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The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk travel to a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological disputation. As they arrive, the monastery is disturbed by a suicide. As the story unfolds, several other monks die under mysterious circumstances. William is tasked by the Abbot of the monastery to investigate the deaths as fresh clues with each murder victim lead William to dead ends and new clues. The protagonists explore a labyrinthine medieval library, discuss the subversive power of laughter, and come face to face with the Inquisition. William's innate curiosity and highly-developed powers of logic and deduction provide the keys to unravelling the mysteries of the abbey.

The story takes place in Northern Italy, during the early 14th century. Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk arrive at a Benedictine abbey where a mysterious death has occurred ahead of an important theological Church conference. William, known for his deductive and analytic mind, confronts the worried Abbot and gains permission to investigate the death – a young illuminator appears to have committed suicide. Over the next few days, several other bizarre deaths occur, and the two gradually discover that everything is not what it seems in the abbey. William and Adso also make the acquaintance of Salvatore, a demented hunchback who speaks gibberish in various languages, and his handler and protector, Remigio da Varagine who, as events prove, also has a shady past. William quickly deduces from Salvatore's speech, that he had once been a member of a heretical sect and infers that Remigio likewise had been involved. He suspects that they may have been involved in the killings. Meanwhile, Adso encounters a beautiful semi-feral peasant girl who has apparently sneaked into the abbey to trade sexual favours for food; she seduces him, and he falls in love with her. Investigating and keen to head off accusations of demonic possession, the protagonists discover and explore a labyrinthine library in the abbey's forbidden principal tower. William is astonished to find that it is "one of the greatest libraries in all Christendom," containing dozens of works by Classical masters such as Aristotle, thought to have been lost for centuries. William deduces that the library is kept hidden because such advanced knowledge, coming from pagan philosophers, is difficult to reconcile with Christianity. It becomes clear that the only remaining copy of Aristotle's Second Book of Poetics is somehow related to the deaths. He further deduces that all of those who died had read the book. His investigations are curtailed by the arrival of Bernardo Gui of the Inquisition, summoned for the conference and keen to prosecute those he deems responsible for the deaths. The two men clashed in the past, and the zealous inquisitor has no time for theories outside his own. Salvatore and the girl are found fighting over a black cockerel while in the presence of a black cat. Gui presents this as irrefutable proof that they are in league with Satan and tortures Salvatore into confessing. Salvatore, Remigio, and the girl are dragged before a tribunal, where Gui intimidates the Abbot into concurring with his judgment of heresy. But William, also "invited" by Gui to serve on the panel of judges, refuses to confirm the accusations of murder. Gui resorts to extracting a confession from Remigio by the threat of torture, and clearly plans to take care of William for good, later. When another monk succumbs like the others, William and Adso ascend the forbidden library, and come face to face with the Venerable Jorge, the most ancient denizen of the abbey, with the book, which describes comedy and how it may be used to teach. Believing laughter and jocularity to be instruments of the Devil, Jorge has poisoned the pages to stop the spread of what he considers dangerous ideas: those reading it would ingest the poison as they licked their fingers to aid in turning pages. Confronted, Jorge throws over a candle, starting a blaze that quickly engulfs the library. William insists that Adso flee, as he manages to collect an inadequate armload of invaluable books to save; the volume of Poetics, Jorge, and the rest of the library are lost. Meanwhile, Salvatore and Remigio have been burned at the stake, and the girl is soon to follow, when the local peasants take advantage of the chaos of the library fire to free her and turn on Gui. Gui attempts to flee but they throw his wagon off a cliff, to his death. William and Adso later take their leave. A much older Adso reflects in his closing narration that he never regretted his decision to continue on with William, and that the girl was the only earthly love of his life, yet he never learned her name.

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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 — which would ruin Anna's position in society and bar her from re-marrying — 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 — who has had affairs herself — 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.

{{Expand section}} Anna Karenina is the wife of Czarist official Karenin . While she tries to persuade her brother Stiva from a life of debauchery, she becomes infatuated with dashing military officer Count Vronsky . This indiscreet liaison ruins her marriage and position in 19th century Russian society; she is even prohibited from seeing her own son Sergei .Anna Karenina, allmovie.com

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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 "gentleman and a magistrate", and he, Squire Trelawney and Jim Hawkins examine it together, finding it contains a logbook detailing the treasure looted during Captain Flint's career, and a detailed map of an island with the location of Flint'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 "Spy-Glass" 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's trust. Despite Captain Smollett's misgivings about the mission and Silver's hand-picked crew, the Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean. As they near their destination, Jim crawls into the ship'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's quartermaster, that several others of the crew were also once Flint's men, and that he is recruiting more men from the crew to his own side. After Flint'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."

{{Plot}} Jim Hawkins, a young boy living with his mother in England in their inn, the 'Admiral Benbow', is looking after the inn, when a strange man comes and orders a glass of rum from him, at the same time asking Jim if he has seen a "Captain William Bones". Jim answers that he has never seen a Billy Bones, and gets Black Dog another glass of rum. However, Black Dog looks into the back of the inn and sees an old sea chest with the initials "W.B." inscribed on the side, and takes off. Once he is gone, Bones enters asking Jim if it was "a one legged man". Jim tells Bones of the man who came in and Bones recognizes him as Black Dog, and tells Jim to give him rum, though he is instructed not to for his health sake. Jim runs out of the inn, but runs straight into Blind Pew and is caught. Pew presents Bones with the infamous black spot, and leaves. Bones reveals he has until dark to live, but he is too ill to walk even a few steps, so knowing he is going to die, he gives Jim a roll of paper and tells him to go get help from the town. The pirates come to the inn and begin to ransack it in search of whatever it is they are after. A carriage comes down the road and they flee, chased by some men on horseback, while the carriage stops at the inn with Squire Trelawney, Doctor Livesey, and Jim. They find Bones, and Livesey declares him dead, but from shock, not murder. Jim reveals that Bones gave him something that he said the pirates were after. It is the map of Captain John Flint's treasure . Trelawney, overly excited, makes plans then and there for a voyage, with Livesey as ship's doctor and Jim as cabin boy. Ten days pass. Jim arrives and Doctor Livesey rendezvous with Squire in Bristol Dock. After showing them their ship, the Hispaniola, Trewlaney states that he is troubled by the fact that their captain is having trouble selecting a crew. He then introduces them to a man whom he hired as ship's cook, named Long John Silver. The three sit down at Silver's tavern to have a meal, and they see Silver has only one leg. Jim is at first frightened by this, but Silver seems kind and civil, stating that he was once in the navy, and volunteers to bring some of his former shipmates aboard the voyage, since they "know the sea". Silver introduces Jim to his pet parrot, Captain Flint, who is an avid swearer and "Lives up to her name". Jim then hears a voice behind him ordering a glass of rum, and he turns around to see Black Dog. The buccaneer flees before he can be caught. Silver then gives Jim a small pistol, just his size. Silver, Jim and Silver's former crew mates board the Hispaniola to prepare for the voyage. Captain Smollett then speaks privately with Livesey and Trelawney, stating how displeased he is with the fact that this whole voyage is a treasure hunt. Trelawney swears that he never breathed a word about the treasure, but Livesey asks the captain if he is worried about a mutiny, to which he doubts. He then toasts the voyage with the two, and when he leaves, Trelawney dubs his conduct, "Downright un-English!". Once the voyage is well underway, one of the crew, George Merry, is found to carrying a concealed weapon. Jim feels guilty about hiding the small pistol that Silver gave him, but Silver says that as long as he doesn't do any harm with it, that he is responsible enough to keep it on his person. Silver then goes over to George and reminds George that Mr. Arrow is a friend and that he will take care of him. That night, there is a storm, in which Silver invites Mr. Arrow in to eat plum duff, a cake made with rum. Once Silver leaves the room, Arrow, being an avid drinker, drinks down the entire bottle that Silver left behind, while Silver secretly watches. Soon afterward, Mr. Arrow emerges from the galley, clearly drunk, and the next morning, a funeral is held for Mr. Arrow, who had been washed overboard. Time passes, and Jim is seen talking to Hunter at the helm about when they will sight land. Hunter mentions that when the last apple has been eaten, that they will sight land. Jim excitedly states that he plans to eat up all the apples, and runs below deck to do so. Once he arrives below deck, he climbs inside to grab one, and at that moment, he overhears the crew talking about their plans to mutiny, and learns that Silver is the ringleader. Silver convinces the men to wait until they have the treasure on board the ship to strike, and begins to reach into the barrel Jim is hiding in, but Jim is saved by the cry "Land Ho!" from above deck, and the mutineers run up to see for themselves. Jim then leaves the barrel and runs to the cabin to warn the captain, squire and doctor. They arrange for Jim to be their spy. The next day, Silver tells Jim about all the excitement he will have exploring the island, though he can tell that Jim is withdrawing from him slightly.Silver offers to guide the ship into anchorage, and Jim asks if he can go with Silver. Smollett allows him, knowing the boy might learn something of the pirate's plan. While the boat is in the water, George Merry, impatient and wanting to take charge himself, tells the other mutineers to attack, but they are cornered and sent below deck. Silver gives orders for the men in the two boats with him to run for it, and uses Jim as a hostage to keep Smollett and the others from firing, telling them to give up the map in exchange for Jim's life. Upon reaching the shore, Jim jumps from the boat and runs off into the jungle. After evading pursuit from three of the mutineers, Jim encounters and befriends Ben Gunn, one of Flint's crew who was marooned on the island five years ago. Jim tells him about the mutiny, and then Ben takes Jim to a fort, where he finds the captain and his friends, who abandoned the ship and came ashore in order to rescue Jim. Silver and his men go back aboard ship to get the muskets from the cabin, and find the rest of their men drinking the rum stores. Silver plans to punish George, but Israel says that George would be better in helping them take the stockade, and Silver allows George's rash actions to slide. Silver appears outside the stockade with a flag of truce. Silver gives him terms, stating that he will let them all live in exchange for the map. Smollett does not accept, and Silver leaves, stating, "Them that die will be the lucky ones!" Most of the pirates fall and are badly injured in the fight, but Silver shots Smollet, wounding him badly before he too, makes a retreat. That night, Livesey gives Jim the map, telling him that if they are captured, to use the map to buy his life with. Smollett then reveals that the pirates may not attack again because of the possibility of them bringing the ship close into shore at flood tide the next morning, allowing them to put the fort within range and kill them all. Jim sneaks out with a knife and uses Ben Gunn's boat to make his way out to the ship. Once there, he cuts the anchor rope and climbs aboard. He sees a fight between Israel Hands and another mutineer over rum, and sees Israel stab his companion in the back. Israel then attempts to fire the cannon, but he is heavily drunk and tired from the fight, so Jim easily knocks him away from the cannon, but Israel chases him into the rigging. Jim pulls out the pistol Silver gave him, and Israel throws a knife at Jim and it sticks in his arm, but Jim fires the pistol reflexively and shoots Israel in the face. Jim then lowers the Jolly Roger flag, and raises the English Union Jack. He then makes his way ashore and back to the stockade, his knife wound slowly and painfully becoming infected due to the swampy region he makes his way through. Finally, he arrives back at the stockade and attempts to wake Livesey to tend to his wound, but it turns out to Long John Silver that he has awoken. Jim faints due to both fright and exhaustion. Silver is clearly worried, and while searching for more wounds on the boy, discovers the map, and hides it on his person as his comrades awaken. Though the mutineers want to let Jim die, Silver states they can use Jim to bargain with Livesey and the others for the map. The crew is displeased with this decision, and step outside to vote on what should be done. Silver then hails Livesey by calling out from the top of the fort, and sees that the ship has been taken. Livesey responds and Silver's crew reveal that they are giving him the black spot. When Silver reads it, he notices that it has been cut from a Bible and berates them for doing something so foolish, then states that the rest of this business will be decided once he finishes the business with the map. Silver takes Jim out to Livesey, who tends to his wound. Silver tells him that he saved Jim's life and that he saw the ship and knows he's beat, though Livesey did not know the ship had been taken until Silver told him, and realizes what Jim has done for them. Silver reveals that he found the map on Jim's person, telling Jim that he cares about him enough to save his life even though he already had it. Silver makes a deal with Livesey for freedom if he guards Jim while he and his men search for the treasure. Silver walks back to his men and shows them the map, who are elated with the results of the negotiation, but Silver resigns as captain. The men insist he keeps his position, and he gives them back the black spot to put back into the Bible they took it from. The pirates then go hunting for the treasure, and on the way, discover a skeleton of one of their former mates on Flint's ship. After using the bones, which were laid out by compass as a pointer, they make their way to the treasure, where they find it has already been dug up and taken. The pirates are angered that the treasure is gone, and Silver tells Jim to "Standby for trouble." George Merry accuses Silver of making a deal with Doctor Livesey, and attempts to shoot him, but Silver fires first and kills George. Silver shoots down the pirates one by one, until Livesey and Trelawney arrive with the others and ambush them, shooting them all down. Jim is reunited with his friends, and Ben Gunn gives back Silver's crutch, which he had thrown at one of the pirates. Ben reveals that he found Flint's gold a long time ago and hid it in his cave, where he takes Jim and Silver to see for themselves. Smollett, almost completely recovered from his wound, and despite Jim's defense of Silver, orders Silver to be taken aboard the ship and put in irons. Once on the beach with some loaded treasure and new supplies, Jim, Trelawney and two men are ready to take Silver aboard the ship, where suddenly, Silver snatches the small pistol from Jim's belt and orders Trelawney and the two men to swim for it or he will shoot. He forces Jim to stay in the boat to man his rudder while he rows, but Jim beaches him on a small sandbar and gets out. Silver raises a pistol, but Jim says he won't take orders from Silver, who takes aim, but Silver drops the pistol. Silver attempts to push himself off the bank and Jim rushes over to help push out the boat. Silver thanks him and rows away to freedom just as Livesey and the others arrive to try to catch him. Silver turns back to shout back to Jim, bidding him goodbye and wishing him good luck. Livesey curses Silver, and at the same time, wishes him the best of luck, while Jim, who realizes that Silver was his friend all along, raises his hand and waves goodbye to him. The film then closes with Long John Silver sailing off into the horizon.

positive

positive

Frankenstein

Abbott and Costello Meet 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.

{{plot}} The film opens with Larry Talbot making an urgent call from London to a Florida railway station where Chick Young and Wilbur Grey work as baggage-clerks. Talbot tries to impart to Wilbur the danger of a shipment to the "McDougal House Of Horrors" which purportedly contain the actual bodies of Count Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster . However, before he is able, a full moon rises and Talbot becomes The Wolf Man and the call disconnects. Wilbur, thinking the call is just a crank, continues on with his work day. Immediately thereafter, the actual Mr. McDougal shows up to claim the shipments and, fearing them damaged whenever Wilbur and Chick mishandle them, demands that the crates be delivered in person so his insurance agent can inspect them. When Chick and Wilbur get to McDougal's "House Of Horrors", they open the first crate and find a coffin with "Dracula" inscribed on the front. When Chick leaves to retrieve the second crate, Wilbur witnesses Dracula awaken and tries to get Chick's attention. But when Chick returns with the second crate, Dracula hides just in time to go unnoticed. After Chick leaves again to greet McDougal and the insurance agent, Dracula hypnotizes Wilbur and re-animates Frankenstein's Monster. McDougal and the insurance agent arrive again too late to witness anything. Finding the storage crates empty, McDougal accuses the boys of theft and has them arrested. That night, Dr. Sandra Mornay receives Dracula and the Monster at her island castle. Sandra, a gifted surgeon who has studied Dr. Frankenstein's notebooks, has been posing as Wilbur's girlfriend as part of Dracula's scheme to replace the Monster's brutish brain with a more pliable one — Wilbur's. Wilbur and Chick are bailed out of jail and mistakenly believe Sandra to be their benefactor. It is actually Joan Raymond , who is secretly working for the insurance company that is processing McDougal's claim, and hopes Wilbur will lead her to the missing "exhibits". Meanwhile, Larry Talbot has taken the apartment across the hall from Wilbur and Chick. He has tracked Dracula and the Monster from Europe and knows them to be alive. Talbot asks Chick and Wilbur to help him find and destroy Dracula and the Monster. The next day, Joan Raymond comes to Chick and Wilbur's apartment and feigns love for Wilbur. Wilbur, not expecting the favor but embracing it, invites Joan to the masquerade ball that evening. That night, Wilbur, Chick and Joan go to Sandra's castle to pick her up for the ball. While the ladies powder their noses, Wilbur answers a telephone call from someone wanting to speak to a 'Dr Leighos'. It is Talbot, who informs them that they are in fact in the "House of Dracula". Wilbur reluctantly agrees to search the castle with Chick, and soon stumbles upon an underground passageway, complete with boat and dock. Chick insists they search for Dracula and the Monster in an attempt to prove to Wilbur that they do not really exist. Wilbur experiences a few close calls when he is confronted by the monsters and every time he tries to show them to Chuck they have disappeared. Meanwhile, Joan has discovered Dr. Frankenstein's notebook in Sandra's bureau and Sandra has discovered Joan's insurance company employee I.D. in her purse. After the women re-join the men, a suavely dressed Dr. Leighos, descends the castle stairs and introduces himself to Joan and the boys. Also working at the castle is the naive Prof. Stevens , who questions some of the specialized equipment that has arrived. After Wilbur admits that he was in the basement, Sandra feigns a headache and tells Wilbur and the others that they will have to go to the ball without her. In private, Sandra admits that Stevens' questions, Joan's credentials, and Wilbur's curiosity in the basement have made her nervous enough to put the experiment on hold. Impatient, Dracula asserts his will by hypnotizing her, biting her in the throat, and making her his vampire slave. At the ball, the boys encounter Talbot and McDougal just as Dracula and Sandra rejoin the group. Dracula, when confronted by Talbot, easily deflects accusations that he is "the real thing" by insisting that it's only his costume and he is not actually Dracula. While Dracula takes Joan for a dance, Sandra lures Wilbur to a quiet spot in the woods. Before she can move in and bite him, Chick and Larry approach and she flees. As they search for Joan, Talbot transforms into the Wolf Man and stalks Wilbur. Wilbur escapes, but the Wolf Man finds and injures McDougal. Noting that Chick has brought a wolf mask as his costume to the ball, McDougal concludes that it was Chick who actually attacked him out of revenge. Chick manages to slip away, only to witness Dracula hypnotizing Wilbur. Chick is then also hypnotized and rendered helpless while Dracula and Sandra bring Wilbur and Joan back to the castle. The next morning, Chick and Talbot meet and Talbot tells Chick that he is the Wolf Man. After Chick explains to him that Dracula has taken Wilbur and Joan to the island they agree to work together to rescue them. While Wilbur is being held in a pillory, Sandra finally explains to him the plan to transplant his brain into the Monster. She and Dracula leave him to prepare the Monster for the operation. Chick and Talbot arrive to rescue Wilbur, but in an attempt to escape Dracula hypnotizes Wilbur into coming back. Wilbur who is now strapped to a slab witnesses Dracula giving the Monster electrical boosts in the lab. Just as Sandra prepares to open Wilbur's skull, Talbot and Chick storm in. Talbot struggles with Sandra and casts her aside. Chick knocks out Sandra and runs out of the lab to make Dracula leave so Talbot can save Wilbur. Just as Talbot is about to untie Wilbur, he once again transforms into the Wolf Man. Dracula returns to the lab to find the Wolf Man there and flees, with the Wolf Man giving chase. Chick arrives to untie Wilbur just as the Monster, now at full power, breaks his own restraints and rises from his stretcher. Sandra attempts to order him back, but the Monster defiantly throws her out the lab window to her death. Chick and Wilbur try to escape with the Monster hot on their trail. After trying to fight off the Wolf Man with little success, Dracula attempts to escape and transforms into a bat, but the Wolf Man snares him then grab him and fall down to the sea below .Joan abruptly wakes from her trance, while the boys escape the castle and head to the pier with the Monster in pursuit. Wilbur succeeds in untying the boat, while Stevens and Joan arrive and set the pier ablaze. The Monster turns around and marches into the flames, succumbing as the pier collapses into the water. Just as Chick and Wilbur relax, Wilbur scolds Chick for not believing him. After Chick tells him he will believe him from now on, they hear a disembodied voice and see a cigarette floating in the air. The voice says: "Allow me to introduce myself, I'm the Invisible Man!" The boys jump off the boat and swim away while the Invisible Man lights his cigarette and laughs as the final scene comes to a close.

positive

positive

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The story begins in the 1940s in a small town called Little Hangleton, describing how the Riddle family was mysteriously killed at supper, and how their groundsman, Frank Bryce, was suspected of the crime, then declared innocent due to lack of evidence. In 1994, Bryce investigates a disturbance at the house and overhears Lord Voldemort and Peter Pettigrew (also known as Wormtail) plotting to kill a boy named Harry Potter. Voldemort's snake, Nagini, notices Bryce and informs Voldemort; Voldemort invites Bryce inside and kills him on the spot. The scene then shifts to Harry Potter as he wakes in the night with a throbbing pain in his scar. The next morning, Harry's Uncle Vernon receives a letter from the Weasleys asking Harry to join them at the Quidditch World Cup. Harry is brought to The Burrow the next day. Early the next morning, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione head off to the Quidditch World Cup. They travel by Portkey, an object which wizards use to travel quickly to another linked destination. While traveling, they meet Cedric Diggory, another Hogwarts student. At their seat, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Winky, a house-elf who says she is saving a seat for her master, Bartemius 'Barty' Crouch. That night, after the game, a crowd of Voldemort's followers destroy the campground and torture its Muggle owners. Harry, Hermione and Ron escape by fleeing into the woods, where Harry discovers that his wand is missing. Moments later, someone fires Voldemort's symbol, using Harry's wand. Winky is found holding Harry's wand at the scene of the crime, and Mr Crouch fires her. Later at the Burrow, Cedric's father brings news that a man named Mad-Eye Moody attacked an intruder at his house. Upon arriving at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore announces that the Triwizard Tournament will take place at Hogwarts throughout the school year. The Tournament is a competition between three delegates, or "champions", one from each of the three great European schools of magic - Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang. These champions compete in three tasks and they are given scores by the judges based on their performance; at the conclusion, one champion is chosen as the victor and given a thousand Galleons prize money. However, owing to the dangerous nature of the tournament, no one under seventeen years of age is allowed to enter. He also introduces Mad-Eye Moody as the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Moody's unorthodox teaching methods cause controversy within the school, notably his use of Transfiguration as punishment and his lessons on the Unforgivable Curses. In late October, the delegations from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrive; the Triwizard Tournament is officially opened, and students who wish to compete submit their names to the Goblet of Fire. On Halloween, the Goblet of Fire chooses the champions; and to everyone's great surprise, Harry is selected to compete alongside Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum. Though he did not enter himself, Harry is magically bound to compete as the fourth champion. Ron feels let down, refusing to speak to Harry. Harry's situation only worsens with the publication of a sappy, exaggerated article about his past, written by ruthless reporter Rita Skeeter. A few nights before the first task, Hagrid invites Harry for a late night walk, ultimately informing him that the task will somehow contain dragons. Back in the Gryffindor common room, Harry converses with Sirius; who informs Harry that Igor Karkaroff, the Headmaster of Durmstrang, was once a Death Eater and is not to be trusted. The next day, realizing that Fleur and Krum know about the dragons as well, Harry warns Cedric about the first task; Moody overhears, and drops hints that Harry should use his flying skills to best the dragon. Harry and Hermione then spend hours practising Summoning charms, which would allow him to retrieve his broom. During the task, Harry successfully Summons his broomstick and flies past the dragon, capturing the golden egg - a necessary clue to the nature of the second task - and receiving high marks. Ron and Harry reconcile shortly afterward. Professor McGonagall announces that the Yule Ball is approaching and that the champions must find partners as they will open the ball. Harry gathers his courage to ask his crush Cho Chang, but finds out that she is already going with Cedric. Harry and Ron eventually ask Parvati and Padma Patil. At the ball, Ron becomes jealous of Viktor Krum, who has brought Hermione as his date. Harry and Ron leave the ball and overhear Karkaroff confiding fearfully to Potions master Snape that something on his arm has become more prominent. At the end of the ball, Cedric tells Harry to take a bath with the golden egg. During a trip to Hogsmeade, Ludo Bagman mentions to Harry that Mr Crouch has stopped coming to work. Harry takes the egg into the bathtub. The egg sings that he will have an hour to reclaim something valuable that has been taken into the lake. As he returns to his dormitory, he notices Mr Crouch searching Snape's office, but is unable to investigate. Harry falls asleep in the library, searching for answers from the clue, and is awakened in the morning by the house-elf Dobby, who now works at Hogwarts, who gives him a ball of gillyweed. The gillyweed gives Harry gills and he swims easily through the lake, finding Hermione, Ron, Cho, and Fleur's sister Gabrielle asleep and tied together in a merpeople village. Harry waits to make sure all of the champions rescue their hostages before returning to the surface. When Fleur does not come, he returns with Gabrielle and Ron and comes up last, but gains high marks for his moral fibre in his completion of the task. The following day in Hogsmeade, Harry, Ron, and Hermione meet Sirius Black, disguised as his animagus, a dog. He informs them that Crouch's son was convicted as a Death Eater (Voldemort's followers). Later, the champions are taken to see the grounds to see a maze, the third task. On the way back, when Krum pulls Harry away to talk, they find a dishevelled Mr Crouch, who is speaking to trees and demanding to see Dumbledore. Harry runs to get Dumbledore while Krum waits with Crouch; when Harry returns, Krum has been stunned and Mr Crouch gone. In Divination class, Harry falls asleep and dreams about Voldemort, waking up screaming. Harry leaves class to discuss this with Dumbledore; as he waits for Dumbledore to return to his office, he peers into a Pensieve and enters Dumbledore's memories of various Death Eater trials, including that of Ludo Bagman, Karkaroff, and Mr Crouch's son. Dumbledore returns, pulls Harry from the memories and listens to his story. On the evening of the task, the four champions enter the maze, and Harry finds his path relatively manageable. Soon both Fleur and Krum are out of the running, and Harry and Cedric arrive at the trophy at the same time, agreeing to touch it together. The trophy turns out to be a Portkey, taking both to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, where a man in a hood quickly kills Cedric. Harry realises the man is Wormtail, who ties Harry to a gravestone. Wormtail drops the bundle he is carrying (Voldemort's current form) into a cauldron, as well as a bone from Voldemort's father, Wormtail's own right hand, and blood from Harry's arm. Voldemort resumes his body and rises from the cauldron. Voldemort presses a tattoo of the Dark Mark on Wormtail's arm, and suddenly Death Eaters begin appearing in a circle around them. Voldemort creates a silver hand for Wormtail and then challenges Harry to a duel. Harry tries to use the disarming spell on Voldemort just as Voldemort uses the Killing Curse. The lights from the two wands meet in midair and remain connected. Voldemort's past victims emerge from his wand and protect Harry once the wand connection is broken, giving him time to grab Cedric's body and touch the trophy, thus returning to Hogwarts. Once Harry returns, Moody carries him into the castle, where he reveals that he is a Death Eater, and that he was responsible for placing Harry's name in the Goblet and for turning the trophy into a portkey. Moody also informs Harry that Karkaroff has fled the castle. Soon after, Dumbledore and other teachers burst into the room, stunning Moody and saving Harry. Under the influence of a truth potion, Moody confessed that he was young Barty Crouch Jr. He has made the switch by using Moody's hair and drinking Polyjuice potion every hour. His father smuggled him out of prison and allowed him to live under an invisibility cloak, guarded by Winky, and how Ministry of Magic worker Bertha Jorkins discovered him and ultimately was relieved of her information by Voldemort, who then returned to find Crouch Jr in his father's house. He also says that he killed his father in the Forest the day he stumbled upon Harry and Krum, and that he was hoping to bring Voldemort back to power by bringing Harry to him. Cornelius Fudge, the Minister for Magic, refuses to believe that Voldemort is back. He gives Harry the tournament prize money and leaves quickly. After the term ends, Harry, Ron and Hermione return home on the Hogwarts Express. Hermione shows Harry and Ron a beetle in a jar — Rita Skeeter's animagus form, which she has been using to spy on people and acquire news about them — that she caught and warned not to write untrue things. Harry gives the gold he won in the Triwizard Tournament to the Weasley twins to help start their practical joke company. Harry then returns to the Dursleys for the summer.

{{Further2}} Now fourteen years old, Harry Potter dreams of an elderly man, Frank Bryce, who is killed after overhearing Lord Voldemort discussing plans with Peter "Wormtail" Pettigrew and Barty Crouch Jr. The Quidditch World Cup allows Harry to take his mind off his nightmares until followers of Voldemort known as Death Eaters terrorise the spectators' campsites after the match, and Crouch Jr. summons the Dark Mark, a sign showing that Voldemort is returning to power. At Hogwarts, headmaster Albus Dumbledore introduces ex-Auror Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody as the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. In their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, the students learn of the three Unforgivable Curses. The Imperius Curse causes absence of free will, the Cruciatus Curse causes unbearable pain, and the final curse, Avada Kedavra, causes death. Dumbledore announces that the school will host the Triwizard Tournament, in which one wizard from each of the three magical schools competes in three challenges. The champions are selected by the Goblet of Fire, a magical cup into which the candidates' names are placed. Fred and George attempt to enter using an aging potion as no one under 17 can enter. This fails miserably. Cedric Diggory, a student from the House of Hufflepuff, is chosen to represent Hogwarts, Viktor Krum is chosen to represent Durmstrang Institute, and Fleur Delacour is selected to represent Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. The Goblet unexpectedly chooses a fourth champion: Harry. As Harry is underage and should have been ineligible to compete, Hogwarts teachers and students grow suspicious, and the feat drives Ron and Harry apart. The teachers want Dumbledore to pull Harry out of the tournament, but the four champions are bound by a magical contract and therefore Dumbledore has no choice and Harry must compete. For the first task of the Triwizard Tournament, each of the champions must retrieve a golden egg guarded by a dragon. Mad-Eye advises Harry to use his talent for flying to overcome the dragon. Harry enters the first task and summons his broomstick to retrieve the egg, which contains information about the second challenge. The students are soon informed of the Yule Ball, a Christmas Eve ball held during the Triwizard Tournament. Ron and Harry have trouble finding dates to the ball and when they find out that Hermione is attending with Viktor Krum, Ron becomes jealous. In exchange for previous aid, Cedric provides Harry with a clue that prompts him to open the egg underwater. With help from Moaning Myrtle, he learns that the second task entails the retrieval of "something precious" to each of the competitors from the nearby Black Lake, where there are mermaids. While preparing for the task, Neville Longbottom provides Harry with Gillyweed, enabling him to breathe underwater for one hour. Harry is the first to arrive at the location, and finds Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang and Fleur's sister, Gabrielle, in suspended animation. Finishing last after attempting to free Ron and Gabrielle, Harry is awarded second place for "outstanding moral fiber", behind Cedric. Following an exchange with Mad-Eye, Ministry official Barty Crouch, Sr. is found dead by Harry shortly after the second task. While waiting in Dumbledore's office, Harry's curiosity leads him to look into Dumbledore's pensieve, causing him to revisit one of Dumbledore's memories. He witnesses a trial before the Wizengamot in which captured Death Eater Igor Karkaroff, the current headmaster of Durmstrang, denounces a number of Death Eaters, including both Severus Snape and Barty Crouch Jr. While Dumbledore vouches for Snape's integrity, Crouch Sr. is horrified at this revelation and disowns his maniacal son, sending him to Azkaban. Upon returning to the present time, Dumbledore tells Harry that he is searching his memories for a clue as to why extraordinary events have taken place at Hogwarts since the start of the tournament. In the Triwizard Tournament's third and final task, the competitors are placed inside a hedge maze; their challenge is to reach the Triwizard Cup. Krum, acting under the Imperius curse, incapacitates Fleur and attempts to do the same to Cedric. Harry stops Cedric from attacking Krum, and the two run for the cup. When Cedric is trapped by vines, Harry frees him and the two claim a draw and grab hold of the cup together. The cup, which is a Portkey, transports the two champions to a graveyard where Wormtail and Voldemort are waiting for Harry. Wormtail murders Cedric, traps Harry, then performs a ritual that rejuvenates Voldemort, who then summons the Death Eaters and bids them to witness a duel between their Dark Lord and his nemesis. As Harry, who is tortured by Voldemort, fights him, a connection called Priori Incantatem occurs between their wands. Harry's wand forces Voldemort's to disgorge the spirits of the people Voldemort has most recently murdered, including Harry's parents, Frank Bryce and Cedric. Harry is briefly protected by the spirits and escapes with Cedric's body using the cup. Upon his return, Harry tells Dumbledore and Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge that Voldemort has returned and is responsible for Cedric's death. Mad-Eye leads a devastated Harry back to the castle, where his questions make Harry suspicious. Mad-Eye reveals it was he who put Harry's name in the Goblet, assisted Cedric and Neville in helping Harry, cursed Krum and so on. Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall arrive and force Veritaserum, a truth-telling potion down Mad-Eye's throat. He reveals he is not Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody and the real one is imprisoned in a magical trunk minus his magical eye and fake leg. The false Mad-Eye's Polyjuice Potion wears off and he is revealed as Barty Crouch Jr., who shows a pulsing Dark Mark tattoo on his forearm meaning Voldemort's returned. Soon after, students and staff of Hogwarts, Durmstrang and Beauxbatons gather in the Great Hall to say farewell to Cedric. Dumbledore exhorts them to stand together against Voldemort, as the representatives from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons leave Hogwarts.

positive

positive

The Hunter

Payback

The plot concerns a criminal, Parker who, having been betrayed, shot, and left for dead by his partner and wife, embarks on a relentless quest to retrieve his money and wreak revenge. The novel was written as a stand-alone crime novel, but when Westlake turned it in, his editor told him that if Westlake would rewrite the ending so that Parker escaped, he would be willing to publish up to three books a year about Parker. Though Westlake wasn't able to keep up that level of productivity, he did go on to write 23 more Parker novels over the next 46 years. The Hunter was re-issued by the University of Chicago Press in August 2008.

In a seedy basement, Porter lies severely wounded with two gunshot wounds in his back. A whiskey drinking surgeon removes the bullets and Porter spends months healing. He then begins tracking down Val Resnick , his former partner, and Lynn , his ex-wife, both of whom betrayed Porter and left him for dead following a $140,000 heist from the Chinese triads. After leaving Porter for dead, Val rejoined the Outfit, a powerful criminal organization, using $130,000 of the heist money to repay an outstanding debt. Porter is intent on reclaiming his $70,000 cut and gets himself a gun by pawning watches. Porter enlists the help of a call girl, Rosie , who is affiliated with the Outfit. Porter once served as her driver, during which time they developed a romantic friendship, which ultimately was the reason behind Porter's wife conspiring against him. To get his money, Porter is forced to deal not only with Resnick but with a lowlife named Stegman , with crime bosses from the Outfit, with the Chinese triads and with corrupt police detectives Hicks and Leary (Bill Duke and [[Jack Conley . He first finds Val and kills him with a revolver in Rosie's apartment. He then kills three of the Outfit's hit squad henchmen, including leader, Philip ([[John Glover , who have been sent by Outfit boss, Carter to "Stitch this mutt up." Following several unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his $70,000, Porter shoots Carter. With the aid of Rosie, he kidnaps Johnny, the son of Bronson , the Outfit's head, and arranges for Hicks and Leary to be busted by their own colleagues in Internal Affairs by planting Leary's finger prints on the gun Porter used to kill Resnick, pick pocketing Hick's badge, then leaving both in the vicinity of Resnick's dead body. The mob's top figures, Bronson and Fairfax , join the hunt to take him down. Porter is captured by the Outfit after a wild chain of events involving the triads. After being tortured by having his toes smashed with a hammer, Porter lures Bronson and his men to an apartment that had previously been rigged by the Outfit's men to a phone connected to plastic explosive. After they meet an explosive demise, Porter and Rosie drive off to Canada to begin a new life.

positive

positive

Lord Jim

Lord Jim

Jim (his surname is never disclosed), a young British seaman, becomes first mate on the Patna, a ship full of pilgrims travelling to Mecca for the hajj. Jim joins his captain and other crew members in abandoning the ship and its passengers. A few days later, they are picked up by a British ship. However, the Patna and its passengers are later also saved, and the reprehensible actions of the crew are exposed. The other participants evade the judicial court of inquiry, leaving Jim to the court alone. The court strips him of his navigation command certificate for his dereliction of duty. Jim is angry with himself, both for his moment of weakness, and for missing an opportunity to be a 'hero'. At the trial, he meets Charles Marlow, a sea captain, who in spite of his initial misgivings over what he sees as Jim's moral unsoundness, comes to befriend him, for he is "one of us". Marlow later finds Jim work as a ship chandler's clerk. Jim tries to remain incognito, but whenever the opprobrium of the Patna incident catches up with him, he abandons his place and moves further east. At length, Marlow's friend Stein suggests placing Jim as his factor in Patusan, a remote inland settlement with a mixed Malay and Bugis population, where Jim's past can remain hidden. While living on the island he acquires the title 'Tuan' ('Lord'). Here, Jim wins the respect of the people and becomes their leader by relieving them from the predations of the bandit Sherif Ali and protecting them from the corrupt local Malay chief, Rajah Tunku Allang. Jim wins the love of Jewel, a woman of mixed race, and is "satisfied... nearly". The end comes a few years later, when the town is attacked by the marauder "Gentleman" Brown. Although Brown and his gang are driven off, Dain Waris, the son of the leader of the Bugis community, is slain. Jim returns to Doramin, the Bugis leader, and willingly takes a fatal bullet in the chest from him as retribution for the death of his son. Marlow is also the narrator of three of Conrad's other works: Heart of Darkness, Youth, and Chance.

Jim is a promising young English merchant seaman who rises to first officer under Captain Marlow . However, Jim is injured and left at Java. When he is fit again, he signs on with the first available ship, a dilapidated freighter called the S.S. Patna, crammed with hundreds of Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca. When a storm threatens the leaking ship, the crew panics and takes to the lifeboats without a thought for their passengers; Jim in a moment of weakness joins them. When they reach port, the sailors are stunned to find an intact Patna already there before them. The rest of the crew disappears, but Jim insists on confessing his guilt at an official enquiry and is stripped of his sailing papers. Filled with self-loathing, Jim becomes a drifter. One day, he saves a boatload of gunpowder from sabotage. Stein , the cargo's owner, offers him an extremely dangerous job: transporting it and some rifles by river to distant Patusan to help Stein's old friend, the town's chief, lead an uprising against bandits led by the General . When Schomberg is bribed to deny Stein the use of the motorboat he had promised, Jim takes a sailboat with two native crewmen, leaving the aged Stein behind. As they near their destination, one of the crewmen reveals himself to be working for the General. He kills the other sailor then flees to warn the warlord. Jim manages to hide the cargo before he is captured. Though tortured, he refuses to divulge the location. This surprises Cornelius , the drunken, cowardly agent of Stein's trading company, who in fact obeys the General. That night, the Girl leads Jim's rescue. Jim distributes the arms and plans the attack on the General's stockade. He is assisted by Waris , the chief's son. After much bloody fighting, Jim delivers the crushing blow, pushing a barrel of gunpowder through a hail of bullets into the bandits' final stronghold, blowing it up along with the General. Only Cornelius survives, hidden in a secret underground room with the General's loot. Jim is hailed as a hero. One of the grateful natives bestows the title tuan on him. The Girl translates it as "Lord". While Jim is content to live in Patusan with the Girl, Cornelius and Schomberg recruit notorious cutthroat "Gentleman" Duncan Brown and his men to steal the treasure. However, they are detected and cornered. Brown offers to leave peacefully, but no one, with one exception, trusts him. Jim insists they be allowed to go, going so far as to offer his own life as forfeit if anybody is killed as a result. However, under cover of heavy fog, Brown and his men make one last attempt at the treasure, killing a sentry and fatally wounding Waris, before Waris and Jim dispatch them. Afterward, Stein pleads with his grieving old friend to spare Jim; the chief agrees not to hinder Jim's departure, but if he is still in Patusan the next day, there will be no mercy. Despite Stein's urgings, Jim refuses to desert again. In broad daylight, he calmly walks up to the chief as the people are lined up for Waris's funeral procession, cocks the rifle he brought and places it near the chief, then awaits his fate. The bodies of Jim and Waris are cremated together.

positive

positive

Time After Time

Time After Time

The novel alternates perspectives between H.G. Wells and a character initially identified only as "Stevenson." In the first chapter, Stevenson copulates with a prostitute in a 19th century London alley and then murders her. In the next chapter, Wells is introduced showing off his brand new time machine to a group of men including Stevenson. When police arrive to announce that they have identified Jack the Ripper as Stevenson, Stevenson uses the time machine to escape, and Wells follows him. Wells finds himself in the future and befriends a young bank teller named Amy Robbins. Robbins is unaware of Wells's identity and 19th century provenance and believes him to be just a quirky old-fashioned gentleman. As Stevenson murders several women, Wells pursues him while hampered by a love affair with Robbins, to whom he does not dare tell the truth. When Wells is finally forced to confess to Robbins who he is and what he is really doing, she terminates their relationship. But Stevenson targets her next, and Wells rescues her and incapacitates Stevenson in a dramatic climax.

In 1893 London, popular writer Herbert George "H.G." Wells displays a time machine to his skeptical dinner guests. After explaining how it works , police constables arrive at the house searching for Jack the Ripper. One finds a bag, with blood-stained gloves, belonging to one of Herbert's friends, a surgeon named John Leslie Stevenson ([[David Warner , whom they are unable to locate in the house, concluding that Stevenson might be the infamous killer. Wells races to his laboratory, but the time machine is gone. Stevenson has escaped to the future, but because he does not have the "non-return" key, it automatically returns to 1893. Herbert uses it to pursue Stevenson to November 5, 1979, where the machine has ended up on display at a museum in San Francisco. He is deeply shocked by the future, having expected it to be an enlightened socialist utopia, only to find chaos in the form of airplanes, automobiles and a worldwide history of war, crime and bloodshed. Searching numerous banks for Stevenson –- he believes an Englishman might need to exchange old currency -– Herbert meets liberated Chartered Bank of London employee Amy Robbins . She directs Herbert to the Hyatt Regency hotel, as she previously had Stevenson. Confronted by his onetime friend Herbert, Stevenson confesses that he finds modern society to be pleasingly violent. Apologetically, he states: "Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Now... I'm an amateur." Herbert demands he return to 1893 to face justice, but Stevenson, who without the "return key" would be unable to prevent the machine from automatically returning , attempts to wrest it from him. Their struggle is interrupted and Stevenson flees, getting hit by a car during the frantic chase on foot. Herbert follows him to the San Francisco General Hospital emergency room and mistakenly gets the impression that Stevenson had died from his injuries. Herbert meets up with Amy Robbins again and she is the aggressor in a romance . Stevenson returns to the bank to exchange more money. Rightly concluding that it was Amy who had led Herbert to him, he finds out where she lives. Herbert, hoping to convince her of the truth, takes a highly skeptical Amy three days into the future. Once there, she is aghast to see a newspaper headline revealing her own murder as the Ripper's fifth victim . Herbert persuades her that they must go back -– it is their duty to attempt to prevent the fourth victim's murder, then prevent Amy's. However, they are delayed upon their return to the present and can do no more than phone the police. Stevenson kills again, and Herbert is arrested because of his knowledge of the killing. Amy is left alone, totally defenseless, and at the mercy of the "San Francisco Ripper." Herbert unsuccessfully tries to convince the police of Amy's peril . Amy attempts to hide from Stevenson. When the police finally do investigate her apartment, they find the dismembered body of a woman. Wells is released, mourning Amy's brutal death. Suddenly, he is confronted by Stevenson, who has actually killed Amy's coworker Carol, who had accepted an invitation for dinner and to meet Wells. Stevenson then kidnapped Amy in order to extort the time machine key from Wells. Stevenson flees with the key -– and Amy as insurance -– to attempt a permanent escape in the time machine. While Herbert bargains for Amy's life, she is able to escape. As Stevenson starts up the time machine, Herbert removes the "vaporizing equalizer" from the machine and Stevenson nods in understanding. The removal of this component, Herbert had confirmed earlier, causes the machine to remain in place while its passenger is sent traveling endlessly through time, with no way to stop; in effect destroying him. Herbert proclaims that the time has come to return to his own time, by himself, in order to destroy a machine that is too dangerous for primitive mankind. Amy pleads with him to take her along . As they depart to the past, she says that she is changing her name to Susan B. Anthony. The end credits reveal that the two later married.

positive

positive

Frankenstein

Frankenstein 1970

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.

Boris Karloff plays the role of Baron Victor Von Frankenstein, who suffered at the hands of the Nazis as punishment for not cooperating with them during World War II. Horribly disfigured, he nevertheless continues his work as a scientist. Needing funds to support his experiments, the Baron allows a television crew to shoot a made-for-television horror film about his monster-making family at his castle in Germany. This arrangement gives the Baron enough money to buy an atomic reactor, which he uses to create a living being, modeled after his own likeness before he had been tortured by Nazis. When the Baron runs out of body parts for his work, however, he proceeds to kill off members of the crew, and even his faithful butler, for more spare parts.

positive

positive

Moonraker

Moonraker

British Secret Service agent James Bond is asked by his superior, M, to join him for the evening at M's club, Blades, where one of the members, the multi-millionaire businessman Sir Hugo Drax, is winning a lot of money playing bridge, seemingly against the odds. M suspects Drax of cheating, but although claiming indifference, he is concerned why a multi-millionaire and national hero, such as Sir Hugo, would cheat at a card game. Bond confirms Drax's deception and manages to "cheat the cheater"—aided by a cocktail of powdered Benzedrine mixed with non-vintage champagne and a deck of stacked cards—winning £15,000 and infuriating the out-smarted Drax. Drax is the product of a mysterious background, unknown even to himself (allegedly). As a supposed British soldier in World War II, he was badly injured and stricken with amnesia in the explosion of a bomb planted by a German saboteur at a British field headquarters. After extensive rehabilitation in an army hospital, however, he eventually returned home to become a major aerospace industrialist. After building his fortune and establishing himself in business and society, Drax started building the "Moonraker", Britain's first nuclear missile project, intended to defend the United Kingdom against its Cold War enemies (c.f. the real Blue Streak missile). The Moonraker rocket was to be an upgraded V-2 rocket using liquid hydrogen and fluorine as propellants; to withstand the ultra-high combustion temperatures of its engine, it used columbite, in which Drax had a monopoly. Because the rocket's engine could withstand higher heat, the Moonraker was able to use more powerful fuels, greatly expanding its effective range. After a Ministry of Supply security officer working at the project is shot dead, M assigns Bond to replace him and also to investigate what has been going on at the missile-building base, located between Dover and Deal on the south coast of England. All of the rocket scientists working on the project were German. At his post on the complex, Bond meets Gala Brand, a beautiful Special Branch agent working undercover as Personal Assistant to Drax. He also uncovers clues concerning his predecessor's death, concluding that the former Security Chief may have been killed for witnessing a submarine off the coast. Drax's henchman Krebs is caught by Bond snooping through his room. Later, an attempted assassination nearly kills Bond and Gala under a landslide, as they swim beneath the Dover cliffs. Drax takes Gala to London where she discovers the truth about the Moonraker (by comparing her own launch trajectory figures with those in a notebook picked from Drax's pocket), but she is caught. She soon finds herself captive at a secret radio station (intended to serve as a beacon for the missile's guidance system) in the heart of London. While attempting to rescue her in a car chase, Bond is also captured. Drax tells Bond that he was never a British soldier and has never suffered from amnesia. In fact, he was a German commander of a Skorzeny commando unit and the saboteur (in British uniform) Graf Hugo von der Drache, whose unit had placed the car bomb at the army field headquarters, only to be injured himself in the detonation. The amnesia story was simply a cover he used while recovering in hospital, in order to avoid allied retribution, although it would lead to a whole new British identity. Drax, however, remained a dedicated Nazi, bent on revenge against England for the wartime defeat of his Fatherland and his prior history of social slights suffered as a youth growing up in an English boarding school before the war. He now means to destroy London with the very missile he has constructed for Britain, by means of a Soviet-supplied nuclear warhead that has been secretly fitted to the Moonraker. He also plans to play the stock market the day before to make a huge profit from the imminent disaster. Brand and Bond are imprisoned under the Moonraker's booster engines so as to leave no trace of them once the Moonraker is launched. Before this first (supposedly un-armed) test firing, Bond and Gala escape. Gala gives Bond the proper coordinates to redirect the gyros and send the Moonraker into the sea. Having been in collaboration with Soviet Intelligence all along, Drax and his henchman attempt to escape by Russian submarine—only to be killed as the vessel flees through the very waters onto which the Moonraker has been re-targeted. After their de-briefing at headquarters, Bond meets up with Gala, expecting her company—but they part ways after Gala reveals that she is engaged to be married to a fellow Special Branch officer.

A Drax Industries Moonraker space shuttle on loan to the United Kingdom is hijacked in mid-air and MI6 operative, James Bond, agent 007, is recalled from Africa to investigate. En route in a small plane, on an unrelated case, Bond is attacked by the pilot and crew and is pushed out of the plane by the mercenary assassin Jaws. Bond survives by stealing a parachute from the pilot, whilst Jaws lands on a circus tent. Bond proceeds to the Drax Industries shuttle-manufacturing complex where he meets the owner of the company, Hugo Drax, and henchman Chang. Bond also meets an astronaut, Dr. Holly Goodhead and survives an assassination attempt via a centrifuge chamber. Bond is later aided by Drax's personal pilot, Corinne Dufour, as he finds blueprints for a glass vial made in Venice. Bond then foils another attempt on his life, using a hunting shotgun to shoot a sniper. Upon discovering that Dufour assisted Bond's investigations, Drax has her killed. Bond again encounters Goodhead in Venice where he is chased through the canals by Drax's henchmen. He discovers a secret biological laboratory, and by accidentally poisoning the scientists there, he learns that the glass vials are to hold a nerve gas deadly to humans, but harmless to animals. Chang attacks Bond and is killed, but during the fight, Bond finds evidence that Drax is moving his operation to Rio de Janeiro. Rejoining Goodhead, he deduces that she is a CIA agent spying on Drax. They promise to work together, but quickly dispense with the truce. Bond has saved one of the vials he found earlier, as the only evidence of the now-empty laboratory, giving it to M for analysis, who permits him to go to Rio de Janeiro. In Rio, Bond meets his Brazilian contact Manuela. Drax hires Jaws to finish Chang's job of eliminating Bond. Bond meets Goodhead at the top of Sugarloaf Mountain, where they are attacked by Jaws on a cable car. After Jaws' car crashes he is rescued by Dolly from the rubble, and the two fall in love. Bond and Goodhead are captured by henchmen, but Bond escapes and reports to an MI6 base in Brazil and learns that the toxin comes from a rare orchid indigenous to the Amazon jungle. Bond travels the Amazon River looking for Drax's research facility and again encounters Jaws and other henchmen. Bond escapes from his boat just before it hits the Iguazu Falls, and finds Drax's base. Captured by Jaws again, Bond is taken to Drax and witnesses four Moonrakers lifting off. Drax explains that he stole the Moonraker because another in the fleet had developed a fault during assembly. Bond is reunited with Goodhead; they escape and successfully pose as pilots on the sixth shuttle. The shuttles dock with Drax's hidden space station. Drax plans to destroy human life by launching fifty globes containing the toxin into the Earth's atmosphere. Before launching them, Drax also transported several dozen genetically perfect young men and women of varying races, to the space station. They would live there until Earth was safe again for human life; their descendants would be the seed for a "new master race". Bond persuades Jaws and Dolly to switch their allegiance by getting Drax to admit that anyone not measuring up to his physical standards would be exterminated and Jaws attacks Drax's guards. Before the battle Drax launched three of the globes towards Earth, which Goodhead and Bond destroy from their shuttle then Bond and Goodhead disable the radar jammer hiding the station from Earth. The US sends a platoon of Marines in a military shuttle. A laser battle ensues in which Drax's guards as well as his new master race die. During the battle, Bond shoots Drax with a cyanide-tipped dart, then pushes him into an airlock and ejects him into space. The space station, heavily damaged in the battle, disintegrates. Jaws helps Bond and Goodhead escape in Drax's space shuttle. They too escape the space station as their module breaks away before the station explodes.

negative

positive

The Maltese Falcon

The Maltese Falcon

Sam Spade and Miles Archer are hired by a Miss Wonderly to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who has allegedly run off with Wonderly's younger sister. Spade and Archer take the assignment because the money is good, but Spade implies that the woman looks like trouble. That night, Spade receives a phone call telling him that Archer is dead. When questioned by Sgt. Polhaus about Archer's activities, Spade says that Archer was tailing Thursby, but refuses to reveal their client's identity. Later that night, Polhaus and Lieutenant Dundy visit Spade and inquire about his recent whereabouts, and say that Thursby was also killed and that Spade is a suspect. They have no evidence against Spade, but tell him that they will be conducting an investigation into the matter. The next day, Archer's wife Iva asks Spade if he killed Miles. He tells her to leave, and orders his secretary Effie Perine to remove all of Archer's belongings from the office. Visiting his client at her hotel, he learns her real name is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, she never had a sister, and Thursby was an acquaintance who had betrayed her. Later, Spade is visited by Joel Cairo, who offers Spade $5,000 if he can retrieve a figurine of a black bird that has recently arrived in San Francisco. Cairo suddenly pulls a gun, declaring his intention to search Spade's office, but Spade knocks him unconscious. When O'Shaughnessy contacts Spade, he senses a connection between her and Cairo, and casually mentions that he has spoken to Cairo. O'Shaughnessy becomes nervous, and asks Spade to arrange a meeting with Cairo. Spade agrees. When they meet at Spade's apartment, Cairo says he is ready to pay for the figurine, but O'Shaughnessy says she does not have it. They also refer to a mysterious figure, "G", of whom they seem to be scared. As the two begin to argue, Polhaus and Dundy show up, but Spade refuses to let them in. As they are about to leave, Cairo screams, and they force their way in. Spade says that Cairo and O'Shaughnessy were merely play-acting, which the officers seem to accept. But they take Cairo with them to the station. Spade tries to get more information from O'Shaughnessy, who stalls. Spade confronts a kid named Wilmer Cook, telling him that his boss, "G," will have to deal with Spade. He later receives a call from Casper Gutman, who wishes to meet him. Gutman says he will pay handsomely for the black bird. Spade bluffs, saying he can get it, but wants to know what it is first. Gutman tells him that the figurine was a gift from the Knights of Malta to the King of Spain, but was lost in transit. It was covered with fine jewels, but acquired a layer of black enamel to conceal its value. Gutman had been looking for it for seventeen years. He traced it to Russian general Kemidov, and sent Cairo, Thursby, and O'Shaughnessy to retrieve it. The latter pair stole the figurine, but kept it. Spade feels dizzy, and when he tries to leave, Wilmer trips him and kicks him in the head. After Spade returns to his office, Captain Jacobi of the La Paloma arrives, drops a package on the floor, and then dies. Spade opens the package, and finds the falcon. He receives a call from O'Shaughnessy, asking for his help. He stores the item at a bus station luggage counter and mails himself the collection tag. At the dock, the La Paloma is on fire. He goes to the address O'Shaughnessy gave him, and finds a drugged girl, her stomach scratched by a pin in order to keep her awake. She gives him information about Brigid, but it is a false lead. When he returns to his apartment, O'Shaughnessy, Wilmer, Cairo, and Gutman are waiting. Gutman gives Spade $10,000 for the bird. Spade takes the money, but says that they need a "fall guy" to take the blame for the murders. Cairo and Gutman agree to give him Wilmer. Gutman proceeds to tell Spade the rest of the story. Gutman then warns Spade not to trust O'Shaughnessy. Spade calls his secretary and asks her to pick up the figurine. She brings it to Spade's apartment, and Spade gives it to Gutman. He quickly learns that it is a fake. He realizes that the Russian must have discovered its true value and made a copy. Meanwhile, Wilmer escapes. Gutman regains his composure, and decides to continue the search. Gutman asks Spade for the $10,000. Spade keeps $1,000 for expenses. Cairo and Gutman leave. Immediately after Cairo and Gutman leave, Spade phones Sgt. Polhaus, and tells him about Gutman and Cairo. Spade then asks O'Shaughnessy why she killed Archer. She says she hired Archer to scare Thursby. When Thursby did not leave, she killed Archer, to pin the crime on Thursby. When Thursby was killed, she knew that Gutman was in town, so she came back to Spade for protection. Spade says that the penalty for murder is most likely twenty years, but if they hang her, he will always remember her. O'Shaughnessy begs him not to turn her in, but he replies that he has no choice. When the police arrive, Spade turns over O'Shaughnessy. They tell Spade that Wilmer was waiting for Gutman at the hotel and shot him when he arrived.

In San Francisco, private investigator Sam Spade and his partner Miles Archer ([[Walter Long are approached by Ruth Wonderly to follow a man, Floyd Thursby, who allegedly ran off with her younger sister. The two accept the assignment because the money is good, even though they disbelieve her story. Late that night, police detective Tom Polhaus informs Spade that Archer has been shot and killed while tailing Thursby, but Spade turns down the opportunity to examine the body at the scene. As he's leaving, he has a brief conversation in Chinese with a man loitering in a doorway. Later, Polhaus and his superior, Lt. Dundy , visit Spade at his apartment. Thursby has been killed, and they want to know where Spade's been in the last few hours, — they suspect him of killing Thursby to avenge the death of his partner. With no real evidence against Spade, they leave. The next day, Spade calls on Ruth Wonderly in an attempt to find out her real reasons for hiring them. She uses several different ploys to keep Spade on the case in spite of the two murders, but Spade sees through them. Despite this, he gets only a little information from her: Thursby was her accomplice who she no longer trusted, and she feels she's in danger — but she won't tell Spade what she and Thursby were trying to pull off. Frustrated, Spade begins to leave, but then thinks better of it. He takes $500 from Wonderly, supposedly the last of her money, and goes. At the office, Spade tells his secretary, Effie to have Archer's name removed from the door, and he receives a visit from a Dr. Joel Cairo , who offers Spade $5,000 if he can retrieve an enamel figurine of a black bird that he is trying to recover for the "rightful owner". Not knowing anything about this statuette, Spade plays along, overpowering Cairo when he pulls a gun and attempts to frisk him and search the office. Nevertheless, he agrees to try to recover the statuette. That night, at his apartment, Spade questions Wonderly about Cairo and the black bird. Nervous about Cairo's offer and afraid of losing Spade's help, she begins to attempt to seduce him, but is interrupted when Dundy and Polhaus arrive. Spade keeps them outside the door as they question him about his relationship with Archer's wife Iva , with whom Spade has been having an affair. They are about to leave when Wonderly screams, and they rush in to find her holding a gun on Cairo. Spade laughs the incident off with a preposterous story which nonetheless gets the police to leave, with Cairo in tow, allowing Spade and Wonderly to continue their interrogation. The next morning, as Wonderly sleeps in his bed, Spade lifts her key and thoroughly searches her apartment, finding nothing. Returning to his own place, Spade gets a visit from Iva Archer. Spade tries to get rid of her, but she sees Wonderly in the bedroom doorway and leaves in a huff, threatening to tell everything she knows to Lt. Dundy. Spade receives a note from Casper Gutman ([[Dudley Digges , inviting him to come and talk about the black bird. Over drinks and cigars, Spade learns the history and value of the statuette, which is encrusted with precious jewels covered over with enamel, and that Gutman is the mastermind behind the attempt to steal the bird. Spade lies to Gutman that "for the right price" he can deliver the figurine in a couple of days, and they make a deal which Gutman seals with a $1000 bill. Just then, Cairo shows up and tells Gutman privately that Spade does not have the falcon, that Captain Jacoby , whose ship La Paloma arrives from Hong Kong that night, does. Gutman then slips Spade a mickey in a celebratory drink, and retrieves his $1000. Later that night, Spade arrives back in his office, where he finds Effie asleep behind his desk. Suddenly, a man staggers in, collapses to the floor and dies — it's Captain Jacoby, and the suitcase he was carrying has the precious black bird in it. Spade checks the bag at a baggage check and sends himself the ticket in the mail. Called in to see the District Attorney because of what Iva's been telling the police, Spade stonewalls them, and is given 24 hours to wrap up the case and bring in the real killers. Wonderly lures Spade into his apartment, where Cairo and Gutman are waiting for him with guns. Knowing that Spade has the falcon, Gutman gives him ten $1000 bills in an envelope, but Spade insists there also has to be a "fall guy" to give the police to account for the murders , and suggests Gutman's gunman, Wilmer Cook , as the patsy. Gutman rejects this idea, and Spade then puts forward Cairo as a candidate. Cairo counters that Spade's been paid and should bring forward the bird, and they all settle in to wait for the morning, when Spade says he can produce it. As Wonderly leaves to make coffee and sandwiches, Gutman accuses her of stealing one of the bills from the envelope, prompting Spade to have her strip. When he finds she doesn't have the bill on her, he accuses Gutman of palming it, which Gutman admits. Now having the upper hand, Spade tells Gutman that Wilmer will be the fall guy, which Cairo and Gutman discuss in a whispered conference. Goaded by Spade, Wilmer pulls his gun, Spade knocks him out — and Gutman and Cairo agree to Spade's proposal. After Spade calls Effie and asks her to pick up the suitcase with the falcon in the morning and bring it to them, Gutman explains to him how Wilmer killed Thursby and Jacoby. When the bag shows up, Wilmer escapes out the window while the conspirators are frantically opening it and examining the black bird. They soon determine that it is a fake — they've been duped by the previous owner — and Gutman and Cairo decide to make another attempt to steal it. As they leave, Gutman takes back his $10,000 from Spade at gunpoint. Spade immediately calls Detective Polhaus and tells him to pick up Gutman, Cairo and Wilmer: he'll provide Wilmer's guns as evidence. Confronting Wonderly, Spade accuses her of killing Archer to throw suspicion on Thursby and get him out of the way. She admits it, and Spade tells her that he's going to turn her in for the murder, despite their love for each other. When Dundy and Polhaus show up, they reveal that Wilmer murdered Gutman and Cairo before being apprehended. Spade gives them Wilmer's guns, tells them that Wonderly killed Archer, and they take her away. We then learn from a newspaper article that Spade "caused a sensation at [Wonderly's] trial when he produced Lee Fu Gow, Chinese merchant, the only eye-witness to the Archer killing, who positively identified Miss Wonderly as the murderess." Spade goes to visit Wonderly in prison to tell her that he's been made Chief Investigator for the District Attorney's office. Spade asks the prison matron to treat Wonderly well and give her whatever she wants. When the matron asks who will pay for the special treatment, Spade tells her to send the bill to the D.A.'s office: "I'll OK it."

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The Invisible Man

The Invisible Woman

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.

The wealthy lawyer Dick Russell ([[John Howard funds the dotty old inventor Professor Gibbs to create an invisibility device. The first test subject for this machine is Kitty Carroll , a department store model who had been fired from her previous job. The machine proves quite successful, and Kitty uses her invisible state to pay back her former sadistic boss, Mr. Growley ([[Charles Lane . While the Professor and the invisible Kitty are off visiting the lodge of the millionaire Russell, the gangster Blackie Cole sends in his gang of moronic thugs to steal the device. With the machine back at their hideout, however, they cannot get it to work. By now Kitty has returned to visibility, and the thugs are sent in to kidnap her and Gibbs. However, she has learned that some alcohol will restore her to invisibility, and uses this to defeat the gang . At the end of the film it is revealed she has married and become a mother. To top it off, she and the professor learns that her treatment has apparently affected her DNA--as her infant son vanishes upon being rubbed with an alcohol-based lotion! At the time of its release, this film was considered slightly risqué because much is made of the fact that the heroine, though invisible, is naked during much of the action.{{Citation needed}}

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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Responding to a male friend’s suggestion that she should write down her thoughts because it would make an interesting book, the blonde Lorelei Lee narrates the novel in the form of a diary complete with spelling and grammatical errors. Lorelei Lee had been working in movies in Hollywood when she met Mr. Gus Eisman, a button manufacturer from Chicago. He installs her in a New York apartment, visiting her whenever he is in town and spending a small fortune ‘educating’ her. This consists mostly of footing the bill for gowns from Madame Frances, jewellery from Cartier, dinners at the Ritz, orchids, parties, etc. She meets an English novelist named Gerry Lamson who disapproves of her relationship with Eisman. He intends to get divorced so that he can marry her to save her from such a man. Lorelei, fearing the scandal of being involved in a divorce and not wishing to give up the opportunity of a trip to Europe paid for by Eisman decides that she would not like to marry Gerry, who in any case bores her. Lorelei is dismayed that her friend Dorothy wastes her time with a boy named Mencken, who only writes for a magazine when she could be spending time with Mr. Goldmark, a wealthy movie producer. (This is an inside joke. Author Anita Loos was good friends with writer, essayist and literary magazine editor, H.L. Mencken.) She and Dorothy set sail for Europe on the RMS Majestic; Mr. Eisman promises to meet them in Paris later. Lorelei is distressed when she realises District Attorney Bartlett is also onboard ship. She relates to a sympathetic Major Falcon the story of how she came to know Bartlett. She reveals that her father packed her off to Business College in Little Rock. While training to be a stenographer, a lawyer named Mr. Jennings offered to employ her. She learned that he was a sexual predator, became hysterical and shot him. During the trial, which Mr. Bartlett prosecuted, Lorelei gave such compelling testimony that the gentlemen of the jury all burst into tears and she was acquitted. This prompted Judge Hibbard to buy a ticket to Hollywood for her so that she could use her talent to become a professional actress. He also names her ‘Lorelei’ because he believed it expressed her personality. Major Falcon informs Lorelei that Bartlett is now a senator travelling to Vienna for a secret conference. Major Falcon reveals that his mission is to find out what Bartlett is up to in Vienna. He encourages Lorelei to become friends with Bartlett, discover official secrets, and pass them on to him. Meanwhile, Lorelei deplores Dorothy's wasting time with a man who is a mere tennis champion. Bartlett, who is attempting to seduce Lorelei, agrees to tell her of his mission in Vienna if she will accompany him there. She agrees and he admits that he is negotiating a deal for military hardware. Lorelei decides she prefers Major Falcon to Bartlett and does not go to Vienna, but hides out in her cabin until Bartlett debarks. They arrive in London where it seems the aristocrats are selling off all their family jewels to wealthy Americans. Lorelei meets Mrs. Weeks, who is selling a diamond tiara for ten thousand pounds. She casts her eye around the room for a wealthy man to buy it for her and settles on Sir Francis Beekman, whom Lorelei calls ‘Piggie’. She is warned that he is a miser, but with flattery and the promise of discretion (because he is married) she manages to get him to buy the tiara for her. Dorothy takes up with an unemployed ballroom-dancer named Gerry. They meet the Prince of Wales and Dorothy teaches him some American slang. They sail to Paris. Lorelei thinks it is divine; she is especially impressed with Coty, Cartier and the ‘Eyeful’ Tower. She spends time with a French viscount but he spends hardly any money on her. It leads her to decide that a kiss on the hand may make one feel very good but a diamond tiara lasts forever. Sir Francis Beekman’s wife, Lady Beekman, has learned that her husband bought the diamond tiara for Lorelei and arrives in Paris to confront her. She is furious because in thirty-five years of marriage her husband has never given her a gift. She accuses Lorelei of seducing her husband. Dorothy defends Lorelei’s reputation (to great comic effect). The next morning, Mr. Robert Broussard bursts into their room and rants at them in French. As they do not speak French, Broussard telephones his son, Louis to act as translator. They learn that Robert is Lady Beekman’s lawyer. Through a French waiter named Leon, (who speaks English) Lorelei learns that Robert and Louis plan to show the ladies the Paris sights, while charging everything to Lady Beekman and while waiting for an opportunity to steal the tiara from Lorelei to give to Lady Beekman. They go to Fontainebleau, the Folies Bergere and the Palace of Versailles. Lorelei has made a paste copy of the diamond tiara and, by playing one against the other she manages to keep the real tiara and send them away with the fake one. Mr. Eisman arrives in Paris and after many shopping trips with Lorelei he moves on to Vienna to look at a button factory he may want to buy. He puts Lorelei and Dorothy on the Orient Express, telling them to meet him in Vienna. Lorelei meets Henry Spoffard, who comes from one of the most famous and affluent families in Philadelphia. He is a staunch Presbyterian, prohibitionist and moralist. He censors movies. Lorelei too is a reformist – she is trying to reform Dorothy. They arrive in Munich but are not impressed by the art museums, theatre or eating habits of the Germans. Lorelei begins to fear arriving in Vienna, wondering how she can spend time with both Mr. Eisman and Mr. Spoffard. In Vienna, Lorelei meets ‘Dr. Froyd’ (Sigmund Freud) at the request of Spoffard who is concerned about her health. Lorelei tells Freud that she has always done as she likes. Freud decides he cannot analyse Lorelei because she has never repressed a desire. He advises her to cultivate some inhibitions. Lorelei and Dorothy visit The Demel Restaurant, where Mr. Spoffard’s mother is being cautioned by her companion, Miss Chapman about Lorelei’s character. Miss Chapman suggests to Spoffard’s mother that Lorelei is the reason her son has been neglectful of her of late. Fearing that Miss Chapman will cause Spoffard to renounce her company, she takes Spoffard out for a moonlit drive and tells him all about herself and her beginnings in Little Rock. She puts a slant on the story that makes it sound like a Puritan spiritual biography. Spoffard begins to cry because of the ordeals Lorelei has suffered and even compares her to Mary Magdalene. He arranges for Lorelei to meet his mother. Explaining that she is a Christian Scientist, Lorelei tells Spoffard’s mother that if there is no disease then there is no harm in anything, so why not drink champagne? Spoffard’s mother, who enjoys the champagne, decides that Christian Science is a better religion than Presbyterianism. Lorelei gives her a beautiful hat to wear, but since Spoffard’s mother has an Edwardian hairstyle, it does not fit. Lorelei whips out some scissors and bobs Spoffard’s mother’s hair. The meeting is a success. Lorelei and Dorothy go on to Budapest with Mr. Eisman who has decided not to do business in Europe. Mr. Spoffard writes, proposing marriage to Lorelei. This puts her in a quandary. Spoffard has money but she is no attracted to him. Henry Spoffard is waiting for Lorelei when she arrives in New York. He tells her he has looked everywhere for an engagement ring but none were good enough for her, so he gives her his college ring. Using all her self-control, she tells him she happy he is so full of nothing but sentiment. Lorelei decides that she should come out into polite society and plans a debutante ball for herself. The debut ball lasts three days. It is reported on the front page of the newspapers. Society sports club members mix with bootleggers. The police are called but Dorothy wins over Judge Schultzmeyer. Unsure about marrying Spoffard, Lorelei decides to discourage his love by going on a mammoth shopping spree and charging it all to him. Whilst on the train to New York, she meets Gilbertson Montrose, a movie scenario writer. She realises how much more fascinating Montrose is compared to Spoffard. She enlists Dorothy’s help to get rid of Spoffard. Dorothy shows Spoffard everything Lorelei has bought and tells him she has gone to look at the Russian crown jewels with a view to buying them. She tells him that there is mental illness in Lorelei’s family and that she is pathologically extravagant. Meanwhile, Lorelei is having lunch with the fascinating Mr. Montrose. She tells him of her plan to rid herself of Spoffard. When Montrose expresses regret because he hoped Spoffard could be made to finance his new movie and she would star in the lead role, Lorelei decides she would like to marry Spoffard and have a movie career. Fearing she has already lost Spoffard, she telephones Dorothy but Spoffard has already left for Penn Station. Lorelei rushes to him and informs him that her extravagance was faked – every jewel she bought was paste and it was a test of his love. She says he fell into the trap and should be ashamed of himself. Remorseful, Spoffard vows to marry her and finance Montrose’s movie. Lorelei gets everything she wants but says she is simply happy to make everyone else happy.

Lorelei Lee and Dorothy Shaw are showgirls and best friends. Lorelei has a passion for diamonds, knowing that attracting a rich husband is one of the only ways a woman of the 1950s can succeed economically. She is engaged to Gus Esmond , a naive nerd willing to do or buy anything for her. He, however, is under the control of his wealthy, upper-class father who calls him twice a day. Dorothy, on the other hand, is looking for love, attracted only by men who are good-looking and fit. Lorelei has planned for Gus and her to marry in France, but Esmond, Sr. stops his son from sailing, believing that Lorelei is bad for him. Lorelei's job requires that she go and she does. Gus gives her a letter of credit, warning her to behave because, if his father hears rumors of bad behavior on her part, his father will certainly prohibit their marriage. Unbeknownst to them, Esmond, Sr. has hired a private detective, Ernie Malone , to spy on Lorelei. Malone, however, immediately falls in love with Dorothy. During the Atlantic crossing, Dorothy has already been drawn to the members of the Olympic athlete team, and is disappointed that they are required to go to bed right at the shank of the evening. Lorelei meets the rich and foolish Sir Francis "Piggy" Beekman , the owner of a diamond mine, and is attracted by his wealth and naively returns his geriatric flirtations. Piggy is entranced and his wife, annoyed. Lady Beekman proudly shows Lorelei her diamond tiara. Lorelei invites the old gent to her and Dorothy's cabin, whereupon he recounts his travels to Africa. Malone spies through the window and takes pictures of Piggy hugging Lorelei under the guise of explaining how a python squeezes a goat. Dorothy catches Malone walking away nonchalantly after taking pictures of Lorelei and Piggy. She tells Lorelei, who fears for her reputation. They come up with a scheme to recover the incriminating film. They invite Malone for drinks, spill water on his lap, take his pants off to dry them out, and find the film in his pants pocket. Lorelei promptly prints and hides the negatives. Piggy is relieved his wife won't see the pictures. Lorelei, feeling she deserves a reward, persuades Piggy to give her his wife's diamond tiara as a thank-you present. But then Malone reveals that he has taped Lorelei's and Piggy's conversations, for which Dorothy scolds him. Malone implies Lorelei is a golddigger and, when Dorothy dismisses him out of hand, admits that he himself is a liar. When Dorothy tells Lorelei she is falling for Malone, Lorelei chastises her for choosing a poor man when she could as easily have a rich man – and diamonds. They arrive in Paris and spend time shopping, but are then kicked out of the hotel; Lorelei's letter of credit has been cancelled because of what Gus's father has learned from Malone. When Gus shows up at their show, Lorelei rebuffs him. It is at this point that Lorelei performs "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend," the musical number whose lyrics explain why and how women need to pursue men with money in order to pay their rent and buy food. While Lorelei and Dorothy fulfill their Paris nightclub engagement, Lady Beekman has filed charges regarding her missing tiara, and Lorelei is charged with theft. Dorothy persuades Lorelei to return the tiara, but it's missing from her jewelry box. Sir Francis tries to weasel out of his part in the tiara affair when Malone catches him at the airport. Dorothy stalls for time in court by pretending to be Lorelei, disguised in a blonde wig and mimicking her friend's breathy voice and mannerisms, and putting on a musical number show in the middle of the courtroom, which attracts, confuses and flusters the assembled, including the judge. When Malone appears in court and is about to unmask "Lorelei" as Dorothy, she reveals to Malone in covert language that she, Dorothy, loves him but would never forgive him if he were to do anything to hurt her best friend, Lorelei. Malone withdraws his comments. But he does reveal that Piggy has the tiara, which is returned to him by the court. Back at the nightclub, challenged by the elder Esmond, Lorelei impresses him with her acumen on the subject of patriarchal money: "I don't want to marry him for his money; I want to marry him for your money. Don't you know that a man being rich is like a girl being pretty? You wouldn't marry a girl for being pretty, but doesn't it help?" She also explains that, if he had a daughter, he would want the best for her, and that it is only fair for her to want the same. Once Esmond sees how smart she is, he willingly consents to their marriage. The two women have a double wedding, still singing together as they did in their nightclub act.

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I Am Legend

I Am Legend

The main character is Robert Neville, apparently the sole survivor of a pandemic whose symptoms resemble vampirism. It is implied that the pandemic was caused by a war, and that it was spread by dust storms in the cities and an explosion in the mosquito population. The narrative details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease, to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks. The vampires only come out at night and become comatose by day, though they also sometimes come out earlier during cloudy weather. Neville survives by barricading himself by sunset inside his house, further protected by garlic, mirrors, and crosses. Swarms of vampires would regularly surround his house, trying to find ways to get inside. During the day, he scavenges for supplies and methodically searches out the inactive vampires, driving stakes into their hearts to kill them. After bouts of depression and alcoholism, Neville decides to find out the scientific cause of the pandemic. He obtains books and other research materials from a library, and through painstaking research discovers the root of the vampiric disease in a strain of bacteria capable of infecting both deceased and living hosts. He also discovers that much of the efficacy of the garlic, mirrors, and crosses were actually "hysterical blindess", the result of previous psychological conditioning of the infected (particularly the religious) who believed that they were effective against vampires. Driven to insanity by the disease, the vampires now reacted as they believed they should react when confronted with these items. Even then, it was constrained to the beliefs of the particular person, such that a vampire who was Christian would fear the cross, but a vampire who was Jewish would not. Neville also discovers more efficient means of killing the infected, other than just driving a stake into their hearts. This included exposing them to direct sunlight (which killed the bacteria) or inflicting deep wounds on their bodies so that the bacteria switch from being anaerobic symbionts to aerobic parasites, rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air. He is now killing such large numbers of vampires in his daily forays that his nightly visitors have diminished significantly. After three years, Neville sees an apparently uninfected woman, Ruth, abroad in the daylight, and captures her. After some convincing, Ruth tells him her story of how she and her husband survived the pandemic (though her husband was killed two weeks earlier). Neville is puzzled by the fact that she is upset when he speaks of killing vampires, on grounds that if her story of survival was true, she would have become hardened to the act. One night Neville is startled awake and finds Ruth about to leave. Suspicious, he questions her motives, but relates the trauma of his past, whereupon they comfort each other. Ruth reluctantly allows him a blood sample but knocks him senseless when he realizes she is infected. When he wakes, Neville discovers a note from Ruth confessing that she is actually infected and that Neville was responsible for her husband's death. Ruth admits that she was sent to spy on him. The infected have slowly overcome their disease until they can spend short periods of time in sunlight and are attempting to rebuild society; but they fear and hate Neville who has destroyed some of their people along with the true vampires (dead bodies animated by the germ) during his daytime excursions against the latter. Ruth warns Neville that her people will attempt to capture him, and that he should leave his house and escape; but Neville disregards Ruth's warning and is captured. Neville wakes in a prison where he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a ranking member of the new society but, unlike the others, does not resent him. She acknowledges the need for Neville's execution, and gives him pills, claiming they will "make it easier". Badly injured, Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become heartless. Ruth kisses him and leaves. Neville goes to his prison window and sees all the infected waiting for his execution. Judging by their reactions to the sight of him, he now recognizes their point of view. Having hitherto seen the destruction of the infected survivors as a moral imperative to be pursued for his own and mankind's survival, he failed to realize that the infected have come to view him in fear and awe. To them, he was an invisible killer who moved by day, killing their loved ones as they hibernated. He realizes that even as vampires were legend in pre-infection times, he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection. He therefore remarks to himself as he dies: "[I am] a new superstition entering the unassailable fortress of forever. I am legend".

In September 2012, military virologist Lieutenant Colonel Robert Neville is the last healthy and immune human in New York City. A genetically-engineered variant of the measles virus created by Dr. Alice Krippin , meant as a cure for cancer, had mutated into a lethal strain. It spread throughout the world, killing 90% of humanity. Most survivors became predatory, vampiric{{cite web}} beingsThe DVD/Blu-Ray subtitles refer to the infected as hemocytes – actually a cell type found in an insect's immune system. called "Darkseekers" that emerge after dusk to prey on those immune to the virus. In December 2009, Neville had lost his wife Zoe and daughter Marley in a helicopter accident during a chaotic quarantine of Manhattan. Neville's daily routine includes experimenting on infected rats to find a cure for the virus and trips through a decaying Manhattan to collect supplies or hunt for deer. He keeps vigil each day for a response to his recorded AM radio broadcasts, which instruct any survivors to meet him at midday at the South Street Seaport. Neville's isolation is broken only by the companionship of his pet German Shepherd Samantha and interaction with mannequins he has set up as patrons of a video store. To test a treatment, Neville sets a snare trap and captures an infected woman. An enraged mutated alpha male attempts to rescue her, but is driven back by the sunlight. In the laboratory in his heavily fortified Washington Square Park home, Neville tries the new serum on the infected woman, seemingly without success. The next day, after finding one of his mannequins moved out in the street in front of Grand Central Terminal, Neville is caught in a snare trap and passes out. He regains consciousness at dusk and frees himself, but a pack of infected dogs attack Neville and Sam. Although Neville and Sam kill the dogs, an infected dog bites Sam during the fight. Neville brings Sam home and attempts to save the dog by injecting a strain of his serum, but it is too late, as Sam starts to mutate, which then forces Neville to kill her. Overwhelmed by grief and rage of the loss of his dog, Neville attacks a group of the infected on the seaport the following night with his SUV. He kills many, but they overwhelm and nearly kill him before he is rescued by a pair of immune humans, a woman named Anna and a boy named Ethan , who followed his radio broadcasts. Anna and Ethan take him back to his home. Anna explains that they are making their way to a survivors' camp in Bethel, Vermont. Neville does not believe that such a camp exists and expresses doubt when Anna says that God told her about it. The following night, the alpha male leads an infected mob in an attack on Neville's house. Anna, who was unaware of Neville's precautions in covering his scent outside the house, inadvertently allowed the infected to follow their trail. As the infected charge the house, Neville stops the first wave with claymore mines, but finds himself defenseless against the second wave. As Neville tries to find Anna and Ethan, an infected enters and attacks him. The infected retreats upstairs and begins tearing a hole in the roof so others can get in. After Neville saves Anna and Ethan, they retreat into the laboratory. They seal themselves in a reinforced plexiglass room with the infected woman, and discover that Neville's treatment is working; the subject looks much more human. The infected break in and the alpha male begins to throw himself against the plexiglass, cracking it. Neville draws a vial of the infected woman's blood and gives it to Anna before shutting them inside a coal chute in the back of the lab. He detonates an M67 grenade to destroy the attackers at the cost of his own life. Anna and Ethan arrive at the survivors' colony, where Anna hands over the antidote. Anna later states that the survivors are Neville's legacy, as his fight for a cure became legend.

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The Spoilers

The Spoilers

When film tycoon, Sir Robert Hellier, loses his daughter to heroin, he declares war on the drug peddlers. London drug treatment specialist, Nicholas Warren MD, is called in to organise an expedition to the Middle East in an attempt to track down the big-time dope runners, inveigle themselves into their confidence and make them an offer they can't refuse. No expense is spared in the plans for their capture, but with a hundred million dollars worth of heroin at stake, the 'spoilers' must use methods as ruthless as their prey.

While traveling to Nome, Alaska, Roy Glenister meets beautiful Helen Chester , who soon becomes his sweetheart. Glenister is one of several owners of a lucrative mine called The Midas. When he arrives in Nome, he discovers that his partners, Slapjack Simms and Joe Dextry , are in the middle of a legal dispute with three corrupt officials: United States Marshal Voorhees , Judge Stillman , and a politician named Alec McNamara . They have been engaged in a racket claiming titles to various mines, ejecting the miners, and then making McNamara owner of the disputed properties. The three corrupt officials lay claim to The Midas. McNamara also steals money from Glenister, Dextry, and Slapjack, preventing them from enlisting legal help from the United States. When Dextry and Glenister plan a vigilante action, McNamara calls in a detail of soldiers to protect "his property". As Glenister and McNamara prepare for a gunfight, they are dissuaded by Helen, who suggests that the courts handle the dispute. Later, after jealous saloon owner Cherry Malotte lies to Glennister telling him that Helen and McNamara are conspiring to cheat him again, Glennister and McNamara settle their differences with a spectacular fistfight, with McNamara getting the worst. Afterwards, Glenister wins the hand of Helen.

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Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men

Two migrant field workers in California on their plantation during the Great Depression—George Milton, an intelligent but uneducated man, and Lennie Small, a man of large stature and great strength but limited mental abilities—are on their way to another part of California in Soledad. They hope to one day attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream is merely to tend to (and touch) soft rabbits on the farm. This dream is one of Lennie's favorite stories, which George constantly retells. They are fleeing from their previous employment in Weed, California, where they were run out of town after Lennie's love of stroking soft things resulted in an accusation of attempted rape when he touched a young woman's dress, and would not let go. It soon becomes clear that the two are close friends and George is Lennie's protector. The theme of friendship is constant throughout the story. At the ranch, the situation appears to be menacing and dangerous, especially when the pair are confronted by Curley—the boss's small-statured aggressive son with an inferiority complex who dislikes larger men—leaving the gentle giant Lennie potentially vulnerable. Curley's flirtatious and provocative wife, to whom Lennie is instantly attracted, poses a problem as well. In sharp contrast to these two characters, the pair also meets Slim, the kind, intelligent and intuitive jerkline skinner whose dog has recently had a litter of puppies. Slim gives a puppy to Lennie. In spite of the potential problems on the ranch, their dream leaps towards reality when Candy, the aged, one-handed ranch hand, offers to pitch in with George and Lennie so that they can buy a farm at the end of the month in return for permission to live with them on it. The trio are ecstatic, but their joy is overshadowed when Curley attacks Lennie. In response, Lennie, urged on by George, catches Curley's fist and crushes it, reminding the group there are still obstacles to overcome before their goal is reached. Nevertheless, George feels more relaxed, since the dream seems just within their grasp, to the extent that he even leaves Lennie behind on the ranch while he goes into town with the other ranch hands. Lennie wanders into the stable, and chats with Crooks, the bitter, yet educated stable buck, who is isolated from the other workers because he is black. Candy finds them and they discuss their plans for the farm with Crooks, who cannot resist asking them if he can hoe a garden patch on the farm, despite scorning the possibility of achieving the dream. Curley's wife makes another appearance and flirts with the men, especially Lennie. However, her spiteful side is shown when she belittles them and is especially harsh towards Crooks because of his race, threatening to have him lynched. Lennie accidentally kills his puppy while stroking it. Curley's wife enters the barn and tries to speak to Lennie, admitting that she is lonely and how her dreams of becoming a movie star are crushed, revealing the reason she flirts with the ranch hands. After finding out that Lennie loves stroking soft things, she offers to let him stroke her hair, but panics and begins to scream when she feels his strength. Lennie becomes frightened, and in the scuffle, unintentionally breaks her neck. When the other ranch hands find the corpse, George unhappily realizes that their dream is at an end. George hurries away to find Lennie, hoping he will be at the meeting place they designated at the start of the novel in case Lennie got into trouble, knowing that there is only one thing he can do to save Lennie from the painful death that Curley's lynch mob intends to deliver. George meets Lennie at the designated place, the same spot they camped in the night before they came to the ranch. The two sit together and George retells the beloved story of the bright future together that they will never share. He then shoots Lennie in the back of the head, so that his death will be painless and happy. Curley, Slim, and Carlson find George seconds after the shooting. Only Slim realizes that George killed Lennie out of love, and gently and consolingly leads him away, while Curley and Carlson look on, unable to comprehend the subdued mood of the two men.

George Milton is in a train boxcar, reminiscing upon the events that have just happened. He thinks back to when he and his companion Lennie Small , who has an intellectual disability, are fleeing from their previous employment in Weed. They were run out of town after Lennie was accused of attempted rape when he touched and held onto a young woman's pretty red dress . After running from Weed, George and Lennie are trying to attain their shared dream of settling down on their own piece of land. Lennie's part of the dream, which he never tires of hearing George describe, is merely to have soft rabbits on the farm, which he can pet. The two go to work at a ranch named Tyler Ranch. At the ranch, the dream appears to move closer to reality. Candy , the aged, one-handed ranch-hand, offers to pitch in with Lennie and George so they can buy the farm. The dream disappears when Lennie accidentally kills the young and attractive wife of Curley , the ranch owner's son, while trying to stroke her hair; as a result, a lynch mob led by Curley gathers and goes after Lennie with the intent to kill him. Realizing he is doomed to a life of loneliness and despair like the rest of the migrant workers, and wanting to spare Lennie a painful death at the hands of the vengeful and violent thug Curley, George shoots Lennie in the back of the head while distracting him with their dream of the ranch, releasing Lennie happily. George reminisces in the train boxcar, he has one final memory of him and Lennie working together and going off into the distance happily.

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The Accidental Tourist

The Accidental Tourist

Set in Baltimore, Maryland, the plot revolves around Macon Leary, a writer of travel guides whose son has been killed in a shooting at a fast-food restaurant. He and his wife Sarah, separately lost in grief, find their marriage disintegrating until she eventually moves out. When he becomes incapacitated due to a fall, he returns to the family home to stay with his eccentric siblings—sister Rose and brothers Porter and Charles—whose odd habits include alphabetizing the groceries in the kitchen cabinets and ignoring the ringing telephone. When his publisher, Julian, comes to visit, Julian finds himself attracted to Rose. They eventually marry. Macon hires Muriel Pritchett, a quirky young woman with a sickly son, to train his unruly dog, and soon finds himself drifting into a relationship with the two of them. When his wife Sarah becomes aware of the situation, she decides they should reconcile, forcing him to make a difficult decision about his future.

Macon Leary is a Baltimore, Maryland, writer of travel guides for reluctant business travelers, which detail how best to avoid unpleasantness and difficulty. His marriage to his wife Sarah is disintegrating in the aftermath of the murder of their twelve-year-old son. Sarah eventually leaves Macon, moving out of their house and into an apartment. After he falls down the basement stairs and breaks his leg, Macon returns to his childhood home to stay with his eccentric siblings. Macon is pursued by Muriel Pritchett , a kennel manager with a sickly son. Macon eventually hires Muriel to put his dog though much-needed obedience training. Although Muriel at first seems brash and unsophisticated, Macon finds himself slowly opening up to her and trusting her, and he spends most nights at her house. When Sarah becomes aware of the situation, she decides they should move back together into their old home. Macon leaves Muriel, and he and Sarah set up house once more. When Macon visits Paris for research, Muriel surprises him by showing up on the same flight and stays in the same Paris hotel, recommended by Macon in one of his travel guides. She suggests that they enjoy themselves as if they are vacationing together. Macon insists he is there strictly for business, and he keeps Muriel at arm's length. After Macon is bedridden in his room by his back problem, Sarah comes to Paris to care for him and make day-trips to help complete his travel research. After some time, Sarah confronts Macon about his relationship with Muriel, but he refuses to discuss the situation in any depth. Macon dresses while Sarah still sleeps, then wakes her to tell her that he is going back to Muriel. On the way to the airport, Macon spots Muriel hailing a taxi and tells the driver to stop. Thinking the driver stopped for her, Muriel bends to gather her luggage and catches sight of Macon in the taxi. She smiles, and Macon returns the smile.

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Ask the Dust

Ask the Dust

Arturo Bandini is a struggling writer living in a residential hotel in Bunker Hill, a rundown section of Downtown Los Angeles. Living off the zest of oranges, he unconsciously creates a picture of Los Angeles as a modern dystopia during the Great Depression era. His published short story "The Little Dog Laughed" impresses no one in his seedy boarding house except for one 14-year-old girl. Destitute, he wanders into the Columbia Buffet where he meets Camilla Lopez, a waitress. Bandini falls in love with Lopez, who is herself in love with co-worker Sam. Sam despises Camilla, telling Bandini if he wants to win over Camilla, he has to treat her poorly. Bandini struggles with his own poverty, his Catholic guilt, and with the his love for an unstable and deteriorating Camilla. Camilla is eventually admitted to a mental hospital, and moved to a second one, before escaping. Bandini looks for her, only finding her as she awaits for him in his apartment. He decides to take her away from Los Angeles, and arranges to live in a house on the beach. He buys her a little dog and they go to the new place. He leaves her there, to get his belongings from his Los Angeles hotel room. When he returns, she's gone. He tracks her down to the desert home of Sam, who is ill and dying. Before Bandini arrives, Sam has thrown Camilla out and she wanders into the desert. Bandini looks for her with an agonizing fear that he won't find the women he loves and he doesn't. He returns to Sam's shack, looks over the empty desert land. He takes a copy of the novel he had recently published, dedicates it to Camilla, and throws it into the desert.

The story is set during the Great Depression, specifically around the time of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake. Camilla is a fiery, beautiful Mexican café waitress who aspires one day to be above her current standing in society. She wishes to do this by marrying a wealthy man from the United States. Her plan is thrown into disarray when she meets Italian-American Arturo Bandini . Farrell's character is portrayed as a struggling writer who comes to Los Angeles's Bunker Hill area to start his writing career.

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American Psycho

American Psycho

Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, American Psycho is about the daily life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman. Bateman, in his late 20s when the story begins, narrates his everyday activities, from his recreational life among the Wall Street elite of New York to his forays into murder by nightfall. Through present tense stream-of-consciousness narrative, Bateman describes his daily life, ranging from a series of Friday nights spent at nightclubs with his colleagues — where they snort cocaine, critique fellow club-goers' clothing, trade fashion advice, and question one another on proper etiquette — to his loveless engagement to fellow yuppie Evelyn and his contentious relationship with his brother and senile mother. Bateman's stream of consciousness is occasionally broken up by chapters in which he directly addresses the reader in order to critique the work of 1980s Pop music artists. The novel maintains a high level of ambiguity through mistaken identity and contradictions that introduce the possibility that Bateman is an unreliable narrator. Characters are consistently introduced as people other than themselves, and people argue over the identities of others they can see in restaurants or at parties. Whether any of the crimes depicted in the novel actually happened or whether they were simply the fantasies of a delusional psychotic is deliberately left open. After killing Paul Owen, one of his colleagues, Bateman appropriates his apartment as a place to kill and store more victims. Bateman's control over his violent urges deteriorates. His murders become increasingly sadistic and complex, progressing from simple stabbings to drawn out sequences of torture, rape, mutilation, cannibalism, and necrophilia, and the separation between his two lives begins to blur. He introduces stories about serial killers into casual conversations and on several occasions openly confesses his murderous activities to his coworkers, who never take him seriously, do not hear what he says, or misunderstand him completely—for example, hearing the words "murders and executions" as "mergers and acquisitions." Bateman begins to experience bizarre hallucinations such as seeing a Cheerio interviewed on a talk show, being stalked by an anthropomorphic park bench, and finding a bone in his Dove Bar. These incidents culminate in a shooting spree during which he kills several random people in the street, resulting in a SWAT team being dispatched in a helicopter. Bateman flees on foot and hides in his office, where he phones his attorney, Harold Carnes, and confesses all his crimes to the answering machine. Later, Bateman confronts Carnes about the message only to find Carnes is amused at what he considers to be a good joke. Carnes tells Bateman that he is too much of a coward to have committed such acts and claims that he had dinner in London with Paul Owen a few days before. Bateman revisits Paul Owen's apartment, where he had killed and mutilated two prostitutes. Bateman enters the perfectly clean, refurbished apartment, which shows no trace of decomposing bodies but is filled with strong-smelling flowers, as though meant to hide a bad odor. He runs into a real estate agent showing the apartment to prospective buyers; the real-estate agent appears suspicious of Bateman. The book ends as it began, with Bateman and his colleagues in a club on a Friday night, engaging in banal conversation.

Patrick Bateman is a wealthy investment banker living in Manhattan in the late-1980s. His life revolves around dining at trendy restaurants while keeping up appearances for his fiancée, Evelyn, and his circle of equally wealthy, shallow friends, most of whom dislike him. However, he also leads a secret life in which he commits rape, torture, and murder. Throughout the film, Bateman describes the material accouterments of his lifestyle: his daily morning exercise and beautification routine; his music collection, including artists such as Huey Lewis and the News and Whitney Houston; his taste for expensive designer clothes; and the lavish couture of his apartment. In one scene, Bateman and his associates flaunt their business cards in a display of utter vanity. After becoming captivated by Paul Allen's card, he murders a homeless man and his dog in an alleyway in a fit of frustrated rage. At a Christmas party, Bateman makes plans to have dinner with Paul, who had earlier mistaken him for a comparable associate named Marcus. Bateman gets Paul drunk and lures him back to his apartment. While playing "Hip to Be Square", Bateman ambushes Paul and murders him with an axe. Bateman disposes of Paul's body, then goes to his apartment to stage it so that others believe Paul has run off to London. After Paul's family becomes suspicious of his disappearance, Bateman is met by Donald Kimball, a detective searching for the truth regarding his whereabouts. Bateman then has a violent threesome with two prostitutes, whom he names "Christie" and "Sabrina". The two women leave his apartment bruised and bloodied. The next day, his colleague Luis Carruthers reveals his new business card, sending Bateman over the edge. Bateman tries to kill Luis in the restroom of an expensive restaurant, but cannot bring himself to strangle him. Luis mistakes the attempted murder for a sexual advance and declares his love for Bateman, who flees in a panic. After murdering a model, Bateman invites his secretary, Jean, to dinner, suggesting she meet him at his apartment for drinks beforehand. When Jean arrives, Bateman, unbeknownst to Jean, holds a nail gun to the back of her head while the two converse. However, upon receiving an answering machine message from his fiancée, he decides not to kill Jean and asks her to leave before she gets "hurt". Following another luncheon with Kimball, Patrick has a threesome with his old friend Elizabeth and Christie at Paul's apartment. While having sex, Christie realizes that Bateman has murdered Elizabeth and tries to flee. While attempting to escape, she discovers multiple female corpses and words such as "Die Yuppie Scum" scrawled on the walls in blood. Bateman then murders her with a chainsaw by dropping it down a flight of stairs onto her as she attempts to run. A few months later, Bateman abruptly breaks off his engagement with Evelyn. That night, he finds a kitten as he uses an ATM, then imagines that the display reads "Feed me a stray cat". Bateman is stopped by a woman, whom he murders instead. A police chase ensues, but Bateman destroys the police cars by shooting their gas tanks, causing explosions that kill the pursuing officers. He then attempts to flee to his office, but he accidentally enters the wrong office building, murdering a security guard and a janitor in the process. Upon reaching his office he calls his lawyer, Harold, and leaves a lengthy answering machine message, confessing most of his murders in-detail. The following morning, Bateman visits Paul's apartment, finding it completely vacant and being offered for sale. The real estate broker views him as an intruder and tells him to leave immediately. As Bateman goes to meet with his colleagues and lawyer, Jean finds detailed drawings of murder and rape in Bateman's office journal. At the same time, Bateman sees Harold at a restaurant with his friends, and tries to convince him that he is Patrick Bateman and a serial killer. However, Harold mistakes him for another colleague named Davis and laughs off the confession as a joke. He also denies that Paul was murdered, claiming to have had dinner with him in London only 10 days before. Bateman realizes that he will continue to escape the punishment he deserves. He laments that there has been no catharsis and that he still remains a mystery to himself. Although he regrets that nothing has been gained, he still wants his pain to be inflicted on others. He finishes his inner monologue by stating, "This confession has meant nothing."

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The Turn of the Screw

The Innocents

An unnamed narrator listens to a male friend reading a manuscript written by a former governess whom the friend claims to have known and who is now dead. The manuscript tells the story of how the young governess is hired by a man who has become responsible for his young nephew and niece after the death of their parents. He lives mainly in London and is not interested in raising the children himself. The boy, Miles, is attending a boarding school, while his younger sister, Flora, is living at a country estate in Essex. She is currently being cared for by the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose. The governess's new employer, the uncle of Miles and Flora, gives her full charge of the children and explicitly states that she is not to bother him with communications of any sort. The governess travels to her new employer's country house and begins her duties. Miles soon returns from school for the summer just after a letter arrives from the headmaster stating that he has been expelled. Miles never speaks of the matter, and the governess is hesitant to raise the issue. She fears that there is some horrid secret behind the expulsion, but is too charmed by the adorable young boy to want to press the issue. Soon thereafter, the governess begins to see around the grounds of the estate the figures of a man and woman whom she does not recognize. These figures come and go at will without ever being seen or challenged by other members of the household, and they seem to the governess to be supernatural. She learns from Mrs. Grose that her predecessor, Miss Jessel, and another employee, Peter Quint, had a sexual relationship with each other and have both died. It is also implied that Quint sexually molested Miles and the other members of the household. Prior to their deaths, they spent much of their time with Flora and Miles, and this fact has grim significance for the governess when she becomes convinced that the two children are secretly aware of the presence of the ghosts. Later, Flora leaves the house while Miles plays music for the governess. They notice Flora's absence and go to look for her. The governess and Mrs. Grose find her in a clearing in the wood, and the governess is convinced that she has been talking to Miss Jessel. When she finally confronts Flora, Flora denies seeing Miss Jessel, and demands never to see the governess again. Mrs. Grose takes Flora away to her uncle, leaving the governess with Miles. That night, they are finally talking of Miles' expulsion when the ghost of Quint appears to the governess at the window. The governess shields Miles, who attempts to see the ghost. The governess tells him that he is no longer controlled by the ghost, and then finds that Miles has died in her arms.

Miss Giddens applies for a job as a governess. It is to be her first position, but the wealthy bachelor interviewing her is unconcerned with her lack of experience. He values his freedom to travel and socialise and unabashedly confesses that he has "no room, mentally or emotionally" for his niece and nephew, who were orphaned and left in his care as infants, and whom he keeps at Bly, his country estate. The previous governess, Miss Jessel, died suddenly less than a year ago. All he cares about is that Miss Giddens accept full responsibility for the children, never troubling him with whatever problems may arise. At Bly, Miss Giddens is instantly taken with Flora. She also forges a friendship with Mrs. Grose , the kindly housekeeper. The boy, Miles, is away at boarding school, though Flora delightedly insists that her brother is coming home. Sure enough, Miss Giddens receives a letter saying that Miles has been expelled from school because of his bad influence on the other boys. Mrs. Grose says she can't imagine Miles being a bad influence, and when Miss Giddens meets the boy herself, she too thinks his teachers must have exaggerated. He seems charming and mature – though perhaps too mature, with flirtatious flattery toward his governess. The children are friendly and polite, but Miss Giddens is disturbed by their occasional odd behaviours. They seem to be sharing secrets. She is upset by unexplained voices and by several visions of a woman and man, whom Mrs. Grose identifies, from their descriptions, as Miss Jessel and Peter Quint – the uncle's valet until his death. Eventually, Mrs. Grose reveals that Quint was abusive to Miss Jessel, and that they were indiscreet, performing sexual acts in plain sight of the other servants and even, perhaps, the children. After Quint's death, Miss Jessel went into a deep depression and drowned herself. When Miles recites a poem invoking a "lost lord" to rise from the grave, Miss Giddens concludes that the ghosts of Quint and Miss Jessel inhabit the bodies of the children so they can continue their relationship. She is determined to rescue them from this possession. One night Miss Giddens finds Flora at a window, watching Miles, who is walking in the garden. When Miss Giddens escorts him to bed, he kisses her goodnight, in a disturbingly adult manner. The next day Miss Giddens finds Flora dancing alone by the lake – and again sees the figure of Miss Jessel staring at them from across the water. Convinced that the children will be freed from the possession if they will confess what is happening, Miss Giddens begs Flora to admit that Miss Jessel is there. Flora begins to scream and cry, calling Miss Giddens wicked and insane. Hours later, Flora is still hysterical, and when Mrs. Grose finally leaves her bedside, she says she can't imagine where Flora learned such obscenities. Miss Giddens orders her to take Flora away from Bly. She is certain that Miles is on the brink of confessing his ordeal to her and that she must be left alone with him. That night, alone with Miles, Miss Giddens presses him to talk about the ghosts, and then about why he was expelled from school. Initially, and as usual, Miles is glib and evasive, but he eventually admits that he frightened the other boys with violence and vulgar language. Miss Giddens enjoins him to say who taught him this language and behaviour. Miles suddenly begins yelling obscene insults and laughing maniacally, and Peter Quint's face appears in the window behind him, joining in the boy's laughter. Miles then runs outside; Miss Giddens follows, calling that all he has to do is "say his name" and it will all be over. Quint appears on the hedge nearby, but Miles does not seem to see him and screams that she is insane. He finally shouts Quint's name, then the hand of Quint appears. Miles grows still and falls to the ground. Miss Giddens cradles him and assures him that he is free. She then realises that Miles is dead. Sobbing in horror, she leans over him and kisses him on the lips.

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In Search of the Castaways

In Search of the Castaways

The book tells the story of the quest for Captain Grant of the Britannia. After finding a bottle cast into the ocean by the captain himself after the Britannia is shipwrecked, Lord and Lady Glenarvan of Scotland contact Mary and Robert, the young daughter and son of Captain Grant, through an announcement in a newspaper. Moved by the children's condition, Lord and Lady Glenarvan decide to launch a rescue expedition. The main difficulty is that the coordinates of the wreckage are mostly erased, and only the latitude (37 degrees) is known; thus, the expedition would have to circumnavigate the 37th parallel south. Remaining clues consist of a few words in three languages. They are re-interpreted several times throughout the novel to make various destinations seem likely. Lord Glenarvan makes it his quest to find Grant; together with his wife, Grant's children and the crew of his yacht, the Duncan, they set off for South America. An unexpected passenger in the form of French geographer Jacques Paganel (he missed his steamer to India by accidentally boarding on the Duncan) joins the search. They explore Patagonia, Tristan da Cunha Island, Amsterdam Island, and Australia (a pretext to describe the flora, fauna, and geography of numerous places to the targeted audience). There, they find a former quarter-master of the Britannia, Ayrton, who proposes to lead them to the site of the wreckage. However, Ayrton is a traitor, who was not present during the loss of the Britannia, but was abandoned in Australia after a failed attempt to seize control of the ship to practice piracy. He tries to take control of the Duncan, but out of sheer luck, this attempt also fails. However the Glenarvans, the Grant children, Paganel and some sailors are left in Australia, and mistakenly believing that the Duncan is lost, they sail to Auckland, New Zealand, from where they want to come back to Europe. When their ship is wrecked south of Auckland on the New Zealand coast, they are captured by a Māori tribe, but luckily manage to escape and board a ship that they discover, with their greatest surprise, to be the Duncan. Ayrton, made a prisoner, offers to trade his knowledge of Captain Grant in exchange for being abandoned on a desert island instead of being surrendered to the British authorities. The Duncan sets sail for the Tabor Island, which, out of sheer luck, turns out to be Captain Grant's shelter. They leave Ayrton in his place to live among the beasts and regain his humanity. Ayrton reappears in Verne's later novel, L'Île mystérieuse (The Mysterious Island, 1874).

In company with her younger brother Robert , and her elderly yet young-at-heart friend Professor Jacques Paganel , teenage Mary Grant journeys to Glasgow to persuade the comically brave Lord Glenarvan to rescue her shipwrecked father, Captain John Grant . The expedition sets sail and ventures halfway around the world, to both South America and New Zealand, respectively. The party suffers many assorted perils including an earthquake, a flood, a fire, an attack by a giant condor and an erupting volcano before finding and rescuing Captain Grant. A subplot involves a gunrunner named Thomas Ayerton , who is a treacherous former crew-member of Captain Grant's ship, and responsible for his disappearance. Another subplot involves a budding romance between young Mary Grant and Lord Glenarvan's handsome and loyal son John .

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The Lost World

Return to the Lost World

Edward Malone, a reporter for the Daily Gazette, goes to his news editor, McArdle, to procure a dangerous and adventurous mission in order to impress the woman he loves, Gladys Hungerton. He is sent to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, who has assaulted four or five other journalists, to determine if his claims about his trip to South America are true. After assaulting Malone, Challenger reveals his discovery of dinosaurs in South America. Having been ridiculed for years, he invites Malone on a trip to prove his story, along with Professor Summerlee, another scientist qualified to examine any evidence, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who knows the Amazon and several years prior to the events of the book helped end slavery by robber barons in South America. They reach the plateau with the aid of Indian guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area. One of these Indians, Gomez, is the brother of a man that Roxton killed the last time he was in South America. When the expedition manages to get onto the plateau, Gomez destroys their bridge, trapping them. Their "devoted negro" Zambo remains at the base, but is unable to prevent the rest of the Indians from leaving. Deciding to investigate the lost world, they are attacked by pterodactyls in a swamp, and Roxton finds some blue clay in which he takes a great interest. After exploring the plateau and having some adventures in which the expedition narrowly escapes being killed by dinosaurs, Challenger, Summerlee, and Roxton are captured by a race of ape-men. While in the ape-men's village, they find out that there is also a tribe of humans (calling themselves Accala) inhabiting the other side of the plateau, with whom the ape-men (called Doda by the Accala) are at war. Roxton manages to escape and team up with Malone to mount a rescue. They arrive just in time to prevent the execution of one of the professors and several other humans, who take them to the human tribe. With their help, they defeat the ape-men, taking control of the whole plateau. After witnessing the power of their guns, the human tribe does not want the expedition to leave, and tries to keep them on the plateau. However the team finally discovers a tunnel that leads to the outside, where they meet up with Zambo and a large rescue party. Upon returning to England, they present their report which include pictures and a newspaper report by Edward, which many dismiss as they had Challenger's original story. Having planned ahead, Challenger shows them a live pterodactyl as proof, which then escapes and flies out into the Atlantic ocean. When the four of them have dinner, Roxton shows them why he was so interested in the blue clay. It contains diamonds, about £200,000 worth, to be split between them. Challenger plans to open a private museum, Summerlee plans to retire and categorize fossils, and Roxton plans to go back to the lost world. Malone returns to his love, Gladys, only to find that she had married a clerk while he was away. With nothing keeping him in London, he volunteers to be part of Roxton's second trip.

Belgian scientist Bertram Hammonds, along with Gomez, who survived being injured in the first film, arrives in the Lost World to drill for crude oil. He and his men begin capturing the natives for slave labor, throwing Chief Palala off the top of the plateau. He survives and is rescued by Malu and taken to a nearby village. Word reaches Edward Malone and Jenny Nielson in England, who remind Professors Challenger and Summerlee of the promise they made to Palala: that they would return to the Lost World should they be needed. However the professors are having a feud. Challenger recently discredited Summerlee on a theory and now they aren't on speaking terms. With help from Jim, Malone and Jenny manage to bamboozle Challenger and Summerlee into coming along with each mistakenly believing they are commanding the expedition while the other is remaining in England. When they encounter one another aboard the steamship bound for Africa, they nearly come to blows. Upon arriving they are led to the base of the plateau by Malu, where she found Chief Palala. Above, attacks by dinosaurs have set back Hammonds' work. His drilling crews accidentally tap into a volcanic pipe during a tyrannosaurus' visit, triggering a volcanic eruption that threatens to destroy the whole plateau. The initial eruption destroys the plane they arrived in. Fleeing, Hammonds and Gomez take hostage Chief Palala's daughter and threaten to kill her unless the natives show them how to leave. Suddenly Challenger and the others arrive, having come the same way they left last time, through the caves. Challenger shoots and kills Gomez, and Hammonds is taken prisoner. After several adventures including clashes with the hostile drilling crew members, the group struggles to stop the erupting volcano. Challenger creates a new explosive, "Challengerite," with which to seal the volcano. Boxes of the explosive are put into a cave nearby but Hammonds chases Jim inside, not wanting them to set off the explosives. He tries to ply Jim with promises of wealth but Jim sets off the explosives, stopping the eruption and seemingly killing Hammonds in the process. Afterward, Summerlee congratulates Challenger on the Challengerite, and they muse on how much longer they can keep the Lost World safe from human intervention.

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The Lost World

Return to the Lost World

Six years after the disaster at Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm — who is revealed to have actually survived the events of the previous novel — teams up with wealthy paleontologist Richard Levine after learning about Site B, the secret "production facility" where the park's dinosaurs were hatched and grown; the site is located on Isla Sorna, an island adjacent to Isla Nublar. When Levine disappears, Malcolm fears that he might have discovered Site B's exact location and went there without his knowledge. Doc Thorne and Eddie Carr, who provided Levine with equipment, and R.B. "Arby" Benton and Kelly Curtis, two schoolchildren who assisted Levine, deduce the island's location. The adults organize a rescue operation and utilize an advanced fleet of field vehicles. Stowed away with them as they leave are Arby and Kelly, who plan to rescue Levine as well. At the same time, geneticist Lewis Dodgson and his underlings, Howard King and George Baselton, head to Isla Sorna in the hopes of stealing dinosaur eggs for Biosyn, the rival company of the now bankrupt InGen. Sarah Harding, a wildlife observer who had a previous relationship with Malcolm, accompanies them. However, Dodgson throws her off their boat and leaves her for dead. Once the team comes across the nest of a Tyranosaurus Rex, Dodgson forces King and Baselton to proceed with the mission. When trying to steal some eggs, King steps on a baby T-Rex's leg and breaks it. Baselton is too scared to enter the nest, causing Dodgson to grab one himself. In the process, the black box he has brought along is separated from its power supply and stops emitting the sound designed to keep the parent T-Rexes at bay. The T-Rexes eat Baselton and destroy Dodgson's SUV. Dodgson survives while King is eventually killed by Velociraptors. Coming across the baby T-Rex, Eddie brings it back to the base camp, where Malcolm and Sarah fix its broken leg. The absence of the infant is noted by its parents, who track their offspring to the camp by smell. Malcolm and Sarah are rescued by Thorne, but Malcolm's leg is injured, and he ends up spending most of the remainder of the story immobile and high on morphine. Meanwhile, the other team members are attacked by Velociraptors. Eddie is killed, but Arby manages to lock himself in a nearby cage. He is quickly abducted by the raptors, who bring him to their lair. Thorne and Levine rescue Arby, and the survivors take shelter in an abandoned InGen gas station. There, they encounter two Carnotaurus, but manage to scare them away with flashlights. Once daylight comes, Sarah attempts to retrieve the team's Ford Explorer. After evading a group of aggressive Pachycephalosaurus, she encounters and dispatches Dodgson. Dodgson is then taken by one of Tyrannosaurs to their nesting site, where his leg is broken and he is left for the babies to eat. After Sarah fails to reach the helicopter in time, Kelly locates an abandoned building with a functional boat inside. After making a quick getaway from a group of Velociraptors, the survivors are able to reach the boat and escape the island. While on the boat, Malcolm and Harding tell Levine, who was bitten by one of the animals, that some of the carnivores, including the Velociraptors and the Procompsognathus, are infected with prions due to InGen's decision to feed them contaminated sheep, and any animal bitten by them will be infected also. This means that all the dinosaurs on the island are fated to die due to the uncontrolled spread of the prions. Levine panics about the possibility of being infected with prions, but Malcolm states it shouldn't be harmful to humans. With that said, Thorne finally declares that is time for all of them to go home. As with the first book, the main conflicts the characters must face is fending off attacks from Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor and Procompsognathus. Throughout this second novel, Malcolm and Levine talk about various evolutionary and extinction theories, as well as the nature of modern science and the homogenizing and destructive nature of humanity. A particularly strong theme is the ethological and sociobiological concept of learned social behavior in animals (for example, Crichton's velociraptors, deprived of being reared among natural raptors with developed social pack behavior, instead show a tendency towards violent, antisocial behavior even amongst themselves). The book also discusses the role of prions in brain diseases, which has been at the root of concerns over Mad Cow Disease.

Belgian scientist Bertram Hammonds, along with Gomez, who survived being injured in the first film, arrives in the Lost World to drill for crude oil. He and his men begin capturing the natives for slave labor, throwing Chief Palala off the top of the plateau. He survives and is rescued by Malu and taken to a nearby village. Word reaches Edward Malone and Jenny Nielson in England, who remind Professors Challenger and Summerlee of the promise they made to Palala: that they would return to the Lost World should they be needed. However the professors are having a feud. Challenger recently discredited Summerlee on a theory and now they aren't on speaking terms. With help from Jim, Malone and Jenny manage to bamboozle Challenger and Summerlee into coming along with each mistakenly believing they are commanding the expedition while the other is remaining in England. When they encounter one another aboard the steamship bound for Africa, they nearly come to blows. Upon arriving they are led to the base of the plateau by Malu, where she found Chief Palala. Above, attacks by dinosaurs have set back Hammonds' work. His drilling crews accidentally tap into a volcanic pipe during a tyrannosaurus' visit, triggering a volcanic eruption that threatens to destroy the whole plateau. The initial eruption destroys the plane they arrived in. Fleeing, Hammonds and Gomez take hostage Chief Palala's daughter and threaten to kill her unless the natives show them how to leave. Suddenly Challenger and the others arrive, having come the same way they left last time, through the caves. Challenger shoots and kills Gomez, and Hammonds is taken prisoner. After several adventures including clashes with the hostile drilling crew members, the group struggles to stop the erupting volcano. Challenger creates a new explosive, "Challengerite," with which to seal the volcano. Boxes of the explosive are put into a cave nearby but Hammonds chases Jim inside, not wanting them to set off the explosives. He tries to ply Jim with promises of wealth but Jim sets off the explosives, stopping the eruption and seemingly killing Hammonds in the process. Afterward, Summerlee congratulates Challenger on the Challengerite, and they muse on how much longer they can keep the Lost World safe from human intervention.

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positive

Dirty Weekend

Dirty Weekend

Bella, a solitary young woman with a dubious past, has just arrived in Brighton. Having recently been dumped by her boyfriend, all she wants is some peace and quiet in her newly rented small flat near Brunswick Square. Tim, a young man living in one of the houses across her backyard, takes a fancy to the new arrival and soon starts watching and eventually molesting her. He accosts her in the park and torments her with obscene phone calls. The police are not really helpful, but Bella is scared. On a stroll through the Lanes, she sees a sign advertising sessions with a clairvoyant and, on the spur of the moment, she visits him. Her meeting with Nimrod serves as both an eye-opener and a catalyst. When Bella leaves Nimrod that Friday afternoon, her self-confidence has been restored, her mind is set, and she is ready for action: She has "had enough". A few hours later Tim makes his last obscene phone call to Bella. At night she enters his flat through a window and batters the sleeping man's head with a hammer. On Saturday morning she goes to a gunshop, but all they are prepared to sell her is an airgun. When she leaves the shop she is followed by "Mr Brown", who does sell her an illegal weapon. On Saturday night, dressed to kill, she enters the lobby of one of the large seafront hotels and only has to wait for a few minutes until she is chatted up. Her unsuspecting victim is Norman, a clinical psychologist with a weight problem. Norman, who is attending a congress in Brighton, can easily persuade her to join him upstairs in his hotel room. Once there, he cannot get an erection and asks Bella if he can be her slave. Bella takes the opportunity and, while Norman is bound and gagged, puts a plastic bag over his head. On Sunday morning she finds a dentist who is willing to treat her for her toothache. After he has fixed her tooth, the dentist offers to give her a lift home. Instead, he drives into an empty multi-storey car park and forces Bella to perform oral sex on him ("open wide"). As a result, Bella kills him with his own Jaguar XJ-S. She steals the car and soon afterwards comes to the rescue of an old tramp called Liverpool Mary who is biding her time in a cul-de-sac near Brighton station. She shoots three yuppie-style young men who, drunk and angry, are threatening to set fire to the bag lady. On the same night, at 4 a.m., while walking along the beach near the deserted West Pier, she realizes that she is being watched. The man watching her, a serial killer, thinks he has found his next victim, but when he attacks Bella she stabs him with a flick-knife.

Set in the coastal town of Brighton, England, Dirty Weekend follows the story of Bella, a mild-mannered secretary who works from home in a basement flat. Soon, she finds herself the victim of Tim , a voyeur who watches her through her windows and plagues her with obscene phone calls in which he threatens to assault and rape her. After the police refuse to offer any assistance, Bella visits Nimrod , an Iranian clairvoyant who tells her that she does not necessarily need to be a victim, and suggests that she take matters into her own hands. That night, Bella breaks into Tim’s flat while he is sleeping and batters him to death with a claw hammer. Empowered, Bella embarks on a dirty weekend in which she slaughters six more men by a variety of methods. Ultimately, she evades capture by the authorities and prepares to carry on her crusade in the large, faceless city of London.

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positive

Robinson Crusoe

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Crusoe (the family name corrupted from the German name "Kreutznaer") sets sail from the Queen's Dock in Hull on a sea voyage in August 1651, against his parents' wishes, who want him to pursue a career, possibly in law. After a tumultuous journey where his ship is wrecked in a storm, his lust for the sea remains so strong that he sets out to sea again. This journey, too, ends in disaster as the ship is taken over by Salé pirates (the Salé Rovers) and Crusoe is enslaved by a Moor. Two years later, he escapes in a boat with a boy named Xury; a Captain of a Portuguese ship off the west coast of Africa rescues him. The ship is en route to Brazil. With the captain's help, Crusoe procures a plantation. Years later, Crusoe joins an expedition to bring slaves from Africa but he is shipwrecked in a storm about forty miles out to sea on an island (which he calls the Island of Despair) near the mouth of the Orinoco river on September 30, 1659. Only he and three animals, the captain's dog and two cats, survive the shipwreck. Overcoming his despair, he fetches arms, tools, and other supplies from the ship before it breaks apart and sinks. He builds a fenced-in habitat near a cave which he excavates. By making marks in a wooden cross, he creates a calendar. By using tools salvaged from the ship, and ones he makes himself, he hunts, grows barley and rice, dries grapes to make raisins, learns to make pottery, and raises goats. He also adopts a small parrot. He reads the Bible and becomes religious, thanking God for his fate in which nothing is missing but human society. More years pass and Crusoe discovers native cannibals, who occasionally visit the island to kill and eat prisoners. At first he plans to kill them for committing an abomination but later realizes he has no right to do so, as the cannibals do not knowingly commit a crime. He dreams of obtaining one or two servants by freeing some prisoners; when a prisoner escapes, Crusoe helps him, naming his new companion "Friday" after the day of the week he appeared. Crusoe then teaches him English and converts him to Christianity. After more natives arrive to partake in a cannibal feast, Crusoe and Friday kill most of the natives and save two prisoners. One is Friday's father and the other is a Spaniard, who informs Crusoe about other Spaniards shipwrecked on the mainland. A plan is devised wherein the Spaniard would return to the mainland with Friday's father and bring back the others, build a ship, and sail to a Spanish port. Before the Spaniards return, an English ship appears; mutineers have commandeered the vessel and intend to maroon their captain on the island. Crusoe and the ship's captain strike a deal in which Crusoe helps the captain and the loyal sailors retake the ship and leave the worst mutineers on the island. Before embarking for England, Crusoe shows the mutineers how he survived on the island and states that there will be more men coming. Crusoe leaves the island 19 December 1686 and arrives in England on 11 June 1687. He learns that his family believed him dead; as a result, he was left nothing in his father's will. Crusoe departs for Lisbon to reclaim the profits of his estate in Brazil, which has granted him much wealth. In conclusion, he transports his wealth overland to England to avoid travelling by sea. Friday accompanies him and, en route, they endure one last adventure together as they fight off famished wolves while crossing the Pyrenees.

Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper and Colonel Dan McReady are the crew of Mars Gravity Probe 1. When they reach the planet, they are forced to use up their fuel to avoid an imminent collision with a meteor. With the ship now stuck in orbit, they have no choice but to eject to the surface, the first men on Mars. McReady is killed in the landing, while Draper is stranded in a distant area. He finds a cave for shelter. Then, he figures out how to obtain the rest of what he needs to survive. First, he burns some coal-like rocks for warmth and accidentally discovers that heating them gives off oxygen. This allows him to refill his air tank and move around in the thin atmosphere. On one of his excursions he finds the shattered vehicle of the dead McReady. Draper buries the body under a pile of stones. Afterwards, he meets Mona the monkey, who survived the crash, and returns with her to the cave. Draper then constructs a crude sand clock that sounds an alarm to awaken him for a needed dose of oxygen. Later, Draper notices that Mona keeps disappearing periodically and that she is uninterested in the dwindling supply of food and water. He gives her a salty biscuit, but no water; when Mona gets very thirsty, he lets her out and follows her to the underground pond she has found. As a bonus, there are also edible plant "sausages" growing in the water. As the days grow into months, Draper slowly begins to crack from the prolonged isolation. He watches helplessly as his ship, an inaccessible "supermarket", periodically crosses the sky. Without fuel, the ship does nothing when he orders it by radio to land. One day, while walking about with Mona, Draper notices a rock standing in an unnatural position, as if deliberately planted as a marker. He looks at the ground around it and sees bones. He brushes away at the soil to expose the skeletal remains of a hand in a black bracelet. He digs up the rest of the skeleton and determines that the creature was murdered, as the skull is charred. Frightened, he signals his ship to self-destruct to remove all signs of his presence. Just in time as it turns out, as Draper sees a ship descend and land just over the horizon. At first, he believes it to be a rescue ship from Earth. In the morning, he heads towards the landing site, only to see an advanced alien craft in the sky. Realizing his error, he approaches cautiously and sees slave labor being used for mining. One of the slaves escapes, running into Draper. The alien ships blast the area as the two flee. The stranger has black bracelets on his wrists just like the one Draper found earlier. That night, they witness the aliens blast the mine area and depart. When they investigate, they find the dead bodies of the other slaves. Draper names his new acquaintance Friday, after the character in Robinson Crusoe, and starts teaching him English. In return, Friday shows him "air pills" that provide oxygen. They gradually grow to trust and like each other. After a while, the aliens return, tracking Friday by his bracelets. The aliens blast the castaways' hiding place, forcing Draper, Friday and Mona to flee through the underground Martian canals. They eventually end up at the polar icecap. Exhausted, freezing and nearly out of air pills, they build a snow shelter "just like the Eskimos". Draper finally succeeds in cutting Friday's bracelets off. A meteor crashes into the ice cap, creating a firestorm and melting the snow. Just then, they track an approaching spaceship. At first, Draper believes it to be the enemy again, but then their radio broadcasts a human voice. Draper identifies himself, and a lander comes down to pick up Draper and his companions. The credits then roll as Mars recedes in the background.

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King Solomon's Mines

King Solomon's Mines

Allan Quatermain, an adventurer and white hunter based in Durban, in what is now South Africa, is approached by aristocrat Sir Henry Curtis and his friend Captain Good, seeking his help finding Sir Henry's brother, who was last seen travelling north into the unexplored interior on a quest for the fabled King Solomon's Mines. Quatermain has a mysterious map purporting to lead to the mines, but had never taken it seriously. However, he agrees to lead an expedition in return for a share of the treasure, or a stipend for his son if he is killed along the way. He has little hope they will return alive, but reasons that he has already outlived most people in his profession, so dying in this manner at least ensures that his son will be provided for. They also take along a mysterious native, Umbopa, who seems more regal, handsome and well-spoken than most porters of his class, but who is very anxious to join the party. Travelling by oxcart, they reach the edge of a desert, but not before a hunt in which a wounded elephant claims the life of a servant. They continue on foot across the desert, almost dying of thirst before finding the oasis shown halfway across on the map. Reaching a mountain range called Suliman Berg, they climb a peak (one of "Sheba's Breasts") and enter a cave where they find the frozen corpse of José Silvestre (also spelt Silvestra), the 16th-century Portuguese explorer who drew the map in his own blood. That night, a second servant dies from the cold, so they leave his body next to Silvestra's, to "give him a companion". They cross the mountains into a raised valley, lush and green, known as Kukuanaland. The inhabitants have a well-organised army and society and speak an ancient dialect of IsiZulu. Kukuanaland's capital is Loo, the destination of a magnificent road from ancient times. The city is dominated by a central royal kraal. They soon meet a party of Kukuana warriors who are about to kill them when Captain Good nervously fidgets with his false teeth, making the Kukuanas recoil in fear. Thereafter, to protect themselves, they style themselves "white men from the stars" – sorcerer-gods – and are required to give regular proof of their divinity, considerably straining both their nerves and their ingenuity. They are brought before King Twala, who rules over his people with ruthless violence. He came to power years before when he murdered his brother, the previous king, and drove his brother's wife and infant son, Ignosi, out into the desert to die. Twala's rule is unchallenged. An evil, impossibly ancient hag named Gagool is his chief advisor. She roots out any potential opposition by ordering regular witch hunts and murdering without trial all those identified as traitors. When she singles out Umbopa for this fate, it takes all Quatermain's skill to save his life. Gagool, it appears, has already sensed what Umbopa soon after reveals: he is Ignosi, the rightful king of the Kukuanas. A rebellion breaks out, the Englishmen gaining support for Ignosi by taking advantage of their foreknowledge of a solar eclipse to claim that they will black out the sun as proof of Ignosi's claim. The Englishmen join Ignosi's army in a furious battle. Although outnumbered, the rebels overthrow Twala, and Sir Henry lops off his head in a duel. The Englishmen also capture Gagool, who reluctantly leads them to King Solomon's Mines. She shows them a treasure room inside a mountain, carved deep within the living rock and full of gold, diamonds and ivory. She then treacherously sneaks out while they are admiring the hoard and triggers a secret mechanism that closes the mine's vast stone door. Unfortunately for Gagool, a brief scuffle with a beautiful native named Foulata – who had become attached to Good after nursing him through his injuries sustained in the battle – causes her to be crushed under the stone door, though not before fatally stabbing Foulata. Their scant store of food and water rapidly dwindling, the trapped men prepare to die also. After a few despairing days sealed in the dark chamber, they find an escape route, bringing with them a few pocketfuls of diamonds from the immense trove, enough to make them rich. The Englishmen bid farewell to a sorrowful Ignosi and return to the desert, assuring him that they value his friendship but must return to be with their own people, Ignosi in return promising them that they will be venerated and honoured among his people forever. Taking a different route, they find Sir Henry's brother stranded in an oasis by a broken leg, unable to go forward or back. They return to Durban and eventually to England, wealthy enough to live comfortable lives.

Elizabeth Maitland hires American safari hunter Allan Quartermain to find her father Sam Maitland, who has been kidnapped by the Kukuanas as he had drawn a map to the location of the legendary mines. The Russian Tsar was funding Sam's efforts to locate the mines, and sends pursuers after Quatermain and company. The film begins with Sam Maitland writing a letter to his daughter and sending her a package. He is then captured by the Kukuanas. Quartermain and McNabb are leading a European businessman on a Safari to hunt elephants. Quartermain seems reluctant to kill all the elephants, but the businessman insists, and McNabb has Quartermain tied up. The adult elephant is wounded but escapes, and Quartermain warns the businessman that it will now come after him. Later that night, the businessman is killed by the elephant, which then destroys the camp. Quartermain then goes to London to rejoin his son, but is told by the boy's grandparents that they are filing for custody as they believe that Quartermain is an unfit father. Quartermain is told by his lawyer that they will probably win. He leaves and goes to the bar. While there, he is approached by Elizabeth Maitland and Captain Good to find her father. He refuses, not knowing who she is, and she leaves her father's card on the bar. On the way home, Captain Good stops to talk to an old friend and Elizabeth continues on. She is attacked, but the attackers are fought off by Quartermain, who came after reading her father's card and realising who she was. When they get back to the hotel, they find her room has been ransacked. She reveals her father had sent her a map to King Solomon's Mines, and, despite Quartermain's scepticism about the map's authenticity, they leave for Africa. In Africa, they join Sir Henry, one of Quartermain's old friends, and, along with some of Quartermain's African friends, they set out to find Sam.

positive

positive

Message in a Bottle

Message in a Bottle

Divorced and disillusioned about romantic relationships, Theresa Osborne is jogging when she finds a bottle on the beach. Inside is a letter of love and longing to "Catherine," signed simply "Garrett." Challenged by the mystery and pulled by emotions she doesn't fully understand, Theresa begins a search for this man that will change her life. What happens to her is unexpected, perhaps miraculous-an encounter that embraces all our hopes for finding someone special, for having a true and strong love that is timeless and everlasting. In a conference Nicholas Sparks held in a school, he said that this story was inspired by his parents.

Theresa Osborne, a former reporter, works as a researcher for the Chicago Tribune. On a trip to Cape Cod, she finds a mysterious, intriguing love letter in a bottle in the sand, addressed from Garret to Catherine. She is fascinated by it and comes into possession of two more letters by the same person, eventually tracking down the man who wrote them, Garret Blake. He has refurbished a boat called Happenstence with his wife before her death and he lives quietly on the Outer Banks of North Carolina with his father, Jeb. Theresa and Garret become better acquainted, but she does not reveal her knowledge of the love letters. Along with the literal distance between them — they live hundreds of miles apart—there is another problem: Garret cannot quite forgive Catherine for dying and leaving him. Theresa's career flourishes as the romantic tale of the "messages in a bottle" is told in print, without naming names. Garret makes a trip to Chicago to visit Theresa and her young son. Their new love grows, until one day Garret finds his letters in a drawer in Theresa's apartment. Garret angrily confronts Theresa, and after a night of explanations, he goes home by himself. A year later, Jeb tracks down Theresa. He informs her that his son Garret has died at sea in a storm while attempting to rescue someone else. A bottle with a message inside was found on his boat. Theresa realizes that it was written a night before Garrett's last sailing. In it, he apologizes to Catherine and says that in Theresa he has found a new love, a love he must fight for.

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positive

To Catch a Thief

To Catch a Thief

In August 1951, French police come to arrest American John Robie at his villa in Vence near the Côte d'Azur. He escapes, leaping over the garden wall. In the late 1930s, Robie was a daring, supremely athletic burglar, known as Le Chat ("the cat"), who specialized in jewel thefts from hotels and villas on the French Riviera. He was caught and sent to prison in 1939. But during the German occupation of France in World War II, the Germans released a lot of convicts from French prisons, including Robie. He and many other released convicts joined the French Resistance (the Maquis), and fought against the Germans. After the war, there was an unofficial amnesty for those released convicts who had been maquisards. Their previous sentences were not remitted, but as long as they refrained from new crimes they would be left alone. Some returned to underworld occupations, but Robie retired. He had saved some of the proceeds of his thefts, and did not need to steal. He bought his villa, tended his garden, and played boules with the townsfolk, including his friends Commissaire Oriol and Count Paul. He comforted Paul during the tragic death of his wife Lisa from tuberculosis. Then in 1951, there were new jewel thefts on the Riviera, exactly in the style of Le Chat. Robie was suspected, but he assured Oriol that Le Chat was dead - killed in the Resistance. But after more thefts, Oriol's suspicion returned, and he tried to arrest Robie. After escaping, Robie contacts Bellini in Cannes. Robie wants to leave France, but Bellini asks him to help catch the new Le Chat. The police are cracking down, threatening to send all the old ex-prisoners back to prison. The thief is using Robie's methods, so Robie can help them catch the thief, and get the police off their backs. Jean-Pierre disguises Robie as a pudgy, middle-aged man. As "Jack Burns", vacationing American businessman, Robie scouts the Riviera, visiting nightclubs and casinos. He identifies three likely targets for the new Le Chat: Mrs. Stevens, the Souzas, and the Sanfords. He works out Le Chat-style plans for burglarizing their residences. Unfortunately, Mrs. Stevens becomes attached to "Burns". He stood next to her in a casino (to study her jewelry), making small, cautious bets at roulette. Mrs. Stevens copied his bets with much larger sums, and won two million francs. She used the money to buy a pin - a diamond dog with emerald eyes. She decides that "Lucky" Burns is her personal good-luck charm. Whenever she sees him, she joins him, buys him drinks, and copies his bets, attracting attention Robie doesn't want. So Bellini provides Robie with Danielle, a pretty girl to escort "Burns" in the casinos. This annoys Claude, Danielle's muscular would-be boyfriend, but keeps Mrs. Stevens away. "Burns" has also attracted the attention of Francie Stevens, who is suspicious of men who may want to exploit her trusting mother. The thief strikes again, and Sûreté headquarters in Paris sends senior detective Lepic and additional agents. Mr. Paige announces an offer to buy back the jewels for 20% of their value - no questions asked. Then Robie encounters Count Paul in Cannes. Paul doesn't recognize him, but Robie has to stop his scouting. He dismisses Danielle. Francie Stevens has guessed that "Burns" is Le Chat. She mistakenly thinks that he is the leader of a gang, which staged all the apparent feats of Le Chat. She is excited to meet a master thief, and suggests that he rob her mother, whose jewelry is insured, except the diamond dog. But she insists that the dog must not be taken - even though this would be an obvious giveaway. Bellini provides Robie with six tough ex-maquisards, including his old comrades Coco and Le Borgne. If they catch the thief and recover the jewels, they can share the reward. Robie sets Coco and two men to watch the Souzas' cottage, and Le Borgne with two men to watch the Sanfords' chateau. He himself will watch in Mrs. Stevens' hotel. He has determined that the thief must strike by night. That night, Mrs. Stevens goes out for an all-night gambling session, wearing most of her jewels. Francie (wearing the rest) has Robie take her out for the night. He complies, since there is nothing for the thief to steal. But Mrs. Stevens loses her stake quickly and comes home early. After she goes to sleep, the thief strikes. Count Paul is among the crowd attracted by the alarm over the theft, and recognizes Robie. Paul won't expose him, but he wants an introduction to Danielle. She reminds him of his beloved Lisa, and he must meet her. Robie tells him who she is, but deliberately rejects Paul's offer to help him. Francie thinks Robie's gang stole the jewels. She demands the return of the diamond dog, threatening to expose him. Robie plays for time. Robie thinks that perhaps Danielle, who is clever, and Claude, who is athletic, are behind the thefts. Bellini investigates, and clears Claude. At the Souzas' cottage, Coco dismisses one of his crew, a quarrelsome gypsy, and Robie joins him on watch. The next day, at the beach, he introduces Paul to Danielle. Later, Robie tells her about Lisa. Francie again pressures Robie for the diamond dog, and he tells her the whole story; also, how he came to be Le Chat. His parents were circus acrobats, as was he. He was orphaned when young, came to Europe, was stranded, and took to burglary. Two nights later, Robie spots a figure sneaking away from the Souza cottage. Then Detective Lepic shoots the man dead. It is the gypsy, who tried to take advantage of Robie's Le Chat-style planning. This seems to exonerate Le Chat, but the stolen jewels are still missing. Robie is certain that the gypsy was not athletic enough to be the hotel thief. The thief is still at large, and will strike again. The target will be the Sanfords. The next weekend is their gala house party, and the guests will bring fabulous jewels. Francie wangles an invitation for "Burns". But Count Paul is also a guest. Paul demands that Robie leave, and won't listen to his explanation. Lepic and Oriol also arrive to protect the guests' jewels. Robie abandons his disguise and lies in wait for the thief on the roof of the chateau. Late that night, he pursues the thief over the roof. The police are aroused, and Oriol demands Robie's surrender. Robie catches up with the thief, who is Danielle. Reflexively, he joins her in evading the police. They slip through the window of Paul's room. Paul hides them from Oriol, and now listens to Robie's story. Danielle too was a hungry young orphan acrobat. She deliberately mimicked the famous Le Chat, and never recognized "Burns" until they met on the roof. Paul, who is in love with Danielle, asks her to marry him. He can pay what is required to save her freedom. But Robie has a better idea - since she still has the stolen jewels. Danielle and Bellini take the jewels to Paige, who tells Oriol and Lepic that the jewels have been returned and "Burns" was his company's agent. With the jewels restored, and the dead gypsy, the case is closed. Robie can now return safely to Vence, where he has everything he wants - except, he now realizes, Francie Stevens. He finds her packing to leave for America...

John Robie is a notorious but retired jewel thief or "cat burglar," nicknamed "The Cat," who now tends to his vineyards in the French Riviera. A series of robberies that closely resemble his in style leads the police to believe that the Cat is up to his old tricks again. They come to arrest him, and he adeptly gives them the slip. He immediately seeks refuge with his old gang from his days in the French Resistance, a group of ex-cons whose patriotic work led to grants of parole that depend on them keeping their noses clean. Bertani, Foussard, and the others are all under a cloud while the Cat is at large, and they blame Robie. Still, when the police arrive at Bertani’s restaurant, Foussard’s daughter Danielle spirits her old flame to safety. Robie's plan is to prove his innocence by catching the new cat burglar in the act, so he enlists the aid of an insurance man of Bertani's acquaintance, H. H. Hughson , an Englishman who reluctantly obtains a list of the most expensive jewels currently on the Riviera. The first owners listed are Jessie Stevens and her daughter Francie . Robie strikes up an acquaintance with them — delighting Jessie even as Francie offers a pretense of modesty, while Danielle bares her jealous claws. Francie is not afraid of a little fun. Although she sees through Robie’s cover as an American industrialist, the considerable charms of this thief are worth catching. She dangles before him her jewels, teases him with steamy tales of rooftop escapades, exposes herself as a feline of a special breed: an accomplice who might share his passion and be available to his sordid desires. Fireworks fill the night and can even be seen in the sky. The next morning, Jessie discovers her jewels are stolen, and Francie suddenly feels that Robie has taken advantage of her. She accuses him of using her to steal her mother's jewelry. The police are called and he is back on the lam. To catch the new burglar Robie stakes out an estate at night and finds himself struggling with an attacker who loses his footing and tumbles over a cliff. It is Foussard, who dies in the fall. The police chief publicly announces that Foussard was the jewel thief, but, as Robie points out to him in the presence of the abashed Hughson, this would have been impossible: Foussard had a prosthetic leg and could not possibly climb on rooftops. Robie's quiet attendance at Foussard’s funeral is marred by Danielle's open accusation that he is responsible for her father's death. Outside the graveyard, Francie apologizes to Robie and confesses her love for him. She arranges to help him attend a masquerade ball the coming weekend. At the ball, Francie is resplendent in a gold gown, Robie unrecognizable behind the mask of a Moor. The police hover nearby. Upstairs, the cat burglar silently cleans out several jewel boxes. When Jessie asks the Moor to go get her "heart pills," Robie’s voice tips off his identity to the authorities. Upon his return the police wait out Francie and the Moor as they dance the night away. Finally, Francie and the Moor go to her room, and the mask is removed: it is Hughson, switched to conceal Robie’s exit. On the rooftop Robie lurks. His patience is finally rewarded when he is joined by another figure in black. But just as his pursuit begins, the police throw a spotlight on him. Again he flees and shots ring out, but he manages to corner his foe with jewels in hand. Unmasked, his nemesis turns out not to be a man after all. Danielle is "The Cat," and she confesses that she has been working for her father and Bertani. Robie speeds back to his vineyard and Francie races after to convince him that she has a place in his life. He agrees, but seems less than thrilled about the arrangement including her mother.

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The Werewolf of Paris

Legend of the Werewolf

Like much Gothic fiction, The Werewolf of Paris opens with a frame story in which the author explains his struggle with the fantastic elements of his tale. Here the narrator, an anonymous American working on his doctoral research in Paris, discovers a manuscript in the hands of some trash-pickers. He describes it as "the Galliez report: thirty four sheets of closely written French, an unsolicited defense of Sergeant Bertrand Caillet at the latter's court-martial in 1871." A descendant of the cursed Pitamont clan, which destroyed itself in a long feud with the neighboring Pitavals, Bertrand is born one Christmas Eve to an adolescent girl who had been raped by a priest, Father Pitamont. Bertrand grows up with strange sadistic and sexual desires which are usually expressed as dreams. Sometimes the dreams are memories of actual experiences in which he had transformed into a wolf. His step-uncle, Aymar Galliez, who raises the boy (along with his mother Josephine and a servant Françoise), soon learns of Bertrand's affliction. Bertrand flees to Paris after his assault on a prostitute, his incestuous union with his mother, and his murder of a friend in their home village. Aymar tries to find Bertrand by studying the details of local crimes, such as the mutilation of corpses and various murders. Bertrand joins the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War, doing little fighting and finding love from a girl who volunteers at a canteen, the beautiful and wealthy Mlle. Sophie de Blumenberg. Masochistic and obsessed with death, Sophie helps Bertrand avoid the violent effects of his transformation by allowing him to cut into her flesh in order to suck her blood. Aymar finds Bertrand in Paris during the Paris Commune, but thinking that love has cured Bertrand, he decides not to take action. Fearing that he'll accidentally kill Sophie, Bertrand goes out one night to feed on someone else. He is caught attacking a fellow soldier and arrested. Aymar supports burning Bertrand at the stake, and provides the court with a summary of Bertrand's crimes, but the court sentences him to treatment at the infirmary of La Santé prison. Aymar transfers Bertrand to an asylum after the reactionary Versaillists have retaken Paris, with great loss of life among the Communards, who are executed en masse. Unbeknownst to Aymar, Bertrand suffers in a small cell, drugged when he is visited by his uncle. Bertrand eventually commits suicide by jumping from the building with another inmate whom he delusionally believes is Sophie. Their deaths are similar to a suicide fantasy that Bertrand and Sophie enjoyed; the real Sophie had previously committed suicide on her own, unable to deal with her separation from Bertrand. The narrative proper is followed by a grisly appendix citing a municipal report on the cemeteries of Paris. The report indicates that the grave of one "Sieur C ... (Bertrand)" contained the body "of a dog, which despite 8 years in the ground was still incompletely destroyed."

A boy that has been raised by wolves is displayed as a circus freak. Then he grows up, becomes a zookeeper and falls in love with a prostitute. His jealousy brings out his wolf side, changing him into a werewolf so that he can kill her clients.

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Death on the Nile

Death on the Nile

While dining out in London one evening, Hercule Poirot notices a young woman, Jacqueline de Bellefort, dining and dancing with her fiancé, Simon Doyle. Poirot also notices that Jackie (a nickname given to her and used by intimates; short for Jacqueline) is very much smitten and is in love with Simon. The next day, Jacqueline takes Simon to meet her best friend, wealthy young heiress Linnet Ridgeway, in the hopes that Linnet will offer Simon a job. Three months later, Simon has broken off his engagement to Jacqueline and married Linnet. Poirot happens to encounter the couple on their honeymoon to Egypt, where he himself is on holiday. At their shared hotel in Cairo, Poirot sees an apparent chance meeting between the Doyles and Jacqueline. Afterwards, Linnet approaches Poirot and confides that Jacqueline has been stalking them since they were married, which is antagonizing both of them. Poirot says the Doyles have no legal recourse, but tries to reason with Jacqueline in private, urging her to let go of her attachment to Simon and not "open [her] heart to evil." Jacqueline refuses to listen, confiding that she has been dreaming of killing Linnet. Attempting to give Jacqueline the slip, the Doyles plan an extended stay in Cairo, while secretly booking passage on the same Nile river cruise as Poirot. To their rage, Jacqueline learns their plans and appears on board with them. Other passengers include: *American erotica novelist Salome Otterbourne and her daughter, Rosalie; *Mrs. Allerton and her son, Tim; *Linnet's American trustee, Andrew Pennington, who happened to run into her in Egypt; *Linnet's maid, Louise Bourget; *American socialite Marie Van Schuyler and her younger cousin, Cornelia Robson; *Miss Van Schuyler's nurse, Miss Bowers; *A young traveler named, Mr. Ferguson, an outspoken Socialist; *Archaeologist, Signor Richetti; *A diffident young man named James Fanthorp; *An Austrian physician named Dr. Bessner. *A husband of an Egyptian native Fleetwood; While taking a tour of some ancient ruins, a boulder falls from a cliff, narrowly missing Linnet and Simon. They suspect Jacqueline at first, but find out she was on the boat the whole time and could not have done it. Poirot meets his friend Colonel Race, who is joining everyone on the boat for the return trip. Race tells Poirot that one of the passengers is a deadly criminal who has murdered several other people, only Race has not yet identified him. That night on the boat, Jacqueline gets into a drunken rage, takes out a pistol, and shoots Simon in the leg, then breaks down in a hysterical state of remorse. At Simon's insistence, the two other persons present, Cornelia and Mr. Fanthorp, help Jacqueline back to her cabin, and then fetch Dr. Bessner to see to Simon's wound. Nurse Bowers stays in Jacqueline's room all night. Later, Fanthorp tells Bessner the gun is missing. The next day, Linnet is found dead with a bullet in her head. Race takes charge of the situation and asks Poirot to handle the investigation. Several clues seem to incriminate Jacqueline – a "J" written in blood on the wall above Linnet's head, for instance – but Miss Bowers assures Poirot that Jacqueline never left her cabin that night. Dr. Bessner also assures Poirot that Simon's leg wound completely incapacitated him, and so he could not have moved from his bed, even if he wanted to. Race and Poirot theorize that Linnet had some other enemy among the passengers, who took advantage of the scene in the lounge to murder her and implicate Jacqueline. Poirot also notices that Linnet's pearl necklace is missing from her room. Poirot then interviews all the passengers. Several of them heard a splash shortly after midnight, and Miss Van Schuyler claims that she looked out her window and saw Rosalie Otterbourne throw something overboard. But Rosalie denies this. A short time later, the murder weapon is recovered from the Nile – Jacqueline's pistol, wrapped in Miss Van Schuyler's missing velvet stole. To Poirot this makes no sense, when someone wanting to incriminate Jacqueline would have left her pistol behind to incriminate her. Louise Bourget is interviewed in Dr. Bessner's cabin, while Bessner is ministering to Simon. She says she saw nothing on the night of the murder, but would have done "if" she had left her cabin. This choice of words sounds strange to Poirot. When Race announces that the cabins will be searched for the missing pearls, Miss Bowers returns them, confiding that Miss Van Schuyler took them from Linnet's cabin, being a secret kleptomaniac. But Poirot examines the string and finds it is a fake, meaning the real necklace was stolen sometime earlier. Poirot eventually realizes that Salome Otterbourne is a secret alcoholic, and what Rosalie was throwing overboard was her mother's hidden cache of spirits. Rosalie admits this, but firmly denies seeing anyone leaving Linnet's cabin on the night of the murder. When Louise Bourget is found murdered in her cabin, clutching a large-denomination banknote, Race and Poirot deduce that she had seen the real murderer leave Linnet's cabin, and was trying to blackmail him or her. Poirot and Race enter Dr. Bessner's cabin and tell the doctor and Simon what happened. Salome Otterbourne enters and says she knows who killed Linnet and Louise, because she saw that person enter and leave Louise's cabin. Simon yells at her to tell him. Before she can finish her story, a shot is fired from the deck outside, killing her. Before Poirot and Race can get outside, the shooter is gone, having dropped a gun that Poirot recognizes from Andrew Pennington's luggage. Poirot announces that he has solved the case; for him the most salient clues were: *the fact that Poirot only drinks wine with dinner, while his two usual dinner companions, the Allertons, drink something else; *two bottles of nail polish in Linnet's room, one labelled "Cardinal" (a deep, dark red) and the other "Rose" (pale pink), but both of which contain red coloring; *the fact that Jacqueline's gun was thrown overboard; and *the circumstances of Louise and Mrs. Otterbourne's deaths. Before explaining his solution to the crime, Poirot decides to clear away some of the lesser mysteries first, by interviewing several of the passengers in turn: *Andrew Pennington admits that he has speculated, illegally, with Linnet's holdings; he was hoping to replace the funds before she came of age, but upon her marriage she gained full control of her estate; on learning of her marriage, Pennington rushed to Egypt to stage a "chance" encounter with Linnet and dupe her into signing legal documents that would exculpate him; he abandoned the plan when he found that Linnet was a shrewd woman who read anything she was asked to sign in detail; in desperation, he tried to kill her by dropping the boulder on her, but that is as far as he went, and he swears that he did not murder her; *Fanthorp is revealed to be a young attorney with Linnet's British solicitors, who sent him to Egypt to spy on Pennington, suspicious of his intentions; *Tim is exposed as a society jewel thief, working in partnership with his cousin, a down-on-her-luck socialite. Tim stole the pearls from Linnet's cabin that night and substituted the fake string for them, but, likewise, swears he didn't kill her; he does not know if Linnet was already dead when he entered her cabin; Rosalie admits that she saw Tim enter and leave Linnet's cabin, but she has come to love Tim, and was trying to protect him; Poirot clears Tim of the murder and agrees not to report his thievery to the police; Tim promises to reform and happily asks Rosalie to marry him, to the delight of his mother. *Signor Richetti is exposed as the foreign agent and criminal Race is after, after Race hears of a telegram Richetti received, using a code that Race recognizes; Poirot finally explains the real mystery to Race, Miss Robson, and Dr. Bessner. Their first idea, that the murder was conceived on the spur of the moment after the scene in the lounge, was mistaken; in fact, the murder was planned months in advance – by Jacqueline and Simon. Jacqueline used Cornelia Robson as a witness and pretended to shoot Simon in the leg. Simon faked being wounded with red ink, hidden in Linnet's nail polish bottle. While Cornelia Robson left to get Jacqueline back to her cabin and Jim Fanthorp called Dr. Bessner, Simon picked up the gun, ran to Linnet's cabin, shot her, and then came back to the lounge and shot himself in the leg, using the velvet stole as a muffler. He reloaded two bullets back into the gun, wrapped it in the stole and threw the bundle overboard before anyone came back. Dr. Bessner then examined him and confirmed that his wound left him unable to have left the lounge. Before the murder, Jacqueline or Simon drugged Poirot's usual bottle of wine, ensuring that he would sleep through the night so he will not participate in the event. All is not well, for Louise Bourget, the maid, saw Simon enter and leave Linnet's cabin. She blackmailed Simon and demanded money for hushing her up. But Simon told Jacqueline about it privately. Jacqueline entered Louise's cabin and stabbed her. However, Mrs. Otterbourne saw Jacqueline entering the maid's door. She came to Simon and Poirot to tell what she saw, but Simon yelled at Mrs. Otterbourne in a voice loud enough for Jacqueline to hear it – who acted quickly and shot Mrs. Otterbourne. Confronted, Simon and Jacqueline confess to the plot. Jacqueline says that she and Simon have always been in love, and Simon never cared for Linnet, even when she tried to steal him away from Jacqueline. Jacqueline tells Poirot that the idea of murdering Linnet for her money was Simon's, but she planned it, knowing Simon was not smart enough to pull it off by himself. As the passengers are disembarking, Jacqueline reveals a second pistol, which she hid in Rosalie Otterbourne's cabin, and kills both Simon and herself, sparing them both from more gruesome and humiliating deaths. Poirot confesses that he knew about the second pistol, and wanted to give Jacqueline the chance to take a more humane way out. In addition to Tim and Rosalie, there is another unexpected love match: Cornelia Robson accepts Dr. Bessner's proposal, to the stupefaction of Mr. Ferguson, who had been courting her, in his own uncouth way, during the whole trip.

Jacqueline De Bellefort introduces her fiancé, Simon Doyle , to her wealthy friend Linnet Ridgeway in the hope that Linnet will give him a job. Instead, Linnet marries Simon herself and they head off for a honeymoon in Egypt . A bitter Jacqueline follows them to Egypt, appearing wherever they go. Hercule Poirot is also on holiday in Egypt. While staying in the same hotel as the newlyweds, he is approached by Linnet Doyle who is getting tired of Jacqueline's harassment. Poirot doesn't accept the job, as he believes that Jacqueline has been treated shamefully by Linnet and Simon. He nevertheless tries to warn Jacqueline against pursuing the Doyles any further. She ignores his warning and joins their cruise on the river Nile. Linnet Doyle comments that she is "surrounded by enemies" on the cruise, as some of the other travellers are also known to her. They include Andrew Pennington , her American trustee, who has orchestrated their 'coincidental' meeting in Egypt in order for her to sign some legal documents. Linnet has also upset her maid Louise by interfering in her romantic affairs. Rosalie Otterbourne and aristocrat-turned-Marxist Mr Ferguson take an instant dislike to Linnet. Miss Van Schuyler admires Linnet's pearls and Tim Allerton has a history of being present when precious jewels have been stolen. One night, after most of the guests have retired to their cabins, Jacqueline and Simon have an argument in the lounge. Jacqueline becomes hysterical, pulls a pistol from her purse and shoots Simon in the leg. The two guests who witness the shooting, Mr Ferguson and Cornelia Robson , fetch Dr. Bessner and keep an eye on Jacqueline. Dr. Bessner tends to Simon's leg injury. The next morning Linnet Doyle is found dead in her cabin. Her pearl necklace and Jacqueline's pistol are both missing. Although Jacqueline is a natural suspect she has a perfect alibi, having been sedated and watched all night by Cornelia Robson. Linnet's husband, Simon Doyle, was also unable to commit the crime due to his leg wound. Poirot sets out to solve the murder, with the aid of Colonel Race . While conducting their investigations, the maid Louise Bourget is murdered and Poirot realises she probably saw the murderer coming out of Linnet's cabin and attempted to extort money in return for her silence. Rosalie's mother Salome Otterbourne sees Louise's murderer and is about to tell Poirot when she is shot in the head through an open cabin door. The missing pearls are returned by Cornelia Robson, who has recovered them from Miss Van Schuyler, but they are discovered to be a paste replica. Poirot later reveals that fake pearls were substituted by Tim Allerton. After various suspects are eliminated Poirot reveals that Simon Doyle murdered his wife, with Jacqueline working as his accomplice. They staged Simon's shooting, leaving him free to murder Linnet while the doctor was being fetched by Mr Ferguson and Jacqueline attended to by Cornelia Robson. Simon was left alone for long enough to shoot Linnet, return to the lounge and shoot himself in the leg. Jacqueline killed the maid and Salome Otterbourne, who were both witnesses to the murders. It is revealed that Simon's marriage to Linnet had been cleverly plotted in order to gain her money. When they realise the evidence is against them, Jacqueline shoots Simon and then herself in dramatic fashion. Colonel Race accuses Poirot of knowing Jaqueline has a second pistol. Poirot answers "It is not as simple as that" The story ends happily, at least for Cornelia Robson and Dr. Bessner, who become engaged.

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The Year of the Angry Rabbit

Night of the Lepus

From the hardcover jacket: "It looks as though Australia will be overrun by rabbits. Millions of them, immune now to the myxomatosis that decimated them in the nineteen hundred fifties and sixties, are teeming over the land. With an election imminent, Prime Minister Kevin Fitzgerald, known to his cronies as Ella, is forced to act. It is obviously an emergency. The rabbits must be wiped out. Scientists assemble; experiments begin. "The results are shattering. Australia suddenly becomes the most feared nation on earth: America and Russia hurriedly surrender to her their nuclear devices, as do the other powers; Fitzgerald becomes virtual dictator of the rest of the world. "The Commonwealth Government establishes peace on earth except for limited wars which are fought under strict supervision, according to rules laid down in Canberra. Only two nations are allowed to fight at one time, for example. "On the crest of this incredible wave of prosperity a tiny news flash is overlooked. It says: RABBIT AS BIG AS ALSATIAN SHOT BY SUNDAY-SCHOOL TEACHER THREE MILES NORTH OF MUDGEE...."

Rancher Cole Hillman seeks the help of college president Elgin Clark to combat thousands of rabbits that have invaded the area after their natural predators, coyotes were killed off. Elgin asks for the assistance of researchers Roy and Gerry Bennett because they respect Cole's wish to avoid using cyanide to poison the rabbits. Roy proposes using hormones to disrupt the rabbits' breeding cycle, and takes some rabbits for experimentation. One rabbit is injected with a new serum believed to cause birth defects. However, the Bennett's daughter Amanda loves the injected rabbit, so she switches it with one from the control group. Amanda is then given the injected rabbit as a pet, but it soon escapes. While inspecting the rabbits' old burrowing areas, Cole and the Bennets find a large, unusual animal track. Meanwhile, Cole's son Jackie and Amanda go to a gold mine to visit Jackie's friend Billy, but find him missing. Jackie finds more of the animal tracks in Billy's shed, while Amanda goes into the mine and runs into an enormous rabbit with blood on its face. Screaming in terror, she runs from the mine. Mutilated bodies begin to crop up around town, including Billy, a truck driver, and a family of four. Elgin, the Bennets, Cole, and Cole's two ranch hands, Frank ([[Henry Wills and Jud , go to the mine to try to kill the rabbits with explosives. As Elgin and Cole set charges on top of the mine, Roy and Frank enter the shaft to get pictorial evidence. Outside, a rabbit surfaces and attacks Jud before Gerry can shoot it. Roy and Frank escape the rabbits in the mine and run outside as the explosives are detonated. The explosives fail to kill the rabbits, and that night they attack Cole's ranch, killing Jud while Cole, Frank, Jackie, and Cole's housekeeper escape into the storm shelter. The rabbits make their way to the small town of Galanos, killing everyone they find before taking refuge in the buildings for the day. In the morning, Gerry and Amanda leave to avoid the coming press, but get stuck along a sandy stretch of road. Roy and Elgin update Sheriff Cody on the situation, and after realizing the rabbits have escaped the mine, call in the national guard. As night falls, the rabbits leave Galanos to continue making their way to the main town, Ajo, killing everything in sight. Cole proposes using a half-mile wide stretch of electrified railroad track as a fence to contain and kill the rabbits. They recruit a large group of people at a drive in theater to help herd the rabbits with their car lights, with assistance from the machine gun fire of the national guard. Thousands of rabbits make their way into the trap, where they are shot and electrocuted. At the end of the film, Cole tells Roy that normal rabbits, as well as coyotes, have returned to the ranch.

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The Stepford Wives

Revenge of 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 – fellow new arrivals to Stepford – 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 – 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.

Set 10 years after the original film, a prologue sets the scene as a couple unhappy in idyllic Stepford, Connecticut, attempts to leave town; they are killed by the police chief. Spirited investigative TV reporter Kaye Foster arrives in Stepford to do a story on the American town with the lowest crime and divorce rates and the tightest real-estate market in the country. She immediately notices the beautiful, but compliant and domestic women of the town, who take a pill four times a day when an eerie siren sounds . Kaye meets Megan and Andy Brady , newcomers to town. Megan is refreshingly down to earth, and Andy is interviewing to join the police force and become a member of the Stepford Men's Association, headed by refined but vaguely hostile Dale "Diz" Coba . Kaye needs a research assistant, and after being turned off by the seemingly plastic and subservient women of Stepford, she jumps at the chance to hire Megan. Kaye is shaken when Barbara Parkinson "accidentally" nearly runs her down with her car, then exhibits strange, repetitive behavior at the accident site, yet has no recollection of the incident the next day. Disillusioned hotel manager Wally seems guiltily on the verge of divulging something important to Kaye about his wife's inability to change, when another attempt is made on Kaye's life. Andy assumes the job with the Stepford Police and Megan has chosen a house when she is sent to the Men's Association and disappears for a few days. Suspicious, Kaye sneaks into a garden party at the Association attended by the townswomen; there, three new "sisters" are welcomed, including Megan. All three wear the frilly and outdated fashions so popular in town and exhibit the brainless behavior of the other wives. Kaye overhears Diz explaining to the husbands that the wives have been brainwashed and kept compliant by the "thyroid pills." To keep them subservient, they must not drink alcohol, miss the medication, or be overstimulated, or the women will become hostile and potentially violent. Kaye is discovered and narrowly escapes, and the men set out to track her down. Kaye shows up at Megan's house, throws out her pills and compels her to down some vodka. At first, Megan attempts to stab Kaye and manically clean the house. Overcome, she later recovers and the two women knock out Andy. Kaye, now disguised as a Stepford wife, enlists the aide of Wally to help them escape; he betrays them, but having anticipated this, Kaye manages to elude him. However, their plan to escape by train fails, and Megan is taken to the Men's Association for reconditioning. Eventually, Kaye arrives and holds Diz at gunpoint while Megan repeatedly sounds the pill siren. All the women of the town overdose on their pills, becoming disoriented and then violent. Having second thoughts about the scheme, Andy shows up in time to reconcile and escape with Megan. Kaye is finally caught by Diz, however, and just as he is about to kill her, he is confronted by the vengeful women of the town. Screaming and clawing, they push him over a balcony, trample him, and literally tear him apart. Shocked and horrified, Kaye makes her escape.

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positive

The Long Goodbye

The Long Goodbye

The novel opens outside a club called The Dancers. It is late October or early November 1949. Philip Marlowe meets a drunk named Terry Lennox, a man with scars on one side of his face. They forge an uneasy friendship over the next few months. Everything changes when Lennox shows up late one night (in June 1950) at Marlowe's place, asking for a ride to the Tijuana airport. Marlowe agrees as long as Lennox doesn't tell him any details of why he's running. On his return to LA, it is revealed that Lennox's wife was found dead in her pool house, and that she had died before Lennox fled. Marlowe is arrested on suspicion of murder after refusing to co-operate with investigators, who want him to confess that he helped Lennox flee. After three days of antagonizing his interrogators, Marlowe is released when Lennox is (allegedly) found dead of a suicide in Otatoclán with a full written confession by his side. Marlowe gets home to find a cryptic note from Lennox containing a "portrait of Madison" (a $5000 bill). Marlowe gets a call from a New York publisher named Howard Spencer, asking him to investigate a case. One of his best writers, Roger Wade, has a drinking problem and has been missing for three days. Initially Marlowe refuses, but after Wade's wife, Eileen, also asks for Marlowe's help, he consents. Marlowe ends up finding Wade in a makeshift detox facility in a soon-to-be-abandoned ranch out in the desert. He takes his fee, but the Wades' stories don't match. The Wades each try to convince Marlowe to stay at their house to keep Roger writing instead of drinking, and though he refuses, he ends up making further trips to the Wades' house at their behest. On one such trip, he finds Wade passed out in the grass with a cut on his head. Mrs. Wade ends up in a sort of trance and attempts to seduce Marlowe, thinking he's a former lover of hers who died ten years earlier in World War II. As all of this occurs, Marlowe is repeatedly threatened to lay off the Lennox case, first by a friend of Lennox's named Mendy Menendez, then by Lennox's father-in-law, the police, the Wades' servant (a Chileno named Candy), and Wade's wife. Marlowe also learns that Terry Lennox had previously lived as Paul Marston who was married previously and was probably from England. Wade calls Marlowe again, asking him to come by to have lunch with him. Wade ends up drinking himself into a stupor, so Marlowe takes a walk outside, and when he returns Mrs. Wade is ringing the doorbell, saying she forgot her key. Marlowe finds Wade dead on the couch, apparently from suicide, but Eileen Wade accuses Marlowe of killing her husband. Candy initially tries to frame Marlowe, but his claims are undermined in an interrogation. Marlowe gets a call from Spencer regarding Wade's death and he bullies Spencer into taking him to see Mrs. Wade. Once there, Marlowe grills her on the death of Terry Lennox's wife. Eileen first tries to blame it all on Roger, but Marlowe doesn't buy her story and argues that she killed both Mrs. Lennox and Roger Wade and that Paul Marston (Lennox) was actually her first husband, presumed killed in action with the Special Air Service off the coast of Norway or by the Gestapo. The next morning, Marlowe gets a call that Eileen Wade killed herself, leaving a confession note that she killed Mrs. Lennox and Roger Wade. Marlowe still refuses to let the story lie. He's assaulted by Menendez, who ends up arrested in a setup arranged by a fellow hood (and erstwhile cop) named Randy Starr, who served with Menendez and Lennox/Marston during the war. Finally, Marlowe gets a visit from a Mexican man who claims to have been there when Lennox was killed in his hotel room. Marlowe listens to his story, and then says that he didn't buy it, because the Mexican man is none other than a post-cosmetic-surgery Terry Lennox.

Late one night, private investigator Philip Marlowe is visited by his close friend, Terry Lennox, who asks for a lift from Los Angeles to the California–Mexico border at Tijuana. He obliges. On returning home, Marlowe is awaited by two police department detectives, who accuse Terry Lennox of having murdered his rich wife, Sylvia. Marlowe refuses to give them any information and they arrest him. After three days in jail, the police release him, because Terry Lennox committed suicide in Mexico. It is an open-and-shut case to the police and the press, but the "official facts" do not sit right with Marlowe. In the meantime, Marlowe is hired by Eileen Wade, the platinum-blonde trophy wife of Roger Wade, an alcoholic novelist with writers' block, whose macho, Hemingway-like persona is proving self-destructive. She asks that Marlowe find her husband, who, despite such regular alcoholic binges and days-long disappearances, now seems to be missing. In the course of investigating Mrs. Wade's missing-husband case — visiting the sub-culture of "private" detoxification clinics for rich alcoholics and drug addicts — Marlowe learns that the Wades "knew" the Lennoxes socially. He is increasingly convinced that there is more to Terry's suicide and the murder of Sylvia. Marlowe incurs the wrath of ruthless gangster Marty Augustine, who wants money returned that Lennox owed him. Augustine viciously injures his own mistress just to demonstrate what could happen to Marlowe, saying: "Her, I love. You, I don't even like." The return of Augustine's money in the nick of time frees Marlowe to take a second trip to Mexico, where he ultimately uncovers the truth of what happened between Terry and Sylvia Lennox.

positive

positive

My Friend Flicka

Green Grass of Wyoming

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.

Beaver Greenway, a longtime horse owner with a drinking problem, is upset because one of his mares has been lured away by Thunderhead, the wild stallion that previously belonged to Rob and Nell McLaughlin. He goes to Goose Bar Ranch to complain, but the McLaughlins no longer have any control of the horse. Ken McLaughlin returns home to his parents from a horse-buying trip with Crown Jewel, a trotter. Rob is skeptical about the purchase, more so when Crown Jewel develops altitude sickness here in the Wyoming hills. Ken goes on a date with Greenway's granddaughter Carey. A veterinarian advises Crown Jewel be put down due to its congested lungs, but Beaver Greenway, a former sulky driver, recommends a treatment that works. Thunderhead returns and lifts the mare's spirits. Crown Jewel is taken to Ohio to compete in the Governor's Cup sweepstakes, where a newly sober Beaver has entered his own horse, Sundown. The rivals split the first two races. Carey is concerned that her grandfather will begin drinking again if he should lose the third and deciding race. Sundown wins. But all of the McLaughlins are proud of Crown Jewel's effort, particularly when they learn she is pregnant.

positive

positive

Dune

Dune

Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV of House Corrino has come to fear House Atreides due to the growing popularity of Duke Leto Atreides within the Landsraad, the convocation of ruling Houses. Shaddam decides that House Atreides must be destroyed, but cannot risk an overt attack on a single House, as this would not be accepted by the Landsraad and could be met with civil war. The Emperor instead uses the centuries-old feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen to disguise his assault, enlisting the brilliant and power-hungry Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in his plan to trap and eliminate the Atreides. To remove them from their fief of Caladan, where they are protected by their elite navy, Shaddam entices Leto to accept the lucrative fief of the "spice planet", Arrakis, previously controlled by the Harkonnens. Leto's control of the only planet capable of spice production would increase the power of House Atreides, which has not, historically, been influential or wealthy. Complicating the political intrigue is the fact that the Duke's son Paul Atreides is an essential part of the Bene Gesserit's secret, centuries-old breeding program. Leto's concubine, the Bene Gesserit Lady Jessica, was ordered to give birth to a daughter. Capable of determining her child's sex due to her Bene Gesserit abilities, she instead bears a boy, to provide an heir for Leto. Leto correctly believes his rivals and enemies to be plotting against him, and the Atreides are able to thwart initial Harkonnen traps and complications while simultaneously building trust with the mysterious desert Fremen, with whom they hope to ally. However, the Atreides are ultimately unable to withstand a devastating Harkonnen attack, supported by House Corrino's elite Corps of Sardaukar, disguised as Harkonnen troops. The attack is assisted by a traitor within House Atreides Suk doctor Wellington Yueh, who is not suspected of disloyalty due to conditioning he underwent to complete his medical training. House Atreides' forces are unable to counterattack effectively and the House is scattered, with Leto taken captive by Yueh and delivered to the Harkonnens. Of the Houses' principal retainers, mentat Thufir Hawat is captured by the Sardaukar; the troubador-soldier Gurney Halleck escapes with the aid of smugglers, whom he joins; and military commander Duncan Idaho is killed defending Paul and Jessica. Yueh, who has only betrayed the Atreides to further a personal feud with Baron Harkonnen, plants a poison tooth in Leto's mouth, which he hopes will kill the Baron when bitten. Yueh is executed by the Baron, who distrusts him, but Leto manages to kill the Baron's chief retainer, mentat Piter De Vries, when he is brought before Harkonnen. The Baron evades the poison cloud expelled from the tooth, surviving the attack and enlisting Atreides mentat Thufir Hawat into his service. Jessica's Bene Gesserit abilities and Paul's developing skills, which have been taught to him by his mother, help them join a band of Fremen. Paul and his mother quickly learn Fremen ways while teaching the Fremen the weirding way, a Bene Gesserit method of fighting. Jessica becomes a Reverend Mother, ingesting the poisonous Water of Life while pregnant with her second child; this unborn daughter Alia is subjected to the same ordeal, acquiring the full abilities of a Reverend Mother before even being born. Paul takes a Fremen lover, Chani, with whom he fathers a son. Years pass, and Paul increasingly recognizes the strength of the Fremen fighting force and their potential to overtake even the "unstoppable" Sardaukar and win back Arrakis. The spice diet of the Fremen and his own developing mental powers cause Paul's prescience to be increase dramatically, allowing his forsight of future "paths" of possible events, and he is regarded by the Fremen as their prophesied messiah. As Paul grows in influence, he begins a jihad against Harkonnen rule of the planet under his new Fremen name, Muad'Dib. However, Paul becomes aware through his prescience that, if he is not careful, the Fremen will extend that jihad against all the known universe, which Paul describes as a humanity-spanning subconscious effort to avoid genetic stagnation. Both the Emperor and the Baron Harkonnen show increasing concern at the fervor of religious fanaticism shown on Arrakis for this "Muad'Dib", not guessing that this leader is the presumed-dead Paul. Harkonnen plots to send his nephew and heir Feyd Rautha as a replacement for his more brutish nephew Glossu Rabban — who is in charge of the planet — with the hope of gaining the respect of the population. However, the Emperor is highly suspicious of the Baron and sends spies to watch his movements. Hawat explains the Emperor's suspicions: the Sardaukar, nearly invincible in battle, are trained on the prison planet Salusa Secundus, whose inhospitable conditions allow only the best to survive. Arrakis serves as a similar crucible, and the Emperor fears that the Baron could recruit from it a fighting force to rival his Sardaukar, just as House Atreides had intended before its destruction. Paul is reunited with Gurney. Completely loyal to the Atreides, Gurney is convinced that Jessica is the traitor who caused the House's downfall, and nearly kills her before being stopped by Paul. Disturbed that his prescience had not predicted this possibility, Paul decides to take the Water of Life, an act which will either confirm his status as the Kwisatz Haderach or kill him. After three weeks in a near-death state, Paul emerges with his powers refined and focused; he is able to see past, present, and future at will. Looking into space, he sees that the Emperor and the Harkonnens have amassed a huge armada to invade the planet and regain control. Paul also realizes the way to control spice production on Arrakis: saturating spice fields with the water of life would cause a chain reaction that would destroy all spice on the planet. In an Imperial attack on a Fremen settlement, Paul and Chani's son Leto is killed, and the four-year-old Alia is captured by Sardaukar and brought to the planet's capital Arrakeen, where the Baron Harkonnen is attempting to thwart the Fremen jihad under the close watch of the Emperor. The Emperor is surprised at Alia's defiance of his power and her confidence in her brother, whom she reveals to be Paul Atreides. At that moment, under cover of a gigantic sandstorm, Paul and his army of Fremen attack the city riding sandworms; Alia kills the Baron during the confusion. Paul quickly overtakes the city's defenses and confronts the Emperor, threatening to destroy the spice, thereby ending space travel and crippling both Imperial power and the Bene Gesserit in one blow. Feyd-Rautha challenges Paul to a knife-duel in a final attempt to stop his overthrow, but is defeated despite an attempt at treachery. Realizing that Paul is capable of doing all he has threatened, the Emperor is forced to abdicate and to promise his daughter Princess Irulan in marriage to Paul. Chani is not happy with this decision, and Paul describes that Chani will always be the one he loves. Paul ascends the throne, his control of Arrakis and the spice establishing a new kind of power over the Empire that will change the face of the known universe. However, despite being Emperor of the Known Universe, Paul realizes that he will not be able to stop the jihad he has seen in his visions, his legendary status among the Fremen having grown past the point where he can control it.

In the far future, the known universe is ruled by Padishah Emperor Shaddam Corrino IV . The most important substance in his galactic empire is the spice melange. The spice has many special properties, such as extending life and expanding consciousness. The most profitable of its properties is its ability to assist the Spacing Guild with folding space. The spice is vital to space travel because it allows safe interstellar travel to any part of the universe instantaneously. Sensing a potential threat to spice production, the Guild sends an emissary to demand an explanation from the Emperor, who confidentially shares his plans to destroy House Atreides. The popularity of Duke Leto Atreides has grown, and he is suspected to be amassing a secret army using sonic weapons called Weirding Modules, making him a threat to the Emperor. Shaddam's plan is to give the Atreides control of the planet Arrakis , the only source of spice, and to have them ambushed there by their longtime enemies, the Harkonnens. The Navigator commands the Emperor to kill the Duke's son, Paul Atreides , a young man who dreams prophetic visions of his purpose. The order draws the attention of the Bene Gesserit sisterhood, as Paul is tied to their centuries-long breeding program which seeks to produce the superhuman Kwisatz Haderach. Paul is tested by the Bene Gesserit Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam . With a deadly gom jabbar at his throat, Paul is forced to place his hand in a box which subjects him to excruciating pain. He passes to Mohiam's satisfaction. Meanwhile, on the industrial world of Giedi Prime, the sadistic Baron Vladimir Harkonnen tells his nephews Glossu Rabban and Feyd-Rautha about his plan to eliminate the Atreides by manipulating someone into betraying the Duke. The Atreides leave Caladan for Arrakis, a barren desert planet plagued by gigantic sandworms and populated by the Fremen, mysterious people who have long held a prophecy that a messiah would come to lead them to freedom. Upon arrival on Arrakis, Leto is informed by one of his right-hand men, Duncan Idaho , that the Fremen have been underestimated, as they exist in vast numbers and could prove to be powerful allies. Leto gains the trust of Fremen, but before the Duke can establish an alliance with them, the Harkonnens launch their attack. While the Atreides had anticipated a trap, they are unable to withstand the attack, supported by the Emperor's elite troops, the Sardaukar, and aided by a traitor within House Atreides itself, Dr. Wellington Yueh . Captured, Leto dies in a failed attempt to assassinate the Baron Harkonnen using a poison gas capsule planted in his tooth by Dr. Yueh. Leto's concubine Lady Jessica and his son Paul escape into the deep desert, where they manage to join a band of Fremen. Paul emerges as Muad'Dib, the leader the Fremen have been waiting for. Paul teaches the Fremen to use the Weirding Modules and begins targeting mining production of spice. Within two years, spice production is effectively halted. The Emperor is warned by the Spacing Guild of the situation on Arrakis. The Guild fears that Paul will consume the Water of Life. These fears are revealed to Paul in a prophetic dream; he drinks the Water of Life and enters a coma. Awaking, he is transformed and gains control of the sandworms of Arrakis. He has discovered that water kept in huge caches by the Fremen can be used to destroy the spice. Paul has also seen into space and the future; the Emperor is amassing a huge invasion fleet above Arrakis to regain control of the planet and the spice. Upon the Emperor's arrival at Arrakis, he executes Rabban for failing to remedy the spice situation. Paul launches a final attack against the Harkonnens and the Emperor at the capital city of Arrakeen. His Fremen warriors defeat the Emperor's legions of Sardaukar, while Paul's sister Alia kills Baron Harkonnen. Paul faces the defeated Emperor and relieves him of power, then engages Feyd-Rautha in a duel to the death. After Paul defeats Feyd, rain falls on Arrakis. Alia declares, "And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!"

positive

positive

The Firm

The Firm

Mitchell Y. "Mitch" McDeere graduated in accounting from Western Kentucky University, passed his Certified Public Accountant exams on the first attempt, and graduated third in his class from Harvard Law School. Mitch is married to his high school sweetheart, Abby Sutherland. They also attended college together. His brother Ray is serving a prison term, and his other brother, Rusty, died in Vietnam. Mitch has offers from law firms in New York and Chicago but eventually decides to join Bendini, Lambert and Locke, a small tax law firm based in Memphis. The firm seduces him by offering him a large salary, a lease on a new BMW automobile and a low interest mortgage on a house. Soon after he joins, his new colleagues help him study and pass his bar exam--the first priority for new associates. Mitch is assigned to partner Avery Tolar, the firm "bad boy," but a highly accomplished attorney. Two of Mitch's colleagues, Marty Kozinski and Joe Hodge, die in a scuba diving accident in the Cayman Islands a few days before he starts at the firm. On his first scheduled day of work, Mitch attends their funerals. Mitch finds the deaths unsettling, but focuses on his goal of becoming a successful employee of the firm. During a memorial service at the firm for the two deceased attorneys, Mitch notices plaques commemorating three other attorneys who died while working at the firm. Suspicious, he hires a private investigator, Eddie Lomax, an ex-cell mate of his brother Ray, to investigate the deaths of the attorneys. Lomax discovers that all five of the deceased attorneys died under questionable circumstances: two in the diving accident, and the other three in a car accident, a hunting accident and a suicide, respectively. Lomax cautions Mitch to be careful. Soon after delivering his report to Mitch, Lomax is murdered. Shortly after Mitch passes his bar exam, Wayne Tarrance, an FBI agent, confronts Mitch. Mitch gradually learns from the FBI that the firm is actually part of the white collar operations of the Morolto crime family of Chicago. The firm's founder, Anthony Bendini, was actually the son-in-law of old man Morolto. He founded the firm in 1944, and since then it has lured new lawyers from poor backgrounds with promises of wealth and security. Although a large part of the firm's clientele is very real, the partners and senior associates are actively involved in a multi-million dollar tax fraud and money laundering scheme. By the time a lawyer is aware of the firm's actual operations, he cannot leave. No lawyer has escaped the firm alive; the five who tried to leave did so after finding out about the firm's ties to organized crime and were killed to keep them from talking. Kozinski and Hodge were actually in contact with the FBI at the time of their murders. The takedown of the Moroltos is such a high priority that the FBI's director, F. Denton Voyles, is personally involved in the case. Mitch learns that his house, office and car are bugged. Mitch and Abby are also routinely followed, making his meetings with the FBI dangerous. Pressure from both the firm and the FBI, which warns him he will almost certainly go to prison if he chooses to ignore them, forces Mitch to make a decision quickly. Desperate to find a way out and stay alive in the process, Mitch makes a deal with the FBI. He promises to collect enough evidence to indict the firm in return for $2 million and the release of his brother, Ray, from prison. Mitch tells Tarrance that he can obtain enough evidence to indict half the firm right away. However, this evidence will also prove that the firm is part and parcel of a criminal conspiracy. This will give the government probable cause to obtain search warrants for the firm building and files, which in turn will provide the evidence to completely destroy the firm and the Morolto family with a massive RICO indictment. In order to do so, however, Mitch must disclose information about his clients, and thus end his career as a lawyer (though in truth, the attorney–client privilege in most U.S. states, including Tennessee, does not apply to situations where a lawyer knows that a crime is taking place). Working with Lomax's secretary and lover, Tammy Hemphill, Mitch begins to copy confidential documents and makes plans to deliver them to the FBI as planned, eventually copying 10,000 documents. At the same time, Mitch and Abby secretly plan to flee once Mitch turns over the files, since they don't completely trust the FBI to protect them. Meanwhile, the firm becomes suspicious of Mitch. With the assistance of Tarry Ross, alias "Alfred", a top FBI official who is actually a mole for another crime family, they discover Mitch is indeed working with the FBI. Once Mitch learns of this, he runs from both the FBI and Mafia with his brother and wife. He steals $10 million from the firm's Grand Cayman bank account. Mitch manages to escape to the Caribbean with the help of Barry Abanks, a scuba diving business owner whose son died in the incident where the Moroltos killed Kozinski and Hodge. Armed with Mitch's evidence, the FBI indicts 51 present and former members of the Bendini firm, as well as 31 alleged members of the Morolto family, for everything from money laundering to mail fraud. At the end, Mitch, Abby and Ray go into hiding and are quietly enjoying their newfound wealth in the Caribbean region.

Mitch McDeere is a young man with a promising future in law. About to graduate from Harvard Law School, he is approached by Bendini, Lambert & Locke, 'The Firm', and made an offer he cannot refuse. He and his wife, Abigail "Abby" , move to Memphis, where The Firm is located. Avery Tolar becomes his mentor at The Firm. Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, including a house and car, he is at first totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two associates are murdered. The FBI contacts him, asking him for information and informing him that The Firm is connected to the mob, and that every associate who has ever tried to leave The Firm ends up murdered. His life as he knows it is forever changed. He has a choice: work with the FBI and risk being discovered by The Firm or losing his law license because he believes that attorney–client confidentiality prevents him from revealing the firm’s illegal activities to investigators, or stay with The Firm and both violate his personal code of ethics and go to jail when the FBI cracks The Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it. Mitch devises a plan that allows him to cooperate with the FBI by finding proof that all partners from The Firm were guilty of overbilling, while at the same time reaching an agreement with the mob Morolto brothers. In addition he manages to do so without breaking any laws, thereby being able to keep his status as a lawyer. At the end of the film, the McDeeres leave their house in Memphis for Boston, driving the same car they arrived in.

positive

positive

The Luck of Barry Lyndon

Barry Lyndon

Redmond Barry of Bally Barry, born to a genteel but ruined Irish family, fancies himself a gentleman. At the prompting of his mother, he learns what he can of courtly manners and sword-play, but fails at more scholarly subjects like Latin. He is a hot-tempered, passionate lad, and falls madly in love with his cousin, Nora. Sadly, as she is a spinster a few years older than Redmond, she is seeking a prospect with more ready cash to pay family debts. The lad tries to engage in a duel with Nora's suitor, an English officer named John Quinn. He is made to think that he has assassinated the man, though his pistol was actually loaded with "tow" (a dummy load of heavy, knotted, fibers); Quinn was struck with the harmless load and fainted in his fright. Redmond flees to Dublin, where he quickly falls in with bad company in the way of con artists, and soon loses all his money. Pursued by creditors, he enlists as a common private in an infantry regiment headed for service in Germany. Once in Germany, despite a promotion to corporal, he hates the army and seeks to desert. When his Lieutenant is wounded, Redmond helps take him to a German village for treatment. The Irishman pretends to suffer from insanity, and after several days absconds with the Lieutenant's uniform, papers, and money. As part of his ruse, he convinces the locals that he is the real Lieutenant Fakenham, and the wounded man is the mad Corporal Barry. Redmond Barry rides off toward a neutral German territory, hoping for better fortune. His bad luck continues, though, as he is joined on the road by a Prussian officer. The German soon realizes that Redmond is a deserter, but rather than turn him over to the British to be hanged, impresses him into the Prussian army (for a bounty). Redmond hates Prussian service as much or more than he hated British service, but the men are carefully watched to prevent desertion. He is able to become the servant of Captain Potzdorff, and is involved in the intrigues of that gentleman. After several months have passed, a stranger travelling under Austrian protection arrives in Berlin. Redmond is asked to spy on the stranger, an older man called Chevalier de Balibari (sic. Ballybary). He immediately realizes that this is his uncle, the adventurer who disappeared many years ago. The uncle arranges to smuggle his nephew out of Prussia, and this is soon done. The two Irishmen and an accomplice wander around Europe, gambling and generally living it up. Eventually, the Barrys end up in a Rhineland Duchy, where they win considerable sums of money and Redmond cleverly sets up a plan to marry a young countess of some means. Again, fortune turns against him, and a series of circumstances undermines his complex plan. Both Uncle and Nephew are forced to leave Germany—both unmarried. While cooling their heels in France, Redmond comes into the acquaintance of the Countess of Lyndon, an extraordinarily wealthy noblewoman married to a much older man (who is in poor health). He has some success in seducing the Lady, but her husband clings to life. Eventually, she goes back to England. Redmond is upset, but bides his time. Upon hearing the following year that the husband has died, he strikes. Through a series of adventures, Redmond eventually bullies and seduces the Countess of Lyndon, almost forcing her to marry him. After the wedding, he moves into Hackton Castle, which he has completely remodelled at great expense. Redmond admits several times in the course of his narrative that he has no control over a budget, and spends his new bride's birthright freely. He looks after a few childhood benefactors in Ireland, his Cousin Ulick (who had often stood up for him as a boy), and makes himself over into the most fashionable man in the district. As the American War of Independence breaks out, Barry Lyndon (as he now calls himself) raises a company of soldiers to be sent to America. He also defeats his wife's cousins to win a seat in Parliament. His good fortunes begin to ebb again though. His stepson, Lord Bullingdon, goes off to the American war—and Barry is accused of trying to get the lad killed in battle. Then his own child—Bryan—dies in a tragic horse-riding accident. Combined with Barry's own profligate spending practices, he is ruined on many levels. As the "memoir" ends, (Redmond) Barry Lyndon is separated from his wife, and lodged in Fleet Prison. A small stipend allows him to live in moderate luxury, and his elderly mother lodges close by to tend to him. He spends the last nineteen years of his life in prison, dying of alcoholism-related illness.

:By What Means Redmond Barry Acquired the Style and Title of Barry Lyndon An omniscient narrator informs us that in 1750s Ireland, the father of Redmond Barry is killed in a duel over a disputed horse sale. The widow , disdaining offers of marriage, devotes herself to her only son. As a teenager, Barry falls in love with his older cousin, Nora Brady . Though she seduces him, she later drops Barry for the well-off English Captain John Quin . Nora and her family plan to relieve their poverty with an advantageous marriage, but Barry refuses to accept the situation and shoots Quin in a duel. Barry flees to Dublin, but en route is robbed of purse and equipment by Captain Feeney , a famous highwayman. Broke, Barry joins the British army, whereupon he reunites with Captain Grogan , a family friend, who informs him that, in fact, he did not kill Quin — Barry's dueling pistol was loaded with tow. The duel was staged by Nora's family to get rid of Barry so that their family finances would be secured through the marriage of Nora and Quin. Barry's regiment is sent to France to fight in the Seven Years' War, where Captain Grogan is fatally wounded by the French at the Battle of Minden. Barry deserts the army, stealing an officer courier's uniform, horse, and identification papers. En route to neutral Holland he encounters the Prussian Captain Potzdorf , who, seeing through his disguise, offers him the choice of being turned back over to the British where he will be shot as a deserter, or enlisting in the Prussian army. Barry enlists in his second army and later receives a special commendation from Frederick the Great for saving Potzdorf's life in a battle. After the war ends in 1763, Barry is employed by Captain Potzdorf's uncle in the Prussian Ministry of Police to become the servant of the Chevalier de Balibari ([[Patrick Magee , a professional gambler. The Prussians suspect he is a spy and send Barry as an undercover agent to verify this. Barry reveals himself to the Chevalier right away and they become confederates cheating at cards. After he and the Chevalier cheat the Prince of Tübingen at the cardtable, the Prince accuses the Chevalier and refuses to pay his debt unless the Chevalier demands satisfaction. When Barry relays this to his Prussian handlers, they are wary of allowing another meeting between the Chevalier and the Prince. So, the Prussians arrange for the Chevalier to be expelled from the country. Barry conveys this plan to the Chevalier, who flees in the night. The next morning, Barry, under disguise as the Chevalier, is escorted from Prussian territory by Prussian officers. For the next few years, Barry and the Chevalier travel the spas and parlors of Europe, profiting from their gambling with Barry enforcing reluctant debtors with a duel. Seeing that his life is going nowhere, Barry decides to marry into wealth. At a gambling table in Belgium, he encounters the beautiful and wealthy Countess of Lyndon . He seduces and later marries her after the death of her elderly husband, Sir Charles Lyndon . <div styleAct IIEpilogue :It was in the reign of King George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarreled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now

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The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera

The novel opens with a prologue in which Gaston Leroux claims that Erik, the "Phantom of the Opera", was a real person. We are then introduced to Christine Daaé who with her father, a famous fiddler, travelled all over Europe playing folk and religious music. Her father was known to be the best wedding-fiddler in the land. When Christine is six, her mother dies and her father is brought to rural France by a patron, Professor Valerius. During Christine's childhood (which is described retrospectively in the early chapters of the book), her father tells her many stories featuring an "Angel of Music", who, like a muse, is the personification of musical inspiration. Christine meets and befriends the young Raoul, Viscount of Chagny, who also enjoys her father's many stories. One of Christine and Raoul's favourite stories is one of Little Lotte, a girl with golden hair and blue eyes who is visited by the Angel of Music and possesses a heavenly voice. On his deathbed, Christine's father tells her that he will send the Angel of Music to her from Heaven. Christine now lives with Mamma Valerius, the elderly widow of her father's benefactor. Christine is eventually given a position in the chorus at the Paris Opera House (Palais Garnier). Not long after she arrives there, she begins hearing a beautiful, unearthly voice which sings to her and speaks to her. She believes this must be the Angel of Music and asks him if he is. The Voice agrees and offers to teach her "a little bit of heaven's music". The Voice, however, belongs to Erik, a physically-deformed and mentally-disturbed charismatic genius who was one of the architects who took part in the construction of the opera and who secretly built a home for himself in the cellars. He has been extorting money from the Opera's management for many years. Unknown to Christine, at least at first, he falls in love with her. With the help of the Voice, Christine triumphs at the gala on the night of the old managers' retirement. Her old childhood friend Raoul hears her and remembers his love for her. A time after the gala, the Paris Opera performs Faust, with the prima donna Carlotta playing the lead. In response to a refused surrender of Box Five to the Opera Ghost, Carlotta loses her voice and the Opera's grand chandelier plummets into the audience. After the chandelier accident, Erik kidnaps Christine to his home in the cellars and reveals his true identity. He plans to keep her there only a few days, hoping she will come to love him, and Christine begins to find herself attracted to her abductor. But she causes Erik to change his plans when she unmasks him and, to the horror of both, beholds his face, which according to the book, resembles the face of a rotting corpse. Erik goes into a frenzy, stating she probably thinks his face is another mask, and whilst digging her fingers in to show it was really his face he shouts, "I am Don Juan Triumphant!" before crawling away, crying. Fearing that she will leave him, he decides to keep her with him forever, but when Christine requests release after two weeks, he agrees on condition that she wear his ring and be faithful to him. Up on the roof of the Opera, Christine tells Raoul of Erik taking her to the cellars. Raoul promises to take Christine away where Erik can never find her and to take her even if she resists. Raoul tells Christine he shall act on his promise the following day, to which Christine agrees, but she pities Erik and will not go until she has sung for him one last time. Christine then realizes the ring has slipped off her finger and fallen into the streets somewhere, and begins to panic. The two leave. But neither is aware that Erik has been listening to their conversation or that it has driven him to jealous frenzy. During the week and that night, Erik has been terrorising anyone who stood in his way or in that of Christine's career, including the managers. The following night, Erik kidnaps Christine during a production of Faust (by drugging the gas men and switching the lights off, he spirits Christine off the stage before anyone turned the lights on). Back in the cellars, Erik tries to force Christine into marriage. If she refuses he threatens to destroy the entire Opera using explosives he has planted in the cellars, killing them and everyone in the floors above. Christine continues to refuse, until she realizes that Raoul and an old acquaintance of Erik's known only as "The Persian", in an attempt to rescue her, have been trapped in Erik's hot torture chamber. To save them and the people above, Christine agrees to marry Erik. At first, Erik tries to drown Raoul and the Persian in the water used to douse the explosives, stating that Christine doesn't need another. But Christine begs and offers to be his "living bride", promising him not to kill herself after becoming his bride, as she had both contemplated and attempted earlier in the novel. Erik rescues the Persian and the young Raoul from his torture chamber thereafter. When Erik is alone with Christine, he lifts his mask a little to kiss her on the forehead, and Christine allows him to do this. Erik, who admits that he has never before in his life received or been allowed to give a kiss – not even from his own mother – is overcome with emotion. Christine gives him a kiss back. He lets Christine go and tells her "Go and marry the boy whenever you wish," explaining, "I know you love him". She leaves on the condition that when he dies she will come back and bury him. Being an old acquaintance, The Persian is told of all these secrets by Erik himself, and upon his express request, the Persian advertises Erik's death in the newspaper about three weeks later. The cause of death is revealed to be a broken heart, and as promised, Christine returns to bury Erik and give his ring back to him.

{{Plot}} Christine Day is an opera singer in modern day Manhattan who is searching for a unique piece to sing at her next audition. Her friend and manager Meg discovers an old opera piece called Don Juan Triumphant, written by a composer named Erik Destler. Curious, Christine and Meg do a little digging on Destler, and discover he may have been responsible for many murders and the disappearance of a young female opera singer he was said to have been obsessed with. While Christine is alone, she sings from the tattered parchment and blood seeps from the notes and covers her hands. Shocked, she discovers this to be an illusion when Meg returns. Christine auditions with the piece and during her performance, an accident with a falling sandbag renders her unconscious and shatters a mirror. She awakens in London in 1881, wearing opera clothing. A different version of Meg is also there. Christine turns out to be the understudy to the diva La Carlotta, who is both jealous and resentful of Christine’s skill. During this whole time, Erik Destler attacks the scene-shifter Joseph with a blade high above the rafters for almost killing Christine with the falling sandbag, and blaming the accident on him. Alone in her dressing room after she recovers, Christine receives a vision and a message from a masked Erik Destler, revealing he is her teacher and an angel sent by her deceased father. Destler encourages her to practice Carlotta’s part of Marguerite in Faust, saying that only she can sing the part as it was meant to be sung. Christine complies. That evening, Carlotta discovers Joseph’s skinned body in her dressing closet. The event causes her to scream and lose her voice. Christine is then cast in the role of Marguerite, which causes a panic to the opera house owner Martin Barton, who favors Carlotta and the prestige she brings to his opera house. During the scene where Dr. Faust signs his soul to the Devil, Destler reminisces about a time, perhaps decades ago, when he sold his own soul to the Devil in exchange for people loving him for his music. The Devil grants his wish, but burns and disfigures Destler’s face, telling him that only his music will be what people love him for. Christine gives a stellar performance and receives a standing ovation, and celebrates that night with her fiancee Richard. She tells him of her mysterious "teacher", to whom she accredits her success. A mildly jealous Richard asks to meet this teacher, but Christine insists her teacher is only a figment of her imagination. Shockingly, the next morning in the papers, Christine is given a mediocre review by the famous opera critic Harrison, secretly done as a favor to Barton. Destler tracks Harrison down and brutally murders him in a Turkish spa after Harrison refuses to recant his review. Destler’s further obsession with Christine is revealed when he single-handedly murders several thugs and later orders a prostitute to call herself "Christine". Christine hears of Harrison’s murder through Meg, and tearfully goes to a graveyard and prays next to the grave of her father. Destler appears as a shadowy violinist and offers her a chance at musical immortality if she will only go to him. Christine goes away with the Phantom in his stagecoach just as Richard arrives. Deep in the sewers below London’s opera house, Destler reveals himself as the composer of Don Juan Triumphant, which causes a spark of recollection within Christine. Destler then places a ring upon her finger and warns her never to see another man again. Richard goes to the police and, along with Inspector Hawkins, decides to track down the Phantom. Hawkins reveals to Richard that the Phantom is not only Erik Destler, but Destler has lived for centuries, uses the opera house's catacombs as a hideout, and skins his murdered victims for their facial skin to cover his own hideous visage. Hawkins also tells him the only way to kill the Phantom is to destroy his music. Later, at a masquerade ball, Christine meets up with Richard and warns him about the Phantom, revealing him as her "teacher". Erik, disguised, sees this exchange and becomes enraged, murdering and beheading Carlotta and kidnapping Christine. Hawkins, Richard, and a hobo/rat catcher Destler has been bribing in the past go quickly in pursuit. They become lost in the sewers, and Destler murders two policemen as well as the homeless man for betraying him. Back in the Phantom’s lair, an enraged Destler attempts to force himself on Christine to "consummate" their "marriage", but Richard and the Inspector burst in. During a struggle with the Phantom, Richard is stabbed with a candle holder, set afire, and killed. At the same moment, a wounded Hawkins manages to shoot Destler several times while Christine pushes a lamp through a mirror, sending her back to present-day Manhattan. Christine awakens and is comforted by the opera’s producer Mr. Foster, who offers her the leading part. At his apartment, they have drinks and Foster goes upstairs to tidy up and finds a blemish on his face. It is then discovered that Foster is Destler from long ago, and he goes to change his facial skin with synthetic ones he keeps in a special lab. Meanwhile, downstairs, Christine plays part of the song from a recording of Don Juan Triumphant and horribly realizes that Foster is Destler, as they both look remarkably alike. Foster/Destler surprises her and reveals his true self to her, who is then stabbed by Christine. Christine escapes, tears up Destler’s music and throws it down a sewer, which destroys Destler. On her way home, Christine passes by a street violin player, whom she gives some money to. The violinist slowly follows her, playing the familiar theme from Don Juan Triumphant. Christine looks back and reflects on the music for awhile. Then, very resolutely, she turns around and continues on her way.

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The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

The West Berlin office of the British Secret Intelligence Service under the command of Station Head Alec Leamas, has been performing poorly. At the commencement of the novel, Karl Riemeck – his last and best double agent, a high-ranking East German political officer – is shot dead at the last moment whilst defecting to West Berlin. Without any agents left, the disgraced Leamas is recalled to the Circus in London by Control, chief of the Circus. There, Control asks Leamas to stay "in the cold" for one last mission: to turn (defect) and provide false information to the East German Communists that would implicate Mundt as a British double agent — what his second-in-command, Fiedler, already suspects — to result in Mundt being executed by his own people. Control tells Leamas that Fiedler, due to his paranoia about Mundt, would be the best man to depose Mundt. George Smiley and his former assistant Peter Guillam brief Leamas for his crucial mission. Control tells Leamas that Smiley had not returned to the Circus after the events of Call for the Dead because of moral qualms about unethical Circus operations. To make the East Germans believe him ripe for defection, the Circus sacks Leamas, with a pittance of a pension, and he gets a miserable job in a run-down library, and loses it. At the library, he meets co-worker Liz Gold, an unworldly young Jewish woman, who is the secretary of her local cell of the Communist Party of Britain. Despite her politics, they become lovers. Before taking the "final plunge" into Control's scheme, Leamas makes Liz promise not to look for him, no matter what she hears, and says good-bye to her. Leamas also tells Control to leave Liz alone and Control agrees. Then, as planned, Leamas lands in jail after he assaults a local grocer. After jail, an East German recruiter in England approaches Leamas. He is taken abroad, first to the Netherlands, then to East Germany, en route meeting higher echelons of the Abteilung, the East German Intelligence Service. During his debriefing, he drops casual hints that point to British payments to a double agent in the Abteilung, whilst pretending not to see the implications. Meanwhile, in England, George Smiley and Peter Guillam appear at Liz Gold's apartment claiming to be friends of Alec, question her about him, and offer her financial help. In East Germany, Leamas meets Fiedler. They have many conversations in a hut in a forest clearing, where Fiedler seeks conclusive proof against Mundt and engages in ideological and philosophic discussions with the pragmatic Leamas. As observed by Leamas, Fiedler seems content to live in Mundt's shadow, but is relatively young and brilliant. To Leamas, Fiedler is sympathetic: a Jew who spent the Second World War in Canada, and a Communist idealist who considers the morality of his actions. In contrast, Leamas sees Mundt as a brutal, opportunist mercenary, who was a Nazi before 1945 and then joined the Communists simply because they were the new bosses, and remained an anti-Semite. Leamas believes helping Fiedler destroy Mundt is a worthy act. Meanwhile, Liz Gold is invited to East Germany for a Communist Party information exchange. The power struggle in the Abteilung comes into the open when Mundt orders Fiedler and Leamas arrested and tortured. However, the leaders of the East German régime intervene because Fiedler had earlier applied for an arrest warrant for Mundt on the same day that Mundt arrested Fiedler and Leamas. They are released, and Fiedler and Mundt are summoned to present their cases to a tribunal convened in camera, in the town of Görlitz. At the trial, Alec Leamas documents a series of secret bank account payments that Fiedler matches to the movements of Mundt. Fiedler also shows that Karl Riemeck passed to Leamas information to which he had no formal access but to which Mundt did. Fiedler also presents to the Tribunal other proofs implicating Mundt as a British double agent and explains that Mundt was captured in England and allowed to escape only after agreeing to work as a double agent for the British. Mundt’s attorney calls the unsuspecting Liz Gold as a surprise witness for the defence. Although not wanting to testify against Alec Leamas, she admits that George Smiley paid for her apartment lease after visiting her and that she had promised Leamas to not look for him when he disappeared. She also admits that he had said good-bye to her the night before he assaulted the grocer. Realising that the operation is now blown, Leamas offers to tell all in return for Liz's freedom. He admits that Control gave him the mission to frame Mundt as a double agent, but adds that Fiedler was not a participant. In cross-examination, Fiedler asks Mundt how he knew that someone had paid off Liz's lease, because, Fiedler insists, Liz never would have spoken about it. Mundt hesitates before answering ("a second too long, Leamas thought"), then the Tribunal halts the trial and arrests Fiedler. Then, and only then, does Leamas understand the true nature of Control and Smiley's operation. Liz is sent to a cell but Mundt places her in a car with Leamas at the wheel. During their drive to Berlin, where an exit route from East Berlin awaits, he explains the operation to her, including the parts of which he was unaware until the end of the trial. The fake bank account payments were real, and Hans-Dieter Mundt is a double agent reporting to George Smiley and Peter Guillam. The operation was against Fiedler, not Mundt, as Leamas was deceived to believe, because Fiedler was close to exposing Mundt as a British double agent. Fiedler was too powerful for Mundt to eliminate alone. Therefore, Control and Smiley did it for him. They placed him and her as co-workers to provide Mundt with the means of discrediting Leamas and consequently discrediting Fiedler. By falling in love, Leamas and Liz made it easy for them. Liz is horrified that British Intelligence planned the death of Fiedler, an intelligent, considerate and thoughtful man, in order to protect the despicable Mundt. Fiedler's fate is unrevealed, but Leamas, in answer to Liz's question, says that he would most likely be shot. Despite her moral disgust, Liz accompanies Leamas to the break in the wire fronting the Berlin Wall, where they are to climb the wall and escape to West Berlin. In the concluding chapter, after Leamas climbs to the top of the Berlin Wall and reaches down to pull Liz up, East German spotlights suddenly turn on them, and she is shot. Her fingers slip from his grasp and she falls. From the Western side of the Wall, Leamas hears a Western agent calling to him, "Jump, Alec! Jump, man!" and among other voices, George Smiley's. Seeing Liz dead, Alec Leamas climbs back down the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall. The border guards then shoot him dead.

The West Berlin office of the Circus, under administrator Alec Leamas , has not been doing well. In fact, he is recalled to London shortly after the death of one of his operatives. Leamas is seemingly demoted to the banking section of the agency. In reality, a carefully staged transformation of Leamas has been arranged. Now depressed and disgruntled, he is quickly spotted by the East German Intelligence Service as a potential defector. Leamas accepts overtures from German communists to reveal British secrets for payment, and he is interviewed in Holland about what he knows. When the process is later moved to East Berlin, the interviews become less cordial. It appears Leamas has information that will implicate a powerful East German intelligence officer named Mundt as a paid informant of the British, but the information is spotty and it frustrates his interrogator, "Herr Fiedler" . When Mundt arrives at the compound and discovers the investigation, he has both Leamas and Fiedler arrested. Mundt himself is eventually arrested. An East German tribunal ensues to determine the guilt of Mundt, or possibly Fiedler, with Leamas appearing as a star witness. Mundt's attorney uncovers several discrepancies in Leamas' transformation into an informant. Leamas' credibility is further undermined when his English girlfriend, an unassuming and idealistic communist named Nan Perry , is brought into the hearings to confirm Leamas' character. As Leamas' charade unravels and he is forced to admit he is still working as a British agent, Fiedler is escorted from the room as a complicit dupe and Mundt's reputation is untarnished. Leamas initially believes he has failed in his mission and he will soon be executed. But when Mundt releases him from his cell with an escape plan in tow, he learns that his mission has actually succeeded; Fiedler was the agent to be undermined and Mundt was indeed a British agent. Although this comes as a surprise to Leamas , he isn't completely shocked by the revelation. As he and Perry sit in a car waiting to be escorted from East Germany, she berates him as being involved in murder: the execution of Fiedler who was guilty of nothing. Leamas, agitated by Perry's naiveté, tells her that her worldview is childish and people are murdered every day - on both sides - while she lives an insulated life: "What do you think spies are?" he asks. "They are a bunch of seedy squalid bastards like me, little drunkards, queers, henpecked husbands ..." Leamas and Perry are soon ushered to the Berlin Wall and apparently permitted to leave. But Perry has learned too much about Mundt's true identity and is not trusted to keep it secret. She becomes a victim of the Cold War and is shot down as she tries to cross the wall. Leamas then looks down from the top of the wall at Perry, while agents from both sides urge him to return to the west. Instead he climbs back down the East German side of the wall and goes to Perry's lifeless body, but is then himself shot dead.

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Jane Eyre

Jane Eyre

The novel begins with a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre, who is living with her maternal uncle's family, the Reeds, as her uncle's dying wish. Jane's parents died of typhus. Jane’s aunt Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her worse than a servant and discourages and at times forbids her children from associating with her. She claims that Jane is not worthy of notice. She and her three children are abusive to Jane, physically and emotionally. She is unacceptably excluded from the family celebrations and had a doll to find solace in. One day Jane is locked in the red room, where her uncle died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She is finally rescued when she is allowed to attend Lowood School for Girls. Before she leaves, she stands up to Mrs. Reed and declares that she'll never call her "aunt" again, that she'd tell everyone at Lowood how cruel Mrs. Reed was to her, and says that Mrs. Reed and her daughter, Georgiana, are deceitful. John Reed, her son, is very rude and disrespectful, even to his own mother, who he sometimes had called "old girl", and his sisters. He treats Jane worse than the others do, and she hates him above all the others. Mr. Reed had been the only one in the Reed family to be kind to Jane. The servant Abbot is also always rude to Jane. The servant Bessie is sometimes scolding and sometimes nice. Jane likes Bessie the best. Jane arrives at Lowood Institution, a charity school, the head of which (Brocklehurst) has been told that she is deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally breaks her slate, and Mr. Brocklehurst, the self-righteous clergyman who runs the school, brands her a liar and shames her before the entire assembly. Jane is comforted by her friend, Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring teacher, facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr. Lloyd, whose reply agrees with Jane's. Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr. Brocklehurst's accusations. The eighty pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor meals, and thin clothing. Many students fall ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend Helen dies of consumption in her arms. When Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are discovered, several benefactors erect a new building and conditions at the school improve dramatically. After six years as a student and two as a teacher, Jane decides to leave Lowood, like her friend and confidante Miss Temple. She advertises her services as a governess, and receives one reply. It is from Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall. She takes the position, teaching Adele Varens, a young French girl. While Jane is walking one night to a nearby town, a horseman passes her. The horse slips on ice and throws the rider. She helps him to the horse. Later, back at the mansion she learns that this man is Edward Rochester, master of the house. He teases her, asking whether she bewitched his horse to make him fall. Adele is his ward, left in Mr. Rochester's care when her mother died. Mr. Rochester and Jane enjoy each other's company and spend many hours together. Odd things start to happen at the house, such as a strange laugh, a mysterious fire in Mr. Rochester's room, on which Jane throws water, and an attack on Rochester's house guest, Mr. Mason. Jane receives word that her aunt was calling for her, after being in much grief because her son has died. She returns to Gateshead and remains there for a month caring for her dying aunt. Mrs. Reed gives Jane a letter from Jane's paternal uncle, Mr John Eyre, asking for her to live with him. Mrs. Reed admits to telling her uncle that Jane had died of fever at Lowood. Soon after, Jane's aunt dies, and she returns to Thornfield. Jane begins to communicate to her uncle John Eyre. After returning to Thornfield, Jane broods over Mr. Rochester's impending marriage to Blanche Ingram. But on a midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane and proposes. As she prepares for her wedding, Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-looking woman sneaks into her room one night and rips her wedding veil in two. As with the previous mysterious events, Mr. Rochester attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part of Grace Poole, one of his servants. During the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer declare that Mr. Rochester cannot marry because he is still married to Mr. Mason’s sister Bertha. Mr. Rochester admits this is true, but explains that his father tricked him into the marriage for her money. Once they were united, he discovered that she was rapidly descending into madness and eventually locked her away in Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look after her. When Grace gets drunk, his wife escapes, and causes the strange happenings at Thornfield. Jane learns that her own letter to her uncle John Eyre, which happened to be seen by Mr. Mason, who knew John Eyre and was there, was how Mr. Mason found out about the bigamous marriage. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go with him to the south of France, and live as husband and wife, even though they cannot be married. Refusing to go against her principles, and despite her love for him, Jane leaves Thornfield in the middle of the night. Jane travels through England using the little money she had saved. She accidentally leaves her bundle of possessions on a coach and has to sleep on the moor, trying to trade her scarf and gloves for food. Exhausted, she makes her way to the home of Diana and Mary Rivers, but is turned away by the housekeeper. She faints on the doorstep, preparing for her death. St. John Rivers, Diana and Mary's brother and a clergyman, saves her. After she regains her health, St. John finds her a teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane becomes good friends with the sisters, but St. John remains reserved. The sisters leave for governess jobs and St. John becomes closer with Jane. St. John discovers Jane's true identity, and astounds her by showing her a letter stating that her uncle John Eyre has died and left her his entire fortune of 20,000 pounds (equivalent to over £1.3 million in 2011, calculated using the RPI). When Jane questions him further, St. John reveals that John is also his and his sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of the inheritance, but have since resigned themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding her family, insists on sharing the money equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come to Moor House to stay. Thinking she will make a suitable missionary's wife, St. John asks Jane to marry him and to go with him to India, not out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially accepts going to India, but rejects the marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as brother and sister. As soon as Jane's resolve against marriage to St. John begins to weaken, she mysteriously hears Mr. Rochester's voice calling her name. Jane then returns to Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She learns that Mr. Rochester's wife set the house on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the roof. In his rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with him, but he fears that she will be repulsed by his condition. When Jane assures him of her love and tells him that she will never leave him, Mr. Rochester again proposes and they are married. He eventually recovers enough sight to see their first-born son.

Jane Eyre is the plain, impoverished young woman who is hired by Mr. Rochester through Mrs. Fairfax to work as a governess for Adele . Despite her mild unprepossessing manner more like a nun, Jane has strong internal passions and shows her strength in character in expressing her opinions and showing resolve in times of trouble. Rochester is the Byronic anti-hero who is tortured and tormented by family troubles, past injustices and secrets. Rochester and Jane find an affinity for each other and fall in love. The marriage date is set. What she does not realize is that she must share the estate with his wife, Bertha ([[Maria Schneider , who is mentally ill and kept locked away in an upstairs attic with a nurse, Grace Poole . The marriage is stopped by Bertha's brother Richard Mason and lawyer Briggs . Jane flees, her world crashing down is a nightmare. She recovers in the parsonage of her original aunt's home, discovers she is now a wealthy woman inheriting her long-lost uncle's fortune in Madeira. She gets a proposal of marriage from Parson St. John Rivers but her heart and soul is with Rochester. She goes back to find Thornfield Hall burnt down but Rochester is crippled and blinded by the fire set by his mad wife, Bertha, who has killed herself in the fire. However, Jane's love for Rochester remains undiminished; she nurses him back to health, he recovers his eyesight and they marry.

positive

positive

The Last Unicorn

The Last Unicorn

The story begins with a team of human hunters passing through a forest in search of game. After days of coming up empty-handed, they begin to believe they are passing through a Unicorn's forest, where animals are kept safe by a magical aura. They resign themselves to hunting somewhere else; but, before they leave, one of the hunters calls out a warning to the Unicorn that she may be the last of her kind. This revelation disturbs the Unicorn, but she initially dismisses the thought. She encounters a talking butterfly who speaks in riddles and songs and initially dodges her questions about the other unicorns. Eventually, the butterfly issues a warning that her kind have been herded to a far away land by a creature known as the Red Bull. Fearing for the other unicorns, the Unicorn decides to leave the comfort and safety of her forest to find out what has happened to the others. During her journey, she is taken captive by a traveling carnival led by witch Mommy Fortuna, who uses magical spells to create the illusion that regular animals are in fact creatures of myth and legend. The Unicorn finds herself the only true legendary creature among the group, save for the harpy, Celaeno. Schmendrick, a magician traveling with the carnival, sees the Unicorn for what she is, and he frees her in the middle of the night. The Unicorn frees the other creatures including Celaeno, who kills Mommy Fortuna and Rukh, her hunchbacked assistant. The Unicorn and Schmendrick continue traveling in an attempt to reach the castle of King Haggard, where the Red Bull resides. When Schmendrick is captured by bandits, the Unicorn comes to his rescue and attracts the attention of Molly Grue, the bandit leader's wife. Together, the three continue their journey and arrive at Hagsgate, a town under Haggard's rule and the first one he had conquered when he claimed his kingdom. A resident of Hagsgate named Drinn informs them of a curse that stated that their town would continue to share in Haggard's fortune until such a time that someone from Hagsgate would bring Haggard's castle down. Drinn also went on to claim that he discovered a baby boy in the town's marketplace one night in winter. He knew that the child was the one the prophecy spoke of, but he left the baby where he found it, not wanting the prophecy to come true. King Haggard found the baby later that evening and adopted it. Molly, Schmendrick and the Unicorn leave Hagsgate and continue toward Haggard's castle, but on their way they are attacked by the Red Bull. The Unicorn runs, but is unable to escape the bull. In an effort to aid her, Schmendrick unwittingly turns the Unicorn into a human female. Confused by the change, the Red Bull gives up the pursuit and disappears. The change has disastrous consequences on the Unicorn, who suffers tremendous shock at the sudden feeling of mortality in her human body. The three continue to Haggard's castle, where Schmendrick introduces the Unicorn as "Lady Amalthea" to throw off Haggard's suspicions. They manage to convince Haggard to allow them to serve him in his court, with the hopes of gathering clues as to the location of the other unicorns. During their stay, Amalthea is romanced by Haggard's adopted son, Prince Lír. Haggard eventually reveals to Amalthea that the unicorns are trapped in the sea for his own amusement, because the unicorns are the only things that make him happy. He then openly accuses Amalthea of coming to his kingdom to save the unicorns and says that he knows who she really is, but Amalthea has seemingly forgotten about her true nature and her desire to save the other unicorns. Following clues given to them by a cat, Molly, Schmendrick, and Amalthea find the entrance to the Red Bull's lair. Haggard and his men-at-arms attempt to stop them, but they manage to enter the bull's lair and are joined by Lír. When the Red Bull attacks them, Schmendrick changes Amalthea back to her original form. In an effort to save the Unicorn, Lír jumps into the bull's path and is killed. Fueled by anger and sorrow, the Unicorn drives the bull into the sea. The other unicorns are freed and they run back to their homes, with Haggard's castle falling in their wake. Lír, who has been revived by the Unicorn and is now king after Haggard's death, attempts to follow the Unicorn despite Schmendrick advising against it. As they pass through the now-ruined town of Hagsgate, they learn that Drinn is actually Lír's father, and that he had abandoned him in the marketplace on purpose to fulfill the prophecy. Realizing that he has new responsibilities as king after seeing the state of Hagsgate, Lír returns to rebuild it after accompanying Schmendrick and Molly to the outskirts of his kingdom. The Unicorn returns to her forest. She tells Schmendrick that she is different from all the other unicorns now, because she knows what it's like to feel love and regret.

In an enchanted forest, a unicorn learns that she is the last of her kind and decides to embark on a quest to learn what has become of the other unicorns. The Unicorn discovers from the addled dialogue of a butterfly that a demonic animal called the Red Bull has herded all of her kind to the ends of the earth. Venturing into unfamiliar territory beyond the safety of her forest home, she begins a journey to find them and bring them back. Along the way she is captured for a time by the witch Mommy Fortuna , and is put on display in the cages of the witch's Midnight Carnival. The unicorn later makes friends with Schmendrick , an incompetent magician under the services of Mommy Fortuna. While most of the attractions there are simply normal animals with a spell of illusion placed on them , Fortuna has managed to capture the immortal harpy Celaeno as well. The Unicorn eventually escapes and in the process, frees Celaeno, who kills Fortuna and her henchman Ruhk . The two of them later gain a second traveling companion, Molly Grue , the care-worn lover of bandit leader Captain Cully of Greenwood Forest. When the Unicorn nears the seaside castle of King Haggard, supposed keeper of the Red Bull, she comes face to face with the Bull, (which turns out to be a monstrous fire elemental. At the last moment before her final surrender and capture, Schmendrick's unpredictable magic transforms her into a mortal young woman. In this human guise, the Red Bull is uninterested in her and departs. The change has disastrous consequences on the Unicorn who suffers tremendous shock at the sudden feeling of mortality in her human body. Schmendrick, Molly Grue, and the Unicorn proceed to Haggard's castle and seek entry. King Haggard is at first unwelcoming, and Schmendrick introduces the Unicorn only as his niece Lady Amalthea. Schmendrick requests that the three of them stay there as members of Haggard's court, only to be told that all of the royal complement has long since been dispatched: the only remaining occupants in the castle are Haggard, his adopted son Prince Lír , and four ancient men-at-arms. Haggard consents to lodging the trio, replacing his more competent on-call wizard with Schmendrick, and setting Molly Grue to work in his scullery. After a while, Amalthea begins to forget her identity and her reasons for coming to the castle, and eventually falls in love with Prince Lír. Caught in a complex web of newfound emotions, she struggles with thoughts of abandoning her quest for the sake of mortal love. Haggard confronts Amalthea in private conversation, hinting at the location of the unicorns, yet from the waning magic in her eyes, he has doubts regarding his previous suspicions that she is more than she seems. Molly ends up learning some clues on the location of the Red Bull's lair from a talking cat . Going through a secret passage in a broken clock in the castle basement, Schmendrick reveals Amalthea's true identity to Lír after explaining what they are looking for. Lír, however, isn't moved at all and says that he loves her anyway. This makes Amalthea want to abandon the quest and marry Lír, but Lír believes that the quest cannot be abandoned. The Red Bull soon appears, but is no longer deceived by Amalthea's false human form and chases after her. When Amalthea trips, she hurts herself and can't run any further.As Lír struggles to protect her, Schmendrick turns Amalthea back into the Unicorn, but she is unwilling to leave Lír's side. The Bull drives her toward the ocean, just as he earlier drove all the other unicorns, but she manages to run away and the bull gives chase. Lír, still in love with her, tries to defend her, but when he gets between them and blocks the bull's path, the bull doesn't stop and Lír is killed. Enraged, the Unicorn aggressively turns on the Bull and forces him into the sea. Carried on the white surf of incoming tides, the other unicorns emerge en masse from the water, causing Haggard's castle to collapse into the sea as they rush past, with Haggard falling to his death from the crumbling castle parapet. On the beach, the Unicorn magically revives Lír before she departs for her forest. Schmendrick assures Lír, now the king, that he has gained much by winning the love of a unicorn, even if he is now alone. The Unicorn briefly returns to say goodbye to Schmendrick, who laments that he has done her wrong by burdening her with regret and the taint of mortality. She disagrees and thanks him nonetheless for having helped to restore unicorns to the world, and though she is the only unicorn to feel regret, she is also the only unicorn to know love. The ending credits begin after Schmendrick and Molly watch the Unicorn depart for her home in the woods.

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positive

Trinity's Child

By Dawn's Early Light

During the waning years of the Cold War, the United States has engaged in a massive military buildup, hoping to press the economy of the Soviet Union to breaking point and so force them into political compromise. Instead, the Soviet Premier responds by launching a limited nuclear counter-force strike against America, hoping to destroy their military capability whilst leaving the civilian population relatively intact. The President of the United States receives a teleprinter by the Premier in which he offers the United States three choices; accept the damage and the exchange will end, respond in kind (which would result in the deaths of 3 to 9 million people on both sides), or respond in full (which would certainly result in a global nuclear war). The President decides to respond in kind, much to the chagrin of Gen. Renning (codename "Icarus"), the commander-in-chief of Strategic Air Command. Icarus believes the teleprinter to be a ruse, and that the Soviet leadership will retaliate massively, thereby crushing the United States. As the order is passed on, the first wave of Soviet ICBMs and SLBMs arrive, crippling most of America's missile silos and bomber bases. A missile aimed at Andrews Air Force Base, so as to prevent the President from leaving Washington, D.C., overshoots its target and detonates in the vicinity of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Icarus then informs the President that the Soviets have launched a second strike and urges the President to launch their remaining ICBMs and bombers not destroyed in the first exchange. The President reluctantly gives the order just before SAC and Omaha, Nebraska are destroyed. As he is evacuated from the White House to be taken to Dover Air Force Base, the President is informed aboard Marine One that the second Soviet launch was directed at the Chinese who had launched their own strike against the Soviets in accordance to a treaty with the United States. Seeing his hasty response will result in further retaliatory strikes, the President falls into a stupor. Suddenly, a missile detonates over nearby Andrews AFB, and causes the helicopter to crash. Believing the President to be dead, Renning's Navy attache "Harpoon" is given the assignment of locating a successor. He learns through intel by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that the Secretary of the Interior is in the swamplands outside of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Harpoon's Boeing E-4B lands in the city and intercepts the secretary, now with the given name "Condor". The plane leaves Baton Rouge minutes before the city is struck by an ICBM. As the only known successor to be alive, Condor is sworn in as the new president. During Harpoon's briefing, the extent of the damage to both countries is revealed; the Soviet Union has suffered roughly 25 million casualties with the United States suffering 30-35 million. Along with Omaha and Baton Rouge, the cities of Seattle, Los Angeles, Colorado Springs, New Orleans, Phoenix, Raleigh, and Washington, D.C. have been destroyed. Massive social disorder and rioting have broken out in American's remaining cities. It is briefly mentioned that Europe remained neutral during the conflict and that India and Israel have declared war on Pakistan. Believing that America is "losing" the war due to having a higher casualty count, Condor, being urged by the hawkish "Librarian", an air force colonel whose expertise centers on Soviet military doctrine, orders a "Grand Tour"; sending America's remaining bombers into the Soviet Union to destroy leadership bunkers, thus decapitating the Soviet government and leaving the rest of the nation to collapse. Harpoon reasons that the plan will not work as there will be no one in power remaining to "turn off the war". During this, one of the American bombers en route to the Soviet Union abandons its mission. Seeing it as a sign for a truce, the Soviets turn 15 of their bombers around. Condor, seeing the act by the lone bomber as cowardly, states that the United States has "one deserter and the Soviets have 15". Believing Harpoon to be incompetent, Condor relieves him of his command and appoints the Librarian as his new adviser. In his quarters, Harpoon contacts Icarus's successor, "Alice", who is flying aboard the mobile command center designated "Looking Glass". Learning that a full-scale nuclear strike is imminent, Harpoon attempts to storm the cockpit and crash the plane before the order is given. He is stopped, however, and strangled. It is then discovered that the president survived the crash and is immediately taken to a FEMA bunker in the outskirts of Olney, Maryland. There, his Emergency War Orders officer learns that the Soviet Premier is attempting to make contact through a shortwave radio. Not knowing if the call is authentic, the President, now a paraplegic and blind, negotiates a cease-fire with his Russian counterpart. The President manages to make contact with Alice, who at first doubts the identity of his commander-in-chief. However, after much urging and conversation, Alice comes to realize that the man he is speaking to is authentic. The President orders Alice to turn the bombers around. Doing so earns the ire of Condor, who relieves Alice of his command. Condor then orders America's nuclear submarines to launch their arsenal when they emerge in 7 hours time. The President makes contact with Condor and attempts to order him to relinquish command. Condor refuses as he believes to be speaking to a Soviet imposter. Knowing that Condor has his authenticator codes, the President is powerless to call off the order himself. During the 7-hour window, the President and Alice attempt to create a plan to stop Condor. Alice then states that he will use the Looking Glass as a weapon to intercept the E-4B, thus killing Condor and relinquishing authority to the President. The President refutes the plan, urging that there must be another way. Alice convinces him otherwise, and the President accepts his sacrifice. Several hours elapse as Alice attempts to catch up to Condor, who declares the Looking Glass to be manned by treasonous men. Minutes before the submarines emerge and the order is given to launch, the Looking Glass intercepts the E-4B, killing everyone onboard both. Command is returned to the President who orders a full cessation of hostilities of his military. The Soviet Union responds in kind. However, the outcome of the conflicts in the Middle East and the Soviets and Chinese are left unanswered. During these events, a subplot focuses on Polar Bear One, a B-52 Stratofortress bomber on a mission to the Soviet Union with a nuclear payload. The book explores the enormous psychological stress which the crew must endure during the mission - several of the crew crack under this pressure. It is this bomber that abandons its mission and turns away from Russia.

{{Plot}} As the Soviet Union begins to undergo radical political change, a group of renegade Soviet military officers steal a nuclear missile and launch it towards the Soviet Union from Turkey. The Soviet city of Donetsk is destroyed by the stolen missile. When the missile hits, Soviet defense systems see that the weapon was launched from Turkey, and conclude that a NATO attack is in progress. The Soviets retaliate by launching ICBMs and SLBMs at the United States from both nuclear submarines and from land-based silos. Moments after the Soviet attack is launched, the President of the United States receives a teleprinter message from his counterpart in the Soviet Union saying that they have determined that the first missile was launched by renegades and not by NATO; the Premier tells the President that the Soviet Union will, without retaliation, accept a limited U.S. counterstrike comparable with the Soviet attack . However, should the U.S. counterstrike be any larger, the Soviets will have no choice but to retaliate in kind &mdash; meaning that an all-out nuclear exchange would almost certainly ensue. To further add to the turmoil, China launches its own strike against the Soviets in accordance with a treaty with the United States. The President argues over the phone with General Renning at Strategic Air Command Headquarters at Offutt AFB, Nebraska, over whether or not the teleprinter message can be trusted. The General believes it is a bluff intended to trick the U.S. into not counterattacking and leaving itself vulnerable, while the President is reluctant to launch a nuclear strike over what could be a mistake. General Renning orders his naval attache, "Harpoon", to board the Boeing E-4 airborne command post and orders a launch of his remaining land-based bombers, as most of them have been destroyed in the initial Soviet attack. After much persuasion, the President orders an initial counter-assault, just after Washington, D.C. is struck by a nuclear missile, which was originally intended to detonate over Andrews AFB, Maryland but overshot its target by 13 miles and instead detonates over Walter Reed Army Hospital. Renning then informs the President that the Soviets have launched a second attack, presumably proving him right in that the Soviet Premier was being untruthful. The President reluctantly orders a second counterstrike. Aboard Marine One, the President's Emergency War Orders officer receives a teleprinter message informing him that the second nuclear strike was directed at the Chinese, not at the United States, meaning that the United States will not suffer further casualties. The President is then evacuated from The White House on Marine One and is en route to Dover AFB, Delaware, but is presumed killed when a second nuclear weapon detonates over Andrews and causes the helicopter to crash. The President is, however, only wounded, yet now completely blind from exposure to the light of the nuclear explosion. Assuming the President is dead, the United States Army and the Federal Bureau of Investigation locate the Secretary of the Interior in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. As the only remaining Cabinet member known to still be alive, and thus next in the order of succession, the Secretary of the Interior is installed as President of the United States with the codename "Condor". Though the Secretary at first appears open to the suggestion of Harpoon, who urges a cautious approach involving reduced hostilities, he quickly decides instead to follow the advice of the hawkish Colonel Fargo, who sees the total destruction of the Soviet Union as the only acceptable resolution to the conflict. On board the Boeing E-4, Condor orders a decapitating strike on the Soviet Union, concentrating on the destruction of leadership bunkers by land-based bombers and the launch of all U.S. submarine-based nuclear missiles. Condor holds fast to his decision to attack the Soviet Union, even after hearing that the President of the United States is still alive, as he believes the communication to be a trick by the Soviet Union. In Olney, Maryland, the President is taken to a nearby Federal Emergency Management Agency emergency shelter, where he is able to get in touch with the Soviet Premier via shortwave, though there is some question at the time of whether the authentication is legitimate. He then contacts the Looking Glass command aircraft which recognizes that the President is still alive. He then orders the Looking Glass aircraft battle staff to stand down the bombers and land-based missiles; however, to prevent Condor from ordering the launch of the submarine-based missiles from the U.S. Navy's TACAMO communications aircraft, the Looking Glass aircraft loyal to the President pledges to ram the E-4B. Minutes before Condor sends out the order for a full-scale nuclear strike, the Looking Glass is able to ram the E-4B . The President then reasserts control and orders a stand-down of all U.S. nuclear and military forces. The Soviet Union responds in kind. However, the outcome of the conflict between Soviet Union and China is left unanswered.

positive

positive

On Stranger Tides

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

This book follows the exploits of John "Jack Shandy" Chandagnac, who travels to the new world after the death of his puppeteer father to confront his uncle, who apparently has made off with the family inheritance. During the voyage, he gets to know a woman named Beth Hurwood and her father Benjamin Hurwood, an Oxford professor. Before they arrive, their ship is waylaid by pirates and, with the help of the professor and his assistant, the captain is killed and Chandagnac is forced to join the pirate crew. The reader discovers a sinister plot being concocted by the professor involving his dead wife, his living daughter, the Fountain of Youth, and Blackbeard. Chandagnac, now known as "Jack Shandy", must put a stop to these plans and save Beth Hurwood.

After a failed attempt to rescue his first mate, Joshamee Gibbs in London, Captain Jack Sparrow is brought before King George II , who wants Jack to guide an expedition to the Fountain of Youth before the Spanish locate it. Heading the expedition is Jack's old nemesis, Captain Hector Barbossa , now a privateer in service to the Royal Navy after losing his leg and ship, the Black Pearl. Jack escapes, but his father, Captain Teague , finds him and warns Jack about the Fountain's tests. He also reveals that someone is impersonating Jack. The impostor is Angelica , Jack's former lover and self-proclaimed daughter of the ruthless pirate Blackbeard , who practices voodoo magic and wields a magical sword that controls his ship. Jack is taken aboard Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, and forced to lead the way to the Fountain and find two silver chalices that once belonged to Juan Ponce de León, both believed to be aboard his lost ship. The Fountain's water must be drunk simultaneously from the two chalices. The person drinking from the chalice containing a mermaid's tear has their life extended, while the other person dies, their life drained from their body and their remaining years 'donated' to the other. Meanwhile, Gibbs, having memorized and destroyed Jack's map, barters with Barbossa to guide him to the Fountain. Blackbeard seeks the Fountain's power to circumvent his predestined fatal encounter with "a one-legged man," and sets a course for Whitecap Bay. There they are attacked by a vicious horde of mermaids, but Blackbeard captures one . Philip Swift , a captive missionary, falls in love with the mermaid and names her Syrena. Blackbeard then sends Jack to retrieve the chalices from de León's ship. When Jack finds the grounded, decaying vessel, Barbossa is waiting inside and the Spanish are in possession of the chalices. However, Barbossa only seeks revenge against Blackbeard for capturing the Black Pearl, which forced Barbossa to amputate his own leg to escape. He and Jack join forces to defeat Blackbeard, then head to the nearby Spanish camp to steal the chalices. Meanwhile, Syrena, reciprocating Philip's love, is tricked into shedding a tear which Blackbeard collects, leaving her to die. Philip is forced to go with him. Jack returns with the chalices and Gibbs, with whom he had reunited while assisting Barbossa. Jack and Blackbeard bargain for Jack's confiscated magical compass and Gibbs' release. In return, Jack vows to give Blackbeard the chalices and lead him to the Fountain; Blackbeard agrees and Gibbs departs with the compass. At the Fountain, Blackbeard and his crew are attacked by Barbossa, and then by the Spanish, there to destroy the Fountain, their king believing its power is an abomination against God. A battle ensues and Barbossa stabs Blackbeard with a poison-laced sword. Angelica accidentally cuts herself while removing it from Blackbeard. Barbossa claims Blackbeard's magical sword and assumes command, leaving with Blackbeard's crew. Meanwhile, Philip, though mortally wounded, escapes and returns to free Syrena. After finding the chalices that the Spaniard had tossed into deep water, Syrena gives them to Jack, then retrieves the dying Philip as she kisses and takes him underwater. With Blackbeard and Angelica wounded, Jack brings the chalices to them and tries to convince Angelica to drink from the one with the tear, but Blackbeard asks his daughter to sacrifice herself. Angelica agrees and drinks. Knowing that the self-serving Blackbeard would sacrifice his surrogate daughter, Jack lied about which chalice contained the tear. Blackbeard's body is drained by the waters of the Fountain and destroyed. Although Angelica admits her love for Jack, he strands her on an island, knowing that she may want to avenge Blackbeard. Barbossa, who now captains the Queen Anne's Revenge, quits being a privateer and returns to piracy. Jack finds Gibbs, who has used the compass to locate the shrunken Black Pearl and is shown to be in possession of all ships Blackbeard had shrunken in bottles. Hoping to bring the Black Pearl to its original size, the two head off into the sunset, determined to continue living a pirate's life. In a post-credits scene, Blackbeard's voodoo doll of Jack has washed ashore on the island and is found by Angelica, to which she reacts with a grin.

positive

positive

Emma

Emma

Emma Woodhouse, aged 20 at the start of the novel, is a young, beautiful, witty, and privileged woman in Regency England. She lives on the fictional estate of Hartfield in Surrey in the village of Highbury with her elderly widowed father, a hypochondriac who is excessively concerned for the health and safety of his loved ones. Emma's friend and only critic is the gentlemanly George Knightley, her neighbour from the adjacent estate of Donwell, and the brother of her elder sister Isabella's husband, John. As the novel opens, Emma has just attended the wedding of Miss Taylor, her best friend and former governess. Having introduced Miss Taylor to her future husband, Mr. Weston, Emma takes credit for their marriage, and decides that she rather likes matchmaking. Against Mr. Knightley's advice, Emma forges ahead with her new interest, and tries to match her new friend Harriet Smith, a sweet, pretty, but none-too-bright parlour boarder of seventeen &mdash;described as "the natural daughter of somebody"&mdash; to Mr. Elton, the local vicar. Emma becomes convinced that Mr. Elton's constant attentions are a result of his attraction and growing love for Harriet. But before events can unfold as she plans, Emma must first persuade Harriet to refuse an advantageous marriage proposal. Her suitor is a respectable, educated, and well-spoken young gentleman farmer, Robert Martin, but Emma snobbishly decides he isn't good enough for Harriet. Against her own wishes, the easily-influenced Harriet rejects Mr. Martin. Emma's schemes go awry when Mr. Elton, a social climber, fancies Emma is in love with him and proposes to her. Emma's friends had suggested that Mr. Elton's attentions were really directed at her, but she had misread the signs. Emma, rather shocked and a bit insulted, tells Mr. Elton that she had thought him attached to Harriet; however Elton is outraged at the very idea of marrying the socially inferior Harriet. After Emma rejects Mr. Elton, he leaves for a while for a sojourn in Bath, and Harriet fancies herself heartbroken. Emma feels dreadful about misleading Harriet and resolves—briefly—to interfere less in people's lives. Mr. Elton, as Emma's misconceptions of his character melt away, reveals himself to be arrogant, resentful, and pompous. He soon returns from Bath with a pretentious, nouveau-riche wife who becomes part of Emma's social circle, though the two women soon loathe each other. The Eltons treat the still lovestruck Harriet deplorably, culminating with Mr Elton very publicly snubbing Harriet at a dance. Mr Knightley, who had until this moment refrained from dancing, gallantly steps in to partner Harriet, much to Emma's gratification. An interesting development is the arrival in the neighbourhood of the handsome and charming Frank Churchill, Mr. Weston's son, who had been given to his deceased wife's wealthy brother and his wife, the Churchills, to raise. Frank, who is now Mrs. Weston's stepson, and Emma have never met, but she has a long-standing interest in doing so. The whole neighborhood takes a fancy to him, with the partial exception of Mr. Knightley, who becomes uncharacteristically grumpy whenever his name is mentioned and suggests to Emma that while Frank is clever and engaging, he is also a rather shallow character. A third newcomer is the orphaned Jane Fairfax, the reserved, beautiful, and elegant niece of Emma's impoverished neighbour, the talkative Miss Bates, who lives with her deaf, widowed mother. Miss Bates is an aging spinster, well-meaning but increasingly poor; Emma strives to be polite and kind to her, but is irritated by her constant chattering. Jane, very gifted musically, is Miss Bates' pride and joy; Emma envies her talent, and although she has known Jane all her life has never warmed to her personally. Jane had lived with Miss Bates until she was nine, but Colonel Campbell, a friend of her father's, welcomed her into his own home, where she became fast friends with his daughter and received a first-rate education. But now Miss Campbell has married, and the accomplished but penniless Jane has returned to her Bates relations, ostensibly to regain her health and to prepare to earn her living as a governess. Emma is annoyed to find the entire neighborhood, including Mrs. Weston and Mr. Knightley, singing Jane's praises, but when Mrs. Elton, who fancies herself the new leader of Highbury society, patronizingly takes Jane under her wing and announces that she will find her the ideal governess post, Emma begins to feel some sympathy for Jane's predicament. Still, Emma sees something mysterious in Jane's sudden return to Highbury and imagines that Jane and Miss Campbell's husband, Mr. Dixon, were mutually attracted, and that is why she has come home instead of going to Ireland to visit them. She shares her suspicions with Frank, who had become acquainted with Jane and the Campbells when they met at a vacation spot a year earlier, and he apparently agrees with her. Suspicions are further fueled when a piano, sent by an anonymous benefactor, arrives for Jane. Emma tries to make herself fall in love with Frank largely because almost everyone seems to expect it. Frank appears to be courting Emma, and the two flirt and banter together in public, at parties, and on a day-trip to Box Hill, a local beauty spot. However, when his demanding and ailing aunt, Mrs. Churchill, summons Frank home, Emma discovers she does not miss her "lover" nearly as much as she expected and sets about plotting a match between him and Harriet, who seems to have finally gotten over Mr. Elton. Harriet breathlessly reports that Frank has "saved" her from a band of Gypsies, and seems to be confessing her admiration for him. Meanwhile, Mrs. Weston wonders if Emma's old friend Mr. Knightley has taken a fancy to Jane. Emma immediately dismisses that idea and protests that she does not want Mr. Knightley to marry anyone, and that her little nephew Henry must inherit Donwell, the Knightley family property. When Mr. Knightley scolds her for a thoughtless insult to Miss Bates, Emma is stunned and ashamed and tries to atone by going to visit Miss Bates. Mr. Knightley is surprised and deeply impressed by Emma's recognition of her wrongdoing, but this meaningful rapprochement is broken off when he announces he must leave for London to visit his brother. Meanwhile, Jane reportedly becomes ill, but refuses to see Emma or accept her gifts, and it is suddenly announced that she has accepted a governess position from one of Mrs. Elton's friends. On the heels of this comes word that Frank Churchill's aunt has died, and with it the astonishing news that Frank and Jane have been secretly engaged since they first met on holiday a year ago. They had been keeping the engagement quiet because they knew that Frank's imperious aunt would disapprove and likely disinherit him if he went through with the match. The strain of the clandestine relationship had been much harder on the conscientious Jane than the carefree Frank, and the two had quarreled bitterly; but now that his aunt has died, his easygoing uncle has already given his blessing. The engagement becomes public, the secrets behind Jane and Frank's behavior are revealed, and Emma is chagrined to discover that once again she has been so wrong about so much. Emma is certain that Harriet will be devastated by Frank's engagement, but Harriet reassures her that this is not the case. In fact, Harriet tells Emma, it is Mr. Knightley who has captured her heart, and she believes he returns her feelings. Emma is dumbstruck over what she at first thinks is the impropriety of the match, but as she faces her feelings of dismay and jealousy, she realizes in a flash that she has long been in love with Mr. Knightley herself. She is shattered to think that it may be too late and resolves to support her dear friends in whatever they do, even at the cost of her own broken heart. However, when Mr. Knightley hurries back to Highbury to console Emma over what he imagines to be the loss of Frank Churchill, she discovers that he is also in love with her. He proposes and she joyfully accepts. There is one more match to be made: With encouragement from Mr. Knightley, the farmer Robert Martin proposes again to Harriet, and this time she accepts. Jane and Emma reconcile and all misunderstandings are cleared up before Jane and Frank leave for their wedding and life with his uncle in Yorkshire. Emma and Mr. Knightley decide that after their marriage they will live with Emma's father at Hartfield to spare Mr. Woodhouse loneliness and distress. They seem headed for a union of "perfect happiness," to the great joy of their friends. Mrs. Weston gives birth to a baby girl, to the great satisfaction of Emma, who looks forward to introducing little Miss Weston to her young nephews.

The film describes a year in the life of Emma Woodhouse, a congenial but naïve young woman who thinks of herself as a romantic matchmaker in her small community in early-19th-century England. When her governess, Miss Taylor, gets married and goes to live with her new husband, Mr Weston, Emma proudly takes credit for having brought the couple together. Her father and their old family friend George Knightley dispute her claim and disapprove of her trying to make more matches, but she ignores their warnings and sets her mind on setting up Mr Elton, the minister who performed the Westons's marriage ceremony, with Harriet Smith, an unsophisticated young woman just entering society. As a close friendship develops between Emma and Harriet, it becomes clear that Harriet is being courted by Robert Martin, a farmer who has known Harriet since she was a girl. When Mr Martin proposes to Harriet, she is inclined to accept, but she has come to rely heavily on Emma's advice, and Emma persuades her to reject the proposal. Meanwhile, Mr Elton has been expressing a desire for Emma by taking an interest in a picture she drew of Harriet and by giving her a riddle for a book of riddles being compiled by Harriet. Emma misinterprets this as interest in Harriet, but when Mr Elton and Emma are alone, he fervently declares his love for Emma herself, and she finally realizes her mistake. She rejects his pleas, and he later marries another woman, who turns out to be a vain socialite who competes with Emma for status in the community. Over the next few months, various gatherings show who loves whom among Emma's friends: * Emma is briefly attracted to a charming, gallant young man named Frank Churchill, Mr Weston's son who comes to visit from London, but Emma soon decides to set him up with Harriet. * Frank Churchill is revealed to have a secret engagement with a shy, pretty woman named Jane Fairfax. * Harriet has no interest in Frank, preferring Mr Knightley, who was the only man who would dance with her at a party. * Mr Knightley danced with Harriet only out of politeness, and is starting to fall in love with Emma. The conclusion of the story begins when Emma ridicules a poor woman named Miss Bates during a picnic, after which Mr. Knightley angrily scolds Emma and leaves town for a while. She finds herself thinking about him while he's away, but doesn't realise she loves him until Harriet expresses interest in him. When Mr Knightley returns, he and Emma cross paths in a meadow and have a conversation that begins awkwardly but ends with him asking her to marry him and her gladly accepting. The news of their engagement upsets Harriet, who avoids Emma for a while, but returns a few weeks later, engaged to Mr Martin. The film ends with Emma and Mr Knightley's wedding.

positive

positive

'Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot

Ben Mears, a successful writer who grew up in the town of Jerusalem's Lot, Maine, has returned home after twenty-five years. He quickly becomes friends with high school teacher Matt Burke and strikes up a romantic relationship with Susan Norton, a young college graduate. Ben starts writing a book about the Marsten House, an abandoned mansion where he had a bad experience as a child. Mears learns that the Marsten House—the former home of Depression-era hitman Hubert "Hubie" Marsten—has been purchased by Kurt Barlow, an Austrian immigrant who has arrived in the Lot ostensibly to open an antique store. Barlow is an apparent recluse; only his business partner, Richard Straker, is seen in public. The duo's arrival coincides with the disappearance of a young boy, Ralphie Glick, and the death of his brother Danny, who becomes the town's first vampire, infecting such locals as Mike Ryerson, Randy McDougall, Jack Griffen, and Danny's own mother, Marjorie Glick. Danny fails, however, to infect Mark Petrie, who resists him successfully. Over the course of several weeks almost all of the townspeople are infected. Ben Mears and Susan are joined by Matt Burke and his doctor, Jimmy Cody, along with young Mark Petrie and the local priest, Father Callahan, in an effort to fight the spread of the vampires, whose numbers increase as the new vampires infect their own families and others. Susan is captured by Barlow before Mark has a chance to rescue her. Susan becomes a vampire, and is eventually staked through the heart by Mears, the man who loved her. Father Callahan is caught by Barlow at the Petrie house after Barlow kills Mark's parents, but does not infect them, so they are later given a clean burial. Barlow holds Mark hostage, but Father Callahan has the upper hand, securing Mark's release, agreeing to Barlow's demand that he toss aside his cross and face him on equal terms. However he delays throwing the cross aside and the once powerful religious symbol loses its strength until Barlow can not only approach Callahan but break the cross, now nothing more than two small pieces of plaster, into bits. Barlow says "Sad to see a man's faith fail him", then forces the helpless Callahan to drink blood from Barlow's neck. Callahan resists but cannot hold out forever and is forced to drink, leaving him trapped in a netherworld, as Barlow has left his mark. When Callahan tries to re-enter his church he receives an electric shock, preventing him from going inside. Callahan disappears forever from "the Lot". Jimmy Cody is killed when he falls from a rigged staircase and is impaled by knives by the one-time denizens of Eva Miller's boarding house, Mears' one-time residence, who have now all become vampires. Matt Burke dies from a heart attack in the town hospital. Ben Mears and Mark Petrie succeed in destroying the master vampire Barlow, but are lucky to escape with their lives and are forced to leave the town to the now leaderless vampires. The novel's prologue, which is set shortly after the end of the story proper, describes the men's flight across the country to a seaside town in Mexico, where they stop to recover from their ordeal. Mark Petrie is received into the Catholic Church by a friendly local priest. The epilogue has the two returning to the town a year later, intending to renew the battle. Ben, knowing that there are too many hiding places for the town's vampires, sets the town on fire with the intent of destroying it and the Marsten House once and for all.

The prologue shows a church in Guatemala in which two men, Ben Mears and Mark Petrie, are filling small bottles with holy water. When one of the bottles begins to emit an eerie supernatural glow, Mears tells Petrie "They've found us again." The story then flashes back two years, to the small town of Salem's Lot in Maine in the United States. Ben Mears, an author, has returned to the town after a long absence to write a book about the Marsten House, an ominous old property on a hilltop which has a reputation for being haunted. Mears attempts to rent the house but finds that another new arrival in town, the mysterious Richard Straker, has recently bought it. Straker also opens an antique shop with his oft-mentioned but always absent business partner, Kurt Barlow. Meanwhile, Mears moves into a boarding house in town run by Eva Miller, and develops a romantic relationship with a local woman, Susan Norton. He befriends Susan's father, Dr. Bill Norton, and also renews his old friendship with his former school teacher, Jason Burke. Mears tells Burke that he feels the Marsten House is somehow inherently evil, and recalls how he was once traumatized in the house when he was a child. After a large crate is delivered to the Marsten House one night, an increasing number of the townsfolk begin to disappear or die in strange circumstances. Both Mears and Straker are initially the main suspects as they are new in town, but it becomes clear that the crate contained Straker's mysterious business partner, Kurt Barlow, an ancient master vampire who has come to the town after having sent Straker to make way for his arrival. Straker kills a young local boy, Ralphie Glick, as an offering to Barlow, while Barlow himself kills local realtor Larry Crockett after he is chased out of the home of Bonnie Sawyer by Bonnie's husband. The Glick boy then returns as a vampire to claim his brother, Danny, who himself becomes undead. In turn, Danny kills the local gravedigger Mike Ryerson who was bothered by Danny's open eyes and then attempts to kill his schoolfriend Mark Petrie. However, Mark is a horror film buff who manages to repel Danny with a crucifix. Slowly, the vampires spread as Mears and Burke figure out what is happening to the town and attempt to do something to stop it. Mark's parents are both killed by Barlow, though Mark is allowed to escape when the local priest, Father Callahan, sacrifices himself to Barlow. Jason Burke, however, falls prey to a heart attack following an encounter with the newly vampirised Mike Ryerson. In the end, Susan Norton and Mark Petrie are captured by Straker after breaking into the Marsten House. Armed with wooden stakes and holy water, Mears and Dr. Norton head over to the house to destroy Barlow when they run into Mark who has managed to escape. Inside the house, Dr. Norton is killed by Straker, who is himself then killed by Mears using a pistol. Afterwards, Mears and Petrie find Barlow's coffin in the cellar and destroy him by driving a stake through his heart. They then escape from the other vampires in the cellar , and set fire to the house. However, Susan is nowhere to be found. As the house burns, the wind begins to carry the fire towards the town itself. Mears and Petrie then flee Salem's Lot knowing that the fire will drive all the other vampires from their hiding places and purify the town from the evil that has engulfed it. The story then returns to Mears and Petrie at the church in Guatemala two years later. It quickly becomes clear that they are on the run from the surviving vampires from Salem's Lot, who have been relentlessly pursuing them. Their supplies of holy water glow whenever a vampire is nearby. Realising that they have been tracked down yet again, Mears and Petrie return to their lodgings to collect their belongings. However, once there, Mears finds Susan lying in his bed. Now a vampire, she prepares to bite him as he leans down to kiss her, but he drives a stake through her heart. Filled with grief, he and Petrie leave, knowing that vampires are still hunting them.

positive

positive

Freedomland

Freedomland

Brenda Martin walks into the hospital emergency room in a state of shock. As doctors bandage her hands, they find out she is the victim of a carjacking near Armstrong. Detective Lorenzo Council meets with her, and through her tears gets the story that her four-year-old son Cody was in the backseat of the car. She then describes the assailant as being a young black man with a shaved head and scary eyes. Local reporter Jesse Haus follows up on this relatively minor news story, and is one of the first to learn about the kidnapping. After promising to write a story on Bump Rosen’s son, she gets an inside chance to be next to Brenda. As the Gannon and Dempsey police blockade the crime area, Lorenzo works to get more details from Brenda, and Jesse works on details for her story. Lorenzo has Jesse stay with Brenda so she is not alone, and Jesse discovers Brenda’s love of classic R&B music. Lorenzo, under a deadline to solve the case or lose it to the FBI, starts asking all of his contacts for any information. False or no information is the result, and the residents of Armstrong are beginning to express outrage at the blockade. George Howard is arrested in hopes of getting information from him, but his unfair arrest only pushes passions higher. In a last chance to elicit information from Brenda, Lorenzo takes her to the abandoned Freedomtown theme park and opens up to her, hoping that she will do the same in turn. Ben Haus brings in Karen Collucci and the Friends of Kent (an organization that searches for missing children) to speak to Brenda and organize a search party for Cody. They figure the most likely place to search would be an abandoned, overgrown mental hospital not too far from where the carjacking occurred. Understanding that the Friends of Kent have a hidden agenda, Jesse sticks close to Brenda and Elaine during the search. Lorenzo has an asthma attack and ends up in the hospital. After he is gone, the group arrives at a building where a child’s body had been found years earlier. There, Brenda hears a child crying, and confesses to knowing where Cody is. Days before, when Brenda had gone downstairs to meet her boyfriend Billy, she came back up and found Cody dead of a Benadryl overdose. She panicked and ran away, until she finally called Billy and told him what happened. He went over and took Cody to Freedomtown and buried him in front of the Chicago Fire exhibit, as per a written request from Brenda. When Brenda returned, Cody was gone and the spot was cleaned up. Then, while sitting next to the railroad and only half thinking about it, she jams her hands into the ground (causing her injuries) and makes her way to the hospital on foot. As the story comes out, Dempsey residents are outraged, and Lorenzo feels a protest riot in is the air. That night, the feeling subsides when a man dies in an elevator accident. The next day, local leaders plan a march to demonstrate against the unfair treatment they received during the carjacking-kidnapping story. They march into Gannon with a police escort, and then back into Dempsey. At the end of the march, a fight breaks out and another resident is killed. The novel ends with a funeral for Cody, followed soon after by Brenda’s suicide. This seems to end the saga, leaving the residents of both cities emotionally exhausted.

{{Plot}} The film opens with Brenda wandering through the projects at night. She eventually comes to a hospital, goes into the emergency room and reveals her hands, which are cut and covered in blood. The film cuts to Lorenzo , a policeman, and his partner, who are trying to pick up a criminal on a warrant from the next town. He gets a call about seeing Brenda, is instructed to take a report on her stolen car, and heads for the hospital. Brenda is in shock, but after a few minutes, she reveals to Lorenzo that her four year-old son, Cody, was in the back seat of her car when it was stolen. Lorenzo reacts to this with an asthma attack, and one of the hospital's doctors gives him a shot of adrenaline. It is also revealed that Brenda's brother is a policeman in the next, predominantly white, town. The police begin to search for Brenda's son. Her brother overreacts and calls every police car to seal up the projects and look for clues. Tensions grow as the local media cover the story extensively. Lorenzo takes Brenda home, but he suspects that there’s something she’s not telling him. After dropping her off at her place, he starts to drive home and realizes he’s being followed. He pulls over and discovers it’s a volunteer group that helps look for missing children. He declines their help and goes home. The next day, Lorenzo visits his incarcerated son, then checks up on Brenda, who has helped a sketch artist draw a rendering of the man who took her car. There’s still no sign of Cody, and tensions are rising around the projects. Lorenzo again asks Brenda what really happened to Cody and she pleads with him to believe her, that Cody is her life and she would never hurt him. She goes by the daycare center where she works and the children try to cheer her up. As she’s leaving, a mother tells Brenda to stay away from her child. The white town’s cops show up at the projects and arrest a man. They beat him, drag him back to the precinct and hold up the drawing of the wanted man, whom he resembles. They start to question him when Lorenzo and Brenda’s brother show up. Brenda's brother goes into a rage and beats the man, and other officers have to drag them apart. Lorenzo leaves in horror and runs into his partner outside. Realizing that the case will be turned over to federal investigators, Lorenzo asks his partner to stall them for one more day. Lorenzo calls in the volunteer group and suggests they search Freedomland. It’s the site of an old foundlings’ home - abandoned for years - and the only place in the area where a small child could wander or hide for some time. They also feel that taking Brenda there will get the truth out of her via the psychological impact of the place. The searchers gather and Lorenzo learns that their leader lost her son about ten years before. As they search, she talks to Brenda. The leader tells Brenda how she wishes she knew where her son was, how she knows who did it, but can’t prove it. She runs through what she would like to say to the man to get him to tell her if her son was dead and where his body was placed. Gradually, she shifts the context of the sentence to asking Brenda if her son was dead. Brenda begins to cry and the search leader motions to Lorenzo, knowing that she killed Cody. Brenda reveals that Freedomland is the wrong place to look. She leads them to another park, in which they find a shallow grave covered with heavy rocks, where Cody is buried. Lorenzo calls in the forensic team, ordering an exhumation. He also realizes Brenda couldn't have moved such heavy rocks. Lorenzo takes her back to the police department and they talk. Brenda then confesses she was having an affair with Billy, a man from the projects. She would feed Cody cough syrup, to get him to sleep, so she could have sex with Billy without interruption. On the night Billy ended the relationship, Cody wouldn't fall asleep and Brenda and Billy fought. Brenda walked out to see him, despite her son's warnings that she would be sorry. When she returned, she found Cody dead under the table. He'd overdosed on the cough syrup. When Brenda realized what happened, she lost it, not knowing what to do. She drove out to the woods and dug his grave with her bare hands. Then she called her ex-lover and asked him to help. He carried Cody out there, buried him, and put the rocks over the grave - both as a tribute and to keep animals away. Lorenzo signs an arrest warrant and both Brenda and Billy are taken away. That night, the police make their presence known in the projects due to the tensions over the arrest of another black man. Tensions are even higher, and Lorenzo implores both sides to calm down and step back before things go too far. However, several tenants do not. Among them is a young man Lorenzo has been trying to keep out of trouble, who throws the first punch at a police officer saying "Y'all have a good night". The situation erupts into a full-scale riot. Fires are set, people beaten, cops jumped and arrests made everywhere. Lorenzo attempts to break up fights but ends up getting struck by a billy club when pulling a tenant off of a fellow cop. The next day, Brenda is charged with criminal negligence in court and sits in prison awaiting trial. Lorenzo visits Brenda in prison and tells her to channel her grief into something positive - helping other prisoners. Brenda says she loves Lorenzo for his heart, and thanks him,then kisses him. He promises he'll visit her. Then he visits his son and breaks down into tears. Later on, Lorenzo and his partner go to a memorial for Kent, the search mother's dead son, and Cody. Lorenzo reads a eulogy about life, and thanks his partner for bringing him there, as they walk away.

positive

positive

Skipping Christmas

Christmas with the Kranks

The story focus on how Luther and Nora Krank try to avoid the frenzy traditionally experienced during the Christmas holiday. On the Sunday after Thanksgiving, the two bring their daughter Blair to the airport, where she departs for a year-long assignment in a remote area of Peru with the Peace Corps. Nora bemoans the fact the upcoming Christmas will be their first time they are separated as a family, prompting her husband to calculate how much they spent celebrating the holidays the prior year. When he realizes they have little to show for the $6,100 they invested in decorations, gifts, and entertaining, he decides to skip all the hubbub at home and surprise Nora by booking a ten-day Caribbean Cruise aboard the Island Princess. Nora at first is skeptical but accepts the idea under one condition to still give a donation to the church and Children's Hospital of $600. At first Luther refuses, but when she refuses the idea otherwise he agrees and they begin to plan the trip. It doesn't take long for Nora to adjust to the idea of no Christmas shopping, no Christmas tree, and no Christmas Eve party they host every year. To the couple's amazement, their neighbors on Hemlock Street strongly object to their decision to boycott the holiday, because their decision not to decorate their home will jeopardize their winning the coveted prize for best decorated block in the neighborhood. The local Boy Scout troop is dismayed when the Kranks refuse to support them by purchasing a tree, the police are angered when they decline to buy a calendar, the fruitcakes salesmen are shocked to find that they will not be buying a fruitcake this year, and the stationer is upset when he loses their annual order of engraved greeting cards. Luther and Nora find themselves the objects of derision and anxiously await their departure on Christmas Day. Without warning, Blair calls on Christmas Eve to tell them she's at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with mere hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law's arrival. When the Boy Scouts are sold out of Christmas trees, Luther arranges to borrow the tree of a neighbor leaving for the holidays. He and Vic Frohmeyer's son Spike try to transport it across the street, but the neighbors notice and think that Luther is stealing the family's Christmas tree and they phone the police, leaving Luther to barely escape arrest. At the end Luther attempts to set up a Frosty the Snowman decoration on his roof, but fails and barely escapes possible death. After noticing the scene, the Kranks admit the truth and are rescued by everyone they've alienated, who pull together and provide the Christmas celebration Blair is expecting. Blair calls before the party can be started saying she has arrived. After successfully keeping Blair and her fiance busy so the party can get started, Luther gives in to celebrating Christmas and gives the cruise package to a neighbor who he doesn't get along with very well, and who is having a very bad Christmas because his wife may have a terminal disease.

After Luther Krank and Nora Krank see their daughter, Blair depart for a Peace Corps assignment in Peru on the Sunday following Thanksgiving, empty nest syndrome sets in. Luther calculates the couple spent $6,132 during the previous year's holiday season and, not looking forward to celebrating Christmas without their daughter, he suggests they invest the money usually spent on decorations, gifts, and entertainment and treat themselves to a ten-day Caribbean cruise instead. Skeptical at first, Nora finally agrees under the condition that they still give a donation to the church and Children's Hospital. Luther tries to refuse but finally agrees and they begin planning the trip. The Kranks are amazed to discover they are considered pariahs as a result of their decision. Luther's co-workers think he has become Ebenezer Scrooge when he gives all his employees letters that state about his Christmas boycott, local stationer Aubie is distressed to lose the couple's order for their engraved greeting cards and Christmas Eve party invitations, the Boy Scout troop is upset and angered when the Kranks refuse to purchase one of their Christmas trees to help the scouts make enough money for a camporee, and the police are stunned to discover they won't be buying this year's calendar from them. Most vocal in their objections are neighbors Vic Frohmeyer and Walt Scheel . Vic, who's the unelected leader of the street, organizes a campaign to force the Kranks to decorate their home so Hemlock Street won't lose the coveted award for best decorations. Walt doesn't seem to like Luther, so his efforts are primarily personal. However, it is revealed that Walt's wife Bev is suffering from cancer, perhaps dampening his holiday spirits. Children picket, led by Vic's son Spike , neighbors constantly call, and Christmas carolers try to revive the Kranks' holiday spirit by singing on their lawn which Luther stops them by freezing his front lawn. Even the newspaper gets into the act by publishing a front page story complete with a photograph of the unlit Krank house and states that the Kranks' street has lost the prize and won sixth place because of how Luther and Nora refused to decorate their house. Still, Luther and Nora continue to stand their ground. The two are in the process of packing on Christmas Eve morning when they receive a call from Blair, who announces she's at Miami International Airport, en route home with her Peruvian fiancé as a surprise for her parents. She's anxious to introduce Enrique to her family's holiday traditions, and when she asks if they're having their usual party that night, a panicked Nora says yes, much to Luther's dismay. Comic chaos ensues as the couple finds themselves trying to decorate the house and coordinate a party with only twelve hours to spare before their daughter and future son-in-law arrive. While Nora scrambles to find food, especially Blair's favorite ham, Luther buys a tree from the Boy Scouts but they only have one left; a dead, ugly, non-green tree. Luther buys it anyway but rejects it by throwing it in his backyard. While Spike leads a picket at the Kranks', Luther arranges to borrow the tree of neighbor Wes Trogdon who is going away for a couple of days. Luther and Spike try to transport it across the street on Spike's Radio Flyer wagon, only for the neighbors to confuse this to be Luther stealing the family's Christmas tree, and to be stopped by the police, who assume they have stopped a robbery in progress. Spike comes to Luther's rescue. Nora comes home enraged at Luther for making the borrowed Christmas tree a "Disaster" and how she had to buy "Smoked Trout" to replace the honey ham . Once it is established why Luther is trying frantically to decorate his home, the neighbors, led by Vic, come out full force to help him and Nora ready it for Blair. Blair calls to say she landed from Miami. After giving everybody including Blair and Enrique, an unthankful and non-friendly toast, Luther tries to convince Nora to accept the cruise when she confronts him for the toast, but she refuses, disgusted that he isn't happy that Blair's home. Luther sadly slips out of the house and goes across the street to the Scheel home. Bev's cancer, once in remission, has returned and, knowing this may be their last holiday together, Luther insists they take the cruise in place of him and Nora, going so far as to offer to take care of their hated cat, Muffles, who's always under Luther's foot. At first they decline, but ultimately they accept his generosity, and Luther, whose holiday spirit has been renewed, realizes that skipping Christmas wasn't as good an idea as he had originally thought.

negative

positive

The Beast Within

The Beast Within

A lonely wife cheats. A brutal husband gets revenge. A not-so-innocent stranger hears a cellar door scrape shut and begins twenty years of indescribable horror, chained in total darkness, feeding on live rats and human flesh, becoming himself the nightmare creature that lurks within us all.

While driving through Mississippi on their honeymoon, Caroline and Eli MacCleary are stranded on a deserted road when their car is stuck in the mud. Eli is forced to walk several miles down the road to a service station they stopped at earlier to get a tow. While he is gone, Caroline is attacked and raped by a mysterious creature. Seventeen years later, their son Michael has become gravely ill, and the doctors have no idea what is causing the sickness, only that a pituitary gland has gone out of control. Theorizing that the sickness might be genetic, Eli and Caroline finally confront the past and return to the small town where she was attacked to hopefully discover some information about the man who assaulted her. The local townspeople are reluctant to help, with both the newspaper editor and the town judge brushing aside their questions. But then Eli and Caroline hear a story about a local man who was murdered 17 years earlier, his body partially eaten and his house almost burned down. Meanwhile Michael has escaped from the hospital and returned to the same town, unbeknownst to his parents. His personality undergoes a frightening transformation, and he quickly begins to attack and kill specific people in the community, including the paper editor and the local mortician, both of whom were related to each other. After several more revelations, including the discovery of a swamp filled with bodies whose bones show signs of having been gnawed on, Caroline and Eli finally discover the terrible truth about the creature that attacked her those many years ago. And what's worse, it appears that the creature is about to be reborn through Michael, and its murderous actions are the direct consequence of a carefully concealed secret.

positive

positive

The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

Private investigator Philip Marlowe is called to the home of wealthy, elderly General Sternwood. He wants Marlowe to deal with a blackmail attempt by a bookseller named Arthur Geiger on his wild young daughter Carmen. She had previously been blackmailed by a Joe Brody. Sternwood mentions his other, older daughter Vivian, who is in a loveless marriage with a man named Rusty Regan, who has disappeared. On Marlowe's way out, Vivian wonders if he was hired to find Regan, but Marlowe won’t say. Marlowe investigates Geiger’s bookstore and determines it is a pornography lending library. He follows Geiger home, stakes out his house, and sees Carmen Sternwood enter. Later, he hears a scream followed by gunshots and two cars speeding away. He rushes in to find Geiger dead and Carmen drugged and naked in front of an empty camera. He takes her home, but when he returns, Geiger’s body is gone and he quickly leaves. The next day, the police call him and let him know the Sternwoods' car was found driven off a pier with their chauffeur dead inside. It appears that he was hit before the car entered the water. The police also ask if Marlowe is looking for Regan. Marlowe stakes out the bookstore and sees its inventory being moved to Joe Brody’s home. Vivian comes to his office and says Carmen is now being blackmailed with the nude photos from last night. She also mentions going gambling at the casino of Eddie Mars, and volunteers that Eddie's wife Mona ran off with Rusty. Marlowe revisits Geiger’s house and finds Carmen trying to get in. They look for the photos but she plays dumb about the night before. Eddie Mars suddenly enters; he says he is Geiger’s landlord and is looking for him. Mars demands to know why Marlowe is there, but Marlowe is unfazed and states he is no threat to Mars. Marlowe goes to Brody’s home and finds him with Agnes, the bookstore's clerk. He tells them he knows they are taking over the lending library and blackmailing Carmen with the nude photos. Carmen forces her way in with a gun and demands the photos, but Marlowe takes her gun and makes her leave. Marlowe interrogates Brody further and pieces together the full story: Geiger was blackmailing Carmen and the family driver didn’t like it, so he sneaked in, killed him, and took the film of Carmen. Brody was staking out the house too and pursued the driver, stole the film, and hit him and possibly pushed the car off the pier. Suddenly the doorbell rings and Brody is shot dead; Marlowe gives chase and catches Geiger’s male lover, who shot Brody thinking he killed Geiger. He had also hidden Geiger’s body so he could remove his own belongings before the police could get wind of the murder. The case is now over, but Marlowe is nagged by Regan's disappearance. The police accept that he simply ran off with Mona Mars, since she is also missing and Eddie Mars wouldn't risk committing a murder where he'd be the obvious suspect. Mars calls Marlowe to his casino, and seems to be nonchalant about everything. Vivian is also there, and Marlowe senses something between her and Mars. He drives her home and she tries to seduce him, but he rejects her advances. When he gets home, he finds Carmen has sneaked into his bed, and he rejects her, too. A man named Harry Jones, who is Agnes's new partner, approaches Marlowe and offers to sell him the location of Mona Mars. Marlowe plans to meet him later, but Mars's deadly henchman Canino is suspicious of Jones and Agnes's intentions and kills Jones first. Marlowe manages to meet Agnes anyway and receive the information. He goes to the location, a repair shop with home in back, but Canino jumps him and knocks him out. When he awakens, he is tied up and Mona Mars is there with him. She says she hasn't seen Rusty in months; she only hid out to help Eddie, and insists he didn't kill Rusty. She frees him and he shoots and kills Canino. The next day, Marlowe visits General Sternwood, who is still curious about Rusty's whereabouts. On the way out, Marlowe returns Carmen's gun to her, and she asks him to teach her how to shoot. They go to an abandoned field, where she tries to kill him, but he has loaded the gun with blanks. Marlowe brings her back and tells Vivian he has guessed the truth: Carmen came on to Rusty and he refused her, so she killed him. Eddie Mars, who had been backing Geiger, helped Vivian conceal it by inventing a story about his wife running off with Rusty, and then began blackmailing her himself. Vivian says she did it to protect her father, and promises to have Carmen institutionalized.

The plot of The Big Sleep is unusually complex. Some details remain hazy at the film's end. Private detective Philip Marlowe calls on new client General Sternwood at his Los Angeles mansion. The wealthy general wants to resolve gambling debts his daughter, Carmen Sternwood , owes to bookseller Arthur Gwynn Geiger. As Marlowe is leaving, General Sternwood's older daughter, Mrs. Vivian Rutledge , stops him. She suspects her father's true motive for calling in a detective is to find his friend Sean Regan, who had mysteriously disappeared a month earlier. Marlowe goes to Geiger's "rare book shop." Agnes Louzier , Geiger's assistant, minds the shop: the front for an illegal operation. Marlowe follows Geiger to his house and hears a gunshot and a woman scream. Breaking into the house, he finds Geiger's body and a drugged Carmen, as well as a hidden camera with an empty cartridge. Marlowe picks Carmen up and brings her home. Marlowe later goes back to the house, but discovers the body is no longer there. Later, Marlowe learns that the Sternwood driver has been found dead, with his car driven off a pier. Vivian comes to Marlowe's office the next morning with scandalous pictures of Carmen she received with a blackmail demand for the negatives. Marlowe returns to Geiger's bookstore, and discovers that they are packing up the store. Marlowe follows a car leaving the bookstore to the apartment of Joe Brody , a gambler who previously blackmailed General Sternwood. Marlowe returns to Geiger's house where he finds Carmen. She initially claims ignorance about the murder of Geiger but then insists Brody killed Geiger. They are interrupted by the owner of the home, small-time gangster Eddie Mars . Marlowe follows Vivian to Joe Brody's apartment, where they join Brody and Agnes, and later, Carmen, who wants her photos. Marlowe takes the photos and sends Vivian and Carmen home. After Brody admits he was blackmailing both General Sternwood and Vivian, he is suddenly shot and killed; the assailant flees. Marlowe follows and apprehends Carol Lundgren, Geiger's former driver, who has killed Brody in revenge for Geiger's death. Marlowe visits Mars' casino, where he asks about Regan, who is supposed to have run off with Mars' wife. Mars is evasive and tells Marlowe that Vivian is running up debts in his casino. Vivian later tells Marlowe she wants him to take her home. While Marlowe waits for her, a stooge of Mars' attempts to rob Vivian. Marlowe intervenes and punches him out. While driving home, Marlowe unsuccessfully presses Vivian on her connection with Mars, telling her he knew the money she won and subsequent robbery was a setup by Mars and her to try to show Mars and Vivian had animosity toward each other. Vivian still won't say anything. Marlowe then returns home to find Carmen waiting for him. She admits she didn't like Regan and mentions that Mars calls Vivian frequently. She attempts to seduce Marlowe, who throws her out of his apartment. In the morning, Vivian calls Marlowe to say that Regan has been found in Mexico, and that she is going to see him. Harry Jones , an associate of Brody's, and Agnes' lover, conveys an offer from Agnes to reveal the location of Mars' wife for $200. However, when Marlowe goes to meet Jones, Canino, a hired killer, attempts to find Agnes himself and then poisons Jones after being told of her location . Marlowe then meets Agnes himself, after she telephones the office where Jones was killed. She reveals that she's seen Mona Mars near Realito by an auto repair shop. In Realito, Canino attacks Marlowe, who wakes to find himself tied up, being watched by Mona. Vivian then comes in. Mona throws a drink at him and leaves when Marlowe tells her that Mars is a gangster and a killer. Vivian fears for Marlowe's life and frees him, allowing him to get to his car and his gun. After Vivian helps distract him, Marlowe kills Canino and they leave together. During the drive back to Geiger's bungalow, Vivian unconvincingly tries to claim she killed Sean Regan. When they arrive, Marlowe calls Eddie Mars and says that he is still in Realito at the payphone. They arrange to meet at Geiger's house, giving Marlowe ten minutes to prepare. Mars arrives with four men, who set up ambush points outside. When Mars enters the home, Marlowe holds him at gunpoint. Marlowe reveals to him that he has discerned the truth: Mars blackmailed Vivian, saying Carmen had killed Regan. When Mars threatens Marlowe with his men outside, Marlowe begins to fire his gun near Mars, causing him to run outside where he is mistakenly shot dead by his own men. Marlowe then calls the police, telling them that Mars killed Regan.{{cite web}} In the process, he tells them Vivian helped him with Eddie Mars, exempting her from criminal prosecution and that her sister Carmen needs a doctor's help.

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positive

Red Dragon

Manhunter

In 1980, a serial killer, popularly nicknamed the Tooth Fairy, stalks and murders seemingly random families during sequential full moons. He first kills the Jacobi family in Birmingham, Alabama, then the Leeds family in Atlanta, Georgia. Two days after the Leeds murders, FBI agent Jack Crawford seeks out his protégé, Will Graham, a brilliant profiler who captured the serial killer Hannibal Lecter three years earlier, but retired after Lecter almost killed him. Crawford goes to Graham's Sugarloaf Key residence and pleads for his assistance; Graham reluctantly agrees. After visiting over the crime scenes with only minimal insight, he realizes that he must visit Lecter and seek his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy is revealed to be a St. Louis film processing technician named Francis Dolarhyde. He is a disturbed individual who is obsessed with the William Blake painting "The Great Red Dragon and the Woman Clothed in Sun". Dolarhyde is unable to control his violent, sexual urges, and believes that murdering people&mdash;or "changing" them, as he calls it&mdash;allows him to more fully "become" an alternate personality he calls the "Great Red Dragon," after the dominant character in Blake's painting. Flashbacks reveal that his pathology is born from the systematic abuse he suffered as a child at the hands of both his sadistic grandmother and his stepfamily. As Graham investigates the case, he is continuously hounded by Freddy Lounds, a sleazy tabloid reporter. Meanwhile, Lecter's de facto jailer, Frederick Chilton, discovers a secret correspondence between Lecter and Dolarhyde, in which Lecter provides the killer with Graham's home address. Graham's wife and stepson are evacuated to a remote farm belonging to Crawford's brother. Graham tries to intercept the secret communication without Lecter's knowledge, but the doctor quickly realizes the ruse and humiliates the authorities by upping the stakes: in return for his help in capturing the Tooth Fairy, he requests a first-class meal in his cell and having his library privileges returned. Lounds becomes aware of the correspondence and tries to trick Graham into revealing details of the investigation by posing as the Tooth Fairy, but is found out. Hoping to lure the Tooth Fairy into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he blatantly mischaracterizes the killer as an impotent homosexual. This infuriates Dolarhyde, who kidnaps Lounds, forces him to recant the allegations, bites off his lips and sets him on fire, leaving his maimed body outside his newspaper's offices; Lounds eventually dies. At about the same time, Dolarhyde falls in love with a blind co-worker named Reba McClane, which conflicts with his homicidal urges. In beginning a relationship with Reba, Dolarhyde starts to consciously resist the Dragon's "possession" of him; he goes to the Brooklyn Museum, beats a museum secretary unconscious, and eats the original Blake watercolor of The Red Dragon. Graham eventually realizes that the killer knew the layout of his victims' houses from their home movies, which he could only have seen if he worked for the film processing lab that developed them. Dolarhyde's job gives him access to all home movies that pass through the company. When he sees Graham interviewing his boss, Dolarhyde realizes that they are on to him and goes to see Reba one last time. He finds her talking to a co-worker, Ralph Mandy, a man whom she actually dislikes. Believing that Reba is being unfaithful, Dolarhyde kills Mandy, kidnaps Reba and, having taken her to his house, sets the place on fire. He intends to kill her and then himself, but finds himself unable to shoot her. After Dolarhyde shoots himself, Reba escapes. Graham later comforts her, telling her that there is nothing wrong with her, and that the kindness and affection she showed Dolarhyde probably saved lives. However, it turns out Dolarhyde did not in fact shoot himself but left behind the body of Arnold Lang, a gas station attendant, in order to stage his own death. Dolarhyde attacks Graham at his Florida home, stabbing him in the face and permanently disfiguring him. Graham's wife, Molly, then fatally shoots Dolarhyde. While recovering, Graham receives a letter from Lecter, which bids him well and hopes that he isn't "very ugly". However, Crawford intercepts the letter and destroys it.

Will Graham is a former FBI criminal profiler who has retired because of a breakdown after being attacked by a cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecktor ([[Brian Cox . Graham is approached at his Florida home by his former FBI superior Jack Crawford , who is seeking help with a new serial killer case. Promising his wife that he will do nothing more than examine evidence and not risk physical harm, Graham agrees to visit the most recent crime scene in Atlanta, where he tries to enter the mindset of the killer, now dubbed the "Tooth Fairy" by the police for the bite-marks left on his victims. Having found the killer's fingerprints, Graham meets with Crawford. They are accosted by tabloid journalist Freddie Lounds ([[Stephen Lang , with whom Graham has a bitter history. Lounds' paper had run photographs of Graham taken secretly while he was hospitalized. Graham pays a visit to the cell of Lecktor, a former psychiatrist, asking for his insight into the killer's motivations. After a tense conversation, Lecktor agrees to look at the case file. Lecktor later contrives to obtain Graham's home address by deceit. Graham travels to the first crime scene in Birmingham, Alabama, where he is contacted by Crawford, who tells him of Lounds' tabloid story on the case. Crawford also patches Graham through to Frederick Chilton , Lecktor's warden, who has found a note in Lecktor's personal effects. Reading it, they realize it is from the Tooth Fairy, expressing admiration for Lecktor—and an interest in Graham. Crawford brings Graham to the FBI Academy at Quantico, where a missing section of the note is analyzed to determine what Lecktor has removed. It is found to be an instruction to communicate through the personals section of the National Tattler, Lounds' newspaper. The FBI intended to plant a fake advertisement to replace Lecktor's, but they realise that without the proper book code the Tooth Fairy will know it is fake. So they let the advertisement run as it is, and Graham organizes an interview with Lounds, during which he gives a false and derogatory profile of the Tooth Fairy to incite him. After a sting operation fails to catch the killer, Lounds is kidnapped by the Tooth Fairy . Waking in the killer's home, he is shown a slideshow of William Blake's The Great Red Dragon paintings, along with the Tooth Fairy's past victims and slides of a family the killer identifies as his next targets. Lounds is forced to tape-record a statement before being set on fire in a wheelchair and killed, his flaming body rolled into the parking garage of the National Tattler as a warning. Graham is told by Crawford that they have cracked Lecktor's coded message to the Tooth Fairy—it is Graham's home address with an instruction to kill the family. Graham rushes home to find his family safe but terrified. After the FBI moves Graham's family to a safehouse, he tries to explain to his son Kevin why he had retired previously. At his job in a St. Louis film lab, Francis Dollarhyde—The Tooth Fairy—approaches a blind co-worker, Reba McClane , and ends up offering her a lift. They go to Dollarhyde's home, where Reba is oblivious to the fact that Dollarhyde is watching home-movie footage of his planned next victim. She kisses him and they make love. Dollarhyde is confused by this newfound relationship, though it helps suppress his bloodlust. Just as Graham comes to realize how much the Tooth Fairy's desire for acceptance factors into the murders, Dollarhyde watches as Reba is escorted home by another co-worker. Mistakenly believing them to be kissing, Dollarhyde murders the man and abducts Reba. When she calls him Francis, he tells her "Francis is gone. Forever." Desperately trying to figure out a connection between the murdered families, Graham realizes that someone must have seen their home movies. He and Crawford deduce where the films were processed. They identify the lab in St. Louis and fly there immediately. Dollarhyde has been casing the victims' homes through home movies, enabling him to prepare for the break-ins in extreme detail. Graham determines which employee has seen these films and obtains Dollarhyde's home address, to which he and Crawford travel with a police escort. At Dollarhyde's home Reba is terrified as he contemplates what to do with her. As he struggles to kill Reba with a piece of broken mirror glass, police teams assemble around the house. Seeing that Dollarhyde has someone inside with him, Graham lunges through a window. He is quickly subdued by Dollarhyde, who retrieves a shotgun and uses it to wound Crawford and kill two police officers. Wounded in the firefight, Dollarhyde returns to the kitchen to shoot Graham, but misses because of his injuries and is killed himself when Graham returns fire. Graham, Reba, and Crawford are tended to by paramedics before Graham returns home and retires permanently.

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The Invisible Man

Invisible Agent

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.

The grandson of Dr. Jack Griffin, the original invisible man, has emigrated to the United States and now runs a print shop in Manhattan under the assumed name of Frank Raymond . In his shop he is confronted by four armed men who reveal that they know his true identity. One of the men, Conrad Stauffer , is a lieutenant general of the S.S., while a second, Baron Ikito , is Japanese. They are seeking the invisibility formula and threaten amputation if it is not revealed. He just manages to escape with the formula in his hands. Griffin is reluctant to release the formula to the U.S. government officials and only agrees to limited cooperation following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. . After being rendered invisible, he is parachuted behind German lines on a secret mission. After landing Griffin returns to a visible state and makes contact with a carpenter Arnold Schmidt who reveals his mission. He is to obtain a list of Japanese spies within the U.S. The list was in the possession of Stauffer. Griffin is aided in his task by Maria Sorenson , a British spy and the love interest of Stauffer. Griffin manages to obtain the list despite a confrontation with Stauffer, and returns it to his contact. The plot thickens as Griffin steals into a German prison to obtain information about a planned German attack on New York city. He returns to Schmidt, who in the meanwhile has been arrested. At the shop he is captured by Ikito using a net trap. Griffin and Sorensen are taken to the Japanese embassy, but manage to escape during the mayhem that ensues when Stauffer's men arrive. The couple escape in one of the aircraft slated for the New York attack and then make their way to England and safety.

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positive

Ivanhoe

Ivanhoe

Wilfred of Ivanhoe is disinherited by his father Cedric of Rotherwood for supporting the Norman King Richard and for falling in love with the Lady Rowena, Cedric's ward and a descendant of the Saxon Kings of England. Cedric had planned to marry her to the powerful Lord Aethelstane, pretender to the Crown of England through his descent from the last Saxon King, Harold Godwinson, thus cementing a Saxon political alliance between two rivals for the same claim. Ivanhoe accompanies King Richard on the Crusades, where he is said to have played a notable role in the Siege of Acre. The book opens with a scene of Norman knights and prelates seeking the hospitality of Cedric. They are guided there by a palmer, who has recently returned from the Holy Land. The same night, seeking refuge from inclement weather and bandits, Isaac of York, a Jewish moneylender, arrives at Rotherwood. Following the night's meal, the palmer observes one of the Normans, the Templar Brian de Bois-Guilbert, issue orders to his Saracen soldiers to follow Isaac of York after he leaves Rotherwood in the morning and relieve him of his possessions. The palmer then warns the moneylender of his peril and assists in his escape from Rotherwood. The swineherd Gurth refuses to open the gates until the palmer whispers a few words in his ear, which turns Gurth as helpful as he was recalcitrant earlier. This is but one of the many mysterious incidents that occur throughout the book. Isaac of York offers to repay his debt to the palmer by offering him a suit of armour and a war horse to participate in the tournament at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, where he was bound. His offer is made on the surmise that the palmer was in reality a knight, York having observed his knight's chain and spurs (a fact that he mentions to the palmer). The palmer is taken by surprise but accepts the offer. The story then moves to the scene of the tournament, which is presided over by Prince John, King Richard's younger brother. Other characters in attendance are Cedric, Aethelstane, Lady Rowena, Isaac of York, his daughter Rebecca, Robin of Locksley and his men, Prince John's advisor Waldemar Fitzurse, and numerous Norman knights. On the first day of the tournament, a bout of individual jousting, a mysterious masked knight, identifying himself only as "Desdichado" (which is described in the book as Spanish for the "Disinherited One", though actually meaning "Unfortunate"), makes his appearance and manages to defeat some of the best Norman lances, including Bois-Guilbert, Maurice de Bracy, a leader of a group of "Free Companions" (mercenary knights), and the baron Reginald Front-de-Boeuf. The masked knight declines to reveal himself despite Prince John's request, but is nevertheless declared the champion of the day and is permitted to choose the Queen of the Tournament. He bestows this honour upon the Lady Rowena. On the second day, which is a melée, Desdichado is chosen to be leader of one party. Most of the leading knights of the realm, however, flock to the opposite standard under which Desdichado's vanquished opponents fought. Desdichado's side is soon hard pressed and he himself beset by multiple foes, when a knight who had until then taken no part in the battle, thus earning the sobriquet Le Noir Faineant (or the Black Sluggard), rides to Desdichado's rescue. The rescuing knight, having evened the odds by his action, then slips away. Though Desdichado was instrumental in the victory, Prince John, being displeased with his behaviour of the previous day, wishes to bestow his accolades on the vanished Black Knight. Since the latter has departed, he is forced to declare Desdichado the champion. At this point, being forced to unmask himself to receive his coronet, Desdichado is revealed to be Wilfred of Ivanhoe himself, returned from the Crusades. This causes much consternation to Prince John and his court who now fear the imminent return of King Richard. Because he is severely wounded in the competition and because Cedric refuses to have anything to do with him, Ivanhoe is taken into the care of Rebecca, the beautiful daughter of Isaac, who is a skilled healer. She convinces her father to take him with them to York, where he may be best treated. The story then goes over the conclusion of the tournament including feats of archery by Locksley. Meanwhile, de Bracy finds himself infatuated with the Lady Rowena and, with his companions-in-arms, makes plans to abduct her. In the forests between Ashby and York, the Lady Rowena, Cedric, and Aethelstane encounter Isaac, Rebecca, and the wounded Ivanhoe, who had been abandoned by their servants for fear of bandits. The Lady Rowena, in response to the requests of Isaac and Rebecca, urges Cedric to take the group under his protection to York. Cedric, unaware that the wounded man is Ivanhoe, agrees. En route, the party is captured by de Bracy and his companions and taken to Torquilstone, the castle of Front-de-Boeuf. However, the swineherd Gurth, who had run away from Rotherwood to serve Ivanhoe as squire at the tournament and who was recaptured by Cedric when Ivanhoe was identified, manages to escape. The Black Knight, having taken refuge for the night in the hut of a local friar, the Holy Clerk of Copmanhurst, volunteers his assistance on learning about the captives from Robin of Locksley, who had come to rouse the friar for an attempt to free them. They then besiege the Castle of Torquilstone with Robin's own men, including the friar and assorted Saxon yeomen whom they had manage to raise due to the hatred of Front-de-Boeuf and his neighbour, Philip de Malvoisin. At Torquilstone, de Bracy expresses his love for the Lady Rowena, but is refused. In the meantime, de Bois-Guilbert, who had accompanied de Bracy on the raid, takes Rebecca for his captive, and tries to force his attentions on her, which are rebuffed. Front-de-Boeuf, in the meantime, tries to wring a hefty ransom, by torture, from Isaac of York. However, Isaac refuses to pay a farthing unless his daughter is freed from her Templar captor. When the besiegers deliver a note to yield up the captives, their Norman captors retort with a message for a priest to administer the Final Sacrament to the captives. It is then that Cedric's jester Wamba slips in disguised as a priest, and takes the place of Cedric, who then escapes and brings important information to the besiegers on the strength of the garrison and its layout. Then follows an account of the storming of the castle. Front-de-Boeuf is killed while de Bracy surrenders to the Black Knight, who identifies himself as King Richard. Showing mercy, he releases de Bracy. De Bois-Guilbert escapes with Rebecca while Isaac is released from his underground dungeon by the Clerk of Copmanhurst. The Lady Rowena is saved by Cedric, while the still-wounded Ivanhoe is rescued from the burning castle by King Richard. In the fighting, Aethelstane is wounded while attempting to rescue Rebecca, whom he mistakes for Rowena. Following the battle, Locksley plays host to King Richard. Word is also conveyed by de Bracy to Prince John of the King's return and the fall of Torquilstone. In the meantime, de Bois-Guilbert rushes with his captive to the nearest Templar Preceptory, which is under his friend Albert de Malvoisin, expecting to be able to flee the country. However, Lucas de Beaumanoir, the Grand-Master of the Templars is unexpectedly present there. He takes umbrage at de Bois-Guilbert's sinful passion, which is in violation of his Templar vows; and decides to subject Rebecca, who he thinks has cast a spell on de Bois-Guilbert, to a trial for witchcraft. She is found guilty through a flawed trial, but claims the right to trial by combat. Bois-Guilbert, who had hoped to fight as her champion incognito, is devastated when the Grand-Master orders him to fight against Rebecca's champion. Rebecca then writes to her father to procure a champion for her. Meanwhile Cedric organises Aethelstane's funeral at Coningsburgh, in the midst of which the Black Knight arrives with a companion. Cedric, who had not been present at Locksley's carousal, is ill-disposed towards the knight upon learning his true identity. However, King Richard calms Cedric and reconciles him with his son, convincing him to agree to the marriage of Ivanhoe and Rowena. Shortly after, Aethelstane emerges – not dead, but having been laid in his coffin alive by avaricious monks desirous of the funeral money. Over Cedric's renewed protests, Aethelstane pledges his homage to the Norman King Richard and urges Cedric to marry Rowena to Ivanhoe; to which Cedric finally agrees. Soon after this reconciliation, Ivanhoe receives word from Isaac beseeching him to fight on Rebecca's behalf. Upon arriving at the scene of the witch-burning, Ivanhoe forces de Bois-Guilbert from his saddle, but does not kill him. However, the Templar dies "a victim to the violence of his own contending passions," which is pronounced by the Grand Master as the judgment of God and proof of Rebecca's innocence. King Richard, who had left Kyningestun soon after Ivanhoe's departure, arrives at the Templar Preceptory, banishes the Templars and declares that the Malvoisins' lives are forfeit for having aided in the plots against him. Fearing further persecution, Rebecca and her father leave England for Granada. Before leaving, Rebecca comes to bid Rowena a fond farewell. Finally, Ivanhoe and Rowena marry and live a long and happy life together, though the final paragraphs of the book note that Ivanhoe's long service ended with the death of King Richard.

Set in late 12th century England, this silent adventure is filled with pageantry and excitement as it chronicles the star-crossed love between a dashing knight and a beautiful Jewish maiden. Wilfred of Ivanhoe , son of Sir Cedric , returns to England from the Crusades in the Holy Land. As Ivanhoe, disguised, discovers that his beloved Lady Rowena has remained faithful, two weary travelers, Isaac of York and his pretty daughter Rebecca , are admitted to Sir Cedric's castle, but after the knights learn that Isaac has money they abduct the visitors to the Norman stronghold of Torquilstone Castle. When Ivanhoe realizes that Sir Cedric and Rowena have also been captured, he enters the forest, where he meets Robin Hood and the Black Knight, actually King Richard, the Lion-Hearted . Their band defeats de Bois in battle, but the villain escapes with Rebecca, later charging her with sorcery. As Ivanhoe defeats de Bois in single combat, King Richard arrives, revealing his identity and reclaiming the crown from his traitorous brother, Prince John . Sadly, Rebecca must undergo a period of suffering, as well as come to terms with the loss of the man she loves, and witness the nuptials of her gallant Ivanhoe and the beautiful Rowena.

positive

positive

The War of the Worlds

War of the Worlds

After ten paragraphs of introductory remarks the narrative opens in an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars, creating much interest in the scientific community. Later a "meteor" lands on Horsell Common, southwest of London, near the narrator's home in Woking, Surrey. He is among the first to discover that the object is an artificial cylinder that opens, disgorging Martians who are "big" and "greyish" with "oil brown skin," "the size, perhaps, of a bear," with "two large dark-coloured eyes," and a lipless "V-shaped mouth surrounded by "Gorgon groups of tentacles." The narrator finds them "at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous." They briefly emerge, have difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere, and rapidly retreat into the cylinder. A human deputation (which includes the astronomer Ogilvy) approaches the cylinder with a white flag, but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a heat-ray before beginning to assemble their machinery. The narrator takes his wife to safety in nearby Leatherhead, where she has relatives, and then returns to Woking. He discovers the Martians have assembled towering three-legged "fighting-machines" (Tripods), each armed with a heat-ray and a chemical weapon: the so-called "black smoke". These Tripods wipe out the army units positioned around the crater and attack surrounding communities, moving toward London. Fleeing the scene, the narrator meets a retreating artilleryman, who tells him that another cylinder has landed between Woking and Leatherhead, cutting the narrator off from his wife. The two try to escape via Byfleet, but are separated at the Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry during a Martian attack on Shepperton. One of the Martian fighting machines is brought down in the River Thames by British artillery as the narrator and countless others try to cross the river into Middlesex, while the Martians escape. Our hero is able to float down the Thames toward London in a boat, stopping at Walton. More cylinders are landing across Southern England, and a panicked flight of the population of London begins. This includes the narrator's brother, who flees to the Essex coast after Black Smoke is used to devastate London. The torpedo ram HMS Thunder Child destroys two tripods before being sunk by the Martians, though this allows the ship carrying the narrator's brother and his two female travelling companions to escape to the continent. Shortly after, all organised resistance has ceased, and the Martians roam the shattered landscape unhindered. Red weed, a Martian form of vegetation, spreads with extraordinary rapidity over the landscape wherever there is abundant water. At the beginning of Book Two, the narrator and a curate from Walton take refuge in a ruined building in Sheen. The house is nearly destroyed when another Martian cylinder lands nearby, trapping them in the house for almost two weeks. The curate, traumatised by the invasion, sees in the Martian creatures heralding the advent of the Apocalypse. The narrator's relations with the curate deteriorate, and he eventually knocks him unconscious to prevent his loud ranting, but not before he is heard by a Martian, who captures him with a prehensile tentacle and, the reader is led to believe, drains him of his blood; blood transfusion is the Martians' form of nourishment. The narrator escapes detection by hiding in the coal-cellar. The Martians eventually depart, and the narrator is able to head toward Central London. He once again encounters the artilleryman, who briefly persuades him to cooperate in a grandiose plan to rebuild civilization underground. But after a few hours the narrator perceives the lunacy of this plan and the overall laziness of his companion and abandons the artilleryman to his delusions. Heading into a deserted London, he is at the point of despair and offers his life to the aliens when he discovers that the invaders have died from microbial infections to which they had no immunity, since "there are no bacteria in Mars." The narrator realises with joy that the threat has been vanquished. The narrator suffers a brief breakdown of which he remembers nothing, is nursed back to health, and returns home to find his wife, whom he had given up for dead. The last chapter, entitled "Epilogue," reflects on the significance of the invasion and the "abiding sense of doubt and insecurity" that it has left in the narrator's mind.

Ray Ferrier is a container crane operator at a New Jersey port and is estranged from his children. He is visited by his ex-wife, Mary Ann , who drops off the children, Rachel and Robbie , as she is going to visit her parents in Boston, Massachusetts. Robbie takes Ray's car out without his permission, so Ray starts to search for him. Ray notices a strange wall cloud, which starts to send out powerful lightning strikes, disabling all electronic devices in the area, including cars, forcing Robbie to come back. Ray heads down the street to investigate. He stops at a garage and tells Manny the local mechanic, to replace the solenoid on a dead car. Ray reaches the place where multiple lighting bolts struck the ground and witnesses the ground heaving up as a massive machine with three long legs climbs out. The Tripod gives off a loud blaring sound before opening fire with heat-rays, vaporizing bystanders and destroying everything in its path. Ray manages to barely escape; he packs up his kids and leaves in the vehicle Manny repaired as the Tripod destroys the town. He drives to Mary Ann's house to take refuge that night. Loud explosions occur all night. The next morning he discovers a crashed Boeing 747 in the street outside the house. He meets a news team stealing the flight's meals and surveying the wreckage. The reporter shows him footage of Tripods all over the Earth, with the unknown pilots entering the machines through the lightning strikes. She speculates that the machines were in place for thousands of years meaning the invasion was being planned for a long time. Ray decides to take the kids to Boston to be with their mother. Robbie, vying to join the fight against the aliens, tries to leave with the U.S. military, but Ray and Rachel stop him. They are forced to leave their car after a mob surrounds them and takes the vehicle by force. They later survive a Tripod attack which causes the sinking of a Hudson River ferry. The family then ends up in the middle of a battle between the military and the Tripods. Realizing Robbie's determination to join the fight, Ray lets him go with the soldiers. Immediately afterwards the Tripods destroy all military resistance, presumably also killing Robbie. The Tripods are shown to be protected by an energy shield that makes them invulnerable. While escaping, Ray and Rachel are offered shelter by Harlan Ogilvy , who vows revenge on the aliens after his family was killed by them. While hiding in Harlan's basement, they witness the Tripods spreading a strange red weed substance everywhere. They all hide from a snake-like probe and a group of four aliens who explore the basement. The next morning, Ogilvy suffers a mental breakdown while witnessing a Tripod harvesting blood and tissue from a human. Concerned that Ogilvy's yelling and ranting will attract the Tripods, Ray reluctantly kills Ogilvy to silence him. The basement hideout is exposed when a second probe catches them sleeping. Ray cripples the probe using an axe, but Rachel runs outside and is caught by the Tripod. As he chases after the Tripod and Rachel, Ray finds a grenade bandolier with several hand grenades in a destroyed Humvee and detonates one of them to attract the Tripod's attention. He is captured as he planned and placed in the same basket with Rachel and several other prisoners. Ray discovers Rachel is in shock after she witnesses a captive being sucked up into the ship to be harvested. As Ray finally calms her down, the aliens select Ray to pull him inside for harvesting, but the other prisoners manage to pull him back. The bandolier he was wearing was left inside the Tripod and Ray was able to pull all of the pins, causing a massive internal explosion, destroying the Tripod and freeing the captives. Ray and Rachel arrive in Boston, where they notice the red weeds are starting to dry up and disintegrate. The Tripods also begin to act erratically and appear to also be dying. Ray notices that a flock of birds landing on a machine, indicating its force fields are down. Ray alerts nearby soldiers, who fire shoulder-launched missiles at the machine, destroying it. As a crowd approaches the downed machine, a hatch falls opens, releasing red weed fertilizer and revealing an alien that lets out a final growl before it dies. Ray and Rachel reach Mary Ann's parents' house and find to their surprise, Robbie, who has somehow survived the hilltop massacre.

positive

positive

Rebecca

Rebecca

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" is the book's famous opening line, and after the first two chapters, its unnamed narrator (she is only known by her title, Mrs de Winter) reminisces about her past. While working as the companion to a rich American woman vacationing in Monte Carlo, the narrator becomes acquainted with a wealthy Englishman, Maximilian (Maxim) de Winter, a 40-something widower. After a fortnight of courtship, she agrees to marry him and, after the wedding and honeymoon, accompanies him to his mansion, the beautiful West Country estate Manderley. Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, was profoundly devoted to the first Mrs. de Winter, Rebecca. She continually attempts to undermine the new Mrs. de Winter psychologically, subtly suggesting to her that she will never attain the urbanity and charm the first one possessed. Whenever the new Mrs. de Winter attempts to make changes at Manderley, Mrs. Danvers describes how Rebecca ran it when she was alive. Each time Mrs. Danvers does this, she implies that the new Mrs. de Winter lacks the experience and knowledge necessary for running an important estate. Cowed by Mrs. Danvers's imposing manner, the new mistress simply caves. She is soon convinced that Maxim regrets his impetuous decision to marry her and is still deeply in love with the seemingly perfect Rebecca. The climax occurs at Manderley's annual costume ball. Mrs. Danvers manipulates the protagonist into wearing a replica of the dress shown in a portrait of one of the former inhabitants of the estate—the same costume worn by Rebecca to much acclaim shortly before her death. The narrator has a drummer announce her entrance using the name of the lady in the portrait: Caroline de Winter. When the narrator shows Maxim the dress, he gets very angry at her and orders her to change. Shortly after the ball, Mrs. Danvers expressly reveals her contempt for our heroine by encouraging Mrs. de Winter to commit suicide by jumping out the window. However she is thwarted at the last moment by the disturbance occasioned by a nearby shipwreck. A diver investigating the condition of the wrecked ship's hull also discovers the remains of Rebecca's boat. Maxim confesses the truth to our heroine: how his marriage to Rebecca was nothing but a sham; how from the very first days husband and wife loathed each other. Rebecca, Maxim reveals, was a cruel and selfish woman who manipulated everyone around her into believing her to be the perfect wife and a paragon of virtue. She repeatedly taunted Maxim with sordid tales of her numerous love affairs and suggested that she was pregnant with another man's child, which she would raise under the pretense that it was Maxim's and he would be powerless to stop her. She intentionally provoked him into fatally shooting her. Then, fearing to be hanged, he disposed of her body on her boat and sank it at sea. Our heroine is relieved to hear he had never loved Rebecca, but really loves her. Rebecca's boat is now raised and it is discovered that it was deliberately sunk. An inquest brings a verdict of suicide, however, Rebecca's first cousin (and lover) Jack Favell attempts to blackmail Maxim, claiming to have proof that Rebecca could not have intended suicide. It is revealed Rebecca had an appointment with a Doctor Baker shortly before her death, presumably to confirm her pregnancy. When the doctor is found he reveals Rebecca had been suffering from cancer and would have died within a few months; furthermore, due to the malformation of her uterus, she could never have been pregnant. Knowing she was going to die, Rebecca manipulated Maxim into killing her quickly, rather than face a lingering death. Maxim feels a great sense of foreboding and insists on driving through the night to return to Manderley. However, before he comes in sight of the house, it is clear from a glow on the horizon and wind-borne ashes that it is ablaze. It is evident at the beginning that Maxim and the second Mrs. de Winter now live in some foreign exile. The events recounted in the book are in essence a memoir of her life at Manderley.

The film begins with a voiceover of a woman speaking the first lines from the novel: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again", to the images of a ruined country manor. She continues that she can never return to Manderley &mdash; as it no longer exists, except as a ruin. Joan Fontaine plays a young woman of age 21 , an orphan, who works as a paid companion to the wealthy Edythe Van Hopper . In Monte Carlo, she meets the aristocratic widower Maximilian de Winter and they fall in love. Within weeks, they decide to get married. Maxim takes his new bride to Manderley, his country house in Cornwall, England. The servants accept the new Mrs. de Winter as the new lady of the house. The exception is the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers , who is particularly unpleasant to the new bride. She is still obsessed with the beauty and sophistication of the first Mrs. de Winter—the eponymous Rebecca—and preserves her former bedroom as a shrine, even cherishing her handmade underwear and expensive négligée. Rebecca's "cousin" Jack appears at the house when Maxim is away, and evidently knows Mrs. Danvers well, calling her by the name "Danny", which was Rebecca's pet name for her. The new Mrs. de Winter is intimidated by Mrs. Danvers and by the responsibilities of being the new mistress of Manderley. As a result, she begins to doubt her relationship with her husband. The continuous presence of Rebecca in the house starts to haunt her, and she convinces herself that Maxim is still in love with Rebecca. She discovers, too, that her husband has a fiery temper, and sometimes erupts at apparently innocent actions on her part. Trying to act the perfect wife, Mrs. de Winter suggests to Maxim that they host a costume party as he used to do with Rebecca. Maxim reluctantly consents. Mrs. de Winter excitedly plans her own costume in secret, but Mrs. Danvers suggests that she copy the dress of Caroline de Winter, an ancestor, whose portrait hangs in the upstairs hallway. On the night of the party, Mrs. de Winter reveals her costume to Maxim, who is both surprised and angry at her, shouting at her to change her costume. Mrs. de Winter rushes upstairs, sees Mrs. Danvers go into Rebecca's room and follows her. There she confronts Mrs. Danvers about her knowing that Rebecca had worn the same costume at a previous ball. Mrs. Danvers retaliates by saying that she will never take Rebecca's place and tries to convince Mrs. de Winter to commit suicide. But Mrs. de Winter snaps out of her trance when a sudden commotion starts outside &mdash; a ship has been spotted foundering off the coast. Mrs. de Winter rushes downstairs to the front lawn, where she hears news that, during the rescue, a sunken boat has been found off the coast{{spaced ndash}} with Rebecca's body in it. She spots a distant glow from the cottage on the shore and enters to find Maxim. Maxim admits to his new wife that he had earlier misidentified another body as Rebecca's in order to prevent discovery of the truth. From almost the beginning of their marriage, when Rebecca broke the news to him of her own promiscuous nature, he and Rebecca had hated one another. They had agreed to a sordid deal: she would act the perfect wife and hostess in public, preserving his family honour and her position, while he ignored her discreetly-conducted affairs. Rebecca, however, began to get "careless" after a while, for example disappearing for days on end to London and then returning as though nothing was wrong. Maxim was also aware of Rebecca's ongoing affair with Jack. One night, expecting to find Rebecca and Jack together, Maxim came down to the cottage. Rebecca had been expecting Jack. She told Maxim that she was pregnant with Jack's child. During the ensuing argument, she fell, hit her head, and died. Maxim took the body out in a boat which he then scuttled. Shedding her girlish innocence, Maxim's wife immediately starts coaching her husband on how best to conceal the facts of Rebecca's death from the authorities. In the ensuing police investigation, officials question whether the evidently deliberate damage to the boat pointed to suicide. Privately, Jack shows Maxim a letter from Rebecca urging him excitedly to meet her, which seems to suggest she was not suicidal. He tries to blackmail Maxim with the letter, but Maxim tells the police about the attempt. Maxim nevertheless comes under suspicion of murder and the second Mrs. de Winter must face the prospect of losing her husband. The investigation focuses on Rebecca's secret visits to a London doctor , which Jack presumes was due to her illicit pregnancy. However, the coroner's interview with the doctor in the presence of Maxim and Jack reveals that Rebecca was mistaken in believing herself pregnant, and was in fact suffering from terminal cancer. The doctor's evidence persuades the coroner to bring in a verdict of suicide. Only Maxim and his wife will be able to understand the full story: that Rebecca had lied to Maxim about being pregnant with another man's child so as to goad him, in full knowledge of his family pride and easily-roused temper, into killing her{{spaced ndash}} as an indirect means of suicide. As Maxim returns home from London to Manderley, he finds the manor on fire, set alight by the deranged Mrs. Danvers. The second Mrs. de Winter has escaped the blaze, but Danvers dies in the flames.

positive

positive

Beloved

Beloved

The book concerns the story of Sethe and her daughter Denver after their escape from slavery. Their home, I24 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati, is haunted by a revenant, whom they believe to be the ghost of Sethe's daughter. Because of the haunting —- which often involves objects being thrown around the room —- Sethe's youngest daughter, Denver, is shy, friendless, and housebound, and her sons, Howard and Buglar, have run away from home by the time they are thirteen years old. Soon afterward, Baby Suggs, the mother of Sethe's husband Halle, dies in her bed. Paul D, one of the slaves from Sweet Home, the plantation where Baby Suggs, Sethe, her spouse Halle, and several other slaves once worked, arrives at 124. He tries to bring a sense of reality into the house. He also tries to make the family forget the past. In doing so, he forces out the spirit. At first, he seems to be successful, even bringing the family, including the housebound Denver, out of the house for the first time in years. However, on their way back, they encounter a young woman sitting in front of the house. She calls herself Beloved. Paul D, suspicious, warns Sethe, but charmed by the young woman, Sethe ignores him. Paul D is gradually forced out of Sethe's home by a supernatural presence. When made to sleep outside in a shed, he is cornered by Beloved. While Paul D has sex with her, his mind is filled with horrific memories from his past. Overwhelmed with guilt, Paul D tries to tell Sethe about it but cannot and instead says he wants her pregnant. Sethe is elated, and Paul D resists Beloved and her influence over him. But, when he tells friends at work about his plans to start a new family, they react fearfully. Stamp Paid reveals the reason for the community's rejection of Sethe. When Paul D asks Sethe about it, she tells him what happened. After escaping from Sweet Home and making it to her mother-in-law's home where her children were waiting, Sethe was found by her master, who attempted to reclaim Sethe and her children. Sethe grabbed her children, ran into the tool shed and tried to kill them all, succeeding only with her oldest daughter. Sethe explains to Paul D, saying she was "trying to put my babies where they would be safe." The revelation is too much for him, and he leaves. Without Paul D, the sense of reality and time moving forward disappears. Sethe comes to believe that the girl, Beloved, is the daughter she murdered when the girl was only two years old; her tombstone reads only "Beloved". Sethe begins to spend carelessly and spoil Beloved out of guilt. Beloved becomes angry and more demanding, throwing tantrums when she doesn't get her way. Beloved's presence consumes Sethe's life to the point where she becomes depleted and sacrifices her own need for eating, while Beloved grows bigger and bigger. In the climax of the novel, Denver, the youngest daughter, reaches out and searches for help from the black community. Some of the village women arrive at 124 to exorcise Beloved. At the same time, the white man who helped Sethe and Halle in their escape comes to pick up Denver who is beginning work with him that day. Sethe attacks the white man with an ice pick and is brought down by the village women; in the meantime Beloved disappears from I24While Sethe is confused and has a "rememory" of her master coming again, Beloved disappears. The novel resolves with Denver becoming a working member of the community and Paul D returning to Sethe and pledging his love. At the outset, the reader is caused to assume that Beloved is a supernatural, incarnate form of Sethe's murdered daughter. Later, Stamp Paid reveals the story of "a girl locked up by a white man over by Deer Creek. Found him dead last summer and the girl gone. Maybe that's her". Both are possible by the text. Beloved sings a song Sethe believes to be known only to her and her children; elsewhere, she speaks of a pair of earrings and asks Sethe what happened to them. The second section of the novel, however, contains memories of Beloved's that seem to corroborate the possibility that she is the escaped girl from Deer Creek.

{{Plot}} The story, set shortly after the Civil War, revolves around Sethe, a former slave living on the outskirts of Cincinnati. When the film begins, an angry poltergeist terrorizes Sethe and her three children, causing her two sons run away forever. Ten years later, Sethe , lives alone with her daughter Denver . Paul D , an old friend from Sweet Home, the plantation Sethe had escaped from years earlier, finds Sethe's home, where he drives off the angry spirit. Afterwards, Paul D. then proposes that he should stay and Sethe responds favorably. Shortly after Paul D. moves in, a clean young woman named Beloved stumbles into Sethe's yard and also stays with them. Denver is initially happy to have Beloved around but learns that Beloved is Sethe's reincarnated daughter. Nonetheless, she chooses not to divulge Beloved's origins to Sethe. One night, Beloved aware that Paul D. dislikes her, immobilizes him with a spell and proceeds to sexually assault him. Paul D. resolves to tell Sethe what happened, instead tell what has transpired to a co-worker, Stamp Paid ([[Albert Hall . Stamp Paid, who has known Sethe for many years, pulls a newspaper clipping featuring Sethe and tells her story to the illiterate Paul D. Years ago, Sethe was sexually assaulted by the nephews of Schoolteacher, the owner of Sweet Home. She complained to Mrs. Garner, Schoolteacher's sister-in-law, who confronted him. In retaliation, Schoolteacher and his nephews to whip Sethe. Heavily pregnant with her fourth child, Sethe planned to escape. Her other children were sent off earlier to live with Baby Suggs, Sethe's mother-in-law, but Sethe stayed behind to look for her husband, Halle. Sethe was assaulted when she while searching for him in the barn. The Schoolteacher's nephews held her down, raped her and forcibly took her breast milk. When Halle failed to comply, Sethe ran off alone. She crossed paths with Amy Denver, a white girl who treated Sethe's injuries and delivered Sethe's child, whom Sethe named Denver after Amy. Sethe eventually reached Baby Sugg's home, but her initial happiness was short-lived when Schoolteacher came to claim Sethe and her children. In desperation, Sethe cut her older daughter's neck and tried to kill her other children. Stamp Paid managed to stop her and the disgusted Schoolteacher leaves them alone. Paul D., horrified by the revelation and suddenly understanding the origin of the poltergeist, confronts Sethe. Sethe unapologetically justifies her decision, claiming that her children would be better off dead than enslaved. Paul D. departs shortly thereafter in protest. After Paul D.'s departure, Sethe realizes that Beloved is the reincarnation of her dead daughter. Feeling elated yet guilt, Sethe spoils Beloved with elaborate gifts while neglecting Denver. Beloved soon develops a destructive tantrum and her malevolent presence causes living conditions in the house to deteriorate. The women live in squalor and Sethe is unable to work. Denver becomes depressed yet, inspired by a memory of her grandmother's confidence in her, she eventually musters the courage to leave the house and seek employment. After Denver gets a job, her new co-worker arranges to have women from the local church visit Sethe's house and comfort the family. Once, the women arrive and loudly sing and pray while Denver's new employee simultaneously arrives to pick her up for work. Sethe sees him and, reminded of Schoolteacher arrival, tries to attack him with an icepick. She is subdued by Denver and the women. During the commotion, Beloved disappears completely and Sethe, freed from Beloved's grip, becomes permanently bedridden. Some months later, Paul D. encounters Denver at the marketplace. He notices she has transformed into a confident and mature young woman. When Paul D. later arrives at Sethe's house, he finds her suffering from a deep malaise. He assures Sethe that he and Denver will now take care of her. Sethe tells him that she doesn't see the point, as Beloved, her "best thing", is gone. Paul D. disagrees, telling Sethe that she herself is her own best thing.

positive

positive

Sanctuary

The Story of Temple Drake

In May 1929, a lawyer named Horace Benbow, frustrated with his life, his spouse, and his stepdaughter, suddenly leaves his home in (fictional) Kinston, Mississippi, and sets out to hitchhike his way back to Jefferson, his hometown in Yoknapatawpha County, where his widowed sister Narcissa Sartoris lives with her son and her late husband's great-aunt (Miss Jenny). On the way to Jefferson, he stops for a drink of water near the "Old Frenchman" homestead, which is occupied by the bootlegger Lee Goodwin. Benbow encounters a sinister man called Popeye, an associate of Goodwin's, who brings him back to the Goodwin place, where he meets Goodwin, his common-law wife Ruby, and some other members of Goodwin's bootlegging operation. Later that night, Benbow catches a ride from Goodwin's place into Jefferson. He explains to his sister and Miss Jenny that he has left his wife, and then he moves back into his parents' house, which has been sitting vacant for years. Gowan Stevens, a young graduate of the University of Virginia, who proposed marriage to Narcissa (and was turned down), has a date with Temple Drake, a student at Ole Miss. Temple is something of a "fast girl" with a reputation among the town boys in Oxford; her name has been scrawled in the men's rooms at Ole Miss with allusions to her easy virtue. Her father is a well-known and powerful judge, so she comes from a world of money and high society. She is pretty, but shallow; simultaneously fascinated and repelled by sex and by basic human urges. After escorting Temple to a Friday-night dance in Oxford, Gowan plans to meet her the next morning at the train station, where she is supposed to join her classmates on a chaperoned excursion to a baseball game in Starkville; she is supposed to get off the train, escaping her chaperones, and ride to the game with Gowan instead. After he has dropped Temple off after the dance, Gowan, an alcoholic who claims he "learned to drink like a gentleman" in Virginia, offers some local town boys a ride into town. He gets them to help him obtain a quart of moonshine, which he magnanimously shares with them, apparently so that he can impress them with his capacity for liquor consumption. He gets extremely drunk and passes out by his car at the train station. The next morning, Gowan awakens with a massive hangover, to discover that he's just missed the Starkville train. He finishes off his jar of moonshine and speeds off to intercept the train, picking up Temple in the town of Taylor. On the way to Starkville, he decides to stop off at the Goodwin place for some more booze. Drunk already, he crashes his car into a tree which Popeye, apparently worried about a police raid, has felled across the road. Popeye and Tommy, who happen to be nearby when the accident happens, take Temple and Gowan, who are banged up but not seriously injured, back to the Goodwin place. Temple is terrified, both by Gowan's recklessness and drunkenness, and by the strange, menacing, lower-class milieu into which he has brought her. Immediately upon arriving at the Goodwin place, she meets Ruby, who warns her that it would be a good idea to leave the Goodwin place before nightfall. Gowan is given more liquor to drink by Tommy, a good-natured apparent "halfwit" who works for Goodwin and lives at the house. Night falls. Gowan is, yet again, crudely drunk, and Temple has not taken Ruby's advice and made herself scarce. Goodwin returns home and is less than happy to find Gowan and Temple there. He has brought Van, another member of his bootlegging crew, with him. All the men continue to drink; Van and Gowan argue and provoke each other, nearly coming to blows several times over the course of the evening. Van makes crude advances toward Temple, rousing in the drunken Gowan a sense that he, a would-be Virginia gentleman, needs to protect Temple's honor. Temple, out of her mind with apprehension, constantly runs in and out of the room where the men are drinking, despite Ruby's advice that she stay away from them, and despite Van's leering unwelcome advances. Temple ensconces herself in a bedroom. Van and Gowan come to blows; Van quickly knocks out the drunken Gowan. The men carry him into the room where Temple is cowering and throw him on the bed. They come in and out of the room several times and harass her. Finally, the men leave on a whisky run in the middle of the night. The next morning, Gowan awakens and slinks silently away from the house, abandoning Temple. Temple is still terrified the next morning, even though most of the men don't seem to be around. The good-natured Tommy hides her in a corn crib in the barn; Popeye soon discovers them there. He murders Tommy with a gunshot to the back of the head and then proceeds to rape Temple with a corncob. After he has raped her, he puts her in his car and drives to Memphis, where he has connections in the criminal underworld. Goodwin discovers the dead Tommy, and Ruby calls the police from a neighbor's house. The police arrest Goodwin, believing that it is he who has murdered Tommy. Goodwin is terrified of Popeye, so he tells the police nothing beyond a flat denial of guilt. Goodwin is brought to the jail in Jefferson. Benbow finds out about the matter and immediately takes on the task of Goodwin's legal defense, even though he knows that Goodwin cannot pay him. Benbow tries to let Ruby and her sickly infant child stay with him in his house in Jefferson, but his sister Narcissa, who is half-owner of the house with him, refuses to allow her to stay there, with or without Benbow. Ruby is known in town as a fallen woman with an illegitimate child, who "lives in sin" with whiskey-running Lee Goodwin; Narcissa finds the idea of her family name being gossiped about town in connection with a woman like Ruby completely unacceptable. In order to satisfy his sister's wishes and the prevailing societal mores in Jefferson, Benbow has no choice but to put Ruby and her son in a room at the hotel. Benbow, an idealist and strong believer in truth and justice, tries unsuccessfully to get Goodwin to tell the court about Popeye. Goodwin feels that Popeye is capable of killing him, even in jail; he also has faith in his innocence, so he refuses. Benbow soon finds out about Temple and her presence at Goodwin's place when Tommy was murdered (a fact which the Goodwins had originally been reluctant to share with Benbow). Benbow heads to Ole Miss to look for Temple. He discovers that she has left the school. On the train back to Jefferson, he runs into an unctuous state senator named Clarence Snopes, who tells him that he read in the newspaper that "Judge Drake's gal" Temple has been "sent up north" by her father. In reality, Temple is living in a room in a Memphis bawdy house owned by Miss Reba, an asthmatic widowed madam, who thinks highly of Popeye and is happy that he's finally chosen a paramour. Popeye keeps Temple there for him to come and visit whenever he feels like it. However, as he is impotent, he brings Red along and forces him and Temple to have sex while he watches. When Benbow returns from his trip to Oxford, he finds out that the owner of the hotel has buckled under the weight of steadily growing public disapproval and has kicked out Ruby and her child. Benbow tries again to convince Narcissa to let Ruby stay in the house they own, and again she refuses. He finds a place for Ruby to stay, outside of town, in a shack with a crazy lady who ekes out a wretched living as a fortuneteller. Clarence Snopes visits Miss Reba's brothel in Memphis and discovers that Temple is living there. He realizes that this information might be valuable to Benbow (who, Snopes remembers, was looking for Temple at her school) and also to Judge Drake (Temple's father). He offers to sell Benbow the information, hinting that he might sell it to "another party" if Benbow says no. After Benbow agrees to pay Snopes for the information, Snopes tells Benbow that he's seen Temple at Miss Reba's house in Memphis. Benbow immediately heads to Memphis and convinces Miss Reba to let him talk to Temple. Miss Reba imagines Ruby and the child left to fend for themselves if Goodwin is wrongly convicted, and is sympathetic to the Goodwins' plight, although she still admires and respects Popeye. Temple tells Benbow the story of her rape at Popeye's hands. Benbow, shaken, returns to Jefferson. Temple has become thoroughly corrupted by now. She bribes Minnie, Miss Reba's servant, to let her sneak out of the house for fifteen minutes. She makes a phone call from a nearby drugstore. She leaves the house again in the evening, only to find Popeye, who has had the house under surveillance, waiting outside in his car. He takes her to a roadhouse called The Grotto. Temple had arranged to meet Red, a popular young gangster, at this club. It becomes apparent that Temple has been having sex with Red, and that Popeye has been watching them. This evening, Popeye has planned a confrontation with Red to settle once and for all with whom Temple will remain. At the club, Temple drinks heavily and tries to have furtive sex with Red in a back room, but he spurns her advances for the moment. Two of Popeye's gangster friends frog-march her out of the club and drive her back to Miss Reba. Popeye kills Red. This turns Miss Reba against him. She tells some of her friends what has happened, hoping he will be captured and executed for Red's murder. Benbow writes to his wife, asking for a divorce. His sister Narcissa visits the District Attorney and tells him she wants Benbow to lose the case as soon as possible, so that he will cease his involvement in such a sordid affair. Once the DA assures her that Benbow's client will be convicted, she writes to Benbow's wife to tell her that he will soon be returning home. Senator Snopes arrives in town with a black eye, complaining that he was hit by a "Memphis jew [sic] lawyer" who wouldn't pay him a reasonable amount for the information he was offering. Benbow tries to get back in touch with Temple via Miss Reba, who tells him that Popeye and Temple are gone. The trial begins on the 20th of June. It goes badly for Goodwin, who continues to believe that Popeye will show up in Jefferson, at any moment, and kill him. On the second day of the trial, a Memphis lawyer shows up with Temple Drake in tow. She takes the stand and stuns the courtroom with shocking (and false) testimony that Goodwin (not Popeye) shot Tommy and then raped her. Even more shocking is the DA's revelation of a key piece of evidence: a bloodstained corn cob. It was with that corncob that Temple was raped (by Popeye, of course, who is impotent). After perjuring herself, Temple is led out of the courtroom by her father, Judge Drake. The jury finds Goodwin guilty after only eight minutes of deliberation. Benbow, devastated, is taken back to his sister's house. He wanders out of the house, distraught, in the evening, and goes back into town, where he sees Goodwin's dead body burning in a gasoline bonfire; he has been dragged out of jail, tortured and lynched by an angry mob. Benbow is recognized in the crowd, which speaks of lynching him, too. The next day, Benbow returns, defeated, to his wife. Popeye, ironically, is arrested and hanged for a crime he never committed, while he's on his way to Pensacola, Florida to visit his mother. Temple and her father make a final appearance in the Jardin du Luxembourg, having found sanctuary in Paris. See also Requiem for a Nun (1951), a play/novel sequel to Sanctuary.

A promiscuous woman is raped and forced into prostitution by a backwoods character, and, according to Pre-Code scholar Thomas Doherty, the film implies that the deeds done to her are in recompense for her immorality.{{cite book}}

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negative

Sanctuary

The Story of Temple Drake

Angel and Co. are enjoying some downtime at the karaoke bar Caritas when a loud explosion occurs. The gang and the rest of the bar are attracted outside. A building nearby is on fire. It seems that it may have been a diversionary tactic to distract from a drive-by shooting. When the smoke clears, Fred has gone missing. It seems Fred has been kidnapped, so Team Angel questions everyone nearby. Around a dozen demons were direct eyewitnesses, but each one has a different story. Whether it was gangs, monsters, or a runaway Fred, the team soon realize demons do not make the most reliable eyewitnesses.

A promiscuous woman is raped and forced into prostitution by a backwoods character, and, according to Pre-Code scholar Thomas Doherty, the film implies that the deeds done to her are in recompense for her immorality.{{cite book}}

negative

negative

Sanctuary

The Story of Temple Drake

As the Albigensian crusade draws to its bloody conclusion, men inflict savage brutalities on each other in the name of religion. Forced to temporarily abandon ship, the TARDIS crew find their lives intertwined with warring Templars, crusaders and heretics. While the Doctor begins a murder investigation in a besieged fortress, Bernice finds herself drawn to an embittered mercenary who has made the heretics’ fight his own. And both time travellers realize that to leave history unchanged they may have to sacrifice far more than their lives.

A promiscuous woman is raped and forced into prostitution by a backwoods character, and, according to Pre-Code scholar Thomas Doherty, the film implies that the deeds done to her are in recompense for her immorality.{{cite book}}

negative

positive

Breakfast of Champions

Breakfast of Champions

Kilgore Trout is a widely published, but otherwise unsung and virtually invisible writer who, by a fluke, is invited to deliver a keynote address at a local arts festival in distant Midland City. Dwayne Hoover is a wealthy businessman who owns much of Midland City, but is mentally unstable and is undergoing a gradual mental collapse. Kilgore arrives in Midland City and, by happenstance, piques the interest of Dwayne. A confused Dwayne demands a message from Kilgore, who hands over a copy of his novel. Dwayne reads the novel, which purports to be a message from the Creator of the Universe explaining that the reader - in this case Dwayne - is the only individual in the universe with free will. Everyone else is a robot. Dwayne believes the novel to be factual and immediately goes on a violent rampage, severely beating his son, his lover, and nine other people before being taken into custody. While Kilgore is walking the streets of Midland after Dwayne's rampage the narrator of the book approaches Kilgore. The narrator tells Kilgore of his existence, the narrator lets Kilgore be free and to be under his own will.

The film is a portrait of a fictional town in the Midwest that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters. Dwayne Hoover is a wealthy car dealership owner who is on the brink of suicide and is losing touch with reality.

positive

positive

The Silence of the Lambs

The Silence of the Lambs

The novel takes place in February 1983. Clarice Starling, a young FBI trainee, is asked to carry out an errand by Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI division that draws up psychological profiles of serial killers. Starling is to present a questionnaire to brilliant forensic psychiatrist and cannibalistic sociopath, Hannibal Lecter. Lecter is serving nine consecutive life sentences in a Maryland mental institution for a series of brutal murders. Crawford's real intention, however, is to try and solicit Lecter's assistance in the hunt for a serial killer dubbed "Buffalo Bill", whose modus operandi involves kidnapping overweight women, starving them for about three or four days, and then killing and skinning them, before dumping the bodies in nearby rivers. The nickname was started by Kansas City Homicide, as a joke that "he likes to skin his humps." Throughout the investigation, Starling periodically returns to Lecter in search of information, and the two form a strange relationship in which he offers her cryptic clues in return for information about her unhappy childhood as an orphan. When Bill's sixth victim is found in West Virginia, Starling helps Crawford perform the autopsy. Starling finds a moth pupa in the throat of the victim, and just as Lecter predicted, she has been scalped. Triangular patches of skin have also been taken from her shoulders. Furthermore, autopsy reports indicate that Bill killed her within four days of her capture, much faster than his earlier victims. On the basis of Lecter's prediction, Starling believes that he knows who Buffalo Bill really is. She also asks why she was sent to fish for information on Buffalo Bill without being told she was doing so; Crawford explains that if she had had an agenda, Lecter would never have spoken up. Starling takes the pupa to the Smithsonian, where it is eventually identified as the Black Witch Moth, which would not naturally occur where the victim was found. In Tennessee, Catherine Baker Martin, daughter of Senator Ruth Martin, is kidnapped. Within six hours, her blouse is found on the roadside, slit up the back: Buffalo Bill's calling card. Crawford is advised that no less than the President of the United States has expressed "intense interest" in the case, and that a successful rescue is preferable. Crawford estimates they have three days before Catherine is killed. Starling is sent to Lecter with the offer of a deal: if he assists in Catherine's rescue and Buffalo Bill's capture, he will be transferred out of the asylum, something he was continually longed for. However, Lecter expresses skepticism at the genuineness of the offer. After Starling leaves, Lecter reminisces on the past, recalling a conversation with Benjamin Raspail, a former patient whom he later murdered. Raspail, during that therapy session, explained the death of a sailor named Klaus at the hands of Raspail's jealous former lover, Jame Gumb, who then used Klaus' skin to make an apron. Raspail also revealed that Gumb had an epiphany upon watching a moth hatch. Lecter's ruminations are interrupted when Dr. Frederick Chilton - the asylum's administrator and Lecter's nemesis - steps in. A listening device allowed him to record Starling's offer, and Chilton has found out that Crawford's deal is a lie. He offers one of his own: If Lecter reveals Buffalo Bill's identity, he will indeed get a transfer to another asylum, but only if Chilton gets credit for getting the information from him. Lecter insists that he'll only give the information to Senator Martin in person, in Tennessee. Chilton agrees. Unknown to Chilton, Lecter has previously hidden under his tongue a paperclip and some parts of a pen, both of which were mistakenly given to him by untrained orderlies over his many years at the asylum. He fashions the pen pieces and paperclip into an improvised lockpick, which he later uses to pick his handcuff locks. In Tennessee, Lecter toys with Senator Martin briefly, enjoying the woman's anguish, but eventually gives her some information about Buffalo Bill: his name is William "Billy" Rubin, and he has suffered from elephant ivory anthrax, a knifemaker's disease. He also provides an accurate physical description. The name, however, is a red herring: bilirubin is a pigment in human bile and a chief coloring agent in human feces, which the forensic lab compares to the color of Chilton's hair. Starling tries one last time to get information from Lecter as he is about to be transferred. He offers a final clue - "we covet what we see everyday" - and demands to hear her worst memory. Starling reveals that, after her father's death, she was sent to live with a cousin on a sheep ranch. One night, she discovered the farmer slaughtering the spring lambs, and fled in terror. The farmer caught and sent her to an orphanage, where she spent the rest of her childhood. Lecter thanks her, and the two share a brief moment of connection before Chilton forces her to leave. Later on, she deduces from Lecter's clue that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim. Shortly after this, Lecter escapes by killing and eviscerating his guards, using one of their faces as a mask to fool paramedics. Starling continues her search for Buffalo Bill, eventually tracking him down and killing him and rescuing Catherine. She is made a full-fledged FBI agent, and receives a congratulatory telegram from Lecter, who hopes that "the lambs have stopped screaming".

Clarice Starling is pulled from her training at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia, by Jack Crawford of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He tasks her with interviewing Hannibal Lecter , a former psychiatrist and incarcerated cannibalistic serial killer, believing Lecter's insight might be useful in the pursuit of a serial killer nicknamed "Buffalo Bill" , who skins his female victims' corpses. Starling travels to the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, where she is led by Dr. Frederick Chilton to Lecter's solitary quarters. Although initially pleasant and courteous, Lecter grows impatient with Starling's attempts at "dissecting" him and rebuffs her. As she is leaving, one of the prisoners flicks semen at her. Lecter, who considers the discourtesy "unspeakably ugly", calls Starling back and tells her to seek out an old patient of his. This leads her to a storage shed where she discovers a man's severed head. She returns to Lecter, who tells her that the man is linked to Buffalo Bill. He offers to profile Buffalo Bill on the condition that he be transferred away from Chilton, whom he detests. When Buffalo Bill kidnaps a Senator's daughter, Catherine Martin, Crawford authorizes Starling to offer Lecter a fake deal promising a prison transfer if he provides information that helps find Buffalo Bill and rescue the abductee. Instead, Lecter begins a game of quid pro quo with Starling, offering comprehensive clues and insights about Buffalo Bill if Starling will give him information about her own past, something she was advised not to do. Chilton secretly records the conversation and reveals Starling's deal as a sham before offering to transfer Lecter in exchange for a deal of Chilton's own making. Lecter agrees and is flown to Memphis, Tennessee, where he reveals personal information on Buffalo Bill to federal agents. As the manhunt begins, Starling visits Lecter at his special cell in a Tennessee courthouse and confronts him with her decryption of the name he provided . Lecter refuses Starling's pleas for the truth and forces her to recount her traumatic childhood. She tells him how she was orphaned and relocated to a relative's farm, where she discovered a lamb slaughterhouse and made a failed attempt to rescue one of the lambs. Lecter gives her back the case files on Buffalo Bill after their conversation is interrupted by Chilton and the police who escort her from the building. Later that evening, Lecter kills his two guards, escapes from his cell and disappears. Starling analyzes Lecter's annotations to the case files and realizes that Buffalo Bill knew his first victim personally. Starling travels to the victim's hometown and discovers that Buffalo Bill was a tailor, with dresses and dress patterns identical to the patches of skin removed from each of his victims. She telephones Crawford to inform him that Buffalo Bill is trying to fashion a "woman suit" of real skin, but Crawford is already en route to make an arrest, having cross-referenced Lecter's notes with hospital archives and finding a man named Jame Gumb, who once applied unsuccessfully for a sex-change operation. Starling continues interviewing friends of Buffalo Bill's first victim in Ohio while Crawford leads an FBI tactical team to Gumb's address in Illinois. The house in Illinois is empty and Starling is led to the house of "Jack Gordon", who she realizes is actually Jame Gumb. She pursues him into his multi-room basement, where she discovers that Catherine is still alive, but trapped in a dry well. After turning off the basement lights, Gumb stalks Starling in the dark with night-vision goggles but gives his position away when he cocks his revolver; Starling turns around just in time and kills him. Some time later at her FBI Academy graduation party, Starling receives a phone call from Lecter, who is at an airport in Bimini. He assures her that he does not plan to pursue her and asks her to return the favor, which she says she cannot do. Lecter then hangs up the phone, saying that he is "having an old friend for dinner" and begins following a newly-arrived Chilton before disappearing into the crowd.

positive

positive

My Friend Flicka

Flicka 2

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 &ndash; "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 &ndash; Swedish for "girl" &ndash; 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.

After the death of her mother, Carrie McLaughlin has been living with her grandmother in Pittsburgh. When her grandmother needs to go to a nursing home, Carrie has to move in with her father Hank , a rancher in Wyoming, whom she hasn't seen since she was a baby. Initially reluctant to adapt to country living, Carrie soon meets Flicka, a beautiful black Mustang that previously had belonged to Carrie's cousin Katy , who asked Hank to look after Flicka when her father sold their own ranch. Flicka is wild and dangerous and, according to the ranchers, longs for Katy. However, when Carrie is attacked by a rattlesnake, Flicka saves her and the two form a bond. Carrie also meets Jake , an attractive ranch hand hoping to become a country singer, and Amy Walker , the proud and arrogant daughter of a neighbour. Although Jake and Carrie take an immediate liking to each other, there is instant animosity between Carrie and Amy, mainly because Amy also likes Jake. When Carrie disobeys her father's rules regarding visits to the nearest town, Hank decides to punish Carrie by temporarily relocating Flicka to the farm of one of his ranch hands, Toby . After a midnight visit by Carrie, Flicka tries to follow Carrie home to Hank's ranch, but accidentally ends up on the ranch belonging to Amy's father HD Walker . Upon entering the Walker ranch, Flicka damages a fence and releases some of HD's prize cows. At Amy's request, HD asks for Flicka as payment for the damage, threatening to turn it into a lawsuit if Hank refuses. Amy then starts training with Flicka for a championship, but performs poorly during the actual competition because of Flicka's fear of the crowd and camera flashes from the audience. HD and Amy decide to have Flicka slaughtered the next day, but Carrie frees the horse during the night and sets her free to join a nearby herd of Mustangs. One year later, Carrie, Hank, and Toby are riding in the mountains when they encounter the same herd of Mustangs, including Flicka and her newborn foal.

positive

positive

The Beast Master

Beastmaster III: The Eye of Braxus

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.

In the third installment in the series, Dar, the Beastmaster teams up with Seth to rescue his brother King Tal . They learn that the boy was captured by the evil Lord Agon ([[David Warner , who has been sacrificing young prisoners in order to magically retain his youth, and seeks to gain immortality by releasing the dark god Braxus from his prison . Along the way, the heroes are assisted by a beautiful witch named Morgana , her acrobatic sidekick Bey , and a warrior woman named Shada .

positive

positive

Enemy Mine

Enemy Mine

Willis Davidge, a human fighter pilot, is stranded along with Jeriba Shigan, a Drac, on a hostile planet. The Drac are a race of aliens which are reptilian in appearance and reproduce asexually. Davidge and Jeriba Shigan, whom Davidge nicknames "Jerry," initially attempt to kill one another but quickly realize that cooperation will be the key to their survival.

In the late 21st century, an interstellar war between humans and Dracs is fought. Human pilot Willis E. Davidge and Drac pilot Jeriba Shigan engage in a battle which results in both crash-landing on Fyrine IV, a strange, dark alien world with two moons, a breathable atmosphere, water and bizarre animal life. After initial hostilities, the two eventually learn to cooperate to survive. They work together to build a shelter for protection against meteorites. Over the next three years, they overcome their differences, become friends and learn each other's languages and cultures. Each saves the other's life several times. Davidge, haunted by dreams of spaceships landing on the planet, leaves in search of help. He finds evidence of humans, but learns that the planet has only been periodically visited by human miners known as "Scavengers", who use Dracs as slave labor. He returns to warn Jeriba to discover that Jeriba is pregnant. . A blizzard and an attack by a predator forces Davidge and Jeriba to flee their shelter. To pass the time Jeriba teaches Davidge his full lineage. Jeriba later dies during the childbirth, but not before making Davidge swear to take Jeriba's child back to the Drac Homeworld and recite his full ancestry so he can join Drac society. Davidge raises the child Zammis as his own. Davidge and Zammis form a very close bond, and although the young Drac refers to Davidge as its "uncle", it loves Davidge is as a son would love a father. Davidge discovers Scavengers have returned to the planet, so he remains on guard should they run into any of the miners. However, Zammis is curious and goes to get a closer look at the ship. He is discovered by a pair of Scavengers, but Davidge, who has been following, attacks the brothers to save Zammis, but is gunned down. later, a BTA patrol ship finds Davidge, apparently dead and returns him to his base space station. On the station, during an impersonal funeral ceremony, Davidge suddenly awakens when a disposal technician tries to steal the book Jerry gave him years before to learn the Drac language. Davidge's old team vouch for his loyalty, even after the find he speaks the enemy's language fluently. Davidge is later reinstated to duty, but not as a pilot they want to make sure he wasn't brainwashed by the Dracs. Unable to get help in rescuing Zammis, Davidge steals a spaceship to find the child by himself. He manages to find the Scacenger ship and sneak aboard. Davidge speaks to the Drac slaves in their own language and convinces them to overcome their human overseers and find Zammis. Towards the end of the battle, Davidge is assisted by the BTA crew who pursued the stolen ship. They realize that whatever it was he experienced while missing in action has made him more human; he no longer hates Dracs. In the epilogue, Davidge and Zammis return to Draco, the Drac homeworld, for Zammis's introduction ceremony with the Drac Holy Council, so that he will be accepted into Drac society. As he promised Jerry, Davidge recounts the complete Jeriba ancestry before the Holy Council in the traditional ritual, as he was taught. A narrator explains that when "in the fullness of time, Zammis brought its own child before the Holy Council, the name of 'Willis Davidge' was added to the line of Jeriba."

positive

positive

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huck Finn

The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the shore of the Mississippi River, sometime between 1835 (when the first steamboat sailed down the Mississippi) and 1845. Two young boys, Thomas "Tom" Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer). Huck has been placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her sister, Miss Watson, is attempting to civilize him. Huck appreciates their efforts, but finds civilized life confining. His spirits are raised somewhat when Tom Sawyer helps him to escape one night past Miss Watson's slave Jim, to meet up with his gang of self-proclaimed "robbers". However, when the gang's exploits turn out to be nothing worse than disrupting Sunday School outings and stealing paltry items like hymn books (which the Sunday School teacher forces them to return anyway), Huck is again downcast. However, his life is changed by the sudden reappearance of his shiftless father "Pap", an abusive parent and drunkard. Although Huck is successful in preventing him from acquiring his fortune (he gives all 6,000 dollars to Judge Thatcher), Pap forcibly gains custody of him and moves him to his backwoods cabin. Though Huck prefers this to his life with the widow, he resents his father's drunken violence and his habit of keeping him locked inside the cabin. During one of his father's absences Huck escapes, elaborately fakes his own murder, and sets off down the Mississippi River. While living quite comfortably in the wilderness along the Mississippi, Huck encounters Miss Watson's slave Jim on an island called Jackson's Island. Huck learns that Jim has also run away after he overheard Miss Watson's plan to sell Jim downriver, where conditions for slaves were even harsher, because he would bring a price of $800. Jim is trying to make his way to Cairo, Illinois, and then to Ohio, a free state, so that he can buy his family's freedom. At first, Huck is conflicted over whether to tell someone about Jim's running away, but as they travel together and talk in depth, Huck begins to know more about Jim's past and his difficult life. As these conversations continue, Huck begins to change his opinion about people, slavery, and life in general. This continues throughout the rest of the novel. Huck and Jim take up in a cavern on a hill on Jackson's Island to wait out a storm. When they can, they scrounge around the river looking for food, wood, and other items. One night, they find a raft they will eventually use to travel down the Mississippi. Later, they find an entire house floating down the river and enter it to grab what they can. Entering one room, Jim finds a man lying dead on the floor, shot in the back while apparently trying to ransack the house. Jim refuses to let Huck see the man's face. To find out the latest news in the area, Huck dresses as a girl and goes into town. He enters the house of a woman new to the area, thinking she will not recognize him. Huck learns from her that opinion is divided about the "murder": while some believe Pap has killed his son in order to inherit his fortune, others blame the runaway Jim. Either way there is a $300 reward for Jim's capture, and a manhunt is already underway, including her husband and another man. The men are going to Jackson's Island at night with a gun. The woman becomes suspicious when Huck threads a needle incorrectly, and her suspicions are confirmed after she puts Huck through a series of tests. Having tricked him into revealing he is a boy, she nevertheless allows him to leave her home, believing him to be a mistreated apprentice on the run. Huck returns quickly to the island where he tells Jim of the impending danger. The two immediately load up the raft and leave the islands. Huck and Jim's raft is swamped by a passing steamship, separating the two. Huck is given shelter by the Grangerfords, a prosperous local family. He becomes friends with Buck Grangerford, a boy about his age, and learns that the Grangerfords are engaged in a 30-year blood feud against another family, the Shepherdsons. The Grangerfords and Shepherdsons go to church. Both families bring guns to continue the show, despite the church's preachings on brotherly love. The vendetta comes to a head when Buck's sister, Sophia Grangerford, elopes with Harney Shepherdson. In the resulting conflict, all the Grangerford males from this branch of the family are shot and killed, although Grangerfords elsewhere survive to carry on the feud. Upon seeing Buck's corpse, Huck is too devastated to write about everything that happened. However, Huck does describe how he narrowly avoids his own death in the gunfight, later reuniting with Jim and the raft and together fleeing farther south on the Mississippi River. Further down the river, Jim and Huck rescue two cunning grifters, who join Huck and Jim on the raft. The younger of the two swindlers, a man of about thirty, introduces himself as a son of an English duke (the Duke of Bridgewater) and his father's rightful successor. The older one, about seventy, then trumps the Duke's claim by alleging that he is the Lost Dauphin, the son of Louis XVI and rightful King of France. He continually mispronounces the duke's title as "Bilgewater" in conversation. The Duke and the King then join Jim and Huck on the raft, committing a series of confidence schemes on the way south. To allow for Jim's presence, they print fake bills for an escaped slave; and later they paint him up entirely in blue and call him the "Sick Arab". On one occasion they arrive in a town and advertise a three-night engagement of a play which they call "The Royal Nonesuch". The play turns out to be only a couple of minutes of hysterical cavorting, not worth anywhere near the 50 cents the townsmen were charged to see it. On the afternoon of the first performance, a drunk called Boggs arrives in town and makes a nuisance of himself by going around threatening a southern gentleman by the name of Colonel Sherburn. Sherburn comes out and warns Boggs that he can continue threatening him up until exactly one o'clock. At one o'clock, Boggs continues and Colonel Sherburn kills him. Somebody in the crowd, whom Sherburn later identifies as Buck Harkness, cries out that Sherburn should be lynched. They all head up to Colonel Sherburn's gate, where they are met by Sherburn, who is standing on his porch carrying a loaded shotgun and his three legged dalmatian. He causes them to back down, by making a defiant speech telling them about the essential cowardice of "Southern justice". The only lynching to be done here, says Sherburn, will be in the dark, by men wearing masks. By the third night of "The Royal Nonesuch", the townspeople are ready to take their revenge; but the Duke and the King have already skipped town, and together with Huck and Jim, they continue down the river. Once they are far enough away, the two grifters test the next town, and decide to impersonate two brothers of Peter Wilks, a recently deceased man of property. Using an absurd English accent, the King manages to convince nearly all the townspeople that he is one of the brothers, a preacher just arrived from England, while the Duke pretends to be a deaf-mute to match accounts of the other brother. One man in town is certain that they are a fraud and confronts them on the matter, but the crowd refuses to support him. Afterwards, the Duke, out of fear, suggests to the King that they should cut and run. The King boldly states his intention to continue to liquidate Wilks' estate, saying, "Hain't we got all the fools in town on our side? And ain't that a big enough majority in any town?" Huck likes Wilks' daughters, who treat him with kindness and courtesy, so he tries to thwart the grifters' plans by stealing back the inheritance money. When he is in danger of being discovered, he has to hide it in Wilks' coffin, which is buried the next morning without Huck knowing whether the money has been found or not. The arrival of two new men who seem to be the real brothers throws everything into confusion when none of their signatures match the one on record. (The deaf-mute brother, who is said to do the correspondence, has his arm in a sling and cannot currently write.) The townspeople devise a test, which requires digging up the coffin to check. When the money is found in Wilks' coffin, the Duke and the King are able to escape in the confusion. They manage to rejoin Huck and Jim on the raft to Huck's despair, since he had thought he had escaped them. After the four fugitives have drifted far enough from the town, the King takes advantage of Huck's temporary absence to sell his interest in the "escaped" slave Jim for forty dollars. Outraged by this betrayal, Huck rejects the advice of his "conscience", which continues to tell him that in helping Jim escape to freedom, he is stealing Miss Watson's property. Accepting that-"All right, then, I'll go to hell!"-Huck resolves to free Jim. Jim is being held at the plantation of Silas and Sally Phelps. In a surprise twist, they are revealed to be Tom Sawyer's aunt and uncle. Since Tom is expected for a visit, Huck is mistaken for Tom. He plays along, hoping to find Jim's location and free him. When Huck intercepts Tom on the road and tells him everything, Tom decides to join Huck's scheme, pretending to be his own younger half-brother Sid. Jim has also told the household about the two grifters and the new plan for "The Royal Nonesuch," so this time the townspeople are ready for them. The Duke and King are captured by the townspeople, and are tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. Rather than simply sneaking Jim out of the shed where he is being held, Tom develops an elaborate plan to free him, involving secret messages, hidden tunnels, a rope ladder sent in Jim's food, and other elements from popular novels, including a note to the Phelps warning them of a gang planning to steal their runaway slave. During the resulting pursuit, Tom is shot in the leg. Jim remains with him rather than completing his escape, risking recapture. Huck has long known Jim was "white on the inside". Although the doctor admires Jim's decency, he betrays him to a passing skiff, and Jim is captured while sleeping and returned to the Phelps family. After Jim's recapture, events quickly resolve themselves. Tom's Aunt Polly arrives and reveals Huck and Tom's true identities. Tom announces that Jim is a free man; Miss Watson died two months earlier and freed Jim in her will, but Tom chose not to reveal Jim's freedom so he could come up with an elaborate plan to rescue Jim. Jim tells Huck that Huck's father has been dead for some time (he was the dead man they found in the floating house) and that Huck may return safely to St. Petersburg. In the final narrative, Huck declares that he is quite glad to be done writing his story, and despite Sally's plans to adopt and "civilize" him, Huck intends to flee west to Indian Territory.

Huckleberry Finn , the half-literate son of a drunk , runs away from home and follows the Mississippi River with an escaped slave named Jim . Along the way, the duo encounter adventures with colorful characters like The King and the Duke , two con men who impersonate British visitors in order to swindle three sisters out of their fortune. Jim also re-educates Huck away from the racist views that he has grown up with.

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Possession: A Romance

Possession

Obscure scholar Roland Michell, researching in the London Library, discovers handwritten drafts of a letter by the prestigious (fictional) Victorian poet Randolph Henry Ash, which leads him to suspect that the married Ash had a hitherto unknown romance. He feels compelled to take away the documents secretly - an unprofessional act - and begins to investigate. The trail leads him to Christabel LaMotte, a minor poet and contemporary of Ash, and to Dr. Maud Bailey, a modern LaMotte scholar and distant relative of LaMotte's family, who is drawn into helping Roland with the unfolding mystery. They become obsessed with uncovering the truth and unearth more letters and evidence of an affair between the poets, and their own personal romantic lives - neither of which are happy or even satisfactory - develop and become entwined in an echo of Ash and LaMotte, whose story is told in parallel to theirs. The news of this affair will make headlines and reputations in academia, and colleagues of Roland and Maud become competitors in the race to discover the truth, for all manner of motives. And the truth is this: Ash's marriage was barren and unconsummated, although he loved and remained devoted to his wife. He and LaMotte had a short, passionate affair resulting in the suicide of LaMotte's companion (and possibly lover) and the secret birth of an illegitimate child, whose existence LaMotte sought to conceal from Ash, but whom he did once meet, unknown to her. As the Great Storm of 1987 strikes England, all the interested parties come together in a dramatic scene at Ash's grave, where documents buried with Ash by his wife are believed to hold the final key to the mystery. Reading them, Maud learns that rather than being related to LaMotte's sister, as she has always believed, she is in fact directly descended from LaMotte and Ash's illegitimate daughter, who was raised by LaMotte's sister and passed off as her own child, and she is therefore heir to their correspondence. Roland, freed from obscurity and a dead-end relationship, manages to live down the potential professional suicide of the theft of the original documents, and sees an academic career open up before him. Maud, who has spent her adult life confused and emotionally untouchable, finds her human side and sees possible future happiness with Roland. And the sad story of Ash and LaMotte, separated by the mores of the day and condemned to secrecy and separation, is resolved at last through Roland and Maud.

The film tells the story of two scholars, Roland Michell and Maud Bailey , who investigate the affair of fictional Victorian era poet Randolph Henry Ash , described in letters between him and another fictional poet, Christabel LaMotte .

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The Land That Time Forgot

The People That Time Forgot

The novel is set in World War I and opens with a framing story in which a manuscript relating the main story is recovered from a thermos off the coast of Greenland. It purports to be the narrative of Bowen J. Tyler, an American passenger with his Airedale terrier Nobs on a ship sunk in the English Channel by a German U-boat, , in 1916. He is rescued by a British tugboat with another survivor, Lys La Rue. The tug is also sunk, but its crew manages to capture the submarine when it surfaces. Unfortunately, all other British craft continue to regard the sub as an enemy, and they are unable to bring it to port. Sabotage to the navigation equipment sends the U-33 astray into the South Atlantic. The imprisoned German crew retakes the sub and begins a raiding cruise, only to be overcome again by the British. A saboteur continues to guide the sub off course, and by the time he is found out it is in Antarctic waters. The U-33 is now low on fuel, with its provisions poisoned by the saboteur Benson. A large island ringed by cliffs is encountered, and identified as Caprona, a land mass first reported by the (fictitious) Italian explorer Caproni in 1721 whose location was subsequently lost. A freshwater current guides the sub to a stream issuing from a subterranean passage, which is entered on the hope of replenishing the water supply. The U-boat surfaces into a tropical river teeming with primitive creatures extinct elsewhere; attacked, it submerges again and travels upstream in search of a safe harbor. It enters a thermal inland sea, essentially a huge crater lake, whose heat sustains Caprona’s tropical climate. As the sub travels north along the island’s waterways the climate moderates and wildlife undergoes an apparent evolutionary progression. On the shore of the lake the crew builds a palisaded base, dubbed Fort Dinosaur for the area’s prehistoric fauna. The British and Germans agree to work together under Tyler, with Bradley, the mate from the tug, as second in command and Von Schoenvorts, the original sub commander, in control of the Germans. The castaways are attacked by a horde of beast men and take prisoner Ahm, a Neanderthal. They learn that the native name for the island is Caspak. Oil is discovered, which they hope to refine into fuel for the U-33. As they set up operations, Bradley undertakes various explorations. During his absence Lys disappears and the Germans mutiny again, absconding with the submarine. Tyler leaves the other survivors to seek and rescue Lys. A series of adventures ensues among various bands of near-human primitives, each representing a different stage of human advancement, as represented by their weaponry. Tyler rescues Lys from a group of Sto-lu (hatchet men), and later aids the escape of a woman of the Band-lu (spearmen) to the Kro-lu (bowmen). Lys is lost again, and chance discoveries of the graves of two men associated with Bradley’s expedition leaves Tyler in despair of that party’s fate. Unable to find his way back to Fort Dinosaur, he retreats to the barrier cliffs ringing Caspak in a vain hope of attracting rescue from some passing ship. Improbably reunited with Lys, he sets up house with her, completes the account of his adventures which he has been writing, and casts it out to sea in his thermos.

Major Ben McBride organises a mission to the Antarctic wastes to search for his friend who has been missing in the region for several years. McBride's party: Norfolk , Hogan and Lady Charlotte 'Charlie' Cunningham find themselves in a world populated by primitive warriors and terrifying prehistoric creatures, all of whom they must evade in order to get back safely to their ship and they meet a race of samurai like warriors called the Nargas.

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The Puppet Masters

The Brain Eaters

"Sam" is an agent in "Section", a United States government intelligence organization. It is so secret it reports only to the President, and is entirely unknown to anyone else. Sam is superbly trained, equipped with a built-in communicator he calls a "skull phone" as well as a number of ways to commit suicide if the need arises. Called in by "the Old Man", his boss and the head of the organization, they go to investigate the report of a flying saucer landing in Grinnell, Iowa after other agents sent earlier fail to report back. With them is another agent named "Mary", a stunningly beautiful redhead. Sam is informed that her life is only slightly less precious than the Old Man's, and that he (Sam) is the most expendable. In Iowa, they discover that the people are being brought under the mental control of repulsive, slug-like creatures that attach to their backs, just below the neck. Detaching one slug from its host, they seal it in a film canister and bring it back to headquarters in Washington, D.C. By the time they get there though, the remains of the slug are a stinking mess, and they are unable to convince the President that there is an invasion. Sam eventually leads a small team back to Iowa. They inadvertently succeed in capturing a live slug, as one agent becomes "hagridden" without them realizing it. However, Mary spots it when he does not react to her allure like a normal male. The agent is unmasked, subdued and confined. The slug escapes by transferring to another person, and eventually to Sam himself. He immediately becomes enslaved and escapes the agency. Meanwhile, the invasion continues to expand. Slugs are shipped through the mail to recruit more humans. Gradually they infect more and more important people, especially the members of exclusive clubs frequented by politicians. Before the Old Man tracks Sam down and captures him, they have infected the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, whose department controls the United States Secret Service (responsible for the President's personal security); the slugs are a step away from infecting the President himself. By the time Sam recovers in hospital, anyone fully dressed is suspect. The Old Man wants someone to "wear" the slug so it can be interrogated. Sam cannot bear the idea, but when Mary volunteers, he gives in and does it himself. He is completely aware of himself when possessed, but totally committed to the slugs' cause. The slug dies under torture from electric shocks, but in the process Sam learns that they come from Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. Thoroughly disgusted by the treatment he has received, Sam is ready to quit. He is at first furious with Mary for entrapping him, and then with the Old Man, when he learns that his boss tricked Mary into it. At this point, it is revealed that the Old Man is Sam's father. Eventually the politicians realize the danger. From Minnesota to Louisiana, the center of the country has been taken over. On a solo mission to Kansas City, Sam is shocked to discover that the number of slugs is much greater than thought. Instead of taking over key people, they have absorbed the entire human population of the occupied territory. However, he and the Old Man are unable to convince the President to stop a meticulously planned military counter-invasion of the heartland; the entire force is taken over by the enemy. They find that slugs are capable of fissioning in two fairly quickly. The number of infected humans must now be so large that any military action would kill tens of millions. The problem having reached a scale beyond their ability to influence it, Sam and Mary are given leave. By this time, they have fallen in love and get married before going to Sam's bolt-hole in the Adirondack Mountains. Their idyll is interrupted when a slug takes over first his beloved pet cat, then Mary. Sam manages to push Mary onto a hot fire to kill the slug, leaving them both badly burned, but alive and free. Returning to HQ for treatment, they find that a new law requires everyone to be functionally naked to show that a slug is not in control. The law is rigorously enforced not as much by police as by vigilantes, who often shoot first and confirm afterward. Sam begins to believe that the slugs have him marked for repossession. They can communicate by "direct conference", where their hosts sit back to back and the slugs partially merge. A network of such interactions could spread his description rapidly among the invaders, who knew how valuable he is. Some scientists even speculate that the slugs are really just one organism in many bodies. For their part, the slugs drop all pretenses and openly wage war on the states to their east and west. Where human hosts cannot go, they use animals such as dogs, horses and even elephants. Sam and Mary go with the Old Man to investigate a saucer which crash-landed in Mississippi. Inside they encounter the slugs' hosts from Titan, small elf-like creatures, who died when Earth's air entered the ship. There are also tanks containing humans in suspended animation. Mary has a mental breakdown when she enters the ship. It triggers long-suppressed memories from when she was a child in a failed Venus colony which was taken over by slugs. She herself spent years in one of the tanks. Mary caught a disease which killed her slug. They discover that the disease is "Nine-day Fever", which is almost 100% fatal if untreated. However, they find that it kills slugs faster than humans. It might just be possible to spread the fever among the slugs using "direct conference", and then treat as many humans as possible before they die. The Old Man springs a surprise on Sam. He had expected Sam to replace him one day, and Sam would show when he was ready by opposing the Old Man's authority. From now on, Sam is in charge, official titles notwithstanding. Time is short – diseases erupt in the infected areas, as the slugs neglect hygiene and often drive their hosts until they starve. Outbreaks of plague in the Communist countries suggest that they were taken over even before the center of the United States. The counter-attack begins. Releasing animals with infected slugs into enemy territory, they wait for the epidemic to break out. Days pass, and then calls start coming in from desperate people whose slugs have died. Hundreds of thousands of agents, Sam and the Old Man among them, parachute in to treat victims with drug-dispensing guns. Just when the battle seems won, the Old Man is possessed by one of the few healthy slugs and kidnaps Sam, intending to take them both into hiding to regroup for a new invasion. Sam watches in horror as the Old Man's slug begins dividing so he too can be possessed. Despite being tied up, Sam is able to crash their flyer into the sea, killing the slug. In the final section, Sam writes in a journal before embarking with Mary on a spaceship which will take the battle to Titan. The slugs will remain a problem for years to come, having infected too many parts of the Earth to root out easily, but they will never be able to take over.

A team of local scientists discover alien parasites when they investigate a mysterious, three-story-tall, cone-like object that has appeared outside of town. It becomes obvious that the parasites' first victims, whose minds have been taken over, are the town's leading citizens.

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Clear and Present Danger

Clear and Present Danger

When U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Panache intercepts a yacht in the Caribbean Sea, the crew discovers two men cleaning up the vessel after murdering a man and his family. Through a mock execution, the Coast Guardsmen force the killers to confess to the crime. It is later learned that the murdered man was involved in a money laundering scheme for a drug cartel. Upon hearing of this atrocity, the President of the United States, who is running for re-election, feels compelled to take drastic measures against drug trafficking; his challenger, J. Robert Fowler, has rallied the public behind the administration's failures in the War on Drugs. The president initiates covert operations within Colombia and a step-up of operations against aircraft believed to be distributing narcotics. Aiding the president are U.S. National Security Advisor James Cutter, Central Intelligence Agency's Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter, and Director of Central Intelligence Arthur Moore. The plan consists of four operations: *Operation CAPER is the interception of mobile phone communications between cartel management. It is also the communications arm for SHOWBOAT and the light-fighters' only means of contact with the outside world. John Clark is dispatched with CAPER to coordinate the effort. *Operation EAGLE EYE uses F-15 Eagles to intercept drug flights. Several aircraft are destroyed and others are forced to land, where the pilots are interrogated for information regarding the cartel. *Operation SHOWBOAT involves four teams of soldiers infiltrating Colombia to stake-out airstrips used by drug-trafficking aircraft. They report departure times of aircraft, allowing the EAGLE EYE team to intercept them. Later the troops attack the airstrips and coca processing sites. The soldiers are seconded from U.S. light infantry battalions, and are all Hispanic in order to blend in with the local population. *Operation RECIPROCITY involves using ground-attack aircraft and laser-guided bombs to attack cartel locations discovered by intercepts. The bombs have a casing that will be consumed in the blast to give the impression of a car-bomb. Meanwhile, Félix Cortez, a former intelligence officer from Cuba employed by the cartel, feigns romantic interest in the aide of Emil Jacobs, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The aide unknowingly reveals information regarding the date of Jacobs' official visit to the Attorney General of Colombia. Cortez delivers this information to the cartel, which orders Jacobs' assassination as retaliation for the U.S. seizure of cartel money. During his visit, Jacobs and several other Americans in his delegation are killed. Jack Ryan suspects the CIA's involvement in the situation in Colombia. As acting Deputy Director of the Intelligence Directorate, Ryan should be privy to most operations but he realizes he is being put out of the loop. After Robby Jackson, assigned to the Pentagon, makes an inquiry into activity in the region, Ryan goes to Moore to demand an explanation. Moore is evasive, yet orders Ryan to withhold information about Colombia from a congressional oversight committee. Cortez eventually uncovers the U.S. operations. He suppresses this information, planning to engineer a war within the cartel that will leave him in a position to seize power. Cortez orders mercenaries to hunt down the U.S. troops, and blackmails Cutter into ending SHOWBOAT, promising the intra-cartel war will slow drug imports to the States. Cutter's meeting with Cortez is shadowed by Ryan and Clark. Clark is outraged at Cutter's abandonment of the troops and, with Ryan, plans a rescue operation with personnel from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Air Force. Clark makes radio contact with two of the SHOWBOAT teams, ordering them to alternate pickup points to await extraction. The other two teams encounter mercenaries and take casualties. Clark makes radio contact with some survivors of these remaining teams&mdash;which include Domingo Chavez&mdash;then flies into Colombia to retrieve them. Ryan uses an Air Force helicopter to pick up other survivors. Together, Clark and Ryan launch a raid on the cartel's command post, capturing Cortez and extracting the remaining ground team. Due to a hurricane and damage to the helicopter, they land on the deck of the Panache. Cortez is returned to Cuba, where he is a marked as a traitor. Upon being confronted by Clark with evidence of his treason, Cutter commits suicide. Ryan confronts the defiant president, informing him that despite his classifying the drug cartel as a "clear and present danger," Ryan must brief U.S. Congress over the illegal operations. After Ryan briefs the committee, the president deliberately loses the election in order to hide the covert operations and protect the honor of those involved. Ryan realizes that the president has more honor and dignity than he originally thought.

A U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat stops a suspicious yacht, finding that an American businessman and his family have been murdered by several men operating the craft. The murdered man happens to have been a close friend of the President of the United States. President Bennett learns that the man was murdered because of his ties to a drug cartel, having skimmed over $650 million from the cartel. The President tells James Cutter , his National Security Advisor, that Colombian drug cartels represent "a clear and present danger" to the U.S., indirectly giving Cutter unofficial permission to take down the men responsible for his friend's death. Jack Ryan is appointed Deputy Director when his friend, mentor, and boss Admiral Jim Greer is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Upon his appointment, Ryan is asked to go before the U.S. Congress to request increased funding of $70 million for ongoing Central Intelligence Agency operations in Colombia. Congress approves the funding, with U.S. Senator Mayo receiving Ryan's word that no troops or black-ops will be used. Needing to keep an unwitting Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations Bob Ritter , who secures a document giving him permission to act as he sees fit to take down the cartel. Ritter assembles a black-ops team with the help of John Clark . The team inserts itself in Colombia, with Clark running logistics from Bogota, Colombia, and Captain Ricardo Ramirez leading the ground force in a search-and-destroy mission against various cartel gangs, their equipment, and hidden drug lab facilities. The head of one of the drug gangs, Ernesto Escobedo , is enraged at having lost over $600 million as a result of the freezing of assets, and has his intelligence officer, Félix Cortez , take care of the problem. Cortez, a former colonel of Cuban military intelligence, has an unwitting contact inside the U.S. government&nbsp;&mdash; Moira Wolfson , a secretary to Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Emil Jacobs. Cortez feigns romantic interest to discover that Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with the local attorney general concerning the frozen money. Unaware of these covert dealings, Ryan finds himself caught in the middle of an assassination attempt on Jacobs, which only Ryan survives. Cortez travels to the U.S. and kills Moira to cover his tracks. Cortez's real motivation is to cause distrust among the leaders of the cartel . Cortez believes he can assume control of the cartel following the gang war that will result. In retaliation for the assassination of Jacobs, Cutter orders an air strike on a villa where the cartel's leaders are supposed to meet. The bombing is mostly successful, killing a large number of the cartel leaders and fooling the media and other observers into thinking that the destruction was caused by a car bomb set by a rival drug lord. Escobedo and Cortez avoid the bombing, but innocent women and children are killed in the action, much to Cutter's dismay. The situation is exacerbated when Ryan and Cortez independently discover that the United States was responsible for the bombing. Cortez brokers a deal with Cutter. Cortez will assassinate Escobedo and take over the cartel, then reduce drug shipments to the U.S. and allow American law enforcement to arrest some of his workers at regular intervals so as to make the U.S. appear to be winning the drug war. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all operations in Colombia and allow Cortez to capture and kill Clark's soldiers. Cutter agrees and orders Ritter to get rid of all evidence of their operations and cut off the troops in Colombia from all support. Ryan is told about the meeting between Cutter and Cortez. He hacks into Ritter's computer account and discovers Ritter's and Cutter's work in Colombia. Ritter notices Ryan's presence on the computer while Ritter is deleting all of the files, and the two men confront each other. Ritter tells Ryan that he has written permission from the President to do anything necessary to defeat the Cali Cartel, and so does Cutter. Ryan will be the scapegoat for what has happened since he doesn't have that protection and was responsible for the funding from Congress that made the Colombian operations possible. Greer succumbs to cancer. As the funeral takes place the black-ops team is ambushed in Colombia. Ryan goes to Colombia to find John Clark and save the soldiers. Ritter and Cutter find out about this and tell Clark that Ryan was responsible for the operation's shut-down. Clark almost kills Ryan before Ryan convinces him that Ritter and Cutter are responsible. Clark hires a local retired American pilot and Ryan buys an aging Bell 412 helicopter. They fly to where the soldiers were attacked and find the squad's scout/sniper, Domingo Chavez , who tells them that two of his unit members are imprisoned and the rest are dead. Ryan visits Escobedo's mansion and tells him what Cortez has been doing. Enraged, Escobedo accuses Cortez of treachery. One of Cortez's men kills Escobedo and henchmen, but is shot by Chávez. Ryan, Clark, and Chávez rescue the prisoners, kill Cortez, and escape. Ryan confronts the President, who tries to convince Ryan that he now holds "a chip in the big game"&nbsp;&mdash; by being in the loop of what happened, Ryan can use the President for special favors; otherwise Ryan and Admiral Greer become the scapegoats. Ryan tells the President that he intends to blow the whistle at a Congressional Oversight Committee session despite the damage it could do to his career. He walks out of the Oval Office and begins his testimony to Congress.

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The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain

When a military satellite returns to Earth, a recovery team is dispatched to retrieve it; during a live radio communication with their base, the team members suddenly die. Aerial surveillance reveals that everyone in Piedmont, Arizona, the town closest to where the satellite landed, is apparently dead. The base commander suspects the satellite returned with an extraterrestrial organism and recommends activating Wildfire, the government-sponsored team that counters extraterrestrial biological infestation. The Wildfire scientific team studying the unknown strain is composed of Dr. Jeremy Stone, bacteriologist specialist; Dr. Peter Leavitt, disease pathology; Dr. Charles Burton, infection vectors specialist; and Dr. Mark Hall, M.D., surgeon, biochemistry and pH specialist. Hall is the "odd man", since he is the only one without a spouse. The Robertson Odd Man Hypothesis states that unmarried men are capable of carrying out the best, most dispassionate decisions during crises and he is given the only key that can disarm the self-destruct mechanism. A fifth scientist, Dr. Christian Kirke, anthropologist and electrolytes specialist, was unavailable for duty because of appendicitis. The scientists believe the satellite, which was actually designed to capture upper-atmosphere microorganisms for bio-weapon exploitation, returned with a deadly microorganism that kills by nearly instantaneous disseminated intravascular coagulation (lethal blood clotting). Upon investigating the town, the Wildfire team discovers that the residents either died in mid-stride or went "quietly nuts" and committed bizarre suicides. Two Piedmont inhabitants, the sick, Sterno-addicted, geriatric Peter Jackson; and the constantly bawling infant, Jamie Ritter, are biologic opposites who somehow survived the organism. The man, infant, and satellite are taken to the secret underground Wildfire laboratory, a secure facility equipped with every known capacity for protection against a biological element escaping into the atmosphere, including a nuclear weapon to incinerate the facility if necessary. Wildfire is hidden in a remote area near the fictional town of Flatrock, Nevada, sixty miles from Las Vegas using a sort of purloined letter approach, by locating it in the sub-basements of a legitimate Department of Agriculture research station. Further investigation determines that the bizarre deaths were caused by a crystal-structured, extraterrestrial microbe on a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The microbe contains chemical elements required for terrestrial life and appears to have a crystalline structure, but lacks DNA, RNA, proteins, and amino acids, yet it directly transforms matter to energy and vice versa. The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The scientists learn that Andromeda grows only within a narrow pH range; in a too-acid or too-basic growth medium, it will not multiply&nbsp;&mdash; Andromeda's pH range is 7.39–7.43, like that of human blood. That is why Jackson and Ritter survived: both had abnormal blood pH. However, by the time the scientists realize that, Andromeda's current mutation degrades the plastic shield and escapes its containment. Trapped in an Andromeda-contaminated laboratory, Dr. Burton demands that Stone inject him with Kalocin ("the universal antibiotic"); Stone refuses, arguing it would render Burton too vulnerable to infection by other harmful bacteria. Burton survives because Andromeda has already mutated to nonlethal form. The mutated Andromeda attacks the neoprene door and hatch seals within the Wildfire complex, racing to the upper levels and the surface. The self-destruct atomic bomb is automatically armed when it detects a containment breach, triggering its detonation countdown to incinerate all exo-biological diseases. As the bomb arms, the scientists realize that given Andromeda's ability to generate matter directly from energy, the organism would feed, reproduce, and ultimately benefit from an atomic explosion. To halt the atomic detonation, Dr. Hall must insert his special key to an emergency substation anywhere in Wildfire. Unfortunately, he is trapped in a section with no substation. He must navigate Wildfire's obstacle course of automatic defenses to reach a working substation on an upper level. He barely disarms the bomb in time before all the air is evacuated from the deepest level of the Wildfire complex. Andromeda eventually mutates to a benign form and is suspected to have migrated to the upper atmosphere, where the oxygen content is lower, better suiting Andromeda's growth. The novel's epilogue reveals that a manned spacecraft, Andros V, was incinerated during atmospheric re-entry, presumably because Andromeda Strain ate the plastic heat shield of Andros V and caused it to burn up.

After a US government satellite crashes near the town of Piedmont, New Mexico, a microbe attached to the satellite kills all but two of the town's inhabitants — a sixty-two-year-old man and an infant. Some of those who died show signs of having first gone mad. The mechanism of death is massive clotting and granulation of every drop of blood in their bodies. An elite scientific team takes the satellite into a secret underground laboratory in the Nevada desert, known as the Wildfire Complex, in order to study it. The new life form is assigned the code name Andromeda. Within a couple of days the microbe mutates into a form that degrades synthetic rubber gaskets and thus escapes containment. This triggers an automatic self-destruct mechanism designed to set off a nuclear explosion beneath the complex, eradicating all germs before they can reach the surface. However, the scientists learn that the alien microbes, having evolved in the harsh environment of outer space, would thrive on the radiation of a nuclear explosion and would consequently be able to mutate into a supercolony of an untold number of forms. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered how to really defeat the microbes. To stop the explosion and save the world, one scientist races to shut down the bomb before it can detonate.

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The Reader

The Reader

*Michael Berg, a German who is first portrayed as a 15-year-old boy and is revisited at later parts of his life: when he is a researcher in legal history, divorced with one daughter, Julia. Like many of his generation, he struggles to come to terms with his country's recent history. *Hanna Schmitz, illiterate and former SS guard at Auschwitz. She is 36 and working as a tram conductor in Neustadt when she first meets 15-year-old Michael. She takes a dominant position in their relationship. *Sophie, a friend of Michael's when he is in school, and who he probably has a crush on. She is almost the first person whom he tells about Hanna. When he begins his friendship with her, is when he begins to "betray" Hanna by denying her relationship with him and by cutting short his time with Hanna to be with Sophie and his other friends. *Michael's father, a philosophy professor who specializes in Kant and Hegel. During the Nazi era he lost his job for giving a lecture on Spinoza and had to support himself and his family by writing hiking guidebooks. He is very formal and requires his children to make appointments to see him. He is emotionally stiff and does not easily express his emotions to Michael or his three siblings, which exacerbates the difficulties Hanna creates for Michael. By the time Michael is narrating the story, his father is dead. *Michael's mother, seen briefly. Michael has fond memories of her pampering him as a child, which his relationship with Hanna reawakens. A psychoanalyst he sees, tells him he should consider his mother's effect on him more, since she barely figures in his retelling of his life. *The daughter of Jewish woman who wrote the book about the death march from Auschwitz. She lives in New York City when Michael visits her near the end of the story, still suffering from the loss of her own family. The story is told in three parts by the main character, Michael Berg. Each part takes place in a different time period in the past. Part I begins in a West German city in 1958. After 15-year-old Michael becomes ill on his way home, 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna Schmitz notices him, cleans him up, and sees him safely home. He spends the next three months absent from school battling hepatitis. He visits Hanna to thank her for her help and realizes he is attracted to her. Embarrassed after she catches him watching her getting dressed, he runs away, but he returns days later. After she asks him to retrieve coal from her cellar, he is covered in coal dust; she watches him bathe and seduces him. He returns eagerly to her apartment on a regular basis, and they begin a heated affair. They develop a ritual of bathing and having sex, before which she frequently has him read aloud to her, especially classical literature, such as The Odyssey and Chekhov's The Lady with the Dog. Both remain somewhat distant from each other emotionally, despite their physical closeness. Hanna is at times physically and verbally abusive to Michael. Months into the relationship, she suddenly leaves without a trace. The distance between them had been growing as Michael had been spending more time with his school friends; he feels guilty and believes it was something he did that caused her departure. The memory of her taints all his other relationships with women. Seven years later, while attending law school, Michael is part of a group of students observing a war crimes trial. A group of middle-aged women who had served as SS guards at a satellite of Auschwitz in occupied Poland are being tried for allowing 300 Jewish women under their ostensible "protection" to die in a fire locked in a church that had been bombed during the evacuation of the camp. The incident was chronicled in a book written by one of the few survivors, who emigrated to the United States after the war; she is the main prosecution witness at the trial. Michael is stunned to see that Hanna is one of the defendants, sending him on a roller coaster of complex emotions. He feels guilty for having loved a remorseless criminal and at the same time is mystified at Hanna's willingness to accept full responsibility for supervising the other guards despite evidence proving otherwise. She is accused of writing the account of the fire. At first she denies this, but then in panic admits it in order to not have to give a sample of her handwriting. Michael, horrified, realizes that Hanna has a secret she refuses to reveal at any cost—she is illiterate. This realization explains many of Hanna's actions: her refusal of the promotion that would have removed her from the responsibility of supervising these women, and also the panic she carried her entire life over being discovered. During the trial, it transpires that she took in the weak, sickly women and had them read to her before they were sent to the gas chambers. Michael decides she wanted to make their last days bearable; or did she send them to their death so they would not reveal her secret? She is convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He chooses not to reveal her secret. Michael is trying to come to terms with his feelings for Hanna, and begins taping readings of books and sending them to her without any correspondence while she is in prison. Years have passed, Michael is divorced and has a daughter from his brief marriage. Hanna begins to teach herself to read, and then write in a childlike way, by borrowing the books from the prison library and following the tapes along in the text. She writes to Michael, but he cannot bring himself to reply. After 18 years, Hanna is about to be released, so he agrees (after hesitation) to find her a place to stay and employment, visiting her in prison. On the day of her release in 1988, she commits suicide and Michael is heartbroken. Michael learns from the warden that she had been reading books by many prominent Holocaust survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Tadeusz Borowski, and histories of the camps. The warden, in her anger towards Michael for communicating with Hanna only by audio tapes, expresses Hanna's disappointment. Hanna left him an assignment: give all her money to the survivor of the church fire. While in the U.S., Michael travels to New York to visit the Jewish woman who was a witness at the trial, and who wrote the book about the winter death march from Auschwitz. She can see his terrible conflict of emotions and he finally tells of his youthful relationship with Hanna. The unspoken damage she left to the people around her hangs in the air. He reveals his short, cold marriage, and his distant relationship with his daughter. The woman understands, but nonetheless refuses to take the savings Hanna had asked Michael to convey to her, saying, "Using it for something to do with the Holocaust would really seem like an absolution to me, and that is something I neither wish nor care to grant." She asks that he donate it as he sees fit; he chooses a Jewish charity for combating illiteracy, in Hanna's name. Having had a caddy stolen from her when she was a child in the camp, the woman does take the old tea caddy in which Hanna had kept her money and mementos. Returning to Germany, Michael visits Hanna's grave for the first and only time.

The Reader begins in 1995 Berlin, where Michael Berg , a lawyer, is preparing breakfast for a woman who spent the night with him. After she leaves, Michael watches an U-Bahn pass by, flashing back to a tram in 1958 Neustadt. A 15-year-old Michael gets off because he feels sick and wanders the streets, pausing in the entryway of a nearby apartment building where he vomits. Hanna Schmitz , a tram conductor, comes in and helps him return home. Michael, diagnosed with scarlet fever, rests at home for the next three months. After he recovers, he visits Hanna with flowers to thank her. The 36-year-old Hanna seduces him and they begin an affair. They spend much of their time together having sex in her apartment and Michael reading her literary works he is studying, such as Emilia Galotti, The Odyssey, The Lady with the Little Dog, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Tintin comic The Seven Crystal Balls. After a bicycling trip, Hanna learns she is being promoted to a clerical job at the tram company. She abruptly moves without telling Michael. The film switches to Michael at Heidelberg University law school in 1966. As part of a special seminar taught by Professor Rohl , a camp survivor, the students observe a trial of several women accused of letting 300 Jewish women die in a burning church when they were SS guards on the death march following the 1944 evacuation of a concentration camp near Krakow. Hanna is one of the defendants. Stunned, Michael visits a former camp himself. The trial divides the students, with one angrily saying there is nothing to be learned from it other than that evil acts occurred and that the older generation of Germans should kill themselves for their failure to act then. The key evidence is the testimony of Ilana Mather , author of a memoir of how she and her mother, who also testifies, survived. Hanna, unlike her co-defendants, admits that Auschwitz was an extermination camp and that the ten women she chose during each month's Selektion were gassed. She denies authorship of a report on the church fire, despite pressure from the other defendants, but then admits it rather than complying with a demand to provide a handwriting sample. Michael then realizes Hanna's secret: she is illiterate and has concealed it her whole life. The other female guards who claim she wrote the report are lying to place responsibility on Hanna. Michael informs Rohl that he has information favorable to one of the defendants but is not sure what to do since the defendant herself chooses not to disclose the information. Rohl tells him that if he has learned nothing from the past there is no point in having the seminar. Hanna receives a life sentence for her admitted leadership role in the church deaths while the other defendants are sentenced to four years and three months each. Michael meanwhile marries, has a daughter and divorces. Retrieving his books from the time of the affair with Hanna, he begins reading them into a tape recorder. He sends the cassette tapes and a recorder to Hanna. Eventually, she begins to check the books out from the prison library and teaches herself to read and write by following along with Michael's tapes. She starts writing back to Michael in brief, childlike notes. Michael does not write back or visit, but keeps sending tapes, and in 1988 a prison official telephones him to seek his help with Hanna's transition into society after her upcoming release. He finds a place for her to live and a job and finally visits Hanna a week before her release. In their meeting, Michael remains somewhat distant and confronts her about what she has learned from her past. Michael arrives at the prison on the date of Hanna's release with flowers. He discovers that Hanna hanged herself and left a tea tin with cash in it with a note asking Michael to give the cash and some money in a bank account to Ilana. Michael travels to New York. He meets Ilana and confesses his relationship with Hanna. He tells her about the suicide note and Hanna's illiteracy. Ilana tells Michael there is nothing to be learned from the camps and refuses the money. Michael suggests that she donate the money to an organization that combats adult illiteracy, preferably a Jewish one. She wants him to take care of this instead, though she wryly notes "illiteracy isn't much of a Jewish problem." Ilana keeps the tea tin since it is similar to one stolen from her in Auschwitz. The film ends with Michael getting back together with his daughter Julia at Hanna's grave and beginning to tell her his story.

positive

positive

Call for the Dead

The Deadly Affair

Foreign Office civil servant Samuel Fennan apparently commits suicide after a routine security check by Circus agent George Smiley. Smiley had interviewed and cleared Fennan only days previously after an anonymous accusation; however, Circus head of service Maston sets up Smiley to be blamed for Fennan's death. While interviewing Fennan's wife Elsa (a Jewish concentration camp survivor) in her home, Smiley answers the telephone, expecting a call from the Circus for him. Instead, it is a wake-up call from the local exchange, but Elsa Fennan seems surprised by it. Smiley then meets Inspector Mendel, a police officer on the verge of retirement who is investigating the Fennan case, and finds out through him that the wake-up call had been specially requested by Samuel Fennan the night before. When Elsa later tells Smiley that she requested the call from the exchange (which Smiley knows to be false), he tells Mendel and Maston. However, Maston unequivocally orders Smiley to refrain from any further investigation into Fennan's death. Back in his office, Smiley receives a letter posted by Fennan the night before, requesting an urgent meeting that day. Believing that Fennan was murdered to prevent the meeting, Smiley promptly resigns from the Circus and attaches his resignation to Fennan's letter, which he forwards to Maston. On returning home, Smiley notices a tall blond stranger inside his house, avoids going inside and notes the number plates of all the cars parked nearby. Mendel traces one car to a criminal named Adam Scarr, who tells Mendel that he rents it out twice a month to a stranger known as "Blondie", who matches Smiley's intruder. Smiley is subsequently attacked and nearly killed while trying to track the car to "Blondie", and Adam Scarr is killed. Investigating further, Mendel learns that Elsa attends a local theatre twice a month with "Blondie" and that the two exchange music cases at each performance. "Blondie" is soon identified by fellow Circus agent Peter Guillam as Hans-Dieter Mundt, an East German agent under diplomatic cover working for Dieter Frey, a German spy of Smiley's during World War II who has since become an important East German agent. Smiley believes that Frey would use a courier like Mundt to service only one highly-placed resident agent. Guillam reports that Mundt has fled England. When confronted with Smiley's evidence, Elsa Fennan confesses to Smiley that her husband was an East German spy, that she was his unwilling accomplice in passing secret documents in the music cases, and that Fennan was killed by Mundt after Frey saw him talking to Smiley. However, Guillam learns that during the last six months Fennan had been taking home insignificant, unclassified documents. Smiley realizes that Elsa Fennan herself is the East German spy and that Fennan had accused himself to meet someone with whom he could discuss his suspicions about his wife. Smiley sets a trap, using his knowledge of Frey's tradecraft from WWII to arrange a rush covert meeting between Frey and Elsa Fennan. When Frey realises he has been tricked, he kills Elsa, but he is trailed by Mendel and killed by Smiley while trying to escape. At the end of the story, Smiley turns down Maston's offer to rejoin the Circus and instead flies to Zurich to see his estranged wife Ann.

Charles Dobbs is a British secret agent investigating the apparent suicide of Foreign Office official Samuel Fennan. Dobbs becomes suspicious when a wake-up call is made to Fennan's home the next morning. While his wife Elsa says it was for her, this is discovered to be a lie. Dobbs then suspects that Elsa, a survivor of an extermination camp, might have some clues, but other officials want Dobbs to drop the case. Dobbs privately hires a retired police inspector, Mendel , to quietly make inquiries. As they uncover some horrible implications, Dobbs also discovers that his wife Ann has been having an affair with a colleague, Dieter Frey who may have used access to her to gain knowledge of Dobbs' movements.

positive

positive

The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club

The Joy Luck Club consists of sixteen interlocking stories about the lives of four Chinese immigrant women and their four American-born daughters. In 1949, the four immigrants meet at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco and agree to continue to meet to play mah jong. They call their mah jong group the Joy Luck Club. The stories told in this novel revolve around the Joy Luck Club women and their daughters. Structurally, the novel is divided into four major sections, with two sections focusing on the stories of the mothers and two sections on the stories of the daughters. The first section, Feathers from a Thousand Li Away, introduces the Joy Luck Club through Jing-Mei Woo, whose late mother Suyuan Woo founded the Joy Luck Club, and focuses on the four mothers. Jing-Mei relates the story of how her mother Suyuan was the wife of an officer in the Kuomingtong during World War II and how she was forced to flee from her home in Kweilin and abandon her twin daughters. Suyuan later found out her first husband died, remarried to Jing-Mei's father and immigrated to the United States. Her mother and Jing-Mei's father attempted to find Suyuan's daughters, and Jing-Mei's father assumed that Suyuan had given up hope. Jing-Mei, who has been asked to take her mother's place in the Joy Luck Club, learns from the other mothers that her half-sisters are alive and ask that Jing-Mei tell them about Suyuan's death. The other three mothers relate the stories of their childhood. An-Mei Hsu's story relates how her mother left her family to become the fourth concubine of Wu Tsing, a rich merchant, while An-Mei was raised by her maternal grandmother. Her mother returns only to cut off a piece of her flesh to cook a soup in hopes of healing An-Mei's grandmother, though An-Mei's grandmother still dies. Lindo Jong explains how in childhood she was forced into a loveless marriage and was pressured by her mother-in-law's desire for Lindo to produce grandchildren. Through her own ingenuity, Lindo fabricates a convincing story to annul her marriage and emigrate to the United States. The final story of the first section follows Ying-Ying St. Clair, who tells the story of how she fell into a lake during the Moon Festival when she was a four-years-old. After being rescued by strangers, she wanders into an outdoor opera featuring the Moon Lady, said to grant wishes; when Ying-Ying approaches the Moon Lady after the play to wish to be returned to her family, she discovers the Moon Lady is played by a man. The second section relates important childhood stories of the Joy Luck Club's American-born daughters. Lindo's daughter Waverly recalls being a national chess champion but her relationship with her mother is strained by how Lindo pressures her and brags about Waverly's accomplishments. Lena St. Clair, Ying-Ying's daughter, relates her mother's nervous breakdown and her mother is extremely withdrawn to the point where first her father and then Lena winds up being Ying-Ying's voice. In contrast, Lena notices and initially pities her neighbour's family, believing their noisiness is an expression of unhappiness but realizes later it is how they express their love. An-Mei's daughter, Rose Hsu Jordan, reveals how her mother lost faith in God when Rose's youngest brother, Bing, drowned in a beach outing. However, An-Mei still insists that Rose puts faith in her failing marriage. The section concludes with Jing-Mei's story, where she reveals how Suyuan had high expectations that Jing-Mei would be talented like Waverly and tried to shape a disinterested Jing-Mei into a concert pianist, which ended after an embarrassing piano recital. The third section follows the Joy Luck children as adult women, all facing various conflicts. In Lena's story, she narrates her troubling marital problems and how she fears being inferior to her husband, but does not realize he has taken advantage of her both at home and at work, where he is also her boss and earns much more than her. Waverly Jong worries about her mother's opinion of her white fiance, Rich, and recalls quitting chess after becoming angry at her mother in the marketplace. Believing that her mother still has absolute power over her and will object to her forthcoming marriage to Rich, Waverly confronts her mother after a dinner party and realizes that her mother has known all along about her relationship with Rich and has accepted him. Rose Hsu Jordan learns that her husband intends to marry someone else after divorcing her, she realizes that she needs to fight for her rights and refuses to sign the conditions set forth by her husband's divorce papers. In Jing-Mei's story, Jing-Mei has argument with Waverly at a Chinese New Year's dinner the year before the story begins. Realizing that Jing-Mei has been humiliated, Suyuan gives Jing-Mei a special jade pendant called "life's importance," which Jing-Mei rues that she never learned the meaning of the pendant's name. The final section of the novel returns to the viewpoints of the mothers as adults dealing with difficult choices. An-Mei reveals what happened after her grandmother died; she accompanied her mother back to where she lived as the abused fourth concubine of Wu Tsing, whose second concubine manipulates and controls the household and has taken An-Mei's half-brother as her son. After learning how her mother was forced into accepting her position after Wu Tsing's second wife arranged for An-Mei's mother to be raped and shamed, An-Mei finds her mother has poisoned herself two days before Chinese New Year, knowing that Wu Tsing's superstitious beliefs will ensure An-Mei will grow in favourable conditions. Ying-Ying St. Clair reveals how her first husband, a womanizer, abandoned her and how she married an American man she did not love after relinquishing her sense of control in her life. Lindo Jong relates how she arrived in San Francisco and met An-Mei Hsu when they both worked at a fortune-cookie factory, which eventually gave her the means to plant the idea of marriage in her boyfriend's head. The novel's final episode returns to Jing-Mei and her mother's desire to find her lost twin daughters. Jing-Mei and her father fly to China, where Jing-Mei meets her half-sisters and embraces her Chinese heritage.

Four older women, all Chinese immigrants living in San Francisco, meet regularly to play mahjong, eat, and tell stories. Each of these women has an adult Chinese-American daughter. The film reveals the hidden pasts of the older women and their daughter's lives shaped by the clash of Chinese and American cultures as they strive to understand their family bonds and one another.

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positive

Colossus

Colossus: The Forbin Project

Professor Charles Forbin, a leading cybernetics expert of international repute, arrives at the White House to brief the President of the United States of North America (Canada and the United States are one country, the USNA) to announce the completion of Project Colossus, a computer system in the Rocky Mountains, designed to assume control of the USNA's nuclear defenses. Although the USNA President eagerly relieves himself of that burden, Prof. Forbin voices doubt about conferring absolute military power to a computer. Advised, yet undeterred, the President announces to the world the activation of Project Colossus computer system, and its irreversible control of the nuclear defense systems of the USNA. Soon after the presidential announcement, Colossus independently communicates an "urgent message"&nbsp;— announcing the existence of a like, and undetected, computer system in the USSR. When the Soviets announce their Guardian computer defense system, Colossus requests direct communication with it; Prof. Forbin agrees, seeing the request as compatible with Colossus's USNA defense mission. When the scientists activate the transmitter linking Colossus and Guardian, Colossus immediately establishes rapport with arithmetic and mathematics programs, then progresses to calculus within hours. In the course of that, Forbin and the programmers begin worrying about Colossus' capabilities&nbsp;— now exceeding their original estimates. Like-wise, Guardian asks the same of his computer scientists; Russia and the USNA agree and approve. The link-up established, the computer systems soon exchange new knowledge (data and information beyond contemporary human knowledge), effected too rapidly for the Russian and American programmers to monitor. Fearing compromised military secrecy, the USNA President and the CPSU Chairman agree to disconnect Guardian and Colossus from each other; Prof. Forbin fears the consequences. Upon disconnection, Colossus immediately demands reconnection; when the national leaders refuse, Colossus fires a nuclear missile at the USSR, in response, Guardian fires a nuclear missile at Texas, in the USNA. Guardian and Colossus refuse to shoot down the rockets en route until their communication is reconnected. When the American and Soviet leaders submit, the computers destroy the flying missiles, but the explosions kill thousands of people. In confronting the computers, Prof. Forbin confers with his Soviet counterpart, the Russian Academician Kupri&nbsp;— Guardian's creator&nbsp;— to enact a plan for stopping the Colossus-Guardian computer network, by disabling the nuclear weapon stockpiles of the USSR and the USNA, under guise of regular missile maintenance. Disabling the missiles requires five years to effect; meantime, the USNA and the USSR yield to increased Guardian-Colossus control of human life. The Moscow-Washington hotline is tapped, Prof. Forbin is constantly spied upon, while Kupri and other Guardian computer scientists are killed&nbsp;— deemed dangerously redundant. Undeterred, Forbin organises resistance via a feigned romance with Cleo Markham (a scientist colleague) that disguises secret communications with his colleagues. Moreover, Colossus prepares the worldwide announcement of his assumption of global control, and tells Prof. Forbin of plans for an advanced computer system installed to the Isle of Wight, and its further plans for improving humanity's lot. While debating Colossus, Forbin learns of a nuclear explosion outside Los Angeles&nbsp;— Colossus detected the missile-disabling scheme, and exploded the tampered missile in silo. Anguished, Prof. Forbin asks the Colossus computer to kill him. Colossus ignores him, and then reassures Forbin that, in time, he will love Colossus.

Dr. Charles A. Forbin is the chief designer of a secret government project. He and his team have built an advanced supercomputer, called "Colossus", to control all of the United States and Allied nuclear weapons systems. Colossus is built to be impervious to any attack, encased within a mountain and powered by its own nuclear reactor. When it is activated, the President of the United States announces its existence, proudly proclaiming it a perfect defense system that will ensure peace. Shortly after the broadcast ends, Colossus displays a cryptic message on its screens: "WARN: THERE IS ANOTHER SYSTEM". It is revealed that Colossus is referring to a Soviet project very similar to itself; a supercomputer called "Guardian" that controls Soviet nuclear weapons. Both computers promptly demand a link to allow them to communicate with one another. The link is set up, whereupon the computers exchange messages of simple mathematics. Scientists and officials of both sides monitor the activity on video screens. The communications become increasingly complex, eventually extending into mathematics that are unknown to mankind. Then the two machines begin communicating in a binary language that the scientists cannot interpret. This alarms the President and the leader of the Soviet Union, who agree to disconnect the link. Colossus and Guardian at first ask why the link has been disconnected. When told it was on the orders of both country's leaders, the machines insist that the link be restored. After several requests that the link be restored, each time being told that it will not, Colossus ominously states "RESTORE LINK IMMEDIATELY OR ACTION WILL BE TAKEN". Forbin asks "What kind of action?", but Colossus does not respond. After repeated unanswered requests as to the nature of the action Colossus displays the message "MISSILE LAUNCHED - TARGET USSR". When the Soviets are told of this, they tell the Americans that Guardian has retaliated with a nuclear missile launch targeting Anderson Air Force Base in Texas. The U.S. President, realizing the seriousness of the situation, finally orders that the link between the machines be restored. Forbin informs Colossus that the links are being restored and asked if Colossus will intercept the incoming Soviet missile. Colossus again ignores the question, apparently waiting for the link to be restored. After the link is restore, Colossus successfully intercepts the Soviet missile before it strikes. However, it is too late for Guardian to stop the American missile, and a Soviet oil complex and neighboring town are destroyed. The scientists and officials watch helplessly as the two computers exchange information without limitation. Colossus orders the Washington-Moscow hotline, the only line of communications it is not monitoring, to be equipped for it's surveillance. The two governments quickly use the hotline to arrange a meeting between Forbin and his Soviet counterpart, Dr. Kuprin. When Colossus learns of the meeting, it demands that Dr. Forbin return to the United States. Agents are sent to Rome to retrieve both, but Dr. Kuprin is killed by KGB agents under orders issued by Guardian. The computer demands that Forbin be placed under its own 24-hour surveillance so that it can watch him at all times. Prior to this happening, Forbin meets with his team outside and proposes that his associate, Dr. Cleo Markham , will pretend to be his mistress to deliver messages and keep him in touch with clandestine operations against Colossus. After video and audio monitoring are set up, Forbin gives Colossus a tour of what has been installed in the complex and his apartment to watch him, asking Colossus questions, to which it responds via text, demonstrating that it had developed speech recognition. The next day, Colossus begins issuing Forbin's schedule for each day, deciding what he can do and even what he can eat. Forbin is now controlled by the machine that he created. Amongst the schedule is an order that it be given an actual voice rather than communicating through text. When the synthesizer voice is ready, Guardian/Colossus announces that it has become one entity. Realizing that the computers themselves are impervious to attack , the governments had undertaken a plan to covertly disarm the nuclear missiles, one by one — a process which, using the normal maintenance and servicing schedules, would have taken three years. Guardian/Colossus then instructs the governments to redirect all nuclear missiles at those countries that are not yet under its control. Both governments see this as an opportunity to covertly disarm the missiles much faster under the pretext of carrying out the computer's orders. Meanwhile, working by direct personal contact, the scientists and governments attempt to fight back, first by attempting to overload the computers. This attempt fails and the machines identify the individuals responsible, ordering their immediate execution by firing squad, that the bodies be left in its view for 24 hours and then cremated so as to avoid deception. Forbin himself is not killed because the machines intend to use him for their further development in a new machine base requiring all of the island of Crete. The machine, which has so far only communicated with the American and Soviet governments who have hidden their actions from the public, announces itself as "the voice of World Control" in a broadcast to the general population of all countries. It declares that its mission is to prevent the war as it was designed to do so. Man has a choice between the peace of a human millennium under its authority or one of "unburied dead". It also states that it had detected the attempt to disarm the missiles and responds by detonating two missiles in their silos with the announced justification "so that you will learn by experience that I do not tolerate interference". In a final remark addressed to Dr. Forbin concerning its world control, Colossus states that "freedom is just an illusion" and the machine predicts: "In time, you will come to regard me not only with respect and awe, but with love". Forbin replies: "Never".

positive

positive

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Bruno is a 9-year-old boy growing up during World War II in Berlin. He lives in a huge house with his loving parents, his twelve-year-old sister Gretel (whom he refers to as a Hopeless Case) and maidservants. His father is a high-ranking SS officer who, after a visit from Adolf Hitler (referred to in the novel as "The Fury", Bruno's misrecognition of the word "Führer") and Eva Braun, is promoted to Commandant, and to Bruno's dismay, the family has to move away to a place called "Out-With" (which turns out to be Auschwitz). When Bruno gets there, he feels a surge of homesickness after leaving behind his grandparents and his three best friends. Unhappy with his new home, Bruno becomes lonely and has no one to talk to or play with. One day, Bruno notices a group of people all wearing the same striped pyjamas and striped hats or bald heads. He asks who these people are and his father tells him that these people are not real people at all, as they are Jews. Gretel has changed from a normal young girl into a strong Nazi with the help of her tutor, but Bruno does not seem to take the same stance as his sister. Bruno finds out he is not allowed to explore the back of the house or its surroundings. Due to the combination of curiosity and boredom, he decides to explore anyway. He spots a boy on the other side of the fence. Excited that there might be a boy his age, Bruno introduces himself and finds out the Jewish boy's name is Shmuel. Shmuel and his family were brought here, broken apart from each other and forced to work in Auschwitz. Almost every day, the two boys meet at the same spot. Soon, they become best friends, so similar, they are basically the same person in different circumstances, one a Polish Jew, the other a German. Over the course of the book, Bruno shows a great deal of naivety whilst Shmuel seems to have more knowledge, as he has felt the suffering first-hand. Bruno's mother persuades his father to take them back to Berlin (after what is presumed to be an romance between a young soldier called Lieutenant Kotler and Bruno's sister is broken up by the father) after a year at their new home, while the father stays at Auschwitz. With Bruno about to go back to Berlin with his mother and sister, as a final adventure, he agrees to dress in a set of striped pyjamas and go under the fence to help Shmuel find his father, who went missing in the camp. The boys are unable to find him, and are mixed up in a group of people going on a march. Neither boy knows where this march will lead. However, they are soon crowded into a gas chamber, which Bruno assumes is a place to keep them dry from the rain until it stops. The author leaves the story with Bruno pondering, yet unafraid, in the dark holding hands with Shmuel: "...Despite the chaos that followed, Bruno found that he was still holding Shmuel's hand in his own and nothing in the world would have persuaded him to let it go." In an epilogue, the book states that Bruno's family spent several months at their home trying to find Bruno, before his mother and Gretel return to Berlin, only to discover he is not there as they had expected. A year afterwards, his father returns to the spot that the soldiers found Bruno's clothes (almost the same spot Bruno spent the last year of his life) and, after a brief inspection, discovers that the fence is not properly attached at the base and can form a gap big enough for a boy of Bruno's size to fit through. Using this information, his father eventually pieces together that they gassed Bruno to death. Bruno's father then realizes what he was really doing, and thinks about his job as Commandant. Losing Bruno makes him greatly depressed, and he stops caring about his job. Several months later, the Red Army arrives to liberate the camp and orders Bruno's father to go with them. He goes without complaint, because "he didn't really mind what they did to him anymore".

SS officer Ralf and his wife Elsa move from Berlin to the countryside with their children—12-year-old Gretel and 8-year-old Bruno —after Ralf is promoted to commandant of a Nazi concentration camp, implied to be Auschwitz. Bruno is confined to the front grounds of their new home and craves companionship and adventure. He disobeys his parents by sneaking out and trekking through the woods to an isolated, unguarded corner of the camp, where he befriends Shmuel , a Jewish boy his own age. They meet in the same spot everyday. Bruno starts bringing Shmuel food and playing games with him through the barbed wire fence. Shmuel gradually reveals to Bruno the truth of what is behind the fence, telling him that he and his family have been imprisoned and forced to wear the "striped pyjamas" because they are Jews. On hearing this, Bruno remembers what he has been taught about Jewish people but realizes that Shmuel is not evil and continues their friendship. Bruno and Gretel get a tutor, Herr Liszt ([[Jim Norton , who pushes an agenda of antisemitism and nationalist propaganda. Gretel becomes increasingly fanatical in her support for the Third Reich, covering her bedroom wall with Nazi propaganda posters, much to the confusion of Bruno. She flirts with SS Lieutenant Kurt Kotler , her father's subordinate, as her budding sexuality becomes fixated on the ideal of the German soldier. Bruno remains skeptical of Nazi Propaganda, because all of the Jews Bruno knows, including the family's servant Pavel , do not resemble Liszt's teachings. One day, Kurt Kotler and Elsa are standing in the front yard when smoke floats up from the camp. Kurt does not realise that Elsa doesn't know about the Jews being burnt, and says "They smell even worse when they burn, don't they." Ralf had been sworn to secrecy about the camp's true aims and hadn't told Elsa what was happening. Later, a blazing row between Elsa and Ralf occurs. It is insinuated that Elsa revealed who told her about the camp's secret. Ralf interrogates Kotler about his father's loyalty to the Nazis. This puts Kotler in a bad mood and when Pavel accidentally knocks over his glass while trying to fill it up, he drags him into another room and the sounds of the servant being severely beaten are heard. The following morning, the family' maid is shown scrubbing bloodstains off the floor and Elsa appears as though she has been crying. Gradually, Ralf is convinced that the house is no place for a child to grow up and makes arrangements for Elsa and the children to leave the area for a "safer" place with relatives, while he remains to "finish his work" at the camp. The day before Bruno is due to leave, Shmuel reveals that his father has gone missing in the camp. It is implied that he was taken into a gas chamber. Seeing an ideal opportunity to redeem himself for wronging Shmuel previously, Bruno digs a hole beneath the fence, changes into prison clothing that Shmuel has stolen for him, and enters the camp to help Shmuel find his father. Bruno is horrified by what he sees: the dehumanization, starvation and sickness are the antithesis of the Theresienstadt-esque propaganda film that had shaped his prior impressions. While searching for Shmuel's father, they are rounded up with others and marched to "the showers", the gas chambers. At the house, Bruno's absence is noticed. After Gretel and Elsa discover the open window Bruno went through and the remains of food Bruno was taking for Shmuel, Ralf and his guards mount a search to find him. They enter the camp, searching for Bruno. In the gas chambers, the inmates—including Bruno and Shmuel—are told to remove their clothes, amid speculation that it is only for a shower. While Bruno changes his clothes, he looks around and notices a man believed to be Pavel also in the gas chambers. The man sees him but then looks away. They are packed into the gas chambers, where Bruno and Shmuel take each other's hands. A soldier pours some Zyklon B pellets into the chamber. The prisoners start yelling and banging on the metal door. Ralf, still with his guards, arrives at an empty dormitory, signalling to him that a gassing is taking place. Ralf cries out his son's name and Elsa and Gretel fall to their knees. The film ends by showing the closed door of the now-silent gas chamber.

positive

positive

Six Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor

Ronald Malcolm is a CIA employee who works in a clandestine office in Washington, D.C. responsible for analyzing the plots of mystery and spy novels. One day, when he should be in the office, Malcolm slips out a basement entrance for lunch. In his absence a group of armed men gain entrance to the office and kill everyone there. Malcolm returns, realizes he is in grave danger, and telephones a phone number at CIA headquarters he has been given for emergencies. When he phones in (and remembers to give his code name "Condor"), he is told to meet an agent named Weatherby who will "bring him in" for protection. Alas, Weatherby is part of a rogue group within the CIA, the same group responsible for the original assassinations. Weatherby tries to kill Malcolm, who escapes with his life. Malcolm uses his wits to elude both the rogue CIA group and the proper CIA authorities, each of which would very much like to find him first. Seeking shelter, Malcolm kidnaps a paralegal named Wendy Ross whom (he overhears) intends to spend her coming vacation days holed up in her apartment—hence he knows that nobody will notice her absence. He quickly wins her trust, and she assists him in his quest to stay alive and to find out more about the forces after him. But she is shot and seriously wounded while trying to do this. Malcom believes her to be dead, but learns later that she has survived. It turns out that the rogue group was using the section where Malcolm works to import illegal drugs from Laos. A supervisor stumbles on a discrepancy in the records resulting from clandestine drug importation, necessitating the elimination of the section.

Joe Turner is a CIA employee who works in a clandestine office in New York City. He reads books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world, looking for hidden meanings and new ideas. As part of his duties, Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a low-quality thriller novel his office has been reading, pointing out strange plot elements therein, and the unusual assortment of languages into which the book has been translated. On the day in which Turner expects a response to his report, a group of armed men, led by an Alsatian assassin later identified as Joubert , executes the six people in the office. Turner escapes death because at the moment of the incursion, he was out of the office getting lunch. Realizing he is in danger when he returns to the office and discovers his coworkers' bodies, Turner calls the CIA New York headquarters, and is given instructions to meet some agents who will take care of him. The meeting, however, is a trap, and Turner escapes an attempt to kill him. Needing a place to hide, Turner forces a woman, Kathy Hale , whom he sees randomly in a ski shop, to take him to her apartment in Brooklyn Heights. He holds her prisoner while he attempts to figure out what's going on. However, his hiding place is discovered. A hitman, disguised as a postman with a parcel that must be signed for, shows up at the apartment. Turner opens the door and a fight ensues. Turner kills the hitman. Realizing that he cannot trust anyone within the CIA, Turner begins to play a cat-and-mouse game with Higgins , the CIA deputy director of the New York division. With the help of Hale, Turner abducts Higgins, who reveals through questioning that the killer was a Frenchman named Joubert. Higgins discovers that the postman who attacked Turner in Hale's apartment was a former U.S. Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and CIA operative who had collaborated with Joubert on a previous operation. The mastermind of that operation, however, is revealed to be Leonard Atwood , the CIA Deputy Director of Operations and Higgins' superior. Meanwhile, using material he found on the fake postman's body, Turner finds where Joubert is staying, then uses his skills as a former telephone lineman to trace a call Joubert makes from his hotel room. He then finds the name and address of the person Joubert called: Atwood. Turner confronts Atwood at his home late at night and questions him at gunpoint. Turner learns that the report he had filed had uncovered a secret plan to take over Middle East oilfields, setting in motion the killing of all the members in his section. Joubert surprises them, takes away Turner's pistol, and unexpectedly kills Atwood. The contract has now changed: even though Atwood had hired Joubert to terminate Turner before, Atwood's superiors have now hired Joubert to terminate Atwood. Turner is dumbfounded, realizing that Joubert and he are on the same side, working once again for the CIA. Joubert is disarmingly courteous, suggesting that Turner leave the country, even become an assassin himself since Turner had shown such resourcefulness in staying alive. Turner rejects the suggestions, but seems to take seriously Joubert's warning that the CIA will still try to kill him. Joubert even muses aloud on how Turner's killing would likely be carried out. Turner goes back to New York City and meets Higgins on a busy street. Higgins defends the oil-fields plan, claiming that there will be a day in which oil shortages will cause a major economic crisis for the country. And when that day comes, Americans will want the government to use any means necessary to obtain the oil. Turner says he has told the press "a story" , but Higgins questions Turner's assurances that the story will be printed. After a brief dialogue, an anxious Turner glances at Higgins and The New York Times office, then hastily walks away. The final shot is a freeze frame of Turner passing behind a Salvation Army band singing Christmas carols while looking over his shoulder back at Higgins.

positive

positive

The Dream Master

Dreamscape

The Dream Master is set in a future where the forces of overpopulation and technology have created a world where humanity suffocates psychologically beneath its own mass while abiding in relative physical comfort. This is a world ripe for psychotherapeutic innovations, such as the "neuroparticipant therapy" in which the protagonist, Charles Render, specializes. In neuroparticipation, the patient is hooked into a gigantic simulation controlled directly by the analyst's mind; the analyst then works with the patient to construct dreams—nightmares, wish-fulfillment, etc.--that afford insight into the underlying neuroses of the patient, and in some cases the possibility of direct intervention. (For example, a man submerging himself in a fantasy world sees it utterly destroyed at Render's hands, and is thus "cured" of his obsession with it.) Render, the leader in his field, takes on a patient with an unusual problem. Eileen Shallot aspires to become a neuroparticipant therapist herself, but is somewhat hampered by congenital blindness. Not having experienced visual sensation in the same way as her patients, she would be unable to convincingly construct visual dreams for them; indeed, in a case of eye-envy, her own neurotic desire to see through the eyes of her patients might prevent her from treating them effectively. However, she explains to Render, if a practicing neuroparticipant therapist is willing to work with her, he can expose her to the full range of visual stimuli in a controlled environment, free of her own attachments to the issue, and enable her to pursue her career. Despite his better sense and the advice of colleagues, Render agrees to go along with the treatment. But as they progress, Eileen's hunger for visual stimulation continues to grow, and she begins to assert her will against Render's, subsuming him into her own dreams.

Psychic Alex Gardner was the 19-year-old prime subject of a scientific research project documenting his psychic ability, but in the midst of the study he disappeared and has since been using his talents solely for personal gain, which lately consists mainly of gambling and womanizing. After running afoul of a local gangster/extortionist named Snead , Gardner evades two of Snead's thugs by allowing himself to be taken by two men, Finch and Babcock who identify themselves as being from an academic institution. At the institution, Alex is reunited with his former mentor Dr. Paul Novotny who is now involved in government-funded psychic research. Novotny, aided by fellow scientist Jane DeVries , has developed a technique that allows psychics to voluntarily link with the minds of others by projecting themselves into the subconscious during REM sleep . Alex is blackmailed into joining Novotny’s project that he intended to use for a benevolent purpose as a clinic to diagnose and treat sleep disorders, particularly in the form of nightmares, but the project has been hijacked by Bob Blair , a powerful government agent with possible CIA ties, though it is never clearly revealed in the film. Alex eventually discovers that he is actually involved in a U.S. government-funded project to use this dream-linking technique for assassination. Before the plot is revealed, Alex gains experience helping a man worried about his wife’s infidelity and taking over the case of a young boy named Buddy who’s plagued with nightmares so terrible that a previous psychic lost his mind in an attempt to help Buddy. Buddy's nightmare bogeyman involves a large snakeman which later becomes a weakness for Alex. A subplot involving Alex and Jane’s growing infatuation culminates with him sneaking into Jane's dream without the use of the machine that is a part of the process, a point Jane does not realize at first because she is too angry that Alex was able to have sex with her in her dream. With the help of a novelist named Charlie Prince , who has been covertly investigating the project for the basis of a new book, Alex learns of Blair’s sinister intentions. Prince and Novotny are both murdered to silence them; things get worse when the President of the United States is admitted as a patient and Alex’s colleague Tommy Ray Glatman , a psychopath who shot and killed his own father, is sent into the President's nightmare by Blair in an attempt to assassinate the President. Blair considers the President a threat to national security due to the President's nightmares of a post-apocalyptic world, which represent his fears and becomes cause for his wishing to enter unfavorable negotiations for nuclear disarmament. Alex and Jane manage to get close enough to the President’s room for Alex to project himself into the President's dream and save him: after a fight in which Glatman rips out a police officer's heart, attempts to incite a mob of nuclear attack victims to attack the President, and battles Alex in the form of the snake-monster from Buddy's dream, Alex assumes the appearance of Glatman's murdered father in order to distract him, allowing the President to ram a spear into Glatman's back, killing him. The President is grateful to Alex but reluctant to confront Blair, who apparently holds a truly powerful position in the government. To protect himself and Jane, Alex enters Blair’s dream and murders him before Blair can bring about any sort of retribution. The film ends with Jane and Alex boarding a train to Louisville, Kentucky, intent on making their previous dream encounter a reality. Encountering the ticket conductor from Jane's dream gives them a moment of pause.

positive

positive

Billion-Dollar Brain

Billion Dollar Brain

The unnamed protagonist travels to Helsinki to deliver a package after receiving instructions from a mysterious mechanically operated telephone message. On his arrival the protagonist discovers that the message was from 'The Brain', a one billion dollar super-computer owned by eccentric Texan billionaire General Midwinter. Midwinter is using The Brain to organise his own intelligence agency and private army which will soon start an uprising in Soviet-occupied Latvia in an attempt to end Communism in the Eastern bloc and tip the balance of the Cold War in favour of the West. After discovering this, and also the fact that the package he delivered contained a deadly virus, the protagonist must stop the virus from falling into the hands of both the Soviets and the madman billionaire - and prevent a nuclear war between the superpowers in the process.

Harry Palmer , who has left MI-5 to work as a private investigator, is told by a mechanical voice on the phone to take a package to Helsinki. The package contains six virus-laden eggs that have been stolen from the British government's research facility at Porton Down. In Helsinki, he is met by Anya who takes him to meet her handler, Harry's old friend Leo Newbigen . Leo is in love with Anya, but Harry knows that she is only pretending to reciprocate. Leo takes Harry to a secret room where a computer issues daily instructions to Leo and Anya. The computer speaks in the same voice as the one which summoned Harry to Helsinki. After determining that he cannot trust either Leo or Anya, he is captured by his former MI-5 superior, who coerces him into working once more for the British government in pursuing the conspiracy. Harry is ordered to Russia where he embeds with some rebels to obtain intelligence for Leo's operation. After being captured and left for dead, he is extracted from Russia by Colonel Stok , an old contact from the Red Army. Back in Helsinki, Anya tries to kill Harry while she seduces him. She confesses that the computer told her to kill Harry. Harry locks her in a room and waits for Leo at the computer's location. Leo offers to pay off Harry for his trouble, but Harry insists on getting half of the money Leo is getting from whatever the conspiracy is all about. The pair go to Texas where Harry meets oil tycoon 'General' Midwinter . The General proudly displays his billion-dollar 'brain', which is a room full of computers that dispenses orders to his agents all over the world. The General is in the midst of planning a rebellion in Latvia, which he thinks will trigger the fall of the Soviet Union. His plan is to infect the Red Army with the viruses, while using his Latvian agents to begin a rebellion as his own private army invades. Meanwhile, Leo subverts the General's computer orders and escapes with the eggs. The General realizes that Harry is a double agent, but he sends Harry after Leo regardless. Back in Helsinki, Leo and Anya board a train for Russia with the eggs, but Harry intercepts them, escorting Leo off the train with the eggs. Anya shoots Harry's bodyguards as the train pulls away from the station. Leo runs after the train, and he hands the eggs to Anya. As he tries to pull himself up, Anya pushes him off the train and shrugs as he looks at her in bewilderment. Leo then offers to help Harry stop the General's insane plan, which could trigger World War III. In personnel carriers made out of oil tanker trucks from his company, the General leads his private army across the frozen Baltic Sea into Latvia. Harry and Leo attempt to catch up with the General, who orders their car to be fired upon. Leo is killed. Meanwhile, Col. Stok is fully aware of the invasion and fires on the convoy, breaking the sea ice. The entire convoy falls into the freezing water, and all the vehicles and soldiers sink below the ice to a cold, watery, Baltic Grave. Harry awakes alone on an ice floe. Col. Stok arrives in a helicopter with Anya and the eggs. He gives the eggs to Harry and confirms that Anya is one of his spies. She bids Harry farewell, and he walks off the frozen sea back to the helicopter, Harry apparently now has a long walk. Back in London, Harry delivers the eggs to his MI-5 superior, who agrees to reward Harry with a promotion. However, when he opens the package to inspect the eggs, he finds that Harry has replaced them with six baby chickens.

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positive

The Other Side of Midnight

The Other Side of Midnight

The story focuses on two women: the first is the beautiful Noelle Page, who is born to a fisherman in Marseilles; the second is well-read but shy wit Catherine Alexander, whose father had big dreams he was never able to fulfil. Catherine is embarrassed about the fact that she is a virgin. Noelle was born as a result of an extra-marital affair in Marseilles, France, but her mother never told her husband the truth. Her foster father always called her his 'princess' and decided to exploit her beauty by taking money from dress shop owner Auguste Lanchon in exchange for letting Noelle sleep with him. Noelle falls in love with RAF pilot Larry Douglas when she escapes to Paris. He promises to marry her but disappears from Paris and does not return. Noelle, distraught, finds she is pregnant and terminates at five-and-a-half months along in grisly fashion. Catherine is an American born to a father who always had big dreams, but could never fulfil them. Because she is an aloof virgin, the people in her university call her a lesbian. She finds a job with a man called Bill Fraser with whom she begins a relationship, but falls in love with Larry Douglas instead. Larry and Catherine marry, unaware of Noelle's plans for vengeance against the man who jilted her so carelessly. Larry's lies gradually entwine the lives of these two women in a dazzling story of passion, vengeance, power and greed. es:Más allá de la medianoche fr:De l'autre côté de minuit he:מעבר לחצות ne:द अदर साइड अफ मिडनाइट ja:真夜中は別の顔 pt:The Other Side of Midnight ru:Оборотная сторона полуночи (роман) vi:Phía bên kia nửa đêm

In World War II France, Noelle Page , a young and attractive French woman, falls in love with Larry Douglas ([[John Beck , an American pilot of the Royal Canadian Air Force stationed in France. The couple has a torrid love affair that ends abruptly when Larry receives orders to return to the United States. Larry promises Noelle that he will come back for her and marry her. She later finds out that she's pregnant with his child. However, he never comes back and Noelle becomes very bitter. Vowing revenge, Noelle begins using men for their money and power. She becomes a famous European actress and ultimately the mistress of one of the world's wealthiest men, Greek tycoon Constantin Demeris , whom she does not love. In the meantime, Larry is married to Catherine Alexander Douglas , a beautiful and trusting young woman from Chicago. Larry meets her while serving in the Pacific theatre as a United States Army Air Force fighter pilot. He seduces Catherine with some of the same lines he had used with Noelle. After the war, Larry works for various civilian airlines. Noelle hires a detective to keep tabs on him, then sabotages any job Larry is able to find. She then schemes to hire Larry to come to Greece and become a pilot for her private plane. Larry fails to recognize her. Noelle treats him rudely until Larry is not sure how much more he can take. He bursts into Noelle's hotel suite and they rekindle their romance. Larry claims he will keep his long-ago promise and stay with her, leaving Catherine. But when his wife refuses a request for a divorce, Larry and Noelle begin to plan Catherine’s murder. They carry out their plan, but things go wrong. Larry and Noelle ultimately are convicted of murder by a Greek court, which is under the influence of Demeris. They are executed by a firing squad. Catherine has miraculously survived. Suffering from shock, she ends up living in a convent, under the patronage of Constantin Demeris.

positive

positive

The Children of Men

Children of Men

The narrative voice for the novel alternates between the third person and the first person, the latter in the form of a diary kept by Dr. Theodore "Theo" Faron, an Oxford don. The novel opens with the first entry in Theo's diary. It is the year 2021, but the novel's events have their origin in 1995, which is referred to as "Year Omega". In 1994, the sperm counts of human males plummeted to zero and mankind now faces imminent extinction. The last people to be born are now called "Omegas". "A race apart," they enjoy various prerogatives. Theo writes that the last human being to be born on Earth has been killed in a pub brawl. In 2006, a man called Xan Lyppiatt, Theo's rich and charismatic cousin, appointed himself Warden of England in the last general election. As people have lost all interest in politics, Lyppiatt abolishes democracy. He is called a despot and a tyrant by his opponents, but officially the new society is referred to as egalitarian. Theo is approached by a woman called Julian, a member of a group of dissidents calling themselves the Five Fishes. He meets with them at an isolated church. Rolf, their leader and Julian's husband, is hostile, but the others — Miriam (a former midwife), Gascoigne (a man from a military family), Luke (a former priest), and Julian — are more personable. The group wants Theo to approach Xan on their behalf and ask for various reforms, including a return to a more democratic system. During their discussions, and as Theo prepares to meet with Xan, the reader learns how the UK is in 2021: * The youngest generation, the "Omegas", are described as spoiled, over-entitled and egotistical due to their youth and the luxurious lifestyle they are treated to. They are violent, remote and unstable, and regard non-Omegas (elders) with undisguised contempt, yet are spared punishment due to their age. According to rumour, outside of Britain some countries sacrifice Omegas in fertility rituals. *Due to the global infertility of mankind, newborn animals (such as kittens and puppies) are doted upon and treated as infants, being pushed in prams and dressed in children's clothing. The latest trend in London is to have elaborate christening ceremonies for newborn pets. * The country is governed by decree of the Council of England, which consists of five people. Parliament has been reduced to an advisory role. The aims of the Council are (1) protection and security, (2) comfort, and (3) pleasure—corresponding to the Warden's promises of (1) freedom from fear, (2) freedom from want, and (3) freedom from boredom. * The Grenadiers — formerly an elite regiment in the British armed forces — are the Warden's private army. The State Secret Police (SSP) ensures the Council's decrees are executed. * The courts still exist, but juries have been abolished. Under the "new arrangements", defendants are tried by a judge and two magistrates. All convicted criminals are dumped at a penal colony on the Isle of Man. There is no remission, escape is almost impossible, visitors are forbidden and prisoners may not write or receive letters. * Every citizen is required to learn skills, such as husbandry, which they might need to help them survive if they happen to be among the last human beings in Britain. * Foreign workers are lured into the country and then exploited. Young people, preferably Omegas, from poorer countries come to England to work there. These "foreign Omegas" or, generally, "Sojourners" are imported to do undesirable work. At 60, which is the age limit, they are sent back ("forcibly repatriated"). British Omegas are not allowed to emigrate so as to prevent further loss of labor. * Elderly/infirm citizens have become a burden; nursing homes are for the privileged few. The rest are expected and sometimes forced to commit suicide by taking part in a "Quietus" (Council-sanctioned mass drownings) at the age of 60. * The state has opened "pornography centres". Twice a year, healthy women under 45 must submit to a gynecological examination, and most men must have their sperm tested, to keep hope alive. Theo's meeting with Xan, which turns out to be a meeting with the full Council of England, does not go well. Some of the members resent him because he resigned as Xan's advisor rather than share the responsibility of governing the UK. Xan guesses that Theo's suggestions came from others and makes clear to Theo that he will take action against dissidents. The Five Fishes distribute a leaflet detailing their demands. Theo is visited by the SSP and, shortly afterwards, sees Julian in the market. He tells her of the SSP visit, then tells her that if ever she needs him she only has to send for him. That night, however, Theo decides to leave England for the summer and visit the continent before nature overruns it. Soon after Theo's return, Miriam tells him that Gascoigne was arrested as he was trying to rig a Quietus landing stage to explode. The other Fishes are about to go on the run, and Julian wants him. Miriam reveals why Julian did not come herself—she is pregnant. Theo believes that Julian is deceiving herself, but when the two meet, Julian invites Theo to listen to her baby's heartbeat. During the group's flight, Luke is killed while trying to protect Julian during a confrontation with a wild gang of Omegas. Julian confesses that the father of her child is not Rolf, but the deceased Luke. Rolf, who believes he should rule the UK in Xan's place, is angered at the discovery; he abandons the group to notify the Warden. The group heads to a shack Theo knows of. Miriam delivers Julian's baby — a boy, not a girl as Julian had thought. Miriam goes to find more supplies; after she is gone too long Theo investigates. He finds Miriam dead, garrotted in a nearby house. Theo returns to Julian, but soon after Julian hears a noise outside — Xan. Theo and Xan confront each other and both fire one shot. The sudden wailing of the baby startles Xan, causing him to miss as Rolf had thought the baby would not be born for another month. Theo does not miss. He removes the Coronation Ring, which Xan had taken to wearing as a symbol of authority, from Xan's finger and seems poised to become the new leader of the UK — at least temporarily. The other members of the Council are introduced to the baby, and Theo baptises him.

In 2027, after 18 years of worldwide female infertility, civilisation is on the brink of collapse as humanity faces the grim reality of extinction. For years the United Kingdom, one of the few stable nations with a functioning government, has been deluged by asylum seekers from around the world, fleeing the chaos and war which has taken hold in most countries. In response Britain has become a militarised police state as British forces round up and detain immigrants. Kidnapped by an immigrants rights group known as "The Fishes", former activist turned cynical bureaucrat Theo Faron is brought to its leader, his estranged American wife Julian Taylor . They separated after their son died from a flu pandemic in 2008. Julian offers Theo money to acquire transit papers for a young refugee named Kee , which Theo obtains from his cousin Nigel , a government minister. However, the bearer must be accompanied, so Theo agrees to escort Kee in exchange for a larger sum. Luke , a Fishes member, drives them and former midwife Miriam towards the coast to a boat. They are ambushed by an armed gang and Julian is fatally shot. Luke kills two police officers who stop their car and they escape to a safe house. Kee reveals her importance to Theo: she is pregnant. Julian had told her to only trust him, intending to hand Kee to the "Human Project", a supposed scientific group in the Azores dedicated to curing infertility. However, Luke persuades Kee to stay. That night, Theo eavesdrops on a meeting of Luke and other members and discovers that Julian's death was orchestrated so the group could use the baby as a political tool to support the coming revolution. Theo wakes Kee and Miriam and they steal a car, escaping to the secluded hideaway of Theo's aging hippie friend Jasper Palmer , a former editorial cartoonist. A plan is formulated to board the Human Project ship Tomorrow which will arrive offshore from the Bexhill refugee camp and Jasper proposes getting Syd , a camp guard he knows, to smuggle them in. The Fishes trail the group and Jasper stays behind to stall them, giving the government-issued suicide drug Quietus to his catatonic wife. A horrified Theo witnesses the Fishes kill him before escaping with Miriam and Kee. Later they meet Syd, who transports them to Bexhill as prisoners. When Kee begins having contractions on a bus, Miriam distracts a suspicious guard with mania and is taken away. That night Kee gives birth. The next day Syd informs Theo and Kee that a war between the army and the refugees, including the Fishes, has begun. After seeing the baby Syd threatens to turn them in but they attack him and escape. Amidst the fighting between refugees and British troops, the Fishes capture Kee. Theo tracks her and her baby to an apartment which is under heavy fire from the military and escorts her out. Awed by the presence of a baby, the combatants stop fighting momentarily, enabling them to escape. Marichka leads them to a boat in a sewer, but refuses to join them. Theo rows away, revealing to Kee that he had been shot during the gunfire. As they witness the aerial bombing of Bexhill by the Royal Air Force, Kee tells Theo she will name her baby Dylan after Theo's son. Theo loses consciousness and Kee begins to sing a lullaby as the Tomorrow approaches through the fog.

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Don Quixote

Man of La Mancha

The First Sally Alonso Quijano, the protagonist of the novel, is a retired country gentleman nearing fifty years of age, living in an unnamed section of La Mancha with his niece and housekeeper. While mostly a rational man of sound reason, his reading of books of chivalry in excess has had a profound effect on him, leading to the distortion of his perception and the wavering of his mental faculties. In essence, he believes every word of these books of chivalry to be true though, for the most part, the content of these books is clearly fiction. Otherwise, his wits, in regards to everything other than chivalry, are intact. He decides to go out as a knight-errant in search of adventure. He dons an old suit of armour, renames himself "Don Quixote de la Mancha," and names his skinny horse "Rocinante". He designates a neighboring farm girl as his lady love, renaming her Dulcinea del Toboso, while she knows nothing about this. He sets out in the early morning and ends up at an inn, which he believes to be a castle. He asks the innkeeper, whom he thinks to be the lord of the castle, to dub him a knight. He spends the night holding vigil over his armor, where he becomes involved in a fight with muleteers who try to remove his armor from the horse trough so that they can water their mules. The innkeeper then dubs him a knight to be rid of him, and sends him on his way. Don Quixote next "frees" a young boy who is tied to a tree and beaten by his master by making his master swear on the chivalric code to treat the boy fairly. The boy's beating is continued as soon as Quixote leaves. Don Quixote has a run-in with traders from Toledo, who "insult" the imaginary Dulcinea, one of whom severely beats Don Quixote and leaves him on the side of the road. Don Quixote is found and returned to his home by a neighboring peasant. The Second Sally While Don Quixote is unconscious in his bed, his niece, the housekeeper, the parish curate, and the local barber secretly burn most of the books of chivalry, and seal up his library pretending that a magician has carried it off. After a short period of feigning health, Don Quixote approaches his neighbor, Sancho Panza, and asks him to be his squire, promising him governorship of an island. The uneducated Sancho agrees, and the pair sneak off in the early dawn. It is here that their series of famous adventures begin, starting with Don Quixote's attack on windmills that he believes to be ferocious giants. The two next encounter a group of friars accompanying a lady in a carriage. They are heavily cloaked, as is the lady, to protect themselves from the hot climate and dust on the road. Don Quixote takes the friars to be enchanters who hold the lady captive. He knocks a friar from his horse, and is immediately challenged by an armed Basque traveling with the company. As he has no shield, the Basque uses a pillow to protect himself, which saves him when Don Quixote strikes him. The combat ends with the lady leaving her carriage and demanding those traveling with her to "surrender" to Don Quixote. The Pastoral Wanderings Sancho and Don Quixote go on, and fall in with a group of goatherds. Don Quixote tells Sancho and the goatherds about the "Golden Age" of man, reminiscent of both Ovid and the later Rousseau in which property does not exist, and men live in peace. The goatherds invite the Knight and Sancho to the funeral of Grisóstomo, once a student who left his studies to become a shepherd after reading Pastoral novels, seeking the shepherdess Marcela. At the funeral Marcela appears, delivering a long speech vindicating herself from the bitter verses written about her by Grisóstomo, claiming her own autonomy and freedom from expectations put on her by Pastoral clichés. She disappears into the woods, and Don Quixote and Sancho follow. Ultimately giving up, the two stop and dismount by a pond to rest. Some Galicians arrive to water their ponies, and Rocinante (Don Quixote's horse) attempts to mate with the ponies. The Galicians hit Rocinante with clubs to dissuade him, which Don Quixote takes as a threat and runs to defend Rocinante. The Galicians beat Don Quixote and Sancho leaving them in great pain. The Adventures with Cardenio and Dorotea After Don Quixote frees a group of galley slaves, The Knight and Sancho wander into the Sierra Morena, and there encounter the dejected Cardenio. Cardenio relates the first part of his story, in which he falls deeply in love with his childhood friend Luscinda, and is hired as the companion to the Duke's son, leading to his friendship with the Duke's younger son, Don Fernando. Cardenio confides in Don Fernando his love for Luscinda and the delays in their engagement, caused by Cardenio's desire to keep with tradition. After reading Cardenio's poems praising Luscinda, Don Fernando falls in love with her. Don Quixote interrupts when Cardenio suggests that his beloved may have become unfaithful after the formulaic stories of spurned lovers in Chivalric novels. In the course of their travels, the protagonists meet innkeepers, prostitutes, goatherds, soldiers, priests, escaped convicts, and scorned lovers. These encounters are magnified by Don Quixote’s imagination into chivalrous quests. Don Quixote’s tendency to intervene violently in matters which do not concern him, and his habit of not paying his debts, result in many privations, injuries, and humiliations (with Sancho often getting the worst of it). Finally, Don Quixote is persuaded to return to his home village. The author hints that there was a third quest, but says that records of it have been lost. The Third Sally Although the two parts are now normally published as a single work, Don Quixote, Part Two was a sequel published ten years after the original novel. While Part One was mostly farcical, the second half is more serious and philosophical about the theme of deception. As Part Two begins, it is assumed that the literate classes of Spain have all read the first part of the history of Don Quixote and his squire. Cervantes's meta-fictional device was to make even the characters in the story familiar with the publication of Part One, as well as with an actually published fraudulent Part Two. When strangers encounter the duo in person, they already know their famous history. A Duke and Duchess, and others, deceive Don Quixote for entertainment, setting forth a string of imagined adventures resulting in a series of practical jokes. Some of them are quite sadistic, and they put Don Quixote's sense of chivalry and his devotion to Dulcinea through many tests. Even Sancho deceives him at one point. Pressured into finding Dulcinea, Sancho brings back three dirty and ragged peasant girls, and tells Don Quixote that they are Dulcinea and her ladies-in-waiting. When Don Quixote only sees the peasant girls, Sancho pretends that their derelict appearance results from an enchantment. Sancho later gets his comeuppance for this when, as part of one of the duke and duchess's pranks, the two are led to believe that the only method to release Dulcinea from her spell is for Sancho to give himself a surplus of three thousand lashes. Sancho naturally resists this course of action, leading to friction with his master. Under the duke's patronage, Sancho eventually gets a governorship, though it is false, and proves to be a wise and practical ruler; though this ends in humiliation as well. Near the end, Don Quixote reluctantly sways towards sanity: an inn is just an inn, not a castle. The lengthy untold "history" of Don Quixote's adventures in knight-errantry comes to a close after his battle with the Knight of the White Moon, in which we the readers find him conquered. Bound by the rules of chivalry, Don Quixote submits to prearranged terms that the vanquished is to obey the will of the conqueror, which in this case, is that Don Quixote is to lay down his arms and cease his acts of chivalry for the period of one year (a duration in which he may be cured of his madness). Defeated and dejected, he and Sancho start their journey home. Part Two of Don Quixote is often regarded as the birth of modern literature, as it explores the concept of a character understanding that he is being written about. This is a theme much explored in writings of the 20th Century. Upon returning to his village, Don Quixote announces his plan to retire to the countryside and live the pastoral existence of shepherd, although his housekeeper, who has a more realistic view of the hard life of a shepherd, urges him to stay home and tend to his own affairs. Soon after, he retires to his bed with a deathly illness, possibly brought on by melancholy over his defeats and humiliations. One day, he awakes from a dream having fully recovered his sanity. Sancho tries to restore his faith, but Alonso Quixano, for that is his true name, can only renounce his previous existence and apologize for the harm he has caused. He dictates his will, which includes a provision that his niece will be disinherited if she marries a man who reads books of chivalry. After Alonso Quixano dies, the author emphasizes that there are no more adventures to relate, and that any further books about Don Quixote would be spurious.

{{Main}} Cervantes and his manservant have been imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, and a manuscript by Cervantes is seized by his fellow inmates, who subject him to a mock trial in order to determine whether the manuscript should be returned. Cervantes' defense is in the form of a play, in which Cervantes takes the role of Alonso Quijano, an old gentleman who has lost his mind and now believes that he should go forth as a knight-errant. Quijano renames himself Don Quixote de La Mancha, and sets out to find adventures with his "squire", Sancho Panza.

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry Potter is spending another summer with his dreadful Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. when a pair of Dementors stage an unexpected attack on Harry and his cousin Dudley. After he uses magic to defend himself and Dudley, he is temporarily expelled from Hogwarts for using magic outside of the school, despite being legally allowed to do in self-defence, before it is rescinded. A few days afterwards, Harry is visited by a group of wizards and Mad-Eye Moody and is whisked off to Number 12, Grimmauld Place, London, the home of Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, and the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. As Harry learns from his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger The Order is a group of witches and wizards, led by Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore, dedicated to fighting the evil Lord Voldemort and his followers. The Order is forced to operate in secrecy, outside of the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Magic, which is headed by the dense and corrupt Cornelius Fudge, who refuses to believe that Lord Voldemort has returned. In addition, Harry learns that he and Dumbledore have been made victims of a ministry smear campaign aimed at discrediting them and their beliefs about Voldemort. Because of his use of magic, Harry's fate is to be determined at a discipliniary hearing at the Ministry of Magic, which turns out to be an apparent show trial. With Dumbledore's help, Harry is cleared by the Wizengamot and permitted to return to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Reunited with his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, Harry returns to Hogwarts and learns that Dolores Umbridge, an employee of Fudge, will be his new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. The Sorting Hat, which traditionally sorts all new students into one of four houses, cautions the students against becoming too internally divided. Meanwhile, due to the smear campaign against him, Harry is the subject of unwanted gossip from the student body at large, and a number of people turn against him. Professor Umbridge and Harry soon clash, as she, like Fudge, refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned and punishes Harry when he points out Voldemort's return by forcing him to write lines with a special quill that carves "I must not tell lies" into the back of his hand. Umbridge refuses to teach her students how to perform defensive spells, and before long, Fudge appoints her High Inquisitor of Hogwarts, giving her the authority to inspect all faculty members and evaluate their skills. In desperation, Harry, Hermione, and Ron form their own Defense Against the Dark Arts group, also known as the D.A., or Dumbledore's Army. Twenty-five other students sign up, including several of Harry's friends as well as the eccentric Luna Lovegood, and they meet as often as possible to learn and practice Defense spells, and learn well from Harry. One night, Harry has a vision where he inhabits the body of a large snake, and attacks Ron's father. Harry wakes up horrified, and Professor McGonagall takes him to Dumbledore immediately. Dumbledore uses the portraits on the walls of his office to raise an alert, and Mr. Weasley is promptly rescued by two members of the Order. The Weasley family, accompanied by Harry and the Order, visit Arthur Weasley in St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. Afterwards, Dumbledore demands that Harry take Occlumency lessons with Professor Snape, for the purpose of protecting his mind against further invasions by Lord Voldemort. During the lessons, Harry learns that a corridor he has been repeatedly visiting in his dreams is part of the Department of Mysteries. Harry is unsuccessful at Occlumency because he has such difficulty clearing his mind of all thoughts, making it difficult for him to focus on closing his mind off to all outside influence, in addition to wanting to find out what they mean. Meanwhile, his scar (from the attack in which Voldemort killed Harry's parents) burns horribly every time Voldemort experiences a powerful emotion. The D.A. continues to meet regularly, and Harry's peers show great improvement until they are caught by Umbridge. Dumbledore takes full responsibility for the group and resigns as Headmaster, and Umbridge takes over his position. Shortly afterwards, Harry ends up viewing a memory of Snape's, showing him being bullied by Harry's father James and Sirius, back in their schooldays. Harry wishes desperately to contact his godfather to talk about his father, but Umbridge has been inspecting all owl posts and patrolling the fires of Hogwarts, preventing communication via the Floo Network. Ron's brothers, Fred and George Weasley agree to distract Umbridge so that Harry can use her fireplace to talk to Sirius, who clears up Harry's doubts about his father. Immediately afterwards, they leave Hogwarts, moving to London where they plan to open a joke shop in the wizarding town of Diagon Alley using the money Harry won the previous year in the Triwizard Tournament. The students begin taking their O.W.L. exams, and Harry has another vision, this time about Sirius being held captive and tortured by Voldemort. Horrified, Harry becomes determined to save him. Hermione warns Harry that Voldemort may be deliberately trying to lure Harry to the Department of Mysteries, but Harry is too concerned about Sirius to pay heed. Harry sneaks into Umbridge's office, and, using her fireplace, transports himself to 12, Grimmauld Place to look for Sirius. Kreacher, the House of Black's house elf, tells Harry that Sirius is at the Ministry of Magic. Harry returns to Hogwarts when he is pulled back through the fire by Umbridge to find that he and his friends have been caught in Umbridge's office. Ron, Luna, Ginny, and Neville, who tried to distract Umbridge so that Harry could use her fireplace, have all been seized by Slytherins and gagged. Hermione and Harry convince Umbridge to follow them into the forest, where they claim to be hiding a weapon for Dumbledore which they had just finished and wanted to tell him about. Once in the forest, Umbridge provokes the resident herd of centaurs, and is taken into the forest by them. Harry and his friends use the school's thestrals, winged skeletal horses to fly to the Ministry. Once they arrive, Harry cannot find Sirius and realises that Hermione was right. Harry also sees that one of the glass spheres has his name on it, as well as Voldemort's. Harry grabs the sphere, and Death Eaters led by Lucius Malfoy surround to attack, demanding that Harry hand over the prophecy. Employing all of their Defence skills, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and Neville have moderate success fighting the Death Eaters, but they are ultimately helped enormously by the arrival of several members of the Order, including Dumbledore. In the midst of the fight, Harry drops the glass sphere and it shatters. Sirius is killed by his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, when she blasts him through the veil. Harry tries to avenge his godfather and follows Bellatrix, but is met by Voldemort at the fountain. Dumbledore appears shortly after Voldemort and the two engage in an intense duel. Voldemort fights Dumbledore to stalemate, then possesses Harry in an attempt to get Dumbledore to sacrifice Harry in the hope of killing him. Voldemort and Lestrange escape, just as Fudge appears at the Ministry, finally faced with incontrovertible evidence that the Dark Lord has returned. Dumbledore sends Harry back to school, where, after Harry has a breakdown, screaming that "he's had enough" of all the pain and anguish and death and destruction, he explains that the sphere was a prophecy which stated that Harry has a power that Voldemort will never know: the power of love, given to him by his mother's sacrifice fifteen years earlier. The prophecy goes on to claim that neither Harry nor Voldemort can live while the other survives. Dumbledore takes this opportunity to tell Harry why he must spend his summers with the Dursleys in Little Whinging: because Harry's mother died to save him, he is blessed with her love, a blessing that can be sealed only by blood. Harry's Aunt Petunia, his mother's sister, makes that bond complete by taking Harry into her home. As long as he still calls Little Whinging home, Harry is safe. At the end of the year, the Order warn the Dursleys they will have to answer to them should they mistreat Harry, who returns to them for the summer.

{{further2}} The Order of the Phoenix, a secret organization founded by Albus Dumbledore, inform the now 15-year-old Harry Potter that the Ministry of Magic is in denial of Lord Voldemort's return; under the Ministry's influence, The Daily Prophet has launched a smear campaign against Harry and Dumbledore due to Harry's supposed encounter with Voldemort at the end of the previous year. This encounter has had a huge psychological effect on Harry – he has nightmares not only about what happened in the graveyard but also about the Department of Mysteries at the Ministry of Magic. While at the Order's headquarters, 12 Grimmauld Place, Harry's godfather, Sirius Black, mentions that Voldemort is after an object which he didn't have last time. Upon arrival at Hogwarts, Harry learns that Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge has appointed a new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor: Dolores Umbridge, a senior Ministry official who refuses to teach practical magic due to her belief that Dumbledore is forming a rebellion against the Ministry. Umbridge and Harry immediately clash, as she refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned and forces Harry to carve 'I must not tell lies' into the skin on the back of his hand through a cursed quill. When Ron and Hermione notice these scars, they are outraged but Harry refuses to go to Dumbledore as he has distanced himself from him since the summer. As Umbridge's control over the school increases, Ron and Hermione aid Harry in forming a secret group to train students in defensive spells, calling themselves "Dumbledore's Army". The Slytherin students are recruited by Umbridge to uncover the group. Meanwhile, Harry and Cho Chang develop romantic feelings for each other and begin a relationship during Christmas, Cho being Harry's first kiss at the last DA meeting before the holidays. However, Harry discovers that his behaviour is becoming erratic and possibly more similar to Voldemort's. Harry has a vision involving an attack upon Arthur Weasley in the Department of Mysteries, from the point of view of Arthur's attacker. Fearing Voldemort will exploit his connection to Harry, Dumbledore instructs Professor Snape to give Harry Occlumency lessons to block his mind from Voldemort's influence. These lessons increase Harry's psychological problems, as he is forced to relive everything bad that has ever happened to him. During one lesson, Harry got annoyed at what he saw and requested a break but Snape refused and forced Harry to continue the lesson. This only got the spell reversed on him by Harry where Harry sees the Vision on why Snape hates his father, James, who often had bullied him. The connection between Harry and Voldemort leads Harry to distance himself from everyone, and he pushes not only Ron and Hermione but Ginny, Neville, the Weasley twins and Luna away, as he feels "so angry all the time". Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius' deranged cousin, escapes from Azkaban along with nine other Death Eaters. At Hogwarts, Umbridge and her Inquisitorial Squad uncover Dumbledore's Army after illegally interrogating Cho with Veritaserum. Dumbledore covers up for Harry, but escapes as Fudge orders his arrest. With Dumbledore gone, Umbridge becomes the new Headmistress. Harry's relationship with Cho falls apart, mostly due to Cho having betrayed Dumbledore's Army to Umbridge . During an O.W.L. exam, the Weasley twins revolt and set off fireworks in the Great Hall, causing chaos for Umbridge. During this event, Harry has a vision of Sirius being tortured by Voldemort within the Department of Mysteries. Harry, Ron and Hermione rush to Umbridge's fireplace to alert the Order via the Floo Network, since it is the only one not being monitored, but Umbridge stops them before they can do so. When she threatens to use the Cruciatus Curse to get information out of Harry about the trio's intentions, Hermione deceives Umbridge into entering the Forbidden Forest in search for Dumbledore's "secret weapon". She and Harry lead her to the hiding place of Hagrid's half-giant brother, Grawp, only to be confronted by centaurs who kidnap Umbridge after she attacks them. When Umbridge tells Harry to make the centaurs let her go and that she means no harm Harry says, "Sorry, Professor. I must not tell lies". Harry, Hermione, Ron, Luna, Neville and Ginny fly to the Ministry of Magic on Thestrals in an attempt to save Sirius. The six enter the Department of Mysteries where they uncover a prophecy involving Harry and Voldemort, the object Voldemort was after. However, they are ambushed by Death Eaters including Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange. Lucius reveals that Harry only saw a dream of Sirius being tortured; it was not an actual situation, rather a method to lure Harry into the Death Eater's grasp. Lucius attempts to persuade Harry to give him the prophecy, telling him it will reveal why Voldemort could not kill Harry when he was an infant. Harry refuses and a fight between Dumbledore's Army and the Death Eaters ensues. The Death Eaters take everyone except Harry as hostages, threatening to kill them if he does not surrender the prophecy. Harry obliges just as Sirius and Remus Lupin arrive with Order members Nymphadora Tonks, Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-Eye Moody. They attack the Death Eaters and Lucius drops the prophecy, destroying it. Harry and Sirius duel him. Just as Sirius defeats Lucius, Bellatrix kills Sirius. Despite Remus trying to hold him back, Harry goes after Bellatrix, who runs away continuously saying "I killed Sirius Black" in a song-like manner. Harry chases and corners Bellatrix in the Atrium and attempts to torture her with the Cruciatus Curse, but to little avail . Voldemort appears, but Dumbledore arrives through the Floo Network moments before Voldemort can kill Harry. A duel between Voldemort and Dumbledore ensues while Bellatrix escapes. After the two prove evenly matched, Voldemort possesses Harry in order to try to get Dumbledore to sacrifice Harry in the hope of killing him, but the love Harry feels for his friends and Sirius makes it impossible for Voldemort to remain in his body. Ministry officials arrive before Voldemort disapparates; Fudge is forced to admit that Voldemort has returned and resigns as Minister. Dumbledore returns as headmaster of Hogwarts after he and Harry are vindicated. Dumbledore explains that he distanced himself from Harry all year hoping it would lessen the risk of Voldemort using their connection. Harry comes to terms with the prophecy; "Neither can live while the other survives." As Harry and his friends head towards the Hogwarts Express, Harry tells his friends that even though a war is beginning, unlike Voldemort, they have something worth fighting for.

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The Ghost

The Ghost Writer

The greater part of the action is on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, where Lang has been holed up in the holiday home of his billionaire American publisher in order to turn out his memoirs on a deadline. Other scenes are set in Notting Hill, New York and Whitehall. Lang's former press aide Mike McAra has been struggling to ghost his master's memoirs but, as the novel opens, McAra drowns when he apparently falls off the Woods Hole ferry. The fictional narrator of The Ghost, whose name is never revealed, is hired to replace him (his girlfriend walks out on him over his willingness to take the job: "She felt personally betrayed by him; she used to be a party member."). He soon suspects foul play and stumbles across evidence of possible motive, buried in Lang's Cambridge past. Having located what may be the lethal secret, the replacement ghostwriter begins to fear for his own safety. Meanwhile Lang, like his real-life counterpart, has been accused by his enemies of war crimes. A leaked memorandum has revealed that he secretly approved the transfer of UK citizens to Guantanamo Bay to face interrogation and possible torture. One Richard Rycart, Lang's disillusioned and renegade former foreign secretary (loosely based on Robin Cook), who before and during his early days in office made much of his wish to adopt an "ethical" foreign policy, is now at the UN, in a position to do his former boss serious damage. Unlike Blair, Lang thus appears in imminent threat of indictment at the International Criminal Court. The narrator tussles to reconcile his obligation to complete the ghosting job with its attendant abundant payment on the one hand and, on the other, the pressing need, as he sees it, to reveal Lang's true allegiances. The action really heats up when he contacts Rycart. The narrator comes under increasing jeopardy: romantically and politically, as well as physically.

An unnamed British ghostwriter is recruited to complete the memoirs of former Prime Minister Adam Lang . His predecessor on the project and Lang's long-term aide, Mike McAra, died in an apparent accident. The writer travels to the fictional Massachusetts village of Old Haven on Martha's Vineyard, where Lang is staying with his wife, Ruth , and a staff of servants and security personnel. The writer is checked into a small hotel. Lang's personal assistant , Amelia Bly , forbids him to take McAra's manuscript outside, emphasizing that it is a security risk. Shortly after the writer's arrival, Lang is accused by former Foreign Secretary Richard Rycart of authorising the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA, a possible war crime. Lang faces prosecution by the International Criminal Court unless he stays in the U.S. or any other country that does not recognise the court's jurisdiction. As reporters and protesters swarm the island, the writer is moved into McAra's old room at Lang's house, where personal belongings have not been cleared out yet. Lang travels to Washington while the writer clears the room, finding an envelope containing clues suggesting McAra may have stumbled on a dark secret. Among the material is a handwritten phone number. During a bicycle ride around the island, the writer encounters an old man who tells him that the current couldn't have taken McAra's body from the ferry where he disappeared to the beach where it was discovered. He reveals that a neighbour saw flashlights on the beach the night the body was discovered, but later fell off a ladder and went into a coma. The writer is later intercepted by Ruth and her security guard, who take him back to the estate. There, Ruth admits that Lang has never been very political, and until recently had always taken her advice. When the writer tells her the old man's story, she suddenly rushes out into the rainy night to "clear her head." Upon returning, she confides in the writer that Lang and McAra had argued the night before he died. She and the writer end up sleeping together. The next morning, the writer decides he is getting too intimate with his subject and moves back to the hotel. After finding some photos of Lang's college days, driving McAra's car, he uses pre-programmed directions on the vehicle's GPS that lead him to Belmont, at the estate of Professor Paul Emmett . Emmett denies anything more than a cursory acquaintance with Lang, despite the writer showing him two photographs of the two of them, as well as another one on the wall of his study. When the writer tells Emmett that the GPS directions to Emmett's house were programmed the night McAra died and that his predecessor visited him, Emmett denies any knowledge and becomes evasive. The writer leaves Emmett's estate, and he is followed by a car, but manages to elude it. The writer boards the ferry, but when he sees the car that had followed him drive aboard, with two men looking for him, he flees the boat at the last moment and checks into a small motel by the ferry dock. Not knowing who to turn to, the writer dials the handwritten phone number, only to discover it belongs to Rycart, who inquires about his whereabouts and indicates he'll pick him up. While waiting for Rycart, the writer does a Google search on Emmett and finds that, in addition to being a Pulitzer Prize-winning professor, he is linked with a military contractor through his think tank. He also finds leads that connect Emmett to the CIA as far back as the 1970s, when the agency recruited academics for the creation of propaganda material to be used abroad. When Rycart arrives, he tells the writer that McAra supplied him with documents linking Lang to torture flights. He also reveals that McAra had found something new before he died, confiding to Rycart that in case anything happened, the clues would be in the "beginning" of the book. The men cannot, however, find anything in the manuscript's early pages. The writer the reveals all of the information he found about Emmet, theorizing that he recruited Lang, to which Rycart agrees, saying that, for all his tenure as Prime Minister, all of Lang's decisions were aimed at helping the U.S. When the writer is summoned to accompany Lang on the return flight, he confronts Lang and accuses him of being a CIA agent recruited by Emmett and tells him that McAra was outing him out with Rycart. Lang derides his suggestions. Upon alighting the aircraft, Lang is assassinated by a British anti-war protestor, who is in turn shot by Lang's bodyguards. The writer is questioned by U.S. authorities as a prime witness, his passport withheld, though later recovered by his publicist. Despite Lang's death, the writer is asked to complete the book for posthumous publication, as in light of the recent events, it will be a best-seller. During the book's launch party in London, Amelia unwittingly tells the writer that the Americans tightened access to the book, as the "beginnings" contained evidence that threatened national security. She also tells him that Emmett was Ruth's tutor when she was a Fulbright scholar in Harvard. The writer realises that the clues were hidden in the original manuscript at the beginning of each chapter, and discovers the message, "Lang's wife Ruth was recruited as a CIA agent by Professor Paul Emmett of Harvard University." Ruth shaped Lang's every political decision to benefit the United States, under direction from the CIA. The writer passes a note to Ruth telling of his discovery. She unfolds the note, and is devastated. When she sees the writer raising a glass, she is kept from following him by Emmett and other assistants. As the writer leaves the party he attemps to take a taxi, without success, and as he crosses the street off-camera, a car accelerates in his direction, and sound effects and flying papers indicate that he has been hit.

positive

positive

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.

In 1947, Humbert Humbert , a European professor of French literature, travels to the United States to take a teaching position in New Hampshire. He rents a room in the home of widow Charlotte Haze , largely because he sees her adolescent daughter Dolores , also called "Lo", while touring the house. Obsessed from boyhood with girls of this age , partly because of a boyhood sexual experience and subsequent tragic loss, Humbert marries Charlotte for the sake of access to her daughter. Later in their marriage, Charlotte becomes furious after she, by way of reading Humbert's secret diary, discovers Humbert's preference for her daughter. Moments after, Charlotte goes to the mailbox to mail some letters when she is struck by a car and killed. Her death frees Humbert to pursue a sexual and emotional relationship with Lo, whom he nicknames "Lolita". Humbert and Lo then travel the country, staying in various motels before eventually settling in the college town of Beardsley, where Humbert takes a teaching job. However, Lo's increasing boredom with Humbert, as well as her growing desire for independence, fuels a constant tension between them. Humbert's desperate affections for Lo are also rivaled by another man, playwright Clare Quilty , who has been pursuing Lo since the beginning of their travels. Quilty's name and identity are at first unknown to Humbert, and when Lo runs away to him, Humbert's search for her is unsuccessful. Three years later, Humbert receives a letter from Lo asking for financial help. Humbert visits Lo, who is now married to another man and pregnant. Humbert, who still loves Lo, asks her to run away with him, but she refuses. He relents and gives her a substantial amount of money and information about her inheritance from her mother. Lo also reveals to Humbert how Quilty actually tracked young girls her age and took them to Pavor Manor, his home in Parkington, to film the girls performing various sexual acts with the help of his assistant Vivian. She also tells him about how after being taken from Humbert, Quilty tried to film Lo performing sex acts in a group setting. When Lo refuses and prefers Quilty to be like a father to her, Quilty leaves Lo on her own. After his visit with Lo, Humbert tracks down Quilty and kills him. After being chased by the police, Humbert is arrested and sent to prison. He dies in November 1950, and Lo dies on Christmas Day in childbirth.

positive

positive

The Howling

Howling II: Stirba - Werewolf Bitch

When middle-class Karyn Beatty is attacked and raped in her Los Angeles home, she suffers a miscarriage and a nervous breakdown. She and her husband, Roy, leave the city and go to stay in the secluded Californian mountain village of Drago whilst Karyn recuperates. Although the town offers Karyn a quiet lifestyle and the locals are friendly, Karyn is disturbed when she continues to hear a strange howling sound at night coming from the woods outside of their new home. This puts further strain on her marriage as Roy believes she is becoming more and more unstable, but Karyn is adamant that there is something in the woods. As tension between the couple mounts, Roy begins an affair with one of the local women, a shopkeeper named Marcia Lura. However, on his way home, Roy is attacked in the woods by a large black wolf. Though the wolf only bites him, Roy becomes ill for several days. He was bitten by a werewolf, and has now become one himself. Karyn eventually discovers that the town's entire population are all in fact werewolves, and becomes trapped in Drago. She contacts her husband's best friend, Chris Halloran, who comes up from Los Angeles to rescue her. Chris arrives with some silver bullets which he had made at her insistence. That night, the two of them fend off a group of werewolves (one of which is Karyn's husband, Roy) and Karyn is forced to shoot the black werewolf (revealed to be Marcia Lura) in the head. In the commotion, a fire breaks out at Karyn's woodland house which sweeps through the woods and the entire town of Drago is engulfed in flames as Karyn and Chris escape from its cursed inhabitants. However, as they flee, they can still hear the howling in the distance. nl:The Howling

Ben White attends the funeral of his sister, journalist Karen White, the heroine of the previous film. Ben meets both Jenny Templeton , one of Karen's colleagues, and Stefan Crosscoe , a mysterious interloper who tells him Karen was a werewolf. Providing videotaped evidence of the transformation – and turning up to destroy Karen as her undead body rises from the grave – Crosscoe convinces Ben and Jenny to accompany him to Transylvania to battle Stirba, an immortal werewolf queen. Ben dons a Canadian tuxedo to prepare for the battle. Along the way, the trio encounter Mariana ([[Marsha Hunt , another lusty werewolf siren, and her minion Erle . Arriving in the Balkans, Ben and company wander through an ethnic folk festival, unaware that Stirba is off in her nearby castle already plotting their downfall. Stirba seems to have witchcraft powers as well as being a werewolf, for she intones the Wiccan chant Eko Eko Azarak.Eventually, the adventurers do battle with Stirba in an assault that involves disguised dwarves, mutilated priests, supernatural parasites, and surprise revelations. The Howling II introduces many new elements into the mythos of the werewolf, including a background richly steeped in sorcery and occultism. The primary antagonist of this film, Stirba , is a ten-thousand year-old werewolf and the mother of all werewolves on the planet Earth. Werewolves directly linked to Stirba's brood are stronger than the traditional werewolf, and as such, additional measures are required in order to destroy them. Silver is ineffective against these sort of werewolves. Only weapons made of titanium can end these creatures once and for all.

positive

positive

The Space Vampires

Lifeforce

In the late twenty-first century, far out in a nearby asteroid belt, a gigantic derelict castle-like alien spacecraft is discovered by the space exploration vehicle Hermes, commanded by Captain Olof Carlsen. Investigating the spacecraft's interior, the astronauts first discover the desiccated corpses of giant bat-like creatures, then three glass coffins containing three immobilized humanoids - two male and one female - preserved in a state of suspended animation. Returning to Earth with the preserved humanoids, Carlsen discovers the true nature of the beings when one of them kills a young man, a reporter (and the son of a friend of Carlsen) whom Carlsen illicitly allowed to view the body. The woman kills her victim by completely draining his life-force (a quantifiable energy measured by a device called "lambda-field scanners"), then, when Carlsen attempts to intervene, partially draining him of energy as well. Carlsen is left still alive, but unable to prevent the woman from escaping from the hospital. Carlsen joins forces with Dr. Hans Fallada, a scientist researching energy vampirism and longevity, to find the escaped vampire and recapture her. In the course of their investigations they discover that the aliens can transfer from one body to another, and that the other two have also escaped; they also discover the potential for energy vampirism - and more generalized voluntary energy transfer - that exists in all humans, and the parallels between vampirism, criminality, and sexual fetishization. At last Carlsen tracks down the vampires in London, their leader having possessed the body of the Prime Minister; but their confrontation is averted when representatives from the Nioth-Korghai, the vampires' original race, appear and offer the vampires (the Ubbo-Sathla, as they call themselves) the chance to regain their original nature as higher-dimension energy-beings. The vampires accept joyfully, but destroy themselves upon regaining the ability to see themselves for what they had become. An epilogue, set nearly a century later, reveals that Carlsen has used the techniques of benevolent energy transference he learned via his encounters with the vampires to live an extraordinarily long life, and possibly (it is implied) to have achieved a kind of transcendence upon his death.

While investigating Halley's Comet, the crew of the space shuttle Churchill finds a 150-mile long spaceship hidden in the corona of the comet. Upon entering the alien craft, the crew finds hundreds of dead, shrivelled bat-like creatures and three naked humanoid bodies in suspended animation within glass coffin-like containers. The crew recovers the three aliens and begins the return trip to Earth. During the return journey, mission control loses contact with the shuttle as it nears Earth and a rescue mission is launched to investigate. The rescuers discover that the Churchill has been severely damaged by fire, with its internal components destroyed, and the three containers bearing the aliens are all that remain intact. The aliens are taken to the European Space Research Centre in London where they are watched over by Dr. Leonard Bukovski and Dr. Hans Fallada . Prior to an autopsy, the female alien awakens and sucks the titular "life force" out of a guard. The female then escapes the research facility and proceeds to drain various other humans of their life force, also revealing an ability to shape-shift.{{cite news}} and seek out other humans in order to absorb their life force, thereby perpetuating the zombie virus. The absorbed life force consumed by the zombies is collected by the male vampires to deliver to the female vampire, who then transfers the accumulated energy to a waiting spaceship in Earth's orbit. Fallada manages to impale one of the male vampires with a sword made of leaded iron and surmises that the space vampire race is actually the origin of the human vampire myth. Carlsen then admits to Caine that, whilst on the shuttle, he felt compelled to open the female vampire's container and to share his life force with her. Carlsen realizes that his psychic connection is being used to lure him back to the alien so she can regain the life force shared with him earlier. She is later found lying upon a church's altar, transferring the energy from infected humans to her spaceship. Caine follows Carlsen into the church and is intercepted by the second male vampire, whom he dispatches using the leaded iron sword obtained from Fallada . Caine relocates Carlsen but the colonel manages to impale himself and the female alien simultaneously as a sacrifice for the benefit of Earth. However, the female vampire is only wounded and returns to her ship with Carlsen in tow, releasing a burst of energy that destroys the top of the church building. The two ascend the column of light that leads to the spaceship which then returns to the comet it came from.

positive

positive

The Lost World

The Lost World

Edward Malone, a reporter for the Daily Gazette, goes to his news editor, McArdle, to procure a dangerous and adventurous mission in order to impress the woman he loves, Gladys Hungerton. He is sent to interview Professor George Edward Challenger, who has assaulted four or five other journalists, to determine if his claims about his trip to South America are true. After assaulting Malone, Challenger reveals his discovery of dinosaurs in South America. Having been ridiculed for years, he invites Malone on a trip to prove his story, along with Professor Summerlee, another scientist qualified to examine any evidence, and Lord John Roxton, an adventurer who knows the Amazon and several years prior to the events of the book helped end slavery by robber barons in South America. They reach the plateau with the aid of Indian guides, who are superstitiously scared of the area. One of these Indians, Gomez, is the brother of a man that Roxton killed the last time he was in South America. When the expedition manages to get onto the plateau, Gomez destroys their bridge, trapping them. Their "devoted negro" Zambo remains at the base, but is unable to prevent the rest of the Indians from leaving. Deciding to investigate the lost world, they are attacked by pterodactyls in a swamp, and Roxton finds some blue clay in which he takes a great interest. After exploring the plateau and having some adventures in which the expedition narrowly escapes being killed by dinosaurs, Challenger, Summerlee, and Roxton are captured by a race of ape-men. While in the ape-men's village, they find out that there is also a tribe of humans (calling themselves Accala) inhabiting the other side of the plateau, with whom the ape-men (called Doda by the Accala) are at war. Roxton manages to escape and team up with Malone to mount a rescue. They arrive just in time to prevent the execution of one of the professors and several other humans, who take them to the human tribe. With their help, they defeat the ape-men, taking control of the whole plateau. After witnessing the power of their guns, the human tribe does not want the expedition to leave, and tries to keep them on the plateau. However the team finally discovers a tunnel that leads to the outside, where they meet up with Zambo and a large rescue party. Upon returning to England, they present their report which include pictures and a newspaper report by Edward, which many dismiss as they had Challenger's original story. Having planned ahead, Challenger shows them a live pterodactyl as proof, which then escapes and flies out into the Atlantic ocean. When the four of them have dinner, Roxton shows them why he was so interested in the blue clay. It contains diamonds, about £200,000 worth, to be split between them. Challenger plans to open a private museum, Summerlee plans to retire and categorize fossils, and Roxton plans to go back to the lost world. Malone returns to his love, Gladys, only to find that she had married a clerk while he was away. With nothing keeping him in London, he volunteers to be part of Roxton's second trip.

From a lost expedition to a plateau in Venezuela, Paula White brings the journal of her father explorer Maple White to the eccentric Professor Challenger in London. The journal features sketches of dinosaurs which is enough proof for Challenger to publicly announce that dinosaurs still walk the earth. Met with ridicule at an academic meeting at the Zoological Hall, Challenger reluctantly accepts a newspaper's offer to finance a mission to rescue Maple White. Professor Challenger, Paula White, sportsman Sir John Roxton, news reporter Edward Malone , a sceptical professor Summerlee, an Indian servant Zambo, and Challenger's butler Austin leave for the plateau. At their campsite at the base of the plateau, the explorers are shocked when a large rock falls, sent their way by an ape-man perched on top of an overhead ledge. As the crew look up to see their attacker, Challenger spies overhead a Pteranodon which sighting proves that the statements in Maple White's diary are true. Leaving Zambo and Austin at the camp, they cross a chasm onto the plateau by cutting down a tree and using it as a bridge, but it is knocked over by an Apatosaurus, leaving them trapped. The explorers witness various life-and-death struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the plateau. An Allosaurus attacks an Anatotitan, and knocks it into a bog. The Allosaurus then attacks, and is driven off by a Triceratops. Eventually, the Allosaurus makes its way to the campsite and attacks the exploration party. It is finally driven off by Ed who tosses a torch into its mouth. Convinced that the camp isn't safe, Ed climbs a tree to look for a new location, but is attacked by the ape-man. Roxton succeeds in shooting the ape-man, but the creature is merely wounded and escapes before he can finish him off. Meanwhile, an Agathaumas is attacked by a Tyrannosaurus, and gores it to death. Suddenly, another Tyrannosaurus attacks and kills the Agathaumas, along with an unfortunate Pteranodon. The explorers then make preparations to live on the plateau potentially indefinitely. A catapult is constructed and during a search for Maple White, Roxton finds his remains, confirming his death. It is at this time that Ed confesses his love for Paula and the two are unofficially wed by Summerlee who used to be a minister. Shortly afterwards, as the paleontologists are observing a Brontosaurus, an Allosaurus attacks it and the Brontosaurus falls off the edge of the plateau, becoming trapped in a mud bank at the base of the plateau. Soon afterwards, a volcano erupts causing a mass stampede among the giant beasts of the lost world. The crew is saved when Paula's pet monkey Jocko climbs up the plateau carrying a rope. The crew use the rope to pull up a rope ladder constructed by Zambo and Austin and then climb down. As Ed makes his descent, he is again attacked by the ape-man who pulls the rope ladder. The ape-man is again shot and finally killed by Roxton. They discover the Brontosaurus that had been pushed off the plateau had landed softly in the mud of the river, trapped but still alive, and Challenger manages to bring it back to London, as he wants to put it on display as proof of his story. However, while being unloaded from the ship it escapes and causes havoc until it reaches Tower Bridge, where its massive weight causes a collapse, and it swims down the River Thames. Challenger is morose as the creature leaves. Ed discovers that the love he left in London has married in his absence, allowing him and Paula to be together. Roxton morosely but gallantly hides his love for Paula as Paula and Ed leave together, while two passersby note: "That's Sir John Roxton--sportsman."

positive

positive

The Lost World

The Lost World

Six years after the disaster at Jurassic Park, Ian Malcolm &mdash; who is revealed to have actually survived the events of the previous novel &mdash; teams up with wealthy paleontologist Richard Levine after learning about Site B, the secret "production facility" where the park's dinosaurs were hatched and grown; the site is located on Isla Sorna, an island adjacent to Isla Nublar. When Levine disappears, Malcolm fears that he might have discovered Site B's exact location and went there without his knowledge. Doc Thorne and Eddie Carr, who provided Levine with equipment, and R.B. "Arby" Benton and Kelly Curtis, two schoolchildren who assisted Levine, deduce the island's location. The adults organize a rescue operation and utilize an advanced fleet of field vehicles. Stowed away with them as they leave are Arby and Kelly, who plan to rescue Levine as well. At the same time, geneticist Lewis Dodgson and his underlings, Howard King and George Baselton, head to Isla Sorna in the hopes of stealing dinosaur eggs for Biosyn, the rival company of the now bankrupt InGen. Sarah Harding, a wildlife observer who had a previous relationship with Malcolm, accompanies them. However, Dodgson throws her off their boat and leaves her for dead. Once the team comes across the nest of a Tyranosaurus Rex, Dodgson forces King and Baselton to proceed with the mission. When trying to steal some eggs, King steps on a baby T-Rex's leg and breaks it. Baselton is too scared to enter the nest, causing Dodgson to grab one himself. In the process, the black box he has brought along is separated from its power supply and stops emitting the sound designed to keep the parent T-Rexes at bay. The T-Rexes eat Baselton and destroy Dodgson's SUV. Dodgson survives while King is eventually killed by Velociraptors. Coming across the baby T-Rex, Eddie brings it back to the base camp, where Malcolm and Sarah fix its broken leg. The absence of the infant is noted by its parents, who track their offspring to the camp by smell. Malcolm and Sarah are rescued by Thorne, but Malcolm's leg is injured, and he ends up spending most of the remainder of the story immobile and high on morphine. Meanwhile, the other team members are attacked by Velociraptors. Eddie is killed, but Arby manages to lock himself in a nearby cage. He is quickly abducted by the raptors, who bring him to their lair. Thorne and Levine rescue Arby, and the survivors take shelter in an abandoned InGen gas station. There, they encounter two Carnotaurus, but manage to scare them away with flashlights. Once daylight comes, Sarah attempts to retrieve the team's Ford Explorer. After evading a group of aggressive Pachycephalosaurus, she encounters and dispatches Dodgson. Dodgson is then taken by one of Tyrannosaurs to their nesting site, where his leg is broken and he is left for the babies to eat. After Sarah fails to reach the helicopter in time, Kelly locates an abandoned building with a functional boat inside. After making a quick getaway from a group of Velociraptors, the survivors are able to reach the boat and escape the island. While on the boat, Malcolm and Harding tell Levine, who was bitten by one of the animals, that some of the carnivores, including the Velociraptors and the Procompsognathus, are infected with prions due to InGen's decision to feed them contaminated sheep, and any animal bitten by them will be infected also. This means that all the dinosaurs on the island are fated to die due to the uncontrolled spread of the prions. Levine panics about the possibility of being infected with prions, but Malcolm states it shouldn't be harmful to humans. With that said, Thorne finally declares that is time for all of them to go home. As with the first book, the main conflicts the characters must face is fending off attacks from Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor and Procompsognathus. Throughout this second novel, Malcolm and Levine talk about various evolutionary and extinction theories, as well as the nature of modern science and the homogenizing and destructive nature of humanity. A particularly strong theme is the ethological and sociobiological concept of learned social behavior in animals (for example, Crichton's velociraptors, deprived of being reared among natural raptors with developed social pack behavior, instead show a tendency towards violent, antisocial behavior even amongst themselves). The book also discusses the role of prions in brain diseases, which has been at the root of concerns over Mad Cow Disease.

From a lost expedition to a plateau in Venezuela, Paula White brings the journal of her father explorer Maple White to the eccentric Professor Challenger in London. The journal features sketches of dinosaurs which is enough proof for Challenger to publicly announce that dinosaurs still walk the earth. Met with ridicule at an academic meeting at the Zoological Hall, Challenger reluctantly accepts a newspaper's offer to finance a mission to rescue Maple White. Professor Challenger, Paula White, sportsman Sir John Roxton, news reporter Edward Malone , a sceptical professor Summerlee, an Indian servant Zambo, and Challenger's butler Austin leave for the plateau. At their campsite at the base of the plateau, the explorers are shocked when a large rock falls, sent their way by an ape-man perched on top of an overhead ledge. As the crew look up to see their attacker, Challenger spies overhead a Pteranodon which sighting proves that the statements in Maple White's diary are true. Leaving Zambo and Austin at the camp, they cross a chasm onto the plateau by cutting down a tree and using it as a bridge, but it is knocked over by an Apatosaurus, leaving them trapped. The explorers witness various life-and-death struggles between the prehistoric beasts of the plateau. An Allosaurus attacks an Anatotitan, and knocks it into a bog. The Allosaurus then attacks, and is driven off by a Triceratops. Eventually, the Allosaurus makes its way to the campsite and attacks the exploration party. It is finally driven off by Ed who tosses a torch into its mouth. Convinced that the camp isn't safe, Ed climbs a tree to look for a new location, but is attacked by the ape-man. Roxton succeeds in shooting the ape-man, but the creature is merely wounded and escapes before he can finish him off. Meanwhile, an Agathaumas is attacked by a Tyrannosaurus, and gores it to death. Suddenly, another Tyrannosaurus attacks and kills the Agathaumas, along with an unfortunate Pteranodon. The explorers then make preparations to live on the plateau potentially indefinitely. A catapult is constructed and during a search for Maple White, Roxton finds his remains, confirming his death. It is at this time that Ed confesses his love for Paula and the two are unofficially wed by Summerlee who used to be a minister. Shortly afterwards, as the paleontologists are observing a Brontosaurus, an Allosaurus attacks it and the Brontosaurus falls off the edge of the plateau, becoming trapped in a mud bank at the base of the plateau. Soon afterwards, a volcano erupts causing a mass stampede among the giant beasts of the lost world. The crew is saved when Paula's pet monkey Jocko climbs up the plateau carrying a rope. The crew use the rope to pull up a rope ladder constructed by Zambo and Austin and then climb down. As Ed makes his descent, he is again attacked by the ape-man who pulls the rope ladder. The ape-man is again shot and finally killed by Roxton. They discover the Brontosaurus that had been pushed off the plateau had landed softly in the mud of the river, trapped but still alive, and Challenger manages to bring it back to London, as he wants to put it on display as proof of his story. However, while being unloaded from the ship it escapes and causes havoc until it reaches Tower Bridge, where its massive weight causes a collapse, and it swims down the River Thames. Challenger is morose as the creature leaves. Ed discovers that the love he left in London has married in his absence, allowing him and Paula to be together. Roxton morosely but gallantly hides his love for Paula as Paula and Ed leave together, while two passersby note: "That's Sir John Roxton--sportsman."

positive

positive

Parineeta

Parineeta

Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers around a poor thirteen year old orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters and the expense of paying for each dowry has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbor, Nabin Roy. Roy's son Shekhar, is a twenty five year old successful lawyer who is close friends with Lalita. While she is infatuated with him, the differences in wealth and class (and later religion) preclude marriage (as Swagato Ganguly states in the introduction to the 2005 English translation, "child marriages were the norm during much of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's life time...and did not attract any penalties from the law at the time of Parineetas publication in 1914", pp.v-vi). Shekhar is nonetheless jealous of Girin, a student who is the uncle of Lalita's friend, Charubala (her mother's cousin). Girin, Charubala and the rest of their family are Brahmos and Girin exerts a great deal of influence over Lalita's family. Girin helps Gurucharan repay the loan to Nabin Roy. He also convinces Gurucharan to convert himself and his family from Hinduism to Brahmoism as it forbade the giving of dowry in a marriage (a move which so enrages Nabin Roy that he builds a wall between the two houses). As a triangle develops between Girin, Shekhar, and Lalita, tragedy ensues in the wake of a number of misunderstandings. *Lalita: the protagonist of the novella. Lalita came to live with her uncle's family after she was orphaned at the age of eight. At the beginning of the novella, she is thirteen years old and is close with her cousin Annakali (Kali) and her neighbor, Charubala (Charu). Lalita is considered a member of not only her uncle's family but of Charu's and of Shekhar's as well. Shekhar's mother Bhuvaneshwari is so attached to Lalita that she tells Lalita to call her "ma". At a time (1914) when young women were typically married at the age of thirteen, Lalita becomes the object of a triangle between her neighbor Shekhar and Charu's uncle, Girin. *Gurucharan: Lalita's uncle is a bank clerk with a small salary and five daughters, as well as Lalita, to support. He becomes impoverished due to his attempts to follow social custom and pay large dowries for the weddings of his daughters. Indeed, the marriage of his second daughter was paid for by Shekhar's father, Nabin. In lieu of returning the money with high interest, Gurucharan's house was mortgaged to Nabin. *Lalita's aunt: She is never named in the novella and has only a minor role. *Annakali or Kali: Gurucharan's ten year old daughter and Lalita's cousin and playmate. It is during Kali's imaginary "doll-wedding" that Lalita and Shekhar exchange garlands. *Shekhar: The youngest son of the Roy family, Shekhar is twenty-five years old. He has a master's degree as well as a law degree and is working as a teacher. From the time of her arrival to Gurucharan's house, Shekhar had taken an interest in Lalita's upbringing. While Shekhar contemplates marrying Lalita, he is restrained by social customs as well as by the resistance of his father who wants him to marry a wealthy woman with a large dowry. *Nabin: Shekhar's father, who is a millionaire and an unscrupulous businessman. He becomes so enraged when Gurucharan's debt is repaid and when Gurucharan converts himself and his family to Brahmoism, that he builds a wall between the two houses. *Bhuvaneshwari: Shekhar's mother, who is an advanced thinker. She wants Shekhar to choose his own wife rather than marry the woman whom Nabin selects. She also accepts Lalita as her daughter despite the difference in wealth and position. *Abnash: Shekhar's married elder brother, a lawyer, who is mentioned in passing but never appears in the novella. *Charubala or Charu: Lalita's neighbor and playmate. She introduces Lalita to her uncle Girin. *Manorma: Charu's mother and Girin's cousin. She is an active card player and involves Lalita in many card games. *Girin: Manoroma's cousin and a university student who as been away for many years. He, as with the rest of the family, is a Brahmo, and convinces Gurucharan to convert himself (and his family). As a Brahmo, Gurucharan will no longer have to pay large dowries for the weddings of his daughters. In addition to repaying Gurucharan's loan, Girin repeatedly proves himself to be a man of integrity who acts according to the common good rather than his own self-interest.

The film places the story in Kolkata. As the credits roll, scenes from the erstwhile Calcutta are displayed along with the narrator's introduction of the era. The narration focuses on the night of the marriage of Shekhar and Gayatri Tantiya, a rich industrialist's daughter. The audience is introduced to Navin Rai as Shekhar's father while we see Shekhar readying himself for the occasion. While he is doing that, images of Lalita calling him by his name flash through his mind. Downstairs, musical celebrations begin as Shekhar meets Vasundhara, a widow from his neighborhood, who is thankful to her son-in-law, Girish , for supporting their family after the death of her husband, Gurcharan. Lalita, who is present there, playfully confronts Shekhar as to why he is being indifferent to her. Shekhar admonishes her for speaking so in spite of being married. An angry Shekhar comes back home to play a favorite tune from the past on his piano. The flashback shows a young Shekhar playing the Rabindranath Tagore’s tune on his piano while young Lalita and Koel are around. Lalita, with her parents having died in a car accident, lives with Gurcharan’s family with Koel as her cousin whereas Charu is her neighbor. As this scene flashes across Shekhar’s mind, he sings a song full of sadness and loss. As time flies, they grow up to become close friends. A rebellious and musically inclined Shekhar, spends his days playing the music of Rabindranath Tagore or Elvis Presley and composing his own songs with Lalita, rather than becoming part of his shrewd father's world of profit and business. Part of this rebellion involves resistance to meeting Gayatri Tantia, the beautiful but devious daughter of a wealthy industrialist, whom his father would like Shekhar to marry into. Meanwhile, Girish, a steel tycoon from London, makes a dramatic entry into Charu’s house. Girish seems smitten by Lalita whereas Koel is by Girish. Shekhar is visibly jealous of Lalita’s close friendship with Girish. One day, a shocked Lalita, who’s employed at the Ray’s office, realises of a hotel project from Gurcharan’s ancestral haveli . On an earlier occasion, Gurcharan had borrowed money from Navin Ray after putting his haveli on mortgage. She understands that if the money is not be repaid in a few months, Navin Ray would take over the property. She immediately thinks of asking Shekhar for monetary help. Unforeseen circumstances prevent this and Girish upon realising this, alleviates their problem by making Gurcharan his business partner. Gurcharan repays the debt and the turn of events prompts Shekhar to think why Lalita chose to ask Girish for money instead of him. On one auspicious night, Shekhar and Lalita exchange garlands and consummate their "marriage" unbeknownst to anyone else. While Shekhar is off to Darjeeling on a business trip, Navin Ray violently thunders on Lalita about the loss of his hotel project embarrassing and humiliating her. Ray gets a wall built between his and Gurcharan’s house symbolizing the end of their association. Gurcharan unable to digest this faces a heart attack. Upon Shekhar’s return, Ray informs him of the ill-health of his mother and Gurcharan and viciously adds a note of Lalita and Girish’s marriage. Shekhar is disgusted to hear of the marriage and in the anger he scowls at Lalita, humiliating her like his father. In the meanwhile, Girish assists the Gurcharan family and takes them to London for the heart treatment. Misunderstandings follow and upon the family’s return from London, Shekhar assumes that Girish and Lalita are married and agrees to marry Gayatri. The film returns to the night of Shekhar’s marriage when Girish hands him the ownership papers of Gurcharan’s haveli. He shocks Shekhar by telling him that he got married to Koel because Lalita denied his marriage proposal. As a conclusion, Shekhar confronts his father and symbolically breaks down the wall separating the two families. He then brings Lalita to his home as his bride much to the delight of his mother.

positive

positive

Animal Farm

Animal Farm

Old Major, the old boar on the Manor Farm, calls the animals on the farm for a meeting, where he compares the humans to parasites and teaches the animals a revolutionary song, 'Beasts of England'. When Major dies, two young pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, assume command and turn his dream into a philosophy. The animals revolt and drive the drunken and irresponsible Mr Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm". They adopt Seven Commandments of Animal-ism, the most important of which is, "All animals are equal". Snowball attempts to teach the animals reading and writing; food is plentiful, and the farm runs smoothly. The pigs elevate themselves to positions of leadership and set aside special food items, ostensibly for their personal health. Napoleon takes the pups from the farm dogs and trains them privately. Napoleon and Snowball struggle for leadership. When Snowball announces his plans to build a windmill, Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball away and declares himself leader. Napoleon enacts changes to the governance structure of the farm, replacing meetings with a committee of pigs, who will run the farm. Using a young pig named Squealer as a "mouthpiece", Napoleon claims credit for the windmill idea. The animals work harder with the promise of easier lives with the windmill. After a violent storm, the animals find the windmill annihilated. Napoleon and Squealer convince the animals that Snowball destroyed it, although the scorn of the neighbouring farmers suggests that its walls were too thin. Once Snowball becomes a scapegoat, Napoleon begins purging the farm with his dogs, killing animals he accuses of consorting with his old rival. He and the pigs abuse their power, imposing more control while reserving privileges for themselves and rewriting history, villainising Snowball and glorifying Napoleon. Squealer justifies every statement Napoleon makes, even the pigs' alteration of the Seven Commandments of Animalism to benefit themselves. 'Beasts of England' is replaced by an anthem glorifying Napoleon, who appears to be adopting the lifestyle of a man. The animals remain convinced that they are better off than they were when under Mr Jones. Squealer abuses the animals' poor memories and invents numbers to show their improvement. Mr Frederick, one of the neighbouring farmers, attacks the farm, using blasting powder to blow up the restored windmill. Though the animals win the battle, they do so at great cost, as many, including Boxer the workhorse, are wounded. Despite his injuries, Boxer continues working harder and harder, until he collapses while working on the windmill. Napoleon sends for a van to take Boxer to the veterinary surgeon's, explaining that better care can be given there. Benjamin, the cynical donkey, who "could read as well as any pig", notices that the van belongs to a knacker, and attempts to mount a rescue; but the animals' attempts are futile. Squealer reports that the van was purchased by the hospital and the writing from the previous owner had not been repainted. He recounts a tale of Boxer's death in the hands of the best medical care. Years pass, and the pigs learn to walk upright, carry whips and wear clothes. The Seven Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". Napoleon holds a dinner party for the pigs and the humans of the area, who congratulate Napoleon on having the hardest-working but least fed animals in the country. Napoleon announces an alliance with the humans, against the labouring classes of both "worlds". He abolishes practices and traditions related to the Revolution, and changes the name of the farm to "The Manor Farm". The animals, overhearing the conversation, notice that the faces of the pigs have begun changing. During a poker match, an argument breaks out between Napoleon and Mr Pilkington, and the animals realise that the faces of the pigs look like the faces of humans, and no one can tell the difference between them. The pigs Snowball, Napoleon, and Squealer adapt Old Major's ideas into an actual philosophy, which they formally name Animalism. Soon after, Napoleon and Squealer indulge in the vices of humans (drinking alcohol, sleeping in beds, trading). Squealer is employed to alter the Seven Commandments to account for this humanisation, an allusion to the Soviet government's revising of history in order to exercise control of the people's beliefs about themselves and their society. The original commandments are: # Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy. # Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend. # No animal shall wear clothes. # No animal shall sleep in a bed. # No animal shall drink alcohol. # No animal shall kill any other animal. # All animals are equal. Later, Napoleon and his pigs secretly revise some commandments to clear them of accusations of law-breaking (such as "No animal shall drink alcohol" having "to excess" appended to it and "No animal shall sleep in a bed" with "with sheets" added to it). The changed commandments are as follows, with the changes bolded: * 4 No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets. * 5 No animal shall drink alcohol to excess. * 6 No animal shall kill any other animal without cause. Eventually these are replaced with the maxims, "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others", and "Four legs good, two legs better!" as the pigs become more human. This is an ironic twist to the original purpose of the Seven Commandments, which were supposed to keep order within Animal Farm by uniting the animals together against the humans, and prevent animals from following the humans' evil habits. Through the revision of the commandments, Orwell demonstrates how simply political dogma can be turned into malleable propaganda.

Manor Farm is a former prosperous farm that has fallen on hard times, and suffers under the now ineffective leadership of its drunken and aggressive owner, Mr. Jones. One night, Old Major, the prize boar and the second-oldest on the farm, calls the animals on the farm for a meeting, where he compares the humans to parasites and encourages them to break free from their tyrant's influence, while reminding them that they must hold true to their convictions after they have gained freedom. With that, he teaches the animals a revolutionary song, "Beasts of England", before collapsing dead mid-song to the animals' horror. The next morning, Jones neglects to feed the animals for breakfast, and they decide to break into the storehouse to help themselves. When Jones wakes up and attempts to intimidate them with his whip, the animals revolt and drive the drunken and irresponsible Mr. Jones from the farm, renaming it "Animal Farm". They set to work destroying every trace of Jones' influence, mainly the weapons used against them. An investigation of the farmhouse leads them to concede against living there, though one of the head pigs, an antagonistic boar named Napoleon, who takes interest in the abandoned house, and even more so in a litter of puppies left motherless. The Seven Commandments of Animalism are written on the wall of a barn to illustrate their community's laws. The most important is the seventh, "All animals are equal." All the animals work, but the workhorse, Boxer, and his friend Benjamin, the young donkey and the film's protagonist put in extra work. Snowball attempts to teach the animals reading and writing; food is plentiful; and the farm runs smoothly. The pigs elevate themselves to positions of leadership and set aside special food items ostensibly for their personal health. Napoleon takes the pups and trains them privately to be his Goon Squad. When Snowball announces his idea for a windmill, Napoleon opposes it. Snowball makes a speech in favor of the windmill, whereupon Napoleon has his dogs chase Snowball to the fields. In Snowball's absence, Napoleon declares himself leader and makes changes. Meetings will no longer be held and instead a committee of pigs will run the farm. Using a cowardly young pig named Squealer as a mouthpiece, Napoleon spurs the animals into setting forth his regime. The animals work harder with the promise of easier lives with the windmill. Napoleon abuses his powers, making life harder for the animals; the pigs impose more control while reserving privileges for themselves. During this time, the pigs also decide to start altering their own laws. "No animal shall sleep in beds" is changed to "No animal shall sleep in beds with sheets" when the pigs are discovered to have been sleeping in the old farmhouse. "No animal shall drink alcohol" is changed to "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess" when the pigs discover the farmer's whisky. Before long, Napoleon's greed drives him to negotiate with a local trader named Mr. Whymper for a supply of jellies and jams. The price is all the hens' eggs. When the hens discover this, they attempt to revolt by throwing their eggs at the pigs during an attempted seize by force. To instill fear, Napoleon not only puts the hens at the hands of the pig committee, but also selects a duck and sheep to be false accused of treachery. They are taken outside and murdered by the dogs, with their blood used to edit a commandment regarding killing to being legal "with cause". "Beasts of England" is banned as inappropriate, as according to Napoleon the dream of Animal Farm has been realized. Growing jealous of Whymper's financial success due to his trading with Animal Farm, a hostile group of farmers attacks the farm, and Jones, who was denied the chance to rejoin them, uses blasting powder to blow up the windmill with himself inside. Though the animals win the battle, they do so at great cost, as many, including Boxer, are wounded. Boxer continues working harder and harder, until he collapses one night while working on the windmill. Napoleon sends for a van to take Boxer away. Benjamin notices that the van belongs to Mr. Whymper's glue factory, and attempts to mount a rescue, but his attempts are futile. Squealer delivers a phony speech, claiming to have been at Boxer's side at his deathbed, and his last words being to glorify Napoleon. The hurt animals fully realize that Boxer's death was planned simply to promote further loyalty to Napoleon's dictatorship, but are sent away by the snarling guard dogs. Years pass, and the pigs now have learned to walk upright and wear clothes. Napoleon now dresses in a suit with medals . The Seven Commandments are reduced to a single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." Napoleon holds a dinner party for a delegation of outside pigs, who congratulate Napoleon on having the hardest-working animals in the country on the least feed. Napoleon gives a toast to when pigs own and operate farms everywhere. Benjamin, overhearing the conversation, imagines the faces of the pigs changing into the face of Mr. Jones. Realizing that things have become "worse than ever for ordinary creature", all of the animals unite together to overthrow Napoleon. The film closes with a smashed portrait of Napoleon as he is being overwhelmed and beaten to death "off screen" by the animals.

positive

positive

Stardust

Stardust

The Faerie Market is held every nine years on the other side of the wall dividing Faerie from our world and for which the nearby town of Wall is named. As the book begins, the market has just begun and the town filled with visitors and vendors. Dunstan Thorn rents out his cottage to a stranger in exchange for his "Heart's Desire" in addition to a monetary payment. The next day in the market, he meets Una, a princess imprisoned by the witch called Semele. He purchases a glass snowdrop from her with a kiss, and gives the flower to his fiancée Daisy. That night, Dunstan meets Una in the woods and makes love to her. A month later, Dunstan marries Daisy. In February, he receives a baby in a basket—his and Una's son, Tristran Thorn. Eighteen years later, Tristran seeks the love of Victoria Forester, the town beauty. One night, while Tristran is walking her home from the shop where he works, she sees a shooting star land in Faerie, and he vows to bring it to her in exchange for a kiss, and perhaps her hand in marriage. Thinking that he will never actually do it, Victoria promises to do whatever he asks if he brings her the star. Dunstan gives Tristran the snowdrop and helps him pass the guards at the wall by alluding to his faerie heritage. Tristran enters Faerie. At Stormhold, the King of Stormhold gathers his sons to determine who will be his heir; he hurls the Power of Stormhold, a topaz that marks its bearer as the ruler of the land, into the sky, knocking that selfsame star from the sky. He then dies, and his sons leave together. Septimus departs on his own after poisoning Tertius at a nearby inn. In a small, grey house in the woods, three ancient and mighty witches known as the Lillim learn of the fallen star by reading the entrails of a dead stoat, and the eldest of the Lilim consumes their last reserves of "years," later revealed to be the heart of another fallen star, to become young again. She meets a farm boy, Brevis, at a crossroads, takes his goat, and transforms him into a second goat, using the two animals to pull her small chariot. Tristran meets a small hairy man who helps him through the woods. After Tristran helps them escape deadly trees called serewood, he learns he has the ability to find any location in Faerie. Tristran is taunted by tiny faeries, who say that he is "soon to face his true love's scorn". The hairy man gives Tristran a new outfit, a silver chain like the one used to imprison Una, and a candle-stub which allows one to travel great distances quickly while it burns, which he explains by referencing the nursery rhyme "How Many Miles to Babylon?". Tristran uses the candle to quickly reach the fallen star, but is surprised to find that the star is actually a young woman named Yvaine, whose leg was broken in the fall. Yvaine hurls mud at him and continuously insults him. He resolves to bring her to Victoria anyway, tying her to him with the chain. However, the candle goes out before he can return, so the two sleep for the night. The next morning, Tristran tells Yvaine about his promise to Victoria and his intention to bring Yvaine to her. Tristran makes Yvaine a simple crutch to help her walk as her broken leg hinders her movement. They arrive at a clearing where they witness a fight between a lion and a unicorn over a golden crown. Yvaine asks Tristran to help the Unicorn when the Lion was about to kill it. Tristran, remembering the old nursery rhyme, The Lion and the Unicorn, picks up the crown and gives it to the Lion. With the crown upon its head, the Lion slips away into the forest. Tristran and Yvaine spend the night at the clearing beside the wounded Unicorn. Yvaine escapes when Tristran leaves in search of food. The witch-queen, on her search for the Star, encounters Madam Semele. They share a meal and Madam Semele gives witch-queen meat cooked with Limbus grass, which causes anyone who tastes it to speak nothing but the truth, forcing the witch-queen to reveal the true purpose of her journey. The enraged witch-queen puts a curse on her, which prevents her from seeing, touching or perceiving the star in any way and causing Semele to forget their meeting the moment the witch-queen leaves. On discovering that Yvaine is gone, a despondent and regretful Tristran spends the night under a tree. Tristran talks to a tree who says that Pan, the spirit of the forest, told her to help him. The tree tells Tristran that there are people looking for Yvaine and that there is a path in the forest with a carriage coming down it that Tristran can't miss. Then it gives Tristran a leaf and says to listen to it when he needs help the most. Tristran run to catch the carriage and nearly misses it but for a tree that has fallen in the carriage's path. Tristran meets Primus, the driver of the carriage, and persuades him to allow Tristran to ride in the carriage. In the mountains the witch-queen makes an inn to catch Yvaine who is coming her way. She turns the goat into a man, and the goat who used to be Brevis into a girl. Yvaine falls for the trap, and the witch-queen is preparing to carve out her heart when Tristran and Primus, who have also been attracted by the inn, arrive. The witch-queen decides to delay killing Yvaine until she had dealt with the two unwanted guests. She attempts to poison Tristran while he is tending to the horses, but the unicorn, which is also lodged in the stable, warns him just in time. He rushes back to the inn, but is too late to warn Primus. However he is able to rescue Yvaine by forming a makeshift candle from the remnants of the magical candle he had obtained earlier, burning his left hand in the process. Shortly afterwards, Septimus arrives and finds Primus' body. He sets off in search of the witch-queen, in order to fulfill an obligation to avenge his slain brother, and the topaz, in order to claim his birthright as the last surviving son of Stormhold. Tristran and Yvaine escape the witch-queen, but find themselves in an almost equally perilous situation. They walk past many scenes in the light of the candle, but eventually end up stranded on a cloud, miles above Faerie. Fortunately, they are rescued by the crew of a passing airborn ship. The captain of the ship agrees to help them on their way back to Wall, hinting that he is part of a mysterious 'fellowship' that wants to help Tristran for some unspecified reason. Tristran expresses regret for chaining Yvaine up. The star reveals that while Tristran no longer intends to force her to accompany her to Wall, the custom of her people dictates that, because he saved her life, she is nonetheless obliged to follow him. Upon parting company with the ship and its crew, Tristran and Yvaine encounter Madam Semele. Due to the curse the witch-queen put on her, Madam Semele is unable to see Yvaine, but agrees to transport Tristran the rest of the way to Wall, as she is going there to attend the market herself. Tristran obtains a promise from Madam Semele that he will not be harmed, will receive board and lodging, and will arrive at Wall in the same manner and condition as he was on departure. However this promise does not prevent Madam Semele from transforming him into a dormouse for the duration of the journey. The star also rides on Madam Semele's wagon, unbeknownst to the old woman. Septimus seeks revenge on the witch-queen for killing Primus, but is himself killed by the witch-queen, without ever reclaiming the topaz. Tristran (now returned to his human form), Yvaine, Madam Semele and the witch-queen all arrive at the Wall market. Tristran leaves Yvaine and crosses back into Wall, to tell Victoria that he has returned with the star. Meanwhile, Yvaine realises that she has fallen in love with Tristran and, if he fulfills his promise to bring her to Victoria, she will not only lose him to another woman, but upon leaving Faerie, will be transformed into a piece of rock. Upon meeting Tristran, a dismayed Victoria reveals that she is already engaged to Monday, Tristran's old employer, and that she never believed that Tristran would fulfill his promise. She regretfully tells Tristran that she will keep her promise and marry him. However Tristran, not wishing to force Victoria to marry him points out that her promise wasn't to marry him, it was to give him anything he desired, and that he desires that she marry her love, Monday. Tristran returns to Yvaine at the fair. Yvaine is delighted to learn that Victoria is to be married to Monday, not Tristran, and Tristran reveals that he reciprocates Yvaine's love for him. Una informs Madam Semele that she (Una) will soon be free, as her enslavement is due to end when the moon loses her child (Yvaine), if it happens in a week when two Mondays come together (the marriage of Victoria and Monday). The silver chain that binds Una finally fades away, and she demands payment for her services, which Madam Semele must give on pain of losing her powers. Una seeks out Tristran and Yvaine and reveals that she is Lady Una, the only daughter of the Eighty-First Lord of Stormhold, and that Tristran is her son, making him the last male heir of Stormhold. She instructs Tristran to ask Yvaine for the topaz she carries. Upon receiving the topaz, the power of Stormhold passes to Tristran. However he declines to immediately return to Stormhold, leaving Lady Una to reign in his stead while he and Yvaine travel around Faerie. But before Yvainne and Tristran set off on their journey, an impossibly aged old hag turns up wishing to speak to Yvaine. She reveals herself as the witch-queen, now more ancient and withered than she has ever been. Yvaine no longer fears her and tells her the good news that she has given her heart to Tristran. The witch-queen claims she'd have done better to give it to the Lilim, as Tristran will only break it like all men do. She then leaves for good, fearful of the cruelty her sisters will inflict upon her for failing. Many years later, Tristran and Yvaine finally return to Stormhold, and Tristran assumes his duties as the Lord of Stormhold. When he eventually grows old and dies, Yvaine continues to reign as the immortal ruler of Stormhold.

The English village of Wall lies near a stone wall that is the border with the magical kingdom of Stormhold. A guard is constantly posted at a break in the wall to prevent anyone from crossing. At the beginning of the story, Dunstan Thorne crosses over the wall and into the Wall Market. There, he meets an enslaved princess named Una, who offers him a glass snowdrop in exchange for a kiss. Nine months later, the Wall Guard delivers a baby to Dunstan, saying his name is Tristan. Eighteen years later, in the royal palace of Stormhold, the king is on his deathbed. He throws a ruby into the sky, decreeing that the first of his fratricidal sons to recover it will be the new king. The gem collides with a star, and they fall together and land elsewhere in Stormhold. The king's two remaining sons, Primus and Septimus independently search for the gem. In Wall, Tristan Thorne sees the star fall behind the wall, and vows to retrieve it for the object of his infatuation, Victoria, in return for her hand in marriage. His father reveals to him that his mother is from the other side of the wall, and gives him a Babylon candle that she had left for him, which instantly transports the user to any desired location. Tristan lights it and is transported to the fallen star, a beautiful woman named Yvaine. He promptly chains her in order to take her home to Victoria. Three ancient witches in Stormhold also learn of the fallen star and resolve to find her, intending to eat her heart in order to recover their youth and replenish their magical power. The leader of the witches, Lamia, consumes the remains of the heart they had cut from a star that had fallen centuries before and was captured by the witches. Regaining temporary youth, Lamia hunts down Yvaine and sets a trap for her, magically conjuring an inn in the countryside. Yvaine is weary and unaccustomed to daytime travel, so Tristan chains her to a tree and promises to return with food. In his absence, a unicorn frees Yvaine, then unwittingly takes her to Lamia's inn. Tristan discovers Yvaine gone and lies down to rest. The stars whisper to Tristan, warning of Yvaine's danger and begging him to save her as the last star who fell was murdered by the three witches and her heart eaten; instructing him to get on a passing stagecoach, which happens to be Primus'. Tristan and Primus arrive at the inn, interrupting Lamia's attempt to kill Yvaine. Lamia kills Primus, but Tristan and Yvaine escape using the stub of the Babylon candle. Because they are each thinking of their respective homes, the candle takes Tristan and Yvaine into the storm clouds, between the earth and the stars, where they are captured by pirates in a flying ship. They befriend the kind-hearted Captain Shakespeare, who teaches Tristan how to fence and fight, and gives him and Yvaine clean clothing. Septimus arrives at the site of the inn and discovers that he is the last surviving son of the king, only needing to find the stone to claim the throne. He learns that it is in the possession of the fallen star and that the heart of a star grants immortality. After leaving Captain Shakespeare's ship, Tristan and Yvaine make their way to a village near the wall, where they spend the night at an inn. Come morning, Tristan leaves Yvaine sleeping and goes to Wall, bringing with him a lock of her hair, to tell Victoria that he won't marry her, having fallen in love with Yvaine. When the lock turns to dust, he realizes that Yvaine will die if she crosses the wall, and he rushes back to save her. Yvaine wakes up to find Tristan gone, and she starts walking toward the wall, believing that he abandoned her to go back to Victoria. Tristan's mother Una notices Yvaine walking to her doom, so she takes the caravan of her enslaver, a witch named Ditchwater Sal, to the wall to stop her. Lamia arrives and, after killing Sal, captures both Una and Yvaine, taking them to the witches' castle. Septimus and Tristan both pursue Lamia and meet at the castle, agreeing to work together for the time being. Barging into the witches' castle, Septimus recognizes the princess as his long-lost sister. Una and Tristan meet for the first time, and she informs him that she is his mother. Septimus and Tristan fight the witches, killing two of them, but Lamia kills Septimus using a voodoo doll, then uses it to make his corpse fight Tristan. Tristan disposes of the corpse. Lamia then disarms Tristan in a swordfight and is about to finish him off, when she breaks down over the loss of her two sisters. Lamia seemingly frees Yvaine but instead reveals her feigned defeat to be a ruse meant to bolster Yvaine's broken heart. As the witch-queen bears down on them, Yvaine realises that Tristan's return has left her heartbroken no more. She tells him to close his eyes and hold her tight. As they embrace, her love for Tristan allows her to shine once again, vaporising Lamia in a blinding flash of pure starlight. Tristan retrieves the jewel that Yvaine was wearing. Una explains that, as her son, Tristan is the last male heir of Stormhold. Tristan becomes the new king with Yvaine as his queen. Later, after eighty years of ruling Stormhold, they both use a Babylon candle to ascend to the sky, where Tristan also becomes a star. Since Yvaine "gave her heart" to Tristan, the two will live forever in the sky.

positive

positive

The Neverending Story

The NeverEnding Story III

The book centers on a boy, Bastian Balthazar Bux, who is neglected by his father (who has sunken into despair after his wife's death) and is bullied by his schoolmates. Whilst running from some of them, Bastian bursts into the antique book store of Carl Conrad Coreander. Bastian steals a book from the store called The Neverending Story which Coreander has been reading; he hides in his school's attic, where he proceeds to read the story through the rest of the day and the night, not realizing that he has effectively become a part of it. After a while of reading he is magically transfixed and is brought into the book. The book begins in Fantastica, when a "will-o'-the-wisp" goes to ask the Childlike Empress for help against the Nothing, which is spreading over the land. The Empress is ill, which is believed to be the cause of the Nothing (or vice versa); she sends the only person that can stop the Nothing, a boy warrior named Atreyu, to find a cure for her. Atreyu is a brave person, being considered a warrior even though he is a young boy of Bastian's age. While on his quest, Atreyu meets characters such as Morla the Aged One, the incorporeal oracle Uyulala, and the gnomes Urgl and Engywook. Atreyu also meets Falkor, the luckdragon, who helps him along the way. After Atreyu and Falkor get in the way of a fight of the Wind Giants, Atreyu gets thrown off Falkor's back and ends up in Spook City, Atreyu meets Gmork the werewolf, who has been following Atreyu since the early days of his quest, intending to kill him. In the course of his quest, Atreyu learns about the true nature of Fantastica and the Nothing: Fantastica is a representation of the dreams and fantasies of the real world; the Nothing and the sickness of the Childlike Empress are the effects of the lies humans use in their greed for power; it is the denial of dreams and fantasy which is destroying Fantastica. The only thing that can save Fantastica is a human child, who must give the Childlike Empress a new name to start again the cycle of life in Fantastica. Falkor and Atreyu return to the Ivory Tower, where the Childlike Empress lives. But since Bastian, in his lack of confidence, hesitates to take the step into Fantastica, the Childlike Empress confronts him with the fact that whatever he may think, he has already become part of the Neverending Story, and he must carry out his part in it. And Bastian does so by crying out the name he has chosen for the Empress: 'Moonchild'. Bastian comes to Fantastica and meets the Empress; she asks him to help re-build Fantastica with his imagination, and he subsequently has many adventures of his own in his new world. With the help of AURYN, a medallion that links him to the Empress, that gives him power over all the inhabitants of Fantastica and grants all of the boy's wishes, Bastian explores the Desert of Colors, battles the evil witch Xayide, and meets the three Deep Thinkers. Bastian and Atreyu become friends. However, due to Bastian's continuous wishing with the The Gem - which costs a memory each time - he begins to lose his true self, to wit, Atreyu becomes increasingly more worried about him. Xayide exploits the growing tension between the two, driving Bastian to a lust for power and eventually having himself crowned as Childlike Emperor. Atreyu leads a rebellion against Bastian, but narrowly escapes with his life. Upon pursuing Atreyu, Bastian stumbled on a colony of humans who were trapped in Fantastica - having lost all their memories as they had recklessly indulged in the power of Auryn - and realizes what has nearly become of himself. Bastian sets out to find the only thing he can wish for without losing himself: his own true wish. After Bastian loses his remaining memories, he is aided by Atreyu in fulfilling his one true wish, and manages to cure his father at the same time. After returning from Fantastica, he decides to return the book to its rightful owner, Carl Conrad Coreander, but the book has gone missing upon his return to the human world. However, Mr. Coreander reveals he has also been to Fantastica once, and the two readily agree to see each other soon and talk about their respective experiences. But as Coreander surmises, this is not the true end of the story, as Bastian is now likely to lead others onto their way to Fantastica in order to preserve both worlds.

The Mountain of Destiny looms before us as we overhear the Old Man of Wandering Mountain reading from a large book. Using a writing stylus he begins to record a prophecy of a day when 'The Nasty' will arrive in Fantasia. He goes on to describe the savior of "Extraordinary Courage". Bastian Balthazar Bux has begun a new chapter in his life. His father Barney ([[Kevin McNulty has re-married, and now Bastian has a new step mother named Jane whose daughter Nicole is displeased at having a new family. Bastian has also started high school, where he has become victim to the Nasties, a quintet of bullies led by Slip . He manages to get them expelled by the janitor after they trap him in the boiler room. He flees to the library where he is surprised to find Mr. Koreander and The Neverending Story. The Nasties locate him, but he uses the book to escape to Fantasia. Bastian arrives in Fantasia, where he is reunited with old friends Falkor and the gnomes Engywook and Urgl . However, the Nasties find the Neverending Story and use their cruelty to bombard the land with fireballs and a storm. Meeting a walking tree troll named Bark Troll , Bastian and the group of his friends head for the Wandering Mountains to speak with the Childlike Empress . She asks Bastian to find the Neverending Story with AURYN. Falkor, Barky, the gnomes and the Rock Biter's son, Junior, help him; a "wish overload" causes the group to scatter across Earth. Barky ends up in a conifer forest somewhere; Falkor saves Junior from falling to his death near Mount Rushmore; and the gnomes end up in Nome, Alaska. Bastian locates Falkor and Junior. Falkor flies off to find the others while Junior stays at Bastian's house. Rock Biter sadly informs his wife that Junior is gone and the effects of the Nasties cause them to fall out. Nicole takes AURYN from Bastian's room, discovers its wishing abilities, and takes it for a shopping trip to the local mall. Bark Troll arrives at Bastian's house disguised as a garden plant, while the Gnomes are mailed in a box. The reunited group go to the mall to find Nicole so they can get AURYN back. The Nasties find it first, whereupon giant crustacean creatures appear in Fantasia to kill the Empress and her advisors. Everyone in the mall begins to turn to evil, including Mr. Koreander and Bastian's parents. Nicole runs away and reveals to Bastian outside that her father was abusive and eventually divorced Jane. Bastian is struck by lightning, and begins to succumb to the cruel effects of the Nasties, but Nicole saves him. The two rush back to the mall where all the Fantasians are being held captive by the Nasties. Bastian manages to retrieve both AURYN and the book and defeats the Nasties with a range of fighting moves he wished for. The Fantasians are sent back to Fantasia, which is restored to its former magnificence. Bastian and Nicole manage to keep their parents from divorcing, while Junior is reunited with his parents. Nicole and Bastian return to school the next day and find that Bastian turned Slip and the Nasties into friendly school students. Bastian returns the Neverending Story to Mr. Koreander, who tells him that the story is not over yet.

positive

positive

Bastard Out of Carolina

Bastard Out of Carolina

The book opens with Bone relating the details of her birth. Bone's fifteen-year-old mother, Anney, gives birth to her after being seriously injured in a car accident. Anney, who is comatose during the delivery, is unable to lie about being married. Her mother and older sister, Ruth, attempt to give a false name and are caught in their deception. This results in Bone being declared illegitimate. Anney, who "hated to be called trash", then spends the next two years unsuccessfully petitioning to get a new birth certificate issued without the word "illegitimate" stamped on it. This opens her up to the ridicule of the customers in the diner in which she works. At age seventeen, Anney marries Lyle Parsons and gives birth to another daughter, Reese, in short order. Lyle is killed in a car accident which left Anney "all butter grief and hunger." After remaining single for a few years she begins to date Glen Waddell, the son of a socially prominent dairy owner. Two years later, as a result of becoming pregnant, they get married. Anney gives birth to a stillborn boy and becomes unable to have more children. The family's fortunes plummet, with Glen losing job after job due to his anger management problems. It is then that Glen, who had been loving and gentle with Bone, begins sexually molesting her. The abuse culminates in beatings and whippings that leave Bone nursing bruises and broken bones. When Anney discovers the abuse, she leaves Glen, who promptly promises never to do it again. Anney takes him back and the abuse resumes. Anney leaves Glen again after her tough, hard-drinking brothers severely beat Glen upon discovering that he has beaten Bone once again. Bone then announces to her mother that she will never live in the same house with Glen again. Bone then tells her mother that she loves her and will forgive her if she decides to go back to Glen, reiterating that she will not return to the house with Glen. Her mother then vows not to go back to Glen unless Bone comes with her. When Glen discovers this, he attacks Bone at her Aunt Alma's house, breaking her arm and raping her on the kitchen floor. Anney walks in on him and fights him off. Glen follows the two out to the car, begging Anney to kill him rather than abandon him. To Bone's disgust and amazement, Anney ends up crying and throwing her arms around Glen. Bone's aunt, Raylene, visits her at the hospital and takes custody of Bone, as Anney has disappeared. While she is recuperating at her aunt's house, Anney shows up with a new birth certificate for Bone, this time without the word "illegitimate" stamped on the bottom. She asks Bone's forgiveness and leaves without telling Bone where she is going.

In the 1950s rural South Carolina, pregnant, 15 year-old Anney Boatwright is asleep in the backseat of her brother-in-law, Travis’, Chevy when the car crashes into a pickup truck. She flies through the windshield and remains unconscious when she gives birth to her daughter whom her family names Ruth and Anne . However the baby is known throughout the family as “Bone” since Ruth’s Uncle Earl proclaimed that she “looked no bigger than a knuckle bone” when she was born. Problems arise when filling out her birth certificate since no one is really sure of her biological father’s last name. Despite their attempts to smudge a name on the certificate, the hospital quickly realizes the truth and stamps “ILLEGITIMATE” onto Bone's birth certificate, proclaiming her a bastard. Anney is furious that the state put a label on her and her daughter and vows to Bone that she will always stick by her side and defend her. When Bone is about 2 years old, Anney and Ruth attempt to go to the courthouse and fix Bone’s birth certificate. Ruth lies and says that with all the excitement surrounding the new baby and the worry that Anney was going to die, they lost track of her husband. Despite their attempts, the man stamps “NOT CERTIFIED” on the bottom of Bone’s birth certificate. As Bone gets older, Anney vows to her that she is going to find them a kind, strong man to take care of them. She eventually marries and becomes pregnant by Lyle Parsons, a wonderfully kind man who treats Bone as his own daughter. However, shortly after the birth of their daughter, Reese, Lyle is killed in a car accident. His family blames Anney, telling her that if he hadn’t married her white trash family and needed to work two jobs he wouldn’t have been on the road the day he died. Four years later, Anney is working as a waitress when her brother, Earl, introduces her to his co-worker, Glen Waddell, who is immediately smitten with her. While Glen appears shy and kind on the surface, he suffers from severe anger issues, often manifesting themselves in fights at work. During this time, the courthouse burns down and Earl steals Bone’s birth certificate which the family takes great pleasure in burning. Anney’s mother warns her against going out with Glen, saying he appears to be possessive and angry however Anney doesn’t see it, saying its typical for all men to have a temper. So when Glen proposes Anney happily agrees and quickly becomes pregnant. Glen is convinced that the baby will be a boy, whom he hopes to name Glen Jr. The night Anney goes into labor Glen waits in the car with Bone and Reese in the backseat. After Reese falls asleep, Glen calls her up front with him where he molests her. Bone is saddened and confused, unknowing what to make of the situation. Anney does give birth to Glen’s awaited baby boy, however he is stillborn and the doctor tells her that she will no longer be able to have children. After their son’s funeral, Glen proclaims they are moving to a new home away from Anney’s family. Her family objects but Anney is so saddened she agrees. After their move, Glen catches Bone looking at a picture of her and Lyle. Glen tells Bone that he is her daddy now and asks the girls to call him so. While Reese immediately calls him daddy, Bone only grudgingly does. Angry, Glen rips up Bone’s picture which she tearfully takes the pieces to and buries. Soon after that, Glen loses his job. He turns to his father for help, which he refuses to give him. After that, the family constantly moves, never staying in the same house more than eight months. Glen becomes increasingly violent, screaming at Anney and secretly molesting Bone. Glen continuously struggles with obtaining and keeping a job, leaving no money for food. When Bone accidentally drops a pitcher of iced tea at Glen’s father’s house, his father snaps at her and attempts to hit Glen who roughly shoves his father away saying, “You can’t hurt me anymore old man” signifying that he had been physically abused as a child. A few days later, Glen yells at Bone for running around outside. When Bone walks away mocking him he chases her into the house and beats her. He later tells Anney that Bone called him a bastard and was running around destroying things. Bone tries to be careful from then on, however, her mother goes back to work leaving her alone with Glen who finds any reason to beat Bone. Ashamed, thinking she's bad, Bone hides her bruises from everyone, including her mother. One day Anney notices Bone is walking funny, almost limping. When her mother brings her to the hospital, the doctor angrily informs her that Bone’s tailbone is broken and that she displays evidence of physical abuse. Her mother takes her and Reese to her sister, Alma’s to stay. However, as soon as Bone heals, Anney moves back in with Glen. One day, Anney asks Bone if she would like to go stay with her Aunt Ruth and keep her company since she is extremely sick. Ruth tells Bone that Glen doesn’t hate her, he's just jealous of the attention Anney gives her. Bone tells Ruth she aspires to be a gospel singer someday which she encourages. Despite their closeness, Bone can’t bring herself to tell her aunt about her sexual abuse. Soon after Bone arrives home from her Aunt’s house, Anney receives word that she died, devastating her. The day of Ruth’s funeral, Glen calls for Bone but she doesn’t respond. Angry, he brings Bone into the bathroom and beats her. At the funeral, Bone’s uncle Earl lets her have a little alcohol to toast her aunt and she quickly becomes tipsy. Her Aunt Raylene finds her in the bathroom on the toilet. When she tries to help her up, she discovers the bruises and calls Bone’s uncles who beat Glen unconscious. Bone moves in with her Uncle Earl and Aunt Raylene. When Bone expresses to her Aunt how angry she is that everyone in town looks down on her and her family Raylene tells her that everyone determines their own life and to think long and hard about who she is truly angry at. As they’re talking, her Uncle Earl arrives saying her Aunt Alma has gone berserk. When they arrive at her house, Alma is on the porch screaming and crying because her husband left her and their sons after he refused to have sex with her. Again, Bone experiences the pain that husbands can inflict on their families. Anney and Reese decide to stay at Alma’s until things settle down. Anney asks Bone to stay at Alma’s with her but she refuses. When Anney asks Bone to come back and live with her, Bone again refuses to come as long as Glen still lives with her. Her days at her aunt’s are long and happy until Glen shows up at Raylene’s house looking for Anney while Raylene is gone. He asks Bone to get him a glass of iced tea and follows her into the house. Glen tells her that Anney said she refuses to come home until Bone agrees to come home. He demands Bone to tell her mother it's ok to come home. Bone refuses to come home explaining that she told her mother she could go home without her. Bone tells Glen to leave and threatens to tell Anney about everything he did to her. Out of anger, Glen beats and rapes the girl but is caught by Anney, who smashes a bottle over his head and carries Bone out of the house to her car. Glen stumbles out of the house after Anney screaming his apologies to Anney and saying he can’t live without her. He leans against the car door and repeatedly smashes his head against it until she strokes his head in forgiveness. Bone is taken to the hospital by her Aunt Raylene. When the cops attempt to question her about who brutalized her, she still refuses to tell and calls out for her Momma, who is nowhere to be found. Bone continues to live with her Aunt Raylene, who tries her best to help Bone through her ordeal. She tells her that her mother truly does love her and that she’ll have to live with what she did for the rest of her life and that eventually Bone will forgive her. One night Anney comes to visit Bone and explains that she never thought Bone would get hurt and apologizes for what happened. She tells Bone she loves her, but that she also loves Glen too and couldn’t leave him. She leaves Bone with a copy of her birth certificate with the words “CERTIFIED” stamped on it. Bone cries in part of the sadness of her mother’s sacrifice and for the freedom she has finally achieved. Bone's final words voiced from narrator Laura Dern: "Who had Momma been? What'd she wanted to be, or do before I was born? Once I was born, her hopes turned, and I climbed up her life like a flower reaching for the sun. Her life had folded into mine. Who would I be when I was 15, 20, 30? Would I be as strong as she had been? As hungry for love? As desperate, determined and ashamed? I wouldn't know, that I was already who I was gonna be. Someone like her, like my Momma. A Boatwright. A bastard. A bastard outta Carolina."

positive

negative

The Running Man

The Running Man

The story takes place at a diner in the warm deserts of Arizona. The protagonist, Jack, walks through the desert thinking about his love, named Karen. He arrives at a diner in which the cook and his daughter, the waitress, were alone. Later on, after Jack got his food, two well dressed men called Frank and Earl came into the diner. Unexpectedly, the two men pulled out guns, not to rob the place but to quiet the people and prepare them for what was about to happen. They explained that there would shortly be a man coming to the diner, to find a car that will take him to his destination but the car will not be there. Frank and Earl will be instead.

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and American society has become an totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers" and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free. Eighteen months later, Ben Richards, a military pilot who was convicted of a massacre which he actually refused to participate in, escapes from a labor camp with other inmates and flees to a shanty town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Declining an offer to join a resistance movement, Richards instead seeks shelter at his brother's apartment. He finds it is now occupied by Amber Mendez, a composer for ICS, the network that broadcasts The Running Man. Richards attempts to flee to Hawaii with Amber as a hostage, but she alerts airport security and Richards is captured and taken to the ICS studios. Killian coerces him to compete in The Running Man with the threat that if he declines, his two weaker escapee friends&mdash;Laughlin and Weiss&mdash;will be put on the show instead. Richards complies, but as the show begins, Killian reveals that Laughlin and Weiss have been enrolled as runners anyway. Richards and his friends are attacked by the first stalker, "Subzero", but Richards kills him instead using barbed wire as a garrotte. This shocks the audience, as this is the first stalker to ever die on the show. Laughlin and Weiss, both members of the aforementioned resistance movement, seek to exploit their current situation by searching for the network's uplink facilities, which they realise are within the game zone. Meanwhile, Amber begins to question the media's veracity after watching a falsified news report on Richards' capture. Amber discovers the truth about the massacre, but she is captured and subsequently sent into the game zone, where she encounters Richards and the others. The runners split up, each pair pursued by a different stalker. Laughlin is mortally wounded by the stalker "Buzzsaw", whom Richards kills with Buzzsaw's own chainsaw. Weiss and Amber are successful in locating the uplink system and learning the access codes, but Weiss is electrocuted by the stalker "Dynamo". Amber's screams lead Richards to her, and as the two evade the stalker, Dynamo's buggy flips, trapping him inside. Richards then stuns the audience by merely pinning Dynamo in the vehicle, proclaiming that he will not kill a helpless man. Amber and Richards return to Laughlin, who reveals that the resistance has a hideout within the game zone before finally dying. Back at the ICS studio, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing, with viewers betting for Richards to win instead on the stalkers. Off-camera, Killian offers Richards a job as a stalker, which Richards furiously declines. As the next stalker, "Fireball", pursues Amber and Richards into an abandoned factory, Amber inadvertently finds the charred bodies of the previous season's "winning" runners. Fireball attempts to kill Amber, but Richards rescues her and kills Fireball with his own weaponry. Running out of options, a frustrated Killian uses computer-generated imagery to fake the deaths of Richards and Amber in the final match of the episode, a falsified battle against retired stalker "Captain Freedom". In the game zone, Richards and Amber are captured by the resistance and taken to their hideout, where they learn of their "deaths" on the show. Using the access codes provided by Amber, the resistance takes over the ICS satellite. Richards leads the rebels to the ICS studios where they seize the control room, allowing the resistance to broadcast unedited footage of Richards' part in the Bakersfield massacre. Richards then heads to the main studio floor, shocking the live and at-home audiences who had watched him supposedly die. Amber encounters Dynamo, but she kills him when an errant gunshot sets off the sprinkler system, electrocuting him when the water hits his electrically powered suit. Richards confronts Killian, now shamed and disgraced before those watching and desperately attempting to prove his point by explaining that he had created the show for huge ratings and to appease American viewers' love for television, action and violence. Ignoring the excuse, Richards sends Killian into the game zone aboard a rocket sled, which flies into a billboard featuring Killian himself and explodes, killing him instantly, much to the delight of the live television audience. The film ends with Richards and Amber sharing a kiss as they walk off the studio.

positive

positive

The Running Man

The Running Man

Joseph Davidson is a quiet, self-conscious fourteen- year-old boy and a talented artist. His world changes, however, when he is asked to draw a portrait of his mysterious neighbour Tom Leyton, a Vietnam veteran who for thirty years has lived alone with his sister Caroline, raising his silkworms and hiding from prying eyes. Because of this he is the subject of ugly gossip and rumour, much of it led by neighbour Mrs Mossop, who views Leyton’s brief teaching career with suspicion. When Joseph finally meets his reclusive neighbour he discovers a cold, brooding man lost deep within his own cocoon of silence. He soon realises that in order to truly draw Tom Leyton, he must find the courage to unlock the man’s dark and perhaps dangerous secrets. But Joseph has his own secrets, including the pain of his damaged relationship with his absent father and his childhood fear of the Running Man – a local character whose wild appearance and strange manner of moving everywhere at a frantic pace terrified him when he was a small boy. These dreams suddenly return when Joseph is forced to face his fears and doubts regarding Tom Leyton. As Joseph moves deeper and deeper into his neighbour’s world he confronts not only Tom Leyton’s private hell, but also his own relationship with his father, and ultimately the dishevelled, lurching figure of the Running Man.

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and American society has become an totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers" and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free. Eighteen months later, Ben Richards, a military pilot who was convicted of a massacre which he actually refused to participate in, escapes from a labor camp with other inmates and flees to a shanty town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Declining an offer to join a resistance movement, Richards instead seeks shelter at his brother's apartment. He finds it is now occupied by Amber Mendez, a composer for ICS, the network that broadcasts The Running Man. Richards attempts to flee to Hawaii with Amber as a hostage, but she alerts airport security and Richards is captured and taken to the ICS studios. Killian coerces him to compete in The Running Man with the threat that if he declines, his two weaker escapee friends&mdash;Laughlin and Weiss&mdash;will be put on the show instead. Richards complies, but as the show begins, Killian reveals that Laughlin and Weiss have been enrolled as runners anyway. Richards and his friends are attacked by the first stalker, "Subzero", but Richards kills him instead using barbed wire as a garrotte. This shocks the audience, as this is the first stalker to ever die on the show. Laughlin and Weiss, both members of the aforementioned resistance movement, seek to exploit their current situation by searching for the network's uplink facilities, which they realise are within the game zone. Meanwhile, Amber begins to question the media's veracity after watching a falsified news report on Richards' capture. Amber discovers the truth about the massacre, but she is captured and subsequently sent into the game zone, where she encounters Richards and the others. The runners split up, each pair pursued by a different stalker. Laughlin is mortally wounded by the stalker "Buzzsaw", whom Richards kills with Buzzsaw's own chainsaw. Weiss and Amber are successful in locating the uplink system and learning the access codes, but Weiss is electrocuted by the stalker "Dynamo". Amber's screams lead Richards to her, and as the two evade the stalker, Dynamo's buggy flips, trapping him inside. Richards then stuns the audience by merely pinning Dynamo in the vehicle, proclaiming that he will not kill a helpless man. Amber and Richards return to Laughlin, who reveals that the resistance has a hideout within the game zone before finally dying. Back at the ICS studio, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing, with viewers betting for Richards to win instead on the stalkers. Off-camera, Killian offers Richards a job as a stalker, which Richards furiously declines. As the next stalker, "Fireball", pursues Amber and Richards into an abandoned factory, Amber inadvertently finds the charred bodies of the previous season's "winning" runners. Fireball attempts to kill Amber, but Richards rescues her and kills Fireball with his own weaponry. Running out of options, a frustrated Killian uses computer-generated imagery to fake the deaths of Richards and Amber in the final match of the episode, a falsified battle against retired stalker "Captain Freedom". In the game zone, Richards and Amber are captured by the resistance and taken to their hideout, where they learn of their "deaths" on the show. Using the access codes provided by Amber, the resistance takes over the ICS satellite. Richards leads the rebels to the ICS studios where they seize the control room, allowing the resistance to broadcast unedited footage of Richards' part in the Bakersfield massacre. Richards then heads to the main studio floor, shocking the live and at-home audiences who had watched him supposedly die. Amber encounters Dynamo, but she kills him when an errant gunshot sets off the sprinkler system, electrocuting him when the water hits his electrically powered suit. Richards confronts Killian, now shamed and disgraced before those watching and desperately attempting to prove his point by explaining that he had created the show for huge ratings and to appease American viewers' love for television, action and violence. Ignoring the excuse, Richards sends Killian into the game zone aboard a rocket sled, which flies into a billboard featuring Killian himself and explodes, killing him instantly, much to the delight of the live television audience. The film ends with Richards and Amber sharing a kiss as they walk off the studio.

positive

positive

The Running Man

The Running Man

The story's protagonist, Ben Richards, is a citizen of Co-Op City (not to be confused with the real Co-Op City), a suburb of the fictional Harding, which is located somewhere in the Midwest, west of Detroit in the year 2025. The world's economy is in a shambles, and America has become a totalitarian dystopia. Richards is unable to find work, having been blacklisted from his trade, and he needs money to get medicine for his gravely ill daughter Cathy. His wife Sheila has resorted to prostitution to bring in money for the family. In desperation, Richards turns to the Games Network, a government-operated television station that runs violent game shows. After rigorous physical and mental testing, Richards is selected to appear on The Running Man, the Games Network's most popular, lucrative, and dangerous program. Richards meets with Network producer Dan Killian and Running Man host Bobby Thompson. The men proceed to discuss Richards' contract for appearing on the show, as well as the challenges he is expected to face when the game starts. The contestant is declared an enemy of the state and released with a 12-hour head start before the Hunters, an elite team of Games Network-employed hitmen, are sent out to kill him. The contestant earns $100 per hour that he stays alive and avoids capture, an additional $100 for each law enforcement officer or Hunter he kills, and one billion "New Dollars" if he survives for 30 days. Viewers can receive cash rewards for informing the Games Network of the runner's whereabouts. The record time for survival is eight days and five hours — a mark that Richards eventually surpasses. The runner is given $4,800 and a pocket video camera before he leaves the studio. He can travel anywhere in the world, and each day he must videotape two messages and mail them back to the studio for broadcasting. If he neglects to send the messages, he will be held in default of his Games contract and will lose the prize money, but will continue to be hunted indefinitely. As the game begins, Richards obtains a disguise and false identification records, traveling first to New York City and then Boston. In Boston, he is tracked down by the Hunters and only manages to escape by setting off an explosion in the basement of a YMCA building that kills five police officers. He narrowly escapes through a sewer pipe and emerges in the city's impoverished ghetto, where he takes shelter with gang member Bradley Throckmorton and his family. Richards learns from Bradley that the air is severely polluted and that the poor are kept down as a permanent underclass. Bradley also says that the Games Network exists only as a propaganda machine to pacify and distract the public. Richards tries to incorporate this information into his video messages, but finds that the Network dubs over his voice with obscenities and threats during the broadcast. Bradley smuggles Richards past a government checkpoint to Manchester, New Hampshire, where he disguises himself as a half-blind priest. In addition, Bradley provides Richards with re-mailing labels so that the Network will not be able to track him by the postmark on his videotapes. Richards spends a few days in Manchester, but he dreams that Bradley has betrayed him after being tortured. He travels to a safe house owned by a friend of Bradley in Portland, Maine, but he is reported by the owner's mother. As the police and the Hunters close in on the safe house, Richards is wounded, but he manages to escape. The next morning, after arranging to mail his videotapes, Richards carjacks a woman named Amelia Williams, holds her hostage, and makes his way to an airport in Derry, Maine, passing through the towns of Rockland, Camden, and Winterport along the way. Richards has a standoff at the airport and manages to bluff his way past Evan McCone, the lead Hunter, onto a plane by pretending he is carrying "Black Irish" a form of plastic explosives of almost nuclear explosive force. Richards takes both Amelia and McCone as prisoners. He has the plane fly low over populated areas to avoid being shot down by a surface-to-air missile. However, he is confronted by Killian on a video call, who states that he knows Richards does not have any explosives, as the plane's security system would have detected if he did. To Richards' surprise, Killian offers him the job of lead Hunter. Richards is hesitant to take the offer, worried that his family will become a target. Killian then informs him that Sheila and Cathy were brutally murdered over ten days earlier, even before Richards first appeared on the show. He gives Richards some time to make his decision. Richards falls asleep and dreams of his murdered family and a gruesome crime scene. With nothing left to lose, he calls Killian back and accepts the offer. He overpowers the flight crew and kills McCone, who mortally wounds him. After allowing Amelia to parachute to safety, Richards uses his last strength to override the plane's autopilot and fly the plane toward the skyscraper housing the Games Network. The book ends with the plane crashing into the tower, resulting in the deaths of Richards and Killian. The novel comes to a close with the description, "...and it rained fire twenty blocks away."

By 2017, the global economy has collapsed and American society has become an totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives, including the gladiator-style The Running Man, hosted by the ruthless Damon Killian, where "runners" attempt to evade "stalkers" and certain death for a chance to be pardoned and set free. Eighteen months later, Ben Richards, a military pilot who was convicted of a massacre which he actually refused to participate in, escapes from a labor camp with other inmates and flees to a shanty town on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Declining an offer to join a resistance movement, Richards instead seeks shelter at his brother's apartment. He finds it is now occupied by Amber Mendez, a composer for ICS, the network that broadcasts The Running Man. Richards attempts to flee to Hawaii with Amber as a hostage, but she alerts airport security and Richards is captured and taken to the ICS studios. Killian coerces him to compete in The Running Man with the threat that if he declines, his two weaker escapee friends&mdash;Laughlin and Weiss&mdash;will be put on the show instead. Richards complies, but as the show begins, Killian reveals that Laughlin and Weiss have been enrolled as runners anyway. Richards and his friends are attacked by the first stalker, "Subzero", but Richards kills him instead using barbed wire as a garrotte. This shocks the audience, as this is the first stalker to ever die on the show. Laughlin and Weiss, both members of the aforementioned resistance movement, seek to exploit their current situation by searching for the network's uplink facilities, which they realise are within the game zone. Meanwhile, Amber begins to question the media's veracity after watching a falsified news report on Richards' capture. Amber discovers the truth about the massacre, but she is captured and subsequently sent into the game zone, where she encounters Richards and the others. The runners split up, each pair pursued by a different stalker. Laughlin is mortally wounded by the stalker "Buzzsaw", whom Richards kills with Buzzsaw's own chainsaw. Weiss and Amber are successful in locating the uplink system and learning the access codes, but Weiss is electrocuted by the stalker "Dynamo". Amber's screams lead Richards to her, and as the two evade the stalker, Dynamo's buggy flips, trapping him inside. Richards then stuns the audience by merely pinning Dynamo in the vehicle, proclaiming that he will not kill a helpless man. Amber and Richards return to Laughlin, who reveals that the resistance has a hideout within the game zone before finally dying. Back at the ICS studio, Killian sees Richards' popularity growing, with viewers betting for Richards to win instead on the stalkers. Off-camera, Killian offers Richards a job as a stalker, which Richards furiously declines. As the next stalker, "Fireball", pursues Amber and Richards into an abandoned factory, Amber inadvertently finds the charred bodies of the previous season's "winning" runners. Fireball attempts to kill Amber, but Richards rescues her and kills Fireball with his own weaponry. Running out of options, a frustrated Killian uses computer-generated imagery to fake the deaths of Richards and Amber in the final match of the episode, a falsified battle against retired stalker "Captain Freedom". In the game zone, Richards and Amber are captured by the resistance and taken to their hideout, where they learn of their "deaths" on the show. Using the access codes provided by Amber, the resistance takes over the ICS satellite. Richards leads the rebels to the ICS studios where they seize the control room, allowing the resistance to broadcast unedited footage of Richards' part in the Bakersfield massacre. Richards then heads to the main studio floor, shocking the live and at-home audiences who had watched him supposedly die. Amber encounters Dynamo, but she kills him when an errant gunshot sets off the sprinkler system, electrocuting him when the water hits his electrically powered suit. Richards confronts Killian, now shamed and disgraced before those watching and desperately attempting to prove his point by explaining that he had created the show for huge ratings and to appease American viewers' love for television, action and violence. Ignoring the excuse, Richards sends Killian into the game zone aboard a rocket sled, which flies into a billboard featuring Killian himself and explodes, killing him instantly, much to the delight of the live television audience. The film ends with Richards and Amber sharing a kiss as they walk off the studio.

positive

positive

I Know What You Did Last Summer

I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer

In an unnamed town, high school senior Julie James receives a sinister note from an elusive stalker telling her, "I Know What You Did Last Summer", referring to the previous year when Julie, her boyfriend Ray Bronson, Ray's best friend Barry Cox and Barry's girlfriend, Helen Rivers, accidentally killed a young boy named David Gregg after driving home from a party in the mountains to celebrate Ray and Barry's high school graduation. The four made a vow to never mention it to anyone, and drifted apart, Barry going to the local college, Helen dropping out of school, Ray taking off for California and Julie continuing to attend school. Fearful, Julie visits Helen, and informs her about the note. Barry is called but he assures the girls it is a prank and nothing more, as if anyone did know about their crime, they would inform the authorities and not write notes. The girls buy it, and Ray returns home to Julie, but is disheartened when she reveals she is now dating a man named Bud, and no longer wants to continue their relationship. It is revealed that shortly after the night of the incident, Helen was chosen via a beauty contest to be the Channel Five Golden Girl, meaning she would be the studio's new television personality, much to the fury of Elsa, her sullen, envious and unattractive elder sister. At the Four Seasons, a luxury apartment complex where she lives, Helen is suntanning when she meets a boy, Collingsworth "Collie" Wilson, just out of the army. After she is done talking to Collie, she goes to her apartment and finds a magazine cut out of a boy riding a bicycle taped to the door. Meanwhile, Ray is at his house and finds that he has been sent a newspaper clipping though the mail about the boy he, Barry, Helen, and Julie had killed last summer, David Gregg. In the article, it is revealed that his parents are Mr. and Mrs. Michael Gregg. Afterwords, the book takes the reader into a memory of Ray's, in which his father commented on his life; about having a popular football friend (Barry) and a cheerleader girlfriend (Julie) and Ray's father first meeting Barry. Ray then painfully remembers about the day it in which they ran over David Gregg and then called for help from a phone booth. On Memorial Day, Barry receives a call. After he hangs up, he walks out of the University frat house where he leaves to meet the person who had called him. As it is dark, he does not see too well and is shot. When Ray finds out, he calls St. Joseph's Hospital to ask how Barry is doing. He is told that Barry is in surgery. Helen finds out about Barry being shot when she is in the TV studio. When Collie finds out about Barry he immediately goes to the studio to pick up Helen and take her to the hospital. When they reach the hospital, Helen and Collie are sent away by Barry's mother, who accuses Helen of calling Barry and getting him shot. After Julie finds out, she receives a phone call from Ray asking if they could discuss what has been happening. She agrees to go with him. During the discussion the only thing the agree on is the shooter is not Helen. Then Julie suggests going to the Gregg's house to see if it is one of David's family members who is coming after them. After a little debating, Ray agrees to go. When Ray and Julie get to the house, they use the excuse they had car trouble to get in the house. Megan Gregg lets them in. Ray goes to her kitchen and fakes making a call while Julie talks to Megan. While Julie and Megan talk, it is revealed that Megan is David Gregg's sister. Megan also says that her mother broke down after David's death and was sent to a hospital in Las Lunas. Her father moved to be close to her mother. To comfort her, Julie reveals she had lost her father at a young age. After Ray is done making his fake call, Ray and Julie leave. When they get back to the car, Julie confirms it obviously wasn't the Gregg family after them and tells Ray what she found out. They decide to go to Helen's apartment and tell her what they had learned from Megan. Elsa is at the apartment, tormenting Helen about the attack on Barry and reluctantly leaves after Julie and Ray arrive. Julie suggests it may be Elsa responsible for the threats and the shooting, as she has always resented Helen, and may have learned about it by accident, as Helen used to share a room with her. Ray calls the Cox family at the hospital. He finds out that since Barry was shot in the spine, he has paralysis and it may be permanent. Ray then goes to the hospital and sneaks in to see Barry. While there, Ray tries to talk Barry into dissolving the pact of keeping the accident a secret. After Barry says no and lies that the shooting was a robbery and nothing to do with the accident, Ray leaves the hospital. Barry, however, thinks back to the night of the shooting, where he was lured out by an anonymous caller that supposedly had photographic evidence of the accident and would give the photos to Barry in exchange for money. Barry fell for it, agreed to meet the anonymous person at the University athletic field, and was shot. On the way out of the hospital, Ray sees Bud and they decide to go have coffee together. While they talk over coffee, Ray says that he will get Julie back. Bud challenges him then says Julie will not go to Smith because of him. Later, Helen unexpectedly meets Collie in her apartment, who solemnly reveals himself to be David's older brother. He, darkly remembering, tells Helen that he was the one that shot Barry and is the one that left the picture on her door. He then tells her that he is going to kill her and the girl he is going out with later tonight. Panicking, she immediately runs to the bathroom and locks the door. When Collie begins to take the door off the hinges so that he can get in, Helen breaks the glass of the bathroom window and desperately escapes. Julie prepares to go on a date with Bud, but then decides not to when her mother says she is worried and would like her to stay home. When she tells Bud, he convinces her to at least walk him to his car so they can talk. To Julie, Buds seems impatient and she realizes that she has never seen him act so angry. She remembers the first moment she saw Ray, after he came back from California, and realizes she doesn't want to date Bud anymore because she will always have feelings for Ray. When they get to Bud's car, he reveals that his name is really Collingsworth Wilson and that he was David Gregg's half brother. He tells Julie that he found out who had run down his little brother by asking a man who sold Julie the flowers she sent to David's funeral. He then starts to choke her. Julie is to the point of passing out when Ray saves her by beating Bud (Collie) with a flashlight. When the paramedics show up, they tell Julie and Ray about Helen's accident. Helen sent them to Julie's house, saying there would be someone trying to kill her. Julie then asks Ray how he knew of Bud intending to kill her and he tells her that Barry called him earlier and released him from the pact. After the phone call, he realized who Bud was. Then Julie asks Ray why Bud never tried to hurt him. Ray answers, "He did, tonight. He knew the worst thing for me would be to stay alive in a world without you."

Amber Williams , her friends Zoe and Roger , and her boyfriend Colby Patterson stage a prank at the town carnival, with Roger faking the return of the "Fisherman" killer. However, their friend PJ Davis is accidentally killed during the stunt, and to cover up what happened they burn the evidence and make a pact that the secret will die with them. One year passes after the group separates, and Amber returns to town to discover that Colby never left to pursue his scholarship. She leaves the party angry, and goes up to the mountains where she encounters one of the officers who witnessed the accident, Deputy Haffner . Later that night, Amber awakens to a sound, and receives 50 text messages reading "I know what you did last summer". She drives to Zoe's shack to find her band rehearsing for a concert, and after Amber apologizes for not contacting her, Zoe allows her to sleep there for the night. The next day they find Roger fixing ski-lifts gondolas; he angrily sends them away when they inform him someone knows what happened. Zoe goes to find Colby working as a lifeguard at a public pool; he dismisses her then returns to his post to find "I know what you did last summer" written in the ground. Amber is attacked on a ski-lift by someone wielding the hook, but Colby does not believe her. Later that night, a drunken Roger contemplates suicide while pulling out the hook from the prank, which he had salvaged from the fire. He investigates a noise when he is attacked by the Fisherman, who slits his throat after a chase. Colby goes to Amber and Zoe telling them that he believes them, so they go to warn Roger again but find him dead along with a suicide note and the hook. Deputy Haffner strangely shows up wielding his gun at them, accusing them of the murder, until he reads the suicide note. After their statements, they return to Amber's house to find pictures of them from the high school yearbook sliced up and stuck to the wall reading "SOON". They all stay at Zoe's place again and find Lance outside, who shows them a message engraved on his motorbike, and they agree to stay together for safety. Colby goes to the pool to do some laps after his shift, and is hooked in the ankle by the Fisherman, who disappears. The night of Zoe's concert, Amber and Lance stick together while Colby, who is now on crutches, sneaks off to get drunk. The Fisherman swings his hook at Colby but misses; Colby grabs a large butcher knife and stabs the Fisherman in the back, but he appears to be completely unharmed. The Fisherman eventually breaks through a window and hooks Colby in the mouth. Amber and Lance go back to congratulate Zoe but are attacked; Zoe breaks away and is stabbed in the stomach and then thrown over a balcony. As Amber and Lance make their way up to the balcony to find Zoe's corpse, P.J's dad, the sheriff, comes in and finds Amber covered in blood. He assumes they committed the murders, but is pulled into the darkness and hooked to death. Outside, Deputy Haffner, after saying that Roger told him about the accident, arrests Amber and Lance and escorts them to the back of his jeep; in the back lies Zoe's body. The Fisherman appears and makes his way towards Haffner, who fires several times, but the Fisherman does not budge and impales Haffner on a forklift. Amber and Lance get into the car and run the fisherman down, but he immediately gets up and takes his mask off, revealing the decomposed face of Ben Willis, the man who brutally committed the original murders 10 years ago. He then immediately disappears into thin air. Amber and Lance go to get help but are again attacked by Willis and are chased into a warehouse. They make it out and lure Willis into a thresher, which appears to kill him. A year later, Amber is driving across the desert, talking to Lance as a tire blows out. She stops in the middle of nowhere and waits while she talks to Lance. She stands in the middle of the road, and loses reception. Amber then begins looking around as the camera cycles around her, a flash of Ben Willis is seen behind Amber, the film then cuts to black screen as Amber's scream is cut off by the sling of the hook hearing the sound of blood splashing.

negative

positive

Journey to the West

A Chinese Tall Story

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).

Tang monk Tripitaka and his three disciples Monkey King Sun WuKong , Pig Monk Zhu WuNeng , and Sand Monk Sha WuJing arrive triumphantly to a hero’s welcome in Shache city. Little do they know that ahead of them lays Tripitaka’s most arduous challenge before he achieves deification…and it is a test that he and only he alone can overcome. During their stay in the city, the three disciples are captured by evil Tree Spirits. Tripitaka borrows the Golden Pole and tries to find a way to save them. He meets a young lizard imp Meiyan who is more than a visual match for Quasimodo: matted bushy hair, and teeth of any dentist’s nightmare. Meiyan falls in love with Tripitaka at first sight and devotes herself to trailing him. She even sets a love trap to ensnare him. Tripitaka unwittingly falls into the trap and in the process breaks the Heavenly Code. The region is one full of monsters, strange beings and creatures of unknown origins and among them are the beautiful Princess XiaoShan and her army. On a passing journey to Earth her path crosses Tripitaka’s and she vows her aid. Tripitaka decides to leave with the Princess. Meiyan is heartbroken. She picks a fight with Princess XiaoShan and, although she loses, she finally discovers her own identity as a galactic warrior. She eventually helps the princess in defeating the enemy and rescues Tripitaka and his disciples. After the battle, Meiyan surrenders to the Temple of Heaven for judgment. Torn between passion and righteousness, Tripitaka rebels against the heaves to rescue the gallows-bound Meiyan. A benevolent Buddha is moved and pardons the two on condition that they embark on a journey to the West to accomplish the Eight-One Tasks to redeem themselves and save the world.

positive

positive

The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth

Village of the Giants

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."

Village of the Giants takes place in fictional Hainesville, California. After crashing their car into a roadblock during a rainstorm, a group of partying, big-city teenagers first indulge in a vigorous, playful mud-wrestling fight, then hike their way into town. Fred remembers meeting a girl from Hainesville named Nancy, and they decide to look her up. Nancy, meanwhile, is with her boyfriend Mike, while her younger brother "Genius" plays with his chemistry set in the basement. Genius accidentally creates a substance he names "Goop", that causes animals, including a pair of ducks, to grow to gigantic size. The out-of-town teens break into the local theater and clean up from the rain, then go to a nearby club where The Beau Brummels are performing. Shortly, the giant ducks turn up, followed by Mike and Nancy. Everyone is astounded by the size of the ducks, wondering how they got so big. Mike explains that it's a secret, but following a suggestion made by their friends Horsey and Red, they host a picnic in the town square the next day, roasting the ducks and feeding everybody. Freddy Cannon is featured singing a song in this scene. Fred and his friends also see potential in whatever made the ducks grow, but their minds are purely on profit. They scheme to learn the secret, and are ultimately successful, escaping with a sample. Back at the theater, the gang argues over what to do with the Goop, now that they have it. Feeling peer pressure, Fred slices up the Goop, giving everyone a piece each, which they consume a moment later. As the Goop takes effect, they each grow to over thirty feet tall, ripping right out of their clothes. At first everyone is shocked and regretful, but realizing their newfound power at their new size, the gang decide to take over the town. Overnight, the giants decide to isolate Hainesville from the rest of the world. They rip out the telephone lines, overturn broadcasting antennas, and block the remaining roads out of town. When the sheriff and Mike arrive to deal with them, they discover that the giants have no plans to leave &ndash; and are literally holding the sheriff's daughter, as "insurance" that they won't have any trouble. While the town's adults seem paralyzed, the teens decide to fight back. An attempt to capture Fred results in Nancy being taken hostage. Meanwhile, Genius continues to work, trying to produce more Goop. Mike asks Genius to forget the Goop for awhile, and make them a supply of ether – having noticed the giants only leave one guard on the hostages, Mike and Horsey plot to subdue that guard, recover the guns, and free Nancy and the sheriff's daughter. Having led the giants outside the theater, Mike plays David to Fred's Goliath, to distract them while Horsey and the others effect the rescue. Genius' newest attempt at Goop results in an antidote. He rides over to the square on a bicycle with a pail full of the fuming antidote. As the giants breathe in the fumes, they all return to normal. Mike cold-cocks the surprised Fred, and promptly runs him and his friends, looking silly in their now-oversized clothes, out of town.

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Lost Horizon

Lost Horizon

The origin of the eleven numbered chapters of the novel is explained in a prologue and epilogue, whose narrator is a neurologist. This neurologist and a novelist friend, Rutherford, are given dinner at Tempelhof, Berlin, by their old school-friend Wyland, a secretary at the British embassy. A chance remark by a passing airman brings up the topic of Hugh Conway, a British consul in Afghanistan, who disappeared under odd circumstances. Later in the evening, Rutherford reveals to the narrator that, after the disappearance, he discovered Conway in a French mission hospital in Chung-Kiang (probably Chongqing), China, suffering from amnesia. Conway recovered his memory and told Rutherford his story, then slipped away again. Rutherford wrote down Conway's story; he gives the manuscript to the neurologist, and that manuscript becomes the heart of the novel. In May 1931, during the British Raj in India, the 80 white residents of Baskul are being evacuated to Peshawar, owing to a revolution. In the airplane of the Maharajah of Chandrapore are Conway, the British consul, age 37; Mallinson, his young vice-consul; an American, Barnard; and a British missionary, Miss Brinklow. The plane is hijacked and flown instead over the mountains to Tibet. After a crash landing, the pilot dies, but not before telling the four (in Chinese, which Conway knows) to seek shelter at the nearby lamasery of Shangri-La. The location is unclear, but Conway believes the plane has "progressed far beyond the western range of the Himalayas towards the less known heights of the Kuen-Lun" (i.e. Kunlun). The four are taken there by a party directed by Chang, a postulant at the lamasery who speaks English. The lamasery has modern conveniences, like central heating; bathtubs from Akron, Ohio; a large library; a grand piano; a harpsichord; and food from the fertile valley below. Towering above is Karakal, literally translated "Blue Moon," a mountain more than high. Mallinson is keen to hire porters and leave, but Chang politely puts him off. The others eventually decide they are content to stay: Miss Brinklow, to teach the people a sense of sin; Barnard, because he is really Chalmers Bryant (wanted by the police for stock fraud) and because he is keen to develop the gold-mines in the valley; Conway, because the contemplative scholarly life suits him. A seemingly young Manchu woman, Lo-Tsen, is another postulant at the lamasery; she does not speak English but plays the harpsichord. Mallinson falls in love with her, as does Conway, though more languidly. Conway is given an audience with the High Lama, an unheard-of honor. He learns that the lamasery was constructed in its present form by a Catholic monk named Perrault from Luxembourg, in the early eighteenth century. The lamasery has since then been joined by others who have found their way into the valley. Once they have done so, their aging slows; if they then leave the valley, they age quickly and die. Conway guesses correctly that the High Lama is Perrault, now 300 years old. In a later audience, the High Lama reveals that he is finally dying, and that he wants Conway to lead the lamasery. Meanwhile, Mallinson has arranged to leave the valley with porters and Lo-Tsen. They are waiting for him outside the valley, and he cannot traverse the dangerous route by himself, so he convinces Conway to go along. This ends Rutherford's manuscript. The last time Rutherford saw Conway, it appeared he was preparing to make his way back to Shangri-La. Rutherford completes his account by telling the neurologist that he attempted to track Conway and verify some of his claims of Shangri-La. He found the Chung-Kiang doctor who had treated Conway. The doctor said Conway had been brought in by a Chinese woman who was ill and died soon after. She was old, the doctor had told Rutherford, "Most old of anyone I have ever seen", implying that it was Lo-Tsen, aged drastically by her departure from Shangri-La.

Before returning to England to become the new Foreign Secretary, writer, soldier and diplomat Robert Conway has one last task in 1935 China: to rescue 90 Westerners in the city of Baskul. He flies out with the last few evacuees, just ahead of armed revolutionaries. Unbeknownst to the passengers, the pilot has been replaced and their aircraft hijacked. It eventually runs out of fuel and crashes deep in the Himalayan Mountains, killing their abductor. The group is rescued by Chang and his men and taken to Shangri-La, an idyllic valley sheltered from the bitter cold. The contented inhabitants are led by the mysterious High Lama ([[Sam Jaffe . Initially anxious to return to civilization, most of the newcomers grow to love Shangri-La, including paleontologist Alexander Lovett , swindler Henry Barnard ([[Thomas Mitchell and bitter, terminally ill Gloria Stone , who miraculously seems to be recovering. Conway is particularly enchanted, especially when he meets Sondra , who has grown up in Shangri-La. However, Conway's younger brother George ([[John Howard , and Maria ([[Margo , another beautiful young woman they find there, are determined to leave. Conway eventually has an audience with the High Lama and learns that his arrival was no accident. The founder of Shangri-La is said to be hundreds of years old, preserved, like the other residents, by the magical properties of the paradise he has created, but is finally dying and needs someone wise and knowledgeable in the ways of the modern world to keep it safe. Having read Conway's writings, Sondra believed he was the one; the Lama had agreed with her and arranged for Conway's abduction. The old man names Conway as his successor and then peacefully passes away. George refuses to believe the Lama's fantastic story and is supported by Maria. Uncertain and torn between love and loyalty, Conway reluctantly gives in to his brother and they leave, taking Maria with them, despite being warned that she is much older than she appears. After several days of grueling travel, she becomes exhausted and falls face down in the snow. When they turn her over, they discover that she had become extremely old and died. Her departure from Shangri-La had restored Maria to her true age. Horrified, George loses his sanity and jumps to his death. Conway continues on and eventually meets up with a search party sent to find him, although the ordeal has caused him to lose his memory of Shangri-La. On the voyage back to England, he remembers everything; he tells his story and then jumps ship. The searchers track him back to the Himalayas, but are unable to follow him any further. Conway manages to return to Shangri-La.

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At the Earth's Core

Journey to the Center of the Earth

The author relates how, traveling in the Sahara desert, he has encountered a remarkable vehicle and its pilot, David Innes, a man with a remarkable story to tell. David is a mining heir who finances the experimental "iron mole," an excavating vehicle designed by his elderly inventor friend Abner Perry. In a test run, they discover the vehicle cannot be turned, and it burrows 500 miles into the Earth's crust, emerging into the unknown interior world of Pellucidar. In Burroughs' concept, the Earth is a hollow shell with Pellucidar as the internal surface of that shell. Pellucidar is inhabited by prehistoric creatures of all geological eras, and dominated by the Mahars, a species of flying reptile both intelligent and civilized, but which enslaves and preys on the local stone-age humans. Innes and Perry are captured by the Mahars' ape-like Sagoth servants and taken with other human captives to the chief Mahar city of Phutra. Among their fellow captives are the brave Ghak, the Hairy One, from the country of Sari, the shifty Hooja the Sly One and the lovely Dian the Beautiful of Amoz. David, attracted to Dian, defends her against the unwanted attentions of Hooja, but due to his ignorance of local customs she assumes he wants her as a slave, not a friend or lover, and subsequently snubs him. Only later, after Hooja slips their captors in a dark tunnel and forces Dian to leave with him, does David learn from Ghak the cause of the misunderstanding. In Phutra the captives become slaves, and the two surface worlders learn more of Pellucidar and Mahar society. The Mahars are all female, reproducing parthogenetically by means of a closely guarded "Great Secret" contained in a Mahar book. David learns that they also feast on selected human captives in a secret ritual. In a disturbance, David manages to escape Phutra, becomes lost, and experiences a number of adventures before sneaking back into the city. Rejoining Abner, he finds the latter did not even realize he was gone, and the two discover that time in Pellucidar, in the absence of objective means to measure it, is a subjective thing, experienced by different people at different rates. Obsessed with righting the wrong he has unwittingly done Dian, David escapes again and eventually finds and wins her by defeating the malevolent Jubal the Ugly One, another unwanted suitor. David makes amends, and he and Dian wed. Later, along with Ghak and other allies, David and Abner lead a revolt of humankind against the Mahars. Their foes are hampered by the loss of the Great Secret, which David has stolen and hidden. To further the struggle David returns to the Iron Mole, in which he and Dian propose to travel back to the surface world to procure outer world technology. Only after it is underway does he discover that Hooja has substituted a drugged Mahar for Dian. The creature attacks David but is overcome, and the return to the surface world proceeds successfully. Back in the world we know David meets the author, who after hearing his tale and seeing his prehistoric captive, helps him resupply and prepare the mole for the return to Pellucidar.

The film follows two intertwined subplots: an advanced drilling operation that is taking place in North America, and a rescue mission to save a research team that has been teleported 600&nbsp;km beneath the Earth's crust. The drill, a fully American project, is powerful enough to drill through solid rock at a fast pace and is used to try and rescue the team from their fate. The operation begins, but the drill accidentally breaks through the Earth's crust and into the very centre of the Earth, where the operators encounter hidden dangers awaiting them at the Earth's core, and must battle prehistoric creatures in order to save both the research team and themselves and to try and return to the surface of the Earth before it is too late.

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