new husband is an improvident gambler with little interest in farming. Worse, she begins to suspect that he does not love her. In fact, Troy's heart belongs to her former servant, Fanny Robin. Before meeting Bathsheba, Troy had promised to marry Fanny; on the wedding day, however, the luckless girl goes to the wrong church. She explains her mistake, but Troy, humiliated at being left waiting at the altar, angrily calls off the wedding. When they part, unbeknownst to Troy, Fanny is pregnant with his child. Some months afterward, Troy and Bathsheba encounter Fanny on the road, destitute, as she painfully makes her way toward the Casterbridge workhouse. Troy sends his wife onward with the horse and gig before she can recognise the girl, then gives her all the money in his pocket, telling her he will give her more in a few days. Fanny uses up the last of her strength to reach her destination. A few hours later, she dies in childbirth, along with the baby. Mother and child are then placed in a coffin and sent home to Weatherbury for interment. Gabriel, who has long known of Troy's relationship with Fanny, tries to conceal the child's existence – but Bathsheba, suspecting the truth and wild with jealousy, arranges for the coffin to be left in her house overnight. When all the servants are in bed, she unscrews the lid and sees the two bodies inside – her husband's former lover and their child. Troy then comes home from Casterbridge, where he had gone to keep his appointment with Fanny. Seeing the reason for her failure to meet him, he gently kisses the corpse and tells the anguished Bathsheba, "This woman is more to me, dead as she is, than ever you were, or are, or can be." The next day he spends all his money on a marble tombstone with the inscription "Erected by Francis Troy in beloved memory of Fanny Robin...". Then, loathing himself and unable to bear Bathsheba's company, he leaves. After a long walk he bathes in the sea, leaving his clothes on the beach. A strong current carries him away, though he is rescued by a rowing boat. A year later, with Troy presumed drowned, Boldwood renews his suit. Burdened with guilt over the pain she has caused him, Bathsheba reluctantly consents to marry him in six years, long enough to have Troy declared dead. Troy, however, is not dead. When he learns that Boldwood is again courting Bathsheba, he returns to Weatherbury on Christmas Eve to claim his wife. He goes to Boldwood's house, where a party is underway, and orders Bathsheba to come with him; when she shrinks back in surprise, he seizes her arm, and she screams. At this, Boldwood shoots Troy dead and tries unsuccessfully to turn the gun on himself. Although he is condemned to hang for murder, his friends petition the Home Secretary for mercy, citing insanity. This is granted and Boldwood's sentence is changed to "confinement during Her Majesty's pleasure". Bathsheba, profoundly chastened by guilt and grief, buries her husband in the same grave as Fanny and their child, and adds a suitable inscription. Throughout her tribulations, she comes to rely more and more on her oldest and (as she admits to herself) only real friend, Gabriel. When he gives notice that he is leaving her employ for California, she finally realises how important he has become to her well-being. That night, she goes alone to visit him in his cottage, to find out why he is (in her eyes) deserting her. Pressed, he reluctantly reveals that it is because people have been injuring her good name by gossiping that he wants to marry her. She exclaims that it is "...too absurd – too soon – to think of, by far!" He bitterly agrees that it is absurd, but when she corrects him, saying that it is only "too soon", he is emboldened to ask once again for her hand in marriage. She accepts, and the two are quietly wed.

Set in the rural West Country in Victorian England, the story features Bathsheba Everdene , a beautiful, headstrong, independently minded woman who inherits her uncle's farm and decides to manage it herself, which engenders some disapproval from the local farming community. She hires a former neighbor, Gabriel Oak , to be her shepherd; a rejected suitor, Gabriel lost his own flock of sheep when one of his dogs drove them over a steep cliff. Ignoring Gabriel's love, Bathsheba impulsively sends a valentine to William Boldwood , a nearby gentleman farmer. When he misinterprets her capriciousness and proposes to her, Bathsheba promises to consider his offer. Instead, however, she becomes enamored of Frank Troy , a dashing cavalry officer. Unaware that Troy has refused to marry young Fanny Robin , a maidservant pregnant with his child, because she embarrassed him by going to the wrong church on their wedding day, Bathsheba foolishly becomes his wife. After Troy has gambled away most of Bathsheba's money and created disharmony among the farmhands, he discovers that Fanny has died in childbirth. Filled with remorse, he swears that he never loved Bathsheba, walks out on her, and disappears into the ocean. Bathsheba then promises to marry Boldwood when Troy is declared legally dead; but Troy appears at their engagement party and the nearly deranged Boldwood kills him. Shortly after Boldwood has been sent to prison, Gabriel tells Bathsheba that he is planning to emigrate to America. Realizing how much she has always needed his quiet strength and unselfish devotion, Bathsheba persuades Gabriel to remain in Weatherbury as her husband.

positive

positive

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

The Food of the Gods

The Food of the Gods is divided into three "books": "Book I: The Discovery of the Food"; "Book II: The Food in the Village"; and "Book III: The Harvest of the Food." Book I begins with satirical remarks on "scientists," then introduces Mr. Bensington, a research chemist specializing in "the More Toxic Alkaloids," and Professor Redwood, who after studying reaction times takes an interest in "Growth." Redwood's suggestion "that the process of growth probably demanded the presence of a considerable quantity of some necessary substance in the blood that was only formed very slowly" causes Bensington to begin searching for such a substance. After a year of research and experiment, he finds a way to make what he calls in his initial enthusiasm "the Food of the Gods," but later more soberly dubs Herakleophorbia IV. Their first experimental success is with chickens that grow to about six times normal size on an experimental farm at Hickleybrow, near Urshot in Kent (where H.G. Wells was born and raised). Unfortunately Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, the slovenly couple hired to feed and monitor the chickens, allow Herakleophorbia IV to enter the local food chain, and the other creatures that get the food grow to six or seven times their normal size: not only plants, but also wasps, earwigs, and rats. The chickens escape, overrunning a nearby town. Bensington and Redwood, impractical researchers, do nothing until a decisive and efficient "well-known civil engineer" of their acquaintance named Cossar arrives to organize a party of eight to ("Obviously!") destroy the wasps' nest, hunt down the monstrous vermin, and burn the experimental farm to the ground. As debate ensues about the substance, popularly known as "Boomfood," children are being given the substance and grow to enormous size: Redwood's son ("pioneer of the new race"), Cossar's three sons, and Mrs. Skinner's grandson, Caddles. A certain Dr. Winkles makes the substance available to a princess, and there are other giants as well. These massive offspring eventually reach about 40 feet in height. At first the giants are tolerated, but as they grow more and more restrictions are imposed. With time most of the English population comes to resent the young giants as well as changes to flora, fauna, and the organization of society that become more extensive with each passing year. Bensington is nearly lynched by an angry mob, and subsequently retires from active life to Mount Glory Hydrotherapeutic Hotel. Book II offers an account the development of Mrs. Skinner's grandson, Albert Edward Caddles, as an epitome of "the coming of Bigness in the world." Wells takes the occasion to satirize the conservative rural gentry (Lady Wondershoot) and Church of England clergy (the Vicar of Cheasing Eyebright) in describing life in a backward little village. Book III begins with a chapter entitled "The Altered World" that dramatizes how life has changed by portraying the shocked reaction of a Rip van Winkle-like character released from prison after being incarcerated for twenty years. British society has learned to cope with occasional outbreaks of giant pests (mosquitoes, spiders, rats, etc.), but the coming to maturity of the giant children brings a reactionary politician, Caterham, into power. Caterham has been promoting a program to destroy the Food of the Gods and hinting that he will suppress the giants, and now begins to execute his plan. By coincidence, it is just at this moment that Caddles rebels against spending his life working in a chalk pit and sets out to see the world. In London he is surrounded by thousands of tiny people and confused by everything he sees. He demands to know what it's all for and where he fits in, but no one can answer his questions; after refusing to return to his chalk pit, Caddles is shot and killed by the police. The conclusion of the novel features a tenderly described romance between the young giant Redwood and the unnamed princess. Their love blossoms just as Caterham, who has at last attained a position of power, launches an effort to suppress the giants. But after two days of fighting, the giants, who have taken refuge in an enormous pit, have held their own. Their bombardment of London with shells containing large quantities of Herakleophorbia IV forces Caterham to call a truce. The British leader is satirized as a demagogue, a "vote-monster" for whom nothing but "gatherings, and caucuses, and votes &mdash; above all votes" are real. Caterham employs Redwood père as an envoy to send a proposed settlement whose terms would demand that the giants live apart somewhere and forgo the right to reproduce. The offer is indignantly rejected at a meeting of the giants, where one of Cossar's sons expresses a belief in growth as part of the law of life: "We fight for not for ourselves but for growth, growth that goes on for ever. To-morrow, whether we live or die, growth will conquer through us. That is the law of the spirit for evermore. To grow according to the will of God!" The novel concludes with the world on the verge of a long struggle between the "little people" and the Children of the Food, whose ultimate victory is perhaps suggested by the novel's final image: "For one instant [a son of Cossar] shone, looking up fearlessly into the starry deeps, mail-clad, young and strong, resolute and still. Then the light had passed and he was no more than a great black outline against the starry sky, a great black outline that threatened with one mighty gesture the firmament of heaven and all its multitude of stars."

The film reduced the tale to an 'Ecology Strikes Back' scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time. The food mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in British Columbia. The couple that discover it, Mr. and Mrs. Skinner consider it a gift from God, and promptly begin feeding it to their chickens. Soon, rats, wasps, and worms consume the substance, and the island is crawling with giant vermin. One night, some of them kill Mr. Skinner. Morgan, a professional football player , and his buddies are camping on the island, and one of them is stung to death by giant wasps. After ferrying his friends back to the mainland, Morgan returns to investigate. Also thrown into the mix are Thomas and Rita, an expecting couple; Jack Bensington, the owner of a dog food company hoping to market the substance; and his assistant Lorna , a "lady bacteriologist." Eventually, the survivors are trapped in the farmhouse with the rats swarming around outside, and Mrs. Skinner, Morgan's friend Brian, and Bensington are killed by the rats. Morgan eventually blows up a nearby dam, flooding the area and drowning the rats, whose size and weight renders them unable to swim. The food, however, survives. It is swept into a river and is consumed by cows, who give tainted milk, which is then drunk by schoolchildren.

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The Night of the Iguana

The Night of the Iguana

In 1940s Mexico, an ex-minister, Reverend T. Lawrence Shannon, has been locked out of his church after characterizing the Occidental image of God as a "senile delinquent", during one of his sermons. Shannon is not de-frocked, but institutionalized for a "nervous breakdown". Some time after his release, Rev. Shannon obtains employment as a tour guide for a second-rate travel agency. Shortly before the opening of the play, Shannon is accused of having committed statutory rape of a sixteen-year old girl, named Charlotte Goodall, who is accompanying his current group of tourists. As the curtain rises, Shannon is arriving with a group of women at a cheap hotel on the coast of Mexico that had been managed by his friends Fred and Maxine Faulk. The former has recently died, and Maxine Faulk has assumed sole responsibility for managing the establishment. Struggling emotionally, Shannon tries to manage his tour party, who have turned against him for entering into sexual relations with the minor, and Maxine, who is interested in him for purely carnal reasons. Adding to this chaotic scenario, a spinster Hannah Jelkes appears with her moribund grandfather, Nonno, who, despite his failing, is composing his last poem. Jelkes, who scrapes by as traveling painter and sketch artist, is soon at Maxine's mercy. Shannon, who wields considerable influence over Maxine, offers Hannah Jelkes shelter for the night. The play's main axis is the development of the deeply human bond between Hannah Jelkes and Lawrence Shannon. Like the iguana, captured and tied to a pole by the Mexicans in the play, Hannah and they have come to the end of their rope. This metaphor is intensified when Shannon tears at his golden cross on his neck, lacerating himself, as if to free himself from its constraints. Minor characters in the play include: a) a group of German tourists whose Nazi marching songs paradoxically lighten the heavier themes of the play , but suggest the horrors of World War II , b) the Mexican "boys" Maxine employs to help run the hotel who ignore her laconic commands, and c) Judith Fellowes, the "butch" vocal teacher charged with Charlotte's care during the trip. Fellowes is one of William's few overtly lesbian characters.

The preface to the story shows Episcopal priest Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon having a "nervous breakdown" after being ostracized by his congregation for having an inappropriate relationship in Virginia with "a very young Sunday school teacher." Two years later, Shannon is a tour guide for bottom-of-the-barrel Texas company Blake Tours, is taking a group of Baptist School teachers by bus to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The group's brittle group leader is Miss Judith Fellowes , whose 17-year-old niece Charlotte Goodall tries to seduce Shannon. Charlotte's aunt, described as "butch" by the other characters, accuses Shannon of trying to seduce her niece and declares that she will ruin him. In a moment of despair, Shannon shanghais the bus and occupants, and tries to prevent Fellowes from calling his boss by stranding their bus at a cheap Costa Verde Hotel in Mismaloya on the coast. Shannon thinks that the hotel is still run by an old friend named Fred, but finds that the man died recently, and the hotel is now run by Fred's widow, Maxine Faulk . Maxine becomes interested in Shannon. Another woman at the hotel is Hannah Jelkes , a beautiful and chaste itinerant painter from Nantucket, who is traveling with her elderly poet grandfather . Hannah and her grandfather have run out of money, but Shannon convinces Maxine to let them have rooms. Over a long night, Shannon battles his weaknesses for both flesh and alcohol: Miss Fellowes' niece continues to make trouble for him, and he is "at the end of his rope," just like the iguana kept tied by Maxine's cabana boys. Shannon suffers a breakdown, the cabana boys truss him in a hammock, and Hannah ministers to him there with poppy-seed tea and frank spiritual counsel. Hannah's grandfather delivers the final version of the poem he has been laboring to finish and dies. The characters try to resolve their confused lives with Shannon and Maxine deciding to run the hotel together. Hannah walks away from her last chance at love.

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The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man

A mysterious stranger, Griffin, arrives at the local inn of the English village of Iping, West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a long-sleeved, thick coat and gloves, his face hidden entirely by bandages except for a fake pink nose, large goggles and a wide-brimmed hat. He is excessively reclusive, irascible, and unfriendly. He demands to be left alone and spends most of his time in his rooms working with a set of chemicals and laboratory apparatus, only venturing out at night. While staying at the inn, hundreds of strange glass bottles arrive that Griffin calls his luggage. Many local townspeople believe this to be very strange. He becomes the talk of the village (one of the novel's most charming aspects is its portrayal of small-town life in southern England, which the author knew from first-hand experience). Meanwhile, a mysterious burglary occurs in the village. Griffin has run out of money and is trying to find a way to pay for his board and lodging. When his landlady demands he pay his bill and quit the premises, he reveals part of his invisibility to her in a fit of pique. An attempt to apprehend the stranger is frustrated when he undresses to take advantage of his invisibility, fights off his would-be captors, and flees to the downs. There Griffin coerces a tramp, Thomas Marvel, into becoming his assistant. With Marvel, he returns to the village to recover three notebooks that contain his records of his experiments. When Marvel soon attempts to betray the Invisible Man to the police, Griffin chases him to the seaside town of Port Burdock, threatening to kill him. Marvel escapes to a local inn, and is saved by the people at the inn, but Griffin escapes. Marvel later goes to the police and tells them of this "invisible man," then requests to be locked up in a high security jail cell. His furious attempt to avenge his betrayal leads to his being shot. Griffin takes shelter in a nearby house that turns out to belong to Dr. Kemp, a former acquaintance from medical school. To Kemp, he reveals his true identity: the Invisible Man is Griffin, a former medical student who left medicine to devote himself to optics. Griffin recounts how he invented medicine capable of rendering bodies invisible and, on an impulse, performed the procedure on himself. Griffin tells Kemp of his story of how he turned invisible. He tells of how he tries the invisibility on a cat, then himself. Griffin burns down the boarding house he is staying in along with all his equipment he used to turn invisible to cover his tracks, but soon realizes he is ill-equipped to survive in the open. He attempts to steal food and clothes from a large store, but eventually he steals some clothing from a theatrical supply shop and heads to Iping to attempt to reverse the effect. But now that he imagines he can make Kemp his secret confederate, describing his plan to begin a "Reign of Terror" by using his invisibility to terrorize the nation. Kemp has already denounced Griffin to the local authorities and is on the watch for help to arrive as he listens to this wild proposal. When the authorities arrive at Kemp's house, Griffin fights his way out and the next day leaves a note announcing that Kemp himself will be the first man to be killed in the "Reign of Terror". Kemp, a cool-headed character, tries to organize a plan to use himself as bait to trap the Invisible Man, but a note he sends is stolen from his servant by Griffin. Griffin shoots and kills a local policeman who comes to Kemp's aid, then breaks into Kemp's house. Kemp bolts for the town, where the local citizenry comes to his aid. Griffin is seized, assaulted, and killed by a mob. The Invisible Man's naked, battered body gradually becomes visible as he dies. A local policeman shouts to cover his face with a sheet, then the book concludes. In the final chapter, it is revealed that Marvel has secretly kept Griffin's notes. Griffin's name is not known by anyone (including the reader) until he meets Kemp whom he reveals his identity to. Until then, he is referred to as the stranger or the Invisible Man.

A mysterious stranger, his face swathed in bandages and his eyes obscured by dark goggles, takes a room at an inn in the English village of Iping. The man demands that he be left alone. Later, the innkeeper, Mr. Hall is sent by his wife ([[Una O'Connor to evict him after he makes a huge mess in his room while doing research and is behind on his rent. Angered, he throws Mr. Hall down the stairs. Confronted by a policeman and some local villagers, he removes his bandages and goggles, revealing that he is invisible. Laughing maniacally, he takes off his clothes, making himself completely undetectable, and drives off his tormenters before fleeing into the countryside. The stranger is Dr. Jack Griffin , a chemist who has discovered the secret of invisibility while conducting a series of tests involving an obscure drug called "monocane". Flora Cranley , the daughter of Griffin's employer, Dr. Cranley , becomes distraught over Griffin's long absence, being in love with him. Cranley and his other assistant, Dr. Kemp , search Griffin's empty laboratory, finding only a single note in a cupboard. Cranley becomes concerned when he reads it. On a list of chemicals is monocane, which Cranley knows is extremely dangerous; an injection of it drove a dog mad. On the evening of his escape from the inn, Griffin turns up at Kemp's home. He forces Kemp to become his visible partner in a plot to dominate the world through a reign of terror, commencing with "a few murders here and there". They drive back to the inn to retrieve his notebooks on the invisibility process. Sneaking inside, Griffin finds a police inquiry underway, conducted by an official who believes it is all a hoax. After securing his books, he attacks and kills the officer. Back home, Kemp calls first Cranley, asking for help, and then the police. Flora persuades her father to let her come along. In her presence, Griffin becomes more placid and calls her "darling." When he realizes Kemp has betrayed him, his first reaction is to get Flora away from danger. After promising Kemp that at 10 o'clock the next night he will murder him, Griffin escapes and goes on a killing spree. He causes the derailment of a train, resulting in a hundred deaths, and throws two volunteer searchers off a cliff. The police offer a reward for anyone who can think of a way to catch the Invisible Man. The chief detective in charge of the search uses Kemp as bait, feeling Griffin will try to fulfill his promise, and devises various clever traps. At Kemp's insistence, the police disguise him in a police uniform and let him drive his car away from his house. Griffin, however, is hiding in the back seat of the car. He overpowers Kemp and ties him up in the front seat. Griffin then sends the car down a steep hill and over a cliff, where it explodes on impact. Griffin seeks shelter from a snowstorm in a barn. A farmer hears snoring and sees the hay, in which Griffin is sleeping, moving. The man notifies the police. The police surround the building and set fire to the barn. When Griffin comes out, the chief detective sees his footprints in the snow and opens fire, mortally wounding him. Griffin is taken to the hospital where, on his deathbed, he admits to Flora that he had tampered with something that was meant to be left alone. After he dies, his body gradually becomes visible again.

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Clockers

Clockers

Clockers follows intertwining storylines of low level cocaine dealer Ronald "Strike" Dunham and homicide detective Rocco Klein in the fictional New Jersey city of Dempsey (Which shares many similarities with Jersey City, NJ - where author Richard Price spent extensive time researching the subject matter.) Strike works in the drug organization of Rodney Little, a friendly but violent drug lieutenant of local drug lord Champ. When Rodney Little asks Strike to kill his second in command Darryl and take his position, Strike hesitates. While scoping out Ahab's, the fish restaurant from where Darryl wholesales cocaine, he encounters his drunk brother in a bar across the street, to whom he tells a made-up story about Darryl's abuse of his girlfriend. Victor apparently sees through his story, and suggests that if Strike needs someone killed, he knows "My Man" who could do the job. Strike is surprised by this offer from his law-abiding, working-man brother, and responds noncommittally, thinking him to be just a drunken boast. He is shocked the next day to find that Darryl has been shot dead in the Ahab's parking lot by an unknown assailant. Rocco Klein and his partner Larry Mazilli are assigned to investigate Darryl's murder. They quickly deduce that Darryl was more than just a restaurant manager. Meanwhile Strike is promoted in Rodney's organization and is introduced to Papi, a Puerto-Rican cocaine wholesaler. Rodney reveals that he has been buying cocaine from Papi and selling it behind Champ's back, without giving him a cut. Strike recognizes that Champ will have them both killed if he discovers their side business, but agrees to participate, believing he has no other choice. Rodney brings Strike to meet with Champ at his headquarters at the O'Brien housing projects. Rodney brings an undercover police officer who he introduces to Champ as a cocaine supplier, as part his plan to subplot him and take control of the organization. There, Strike encounters Champ's chief violent enforcer, Buddha Hat, a murderous man who cryptically proclaims that Strike is "Victor's brother." Strike takes this to mean that Buddha Hat was Victor's "My Man" and that he had killed Darryl. As Buddha Hat worked for Champ, and Darryl was the previous overseer of Rodney's secret drug sales, Strike assumes that Buddha Hat will realize their treachery and tell Champ, who would have them both killed. Buddha Hat pays Strike a perplexing visit, where Strike, thinking he is about to be killed, is instead taken to a restaurant and peep show in New York, in a bizarre gesture of friendship by Buddha Hat. Victor gives a full confession to Darryl's murder, but his self-defense story does not match witness accounts and Rocco expects that he is in fact innocent. His investigation begins to lead him to Strike, who he believes is a much more likely murderer than law-abiding Victor. Rocco confronts Strike at his drug corner and forcibly takes him in for questioning several times. Strike goes to meet Papi to pick up the week's cocaine shipment but finds him shot to death. Strike panics, fearing that Champ is on to him and Rodney. He later learns from Rodney that Buddha Hat also went behind Champ's back to take a bit of Papi's profits, and murdered him when he refused to pay. When Rodney is arrested selling cocaine to an undercover police officer, he believes that Strike has been talking to police and sends his enforcer, Errol Barnes to murder him. Rocco brings in Strike for questioning, again, as well as Victor and his mother, who, already facing an inevitable life sentence, finally reveals that it was him who had committed the murder, in a moment where, hating his difficult life and ungrateful wife, impulsively decided to murder Darryl as Strike had suggested with a gun he had earlier found and kept. Errol Barnes, despite a fearsome reputation for violence, is shot and killed by Strike's panicked young assistant Tyrone, who had been on his way to return Strike's gun after borrowing it out of curiosity. Strike goes free, but local cop Andre "The Giant," who was a father figure to Tyrone, threatens to kill Strike for ruining Tyrone's life unless he leaves Dempsey permanently. The novel ends with Rocco driving Strike into NYC, where, while at the Greyhound station a drug mule tries to get Strike to buy him a bus ticket. After Strike is hassled by the police, he buys a See America pass and leaves the city.

In a Brooklyn housing project, a group of "clockers" - street-level drug dealers - sell drugs for Rodney Little , a local drug lord. Rodney tells Ronald "Strike" Dunham , one of his lead clockers, that another dealer, Darryl Adams ([[Steve White , is stealing from him and "got to be got", implying that he wants Strike to kill Darryl. Strike then meets with his brother, Victor Dunham and tries to persuade Victor to kill Darryl Adams. Rocco Klein and Larry Mazilli , homicide detectives, ride to the scene of Darryl Adams' murder. Larry and Rocco receive a phone call from another detective who says a man has confessed at a local church that he killed Darryl. The police meet Strike's older brother Victor at the church and take him in for questioning. In the interrogation room, Victor tells Rocco that he shot Darryl Adams in self-defense. Rocco finds holes in this story and starts looking into Victor's background which includes two jobs, a wife, two children, no criminal record, and aspirations to move out of the projects; Rocco comes to the conclusion that Victor is covering for his younger brother. Rocco pressures Strike but Victor sticks to his story, so Rocco convinces Rodney that Strike has confessed and informed on Rodney's drug ring. Rocco arrests Rodney and then humiliates Strike in front of his crew. Strike gets together some money and decides to leave town, but a younger boy who admired Strike shoots Errol, Rodney's enforcer, with Strike's gun. Rocco lets Strike leave town.

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She: A History of Adventure

The Vengeance of She

A young Cambridge University professor, Horace Holly, is visited by a colleague, Vincey, who reveals that he will soon die and proceeds to tell Holly a fantastical tale of his family heritage. He charges Holly with the task of raising his young son, Leo (whom he has never seen) and gives Holly a locked iron box, with instructions that it is not to be opened until Leo turns 25. Holly agrees, and indeed Vincey is found dead the next day. Holly raises the boy as his own; when the box is opened on Leo's 25th birthday they discover the ancient and mysterious "Sherd of Amenartas", which seems to corroborate Leo's father's story. Holly, Leo and their servant, Job, follow instructions on the Sherd and travel to eastern Africa but are shipwrecked. They alone survive, together with their Arab captain, Mahomed; after a perilous journey into an uncharted region of the African interior, they are captured by the savage Amahagger people. The adventurers learn that the natives are ruled by a fearsome white queen, who is worshiped as Hiya or "She-who-must-be-obeyed". The Amahagger are curious about the white-skinned interlopers, having been warned of their coming by the mysterious queen. Billali, the chief elder of one of the Amahagger tribes, takes charge of the three men, introducing them to the ways of his people. One of the Amahagger maidens, Ustane, takes a liking to Leo and during a tribal feast sings lovingly to him. Billali tells Holly that he needs to go and report the white men's arrival to She, but in his absence, some of the Amahagger become restless and seize Mahomed, intending to eat him as part of a ritual "hotpot". Realising what is about to happen, Holly shoots several of the Armahagger, killing Mahomed in the process; in the ensuing struggle Leo is gravely wounded, but the three Englishmen are saved when Billali returns in the nick of time and declares that they are under the protection of She. As Leo's condition worsens, he approaches death although tended by Ustane. They are taken to the home of the queen, which lies near the ruins of the lost city of Kôr, a once mighty civilization which predated the Egyptians. The queen and her retinue lives under a dormant volcano in a series of catacombs built as tombs for the people of Kôr. There, Holly is presented to the queen, a white sorceress named Ayesha. Her beauty is so great that it enchants any man who beholds it. She, who is veiled and lies behind a partition, warns Holly that the power of her splendour arouses both desire and fear, but he is dubious. When she shows herself, however, Holly is enraptured and prostrates himself before her. Ayesha reveals that she has learned secret of immortality and that she possesses other supernatural powers including the ability to read the minds of others, a form of telegnosis and the ability to heal wounds and cure illness; she is also revealed to have a tremendous knowledge of chemistry, but is notably unable to see into the future. She tells Holly that she has lived in the realm of Kôr for over two millennia, awaiting the reincarnated return of her lover, Kallikrates (whom she had slain in a fit of jealous rage). After she veils herself again, Holly remembers Leo and begs Ayesha to visit his ward. Having agreed, she is stunned upon seeing him, as she believes him to be the reincarnation of Kallikrates. Later, when Holly secretly follows Ayesha to a hidden chamber he learns that she may also have some degree of power to reanimate the dead. She heals Leo, but becomes jealous of the girl, Ustane. The latter is ordered to leave the home of She-who-must-be-obeyed but refuses, and is eventually struck dead by Ayesha's power. Despite the murder of their friend, Holly and Leo cannot free themselves from the power of Ayesha's beauty. They remain amongst the tombs as Leo recovers his strength, and Ayesha lectures Holly on the ancient history of Kôr. Ayesha shows Leo the perfectly preserved body of Kallikrates, which she has kept with her, but she then dissolves the remains with a powerful acid, confident that Leo is indeed the reincarnation of her former lover. In the climax of the novel, Ayesha takes the two men to see the pillar of fire, passing through the ruined city of Kôr and into the heart of the ancient volcano. She is determined that Leo should bathe in the fire to become immortal and remain with her forever, and that together they can become the immortal and all-powerful rulers of the world. After a perilous journey, they come to a great cavern, but at the last Leo doubts the safety of entering the flame. To allay his fears, Ayesha steps into the Spirit of Life, but with this second immersion, the life-preserving power is lost and Ayesha begins to revert to her true age. Holly speculates that it may be that a second exposure undoes the effects of the previous or the Spirit of Life spews death on occasion. Before their eyes, Ayesha withers away in the fire, and her body shrinks. The sight is so shocking that Job dies in fright. Before dying, She tells Leo, "I die not. I shall come again." *Horace Holly - protagonist and narrator, Holly is a Cambridge don whose keen intellect and knowledge was developed to compensate for his ape-like appearance. Holly knows a number of ancient languages, including Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew, which allow him to communicate with the Amahagger (who speak a form of Arabic) and She (who knows all three languages). Holly's interest in archaeology and the origins of civilization lead him to explore the ruins of Kor. *Leo Vincey - ward of Horace Holly, Leo is an attractive, physically active young English gentleman with a thick head of blond hair. He is the confidant of Holly and befriends Ustane. According to She, Leo resembles Kallikrates in appearance and is his reincarnation. *Ayesha - the title character of the novel, called Hiya by the native Amahagger, or "She". Ayesha was born over 2,000 years ago amongst the Arabs, mastering the lore of the ancients and becoming a great sorceress. Learning of the Pillar of Life in the African interior, she journeyed to the ruined kingdom of Kôr, feigning friendship with a hermit who was the keeper of the Flame that granted immortality. She bathed in the Pillar of Life's fire. *Job - Holly's trusted servant. Job is a working-class man and highly suspicious and judgmental of non-English peoples. He is also a devout Protestant. Of all the travellers, he is especially disgusted by the Amahagger and fearful of She. *Billali - an elder of one of the Amahagger tribes. *Ustane - an Amahagger maiden. She becomes romantically attached to Leo, caring for him when he is injured, acting as his protector, and defying She to stay with him. *Kallikrates - an ancient Greek, the husband of Amenartas, and ancestor of Leo. Two thousand years ago, he and Amenartas fled Egypt, seeking a haven in the African interior where they met Ayesha. There, She fell in love with him, promising to give him the secret of immortality if he would kill Amenartas. He refused, and enraged She struck him down. *Amenartas - an ancient Egyptian priestess and ancestress of the Vincey family. As a priestess of Isis, she was protected from the power of She. When Ayesha slew Kallikrates, she expelled Amenartas from her realm. Amenartas gave birth to Kallikrates' son, beginning the line of the Vinceys (Leo's ancestors).

A beautiful young European girl, Carol, is taken over by the spirit of mysterious Ayesha, queen of the lost city of Kuma. Carol is taken to Kuma to succeed the almost-immortal Ayesha as empress of Kuma.

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The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Long before the events of the novel, the Dark Lord Sauron forges the One Ring to dominate the other Rings of Power and corrupt those who wear them: the leaders of Men, Elves and Dwarves. He is vanquished in battle by an alliance of Elves and Men. Isildur cuts the One Ring from Sauron's finger, claiming it as an heirloom for his line, and Sauron loses his physical form. When Isildur is later ambushed and killed by Orcs, the Ring is lost in the River Anduin. Over two thousand years later, the Ring is found by a river-dwelling hobbit called Déagol. His friend Sméagol immediately falls under the Ring's influence and strangles Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol is banished and hides under the Misty Mountains, where the Ring extends his lifespan and transforms him over the course of hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. He loses the Ring, his "precious", and, as recounted in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins finds it. Meanwhile, Sauron reassumes physical form and takes back his old realm of Mordor. Gollum sets out in search of the Ring, but is captured by Sauron, who learns from him that "Baggins" now has it. Gollum is set loose, and Sauron, who needs the Ring to regain his full power, sends forth his powerful servants, the Nazgûl, to seize it. The novel begins in the Shire, where the Hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo, his cousin and guardian. Neither is aware of its origin, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and old friend of Bilbo, suspects the Ring's identity. When he becomes certain, he strongly advises Frodo to take it away from the Shire. Frodo leaves, accompanied by his gardener and friend, Samwise ("Sam") Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc ("Merry") Brandybuck and Peregrin ("Pippin") Took. They nearly encounter the Nazgûl while still in the Shire, but shake off pursuit by cutting through the Old Forest, where they are aided by the enigmatic Tom Bombadil, who alone is unaffected by the Ring's corrupting influence. After leaving the forest, they stop in the town of Bree where they meet Aragorn, Isildur's heir. He persuades them to take him on as guide and protector. They flee from Bree after narrowly escaping another assault, but the Nazgûl follow and attack them on the hill of Weathertop, wounding Frodo with a Morgul blade. Aragorn leads the hobbits toward the Elven refuge of Rivendell, while Frodo gradually succumbs to the wound. The Ringwraiths nearly overtake Frodo at the Ford of Bruinen, but flood waters summoned by Elrond, master of Rivendell, rise up and overwhelm them. Frodo recovers in Rivendell under the care of Elrond. The Council of Elrond reveals much significant history about Sauron and the Ring, as well as the news that Sauron has corrupted Gandalf's fellow wizard, Saruman. The Council decides that they must destroy the Ring, but that can only be done by returning it to the flames of Mount Doom in Mordor, where it was forged. Frodo volunteers to take on this daunting task, and a "Fellowship of the Ring" is formed to aid him: Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gandalf, Gimli the Dwarf, Legolas the Elf, and the Man Boromir, son of the Ruling Steward Denethor of the realm of Gondor. After a failed attempt to cross the Misty Mountains via the pass below Caradhras, the company are forced to try a more perilous path through the Mines of Moria, where they are attacked by the Watcher in the Water before the gate. Once inside, they discover the fate of Balin and his company of Dwarves, and realize their own danger. After repulsing an attack, they are pursued by orcs and an ancient, powerful Balrog. Gandalf confronts the Balrog, but in their struggle, both fall into a deep chasm. The others escape and take refuge in the Elven forest of Lothlórien, where they are counselled by Galadriel and Celeborn. With boats and gifts from Galadriel, the company travel down the River Anduin to the hill of Amon Hen. Boromir succumbs to the lure of the Ring and attempts to take it from Frodo. Frodo escapes and determines to continue the quest alone, though Sam guesses his intent and comes along. Meanwhile, orcs sent by Saruman and Sauron kill Boromir and kidnap Merry and Pippin. After agonizing over which pair of hobbits to follow, Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas pursue the orcs bearing Merry and Pippin to Saruman. In the kingdom of Rohan, the orcs are slain by a company of the Rohirrim. Merry and Pippin escape into Fangorn Forest, where they are befriended by Treebeard, the oldest of the tree-like Ents. Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas track the hobbits to Fangorn, and encounter Gandalf, resurrected as the significantly more powerful "Gandalf the White" after his mutually fatal duel with the Balrog. Gandalf assures them that Merry and Pippin are safe. They ride to Edoras, the capital of Rohan, where they free Théoden, King of Rohan, from the influence of Saruman's henchman Gríma Wormtongue. Théoden musters his fighting strength and rides to the ancient fortress of Helm's Deep, but en route Gandalf leaves to seek help from Treebeard. Meanwhile, the Ents, roused from their customarily peaceful ways by Merry and Pippin, attack Isengard, Saruman's stronghold, and trap the wizard in the tower of Orthanc. Gandalf convinces Treebeard to send an army of Huorns to Théoden's aid. Gandalf and Rohirrim reinforcements arrive just in time to defeat and scatter Saruman's army. The Huorns dispose of the fleeing orcs. Gandalf then parleys with Saruman at Orthanc. When Saruman rejects his offer of redemption, Gandalf strips him of his rank and most of his powers. Pippin looks into a palantír, a seeing-stone that Saruman had used to communicate with Sauron and through which he was enslaved. Gandalf rides for Minas Tirith, chief city of Gondor, taking Pippin with him. Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, who had been following them from Moria, and force him to guide them to Mordor. Finding Mordor's Black Gate too well guarded to attempt, they travel instead to a secret passage Gollum knows. Torn between his loyalty to Frodo and his desire for the Ring, Gollum eventually betrays Frodo by leading him to the great spider Shelob in the tunnels of Cirith Ungol. Frodo is felled by Shelob's bite, but Sam fights her off. Sam takes the Ring and leaves Frodo, believing him to be dead. When orcs find Frodo, Sam overhears them say that Frodo is only unconscious, and chases after them. Sauron unleashes a heavy assault upon Gondor. Gandalf arrives at Minas Tirith to alert Denethor of the impending attack. The city is besieged, and Denethor, driven to despair by Sauron through the use of another palantír, gives up hope and commits suicide, nearly taking his remaining son Faramir with him. With time running out, Aragorn has no choice but to take the Paths of the Dead, accompanied by Legolas and Gimli. There Aragorn raises an undead army of oath-breakers bound by an ancient curse. The ghostly army help them to defeat the Corsairs of Umbar invading southern Gondor. The forces of Gondor and Rohan break the siege of Minas Tirith. Sam rescues Frodo from the tower of Cirith Ungol, and they set out across Mordor. Meanwhile, in order to distract Sauron from his true danger, Aragorn leads the armies of Gondor and Rohan in a march on the Black Gate of Mordor. His vastly outnumbered troops fight desperately against Sauron's armies. At the edge of the Cracks of Doom, Frodo is unable to resist the Ring any longer, and claims it for himself. Gollum suddenly reappears, struggles with Frodo and bites off his finger, Ring and all. Celebrating wildly, Gollum falls into the fire, taking the Ring with him. With the destruction of the One Ring, Sauron perishes, along with the Nazgûl, and his armies are thrown into such disarray that Aragorn's forces emerge victorious. With the end of the War of the Ring, Aragorn is crowned Elessar, King of Arnor and Gondor, and marries his long-time love, Arwen, daughter of Elrond. Saruman escapes from Isengard and enslaves the Shire. The four hobbits, upon returning home, raise a rebellion and overthrow him. Gríma turns on Saruman and kills him, and is slain in turn by hobbit archers. The War of the Ring thus comes to its true end on Frodo's very doorstep. Merry and Pippin are acclaimed heroes, while Sam marries Rosie Cotton and uses his gifts from Galadriel to help heal the Shire. Frodo, however, remains wounded in body and spirit after having borne the weight of the One Ring so long. Several years later, accompanied by Bilbo and Gandalf, he sails from the Grey Havens west over the Sea to the Undying Lands to find peace. After Rosie's death, Sam gives his daughter the Red Book of Westmarch, containing the account of Bilbo's adventures and the War of the Ring as witnessed by the hobbits. Sam is then said to have crossed west over the Sea himself, the last of the Ring-bearers.

Gandalf the Grey gives his life in battle against the Balrog, giving the Fellowship of the Ring time to escape from the Mines of Moria. Weeks later, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee continue their journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring and, with it, the Dark Lord Sauron. One night, they are attacked by Gollum, who possessed the Ring for centuries before losing it to Frodo's uncle Bilbo, and who now seeks to get it back. Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, but Frodo takes pity on him, understanding the burden of the Ring. Requiring a guide, Frodo persuades Gollum to lead them to Mordor. Sam, however, despises Gollum on sight and warns Frodo that the wily creature will betray them. In Rohan, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pursue the Uruk-hai, who have taken Merry and Pippin prisoner. Meanwhile, King Théoden of Rohan has been entranced by Gríma Wormtongue, who is secretly in the service of Saruman the White. Incited by Saruman, Orcs and Wild Men of Dunland lay siege to the lands. Théoden's nephew Éomer accuses Gríma of being a spy; Gríma has him banished for undermining him. Éomer sets forth to the countryside to gather the remaining loyal men of the Rohirrim. Éomer's army later ambush and kill the Uruk-hai holding Merry and Pippin. Merry and Pippin flee into Fangorn forest and meet Treebeard, the oldest of the Ents. Frodo, Sam and Gollum traverse the Dead Marshes, evading a Nazgûl. Upon reaching the Black Gate, they find it closed and guarded by Orcs. Gollum convinces the pair that attempting to enter the gate will lead to their capture, offering instead to lead them to an unguarded entrance. After being informed by Éomer of his ambush against the Uruk-hai, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli find Merry and Pippin's trail. The trio are confronted by Gandalf, reborn as Gandalf the White after dying in battle with the Balrog. Gandalf joins with the trio as they journey to Edoras. After arriving, they free Théoden from Gríma's spell, and tell the king about the death of his son Théodred. After mourning his son, Théoden decides to move his people to the stronghold Helm's Deep for safety. Fearing Helm's Deep will not survive, Gandalf leaves to find Éomer and his forces. Gríma flees to Orthanc and informs Saruman of a weakness in the outer wall of Helm's Deep. Saruman dispatches his vast army to the stronghold. Meanwhile, Gollum struggles with his loyalty to Frodo and his consuming need for the Ring. When Sam and Frodo are captured by Rangers of Ithilien, Frodo reveals Gollum's presence to spare his life; Gollum nevertheless feels betrayed, and begins plotting against his new "master". As Théoden's forces travel to Helm's Deep, they are attacked by Saruman's Warg riders and Aragorn is thrown from a cliff into a raging river and believed to be dead. In Rivendell, Elrond convinces his daughter Arwen to abandon her love for Aragorn and leave Middle-earth with her fellow Elves. Meanwhile, Éowyn, Theoden's niece, nurtures a growing affection for Aragorn, who remains faithful to Arwen. Learning of Frodo's Ring, the Rangers' captain, Faramir, orders that it be sent to Gondor. In Rohan, the barely-alive Aragorn washes up on the river bank. With the aid of Théodred's old horse Brego, he makes his way to Helm's Deep and warns Théoden that he has seen the Isengard army headed for the fortress. Theoden gathers every man possible to fight against Saruman's army of Uruk-hai. When night falls a battalion of Elves arrive to re-enforce the men of Rohan. In Fangorn Forest, Merry, Pippin, Treebeard and other Ents hold a council to decide on the role of the Ents in the war with Saruman. The battle of Helm's Deep begins between the Uruk-Hai and Rohirrim with Aragorn and his companions. Explosives are used against the weakness in the wall, allowing the Orcs to breach the fortress. In Fangorn, Treebeard and the other Ents initially refuse to get involved in the war until Pippin shows them that Saruman has decimated the forest; enraged, Treebeard commands the Ents to seek vengeance. Aragorn leads Théoden, Legolas and the remaining Rohirrim to attack the Uruk-hai army, allowing the Rohirrim's women and children to escape into the mountains. Gandalf appears, accompanied by Éomer and his men. The combined forces cause the Uruk-hai to flee into Fangorn, where the Ents and their Huorn allies attack them. At Isengard, the Ents defeat the Uruk-hai and release the river dam, drowning the surviving Orc defenders, flooding Isengard, and stranding Saruman in his tower. In the East, Faramir has the Hobbits taken to Osgiliath. Faramir's forces are attacked by Orcs led by a Nazgûl. Frodo momentarily succumbs to the Ring's influence and attacks Sam, but comes to his senses when Sam tearfully reminds him of their friendship. The Nazgûl is defeated and flees. Faramir frees the Hobbits and sends them on their journey, joined by Gollum. Gandalf remarks that Sauron will seek retribution for Saruman's defeat, stating that hope now rests with Frodo and Sam. At that same moment, Gollum vows to reclaim the Ring, and plans to have "her" kill Frodo and Sam.

positive

positive

The Lord of the Rings

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

The half-Elven maiden Arwen sings the prologue, urging those to whom she sings to trust their instincts ("Prologue" ('Lasto i lamath')). In the region of Middle-earth known as the Shire, Bilbo Baggins, an eccentric and wealthy Hobbit, celebrates his one hundred and eleventh birthday by vanishing from his birthday party, leaving his greatest treasure, a mysterious magic Ring, to his young relative Frodo Baggins ("Springle Ring") . The Ring is greatly desired by the Dark Lord Sauron, who could use it to conquer the world, and must be destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom in Sauron's country of Mordor. Frodo and his friends Samwise Gamgee, Merry Brandybuck and Pippin Took set out along the road that leads out of the Shire ("The Road Goes On"). Meanwhile, the corrupt wizard Saruman also desires the Ring ("Saruman"). At the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the village of Bree, Frodo and his friends sing and dance for their fellow guests ("The Cat and the Moon"). With the assistance of the Ranger Strider, the four Hobbits escape pursuit by the Black Riders, servants of Sauron, and safely reach the Ford of Bruinen ("Flight to the Ford"). Awaiting them at the Elven settlement of Rivendell is Arwen, the beloved of Strider, whose true name is Aragorn, heir to the kingship of the Lands of Men ("The Song of Hope"). Arwen's father, Lord Elrond, calls a Council of Elves, Men and Dwarves at which it is decided that Frodo will carry the Ring to Mordor. The Fellowship of the Ring sets out from Rivendell: Frodo and his three fellow Hobbits, Aragorn, the human warrior Boromir, the Elf Legolas, the Dwarf Gimli, and the great wizard Gandalf the Grey. Arwen and the people of Rivendell invoke the holy power of the star Eärendil to protect and guide the Fellowship on its journey ("Star of Eärendil"). In the ancient, ruined Dwarf-mines of Moria, Gandalf confronts a Balrog, a monstrous creature of evil, and falls into the darkness. The Fellowship takes refuge in Lothlórien, the mystical realm of Galadriel, an Elven lady of great power and wisdom ("The Golden Wood", "Lothlórien"). As their journey south continues, Boromir attempts to take the Ring from Frodo; Frodo and Sam flee from the rest of the Fellowship, and Boromir falls in battle. Gandalf returns in time to intervene at the Siege of the City of Kings, where the Lands of Men are under attack by the forces of Saruman and the Orcs of Mordor ("The Siege of the City of Kings"). Meanwhile, Frodo and Sam are joined on their journey by Gollum, a twisted creature who long possessed the Ring and desires to have it for his own again. As they approach Mordor, Frodo and Sam sing to each other about the power of stories ("Now and for Always"). Gollum is moved by their song, but the evil side of his personality asserts itself and he plans to betray the Hobbits ("Gollum/Sméagol"). If Aragorn can defeat the forces of evil and reclaim the kingship of Men, he will receive Arwen's hand in marriage ("The Song of Hope" (Duet)). Galadriel casts spells to protect the forces of good in the final battle ("Wonder", "The Final Battle"). Frodo, Sam and Gollum reach Mount Doom, where the Ring is destroyed when Gollum takes it from Frodo and falls into the fire with it. Aragorn becomes King and marries Arwen ("City of Kings"), but Frodo, wearied by his quest, and the great Elves must leave Middle-earth forever and sail to the lands of the West ("Epilogue (Farewells)"). Bidding farewell to their friend, Sam, Merry and Pippin resume their lives in the Shire ("Finale").

Gandalf the Grey gives his life in battle against the Balrog, giving the Fellowship of the Ring time to escape from the Mines of Moria. Weeks later, Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee continue their journey to Mordor to destroy the One Ring and, with it, the Dark Lord Sauron. One night, they are attacked by Gollum, who possessed the Ring for centuries before losing it to Frodo's uncle Bilbo, and who now seeks to get it back. Frodo and Sam capture Gollum, but Frodo takes pity on him, understanding the burden of the Ring. Requiring a guide, Frodo persuades Gollum to lead them to Mordor. Sam, however, despises Gollum on sight and warns Frodo that the wily creature will betray them. In Rohan, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli pursue the Uruk-hai, who have taken Merry and Pippin prisoner. Meanwhile, King Théoden of Rohan has been entranced by Gríma Wormtongue, who is secretly in the service of Saruman the White. Incited by Saruman, Orcs and Wild Men of Dunland lay siege to the lands. Théoden's nephew Éomer accuses Gríma of being a spy; Gríma has him banished for undermining him. Éomer sets forth to the countryside to gather the remaining loyal men of the Rohirrim. Éomer's army later ambush and kill the Uruk-hai holding Merry and Pippin. Merry and Pippin flee into Fangorn forest and meet Treebeard, the oldest of the Ents. Frodo, Sam and Gollum traverse the Dead Marshes, evading a Nazgûl. Upon reaching the Black Gate, they find it closed and guarded by Orcs. Gollum convinces the pair that attempting to enter the gate will lead to their capture, offering instead to lead them to an unguarded entrance. After being informed by Éomer of his ambush against the Uruk-hai, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli find Merry and Pippin's trail. The trio are confronted by Gandalf, reborn as Gandalf the White after dying in battle with the Balrog. Gandalf joins with the trio as they journey to Edoras. After arriving, they free Théoden from Gríma's spell, and tell the king about the death of his son Théodred. After mourning his son, Théoden decides to move his people to the stronghold Helm's Deep for safety. Fearing Helm's Deep will not survive, Gandalf leaves to find Éomer and his forces. Gríma flees to Orthanc and informs Saruman of a weakness in the outer wall of Helm's Deep. Saruman dispatches his vast army to the stronghold. Meanwhile, Gollum struggles with his loyalty to Frodo and his consuming need for the Ring. When Sam and Frodo are captured by Rangers of Ithilien, Frodo reveals Gollum's presence to spare his life; Gollum nevertheless feels betrayed, and begins plotting against his new "master". As Théoden's forces travel to Helm's Deep, they are attacked by Saruman's Warg riders and Aragorn is thrown from a cliff into a raging river and believed to be dead. In Rivendell, Elrond convinces his daughter Arwen to abandon her love for Aragorn and leave Middle-earth with her fellow Elves. Meanwhile, Éowyn, Theoden's niece, nurtures a growing affection for Aragorn, who remains faithful to Arwen. Learning of Frodo's Ring, the Rangers' captain, Faramir, orders that it be sent to Gondor. In Rohan, the barely-alive Aragorn washes up on the river bank. With the aid of Théodred's old horse Brego, he makes his way to Helm's Deep and warns Théoden that he has seen the Isengard army headed for the fortress. Theoden gathers every man possible to fight against Saruman's army of Uruk-hai. When night falls a battalion of Elves arrive to re-enforce the men of Rohan. In Fangorn Forest, Merry, Pippin, Treebeard and other Ents hold a council to decide on the role of the Ents in the war with Saruman. The battle of Helm's Deep begins between the Uruk-Hai and Rohirrim with Aragorn and his companions. Explosives are used against the weakness in the wall, allowing the Orcs to breach the fortress. In Fangorn, Treebeard and the other Ents initially refuse to get involved in the war until Pippin shows them that Saruman has decimated the forest; enraged, Treebeard commands the Ents to seek vengeance. Aragorn leads Théoden, Legolas and the remaining Rohirrim to attack the Uruk-hai army, allowing the Rohirrim's women and children to escape into the mountains. Gandalf appears, accompanied by Éomer and his men. The combined forces cause the Uruk-hai to flee into Fangorn, where the Ents and their Huorn allies attack them. At Isengard, the Ents defeat the Uruk-hai and release the river dam, drowning the surviving Orc defenders, flooding Isengard, and stranding Saruman in his tower. In the East, Faramir has the Hobbits taken to Osgiliath. Faramir's forces are attacked by Orcs led by a Nazgûl. Frodo momentarily succumbs to the Ring's influence and attacks Sam, but comes to his senses when Sam tearfully reminds him of their friendship. The Nazgûl is defeated and flees. Faramir frees the Hobbits and sends them on their journey, joined by Gollum. Gandalf remarks that Sauron will seek retribution for Saruman's defeat, stating that hope now rests with Frodo and Sam. At that same moment, Gollum vows to reclaim the Ring, and plans to have "her" kill Frodo and Sam.

positive

positive

Vespers in Vienna

The Red Danube

Shortly after the end of World War II, British Colonel Michael 'Hooky' Nicobar is assigned to the Displaced Persons Division in the British Zone of Vienna, Austria. Like the author himself, Nicobar has had a limb amputated. Marshall also served in the Displaced Persons Division in Austria. Nicobar's duty is to aid the Soviet authorities to repatriate citizens of the Soviet Union, many of whom prefer not to return to their home country. Billeted in the convent run by Mother Auxilia, Nicobar, and his military aides Major John 'Twingo' McPhimister and Audrey Quail, become involved in the plight of Maria, a young ballerina, who is trying to avoid being returned to Moscow. Nicobar's sense of duty is tested as he sees first hand the plight of the people he is forcing to return to the Soviet Union; his lack of religious faith is also shaken by his contact with the Mother Superior. The novel was the basis of the 1949 film The Red Danube starring Walter Pidgeon, Ethel Barrymore, Peter Lawford, Angela Lansbury and Janet Leigh. George Sidney directed. After the movie was released the novel was re-issued as The Red Danube.

Shortly after World War II, British Col. Michael "Hooky" Nicobar is staying in Rome with his aides Audrey Quail , Major John "Twingo" McPhimister and Private David Moonlight , when he is suddenly transferred to Vienna. Hooky is assigned to assist Brigadier C.M.V. Catlock in monitoring possible activities against the Allied nations and repatriating Soviet citizens living in the British zone of Vienna. He and his aides are billeted at a convent, led by the friendly Mother Superior . At this convent, Twingo is drawn to a ballerina known as Maria Buhlen . He falls for her instantly and tries to meet her, but she is reluctant to, until they are officially introduced to each other by Mother Superior. Twingo and Maria start going out, until Soviet Colonel Piniev reports to Hooky, announcing he is searching for a Russian ballerina named Olga Alexandrova, aka Maria Buhlen. Piniev assures Hooky that he means no harm to Olga, and that it is his order to bring her back to the Soviet Union. Later that night, Maria and the Mother Superior reveal that Maria is Olga, the daughter of Soviet dissidents. Shortly later, the Soviets search the entire convent, looking for Olga. Hooky does not reveal that he is aware of Olga's presence, not wanting to put the Mother Superior's image in danger. However, after the Russians leave without having found Olga, Hooky announces that he will give her into the hands of the Soviets the next day. When he overviews Twingo trying to help Olga escape, which Olga declines because she does not want to be the cause of endangering Hooky and Twingo's friendship, Hooky gives her into the hands of the Soviets the same night. Over the next few days, Hooky is heavily criticized for his actions by Twingo and Mother Superior. He and Twingo continue their repatriation duties as they announce to the Soviet Professor Serge Bruloff that he is about to be deported, to which Bruloff reacts by shooting himself. Hooky claims that there is no connection between Olga's reluctance to be deported to the Soviet Union and Serge's suicide, until the third person on his list, Helena Nagard , Serge's wife, responds by bursting into tears. Hooky starts to doubt the policy of the Soviets and as he witnesses Olga being deported to a harsh detainment camp, he swears to raise awareness of the way these displaced people are being treated. One day, after telling Mother Superior how he has lost faith since the death of his son, Hooky finds out the Soviets are taking authority in the British zone in their own hands by displacing Soviet citizens themselves. Hooky, enraged, rushes to the train station, where he witnesses the poor conditions they are in. Mother Superior, who accompanied him, notices the presence of Olga among the people in the train. Later, Hooky announces he will take over all the people in the train, prohibiting them from being transferred to Moscow. Sometime later, Hooky finds out Olga has escaped from the Soviets and brings her to safety with Twingo, who is now her lover. When Hooky and Mother Superior receive a visit from Piniev, who is looking for Olga, they refuse to co-operate and are therefore let go from their assignment. The following period, Hooky helps Mother Superior fly to Rome to visit the Pope. Afterward, Hooky is ordered to turn in Olga to the Soviets. He refuses and is officially fired from his job. Meanwhile, Twingo and Olga plan on moving to Scotland, when she is suddenly captured by Hooky's replacement, Colonel Omicron, who intends to turn her in to Piniev. Realizing her fate, she attempts to commit suicide by jumping out of a window; she dies that evening of her injuries. Shortly after, Hooky is assigned to an operation called "Humanizing Army". The repatriation is ended, and Hooky is put in charge of administering the new policy.

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positive

Airport

Airport

The story takes place at Lincoln International, a fictional Chicago airport based very loosely on O'Hare International Airport. The action mainly centers on Mel Bakersfeld, the Airport General Manager. His devotion to his job is tearing apart his family and his marriage to his wife Cindy, who resents his use of his job at the airport as a device to avoid going to various after-hours events she wants him to participate in, as she attempts to climb into the social circles of Chicago's elite. His problems in his marriage are further exacerbated by his romantically-charged friendship with a lovely divorcee, Trans America Airlines passenger relations manager Tanya Livingston. The story takes place mainly over the course of one evening and night, as a massive snowstorm plays havoc with airport operations. The storyline centers on Bakersfeld's struggles to keep the airport open during the storm. His chief problem is the unexpected closure of primary Runway 30 (runway 29 in the subsequent film), caused when a landing airliner turns off past the wrong side of a runway marker light, burying the plane's landing gear in the snow, and blocking the runway. This becomes a major problem as another airplane, Trans America Flight Two, experiences a midair emergency and returns to Lincoln. This requires that runway 30 be made operational---at any cost. The closing of runway 30 requires the use of shorter runway 25 (runway 22 in the subsequent film), which has the unfortunate consequence of causing planes to take off over a noise-sensitive suburb, whose residents picket the airport in protest. The shorter runway 25 is also later inadequate to land the returning airplane, which has suffered major structural and mechanical damage due to explosive decompression caused by the detonation of the bomb brought on board. The book presents an overview of the vast and complex operations involved in operating a major commercial airport, much of which is still applicable over 40 years later. Several major and minor characters appear, illustrating the vast complexity of the airport and its operations. They include Customs officers, lawyers, snow clearers, airport police, doctors, clerks etc.

This film was based on the novel by Arthur Hailey. With attention to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner. Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero , down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys life insurance with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up Trans Global Airlines Flight Two, known as The Golden Argosy, a Rome-bound Boeing 707 intercontinental jet, from a snowbound Chicago-area airport. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic with the intent that his wife, Inez , will collect the insurance money. When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and intentions, Captain Vernon Demerest , acting as a check pilot to evaluate Captain Anson Harris , goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb. Meanwhile, airport manager Mel Bakersfeld deals with personal, weather, runway and stowaway problems from the ground. When confronted by Captain Demerest, Guerrero briefly considers giving the attaché containing the bomb until a male passenger yells out to a passenger exiting the lavatory that Guerrero has a bomb. Guerrero, holding the case close to him, runs into the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft and triggers the bomb. The detonation blows a hole in the wall of the lavatory and Guerrero with it. Chief Stewardess Gwen Meighen , who is having an affair with the married Demerest and is pregnant with Demerest's child, is injured in the explosion and subsequent rapid decompression. With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, the plane returns to Lincoln International for an emergency landing, even though another airliner stuck in snow has closed the primary runway. TWA chief mechanic at Lincoln, Joe Patroni is enlisted by Bakersfeld to lead the efforts to move the stuck aircraft, another Boeing 707, even though it belongs to a different airline, TGA Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on Boeing 707s, is trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the Boeing 707 flight manual's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet, allowing Lincoln International's primary runway to be reopened just in time to permit the crippled Golden Argosy to land. The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and FAA air traffic controllers.

positive

positive

The Poseidon Adventure

The Poseidon Adventure

Formerly the RMS Atlantis, the SS Poseidon is a luxury ocean liner from the golden age of travel, which was converted to a single-class, combination cargo-cruise liner. The ship was on its maiden voyage in the North Atlantic with the new company, celebrated with a monthlong Christmas voyage from Lisbon to African and South American ports. On December 26, the Poseidon is overturned when it has the misfortune of being directly above the location of an undersea earthquake. The ship capsizes as it falls into the sudden void caused by the quake displacing millions of gallons of seawater. Starting from the upper deck dining room, preacher Reverend Frank "Buzz" Scott leads a small group of (often unwilling) followers towards the keel of the ship, trying to avoid the rising water level and other such hazards. Those stuck within the dining saloon are unwilling to follow the Reverend, and stay behind. Those survivors choosing to follow Scott climb a Christmas tree to ascend into the galley area where they meet some stewards and kitchen crew. There is a great debate about whether to try to reach one of the propeller shafts at the stern, or to go forward to the bow. One of the stewards fears the lockers that hold the anchor chains will have flooded, and suggests that they try for the engine room. After climbing two upside-down stairways, the group comes upon "Broadway", a wide service corridor that runs the length of the ship and connects to the engine room. The posse breaks for a while whilst they look for supplies. Young Robin Shelby ventures off to find the bathroom while Tony "The Beamer" Bates and his girlfriend Pamela find the liquor closet. When the ship's emergency lighting suddenly goes out, a number of crew members panic and stampede; they are trampled, or killed by falling over stairway openings or into a large pit where a boiler tore through several decks of the upturned ship. After the panic, Scott's group goes in search of The Beamer, Pamela, and Robin, who are missing. New York Police Detective Mike Rogo finds The Beamer passed out, intoxicated, and Pamela refuses to leave him. Robin is nowhere to be found. While searching for her young brother, Susan is brutally raped by a young, terrified crew member. Susan talks with the boy, who is remorseful and ashamed, and grows to like him. But the boy, realizing the consequences of his actions, panics and runs off -falling to his death in the dark pit. Susan rejoins the group and tells them nothing of what has happened. After an intense search, they make the painful decision to move on without Robin. At this point his mother, Jane Shelby, breaks down and vents her long-held disgust and hatred for her husband. The Reverend, having found a Turkish oiler, guides the other survivors through Broadway to the stern. They find the corridor to the engine room, which is completely submerged. Belle Rosen, a former W.S.A. champion, swims through the corridor and finds the passage to get them to the other side. Upon their arrival, they find the engine room, or "Hell" as Mr. Martin calls it. They take time to rest and save the batteries on their recently-acquired flashlights. In the darkness Linda Rogo makes a move on the Reverend. After their rest they see the way out - five decks up, on top of a fractured steel wall they name "Mount Poseidon". During the difficult climb, Linda Rogo rebels and attempts to find her own way. She chooses an unstable route and falls to her death, impaled on a piece of sharp steel. An explosion rocks the ship, and Reverend Scott, in an insane rage, denounces God, offers himself as a sacrifice, and commits suicide. Mary Kinsale, an English spinster, screams in grief and claims that they were to be married. Her fellow survivors aren't quite sure what to make of this revelation. Mr. Martin takes charge of the group and they make their way into a propeller shaft where the steel hull is at its thinnest. The oxygen supply begins to give out, but after much waiting, they are finally found. Belle Rosen has a heart attack and dies before the rescue team can reach her. The rescue team cuts through and the group climb out of the upturned hull. Manny Rosen, however, refuses to leave without Belle's remains, which are lifted out after the others have left. Once outside, the survivors see another, much larger group of survivors being removed from the bow of the ship. Most are still in their dinner clothes, in contrast to Scott's group, who are stripped to their underwear and streaked with oil. En route to the rescue ships in lifeboats, they see The Beamer and Pamela, who have survived after all. Sailors from a small German ship try to put a salvage line on the Poseidon. Mike Rogo curses them because of his World War II experiences, and laughs when their efforts fail. The group goes their separate ways - Mary Kinsale and Nonnie on a ship back to England; Mike Rogo, Manny Rosen, Hubie Muller, Dick, Jane and Susan Shelby back to New York; and the Turk back to Turkey. Aboard the American ship, they watch as the Poseidon sinks. Jane Shelby, finally giving up hope, silently grieves the loss of her son. The novel ends with Susan dreaming of going to Hull in England to visit the parents of the boy who had raped her. She hopes that she might be pregnant with his child so he would have a legacy.

The SS Poseidon, an ocean liner slated for retirement and scrapping, is making her way across the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea from New York City to Athens. Despite the protests of Captain Harrison , who fears for the ship's safety in troubled waters, the representative of her new owners, Mr. Linarcos , insists that she make full speed towards its destination, preventing her from taking on additional water ballast. Detective Lieutenant Mike Rogo and his former-prostitute wife Linda — seasick, like many of the passengers — receive an invitation to the captain's table. Reverend Frank Scott , a minister questioning his faith and believing God helps those who help themselves, delivers a sermon at Mass. Susan Shelby and her younger brother Robin are traveling to meet their parents. Robin is interested in how the ship works and frequently visits the engine room. Retired Jewish hardware store owner Manny Rosen and his wife Belle are going to Israel to meet their two-year-old grandson for the first time. Haberdasher James Martin is a love-shy, health-conscious bachelor. The ship's singer, Nonnie Parry rehearses for the New Year celebrations with her band which includes her brother Teddy on drums. That evening, New Year's Eve, passengers gather in the dining room to celebrate. Captain Harrison is called to the bridge because of a report of an undersea earthquake. He receives word from the lookout that there is a huge wave heading towards them coming from the direction of Crete at 60 mph. He issues a mayday and commands a "hard left" turn, but it is too late. The wave hits the bridge, killing him, Linarcos, and the other ship's officers on the bridge. With its lack of ballast, the ship capsizes, killing or injuring many of the people on board. In the dining room, survivors take stock of their predicament. Acres , an injured waiter, is trapped at the galley door now high above. With information from Martin, Scott surmises that the escape route will be found 'upwards', at the outer hull, which is now above water. Robin tells him that the hull near the propeller shaft is only one inch thick. The Rosens, the Rogos, Nonnie, Susan, Robin, Acres, and Martin agree to go with him, using a Christmas tree as a ladder. He unsuccessfully tries to convince more passengers to join them. After the small group climbs to the galley, there is a series of explosions. As seawater floods the room the survivors rush to the Christmas tree, but the weight of everyone climbing causes it to collapse. Acres and Scott find the galley, and the survivors pick their way through it to a staircase. Scott climbs its underside and he and Rogo use a firehose to pull the others up. He leads them to an access tunnel. Rogo has been instructed to look after everybody, but just as Martin and Nonnie climb into the hole, water begins filling the corridor. While climbing up a long ladder inside the funnel, with Acres above them, the ship rocks from another series of explosions. Acres falls into the churning water and is lost despite Rogo's attempt to save him. Climbing out of the shaft, Scott and Rogo argue over the loss of Acres. Their group meets a larger band of survivors led by the ship's medic, heading towards the bow. Scott is certain they are heading for their doom, but Rogo wants to follow them and gives him fifteen minutes to go aft to find the engine room. Although he takes longer than allowed, he finds his way there. The group discovers the engine room is on the other side of a flooded corridor, so someone must swim through with a line to help the others. Belle, a former competitive swimmer, claims she can manage it, but Scott refuses and dives in with the line. Halfway through, a panel collapses on him, trapping him. The survivors notice something is wrong and Belle dives in. She frees him and they make it to the other side. As he secures the lifeline, Belle has a heart attack. Before dying she tells him to give her "Chai" pendant to Rosen, who in turn will give it to their grandson. Rogo swims over to make sure Belle and Scott are all right, then leads the rest over. When Rosen swims to the other side and finds Belle's body he is unwilling to go on, but Scott gives him her Chai pendant, reminding him that he has a reason to live. Scott leads the survivors across a catwalk to the propeller shaft room's watertight door, but there is another series of explosions and Linda falls to her death. An infuriated and heartbroken Rogo blames her death on Scott. More explosions rupture a pipe that releases steam, blocking their escape. Scott, outraged about the three deaths and this final obstacle, rants at God for betraying the survivors. He leaps and grabs onto the burning-hot valve wheel to shut off the steam, then tells Rogo to lead the group before letting go of it, sacrificing himself. Rogo leads the remaining survivors — Rosen, Martin, Nonnie, Susan and Robin — through the watertight door and into the propeller shaft room. They hear a noise above the ship and bang on the ceiling/floor to get the rescuers' attention. The rescuers then cut through the hull and help the group out of the ship. The survivors, the only six alive after the disaster, fly off to safety by helicopter.

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The Reivers

The Reivers

The basic plot of The Reivers takes place in the first decade of the 20th century. It involves a young boy named Lucius Priest (a distant cousin of the McCaslin/Edmonds family Faulkner wrote about in Go Down, Moses) who accompanies a family friend named Boon Hogganbeck to Memphis, where Boon hopes to woo a prostitute called "Miss Corrie". Since Boon has no way to get to Memphis, he steals (reives, thereby becoming a reiver) Lucius's grandfather's car, the first car in Yoknapatawpha County. They discover that Ned McCaslin, a black man who works with Boon at Lucius's grandfather's horse stables, has stowed away with them (Ned is also a blood cousin of the Priests). When they reach Memphis, Boon and Lucius stay in the brothel while Ned disappears into the black part of town. Soon Ned returns, having traded the car for a racehorse. The remainder of the story involves Ned's attempts to race the horse in order to win enough money to help out his relative, and Boon's courtship with Miss Corrie (who is actually called Everbe Corinthia). Lucius, a young, wealthy, and sheltered boy, comes of age in Memphis. He comes into contact for the first time with the underside of society. Much of the novel involves Lucius trying to reconcile his genteel and idealized vision of life with the reality he is faced with on this trip. He meets Corrie's nephew, a boy a few years older than Lucius who acts as his foil and embodies many of the worst aspects of humanity. He degrades women, respects no one, blackmails the brothel owner, steals, and curses. Eventually Lucius, ever the white knight, fights him to defend Corrie's honor. She is so touched at his willingness to stand up for her that she determines to become an honest woman. The climax comes when Lucius rides the horse (named Coppermine, but called Lightning by Ned) in an illicit race. Coppermine is a fast horse, but he likes to run just behind the other horses so he can see them at all times. Ned convinces him to make a final burst to win the race by bribing him with what may be a sardine. After they win the race, Lucius's grandfather shows up. This time Ned does not do the sardine trick, and Coppermine loses. Ned has bet against Coppermine in this race, and the poor black stable hand is able to get the better of the rich white grandfather. The story ends with the news that Boon and Miss Corrie have married and named their first child after Lucius.

Set in the 1900s, the film follows the exploits of the likable but raffish Boon Hoggenbeck , who takes an interest in a new car, a Winton Flyer that is the property of a man named Boss , the patriarch of the McCaslin family, who live in the Mississippi area where Boon lives. When the taking of the car first by Boon and then by Ned leads to a public brawl, the local magistrate lets them off by a bond that Boss pays on the condition both men stay out of trouble and further away from the car while he is away with family to tend to a funeral. That is soon changed by Boon, who takes the car again to go down to Memphis to see his woman Corrie and talks his young friend Lucius into going for the ride. Ned stows away as well, but Boon grudgingly allows him to come. Other characters include a horse that loves sardines and races for them, the opulent Corrie and a man with a horse who lives near an impassable sinkhole full of mud for which he charges expensive rates to get both carts and cars through.

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Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables

Anne, a young orphan from fictional community of Bolingbroke, Nova Scotia, (based upon the real community of New London) is sent to Prince Edward Island after a childhood spent in strangers' homes and orphanages. Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert, siblings in their fifties and sixties, had decided to adopt a boy from the orphanage to help Matthew run their farm. They live at Green Gables, their Avonlea farmhouse on Prince Edward Island. Through a misunderstanding, the orphanage sends Anne Shirley. Anne is described as bright and quick, eager to please, talkative, and extremely imaginative. She has a pale face with freckles, and usually braids her red hair. When asked her name, Anne tells Marilla to call her Cordelia, which Marilla refuses; Anne insists that if she is to be called Anne, it must be spelled with an e, as that spelling is "so much more distinguished." Marilla at first says the girl must return to the orphanage, but after a few days, she decides to let her stay - she pities her and is curious about the girl. As a child of imagination, Anne takes much joy in life, and adapts quickly, thriving in the close-knit farming village. Her talkativeness initially drives the prim, duty-driven Marilla to distraction, although shy Matthew falls for her immediately. Anne says that they are 'kindred spirits'. The book recounts Anne's adventures in making a home: the country school, where she quickly excels in her studies; her friendship with Diana Barry (her best or "bosom friend" as Anne fondly calls her); her budding literary ambitions; and her rivalry with classmate Gilbert Blythe, who teases her about her red hair. For that he earned her instant hatred, although he apologizes many times. As for Anne, she realizes she feels sorry about the events and no longer hates Gilbert, but cannot bring herself to admit it; by the end of the book, they finally become friends. The book also follows Anne's adventures in quiet, old-fashioned Avonlea. Episodes include her play time with friends (Diana, Jane Andrews and Ruby Gillis), her run-ins with the unpleasant Pye sisters (Gertie and Josie), and domestic mishaps such as dyeing her hair green (while intending to dye it black), or accidentally getting Diana drunk (by giving her what she thinks is raspberry cordial but is currant wine). At sixteen, Anne goes to Queen's Academy to earn a teaching license, along with Gilbert, Ruby, Josie, Jane and several other students. She obtains her license in one year instead of the usual two, and wins the Avery Scholarship for the top student in English, which would allow her to pursue a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree at the fictional Redmond College (based on the real Dalhousie University) on the mainland in Nova Scotia. Near the end of the book, Matthew dies of a heart attack after learning that all of his and Marilla's money has been lost in a bank failure. Out of devotion to Marilla and Green Gables, Anne gives up the Avery Scholarship to stay at home and help Marilla, whose eyesight is diminishing. She plans to teach at the Carmody school, the nearest school available, and return to Green Gables on weekends. In an act of friendship, Gilbert Blythe gives up his teaching position at the Avonlea School to work at White Sands School instead. Anne can teach in Avonlea and stay at Green Gables all through the week. After this kind act, Anne and Gilbert's friendship is cemented, and Anne looks forward to the next "bend in the road."

The plot is generally faithful to that of the novel, though some of the events have been reordered chronologically. The film also introduces some new material, particularly relating to Anne's interactions with Gilbert Blythe. Unlike Montgomery’s novel, Sullivan’s film opens with the 11 year old orphan Anne Shirley living in servitude with the cruel Hammond Family in Nova Scotia. However, when Mr. Hammond dies, Anne is sent to an orphanage where she eventually receives the wonderful news that she has been adopted by a couple on Prince Edward Island. Upon arriving on P.E.I, Anne is met at the train station by the elderly Matthew Cuthbert who is surprised to find a girl there instead of a boy. Matthew and his sister Marilla had requested a boy to help them with the farm chores but he couldn’t very well just leave the girl at the train station. Matthew decides to take Anne to meet Marilla and on the buggy ride home becomes completely smitten with the red haired orphan girl. When Anne Shirley arrives at the Cuthbert’s farm called “Green Gables”, she is a precocious, romantic child desperate to be loved and highly sensitive about her red hair and homely looks. In her own unique headstrong manner, Anne manages to insult the town gossip, Rachel Lynde in a dispute over her looks; smash her slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head when he calls her “Carrots” on her first day of school; and accidentally dyes her hair green in an effort to turn her red hair black and salvage her wounded pride. Marilla Cuthbert is shocked and beside herself to know how she will ever cope with this sensitive, headstrong child so desperate to fit in. But shy, gentle Matthew is always there to defend Anne and hold her up on a pedestal. It seems like Anne is destined to cultivate disaster. She becomes “bosom” friends with Diana Barry from across the pond and succeeds in getting Diana drunk by accidentally serving Currant Wine instead of Raspberry Cordial at a tea party. Diana’s mother and Rachel Lynde turn on Marilla for making wine in the first place. Hence Anne moves from one mishap to the next as her wild imagination and far-fetched antics combine to constantly bring trouble onto her shoulders. Anne finds her element in the academic world, ultimately competing neck and neck with Gilbert Blythe who becomes her arch opponent. Anne and Gilbert go on to win the highest academic accolades, constantly vying for honors at every level. Eventually their fierce rivalry turns to a secret affection, which blossoms into love. Marilla tries to prevent Anne from seeing Gilbert because Anne is still quite young and Marilla wants Anne to continue her education. In the end, however, when Matthew dies and forces Marilla into considering selling Green Gables, Gilbert gives Anne his teaching post in nearby Avonlea so she can stay at Green Gables and continue to support Marilla. One is left with the impression that Gilbert’s and Anne’s lives will henceforth become intertwined. Anne has overcome the trials and tribulations of her difficult youth and finally found the home, family and love that she always longed for.

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Martin Eden

The Adventures of Martin Eden

Living in Oakland at the beginning of the 20th century, Martin Eden struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. His principal motivation is his love for Ruth Morse. Because Eden is a rough, uneducated sailor from a working-class background and the Morses are a bourgeois family, a union between them would be impossible until he reaches their level of wealth and refinement. Over a period of two years, Eden promises Ruth that success will come, but just before it does, Ruth loses her patience and rejects him in a letter, saying, "if only you had settled down&nbsp;... and attempted to make something of yourself". By the time Eden attains the favour of the publishers and the bourgeoisie who had shunned him, he has already developed a grudge against them and become jaded by toil and unrequited love. Instead of enjoying his success, he retreats into a quiet indifference, interrupted only to rail mentally against the genteelness of bourgeois society or to donate his new wealth to working-class friends and family. The novel ends with Eden committing suicide by drowning, which contributed to what researcher Clarice Stasz calls the "biographical myth" that Jack London's own death was a suicide. London's oldest daughter Joan commented that in spite of its tragic ending, the book is often regarded as "a 'success' story&nbsp;... which inspired not only a whole generation of young writers but other different fields who, without aid or encouragement, attained their objectives through great struggle".

Martin Eden wants to be a writer but embarks as a sailor on a merchant ship. A storm hits the ship, which sinks. Martin escapes and decides to write about the experience.

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Force 10 From Navarone

Force 10 from Navarone

The story starts straight where the film ended, with Mallory and Miller aboard the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Sirdar, sailing on its way to the besieged island of Kheros. The ship is forced to turn around and head back to Navarone when they receive an urgent message from Captain Jensen, who orders them to collect Andrea Stavros and await transport on a deserted airstrip. Mallory and Miller go ashore and arrive in Mandrakos just in time to witness Andrea' wedding to the feisty resistance fighter, Maria, who had led them into the fortress to destroy the guns. After persuading Andrea and barely appeasing Maria, the three board a Wellington Bomber to take them to Termoli, Italy and Captain Jensen. In Termoli, Jensen congratulates Mallory's team and introduces them to three Royal Marine Commandos sergeants, each an exact replacement for Mallory's men. However one of the sergeants (Reynolds) is less than pleased to be considered a reserve and makes his feelings known. With the introductions over, Jensen briefs them on the mission, they're to go to the Neretva area of Bosnia to discover why in the recent weeks every allied agent parachuted into that area has been captured. Later Jensen introduces Mallory to a Partisan General called Vukalovic. Jensen explains that Vukalovic commands the Partisans in the Neretva valley who are now trapped against the Neretva river to the south and east and impassable mountains in the north and west in the so-called Zenica Cage. Across the river German General Zimmerman commands two German Panzer Divisions camped in the Pine forrests waiting to cross the lone bridge and slaughter the helpless Partisans, and when that happens the Germans will have nearly enough control of Yugoslavia. The next day Mallory, Miller, Andrea and the three sergeants fly from Italy to Bosnia, where they empty their plane's fuel tanks and parachute into a clearing not far from the area the agents were captured. After landing they meet up with what they believe to be a group of Partisans, led by Droshny, a huge Bosnian Captain. Droshny immediately takes a strong dislike to Andrea who nonchalantly kills one of the Partisans and injures another when they aim their guns at Mallory's team. With both men ready to tear the other apart, Mallory calms the situation down and they head off to the Partisan camp. At the camp they're ushered in one of the huts and are shocked to be greeted by a German Army Captain, Captain Neufeld explains that Droshny's men are not Partisans but German collaborators called Chetniks. So now captured, Mallory tells Neufeld the story he briefed the team while they were aboard the plane, but Neufeld seems unconvinced that they are deserters who have been tried for selling penicillin. But when Neufeld's men discover the crashed plane, which Mallory deliberately jettisoned the spare fuel to tie in with his story of how they'd run out of fuel, he seems to believe the tale. Amongst the Chetniks is a female guerrilla fighter named Maria, who with her blind and mute brother Petar wanders the area playing his guitar and sort of singing in a strange way. In an area where superstition is part of the culture, people no matter that they are Partisan or Chetnik see Petar as 'cursed' and will not turn him away from their doors. So he and his sister have found themselves being able to go anywhere in the area, making them valuable spies to the Germans. General Vukalovic, who was parachuted into the Zenica Cage by a different plane, meets his various commanders one by one. First the General meets Major Stefan, whose troops block the Western Gap. Stefan explains to the General that the Germans have moved units of their 11th Army Corps to attack through the gap. Back in the Chetnik camp, Neufeld radio's General Zimmerman at the Neretva Bridge. Zimmerman is concerned with the fact that the Allies are bound to mount a counter attack to save their Partisan allies, but he doesn't know two things, when and where. To find out, Neufeld sends Mallory's team to a nearby Partisan encampment and return with the vital information. The Chetniks then escort Mallory's team through the towering forests in an ancient truck to near Partisan territory. Lrft to make the final part of the journey alone, Mallory instructs Andrea and Miller to kill two Chetniks who were trying to follow them. But unbeknownst to Andrea and Miller, Droshny is also following behind the two Chetniks. Arriving at the Partisan camp (strangely similar to the Chetnik camp), Mallory is met by Major Broznik. While Broznik and Mallory go to the HQ hut the rest go to a communal rest hut, except Saunders who Mallory sends to the radio hut to report to Captain Jensen. Reynolds now even more bitter as he suspects Mallory of betraying them notices the normally aggressive Maria talking friendly to Mallory outside Broznik's hut, a short while later they descover Saunders murdered and his radio smashed. While Mallory, Andrea and Miller are sure it was Droshny, Reynolds believes the murderer to be Mallory. With friends and enemies mixed together, Mallory must continue the real purpose of their mission while keeping the two remaining disgruntled Marines in check. As the story twists and turns, Mallory's team travel back to the Chetnik camp before taking Neufeld and Droshny as hostages to rescue the captured British spies. After releasing the British agents and imprisoning Neufeld and Droshny with the guards at the remote concrete block house, Mallory and co travel up into the Bosnian mountains where Partisans have constructed an airstrip on a waist deep snowy plateau. Of course Neufeld and Droshny escape just in time to witness Mallory's team boarding an Allied bomber and fly off to Italy. But typically for a MacLean novel, Mallory and co haven't left but five Partisans and the agents hasve. While returning back to the Neretva valley, Mallory with the help of Reynolds realises that Droshny must have witnessed him and Maria talking friendly too and must now rescue her and Petar. Neufeld radio's Zimmerman and tells him that Mallory said the Partisan's expect the attack to come from across the Western Gap, feeling safe Zimmerman orders his two armoured divisions around the bridge for their attack in a few hours time. Having returned to the block house, Neufeld and Droshny are astonished to be confronted by Mallory, Miller and Andrea while they're interogating Maria. Freeing Maria and her brother Mallory returns to Neufeld's camp and destroys his radio. Finally after a terrifying ride on an old and rusty narrow gauge railway engine, the group descends the Neretva gorge down to the river bank with Andrea fighting a rear guard action while squadrons of Lancaster bombers saturate the Western Gap with high explosives. Mallory and Miller manage to scale the dam wall and covertly drop into the reservoir where they destroy the dam with a submersible mine dropped by a lone Lancaster bomber. Escaping the reservoir in time to see the dam explode, millions of gallons of water rushes down the gorge and destroys the bridge, washing away the bridge and Zimmerman and his two armoured divisions crossing it.

In 1943, after their successful mission on the Greek island of Navarone, Mallory ([[Robert Shaw and Miller ([[Edward Fox are sent to find and kill Nicolai. Originally thought to be a traitor who informed the Germans about Miller and Mallory during the Navarone mission, Nicolai is now known to be Colonel von Ingorslebon, a dedicated German spy believed to have infiltrated the Yugoslav Partisans as "Captain Lescovar" . To get to Yugoslavia, the two men pair with "Force 10", an American sabotage unit, led by Lt. Col. Barnsby , which has its own mission there. To maximize security, Force 10 steals a plane from Termoli, Italy, rather than requisitioning one; but they are spotted by American MPs before they can take off. Weaver , a U.S. Army sergeant under arrest by the MPs, joins with Force 10 and forces his way onto the plane. Barnsby and crew successfully "escape" Termoli only to be shot down by Luftwaffe night fighters. Only Barnsby, Mallory, Miller, Weaver, and Reynolds manage to escape the crippled plane. On the ground, the survivors run across a group they believe to be their allies, Communist Yugoslav Partisans. Led by Capt. Drazak , Force 10's rescuers are soon revealed to be collaborationist Chetniks under German control. The Germans take the team into custody but do not know their mission. Mallory and Barnsby tell the commander, Major Schroeder ([[Michael Byrne , that they are criminals fleeing Allied authorities. To keep Schroeder from opening Miller's suitcase, which contains his special explosives, Mallory tells him that it contains a new drug called "penicillin". By the next morning, the prisoners are told that Schroeder has opened the case, finding it full of firewood. Mallory and Barnsby improvise, "admitting" they buried the samples. Schroeder sends them to retrieve them, under the guard of his concubine Maritza and three of his soldiers. Miller, Weaver, and Reynolds are left in a cell in camp. Far from camp, Maritza kills the Germans, revealing herself to be a partisan spy. She directs Mallory and Barnsby towards the partisans under the command of her father, Major Petrovich . Mallory and Barnsby escape, ambushing and killing two of Drazak's Chetniks, who are bandaged to hide burns from flamethrowers. Eventually, the two meet a patrol of real Yugoslav Partisans led by a man Mallory recognizes his target – Captain Lescovar alias Nicolai. While Mallory assumes that Lescovar has recognized him, too, he and Barnsby are nevertheless taken to the partisans. Mallory and Barnsby realize where they are when they recognize a wide river and a large hydroelectric dam near the Partisan camp. Skeptical, Major Petrovich dismisses Mallory's story about Lescovar being Nicolai, assuring Mallory they executed the real Nicolai months earlier. He reproves the men for killing the bandaged Chetniks, as the men were partisan infiltrators and his only link to his daughter Maritza. Major Petrovich's principal worry is an impending assault by the Wehrmacht. The Germans are marshaling their forces nearby, and only a ravine separates as many as three German divisions from the outnumbered partisans. Only a single concrete arch bridge links each side of the ravine, but the partisans have been unable to destroy it. Convinced that no bridge is impregnable, Barnsby reveals that this bridge is, in fact, Force 10's target. Knowing Miller's expertise in demolitions, Mallory convinces a reluctant Petrovich to help mount a rescue mission using Lescovar and the Partisan Marko . The four re-enter the camp at night, Mallory and Barnsby posing as captives and the partisans disguised as the bandaged men. Before they complete their mission, Drazak arrives with the bodies of the real bandaged men and, since Maritza had always been seen with them, concludes she was a partisan as well. A gun battle breaks out in the cell block. Major Schroeder and Force 10's Reynolds are killed; but Mallory, Barnsby, Miller, Weaver, Lescovar and Marko escape in a truck with a badly beaten Maritza and the recovered explosives. Having made it to the Partisans, explosives expert Miller reveals that the bridge really is impregnable. Mallory hits upon the idea of destroying the upstream dam they saw earlier, with the sudden onrush of several millions of gallons of water being enough to destroy the bridge. A night-time air drop is arranged to replace Force 10's lost supplies, but Lescovar sabotages the drop by calling in German planes. Maritza spots Lescovar betraying the partisans, but he kills her before she can warn the others. German planes bomb the illuminated drop zone. Major Petrovich, angered by the botched air drop, orders the men to be sent to Marshal Josip Broz Tito's headquarters for transport back to Italy. The team decides to infiltrate the German marshaling yards at Mostar to steal explosives, taking Lescovar and Marko. Lescovar again betrays them, alerting a German sergeant to their presence, identifying himself as an Abwehr officer. Marko overhears the plan and sacrifices himself to save the others. The others escape, with Lescovar, aboard a train leaving for Sarajevo. Lescovar's hasty cover story doesn't fool Mallory or Barnsby—Barnsby had observed Lescovar's interactions with the German sergeant, who, fatally, salutes him even though Lescovar's uniform made him out to be a corporal; Mallory had noticed a map showing that their train passes within a half-mile of the dam - a fact Lescovar "neglected" to bring up. Though Lescovar denies treachery, Mallory is convinced and Barnsby kills him. Jumping the train near the dam, the team splits up: Miller and Weaver set off diversionary explosives while Mallory and Barnsby sneak into the dam. Weaver runs into Capt. Drazak in the woods and kills him after a knife fight. Mallory and Barnsby set their charges within the dam but realize that they are out of time. With the German assault only minutes away - they are forced to set a short fuse, leaving them no time to escape. Mallory and Barnsby are caught in the explosion, yet nevertheless survive. At first, the dam appears undamaged, but soon it begins to disintegrate. With its fragile structural integrity disrupted, the dam wall collapses, releasing millions of tons of water in a wave that topples the real target, the impregnable bridge. The German assault is thwarted, saving the Partisans. Mallory and Barnsby rejoin Miller and Weaver, but the jubilation is short-lived. Mallory reminds the men that they're now trapped on the wrong side of the river, with no supplies and no way of contacting or reaching the partisans. As the credits roll, the men begin a strenuous journey back to friendly lines.

negative

positive

Freaky Friday

Freaky Friday

A willful, disorganized teenage girl, Annabelle Andrews, awakens one Friday morning to find herself in the body of her mother, with whom she argued the previous night. Suddenly in charge of taking care of the New York family's affairs and her younger brother Ben (whom Annabelle has not-so-affectionately nicknamed "Ape Face"), and growing increasingly worried about the disappearance of "Annabelle", who appeared to be herself in the morning but has gone missing after leaving the Andrews' home, she enlists the help of her neighbor and childhood friend, Boris, though without telling him about her identity crisis. As the day wears on and Annabelle has a series of increasingly bizarre and frustrating misadventures, she becomes gradually more appreciative of how difficult her mother's life is, and learns, to her surprise, that Ben idolizes her, and Boris is actually named Morris, but has a problem with chronic congestion (at least around Annabelle) leading him to nasally pronounce ms and ns as bs and ds. The novel races towards its climax and Ben also disappears, apparently having gone off with a pretty girl whom Boris did not recognize, but Ben appeared to trust without hesitation. In the climax and dénouement, Annabelle becomes overwhelmed by the difficulties of her situation, apparent disappearance of her mother, loss of the children, and the question of how her odd situation came about and when/whether it will be resolved. Finally, it is revealed that Annabelle's mother herself caused them to switch bodies through some unspecified means, and the mysterious girl who took Ben was Mrs. Andrews in Annabelle's body (to which she is restored) made much more attractive by a makeover Mrs. Andrews gave the body while using it, including the removal of Annabelle's braces, an appointment Annabelle had forgotten about (and would have missed, had she been the one in her body that day). The book (and especially the film adaptations and its second sequel, Summer Switch) might be considered a modern retelling of Vice Versa, the 1882 novel by F. Anstey, in which the protagonists are a father and son.

Anna Coleman is an average teenage rebel whose constant victims of her nature are her stodgy mother Tess and annoying younger brother Harry . Sources of irritation include a rock band Anna is in, which Tess hates, and Tess's upcoming wedding to her boyfriend Ryan , which Anna is emotionally not ready for due to her father's death three years ago. Also contributing to Anna's irritation is her archrival, Stacey Hinkhouse, who never seems to stop torturing her and has convinced Tess that she and Anna are still best friends , and her English teacher, Mr. Elton Bates, who gives her an "F" on every assignment, no matter how hard she tries. When the entire family eat out in a Chinese restaurant, Anna and Tess quickly start fighting again: Anna wishes to participate with the rest of her band in a band audition, however the show is the same night as Tess's wedding rehearsal. Hearing the argument, Pei-Pei's mother meddles in by offering Tess and Anna both fortune cookies. Upon opening them, there is a short earthquake which only they can feel. The next day, after the stroke of midnight, Tess wakes up and somehow discovers that she and Anna have swapped in each other's body. Confused and unable to work out on how to swap back on their own, they decide to go back to the restaurant to find out what happened. Since Anna has an important test and Tess must go to work, the two are forced into each other's roles. At school, Tess not only realizes Anna was right about Stacey, but is also given a bad grade from Mr. Bates while he was quizzing them on Shakespeare's Hamlet, even though she got all the answers correct, and realizes that he was her former classmate, whom she had turned down when he had asked her to the school prom and he is taking it out on Anna. Tess confronts Anna's teacher over this in front of Anna's friends, humiliating him and warning him to stop his abusive treatment of her or he'll be reported to the school board. After work with Anna primarily forced to feign her way through most of Tess's appointments apart from a case involving a mother's concerns over her daughter, Anna gives Tess's body a makeover, including new clothes, a new haircut, and an ear piercing. Then, the two go to the restaurant again and speak to Pei-Pei, the daughter of the woman that gave them the fortune cookies. Furious at her mother's meddling, but unable to directly help them, Pei-Pei advises them to read the fortunes in the cookies, as when the fortunes come true, they will swap back. In the afternoon, Anna attends Harry's parent-teacher conference, where she reads a composition he wrote about how much Harry admires Anna, but provoked fights so that she would pay attention to him. When Tess takes Anna's test, Stacey writes a note and places it on her desk for her to read, but then makes it look like she was cheating, landing her in detention. Tess is able to finish the test later with the help of Jake, an older student that Anna had a crush on. She also gets revenge on Stacey by erasing all of the answers she had on her test paper and writing "I'M STUPID!" on it. Meanwhile, Ryan surprises Anna with an interview on a talk show to discuss her new psychology book. She is unable to discuss the meaning of the book, which she has not read, so she improvises by turning the show into a wild romp while angering Tess, who sees the interview on TV, in the process while in the school's teacher's lounge. Afterwards, Anna sees Jake at a coffee shop and bonds with him over similar musical interests. Jake then begins to fall for Tess, when he notices all the characteristics he likes about Anna. At the wedding rehearsal that evening, Tess and Anna, while still in each other's bodies, read the fortunes, stating that "What you see is what you lack, then selfless love will change you back," but leaves them overly confused. Anna's bandmates come to try to convince Tess to go to the audition, but ultimately decides to use force. However, the bandmates are caught by security, but Ryan surprises Tess and Anna when he gives her permission to go. He also tells Anna that he wanted her to accept him into the family on her own and that he wants Anna to go watch Tess. Seeing Ryan in a new light, Anna leaves to watch her band perform. At the audition, Tess is unable to play the guitar solo so Anna unplugs it and plays another guitar backstage while Tess mimes along. The band does a great job and for the first time, Tess realizes how much fun Anna has playing in her band. Back at the wedding rehearsal, Tess asks Anna to have Ryan postpone the wedding, so that Anna will not have to go through marrying him in her mother's body. Instead, Anna proposes a toast where she finally accepts Ryan by realizing how happy he makes Tess. There is a second earthquake that the whole crowd feels, plus Tess and Anna switch back into their own bodies. On the wedding day, Tess and Ryan marry and Anna and Jake meet and while dancing they share a kiss. By the end of the film, Anna shares a song named "Ultimate." Harry and Grandpa have an argument and Pei-Pei attacks and wrestles her mother to the ground as she attempts to give the pair the fortune cookies, preventing another terrible mix-up.

positive

positive

The Adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio

The story begins in Tuscany. A carpenter has found a block of pinewood which he plans to carve into a leg for his table. When he begins, however, the log shouts out, "Don't strike me too hard!" Frightened by the talking log, the carpenter, Antonio or Master Cherry as he is called does not know what to do until his neighbor Geppetto, known for disliking children, drops by looking for a piece of wood to build a marionette. Seeing a perfect opportunity, Antonio gives the block to Geppetto. Geppetto is extremely poor and plans to make a living as a puppeteer. He carves the block into a boy and names him "Pinocchio". As soon as Pinocchio's nose has been carved, it begins to grow longer and longer before Geppetto is finished with him. After the puppet is finished, Geppetto teaches him to walk and Pinocchio runs out the door and away into the town. He is caught by a Carabiniere but when people say that Geppetto dislikes children, the carabineer assumes that Pinocchio has been mistreated and imprisons Geppetto. Pinocchio heads back to Geppetto's house and encounters The Talking Cricket who has lived in the house for over a century. It tells him that boys who do not obey their parents grow up to be donkeys. Pinocchio throws a hammer at the cricket and accidentally kills it. Unable to find food in the house, Pinocchio ventures to a neighbor's house to beg for food and the annoyed neighbor pours a basin of water on him. Pinocchio returns home freezing and tries to warm himself by placing his feet upon the stove. The next morning he wakes to find that his feet have burnt off. Geppetto, who has been released from jail and has three pears for a meal, makes his son a new pair of feet. In gratitude, Pinocchio promises to go to school. Since Geppetto has no money to buy school books, he sells his only coat. Pinocchio heads off to school, but on the way he is distracted by some music and crowds and he follows the sounds until he finds himself in a crowd of people, all congregated to see the Great Marionette Theater. Pinocchio sells his school books for tickets to the show. During the performance, the puppets Harlequin, Punch, and Signora Rosaura see Pinocchio and cry out, "It is our brother Pinocchio!" The audience grows angry, and the theater director, Mangiafuoco, comes out to see what is going on. Upset, he decides to use Pinocchio as firewood to cook his dinner. Pinocchio pleads to be saved and Mangiafuoco gives in. When he learns about Pinocchio's poor father, he gives the marionette five gold pieces for Geppetto. As Pinocchio heads home to give the coins to his father, he meets a fox and a cat who convince him that if he plants his coins in the Field of Miracles, outside the city of Catchfools, then they will grow into a tree with a thousand gold coins, or perhaps two thousand. Pinocchio heads off on a journey to Catchfools with the Cat and Fox. On the way, they stop at the Inn of the Red Crayfish, where the Fox and Cat gorge themselves on food at Pinocchio's expense. The fox and cat take off ahead of Pinocchio and disguise themselves as bandits while Pinocchio continues on toward Catchfools. The ghost of the Talking Cricket appears, telling him to go home and give the coins to his father but Pinocchio ignores him. As he passes through the forest, the disguised Cat and Fox jump out and try to rob Pinocchio, who hides the money in his mouth. In the struggle that follows Pinocchio bites the Cat's hand off and escapes deeper into the forest where he sees a white house ahead. Stopping to knock on the door, he is greeted by a young Fairy with Turquoise Hair, who says she is dead and waiting to be taken. However, as he speaks to her, the bandits catch him and hang him in a tree. After a while the Fox and Cat get tired of waiting for the marionette to suffocate and leave. The Blue-haired Fairy sends a falcon and a poodle to rescue Pinocchio, and she calls in three famous doctors to tell her if Pinocchio is dead. The first two (an owl and a crow) are uncertain, but the third—the Talking Cricket that Pinocchio presumably killed earlier—knows that Pinocchio is fine and tells the marionette that he has been disobedient and hurt his father. The Blue-haired Fairy tries to make Pinocchio take medicine, saying he will soon die if he doesn't, but he refuses to take it, despite promising to if he is given sugar, which the Blue-haired Fairy gives him. However Four Black Rabbits then enter the room with a coffin and tell Pinocchio they have come to take him away, as he will be dead soon. Pinocchio takes the medicine and the rabbits leave. The Blue-haired Fairy asks Pinocchio what happened and he tells her. She then asks him where the gold coins are. Pinocchio lies, saying he has lost them. As he utters this lie (and more) his nose begins to grow until it is so long he cannot turn around in the room. The Fairy explains to Pinocchio that it is his lies that are making his nose grow long, then calls in a flock of woodpeckers to chisel down his nose. Pinocchio and the Blue-haired Fairy decide to become brother and sister, and the Fairy sends for Geppetto to come live with them in the forest. Pinocchio heads out to meet his father, but on the way he meets the fox and cat again (whom he had not recognized as the bandits, even though he has a hint from the cat's bandaged front paw—which he had bitten earlier; the fox tells him the cat had shown mistaken kindness to a wolf). They remind Pinocchio of the Field of Miracles, and finally he agrees to go with them and plant his gold. After half a day's journey, they reach the city of Catchfools. Everyone in the town has done something exceedingly foolish and now suffers as a result. When they reach the "Field of Miracles", Pinocchio buries his gold then runs off to wait the twenty minutes it will take for his gold to grow. After twenty minutes he returns, only to find no tree and—even worse—no gold coins. Realizing what has happened from a bird, he goes to Catchfools and tells the judge, an old Gorilla, about the fox and cat. The judge (as is the custom in Catchfools) sends Pinocchio to prison for his foolishness for four months. While he is in prison, however, the emperor of Catchfools declares a celebration, and all prisoners are set free. As Pinocchio heads back to the forest, he finds an enormous serpent with a smoking tail blocking the way. After some confusion, he asks the serpent to move, but the serpent remains completely still. Concluding that it is dead, Pinocchio begins to step over it, but the serpent suddenly rises up and hisses at the marionette, toppling him over onto his head. Struck by Pinocchio's fright and comical position, the snake laughs so hard, it bursts an artery and dies. While sneaking into a farmer's yard to take some grapes, Pinocchio is caught in a weasel trap. He asks a bird to help him, but it refuses after hearing Pinocchio was planning to steal grapes. When the farmer comes out and finds Pinocchio, he ties him up in a doghouse to guard his chicken coop. That night, a group of weasels come and tell Pinocchio that they had made a deal with former watchdog Melampo to let them raid the chicken coop if he could have a chicken. Pinocchio says he wants two chickens, so the weasels agree and go into the henhouse. Pinocchio then locks the door and barks loudly. The farmer gets the weasels and frees Pinocchio as a reward. Pinocchio comes to where the cottage was and finds nothing but a gravestone. Believing the Blue-haired Fairy died from sorrow, he weeps until a friendly pigeon offers to give him a ride to the seashore, where Geppetto is building a boat to go out and search for Pinocchio. They fly to the seashore and Pinocchio sees Geppetto out in a boat. The puppet leaps into the water and tries to swim to Geppetto, but the waves are too rough and Pinocchio is washed underwater as Geppetto is swallowed by a terrible shark. A kindly dolphin gives Pinocchio a ride to the nearest island, which is the Island of Busy Bees. Everyone is working and no one will give Pinocchio any food as long as he will not help them. He finally offers to carry a lady's jug home in return for food and water. When they get to the house, Pinocchio recognizes the lady as the Blue-haired Fairy, now miraculously old enough to be his mother. She says she will act as Pinocchio's mother and Pinocchio will begin going to school. She hints that if Pinocchio does well in school he will become a real boy. Pinocchio starts school the next day and after showing his determination becomes a friend to all the schoolboys. A while later a group of boys trick Pinocchio into playing hookey by saying they saw a large whale at the beach. Hoping that it is the shark that swallowed Geppetto, he accompanies them to the beach only to find he has been fooled. He begins fighting with the boys and one boy grabs a schoolbook of Pinocchio's and throws it at him. The marionette ducks and the book hits another boy named Eugene, who is knocked out. The other boys flee while Pinocchio tries to revive Eugene. Then two policemen come up and accuse Pinocchio of injuring Eugene. Before he can explain, the policemen grab him to take him to jail—but he escapes and is chased into the sea by the police dog. The dog starts to drown and Pinocchio saves him. The dog is grateful and promises to be Pinocchio's friend. Pinocchio happily starts swimming to shore. Then The Green Fisherman catches Pinocchio in his net and starts to eat the fish, saying Pinocchio must be a very special fish. Taking off the marionette's clothes and covering him with flour, the ogre prepares to eat Pinocchio. The police dog then comes in and rescues Pinocchio from the ogre. On the way home, Pinocchio stops at a man's house and asks about Eugene. The man says Eugene is fine, but that Pinocchio must be a truant. Pinocchio says that he is always truthful and obedient. Again his nose grows longer and Pinocchio immediately tells the truth about himself, causing the nose to shrink back to normal. Pinocchio gets home in the middle of the night. He knocks on the door and a snail opens the third-story window. Pinocchio pleads to be let in and the snail says he will come down. Since a snail is slow, it takes all night for the snail to come down and let Pinocchio in. By the time the snail comes down Pinocchio has banged his foot against the door and gotten stuck. The snail brings Pinocchio artificial food and the marionette faints. When he wakes, he is on the couch and the Fairy says she will give him another chance. Pinocchio does excellently in school and passes with high honors. The Fairy promises that Pinocchio will be a real boy next day and says he should invite all his friends to a party. He goes to invite everyone, but he is sidetracked when he meets a boy named Romeo—nicknamed Lampwick because he is so tall and skinny. Lampwick is about to go to a place called Toyland, where everyone plays all day and never works. Pinocchio goes along with him and they have a wonderful time in the land of Play—until one morning Pinocchio awakes with donkey ears. A Squirrel tells him that boys who do nothing but play and never work always grow into donkeys. Within a short while Pinocchio has become a donkey. He is sold to a circus and is trained to do all kinds of tricks. Then one night in the circus he falls and sprains his leg. The circus owner sells the donkey to a man who wants to skin him and make a drum. The man throws the donkey into the sea to drown him—and brings up a living wooden boy. Pinocchio explains that the fish ate all the donkey skin off of him and he is now a marionette again. Pinocchio dives back into the water and swims out to sea—when he is swallowed by The Terrible Shark. Inside the shark Pinocchio meets a tuna who is resigned to the fate and just says they will have to wait to be digested. Pinocchio sees a light from far off and he follows the light. At the other end is Geppetto, who had been living on a ship that was also in the shark. Pinocchio and Geppetto and the tuna manage to get out from inside the shark and Pinocchio heroically attempts to swim with Geppetto to shore, which turns out to be too far; however, the tuna rescues them and brings them to shore. Pinocchio and Geppetto try to find a place to stay. They pass two beggars, who are the Fox and the Cat. The Cat is, ironically, really blind now, and the fox is actually lame, tailless (having sold his tail for money) and mangy. They plead for food or money, but Pinocchio will give them nothing. They arrive at a small house, and living there is the Talking Cricket, who says they can stay. Pinocchio gets a job doing work for a farmer, whose donkey is dying. Pinocchio recognizes the donkey as Lampwick. Pinocchio mourns over Lampwick's dead body and the farmer is perplexed as to why. Pinocchio says that Lampwick was his friend and they went to school together, causing Farmer John to be even more confused. After long months of working for the farmer and supporting the ailing Geppetto he goes to town with what money he has saved (40 pennies to be exact) to buy himself a new suit. He meets the snail, who tells him that the Blue-haired Fairy is ill and needs money. Pinocchio instantly gives the snail all the money he has, promising that he will help his mother as much as he is helping his father. That night, he dreams he is visited by the Fairy, who kisses him. When he wakes up, he is a real boy at last. Furthermore, Pinocchio finds that the Fairy left him a new suit and boots, and a bag which Pinocchio thinks is the forty pennies he originally loaned to the Blue Fairy. The boy is shocked to find instead forty freshly minted gold coins. He is also reunited with Geppetto, now healthy and resuming woodcarving. They live happily ever after.

After singing the film's signature song "When You Wish upon a Star" over the opening credits, Jiminy Cricket explains to the audience that he is going to tell a story of a wish coming true. Opening the book, in flashback, he tells how he moved into the workshop of the woodworker Geppetto one night to warm himself from the cold. The old wookworker lives alone with his cat, Figaro and his fish, Cleo. Jiminy watches as Geppetto finishes work on a wooden marionette whom he names Pinocchio. Before falling asleep, Geppetto makes a wish on a star that Pinocchio could be a real boy. During the night, the star, in the form of a Blue Fairy, visits the workshop to grant Geppetto's wish. She makes Pinocchio come alive, while remaining still a puppet. The fairy tells Pinocchio that if he wants to become a real boy of flesh and blood he must prove himself to be brave, truthful and unselfish and able to tell right from wrong by listening to his conscience. Pinocchio does not understand what a conscience is, and Jiminy reveals himself to explain it to him. The Blue Fairy asks if Jiminy would serve as Pinocchio's conscience, a task he accepts. Geppetto discovers that his wish has come true, and is filled with joy. The next day, he sends Pinocchio on his first day of school. However, the naive Pinocchio is spotted by the conniving con artists Honest John and Gideon, who quickly decide to sell the living puppet for money. They convince him to join Stromboli's puppet show instead. Pinocchio becomes Stromboli's star attraction as a magic string-less marionette. Jiminy, seeing Pinocchio's sudden success, decides he has failed as a conscience and leaves. Gepetto, worried about Pinocchio's absence, goes out to look for him. Stromboli, meanwhile, expects to make much more money with Pinocchio working for him. When Pinocchio wants to go home for the night , Stromboli turns brutal and locks Pinocchio in a birdcage to prevent him from leaving, and warns him that if he grows too old, he will chop him into firewood. Jiminy returns to Pinocchio, but is unable to free him. During the night, the Blue Fairy comes to ask why Pinocchio disobeyed Geppetto. Despite Jiminy's urgings, Pinocchio tells an overblown story to hide his shame, but with each lie his nose grows and grows until it is like the branch of a tree. The Blue Fairy explains that "a lie will keep growing and growing, until it's as plain as the nose on your face." Pinocchio vows to do better from now on and the Blue Fairy changes his nose back to normal and sets him free, warning that this will be the last time she helps him. Meanwhile, Honest John and Gideon meet up with the sinister Coachman in a local tavern and boast of their success luring Pinocchio away. Impressed by their story, the Coachmen tells them of his business 'collecting stupid little boys' and taking them to Pleasure Island. He offers them a reward for every boy they bring to him. Unfortunately, on his way back to Geppetto's house, Pinocchio is once again led astray by Honest John and Gideon, who convince him that he is sick, and the only cure is to go to Pleasure Island. He is put on the coach, with Jiminy secretly following. On his way Pinocchio befriends Lampwick, a misbehaved and destructive boy. Soon Pinocchio and the other boys arrive on the island, where there are no adults, and boys are free to enjoy gambling, smoking, getting drunk and wanton destruction, much to Jiminy's dismay. Jiminy angrily confronts Pinocchio for his behavior, but is brutally taunted by Lampwick, and furiously walks out on both of them. Then Jiminy discovers the island harbours a terrible curse. After a day of pleasure and destructive behavior, the boys transform into donkeys, who are then sold to work in the salt mines and circuses as part of an evil racket run by The Coachman and his ape-like henchmen. Lampwick is soon transformed into a donkey, but with Jiminy's help, Pinocchio manages to escape with only a donkey's ears and tail. Upon returning home, they find the workshop empty and soon learn that Geppetto, while venturing out to sea to rescue Pinocchio from Pleasure Island, had been swallowed, along with Figaro and Cleo, by a giant whale named Monstro. Determined to rescue his father, Pinocchio jumps into the bottom of the ocean, with Jiminy accompanying him. However, Pinocchio is soon found and swallowed by Monstro, where he is reunited with Geppetto and his pets inside the whale. While shocked at Pinocchio's donkey-ears and tail, Geppetto is just glad to have his "little wooden head" back. Although Gepetto has given up on escaping, Pinocchio devises an escape plan by burning wood in order to make Monstro sneeze them out. The plan works, but the enraged whale gives chase and destroys their raft. Eventually, Pinocchio succeeds in getting Geppetto to safety in a cave under a cliff before Monstro rams into it. Despite Monstro's defeat, Pinocchio dies while saving them. Back in Gepetto's house, as the group mourns over Pinocchio's body, the Blue Fairy is touched by his sacrifice and resurrects him into human-form, much to the joy of his family. When Jiminy steps outside to thank the Fairy, she decides he has done well, and gives him a gold badge that certifies him as an official conscience.

positive

positive

The Flight of the Phoenix

The Flight of the Phoenix

Pilot Frank Towns and navigator Lew Moran are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Jebel oil town of the Libyan desert, among them oil workers, a couple of British soldiers, and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the aircraft down, damaging the plane, killing two of the men, and severely injuring the German. In the book, the action takes place in the Libyan part of the Sahara. The survivors wait for rescue but begin to worry, as the storm has blown them far off course, away from where searchers would look for them. After several days, Captain Harris marches toward a distant oasis together with another passenger. His aide Sergeant Watson feigns a sprained ankle and does not join Harris. A third man follows after them. Days later, Harris barely manages to return to the crash site. The others are lost. As the water begins to run out Stringer, a precise, arrogant English aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a new aircraft from the wreckage of the old twin-boom aircraft, using the undamaged boom and adding skids to take off. They set to work. At one point they spot a party of nomadic tribesmen. Captain Harris decides to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson refuses to accompany him. Instead another survivor, a Texan named Loomis, goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, throats cut, and the nomads gone. Later, Towns finds out that Stringer's job is designing model aircraft, not real, full-scale ones. Afraid of the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, though they now believe Stringer's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The aircraft is reborn, like the mythical Phoenix. It flies the passengers, strapped to the outside of the fuselage, to an oasis and civilization.

Frank Towns is the pilot of a twin-engine Fairchild C-82 Packet cargo aircraft from Jaghbub flying to Benghazi in Libya. Lew Moran is the navigator while the passengers are Capt. Harris and Sgt. Watson of the British army; Dr. Renaud , a physician; Heinrich Dorfmann , a German aeronautical engineer; Mr. Standish , an oil company accountant; and several oil workers that include Trucker Cobb , a mentally disturbed foreman; Ratbags Crow , a mean-spirited, sardonic Scot; Carlos and his pet monkey; and Gabriel . A sudden sandstorm shuts down the engines, forcing Towns to crash-land in the desert. As the aircraft careens to a stop, several oil drums and oil drilling gear break loose and severely injure Gabriel's leg. Two other workers are killed. With no functioning radio to call for help, the survivors wait to be rescued, but the storm blew them too far off-course to be found. Although they have a large quantity of dates for food, they calculate their water will only last for 10 to 15 days provided they avoid physical exertion. Harris and Carlos attempt to walk to an oasis. Carlos leaves his monkey behind with the men. Harris and Towns refuse to let Cobb go along due to his increasing mental instability, but he defiantly follows and dies. Days later, Harris returns to the crash site alone and barely alive. Meanwhile, Dorfmann has been working on a radical idea: He believes they can build a new aircraft from the wreckage. The C-82 has twin booms extending rearwards from each engine and connected by the horizontal stabilizer. Dorfmann's plan is to attach the outer panel of the right wing to the left engine, left boom and left wing outer panel, discarding the center fuselage and both inner wing panels of the aircraft. Harris and Moran believe he is either joking or deluded, and the animosity between Towns the veteran pilot and Dorfmann the aircraft designer increases. Post war anti-German sentiment also simmers under the surface. The struggle is complicated by a personality clash between Towns, who is a proud old traditionalist, and Dorfmann, a young, equally proud technician. Moran, a good natured man suffering from alcoholism, struggles to keep the peace. The tension only gets worse when Dorfmann bluntly explains that Gabriel will die before the aircraft flies. Although Towns is resistant, Renaud points out that activity and any hope will keep the men's morale up and so Towns agrees to the plan. Dorfmann supervises as the workers cut, haul, and weld parts of the aircraft. Towns is doubtful the plans will succeed. During the work, Gabriel takes his own life by slitting his wrist with a knife. The men are so depressed by the loss they contemplate giving up the new plane's construction. Things seem even bleaker when Towns discovers that Dorfmann has taken extra rations of water. However, Dorfmann promises to not do so again if they all work equally hard. Moran talks Towns into resuming work on the aircraft. When the new aircraft is almost complete, Standish labels it "The Phoenix" after the mythical bird that is reborn from its ashes. Any good moods, however, are quashed when Harris and Renaud are murdered by a band of native raiders. Final plans are made for the Phoenix's flight. Dorfmann loses his temper and stops working after Towns insists on testing the engine, which would deplete the scarce supply of explosive Coffman engine starter cartridges. Once again Moran must patch up the feud and work continues. Towns and Moran learn that Dorfmann designs model aircraft instead of full-sized aircraft. Dorfmann claims the principles are the same, but Towns and Moran are horrified at the idea of flying an aircraft made by a man who works with "toys." Without any other choice, however, Towns and Moran forge ahead with the plan and don't tell the others of their discovery. Just as the water runs out, the Phoenix is completed. Dorfmann panics when four cartridges fail to start the engine and Towns wants to use one of the remaining three cartridges just to clear the engine's cylinders. Dorfmann objects, but Towns ignores him and fires one cartridge with the ignition off. The penultimate cartridge succeeds. The men pull the Phoenix to a nearby hilltop and climb onto the wings with Carlos's pet monkey in tow. When Towns guns the engine, the Phoenix slides down the hill and along a lake bed before taking off. After the Phoenix lands at an oasis with a manned oil rig, the men celebrate and Towns and Dorfmann reconcile.

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The French Lieutenant's Woman

The French Lieutenant's Woman

The novel's protagonist is Sarah Woodruff, the Woman of the title, also known unkindly as “Tragedy” and by the unfortunate nickname “The French Lieutenant’s Whore”. She lives in the coastal town of Lyme Regis, as a disgraced woman, supposedly abandoned by a French naval officer named Varguennes — married, unknown to her, to another woman — with whom she had supposedly had an affair and who had returned to France. She spends her limited time off at the Cobb, a pier jutting out to sea, staring at the sea itself. One day, she is seen there by the gentleman Charles Smithson and his fiancée, Ernestina Freeman, the shallow-minded daughter of a wealthy tradesman whose origins are Scottish. Ernestina tells Charles something of Sarah’s story, and he develops a strong curiosity about her. Eventually, he and she begin to meet clandestinely, during which times Sarah tells Charles her history, and asks for his support, mostly emotional. Despite trying to remain objective, Charles eventually sends Sarah to Exeter, where he, during a journey, cannot resist stopping in to visit and see her. At the time she has suffered an ankle injury; he visits her alone and after they have made love he realises that she had been, contrary to the rumours, a virgin. Simultaneously, he learns that his prospective inheritance from an elder uncle is in jeopardy; the uncle has become engaged to a woman young enough to bear him an heir. From there, the novelist offers three different endings for The French Lieutenant’s Woman. * First ending: Charles marries Ernestina, and their marriage is unhappy; Sarah’s fate is unknown. Charles tells Ernestina about an encounter which he implies is with the “French Lieutenant’s Whore”, but elides the sordid details, and the matter is ended. This ending, however, might be dismissed as a daydream, before the alternative events of the subsequent meeting with Ernestina are described. Before the second and third endings, the narrator — who the novelist wants the reader to believe is John Fowles himself — appears as a minor character sharing a railway compartment with Charles. He tosses a coin to determine the order in which he will portray the two, other possible endings, emphasising their equal plausibility. * Second ending: Charles and Sarah become intimate; he ends his engagement to Ernestina, with unpleasant consequences. He is disgraced, and his uncle marries, then produces an heir. Sarah flees to London without telling the enamoured Charles, who searches for her for years, before finding her living with several artists (seemingly the Rossettis), enjoying an artistic, creative life. He then learns he has fathered a child with her; as a family, their future is open, with possible reunion implied. * Third ending: the narrator re-appears, standing outside the house where the second ending occurred; at the aftermath. He turns back his pocket watch by fifteen minutes, before leaving in his carriage. Events are the same as in the second-ending version but, when Charles finds Sarah again, in London, their reunion is sour. It is possible that their union was childless; Sarah does not tell Charles about a child, and expresses no interest in continuing the relationship. He leaves the house, deciding to return to America, and sees the carriage, in which the narrator was thought gone. Raising the question: is Sarah a manipulating, lying woman of few morals, exploiting Charles’s obvious love to get what she wants? En route, Fowles the novelist discourses upon the difficulties of controlling the characters, and offers analyses of differences in 19th-century customs and class, the theories of Charles Darwin, the poetry of Matthew Arnold, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and the literature of Thomas Hardy. He questions the role of the author — when speaking of how the Charles character “disobeys” his orders; the characters have discrete lives of their own in the novel. Philosophically, Existentialism is mentioned several times during the story, and in particular detail at the end, after the portrayals of the two, apparent, equally possible endings.

{{Expand section}} To understand the film, you need to understand the book. In the book, Fowles starts to tell the story of a French lieutenant, and likely a refugee from the French Revolution, who lands in an English village where an equally mysterious and available woman happens to live. The first chapter begins conventionally enough, followed in linear fashion by the second, where the hero and heroine happen to take a walk in the same wood on the same day but fail to happen to meet. However, in Chapter 3, Fowles starts explaining how he creates characters in his mind until they acquire an autonomy inside his mind to the point where they write the novel themselves. He then goes on to add that he still retains control over them. From there, he takes control of the chapter, retelling the same walk in the wood except that the two do happen to meet. Chapter 4 reverts to extending the version started in Chapter 2; Chapter 5 then builds on Chapter 3 and so on to the end. All along, each chapter retells the preceding chapter but with a different ending. However the storyline remains the same while moving along in different but parallel versions toward the same ending: the choice to wed & live happily ever after or to separate and each go their own way. Transposing this duality to the screen posed an enormous challenge to continuity of the story and Reisz solved it by relegating the male and female lead to a love affair with a happy ending in 1800s scenes but shooting the sad ending by casting the same two leads as 1980s actors living an offscreen life in the same village and crawling its pubs as they engage a love affair. In the end, the 1800s duo marry in the final scene while the alternate final scene presents the 1980s cast party which ends with the male lead waiting in parking lot to elope with the female lead who fails to join him. Viewers who had read and liked the novel tended to leave the cinema delighted by Reisz's ingenuity while non-readers tended to feel frustrated at getting two stories for the price of one. Then again, some readers of the novel felt the same frustration of feeling the intrusion of reality into the novel. After all, here was the novelist showing off his writing skills to readers who were expecting a few hundred pages of escape into a new corner of the universe of fantasy.

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Frankenstein

Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Frankenstein is written in the form of a frame story that starts with Captain Robert Walton writing letters to his sister. The novel Frankenstein is written in epistolary form, documenting a correspondence between Captain Robert Walton and his sister, Margaret Walton Saville. Walton is a failed writer who sets out to explore the North Pole and expand his scientific knowledge in hopes of achieving fame. During the voyage the crew spots a dog sled mastered by a gigantic figure. A few hours later, the crew rescues a nearly frozen and emaciated man named Victor Frankenstein. Frankenstein has been in pursuit of the gigantic man observed by Walton's crew. Frankenstein starts to recover from his exertion; he sees in Walton the same over-ambitiousness and recounts a story of his life's miseries to Walton as a warning. Victor begins by telling of his childhood. Born into a wealthy family in Geneva, he is encouraged to seek a greater understanding of the world around him through science. He grows up in a safe environment, surrounded by loving family and friends. When he is around 4 years old, his parents adopt Elizabeth Lavenza, an orphan whose mother has just died (she is Victor's biological cousin in the first edition, but an adopted child with no blood relation in the 1831 edition). Victor has a possessive infatuation with Elizabeth. He has two younger brothers: Ernest and William. As a young boy, Victor is obsessed with studying outdated theories of science that focus on achieving natural wonders. He plans to attend the University of Ingolstadt in Germany. Weeks before his planned departure, his mother dies of scarlet fever. At university, he excels at chemistry and other sciences, and develops a secret technique to imbue inanimate bodies with life. The details of the monster's construction are left ambiguous, but Frankenstein finds himself forced to make the creature roughly eight feet tall because of the difficulty in replicating the minute parts of the human body. His creation, which he has hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous, with dull yellow eyes, and a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After bringing his creation to life, Victor is repulsed by his work: he flees the room, and the monster disappears. Victor becomes ill from the experience. He is nursed back to health by his childhood friend, Henry Clerval. After a four-month recovery, he determines that he should return home when his brother William is found murdered. Upon arriving in Geneva, he sees the monster near the site of the murder, and becomes certain it is the killer. William's nanny, Justine, is hanged for the murder based on the discovery of William's locket in her pocket. Victor, though certain the monster is responsible, doubts anyone would believe him, and does not intervene. Ravaged by his grief and self-reproach, Victor retreats into the mountains to find peace. The monster approaches him, ignoring his threats and pleading with Victor to hear its tale. Intelligent and articulate, it tells Victor of its encounters with people, and how it had become afraid of them and spent a year living near a cottage, observing the DeLacey family living there and growing fond of them. Through observing the De Lacey family, the monster became educated and self-aware. It also discovered a lost satchel of books and learned to read. Seeing its reflection in a pool, it realized that its physical appearance is hideous compared to the humans it watches. Though it eventually approached the family with hope of becoming their fellow, they were frightened by its appearance and drove it off, and then left the residence permanently. The creature, in a fit of rage, burned the cottage and left. In its travels some time later, the monster saw a young girl tumble into a stream and rescued her from drowning. A man, seeing it with the child in its arms, pursued it and fired a gun, wounding it. Traveling to Geneva, it met a little boy — Victor's brother William - in the woods outside the town of Plainpalais. The monster hoped the boy was too young to fear deformity, but upon its approach, William cried out, threatening the monster with the weight of his family - the Frankensteins. The creature grabbed the boy by the throat to silence him, and strangled him. It is unclear from the text whether this was an accident on the monster's part or a deliberate murder, but in either case, the monster took this as its first act of vengeance against its creator. It removed a locket from the boy's body and placed it in the folds of the dress of a young woman — William's nanny, Justine — who had been sleeping in a barn nearby, assuming she would be accused of the murder. The monster concludes its story with a demand that Frankenstein create for it a female companion like itself. It argues that as a living thing, it has a right to happiness and that Victor, as its creator, has a duty to obey it, with the chilling words, "You are my creator, but I am your master. Obey!" It promises that if Victor grants its request, it and its mate will vanish into the wilderness of South America uninhabited by man, never to reappear. Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees and travels to England to do his work. He is accompanied by Clerval, but they separate in Scotland. Through their travels, Victor suspects that the monster is following him. Working on a second being on the Orkney Islands, he is plagued by premonitions of what his work might wreak, particularly as creating a mate for the creature might lead to the breeding of an entire race of monsters that could plague mankind. He destroys the unfinished example after he sees the monster looking through the window. The monster witnesses this and, confronting Victor, vows to be with Victor on his upcoming wedding night. The monster murders Clerval and leaves the corpse on an Irish beach, where Victor lands upon leaving the island. Victor is imprisoned for the murder of Clerval, and becomes seriously ill, suffering another mental breakdown in prison. After being acquitted, and with his health renewed, he returns home with his father. Once home, Victor marries his cousin Elizabeth and prepares for a fight to the death with the monster. Wrongly believing the monster's vowed revenge was for his own life, he asks Elizabeth to retire to her room for the night while he goes looking for the fiend. He searches the house and grounds, but the creature murders the secluded Elizabeth instead. Victor sees the monster at the window pointing at the corpse. Grief-stricken by the deaths of William, Justine, Clerval, and now Elizabeth, Victor's father dies. Victor vows to pursue the monster until one of them annihilates the other. After months of pursuit, the two end up in the Arctic Circle, near the North Pole. At the end of Victor's narrative, Captain Walton resumes the telling of the story. A few days after the vanishing of the creature, the ship becomes entombed in ice and Walton's crew insists on returning south once they are freed. In spite of a passionate speech from Frankenstein, encouraging the crew to push further north, Walton realizes that he must relent to his men's demands and agrees to head for home. Frankenstein dies shortly thereafter, not before imploring Captain Walton to carry his mission of vengeance to its completion. "The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed. When actuated by selfish and vicious motives, I asked you to take up my unfinished work; and I renew this request now, when I am only induced by reason and virtue." Walton discovers the monster on his ship, mourning over Frankenstein's body. Walton hears the monster's adamant justification for its vengeance as well as expressions of remorse. Frankenstein's death has not brought it peace. Rather, its crimes have increased its misery and alienation; it has found only its own emotional ruin in the destruction of its creator. It vows to exterminate itself on its own funeral pyre so that no others will ever know of its existence. Walton watches as it drifts away on an ice raft that is soon lost in darkness.

A mad scientist descended from the original Dr. Frankenstein takes to murdering young women for experimentation in hopes of reviving his ancestor's creation, with help from his mute assistant . Things start to heat up when Dracula arrives and promises to revive Frankenstein's monster in return for a serum which will grant him immortality.

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Treasure Island

Treasure Island

The novel is divided into 6 parts and 34 chapters: Jim Hawkins is the narrator of all except for chapters 16-18, which are narrated by Doctor Livesey. The novel opens in the seaside village of Black Hill Cove in south-west England (to Stevenson, in his letters and in the related fictional play Admiral Guinea, near Barnstaple, Devon) in the mid-18th century. The narrator, James "Jim" Hawkins, is the young son of the owners of the Admiral Benbow Inn. An old drunken seaman named Billy Bones becomes a long-term lodger at the inn, only paying for about the first week of his stay. Jim quickly realizes that Bones is in hiding, and that he particularly dreads meeting an unidentified seafaring man with one leg. Some months later, Bones is visited by a mysterious sailor named Black Dog. Their meeting turns violent, Black Dog flees and Bones suffers a stroke. While Jim cares for him, Bones confesses that he was once the mate of the late notorious pirate, Captain Flint, and that his old crewmates want Bones' sea chest. Some time later, another of Bones' crew mates, a blind man named Pew, appears at the inn and forces Jim to lead him to Bones. Pew gives Bones a paper. After Pew leaves, Bones opens the paper to discover it is marked with the Black Spot, a pirate summons, with the warning that he has until ten o'clock to meet their demands. Bones drops dead of apoplexy (in this context, a stroke) on the spot. Jim and his mother open Bones' sea chest to collect the amount due to them for Bones' room and board, but before they can count out the money that they are owed, they hear pirates approaching the inn and are forced to flee and hide, Jim taking with him a mysterious oilskin packet from the chest. The pirates, led by Pew, find the sea chest and the money, but are frustrated that there is no sign of "Flint's fist". Customs men approach and the pirates escape to their vessel (all except for Pew, who is accidentally run down and killed by the agents' horses).p. 27-8: "...{Pew} made another dash, now utterly bewildered, right under the nearest of the coming horses. The rider tried to save him, but in vain. Down went Pew with a cry that rang high into the night; and the four hoofs trampled and spurned him and passed by. He fell on his side, then gently collapsed upon his face, and moved no more." —Stevenson, R.L. Jim takes the mysterious oilskin packet to Dr. Livesey, as he is a &#34;gentleman and a magistrate&#34;, and he, Squire Trelawney and Jim Hawkins examine it together, finding it contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint&#39;s career, and a detailed map of an island with the location of Flint&#39;s treasure marked on it. Squire Trelawney immediately plans to commission a sailing vessel to hunt for the treasure, with the help of Dr. Livesey and Jim. Livesey warns Trelawney to be silent about their objective. Going to Bristol docks, Trelawney buys a schooner named the Hispaniola, hires a captain, Alexander Smollett to command her, and retains Long John Silver, a former sea cook and now the owner of the dock-side &#34;Spy-Glass&#34; tavern, to run the galley. Silver helps Trelawney to hire the rest of his crew. When Jim arrives in Bristol and visits Silver at the Spy-Glass, his suspicions are aroused: Silver is missing a leg, like the man Bones warned Jim about, and Black Dog is sitting in the tavern. Black Dog runs away at the sight of Jim, and Silver denies all knowledge of the fugitive so convincingly that he wins Jim&#39;s trust. Despite Captain Smollett&#39;s misgivings about the mission and Silver&#39;s hand-picked crew, the Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean. As they near their destination, Jim crawls into the ship&#39;s near-empty apple barrel to get an apple. While inside, he overhears Silver talking secretly with some of the crewmen. Silver admits that he was Captain Flint&#39;s quartermaster, that several others of the crew were also once Flint&#39;s men, and that he is recruiting more men from the crew to his own side. After Flint&#39;s treasure is recovered, Silver intends to murder the Hispaniolas officers, and keep the loot for himself and his men. When the pirates have returned to their berths, Jim warns Smollett, Trelawney and Livesey of the impending mutiny. On reaching Treasure Island, the majority of Silver's men go ashore immediately. Although Jim is not yet aware of this, Silver's men have demanded they seize the treasure immediately, discarding Silver's own more careful plan to postpone any open mutiny or violence until after the treasure is safely aboard. Jim lands with Silver's men, but runs away from them almost as soon as he is ashore. Hiding in the woods, Jim sees Silver murder Tom, a crewman loyal to Smollett. Running for his life, he encounters Ben Gunn, another ex-crewman of Flint's who has been marooned for three years on the island, but who treats Jim kindly. Meanwhile, Trelawney, Livesey and their loyal crewmen surprise and overpower the few pirates left aboard the Hispaniola. They row ashore and move into an abandoned, fortified stockade where they are joined by Jim Hawkins, who has left Ben Gunn behind. Silver approaches under a flag of truce and tries to negotiate Smollett's surrender; Smollett rebuffs him utterly, and Silver flies into a rage, promising to attack the stockade. "Them that die'll be the lucky ones," he famously threatens as he storms off. The pirates assault the stockade, but in a furious battle with losses on both sides, they are driven off. During the night Jim sneaks out, takes Ben Gunn's coracle and approaches the Hispaniola under cover of darkness. He cuts the ship's anchor cable, setting her adrift and out of reach of the pirates on shore. After daybreak, he manages to approach the schooner and board her. Of the two pirates left aboard, only one is still alive: the coxswain, Israel Hands, who has murdered his comrade in a drunken brawl and been badly wounded in the process. Hands agrees to help Jim helm the ship to a safe beach in exchange for medical treatment and brandy, but once the ship is approaching the beach Hands tries to murder Jim. Jim escapes by climbing the rigging, and when Hands tries to skewer him with a thrown dagger, Jim reflexively shoots Hands dead. Having beached the Hispaniola securely, Jim returns to the stockade under cover of night and sneaks back inside. Because of the darkness, he does not realize until too late that the stockade is now occupied by the pirates, and he is captured. Silver, whose always-shaky command has become more tenuous than ever, seizes on Jim as a hostage, refusing his men's demands to kill him or torture him for information. Silver's rivals in the pirate crew, led by George Merry, give Silver the Black Spot and move to depose him as captain. Silver answers his opponents eloquently, rebuking them for defacing a page from the Bible to create the Black Spot and revealing that he has obtained the treasure map from Dr. Livesey, thus restoring the crew's confidence. The following day, the pirates search for the treasure. They are shadowed by Ben Gunn, who makes ghostly sounds to dissuade them from continuing, but Silver forges ahead and locates where Flint's treasure is buried. The pirates discover that the cache has been rifled and the treasure is gone. The enraged pirates turn on Silver and Jim, but Ben Gunn, Dr. Livesey and Abraham Gray attack the pirates, killing two and dispersing the rest. Silver surrenders to Dr. Livesey, promising to return to his duty. They go to Ben Gunn's cave where Gunn has had the treasure hidden for some months. The treasure is divided amongst Trelawney and his loyal men, including Jim and Ben Gunn, and they return to England, leaving the surviving pirates marooned on the island. Silver, through the help of the fearful Ben Gunn, escapes with a small part of the treasure, three or four hundred guineas. Remembering Silver, Jim reflects that "I dare say he met his old Negress [wife], and perhaps still lives in comfort with her and Captain Flint [his parrot]. It is to be hoped so, I suppose, for his chances of comfort in another world are very small."

Jim Hawkins is a young man who works at a pub with his mother . When a drunken old sailor named Billy Bones comes in for a drink and dies, Jim gets his hands on an old pirate's treasure map. Immediately taking action, he then enlists the help of Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey to join him as he locates the island on the map. Together, they join a ship lead by Captain Smollett that will lead them to their destination. When word of the treasure reaches the rest of the ship's crew, the ship's cook, Long John Silver , convinces the rest of the crew to organize a mutiny in order to keep the riches for themselves.

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The Eagle Has Landed

The Eagle Has Landed

The book makes use of the false document technique, and opens with Higgins describing his discovery of the concealed grave of thirteen German paratroopers in an English graveyard. What follows was inspired by the real life rescue of Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini by Otto Skorzeny. A similar idea is considered by Hitler, with the strong support of Himmler. Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence), is ordered to make a feasibility study of the seemingly impossible task of capturing British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bringing him to the Reich. Canaris realizes that although Hitler will soon forget the matter, Himmler will not. Fearing Himmler may try to discredit him, Canaris orders one of his officers, Oberst Radl to undertake the study, despite feeling that it is all just a waste of time and effort. An Unteroffizier on Radl's staff finds that one of their spies, code named Starling, has provided a tantalizing piece of intelligence. "At any other time, in any other place, this information would be useless", Radl said. "And then synchronicity rears its disturbing head." Winston Churchill is scheduled to spend a relaxing weekend at a country house near the village of Studley Constable, Norfolk. There Joanna Grey, an Afrikaner woman and longtime Abwehr agent, lives. She detests England because she was abused and raped by British soldiers during the Anglo-Boer War. As a result of her reports, Radl devises a detailed plan to intercept Churchill and return with him to Germany. Although Radl is certain the plan has real possibilities, Admiral Canaris orders him to abandon it. Himmler, however, has already learned of the scheme and summons Radl. He orders him to proceed, but without notifying Canaris. In response, Radl arranges for Liam Devlin, a member of the Irish Republican Army, to be smuggled to Norfolk by way of Northern Ireland. Posing as a wounded veteran of the British Army, he contacts Mrs. Grey, who arranges a position for him as game warden to the estate of Studley Grange. While awaiting further developments, Devlin becomes romantically involved with Molly Prior, a girl from the village. Meanwhile, Radl selects of a team of commandos to carry out the operation, led by a disgraced Fallschirmjäger commander, Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Steiner. While returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner had intervened when SS soldiers were rounding up Jews at a railway station in Poland. To the outrage of the SS and Polizei, he took one of their men hostage and helped a teenage Jewess to escape on a passing freight train. For this he was court-martialled, along with his men, who backed his actions. Too highly decorated to face a firing squad, Steiner and his men were allowed to transfer to a penal unit in the Channel Islands. There they are forced to make high-risk attacks with manned torpedoes against Allied ships in the English Channel. Radl travels to Alderney and recruits Steiner and his surviving men. Steiner's father, General Steiner, is being tortured by the Gestapo for his alleged ties to the German Resistance. This serves as an additional incentive for the Colonel to accept the mission. Radl relocates Steiner and his men to an airfield on the north western coast of Holland, there they familiarise themselves with the British weapons and equipment they will be using. The team will be air dropped into Norfolk via a captured C-47 Dakota with Allied markings. The commandos outfit themselves as Free Polish troops, as few of them speak English; the plan is to infiltrate Studley Constable, capture Churchill, rendezvous with an E-boat at the nearby coast and make their escape. At first, the plan seems to go off without a hitch. Then, however, one of Steiner's NCOs rescues a young girl who fell into a mill race. He is killed by the water wheel and his German uniform (worn, by Himmler's order, under the Polish uniforms, as protection against being executed as spies) is seen by several of the villagers. Determined to continue the mission, Steiner arranges for the locals to be rounded up, but the sister of Father Vereker. the local priest, escapes and alerts a nearby unit of US Army Rangers. Colonel Robert Shafto, an inexperienced but glory-seeking officer, rallies his forces to retake the hostages. Without notifying headquarters, he orders a foolhardy assault in which many Americans are killed. After the Colonel is shot in the head by Mrs. Grey, Major Kane organizes a second, successful attack. Steiner, his second-in-command Ritter von Neumann, and Devlin manage to escape with the aid of a local girl, Molly Prior, who had become romantically involved with the Irishman. Determined to finish the mission, Steiner allows Devlin and Neumann to escape without him and decides to make one last attempt at Churchill. He succeeds in reaching Churchill, but hesitates, is shot and supposedly killed. (However, Steiner reappears alive in The Eagle Has Flown, a sequel.) In Germany, Radl has had a heart attack, implied to be fatal, although at about the same time, Himmler, upon discovering that the mission has failed, orders Radl's arrest for high treason. As in many novels of Higgins, this story is surrounded by a 'frame story' with a prologue and epilogue. The author, whilst doing historical research in Norfolk, supposedly meets various surviving characters. Some paperback editions have more historical backstory than others, including a meeting with an older Liam Devlin in a Belfast hotel. The final revelation comes from an aged and terminally ill Father Vereker: "Churchill" had been an impersonator and even if the mission had succeeded, it would not have mattered.

The film begins with captured World War II film footage of the rescue from Italy of Mussolini by German paratroopers. Inspired by the rescue of Hitler's ally Benito Mussolini by Otto Skorzeny, a similar idea is considered by Hitler, with the support of Himmler . Admiral Canaris , head of the Abwehr , is ordered to make a feasibility study of the seemingly impossible task of capturing the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and bringing him to Germany. Canaris considers the idea a joke, but realizes that although Hitler will soon forget the matter, Himmler will not. Fearing Himmler may try to discredit him, Canaris orders one of his officers, Oberst Radl to undertake the study, despite feeling that it is a waste of time. An Unteroffizier on Radl's staff, Karl, finds that one of their spies, code named Starling, has provided tantalizing intelligence - Winston Churchill is to visit an airfield near the village of Studley Constable in Norfolk, where Joanna Grey , a German sleeper agent lives. Radl comes up with a scheme that could work, called 'Eagle', where the kidnapping will procede with German troops leading the action. He also is convinced that 'synchronicity' is behind it all, where actions and conditions merge at the proper moment, at the proper time. Himmler summons Radl and unofficially tells him to proceed, without notifying Canaris and with Hitler's knowledge. Radl recruits Liam Devlin , a member of the IRA lecturing at a Berlin university, to the mission. Radl looks for a suitable officer to lead the mission and chances upon the highly decorated and experienced, but conflicted and anti-Nazi, Fallschirmjäger officer Oberst Kurt Steiner . While returning from the Eastern Front, Steiner intervened when SS soldiers rounded up Jews at a railway station in Poland, and attempted to save the life of a teenage girl who was shot while trying to escape. For this, he was court-martialled, along with a platoon of his men. Rather than face the firing squad, the men were allowed to transfer to a penal unit on the Channel Island of Alderney, where they made high risk attacks with torpedo boats against British channel convoys. Radl travels to Alderney and, with the help of Devlin, recruits Steiner and his surviving men. The team will parachute into England from a captured C-47 with Allied markings. The commandos outfit themselves as Polish paratroopers, as few of them speak English. The plan is to infiltrate Studley Constable, complete their mission, rendezvous with an E-boat on the nearby coast and escape. The plan is foiled when a German paratrooper rescues a local girl from certain death by a water wheel. He instead is killed in the process and his German uniform is revealed to the onlooking villagers. The locals are rounded up but Pamela Vereker , the sister of the village priest Father Vereker , escapes to alert a unit of the United States Army Rangers stationed nearby. Inexperienced, glory-seeking Colonel Pitt tries to foil the German plan almost single-handed but is killed by treasonous Nazi sympathizer Joanna Grey in her house, while his poorly-planned assault on the church fails with heavy casualties. Pitt's young deputy, Captain Clark then organizes a second, successful attack. Steiner's men sacrifice themselves to delay the Americans while Devlin, Steiner and his wounded second-in-command Neustadt escape, with the aid of local girl Molly Prior who was romantically involved with Devlin. Instead of boarding the boat, Steiner makes one last attempt at Churchill. Steiner infiltrates the country house and apparently succeeds in shooting Churchill before being shot himself. However, when Captain Clark appears on the scene, he is informed that "Churchill" was actually an impersonator - the real Prime Minister is at the Tehran Conference. With the failure of the operation, Radl is executed by firing squad under the pretext that he was "Giving orders beyond his control to a point of treason": before this, he lets his assistant Karl leave so he won't be arrested. In this way Himmler distances himself from the failed mission. In England, Devlin disappears to live in obscurity.

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