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The Exorcist

The Exorcist III

An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics. Following the discovery of a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an actual ancient Assyrian demigod) and a modern-day St. Joseph medal curiously juxtaposed together at the site, a series of omens alerts him to a pending confrontation with a powerful evil, which, unknown to the reader at this point, he has battled before in an exorcism in Africa. Meanwhile, in Georgetown, a young girl named Regan MacNeil living with her famous mother, actress Chris MacNeil, becomes inexplicably ill. After a gradual series of poltergeist-like disturbances, she undergoes disturbing psychological and physical changes, appearing to become "possessed" by a demonic spirit. After several unsuccessful psychiatric and medical treatments, Regan's mother turns to a local Jesuit priest. Father Damien Karras, who is currently going through a crisis of faith coupled with the loss of his mother, agrees to see Regan as a psychiatrist, but initially resists the notion that it is an actual demonic possession. After a few meetings with the child, now completely inhabited by a diabolical personality, he turns to the local bishop for permission to perform an exorcism on the child. The bishop with whom he consults does not believe Karras is qualified to perform the rites, and appoints the experienced Merrin, who has recently returned to the United States, to perform the exorcism; although he does allow the doubt-ridden Karras to assist him. The lengthy exorcism tests the priests both physically and spiritually. When Merrin, who had previously suffered cardiac arrhythmia, dies during the process, completion of the exorcism ultimately falls upon Father Karras. When he demands that the demonic spirit inhabit him instead of the innocent Regan, the demon seizes the opportunity to possess the priest. Karras surrenders his own life in exchange for Regan's by jumping out of her bedroom window.

The film begins with the point-of-view of someone wandering through the streets of Georgetown, a voice informing us "I have dreams... of a rose... and of falling down a long flight of stairs." The point of view shows a warning of evil about to arrive later that night at a church. Demonic growls are heard, leaves and other street trash suddenly come flying into the church as a crucifix comes to life. It then cuts to Lieutenant William F. Kinderman at a crime scene, where a 12-year-old boy named Thomas Kintry has been murdered. Kinderman takes his friend, a priest named Father Dyer , out to see their mutually favorite film It's a Wonderful Life. Kinderman later relates the gruesome details of the murder of the young boy he was investigating that morning, including his crucifixion. Another murder soon takes place; a priest found decapitated in a church. Dyer is shortly hospitalized and found murdered the next day, with the words "IT'S A WONDERFULL LIFE" written on a wall in Dyer's blood. At each murder scene, the fingerprints at the crime scenes do not match up, indicating a different person was responsible for each. Kinderman tells hospital staff the reason for his unease; fifteen years ago the vicious serial killer, "The Gemini" , was executed; with every victim he cut off the right index finger and carved the Zodiac sign of Gemini into the palm of their left hand. Kinderman noticed the hands of the three new victims and verified that the Gemini's sign has been there. The Gemini Killer also always used an extra "L" in his notes sent to the media, such as "usefull" or "carefull". Furthermore, to filter out false confessions, the original Gemini Killer's true mutilations were kept a secret by the Richmond police's homicide department; the newspapers were made to wrongfully report that the left middle finger was severed and that the Gemini sign was carved on the back of the victim. Kinderman visits the head of the psychiatric ward, Dr. Temple ([[Scott Wilson , who relates the history of a man in Cell 11, that he was found wandering aimlessly fifteen years ago with amnesia. The man was locked up, catatonic up until recently when he began to be violent and claim to be the Gemini Killer. Kinderman sees that the patient resembles his dead friend, Father Damien Karras ([[Jason Miller . However the patient brags of being the Gemini Killer, expressing ignorance over who Father Karras is, and boasts of killing Father Dyer. The next morning, a nurse and Dr. Temple are found dead. Kinderman returns to see the patient in Cell 11, who claims to be the Gemini Killer's spirit, revealing that after his execution his soul entered Karras's dying body. The demon Pazuzu who had possessed the girl Regan MacNeil, was furious at being pushed out of the child's body and is exacting its revenge by putting the soul of the Gemini Killer into the body of Father Karras. Each evening, the soul of the Gemini leaves the body of Karras and possesses the elderly people with senile dementia elsewhere in the hospital and uses them to commit the murders. The Gemini Killer also reveals to have forced Dr. Temple to bring Kinderman to him or he would suffer in unspeakable ways - Temple believed his apparent bluff, however, he couldn't take the pressure, and so he committed suicide. The Gemini possesses an old woman who makes a failed attempt to murder Julie, Kinderman's daughter. The possessed patient attacks Kinderman, but the attack abruptly ends when a priest, Father Paul Morning , enters the corridor leading to cell 11 and attempts an exorcism on the patient. It goes wrong when Pazuzu intervenes, taking over the patient's body, and the priest is all but slain. Kinderman arrives in time and attempts to euthanise Karras after finding the body of the priest, only to be hurled into the wall by the possessed Karras. Father Morning manages to briefly regain consciousness and tells Karras "Damien. Fight him." Karras regains his free will briefly and cries to Kinderman "Bill, now, shoot now, kill me now--!" Kinderman fires his revolver several times hitting Karras in the chest, fatally wounding him. The Gemini is now gone and Karras is finally free. With weak breaths he says "We won Bill, now free me." Kinderman puts his revolver against Karras' head and fires. The film ends with Karras receiving a proper funeral.

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positive

The Shrinking Man

The Incredible Shrinking Man

While on holiday, the protagonist (Scott Carey) is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide. The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day. A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink. The abnormal size decrease of his body initially brings teases and taunting from local youths, then causes friction in his marriage and family life, because he loses the respect his family has for him because of his diminishing physical stature. Ultimately, as the shrinking continues, it begins to threaten Carey's life as well; at seven inches tall, he has a battle with the family cat that drives him outdoors, where he is attacked by a swallow in his garden; the conflict drives him through a window into the cellar of his house. Although he survives on the cheese left over in a mousetrap for a while, his size is eventually reduced to less than half an inch, at which point he is forced to engage in a victorious battle with a black widow spider that towers over him. As Carey continues shrinking, he realizes that his original fear that he would shrink into non-existence is incorrect; that he will continue to shrink, but will not disappear as he originally feared, and utters his famous closing line: "If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence."

Scott Carey , is a businessman who is on vacation with his wife Louise on a boat off the California coast. When Louise goes below deck momentarily, a large, strange cloud on the horizon passes over the craft, leaving a reflective mist on Scott's bare skin. Louise is slightly alarmed when she comes above deck, and the two are puzzled by the phenomena that disappears as quickly as it had it shown up. However, one morning six months later, Scott, who is normally {{convert}} tall and 190 pounds, notices that his shirt and slacks seem too big and blames it on the laundry service. As this trend continues, he believes he is shrinking and sees his physician, Dr. Bramson who reassures him that he is in perfect health and that "people just don't get shorter." Louise also dismisses his fears as silly, stating that he has simply been losing weight, but he continues to lose height as well as weight. Louise becomes concerned when Scott points out that she no longer needs to tiptoe to kiss him. Several visits to the doctor over the course of a week results in x-ray proof that Scott is, beyond a doubt, getting smaller. His doctor refers him to the prominent laboratory, the California Medical Research Institute, and after nearly three weeks of numerous sophisticated tests, Scott and his team of new doctors learn that the mist to which he was exposed six months earlier while on the ocean was radioactive. This, combined with an accidental exposure to a large amount of common insecticide four months later, has set off a chain-reaction that has enabled a rearranging of Scott's molecular structure, causing his cells to shrink his body, forcing a proportionate diminution. Scott continues to both shrink proportionately in size. His story hits the headlines and he becomes a national curiosity. He can no longer drive a car, and has to give up his job working for his brother, Charlie who encourages him to make some money off of his story by selling it to the national press. He begins keeping a journal, to be published as a record of his experience. As things continue, Scott feels humiliated and expresses his shame by lashing out at Louise, who is reduced to tears of despair because of their situation. Then, it seems, an antidote is found for Scott's affliction: it arrests his shrinking when he is 36½ inches tall and weighs 52 pounds . Despite halting his diminution, he is told that he will never return to his former size unless a cure is found, and that the antidote will only arrest the shrinking. Still, he tries to become content to remain a three-foot tall adult and accept this prognosis, but in a moment of extreme self-loathing he runs out of the house, his first time being outside since he sold his story. At a neighborhood coffee shop near a carnival, he meets and becomes friends with a female midget named Clarice , who is proportionately his equal, with him being slightly taller. She is appearing in a sideshow and persuades him that life isn't all negative being their size. Inspired, he begins to work on his book again. Two weeks later, during one of Scott's conversations with his new small friend, he suddenly notices he has become even shorter than her, meaning the antidote has stopped working. Exasperated, he runs away, ending his brief friendship with Clarice. After becoming small enough to fit inside a dollhouse, Scott becomes more tyrannical with Louise, simultaneously wanting courage to end what he calls his "wretched existence" while hoping that his doctors can save him. He is attacked by his own cat one day when Louise has quickly left on an errand, and winds up accidentally trapped in the basement of his home. Returning to find a bloody scrap of Scott's clothing, Louise tearfully assumes that her husband has met his end, and his undignified death is announced to the world. Meanwhile, Scott then goes through the odyssey of navigating his own basement that, at his current size, is a cavernous, inhospitable world. He battles a voracious spider, his own hunger, and the fear that he may eventually shrink down to nothing. Now so small he can escape the basement by walking through a space in a window screen, he accepts his fate and is resigned to the adventure of seeing what awaits him in even smaller realms. He knows he will eventually shrink to atomic size; but, no matter how small he becomes, he concludes he will still matter in the universe and this thought gives him comfort and ends his fears of the future.

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positive

The Adventures of Pinocchio

The Adventures of Pinocchio

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

{{Plot}} Mister Geppetto is an earnest woodcutter. Years ago, he had carved the image of his heart into a pine tree for his secret love Leona, but lightning hits the pine tree. A few years later, Geppetto finds the pine tree again, but it splits in half and rolls down the bank, landing at his feet. Geppetto is intrigued upon his discovery and takes the log home. He discovers that the pine log refuses to be burned, and so he decides to carve the new puppet with it. His puppet, named Pinocchio, is soon mysteriously animated by a somewhat sentient force after his creation, and Pinocchio approaches the woodcutter, initially alarming him, but then Pinocchio becomes aware of a pigeon on the window and decides to chase the bird. After a chase throughout the town, Gepetto finally finds Pinocchio and starts teaching him about how to behave. However, after a short conversation Geppetto has with another woodcutter, Pinocchio runs off. First he sees a boy with a red ball who throws the ball at Pinocchio's head. Pinocchio then goes after the ball and becomes involved with two thieves, Volpe and Felinet, who attempt to flatter Pinocchio, but then Geppetto comes to the rescue and warns Pinocchio to mix with the right people. Volpe and Felinet go to the puppet master Lorenzini who owns a luxurious puppet theatre. Felinet tells him about Pinocchio, and Lorenzini appears interested, so he visits Geppetto that afternoon to barter for Pinocchio. However, although Pinocchio is somewhat taken to Lorenzini, Geppetto refuses to sell Pinocchio. Later, Pinocchio follows a group a schoolchildren and becomes fascinated by school and learning, to which he wants to go for, in which Gepetto allows. But a boy named Lampwick and Lampwick's friend Saleo involves him in a violent prank. The teacher punishes Pinocchio harshly for sneezing his sawdust all over him, forcing him to leave the company of the real boys. Out of bitterness, he then causes a great deal of mischief in a bakery, in which the baker's wife causes more damage than the puppet. Geppetto is held responsible for the puppet's actions and is arrested. While Geppetto spends the night in a prison cell, Pinocchio returns home and meets 'the voice of truth' in the form of a wise and optimistic cricket named "Pepe". He promises to help Pinocchio to become a real boy, if he will start acting to be a good person. The next day, Geppetto and Pinocchio stand before the judge, who rules that, unless Geppetto can pay for the damage Pinocchio caused, he will be sent in prison for three years. Lorenzini steps in and offers to pay off the debt, on the condition that Pinocchio be handed over to his custody. Geppetto strongly refuses but eventually gives in, believing that perhaps the puppet will be better off that way. Pinocchio is heartbroken and does not want to leave his "father", but Geppetto tells them that he cannot be his father . Pinocchio comes to enjoy the theatre and also comes to believe that Lorenzini loves him as much as his father did, after receiving few golden coins by him. Pepe tells him that Lorenzini is just using him to get rich and success. Pinocchio comes to realize this as he performs in Lorenzini's play, and manages to save several puppets from being burned by the cruel Lorenzini. As he escapes, he accidentally sets the theatre aflame. He floats away down the river, passing through the woodlands to a quiet monastery, after being attacked by a woodpecker. Volpe and Felinet catch up with him and manage to swindle him out of golden coins by telling him that if he buries them in the ground, they will grow into a tree of miracles that will turn him into a real boy. Pepe scolds the puppet and proclaims: "Miracles don't grow on trees. Miracles are made in the heart!" Meanwhile, Geppetto and Leona have begun searching the forest for Pinocchio. However, Pinocchio is enticed by Lampwick to join a wagon-load of other boys who are being taken to the "Terra Magica", where they are encouraged to perform several bad deeds such as Ripping Books Having Pillow Fights Smashing Windows Shooting with Guns and Riding the Roller Coaster. During the trip, Pinocchio's hat falls into a river and later Geppetto and Leona arrive and find it on a beach, thinking that Pinocchio is lost at sea. Before striking out in a rowboat to search for the son, Geppetto professes his love for Leona. Meanwhile Pinocchio Lampwick and Saleo go on the Roller Coaster where they get douced with a load of water from a fountain that suddenly turns the boys into Donkeys. Then they are rounded up by Lorenzini, who runs the park after abandoning his career as a puppet master. Pinocchio, having grown only donkey ears, frees the donkeys from their pen. Chased by Lorenzini and his henchmen, Pinocchio attempts to warn the other boys of the cursed water in the fountain. No one believes him until Pinocchio makes donkey-Lampwick kick Lorenzini sending him into the fountain's pool, and as Lorenzini gets out of the fountain and jumps in a river, he transforms into a "monster". The boys, having learned of the park's curse as well as their lessons, run away together to get back to their homes, scaring much of Lorenzini's henchmen away, and leaving Pinocchio and the donkey-Lampwick to journey back home alone. However, when Pinocchio arrives, she is still there, and takes care of Lampwick while reluctantly allowing Pinocchio to row a boat to find Geppetto. However, the puppet gets swallowed by Lorenzini, now transformed into a monstrous whale. Inside Lorenzini's belly, Pinocchio is finally reunited with Geppetto. In order to escape, Pinocchio tells Geppetto that he hates him. The lie causes Pinocchio's nose to lengthen again and push the whale's throat open wider. The nose then breaks from Pinocchio, but still holds the throat. Unable to breathe properly because of this, Lorenzini is forced to vomit both Pinocchio and Geppetto out before he succumbs. Geppetto and Pinocchio make it back to shore, where Geppetto apologizes for giving Pinocchio away and tells him that he loves him, finally transforming the puppet into a real boy. On the way home, Pinocchio runs into Volpe and Felinet and tricks them into drinking from the fountain of the park where he and the other boys were turned into donkeys . Pinocchio returns to live life as a real boy with Gepetto, Leona and his best friend Lampwick, who changed back to normal along with the other cursed boys by becoming good and doing good deeds.

positive

positive

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution

An introduction states that two canonical Holmes adventures were fabrications. These are "The Final Problem", in which Holmes apparently died along with Prof. James Moriarty, and "The Empty House", wherein Holmes reappeared after a three-year absence and revealed that he had not been killed after all. The Seven-Per-Cent Solutions Watson explains that they were published to conceal the truth concerning Holmes’ "Great Hiatus". The novel begins in 1891, when Holmes first informs Watson of his belief that Professor James Moriarty is a "Napoleon of Crime". The novel presents this view as nothing more than the fevered imagining of Holmes' cocaine-sodden mind; it further states that Moriarty was the childhood mathematics tutor of Sherlock and his brother Mycroft. Moriarty meets Watson, denies that he is a criminal and reluctantly threatens to pursue legal action unless the latter's accusations cease. The heart of the novel consists of an account of Holmes’ recovery from his addiction. Watson and Holmes’ brother Mycroft induce Holmes to travel to Vienna, where Watson introduces him to Dr. Freud. Using a treatment consisting largely of hypnosis, Freud helps Holmes shake off his addiction and his delusions about Moriarty, but neither he nor Watson can revive Holmes’ dejected spirit. What finally does the job is a whiff of mystery: one of the doctor's patients is kidnapped and Holmes’ curiosity is sufficiently aroused. The case takes the three men on a breakneck train ride across Austria in pursuit of a foe who is about to launch a war involving all of Europe. Holmes remarks during the denouement that they have succeeded only in postponing such a conflict, not preventing it; Holmes would later become involved in a "European War" in 1914. One final hypnosis session reveals a key traumatic event in Holmes' childhood: his father murdered his mother for adultery and committed suicide afterwards. It was Moriarty who informed Holmes and his brother of their deaths, and his tutor then became a dark and malignant figure in his subconscious. Freud and Watson conclude that Holmes, consciously unable to face the emotional ramifications of this event, has pushed them deep into his unconscious while finding outlets in fighting evil, pursuing justice, and many of his famous eccentricities, including his cocaine habit. However, they decide not to discuss these subjects with Holmes, believing that he would not accept them, and that it would needlessly complicate his recovery. Watson returns to London, but Holmes decides to travel alone for a while, advising Watson to claim that he had been killed, and thus the famed "Great Hiatus" is more or less preserved. It is during these travels that the events of Meyer's sequel The Canary Trainer occur.

When Dr. Watson discovers that Sherlock Holmes has become delusional as a result of his addiction to cocaine, he arranges for Holmes to journey to Vienna to be treated by none other than Sigmund Freud . However, during the course of his treatment, Holmes becomes embroiled in investigating a kidnapping case with international implications, as Freud uncovers a large personal secret suppressed in Holmes' subconscious.

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Compulsion

Compulsion

A gang of teenage youngsters is running riot on the streets. Responsible for a number of burglaries and car thefts, the police are at their wits' end trying to put a stop to the gang's activities. Terror and hatred have become part of everyday life for local residents and, just when it seems things cannot get any worse, the gang targets Shelby House - an old people's home. Supervisor Veronica Porter, her two staff and the nine elderly residents become the gang's most vulnerable victims yet as the thugs conduct a hate campaign against them, sending abusive mail, daubing graffiti on walls and shattering windows. The intimidation escalates until Veronica's own father is dragged into the scene of terror when, disturbing some of the gang members burgling his house he is put into a coma. But enough is enough. The senior citizens of Shelby House decide to take the law into their own hands and fight back.

Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner kill a boy on his way home from school in order to commit the "perfect crime". Strauss tries to cover it up, but they are caught when police find a key piece of evidence — Steiner's glasses, which he left at the scene of the crime. Famed attorney Jonathan Wilk takes their case, saving them from hanging by making an impassioned closing argument against capital punishment. {{cite web}}

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The Werewolf of Paris

The Curse 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."

The story is set in 18th Century Spain. A beggar is imprisoned by a cruel marques after making inappropriate comments at the nobleman's wedding. The beggar is forgotten but manages to survive another fifteen years. His only human contact is with the jailer and his beautiful mute daughter . The aging, decrepit Marques makes advances on the jailer's daughter when she is cleaning his room. When she refuses him, the Marques has her thrown into the dungeon with the beggar. The beggar, driven mad by his long confinement, rapes her and then dies. The girl is released the next day and sent back up to "entertain" the Marques. Instead she kills the old man and flees. She is found in the forest by the kindly gentleman-scholar Don Alfredo Corledo who lives alone with his housekeeper, Teresa . The warm and motherly Teresa soon nurses the girl back to health, but she dies after giving birth to a baby on Christmas Day Alfredo and Teresa raise the young boy, whom they name Leon. Leon is cursed both by the evil circumstances of his birth and by being born on Christmas Day. An early hunting incident gives him a taste for blood which he must struggle to overcome. Leon grows into a young man and leaves home to seek work at the Gomez vineyard. Don Fernando Gomez sets Leon to work in the wine cellar with Jose Amadayo with whom he quickly forms a friendship. Leon soon falls in love with Fernando's daughter, Cristina , but when he is arrested and jailed on suspicion of murdering Jose, he grows increasingly violent. His wolf nature rising to the surface, he snarls and drools his way through the village by the light of the full moon. Shocked and disgusted by his appearance, the local people summon his scholarly step-father, who has been preparing himself for years to face this moment. Though torn with grief, the wise Alfredo shoots Leon dead and covers his body with a cloak.

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Blood Work

Blood Work

After receiving a heart transplant, retired FBI criminal profiler Terrell "Terry" McCaleb is contacted by Graciela Rivers, the sister of his donor Gloria, and asked to investigate her death, which occurred during an unsolved convenience store robbery. McCaleb had become a minor celebrity as the head of the FBI task force on the "Code Killer", an L.A.-based serial killer (similar to the Zodiac Killer) who always signed his notes with the code "903 472 568", but he is now living on his fishing boat and has been inactive to prevent rejection of his new heart (to the extent that he cannot even drive). He reluctantly agrees to help Graciela but finds the police handling the case to be extremely hostile. However, he is able to match the style of another killing to Gloria's and gets a copy of the files for both cases from Jaye Winston, the sheriff's deputy on that case. He surprisingly discovers that the call reporting Gloria's shooting was placed slightly prior to the actual shooting, leading him to suspect that Gloria was targeted for murder. He interviews the only witness to the second crime, a man called James Noone, but fails to learn much. As he continues to investigate, with Winston's support but against the wishes of his doctor, he finds that the two cases plus a third case are linked through the use of a common gun and a common line said by the killer after the shooting, "Don't forget the cannoli," from The Godfather. He then learns that the first two victims had McCaleb's blood types and were on a list of people who had previously donated blood. If the victims died, McCaleb would benefit from their death as a potential organ recipient. Because of this, the police on Gloria's case focus on him as the possible killer and get a search warrant for his boat. Then, the real killer begins to plant evidence implicating McCaleb on his boat, expecting the police to find it, but McCaleb finds and then conceals the most incriminating evidence. Examining the facts again, McCaleb realizes that the distinctive attribute of the "Code Killer" was that the nine-digit identifying code did not include a one, and that "Noone" ("no one") is actually the Code Killer. By following the contact information on Noone, McCaleb and Jaye Winston find the Code Killer's files, which prove that he had deliberately killed three people to get McCaleb a new heart. Although McCaleb is thus cleared, the fact that Gloria's death was directly due to his illness creates a rift in his increasingly personal relationship with Graciela and her nephew Raymond, Gloria's son. McCaleb, who is still supposed to be inactive, secretly continues to trace the Code Killer from information that he learned during his interview with "Noone" and drives to a location in Baja California that matches one Noone described. He then finds and is overpowered by the Code Killer, who tells him that he has kidnapped Graciela and Raymond and buried them alive. Despite serious medical problems from so much activity, McCaleb is able to kill him and then uses the little information he has to locate and rescue Graciela and Raymond. Upon his return, he apologizes to his doctor and says that he went to Mexico because he needed a vacation. Only Jaye Winston among the law enforcement officials figures out what really happened.

During a homicide investigation, FBI agent Terry McCaleb goes outside to address the media when he spots the killer in the crowd. But the chase ends after McCaleb suffers a heart attack. Now retired, he lives in a houseboat on the Long Beach bay. He has been given a second chance at life by receiving the heart of a murder victim. He is approached by a woman named Graciella Rivers, whose sister was killed during a robbery and asks him to solve the case. It gets personal when McCaleb realizes the victim was the woman whose heart was transplanted into him. McCaleb defies the advice of his physician, Dr. Bonnie Fox, and sets out to find the killer with the help of his neighbor Buddy Noone, who lives on a houseboat near his, and a local police detective, Jaye Winston.

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Gods and Generals

Gettysburg

Copying his father's approach of focusing on the most important officers of the two armies (General Robert E. Lee, Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, and Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain), Shaara depicted the emotional drama of soldiers fighting old friends while accurately detailing historical details including troop movements, strategies, and tactical combat situations. General Hancock, for instance, spends much of the novel dreading the day he will have to fire on his friend in the Confederate Army, Lewis "Lo" Armistead. The novel also deals with General Lee's disillusionment with the Confederate bureaucracy and General Jackson's religious fervor. In addition to covering events leading up to the war, the book details the events of First Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. The film version provides only cursory coverage of immediate pre-war events, focusing primarily on Lee and the secession of Virginia, and omits the Battle of Antietam.

The film starts with spoken exposition over the image of a map that establishes the location of the battle and how the two armies converged at Gettysburg. Confederate General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia are making an offensive through Pennsylvania to lure the Union Army of the Potomac into a decisive battle that will end the war. The narration states that Confederate President Jefferson Davis has prepared a letter of peace to be delivered to the desk of Abraham Lincoln once the Army of the Potomac has been destroyed somewhere outside of Washington. Early scenes depict actor-turned-spy Henry Thomas Harrison spotting Union cavalry. Shortly thereafter, Harrison locates a major body of Union infantry and, immediately, crosses the Confederate picket line in order to notify Lieutenant General James "Pete" Longstreet, the senior lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and second-in-command of the Army of Northern Virginia. Major General J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, the “eyes” of Lee’s army, has gone off on raids without keeping in touch with Lee’s army. Meanwhile, U.S. Brig. Gen. John Buford and his cavalry division arrive at Gettysburg. Buford surmizes that if Lee's army is allowed access to the town, the Confederates might easily take a strong defensive position that could destroy the Army of the Potomac. Buford decides to deploy his division along Seminary Ridge in order to obstruct any Confederate advance on Gettysburg from the west. The day ends with Buford writing a letter to Maj. Gen. John Reynolds, commanding officer of the nearby Union I Corps infantry, inquiring if he should hold his position. Meanwhile, miles from Gettysburg, U.S. Colonel Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine regiment is awakened and informed that his unit will be absorbing 120 recalcitrant members of another Maine regiment, the 2nd Maine. Orders state that it is within his power to have the rebellious men shot, if necessary. Chamberlain wins over all but six of the soldiers with an inspirational speech. Back in Gettysburg on July 1, the first day of battle, Buford's cavalry engages Henry Heth's division of A. P. Hill's corps; Heth had intended to lead his troops to Gettysburg to restock the Confederacy's dwindling shoe supply. Believing the forces at Gettysburg to be local militia, Heth engages Buford without first communicating with General Lee. Buford repels Heth's initial attacks, but Heth's superior numbers begin to tell. General Reynolds and the I Corps arrive to reinforce the position. Meanwhile Lee arrives on the field but is hesitant to commit the whole of Hill's Third Corps due to a lack of intelligence on the Army of the Potomac's position, given J.E.B. Stuart's lack of contact with the Army of Northern Virginia. Lee's only information on the enemy is what has been relayed to him by General Longstreet from Harrison's report. Union forces retake Seminary Ridge, but Reynolds, while leading the Iron Brigade into battle, is killed by a Confederate sharpshooter. Soon after Heth informs Lee that Union forces are being flanked by Lt. General Dick Ewell's corps advancing on Gettysburg from the north. Recognizing a tactical advantage, Lee gives the order for all forces to attack. Union forces, out-manned and flanked, begin to retreat, but a decisive Confederate victory is compromised when Ewell fails to follow through with orders to take the crucial strategic location of Cemetery Hill, allowing Union troops to rally in a strong defensive position. Confederate General Isaac Trimble, attached to Ewell's command, but disgusted by Ewell's inability to take the high ground of Cemetery Hill, reports to General Lee. Trimble asks to be removed from Ewell's command, but Lee informs the enraged Trimble that such action would not be necessary. At the end of the first day, one of Longstreet's division commanders, Maj. Gen. George Pickett, arrives at Longstreet's headquarters with his three brigade commanders, Gens. James Kemper, Richard B. Garnett and Lewis Armistead. The four meet with Gen. Longstreet and begin exchanging banter around the fireside with British Colonel Arthur Fremantle, who has been traveling with Lee's army as an observer. Armistead discusses with Longstreet his friendship with Union General Winfield Scott Hancock and his desire to meet with him. On the other side of the battlefield, at the center of the Union position south of the town, Hancock congratulates Buford on a hard fight on the first day. Hancock reflects on Reynolds's death and Armistead's whereabouts, to which Buford responds that Armistead is serving in Pickett's division. Hancock states that he would hate to meet Armistead again while still on opposite sides. After a moment of recollection, he again congratulates Buford and instructs him that he should reorganize his cavalry. On the second day, Lee orders an attack on the Union left flank to be led by two divisions of Longstreet’s First Corps. The primary focus of the attack is to be on the treacherous terrain of Devil's Den and Little Round Top. John "Sam" Bell Hood, one of Longstreet's division commanders and a close friend tasked with flanking the Union forces, pleads with Longstreet to allow him to bypass Devil's Den and Little Round Top in favor of capturing the taller heights of the adjacent Big Round Top. However, Longstreet tells Hood that he has tried to argue much the same plan with Lee and that the commanding general will not accept an attack elsewhere on the field. Meanwhile, Chamberlain and the 20th Maine are deployed on Little Round Top as the furthermost left flank of the entire Federal line. When Devil’s Den falls, there is little to protect Chamberlain’s regiment. Chamberlain and the undersized 20th put up a valiant defense, repelling multiple Confederate charges, but his men become short on ammunition. Chamberlain orders a bayonet charge and the Confederate forces retreat in confusion, many being taken prisoner. Late that afternoon, Longstreet visits a severely wounded Hood in a field hospital. Longstreet informs Hood that they took Devil’s Den, but that they were unable to take Little Round Top. Hood again states that the Rebel attack should have taken Big Round Top. That evening, in Longstreet’s camp, General Armistead, believing he’s soon to see combat gives a package to Longstreet to be delivered to the wife of General Hancock in the event of Armistead's death. The package contains his personal Bible. Robert E. Lee meets with J.E.B. Stuart, who had finally returned that afternoon, but not in time to give Lee an advantage. Lee scolds Stuart, who attempts to resign, but Lee denies him and orders him to never leave Lee’s army blind again. On the third and final day of combat, General Lee believes that the Federal line is weakest in the center and could be divided in two. Longstreet protests, but Lee, now confident that the Army of Northern Virginia is invincible, places Longstreet in charge of a frontal assault on the Union position on Cemetery Ridge with General Pickett’s division forming the center of the assault which would go on to be known as Pickett's Charge. Longstreet, not believing the attack will be successful from the beginning, orders for an extended artillery bombardment. However, the Confederates do not realize that their guns are overshooting the Union defenses, and in the process, the bombardment hardly does any damage to the Union center. When the bombardment ends, Pickett’s forces begin their advance. Immediately they fall under fire of the Union’s long-distance artillery. They make it to the Union line where numbers are further decreased by canister and the Union musket fire. Armistead, whose brigade was at the rear of Pickett’s forces, sees General Garnett’s horse riding off away from the line, its rider having been killed by an artillery round. This prompts Armistead to thrust his sword through his hat and rally his fellow Virginians to follow him. His rally is enough to penetrate a low stone wall near the Union line , but his force is too small, and Armistead is mortally wounded. All Confederate forces that broke the line would be killed or captured. General Kemper is wounded and captured, but rescued by Confederate troops. Thomas Chamberlain, Joshua's brother, encounters the mortally wounded Armistead, who asks to see his old friend Hancock. Chamberlain informs him that Hancock has been wounded as well. Armistead asks Chamberlain to tell Hancock that he sends his regrets and that he is very sorry. Chamberlain agrees to do this as Armistead begins to expire. Lee rides out to the remains of the retreating Confederate forces and declares that everything is all his fault. He orders a distraught General Pickett to reform his division to prepare for a possible counter attack, to which Pickett informs Lee that he has no division. The day, along with the battle, ends with a victorious North and Lee informing Longstreet of plans to fall back into Virginia beginning the next day, feeling that the Union forces would be unlikely to pursue on Independence Day. However, Lee's hypothesis proves false. The film ends with Chamberlain and his brother, Tom, hugging and in tears knowing that they both survived the battle. The last scene in the film shows three zouaves of the 72nd Pennsylvania with the Union flag against the sunset.

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The Guns of Navarone

The Guns of Navarone

The story concerns the efforts of an Allied commando team to destroy a seemingly impregnable German fortress that threatens Allied naval ships in the Aegean Sea, and prevents over 2,000 isolated British soldiers from being rescued. The story is based on the real events surrounding the Battle of Leros in World War II. The Guns of Navarone brings together elements that would characterise much of MacLean's subsequent works: tough, competent, worldly men as main characters; frequent but non-graphic violence; betrayal of the hero(es) by a trusted associate; and extensive use of the sea and other dangerous environments as settings. Its three principal characters — New Zealand mountaineer-turned-commando Keith Mallory, American demolitions expert "Dusty" Miller, and Greek resistance fighter Andrea — are among the most fully drawn in all of MacLean's work.

In 1943, the Axis powers decide that a show of strength might bully neutral Turkey into joining them. Their target is 2,000 British soldiers marooned on the island of Kheros in the Aegean Sea. Rescue by the Royal Navy is impossible because of massive radar-directed guns on the nearby island of Navarone. Time is short, because the Germans are expected to launch an assault on the British forces. Efforts to destroy the guns by aerial bombing have proved fruitless. So that six destroyers can pick up the stranded men, Commodore Jensen of Allied Intelligence gathers a team of commandos to sail to Navarone and destroy the guns. Led by Major Roy Franklin , they are Captain Keith Mallory , renowned mountaineer; Colonel Andrea Stavrou , from the defeated Greek army; Franklin's best friend Corporal Miller , a former University Chemistry teacher and explosives expert; Greek-American Spyros Pappadimos , a native of Navarone; and "Butcher" Brown , an engineer and expert knife fighter. Disguised as Greek fishermen on a decrepit boat, they sail across the Aegean Sea. They are intercepted by a German boat and boarded. They attack and kill all the Germans and sink the patrol boat. During the remainder of the voyage, Mallory confides to Franklin that Andrea has sworn to kill him after the war, because he was inadvertently responsible for the deaths of Andrea's wife and children. In a violent storm, the ship is wrecked and they lose part of their equipment but still manage to land on the island. Led by Mallory, who was recruited for his climbing skills, they scale the "unclimbable" cliff. But Franklin is badly injured; the injury later becoming infected with gangrene. They find that the cliff is, in fact, guarded after all. Miller suggests that they leave Franklin to be "well cared for" by the enemy. Mallory, who assumes command of the mission, feels that Franklin would be forced to reveal their plans, so he orders two men to carry the injured man on a stretcher. Franklin tries to commit suicide, but Mallory lies to him, saying that their mission has been "scrubbed" and that a major naval attack will be mounted on the side of the island opposite the gun emplacement. They rendezvous with local resistance fighters, Spyros's sister Maria and her friend Anna , who was captured, tortured, and escaped. She was so traumatized that she cannot speak and will not allow even Maria to see her scars. The mission is continually dogged by German soldiers, and the group is captured by Oberleutnant Muesel in the town of Mandrakos, when they try to find a doctor for Franklin. Muesel and Hauptsturmführer Sessler of the SS fail to persuade the saboteurs to tell them where Miller's explosives are. Andrea pretends to grovel and beg for mercy, which surprises the Germans, allowing the group to overpower their captors. They escape in German uniform but leave Franklin behind to receive medical attention. In due course, Franklin is injected with scopolamine and gives up the false "information", as Mallory had hoped. German units are deployed in the direction of the supposed invasion point, away from the guns. Miller discovers that most of his explosives have been rendered useless and deduces that Anna is the saboteur. It transpires that she is not mute after all and was only threatened with torture but agreed to become an informer in exchange for her release. She pleads that she was coerced; but Miller, bitter about the way that Mallory has "abandoned" Franklin, insists she must be silenced. While the men hem and haw at the thought of killing an unarmed woman, it is Maria who shoots her dead. The team splits up: Mallory and Miller go for the guns, while Andrea and Pappadimos create a distraction in the town; Maria and Brown are assigned to steal a boat for their escape. Mallory and Miller make their way to the heavily fortified gun emplacements. Locking the main entrance behind them—which sets off an alarm—Miller sets obvious explosives on the guns and hides more below an elevator leading to the guns. The Germans cut through the thick emplacement doors, as Mallory and Miller make their escape by diving into the sea, reaching the stolen boat. Pappadimos and Brown are dead, and Andrea is wounded. Mallory saves him, pulling him into the boat; thus voiding the "blood feud" between them. The Allied destroyers appear on schedule. The Germans find the explosives planted on the guns and begin to fire on the passing Allied flotilla. The first salvo falls short. The second brackets the lead ship. However, just as the guns are prepared to fire again, the elevator descends low enough to trigger the hidden explosives. The guns and fortifications are destroyed in a spectacular explosion that Franklin hears from his hospital bed. As the ruined guns fall into the sea, the destroyers sound off their horns in celebration. Andrea, who has fallen in love with Maria, decides to return to Navarone with her. Mallory and Miller observe the aftermath of the destruction from a destroyer.

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The Trial

After Hours

On his thirtieth birthday, the chief financial officer of a bank, Josef K., is unexpectedly arrested by two unidentified agents from an unspecified agency for an unspecified crime. The agents' boss later arrives and holds a mini tribunal in the room of K.'s neighbor, Fräulein Bürstner. K. is not taken away, however, but left "free" to await instructions from the Committee of Affairs. He goes to work, and that night apologizes to Fräulein Bürstner for the intrusion into her room. At the end of the conversation he suddenly kisses her. K. receives a phone calling summoning him to court, and the coming Sunday is arranged as the date. No time is set and the address is given to him. The address turns out to be a huge tenement building. K. has to explore to find the court, which turns out to be in the attic. The room is airless, shabby, and crowded, and although he has no idea what he is charged with, or what authorizes the process, makes a long speech denigrating the whole process, including the agents who arrested him, and during which an attendant's wife is raped. He then returns home. K. later goes to visit the court again, although he has not been summoned. Court is not in session. He instead talks with the attendant's wife, who attempts to seduce him into taking her away, and who gives him more information about the process and offers to help him. K. later goes with the attendant to a higher level of the attic where it turns out that the offices of the court are housed, which are shabby and airless. K. returns home to find Fräulein Montag, a lodger from another room, moving in with Fräulein Bürstner. He suspects that this is to prevent him from pursuing his affair with the latter woman. Yet another lodger, Captain Lanz, appears to be in league with Montag. Later, in a store room at his own bank, K. discovers the two agents, who arrested him, being whipped by a flogger for asking K. for bribes, as a result of complaints K. made at court. K. tries to argue with the flogger, saying that the men need not be whipped, but the flogger cannot be swayed. The next day he returns to the store room and is shocked to find everything as he had found it the day before, including the Whipper and the two agents. K. is visited by his uncle, who was K.'s guardian. The uncle seems distressed by K.'s predicament. At first sympathetic, he becomes concerned K. is underestimating the seriousness of the case. The uncle introduces K. to a lawyer, who is attended by Leni, a nurse, who K.'s uncle suspects is the advocate's mistress. During the discussion it becomes clear how different this process is from regular legal proceedings – guilt is assumed, the bureaucracy running it is vast with many levels, and everything is secret, from the charge, to the rules of the court, to the authority behind the courts – even the identity of the judges at the higher levels. The attorney tells him that he can prepare a brief for K., but since the charge is unknown and the rules are unknown, it is difficult work. It also never may be read. Yet it is very important. The lawyer says that his most important task is to deal with powerful court officials behinds the scenes. As they talk, the lawyer reveals that the Chief Clerk of the Court has been sitting hidden in the darkness of a corner. The Chief Clerk emerges to join the conversation, but K. is called away by Leni, who takes him to the next room, where she offers to help him and seduces him. They have a sexual encounter. Afterwards K. meets his uncle outside, who is angry and, who claims that K.'s lack of respect has also hurt K.'s case. K. visits the lawyer several times. The lawyer tells him incessantly how dire his situation is and tells many stories of other hopeless clients and of his behind-the-scenes efforts on behalf of these clients, and brags about his many connections. The brief is never complete. K.'s work at the bank deteriorates as he is consumed with worry about his case. K. is surprised by one of his bank clients, who tells K. that he is aware that K. is dealing with a trial. The client learned of K.'s case from Titorelli, a painter, who told the client about K.'s case and has dealings with the court. The client advises K. to go to Titorelli for advice. Titorelli lives in the attic of a tenement in a suburb on the opposite side of town from the court that K. visited. Three teenage girls taunt K. on the steps and tease him sexually. Titorelli turns out to be an official painter of portraits for the court – an inherited position, and has a deep understanding of the process. K. learns that, to Titorelli's knowledge, not a single defendant has ever been acquitted. He sets out K.'s options and offers to help K. with either. The options are: obtain a provisional verdict of innocence from the lower court, which can be overturned at any time by higher levels of the court leading to re-initiation of the process; or curry favor with the lower judges to keep the process moving albeit at a glacial pace. Titorelli has K. leave through a small back door as the girls are blocking the door through with K. entered. To K.'s shock, the door opens into another warren of the court's offices – again shabby and airless. K. decides to take control of matters himself and visits his lawyer with the intention of dismissing him. At the lawyer's office he meets a downtrodden individual, Block, a client who offers K. some insight from a client's perspective. Block's case has continued for five years and he has gone from being a successful businessman to being almost bankrupt and is virtually enslaved by his dependence on the lawyer and Leni, with whom he appears to be sexually involved. The lawyer mocks Block in front of K. for his dog-like subservience. This experience further poisons K.'s opinion of his lawyer. (This chapter was left unfinished by the author.) K. is asked by the bank to show an Italian client around local places of cultural interest, but the Italian client, short of time, asks K. to take him only to the cathedral, setting a time to meet there. When the client doesn't show up, K. explores the cathedral which is empty except for an old woman and a church official. K. notices a priest who seems to be preparing to give a sermon from a small second pulpit, and K. begins to leave, lest it begin and K. be compelled to stay for its entirety. Instead of giving a sermon, the priest calls out K.'s name. K. approaches the pulpit and the priest berates him for his attitude toward the trial and for seeking help, especially from women. K. asks him to come down and the two men walk inside the cathedral. The priest works for the court as a chaplain, and tells K. a fable, (which has been published separately as Before the Law) that is meant to explain his situation. K. and the priest discuss the parable. The priest tells K. that the parable is an ancient text of the court, and many generations of court officials have given interpretations. On the eve of K.'s thirty-first birthday, two men arrive at his apartment. He has been waiting for them, and he offers little resistance – indeed the two men take direction from K. as they walk through town. K. leads them to a quarry where the two men place K's head on a discarded block. One of the men produces a double-edged butcher knife, and as the two men pass it back and forth between them, the narrator tells us that "K. knew then precisely, that it would have been his duty to take the knife...and thrust it into himself." He does not take the knife. One of the men holds his shoulder and pulls him up and the other man stabs him in the heart and twists the knife twice. K.'s last words are: "Like a dog!"

Paul Hackett , a word processor, meets Marcy Franklin in a cafe. They converse about their common interest in Henry Miller. Marcy leaves Paul her number and informs him that she lives with a sculptor named Kiki Bridges , who makes and sells plaster of Paris paperweights resembling bagels. Later in the night, under the pretense of buying a paperweight, Paul visits Marcy, taking a cab to her apartment. On his way to visit Marcy, a $20 bill is blown out the window of the cab, leaving him with only some spare pocket change. The cab driver is furious that he can't pay, thereby beginning the first in a long series of misadventures for Paul that turn hostile through no fault of his own. At the apartment Paul meets the sculptor Kiki and Marcy. It seems that a romance might develop between Paul and Marcy but he comes across a collection of photographs and medications which imply that Marcy is severely disfigured from burns on her legs and torso. As a result of this implication, and as a result of a strained conversation with Marcy, Paul abruptly slips out of the apartment. Paul later learns that Marcy is not disfigured and the significance of his earlier discovery is left as a mystery to the viewer. Paul then attempts to go home by subway, yet the fare has increased at the stroke of midnight and he finds that his pocket change is no longer sufficient to purchase a token. He goes to a bar. The owner, Tom Schorr ([[John Heard cannot open the cash register to help him. They exchange keys so Paul can go to Tom's place to fetch the cash register keys. On the way, he spots two burglars, Neil and Pepe , with one of Kiki's sculptures. When he returns the sculpture to the apartment, he finds Marcy has committed suicide while Kiki and a stout man named Horst have already left to go to Club Berlin, a nightclub. Paul goes back to Tom's bar, finding Tom deeply in grief over the death of Marcy, who turns out to be Tom's girlfriend. On the way he meets two women, Julie and Gail , both of whom apparently like him at first but turn against him later. When he goes to the nightclub Kiki and Horst patronize, a collection of punks attempt to shave his head into a Mohawk hairstyle. On the street Paul is mistaken for a burglar and is relentlessly pursued by a mob of local residents. Paul finds Tom again, but the mob chases Paul and he ultimately seeks refuge back at the Club Berlin, where he is helped by a woman named June , also a sculptress, who protects him by pouring plaster on him in order to disguise him as a sculpture. However, she won't let him out of the plaster, which eventually hardens, trapping Paul in a position that resembles the character depicted in Edvard Munch's The Scream. The burglar duo then breaks into the Club Berlin and steals him, placing him in the back of their van. He falls from the burglar's cargo near the gate to his office as the sun is rising, and returns to work, bringing the film full circle.

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The Lincoln Lawyer

The Lincoln Lawyer

Moderately successful criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller operates around Los Angeles County out of a Lincoln Town Car (hence the title) driven by a former client working off his legal fees. While most clients are drug dealers and gangsters, the story focuses on an unusually important case of wealthy Los Angeles realtor Louis Roulet accused of assault and attempted murder. At first, he appears to be innocent and set up by the female "victim." However, Roulet's lies and many surprising revelations change Mickey's original case theory, making him reconsider the situation of Jesus Menendez, a former client serving time in San Quentin State Prison after pleading guilty to a similar and mysteriously related crime. In the end, Haller outmaneuvers Roulet (revealed to be a rapist and murderer) without violating ethical obligations, frees the innocent Menendez, and continues in legal practice, though not without much self-examination and emotional baggage.

Criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller operates around Los Angeles County out of his black Lincoln Town Car. Haller has spent most of his career defending garden-variety criminals, including a member of a local biker gang, until he lands the case of his career: Louis Roulet , a Beverly Hills playboy and son of real estate mogul Mary Windsor , is accused of the brutal beating of prostitute Reggie Campo. Haller thinks Roulet is innocent, having simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time. Haller and his investigator Frank Levin analyze the pictures and evidence, notably the injuries the victim sustained. It bears a similarity to a past case of Haller's that landed a previous client, Jesus Martinez , in prison for life for murdering a Donna Renteria, despite always proclaiming his innocence. Haller has a daughter with his ex-wife, prosecutor Maggie McPherson , who has never appreciated Haller's efforts on behalf of guilty clients. Haller begins to wonder if he should have tried harder on behalf of Martinez instead of convincing him to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. Martinez becomes agitated when Haller visits him at San Quentin and shows him Roulet's picture. Haller begins to suspect that Roulet could be the real killer in the Martinez case, but bound by attorney–client confidentiality rules, he cannot tell the police what he has learned. That night, Roulet breaks into Haller's house, nonchalantly admits to committing the murder that put Martinez in prison, and makes veiled threats toward Haller's family. Levin is shot to death after leaving a voicemail message claiming that he has found Martinez's ticket out of jail. The murder weapon used in Levin's murder is a .22 caliber pistol. Haller rushes to his home to find his .22 Colt Woodsman is missing from its carrier box. Haller is suspected of killing Levin because the police discover that a Colt Woodsman is registered to Haller. Haller believes it was stolen by Roulet after he broke into Haller's home. Obliged to do his best for his client, guilty or not, Haller ruthlessly cross-examines the prostitute and discredits her in the jury's eyes. However, Haller sets up a known prison informant with information on the previous murder. When the informant testifies, Haller discredits him and the state later moves to dismiss all charges in the current case. Roulet is set free, but the police then arrests him immediately for the previous murder based upon testimony Haller had coaxed out of the informant. Haller acquires a Smith and Wesson pistol from his driver, Earl , as a precaution against any retribution he may face. Roulet is released due to lack of evidence and sets out immediately to kill Haller's wife and child, but Haller finds out in time to get them out of the house. He is waiting as Roulet arrives and Haller draws his gun. Roulet mockingly tells Haller he won't be able to guard his family this way every day. Just then, a group of bikers whom Haller has previously represented starts bashing Roulet's Maserati and they brutally beat Roulet. As Haller walks away, he says: "The hospital, not the morgue." He gets a call from Maggie that a parking ticket was issued to Roulet near the house of the previous murder victim, strong evidence against Roulet in his pending murder trial that will support Martinez's release. Upon arriving home, Haller discovers Roulet's mother, Mary Windsor, inside. She shoots him with the Colt Woodsman, the same one that killed Levin, confessing that she committed that murder to protect her son. Haller, wounded, draws the Smith and Wesson pistol that Earl got for him and shoots Mary Windsor, killing her. Upon being discharged from the hospital, Haller learns that Martinez has been released and the District Attorney will seek the death penalty against Roulet. Haller rides off to his next case: the biker gang, which he takes pro bono because of their previous help.

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The Midwich Cuckoos

Village of the Damned

Ambulances arrive at two traffic accidents which block the only roads into the fictional British village of Midwich, Winshire. Attempting to approach the village, one paramedic falls unconscious. Suspecting gas poisoning, the army is called in. However, they find that a caged canary becomes unconscious upon entering the affected region, but regains consciousness when removed. Further experiments show the region to be a hemisphere with a diameter of around the village. Aerial photography reveals an unidentifiable ground-based silver object in the centre of the created exclusion zone. After one day the effect vanishes along with the unidentified object, and the villagers wake with no apparent ill effects. Some months later, the villagers realise that every woman of child-bearing age is pregnant, with all indications that the pregnancies were caused by xenogenesis during the period of unconsciousness referred to as the "Dayout". When the 31 boys and 30 girls are born they appear normal except for their unusual, golden eyes and pale, silvery skin. These children have none of the genetic characteristics of their parents. As they grow up, it becomes increasingly apparent that they are, at least in some respects, not human. They possess telepathic abilities, and can control others' actions. The Children (they are referred to with a capital 'C') have two distinct group minds: one for the boys and another for the girls. Their physical development is accelerated compared to that of humans; upon reaching the age of nine, they appear to be sixteen-year-olds. The Children protect themselves as much as possible using a form of mind control. One young man who accidentally hits a Child in the hip while driving a car is made to drive into a wall and kill himself. A bull who chased the Children is forced into a pond to drown. The villagers form a mob and try to burn down the Midwich Grange, where the Children are taught and live, but the Children make the villagers attack each other. The Military Intelligence department learn that the same thing has taken place in four other parts of the world, including an Inuit settlement in the Canadian Arctic, a small township in Australia's Northern Territory, and a rural Siberian village. The Inuit instinctively killed the newborn Children, sensing they were not their own. The Australian babies had all died within a few weeks, suggesting that something may have gone wrong with their xenogenesis process. The Siberian village was destroyed by the Soviet government, using nuclear weapons, claiming that it was an accident. The Children are aware of the threat against them, and use their power to prevent any aeroplanes from flying over the village. During an interview with a Military Intelligence officer the Children explain that to solve the problem they must be destroyed. They explain it is not possible to kill them unless the entire village is bombed, which results in civilian deaths. It is revealed that the Children have put up an ultimatum: The Children want to migrate to a secure location, where they can live unharmed. They demand aeroplanes from the government. An elderly, educated Midwich resident (Gordon Zellaby) realises the Children must be killed as soon as possible. As he has a only a few weeks left to live due to a heart condition, he feels an obligation to do something. He has acted as a teacher and mentor to the Children and they regard him with as much affection as they can have for any human, letting him approach them more closely than they do with others. One evening, he - in effect abusing their trust - hides a bomb in his projection equipment, while showing the Children a film about the Aegean Islands of Ancient Greece. At an unspecified moment, Zellaby sets off the bomb, killing himself and all of the children. The title is a reference to the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in the nest of other birds in the hopes that they will raise the cuckoo's offspring as their own.

All of the inhabitants of the British village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious, and anyone entering the village also loses consciousness. The military arrives and establishes a cordon. The pilot of an observation aircraft goes below 5,000 feet, loses consciousness, and the plane crashes. A five mile exclusion zone around the village is established for all aircraft. The military send in a man wearing a gas mask, but he too falls unconscious and is pulled back by a safety rope. The man awakens, reporting a cold sensation just before passing out. At nearly that very moment, the villagers regain consciousness, seeming otherwise unaffected. The incident is referred to as a "time-out," and no cause is determined. About two months later, all women and girls of childbearing age who were in the affected area are discovered to be pregnant, sparking many accusations of infidelity and premarital sex. The accusations fade as the extraordinary nature of the pregnancies is discovered with three-month fetuses appearing to be developed to a stage of five months. All of the women give birth on the same day, and the doctor doing the bulk of the deliveries reports on the unusual appearance of the children, who all have unusual scalp hair texture and colour , striking eyes and unusual fingernails. As they grow, and develop at impossible speed, it becomes clear that they also have a powerful telepathic bond with one another. They can tell each other anything that they see from great distances. As one learns something, so do the others. Three years later village resident Professor Gordon Zellaby , who is connected to the military via his brother-in-law , attends a meeting with British Intelligence to discuss the children. There he learns that Midwich was not the only place affected, and followup investigations had revealed similar phenomena in other areas of the world. * In a township in northern Australia, thirty infants were born in one day but all died within 10 hours of birth. * In an Inuit community in Canada, there were ten children born. Fair-haired children born to their kind violated their taboos, and all of them were killed. * In Irkutsk, RSFSR, the men murdered all of the children and their mothers. * In the mountains of the north-western Soviet Union, the children survived and were being educated to the highest possible level by the state. Although only three years old, they are physically the equivalent of children four times their age. Their behaviour has become increasingly unusual and striking. They dress impeccably, always walk as a group, speak in a very adult way, are very well-behaved...but they show no conscience or love and demonstrate a coldness to others. All of this has had the effect of most of the villagers fearing and being repulsed by them. They begin to exhibit the power to read minds when expedient, or to force people to do things against their will. The latter is accompanied by an alien glow in the children's eyes. There have been a number of villagers' deaths since they were born, many of which are considered unusual , and it is the opinion of some that the children are responsible. This is later confirmed when they are shown making a man crash his car into a wall, killing him and then forcing his suspicious brother to shoot himself. Gordon, whose 'son' David is one of the children, at first is eager to work with them. With government agreement, he attempts to teach the children while hoping to learn from them, and the children are all placed in a separate building where they will learn and live. While the children continue to exert their will, Gordon learns that the Soviet government has used an atomic cannon to destroy the village containing their own spawn of mutant children. Gordon compares the children's resistance to reasoning with a brick wall, and uses this motif as self-protection after the children's inhuman nature becomes obvious to him. He takes a hidden time-bomb to what he expects to be a session with the children, and tries to block their awareness of the bomb by visualizing the brick wall. David scans his mind - showing an emotion for the first time - "You're not thinking of atomic energy, you're thinking of...a brick wall!" The children exert force to try to break down Gordon's mental wall to learn what he is hiding from them. They discover his actions just a moment before the bomb detonates. In the final shot, the glowing eyes of the children appear against the background of the burning building, then move out of shot.

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The Talented Mr. Ripley

The Talented Mr. Ripley

Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in New York City by whatever means necessary, including a series of small-time confidence scams. One day, he is approached by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf to travel to Mongibello, Italy, to persuade Greenleaf's errant son, Dickie, to return to the United States and join the family business. Ripley agrees, exaggerating his friendship with Dickie, a half-remembered acquaintance, in order to gain the elder Greenleaf's trust. Shortly after his arrival in Italy, Ripley meets Dickie and his friend Marge Sherwood; although Ripley ingratiates himself with Dickie, Marge does not seem to like him very much. As Ripley and Dickie spend more time together, Marge feels left out and begins insinuating to Dickie that Ripley is gay. Dickie then surprises Ripley in Dickie's bedroom dressed up in Dickie's clothes and imitating his mannerisms. Dickie is upset, and from this moment on Ripley senses that his wealthy friend has begun to tire of him, resenting his constant presence and growing personal dependence. Ripley has indeed become obsessed with Dickie, which is further reinforced by his desire to imitate and maintain the wealthy lifestyle Dickie has afforded him. As a gesture to Ripley, Dickie agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to Sanremo. Sensing that Dickie is about to cut him loose, Ripley finally decides to murder him and assume his identity. When the two set sail in a small rented boat, Ripley beats him to death with an oar, dumps his anchor-weighted body into the water and scuttles the boat. Ripley assumes Dickie's identity, living off the latter's trust fund and carefully providing communications to Marge to assure her that Dickie has dumped her. Freddie Miles, an old friend of Dickie's from the same social set, encounters Ripley at what he supposes to be Dickie's apartment in Rome. He soon suspects something is wrong. When Miles finally confronts him, Ripley kills him with an ashtray. He later disposes of the body on the outskirts of Rome, attempting to make police believe that Miles has been murdered by robbers. Ripley enters a cat-and-mouse game with the Italian police, but manages to keep himself safe by restoring his own identity and moving to Venice. In succession Marge, Dickie's father, and an American private detective confront Ripley, who suggests to them that Dickie was depressed and may have committed suicide. Marge stays for a while at Ripley's rented house in Venice. When she discovers Dickie's rings in Ripley's possession, she seems to be on the verge of realising the truth. Panicked, Ripley contemplates murdering Marge, but she is saved when she says that if Dickie gave his rings to Ripley, then he probably meant to kill himself. The story concludes with Ripley's traveling to Greece and resigning himself to eventually getting caught. On arrival in Greece, however, he discovers that the Greenleaf family has accepted that Dickie is dead and that Ripley shall inherit his fortune according to a will forged by Ripley on Dickie's Hermes typewriter. While the book ends with Ripley happily rich, it also suggests that he may forever be dogged by paranoia. In one of the final paragraphs, he nervously envisions a group of police officers waiting to arrest him, and Highsmith leaves her protagonist wondering, ".....was he going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached?"

{{Plot}} Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in 1950s New York City using his "talents" — forgery, lying and impersonation. While working at a party, playing the piano in a borrowed Princeton jacket, he is approached by the wealthy shipbuilder Herbert Greenleaf, who believes Ripley to be an actual graduate of the university and a friend of his son, Dickie. Herbert recruits Ripley to travel to Italy to persuade Dickie to return home to the United States, for which he will pay Ripley $1000. Ripley accepts the proposal, though he did not attend Princeton and has never met Dickie. Shortly after his arrival in Italy, Ripley contrives an "accidental" meeting on the beach with Dickie and his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood, and quickly insinuates himself into their lives. On one of their outings together, Dickie and Ripley meet Dickie's friend Freddie Miles, who treats Ripley with barely concealed contempt. Things begin to change after a local girl, whom Dickie had made pregnant, drowns herself when he refuses to help her financially. Soon afterward, Dickie begins to tire of his new friend, resenting his constant presence and suffocating dependence, especially after surmising that Ripley has been lying about their days together at Princeton. Ripley's own feelings are complicated by his desire to maintain the opulent lifestyle Dickie has afforded him, and by his growing sexual obsession with his new friend. As a gesture to Ripley, Dickie agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to San Remo. The two hire a small boat and head out to sea together. Dickie lashes out when Ripley confronts him about his behavior and his sexual feelings towards him, and a fight ensues in which Ripley strikes Dickie with an oar in a fit of rage. Dickie attacks him, and Ripley beats him to death with the oar. To conceal his crime, he scuttles the boat, with Dickie's body still on board, before swimming to shore. When the hotel concierge mistakes him for Dickie, Ripley suddenly realizes he can assume Dickie's identity. He forges Dickie's signature, modifies his passport, and begins living off his allowance. He uses Dickie's typewriter to communicate with Marge and makes her believe that Dickie has deserted her. He even checks into two separate hotels as himself and as Dickie and passes messages between "them" via the hotel staff, thus providing the illusion that Dickie is still alive. Ripley rents an expensive apartment in Rome and spends a lonely Christmas buying expensive presents for himself. Freddie visits what he assumes to be Dickie's apartment, and is immediately suspicious of Ripley; the apartment is not furnished in what he considers to be Dickie's style, while Ripley appears to have copied Dickie's dress and manner perfectly. On his way out, Freddie meets the landlady, who refers to Ripley as "Signor Greenleaf." Freddie, realizing the mystery has been solved, goes back to confront Ripley, who ambushes and then murders him. Over the next few weeks, Ripley's existence becomes a "cat-and-mouse" game with the police and Dickie's friends. His predicament is complicated by the presence of Meredith Logue, an heiress he met upon his arrival in Italy and to whom he introduced himself as Dickie Greenleaf before he had met Dickie. Ripley forges a suicide note in Dickie's name and moves to Venice. In quick succession, Marge, Herbert, and an American private detective, Alvin MacCarron, confront Ripley. Marge, in particular, suspects Ripley's involvement in Dickie's death; when she expresses her suspicions, Ripley prepares to murder her. He is interrupted when Marge's friend, Peter Smith-Kingsley, enters the apartment. The private detective reveals that Mr. Greenleaf has decided to give Ripley a substantial portion of Dickie's income, with the understanding that certain sordid details about his son's past, such as a vicious assault on a male student at Princeton, Dickie's having impregnated the Italian girl, and Dickie's having been seen driving off with Freddie on the last night Freddie was seen alive and removing that car's license plates not be revealed to the Italian police. Ripley goes on a cruise with Smith-Kingsley, now his lover, only to discover that Meredith is also on board. Ripley realizes it will be impossible to keep Smith-Kingsley from discovering that he has been passing himself off as Dickie, since Smith-Kingsley and Meredith know each other and would certainly exchange words later on the cruise. He cannot solve this dilemma by murdering Meredith, as she is traveling with family who would quickly notice her disappearance. The film concludes with a sobbing Ripley strangling Smith-Kingsley in the latter's bed and going back to his cabin, alone.

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Black Beauty

Black Beauty

The story is narrated in the first person as an autobiographical memoir told by the titular horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his carefree days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy, and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour lending the novel a good deal of verisimilitude. The book describes conditions among London horse-drawn taxicab drivers, including the financial hardship caused to them by high licence fees and low, legally fixed fares. A page footnote in some editions says that soon after the book was published, the difference between 6-day taxicab licences (not allowed to trade on Sundays) and 7-day taxicab licences (allowed to trade on Sundays) was abolished and the taxicab licence fee was much reduced.

Black Beauty narrates his story. He is born on a farm in the English countryside and remains by his mother's side until he is sent to Birtwick Park to serve Squire Gordon and his family. Lady Gordon, the squire's ill wife, is pleased by the beautiful horse and gives him his trademark name, Black Beauty. Beauty is smitten with the squire's bitter chestnut mare, Ginger, who rebuffs his attempts to be friendly. However, Beauty does befriend Merrylegs, a pony who gives rides to the squire's daughters, Jessica and Molly. On a stormy night, Beauty is pulling a carriage holding the squire and his caretaker, John Manly, home from town, but he refuses to cross a partially flooded bridge that he senses is dangerous. When John tries to get him to move, Beauty refuses. John slips and falls into the river, but hangs onto Beauty's bridle. Beauty and the squire save John, and they head home. Young Joe Green, who works in the stable, looks after Beauty that night. His lack of knowledge about horses causes him to give Beauty cold water instead of covering him in blankets, which makes Beauty ill. John, Joe, and the squire treat Beauty, and he recovers. Lady Gordon's illness gets worse, and she is taken to a doctor in a carriage pulled by Beauty and Ginger. When they stop at an inn for the night, the barn where the horses are staying catches on fire due to a dropped pipe. However, Joe rescues the horses. Lady Gordon's doctor orders her to leave England for a warmer place because her illness is so advanced. The squire and his family bid goodbye to John, Joe, and the horses. Merrylegs is given to the vicar, who promises to never sell the pony. Beauty and Ginger are taken to Earlshall Park, home of the Lord and Lady of Wexmire, and Joe bids a tearful goodbye to Beauty. Beauty and Ginger are paired up to pull Lady Wexmire's carriage, but she demands that the horses wear uncomfortable bearing reins to raise their heads high, which angers Ginger. One day, Ginger breaks away from the carriage in rage. Reuben Smith, the horses' caretaker, rides to town with Beauty to take a carriage to be repainted. He becomes drunk at the tavern and rides Beauty roughly home during the night. Beauty throws a shoe and stumbles to the ground, throwing Reuben off and suffering disfiguring injuries to his knees. Reuben is dismissed from his job, and Beauty is later sold by Lord Wexmire. He is bought by a man who keeps horses for rent but treats them terribly. Beauty is eventually taken to a fair, where he spots Joe, now a grown-up, but Joe doesn't notice him. Beauty's whinnies catch the attention of Jerry Barker, a taxi carriage driver from London, and he buys Beauty for 17 guineas. Jerry introduces Beauty to his family, who name him Black Jack. Beauty likes his job as a taxi cab horse, and Jerry treats him better than his last owner did. One day, Beauty spots Ginger, now a cab horse, but she is very weak from being abused by her owner. Beauty begs for her not to give up, but her owner leads her away. Some time later, Beauty sees her dead body on a wagon. One snowy night, Jerry has a dreadful cough that worsens as he waits outdoors for hours for his passengers to leave a party. His condition then worsens, and a doctor advises him to quit his job and move to the countryside. Beauty is sold to a grain dealer and pulls heavy loads of flour for two years until he collapses from exhaustion. He is taken to a fair to be sold, but he is so weak that no one wants to buy him. Then Farmer Thoroughgood and his grandson spot Beauty, and a young man sees him, too. Beauty realizes that the young man is Joe, and he whinnies for his friend. Joe recognizes him, and the two are reunited. Beauty lives the remainder of his life at Thoroughgood's farm with Joe, who promises that he will never sell Beauty.

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2

Following Dumbledore's death, Voldemort continues to gain support and increase his power. When Harry turns seventeen, the protection he has at his aunt and uncle's house will be broken. Before that can happen, at Mad Eye Moody's suggestion, Harry flees to the Burrow with his friends, many of whom use Polyjuice Potion to impersonate him so as to confuse any Death Eaters that may attack. They are indeed attacked shortly after leaving Privet Drive; Mad Eye is killed, and George Weasley wounded, but the rest arrive safely at the Burrow. Ron and Hermione decide to accompany Harry, instead of returning to Hogwarts School for their seventh year, to finish the quest Dumbledore started: to hunt and destroy Voldemort's four remaining Horcruxes. They have little knowledge about the remaining Horcruxes except that one is a locket once owned by Hogwarts' co-founder Salazar Slytherin, one is possibly a cup once owned by co-founder Helga Hufflepuff, a third may be connected with co-founder Rowena Ravenclaw, and the fourth may be Nagini, Voldemort's snake familiar. The whereabouts of the founders' objects is unknown, and Nagini is presumed to be with Voldemort. Before leaving, they attend Ron's brother's Bill's wedding to Fleur Delacour, with Harry disguised by Polyjuice Potion, but the Ministry of Magic is taken over by Death Eaters during the wedding and they barely escape with their lives. Harry, Ron, and Hermione flee to 12 Grimmauld Place in London, which is Sirius Black's family's house, where they learn from the house-elf Kreacher the whereabouts of Salazar Slytherin's locket, which Sirius' brother Regulus stole from Voldemort at the cost of his own life. They successfully recover this Horcrux by infiltrating the Ministry of Magic and stealing it from Dolores Umbridge. Under the object's evil influence and the stress of being on the run, Ron leaves the others. As Harry and Hermione search for the Horcruxes, they learn more about Dumbledore's past, including the insanity and death of Dumbledore's younger sister and his connection to the evil wizard Grindewald. Harry and Hermione ultimately travel to Godric's Hollow, Harry's birthplace and the place where his parents died. They meet the eldery magical historian Bathilda Bagshot, who turns out to be Nagini in disguise and attacks them. They escape into the Forest of Dean, where a mysterious silver doe that appears to be a Patronus leads Harry to the Sword of Hogwarts co-founder Godric Gryffindor, one of the few objects able to destroy Horcruxes, lying at the bottom of an icy lake. When Harry attempts to recover the sword from the pool, the Horcrux attempts to kill him. Ron reappears, saving Harry and then using the sword to destroy the locket. Resuming their search, the trio repeatedly encounter a strange symbol that an eccentric wizard named Xenophilius Lovegood tells them represents the mythical Deathly Hallows. The Hallows are three sacred objects: the Elder Wand, an unbeatable wand; the Resurrection Stone, with the power to summon the dead to the living world; and an infallible Invisibility Cloak. Harry learns that Voldemort is seeking the Elder Wand, recognizes the Resurrection Stone from the second Horcrux, which Dumbledore had destroyed, and realizes that his own Invisibility Cloak is the one mentioned in the story, but he is unaware of the Hallows' significance. The trio are captured and taken to Malfoy Manor, where Bellatrix Lestrange tortures Hermione. Harry and Ron are thrown in the cellar, where they find Luna Lovegood, Ollivander, Dean Thomas, and Griphook. They escape to Shell Cottage (Bill and Fleur's house) with Dobby's help, but at the cost of the house-elf's life. Harry now realizes that the Hallows may have the power to defeat Death and knows that Voldemort robbed Dumbledore's tomb to procure the Elder Wand, but he decides to focus on finding the Horcruxes instead of the Hallows. With Griphook's help, they learn that Helga Hufflepuff's cup - a Horcrux - is hidden in Bellatrix's vault at Gringotts, break into her vault, retrieve the cup, and escape on a dragon, with Griphook swiping the sword and escaping on his own. From his connection to Voldemort's thoughts, Harry learns that another Horcrux is hidden in Hogwarts, which is under the control of Severus Snape. Harry, Ron, and Hermione enter the school through Hogsmeade (being saved by Aberforth Dumbledore, who explains more about Albus's backstory) and - with the help of the teachers - Snape is ousted from the school. Ron and Hermione go to the Chamber of Secrets and destroy the cup using a basilisk fang. The trio then finds Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem (another Horcrux) in the Room of Requirement. Vincent Crabbe casts a Fiendfyre curse in an attempt to kill Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but he instead destroys the diadem, the Room of Requirement, and himself. At this point, a total of five Horcruxes have been destroyed. The Death Eaters and Voldemort besiege Hogwarts, while Harry, Ron, Hermione, their allies, and various magical creatures defend the school. Several major characters are killed in the first wave of the battle, including Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Fred Weasley. Voldemort kills Severus Snape because he believes doing so will make him the Elder Wand's true master, since Snape killed Dumbledore. Harry discovers while viewing Snape's memories that Voldemort inadvertently made Harry into a seventh Horcrux when he attacked him as a baby, which is the true significance of Harry's scar, and that Harry must die in order to destroy Voldemort. These memories also confirm Snape's unwavering loyalty to Dumbledore and that his role as a double-agent against Voldemort never wavered after Voldemort killed Lily Evans, Harry's mother and Snape's one true love. Harry also learns that Dumbledore had less than a year to live when he died, that his death by Snape's hand had been per Dumbledore's request, and that Dumbledore had known that Harry must die. After using the Resurrection Stone to bring back his deceased loved ones for a short while, Harry surrenders himself to death at Voldemort's hand. Voldemort casts the Killing Curse at him, but it only sends Harry into a limbo-like state between life and death. While in this state, Dumbledore's spirit explains to Harry that when Voldemort used Harry's blood to regain his full strength, it protected Harry from Voldemort killing him; however, the Horcrux inside Harry has been destroyed, and Harry can return to his body despite being hit by the Killing Curse. Dumbledore also explains that Harry became the true master of the Deathly Hallows by facing Death, not by seeking to avoid it or conquer it. Harry returns to his body, feigning death, and Voldemort marches victoriously into the castle with his body. However, per Harry's prior instructions, Neville Longbottom kills Nagini, the last Horcrux, with the Sword of Gryffindor. Harry then reveals that he is still alive, and the battle resumes, with Bellatrix Lestrange being killed by Molly Weasley. Harry and Voldemort engage in a final climactic duel. Harry reveals that because he willingly sacrificed himself to death by Voldemort's hand, his act of love would protect the Wizarding community from Voldemort in the same way the sacrifice Harry's mother made protected Harry. Harry also reveals that Snape was not loyal to Voldemort, did not murder Dumbledore, and was never the master of the Elder Wand. Instead, Draco was the master of the Elder Wand after disarming Dumbledore, but, because Harry had disarmed Draco at Malfoy Manor, Harry is the true master of the Elder Wand. Harry claims that the wand will refuse to kill the one to whom it owes allegiance, further protecting Harry. During the duel, Harry refuses to use the killing curse and even encourages Voldemort to feel remorse, one known way to restore Voldemort's shattered soul. Voldemort dies when his own killing curse backfires against Harry's disarming curse, killing himself; the Death Eaters are finally defeated. The wizarding world is able to live in peace once more.

{{further2}} {{See also}} As Lord Voldemort retrieves the Elder Wand from Albus Dumbledore's grave, Severus Snape has become Hogwarts headmaster. After burying Dobby, Harry Potter asks the help of goblin Griphook, Ron, and Hermione to break into Bellatrix Lestrange's vault at Gringotts bank, suspecting a Horcrux may be there. Griphook agrees, in exchange for the Sword of Gryffindor. Harry asks wandmaker Ollivander to identify two wands taken from Malfoy Manor. Ollivander says they belonged to Bellatrix and to Draco Malfoy, but Malfoy's has changed its allegiance to Harry. In Bellatrix's vault, Harry discovers the Horcrux is Helga Hufflepuff's cup. He retrieves it, but Griphook snatches the sword and abandons the trio, leaving them cornered by the alerted security. The three release the dragon guardian and flee on its back. Harry sees a vision of Voldemort killing goblins, including Griphook, and learns Voldemort is aware of the theft. Harry also realises that there is a Horcrux at Hogwarts somehow connected to Rowena Ravenclaw. The trio apparate into Hogsmeade, and set off Caterwauling alarms. They are rescued by Aberforth Dumbledore, who instructs the portrait of his younger sister, Ariana, to fetch Neville Longbottom, who leads the trio through a secret passageway into Hogwarts. Snape hears of Harry's return and warns staff and students of the severe punishment for aiding Harry. Harry confronts Snape, who flees after Minerva McGonagall challenges him to a duel. McGonagall gathers the community of Hogwarts to prepare for battle. At Luna Lovegood's insistence, Harry speaks to Helena Ravenclaw's ghost, who reveals that Voldemort performed "dark magic" on her mother's diadem, which is in the Room of Requirement. Ron and Hermione go to the Chamber of Secrets, where Hermione destroys the Horcrux cup with a Basilisk fang. In the Room of Requirement, Draco, Gregory Goyle and Blaise Zabini attack Harry, but Ron and Hermione intervene. Goyle casts a Fiendfyre curse and is unable to control it, and is burned to death while Harry and his friends save Malfoy and Zabini. Harry stabs the diadem with the Basilisk fang and Ron kicks it into the Room of Requirement, where it is destroyed. As Voldemort's forces attack the school, Harry, seeing into Voldemort's mind, realises that Voldemort's snake Nagini is the final Horcrux. After entering the boathouse, the trio witness Voldemort telling Snape that the Elder Wand cannot serve him until Snape dies; he then orders Nagini to kill Snape. Before dying, Snape tells Harry to take his memories to the Pensieve. In the chaos at Hogwarts, Fred, Lupin, and Tonks are killed. Harry learns from Snape's memories that Snape loved Harry's mother, Lily, but despised his father, James, who had bullied him. Following her death, Snape worked secretly with Dumbledore to protect Harry from Voldemort because of his love for Lily. Harry also learns that Dumbledore's death at Snape's hands was planned between them. Harry discovers that he became a Horcrux when Voldemort originally failed to kill him and that Harry must die to destroy the piece of Voldemort's soul within him. Harry goes to die at the hands of Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest. Voldemort casts the Killing Curse upon Harry, who finds himself in limbo, where Dumbledore's spirit meets him and explains that the part of Voldemort within Harry was killed by Voldemort's own curse. Harry decides to return to his body to defeat Voldemort once for all. Voldemort announces Harry's apparent death to everyone at Hogwarts, and says that anyone who defies him will be killed. As Neville gives a defiant response, Harry reveals he is alive. Neville draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, and as Harry confronts Voldemort in a duel throughout the castle, Neville decapitates Nagini, leaving Voldemort mortal. Molly Weasley kills Bellatrix in the Great Hall. The final stand of Harry and Voldemort's fight is Voldemort's own Killing Curse rebounding and obliterating him. After the battle, Harry explains to Ron and Hermione that the Elder Wand had recognised him as its master because he had disarmed Draco who earlier had disarmed its previous owner, Dumbledore. Harry snaps the Elder Wand, rejecting its power. Nineteen years later, Harry and Ginny Potter, with Ron and Hermione Weasley, watch proudly their children leaving for Hogwarts from King's Cross station.

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The Howling

Howling IV: The Original Nightmare

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

After experiencing visions of a nun, author Marie Adams is in the middle of a meeting with her agent, Tom Billings , when she has another vision of a wolf-like creature lunging from a fire, and begins to scream hysterically. Marie’s husband, Richard , discusses her condition with her doctor, agreeing that Marie’s overactive imagination is leading her into some dangerous territory. The doctor advises Richard to take Marie away from the pressures of her life for a few weeks. Richard locates a cottage in the small town of Drago, some hours from Los Angeles. Tom drives Marie there, but then departs quickly in the face of Richard’s unconcealed hostility. Marie looks around the cottage and declares it to be perfect; but that night, while she and Richard are making love, Marie is disturbed by the sound of howling out in the woods. The next day, Marie and Richard look around Drago, where they meet the mysterious Eleanor , a local artist who owns a shop of antiques and knick-knacks, and the Ormsteads, who run the local store. Marie takes her dog for a walk, and becomes distressed when he runs off. That night, Marie dreams of wolves, of herself running through the woods, and of the same nun of whom she had visions. Richard drives into L.A. for a meeting, and Marie spends time chatting with Mrs Ormstead, who tells her about the previous couple to occupy the cottage, and that they left town without a word. Marie is walking home through the woods when, suddenly, she sees before her the nun of her visions. She runs after her – but it turns out to be Eleanor in a dark cape. Eleanor points out a short-cut to the cottage, which Marie takes. On the way she discovers a cave, and what’s left of her dog. In horror, Marie runs through the woods, suddenly aware that she is being pursued. At the cottage, Richard quiets his hysterical wife and checks outside, but sees nothing; not even the dark figure nearby. The next morning, Marie witnesses a strange apparition: an elderly man and woman who appear in her living-room and who warn her to go away. Marie is momentarily distracted by a car pulling up outside, and the next instant her ghostly visitors are gone. The newcomer is Janice Hatch , who is holidaying in the area and is a fan of Marie’s writing. Marie invites her in and, as they are talking, mentions the howling that she hears at night. After some hesitation, Janice reveals that she used to be a nun, and that her closest friend, Sister Ruth , disappeared over a year ago, only to be found in Drago speaking incoherently of the devil, and a bell, and the sound of howling. After a long illness, Ruth died without ever being able to explain what happened to her; and Janice, determined to discover the truth, left the convent. Marie is disturbed by the mention of a nun, and becomes even more so when Janice shows her a photograph of Sister Ruth: it is the nun from her visions.

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Chocolat

Chocolat

The story begins as two strangers, Vianne Rocher, and her small daughter Anouk, move into the small French village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes. They are brought by 'the wind' during the last days of carnival, and they settle and open a chocolaterie, La Céleste Praline. The village priest, Francis Reynaud, is initially mystified, because Lent has just begun, but his confusion turns rapidly to anger when he understands that Vianne holds dangerous beliefs, does not obey the church, and "flouts" the unspoken rules that he feels should govern his "flock". Vianne, we learn from her personal thoughts, is a witch though she does not use the word. Her mother and she were wanderers, going from one city to another. Her mother strove to inspire the same need for freedom in her daughter, who is more social and passive. They were born with gifts, and used a kind of "domestic magic" to earn their living. Throughout her life, Vianne has been running from the "Black Man", a recurring motif in her mother's folklore. When her mother is killed by a cab, Vianne continues on her own, trying to evade the Black Man and the mysetrious force of the wind and settle down to a normal life. The chocolaterie is an old dream of hers. She has an innate talent for cooking and a charming personality. She tries to fit in and help her customers. She starts to build a group of regular customers, and, to Reynaud's dismay, she doesn't go out of business. Reynaud attempts to have Vianne run out of town, and he talks about her every Sunday at church. Some people initially stay away, but not for long. His conflict with her becomes his personal crusade. Vianne, however, announces a "Grand Festival of Chocolate", to be held on Easter Sunday.

Vianne Rocher , an expert chocolatier, drifts across Europe with her daughter Anouk . In the winter of 1959, they travel to a tranquil French village that closely adheres to tradition, as led by the village mayor, Comte Paul de Reynaud . Vianne opens a Chocolaterie just as the villagers begin observing the forty days of Lent, much to the chagrin of Reynaud. Vianne, who wears more provocative clothing, does not go to church, and has an illegitimate child, does not fit in well with the town's people, but is nevertheless optimistic about her business. Her friendly and alluring nature begins to win the villagers over one by one, causing Reynaud to openly speak against her for tempting the people during a time of abstinence and self-denial. One of the first to fall under the spell of Vianne and her confections is Armande , her elderly, eccentric landlady. Armande laments that her cold, devoutly-pious daughter Caroline will not let Armande see her grandson Luc because Caroline thinks Armande is a "bad influence". Vianne arranges for Luc and his grandmother to see each other in the chocolaterie, where they develop a close bond. Caroline later reveals to Vianne that her mother is a diabetic, though Armande continues to indulge in the chocolate despite her condition. Vianne also develops a friendship with a disturbed woman, Josephine , who is a victim of brutal beatings by her alcoholic husband Serge . After a particularly brutal blow to the head, Josephine leaves her husband and moves in with Vianne and Anouk. As she begins to work at the chocolaterie and Vianne teaches her craft, Josephine becomes a self-confident, changed woman. Under the instruction of Reynaud, Serge seemingly changes into a better man and he asks Josephine to come back to him. Finally happy and fulfilled, Josephine declines. A drunken Serge breaks into the chocolaterie later that night and attempts to attack both women before Josephine, in a moment of empowerment, knocks him out with a skillet. As the rivalry between Vianne and Reynaud worsens, a band of river gypsies camp out on the outskirts of the village. While most of the town objects to their presence, Vianne embraces them, developing a mutual attraction to the gypsy Roux . Together they hold a birthday party for Armande with other village members and gypsies on Roux's boat. When Caroline sees Luc, who snuck out to go to the party, dancing with her mother, she begins to see how rigid she is with her son and that his grandmother's influence in his life may not be a bad thing. After the party Vianne, Josephine, and Anouk all sleep on the boats, where Roux and Vianne make love. Late that night, Serge sets the boat on fire where Josephine and Anouk are sleeping. Both escape unharmed, but Vianne's faith in the village is shaken. Also that night, Luc returns to his grandmother's living room to see that she has finally died from complications of diabetes, devastating both him and his mother. After the fire, Roux packs up and leaves with his group, much to Vianne's sadness. Deciding she cannot win against Reynaud or the strict traditions of the town, Vianne resolves to move to another place. Just before she does so, she goes into her kitchen to see a group of townspeople who have come to love her and the way she has changed their lives, making chocolate for a festival Vianne had planned on Easter Sunday. Realizing that she has brought change to the town, she decides to stay. Despite the shifting sentiment in the town, Reynaud remains staunch in his abstinence from pleasures such as chocolate. On the Saturday evening before Easter, he opens the chocolate display and destroys the various confections with a knife. When a small piece of chocolate lands on his lip, he gives into the seduction and devours the chocolate before collapsing into tears and eventually falling asleep. The next day, Vianne promises not to reveal what happened, and a mutual respect between them is established. Roux returns in the summer to be with her, and despite her constant need for change, Vianne resolves to stay, having found a home for herself and her daughter in the village.

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Oliver Twist

Oliver!

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

A workhouse in a small town in England is visited by the wealthy governors who fund it. At the same time a sumptuous banquet is held for them, the orphan boys who work there are being served their daily gruel. They dream of enjoying the same "Food, Glorious Food" as their masters. While eating, some boys draw straws to see who will ask for more to eat, and the job falls to a boy named Oliver Twist. He goes up to Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney, who run the workhouse and serve the gruel, and quietly asks, "Please, sir, I want some more." Mr. Bumble is enraged and Oliver is taken to the governors to see what to do with him . A decision is made to have Oliver be sold into service. Mr. Bumble parades Oliver through the snow trying to sell him to the highest bidder . Oliver is eventually sold to an undertaker named Mr. Sowerberry, who intends to use him as a mourner for children's funerals. After his first funeral, Noah Claypole, Sowerberry's apprentice, insults Oliver's mother to get a rise out of him. Oliver attacks Noah and Mrs. Sowerberry forces him into a coffin while Noah fetches Mr. Bumble. Oliver is too angry to be intimidated by Mr. Bumble and Bumble places the blame on not keeping Oliver on a diet of gruel. Oliver is thrown into the cellar as further punishment. Alone in the dark with a roomful of empty coffins, Oliver tearfully wonders "Where is Love?". While clutching the window grate, Oliver inadvertently pushes it open and he escapes. After a week on the road, Oliver reaches London, where he plans to seek his fortune. Shortly after arriving, he crosses paths with the Artful Dodger, a young thief who decides to take Oliver under his wing . Dodger leads Oliver to his home, a hideout for a group of young pickpockets run by the criminal Fagin. Oliver naively believes the handkerchiefs and wallets they've stolen are "made" by them and Fagin and the boys play along for their amusement. He then helps the boys practice their stealing while reiterating his belief that "You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" to get by. Once the boys go to sleep, Fagin sneaks off to meet with Bill Sikes, a dangerous thief with whom he makes his deals. Sikes' girlfriend, Nancy, waits for him at the pub and sings of her contentment with the life she shares with the reprobates of London while covering up her own broken dreams of the life she wishes she had with Sikes . Back at the hideout, Oliver witnesses Fagin counting his hidden treasures and taking a little more than his fair share from Sikes' loot. While initially furious that he's been discovered, Fagin halfheartedly admits that he's keeping his "pretty things" for comfort in his old age. Nancy and her best friend Bet arrive in the morning to collect some money from Fagin on behalf of Sikes, and meet Oliver. The boys mock Oliver for his politeness towards Nancy, which she finds charming. Dodger attempts to be just as gentlemanly towards Nancy and the boys and Fagin join in the fun . Fagin sends the boys out for the day and Oliver asks to go with Dodger, which he agrees to "Be Back Soon". While on the job, however, Oliver witnesses what Dodger really does and is blamed for Dodger's theft of a wallet belonging to a gentleman named Mr. Brownlow. Oliver is chased by the police, and despite Dodger's best efforts to stall them, is arrested. Afraid that Oliver will tell the police all about them, Fagin and Sikes send Nancy to court to watch what he does. Oliver is too terrified to say anything, but before the magistrate can finalize the verdict, a bookseller who witnessed the act arrives to prove Oliver's innocence. Mr. Brownlow takes in Oliver and Sikes and Fagin send Dodger to follow them. Oliver has been living in the wealthy residence of Mr. Brownlow for several weeks now. From the balcony he watches the merchants and other folk of London sell their wares Sikes has been keeping an eye on Oliver, firmly believing he may tell on them. He and Fagin are determined to get him back and employ Nancy to help them as Oliver trusts her more than he does the others. Nancy refuses as she wants Oliver to have a life free of thievery but Sikes cruelly hits her. As Nancy reluctantly follows Sikes, she sings of her unwavering love of him despite his ways . The next day, Mr. Brownlow entrusts Oliver with some books and money to be delivered to the bookshop. As he leaves, Brownlow notices a striking resemblance between a portrait of his long-lost niece and Oliver. While walking through the streets of London, Oliver is sidetracked by Nancy and is eventually kidnapped by Sikes and taken back to the hideout. Sikes and Nancy argue but she leaves as he starts to get violent in front of the boys again. Fagin begins reconsidering his life as a thief and weighs all his options, but decides to keep to his old ways by "Reviewing the Situation". Mr. Bumble and Widow Corney pay a visit to Mr. Brownlow after he begins searching for Oliver's origin. They present a locket belonging to Oliver's mother, who arrived at the workhouse penniless and died in childbirth. Mr. Brownlow recognizes the locket as his niece's and throws the two out, enraged that they chose to selfishly keep the trinket and information to themselves until they could collect a reward for it. Meanwhile, in an attempt to introduce Oliver to a life of crime, Sikes forces Oliver to take part in a house robbery. The robbery fails when Oliver accidentally awakens the people living in the house, but he and Sikes manage to get away. While Sikes and Oliver are gone, Nancy, fearful that Sikes will kill Oliver, goes to Brownlow, confessing her part in Oliver's kidnapping and promising to return him to Mr. Brownlow the next evening at London Bridge; however, she insists that Brownlow come alone, her loyalty to Sikes prevents her from turning him over to the police. Then she goes to her job at the tavern. When Sikes and Oliver show up safely there, Sikes orders his dog Bullseye to guard the boy. Nancy starts up a lively drinking song, hoping that the noise will distract Sikes . Bullseye, however, alerts him and he secretly follows Nancy and Oliver despite Fagin's pleads not to hurt Nancy. As Oliver and Nancy share a farewell embrace at London Bridge, Sikes catches up, grabs Nancy, and bludgeons her to death, mistakenly believing that she did betray him after all. He then kidnaps Oliver, but Bullseye returns to the scene of the crime after Sikes tries to murder him as well to prevent detection. The dog leads Brownlow and an angry mob to the thieves' hideout. Sikes uses Oliver as a hostage to make sure he gets away unscathed. Fagin loses his grip on his box of treasures while running and they sink deep into the mud. After forcing Oliver to loop a rope around a rooftop plank so that he can escape, Sikes is shot dead by the police as he tries to swing across from one rooftop to another. Oliver is reunited with Mr. Brownlow and Fagin makes up his mind to change his ways for good. Just as he's about to walk away a new man, Dodger approaches him with a wallet he stole earlier. They dance off into the sunrise together, happily determined to live out the rest of their days as thieves ("Reviewing the Situation while Oliver returns home for good .

positive

positive

The Flight of the Phoenix

Flight of the Phoenix

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

When an Amacor oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, Captain Frank Towns and crew chief A.J. are sent to shut the operation down. However, on their way to Beijing, a major dust storm rips apart one of their engines, forcing them to crash land their C-119 Flying Boxcar in an uncharted area of the desert. Their cargo consists of used parts and tools from the rig, the rig's crew, and Elliot , a lone drifter. The crash results in Dr. Gerber and Newman dying of trauma, and one passenger, Kyle ([[Bob Brown , falls out of the plane to his death when the tail was ripped open. When the storm ends and the dust settles, it becomes apparent that they are 200 miles off course with only one month's worth of water available. Jeremy thinks about leaving, but Rady explains that the month they're in is the hottest in the Gobi, and that he wouldn't be able to make it. In the middle of the night, Davis goes out to urinate without informing anybody, during which he trips and gets lost in a sandstorm, eventually leading to his death. The group falls into a panic in the morning when they cannot find him, and after a failed search for him, Kelly gets into an argument with Frank, during which he says that walking out of the desert would fail, and that their only option is to await rescue. The group initially agrees, but after surveying the situation and realizing that their value to Amacor is less than they had originally believed, they reconsider and are pitched a radical idea by Elliot, who claims to be an aeronautical engineer: rebuild the remains of their C-119 into a new, functional aircraft. Frank initially refuses, which causes Liddle to wander off on his own out of protest. Frank attempts to go in search for him, following the footsteps Liddle left in the sand. He comes across a valley littered with fresh debris. This turns out to be cargo from the aircraft, which had been dropped when the tail was cut open. Among the debris, he discovers the stripped body of Kyle, full of bullet wounds with shell casings clustered on the ground near him. At this point, Liddle appears and explains that someone had already been there and taken the watch that Kyle won from him in a poker match. Liddle says he will only go back with him if they build the plane, and Frank agrees. They struggle for several weeks building the new aircraft, through dust storms, lack of water, and fighting amongst the group. Rady christens it Phoenix after the legendary bird. A problem evolves when a group of smugglers camp nearby; when the survivors attempt to communicate, the bandits kill Rodney , but are killed in a short, fierce skirmish when ambushed by Frank. Later, it is revealed that Elliot's aircraft design experience has been restricted to the design of model aircraft, much to the anger of everyone, especially Ian , who almost kills Elliot. However, they eventually are able to construct the new aircraft and take off, barely in time to escape a larger group of bandit attackers seeking revenge for the murdered smugglers. Through a series of photos, we see what became of the crew when they made it back to civilization. All have been revitalized by the experience: Frank and A.J. start their own airline , Sammi and his wife start their own restaurant , Liddle is reunited with his wife and kids, Ian becomes a professional golfer, Kelly is working at an ocean oil rig, and Elliot wears a flight suit on a Flight International magazine cover with the headline: "NASA's New Hope?"

positive

positive

The Man Who Fell to Earth

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth seeking to construct a spaceship to ferry others from his home planet, Anthea, to Earth. Anthea is experiencing a terrible drought after many nuclear wars, and the population has dwindled to less than 300. They have hundreds of superior starships, but for not being used for over 500 years, they are unusable because of little to no fuel. They have no water, loads of food that is slowly dwindling, and feeble solar power. Like all Antheans, he is super-intelligent, but he has been selected to complete this mission for his strength, due to the harsh climate and gravity of Earth compared to the cold, small Anthea. Getting to Earth via a lifeboat, Newton first lands in the state of Kentucky but quickly becomes familiarized with the environment and aspires to become an entrepreneur. Newton uses advanced technology from his home planet to patent many inventions on Earth, and rises as the head of a technology-based conglomerate to incredible wealth. This wealth is needed to construct his own space vehicle program in order to ferry the rest of the Anthean population. Along the way he meets Betty Jo, a simple Kentucky woman. She falls in love with him. He does not share these feelings, but takes her, and his curious fuel-technician Nathan Bryce, as his few friends while he runs his company in the shadows. Betty Jo introduces Newton to many customs of Earth culture, amongst them church-going, fashion, and alcohol. However, his appetite for alcohol soon invokes much emotional instability, as he is forced to deal with intense human emotions with which Antheans are unfamiliar. His secret identity as an alien is discovered by Nathan Bryce, but Newton, aware that he has been discovered, is relieved to reveal his identity to someone for the first time. The Antheans he will ferry to Earth will flourish and hopefully make use of their superintelligence to influence Earth to peace, prosperity, and safety from the apocalypse. However, the CIA arrests Newton, having followed him since his appearance on Earth and having recorded this private conversation with Bryce. They submit him to rigorous tests and analysis, but ultimately find that, despite much conclusive evidence of his alien identity, it would be pointless to release the results because the public would not believe the truth. Such claims would also reflect poorly on the Democratic Party, responsible for the capture. The CIA releases Newton, but no sooner than he tries to exit his building, the FBI, uninformed by the CIA that Newton is exempt from further tests, commences their own brief examinations. Their final examination is ultimately an X-ray of Newton's skull, through his eyes. Newton, whose eyes are sensitive to X-rays, tries to stop them to no avail and is blinded. The story of Newton's blinding reaches the press in a frenzy and then is used by the Republican Party to depict the Democrats as being corrupt, and leads to their seizure of power, which is to inevitably lead to apocalypse. Newton, in a final confrontation with Bryce, is bitterly unable to continue his spaceship project due to planetary alignments having changed during captivity and the troubles of his blindness. He creates a recording of alien messages which he hopes to be broadcast via radio to his home.

Thomas Jerome Newton is a humanoid alien who comes to Earth from a distant planet on a mission to bring water back to his home planet,{{cite news}} Newton uses the advanced technology of his home planet to patent many inventions on Earth, and acquires incredible wealth as the head of a technology-based conglomerate, World Enterprises Corporation, aided by leading patent attorney Oliver V. Farnsworth . His wealth is needed to construct his own space vehicle with the intention of shipping water back to his planet. While revisiting New Mexico, he meets Mary-Lou , a lonely, unloved, and simple girl who works as a maid, bell-hop, and elevator operator in a small hotel; he tells her he is English. Mary-Lou introduces Newton to many customs of Earth, including church-going, alcohol, and sex. Newton and she live together, eventually in a house Newton has had built near where he initially landed in New Mexico. Meanwhile Dr. Nathan Bryce , a former womanizer and college professor, has landed a job as a fuel technician with World Enterprises and slowly becomes Newton's confidante. Bryce senses Newton's alien-ness and arranges a meeting with Newton at his home where he's hidden a special X-ray camera. When he steals a picture of Newton with the camera, it reveals Newton's alien physiology. Newton's appetite for alcohol and television become crippling and the two fight. Realizing that Bryce has learnt his secret, Newton reveals his alien form to Mary-Lou, and her resulting reaction is one of pure shock and horror. He leaves her. Newton completes the spaceship and attempts to take it on its maiden voyage amid intense press exposure. However, just before his scheduled take-off, he is seized and detained, apparently by the government and a rival company; his business partner, Farnsworth, is murdered. The government, which has apparently been told by Bryce that Newton is an alien, holds him captive in a locked luxury apartment, constructed deep within a hotel. During his stay, they keep him sedated with alcohol and continuously subject him to rigorous medical tests — notably one involving X-rays which causes the contact lenses he wears as part of his human disguise to permanently affix themselves to his eyes. Toward the end of his years of captivity, he is visited again by Mary-Lou, who is now much older and whose looks have been ravaged by alcohol and time. They have violent sex and occupy their time drinking and playing table tennis, but finally each declares they no longer love the other. She leaves him. Eventually Newton discovers that his "prison," now derelict, is unlocked, and he escapes. Throughout the film are brief sequences of his wife and children back on his home planet, slowly dying, and by the end of the film they are dead and Newton is stuck on Earth, broken, alcoholic, and alone. He creates a recording with alien messages, which he hopes will be broadcast via radio to his home planet. Bryce, who has since married Mary-Lou, buys a copy of the album and meets Newton at an outside restaurant in town. Newton is still rich and young looking despite the passage of many years. However, Newton has also fallen into depression and alcoholism and the film ends with an inebriated Newton passing out in his cafe chair.

positive

negative

The Lost World

King of 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.

A plane crashes in a remote jungle. Many survive, but the cockpit and the front end of the plane are nowhere to be found. The only way to call for help is to find the cockpit and radio a message. Ed Malone climbs a small hill and he sees the cockpit in the distance about a mile away. A group of people decide to leave the plane and head over to find the radio. John Roxton leads a small group through the jungle. The rest of the passengers stay put in case a plane passes by. The group arrives at the fuselage when they notice that it's not the same plane they flew in. In addition, the radio and all other important instruments have been stripped and taken away. They are startled by the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Challenger , who managed to travel by himself all alone to the downed plane, still carrying a briefcase that he doesn't seem to want to part with. The group continues to look for the cockpit with some of their group getting killed along the way. They then encounter a military plane, which Challenger tries to turn one of the missiles into a flare gun, but fails. The group stops at a cavern for the night, where they are attacked by giant scorpions. John and Tianka are killed, whilst the Ed, Challenger, Rita, Dana, and Natalie flee for safety. As they escape from the caves, they are captured by a group of natives living in the jungle. It is soon learned that the natives have been stripping the aeroplanes to avoid any outside interference. The natives also turn out to be other people that had crashed a long time ago, and have developed a sacrificial rite to appease the creatures of the jungle. Dane and Natalie are both brainwashed into joining them, while Ed is chosen as the sacrifice. However the sacrificial ceremony fails when a giant ape attacks the area, while Dana saves Ed. They then meet up with Challenger and Rita, when they spot military jets flying overhead who attack the giant ape, but are destroyed in the process. Challenger is then killed by a native, leaving Ed alone to try and defeat the ape. Ed detonates a nuclear bomb left from one of the planes and successfully kills the ape, but also destroys their cockpit in the process, trapping the Ed, Rita, and Dana in the jungle. They contemplate dying in the jungle, to which Ed tersely replies: "Not today" before kissing Rita.

positive

positive

The Lost World

King of 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.

A plane crashes in a remote jungle. Many survive, but the cockpit and the front end of the plane are nowhere to be found. The only way to call for help is to find the cockpit and radio a message. Ed Malone climbs a small hill and he sees the cockpit in the distance about a mile away. A group of people decide to leave the plane and head over to find the radio. John Roxton leads a small group through the jungle. The rest of the passengers stay put in case a plane passes by. The group arrives at the fuselage when they notice that it's not the same plane they flew in. In addition, the radio and all other important instruments have been stripped and taken away. They are startled by the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel Challenger , who managed to travel by himself all alone to the downed plane, still carrying a briefcase that he doesn't seem to want to part with. The group continues to look for the cockpit with some of their group getting killed along the way. They then encounter a military plane, which Challenger tries to turn one of the missiles into a flare gun, but fails. The group stops at a cavern for the night, where they are attacked by giant scorpions. John and Tianka are killed, whilst the Ed, Challenger, Rita, Dana, and Natalie flee for safety. As they escape from the caves, they are captured by a group of natives living in the jungle. It is soon learned that the natives have been stripping the aeroplanes to avoid any outside interference. The natives also turn out to be other people that had crashed a long time ago, and have developed a sacrificial rite to appease the creatures of the jungle. Dane and Natalie are both brainwashed into joining them, while Ed is chosen as the sacrifice. However the sacrificial ceremony fails when a giant ape attacks the area, while Dana saves Ed. They then meet up with Challenger and Rita, when they spot military jets flying overhead who attack the giant ape, but are destroyed in the process. Challenger is then killed by a native, leaving Ed alone to try and defeat the ape. Ed detonates a nuclear bomb left from one of the planes and successfully kills the ape, but also destroys their cockpit in the process, trapping the Ed, Rita, and Dana in the jungle. They contemplate dying in the jungle, to which Ed tersely replies: "Not today" before kissing Rita.

positive

positive

Live and Let Die

Live and Let Die

British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, to New York City to investigate "Mr. Big", real name Buonapart Ignace Gallia, an agent of SMERSH and an underworld voodoo leader who is suspected of selling 17th century gold coins to finance Soviet spy operations in America. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the pirate Sir Henry Morgan. In New York, Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two decide to visit some of Mr. Big's nightclubs in Harlem, but are subsequently captured. Bond is personally interrogated by Mr. Big, who uses his fortune telling-girlfriend, Solitaire (so named because she excludes men from her life), to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr. Big, supporting Bond's cover story. Mr. Big decides to release Bond and Leiter and has one of his men break one of Bond's fingers. Bond escapes, killing several of Mr. Big's men in the process, whilst Leiter is released by a gang member, sympathetic because of a shared appreciation of jazz. Solitaire later contacts Bond and they travel to St. Petersburg, Florida. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr. Big's warehouses used for storing exotic fish, Solitaire is kidnapped by Mr. Big's minions. Felix later returns to the warehouse by himself, but is either captured and fed to a shark or tricked into standing on a trap door over the shark tank: he survives, but loses an arm and a leg. Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest "He disagreed with something that ate him". After getting Felix to the hospital, Bond investigates the warehouse himself and discovers that Mr. Big is smuggling gold by placing it in the bottom of fish tanks holding poisonous tropical fish. Bond is attacked in the warehouse by Mr. Big's gunman, the "Robber", and the resultant gunfight destroys many of the tanks in the warehouse: Bond tricks the Robber and causes him to fall into the shark tank. Bond then continues his mission in Jamaica where he meets Quarrel and John Strangways, the head of the MI6 station in Jamaica. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters. Bond swims through shark and barracuda infested waters to Mr. Big's island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr. Big. The following morning, Mr. Big ties Solitaire and Bond to a line behind his yacht and plans to drag them over the shallow coral reef and into deeper water so that the sharks and barracuda that he attracts in to the area with regular feedings will eat them. Bond and Solitaire are saved when the limpet mine explodes seconds before they are dragged over the reef: though temporarily stunned by the explosion and injured on the coral Bond and Solitaire are protected from the explosion by the reef, and Bond watches as Mr. Big, who survived the explosion, is killed by the sharks and barracuda. Quarrel then rescues Bond and Solitaire.

Three British agents, including one "on loan" to the American government, are killed within 24 hours, under mysterious circumstances, while monitoring the operations of Dr. Kananga, the dictator of a small Caribbean island, San Monique. James Bond – agent 007, sometimes referred to as simply '007' – is sent to New York to investigate the first murder. Kananga is also in New York, visiting the United Nations. Just after Bond arrives, his driver is shot dead by a passing motorist, while taking Bond to meet Felix Leiter of the CIA. Bond is nearly killed in the ensuing car crash. A trace on the killer's licence plate eventually leads Bond to Mr. Big, a ruthless and cunning gangster who runs a chain of Fillet of Soul restaurants throughout the United States. It is here that Bond first meets Solitaire, a beautiful virgin tarot expert who has the uncanny ability to see both the future and remote events in the present. Mr. Big, who is actually Kananga in disguise, demands that his henchmen kill Bond, but Bond overpowers them and escapes unscathed. Bond flies to San Monique, where he meets Rosie Carver, a CIA double agent. They meet up with a friend of Bond's, Quarrel Jr., who takes them by boat to Solitaire's home. Bond suspects Rosie of working for Kananga. She is shot dead, remotely, by Kananga, to stop her confessing the truth to Bond. Inside Solitaire's house, Bond uses a stacked tarot deck of cards, that show only "The Lovers", to trick her into thinking that seduction is in her future, and then seduces her. Solitaire loses her ability to foretell the future when she loses her virginity to Bond and is forced into cooperating with Bond to bring down Kananga. Bond and Solitaire escape by boat and fly to New Orleans. There, Bond is captured by 'Mr. Big', who reveals himself to be Kananga. It transpires that Kananga is producing two tons of heroin and is protecting the poppy fields by exploiting locals' fear of voodoo and the occult. Through his alter ego, Mr. Big, Kananga plans to distribute the heroin free of charge at his Fillet of Soul restaurants, which will increase the number of addicts. Kananga also believes that other drug dealers, namely the Mafia, cannot compete with his giveaway, to which Kananga can later charge high prices for the heroin, after he has simultaneously cultivated huge drug dependency and bankrupted his competitors. Kananga asks Bond if he has slept with Solitaire. When he finds out that he has, Kananga turns Solitaire over to Baron Samedi to be sacrificed, as her ability to read tarot cards is gone. Meanwhile, Kananga's one-armed henchman, Tee Hee Johnson, leaves Bond to be eaten by crocodiles at a farm in the Louisiana backwoods. Bond escapes by running along the animals' backs to safety. He sets the farm on fire and steals a speedboat. He is then pursued by Kananga's men, as well as local Sheriff J.W. Pepper and the Louisiana State Police. Back in San Monique, Bond rescues Solitaire from the voodoo sacrifice with a .44 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver and throws Samedi into a coffin of snakes. Bond and Solitaire escape below ground into Kananga's lair. Kananga captures them both and proceeds to lower them into a shark tank. Bond escapes and forces a shark gun pellet into Kananga's mouth, causing him to blow up like a balloon, float to the top of the cave, and explode. After the job is done, Felix puts Bond and Solitaire onto a train and out of the country. Tee Hee Johnson follows Bond and Solitaire onto the train and tries to kill Bond, but loses his prosthetic arm in a fight with him and is flung out of the window. As the film ends, Bond comforts Solitaire, and a laughing Samedi is revealed perched on the front of the speeding train.

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Sister Carrie

Carrie

Dissatisfied with life in her rural Wisconsin home, 18-year-old Caroline "Sister Carrie" Meeber takes the train to Chicago, where her older sister Minnie, and her husband Sven Hanson, have agreed to take her in. On the train, Carrie meets Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman, who is attracted to her because of her simple beauty and unspoiled manner. They exchange contact information, but upon discovering the "steady round of toil" and somber atmosphere at her sister's flat, she writes to Drouet and discourages him from calling on her there. Carrie soon embarks on a quest for work to pay rent to her sister and her husband, and takes a job running a machine in a shoe factory. Before long, however, she is shocked by the coarse manners of both the male and female factory workers, and the physical demands of the job, as well as the squalid factory conditions, begin to take their toll. She also senses Minnie and Sven's disapproval of her interest in Chicago's recreational opportunities, particularly the theatre. One day, after an illness that costs her job, she encounters Drouet on a downtown street. Once again taken by her beauty, and moved by her poverty, he encourages her to dine with him, where, over sirloin and asparagus, he persuades her to leave her sister and move in with him. To press his case, he slips Carrie two ten dollar bills, opening a vista of material possibilities to her. The next day, he rebuffs her feeble attempts to return the money, taking her shopping at a Chicago department store and securing a jacket she covets and some shoes. That night, she writes a good-bye note to Minnie and moves in with Drouet. Drouet installs her in a much larger apartment, and their relationship intensifies as Minnie dreams about her sister's fall from innocence. She acquires a sophisticated wardrobe and, through his offhand comments about attractive women, sheds her provincial mannerisms, even as she struggles with the moral implications of being a kept woman. By the time Drouet introduces Carrie to George Hurstwood, the manager of Fitzgerald and Moy's – a respectable bar that Drouet describes as a "way-up, swell place" – her material appearance has improved considerably. Hurstwood, unhappy with and distant from his social-climbing wife and children, instantly becomes infatuated with Carrie’s youth and beauty, and before long they start an affair, communicating and meeting secretly in the expanding, anonymous city. One night, Drouet casually agrees to find an actress to play a key role in an amateur theatrical presentation of Augustin Daly’s melodrama, “Under the Gaslight,” for his local chapter of the Elks. Upon returning home to Carrie, he encourages her to take the part of the heroine, Laura. Unknown to Drouet, Carrie long has harbored theatrical ambitions and has a natural aptitude for imitation and expressing pathos. The night of the production – which Hurstwood attends at Drouet’s invitation – both men are moved to even greater displays of affection by Carrie’s stunning performance. The next day, the affair is uncovered: Drouet discovers he has been cuckolded, Carrie learns that Hurstwood is married, and Hurstwood’s wife, Julia, learns from an acquaintance that Hurstwood has been out driving with another woman and deliberately excluded her from the Elks theatre night. After a night of drinking, and despairing at his wife’s financial demands and Carrie’s rejection, Hurstwood stumbles upon a large amount of cash in the unlocked safe in Fitzgerald and Moy's offices. In a moment of poor judgment, he succumbs to the temptation to embezzle a large sum of money. Under the pretext of Drouet’s sudden illness, he lures Carrie onto a train and escapes with her to Canada. Once they arrive in Montreal, Hurstwood’s guilty conscience – and a private eye – induce him to return most of the stolen funds, but he realizes that he cannot return to Chicago. Hurstwood mollifies Carrie by agreeing to marry her, and the couple move to New York City. In New York, Hurstwood and Carrie rent a flat where they live as George and Carrie Wheeler. Hurstwood buys a minority interest in a saloon and, at first, is able to provide Carrie with a satisfactory – if not lavish – standard of living. The couple grow distant, however, as Hurstwood abandons any pretense of fine manners toward Carrie, and she realizes that Hurstwood no longer is the suave, powerful manager of his Chicago days. Carrie’s dissatisfaction only increases when she meets Robert Ames, a bright young scholar from Indiana and her neighbor’s cousin, who introduces her to the idea that great art, rather than showy materialism, is worthy of admiration. After only a few years, the saloon’s landlord sells the property and Hurstwood’s business partner expresses his intent to terminate the partnership. Too arrogant to accept most of the job opportunities available to him, Hurstwood soon discovers that his savings are running out and urges Carrie to economize, which she finds humiliating and distasteful. As Hurstwood lounges about, overwhelmed by apathy and foolishly gambling away most of his savings, Carrie turns to New York’s theatres for employment and becomes a chorus girl. Once again, her aptitude for theatre serves her well, and, as the rapidly aging Hurstwood declines into obscurity, Carrie begins to rise from chorus girl to small speaking roles, and establishes a friendship with another chorus girl, Lola Osborne, who begins to urge Carrie to move in with her. In a final attempt to prove himself useful, Hurstwood becomes a scab driving a Brooklyn streetcar during a streetcar operator’s strike. His ill-fated venture, which lasts only two days, prompts Carrie to leave him; in her farewell note, she encloses twenty dollars. Hurstwood ultimately joins the homeless of New York, taking odd jobs, falling ill with pneumonia, and finally becoming a beggar. Reduced to standing in line for bread and charity, he commits suicide in a flophouse. Meanwhile, Carrie achieves stardom, but finds that money and fame do not satisfy her longings or bring her happiness and that nothing will.

{{Plot}} Carrie Meeber ([[Jennifer Jones leaves her family in a small rural town and heads to Chicago. On the train to Chicago, Charles Drouet approaches her. Although Carrie is reluctant to speak to him, the salesman persists and the two chat until they reach Chicago. Carrie gets off in South Chicago, the slums as Charles Drouet points out, after taking Drouet's business card. In South Chicago, Carrie stays with her sister, who is married and has one child. Her sister's husband takes $5 from her for room and board and Carrie works at a factory sewing shoes. When she gets her finger caught in the sewing machine she is fired. After an exhausting and fruitless day of job hunting, Carrie looks up Charles Drouet. He not only talks her into having dinner with him at Fitzgerald's, an upscale restaurant, but also gives her $10. Carrie knows that this is more than "compromising" but she doesn't see any other possibilities. Her sister and brother-in-law won't take "that kind of money." So Carrie, in order to stay with her sister, heads to Fitzgerald's to return the money to Drouet. While there she meets George Hurstwood , the manager of the restaurant, who is immediately smitten with her. Instead of taking the money and returning it on her behalf to Drouet, he brings the two together, seats them himself and sends them a bottle of champagne. Carrie ends up moving in with Drouet. He is a big talker but basically harmless. She pressures Drouet to marry her because the neighbors are talking about them. He tries to distract her and invites Hurstwood, whom he had run into by sheer coincidence, into their home. With Drouet's permission, Hurstwood takes Carrie to the theater while Drouet is on one of his many business trips. Hurstwood and Carrie end up spending every free minute together, and the two fall in love. Just before she is about to run off with Hurstwood, she finds out that he is married. She is distraught and confronts Hurstwood, who admits that he is married although terribly unhappy. At the restaurant, Hurstwood cashes up for the night and, by accidentally locking a timed safe, finds himself stuck with $10,000 of his boss's money. He goes home with the money and is initially pleased to find his boss there. He tries to give the money to his boss, but when he learns that his boss intends to give his salary directly to his wife because of his relationship with Carrie, he decides to take the money to run away with Carrie. He leaves an I-O-U intent on paying his boss back as soon as he made it on his own feet. He coaxes Carrie, who initially refuses to see him, out of the house by telling her that Drouet had injured himself and that he would take her to see him. On the train to Drouet, Hurstwood tells her that he loves her and that the wants to be with her, asking her to leave Drouet. Carrie is torn, she does love Hurstwood and so she decides to stay with him. The first few days are blissful, but then reality catches up with them. Hurstwood's boss sends an officer from the bond company after Hurstwood to collect the money Hurstwood took. Hurstwood, who has already been looking for work, finds out quickly that word of him stealing the money has gotten around. Unable to find a job, Hurstwood and Carrie soon find themselves living in poverty. When Carrie finds out that she is pregnant, the two think that things might take a turn for the better. But Hurstwood's wife shows up, wanting his signature and allowing her to sell the house they own jointly. Hurstwood wants his share of the proceeds but she says she will press charges against him for bigamy if he insists. Carrie is devastated. Hurstwood's wife refused to get a divorce and Hurstwood didn't know how to tell Carrie. Hurstwood tells his wife, he will sign and won't ask for money if she'll grant him a divorce. She does but it is too late. Carrie loses the baby and decides to try her luck at acting. Hurstwood reads in the newspaper that his son is due in New York after his honeymoon and decides to see him at the docks. While he is there, Carrie leaves him because she thinks he will use this opportunity to re-enter his family's life. While Hurstwood drifts further and further into poverty and ends up living on the streets, Carrie's star in the theatre rises until she is a well-regarded actress on the cusp of fame. Hurstwood, entirely starved, visits her at the theatre stage door, and she wants to take him back. She had found out from Drouet that Hurstwood had taken the money to start a life with her and blames herself for his predicament. She wants to make it up to Hurstwood but he won't take more than a quarter and disappears after toying with the gas burner in her dressing room.

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Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch is a non-linear narrative that is difficult to describe in terms of plot. The following is a summary of some of the events in the book that could be considered the most relevant. The book begins with the adventures of William Lee (aka Lee the Agent), who is Burroughs' alter ego in the novel. His journey starts in the US where he is fleeing the police, in search of his next fix. There are short chapters here describing the different characters he travels with and meets along the way. Eventually he gets to Mexico where he is assigned to Dr. Benway; for what, he is not told. Benway appears and he tells about his previous doings in Annexia as a "Total Demoralizator". The story then moves to a state called Freeland – a form of limbo – where we learn of Islam Inc. Here, some new characters are introduced, such as Clem, Carl, and Joselito. A short section then jumps in space and time to a marketplace. The Black Meat is sold here and compared to "junk", i.e. heroin. The action then moves back to the hospital where Benway is fully revealed as a cruel, manipulative sadist. Time and space again shifts the narrative to a location known as Interzone. Hassan, one of the notable characters of the book and "a notorious liquefactionist", is throwing a violent orgy. AJ crashes the party and wreaks havoc, decapitating people and imitating a pirate. Hassan is enraged and tells AJ never to return, calling him a "factualist bitch" – a term which is enlarged much later when the apparently "clashing" political factions within Interzone are described. These include the Liquefactionists, the Senders, the Factualists, and the Divisionists (who occupy "a midway position"). A short descriptive section tells us of Interzone University, where a professor and his students are ridiculed; the book moves on to an orgy that AJ himself throws. The book then shifts back to the market place and a description of the totalitarian government of Annexia. Characters including the County Clerk, Benway, Dr Berger, Clem and Jody are sketched through heavy dialogue and their own sub-stories. After the description of the four parties of Interzone, we are then told more stories about AJ. After briefly describing Interzone, the novel breaks down into sub-stories and heavily cut-up influenced passages. In a sudden return to what seems to be Lee's reality, two police officers, Hauser and O'Brien, catch up with Lee, who kills both of them. Lee then goes out to a street phone booth and calls the Narcotics Squad, saying he wants to speak to O'Brien. A Lieutenant Gonzales on the other end of the line claims there's no one in their records called O'Brien. When Lee asks for Hauser instead, the reply is identical; Lee hangs up, and goes on the run once again. The book then becomes increasingly disjointed and impressionistic, and finally simply stops.

William Lee is an exterminator who finds that his wife Joan is stealing his insecticide to use as a drug. When Lee is arrested by the police, he begins hallucinating because of "bug powder" exposure. He believes he is a secret agent whose controller assigns him the mission of killing Joan, who is an agent of an organization called Interzone Incorporated. Lee dismisses the bug and its instructions and kills it. He returns home to find Joan sleeping with Hank, one of his writer friends. Shortly afterwards, he accidentally kills her while attempting to shoot a drinking glass off of her head in imitation of William Tell. Having inadvertently accomplished his "mission", Lee flees to Interzone. He spends his time writing reports for his imaginary handler, and it is these documents which, at the insistence of his literary colleagues, eventually become the titular book. Whilst Lee is under the influence of assorted mind-altering substances, his typewriter, a Clark Nova, becomes a giant talking insect which tells him to find Dr. Benway, by seducing Joan Frost, who is a doppelgänger of his dead wife. After coming to the conclusion that Dr. Benway is, in fact, the secret mastermind of a narcotics operation for a drug called "black meat" which is supposedly derived from the guts of giant centipedes, Lee completes his report and flees Interzone to Annexia with Joan Frost. Stopped by the Annexian border patrol and instructed to prove that he is a writer as he claims, Lee produces a pen. As this is insufficient proof for passage he inexplicably offers a demonstration of his William Tell routine using a glass atop Joan Frost's head. He again misses badly and thus re-enacts the earlier killing of his wife. He is then allowed to enter Annexia.

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The Black Rose

The Black Rose

In 13th century England, Walter, the bastard of Gurnie, attends a lecture by Roger Bacon at medieval Oxford and is inspired to journey to the far-away semi-mythical land of Cathay. After participating in a student riot and a raid on a castle – both led by his friend Tristram – Walter decides to leave England in order to escape Norman justice, taking Tristram with him. Walter's inheritance, obtained from his lord father's death, gets them as far as Antioch, where they are compelled to enter the services of a powerful Greek merchant named Anthemius. Impressed by Walter's cleverness and Tristram's physicality, he finds a place for them on a gift-bearing caravan heading east to the court of Kublai Khan. On the way, one of the beautiful women – the sister of Anthemius, Maryam (the Black Rose) - being sent as a gift to the great Khan escapes custody. She finds her way to the two Englishmen, who decide to shelter her on condition she pretend to be a servant boy and quietly leave when near the next large city. The caravan soon meets up with its chief escort: Bayan of the Hundred Eyes and his Mongol horde. Having fallen in love with Walter, Maryam stays with the duo; all three risking the deadly consequences that would follow their being caught by the Mongol general. The journey east sees Walter curry the favor of Bayan through being a competent chess-player and Tristram demonstrate the power of the English longbow in front of an astonished horde. Unfortunately, a spiteful Mongolian learns of their secret, and Walter decides they all need to leave the army. While the rest flee south into China, Walter attempts a desperate measure to lead the army off course. Although initially successful, he is caught in the act. He is honest to Bayan – who considers him a friend - but punished. He spends weeks recovering from the ordeal, and comes out with little hope of ever seeing his friend and lover again. He returns to Bayan only to be given the task of convincing the Chinese to surrender, for the Mongol horde has reached their borders. Once in the Chinese capital, he desperately searches for his companions while encouraging Chinese nobility to pursue peace. Although he succeeds in the first – marrying Maryam in the process – the Empress refuses to surrender due to an old proverb, and thereby holding them indefinitely. Caged in the most luxurious of palaces, the young couple live in happiness while the threat of war approaches. Eventually, they are able to procure escape, but Maryam is mistakenly left behind. Fearing her dead, the two friends find their way back to England. Two years of ship-hopping see them arrive home, rich with presents from the Empress and knowledge of the wondrous inventions they encountered: paper-manufacturing, gunpowder, the telescope, and the compass. Walter returns to Gurnie to find his lord grandfather prosperous in his business pursuits. Proud of his grandson, the old man names him heir to Gurnie. Now a nobleman, Walter finds his fame gaining him audience with the young King Edward I and his Queen, Eleanor of Castile. He tells them of the truths of Roger Bacon and the adventures to Cathay. Meanwhile, the determined Maryam – now with a baby Walter – finds it incredibly difficult to travel with the knowledge of only two English words. Around India to Aden, Alexandria, Venice, and Marseilles, she finally reaches London to be reunited with her husband – the very joyous and surprised Walter.

The story concerns 13th-century Saxon nobleman Walter of Gurnie , who, after sparking an unsuccessful rebellion against the Norman conquerors of his homeland, sets out to seek his fortune in the Far East. In the company of his friend Tristam , Walter makes the acquaintance of megalomaniac Mongol warlord Bayan . The "Black Rose" of the title is the beauteous Maryam , with whom Walter fell in love while both were prisoners of Bayan. Journeying farther east, Walter and Tristam arrive in China, where they are treated with deference - so long as they never try to leave. Eventually escaping his Chinese hosts, but leaving the Black Rose behind, Walter returns to his native country. Previously denounced by King Edward because of his role in the a Saxon rebellion, Walter is welcomed back with open arms because of all the cultural and scientific wonders he has brought back from China. Bayan sends the Black Rose to England to join Walter there.

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The Naked Face

The Naked Face

Dr. Judd Stevens, M.D., is a caring and successful Manhattan psychoanalyst who must face a horrific prospect; someone is trying to kill him. First, John Hanson, a patient trying overcome his homosexuality, is brutally murdered, perhaps because he was mistaken for Stevens. Not long after, Carol Roberts, Stevens' secretary, is also found murdered. The police, partly due to anger with Stevens testimony in a previous case, are quick to treat Stevens as the prime suspect. To prove his innocence and track down the real killer, Stevens hires a private investigator by the name of Norman Z. Moody. Before the case is done, Stevens will have to risk life and limb, psychoanalize possible suspects and fall in love with a mysterious patient named Annie DeMarco.

A patient of Chicago psychoanalyst Dr. Judd Stevens is murdered after a session, stabbed while wearing a raincoat belonging to the doctor. Police detectives McGreavy and Angeli come to Stevens' office to break the news. McGreavy bitterly resents the doctor from a previous case in which Stevens' testimony led to a cop killer being institutionalized rather than sent to prison. The patient's personal problems are in question until Stevens' secretary is also found brutally murdered. Stevens comes to realize that he is the murderer's target, while the detectives treat him as their prime suspect. A widower, Stevens expresses concern to his physician brother-in-law about the cops' behavior. McGreavy in particular is so aggressive in his interrogations, Angeli reports him to a superior and gets McGreavy thrown off the case. A pair of men posing as doormen break into Stevens' apartment, armed with guns. Stevens holds them off until his brother-in-law and two paramedics arrive. Not trusting the cops, Stevens made an emergency call to the hospital for help. Choosing a name out of the Yellow Pages at random, he hires an old, quirky private investigator named Morgens who lives in a rundown apartment filled with clocks and cats. Morgens saves his life by finding a bomb planted in Stevens' car. Angeli promises to lend Stevens a more sympathetic ear than his partner had in finding out who is behind these murder attempts. McGreavy, however, has secretly cut a deal with their captain to keep an eye on the case from a distance. A call from Morgens that he has discovered the killer's true identity leads to a late-night meeting at Navy Pier. But when Stevens and Angeli arrive, they find the murdered body of Morgens, holding a cuckoo clock. Deciding the time has come to hide Stevens in a safe house, Angeli instead drives him to a mobster's home where the phony doormen appear. Angeli draws a gun but points it at Stevens, telling him he trusted the wrong cop. A crime boss whose wife, Ann Blake, has been seeing Stevens as a patient informs the doctor that he simply can't have anyone knowing his private business. Stevens is taken to a remote location to be done away with permanently. Angeli, expecting a payoff, is killed instead. Stevens is then beaten savagely by the crime boss until McGreavy and a team of cops arrive just in time. At a cemetery where Stevens goes to visit his late wife's grave, Ann Blake turns up to apologize for causing Stevens all this trouble at the cost of so many lives. He has quit private practice, so she asks if that means he can see a former patient socially. It does and they begin to leave together, but the doctor is in for one last shock.

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Ice Station Zebra

Ice Station Zebra

Drift Ice Station Zebra, a British meteorological station built on an ice floe in the Arctic Sea, has suffered a catastrophic oil fire; men have died and shelter and supplies have been destroyed. The survivors are holed up in one hut with little food and heat. If help does not reach them quickly, they will die. The (fictional) American nuclear-powered submarine USS Dolphin is dispatched on a rescue mission. Just before it departs, the mysterious Dr. Carpenter, the narrator, is sent to accompany it. Carpenter claims that he is necessary as an expert in dealing with frostbite and other deep-cold medical conditions. At first, the submarine's Captain Swanson is suspicious of Carpenter, even though he receives an order from Chief of Naval Operations of the U.S. Navy instructing him to obey Carpenter's every command except where crew and submarine safety is at stake. Swanson then calls in his boss Admiral Garvie. Admiral Garvie, Captain Swanson and Dr. Carpenter then meet in confidence in Captain Swanson's small cabin. Admiral Garvie questions Dr. Carpenter at length asking why a civilian and a non US Citizen should be allowed aboard the USS Dolphin and says that he can countermand the CNO's instructions and refuse transport to Dr. Carpenter. Carpenter is thus forced to reveal that this is not simply a rescue mission; the station is actually a highly-equipped listening post, keeping watch for nuclear missile launches from the Soviet Union. Hearing this, Admiral Garvie allows Carpenter to come along. Swanson asks Carpenter to dinner but Carpenter declines saying that he has been traveling for more than 50 hours. Swanson asks and Dr. Carpenter reveals that 50 hours ago he was in the Antarctic. It is very mysterious and Admiral Garvie gives an old fashioned look but he lets it go at that point. Before the Dolphin dives under the Arctic ice pack, it tries to contact Zebra, whose radio signals are becoming weaker by the hour, but in vain. Once under the Arctic ice pack, it approaches the calculated position for Zebra, then searches for a place to surface. Eventually finding a place where the ice is thin enough to break through, the Dolphin establishes tenuous radio contact, and gets a bearing on Zebra's position. But Zebra is too far away to attempt to reach it on foot, so the submarine re-submerges, hoping to get closer. Carpenter confides to the Captain that the commander of the station is his brother. After a tense, desperate search, the Dolphin finds open water and surfaces just five miles from the station. Carpenter, Executive Officer Hansen, and two crewmen make the perilous journey through an Arctic storm on foot, taking with them as many supplies as they can. Zabrinski, one of the crewmen, breaks his ankle on the way. After a harrowing trek they reach Zebra. Devastation awaits them. Three of the eight huts and almost all supplies have been destroyed by a widespread oil fire. Eight men are dead - burnt to a crisp. Eleven men are alive, but barely. While the victims are being tended to, Carpenter does some investigating on his own. Unable to make radio contact, as the radio was damaged in Zabrinski's fall, Carpenter just receives a message from the Dolphin telling them to return at once, as the ice is closing. Carpenter and Hansen leave Zabrinski and the other crewman to attend to the survivors. After nearly getting lost in the terrible storm of blowing ice, Carpenter and Hansen finally return to the Dolphin, bearing news of their findings, as well as the relatively thin ice nearer to Zebra. Dolphin submerges and heads for Zebra. The ice there is still too thick to break with the sub's sail, so Swanson decides to blow a hole in the ice with a torpedo. Unbeknownst to him, someone had tampered with the wiring of the indicators which indicated the open/close status of the outer tube doors. When the crew attempts to load a torpedo into one of the tubes, a torrent of water rushes through the inner door, killing an officer and sending Dolphin into a nearly catastrophic dive. Only by heroic measures is Dolphin able to save herself. After successfully breaking through the ice with a torpedo, fired from an UN-sabotaged tube, Dolphin finally emerges just two hundred feet from Zebra. The sick men are treated, but some of them are still too ill to be carried to the sub. Carpenter does some more investigating. He finds that the fire at Zebra was no accident; it was a cover to hide that three of the dead men, one of whom was his brother, were murdered. Carpenter already knows why; the only question is who. Swanson also has a look around and finds no trace of the sophisticated listening equipment Carpenter had claimed was Zebra's purpose — Carpenter had lied again. Meanwhile, Swanson found a loaded gun in the petrol tank of a tractor, where the petrol would keep it from freezing, whereas Carpenter found food, batteries and a powerful radio hidden in the hut being used as a morgue. Finally the survivors are all brought aboard, Zebra is abandoned, and Dolphin heads back, but not without several further incidents. The ship's doctor is knocked into a coma. Carpenter himself is severely hurt in another apparent accident. Then a fire breaks out in the engine room and the sub is forced to shut down its nuclear reactor. Without power for air purification or heating, Dolphin looks set to become a frozen tomb trapped under the ice pack. Only the ingenuity of Commander Swanson and the dedication of the crew saves the ship. Carpenter announces that the fire was no accident. He reveals to the Captain that he is an MI6 officer. Carpenter's real mission is to retrieve photographic film from a reconnaissance satellite (see Corona) that has photographed every nuclear weapons installation in the U.S. The film, ejected from the satellite, had landed near Zebra. Carpenter's brother had been meant to retrieve it, but Russian agents killed him. The two Russian agents are amongst the survivors from Zebra. Carpenter finally reveals their motives, methods, and the men. The film is now in American hands, and the agents on their way to the gallows.

A satellite reenters the atmosphere and ejects a capsule which parachutes to the Arctic, coordinates 85N 21W . During an ice storm, a figure soon approaches, guided by a homing beacon, while a second individual secretly watches from nearby. The scene shifts to Commander James Ferraday , captain of the U.S. nuclear attack submarine USS Tigerfish , stationed at Holy Loch, Scotland. He is ordered by Admiral Garvey to rescue the personnel of Drift Ice Station Zebra, a British civilian scientific weather station moving with the ice pack. However, the mission is actually a cover for a highly classified assignment. Ferraday welcomes aboard British intelligence agent Mr. "Jones" and a Marine platoon. While underway, a SH-2 Sea Sprite helicopter delivers combat commander Captain Anders , who takes command of the Marines, and Boris Vaslov , an amiable Russian defector and spy, who is a trusted colleague of Jones. The Tigerfish makes its way under the ice to Zebra’s last known position. Ferraday decides to use a torpedo to blast an opening in the thick ice. However, the crewmen suddenly find the torpedo tube is open at both ends, killing torpedoman officer Lt Mills as seawater floods in, plunging the sub toward its rated crush depth. Jones helps to close the tube but even so, Ferraday and his crew are barely able to save themselves. During the investigation of the torpedo tube, Ferraday quickly determines that this malfunction should be impossible but Jones describes how someone could intentionally rig the tube to malfunction. Both Jones and Ferraday conclude that there is a saboteur aboard. Ferraday suspects Vaslov, while Jones suspects Anders, who is the least known member of the rescue team to Jones, Ferraday, and Vaslov, and universally disliked for his harsh methods. Jones demands Ferraday complete the mission regardless of the risk, and Ferraday refuses, unless he knows the purpose of the mission first. At that moment, an area of thin ice is located, and Ferraday surfaces the Tigerfish. Ferraday, Vaslov, Jones, and a rescue party set out for the weather station in zero visibility. They reach Zebra to find its buildings burned and the scientists nearly dead from exposure. Jones and Vaslov begin questioning the survivors. It becomes obvious that the two spies are looking for something. Ferraday reveals to Jones that he knows more about the mission than he is supposed to, saying "We don't believe in going on a mission totally blindfolded". Jones reveals to Ferraday that an advanced experimental British camera was stolen by the Soviets, along with an enhanced film emulsion developed by the Americans. The Soviets sent it into orbit to photograph the locations of all the American missile silos. However, the camera malfunctioned and continued to record Soviet missile sites as well. A second malfunction forced re-entry in the Arctic, close to Ice Station Zebra. Soon after, undercover Soviet and British agents arrived to recover the film capsule, and the civilian scientists at Zebra were caught in the crossfire between them. As the weather clears, Ferraday set his crew to searching for the capsule. Jones eventually finds a hidden tracking device. He is blind-sided and knocked unconscious by Vaslov, who is in fact a Soviet double agent. But before Vaslov can make off with his prize, he is confronted by Anders. As the two men fight, a dazed Jones shoots and kills captain Anders due to Vaslov's manipulation of the scenario. <!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:2593.jpg|left|thumb|Jones confronts exposed double agent Vaslov . {{FFDC|2593.jpg|9 June 5|dateDifferences from the novel While based on Alistair MacLean's 1963 Cold War thriller, the film version diverges from its source material. The most obvious changes involved the names of the novel's characters: * The submarine Dolphin became the Tigerfish. * The British spy Dr. Carpenter was renamed David Jones. * Commander Swanson was changed to Commander Ferraday. Beyond the name change, the film's submarine has a more traditionally conventional design similar to the first nuclear-powered submarine, the {{USS}}, rather than the more streamlined, teardrop-shaped vessel, either the contemporaneous Skipjack or Permit design, as described in the novel&nbsp;— no doubt simply because that was the available design of the USS Ronquil used to represent the fictitious Tigerfish during filming. The Tigerfish hull number 509 has never been used for an actual U.S. Navy submarine, although it would appear again in fiction in the 1971 television movie Assault on the Wayne. Additional characters were added, such as Soviet defector Boris Vaslov, Marine Captain Leslie Anders, 1st Lt Russell Walker, and a United States Marine Corps platoon trained for Arctic warfare. Much of the characterization involving the submarine's crew found in the novel was jettisoned in favor of these new cinematic creations. Unlike the film, the novel describes little overt Soviet interest in recovering the film capsule other than a spy ship disguised as a fishing trawler waiting outside Holy Loch when the Tigerfish sets sail. In the novel, there is no Russian submarine, no Russians on the ice, and no confrontation of any kind on the ice with the Russians. The novel's fire on board the submarine does not occur in the film, whereas the nearly fatal flooding of the forward torpedo is common to the film and the novel. The sabotage of the torpedo tubes is committed by a suspected intelligence agent in the film. In the novel, a port maintenance worker is suspected. The film's new climax involves a confrontation between Soviet paratroopers and the American Marines, but concludes on a more ambiguous note than the novel, reflecting the perceived thaw in the Cold War following the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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negative

The Hound of the Baskervilles

Bees Saal Baad

Sir Charles Baskerville is found lying dead on the grounds of his country house, Baskerville Hall. The cause is ascribed to a heart attack. Fearing for the safety of Sir Charles's nephew and only known heir, Sir Henry Baskerville, coming from America to claim his inheritance, Dr James Mortimer travels to London and asks Sherlock Holmes for help. Mortimer explains that the Baskerville family is afflicted by a curse. According to an old account, over two centuries ago Hugo Baskerville was infatuated with a farmer's daughter. He kidnapped her and imprisoned her in his bedroom. She escaped and the furious Baskerville offered his soul to the devil if he could recapture her. Aided by friends, he pursued the girl onto the desolate moor. Baskerville and his victim were found dead. She had died from fright, but a giant spectral hound stood guard over Baskerville's body. The hound tore out Baskerville's throat, then vanished into the night. Sir Charles Baskerville had become fearful of the legendary curse and its hellhound. Mortimer decided that Sir Charles had been waiting for someone when he died. His face was contorted in a ghastly expression, while his footprints suggested he was running from something. The elderly man's heart was not strong, and he had planned to go to London the next day. Mortimer says he had seen the footprints of a "gigantic hound" near Sir Charles's body, something not revealed at the inquest. Intrigued by the case, Holmes meets with Sir Henry, newly arrived from America. Sir Henry is puzzled by an anonymous note delivered to his London hotel room, warning him to avoid the Devon moors. Holmes says that the note had been composed largely of letters cut from The Times, probably in a hotel, judging by other clues. The fact that the letters were cut with nail scissors suggested an authoress, as did a remnant whiff of perfume. Holmes keeps this last detail to himself. When Holmes and Watson later join Sir Henry at his hotel, they learn one of the baronet's new boots has gone missing. No good explanation can be found for the loss. Holmes asks if there were any other living relatives besides Sir Henry. Mortimer tells him that Charles had two brothers, Rodger and John. Sir Henry is the sole child of John, who settled in America and raised his son there. Another brother, Rodger, was known to be the black sheep of the family. A wastrel and inveterate gambler, he fled to South America to avoid creditors. He is believed to have died there alone. Despite the note's warning, Sir Henry insists on visiting Baskerville Hall. As Sir Henry leaves Holmes' Baker Street apartment, Holmes and Doctor Watson follow him. They realise that a man with a fake-looking black beard in a cab is also following him. Holmes and Watson pursue this man, but he escapes; however, Holmes memorises the cab number. Holmes stops in at a messenger office and employs a young boy, Cartwright, to go visit London's hotels and look through wastepaper in search of cut-up copies of The Times. By the time they return to the hotel, Sir Henry has had another, newer boot stolen. When the first missing boot is discovered before the meeting is over, Holmes begins to realise they must be dealing with a real hound (hence the emphasis on the scent of the used boot). When conversation turns to the man in the cab, Mortimer says that Barrymore, the servant at Baskerville Hall, has a beard, and a telegram is sent to check on his whereabouts. It is decided that, with Holmes being tied up in London with other cases, Watson will accompany Sir Henry to Baskerville Hall and report back by telegram in detail. Later that evening, telegrams from Cartwright (who was unable to find the newspaper) and Baskerville Hall (where Barrymore apparently is) bring an end to those leads. A visit from John Clayton, who was driving the cab with the black-bearded man, is of little help. He says that the man had identified himself as Holmes, much to the surprise and amusement of the actual Holmes. Mortimer, Watson, and Sir Henry set off for Baskerville Hall the following Saturday. The baronet is excited to see it and his connection with the land is clear, but finds the moor dampened. Soldiers are about the area, on the lookout for an escaped murderer named Selden. Barrymore and his wife wish to depart Baskerville Hall as soon as is convenient, and the Hall is, in general, a somber place. Watson has trouble sleeping that night, and hears a woman crying. The next morning Barrymore denies that it was his wife, who is one of only two women in the house. Watson sees Mrs. Barrymore later in the morning, however, and observes clear evidence that she has indeed been weeping. Watson checks with the postmaster in Coombe Tracey and learns that the telegram was not actually delivered into the hands of Barrymore, so it is no longer certain that he was at the Hall, and not in London. On his way back, Watson meets Jack Stapleton, a naturalist familiar with the moor even though he has only been in the area for two years. They hear a moan that the peasants attribute to the hound, but Stapleton attributes it to the cry of a bittern, or possibly the bog settling. He then runs off after a specimen of the butterfly Cyclopedes, which was still found on Dartmoor until the 1860s. Watson is not alone for long before Beryl Stapleton, Jack's sister, approaches him. Mistaking him for Sir Henry, she urgently warns him to leave the area, but drops the subject when her brother returns. The three walk to Merripit House (the Stapletons’ home), and during the discussion, Watson learns that Stapleton used to run a school in Yorkshire. Though he is offered lunch and a look at Stapleton’s collections, Watson departs for the Hall. Before he gets far along the path, Miss Stapleton overtakes him and retracts her warning. Watson notices that the brother and sister don't look very much alike. Sir Henry soon meets Miss Stapleton and becomes romantically interested, despite her brother’s intrusions. Watson meets another neighbour, Mr. Frankland, an elderly lawyer. Barrymore draws increasing suspicion, as Watson and Sir Henry see him late at night walk with a candle into an empty room, hold it up to the window, and then leave. Realising that the room has a view out on the moor, Watson and Sir Henry determine to figure out what is going on. Barrymore's wife confesses that her brother is Selden, the escaped murderer, and that she was giving him food while he was out on the moor. Meanwhile, during the day, Sir Henry continues to pursue Beryl Stapleton until her brother runs up on them and yells angrily. He later explains to the disappointed baronet that it was not personal, he was just afraid of losing his only companion so quickly. To show there are no hard feelings, he invites Sir Henry to dine with him and his sister on Friday. Sir Henry then becomes the person doing the surprising, when he and Watson walk in on Barrymore, catching him at night in the room with a candle. Barrymore refuses to answer their questions, since it is not his secret to tell, but Mrs. Barrymore’s. She tells them that the runaway convict Selden is her brother and the candle is a signal to him that food has been left for him. When the couple return to their room, Sir Henry and Watson go off to find the convict, despite the poor weather and frightening sound of the hound. They see Selden by another candle, but are unable to catch him. Watson notices the outlined figure of another man standing on top of a tor with the moon behind him, but he likewise gets away. Barrymore is upset when he finds out that they tried to capture Selden, but when an agreement is reached to allow Selden to flee the country, he is willing to repay the favour. He tells them of finding a mostly burnt letter asking Sir Charles to be at the gate at the time of his death. It was signed with the initials L.L. Mortimer tells Watson the next day those initials could stand for Laura Lyons, Frankland’s daughter. She lives in Coombe Tracey. When Watson goes to talk to her, she admits to writing the letter in hopes that Sir Charles would be willing to help finance her divorce, but says she never kept the appointment. Frankland has just won two law cases and invites Watson in to help him celebrate. Barrymore had previously told Watson that another man lived out on the moor besides Selden, and Frankland unwittingly confirms this, when he shows Watson through his telescope the figure of a boy carrying food. Watson departs the house and goes in that direction. He finds the prehistoric stone dwelling where the unknown man has been staying, goes in, and sees a message reporting on his own activities. He waits, revolver at the ready, for the unknown man to return. The unknown man proves to be Holmes. He has kept his location a secret so that Watson would not be tempted to come out and so he would be able to appear on the scene of action at the critical moment. Watson’s reports have been of much help to him, and he then tells his friend some of the information he has uncoveredStapleton is actually married to the woman passing as Miss Stapleton, and was also promising marriage to Laura Lyons to get her cooperation. As they bring their conversation to an end, they hear a ghastly scream. They run towards the sound and finding a body, mistake it for Sir Henry. They realise it is actually the escaped convict Selden, the brother of Mrs Barrymore, dressed in the baronet’s old clothes (which had been given to Barrymore by way of further apology for distrusting him). Then Stapleton appears, and while he makes excuses for his presence, Holmes announces that he will return to London the next day, his investigations having produced no result. Holmes and Watson return to Baskerville Hall where, over dinner, the detective stares at Hugo Baskerville's portrait. Calling Watson over after dinner he covers the hair to show the face, revealing its striking likeness to Stapleton. This provides the motive in the crimewith Sir Henry gone, Stapleton could lay claim to the Baskerville fortune, being clearly a Baskerville himself. When they return to Mrs. Lyons’s apartment, Holmes' questioning forces her to admit Stapleton’s role in the letter that lured Sir Charles to his death. They go to the railway station to meet Det. Inspector Lestrade, whom Holmes has called in by telegram. Under the threat of advancing fog, Watson, Holmes, and Lestrade lie in wait outside Merripit House, where Sir Henry has been dining. When the baronet leaves and sets off across the moor, Stapleton looses the hound. Holmes and Watson manage to shoot it before it can hurt Sir Henry seriously, and discover that its hellish appearance was acquired by means of phosphorus. They find Mrs. Stapleton bound and gagged in an upstairs room of Merripit House. When she is freed, she tells them of Stapleton’s hideout; an island deep in the Great Grimpen Mire. They look for him next day, unsuccessfully, and he is presumed dead, having lost his footing and being sucked down into the foul and bottomless depths of the mire. Holmes and Watson are only able to find and recover Sir Henry's boot used by Stapleton to give the hound Sir Henry's scent and find the remains of Dr Mortimer's dog in the mire. Some weeks later, Watson questions Holmes about the Baskerville case. Holmes reveals that although believed to have died unmarried, Sir Charles' younger brother Rodger Baskerville had married and had a son with the same name as his father. The son John Rodger Baskerville, after embezzling public money in Costa Rica, took the name Vandeleur and fled to England where he used the money to fund a Yorkshire school. Unfortunately for him, the tutor he had hired died of consumption, and after an epidemic of the disease killed three students the school itself failed. Now using the name Stapleton, Baskerville/Vandeleur fled with his wife to Dartmoor. He apparently supported himself by burglary, engaging in four large robberies and pistolling a page who surprised him. Having learned the story of the hound, he resolved to kill off the remaining Baskervilles so that he could come into the inheritance as the last of the line. He had no interest in the estate and simply wanted the inheritance money. He purchased the hound and hid it in the mire at the site of an abandoned tin mine. On the night of his death, Sir Charles had been waiting for Laura Lyons. The cigar ash at the scene ("the ash had twice dropped from his cigar") showed he had waited for some time. Instead he met the hound that had been trained by Stapleton and covered with phosphorus to give it an unearthly appearance. Sir Charles ran for his life, but then had the fatal heart attack which killed him. Since dogs do not eat or bite dead bodies, it left him there untouched. Stapleton followed Sir Henry in London, and also stole his new boot but later returned it, since it had not been worn and thus lacked Sir Henry's scent. Holmes speculated that the hotel bootblack had been bribed to steal an old boot of Henry's instead. The hound pursued Selden to his death in a fall because he was wearing Sir Henry's old clothes. On the night the hound attacked Sir Henry, Stapleton's wife had refused to have any further part in Stapleton's plot, but her abusive husband beat and tied her to a pole to prevent her from warning him. In Holmes' words: "..he (Stapleton) has for years been a desperate and dangerous man.." It was his consuming interest in entomology that allowed Holmes to identify him as the same man as Vandeleur, the former schoolmaster.

After a lusty Thakur rapes a young girl, she kills herself. Thereafter, the Thakur is killed by what the local people call the girl's vengeful spirit. Then the Thakur's son is also killed in a similar way. Thereafter the brother of the Thakur is also killed. The grandson of the Thakur, Kumar Vijay Singh returns from abroad to claim his ill-fated legacy. He is warned to stay away from the grounds that have killed his ancestors, but he intends to find out who or what is behind the killings, and hires a private detective, Gopichand Jasoos . Kumar meets with Radha , the daughter of the local doctor, Ramlal Vaid , and both eventually fall in love. Then a man is found dead wearing the clothes of Kumar Vijay, and Kumar Vijay must now decide to stay away from his new residence, or continue to live there, and fear for his life everyday until death.

positive

positive

Beau Geste

Beau Hunks

Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator (among others), by contrast, is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers of Brandon Abbas are used as a metaphor for the British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (only daughter of Lady Patricia, and in a way, also reason enough for Michael to join the French Foreign Legion), and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus. When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain to join the Foreign Legion (la Légion étrangère), followed by his brothers, Digby (his twin) and John. There, after some adventure and separation from Digby, the sadistic Sergeant Lejaune gets command of the little garrison at Fort Zinderneuf in French North Africa, and only an attack by Tuaregs prevents a mutiny and mass desertion (of course the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.

Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy join the French Foreign Legion after Ollie's sweetheart Jeanie-Weenie rejects him, as it is the only place where Ollie can forget her. When they arrive at the barracks in Algeria, they discover that not only are the other soldiers trying to forget lost loves, their lost loves all happen to be the one and the same woman Ollie is trying to forget: Jeanie-Weenie! On an expedition to Ft. Arid, a fortress besieged by native Riffian tribesmen, the duo get cut off from the rest of the regiment in a sandstorm and reach the fortress before the others. Surprisingly, the boys defeat the Riffians by themselves and the leader of the Riffians is revealed as another one of Jeanie-Weenie's conquests. The French Foreign Legion scenario was remade as The Flying Deuces.

positive

positive

The Adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio's Revenge

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

Defense attorney Jennifer Garrick believes her client, an accused child murderer on death row, is not guilty and is hiding the identity of the real killer. After he is executed, she accidentally brings a Pinocchio doll buried with her clients son home with her from the office, and her daughter Zoe mistakes it for a birthday gift. She starts acting strangely as she develops a relationship with the puppet. Soon, she even believes the doll to be real and talk with it, although this is not out of the ordinary as she held a similar relationship with her other dolls. Trouble takes off when a school mate of Zoe who bullied her is pushed in front of a bus, which Zoe blames on Pinocchio trying to protect her. Soon after, Jennifer's boyfriend David is knocked down the basement stairs while baby sitting Zoe, but is saved by Zoe calling 911. Later, Zoe is at one of her therapy sessions when her psychiatrist has to leave the room, and Zoe begins talking with Pinocchio about who is to blame for David's accident, with both placing blame on one another. A surveillance video in the room is watched by the mother and the psychiatrist and it is revealed that Zoe is talking to herself. That night, Pinocchio convinces Zoe to set him free so that he can admit to David that he is to blame for his accident. Zoe makes him promise he will not do anything bad and cuts his strings, at which point Pinocchio hops up declaring his freedom and takes off down the dark streets with Zoe in pursuit. Through a first person perspective, we see an unknown person move through the hospital through crowds of people into David's room and unplug one of his machines, killing him. Jennifer questions Zoe who claims she got lost as she and Pinocchio try to find the hospital and never went there which causes an angry and confused Jennifer to lock Pinocchio in the trunk of her car. That night, Zoe is left in the care of the babysitter Sophe, when Sophe reminds her that Zoe gave Pinocchio a conscience . Zoe runs to her room to check on it and finds it smashed and begins screaming. Sophe runs to make sure she is okay where she is struck by a fireplace poker from an unknown assailant until she is dead. Jennifer arrives home that night during a thunderstorm to find the babysitter dead and Zoe standing in a dark hallway quiet. When Jennifer tries to confront Zoe, she runs away in a panic. As Jennifer explores the house, she is struck by the poker and sees her daughter standing above her with it in her hand. Her daughter explains that she just managed to get the poker away from Pinocchio but they must escape quickly, but before Jennifer can inquire further, Zoe is gone. Jennifer stands up to see Pinocchio standing in the room, at which point he suddenly turns towards her and attacks her with a knife, following with a chase and battle through the house. Jennifer throws Pinocchio through a glass coffee table and sees that her daughter is suddenly laying there in his place. The movie closes with a catatonic Zoe being committed and Jennifer stating it was not her and that she will not give up until she gets better and can leave, to which the psychiatrist states, "I hope not, for your sake, I hope not."

positive

positive

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.

Allan Quatermain , an experienced hunter and guide, is reluctantly talked into helping Elizabeth Curtis and her brother John Goode ([[Richard Carlson search for her husband, who had disappeared in the unexplored interior of Africa on a quest to find the legendary mines. They have a copy of the map he used. A tall, mysterious native, Umbopa , joins the safari. During the grueling journey, Elizabeth and Allan begin falling in love. The party encounters Van Brun , a lone white man living with a tribe. They learn that he met Curtis. However, when Allan recognizes him as a fugitive who cannot afford to let them go, they take him hostage to leave the village safely. Van Brun tries to shoot Allan, killing his faithful right hand man Khiva . Allan dispatches Van Brun and the party flees from the angry villagers. When they finally reach the region where the mines are supposed to be, they are met by people who resemble Umbopa. They discover that their companion is royalty; he has returned to attempt to dethrone the evil King Twala . Umbopa leaves with his supporters, while Allan, Elizabeth and John travel to a tense meeting with Twala. With his last rifle bullet, John kills a would-be attacker, temporarily quelling the natives. The king's advisor, Gagool , communicates that they have seen Curtis and leads them to a cave that contains a trove of jewels and in which they find the skeletal remains of Elizabeth's husband. While they are distracted by this discovery, Gagool takes the opportunity to leave and triggers a booby trap that seals them inside the cave. Leaving the jewels behind, they find a way out through an underground stream and return to the settlement, just as Umbopa and his followers arrive. Umbopa's people have an unusual method of deciding the kingship. The two claimants duel to the death. Despite cheating by one of Twala's men, Umbopa wins. Afterwards, he provides an escort for his friends' return trip.

positive

positive

Night and the City

Night and the City

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

A two-bit New York lawyer named Harry Fabian gets caught up in his own scams. First he infuriates local crime figure and boxing promoter Ira "Boom Boom" Grossman by filing a baseless lawsuit against one of his boxers. Then he compounds the situation by recruiting Boom Boom's estranged brother, former professional prizefighter Al Grossman, to be his partner as he attempts to stage a boxing promotion himself. Harry's debts mount, causing him to approach the ruthless loan shark Mr. Peck and to count on a loan by bar owner Phil Nassaro, who secretly hates Harry and has become aware of his wife Helen's affair with him. Helen, the one true friend Harry has, is also betrayed when Harry pretends to acquire a liquor license for her new restaurant, giving her a forged one instead. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong, including Al Grossman's collapse from a heart attack. Harry runs out of chances as he desperately tries to avoid the wrath of those he has crossed.

negative

positive

Treasure Island

Treasure Planet

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

The film's prologue depicts Jim Hawkins as a five-year-old reading a storybook in bed. Jim is enchanted by stories of the legendary pirate Captain Flint and his ability to appear from nowhere, raid passing ships, and disappear in order to hide the loot on the mysterious "Treasure Planet". Twelve years later, Jim has grown into an aloof and alienated teenager. He is shown begrudgingly helping his mother Sarah run an inn and deriving amusement from "solar surfing" , a pastime that frequently gets him in trouble. One day, a spaceship crashes near the inn. The dying pilot, Billy Bones , gives Jim a sphere and tells him to "beware the cyborg". Shortly thereafter, a gang of pirates raid and burn the inn. Jim, his mother, and their dog-like friend Dr. Delbert Doppler barely escape. The sphere turns out to be a holographic projector, showing a map that Jim realizes leads to Treasure Planet. Doppler commissions a ship called RLS Legacy, on a mission to find Treasure Planet. The ship is commanded by the cat-like, sharp-witted Captain Amelia along with her stony-skinned and disciplined First Mate, Mr. Arrow . The crew is a motley bunch, secretly led by cook John Silver ([[Brian Murray , whom Jim suspects is the cyborg of whom he was warned. Jim is sent down to work in the galley; despite his mistrust of Silver, they soon form a tenuous father-son relationship (a montage featuring the song "[[I'm Still Here . During an encounter with a supernova, Silver falls overboard but is saved by Jim. The supernova then devolves into a black hole, where Arrow drifts overboard and is lost, for which Jim blames himself for failing to secure the lifelines, while in fact Arrow's line was cut by a ruthless insectoid crew member named Scroop . As the ship reaches Treasure Planet, mutiny erupts, led by Silver. Jim, Doppler, and Amelia abandon the ship, accidentally leaving the map behind. Silver, who believes that Jim has the map, has a chance to kill Jim, but refuses to do so because of his attachment to the boy. The fugitives are shot down by a mutineer during their escape, causing injury to Amelia. While exploring Treasure Planet's forests, the fugitives meet B.E.N. , an abandoned, whimsical robot who claims to have lost most of his memory and invites them to his house to care for the wounded Amelia. The pirates corner the group here; using a back-door, Jim and B.E.N. return to the ship in an attempt to recover the map. Scroop, aboard the ship as lookout, stalks and fights Jim. B.E.N., working to sabotage the ship's artillery, accidentally turns off the artificial gravity, whereupon Jim and Scroop threaten to float off into space. Jim grabs the mast while Scroop becomes entangled in the flag and cuts himself free while Scroop floats away, presumably to his death. Jim and B.E.N. obtain the map. Upon their return, they are captured by Silver, who has already captured Doppler and Amelia. When Jim is forced to use the map, the group finds their way to a portal that can be opened to any place in the universe; this being the means by which Flint conducted his raids. The treasure is at the center of the planet, accessible only via the portal. Treasure Planet is revealed to be a large space station built by unknown architects and commandeered by Flint. In the stash of treasure, Jim comes across the skeletal remains of Flint himself, holding a missing part of B.E.N's cognitive computer. Jim replaces this piece, causing B.E.N. to remember that the planet is set to explode upon the treasure's discovery. In the ensuing catastrophe, Silver finds himself torn between holding onto a literal boat-load of gold and saving Jim, who hangs from a precipice after a fall. Silver saves Jim, and the group escapes to the Legacy, which is damaged and lacks the motive power required to leave the planet in time to escape. Jim attaches a rocket to a narrow plate of metal and rides it toward the portal to open it to a new location while Doppler pilots the ship behind him. Jim manages to open the portal to his home world's spaceport, through which all escape the destruction of Treasure Planet. After the escape, Amelia has the surviving pirates imprisoned aboard the ship and offers to recommend Jim to the Interstellar Academy for his heroic actions. Silver sneaks below deck, where Jim finds him preparing his escape. Jim lets him go, inheriting Silver's shape-changing pet called Morph . Silver predicts that Jim will "rattle the stars", then tosses him a handful of jewels and gold he had taken from Treasure Planet to pay for rebuilding the inn. The film ends with a party at the rebuilt inn, showing Doppler and Amelia now married with children, and Jim a military cadet. He looks to the skies and sees an image of Silver in the clouds.

positive

positive

I Am Legend

The Last Man on Earth

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 the year 1968, every day is the same for Dr. Robert Morgan : he wakes up, gathers his weapons and then goes hunting for vampires. Morgan lives in a world where everyone else has been infected by a plague that has turned them into undead, vampiric creatures that cannot stand sunlight, fear mirrors, and are repelled by garlic. They would kill Morgan if they could, but fortunately, they are weak and unintelligent. At night, Morgan locks himself inside his house; during the day, he kills as many vampires as he can, burning the bodies. A flashback sequence explains that, three years before, Morgan's wife and daughter had succumbed to the plague, before it was widely known by the public that the dead would return to life. Instead of taking his wife to the same public burn pit used to dispose of his daughter's corpse, Morgan buried her without the knowledge of the authorities. When his wife returned to his home and attacked him, Morgan became aware of the need to kill the plague victims with a wooden stake. Morgan hypothesizes that he is immune to the bacteria because he was bitten by an infected vampire bat when he was stationed in Panama, which introduced a diluted form of the plague into his blood. One day, a dog appears in the neighborhood. Desperate for companionship, Morgan chases after the dog but does not catch it. Some time later, the dog appears, wounded, at Morgan's doorstep. He takes the dog into his home and treats its wounds, looking forward to having company for the first time in three years. He quickly discovers, however, that it too has become infected with the plague. Morgan is later seen burying the dog, which he has impaled with a wooden stake. While out on his daily rounds, Morgan spots a woman in the distance. The woman, Ruth, is terrified of Morgan at first sight, and runs from him. Morgan convinces her to return to his home, but is suspicious of her true nature. Ruth becomes ill when Morgan waves garlic in her face, but claims that she has a weak stomach. Morgan's suspicion that Ruth is infected is confirmed when he discovers her attempting to inject herself with a combination of blood and vaccine that holds the disease at bay. Ruth initially draws a gun on Morgan, but surrenders it to him. Ruth then tells him that she is part of a group of people like her &mdash; infected but under treatment &mdash; and was sent to spy on Morgan. The vaccine allows the people to function normally with the drug in the bloodstream, but once it wears off, the infection takes over the body again. Ruth explains that her people are planning to rebuild society as they destroy the remaining vampires, and that many of the vampires Morgan killed were technically still alive. While Ruth is asleep, Morgan transfuses his own blood into her. She is immediately cured, and Morgan sees hope that, together, they can cure the rest of her people. Moments later, however, Ruth's people attack. Morgan takes the gun and flees his home while the attackers kill the vampires gathered around Morgan's home. Ruth's people spot Morgan and chase him. He exchanges gunfire with them, and picks up tear gas grenades from a police station armory along the way. While the tear gas delays his pursuers somewhat, Morgan is wounded by gunfire and retreats into a church. Despite Ruth's protests to let Morgan live, his pursuers finally impale him on the altar with a spear. With his dying breaths, Morgan denounces his pursuers as "freaks," and declares that he is the last true man on earth.

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The Adventures of Pinocchio

Geppetto

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

Geppetto dearly wishes to become a father. One day his wish is granted by the Blue Fairy , and she brings to life a wooden puppet, made by Geppetto, named Pinocchio . In the beginning, everything is rosy for the new family, yet slowly things begin to unravel, culminating with Pinocchio running away. Geppetto, thinking Pinocchio would rather live with the evil Stromboli , washes his hands of the whole matter and tries to go back to his lonely life. Stromboli, however, had kidnapped him and was using him as the main attraction in his puppet show. Geppetto finally comes to his senses and goes out to rescue Pinocchio, but he has run away from Stromboli to the infamous "Pleasure Island" . On his way there, Geppetto has several chance encounters, including a professor that creates children to precise specifications ([[René Auberjonois and a struggling, traveling magician . Pleasure Island is not all that it seems to be and Pinocchio is turned into a donkey, with Geppetto arriving just in time to see him and to try and rescue him. They set sail on a small boat, get hit by a storm in the middle of the sea, and are swallowed by a whale. They manage to escape and forgive each other for their wrongs, and Pinocchio is turned into a "real boy" by the end of the film and all live happily ever after.

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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.

Derived from the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which was based on the novel by Gaston Leroux, the film begins in 1919, as the effects of a dilapidated Paris Opera House are being sold off at auction. Raoul, the Viscount of Chagny ([[Patrick Wilson , now an old wheelchair-bound man, purchases a coveted music box. During the auction, Raoul spots a familiar figure: Madame Giry , whom he met as a young man. Madame Giry is now an old woman, almost 50 years later. But he is distracted by the next piece for auction, lot 666: a chandelier in pieces which has been restored and newly electrically wired. As the auctioneers display the restored chandelier, the opening crescendo of music wipes away the years of decay from the opera house as the black and white turns into color, and the audience is transported back in time to 1870, the beginning of the story, when the opera was in its prime. A disfigured musical genius called "The Phantom" lives within the deepest recess of the opera house. Tormented by his scarred face, the Phantom lives in the watery labyrinths beneath the Opéra Populaire in Paris. After nearly ten years of quiet obsession with the delicate, ethereal voice of Christine Daaé and the beautiful young soprano herself, he plots to place his protégé at center stage. Christine is caught between her love for Raoul, her childhood sweetheart who has returned into her life, and her fascination and pity for the Phantom. Angry and possessive, the Phantom plots to make Christine his, resorting to stalking her wherever she goes as well as killing several people including Piangi. A swordfight later ensues in the cemetery, where Raoul eventually disarms him and is about to kill him when Christine pleads for him not to, "not like this." His rage seemingly augmented, the Phantom angrily states as Christine and Raoul walk away: "Now, let it be war upon you both." During the night's play, he steals Christine away and avoids the trap to be captured by Raoul and the managers. After a series of tense, chaotic sequences, including dropping the chandelier and setting the opera house on fire, the Phantom imprisons Raoul, who attempts to save Christine, and threatens to strangle him to death if Christine does not choose the Phantom. Christine kisses the Phantom in order to save Raoul's life, while displaying her pity and compassion for him. Ashamed of what he's done, he begs Christine and Raoul to leave for he realizes if he really loves Christine he should set her free. Just before she departs with Raoul on the boat, Christine approaches the Phantom, who tells her that he loves her, and gives him the diamond ring from her finger. Christine and Raoul row away singing to each other as Christine glances back at the Phantom. After they leave, the Phantom then uses a candelabrum to smash every mirror in his underground lair and he disappears behind a velvet curtain into an empty glass mirror portal, before the police arrive. Upon entering, Meg, the ballet mistress's daughter, finds only the Phantom's white mask. Later, the grainy black and white picture dominates as the elderly Raoul rides to a cemetery where he goes to visit Christine's tomb, which reveals that she died only two years before, in 1917, at age 63. Her tombstone says "Vicomtess of Chagny" and "beloved wife and mother", suggesting she married Raoul, had children and died of old age. He lays the monkey music box at her grave site, and notices that on the left of the tombstone lies a red rose with a black ribbon tied around it with the engagement ring attached to it, implying that the Phantom is still alive, and will always love Christine.

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positive

The Witches of Eastwick

The Witches of Eastwick

The story, set in the fictional Rhode Island town of Eastwick in the late 1960s, follows the witches Alexandra Spofford, Jane Smart, and Sukie Rougemont, who acquired their powers after leaving or being left by their husbands. Their coven is upset by the arrival of a devil-like character, Darryl Van Horne. The mysterious Darryl seduces each of the women, encouraging them to play with their powers and creating a scandal in the town. The three women share Darryl in relative peace until he unexpectedly marries their young, innocent friend, Jenny, on whom they resolve to have revenge by giving her cancer through their magic. The witches doubt their judgement after Jenny's death when Darryl flees town with her younger brother, Chris, apparently his lover. In his wake he leaves their relationships strained and their sense of self in doubt. Eventually they each summon their ideal men and leave town. The Widows of Eastwick, John Updike's sequel to The Witches of Eastwick, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2008.

Alexandra Medford , Jane Spofford , and Sukie Ridgemont are three dissatisfied women living in the picturesque town of Eastwick, New England. Alexandra is a sculptress and single mother of one daughter; Jane is a newly divorced music teacher incapable of having children; and Sukie is an extremely fertile woman with six daughters, who also works as a journalist at the "'Eastwick Word." Besides an everlasting friendship, these three women also share the similar misfortune of being abandoned by their husbands. Unaware that they are witches, the women unwittingly form a coven where they have weekly get-togethers and share their fantasies about ideal men. The day after one such gathering, a mysterious man arrives in the town and immediately stirs up trouble by buying the town's landmark property - the Lennox Mansion. The arrival of this enigmatic stranger causes fascination among the townsfolk, all except local townswoman Felicia Alden , the Christian wife of newspaper editor, Clyde Alden . Clyde is also Sukie's boss, whom Felicia dislikes. Although Felicia is not a witch, she is somehow able to sense that this man is up to no good. One night, at one of Jane's music recitals, the strange man appears and makes a spectacle of himself, which leads to more gossip among the people. After the recital, Jane receives a bouquet of flowers with the initial "D" written on it. This sparks Sukie's memory, finally revealing the man's name as Daryl Van Horne. However, as chaos over Daryl's name spreads throughout the crowd, Sukie’s beaded necklace inexplicably breaks and falls to the floor, causing Felicia to trip down a large staircase and break her leg. The following day, as Daryl sets out to seduce the women one by one, he begins with the self-assured Alexandra, who is at first appalled by Daryl's arrogance, but later falls in love with him. The next morning, Daryl visits Jane, who is considered very insecure and shy. As the two sit down and share polite conversations, Jane explains to Daryl how the Lennox Mansion was built on the same location where alleged witches were burned at the stake. Later that night, Daryl encourages Jane to stop living a life of doubt and learn to enjoy herself by living recklessly. Taking his advice to heart, Jane begins living carelessly by letting her hair down and indulging in alcohol, drugs, and sex. The following week, Daryl invites all three of the women over to his mansion, which finally allows him to set his sights on Sukie. Later, as envy and rivalry emerge among the women, they inadvertently cause a tennis ball to levitate. Finally aware of their magical abilities, the women agree to share Daryl, spending more and more time with him at his palace. Later, as the women continue their presence at Daryl's mansion, Felicia begins spreading rumors about the three women's indecency. Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie become social outcasts within the town. As the witches begin to question their loyalty to Daryl, the diabolical tycoon kills Felicia by causing the girls to unknowingly cast a spell against her. Later that night, as Felicia rants to her husband about Daryl being the Devil, she begins to gradually vomit cherry stones. Because he cannot bear to watch his wife's illness progress, Clyde beats Felicia with a fire poker, killing her instantly. Following the death of Felicia, the three women become frightful of their powers and agree not to see or speak to each other or Daryl for a long period of time. Meanwhile, upset with the witches for abandoning him, Daryl uses his own powers against the girls by bringing their worst fears to life. Alexandra awakens to a bed full of snakes; Jane transforms into an old hag; and Sukie is forced to feel excruciating pain. Realizing the only way to be rid of Daryl is by using witchcraft against him, the girls reunite in order to seduce, and ultimately kill, Daryl Van Horne. The next morning, as Daryl sets out to town, the women perform a banishing spell on him. Sukie rushes to Daryl's office, removing a grimoire entitled "Maleficio"; Jane gathers some of Daryl's personal belongings ; and Alex creates a voodoo doll in his image out of wax. Once the spell begins to take effect, Daryl races home to punish the girls for their betrayal. Terrified of Daryl's dominance over them, the witches toss the voodoo doll into a fire. Daryl vanishes. Eighteen months later, Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie have each borne a son. Although they still possess their magical powers, they avoid using them out of fear of unintentionally resurrecting Daryl. However, as the women now live together in the Lenox Mansion, Daryl often attempts to communicate with his children by appearing on television screens. Concerned about his diabolical intentions, the witches simply avoid Daryl by clicking off the television.

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The Shape of Things to Come

Things to Come

As a frame story, Wells claims that the book is his edited version of notes written by an eminent diplomat, Dr. Philip Raven, who had been having dream visions of a history textbook published in 2106, and wrote down what he could remember of it. It is split into five separate sections or "books": #Today And Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration Dawns - The history of the world up to 1933. #The Days After Tomorrow: The Age of Frustration - 1933-1960. #The World Renascence: The Birth of the Modern State - 1960-1978. #The Modern State Militant - 1978-2059. #The Modern State in Control of Life - 2059 to New Year's Day 2106. Wells predicted a Second World War breaking out with a European conflagration from the flashpoint of a violent clash between Germans and Poles at Danzig. Wells set the date for this as January 1940. Poland proves the military match of Nazi Germany and engages in an inconclusive war lasting ten years. More countries are eventually dragged into the fighting, France and the Soviet Union are only marginally involved, Britain remains neutral, the US fights inconclusively with Japan. The war drags on until 1950 and ends with no victor but total exhaustion, collapse and disintegration of all fighting states (and also of the neutral countries, equally affected by the deepening economic crisis). Europe and the whole world descend into chaos: nearly all central governments break down, and a devastating plague in 1956-57 kills a large part of humanity and almost destroys civilization. Wells then envisages a benevolent dictatorship&mdash;'The Dictatorship of the Air' (a term likely modelled on 'The Dictatorship of the proletariat' and concept similar to Kipling's Aerial Board of Control )&mdash;arising from the controllers of the world's surviving transportation systems (the only people with global power). This dictatorship promotes science, enforces Basic English as a global lingua franca, and eradicates all religion, setting the world on the route to a peaceful utopia. When the dictatorship chooses to murder a subject, the condemned person is given a chance to take a poison tablet. Eventually, after a century of reshaping humanity, the dictatorship is overthrown in a completely bloodless coup, the former rulers are sent into a very honourable retirement, and the world state "withers away" (as was predicted by Friedrich Engels in his 1877 work Anti-Duhring). The last part of the book is a detailed description of the Utopian world which emerges, in some ways reminiscent of Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward. The ultimate aim of this utopian world is to produce a world society composed entirely of polymaths, each and every one of its members the intellectual equal of the greatest geniuses of the past. As noted by Neville, while The Shape of Things to Come was written as a future history, seen in retrospect it can be considered as an alternate history diverging from ours in late 1933 or early 1934, the Point of divergence being U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's failure to implement the New Deal and revive the US economy (and also Adolf Hitler's failure to revive the German economy by re-armament). Instead, the worldwide economic crisis continues for three decades, concurrently with the war. The war is prosecuted by countries already on the verge of collapse and ends, not with any side's victory, but with universal collapse and disintegration (including non-combatant countries). There follows the complete collapse of capitalism and the emergence of the above-mentioned new order. The book displays one of the earliest uses of the C.E. (Christian Era or Common Era) calendar abbreviation, which was used by Wells in lieu of the traditional A.D. (Latin Anno Domini).

Things to Come sets out a future history from 1940 to 2036. It is set in the fictional British city of 'Everytown'. Successful businessman John Cabal cannot enjoy Christmas Day, 1940, with the ominous news of possible war. His guest Harding shares his worries, but over-optimistic friend Passworthy ([[Edward Chapman believes it will not come to pass, or even if it does, it will do good by accelerating technological progress. A bombing raid on the city that night results in general mobilization and global war. Some time later, Cabal, now piloting a biplane, shoots down a one-man enemy bomber. He lands and pulls the badly injured enemy from the wreckage. As they dwell on the madness of war, they have to put on their gas masks, as poison gas drifts in their direction. When a little girl runs towards them, the wounded man insists she take his mask, saying he is done for anyway. Cabal takes the girl to his aeroplane, pausing to leave the doomed man a revolver. The man dwells on the irony that he may have gassed the child's family and yet he has saved her. He then shoots himself. The war continues for decades, long enough for the survivors to have forgotten why they are fighting in the first place. Humanity enters a new Dark Age. The world is in ruins and there is little technology left apart from the firearms used to wage war. In 1966, a plague called the "wandering sickness" is spread by the unnamed enemy using its last few remaining aircraft. Dr. Harding and his daughter Mary struggle to find a cure, but with little equipment, it is hopeless. By 1970, a local warlord called the "Chief" or the "Boss" has risen to power in the south of England and eradicated the sickness by shooting the infected. He dreams of conquering the "hill people" to obtain coal and shale to render into oil so his biplanes can fly again. On May Day 1970, a futuristic aeroplane lands outside the town. The sole pilot, John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of "engineers and mechanics" have formed a civilization called "Wings Over the World". They are based in Basra, Iraq, and have renounced war and outlawed independent nations. The Boss takes the pilot prisoner and forces him to work for Gordon, a mechanic working on repairing the few remaining aeroplanes. Together, they manage to fix a plane. When Gordon takes it up for a test flight, he flees to alert Cabal's friends. Wings Over the World attacks Everytown with gigantic aeroplanes and drops sleeping gas bombs on the town. The Boss orders his biplanes to attack but they are shot down. The people of Everytown awaken shortly thereafter, to find it occupied by the Airmen and the Boss dead. A montage follows, showing decades of technological progress, beginning with Cabal explaining plans for global consolidation by Wings Over the World. By 2036, mankind lives in modern underground cities, including the new Everytown. However, all is not well. The sculptor Theotocopulos incites the populace to demand a "rest" from the rush of progress, symbolized by the first manned flight around the Moon. The modern-day Luddites are opposed by Oswald Cabal , the head of the governing council and great grandson of John Cabal. Cabal's daughter Catherine and her boyfriend Horrie Passworthy insist on flying the spaceship. When a mob rushes to destroy the space gun used to propel the spacecraft, Cabal launches the ship ahead of schedule. Cabal then delivers a speech about Progress and humanity's quest for knowledge, asking, "And if we’re no more than animals, we must snatch each little scrap of happiness, and live, and suffer, and pass, mattering no more than all the other animals do or have done. It is this, or that. All the universe or nothing. Which shall it be, Passworthy? Which shall it be?"

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The Invisible Man

The Invisible Man's Revenge

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.

An eager scientist tests his new formula for invisibility on an escaped fugitive . When the formula works the criminal runs off to terrorize a family he believes cheated him out of a fortune years earlier.

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The Quiet American

The Quiet American

Thomas Fowler is a British journalist in his fifties who has been covering the French war in Vietnam for over two years. He meets a young American idealist named Alden Pyle, who lives his life and forms his opinions based on the books written by York Harding, with no real experience in matters of Southeast Asia at all. Harding's theory is that neither Communism or colonialism are the answer in foreign lands like Vietnam, but rather a "Third Force" &mdash; usually a combination of traditions &mdash; works best. When Pyle and Fowler first meet, Pyle says he would be delighted if Fowler could help him understand more about the country. Fowler is much older, more realistic and more cynical. Fowler has a live-in lover, Phuong, who is only 20 years old and was previously a dancer at The Arc-en-Ciel (Rainbow) on Jaccareo Road, in Cholon. Her sister's intent is to arrange a marriage for Phuong that will benefit herself and her family. The sister disapproves of their relationship, as Fowler is already married and an atheist. So, at a dinner with Fowler and Phuong, Pyle meets her sister, who immediately starts questioning Pyle about his viability for marriage with Phuong. Towards the end of the dinner, Pyle dances with Phuong, and Fowler notes how poorly he dances. Fowler goes to the city to cover a battle there. Pyle travels there to tell him that he has been in love with Phuong since the first night he saw her, and that he wants to marry her. They make a toast to nothing and Pyle leaves the next day. Fowler gets a letter from Pyle thanking him for being so nice. The letter annoys Fowler because of Pyle's arrogant confidence that Phuong leave Fowler to marry him. Meanwhile, Fowler's editor wants him to transfer back to England. Pyle comes to Fowler's place and they ask Phuong to choose between them. She chooses Fowler, unaware that he is up for a transfer. Fowler writes to his wife to ask for a divorce in front of Phuong. Fowler and Pyle meet again in a war zone. They end up in a tower, and their discussion topics range from their sexual experiences to religion. As they escape, Pyle saves Fowler's life. Fowler goes back to Saigon, where he lies to Phuong that his wife will divorce him. Pyle exposes the lie and Phuong moves in with Pyle. After receiving a letter from Fowler, his editor decides that he can stay in Indo-China for another year. Fowler goes into the midst of the battlefield to cover the unfolding events. When Fowler returns to Saigon, he goes to Pyle's office to confront him, but Pyle is out. Pyle comes over later for drinks and they talk about his upcoming marriage to Phuong. Later that week, a car bomb is detonated and many innocent civilians are killed from the blast. Fowler puts the pieces together and realizes that Pyle is behind the bombing. Realising that Pyle is causing innocent people to die, Fowler takes part in an assassination plot against him. Although the police believe that Fowler is involved, they cannot prove anything. Phuong goes back to Fowler as if nothing had ever happened. In the last chapter, Fowler receives a telegram from his wife in which she states that she has changed her mind and that she will start divorce proceedings. The novel ends with Fowler reflecting on his first meeting with Phuong, and the death of Pyle.

Set in the early 1950s in Saigon, Vietnam, during the end of the First Indochina War, on one level The Quiet American is a love story about the triangle that develops between Thomas Fowler, a British journalist in his fifties; a young American idealist, supposedly an aid worker, named Alden Pyle; and Phuong, a Vietnamese girl. On another level it is also about the political turmoil and growing American involvement that led to the Vietnam War. Thomas Fowler , who narrates the story, is involved in the war only as an observer, apart from one crucial instant. Pyle , who represents America and its policies in Vietnam, is an OSS operative sent to steer the war according to America’s interests, and is passionately devoted to the ideas of York Harding, an American foreign policy theorist who said that what Vietnam needed was a "third player" to take the place of both the colonialists and the Vietnamese rebels and restore order. This third player was plainly meant to be America, and so Pyle sets about creating a "Third Force" against the Viet Minh by using a Vietnamese splinter group headed by corrupt militia leader General Thé . His arming of Thé's militia with American weaponry leads to a series of terrorist bombings in Saigon. These bombings, dishonestly blamed on the Communists in order to further American outrage, kill a number of innocent people, including women and children. Meanwhile, Pyle has stolen Fowler's Vietnamese mistress Phuong , promising her marriage and security. When Fowler finds out about Pyle's involvement in the bombings, he takes one definitive action to seal all of their fates. He indirectly agrees to let his assistant, Hinh , and his Communist cohorts confront Pyle; when Pyle tries to flee, Hinh fatally stabs him. Phuong subsequently returns to Fowler, and while the local French police commander suspects Fowler's role in Pyle's murder, he has no evidence and does not pursue the matter.

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Wilt

Wilt

The novel's title refers to its main character, Henry Wilt. Wilt is a demoralized and professionally under-rated assistant lecturer who teaches literature to uninterested construction apprentices at a community college in the south of England. Years of hen-pecking and harassment by his physically powerful but emotionally immature wife Eva leave Henry Wilt with dreams of killing her in various gruesome ways. But a string of unfortunate events (including one involving an inflatable plastic female doll) start the title character on a farcical journey. Along the way he finds humiliation and chaos, which ultimately lead him to discover his own strengths and some level of dignity. And all the while he is pursued by the tenacious police inspector Flint, whose plodding skills of detection and deduction interpret Wilt's often bizarre actions as heinous crimes.

Henry Wilt is a community studies teacher at a poorly funded college where most of the pupils seem to be fairly apathetic to learning. Eva Wilt, his wife, is interested in the spiritual aspects of martial arts, Transcendental Meditation and similar pursuits. Eva's disdain for Henry's interest in reading adds to his general frustration at work, including being turned down for a promotion again, and leads him to occasionally fantasize about killing her. Her friends Sally and Hugh only exacerbate his alienation from her world by talking disparagingly about teaching as a profession and about his car. While he is walking home and speaking out one of his fantasies, he crosses paths with a botched sting operation by the incompetent Inspector Flint, whose wire has fallen off while trying to bust a drug dealer. Wilt intervenes in the resulting struggle and unknowingly helps the drug dealer to get away, thinking that he is witnessing a mugging. Soon afterward, a construction worker at the school sees a woman's body in a hole being filled with concrete. Meanwhile Henry Wilt has had to get a lift into work as apparently he had an accident in his car last night. Inspector Flint arrives at the school as they start work on digging out the body. Some papers are found at the hole where the body was seen, and a brief search identifies the writer of those papers as Henry Wilt. Evidence against Wilt mounts as he makes a phone call to his home from the police station and pretends the answerphone is his wife while Inspector Flint is present. During the interview, Wilt initially claims that he and his wife had an argument, and she disappeared and he has no idea where she is. Inspector Flint superficially accepts this explanation and tells him he can go, only to be confronted at the door by an old woman who claims to have seen him repeatedly stab a woman to death. Returning to the interview again, Wilt starts to go into more detail about the night of the party. It is revealed that at the party Henry and Eva argued as normal, and that Sally is sexually interested in Eva. While arguing with Sally, Henry managed to knock himself unconscious opening a door that turns out to be a cupboard. When he woke up, he was naked and tied to a blow-up sex doll. Eva walked in on him trying to burst the doll by writhing around, and also saw him appearing at a balcony above the disco in front of almost everyone at the party. After these incidents, Eva refused to return home with Henry. On the way home, Wilt found that the doll had been put on the back seat of his car; distracted, he crashed into a telephone box. Losing his temper, he pulled the doll out of the car and tried to burst it by stabbing it repeatedly, but failed. He was spotted doing this by the old lady who identifies him later at the police station. Wilt then headed to the school and dumped the doll down the same hole where the corpse was found. Back in the present, Inspector Flint follows the lead to Sally and Hugh's mansion, to find that they have also disappeared. They also find a knotted stocking at the scene, the signature of the notorious Swaffham Strangler. Flint takes Wilt down to the morgue where they claim to have found Eva's body, although it actually turns out to be another sex doll. It turns out that Flint is only on such an important case because Inspector Farmelow is on holiday, and that it is generally agreed that this is a chance for Flint to gain a promotion. The next day, they are preparing to bring up the body, much to Wilt's amusement. Unfortunately for the college, this coincides with the visit of a group of Japanese businessmen who are being courted to sponsor the college. The body, encased in concrete, is lifted out but slips free and is dropped onto the bonnet of a police car, freeing the blow-up doll, much to Inspector Flint's chagrin. Undaunted, Flint determines that the whole doll incident is just an attempt by Wilt to cover up the actual murders of Eva, Sally and Hugh. After many hours of interrogation, Wilt changes his story and starts telling Flint of his return to the mansion later the night of the party. He claims to have attacked the alleged victims with a chainsaw, and disposed of the bodies at the meat factory where many of the students work. Flint launches a search using massive amounts of manpower to find the evidence of this, before his superior points out that Wilt signed his confession "Sweeney Todd". Following this, Wilt is released, although his wife and her friends are still missing. Meanwhile, Eva has been stuck on a boat in the middle of a lake with Sally and Hugh, where Hugh finally tells her that Sally arranged the whole farce with the doll, intending to get Eva to split from her husband so that she would go on the trip and give Sally the opportunity to pursue her interest in her. Eva immediately leaves the boat using a small inflatable dinghy, and finds her way to a vicarage where she calls Wilt to get him to pick her up. She meets the vicar, who has apparently only recently moved to this location from Swaffham and happens to have a knotted stocking in his top pocket. Wilt hitchhikes to the village, just in time to find the vicar about to strangle Eva in the cemetery. Unfortunately, as he tries to intervene, Inspector Flint – who has followed him from his house – confronts him with a shotgun. Wilt hits him with the shovel he has been given by Flint to "dig up his wife's body" and heads into the church where his wife has fled followed by the vicar. Eva temporarily fights off the vicar using her martial arts knowledge. Flint arrives, ignoring the vicar, to arrest Wilt for the murder of Sally and Hugh, who happen to arrive at that moment. Flint then tries to arrest him for the murder of Eva, who of course is present as well. Finally cracking up, he arrests himself, reading himself his rights. The vicar, while trying to escape, is knocked out by a golf ball hit by Inspector Farmelow. The story finishes with Henry Wilt meeting Flint in his wife's new martial arts class; Flint has had to leave the force and join a private security firm which insists on his taking the class as a refresher course. Conversely the Japanese investors in the college are impressed with the way Wilt has dealt with the adversity, and have him promoted.

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The Secret Agent

Sabotage

The novel is set in London in 1886 and follows the life of Mr. Verloc, a secret agent. Verloc is also a businessman who owns a shop which sells pornographic material, contraceptives, and bric-a-brac. He lives with his wife Winnie, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Stevie. Stevie has a mental disability, possibly autism, which causes him to be very excitable; his sister, Verloc's wife, attends to him, treating him more as a son than as a brother. Verloc's friends are a group of anarchists of which Comrade Ossipon, Michaelis, and "The Professor" are the most prominent. Although largely ineffectual as terrorists, their actions are known to the police. The group produce anarchist literature in the form of pamphlets entitled F.P., an acronym for The Future of the Proletariat. The novel begins in Verloc's home, as he and his wife discuss the trivialities of everyday life, which introduces the reader to Verloc's family. Soon after, Verloc leaves to meet Mr. Vladimir, the new First Secretary in the embassy of a foreign country (implied to be Russia). Although a member of an anarchist cell, Verloc is also secretly employed by the Embassy as an agent provocateur. Vladimir informs Verloc that from reviewing his service history he is far from an exemplary model of a secret agent and, in order to redeem himself, must carry out an operation - the destruction of Greenwich Observatory by a bomb explosion. Vladimir explains that Britain's lax attitude to anarchism endangers his own country, and he reasons that an attack on 'science', which he claims is the current vogue amongst the public, will provide the necessary outrage for suppression. Verloc later meets with his friends, who discuss politics and law, and the notion of a communist revolution. Unbeknownst to the group, Stevie, Verloc's brother-in-law, overhears the conversation, which greatly disturbs him. Comrade Ossipon later meets The Professor, who describes the nature of the bomb which he carries in his coat at all times: it allows him to press a button which will blow him up in twenty seconds, and those nearest to him. After The Professor leaves the meeting, he stumbles into Chief Inspector Heat. Heat is a policeman who is working on the case regarding a recent explosion at Greenwich, where one man was killed. Heat informs The Professor that he is not a suspect in the case, but that he is being monitored due to his terrorist inclinations and anarchist background. Knowing that Michaelis has recently moved to the countryside to write a book, the Chief Inspector informs the Assistant Commissioner that he has a contact, Verloc, who may be able to assist in the case. The Assistant Commissioner later speaks to his superior, Sir Ethelred, about his intentions to solve the case alone, rather than relying on the effort of Chief Inspector Heat. The novel often moves between Verloc's work life and his home life. At home, Mrs. Verloc's mother informs the family that she wishes to move out of the house. Mrs. Verloc's mother and Stevie use a hansom which is driven by a man with a hook in the place of his hand. The journey greatly upsets Stevie, as the driver's tales of hardship coupled with his menacing hook scare him to the point where Mrs. Verloc must calm him down. On Verloc's return from a business trip to the continent, his wife tells him of the high regard that Stevie has for him and she implores her husband to spend more time with Stevie. Verloc eventually agrees to go for a walk with Stevie. After this walk, Mrs. Verloc notes that her husband's relationship with her brother has improved. Verloc then tells his wife that he has taken Stevie to go and visit Michaelis, and that Stevie would stay with him in the countryside for a few days. As Verloc is talking to his wife about the possibility of emigrating to the continent, he is paid a visit by the Assistant Commissioner. Shortly thereafter, Chief Inspector Heat arrives in order to speak with Verloc, without knowing that the Assistant Commissioner had left with Verloc earlier that evening. The Chief Inspector tells Mrs. Verloc that he had recovered an overcoat at the scene of the bombing which had the shop's address written on a label. Mrs. Verloc confirms that it was Stevie's overcoat, and that she had written the address. On Verloc's return, he realises that his wife knows her brother has been killed by Verloc's bomb, and confesses what truly happened. A stunned Mrs. Verloc, in her anguish, then fatally stabs her husband. After the murder, Mrs. Verloc flees her home, where she chances upon Comrade Ossipon, and begs him to help her. Ossipon assists her, but also confesses his romantic feelings for her. Planning on running away with her, he aids her in taking a boat to the continent. However, her instability and the revelation of her murder increasingly worries him, and he abandons her. He later discovers in a newspaper, a woman had disappeared, leaving behind her a wedding ring, before drowning herself in the English Channel. *Mr. Adolf Verloc: a secret agent who owns a shop in the Soho region of London. He is tasked by his superiors with destroying Greenwich by means of a bomb. He is part of an anarchist organization that creates pamphlets under the heading The Future of the Proletariat. He is married to Winnie, and lives with his wife, his mother-in-law, and his brother-in-law, Stevie. *Mrs. Winnie Verloc: Verloc's wife. She cares for her brother Stevie, who has an unknown mental disability. She is younger than her husband and thinks of what may have happened if she had married her original love, rather than choosing to marry the successful Verloc. A loyal wife, she becomes incensed upon learning of the death of her brother due to her husband's plotting, and kills him with a knife in the heart. She dies, presumably by drowning herself to avoid the gallows. *Stevie: Winnie 's brother is very sensitive and is disturbed by notions of violence or hardship. His sister cares for him, and Stevie passes most of his time drawing numerous circles on pieces of paper. He is implicated in Verloc's attempt to bomb Greenwich, although the degree of his complicity is not known. *Chief Inspector Heat: a policeman who is dealing with the explosion at Greenwich. An astute man who uses a clue found at the scene of the crime to trace events back to Verloc's home. Although he informs his superior what he is planning to do with regards to the case, he is not aware that the Assistant Commissioner is acting without his knowledge. *The Assistant Commissioner: of a higher rank than the Chief Inspector, he uses the knowledge gained from Heat to pursue matters personally. He informs his superior, Sir Ethelred, of his intentions, and tracks down Verloc before Heat can. *Sir Ethelred: the Secretary of State (Home Secretary) to whom the Assistant Commissioner reports. *Mr. Vladimir: an employee of an embassy from a foreign country, strongly implied to be Russia. Vladimir employs Verloc to carry out terrorist acts, hoping that the resulting public outrage will force the English government to repress emigre socialist and anarchist rebels. *Comrade Alexander Ossipon: an ex-medical student and friend of Verloc, and another anarchist. *Karl Yundt: a friend of Verloc, and another anarchist. *Michaelis: a friend of Verloc, and another anarchist. *The Professor: another anarchist, who specialises in explosives.

Karl Verloc , the owner of a cinema, is part of a gang of terrorists from an unnamed European country who are planning a series of attacks in London. Their exact motives are not made clear. Scotland Yard suspects Verloc's involvement in the plot and assigns Detective Sergeant Ted Spencer ([[John Loder to investigate Verloc, initially under cover. Spencer conducts the investigation posing as a greengrocer's helper, selling fruit and vegetables in a shop right next to the cinema. Verloc's young and beautiful wife believes that her husband is a good man because he has been kind to her and her little brother, Stevie , who lives with them. However, gradually she comes to suspect that her husband may be one of the people behind the terrorist attacks. The final straw comes when her little brother is killed, along with many other people, when a bus explodes. The boy had thought that he was simply delivering a film canister, but he was unknowingly carrying a time bomb for Verloc, to be detonated in the London Underground station under Piccadilly Circus. The boy had become distracted along the way, which had delayed his delivery, and thus the bomb exploded en route to its final target. Verloc confesses to his wife, but then blames Scotland Yard and Spencer for Stevie's death, saying that they were the ones who prevented Verloc from successfully carrying out the bomb delivery himself. Soon afterwards, as Verloc and his wife are preparing to eat dinner, she stabs him to death with a knife. When Spencer arrives to arrest Verloc he realizes what has happened, but insists that she shouldn't admit that she killed her husband. Nevertheless, she starts to confess her crime to a policeman. Meanwhile, at this very moment, the terrorist bomb maker sneaks into Verloc's room to retrieve the birdcage that had been used to deliver the bomb out of fear that it might incriminate him. But as the police surround the building, he detonates a bomber-coat he wears in the event he is about to be caught. The explosion and fire interrupts Mrs. Verloc's confession, destroying all evidence of her crime and effectively preventing the policeman from remembering whether it was before or after the explosion that she told him, "My husband is dead!" At the end we see an uneasy Mrs. Verloc and Ted Spencer walk away together.

positive

positive

Fight Club

Fight Club

Fight Club centers on an anonymous Narrator, who works as a product recall specialist for an unnamed car company. Because of the stress of his job and the jet lag brought upon by frequent business trips, he begins to suffer from recurring insomnia. When he seeks treatment, the Narrator's doctor advises him to visit a support group for testicular cancer victims to "see what real suffering is like". The Narrator finds that sharing the problems of others -- despite not actually having testicular cancer himself -- alleviates his insomnia. The narrator's unique treatment works until he meets Marla Singer, another "tourist" who visits the support group under false pretenses. The possibly disturbed Marla reminds the Narrator that he is a faker who does not belong there. He begins to hate Marla for keeping him from crying, and, therefore, from sleeping. After a confrontation, the two agree to attend separate support group meetings to avoid each other. The truce is uneasy, however, and the Narrator's insomnia returns. Whilst on a nude beach, the Narrator meets Tyler Durden, a charismatic extremist of mysterious means. After an explosion destroys the narrator's condominium, he asks to stay at Tyler's house. Tyler agrees, but asks for something in return: "I want you to hit me as hard as you can." Both men find that they enjoy the ensuing fistfight. They subsequently move in together and establish a "fight club", drawing countless men with similar temperaments into bare-knuckle fighting matches, set to the following rules: Later in the book, a mechanic tells the Narrator about two new rules of the fight club: that nobody is the center of the fight club except for the two men fighting, and that the fight club will always be free. Marla, noticing that the Narrator hasn't recently attended his support groups, calls him to claim that she has overdosed on Xanax in a half-hearted suicide attempt. Tyler returns from work, picks up the phone to Marla's drug-induced rambling, and rescues her. Tyler and Marla embark on an uneasy affair that confounds the Narrator and confuses Marla. Throughout this affair, Marla is unaware both of fight club's existence and the interaction between Tyler and the Narrator. Because Tyler and Marla are never seen at the same time, the Narrator wonders if Tyler and Marla are the same person. As fight club attains a nationwide presence, Tyler uses it to spread his anti-consumerist ideas, recruiting fight club's members to participate in increasingly elaborate pranks on corporate America. He eventually gathers the most devoted fight club members and forms "Project Mayhem," a cult-like organization that trains itself as an army to bring down modern civilization. This organization, like fight club, is controlled by a set of rules: While initially a loyal participant in Project Mayhem, the Narrator becomes uncomfortable with the increasing destructiveness of its activities. He resolves to stop Tyler and his followers when Bob, a friend of his from the testicular cancer support group, is killed during one of Project Mayhem's sabotage operations. However, the Narrator learns that he himself is Tyler; Tyler is not a separate person, but a separate personality. As the Narrator's mental state deteriorated, his mind formed a new personality that was able to escape from the problems of his life. Marla inadvertently reveals to the Narrator that he and Tyler are the same person. Tyler's affair with Marla -- whom the Narrator professes to dislike -- was actually his own affair with Marla. The Narrator's bouts of insomnia had actually been Tyler's personality surfacing. Tyler would be active whenever the Narrator was "sleeping." The Tyler personality not only created fight club, but also blew up the Narrator's condo. Tyler plans to blow up a skyscraper using homemade bombs created by Project Mayhem; the actual target of the explosion, however, is the nearby national museum. Tyler plans to die as a martyr during this event, taking the Narrator's life as well. Realizing this, the Narrator sets out to stop Tyler, although Tyler is always thinking ahead of him. The Narrator makes his way to the roof of the building, where he is held at gunpoint by Tyler. However, when Marla comes to the roof with one of the support groups, Tyler vanishes, as he "was his hallucination, not hers." With Tyler gone, the Narrator waits for the bomb to explode and kill him. However, the bomb malfunctions because Tyler mixed paraffin into the explosives. Still alive and holding Tyler's gun, the narrator makes the first decision that is truly his own: he puts the gun in his mouth and shoots himself. Some time later, he awakens in a mental hospital, believing that he is in Heaven and imagines an argument with God over human nature. The book ends with the Narrator being approached by hospital employees who reveal themselves to be Project members. They tell him that their plans still continue, and that they are expecting Tyler to come back.

The nameless narrator is a traveling automobile company employee who suffers from insomnia. His doctor refuses to give him medication and advises him to visit a support group to witness more severe suffering. The narrator attends a support group for testicular cancer victims and, after fooling them into thinking that he is a fellow victim, finds an emotional release that relieves his insomnia. He becomes addicted to attending support groups and pretending to be a victim, but the presence of another impostor, Marla Singer , disturbs him, so he negotiates with her to avoid their meeting at the same groups. After a flight home from a business trip, the narrator finds his apartment destroyed by an explosion. He calls Tyler Durden , a soap salesman whom he befriended on the flight, and they meet at a bar. A conversation about consumerism leads to Tyler inviting the narrator to stay at his place; outside the bar he requests that the narrator hit him. The two engage in a fistfight, and the narrator subsequently moves into Tyler's dilapidated house. They have further fights outside the bar, and these attract a crowd of men. The fighting moves to the bar's basement where the men form a "fight club". Marla overdoses on pills and telephones the narrator for help; he ignores her, but Tyler answers the call and saves her. Tyler and Marla become sexually involved, and Tyler warns the narrator never to talk to Marla about him. More fight clubs form across the country, and under Tyler's leadership, they become the anti-materialist and anti-corporate organization called "Project Mayhem". The narrator complains to Tyler that he wants to be more involved in the organization, but Tyler suddenly disappears. When a member of Project Mayhem is killed by the police during a botched sabotage operation, the narrator tries to shut down the project, and follows evidence of Tyler's national travels to track him down. In one city, a Project member greets the narrator as Tyler Durden. The narrator calls Marla from his hotel room and discovers that Marla also believes him to be Tyler. He suddenly sees Tyler in his room, and Tyler explains that they are dissociated personalities in the same body. Tyler controls the narrator's body when the narrator is asleep. The narrator blacks out after the conversation. When he wakes, he discovers from his telephone log that Tyler made calls during his blackout. He uncovers Tyler's plans to erase debt by destroying buildings that contain credit card companies' records. The narrator tries to contact the police but finds that the officers are members of the Project. He attempts to disarm explosives in a building, but Tyler subdues him and moves to a safe building to watch the destruction. The narrator, held by Tyler at gunpoint, realizes that in sharing the same body with Tyler, he himself is actually holding the gun. He fires it into his mouth, shooting through the cheek without killing himself. Tyler collapses with an exit wound to the back of his head, and the narrator stops mentally projecting him. Afterward, Project Mayhem members bring a kidnapped Marla to him, believing him to be Tyler, and leave them alone. The explosives detonate, collapsing the buildings, and the narrator and Marla watch the scene, holding hands.

positive

positive

Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver's Travels

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

On November 5, 1699, Gulliver washes up on a mysterious island after his ship sinks on a stormy night. It is revealed that the island, Lilliput, is inhabited by very small people. While scouting the forest, the town crier, Gabby , comes across Gulliver's unconscious body and takes him as a giant, so he rushes off to warn the ruler of Lilliput, King Little . At this time, Little and his friend, King Bombo of the neighboring and equally minuscule island of Blefuscu, are planning a wedding between their children: Princess Glory of Lilliput and Prince David of Blefuscu . Things turn sour between the kings, however, when they argue over which song to play at the wedding , and Bombo soon declares war. Gabby manages to tell King Little about the "giant" on the beach and is sent to capture him. Gabby leads a mob to the beach but is surprised to find Gulliver is not there; the mob begins to scorn Gabby until they all realize that they are standing on Gulliver's belly. The Lilliputians tie Gulliver down to a wooden platform and wheel him into the village—a task that takes them until daybreak. By then, Gulliver awakens and manages to break free which frightens everyone away, but when they see that the invading Blefuscuians are also intimidated by his size, the Lilliputians decide to enlist his help to fight against their rival neighbor, treating him with hospitality and making him a new set of clothes. King Bombo, who has sent three spies, Sneak, Snoop, and Snitch, into Lilliput, realizes the threat that Gulliver will pose to him, so he leaves them to find a way to kill Gulliver. The spies steal Gulliver's flintlock pistol, confiscated by the Lilliputians and dubbed "Gulliver's Thunder Machine", and prepare to use it against him. Meanwhile, Gulliver learns from Glory and David, who are still deeply in love with each other, that their people are fighting because of their disagreement over two songs, so he proposes they create a new song that combines the two. The spies assure King Bombo that they will kill Gulliver, so Bombo sends a message by carrier pigeon, Twinkletoes, that says he will attack at dawn. Gabby intercepts this message before it reaches the spies and rushes to warn the Lilliputians. As he tries to find Gulliver, however, he is captured by the spies by putting him in a bag, and they prepare the pistol. As the Blefuscuian fleet of ships makes its way to Lilliput, Gulliver manages to reel all the ships in and pull them to shore. Gabby is still in the bag but runs from the house to try to warn Gulliver but is unable to see. At this time, the spies prepare to fire at Gulliver from atop a cliff, but Prince David grabs onto the gun's barrel just in time, only to fall off the cliff to his apparent death. Using David's body to illustrate a point, Gulliver rebukes both Lilliput and Blefuscu for fighting over the songs they wish to sing. However, it is revealed that David is alive and well, and he and Glory sing their combined song to the two peoples. The three spies decide to set Gabby free by cutting the bag open, but he attacks them, not knowing the war is now over. King Little and King Bombo reconcile and work together to build a new ship for Gulliver, which he uses to depart from the now unified islands.

positive

positive

Love Story

Love Story

The novel tells of "Love Story" is romantic and funny, yet a tragic story. It is the story of two young college grads, whose love was stronger than any of the tests life threw at them. Oliver Barrett IV, a Harvard jock and (very) rich heir to the Barrett fortune and legacy, and Jennifer Cavilleri, the quick-witted daughter of a Rhode Island baker. Oliver (Ollie) was expected to follow in his father's huge footsteps, while Jennifer (Jenny), a music major studying at Radcliffe College planned to study in Paris. From very different worlds, Oliver and Jenny immediately attracted and their love deepened. The story of Jenny and Ollie is a realistic story of two young people who come from two separate worlds and are joined together in the most unlikely of ways. Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry against the wishes of Oliver's father, who thereupon severs all ties with his son. Without his father's financial support, the couple struggles to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School... with Jenny working as a private school teacher. Graduating third in his class, Oliver gets several job offers and takes up a position at a respectable New York law firm. Jenny promises to follow Oliver anywhere on the East Coast. The couple moves to New York City, excited to spend more time together... rather than in working and studying... as it was previously. With Oliver's new income, the pair of 24-year-olds decide to have a child. It is from then onwards, that there are several unexpected twists and turns. After Jenny fails to conceive, they consult a medical specialist, who after repeated tests, informs Oliver that Jenny is ill and will soon die as she is suffering from leukaemia. As instructed by his doctor, Oliver attempts to live a "normal life" without telling Jenny of her condition. Jenny nevertheless discovers her ailment after confronting her doctor about her recent illness. With their days together numbered, Jenny begins a costly cancer therapy, and Oliver soon becomes unable to afford the multiplying hospital expenses. Desperate, he seeks financial relief from his father. Instead of telling his father what the money is truly for, Oliver misleads him. From her hospital bed, Jenny speaks with her father about funeral arrangements, and then asks for Oliver. She tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies. When Mr. Barrett realizes that Jenny is ill and that his son borrowed the money for her, he immediately sets out for New York. By the time he reaches the hospital, Jenny is dead. Mr. Barrett apologizes to his son, who replies with something Jenny had once told him: "Love means never having to say you're sorry"... and breaks down in his arms.

The film tells of Oliver Barrett IV, who comes from a family of wealthy and well-respected Harvard University graduates. At Radcliffe library, the Harvard student meets and falls in love with Jennifer Cavalleri, a working-class, quick-witted Radcliffe College student. Upon graduation from college, the two decide to marry against the wishes of Oliver's father, who thereupon severs ties with his son. Without his father's financial support, the couple struggles to pay Oliver's way through Harvard Law School with Jenny working as a private school teacher. They rent the top floor of a house near the Law School at 119 Oxford Street, in the Agassiz neighborhood of Cambridge adjacent to a local laundromat. Graduating third in his class at Harvard Law, Oliver takes a position at a respectable New York law firm. With Oliver's new income, the pair of 24-year-olds decide to have a child. After failing, they consult a medical specialist, who after repeated tests, informs Oliver that Jenny is ill and will soon die. While this is not stated explicitly, she appears to have leukemia. As instructed by his doctor, Oliver attempts to live a "normal life" without telling Jenny of her condition. Jenny nevertheless discovers her ailment after confronting her doctor about her recent illness. With their days together numbered, Jenny begins costly cancer therapy, and Oliver soon becomes unable to afford the multiplying hospital expenses. Desperate, he seeks financial relief from his father. When the senior Barrett asks if he needs the money because he got some girl "in trouble," Oliver says yes instead of telling his father the truth about Jenny's condition. From her hospital bed, Jenny speaks with her father about funeral arrangements, then asks for Oliver. She tells him to avoid blaming himself, and asks him to embrace her tightly before she dies. They lie together on the hospital bed. As a grief-stricken Oliver leaves the hospital, he is met by his father who now wants to apologize for the way he treated his son. Oliver replies that "Love means never having to say you're sorry" and cries.

positive

positive

The Scarlet Pimpernel

The Scarlet Pimpernel

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

In 1792 during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, a mysterious English nobleman known only as The Scarlet Pimpernel snatches French aristocrats from the jaws of the guillotine while posing as the wealthy but foppish and seemingly empty-headed Sir Percival Blakeney. After rescuing the Count de Beaulieu and his family, Percy becomes introduced to the beautiful French actress Marguerite St. Just through her brother, Armand, whom he rescued from an attack. Marguerite however is in a relationship with Paul Chauvelin, an agent of Maximilien Robespierre. Due to the Scarlet Pimpernel's past successes, Chauvelin is assigned to discover his identity and capture him. Percy and his associates smuggle another aristocrat out of the city while picnicking with Marguerite. Meanwhile, Chauvelin deduces that the Scarlet Pimpernel must be an English nobleman, and tries to coerce the Count de Tournay to spy on the English court for the Republic. Later, Marguerite and Chauvelin have an argument over the executions and and he angrily departs. Percy reveals his identity to Armand and convinces him to use his connections to Chauvelin to investigate the French prison holding the Dauphin, son of the former King of France. The Scarlet Pimpernel and his associates rescue de Tournay's family. Percy marries Marguerite, but soon discovers that she seemingly signed the death warrant of the Marquis de St. Cyr and his family, the man responsible for the previous attack on Armand. Believing that she was seeking revenge and is still in league with Chauvelin, Percy becomes distrustful of his new wife. Unaware that he thinks she signed the death warrant, Marguerite unhappily notices his rising disdain for her. Armand advises Percy to tell Marguerite about his suspicions so that she may defend herself; Percy refuses, but still notes that he will love her until the day he dies. Chauvelin discovers that Armand is in league with the Scarlet Pimpernel, and summons him back to Paris. Blackmailing Marguerite into saving her brother's life, Chauvelin coerces her into discovering the vigilante's identity. After finding that the Scarlet Pimpernel is to rendezvous at midnight, Marguerite tells Chauvelin. However, she immediately warns the Scarlet Pimpernel and adds that Chauvelin betrayed her trust and faked her signature. Having been thwarted from encountering them, Chauvelin angrily leaves for Paris. Percy and his associates also depart for France to save Armand and the Dauphin. Marguerite notices that Percy's family crest bears a scarlet pimpernel, and quickly deduces his identity. After Armand arranges the firing of the gaolers in charge of the Dauphin's care, Percy and his associates use the removal of their belongings to smuggle the Dauphin out of the city. The boy is taken to a castle on the French coast, while Percy is captured while trying to save Armand. Marguerite visits her husband in prison, where he tells her to arrange for the Baron de Batz to smuggle the boy out of France the following night. At the same time, Percy agrees to personally bring Chauvelin to the Dauphin. Chauvelin and Percy arrive at the castle, but the Dauphin has already been removed. An upset Chauvelin orders Percy's execution, but the league of the Scarlet Pimpernel allows for his rescue. Percy returns to duel with Chauvelin, and is victorious. Percy decides to leave Chauvelin's fate to Robespierre. Impersonating Chauvelin to ensure their escape, Armand departs from the castle along with the French troops that Chauvelin had stationed there. Percy and Marguerite sail away, happily in love.

positive

positive

Hawaii

The Hawaiians

The novel tells the history of Hawaiian Islands from the creation of the isles to the time they became a state of the U.S.A. through viewpoints of selected people who represent their ethnic and cultural groups in the story (e.g. the Kee family represents the viewpoint of Chinese-Hawaiians). Most of the chapters cover the arrivals of different peoples to the islands. Describes the creation of the Hawaiian land from volcanic activity. The second chapter follows the creation of the isles which is mentioned in the preceding chapter. The chapter begins on the island of Bora Bora where many people including the King Tamatoa and his brother Terero are upset with the neighboring isles of Havaiki, Tahiti, etc. because they are trying to force the Bora Borans to give up their old gods, Tane and Ta'aroa, and start worshiping Oro the fire god, who constantly demands human sacrifices. Tamatoa suggests to his brother and friends that they should migrate to some other place where the might find religious freedom. After finally agreeing to this plan, his brother secretly puts fire to Havaiki to take revenge for the human sacrifices they have been demanding from Bora Borans. Later they take the canoe Wait for the West Wind and sail to Hawaii. Later some voyage back to Bora Bora to bring back with them some women and children and an idol of the volcano goddess, Pele. Follows the journey of the first Christian missionaries to Hawaii in the 1800s and their influence over Hawaiian culture and customs. Many of the missionaries become founding families in the islands, including the Hales and Whipples. Covers the immigration of Chinese to work on the pineapple and sugar plantations. The patriarch of the Kee family contracts leprosy (aka the "Chinese sickness") and is sent to the leper colony in Molokai. Japanese workers are brought to the islands to replace Chinese laborers who begin to start their own businesses. Also covers the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The final chapter summarizes the changes in Hawaiian culture and economics based on the intermarriages of various groups in the islands.

Whipple "Whip" Hoxworth returns home to Hawaii to find his grandfather has died and left his fortune to Hoxworth's cousin, Micah Hale . Hoxworth, the black sheep of his otherwise very conservative and disapproving family, starts a plantation, staffing it with newly-arrived Chinese indentured servants Nyuk Tsin and her man Mun Ki . Mun Ki fathers children with Nyuk Tsin, all the while dreaming of returning to China and his wife. Nyuk Tsin, named "Wu Chow's Auntie" to support the fiction that Mun Ki's spouse is the real mother of the children, has other ideas. Whip steals valuable pineapples from French Guiana in the hope that they will grow in Hawaii. He gives the forlorn plants to Wu Chow's Auntie, knowing that she has a "green thumb". When she succeeds in nurturing the plants into flourishing, the overjoyed Whip offers to buy her some land as a reward. Over Mun Ki's opposition, she accepts. This is the first step in the rise of both Whip and Wu Chow's Auntie, as well as the pineapple industry in Hawaii. Meanwhile, Whip marries native Hawaiian Purity and has a son with her. However, because of her royal, inbred background, she is mentally fragile. Eventually, her mind gives way, and she can no longer abide to live with Whip. Their son Noel grows to manhood with an uneasy relationship with his father. When Mun Ki contracts leprosy, Wu Chow's Auntie accompanies him to the leper colony on Molokai. Upon Mun Ki's death years later, she returns to be reunited and reacquainted with her now-grown, educated, and prospering children. A complication arises when Noel falls in love with Wu Chow's Auntie's only daughter. Neither parent approves of the idea of the marriage, but in the end, they grudgingly accept it.

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From Here to Eternity

From Here to Eternity

Set in the summer and autumn of 1941 at the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, the story follows several members of G Company, including Captain Dana “Dynamite” Holmes and First Sergeant Milt Warden, who begins an affair with Holmes's wife Karen. At the heart of the novel lies a struggle between former bugler Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt, an infantryman from Kentucky and self-described "thirty-year man," (a career soldier) and his superiors. Because he blinded a fellow soldier while boxing, the stubborn Prewitt refuses to box for his company’s outfit and then resists the "Treatment," a daily hazing ritual in which the non-commissioned officers of his company run him into the ground. The central characters are essentially similar in all three of Jones's World War II novels, though their names are somewhat altered. From Here to Eternity features Warden and Prewitt, who become Welsh and Witt in The Thin Red Line and Mart Winch and Bobby Prell in Whistle. Similarly, Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line reappears as Marion Landers in Whistle, as does the cook, Maylon Stark, who becomes Storm, then Johnny "Mother" Strange.

In 1941, Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt , a bugler, is transferred from the Bugle Corps at Fort Shafter to a rifle outfit, Company "G," at Schofield Barracks on the island of Oahu. When Captain Dana "Dynamite" Holmes learns of his reputation as a talented boxer, he recommends that Prewitt join the regimental boxing club that he heads, and promises that Prewitt will be promoted to corporal or even sergeant, if he helps win the boxing trophy on December 15, but Prewitt refuses, though he keeps silent about his reasons. Holmes retaliates by making army life as miserable as possible for Prewitt, hoping he will give in. Unable to break Prewitt's spirit, Holmes orders First Sergeant Milton Warden to prepare court martial papers. Warden, however, knowing of Holmes' treatment and realizing Prewitt is a career soldier, suggests that he try to entice Prewitt to change his mind by doubling up on company punishment. The other non-commissioned officers assist in the conspiracy. Prewitt is supported only by his friend, Private Angelo Maggio . Meanwhile, Warden begins an affair with Holmes' neglected wife Karen . Sergeant Maylon Stark has told Warden that Karen had many affairs at Fort Bliss, including with him. As their relationship develops, Warden asks Karen about her numerous affairs to test her sincerity with him. Karen relates that Holmes has been unfaithful to her most of their marriage. She miscarried one night when Holmes came back from one affair drunk, and unable to assist her to the hospital, resulting in her not being able to bear any more children. She then affirms her genuine love for Warden. Prewitt and Maggio spend their liberty time at the New Congress Club, a gentlemen's club where Prewitt meets and falls for Lorene . Prewitt confides to Lorene the reason he refuses to box for the company is that he blinded Dixie Wells, a close friend while sparring. Maggio encounters Sergeant Judson at the club. When Maggio complains that Judson's piano playing is interfering with his dancing, the two nearly come to blows. Maggio is told that Judson is the Sergeant of the Guard at the stockade. Later, at a tavern called "Choy's," located near the base, Judson sees Maggio holding a photograph of his family. Judson makes a rude comment to Prewitt about Maggio's sister causing Maggio to smash a bar stool over Judson's head. Judson pulls a switchblade on Maggio, but Warden, sitting in a corner, intervenes to save Maggio by telling Judson that killing Maggio would "create two weeks of paperwork" for him. When Judson advances on Warden with the knife, Warden breaks a beer bottle in two and uses the jagged edge as a weapon. Judson retreats, throws down his knife and goes to the bar for a drink. Warden states, "As soldiers, he would prefer two Camp Fire Girls over Judson and Maggio." However, Judson warns Maggio , that sooner or later Maggio would end up in the stockade and he would be there waiting for him. Karen tells Warden that if he became an officer, she could divorce Holmes and they could return to the States and marry. Warden is not keen on the idea because of his dislike of officers, but agrees to consider the matter. Prewitt manages a weekend pass, courtesy of Warden, and goes to meet Lorene who is too busy at the club to talk. However, she meets him later at a bar for a drink. He tells Lorene he loves the Army, and shows Lorene his prized possession, a bugle mouthpiece. Prew tells her the honor of his lifetime, being selected to play Taps at Arlington National Cemetery on Armistice Day with the President in attendance. Maggio then walks in drunk and in uniform, explaining that he was assigned to guard duty that night, but deserted his post. Lorene encourages Prewitt to take Maggio back to the base. While Prewitt is calling for a cab, Military Police arrive and arrest Maggio, and he is sentenced to six months in the stockade. Matters come to a head for Prewitt when Sergeant Galovitch picks a fight with Prewitt while on yard detail, and the two come to blows. At first, Galovitch repeatedly pummels Prewitt, who initially refuses to fight back, and then resorts to using only body blows. But as Galovitch and others watching continue taunting him, Prewitt's fighting side re-emerges, and Prewitt comes close to knocking Galovitch out before Holmes finally steps in and stops the fight. When Galovitch falsely accuses Prewitt of insubordination, Holmes is about to punish Prewitt again until the man in charge of the detail says that it was Galovitch, not Prewitt, who was spoiling for the fight. But instead of punishing Galovitch, Holmes abruptly lets him off the hook and disperses the crowd. The entire incident is witnessed by the base commander, who orders an investigation by the Inspector General. When Holmes' true intentions are revealed to the commander, he orders a court-martial. When Holmes begs for an alternative, the commander's aide suggests that Holmes resign his commission "for the good of the service" and leave the Army, which the general accepts with dispatch. Holmes' replacement, Captain Ross, verbally reprimands the others involved, and then orders Sergeant Galovitch's demotion to private and put in charge of the latrine. Maggio manages to escape from the stockade and find Prewitt and dies in his arms after telling of the abuse he suffered from Judson in the stockade. The following night Prewitt plays taps as tears stream down his cheeks. Seeking revenge, Prewitt tracks down Judson in town and invites him into a back alley to talk, then attacks him using the very same switchblade Judson had pulled on Maggio earlier. Prewitt kills Judson, but not before sustaining a serious stomach wound. Prewitt runs from the alley and goes into hiding at Lorene's apartment. Despite Prewitt's AWOL status, his platoon sergeant carries him "present" for three days at Warden's direction. Lorene, whose real name is Alma, tends to Prewitt's wounds. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Prewitt, still weak from his unhealed wound, finds out about the attack, and attempts to return to camp under cover of darkness, but is shot dead by a sentry. Warden identifies the body, laments Prewitt's stubbornness and states the irony that because of the attack, the boxing tournament is cancelled. However, he tells the other soldiers that Prewitt was in the end, a good soldier, and that he "loved the army more that any man I know." Holmes' resignation results in Karen having to return to the States with him. When she finds out that Warden failed to apply for officer status, she realizes they will never be together. At the end, Lorene and Karen meet on a ship leaving for the mainland. Karen then tosses two leis into the water. She tells Alma, "There's a legend: if they float to shore, you'll return to Hawaii. If they float out to sea, you'll never return." Alma says she will never return, telling Karen that her fiancé was an Army Air Corps pilot killed in a B-17 during the attack, "he was awarded the Silver Star, they sent it to his mother. She wrote me. She wanted me to have it. They are very fine people, Southern people. He was named after a general. Robert E. Lee... Prewitt." Karen recognizes Prewitt's name from conversations with Warden. Lorene holds Prewitt's treasured bugle mouth piece.

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The Body

The Body

Vern Tessio informs his three friends that he has overheard his older brother Billy talking with his friend Charlie Hogan, about the location of the corpse of Ray Brower, a boy from Chamberlain, a town 40 miles or so east of Castle Rock, who has gone missing, while going out to pick blueberries with one of his mother's pails. The four friends decide that they will find it so as to be famous. The boys walk along the railroad tracks toward the presumed location of the corpse. Along the way, they trespass at the town dump and are chased by trash-man Milo Pressman's dog "Chopper". Milo insults Teddy's father, which causes Teddy to unleash his anger on Milo. Gordie and Vern are nearly run over by a train while crossing a bridge. While at a resting point, Chris predicts that Gordie will grow up to become a famous writer – perhaps he will even write about his friends one day. When they finally find the spot where the body lies, a gang of bullies arrives just after they do. The gang is composed of Vern's older brother Billy, Charlie Hogan, Chris's older brother Richard "Eyeball" Chambers, Norman "Fuzzy" Bracowicz, John "Ace" Merrill, and two others. The older boys are upset to see the four friends, and during an argument, Chris pulls a gun belonging to his father from his bag back, that he took from his home and fires into the air and then threatens Ace, the leader of the gang. After a brief standoff Ace realizes that Chris is serious, and the teenagers leave. Having seen the body, the boys realize that there is nothing else to be done with it, and return home without further incident. The older boys ultimately decide to phone in the location of the body as an "anonymous tip" and it is eventually found by the authorities as a result. Some days after the confrontation, Ace and Fuzzy break Gordie's nose and fingers and kick him in the testicles, and are on the verge of harming him more seriously when they are run off by Gordie's neighbor, Aunt Evvie Chalmers. Chris's brother breaks his arm and "leaves his face looking like a Canadian sunrise". Teddy and Vern get less severe beatings. The boys refuse to identify their assailants to the authorities, and there are no further repercussions. The narration then goes into fast-forward. Gordon describes the next year or so briefly, stating that Teddy and Vern drift off, befriending some younger boys. In high school, just as Chris predicted, Gordie begins taking college-preparation courses. Unexpectedly, so does Chris. In spite of abuse from his father, taunts from his classmates and distrust from teachers and school counselors, he manages to be successful with help from Gordie. The final two chapters describe the fate of Gordie's three friends, none of whom survive past young adulthood. Vern is killed in a house fire after a party. Teddy, while under the influence of alcohol and drugs, crashes his car and he and his passengers are killed. Chris, who became an outstanding high school and college student and was in his second year of law school, is stabbed to death after trying to stop an argument in a fast-food restaurant. Gordon, the only survivor, continues to write stories through college, and publishes a number of them in small literary journals and men's magazines. His first novel becomes a best-seller, and a successful film. At the time of writing about the events in 1960, he has written seven novels about the supernatural. Gordon has a wife and three children. Gordon is also revealed to be a veteran of the Vietnam War and the counter-culture of the 1960s, occasionally referred to in the flash-forward narratives during the main story. Another story from Different Seasons, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption is referenced in this story; Shawshank is described as one of Maine's state prisons. Ray Brower, the boy who went missing and the reason Gordie, Chris, Teddy, and Vern took the camping trip to Back Harlow Road, is from Chamberlain, which is the setting for the King's first novel Carrie. Carrie, which takes place over ten years later but was written eight years earlier, features a reference to a Teddy Duchamp, but he is clearly not the same person as the Teddy of the novella. Jerusalem's Lot, from the novel 'Salem's Lot is referenced when the boys first listen to Gordie's Lard Ass story. The novel Cujo is referenced when Gordie compares the dog Chopper to Cujo. Aunt Evvie Chalmers is a minor character in Cujo, which is set twenty years later. A "Constable Bannerman" is mentioned in the story, but he clearly is not the same person as George Bannerman, the county sheriff who appears in Cujo and The Dead Zone. Ace Merrill and Vern Tessio later appear in "Nona" a short story from the collection Skeleton Crew. Ace Merrill later appears in the last King novel set in Castle Rock, Needful Things, as Mr. Gaunt's employee. He also remembers the happenings of The Body when four snot-nosed kids cheated him and his friends out of something they wanted. Aunt Evvie appears again in a flashback narrative told from the perspective of her niece Polly, one of the major characters in the story. In Lisa Rogak's unauthorized biography "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King," an accusation is made that an old friend of King's, George McLeod, was delighted to read that King's story "The Body," was dedicated to him. Well into the story however, McLeod was shocked to learn that the story was about four boys that ventured off into the woods on an adventure. McLeod claimed that King had cribbed the idea from a short story he wrote, and requested a portion of the royalties from "The Body" and "Stand by Me." King refused, McLeod sued, and the two were no longer friends. Since that time, King has refused fan requests to read manuscripts for advice, claiming that he is concerned that there can be further accusations of plagiarism in the future.

Dr. Sharon Golban finds an ancient skeleton in Jerusalem in a rich man's tomb. Coloration of the wrist and leg bones indicates the cause of death was crucifixion. Other signs, include a gold coin bearing the marks of Pontius Pilate and faint markings around the skull, lead authorities to suspect that these could be the bones of Christ. The different reactions of politicians, clerics, religious extremists&mdash;some prepared to use terror to gain their ends&mdash;to the religious, cultural and political implications of the find, make life difficult and dangerous for the investigators as they seek to unearth the truth. Father Matt Gutierrez is assigned by the Vatican to investigate the case and to protect the Christian faith. Troubled by his case, he comes to understand that it is the Church that he is protecting and not the faith.

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The Body

The Body

When a female archaeologist discovers an ancient skeleton of a man and an Aramaic inscription which reads Melek Yehudayai (King of the Jews), the Israel government invite Vatican to investigate the matter, as they suspect the body could be that of Jesus Christ. When one of the renowned archaeologist-priests of Vatican committed suicide as a man of broken faith, former soldier and Catholic priest Jim Folan is assigned to continue the investigation. Father Folan arrives in Israel to work with the reluctant archaeologist Sharon Golban, the mystery deepens with danger and intrigue. Suddenly they find that the Vatican, the United States, the Soviets, the Mossad and the mafia are after the truth. it:Il corpo (Sapir)

Dr. Sharon Golban finds an ancient skeleton in Jerusalem in a rich man's tomb. Coloration of the wrist and leg bones indicates the cause of death was crucifixion. Other signs, include a gold coin bearing the marks of Pontius Pilate and faint markings around the skull, lead authorities to suspect that these could be the bones of Christ. The different reactions of politicians, clerics, religious extremists&mdash;some prepared to use terror to gain their ends&mdash;to the religious, cultural and political implications of the find, make life difficult and dangerous for the investigators as they seek to unearth the truth. Father Matt Gutierrez is assigned by the Vatican to investigate the case and to protect the Christian faith. Troubled by his case, he comes to understand that it is the Church that he is protecting and not the faith.

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positive

The Deep

The Deep

A devastating flood has torn through the worlds of Air and Ingo, and now, deep in the ocean, a monster is stirring. Mer legend says that only those with dual blood&mdash;half Mer, half human&mdash;can overcome the Kraken that stirs in The Deep. Sapphire must return to the Deep, with the help of her friend the whale, and face this terrifying creature - and her brother Conor and Mer friend Faro will not let her go without them. Those with pure Mer blood cannot go to the Deep. Sapphire has moved back into the cottage by the cove, and is visiting Ingo all the time. When she is summoned to an assembly of the Mer she learns that the Kraken, a creature with the power to destroy their world, has awakened. Sapphire makes a deal with the Mer: if she and Conor help put the Kraken back to sleep their father will have the choice to leave Ingo. Ervys, a spokesperson(self-proclaimed leader, which the Mer do not have, as it causes problems) for the Mer, is outraged by this deal but gives his approval so the Mer will be safe. Sapphire, Conor and Faro (Faro should not be able to go to The Deep, but in Saldowr's mirror, he sees that he is not pure Mer, but part Human) go into the Deep with the help of the whale(that saves Sapphire from the Deep in The Tide Knot) to find the Kraken, and put him to sleep. It is not revealed what the Kraken really is, but it is clearly a shapeshifter. After a battle of minds, Sapphire manages to get the Kraken to sleep, and with Conor and Faro she goes back to the Mer to tell them the good news. Ervys is still furious especially when Faro asks Sapphire to make the crossing of Ingo with him. She agrees, but only on the condition that Conor may go too. Faro counters by insisting that his sister will also go. Although Sapphire does not want Elvira and Conor together, she agrees. The final chapter ends with Faro and Sapphire making Deublek, or friendship bracelets out of their hair.

While scuba-diving near shipwrecks off Bermuda, vacationing couple David Sanders and Gail Berke recover a number of artifacts, including an ampoule of amber-colored liquid and a medallion bearing the image of a woman and the letters "O.P.N.S.C" and a date, 1714. Sanders and Berke seek the advice of lighthouse-keeper and treasure-hunter Romer Treece ([[Robert Shaw on the origin of the medallion, who identifies the item as Spanish and takes an interest in the young couple. The ampule is noticed by the man who had rented diving equipment to Sanders and Berke, which in turn attracts the attention of Henri Cloche , a local drug kingpin for whom the shop owner works, who wants to buy the ampule with no luck and then begins to terrorize the couple with Haitian black magic. The ampule contains medicinal morphine from the Goliath, a ship that sank during World War II with a cargo of munitions and medical supplies. The wreck of the Goliath is considered dangerous and is posted as off-limits to divers due to the danger of explosions. Treece concludes that a recent storm has exposed her cargo of morphine and unearthed a much older wreck containing Spanish treasure. Treece makes a deal with Cloche, so they can dive in peace making him believe he will get the ampules for a million dollars, while his real plan is to have the chance to find the treasure. Cloche gives him 3 days to recover them. Sanders, Berke, and Treece make several dives to the wrecks, recovering thousands of morphine ampules from Goliath and several additional artifacts from the Spanish wreck. Adam Coffin , the only survivor from Goliath joins to help in the boat but his loyalty is not very clear when they get attacked by sharks and he only says "that he probably fell asleep" without noticing they were in trouble. Through research in Treece's library, they reconstruct the history of the lost treasure ship, locate a list of valuable items, including a metallic jar with the letters "EF" engraved on it, and learn the identity of the noblewoman for whom they were made by the king of Spain. Sanders is determined to locate at least one item on the list to establish provenance; since without it there is no value to the treasure. Treece wishes to destroy the Goliath to put the morphine out of reach of Cloche; and Cloche interferes with their efforts so that he can recover the morphine for himself. During a running series of conflicts Treece's friend Kevin is murdered by one of Cloche's henchmen and Adam betrays them and is killed when he triggers a booby-trap while trying to steal the recovered morphine. A climactic battle during the final dive ensues, with Cloche and his divers being killed in the destruction of the Goliath and the recovery of a gold dragon necklace that will provide the needed provenance of the treasure.

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White Fang

White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf

The story begins before the three-quarters wolf-dog hybrid is born, with two men and their sled dog team on a journey to deliver a coffin to a remote town named Fort McGurry in the higher area of the Yukon Territory, Canada. The men, Bill and Henry, are stalked by a large pack of starving wolves over the course of several days. Finally, after all of their dogs and Bill have been eaten, four more teams find Henry trying to escape from the wolves; the wolf pack scatters when they hear the large group of people coming. The story then follows the pack, which has been robbed of its last prey. When the pack finally manages to bring down a moose, the famine is ended; they eventually split up, and the story now follows a she-wolf and her mate, One Eye. The she-wolf gives birth to a litter of five cubs by the Mackenzie River, and all but one die from hunger. One Eye is killed by a lynx while trying to rob its den for food for the she-wolf and her cub; his mate later discovers his remains near the lynx's den. The surviving cub and the she-wolf are left to fend for themselves. Shortly after the she-wolf manages to successfully kill all the lynx kittens, prompting the lynx to track her down and a vicious fight breaks out. The she-wolf eventually kills the lynx but suffers severe injury, the lynx carcass is devoured over a period of seven days. The cub comes across five Native Americans one day, and the she-wolf comes to his rescue. One man, Grey Beaver, recognizes the she-wolf as Kiche, his brother's wolfdog, who left during a famine. Grey Beaver's brother is dead, so he takes Kiche and her cub, christening the cub White Fang. White Fang has a harsh life in the Indian camp; the current puppy pack, seeing him as a wolf, immediately attack him. He is saved by the Indians, but the pups never accept him, and the leader Lip-lip singles him out for persecution. White Fang grows to become a savage, morose, solitary, and deadly fighter, "the enemy of his kind." When White Fang is five years old, he is taken to Fort Yukon so that Grey Beaver can trade with the gold-hunters. There, he is bought—with several bottles of whiskey—by a dog-fighter, Beauty Smith, who gets Grey Beaver addicted to the alcohol. White Fang defeats all opponents, including several wolves and a lynx, until a bulldog is brought in to fight him. The bulldog manages to get a grip on the skin and fur of White Fang's neck, and slowly and surely begins to throttle him. White Fang nearly suffocates, but is rescued when a rich, young gold hunter, Weedon Scott, happens by and stops the fight. Scott attempts to tame White Fang and after a long patient effort he succeeds. When Scott attempts to return to California alone, White Fang pursues him, and Scott decides to take the dog with him back home. In Sierra Vista, White Fang must adjust to the laws of the estate. At the end of the book, a murderous criminal, Jim Hall, tries to kill Weedon Scott's father, Judge Scott, for sentencing him to prison, not knowing that Hall was "railroaded". White Fang kills Hall and is nearly killed himself, but survives. As a result, the women of Scott's estate name him "The Blessed Wolf", and the story ends with White Fang relaxing in the sun with the puppies he had fathered with the sheep-dog Collie.

{{plot}} White Fang bands together with a friend of his master, Henry Casey to stop miners from destroying a ritual land. Henry and White Fang get washed up while sailing to bring their gold to town and he is found by Lilly , a girl from the nearby Native Americans who has been sent out to find the one who will bring the caribou back to the starving tribe. Lilly introduced him to his father, Moses and to the tribe. At first, Henry finds the natives and their beliefs strange and does not want any part of them, but by being open-minded, Henry will be a hero for these people in need of them. While Jack Conroy was in San Francisco, White Fang lives and bands together with his master's friend, Henry Casey . While they are sailing to bring their gold to town, they got washed up. At the Native Americans tribe, while Moses dreamed about White Fang, and with his daughter Lilly . He said that Lilly will guide them the way finding the wolf. Lilly sailed to the river, and then walked through the forest, when she heard White Fang barking. She ran fast as she could, and she found White Fang, but suddenly disappeared, then she saw Henry, she took him. Then they traveled back to the starving tribe. Then she introduced him to her father. While Moses was telling that he is the wolf, Henry said that he is not the wolf, but the wolf was his friend, and he is a human, leading to a laughter of the crowd. While White Fang was left at the river he walked through the wilderness of the forest, and saw wolves, he followed them, and saw a pack, but he did not join. That day, Henry went back to the town.Then he saw hungry people, and he was seen by Reverend Leland Drury, saying " Sad, isn't it?".But White Fang, who saw the village, went there and he was seen by Lilly, and called Moses, his father, and said "That's him". Moses went to see White Fang,but the half-dog, half- wolf ran away. The next day, Henry decided to go back to the village, with a white cloth. He saw Lilly, and decided to give the cloth to her, Lilly said something that led Henry to be angry. While White Fang was at the forest, he saw again the pack, but one female wolf decided to join him play. That night, he was in the Native American group dancing the Native American dance, suddenly, he heard White Fang howled, and Moses allowed him to go. Henry to run and traveled to the forest with a torch, calling White Fang, and he saw a wolf, and gently saying White Fang, and was surprised that it was another wolf, and White Fang came and protected him against the wolf. And Henry called White Fang to go to the village, but because White Fang had another friend wolf, that made him hesitate. Henry understand White Fang and let him to go with his friend, but White Fang decided and joined Henry traveling back to the village. When he slept, he also dreamed what Moses dreamed about, White Fang and Lily, but now, with him. Moses then prepares Henry, giving him a pack of arrow and a bow and being sent to the forest to practice his skills in hunting. He shot once but missed, but is surprised that an arrow hit his target perfectly. He shouts if someone is there, and Lilly comes out. She then helps him how to hunt using his bow with extreme accuracy. Peter and Henry practice hunting in the forest. Lilly, now Henry's love interest, was the cousin of Peter, so he asked some ideas how she could answer her. Peter said "Put your chin to her shoulder, and whisper through her ears," then Henry asked then, Peter said "She'll break your nose." Moses allows Peter, Lilly's cousin to hunt with Henry,then after that Lilly's mother asks his husband, Moses, what will happen next, and he says that Peter will not come back. Lilly is forcing his father to join Henry hunt, but his father replied that she's a woman, and she can't hunt. When the time of the hunting came, Henry, with White Fang and Peter goes to the forest. Lilly, grabs her bow and secretly slips into the forest to join Henry hunt. Henry and Joseph then see that the village's hunters that didn't return. Henry, accidentally steps into a trap, resulting in a log to be swung towards, but successfully evades it. Peter, goes up to the dead body of the hunter that didn't listen to Henry, who said not to go there, then a bullet hit the dead body, and Henry saw it. Peter ran tree by tree, with the man with the gun chasing him. Henry and White Fang continued traveling, and Henry stepped in a trap, and there was the man, with his rifle, he aimed Henry with his gun, then suddenly, Lilly saw him and the guy, she made fire as fast as she could, and put her arrow on the fire, and aimed her bow with the arrow with fire, and hit the man, the man ran away, and his hiding area explode. Lilly pulled the rope and removed Henry. They continued traveling with White Fang. And then they were already at the final destination. Henry saw the path that blocks the animals.They went back and, they accidentally fell into a hole, which led them to the mining area. They quietly walked and hide from the miners. There was a guard guarding, and he suddenly heard a sound. He wandered what was there and Lilly shouted, and Henry hit him.They get the dynamite that will open the path that blocks the animals. Then they saw Reverend Leland Drury and the miners working. Henry shot him, and Reverend Leland Drury ordered his miners to catch him. Henry and Lilly ran. Henry saw an exit, but Lilly was caught by the miners, Lilly let Henry go. Then Henry saw White Fang. He guards him from Reverend Leland Drury's men while he plants the dynamite to the path.The path already explode!! The animals were free. Reverend Leland Drury ordered his men to get the girl. Henry and White Fang ran, and they saw Lilly with Reverend Leland Drury. White Fang jumped and attacked Reverend Leland Drury, while Henry jumped in order to save Lilly. Henry untied Lilly, and when the screw combining the horses and the thing Reverend Leland Drury and Lilly riding on was removed, it separated it and the thing Lilly and Henry was riding on fell into a cliff then they both jumped off.Reverend Leland Drury, who already climbed the cliff where he also fell,was shocked when he saw the animals running. He was stepped by that group of animals. Henry and Lilly went into where White Fang fell. They saw him weak. They carried him and returned to the village. They saw Lilly's parents. Moses went to Lilly and Henry with the weak White Fang.Henry ran towards Lilly's mother, with Peter, that died. After the hunt, Lilly and Joseph went to the forest, and Lilly gave Henry his gold. And said Henry can leave now. And Lilly walked through the village. Henry, arranging his things talked with Moses.The village thanked him. When Henry was ready to go with White Fang, Lilly wore the white cloth that Henry gave him and ran towards him. She shouted "White Wolf!!" Henry ran towards her. Lilly said " I choose you". Then she hugged him. After that Lilly kissed him. And White Fang's female wolf friend was there. White Fang ran towards her. Like what Henry and Lilly did, she also kissed him and hugged him. Three months later, White Fang and the wolf had many puppies. Henry and Lilly went at White Fang's place where the puppies where found.

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Green for Danger

Green for Danger

A murder takes place in a rural British hospital. Inspector Cockrill is tasked to determine whodunit when the head nurse is killed after revealing that the death of a patient under anaesthesia was no accident. Cockrill states at one point, "My presence lay over the hospital like a pall - I found it all tremendously enjoyable." After another murder attempt leaves a nurse dangerously ill he re-stages the operation in order to unmask the murderer. it:Delitto in bianco

Set in August 1944 during the V-1 Doodlebug offensive on London, a murder takes place in Heron's Park Emergency Hospital, a rural British hospital somewhere in the Southeast of England. Joseph Higgins dies on the operating table after being injured by a flying bomb. The anaesthetist, Barney Barnes , has had a patient die in similar circumstances previously. Inspector Cockrill is asked to investigate when Sister Bates is killed after revealing that the death of Higgins was not an accident. Cockrill states at one point: "My presence lay over the hospital like a pall -- I found it all tremendously enjoyable." Cockrill's investigation is hampered by the conflict between Barnes and Eden because of their competition over the affections of nurse Freddi . After another murder attempt is directed at Freddi, the inspector restages the operation in order to unmask the murderer.

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And Then There Were None

Identity

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

Malcolm Rivers awaits execution for several vicious murders that took place at a motel. His psychiatrist, Dr. Mallick, has discovered his journal that may explain why he committed the murders. With this late evidence brought forth, a new hearing takes place. A group of 10 strangers find themselves stranded in the middle of a storm in a remote motel, run by Larry Washington. They are a limo driver, Ed Dakota; an 1980s movie star, Caroline Suzanne; a cop, Officer Rhodes, who is transporting a serial killer, Robert Maine; a prostitute, Paris Nevada; a pair of newlyweds, Lou and Ginny Isiana; and a family in crisis, Alice York who has been hit by Ed's car and her husband and son George, and Timmy. The group prepares to spend the night; however, they quickly find that there is an unknown murderer present, killing off each of the guests. Caroline is the first to be killed. Ed thinks that Maine killed her and when they check the convict, they discover he has escaped. All the others become worried, and Ginny runs to her room. Her husband Lou chases after her but is also murdered. Ed and Rhodes find the con, knock him out, and put Larry on duty guarding him. However, he is later found dead. Paris discovers a dead body in Larry's freezer. Larry attempts to escape in his truck, claiming he did not kill anybody. He then accidentally runs over George, killing him. Each body is accompanied by a room key, which appear to represent a countdown. The survivors tie Larry up, and as he tells them his story the others start to believe that he really did not kill anyone. Ginny and Timmy both die when their car blows up, but their bodies are nowhere to be seen. The remaining four discover that all the bodies have disappeared and that all 10 share the same birthday, and have surnames the same as US states. Paris also discovers that Rhodes is a convict as well, having killed the corrections officer transporting him and Maine across state and assumed his identity as a police officer. Rhodes attempts to kill her, but she is saved by Larry, who in turn is shot dead by Rhodes. Back at the hearing, the contents of Malcolm's journal are revealed, indicating the prisoner suffers from an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder, harboring 10 distinct personalities. Mallick is able to bring forth one of Malcolm's personalities, Ed, revealing that the events at the motel are occurring inside Malcolm's mind, each personality represented by one person at the motel. Mallick explains to "Ed" that the events at the motel are a result of treatment Malcolm is receiving - i.e. the killings at the motel being Malcolm's mind's attempt to eliminate nine excess personalities. Mallick further gives "Ed" the mission of making sure that the hostile personality be eliminated to prevent Malcolm from being executed. In the motel setting, Ed believes that Rhodes is the murderer, and sacrifices himself to kill Rhodes, leaving only Paris alive. When Mallick demonstrates that the homicidal personality is dead, the Judge decides to place Malcolm in a mental institution under Mallick's care. As Malcolm is driven along with Mallick to the institution, in Malcolm's mind, Paris has driven away from the motel to her hometown, Frostproof, Florida. As she tends an orange grove, she discovers the room 1 motel key, and finds Timmy behind her. Timmy, the true homicidal personality, had orchestrated all the deaths at the motel, and made it appear that he had been killed as well; he finishes his task by killing Paris. Now driven only by Timmy, Malcolm strangles Mallick, and the van runs off the side of the road.

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Destry Rides Again

Destry Rides Again

Harrison Destry, broke and jobless, begins the novel by returning to his native town of Wham, in Texas. He is scorned by the many enemies he has made there, including rich rancher's daughter Charlotte Dangerfield. Only one of the men that Destry has previously beaten with his fists, Chester Bent, seems to bear him no ill-will; he stakes the penniless Destry to a hundred dollars. But Bent's generosity is a ploy. Bent has just robbed the Express, and knowing Destry's wasteful way with money, he expects that Destry's wild spending will make him a prime suspect for the robbery. Bent's plan works to perfection. Destry goes on a wild drinking spree at a local saloon, and is arrested for the robbery. Failing to comprehend how much trouble he is in, Destry neglects his defense and is stunned to be convicted by a jury stacked with his enemies and then sentenced to ten years for the robbery by a judge who considers him a proven troublemaker. Destry protests his innocence and swears to visit each of the twelve jurors when he is out of prison. Only Charlotte believes that Destry is not guilty. Six years later, Destry is released from prison early for good behavior. He sets about systematically ruining the lives of the twelve jurors. He does not murder any of them outright, although he kills some of them in self-defense. Destry explains that he is determined to stay within the law from now on (although some of his actions, such as trespassing and safe-cracking, are in fact of extremely dubious legality). His chief concern is to show that none of the "jury of his peers" is, in fact, his equal. Destry remains ignorant of Chester Bent's role in framing him; Bent is the only man in Wham who treats Destry kindly upon his release, and Destry comes to count Bent as his best friend. But Bent is secretly conspiring to have Destry killed, and helps the jurors organize to murder their nemesis. While on the run, Destry meets a boy named Willie Thornton, who adopts Destry as his hero. Thornton later secretly observes Bent murdering a creditor. Bent uses Destry's knife to kill his victim, in order to frame Destry again. Bent then spots Thornton and chases him; Thornton escapes only by diving into a raging river, from which he emerges weak and sick. Although feverish, Thornton steals a horse and makes a long, hard ride back to Wham to warn Destry of Bent's treachery. So warned, Destry fights his way out of a trap that Bent has laid for him. The sheriff of Wham, Ding Slater, deputizes Destry, and Destry tries to arrest Bent. But Bent outdraws Destry and shoots his Colt out of his hand; Destry is saved only by sheriff Slater's gunfire from the window. Bent flees, with Destry in pursuit. Overtaking Bent, Destry unhorses his enemy, but Bent then overpowers Destry and leaps onto Destry's horse, making a last mad dash for freedom. In a most uncharacteristic climax for a western, Destry shoots Bent in the back as the unarmed man flees. Returning to the devoted Charlotte Dangerfield, Destry announces that he will lay down his guns forever, acknowledging that he had found his peer in Bent.

Saloon owner Kent , the unscrupulous boss of the fictional Western town of Bottleneck, has the town's Sheriff, Keogh, killed when the Sheriff asks one too many questions about a rigged poker game. Kent and "Frenchy" , his girlfriend and the dance hall queen, now have a stranglehold over the local cattle ranchers. The crooked town's mayor, Hiram J. Slade , who is in collusion with Kent, appoints the town drunk, Washington Dimsdale , as the new sheriff, assuming that he'll be easy to control and manipulate. But what the mayor doesn't know is that Dimsdale was a deputy under the famous lawman, Tom Destry and is able to call upon the equally formidable Tom Destry, Jr. to help him make Bottleneck a lawful, respectable town. Destry confounds the townsfolk by refusing to strap on a gun in spite of demonstrating that he is an expert marksman. He still carries out the "letter of the law", as deputy Sheriff, and wins over their respect. A final confrontation between Destry and Kent's gang is inevitable, but "Frenchy" is won over by Destry and changes sides. A final gunfight ensues where Frenchy is killed in the crossfire, and the rule of law wins the day.

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positive

The Borrowers

The Borrowers

:Summary of the 1952 novel Fourteen-year-old Arrietty (Ah-ree-ET-eeh) Clock lives under the floorboards of a house with her parents, Pod and Homily. As Borrowers, they survive through Pod's "borrowing" of items from the "human beans" who live in the home above the floor. One day, Pod comes home shaken after borrowing a toy tea cup. After sending Arrietty to bed, Homily learns that he has been "seen" by one of the big people — a boy who had been sent from India to live with his great-aunt while recovering from rheumatic fever. Remembering the fate of their niece Eggletina, who wandered away and never returned after (unbeknownst to her) her father had been seen and the big people had brought in a cat, Pod and Homily decide to warn Arrietty. In the course of the ensuing conversation, Homily realizes that Arrietty ought to be allowed to go borrowing with Pod. Several days later, Pod and Arrietty go on a borrowing trip to retrieve fibers from a doormat for a scrub brush. Arrietty wanders outside where she meets the (human) Boy, and develops a friendship with him. At one point, Arrietty tells the Boy that there cannot be very many of his kind but there are many of her kind. He disagrees and tells her of times when he had seen hundreds and even thousands of big people all in one place. Arrietty realizes that she can't prove that there are any other Borrowers left in the world besides her and her parents and is upset. The Boy offers to take a letter to a badger sett two fields away where her Uncle Hendreary (father of Eggletina), Aunt Lupy, and their children are supposed to have emigrated. On a later borrowing trip, she manages to slip the letter under the doormat where the Boy agreed to look for it. Meanwhile, Arrietty has learned from Pod and Homily that when big people approach, they get a "feeling." She's concerned that she didn't have a feeling when the Boy approached, so she practises by going to a certain passage over which the cook, Mrs. Driver, often stands. She overhears Driver and the gardener, Crampfurl, discussing the Boy. Driver is annoyed that the boy continually disturbs the doormat and Crampfurl is concerned about him after seeing the Boy in a field calling for "Uncle something" after the Boy asked him if there were any badger setts in the field. Crampfurl is convinced the Boy is keeping a ferret. Arrietty becomes anxious and sets off on her own to find the Boy. As it turns out, he did find her letter, delivered it, and returned with a response — a mysterious note asking her to tell Aunt Lupy to come back. Pod then discovers Arrietty talking to the Boy and takes her home. Pod and Homily are frightened because the Boy will probably figure out where they live. They turn out to be right but the Boy, instead of wanting to harm them, brings them gifts of dollhouse furniture from the nursery. They experience a period of "borrowing beyond all dreams of borrowing" as the Boy offers them gift after gift. In return, Arrietty is allowed to go outside and read aloud to him. Driver, in the meantime, notices a few items missing and believes someone is playing a joke on her. She stays up late and catches the Boy bringing his nightly gift to his new friends. She sees the Borrowers and finds their home. The Boy attempts to rescue the Borrowers but Driver locks him in the nursery. At the end of three days, the Boy is to be sent back to India. Driver cruelly takes him to the kitchen before he goes to see the ratcatcher to smoke the Borrowers out of their home. The Boy manages to slip away and break off the grating outside. He never gets to see the Borrowers escape since the cab comes to take him away. His sister (a young Mrs. May, the narrator at the beginning and end of the book) later visits the home herself and is able to go to the badger sett and leave gifts there, which are gone the next time she checks. However, the novel ends on an ambiguous note when she tells Kate that when she returns to the badgers sett she finds a book she believes to be Arrietty's book of "Memoranda" - and that the writing in it bears a striking similarity to that of her brother.

Young Pete Lender is setting up traps around his house, explaining to his parents that things in their house are being stolen, despite his parents believing otherwise. The humans leave and a family of tiny people , Pod Clock, Arrietty Clock and Peagreen Clock make their way through the kitchen to "borrow" the radio's battery. Arrietty, while treating herself with some ice cream in the freezer, is accidentally shut inside just as the Lenders return. Pod manages to rescue Arietty, but jams the ice cube tube in the process and is forced to leave one of his gadgets behind, which is found by Mr Lender. Meanwhile, the will of Mrs. Lender's aunt, Mrs. Allabaster, is the only proof that the house rightfully belongs to the family, yet their lawyer, Ocious P. Potter cannot find it, and has already made plans to demolish their house in order to build condominiums on the land. The Lenders have until Saturday to move away. Arietty wanders off and is trapped by Pete, who is actually astonished to discover the Borrowers and offers his help in moving them to their new house. Pod reluctantly agrees, but during the journey, Arrietty and Peagreen fall out of the moving truck and make their way back to the old house, where they find the new house on a map. However, Potter turns up and finds the will hidden in a safe inside the wall , but as he tries to burn it, Arrietty and Peagreen steal the will, determined to save the house. Potter, seeing the Clocks' underground home, calls the local exterminator, Jeff, but they manage to escape, with Jeff accidentally burning Potter's face and mustache off, with expanding foam, in the process. Potter and Jeff give chase by having Jeff's bloodhound, Mr Smelly, sniff Peagreen's jacket and follow the scent to a milk factory. Along the way, they occasionally bump into a local policeman, Officer Steady, who questions their actions. Around the same time, Jeff starts to question Potter's intention of killing the Borrowers, after seeing how truly capable that they are, resulting Potter to break off with him. Peagreen becomes trapped in an empty milk bottle and taken into the factory with Arrietty unable to save him, but another Borrower, Spud Spiller, an "Outie" , shows up and offers help. Together they manage to make their way through the factory and locate Peagreen and force their way past Potter, dousing him in a shower of liquid cheese in the process. Meanwhile, Pod and his wife, Homily, discover that their children are missing and, with Pete's help, track them to the milk factory. Pod rescues Peagreen from drowning in a milk bottle just as Arrietty and Spiller reunite with them. Unfortunately, Potter catches them, steals the will and ties them to the cheese machine, intending to drown them in the liquid cheese. Spiller cheeks Potter to the point that Potter dumps him in another machine, apparently killing him. Just before the cheese can hit, Pete arrives and turns the machine off. He and the Borrowers, this time with Jeff's help, follow Potter to City Hall to stop him arranging the demolition. He is briefly stalled thanks to the receptionist who gives him confusing directions to the demolition office in response to his rude behavior. When he finally reaches the door, he finds himself trapped inside the storeroom instead, where the Clocks tie his hands to his face with Sellotape. In his rage, Potter breaks off and attempts to vacuum the Clocks when an army of Borrowers turns up to save them. The Borrowers tie Potter up with wire and it is revealed that Spiller had survived the machine at the factory and summoned the army to aid the Clocks. Pod delivers a speech to Potter on the Borrowers' behalf, and they disappear as soon as they hear the door open. Pete, Jeff, and Officer Steady enter, and Pete recovers the will from Potter and shows it to Steady, proving Potter's deceit and his plan to cheat the Lenders out of their house. Potter rambles about the Borrowers, resulting an unconvinced Steady to arrest him for fraud and theft. Having obtained the will, the Lenders move back into their house, and Pete becomes friends with the Clocks and regularly gives them food while keeping their existence a secret. A post-credits scene shows Potter trying to describe the Borrowers to Steady at interrogation only to be mocked and laughed at by the police. As a result, Potter is indicted, and the film closes with his mugshot being taken.

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positive

Hannibal

Hannibal

Seven years after rescuing Jame Gumb's last victim, Clarice Starling witnesses her career crumble around her when a drug raid goes wrong and she kills an armed meth dealer named Evelda Drumgo, who was carrying her child at the time, in self-defense. Hannibal Lecter, who has been living in Florence, Italy, under an assumed name since escaping custody, sends her a letter of condolence and requests more information about her personal life. Desperate to catch Lecter, the FBI finds a use for Starling once again. She meets with Barney Matthews, former orderly of Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He tells her what Lecter said about her and that he said he would never go after him if he escaped. Meanwhile, Mason Verger, a wealthy, sadistic pedophile who was left horribly disfigured after a "therapy session" with Lecter, plans to get revenge by feeding Lecter to wild boars, using Starling as bait. He is aided by corrupt Justice Department agent Paul Krendler, Starling's personal nemesis. A disgraced Florentine detective, Rinaldo Pazzi, also pursues Lecter in the interests of collecting Verger's bounty on him. However, Lecter kills one of Pazzi's men and hangs Pazzi where his ancestor, Francesco de Pazzi, was hanged in 1478. Lecter waves at a camera, the footage of which is later seen by Verger. Lecter kills one of Verger's men and escapes to the United States, where he begins pursuing Starling. The novel briefly touches upon Lecter's childhood, specifically the death of his beloved younger sister, Mischa. The two were orphaned during World War II, and a group of German deserters found them on their family estate and took them prisoner. Lecter watched, helpless, as the deserters killed and ate Mischa. Barney briefly works for Verger, and gets acquainted with Verger's sister and bodyguard Margot, a lesbian bodybuilder whom Verger molested and raped as a child. Their friendship is briefly strained when he makes a pass at her, but they eventually reconcile, and Margot tells him that she stays in her hated brother's employment because she needs Mason's sperm to have a child with her partner, Judy. Lecter is captured by Verger's men, and Starling pursues them, determined to bring Lecter in herself. One of Verger's men is able to shoot her full of tranquilizer as she releases Lecter. The wild boars break through the barricade separating them from Lecter, but they lose interest in their intended prey when they smell no fear on him, instead going after Verger's men. In the confusion, Lecter carries the unconscious Starling to safety, and escapes with her. At the same time, Margot forcibly obtains Mason's sperm by sodomizing him with a cattle prod, and then kills him by shoving his pet Moray eel down his throat. Lecter, who had briefly treated Margot after her brother abused her, has urged her to blame the murder on him, which she does by leaving one of his hairs at the scene. Using a regimen of psychotropic drugs and behavioral therapy, Lecter attempts to brainwash Starling, hoping to make her believe she is Mischa, returned to life. She ultimately proves too strong, however, and tells him that Mischa will have to live on within him. Lecter kidnaps Krendler and lobotomizes him, and he and Starling dine on his still-living brain before killing him. The two then become lovers, and disappear together. Three years later, on July 9, 2000, Barney and his girlfriend go to Buenos Aires to see a Vermeer painting. At the opera, Barney spots Lecter and Starling; terrified, he flees with his girlfriend, reasoning that "we can only see so much and live."

Seven years after tracking down serial killer Jame Gumb, FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling is unjustly blamed for a bungled drug raid. Starling and her connection to Hannibal Lecter come to the attention of Lecter's only surviving victim, Mason Verger , a wealthy child molester whom Lecter left horribly disfigured and paralyzed after having been assigned as Verger's court-appointed therapist. Verger uses his immense wealth and political influence to have Starling reassigned to Lecter's case and meets with her in his mansion. Verger is pursuing an elaborate scheme to capture, torture and kill Lecter, and hopes Starling's involvement will draw him out. Indeed, Lecter sends her a taunting letter after learning of her public disgrace. Though the letter contains no clue to Lecter's whereabouts, Starling detects a strange fragrance that a perfume expert later identifies as a bespoke skin cream whose ingredients are only available to a few shops in the world. She contacts the police departments of the cities where the shops are located, requesting surveillance tapes. One of the cities is Florence, Italy, where Chief Inspector Rinaldo Pazzi is investigating the disappearance of a library curator. Pazzi questions Lecter, who is masquerading as "Dr. Fell", the assistant curator and now caretaker of the library. Upon recognizing Dr. Fell in the surveillance tape, Pazzi accesses the FBI's ViCAP database of wanted fugitives. He learns of Verger's US$3 million reward to anyone turning Lecter over to him rather than to the FBI. Lured by Verger's bounty, Pazzi ignores Starling's warnings against trying to capture Lecter alone. He recruits a pickpocket to obtain a fingerprint of Lecter to show as proof of his whereabouts and thus collect the reward. The pickpocket is mortally wounded by Lecter, but manages to get the print and provides them to Pazzi, who in turn contacts Verger. Lecter then baits Pazzi into an isolated room of the library, ties him up with electrical cords, and hangs and disembowels him, before escaping back to the United States. Verger bribes Justice Department official Paul Krendler to accuse Starling of withholding a note from Lecter, leading to her suspension. Lecter lures Starling to Union Station but Verger's men, who have followed Starling, capture Lecter and transport him to Verger. When her superiors refuse to act, Starling, on her own initiative, infiltrates Verger's estate. Verger means to have Lecter eaten alive by a herd of wild boars bred specifically for this purpose. Starling intervenes to free Lecter but is herself wounded, and Lecter rescues her from the voracious animals. Verger furiously orders his private physician Cordell to shoot Lecter, but instead Lecter persuades Cordell to throw his hated employer into the pen, where he is eaten alive by the boars. Lecter takes a sedated Starling to Krendler's secluded lake house and treats her wounds. When Krendler arrives for the Fourth of July break, he is subdued and drugged by Lecter. Starling, disoriented by morphine and dressed in a slinky black velvet cocktail dress, wakes to find Lecter cooking and Krendler in a wheelchair seated at the table set for an elegant dinner. Weakened by the drugs, she looks on in confusion and horror as Lecter removes the top of Krendler's skull, cuts out part of his prefrontal cortex, sautees it and feeds Krendler his own brain before finally killing him. After the meal, Starling tries to attack Lecter but is quickly overpowered. She manages to handcuff his wrist to hers, and with police incoming to the residence, Lecter brandishes a meat cleaver and severs his left hand to escape. Lecter is later seen on a flight with boxed lunch on his pull-down table. As he prepares to eat his meal, including a small cooked portion of what is assumed to be Krendler's brain, a young boy seated next to him asks to try some of his food. Lecter lets the boy eat some of his lunch, telling him that "it is important... always to try new things."

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El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra

Don Juan

The play begins in Naples with Don Juan and the Duchess Isabela, who alone in her palace room, have just enjoyed a night of love together. However, when Isabella wants to light a lamp Don Juan threatens to kill it. She suddenly realizes that he is not her lover, the Duke Octavio, and screams for help. Don Juan's uncle, Don Pedro, comes to arrest the offender. But Don Juan cleverly reveals his identity as his nephew and Don Pedro assists him in making his escape just in time. Pedro then claims to the King that the unknown man was Duke Octavio. The King orders Octavio and Isabela to be married at once, with both of them to be held in prison until the wedding. At home, after Octavio speaks of his love for Isabela, Don Pedro comes to arrest him, claiming that Octavio had violated Isabela the previous night. Octavio, of course, had done no such thing, and starts to believe that Isabela has been unfaithful to him. He flees from Don Pedro, planning to leave the country. By the seashore of Tarragona, a peasant girl named Tisbea happens to find Don Juan and his servant, Catalinón, apparently washed up from a shipwreck. She tries to revive Don Juan, who wakes and immediately declares his love for her. Tisbea takes Juan back to her house, intending to nurse him back to health and mend his clothes. Back in Seville, the King speaks to Don Gonzalo, a nobleman and military commander, about arranging a marriage between Don Juan and Gonzalo's daughter, Doña Ana. Gonzalo likes the idea and goes to discuss it with his daughter. Back at the seashore, Don Juan and Catalinón flee, apparently after Don Juan has already seduced Tisbea. Catalinón scolds him, but Don Juan reminds him that this is not his first seduction, and jokes that he has a medical condition in which he must seduce. Catalinón says that he is a plague for women. Tisbea catches up with the two men, and Don Juan assures her that he intends to marry her. Tisbea is so overcome with grief and anger over what happened that she exclaims "fuego, fuego" meaning that she is burning up with hate and a desire for revenge. She is also overcome with shame at the undoing of her honor and flings herself into the ocean. In Seville, Don Diego, Don Juan's father, tells the king that the man who seduced the Duchess Isabela was not Octavio, but Don Juan, and shows a letter from Don Pedro as proof. The King declares Don Juan banished from Seville and retracts his plans to have him marry Doña Ana. Just then, Octavio arrives, begging the king's forgiveness for having fled earlier. The King grants it, and allows him to stay as a guest in the palace. Next, Don Juan and Catalinón arrive and talk to the Marquis de la Mota, who is a womanizer nearly as bad as Don Juan. The Marquis confesses, however, that he is actually in love with his cousin Doña Ana, but laments that she is arranged to marry someone else. Mota says he is going to visit Ana, and Don Juan sends Catalinón to follow him in secret. His plans are also helped along when a servant of Ana's, having just seen Don Juan talking to Mota, asks that he give to him a letter from Ana. In the letter she asks Mota to visit her during the night, at 11 o'clock sharp, since it will be their one and only chance to ever be together. Mota comes back again, apparently not having found Ana at home, and Don Juan says he received instructions from Ana that Mota should come to the house at midnight. Mota lends Don Juan his cape at the end of the scene. That night at Don Gonzalo's home, Ana is heard screaming that someone has dishonored her, and her father, Don Gonzalo, rushes to her aid with his sword drawn. Don Juan draws his own sword and kills Don Gonzalo. With his final breath, Don Gonzalo swears to haunt Don Juan. Don Juan leaves the house just in time to find Mota and give him his cape back and flees. Mota is immediately seen wearing the same cloak as the man who murdered Don Gonzalo and is arrested. The next day, near Dos Hermanas, Don Juan happens upon a peasant wedding and takes a particular interest in the bride, Aminta. The groom, Batricio, is perturbed by the presence of a nobleman at his wedding but is powerless to do anything. Don Juan pretends to have known Aminta long ago and deflowered her already, and by law she must now marry him. He goes to enjoy Aminta for the first time and convinces her that he means to marry her at once. The two of them go off together to consummate the union, with Juan having convinced Aminta that it is the surest way to nullify her last marriage. Elsewhere Isabela and her servant, Fabio, are travelling, looking for Don Juan, whom she has now been instructed to marry. She complains of this arrangement and declares that she still loves Octavio. While travelling, they happen upon Tisbea, whose suicide attempt was unsuccessful. When Isabela asks Tisbea why she is so sad, Tisbea tells the story of how Don Juan seduced her. Isabela then asks Tisbea to accompany her. Don Juan and Catalinón are back in Seville, passing by a churchyard. They see the tomb of Don Gonzalo, and Don Juan jokingly invites the statue on the tomb to have dinner with him and laughs about how the hauntings and promised vengeance have not yet come. That same night, as Don Juan sits down for dinner at his home, his servants become frightened and run away. Don Juan sends Catalinón to investigate, and he returns, horrified, followed by the ghost of Gonzalo in the form of the statue on his tomb. Don Juan is initially frightened but quickly regains control of himself and calmly sits to dine while his servants cower around him. Gonzalo invites Juan to dine again in the churchyard with him, and he promises to come. At the Alcazar, the King and Don Diego, Don Juan's father, discuss the impending marriage to Isabela, as well as the newly arranged marriage between Mota and Doña Ana. Octavio then arrives and asks the King for permission to duel with Don Juan, and tells the truth of what has happened to Isabela to Diego, who was until now unaware of this particular misdeed of his son. The King and Diego leave, and Aminta appears, looking for Don Juan since she thinks he is now her husband. Octavio takes her to the king so that she can tell him her story. In the churchyard, Don Juan tells Catalinón about how lovely Isabela looks and how they are to be married in a few hours. The ghost of Gonzalo appears again, and he sets out a table on the cover of a tomb. He serves a meal of vipers and scorpions, which Juan bravely eats. At the end of the meal, Gonzalo grabs Don Juan by the wrist, striking him dead. In a clap of thunder, the ghost, the tomb, and Don Juan disappear, leaving only Catalinón, who runs away in terror. At the Alcazar, every single character who has been wronged by Don Juan is complaining to the King, when Catalinón enters and announces the strange story of Don Juan's death. All the women who have claim to Don Juan as their husband are declared widows, and Catalinón admits that Ana escaped from Juan before he could dishonor her. Mota plans to marry Ana, Octavio to marry Isabela, Tisbea is free to marry again if she chooses, and Batricio and Aminta go back home.

If there was one thing that Don Juan de Marana learned from his father Don Jose, it was that women gave you three things - life, disillusionment and death. In his father's case it was his wife, Donna Isobel, and Donna Elvira who supplied the latter. Don Juan settled in Rome after attending the University of Pisa. Rome was run by the tyrannical Borgia family consisting of Caesar, Lucrezia and their evil cousin Count Donati. Juan has his way with and was pursued by many women, but it is the one that he could not have that haunts him. It will be for her that he suffers the wrath of Borgia for ignoring Lucrezia and then killing Count Donati in a duel. For Adriana, they will both be condemned to death in the prison on the river Tiber.IMDB entry

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Beau Geste

Beau Geste

Michael "Beau" Geste is the protagonist. The main narrator (among others), by contrast, is his younger brother John. The three Geste brothers of Brandon Abbas are used as a metaphor for the British upper class values of a time gone by, and "the decent thing to do" is, in fact, the leitmotif of the novel. The Geste brothers are orphans and have been brought up by their aunt. The rest of Beau's band are mainly Isobel and Claudia (only daughter of Lady Patricia, and in a way, also reason enough for Michael to join the French Foreign Legion), and Lady Patricia's relative Augustus. When a precious jewel known as the "Blue Water" goes missing, suspicion falls on the young people, and Beau leaves Britain to join the Foreign Legion (la Légion étrangère), followed by his brothers, Digby (his twin) and John. There, after some adventure and separation from Digby, the sadistic Sergeant Lejaune gets command of the little garrison at Fort Zinderneuf in French North Africa, and only an attack by Tuaregs prevents a mutiny and mass desertion (of course the Geste brothers and a few loyals are against the plot). Throughout the book and adventures, Beau's behaviour is true to France and the Legion, and he dies at his post. At Brandon Abbas, the last survivor of the three brothers, John, is welcomed by their aunt and his fiancée Isobel, and the reason for the jewel theft is revealed to have been a matter of honour, and to have been the only "decent thing" possible.

A column of the French Foreign Legion arrives at the remote Fort Zinderneuf, having been assigned to relieve the legionnaires who had been defending the fort. Upon their arrival, they find that the fort has been ravaged by Tuareg attacks and American Beau Graves is the only survivor. After his badly injured arm is amputated, he is asked what has happened and his story is revealed in flashback. Beau's column had been serving under Lieutenant De Ruse and Sergeant Major Dagineau , the latter of whom is notorious for his harsh treatment of the men under his command. He is especially tortuous on Beau's class of recruits, hoping this will get them to reveal to him which of the men is the author of an anonymous letter Dagineau has received threatening his life. Although he has no proof, he suspects Beau, which earns Beau particularly brutal treatment. Beau's background leads De Ruse to nickname him Beau "Geste". Specifically, Beau had run away and joined the Legion after having falsely confessed to an embezzlement actually committed by his business partner. Beau had taken the blame for the sake of his partner's wife, whom Beau also loved. His noble gesture had proven futile, however, as the partner confessed and committed suicide just a few months later. That development prompts the suggestion that Beau might reclaim his lost love upon returning home. But he deems it unfair to ask her to wait for him, as he is now committed to a five-year enlistment, with no guarantee he'll survive it. De Ruse and his men are assigned to relieve Fort Zinderneuf, but on the way there, De Ruse is mortally wounded and is infirmed upon the group's arrival. With Dagineau back in charge, the brutality returns and it isn't long before the legionnaires mutiny, with everyone except Beau and his brother John set upon executing the sergeant. Just as they are about to do so, the Tuareg attack. Despite their personal hatred for Dagineau, no one doubts his excellence as a battle commander, so Beau convinces the men to release him that he may lead them in defending the fort. As legionnaires are killed in relentless waves of Tuareg attacks, Dagineau props up the bodies of the dead men on the fort's ramparts with their rifles pointing at their attackers. Between attacks, De Ruse speaks privately with Beau and confesses to being the author of the letter. He had hoped to frighten Dagineau into showing more humanity toward his troops. As he dies, De Ruse laments that in fact, it only caused Dagineau to treat the men even more harshly. The legionnaires try to hold out against the attacks, with Dagineau confidently proclaiming that relief is on the way to them. But eventually, the only ones left alive are Dagineau and Beau, who has a seriously wounded arm. When the predicted relief column arrives, Dagineau delays their entry so he can settle things with Beau once and for all. He tells Beau that the Legion is need of heroes, and that all of the dead men around them can be presented as those heroes, so long as no one ever knows that they had mutinied. Therefore, he cannot leave Beau alive to reveal the truth of what had occurred at Fort Zinderneuf. Beau and Dagineau fight, with Beau finally gaining the upper hand and shooting and killing Dagineau. Beau's flashback ends to reveal that he has not actually been relating this story to the relief commander who had questioned him about what happened at the fort. Still awaiting Beau's response, the commander repeats his query, and Beau tells him only that the men laid down their lives protecting the fort. With no mention of Dagineau's brutality, nor of the mutiny, Beau presents the entire group as heroes &mdash; just as Dagineau had wanted. The commander informs Beau that the Legion's high command has decided that Fort Zinderneuf is no longer worth protecting and they will now abandon it. Having lost his arm, Beau will be discharged, and the commander offers his hope that Beau has someone to whom to return. Beau smiles pensively and replies that he indeed does.

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Magnificent Obsession

Magnificent Obsession

Robert Merrick is resuscitated by a rescue crew after a boating accident. The crew is unable to save the life of Dr. Phillips, a doctor renowned for his ability to help people, who was having a heart attack at the same time on the other side of the lake. Merrick then decides to devote his life to making up for the doctor's, and becomes a physician himself. The book's plot portrays Mrs. Hudson, the widow, moving to Europe after her daughter, Joyce, is married. Merrick progresses in his career, and in the story's climax, gets involved in a railway accident in which Mrs. Hudson suffers serious injury. Merrick is instrumental in her recovery. The movie differs from the book in that before deciding to become a surgeon, Merrick not only alienates the doctor's widow, with whom he has fallen in love, but also causes another tragedy. This makes him totally re-evaluate his life, and at that point, he decides to become a doctor.

The life of spoiled Robert Merrick is saved through the use of a hospital's only pulmotor, but because the medical device cannot be in two places at once, it results in the death of Dr. Hudson, a selfless, brilliant surgeon and generous philanthropist. Merrick falls in love with Hudson's widow, Helen , though she holds him responsible for her husband's demise. One day, he insists on driving her home and makes a pass at her. She gets out and is struck by another car, losing her sight. He watches over her and visits her during her recuperation, concealing his identity and calling himself Dr. Robert. When he finds out that she is nearly penniless, he secretly pays for specialists to try to restore her vision. Finally, she travels to Paris and is told that her eyesight is gone forever. Robert follows her, confesses his true identity and proposes marriage. She forgives him, but goes away, not wanting to be a burden to him. Years later, Robert has become a brain surgeon. He learns that Helen urgently needs an operation, which he performs. When she awakens, her sight has miraculously returned.

positive

positive

The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules

Homer Wells grows up in an orphanage where he spends his childhood "being of use" as a medical assistant to the director, Dr. Wilbur Larch, whose history is told in flashbacks: After a traumatic misadventure with a prostitute as a young man, Wilbur turns his back on sex and love, choosing instead to help women with unwanted pregnancies give birth and then keeping the babies in an orphanage. He makes a point of maintaining an emotional distance from the orphans, so that they can more easily make the transition into an adoptive family, but when it becomes clear that Homer is going to spend his entire childhood at the orphanage, Wilbur trains the orphan as an obstetrician and then comes to love him. Wilbur's and Homer's lives are complicated by Wilbur also secretly being an abortionist. Wilbur came to this work reluctantly, but he is driven by having seen the horrors of back-alley operations. Homer, upon learning Wilbur's secret, considers it morally wrong. As a young man, Homer befriends a young couple, Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington, who come to St. Cloud's for an abortion. Homer leaves the orphanage, and returns with them to Ocean View Orchards (Wally's family's orchard) in Heart's Rock, near the Maine Coast. Wally and Homer become best friends and Homer develops a secret love for Candy. Wally goes off to war and his plane is shot down over Burma. He is presumed missing by the military, but Homer and Candy both believe he is dead and move on with their lives. They have sexual relations, and Candy becomes pregnant. They go back to St. Cloud's Orphanage, where their child is born and named Angel. Subsequently, Wally is found in Burma and returns home, paralyzed from the waist down. He is still able to have sexual intercourse but is sterile due to an infection received in Burma. They lie to the family about Angel's parentage, claiming that Homer decided to adopt him. Wally and Candy marry shortly afterward, but Candy and Homer maintain a secret affair that lasts some 15 years. Many years later, teenaged Angel falls in love with Rose Rose, the daughter of the head migrant worker at the apple orchard. She becomes pregnant by her father, and Homer performs an abortion on her. Homer decides to return to the orphanage after the death of Dr. Larch, to work as the new director. Though he maintains his distaste for abortions, he continues Dr. Larch's legacy of honoring the choice of his patients, and he dreams of the day when abortions are free, legal, and safe, so he'll no longer feel obliged to offer them. A subplot follows the character Melony, who grew up alongside Homer in the orphanage. She was Homer's first girlfriend in a relationship of circumstances. After Homer leaves the orphanage, so does she in an effort to find him. She eventually becomes an electrician and takes a female lover, Lorna. Melony is an extremely stoic woman, who refuses to press charges against a man who brutally broke her nose and arm so that she can later retaliate herself. She is the catalyst that transforms Homer from his comfortable but not entirely admirable position at the apple orchard to becoming Dr. Larch's replacement at the orphanage.

Homer Wells , an orphan, is the film's protagonist. He grew up in an orphanage directed by Dr. Wilbur Larch after being returned twice by foster parents. His first foster parents thought he was too quiet and the second parents beat him. Dr. Larch is addicted to ether and is also secretly an abortionist. Larch trains Homer in obstetrics and abortions as an apprentice, despite Homer never even having attended high school. The film continues as Homer decides to leave the orphanage with Candy Kendall and her boyfriend, Wally Worthington , a young couple who work at the Worthington family apple orchard. They had come to the clinic to have an abortion. Wally leaves to fight in World War II. While Wally is away, Homer and Candy have an affair. Later, Wally's plane is shot down and he is paralyzed from the waist down. When he returns home, Candy takes care of him and leaves Homer. While he is away from the orphanage, Homer lives on the Worthington estate. He goes to work picking apples with Arthur Rose's team. Arthur and his team are migrant workers who are employed seasonally at the orchard by the Worthingtons. Mr. Rose rapes and impregnates his own daughter , and Homer, who disapproves of abortions, realizes that in Rose's case, he must perform one for her. Later, when Arthur makes another attempt to rape his daughter, she stabs him, and as a last request, the dying Arthur asks the other workers to tell the police that his death was a suicide. Eventually Homer decides to return to the orphanage after Dr. Larch's death from inhaling an ether overdose, and works as the new director. At the end of the film, Homer learns that Larch had faked Homer's medical record to keep him out of the war, and later made fake credentials for Homer in order to convince the board overseeing the orphanage to appoint him as the next director. Finally, Homer fills the paternal role that Larch previously held for the children of the orphanage.

positive

positive

The Sword in the Stone

The Sword in the Stone

The premise is that Arthur's youth, not dealt with in Malory, was a time when he was tutored by Merlyn to prepare him for the use of power and royal life. Merlyn magically turns Wart into various animals at times. He also has more human adventures, at one point meeting the outlaw Robin Hood, (who is referred to in the novel as Robin Wood). The setting is loosely based on medieval England, and in places it incorporates White's considerable knowledge of medieval culture (as in relation to hunting, falconry and jousting). However it makes no attempt at consistent historical accuracy, and incorporates some obvious anachronisms (aided by the concept that Merlyn lives backwards in time rather than forwards, unlike everyone else).

The film begins in the 6th century in England with the death of the king, Uther Pendragon. Uther did not leave an heir to his throne, and without a king, "it seemed that the land would be torn by war". Suddenly, the "Sword in the Stone" appears in London, with an inscription proclaiming that "Whoso Pulleth Out This Sword of this Stone and Anvil, is Rightwise King Born of England." None succeed in removing the sword, which is soon forgotten, leaving England to the Dark Ages. Many years later, Merlin, "The world's most powerfull wizard." predicts that a small boy, named Arthur , will come to his cottage. While accompanying his older foster brother Kay on a hunting trip, Wart accidentally prevents Kay from shooting a deer. He goes to retrieve the arrow, and falls into Merlin's cottage. Merlin declares himself Wart's tutor and the two return to Wart's home, a castle run by Sir Ector, Arthur's foster father. Although Merlin convinces him that magic exists via conjuring up an indoor blizzard , Ector will not allow him to tutor Wart, so Merlin magically disappears, which persuades Ector to let Merlin stay. Ector's friend, Sir Pellinore, arrives with news about the annual jousting tournament to be held on New Year's Day in London, with the new development that the winner will become king. Ector decides to put Kay through serious training for the tournament and makes Wart his squire. Merlin transforms Wart and himself into fish and they swim in the castle moat to learn about physics. Wart is attacked by a pike and saved by Archimedes, Merlin's owl. Wart is sent to the kitchen as punishment after he tries relating his lesson to a disbelieving Ector. Merlin enchants the dishes to wash themselves, then takes Wart for another lesson and turns them into squirrels to learn about gravity. Wart is almost eaten by a wolf, that has been trying to eat him since the beginning of the film, but is saved by a female squirrel who falls in love with him. She traps the wolf in the log and he floats down the river to be never seen again. After they have returned to human form, Ector accuses Merlin of using black magic on the dishes. Wart defends Merlin but Ector will not listen, punishing Wart for "popping off" by giving Kay a different squire, Hobbs. For his third lesson, after apologizing to Wart and resolving to redeem him, Merlin transforms him into a sparrow and Archimedes, having charge of Wart's education reassigned to him , teaches Wart how to fly. Wart is attacked by a hawk and flies down the witch Madam Mim's chimney. Mim's magic uses trickery, as opposed to Merlin's scientific skill. Merlin arrives after she nearly kills Arthur and challenges Mim to a Wizards' Duel, in which the combatants change themselves into various non-imaginary animals to destroy one another. Mim breaks the rules first by disappearing, then eventually transforming into a dragon. Merlin transforms himself into a germ called "Malignalitaloptereosis" and infects Mim, effectively defeating her, thus demonstrating the importance of brains over brawn. At Christmas Eve, Kay is knighted but Hobbs comes down with the mumps; Ector reinstates Wart as Kay's squire. Merlin is disappointed that Wart still prefers war games to academics. Wart tries to explain that, he's lucky to be Kay's squire and that Merlin's urgings that he aim for anything better are pointless. This further aggravates Merlin, who in shouting "Blow me to Bermuda!" in anger, unwittingly transports himself to 20th-century Bermuda. Ector, Kay, Pellinore, Wart and Archimedes travel to London for the tournament. Wart realises he has left Kay's sword at a nearby inn, which is closed because of the tournament. Archimedes notices a sword in a stone in a nearby churchyard. Wart pulls the sword from the stone, unwittingly fulfilling the prophecy. When Arthur returns with the sword, Ector and Black Bart recognize it as the Sword in the Stone and the tournament is stopped. Demanding that Arthur prove he pulled it, Ector replaces the sword in its anvil. None of the other men can remove it as before, but Wart pulls it out again. This time the sky grows brighter and miracles appear in England. The knights all proclaim, "Hail, King Arthur! Long live the King!" as the crowd kneels down before him, the first being Ector, who apologises to Wart for his previous harsh treatment. Arthur, crowned king, sits in the throne room with Archimedes, yet feels unprepared to take the responsibility of royalty. Overwhelmed by the cheering crowd outside, Arthur calls out to Merlin for help, who arrives from Bermuda and is elated to find that Arthur is the King that he saw in the future. Merlin tells the boy that he will lead the Knights of the Round Table, becoming one of the most famous figures in literature and even in motion pictures.

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The Chocolate War

The Chocolate War

Jerry Renault is a self-determined and solitary first-year student at a preparatory, all-boys, Catholic high school called Trinity. Jerry occasionally copes with sexual frustration, depressive feelings, and basic existential questions, some of which stem from the recent death of his mother and the consequential emptiness he observes in his father's new life as a widower. Though thin, Jerry is quickly recruited onto the football team where he meets "The Goober," a fellow freshman and newfound friend at the school. Archie Costello, an intelligent, controlling, and apparently amoral older student selects Jerry to be a new member of The Vigils, the school's influential secret society of student pranksters, who carry out "assignments" that range from ridiculous to cruel. The existence of the Vigils is known by Trinity faculty but neither officially recognized nor openly acknowledged. Though The Vigils' president is nominally the school's star boxer and football player, John Carter, The Vigils are run de facto by Archie, whose title is the "Assigner" and who personally crafts each of the group's often elaborate pranks, which the other members of The Vigils unquestioningly carry out. When the school's headmaster becomes ill, his vice-principal, Brother Leon, assumes the position of acting headmaster. Leon, however, quickly overextends his rising ambition by committing the students to selling twice as many chocolates at twice the price in the annual school-wide chocolate fundraising event than last year. To accomplish this goal, Leon quietly reaches out to Archie, hinting at his desire that The Vigils will use their influence among the student body to increase this year's chocolate sales. Archie is seduced by the thought of having Leon's implicit support for The Vigils and, recognizing the power play in his favor, agrees. However, as if reveling in the power he now secretly wields over Leon, Archie assigns Jerry to refuse to sell any chocolate for ten days, expecting to provide a laugh for his fellow students and a humiliating scene for Leon. Jerry carries out the prank and it indeed shocks Brother Leon during his daily roll call, which includes an assessment of individuals' fundraising progress. Surprising everyone, though, Jerry persists in his refusal to sell chocolates even after the ten days have passed, thus estranging himself from the Vigils and their demands. Although Jerry himself cannot justify these actions at first, he persists each following day in his outright refusal, ultimately based on some personal rejection of the school's corrupt culture in which students and teachers alike condone manipulative people like The Vigils. Archie urges the rest of The Vigils to thwart Jerry's display of non-conformity, initially encouraging non-violent action. Meanwhile, Jerry ponders the meaning of a quotation on the poster inside his locker: "Do I dare disturb the universe?" from T. S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." Jerry's refusal to cooperate, at first, is seen by many classmates as heroic and soon the chocolate sales throughout the school plummet as fellow students begin to celebrate and align with Jerry's resistance to the fundraising effort. Both Brother Leon and The Vigils are angered by Jerry's noncompliance, which threatens their ability to direct the student body toward their own self-serving goals. As a result, Brother Leon presses Archie to have The Vigils put their full force behind the chocolate sale, and in doing so set Jerry up as an enemy to be alienated and bullied by the rest of the student body. Because of this, the chocolate sales begin to skyrocket and the tide is now turned: Jerry soon becomes an outcast, facing harassment by his peers, isolation in the hallways, prank calls at home, and the vandalism of his locker and possessions. Only The Goober remains a friend to Jerry and even supportive of his resistance, though he does little to actively protect him. Ultimately, Archie enlists the school bully Emile Janza to ambush Jerry just outside the school. Jerry maintains his defiance even in the aftermath of the violent beating he receives. At the end of the novel, Archie concocts a final event for the chocolate sale: a boxing match at night on the field between Jerry and Emile, promising that whoever is the winner of the fight will also win back his dignity. The match is watched by the all the school's students, each of whom selects which blows will be laid by the two combatants through a randomized lottery system. The match is only halted when a teacher kills the electrical power on the field, throwing the scene into darkness and disarray, but not before Jerry is brutally injured by Emile. Floating in and out of consciousness, Jerry says to The Goober, now his only remaining companion at school, that there was no way to win and that he should have just gone along with what everyone wanted him to do. Jerry concedes that it is best, after all, not to "disturb the universe." Though Archie is caught as the mastermind of the match and confronted, Brother Leon intervenes on Archie's behalf and in private praises his efforts that led to unprecedented results in the chocolate sale. Leon implies to Archie that, next year, if Leon is officially made the new headmaster, he will work to continue to preserve Archie's power.

The film offers a portrait of the hierarchical structure of a Catholic school, both formal and informal. New student Jerry Renault must submit to the bizarre rituals of his peers and the expectations of the school's administration by selling chocolates as a fundraiser.

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The Neverending Story

The NeverEnding Story

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.

Bastian Bux , a quiet boy who loves to read, is accosted by bullies on his way to school. He hides in a bookstore, interrupting the grumpy bookseller, Mr. Koreander ([[Thomas Hill . Bastian asks about one of the books he sees, but Mr. Koreander warns him it is "not safe." Nevertheless, Bastian "borrows" the book, leaving a note promising to return it, and races towards school. He then hides in the school's attic to begin reading The Neverending Story. The book describes the fantasy world of Fantasia which is being threatened by a force called "The Nothing," a void of darkness that consumes everything. The Childlike Empress , who rules over Fantasia from the Ivory Tower, has fallen ill due to the Nothing, and she has summoned Atreyu , a young warrior from the Plains People, to discover the means to end the Nothing. Atreyu is given the AURYN, a medallion to protect and guide him. As Atreyu sets out, the Nothing summons Gmork , a vicious, but highly intelligent wolf-like beast, to kill Atreyu. Atreyu's quest directs him to an ancient being called Morla that resides in the Swamps of Sadness. Though the AURYN protects Atreyu from its effects, his beloved horse Artax is lost to the swamp. Atreyu continues through the swamp, and is surprised when Morla reveals itself as a giant tortoise-like being. Bastian, reading, is also surprised and lets out a scream; when he continues reading, Bastian is curious that Atreyu and Morla appeared to have heard his scream. Morla does not have the answers Arteyu seeks, but directs him to the Southern Oracle, many thousands of miles distant. Atreyu attempts to trek through the Swamps but even the AURYN cannot protect him indefinitely. Atreyu blacks out, but awakens, clean and restored, next to the luckdragon Falkor , who had rescued Atreyu at the last minute and brought him to the Southern Orcale. Two gnomes that helped restore Atreyu, explain what they know about the Oracle, including the trials that one must face before reaching it. As the Darkness nears, Atreyu completes one trial and is perplexed when the second trial, a mirror that shows the viewer's true self, reveals a boy matching Bastian's description sitting in an attic reading a book. Bastian recoils in shock and throws the book aside, but cautiously continues reading after setting up candles in the darkened attic. Atreyu, past the trials, stands before the Oracle, who tells him the only way to save the Princess is to find a human child to give her a new name, but such a child can only be obtained beyond the boundaries of Fantasia. Atreyu and Falkor flee before the Nothing consumes the Oracle. The two try to locate the boundary of Fantasia, but the power of the Nothing has grown, and Atreyu is knocked from Falkor's back into the Sea of Possibilities, losing the AURYN in the process. He wakes up on the shore of an abandoned town, and as he explores, he finds a series of wall paintings describing his quest to the present, including one of him facing against Gmork. Gmork reveals himself, and explains that Fantasia is humanity's hopes and dreams, but that The Nothing, which represents human apathy, cynicism, and the denial of childish dreams, eats away at it. The beast then attacks as the Nothing starts to consume the town; Atreyu is able to kill Gmork with a sharp rock. Atreyu fights against the pull of the Nothing, but as he gives out, Falkor arrives to save him, having found the AURYN earlier. When Atreyu recovers, he finds they are flying in a black void with the only remnants of Fantasia floating around. Fearing his quest has failed, Atreyu is elated when the Ivory Tower appears. After landing, Atreyu races to see the Empress and apologizes for his failure. To his surprise, the Empress declares that he was successful, as he has brought the human child, Bastian, with him through his adventure. As the Nothing starts to consume the Ivory Tower, the Princess pleas directly to Bastian to give her her new name before it is too late. Bastian races to the attic windows and shouts the name "Moonchild" before the wind outside extinguishes the candles and sends the room into darkness. Bastian finds himself in a black void with the Empress. She shows him a single grain of sand, the last remaining part of Fantasia, but insists that Bastian's imagination, through the power of wishing, can restore Fantasia from it. After a moment's thought, Bastian wishes for the restoration of the land, and finds himself riding Falkor over the restored Fantasia, including Atreyu reunited with Artax. Bastian whispers into Falkor's ear; in the real world, the bullies that had chased down Bastian at the start suddenly find themselves being chased by Bastian and Falkor. A narrator states that Bastian had many more wishes and adventures, but those are tales "for another time".

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Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

In 1801, Mr. Lockwood, a rich man from the south of England, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after his arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights." He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a rather strange group: Mr. Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his mannerisms suggest otherwise; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man appears to be one of the family, although he dresses and talks like a servant. Being snowed in, Mr. Lockwood stays the night and is shown to an unused chamber, where he finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse named Catherine. When he falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which he sees Catherine as a ghost trying to enter through the window. Heathcliff rushes to the room after hearing him yelling in fear. He believes Mr. Lockwood is telling the truth, and inspects the window, opening it in a futile attempt to let Catherine's spirit in from the cold. After nothing eventuates, Heathcliff shows Mr. Lockwood to his own bedroom, and returns to keep guard at the window. As soon as the sun rises, Mr. Lockwood is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There, he asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights. Thirty years prior, the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights. The children of the family are the teenaged Hindley and his younger sister, Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool, where he finds a homeless dark-skinned boy whom he decides to adopt, naming him "Heathcliff." Hindley finds himself robbed of his father's affections and becomes bitterly jealous of Heathcliff. However, Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon, the two children spend hours on the moors together and hate every moment apart. Because of the domestic discord caused by Hindley's and Heathcliff's sibling rivalry, Hindley is eventually sent to college. However, he marries a woman named Frances and returns three years later, after Mr. Earnshaw dies. He becomes master of Wuthering Heights, and forces Heathcliff to become a servant instead of a member of the family. Several months after Hindley's return, Heathcliff and Catherine travel to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Linton family. However, they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been caught by a dog, is brought inside the Grange to have injuries tended to while Heathcliff is sent home. Catherine eventually returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed woman, looking and acting as a lady. She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance. When the Lintons visit the next day, Heathcliff dresses up to impress her. It fails when Edgar, one of the Linton children, argues with him. Heathcliff is locked in the attic, where Catherine later tries to comfort him. He swears vengeance on Hindley. In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, but she dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness and waste. Two years pass and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from Heathcliff. One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine. She has an argument with Nelly, which then spreads to Edgar who tries to leave. Catherine stops him and, before long, they declare themselves lovers. Later, Catherine talks with Nelly, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him and she had accepted. She says that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately she could never marry Heathcliff because of his lack of status and education. She therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately, Heathcliff had overheard the first part about not being able to marry him and runs away, disappearing without a trace. After three years, Edgar and Catherine are married. Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and richer during his absence. Catherine is delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen. Edgar's sister, Isabella, now eighteen, falls in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces Isabella one day at the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar which causes Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill. Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay his debts. While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella. The fugitives marry and return two months later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Nelly to visit her in secret. In the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, and then dies. The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England where she eventually gives birth to Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after Catherine. Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton. Twelve years later, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy meets Hareton on the moors and learns of her cousin's and Wuthering Heights' existence. Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is attracted to him, Heathcliff wants his son with him and insists on having him taken to the Heights. Three years later, Nelly and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton. He has plans for Linton and Cathy to marry so that he will inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a secret friendship. In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Nelly and Cathy visit Wuthering Heights and are held captive by Heathcliff who wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same time, prevent her from returning to her father before he dies. After five days, Nelly is released and Cathy escapes with Linton's help just in time to see her father before he dies. With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has no choice but to leave Nelly and to go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats into herself. This is the point of the story at which Lockwood arrives. After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of the moors and travels to Wuthering Heights to inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the south. In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the area and decides to stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy is still valid until October). He finds that Nelly is now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way there and she fills in the rest of the story. Nelly had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood left to replace the housekeeper who had departed. In March, Hareton had had an accident and been confined to the farmhouse. During this time, a friendship had developed between Cathy and Hareton. This had continued into April when Heathcliff began to act very strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days, he was found dead in Catherine's room. He was buried next to Catherine. Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New Year's Day. Lockwood passes the graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff, pausing to contemplate the peaceful quiet of the moors.

A traveler named Lockwood is caught in the snow and stays at the estate of Wuthering Heights, despite the cold behavior of his aged host, Heathcliff . Late that night, after being shown into an upstairs room that was once a bridal chamber, Lockwood is awakened by a cold draft and finds the window shutter flapping back and forth. Just as he is about to close it, he feels an icy hand clutching his and sees a woman outside calling, "Heathcliff, let me in! I'm out on the moors. It's Cathy!" Lockwood calls Heathcliff and tells him what he saw, whereupon the enraged Heathcliff throws him out of the room. As soon as Lockwood is gone, Heathcliff frantically calls out to Cathy, runs down the stairs and out of the house, into the snowstorm. Ellen, the housekeeper , tells the amazed Lockwood that he has seen the ghost of Cathy Earnshaw, Heathcliff's great love, who died years ago. When Lockwood says that he doesn't believe in ghosts, Ellen tells him that he might if she told him the story of Cathy. And so the main plot begins as a long flashback. The plot then flashes back forty years. As a boy, Heathcliff is found on the streets by Mr. Earnshaw , who brings him home to live with his two children, Cathy and Hindley. At first reluctant, Cathy eventually welcomes Heathcliff and they become very close, but Hindley treats him as an outcast, especially after Mr. Earnshaw dies. About ten years later, the now-grown Heathcliff and Cathy have fallen in love and are meeting secretly on Peniston Crag . Hindley has become dissolute and tyrannical and hates Heathcliff. One night, as Cathy and Heathcliff are out together, they hear music and realize that their neighbors, the Lintons, are giving a party. Cathy and Heathcliff sneak to the Lintons and climb over their garden wall, but the dogs are alerted and Cathy is injured. Heathcliff is forced to leave Cathy in their care. Enraged that Cathy would be so entranced by the Linton's glamor and wealth, he blames them for her injury and curses them. Months later, Cathy is fully recuperated but still living at the Lintons. Edgar Linton has fallen in love with Cathy and soon proposes, and after Edgar takes her back to Wuthering Heights, she tells Ellen what has happened. Ellen reminds her about Heathcliff, but Cathy flippantly remarks that it would degrade her to marry him. Heathcliff overhears and leaves. Cathy realizes that Heathcliff has overheard, is overcome by guilt and runs out after him into a raging storm. Edgar finds her and nurses her back to health once again, and soon he and Cathy marry. Heathcliff was thought to have disappeared forever but returns two years later, now wealthy and elegant. He has refined his appearance and manners in order to both impress and spite Cathy and secretly buys Wuthering Heights from Hindley, who has become an alcoholic. In order to further spite Cathy, Heathcliff begins courting Edgar's naive sister, Isabella , and eventually marries her. The brokenhearted Cathy soon falls gravely ill. Heathcliff rushes to her side against the wishes of the now disillusioned and bitter Isabella, and Cathy dies in Heathcliff's arms. The flashback ends and we return to Ellen finishing her story. The family doctor, Dr. Kenneth , bursts in, saying that he must be mad, having seen Heathcliff in the snow walking with his arm around a woman. Ellen exclaims, "It was Cathy!" and Dr. Kenneth says, "No, I don't know who it was", and tells them that he was then thrown from his horse. As he drew closer, he found Heathcliff lying in the snow. The woman had disappeared and there was no sign of her, and only Heathcliff's footprints appeared in the snow, not hers. Lockwood asks, "Is he dead?", and Dr. Kenneth nods, but Ellen says, "No, not dead, Dr. Kenneth. And not alone. He's with her. They've only just begun to live." The last thing we see in the film are the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy, walking in the snow, superimposed over a shot of Peniston Crag.

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Undercover Cat

That Darn Cat!

Pancho, also known as Darn Cat or DC, is in the habit of prowling the neighborhood at night. One night he returns home with a wristwatch round his neck. It is determined that the watch belongs to a bank teller who is being held hostage by bank robbers. The FBI put surveillance on the cat in the hope he will lead them to the kidnappers. They are helped and hampered by Pancho's human family and their neighbors.

Darn Cat or "DC" is a wily, adventurous Siamese tomcat who lives with two young women, suburbanite sisters Ingrid and Patti Randall , whose parents are traveling abroad at the time of the story. One night, while making his rounds around town, teasing Blitzy the Bulldog as usual, DC follows Iggy , a bank robber, to an apartment where he and his partner Dan are holding bank employee Margaret Miller hostage, calling her "Moms" in the process. The robbers let the cat in and feed him. When Margaret is alone for a moment, she attempts to scratch "help" into the back of her watch , places it around the cat's neck, and releases him into the outdoors. At home, Patti discovers the watch, has a gut feeling it belongs to the kidnapped woman and visits the FBI. She likes the kind looks and Agent Zeke Kelso ([[Dean Jones and tells him of her discovery. Supervisor Newton assigns Kelso to follow DC in hopes he will lead them back to the robbers' hideout. Kelso sets up a headquarters in the Randalls' house and assigns a team to keep the cat under surveillance, but DC manages to elude them. Eventually a bugging device is implanted in DC's collar and the cat leads Zeke into a comical chase at a drive-in movie and several backyards. Eventually, Patti and Zeke rescue Margaret and bring the robbers to justice. Subplots involve a "romance" between Patti's sister Ingrid and Gregory Benson and the meddling of nosey neighbor Mrs. MacDougall and her disapproving husband .

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positive

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Journey Back to Oz

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

After a tornado whips across the prairie and causes a loose gate to knock her unconscious, Dorothy finds herself back in the Land of Oz with Toto. The first new character they meet is a talking Signpost , which has three signs pointing in three different directions, and each sign says "Emerald City", so they are going to have to find it themselves. They then fall into some spooky woods where they meet Pumpkinhead , the unwilling servant of Mombi, the cousin of both the deceased Wicked Witch of the East and the Wicked Witch of the West . Toto chases a cat to a small cottage where Dorothy has the distinct displeasure of meeting Mombi's pet crow and Mombi herself face-to-warty-face. Dorothy is pushed into a chair which comes to life, and it hooks her arms. While Mombi has gone to get some more wood for the fire, Pumpkinhead sneaks into the house. She is brewing something big : green elephants, which she is planning to use as her army in her plot to conquer the Emerald City and become Queen of Oz. Pumpkinhead frees Dorothy, and they flee. After finding Dorothy gone and knowing Pumpkinhead is responsible, Mombi flies out on her broom, and says their warning the Scarecrow will not help when her green elephants "come crashing through the gate". While heading to the Emerald City, Dorothy and Pumpkinhead discover what appears to be a horse, upside-down on a pole. They get him off, and he introduces himself as Woodenhead Stallion III , and he explains how he ended up on there: he was a merry-go-round horse who fell from it. He takes them to the Emerald City, where Dorothy warns the Scarecrow about Mombi's green elephants. Unfortunately, she happens to arrive moments later, and Toto and the Scarecrow are captured. Dorothy, Pumpkinhead, and Woodenhead flee to Tinland and try to convince the Tin Man to help them. However, after hearing that Mombi's army consists of green elephants, he declines upon being afraid of the green elephants and suggests that they ask the Cowardly Lion. The Cowardly Lion puts on his best brave act when he tells Dorothy and the others he will slay the elephants, saying he will "snap off their tusks and use them for toothpicks", but, like the Tin Man, he is too afraid after hearing the elephants are magical, and he suggests they go to find Glinda , the Good Witch of the North. She appears at that very moment with her Glinda Bird on her arm. The bird uses its Tattle Tail to show what is occurring at the palace. She then gives Dorothy a little silver box. She instructs her to open it only in the Emerald City, and then only in case of a dire emergency. She repeats the warning, and then opens a hollow panel under Woodenhead's saddle where she hides it, and they ride off. Glinda tells her bird to keep them tuned in. Mombi has been watching them through her crystal ball, and knows that their path will take them through the Ferocious Forest. Using her magic, she brings the trees to life. Luckily, Glinda is also keeping a watchful eye on things, and she conjures a golden hatchet, which she zaps to Pumpkinhead. One of the trees snatches it from him, but ends up hitting one of the other trees, turning it to gold and making it bloom. The tree with the axe hits the others, turning them to gold too, and finally, ends up doing the same to himself. Woodenhead continues to carry Dorothy and Pumpkinhead back to the Emerald City. When they arrive, Mombi's elephants surprise them, but, when Dorothy flips open Glinda's box, a large army of mice emerge from it, scaring off the elephants. Mombi sees them in retreat, but she does not see the mice chasing them. She brews a potion to shrink Toto to mouse-size so she can feed him to her cat. One of the magic mice scares her, who throws the potion all over her pet crow, and a drop drips from its perch, landing on the cat. The magic mice are much larger than normal ones, so the tiny crow and cat flee in fear. Running outside, Mombi disguises herself as a rose with poisonous thorns. The elephants trample and kill her then disappear, and the Scarecrow explains that when a witch dies, all her magic dies with her. Unfortunately, that also means that Pumpkinhead loses the life she gave him. However, he comes back to life when one of Dorothy's tears falls on his head, and Glinda tells her that there's a magic stronger than her own as well as Mombi's put together, the strongest one in all the world: faith and love. The Scarecrow makes Woodenhead the head of the Oz cavalry and knights Pumpkinhead. Now, all Dorothy wants is to go home to her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Kansas. The Scarecrow flips through the Constitution of Oz and reads a section that states that a visitor to there may return the way they came if similar transportation is available. After Dorothy reveals she came by cyclone, Glinda asks for some leaves. Pumpkinhead gives her some of the ones from his neck, and she waves her wand. They form a tornado, which takes Dorothy and Toto back home. Before their departure, Dorothy promises that she will return to Oz someday.

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Jaws

Jaws 2

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

Four years after the events of Jaws, two divers are photographing the wreck of the Orca, Quint's boat from the first film. They are suddenly attacked by a large great white shark, and during the attack one of the divers' camera gets a photo of the shark's profile. A few days later, the shark enters the coastal waters of Amity Island, killing a female water skier. The female driver of the speedboat tries to defend herself by first throwing a gasoline tank at the shark and then igniting the fuel with a flare gun. The fire ignites the gas tank and the speedboat explodes, killing the driver. Though burned on the right side of its head, the shark survives. In addition to these incidents, a dead killer whale is beached at a nearby lighthouse with large wounds all over its body which Police Chief Martin Brody suggests were caused by a great white shark. Once again, Mayor Vaughn doesn't share Brody's belief that the town has another shark problem and warns him not to press the issue. Later, Brody spots a section of a ruined speedboat bobbing in the surf just off the beach. When he goes to retrieve it, he encounters the burnt remains of the female speedboat driver. Brody stops his 17-year-old son Mike from going sailing, and finds him a summer job working at the beach. The following day, while Brody is in an observation tower, he sees a large shadow produced by a school of bluefish, which he mistakes for a shark. In his haste, Brody orders everyone out of the water and fires his gun, causing a panic. Later that evening, he receives the photo of the shark's eye, taken by one of the attacked divers. Brody shows it to Vaughn and his townsmen, but they refuse to accept the evidence put in front of them. Len Peterson ,who has built a new resort in Amity to attract people, and the town council fire Brody for the beach incident, with Mayor Vaughn being the only one to vote against dismissal. Deputy Hendricks is promoted to Brody's position. The next morning, Mike sneaks out and goes sailing with his friends, but has to take his young brother Sean along to stop him telling his parents about Mike's trip. Later, they go past a group of divers led by Tom Andrews . Tom encounters the shark minutes after entering the water to catch lobsters and escapes, but suffers an embolism due to rushing to the surface too fast. Tina and Eddie later encounter the shark when it smashes into their sailboat, devouring Eddie and leaving Tina traumatized and alone. Brody and his wife Ellen find Andrews being put into an ambulance, and Brody suspects that something must have scared him to make him come up so fast. Hendricks informs Brody that Mike has gone out sailing to the lighthouse with his friends, so Brody insists on taking the police patrol boat to rescue them, with Ellen and Hendricks both joining him. They find Tina's boat, with Tina hiding in the hull, who confirms Brody's suspicions about the shark in the area. Hendricks and Ellen take Tina ashore in a passing boat, while Brody continues to search for the teenagers using the police launch. All seems well with the other teenagers until the shark appears. The shark then smashes into one of their sail boats, causing panic and their boats to collide with each other. Mike is knocked unconscious and is pulled out of the water just as the shark appears; two friends take him back to the shore for help. The rest of the teens remain floating on the wreckage of tangled boats, drifting out toward the open sea. A harbor patrol marine helicopter arrives and a line is rigged to tow the boats to shore, but before the pilot can tow them, the shark attacks the chopper causing it to sink into the water. Sean also falls into the water, but he is quickly saved by Marge . As Marge tries to get back into the boat, her hands slip on the wet hull, and she falls back into the water. The shark approaches and devours Marge. Back at mainland, Tina is sent to the hospital, and Ellen berates Peterson for getting Brody fired and denying the shark's presence. Brody finds Mike, who informs his father about the situation. Sean and his friends are drifting on the wreckage toward Cable Junction , with the open sea beyond it. Brody quickly finds the teenagers, but the shark attacks again, which causes Brody to run his boat aground on the rocks. Brody tries to tie a rope line, but snags an underwater power cable instead. Most of the teenagers are tossed into the water during the shark's next attack, and they swim to safety on Cable Junction, though the shark injures Lucy while Sean and Jackie are left marooned on one of the boats. Using an inflatable raft, Brody gets the shark's attention by pounding the power line with an oar , and gets the shark to bite the power cable. The plan succeeds: the shark gets electrocuted, dies and sinks to the bottom of the sea. Brody collects Sean and Jackie and paddles over to Cable Junction, to await rescue with the other teenagers.

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The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October

Marko Alexandrovich Ramius, a Lithuanian submarine commander in the Soviet Navy, intends to defect to the United States with his officers on board the experimental nuclear submarine Red October, a Typhoon-class vessel equipped with a revolutionary stealth propulsion system, described as an arrangement of pump-jets nicknamed the "Caterpillar Drive." The system makes sonar detection extremely difficult. The result, immediately apparent to Jack Ryan and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is a strategic weapon platform that is capable of sneaking its way into American waters and launching nuclear missiles with little or no warning. The strategic value of Red October was not lost upon Ramius. Several other factors have spurred his decision to defect, in particular his disillusionment by the death of his wife, Natalia, at the hands of an incompetent doctor who went unpunished because he was the son of a Politburo member. Her untimely death, combined with Ramius' long-standing dissatisfaction with the callousness of Soviet rule and his fear of the Red Octobers destabilizing effect on world affairs, ultimately exhausts his tolerance for the failings of the Soviet system. Ramius kills the Red Octobers political officer to ensure that he will not interfere with the defection, and writes a letter to Admiral Yuri Padorin, Natalia's uncle, brazenly stating his intention to defect. The Soviet Northern Fleet sails out to sink the Red October under the pretext of a search and rescue mission. Meanwhile, Ryan, a high-level Central Intelligence Agency analyst, flies from London to Langley, Virginia, to deliver British Intelligence's photographs of Red October to the Deputy Director of Intelligence. Ryan consults a friend at the U.S. Naval Academy and finds out that the new construction variations house the Caterpillar Drive. When the Red Octobers silent drive is engaged, she disappears off the sonar of the USS Dallas, a Los Angeles class submarine that is tracking her. Putting this information together with the subsequent launch of the entire Northern Fleet, Ryan deduces Ramius' plans. The U.S. military command reluctantly agrees, while planning for contingencies in case the Soviet Fleet has intentions other than those stated. As tensions rise between the U.S. and Soviet fleets, the crew of the Dallas discover a way to detect Red October. Ryan must contact Ramius to prevent the loss of the submarine and her decisive technology. Through a combination of circumstances, Ryan becomes responsible for shepherding Ramius and his vessel away from the pursuing Soviet fleet. In order to convince the Soviets that the Red October has been destroyed, the U.S. Navy rescues her crew after Ramius fakes a shipboard emergency. Ramius and his officers heroically stay behind, claiming they are about to scuttle the submarine to prevent it getting into the hands of the Americans. A decommissioned U.S. ballistic missile submarine, the USS Ethan Allen, is blown up underwater as a deception ploy. A depth gauge taken from the main instrument panel of the Red October (with the appropriate serial number) is made to appear as if it was salvaged from the wreckage. These events succeed in convincing Soviet observers that the Red October has been lost. However, GRU intelligence officer Viktor Loginov, masquerading as the Red Octobers cook, realizes what is happening. Loginov attempts to ignite a missile rocket motor inside a launch tube so as to destroy the Red October, wounding both Ramius and a British agent while killing one of Ramius' top officers. Ryan attempts to persuade the fiercely patriotic Loginov to surrender rather than die in the explosion, but he refuses. He manages to fatally shoot Loginov in the submarine's missile compartment. Ramius orders the missile jettisoned in case Loginov had managed to arm it, an action which adds to the deception of the Soviets. Captain Viktor Tupolev, a former student of Ramius' and commander of a Soviet Alfa-class attack submarine, has been trailing what he initially believes is an vessel. Based on acoustical signature information, Tupolev and his political officer realize that it is the Red October, and proceed to pursue and engage it. The two U.S. submarines escorting the Red October are unable to fire due to rules of engagement, and the Red October is damaged by a torpedo from the Alfa. After a tense standoff, the Red October rams Tupolev's submarine broadside and sinks it. The Americans escort Red October safely into the eight-ten dry dock in Norfolk, Virginia, where Ramius and his crew are taken to a CIA safehouse to begin their Americanization. Ryan is commended by his superiors and flies back to his posting in London.

The year is 1984. Captain First Rank Marko Ramius , is the commanding officer of Red October, a new Soviet submarine whose caterpillar drive renders it undetectable to sonar. Ramius leaves port on orders to conduct exercises with the submarine V.K. Konovalov, commanded by his former student Captain Tupolev . Once at sea, Ramius murders political officer Ivan Putin , the only man aboard besides himself who knows the sub's true orders. Ramius then burns the orders, pulls out phonies and commands the crew to head toward America's east coast to conduct missile drills. The USS Dallas, an American submarine on patrol in the north Atlantic, briefly detects Red October but loses contact once Ramius engages the silent drive. The next morning, CIA analyst Dr. Jack Ryan briefs US government officials on the departure of Red October and the threat it poses. Officials in the briefing, learning that the Soviet Navy has been deployed to sink Red October, fear Ramius may plan an unauthorized strike against the United States. Ryan, however, hypothesizes that Ramius instead plans to defect, and leaves for the North Atlantic to prove his theory before the US Navy is ordered to sink Red October. Red October{{'}}s caterpillar drive fails at sea and sabotage is suspected. No longer silent, the sub comes under attack by Soviet forces and begins risky maneuvers through undersea canyons. Petty Officer Jones , a sonar technician aboard Dallas, plots an interception course. Ryan arranges a hazardous mid-ocean rendezvous to get aboard Dallas, where he attempts to persuade its captain, Commander Bart Mancuso , to contact Ramius and determine his intentions. The Soviet Ambassador, who earlier claimed that Red October was lost at sea and requested US assistance in a rescue mission, at this point informs the US that the sub is a renegade and asks for US help to sink it. An order to do this is communicated to the US Fleet, including Dallas. Bart Mancuso is conflicted about whether he should sink Red October as ordered, but Ryan convinces him to make contact and offer to assist Ramius in his defection. Ramius, stunned that the Americans correctly guessed his plan to defect, accepts their cooperation. He then stages a nuclear reactor emergency and orders the bulk of his crew to abandon ship, telling Red October{{'}}s doctor Petrov that he and the other officers will scuttle the sub rather than let it be captured. Ramius submerges and Ryan, Mancuso and Jones come aboard via a rescue sub, at which point Ramius requests asylum in the United States for himself and his officers. Thinking their mission is complete, Red October{{'}}s skeleton crew are surprised by a torpedo attack from Konovalov, which has followed them across the Atlantic. As the two Soviet subs maneuver, Red Octobers cook Loginov , an undercover GRU agent, opens fire at the fire control, fatally wounding Ramius's first officer, Vasily Borodin before retreating into the missile launch area, followed by Ramius and Ryan. Loginov shoots Ramius, but Ryan guns down the saboteur just before he can detonate a missile and destroy the sub. Meanwhile, with help from Dallas, Red October makes evasive maneuvers, causing Konovalov to be destroyed by one of its own torpedoes. The evacuated crew of Red October on board a US Navy rescue ship witness this explosion and, not knowing that there is a second Soviet sub, assume it was Red October. Their subterfuge complete, Ryan and Ramius sail Red October to the Penobscot River in Maine.

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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.

Jessie, a female Border Collie, and her friends, who have all been hiding away from Napoleon and his spies, are starting their journey back to their home, which they had escaped from years before. A massive storm is washing away the looming structures of Manor Farm. Jessie reflects on the events of the past and how they were brought to their current situation and the film shifts to the past. At night in the barn of Manor Farm, the animals gather for a meeting. Old Major, the oldest and wisest pig at Manor Farm tells the animals that they must overthrow man, their true and only enemy, in order to be free and that the animals must never adopt man’s vices. Old Major tells of a song called, “Beasts of the England,” which proclaims that animals must rise up and overthrow man. When Mr. Jones, the cruel, alcoholic owner of Manor Farm, rushes outside to investigate the noises emitting from the barn, he accidentally fires his gun. The bullet strikes Old Major, who falls from the barn loft, dying on the ground below. Later, after Jones neglects to feed the animals, Boxer, the work horse, leads the animals to the shed where the food is kept. When Jones and his men come to face the animals, the animals attack the men in revolution, forcing them off the property. Under the rule of animals, Manor Farm is renamed Animal Farm by Snowball, who has learned to read and write. Snowball paints on the barn doors commandments he claims are the principles of Animalism, reflecting Old Major's views. The commandments forbid animals from behaving like humans and the killing of animals. The commandments also state that "whatever goes upon four legs or has wings is a friend" and that "all animals are equal." Snowball teaches the animals to chant, "Four legs good, two legs bad" and also reveals the “Hoof and Horn,” a simple green flag that represents Animal Farm. Meanwhile, the farmhouse is preserved as a museum and the three pigs (Snowball, Napoleon, and [[Squealer oversee the farm's progression as it's operated entirely by animals. Jessie has birthed puppies, but Napoleon soon takes them, claiming that they need to be educated. It is also soon revealed that the pigs have taken the farm's milk and apples for themselves. Snowball feels guilty and ashamed of this action but none of the other pigs seem to feel the same way. Squealer soon explains that the pigs are the brains of the farm and that they need the milk and apples to stay healthy so they can watch over the farm. Squealer claims that if the pigs stopped eating the milk and apples, Jones would surely return. Jessie is skeptical of the pigs' government of Animal Farm, but Boxer affirms that Napoleon is always right. Local farmer Mr. Pilkington decides that it is time to take the farm back from the animals and invades Animal Farm with other local farm workers. Snowball had planned for such an invasion and leads the animals to victory, causing the humans to retreat. Pilkington comments that, since they were unable to defeat the animals, they may “have to join them.” Snowball proposes that the animals build a windmill to make their farm work easier, but Napoleon and Squealer oppose the plan, declaring that arming the farm and feeding the animals is more important. When the animals show support for Snowball, Napoleon urinates on Snowball’s blueprints and calls a horde of dogs to chase Snowball out of Animal Farm. Jessie is shocked to see her own puppies, now almost fully grown, as part of Napoleon's private army of vicious dogs. Napoleon assumes Old Major’s place as his own and declares Snowball a “traitor and a criminal.” Squealer states that the windmill was Napoleon’s plan all along and that his cunning tactics revealed Snowball’s treachery. Napoleon announces that the pigs will “decide all aspects of the farm” from then on. The animals begin construction of the windmill under the strict supervision of the dogs of the Animal Guard. At night, Jessie finds Napoleon and Squealer in the farmhouse “behaving like men.” Mr. Pilkington soon begins to trade with the pigs. Although Boxer remembers Old Major mentioning that animals were not to engage in trade, Napoleon declares that “Animal Farm cannot exist in isolation” and that trades must begin with outside farmers. Napoleon also has the skull of Old Major placed in front of the barn to oversee the farm's progress. A statue of Napoleon has also been built nearby. Jessie confesses to the other animals that the pigs are living in the house and sleeping in the beds, Squealer points out that no commandment had been broken. He had, in fact, changed the commandment, ‘No animal shall sleep in a bed’ to, ‘No animal shall sleep in a bed with sheets.’ Angered by what Pilkington is trading with the animals on his farm, Jones sneaks to the windmill and blows it up with dynamite. When their truck is crushed by a falling boulder, they depart without anyone seeing them. The animals are devastated by the windmill’s destruction. Napoleon announces that it was Snowball had stolen the truck and sabotaged the windmill. The rebuilding process begins. Boxer is determined to finish before he retires. Squealer announces that “Beasts of the World” is banned, explaining that Animal Farm has been fully established and that the song's meaning is now irrelevant. A new song titled “Glorious Leader, Napoleon” is sung instead. Soon, the food dwindles to nothing for the working animals, while the pigs continue to fatten. It is declared one night after work that Snowball is causing the food shortage and that the hens will have to surrender their eggs to the market. When the hens oppose, Napoleon declares that the hens are all criminals and that no food will be given to them. The pigs produce propaganda films using Jones' filming equipment. While celebrating Napoleon as a leader, at the same time, the films show the deaths of animals that have broken Napoleon’s rules. It is revealed that the commandment, ‘No animal shall kill any other animal’ has been changed to, ‘No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.’ The commandment, ‘No animal shall drink alcohol,’ was also changed to, ‘No animal shall drink alcohol to excess,’ after the pigs began to buy whiskey from Pilkington. Carting extra stones to the almost-complete windmill, Boxer collapses to the ground. Squealer informs Jessie that Napoleon will be sending Boxer to the hospital for treatment. A van comes take Boxer away, but it is marked with the words "Horse Slaughterer" and Boxer is taken to his death. Napoleon is paid for selling Boxer to the glue factory. In a propaganda film, Squealer assures the animals that the van did belong to the hospital, but, at one time, had been owned by the glue factory, and, thus, the old painting had not been removed. Pilkington and his wife visit Animal Farm for dinner with the pigs in the farmhouse. Napoleon announces that the farm will return to its original name, Manor Farm, since that is its proper name. Watching through a warped glass window, Jessie sees the faces of the two distorted in such a way that she can't tell the difference between Napoleon and Pilkington. The commandment ‘All animals are equal' has been changed to ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.’ The animals depart Manor Farm as the propaganda film displays the performance of a new song written for Napoleon which features the recurring phrase, "Napoleon, Mighty Leader!" During the performance, Napoleon is seen wearing clothes and standing on two legs. The animals around Napoleon chant, "Four legs good, two legs better!" Napoleon decrees the Manor Farm will build weapons and walls to continue their way of life. He declares the revolution over and announces, "All animals are now free!" The film then returns to the present, with Jessie and the other animals - having reunited with Snowball - returning to Manor Farm. Jessie knows in her heart that Napoleon has died “a victim of his own madness.” Manor Farm is derelict and largely abandoned. Jessie cannot believe that this was once the same place “where Old Major had spoken of his dream” and where they had “worked so hard for a better life.” One of Jessie’s puppies has survived the tragedy. The farm is bought by a new family. Jessie vows that the animals will “not allow them to make the same mistakes.” She says that they will work together to rebuild the farm and that now, at last, they are finally free.

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First Blood

Rambo: First Blood Part II

The book begins with Rambo, a Vietnam War veteran, hitch hiking in Madison, Kentucky. He is picked up by Sheriff Teasle and dropped off at the city limits. When Rambo repeatedly returns, Teasle finally arrests him and drives him to the station. He is charged with vagrancy and resisting arrest and is sentenced to 35 days in jail. Being trapped inside the cold, wet, small cells gives Rambo a flashback of his days as a POW in Vietnam, and he fights off the cops as they attempt to cut his hair and shave him without shaving cream, beating one man and slashing another with the straight razor. He flees, steals a motorcycle, and hides in the nearby mountains. He becomes the focus of a manhunt that results in the deaths of many police officers, civilians, and National Guardsmen. In a climactic ending in the town where his conflict with Teasle began, Rambo is finally hunted down by special forces Colonel Sam Trautman and Teasle. Teasle, using his local knowledge, manages to surprise Rambo and shoots him in the chest, but is himself wounded in the stomach by a return shot. He then tries to pursue Rambo as he makes a final attempt to escape back out of the town. Both men are essentially dying by this point, but are driven by pride and a desire to justify their actions. Rambo, having found a spot he feels comfortable in, prepares to commit suicide by detonating a stick of dynamite against his body; however, he then sees Teasle following his trail and decides that it would be more honourable to continue fighting and be killed by Teasle's return fire. Rambo fires at Teasle and, to his surprise and disappointment, hits him. For a moment he reflects on how he had missed his chance of a decent death, because he is now too weak to light the dynamite, but then suddenly feels the explosion he had expected—but in the head, not the stomach where the dynamite was placed. Rambo dies satisfied that he has come to a fitting end. Trautman returns to the dying Teasle and tells him that he has killed Rambo with his shotgun. Teasle relaxes, experiences a moment of affection for Rambo, then dies.

John Rambo , having been tried, convicted, and sentenced to time at hard labor, is working in a labor camp prison when he gets a visit from his former commander, Colonel Sam Trautman . Trautman offers Rambo the chance to be released from prison after the events of the first film and given full clemency, but on condition of him going into Vietnam to search for POWs. Rambo meets Marshal Murdock ([[Charles Napier , an American bureaucrat who is in charge of the operation and he tells Rambo that the public is demanding knowledge about the POWs and they want a trained commando to go in and search for them. Rambo is briefed that he is only to photograph the POWs and not to rescue them, nor is he to engage any enemy soldiers. Rambo reluctantly agrees and he is then told that an agent of the US government will be there to receive him in the jungles of Vietnam. Rambo parachutes into the Vietnamese jungles, but loses most of his equipment in the process and is left only with his knives and his bow and arrows. He meets the agent, a local woman named Co-Bao , who wants to go to the US, and who arranges for her and Rambo to go upstream with a group of river pirates. Rambo comes to the camp, and in contradiction to his briefing, he finds the POW there and rescues one of them from torture. Later at the camp, a patrol discovers a dead sentry whom Rambo eliminated with a throwing knife. In response, a large patrol goes out into the jungles in search of the intruder. Rambo, Co and the POW escape with the pirates, but are attacked by a Vietnam People's Navy gunboat and are promptly betrayed by the pirates, who fear the military's reprisals should they not cooperate; Rambo sends Co and the POW to safety and manages to destroy the gunboat with an RPG-7 and kill all the pirates. When Rambo calls for extraction, he is denied as Murdock fears what will happen to him and his party if the public come to know about it. Rambo and the POW are recaptured. Rambo's wrists are bound to an oxen yoke and he is lowered partially naked into a leech-infested cesspit . Later Rambo learns that the Soviet Army is aiding the Vietnamese and training them, and is tortured badly by a Soviet officer, Lt. Col. Podovsky and his silent, robust henchman Sergeant Yushin . Rambo is ordered to contact the military and tell them that they should not send any more commandos for rescue operations in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Co enters the camp in the guise of a prostitute and comes to the hut in which Rambo is held captive. Rambo agrees to Podovsky's condition, but instead threatens Murdock on the radio that he is "coming to get you." With that, Rambo takes Podovsky and Yushin by surprise and escapes from there, with Co bursting on the scene and firing at the villains. He then escapes from captivity into a nearby jungle with Co's help. Co then tends to Rambo's wounds and begins to implore him to take her to the US. Rambo agrees and they kiss; however, they are then attacked by some Vietnamese soldiers and Co is killed. Rambo kills them all and then buries Co's body in the jungle. Following his escape, the camp's Vietnamese soldiers and Soviet commandos are sent to look for him. Rambo assembles his weapons, and using guerrilla warfare tactics, is able to kill a large number of enemy troops in the jungle. He proceeds to a small enemy camp and destroys it and several vehicles with explosive arrows.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9M3Cs-X6bo He hijacks a helicopter from the Soviets after throwing Sergeant Yushin out and proceeds towards the POW camp. He destroys most of the camp with the helicopter, then lands and arms himself with the machine gun that is mounted on the Huey, kills the remaining soldiers, and rescues all the POWs. They get to the helicopter and head towards the US camp in Thailand. Lt. Col. Podovsky chases them in his Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunship. Although Rambo's helicopter is heavily damaged by Podovsky's helicopter, he manages to land his helicopter on a river, then fakes his death. When Podovsky comes near him and gets careless, Rambo fires a rocket at Podovsky's chopper, destroying it. Rambo then returns to the base and wrecks Murdock's command center using the helicopter's machine gun. He threatens Murdock with a knife, challenging him to find and rescue the remaining POWs in Vietnam. Trautman then comforts Rambo and tries to pacify him. An angry Rambo responds that he only wants his country to love its soldiers as much as its soldiers love it. As Rambo leaves, Trautman asks him, "How will you live, John?" To which Rambo replies, "Day by day." The film credits roll as Rambo walks off into the distance while his mentor watches him.

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Oliver Twist

Oliver & Company

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

The film is set in 1980s New York City. An orphaned kitten named Oliver is left alone after his fellow orphaned kittens are adopted by passersby and he wanders the streets by himself. The next day, he is tricked into assisting a laid-back dog named Dodger into stealing food from a hot dog vendor. Dodger then flees the scene without sharing his bounty with Oliver. Dodger eventually arrives at the barge of his owner, a pickpocket named Fagin, along with his meal, to give to his friends: Tito the Chihuahua, Einstein the Great Dane, Rita the Saluki and Francis the Bulldog. Oliver sneaks into their home, located below the city's docks, and is discovered by the dogs. After a moment of confusion, Oliver is then received with a warm welcome. Fagin, owner of the dogs, comes in and explains that he is running out of time to repay the money he borrowed from Sykes, a ruthless shipyard agent and loan shark. Sykes' Dobermans Roscoe and DeSoto attack Oliver but the cat is defended by Fagin's dogs. Sykes tells Fagin the money must be paid in three days, or else. Fagin and his pets, now including Oliver, hit the streets to sell some shoddy goods and perhaps steal money. Oliver and Tito attempt to break down a limousine but the plan backfires when Oliver accidentally slipping on the ignition key and falling over the dashboard and Tito being electrocuted by the cars' wires, causing the car's electrical system to go haywire, and Oliver is caught and taken home by the limousine's passenger Jenny Foxworth and her butler Winston. Jenny's parents, being rich, are away traveling the world and she adopts Oliver out of loneliness. Georgette, the family's pompous and pampered poodle is enraged and jealous by Oliver's presence and wants him removed. Dodger and the others manage to locate Oliver, and with help from Georgette they remove him from the house. Oliver later explains that he was treated kindly and did not want to leave, much to the shock of Dodger who felt that Oliver was ungrateful, but allows him the opportunity to leave. However, Fagin arrives, having surrendered to his fate, happened to have held Oliver who was about to leave. Fagin then discovers Oliver has been taken care of by a "very rich" owner from Fifth Avenue, and attempts to ransom Oliver so he would finally pay back Sykes, whom he later informs of his plan. Meanwhile, Jenny discovers Fagin's ransom note, and attempts to meet Fagin's demands, escorted by Georgette. Jenny then meets with Fagin, initially oblivious that he had ransomed Oliver. Fagin, bothered by his conscience after realizing how downhearted Jenny was, changes his mind about the ransom and gives her Oliver back freely. Suddenly, Sykes comes out of the shadows and kidnaps Jenny, intending to ransom her. Dodger rallies the dogs and Oliver to rescue Jenny from Sykes, but the animals are confronted by Sykes and his Doberman dogs after they free her. Fagin then arrives at the scene and saves the group with his scooter and a chase follows through New York, and right into the subway tunnels. Sykes, driving like a maniac, pursues Fagin through the subway. Jenny accidentally ends up on Sykes' hood, and Oliver and Dodger attempt a rescue. Roscoe and DeSoto fall off the car in a struggle and die when they fall onto the train tracks. In an almost suicidal move, Tito takes control of Fagin's scooter as Fagin attempts to retrieve Jenny, and Tito drives the scooter up the side of a bridge as Sykes' car drives straight into the path of an oncoming train, obliterating Sykes and sending him and his car toppling into the Hudson River. Dodger and Oliver managed to survive the train collision and are reunited with Jenny and the others. Later, Jenny celebrates her birthday with the animals, Fagin and Winston. Oliver opts to stay with Jenny but he promises to remain in contact with Dodger and the gang.

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Toby Tyler; or, Ten Weeks with a Circus

Toby Tyler

Toby Tyler tells the story of a ten year-old orphan who runs away from a foster home to join the traveling circus only to discover his new employer is a cruel taskmaster. The difference between the romance of the circus from the outside and the reality as seen from the inside is graphically depicted. Toby's friend, Mr. Stubbs the chimpanzee, reinforces the consequences of what happens when one follows one's natural instincts rather than one's intellect and conscience, a central theme of the novel.

Overhearing stern Uncle Daniel describe him as a "millstone", Toby Tyler runs away from his foster home to join the circus, where he soon befriends Mr. Stubbs, the frisky chimpanzee. However, the circus isn't all fun and games when the evil candy vendor, Harry Tupper, convinces Toby that his Aunt Olive and Uncle Daniel don't love him or want him back. Toby resigns himself to circus life even scoring a much bigger role at the circus. When Toby realizes that Tupper lied to him, and that his aunt and uncle truly love him, Toby leaves the circus to go home. On the way, however, he finds that Mr. Stubbs has followed him. Deciding to take Mr. Stubbs home with him Mr. Stubbs is chased by a hunter's dog. A hunter named Jim Weaver accidentally shoots Mr. Stubbs as Harry hauls Toby back to the circus. Toby discovers his aunt and uncle are at the circus, with hugs all around. When Harry tries to pursue Toby, he is caught by Ben for using the Sheriff's money. Ben tells Harry to leave Toby alone and stop acting unkind. Just before Toby's big performance for his family, he discovers Mr. Stubbs is still alive, having been brought back to the circus by the hunter. Toby performs on horseback, only to have Mr. Stubbs join him, creating a great new act for the circus.

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The First Men in the Moon

First Men in the Moon

The narrator is a London businessman who withdraws to the countryside to write a play, by which he hopes to alleviate his financial problems. Bedford rents a small countryside house in Lympne, in Kent, where he wants to work in peace. He is bothered every afternoon, however, at precisely the same time, by a passer-by making odd noises. After two weeks Bedford accosts the man, who proves to be a reclusive physicist named Mr. Cavor. Bedford befriends Cavor when he learns he is developing a new material, cavorite, that can negate the force of gravity. When a sheet of cavorite is prematurely produced, it makes the air above it weightless and shoots off into space. Bedford sees in the commercial production of cavorite a possible source of "wealth enough to work any sort of social revolution we fancied; we might own and order the whole world." Cavor hits upon the idea of a spherical spaceship made of "steel, lined with glass," and with sliding "windows or blinds" made of cavorite by which it can be steered, and persuades a reluctant Bedford to undertake a voyage to the moon; Cavor is certain there is no life there. On the way to the moon, they experience weightlessness, which Bedford finds "exceedingly restful." On the surface of the moon the two men discover a desolate landscape, but as the sun rises, the thin, frozen atmosphere vaporizes and strange plants begin to grow with extraordinary rapidity. Bedford and Cavor leave the capsule, but in romping about get lost in the rapidly growing jungle. They hear for the first time a mysterious booming coming from beneath their feet. They encounter "great beasts," "monsters of mere fatness," that they dub "mooncalves," and five-foot-high "Selenites" tending them. At first they hide and crawl about, but growing hungry partake of some "monstrous coralline growths" of fungus that inebriate them. They wander drunkenly until they encounter a party of six extraterrestrials, who capture them. The insectoid lunar natives (referred to as "Selenites", after Selene, the moon goddess) are part of a complex and technologically sophisticated society that lives underground, but this is revealed only in radio communications received from Cavor after Bedford's return to earth. Bedford and Cavor break out of captivity beneath the surface of the moon and flee, killing several Selenites. In their flight they discover that gold is common on the moon. In their attempt to find their way back to the surface and to their sphere, they come upon some Selenites carving up mooncalves but fight their way past. Back on the surface, they split up to search for their spaceship. Bedford finds it but returns to Earth without Cavor, who injured himself in a fall and was recaptured by the Selenites, as Bedford learns from a hastily scribbled note he left behind. Chapter 19, "Mr. Bedford in Infinite Space," plays no role in the plot but is a remarkable set piece in which the narrator describes experiencing a quasi-mystical "pervading doubt of my own identity. . . the doubts within me could still argue: 'It is not you that is reading, it is Bedford &mdash; but you are not Bedford, you know. That's just where the mistake comes in.' 'Counfound it!' I cried, 'and if I am not Bedford, what am I? But in that direction no light was forthcoming, though the strangest fancies came drifting into my brain, queer remote suspicions like shadow seem from far away... Do you know I had an idea that really I was something quite outside not only the world, but all worlds, and out of space and time, and that this poor Bedford was just a peephole through which I looked at life..." By good fortune, the narrator lands in the sea off the coast of Britain, near the seaside town of Littlestone, not far from his point of departure. His fortune is made by some gold he brings back, but he loses the sphere when a curious boy named Tommy Simmons climbs into the unattended sphere and shoots off into space. Bedford writes and publishes his story in The Strand Magazine, then learns that "Mr. Julius Wendigee, a Dutch electrician, who has been experimenting with certain apparatus akin to the apparatus used by Mr. Tesla in America," has picked up fragments of radio communications from Cavor sent from inside the moon. During a period of relative freedom Cavor has taught two Selenites English and learned much about lunar society. Cavor's account explains that Selenites exist in thousands of forms and find fulfillment in carrying out the specific social function for which they have been brought up: specialization is the essence of Selenite society. "With knowledge the Selenites grew and changed; mankind stored their knowledge about them and remained brutes &mdash; equipped," remarks the Grand Lunar, when he finally meets Cavor and hears about life on Earth. Unfortunately, Cavor reveals humanity's propensity for war; the lunar leader and those listening to the interview are "stricken with amazement." Bedford infers that is for this reason that Cavor is prevented from further broadcasting to Earth. Cavor's transmissions are cut off as he is trying to describe how to make cavorite. His final fate is unknown, but Bedford is sure that "we shall never .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. receive another message from the moon."

In 1964, the United Nations has launched a rocket flight to the Moon. A multi-national group of astronauts in the UN spacecraft land on the Moon, believing themselves to be the first lunar explorers. They discover a British Union Jack on the surface and a note naming Katherine Callender, claiming the Moon for Queen Victoria. Attempting to trace Callender, UN authorities find she has died, but find her husband Arnold Bedford now an old man in an old people's home. The nursing home staff do not let him watch the television reports of the expedition because, according to the matron, it "excites him", dismissing his claims to have been on the Moon as an insane delusion. The UN representatives question him about the Moon and he tells them his story. The rest of the film, as a flashback, shows what Bedford and Professor Cavor did in the 1890s. In 1899, Arnold Bedford and his fiancée Katherine Callender &ndash; known as Kate &ndash; meet an inventor, Joseph Cavor, who has invented Cavorite, a substance that will let anything it is applied to or made of deflect the force of gravity and which he plans to use to travel to the Moon. Cavor has already built a spherical spaceship for this purpose, taking Arnold and Kate with him. Whilst exploring the Moon, Bedford and Cavor fall down a vertical shaft and discover to their amazement an insectoid population, the Selenites, living beneath the surface. . After escaping from the Selenites back to the surface, they discover that their ship, still containing Kate , has been dragged into their underground city. The two, following the drag trail, find and enter the city. The city holds a breathable atmosphere, so they take off and leave their spacesuit helmets. They see the city's power station, powered by sunlight. In the end they reach their ship underground. The Selenites quickly learn English and interrogate Cavor, who believes they wish to exchange scientific knowledge. The more practical Bedford eventually manages to persuade Cavor that the Selenites are interested in conquering Earth using Cavorite. Cavor helps Bedford and Kate to escape, but stays voluntarily on the Moon. Bedford, along with Kate , flies the ship up a vertical shaft, shattering the window cover at the top, and back to Earth. The aged Bedford concludes his story by mentioning that the ship came down in the sea off Zanzibar, and sank, but he and Kate managed to swim ashore. There is no later radio message from Cavor, and his ultimate fate remains unknown. Back in the present day, Bedford, the UN party and newspaper reporters watch on television the latest events on the Moon, where the US astronauts have broken into the Selenite city and find it deserted and decaying. Moments later, the ruined city starts to crumble and collapse, forcing the landing crew to retreat hastily, and seconds later the city is completely destroyed. Bedford realizes that the Selenites must have been killed off by Cavor's common cold viruses to which they had no immunity.

positive

positive

The Shrinking Man

The Incredible Shrinking Woman

While on holiday, the protagonist (Scott Carey) is exposed to a cloud of radioactive spray shortly after he accidentally ingests insecticide. The radioactivity acts as a catalyst for the bug spray, causing his body to shrink at a rate of approximately 1/7 of an inch per day. A few weeks later, Carey can no longer deny the truth: not only is he losing weight, he is also shorter than he was and deduces, to his dismay, that his body will continue to shrink. The abnormal size decrease of his body initially brings teases and taunting from local youths, then causes friction in his marriage and family life, because he loses the respect his family has for him because of his diminishing physical stature. Ultimately, as the shrinking continues, it begins to threaten Carey's life as well; at seven inches tall, he has a battle with the family cat that drives him outdoors, where he is attacked by a swallow in his garden; the conflict drives him through a window into the cellar of his house. Although he survives on the cheese left over in a mousetrap for a while, his size is eventually reduced to less than half an inch, at which point he is forced to engage in a victorious battle with a black widow spider that towers over him. As Carey continues shrinking, he realizes that his original fear that he would shrink into non-existence is incorrect; that he will continue to shrink, but will not disappear as he originally feared, and utters his famous closing line: "If nature existed on endless levels, so also might intelligence."

Pat Kramer is an ordinary suburban housewife and mother whose husband works for an advertising company. After being exposed to an experimental perfume, she begins to shrink, gradually at first, then rapidly. A few weeks pass, and Pat has shrunk to the height of her own children. Eventually, she becomes a celebrity of sorts, appearing on The Mike Douglas Show, and captures the hearts of the American people. Soon she is less than a foot tall, making her like a doll to her children, and forcing her to move into a dollhouse. Pat is kidnapped by a group of mad scientists, who make it seem that she perished in the kitchen garbage disposal. They plan to shrink everyone in the world by performing experiments on her to learn her secret. With the help of a kind young lab custodian and a super-intelligent gorilla named Sydney, she escapes. She shrinks to microscopic size and falls into a puddle of spilled household chemicals - which makes her return to her original size. After her homecoming celebrating her returning to a more normal size, she notices that her foot has split her shoe open.

positive

positive

Frankenstein

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.

Henry Frankenstein , an ardent young scientist, and his devoted assistant Fritz , a hunchback, piece together a human body, the parts of which have been secretly collected from various sources. Frankenstein's consuming desire is to create human life through various electrical devices which he has perfected. Elizabeth Lavenza , his fiancée, is worried to distraction over his peculiar actions. She cannot understand why he secludes himself in an abandoned watch tower, which he has equipped as a laboratory, refusing to see anyone. She and her friend, Victor Moritz ([[John Boles , go to Dr. Waldman , his old medical professor, and ask Dr. Waldman's help in reclaiming the young scientist from his absorbing experiments. Waldman tells them that Frankenstein has been working on creating life. Elizabeth, intent on rescuing Frankenstein, arrives just as Henry is making his final tests. He tells them to watch, claiming to have discovered the ray that brought life into the world. They all watch Frankenstein and the hunchback as they raise the dead creature on an operating table, high into the room, toward an opening at the top of the laboratory. Then a terrific crash of thunder, the crackling of Frankenstein's electric machines, and the hand of Frankenstein's monster begins to move. This causes Frankenstein to shout 'It's alive!' Through the incompetence of Fritz, a criminal brain was secured for Frankenstein's experiments instead of the desired normal one. The manufactured monster, despite its grotesque form, initially appears not to be a malevolent beast but a simple, innocent creation. Frankenstein welcomes it into his laboratory and asks his creation to sit, which it does. He then opens up the roof, causing the monster to reach out towards the sunlight. Fritz, however, enters with a flaming torch, which frightens the monster. Its fright is mistaken by Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman as an attempt to attack them, and so it is taken to the dungeon where it is chained. Thinking that it is not fit for society and will wreak havoc at any chance, they leave the monster locked up, where Fritz antagonizes it with a torch. As Henry and Dr. Waldman consider the fate of the monster, they hear a shriek from the dungeon. Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman rush in to find the monster has strangled Fritz. The monster makes a lunge at the two but they escape the dungeon, locking the monster inside. Realizing that the creature must be destroyed, Henry prepares an injection of a powerful drug and the two conspire to release the monster and inject it as it attacks. When the door is unlocked the creature emerges and lunges at Frankenstein as Dr. Waldman injects the drug into the creature's back. The monster knocks Dr. Waldman to the floor and has nearly killed Henry when the drug takes effect, and he falls to the floor unconscious. Henry leaves to prepare for his wedding while Dr. Waldman conducts an examination of the unconscious creature. As he is preparing to begin dissecting it, the creature awakens and strangles him. It escapes from the tower and wanders through the landscape. It then has a short encounter with a farmer's young daughter, Maria ([[Marilyn Harris , who asks him to play a game with her in which they playfully toss flowers into a lake and watch them float. The monster enjoys the game, but when they run out of flowers, tragedy occurs. Due to his defective brain, the monster thinks Maria will float as well as the flowers, so he picks her up and throws her into the lake, and the girl drowns. Realizing he has made a terrible mistake, the monster walks away feeling troubled and remorseful. This drowning scene is one of the most controversial in the film, with a long history of censorship. With preparations for the wedding completed, Frankenstein is once again himself and serenely happy with Elizabeth. They are to marry as soon as Dr. Waldman arrives. Victor rushes in, saying that the Doctor has been found strangled in his operating room. Frankenstein suspects the monster. A chilling scream convinces him that the monster is in the house. When the searchers arrive, they find Elizabeth unconscious on the bed. The monster has escaped. He is intent only upon destroying Frankenstein. Meanwhile, Maria's father arrives, carrying the body of his daughter. He says she was murdered, and an enraged band of peasants search the surrounding country for the monster. They are split into three groups, Frankenstein leading one into the mountains. He becomes separated from the band and is discovered by the monster who, after the two stare each other down for a curious moment, attacks him. After a struggle, in which Frankenstein's torch fails to save him, the monster knocks Frankenstein unconscious and carries him off to the old mill. The peasants hear his cries and follow. Upon reaching the mill, they find the monster has climbed to the very top, dragging Frankenstein with him. In a burst of rage, he hurls the young scientist to the ground. His fall is broken by the vanes of the windmill, saving him from instant death. Some of the villagers hurry him to his home while the others remain to burn the mill and destroy the entrapped monster. Later, back at Castle Frankenstein, Frankenstein's father, Baron Frankenstein celebrates the wedding of his recovered son with a toast to a future grandchild.

positive

positive

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry 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 is a boy from Missouri living with a kindly widow and her sister who has taken him in. One day his father , previously thought dead, shows up because he heard of treasure Huck had found. Huck's pap essentially kidnaps the boy, wanting $1000 for his safe return. Staging his own death, Huck escapes and meets up with the kindly slave Jim . Together they travel up river, in search of Jim's freedom.

positive

positive

The Color Purple

The Color Purple

Celie, the protagonist and narrator, is a poor, uneducated, fourteen-year-old black girl living in the South. She starts writing letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. Alphonso has already impregnated Celie once. Celie gave birth to a girl, whom her father presumably killed in the woods. Celie has a second child, a boy, whom her father also abducts. Celie’s mother becomes ill and dies. Alphonso brings home a new wife, and continues to abuse Celie. Celie and her bright, pretty younger sister, Nettie, learn that a man known only as Mr. Johnson wants to marry Nettie. Mr. Johnson has a mistress named Shug Avery, a sultry lounge singer whose photograph fascinates Celie. Alphonso refuses to let Nettie marry, and instead offers Mr. Johnson Celie, "an ugly woman," as his bride. Mr. Johnson eventually accepts the offer, forcing Celie into a difficult and joyless married life. Nettie runs away from Alphonso and takes refuge at Celie’s house. Mr. Johnson still desires Nettie, and when he advances on her, she flees. Never hearing from Nettie again, Celie assumes her dead. Mr. Johnson's sister Kate feels sorry for Celie, and tells her to fight back against Mr. Johnson rather than submit to his abuses. Harpo, Mr. Johnson's son, falls in love with a large, spunky girl named Sofia. Shug Avery comes to town to sing at a local bar, but Celie is not allowed to go see her. Sofia gets pregnant and marries Harpo. Celie is amazed by Sofia’s defiance in the face of Harpo’s and Mr. Johnson’s attempts to treat Sofia as an inferior. Harpo, kinder and gentler than his father, still assumes this means he is doing something wrong and under the advice of Mr. Johnson and a momentarily jealous Celie, attempts to beat Sofia into submission. However, he consistently fails, as Sofia is at least as strong and a more experienced brawler. Shug falls ill and Mr. Johnson takes her into his house. Shug is initially rude to Celie, but the two women become friends as Celie takes charge of nursing Shug. Celie finds herself infatuated with Shug and attracted to her sexually. Frustrated by Harpo’s consistent attempts to subordinate her, Sofia moves out, taking her children with her. Several months later, Harpo opens a juke joint where Shug sings nightly. Celie grows confused over her feelings toward Shug. Shug decides to stay when she learns that Mr. Johnson beats Celie when Shug is away. Shug and Celie’s relationship grows intimate, and Shug begins to ask Celie questions about sex. Sofia returns for a visit and promptly gets in a fight with Harpo’s new girlfriend, Squeak. In town one day, the mayor’s wife, Miss Millie, asks Sofia to work as her maid. Sofia replies with a sassy "Hell no!" When the mayor slaps Sofia for her "insubordination", Sofia returns the blow, knocking the mayor down, for which she is sent to jail. Squeak’s attempts to get Sofia released are futile. Sofia is sentenced to work for 12 years as the mayor’s maid, though she is eventually released from jail six months early. Despite her new marriage, Shug instigates a sexual relationship with Celie, and the two frequently share the same bed. One night Shug asks Celie about her sister and Celie tells her she assumes Nettie is dead because she'd promised to write Celie but never did. Shug helps Celie recover letters from Nettie that Mr. Johnson has been hiding from her for decades. Overcome with emotion, Celie reads the letters in order, wondering how to keep herself from killing Mr. Johnson. The letters indicate that Nettie befriended a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, and accompanied them to Africa to do ministry work. Samuel and Corrine have two adopted children, Olivia and Adam. Nettie and Corrine have become close friends, but Corrine, noticing that her adopted children resemble Nettie, wonders if Nettie and Samuel have a secret past. Increasingly suspicious, Corrine tries to limit Nettie’s role within her family. Nettie becomes disillusioned with her missionary experience, as she finds the Africans self-centered and obstinate. Corrine becomes ill with a fever. Nettie asks Samuel to tell her how he adopted Olivia and Adam. Based on Samuel’s story, Nettie realizes that the two children are actually Celie’s biological children (whom Alphonso, her stepfather, abducted), alive after all. Nettie also learns that Alphonso is actually only Nettie and Celie’s stepfather, not their biological father, who was a store owner whom white men lynched because they resented his success. Alphonso told Celie and Nettie he was their real father because he wanted to inherit the house and property that was once their mother’s. Nettie confesses to Samuel and Corrine that she is in fact their children’s biological aunt. The gravely ill Corrine refuses to believe Nettie. Later, Corrine dies, finally having accepted Nettie’s story and reconciled thereto just before her death. Meanwhile, Celie visits Alphonso, who confirms Nettie’s story, admitting that he is only the sisters' stepfather. Celie begins to lose some of her faith in God, but Shug tries to get her to reimagine God in her own way, rather than in the traditional image of the old, bearded white man. Celie moves to Tennessee and designs and sews tailored pants, turning her hobby into a business. She returns to her home to learn that Mr. Johnson has changed dramatically, becoming much more considerate and even helping her sew some of the clothing for her business. He proposes that they marry "in the spirit as well as in the flesh," but she declines. She also finds out that Alphonso, her stepfather, has died. Celie inherits the land and moves back into the house. Around this time, Shug has fallen in love with Germaine, a 19-year-old flautist that is part of her blues band, and the news of this crushes Celie. Shug travels across the country and to Panama with Germaine, all the while writing postcards to Celie. Nevertheless, Celie pledges to love Shug even if Shug does not love her back. Meanwhile, Nettie and Samuel marry and prepare to return to America. Before they leave, Adam marries Tashi, an African girl. Following African tradition, Tashi undergoes the painful rituals of female circumcision and facial scarring. In solidarity, Adam undergoes the same facial scarring ritual. The end of the novel has Nettie, Samuel, Olivia, Adam, and Tashi arriving at Celie's house. Nettie and Celie embrace, having not seen each other for over 30 years. They introduce one another to their respective families as the novel ends.

Taking place in the Southern United States during the early 1900s to mid-1930s, the movie tells the life of a poor African American woman, Celie Harris , whose abuse begins when she is young. By the time she is fourteen, she has already had two children by her father . He takes them away from her at childbirth and forces the young Celie to marry a wealthy young local widower Albert Johnson, known to her only as "Mister" , who treats her like a slave. Albert makes her clean up his disorderly household and take care of his unruly children. Albert beats her often, intimidating Celie into submission and near silence. Celie's sister Nettie comes to live with them, and there is a brief period of happiness as the sisters spend time together and Nettie begins to teach Celie how to read. This is short-lived, however; after Nettie refuses Albert's predatory affections once too often, he kicks her out. Before being run off by Albert, Nettie promises to write to Celie. Albert's old flame, the jazz singer Shug Avery , for whom Albert has carried a torch for many years, comes to live with him and Celie. Delirious with sickness, Shug initially regards Celie as "ugly" on their first meeting. Despite this, they eventually become close friends and Shug helps Celie raise her self-confidence. Shug and Celie also enter into an affair .{{cite news}} Celie also finds strength in Sofia , who marries Albert's son Harpo . Sofia has also suffered abuse from the men in her family, but unlike Celie, she refuses to tolerate it. This high-spiritedness proves to be her downfall, however, as a rude remark to the town mayor's wife and a retaliatory punch to the mayor himself ends with Sofia beaten and jailed. Nettie, meanwhile, has been living with missionaries in Africa and writing to Celie often. Unbeknownst to her, Albert confiscates Nettie's letters, telling Celie that she will never hear from her sister again. During a visit from Shug and her new husband, Grady, Celie and Shug discover many years' worth of Nettie's correspondence. Reconnecting with her sister and the assurance that she is still alive helps give Celie the strength to stand up to Albert. She almost slits his throat while shaving him, but is stopped by Shug. During a family dinner, Sofia is shown to be prematurely aged and permanently disfigured due to the severe beatings she received in jail, and demoralized into an almost catatonic state. During that time, Celie finally asserts herself, excoriating Albert and his father. Shug informs Albert that she and Grady are leaving, and that Celie and Harpo's girlfriend Squeak are coming with them. Despite Albert's attempts to verbally abuse Celie into submission, she stands up to him by mentioning that he kept Nettie away from her because Nettie was the only one who really loved her. Before she leaves him permanently, she tells him that until he does the right thing, everything he does will go wrong. After seeing Celie stand up for herself, Sofia returns to her normal self, laughing hysterically at a dumbfounded and embarrassed Albert. She also encourages Celie not to follow in her own footsteps, as Celie holds a knife to Albert's throat. In Tennessee, Celie opens a haberdashery selling "one size fits all" slacks. Upon the death of her father, she learns that he was, in fact, her stepfather, and that she has inherited a house and shop from her real father. She opens her second slack shop next to her home named Miss Celie's Pants, while Harpo and Sofia reconcile. Meanwhile, Albert is feeling the effects of Celie's words. His fields and home languish into almost nonexistence as he slips into alcohol-fueled idleness, spending most of his time at Harpo's speakeasy. At one point, his father is seen suggesting that he find a new wife, but Albert casually grabs his father by the arm and turns him off his property. Years of guilt finally catch up with him, with the knowledge that he has been a horrible person most of his life, especially to Celie. In a sudden act of kindness unknown to her, Albert takes all the money he has saved over the years, goes down to the immigration office, and arranges a family reunion with Nettie for Celie. Her children, Adam and Olivia, who were raised in Africa, are also reunited with her. Albert looks on from a distance, and Shug smiles at him because he finally did the right thing. Nettie and Celie play their childhood clapping game as the sun sets.

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The Adventures of Pinocchio

Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night

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

Lieutenant Grumblebee finds a large ship on a riverbank. He observes Puppetino—the chief henchman of the Emperor of the Night—remarking that the area is the perfect place to set up.Stakes and ropes fly from the ship, and a circus tent forms. Grumblebee leaves the area. A year after being made human by the Good Fairy, Pinocchio celebrates his first birthday with Mister Geppetto. The Good Fairy appears and teaches Pinocchio that love is his most powerful gift. She brings to life one of Pinocchio's own carvings, a wooden glow worm, to act as Pinocchio's conscience. Pinocchio, surprised, accidentally names it Gee Willikers. After the party Pinocchio offers to deliver a jewel box to the mayor for Geppetto. He encounters Scalawag and Igor, who trick Pinocchio into trading the box for the "Pharaoh's Ruby". Returning home, Pinocchio is ashamed to discover the ruby is a fake. He runs away, leaving Gee Willikers behind. Pinocchio looks for work at the carnival and is entranced by a blonde marionette named Twinkle. Puppetino uses Twinkle to lure Pinocchio into joining the carnival. Puppetino plays an organ grinder and Pinocchio begins dancing against his will as he is transformed back into a puppet. Puppetino attaches strings to Pinocchio's hands and feet and hangs him up with Twinkle. The Good Fairy appears and awakens Pinocchio, explaining that he lost his freedom because he took it for granted. She reminds him of the importance of choice before restoring him to human form. Pinocchio decides to retrieve the jewel box. Willikers is upset so Pinocchio sets him aside and travels alone. He finds Scalawag and Igor, who inform him that the box is at the carnival, which has returned to the ship. They pursue it by boat, but the ship suddenly opens up, swallowing the boat. Willikers, carried to the river by Grumblebee, latches onto Pinocchio's pocket as they drift into the ship. Scalawag recognizes the ship as the Empire of the Night. A boatman offers Pinocchio a ride to the jewel box, leaving Scalawag and Igor behind. The boatman says the box is in the opposite, darker end of a cavern. Pinocchio prefers the brighter path, and they row to the "Neon Cabaret". A doorman says that Pinocchio can play inside if he signs a contract. He impulsively agrees, running inside and drinking from a fountain of green liquid that causes him to hallucinate and black out. He awakens on a stage; a ringmaster tells him his fans are waiting and he begins dancing. Scalawag and Igor, who have followed Pinocchio, try to get his attention, but are drawn offstage while he is distracted by Twinkle. Pinocchio bows to thunderous applause. Puppetino appears and Pinocchio turns to find the boatman, who transforms into the doorman and then the ringmaster. He tells Pinocchio that he has reached the "Land Where Dreams Come True" and then morphs into a floating being with four arms—the Emperor of the Night. He demands Pinocchio sign a contract that will make him a puppet again, a choice that will weaken the Good Fairy. Pinocchio refuses and is imprisoned with Scalawag and Igor. Scalawag laments that they have succumbed to their desires without considering the consequences. The Emperor reveals to Pinocchio that Geppetto has been shrunk to fit inside the jewel box. Pinocchio offers to sign the contract if the Emperor frees Geppetto and the others. Pinocchio signs away his freedom, transforming back into a living puppet. The Emperor betrays Pinocchio, telling him that the freedom of choice gives him his power. Pinocchio turns on the Emperor and a blue aura—the light of the Good Fairy—surrounds him. The Emperor shoots bolts of flame at Pinocchio, but the blue light protects him as the ship catches fire. The Emperor promises to make Geppetto pay for Pinocchio's choices, and Pinocchio plunges into the Emperor's flaming figure, destroying him and his ship. On the shore, Geppetto has returned to his original size. Scalawag and Igor find Pinocchio, who is once again a real boy. The Good Fairy appears, proudly telling Pinocchio that he no longer needs her. She presents the jewel box to Geppetto. She reveals the now human Twinkle awakening nearby before fading away, leaving the group to celebrate.

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Frankenstein

Young 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.

Dr. Frederick Frankenstein is a respected lecturer at an American medical school and engaged to the tightly wound Elizabeth . He becomes exasperated when anyone brings up the subject of his grandfather, the infamous mad scientist. To disassociate himself from his legacy, Frederick insists that his surname be pronounced "Fronk-en-steen". When a solicitor informs him that he has inherited his family's estate in Transylvania after the death of his great grandfather, the Baron von Frankenstein, Frederick travels to Europe to inspect the property. At the Transylvania train station, he is met by a hunchbacked, bulging-eyed servant named Igor , who is there to drive Frederick in a wagon to the Frankenstein estate, but not before mocking Frederick's pretensions by insisting that his name be pronounced as "eye-gore." Accompanying Igor in the wagon is another servant, a lovely young woman named Inga . Upon arrival at the estate, Frederick meets the forbidding housekeeper Frau Blücher , whose name causes horses to rear up in fright. Though his family legacy has brought shame and ridicule, Frederick becomes increasingly intrigued about his grandfather's work, especially after Inga assists him in discovering the secret entrance to his grandfather's laboratory. Upon reading his grandfather's private journals, Frederick is so transformed that he decides to resume his grandfather's experiments in re-animating the dead. He and Igor resort to robbing the grave of a recently executed criminal, and Frederick sets to work experimenting on the large corpse. Matters go awry, however, when Igor is sent to steal the brain of a deceased revered scientist; startled by lightning, he drops the correct brain on the floor and instead returns with an "abnormal" brain (which he subsequently refers to as "A-b , which Frederick unknowingly transplants into the corpse. Soon, Frederick is ready to re-animate his creature , who is elevated on a platform to the roof of the laboratory during a lightning storm. Eventually, electrical charges bring the creature to life. The Monster makes its first halting steps, but, frightened by Igor lighting a match, attacks Frederick and must be sedated. Upon being asked whose brain was obtained, Igor confesses that he supplied "Abby Normal's" brain , whereupon Frederick attempts to strangle him. The townspeople are uneasy at the possibility of Frederick continuing his grandfather's work. Most concerned is Inspector Kemp , a police official who sports an eyepatch and monocle over the same eye, a creaky, disjointed wooden arm, and an accent so comically thick even his own countrymen cannot understand him. Kemp visits the doctor and subsequently demands assurance that he will not create another monster. Upon returning to the lab, Frederick discovers that Frau Blücher is setting the creature free. After she reveals the Monster's love of violin music, and her own romantic relationship with Frederick's grandfather, the creature is enraged by sparks from a thrown switch, and escapes from the Frankenstein castle. While roaming the countryside, the Monster has frustrating encounters with a young girl and a blind hermit ; these scenes directly parody the original Frankenstein movies. Frederick recaptures the Monster and locks the two of them in a room, where he calms the Monster's homicidal tendencies with flattery and fully acknowledges his own heritage, even shouting out emphatically, "My name is Frankenstein!" . Frederick offers the sight of "The Creature" following simple commands to a theater full of illustrious guests. The demonstration continues with Frederick and the Monster launching into the musical number "Puttin' on the Ritz", complete with top hats and tails. Although the monster can only shout his song lines in painfully high-pitched monotones, he dances impressively with almost perfect timing. The routine ends disastrously, however, when a stage light explodes and frightens the Monster, who becomes enraged, pushes Frederick, and charges into the audience, where he is captured and chained by police. The Monster escapes, then kidnaps and ravishes the not unwilling Elizabeth when she arrives unexpectedly for a visit. Elizabeth falls in love with the creature due to his inhuman stamina and his enormous penis . The townspeople hunt for the monster. Desperate to get the creature back, Frederick plays the violin to lure his creation back to the castle. Just as the Kemp-led mob storms the laboratory, Frankenstein transfers some of his stabilizing intellect to the creature who, as a result, is able to reason with and placate the mob. The film ends happily, with Elizabeth married to the now erudite and sophisticated Monster, while Inga joyfully learns what her new husband Frederick got in return during the transfer procedure .

positive

positive

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

The Wiz

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

A Thanksgiving dinner brings a host of family together in a Harlem apartment, where a 24-year-old schoolteacher named Dorothy Gale lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry . Extremely introverted, she has, as Aunt Em teases her, "never been south of 125th Street", and refuses to move out and on with her life. While Dorothy cleans up after the meal, her dog Toto runs out the open kitchen door into a violent snowstorm. She succeeds in retrieving him, but finds herself trapped in the storm. A magical whirlwind made of snow{{spaced ndash}}the work of Glinda, the Good Witch of the South – materializes and transports them to the Kingdom of Oz. Upon her arrival, Dorothy smashes through an electric "Oz" sign, which falls upon and kills Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. As a result, she frees the Munchkins who populate the playground into which she lands; they had been transformed by Evermean into graffiti for "tagging" the park walls. Dorothy soon meets the Munchkins' main benefactress, Miss One, the Good Witch of the North , a magical "numbers runner" who gives Evermean's powerful silver slippers to her. However, she desperately wants to get home. Miss One urges her to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City and find the mysterious "Wizard" who she believes holds the power to send Dorothy back to Harlem. The good witch and the Munchkins then disappear and she is left to search for the yellow brick road on her own. The next morning, Dorothy happens upon a Scarecrow made of garbage, whom she befriends. The two of them discover the yellow brick road and happily begin to follow it together; the Scarecrow hoping the Wizard might be able to give him the one thing he feels that he lacks — a brain. Along the way to the Emerald City, Dorothy, Toto, and the Scarecrow meet the Tin Man , a turn-of-the-century amusement park mechanical man, and the Cowardly Lion , a vain dandy banished from the jungle who hid inside one of the stone lions in front of the New York Public Library. The Tin Man and Lion join them on their quest to find the Wizard, hoping to gain a heart and courage, respectively. Before the five adventurers reach the Emerald City, they must face obstacles such as a crazy subway peddler with evil puppets in his control and the "Poppy" Girls , prostitutes who attempt to put Dorothy, Toto, and the Lion to sleep with magic dusting powder. Finally reaching the Emerald City , the quintet gains passage into the city because of Dorothy's ownership of the silver shoes and marvel at the spectacle of the city and its dancers. They gain an audience with the Wizard , who appears to them as a giant fire-breathing metallic head. He will only grant their wishes if they kill Evillene , the Wicked Witch of the West, who runs a sweatshop in the sewers of New York City. She learns of their quest to kill her and sends out the Flying Monkeys to kidnap them. After an extended chase, the Flying Monkeys succeed in capturing their prey and bring them back to Evillene. She dismembers the Scarecrow, flattens the Tin Man, and tortures the Lion in hopes of making Dorothy give her the silver shoes. When she threatens to throw Toto into a fiery cauldron, Dorothy nearly gives in until the Scarecrow hints to her to activate a fire sprinkler switch which she does. The sprinklers put out the fire but also melt Evillene. With her gone, her spells lose their power: the Winkies are freed from their costumes and their sweatshop tools disappear. They rejoice in dance and praise Dorothy as their emancipator and the Flying Monkeys give her and her friends a triumphant ride back to the Emerald City. Upon arriving back at the Emerald City, the quartet takes a back door into the Wizard's quarters and discovers that he is a "phony". The "great and powerful Oz" is actually Herman Smith, a failed politician from Atlantic City, New Jersey, who was transported to Oz when a balloon he was flying to promote his campaign to become the city dogcatcher was lost in a storm. The Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion are distraught that they will never receive their respective brain, heart, and courage, but Dorothy makes them realize that they already have these things. Just as it seems as if she will never be able to get home, Glinda, the Good Witch of the South , appears and implores her to find her way home by searching within and using her silver shoes. After thanking Glinda and saying goodbye to her friends, she takes Toto in her arms, thinks of home and the things she loves most about it and, after clicking her heels three times, finds herself back in her neighborhood. She, now a changed woman, carries Toto back to their apartment and closes the door.

positive

positive

The Prisoner of Zenda

The Prisoner of Zenda

On the eve of the coronation of King Rudolf of Ruritania, his brother, Prince Michael, has him drugged. In a desperate attempt not to give Michael the excuse to claim the throne, Colonel Sapt and Fritz von Tarlenheim, attendants of the King, persuade his identical cousin Rudolf Rassendyll, an English visitor, to impersonate the King at the coronation. The unconscious king is abducted and imprisoned in a castle in the small town of Zenda. There are complications, plots, and counter-plots, among them the schemes of Michael's mistress, Antoinette de Mauban, and those of his dashing but villainous henchman Count Rupert of Hentzau. Rassendyll falls in love with Princess Flavia, the King's betrothed, but cannot tell her the truth. He determines to rescue the king and leads an attempt to enter the castle of Zenda. The King is rescued and is restored to his throne, but the lovers, in duty bound, must part forever.

Englishman Rudolf Rassendyll decides to pass the time by attending the coronation of his distant relation, King Rudolf V of Ruritania . He encounters an acquaintance on the train there, Antoinette de Mauban , the mistress of the king's treacherous brother, Grand Duke 'Black' Michael . The day before the coronation, Rassendyll is seen by Colonel Sapt and Captain Fritz von Tarlenheim . Astounded by the uncanny resemblance between Rassendyll and their liege, they take him to meet Rudolf at a hunting lodge. The king is delighted with his double and invites him to dinner. During the meal, a servant brings in a fine bottle of wine, a present from Michael delivered by his henchman, Rupert of Hentzau . After Rudolf tastes it, he finds it so irresistible that he drinks the entire bottle by himself. The next morning, Sapt is unable to rouse him; the wine was drugged. Sapt is afraid that if the coronation is postponed, Michael will seize the throne. The country is dangerously divided between supporters of Rudolf and those of Michael. The colonel declares that it is Fate that brought Rassendyll to Ruritania; he can take Rudolf's place with no one the wiser. The Englishman is less certain, but he tosses a coin, which lands in Rudolf's favor, and Rassendyll goes through with the ceremony. Afterwards, he is driven to the palace in the company of the universally adored Princess Flavia . Later, when Rassendyll returns to the lodge to switch places with the king once more, he and Sapt find only the corpse of Josef , the servant left to guard the king. Rassendyll is forced to continue the masquerade. With Rudolf guarded by a handful of trusted retainers at Zenda Castle, Michael tries unsuccessfully to bribe Rassendyll into leaving. In the days that follow, Rasssendyll becomes acquainted with Flavia, and the two fall in love. Meanwhile, Rupert tries to alienate Antoinette from Michael by telling her that Michael will marry Flavia once Rudolf is out of the way. However, it has an unintended effect; Antionette reveals Michael's plans and Rudolf's location to von Tarlenheim. A dwarf assassin in Michael's pay tries to garrot Rassendyll, but Sapt interrupts him before he can finish the job. The would-be killer mistakenly signals to an anxiously waiting Michael that the deed is done, and the duke hastens to Zenda to quietly dispose of the real king. However, Rassendyll was only rendered unconscious. When von Tarlenheim arrives with his news, the three men chase after Michael. Sapt and von Tarlenheim split up to find a way into the castle, but when Antoinette lowers the drawbridge, Rassendyll goes inside alone. Though outnumbered, he manages to kill Michael in a swordfight. Then Sapt and von Tarlenheim come to his aid. When Rupert is cornered by the three men, he chooses a watery death over a waterfall rather than execution for treason. In the aftermath, Rudolf resumes his rightful position, while Rassendyll hides out at the lodge. By chance, Flavia stops there to speak with Colonel Sapt. Despite Sapt's attempt to shield the princess from heartbreak, a servant girl blurts out that the "king" is staying at the lodge. Rassendyll is forced to tell his beloved the bitter truth. When he tries to persuade her to leave with him, her sense of honour and duty to her country force her to stay, and Rassendyll departs alone.

positive

positive

East of Eden

East of Eden

The story is primarily set in the Salinas Valley, California, between the beginning of the 20th century and the end of World War I, though some chapters are in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and the story goes as far back as the American Civil War. In the beginning of East of Eden, before introducing his characters, John Steinbeck carefully establishes the setting with a description of the Salinas Valley in Central California. Then he outlines the story of the warmhearted inventor and farmer Samuel Hamilton and his wife Liza, immigrants from Ireland. He describes how they raise their nine children on a rough, infertile piece of land. As the Hamilton children begin to grow up and leave the nest, a wealthy stranger, Adam Trask, purchases the best ranch in the Valley. Adam Trask's life is seen in a long, intricate flashback. We see his tumultuous childhood on a farm in Connecticut and the brutal treatment he endured from his younger but stronger half-brother, Charles. As a young man, Adam spent his time first in the military and then wandering the country. He was caught for vagrancy, escaped from a chain gang and burgled a store for clothing to use as a disguise. Later he wired Charles for 100 dollars to pay for the clothes he stole. After Adam finally made his way home to their farm, Charles revealed that their father had died and left them an inheritance of $50,000 each. Charles is torn with fear that his father did not come by the money honestly. A parallel story introduces a girl named Cathy Ames, who grows up in a town not far from the brothers' family farm. Cathy is described as having a "malformed soul"; she is cold, cruel, and utterly incapable of feeling for anyone but herself. She leaves home one evening after setting fire to her family's home, killing both of her parents. Finally, she is viciously beaten by a pimp and is left close to death on the brothers' doorstep. Although Charles is repulsed by her, Adam, unaware of her past, falls in love with and marries her. Adam Trask &ndash; newly wed and newly rich &ndash; now arrives in California and settles with the pregnant Cathy in the Salinas Valley, near the Hamilton family ranch. Cathy does not want to be a mother or to stay in California, but Adam is so ecstatically happy with his new life that he does not realize there is any problem. Shortly after Cathy gives birth to twin boys, she shoots Adam in the shoulder and flees. Adam recovers, but remains in a deep and terrible depression. He is roused out of it enough to name and raise his sons with the help of his Cantonese cook, Lee, and his neighbor Samuel Hamilton. Lee becomes a good friend and adopted family member. Lee, Adam, and Samuel Hamilton have long philosophical talks, particularly about the story of Cain and Abel, which Lee maintains has been incorrectly translated in English-language Bibles. Lee tells about how his relatives in San Francisco, a group of Chinese scholars, spent two years studying Hebrew so they might discover what the moral of the Cain and Abel story actually was. Their discovery that the Hebrew word "Timshel" means "thou mayest" becomes an important symbol in the novel, meaning that mankind is neither compelled to pursue sainthood nor doomed to sin, but rather has the power to choose. Meanwhile, Cathy has become a prostitute at the most respectable brothel in the city of Salinas. She renames herself "Kate" and embarks on a devious &ndash; and successful &ndash; plan to ingratiate herself with the owner, murder her and inherit the business. She makes her new brothel infamous as a den of sexual sadism. She is not concerned that Adam Trask might ever look for her, and she has no feelings whatsoever about the children she abandoned. Adam's sons, Caleb and Aron &ndash; echoing Cain and Abel &ndash; grow up oblivious of their mother's situation. At a very early age, Aron meets a girl named Abra from a well-to-do family, and the two fall in love. Although there are rumors around town that Caleb and Aron's mother is not dead but is actually still in Salinas, the boys do not yet know that she is Kate. The popular and beloved Samuel Hamilton finally passes away and is mourned. Adam becomes inspired by the memory of Samuel Hamilton's inventiveness and loses almost all of the family fortune in an ill-fated business venture. The boys, particularly Aron, are horrified that their father is now a town laughingstock. As the boys reach the end of their school days, Caleb decides to pursue a career in farming and Aron goes to college to become an Episcopalian priest. Caleb, restless and tortured by guilt about his very human failings, shuns everyone around him and takes to wandering around town late at night. During one of these ramblings, he discovers that his mother is alive and the head of a brothel. Caleb decides to "buy his father's love" by going into business with one of Samuel Hamilton's children, Will Hamilton, who is now a successful automobile dealer. Caleb's plan is to make his father's money back, capitalizing on World War I by selling beans grown in the Salinas Valley to nations in Europe for a considerable premium. He succeeds beyond his wildest expectations and wraps up a gift of $15,000 in cash which he plans to give Adam Trask at Thanksgiving. Aron returns from Stanford for the holiday. There is tension in the air, because Aron has not yet told their father that he intends to drop out of college. Rather than let Aron steal the moment, Caleb gives Adam the money at dinner, expecting his father to be proud of him. But Adam refuses to accept it. Instead, he tells Caleb to give it back to the poor farmers he exploited. Adam explains by saying, In a fit of jealousy, Caleb takes his brother Aron to see their mother, knowing it will be a shock to him. Sure enough, Aron immediately sees Kate for who she is, and recoils from her in disgust. Wracked with self-hatred, Kate signs her estate over to Aron and commits suicide. Aron, his idealistic worldview shattered, enlists in the army to fight in World War I. He is killed in battle in the last year of the war, and Adam suffers a stroke upon hearing the news from Lee. Caleb, who begins to develop a relationship with Abra after Aron leaves for war, tells her why Aron left and tries to convince her to run away with him. She instead persuades him to return home. The novel ends with Lee pleading with a bedridden Adam to forgive his only remaining son. Adam responds by giving Caleb his blessing in the form of the word Timshel.

The story is set in 1917, before and during American involvement in World War I, in the central California coastal towns of Monterey and Salinas. Cal and Aron are the sons of a modestly successful farmer and wartime draft board chairman named Adam Trask . Cal is moody and embittered by his belief that his father favors Aron. Although both Cal and Aron had long been led to believe that their mother had died "and gone to heaven", the opening scene reveals that Cal has apparently learned that his mother is still alive, owning and running a successful brothel in nearby Monterey. After the father's idealistic plans for a long-haul vegetable shipping business venture end in a loss of thousands of dollars, Cal decides to enter the bean-growing business, as a way of recouping the money his father lost in the vegetable shipping venture. He is advised that if the United States enters the war, the price of beans will skyrocket. Cal hopes this will finally earn him the love and respect of his father. He goes to his mother Kate to ask to borrow the capital he needs. She reluctantly lends him $5,000. Meanwhile, Aron's girlfriend Abra gradually finds herself attracted to Cal, who seems to reciprocate her feelings. Cal's business goes well, and he decides to give the money to Adam at a surprise birthday party for his father, which he and Abra plan together. As the party gets underway, Aron suddenly announces that he and Abra are engaged. While Adam is openly pleased with the news, both Abra and Cal are uneasy, having recently discovered a mutual attraction for one another is emerging, despite their suppressed feelings. Cal makes a surprise birthday present of the money to his father; however, Adam refuses to accept any money earned by what he regards as war profiteering. Cal does not understand, and sees his father's refusal to accept the gift as just another emotional rejection. When the distraught Cal leaves the room, Abra goes after him, to console him as best she can. Aron follows and orders Cal to stay away from her. In anger, Cal takes his brother to see their mother, then returns home alone. When his father demands to know where his brother is, Cal tells him. The shock drives Aron to get drunk and board a troop train to enlist in the army. When Sam , the sheriff, brings the news, Adam rushes to the train station in an attempt to dissuade him, but can only watch helplessly as his son steams away from him with his head out the rail car window, maniacally laughing at him. Adam suffers a stroke because of the incredible strain, leaving him paralyzed and unable to communicate. Cal and Abra enter the bedroom. Cal tries to talk to him, but gets no response and leaves the bedroom leaving Abra alone with Adam. Abra pleads with Adam to show Cal some affection before it is too late. She persuades Cal to go back into the room. When Cal makes his last bid for acceptance before leaving town, his father manages to speak. He tells his son to get rid of the annoying nurse and not to get anyone else, but to stay and take care of him himself. The film ends with Cal and Abra sitting by Adam's bedside.

positive

positive

Misery

Misery

Paul Sheldon, the author of a best-selling series of Victorian-era romance novels surrounding the heroine character Misery Chastain, has just finished the manuscript of his new crime novel, Fast Cars, while staying at the Hotel Boulderado; since 1974, he has completed the first draft of every one of his novels in the same hotel room. With his latest project finished, he has an alcohol-induced impulse to drive to Los Angeles rather than back home to New York City. However, a snowstorm hits while he is driving through the mountains. Sheldon drives off a cliff and crashes upside down into a snowbank. Paul is rescued from the car wreck by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who lives in nearby Sidewinder. She takes him to her own home rather than a hospital, putting him in the guest bedroom. Using her nursing skills and stockpiled food and medical supplies, including an illicit stash of codeine-based painkillers, Annie slowly nurses Paul back to health. She proclaims herself as Paul's "number one fan," being an avid reader of the Misery Chastain series. However, when she reads the manuscript for Fast Cars, Annie argues with Paul on its violent content and profanity, causing her to spill his soup. Saying that the accident was "his" fault, she punishes him by withholding his medication, then forcing him to wash it down with soap water. Paul, who has done extensive research into mental disorders, suspects that Annie is dangerously disturbed. When Sheldon's latest novel, Misery's Child, hits the shelves, Annie buys her reserved copy. She doesn't know, however, that Paul has killed her off at the end, intending to end the Misery series and re-establish himself as a mainstream writer. Upon learning of the main character's demise, Annie rages at Paul before leaving him alone in her house for over two days lest she do something "unwise". During this time, Paul suffers from extreme pain and withdrawal from the painkillers; by the time Annie returns, he is close to death. Annie forces him to burn the Fast Cars manuscript&mdash;the book he hoped would launch his post-Misery career&mdash;and presents him with an antique Royal typewriter, for the purpose of writing a new Misery Chastain novel that will bring the character back from the dead. Paul bides his time and writes the book as Annie wants, believing her fully capable of killing him. He manages to escape his room while Annie is on an errand, touring the house in search of more painkillers. He is almost caught by Annie, but manages to return to his room before she enters the house. On another occasion when Annie is absent, Paul escapes his room again and steals a knife from her kitchen, intending to kill her. On the way back to his room, he finds a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings from Annie's life, suggesting that she is a serial killer who murdered her own father, her college roommate, and numerous patients in several states&mdash;thirty-nine people in all. She was arrested and charged with killing several babies at a Boulder hospital, but was acquitted. He also finds a magazine clipping about his status as a missing person. Annie eventually reveals that she knows about Paul's excursions from his room, and punishes him by cutting off his foot with an axe, cauterizing the wound with a blowtorch. Later, when Paul complains about a missing letter on the typewriter, she punishes him by slicing off his thumb with an electric knife. A Colorado state trooper eventually arrives at Annie’s house in search of Paul. Realizing a chance for escape, Paul alerts the officer by throwing an ashtray through the window. However, Annie surprises the trooper, stabs him repeatedly with a sharpened wooden cross, then finally rides over him with her lawnmower. She temporarily hides Paul in the basement while she departs, meaning to dispose of the trooper's body and his police cruiser. Paul finally finishes the book, Misery's Return. As a celebration, he asks Annie for a cigarette and a match, as per his normal practice after finishing a novel, but uses them to seemingly light his manuscript on fire in front of her. While Annie frantically tries to put out the flames, Paul throws the typewriter at her. The two engage in a violent struggle, with Paul stuffing Annie's mouth full of the burning pages. Annie breaks free and runs to find a weapon, but trips on the typewriter, causing her to crack her skull on the mantelpiece. Paul then crawls out of the room, closes the door, and locks the bolt that Annie had installed. After slumping down in front of the door, Paul feels Annie's fingers tugging his shirt from under it. Horrified at the question of how she is still alive, he pounds at her fingers then makes his way to the bathroom for more Novril. He finds and swallows some and sleeps against the door. Awakening, Paul musters up the courage to leave the bathroom in an attempt to escape, uncertain if Annie is either alive or dead. After slowly crawling a short distance, he sees headlights pour through a window. It's the police again. He finds Annie's Penguin and throws it through the window to get their attention. When they find him, Paul warns them about Annie still being alive and her being locked in the guest bedroom. They leave him to investigate. When they return, they tell Paul that they had not found anything but a shattered bottle of champagne and the room burned. Paul screams until he faints. Later it is revealed that Annie had escaped through the window and gone out to the barn in order to get a chainsaw. However, she had died in the barn due to her skull fracture, one hand grasping the handle of the chainsaw. Returning home to New York, Paul submits Misery's Return to his publisher; it is revealed that he burned a decoy of the manuscript instead of the book itself. Paul's publisher tells him that the book will become his greatest bestseller. However, the ordeal is far from over for Paul: he suffers nightmares about Annie and continues to have withdrawals from painkillers. He has also become an alcoholic with writer's block. Eventually, after a random encounter with a child in the street, he has the same spark that inspired him to write Fast Cars. He begins typing about this boy and the skunk he had with him in a shopping cart.

Famed novelist Paul Sheldon is the author of a successful series of novels involving a character called Misery Chastain. But Paul wants to branch out and has just finished the manuscript of a new unrelated novel. He departs from Silver Creek, Colorado to head to Los Angeles but is caught in a blizzard and his car goes off the road. He is rescued by a nurse named Annie Wilkes and brought to her remote home. Both of Paul's legs are broken and he has a dislocated shoulder, so he is bedridden and incapacitated. Annie claims she is his "number one fan" and talks a lot about him and his novels. She's happy when Paul lets her read his new novel, but later admits she disliked the excessive swearing. While feeding him, she is angered and spills soup on him but regains control and apologizes. She buys a copy of Paul's latest book, Misery's Child, but after learning that he has "killed off" Misery, Annie flies into a rage, almost smashing a table on Paul's head. She reveals that nobody knows where he is . Annie leaves and Paul tries to escape from his room, but she has locked the door. The next morning, Annie makes Paul burn his latest manuscript. When he is well enough to get out of bed, she insists he write a new novel entitled Misery's Return in which he brings the character back to life. Paul reluctantly does, believing Annie might kill him otherwise. However, having found a means of escaping his room, he sneaks out whenever Annie is away and begins to stockpile his painkillers. He tries to kill Annie during a candlelit dinner, but is foiled when she accidentally spills her drugged wine. During another venture out of his room, Paul finds a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about his disappearance and Annie's past. He discovers that she was suspected and tried for several infants' deaths. Later, Annie drugs Paul and straps him to the bed. When he wakes, she tells him that she knows he's been out of his room and breaks his ankles with a sledgehammer in an act of "hobbling". Meanwhile, the local sheriff, Buster , is investigating Paul's disappearance and visits Annie, prompted by his discovery of a quote she used from a Misery book during her trial years earlier. While there, Buster finds that Paul has been drugged and hidden in the basement. Annie fatally shoots Buster, and tells Paul that they must die together. He agrees, but says he wants to finish the novel and "give Misery back to the world". While she gets his chair, Paul hides a can of lighter fluid in his pants. When the book is done, he reminds Annie it is his practice to have a single cigarette and a glass of champagne after finishing a novel. When Annie presents these things to Paul, he tells her that this time, he will need a second glass, for her. As Annie goes to get a second glass, Paul douses the manuscript in the lighter fluid and as Annie returns with the glass, he sets it on fire, much as she made him do to his earlier, post-Misery novel. Paul and Annie engage in a fierce struggle that ends with Paul bludgeoning Annie to death. Eighteen months later, Paul meets his publishing agent Marcia in a restaurant. The two discuss his first non-Misery novel, titled The Higher Education of J. Philip Stone, which is earning critical acclaim prior to release, a first for him. However, Paul is indifferent to this because he wrote that novel for himself, something that, in a way, Annie inspired him to do. Marcia asks if he wants to write a non-fiction book about his captivity, but Paul is non-committal. While at the restaurant, he sees a waitress whom he briefly imagines as Annie. The waitress claims she is his "number one fan", to which Paul uncomfortably responds "That's very sweet of you."

negative

positive

Of Human Bondage

Of Human Bondage

The book begins with the death of the mother of the nine-year-old protagonist, Philip Carey. Philip's father had already died a few months before, and the orphan Philip is sent to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is vicar of Blackstable, a small village in Kent. Philip inherits a small fortune but the money is held in custody by his uncle until he is twenty-one, giving his uncle a great deal of power over him until he reaches his maturity. Early chapters relate Philip's experience at the vicarage. His aunt tries to be a mother to Philip, but she is herself childish and unsure of how to behave, whereas his uncle takes a cold disposition towards him. Philip's uncle has an eclectic collection of books, and in reading Philip finds a way to escape his mundane existence and experience fascinating worlds of fiction. Less than a year later, Philip is sent to a boarding school. His uncle and aunt wish for him to eventually attend Oxford in order to study to become a clergyman. Philip's shyness and his club foot make it difficult for him to fit in with the boys at the school, and he does not make many friends. Philip goes through an episode of deep religious belief, and believes that through true faith he can petition God to heal his club foot; but when this does not happen, his belief falters. He becomes close friends with one boy; but the friendship breaks up, and he becomes miserable. Philip shows considerable academic talent and is informed by the school's headmaster that he could have earned a scholarship for Oxford, but instead he becomes determined to leave the school and go to Germany. Philip's uncle and the headmaster oppose Philip's desire to go to Germany, but eventually they give in and allow him to go to Heidelberg for a year. In Heidelberg, Philip lives at a boarding house with other foreigners and studies German, among other subjects. Philip enjoys his stay in Germany. At the boarding house he meets a fellow Englishman, Hayward, who has an interest in literature and who considers himself a poet. Philip also meets an unorthodox American named Weeks, who dislikes Hayward, whom he thinks superficial. Philip is intrigued by his long discourses with Hayward and Weeks and eventually becomes convinced that he need not believe in the Church of England; a radical idea for him as he had been brought up with staunch Christian values. Philip returns to his uncle's house and meets a middle-aged family friend of his aunt and uncle named Miss Wilkinson, who is very flirtatious toward Philip. He is not particularly attracted to her and is uncomfortable about her age; but he likes the idea of having an affair with someone, so he pursues her. She becomes very attached to Philip and declares her love for him, and he pretends to be passionate about her, but he is relieved when she needs to return to Berlin. Miss Wilkinson writes letters to Philip from Berlin, to which he eventually stops responding. Philip's guardians decide to take matters into their own hands and they convince him to move to London to take up an apprenticeship to become a chartered accountant. He does not fare well there as his co-workers resent him because they believe he is above them and is a "gentleman". Philip is desperately lonely in London and is humiliated by his lack of aptitude for the work. He begins thinking about studying art in Paris. He goes on a business trip with one of his managers to Paris and is inspired by this trip. Miss Wilkinson convinces Philip that he draws well enough to become a professional artist, and he moves to Paris to study art. In Paris, Philip attends art classes, makes a few friends among fellow art students and meets Miss Price, a poor talentless art student who does not get along well with people. Miss Price falls in love with Philip, but he is unaware and does not return her feelings. After her funds run out, she commits suicide, leaving Philip to tend to her affairs. Philip realizes that he will never be more than a mediocre artist; at the same time, he receives word that his aunt has died. He returns to his uncle's house, and eventually decides to go to London to pursue medicine, his late father's field. He struggles at medical school and comes across Mildred, a tawdry waitress at a local café. He falls desperately in love with her, although she does not show any emotion for him. Mildred tells Philip she is getting married, leaving him heartbroken; he subsequently enters into an affair with Norah Nesbitt, a kind and sensitive author of penny romance novels. Later, Mildred returns, pregnant, and confesses that the man for whom she had abandoned Philip had never married her. Philip breaks off his relationship with Norah and supports Mildred financially though he can ill afford to do so, but later she falls in love with Harry, a friend of Philip's and disappears. Philip runs into Mildred again when she is so poor she has resorted to prostitution and, feeling sympathy for her, takes her in to do his housework, though he no longer loves her. When he rejects her advances, she becomes angry at him, leaves, and destroys his possessions, causing Philip to abandon that residence and move into cheaper housing. When Philip meets Mildred next, she is ill and prostituting herself again, and the baby has died. While working at the hospital, Philip befriends family man Thorpe Athelny and is invited to his house every Sunday. Athelny has lived in Toledo in Spain, enthusing about the country, and is translating the works of San Juan de la Cruz. Meanwhile, a stockbroker acquaintance of Philip advises him to invest in South African mines, and Philip is left with no money when the stock market crashes due to the vicissitudes of the Boer War. He wanders the streets aimlessly for a few days before the Athelnys take him in and find him a job at a retail store, which he hates. Eventually, his uncle's death leaves him enough money to go back to medical school, and he finishes his studies and becomes qualified. He takes on a temporary placement at a Dorsetshire fishing village with Dr South, an old, rancorous physician whose wife is dead and whose daughter has broken off contact with him. However, he takes a shine to Philip's humour and personableness, eventually making him an outstanding offer of a stake in his medical practice. Although flattered, Philip refuses as he is still eager to travel and returns to London. He soon goes on a small summer vacation with the Athelnys at a village in the Kent countryside. There he finds that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They have an affair, and when she thinks she is pregnant, Philip decides to give up his long-cherished plans to travel to exotic lands, to accept Dr South's offer, and to marry Sally instead. They meet in the National Gallery where, despite learning that it was a false alarm, Philip nonetheless becomes engaged to Sally, his lifelong quest for happiness and self-acceptance culminating in the conclusion that "the simplest pattern, that in which a man was born, worked, married, had children, and died, was likewise the most perfect".

After two unsuccessful years pursuing an art career in Paris, clubfooted Philip Carey decides to study medicine. He meets and falls in love with Mildred Rogers, a low-class waitress who takes advantage of his feelings for her. When she leaves him to marry another man, Philip falls in love with Nora Nesbitt, a writer who encourages him to complete his studies. Mildred returns, pregnant and abandoned by her husband, and Philip takes her in and cares for her, ending his relationship with Nora. While staying with Philip, Mildred has an affair with his best friend Griffiths, and when Philip confronts her, she tells Philip she's repulsed by him and walks out. After earning his degree, Philip becomes an intern at a London hospital. He learns Mildred is working as a prostitute and seeks her out at the brothel where she's living with her ailing child. He takes the two under his wing, but once again Mildred leaves him. When he finally finds her in a clinic for the indigent, he discovers her child has died and Mildred, in the advanced stages of syphilis, dies in her spurned lover's arms.

positive

positive

The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild

As the story opens, Buck, a powerful St. Bernard-Scotch Collie dog, lives a comfortable life in California's Santa Clara Valley as the pet of Judge Miller. Manuel, the gardener's assistant, steals Buck and sells him to pay a gambling debt. Shipped to Seattle, Buck is harassed in his crate and given nothing to eat or drink. Released from the crate, he confronts and is beaten by the "man in the red sweater", and is taught to respect the club. Buck is bought by a pair of French-Canadians named François and Perrault, who take him to the Klondike region of Canada and train him as a sled dog where he quickly learns how to survive the cold winter nights and the pack society by observing his teammates. He and the vicious, quarrelsome lead dog, Spitz, develop a rivalry. Buck eventually beats Spitz in a fight "to the death". Spitz is killed by the pack after his defeat and Buck becomes the leader of the team. The sled dog team is sold to a "Scottish half breed" man working in the mail service. The dogs carry a heavy load and the journey they make is tiresome and long. After a long time with this owner, the dogs are beat down and so tired that they can no longer make the trek. Buck is then sold to a trio of stampeders, Hal, Charles, and a woman named Mercedes. They have little experience of survival in the Northern wilderness, struggle to control the sled, and ignore warnings about the dangers of travel during the spring melt. They overfeed the dogs and starve them when the food supply runs out. On their journey they meet John Thornton, an experienced outdoorsman, who notices that the dogs poorly treated and in a weakened condition. He warns the trio against crossing the river, but they refuse his advice and order Buck to move on. Exhausted, starving, and sensing the danger ahead, Buck refuses and continues to lie unmoving in the snow. After Buck is beaten by Hal, Thornton recognizes him to be a remarkable dog; disgusted by the driver's treatment of Buck, Thornton cuts him free from his traces and tells the trio he's keeping him, much to Hal's displeasure. After some argument, the trio leaves and tries to cross the river, but as Thornton warned, the ice gives way and the three fall into the river along with the neglected dogs and sled. Thornton nurses Buck back to health, and Buck comes to love him and grows devoted to him. Buck saves Thornton when the man falls into a river. Thornton then takes him on trips to pan for gold. During one such trip, a man wagers Thornton on Buck's strength and devotion; the dog wins the bet by breaking a half-ton sled free of the frozen ground, pulling it 100 yards, and winning $1000 in gold dust for Thornton. While Thornton and his friends continue their search for gold, Buck explores the wilderness and begins to socialize with a timber wolf from a local pack. One night, he returns from a short hunt to find that his beloved master and the others in the camp have been killed by a group of Yeehat Indians. Buck eventually kills the Indians to avenge Thornton and he then follows the wolf into the forest and answers the call of the wild. At the end of the story, Buck returns each year, as the Ghost Dog of the Northland Legend, to mourn at the site of Thornton's death.

John Thornton a prospector in the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush is trying to eke out a living in the harsh conditions of the bitterly cold Yukon region of Canada, with Buck the German Shepherd dog he befriends. Thornton struggles against unscrupulous rivals and natural hazards in the extreme conditions and is greatly helped by Buck who has his own story to tell: he was abducted from a family home and taken north to become a working sled dog. Man and dog forge a true bond of friendship, working together to survive life in the treacherous frozen North. Thornton is killed by Yeehat Indians, but Buck kills the men to avenge Thornton. At the end of the film, Buck comes to the White River to mourn the place where he died.

positive

positive

The Road

The Road

An unnamed father and his young son journey across a grim post-apocalyptic landscape, some years after a major unexplained cataclysm has destroyed civilization and most life on Earth. The land is filled with ash and devoid of living animals and vegetation. Many of the remaining human survivors have resorted to cannibalism, scavenging the detritus of city and country alike for flesh. The boy's mother, pregnant with him at the time of the disaster, gave up hope and committed suicide some time before the story began, despite the father's pleas. Much of the book is written in the third person, with references to "the father" and "the son" or to "the man" and "the boy". Realizing that they cannot survive the oncoming winter where they are, the father takes the boy south, along empty roads towards the sea, carrying their meager possessions in their knapsacks and in a supermarket cart. The man coughs blood from time to time and eventually realizes he is dying, yet still struggles to protect his son from the constant threats of attack, exposure, and starvation. They have a revolver, but only two rounds. The boy has been told to use the gun on himself, if necessary to avoid falling into the hands of cannibals. During their trek, the father uses one bullet to kill a man who stumbles upon them and poses a grave threat. Fleeing from the man's companions, they have to abandon most of their possessions. As they are near death from starvation, the man finds an unlooted underground bunker filled with food and other necessities. However, it is too exposed, so they only stay a few days In the face of these obstacles, the man repeatedly reassures the boy that they are "the good guys" who are "carrying the fire". On their journey, the duo scrounge for food, evade roving bands, and contend with horrors such as a newborn infant roasted on a spit, and captives being gradually harvested as food. Although the man and the boy eventually reach the sea, their situation does not improve. They head back inland, but the man succumbs to an illness. Before he dies, the father tells the boy that he can continue to speak with him in his imagination after he is gone. The boy holds wake over the corpse for days, with no idea of what to do next. On the third day, the grieving boy encounters a man who says he has been tracking the pair. The man, who has a woman and two children of his own, a boy and a girl, convinces the boy that he is one of the "good guys" and takes him under his protection.

A man and his young son struggle to survive after an unspecified cataclysm has killed all new plant and animal life. Civilization has collapsed, reducing the survivors to scavenging, and in some cases, cannibalism. They search for supplies as they travel south on a road to the coast in the hope it will be warmer. The man carries a revolver, but has only two bullets. Intermittent flashbacks reveal the man's wife had given birth to the child shortly after the catastrophe. She eventually committed suicide. After shooting a member of a cannibal gang who inadvertently stumbles upon them, the man is left with only one bullet. Later, the pair explore a large mansion and discover prisoners in the basement: a food supply for their absent captors. When the armed cannibals return, the man and his son hide. With discovery imminent, the man prepares to shoot his son, but the cannibals are distracted by the captives, and the pair get away. Further down the road, they discover an underground shelter full of canned food and supplies. They feast, bathe and groom themselves. When the man hears rummaging noises around the entrance to the shelter, he decides they must leave. They later encounter a nearly-blind old man on the road. The son persuades his reluctant father to feed him something. Arriving at the coast, the man goes to scavenge what he can from a beached ship. He leaves his son to keep watch, but the boy falls asleep and they are robbed of everything. After they chase the thief down, the father takes everything from him, even his clothes. When the boy remains upset about what is essentially a death sentence, the father relents. They go back, but cannot find the thief, so they leave behind his clothes and a can of food. As they pass through a ruined town, the man is shot in his right leg with an arrow. He kills his ambusher with a flare gun he found on the ship, but is so weakened by the wound, they have to abandon their cart and most of their possessions. When his condition deteriorates, he realizes he is dying. He again emphasizes to his son the values of self-preservation and humanity. After the father dies, the son is approached by a man who gives him the choice of joining him, a woman, their two children and their dog. The family had followed the pair for some time out of concern for the boy. The child joins them after being assured they are the "good guys".

positive

positive

The Card

The Card

The novel begins when "Edward Henry Machin first saw the smoke on the 27th May 1867"—the very day of Bennett's own birth. At age 12, Denry begins his career by altering his marks in a test sufficiently to earn him a scholarship to grammar school. At 16, he leaves school to work for Mr. Duncalf, the town clerk and a solicitor. Duncalf is responsible for organizing an exclusive ball; Denry "invites" himself, then also a few others in exchange for things he will need, such as lessons from dance instructor Ruth Earp. On a bet, he audaciously asks the energetic, beautiful Countess of Chell (of whom everyone, including Machin, is in awe) to dance, thus earning himself the reputation of a "card" (a "character", someone able to set tongues wagging) - a reputation he is determined to cement. Later, when Duncalf treats a disgruntled client brusquely, Denry leaves his employ after persuading the client to hire him as a rent collector. When some of the tenants fall behind, he begins loaning them money (at a highly profitable interest rate). Ruth herself is several months in arrears and tries to sneak away in the middle of the night. Denry catches her by accident, but rather than being angry, he admires her audacity and starts courting her. While on holiday at the seaside resort town of Llandudno with Ruth and her friend Nellie Cotterill, he witnesses a shipwreck and the rescue of the sailors. Noting the interest generated, he buys a lifeboat, hires some of the stranded mariners as rowers, and conducts tours of the picturesque wreck. However, Ruth's spendthrift nature becomes alarmingly apparent during the trip and they break up. By the end of the summer, Denry has made a substantial profit from the sightseers, which he uses to finance his boldest venture. He starts up the Five Towns Universal Thrift Club. Members deposit money little by little; once they have accumulated half the sum they need to purchase whatever it is they want, the club allows them to buy on credit, but only from stores associated with the club. Denry makes money by getting a discount from the vendors in return for access to his large customer base. When his capital starts to run out, he arranges an "accident" for the Countess's coach. He drives conveniently by and gives her a lift to an urgent appointment. On the way there, he talks her into becoming the club's sponsor, ensuring easy financing. This proves to be the making of Denry's fortune. With his great success, he is appointed a town councillor. He also backs a new daily newspaper (to be bought out at a profit by its established rival anxious to keep its monopoly) and tricks his obstinate mother into moving into a luxurious new house. At this point, Ruth reappears in Denry's life, now the widow of a rich older man. He considers renewing their relationship, but at the last moment, realizes that Nellie is the one for him and marries her. The crowning achievement comes when Denry decides to become the youngest mayor in the history of Bursley. To sway the voters, he purchases the rights to footballer and native son Callear, the "greatest centre forward in England", for the failing Bursley football club. "It will probably be news to him that Aston Villa have offered £700 to York for the transfer of Callear, and Blackburn Rovers have offered £750, and they're fighting it out between 'em. Any gentleman willing to put down £800 to buy Callear for Bursley?" he sneered. "I don't mind telling you that steam-engines and the King himself couldn't get Callear into our club." "Quite finished?" Denry inquired, still standing. Laughter, overtopped by Councillor Barlow's snort as he sat down. Denry lifted his voice. "Mr Callear, will you be good enough to step forward and let us all have a look at you?" His antics are regarded with affection and admiration by most others, as shown by the book&#39;s final exchange: "What a card!" said one, laughing joyously. "He's a rare 'un, no mistake." "Of course, this'll make him more popular than ever," said another. "We've never had a man to touch him for that." "And yet," demanded Councillor Barlow, "what's he done? Has he ever done a day's work in his life? What great cause is he identified with?" "He's identified," said the speaker, "with the great cause of cheering us all up."

The film follows the adventures and misadventures of Edward Henry Machin, an ambitious young man from a poor background. Denry cheats at an examination in order to qualify for entry to a 'school for the sons of gentlemen'. At the age of 16, he becomes a junior clerk to Mr. Duncalf, the town clerk and a solicitor. He meets the charming and socially well-connected Countess of Chell, a client of Duncalf's, and is given the job of sending out invitations to a grand municipal ball. He 'invites' himself, and wins a five-pound bet , that he will dance with the Countess. This earns him the reputation of a "card" – a reputation he is determined to cement. But the next day, Duncalf angrily sacks Denry. Denry offers his services as a rent collector to a dissatisfied former client of Duncalf's, Mrs Codleyn. His reputation as an efficient and no-nonsense collector brings the business of Mr Calvert. But Denry quickly realises that he can make more money by advancing loans, at a highly profitable interest rate, to the many tenants who are in arrears. He also discovers that Ruth Earp, the dancing teacher who is attracted to Denry, is herself heavily in debt. Despite this, he and Ruth become engaged. While on holiday in Llandudno with Ruth and her friend Nellie Cotterill (as [[Chaperone , he witnesses a shipwreck and the rescue of the sailors - an event that he turns to his financial advantage. He also realises Ruth's spendthrift nature, and they part on bitter terms. Denry starts up the Five Towns Universal Thrift Club, a bold venture that allows members to purchase goods on credit. This increases Denry's wealth and reputation, and he is able to expand further, thanks to the patronage of the Countess. Denry's social ambitions expand. He becomes a town councillor and he purchases the rights to locally-born Callear, the "greatest centre forward in England", for the failing local football club. Ruth reappears, now the widow of a rich, older, titled man. He considers renewing their relationship but is unsure of his feelings. Nellie's father, a builder, is bankrupt , and the family decide to migrate to Canada, with Denry's assistance. As they are boarding the liner at Liverpool, Denry realises that Nellie is devastated at her potential loss and that he really loves only her. Ruth, who is also present, is furious, but quickly starts a fresh relationship with another older titled gentleman. Nellie and Denry marry. Denry becomes the youngest mayor in the history of Bursley.

positive

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.

Richard the Lionheart , King of England, vanishes while returning from the Crusades. One of his knights, the Saxon Wilfred of Ivanhoe ([[Robert Taylor , searches tirelessly for him, finally finding him being held for ransom by Leopold of Austria for the enormous sum of 150,000 marks of silver. Richard’s treacherous brother, Prince John , knows about it, but enjoys ruling in his absence. Ivanhoe returns to England, to the house of his estranged father, Cedric , to be reunited with his love and Cedric’s ward, the Lady Rowena , and to beg his father’s help in raising the ransom. Cedric refuses to help a Norman king and orders his son to leave. Wamba , Cedric’s court jester, begs to go with Ivanhoe and is made his squire. Two separate parties of travellers arrive and are granted Cedric’s hospitality: a Jew, Isaac of York , and Norman knights Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Sir Hugh de Bracy ([[Robert Douglas , and their entourage. That night, two of the Normans try to rob Isaac, but are foiled by Ivanhoe. Not feeling safe, Isaac decides to return to his home in Sheffield; Ivanhoe offers to escort him there. When they reach Isaac’s home, Ivanhoe secures his help raising the ransom in return for better treatment for the Jews once Richard returns. Rebecca , Isaac’s daughter, visits Ivanhoe secretly in the night to reward him for rescuing her father; she gives him jewels to purchase arms and a horse for an important upcoming joust. She falls in love with him, despite the great social gulf between them. Nearly everyone of note is at the tournament, including Prince John. Norman knights loyal to him defeat all comers. Just when it seems that they are victorious, a mysterious new Saxon knight appears, arrayed all in black, with white trim, his face hidden behind his visor. He does not give his name, but challenges all five Norman champions. He easily defeats the first three, Malvoisin, Ralph, and Front de Boeuf , one after the other, and also wins the fourth bout against de Bracy, but is seriously wounded in the shoulder. He is soon identified by many as Ivanhoe. When Ivanhoe salutes Rebecca after his first victory, Bois-Guilbert is immediately smitten by her beauty. In the last joust against Bois-Guilbert, the weakened Ivanhoe falls from his horse. He is carried off, to be tended to by Rebecca. Fearing Prince John’s wrath, the Saxons depart; Ivanhoe is taken to the woods under the protection of Robin Hood . The rest make for the city of York, but are captured and taken to the castle of Front de Boeuf. When Ivanhoe hears the news, he gives himself up, in exchange for his father’s freedom. However, the Normans go back on their word and keep them both. Robin Hood’s men then storm the castle, freeing most of the captives. In the fighting, de Boeuf drives Wamba to his death in a burning part of the castle and is slain in turn by Ivanhoe. Bois-Guilbert alone escapes, by using Rebecca as a shield, while de Bracy is defeated and captured by Ivanhoe after attempting to do the same with Rowena. Meanwhile, the enormous ransom is finally collected, but the Jews face a cruel choice: free either Richard or Rebecca, for Prince John has set the price of her life at 100,000 marks, the Jews’ contribution. Isaac chooses Richard. Ivanhoe entrusts the ransom delivery to Cedric, but promises Isaac that he will rescue Rebecca. John has her condemned to be burned at the stake as a witch, but Ivanhoe appears and challenges the verdict, invoking the right to “wager of battle,” which cannot be denied. Prince John chooses the conflicted Bois-Guilbert as his champion. The Norman makes a last desperate plea to Rebecca: in return for her love, he is willing to forfeit the duel, though he would be forever disgraced as a knight. She refuses, saying “We are all in God’s hands, sir knight.” In the battle to the death, Ivanhoe’s axe prevails over Bois-Guilbert’s mace and chain. As he lies dying, Bois-Guilbert reaffirms to Rebecca that he is the one who loves her, not Ivanhoe. Rebecca accepts that Ivanhoe’s heart has always belonged to Rowena, and Richard and his knights return to reclaim his throne from his usurping brother.

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The Swarm

The Swarm

The book follows an ensemble of protagonists who are investigating what first appear to be freak events related to the world's oceans. The book has several sub-plots and will occasionally follow minor unrelated characters to illustrate how events unfold around the globe. Sigur Johanson, a Norwegian maritime biologist working at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim is asked to analyze a new species of marine worms. After several expeditions it becomes clear that the worms, together with bacteria, are destabilizing the methane clathrate in the continental shelf. When the continental slope collapses the subterranean landslide causes a tsunami that hits most of the North Sea's coasts, killing millions and severely damaging the infrastructure in the coastal regions. At the same time Leon Anawak, a maritime scientist who investigates the behavior of whales and works for a whale watching company, makes startling observations in the whales' behavior. In addition, he is called to investigate an incident where whales and sea-borne mussels seemed to have attacked and incapacitated a commercial freighter. When he returns to his whale watching job, he witnesses how humpback whales and orcas attack the watcher's boats. The whales work together to capsize the boats and then kill the people drifting in the water. A large number of tourists and close colleagues of Anawak are killed. The events that are witnessed by the protagonists are only part of a worldwide phenomenon. Several other attacks are briefly described in the plot: Swimmers are driven from the coast by sharks and venomous jellyfish. Commercial ships are attacked and sometimes destroyed in a variety of ways. France sees an outbreak of an epidemic that is caused by lobsters contaminated with a highly lethal type of Pfiesteria. When it becomes clear that all those events are related, an international scientific task force is created under the lead of the United States. The task force is led by Lieutenant General Judith Li, a close friend and adviser to the President; the protagonists become part of it. While the task force is in session, the attacks on humanity continue: The North American east coast is overrun by Pfiesteria-infested crabs that attack New York City, Washington D.C. and later Boston. The epidemic causes millions of deaths and renders the affected cities uninhabitable. The Gulf Stream has also ceased to exist, an event that may initiate a global climate change that would threaten human civilization. During a task force meeting, Sigur Johanson finally announces his hypothesis: The phenomena are intentional attacks by an unknown sentient species from the depths of the oceans; he states that this is the only logical conclusion, since the attacks are outside the power of any human agency and cannot be a natural phenomenon. Johanson calls them "yrr", after three letters he typed randomly on his computer. The goal of the yrr is to eliminate the human race, which is devastating the Earth's oceans. General Li and a small group of scientists take to the sea on the helicopter carrier USS Independence in an attempt to find the yrr and make contact with them. They discover that the yrr are single-cell organisms that operate in groups (or swarms, hence the novel's title), controlled by a single hive-mind that may have existed for hundreds of millions of years. The yrr form a collective intelligence and have inheritable memories that are passed on by manipulating parts of their DNA. Individual yrr recognize each other by using a specific pheromone. The scientists have some success in investigating the yrr and make limited contact. The attacks do not cease, however. Sigur Johanson also finds out that General Li has not been honest with them. One of the scientists has been working on a modified pheromone to eradicate the yrr completely. Johanson disagrees with this approach because the elimination of the yrr may completely destroy the maritime ecosystem and thus the human race. Li, however, is unwilling to accept that dominance over the Earth may not be a God-given birthright of mankind, and the United States in particular. She will rather take the risk than allow the US power to wane. While she gives orders to have Johanson killed, the ship is attacked and crippled by the yrr and a final showdown ensues on the sinking Independence. Li races for the ship's midget submarines with two torpedoes containing the modified pheromone. The scientists are trying to stop her and at the same time implement their own plan to save humanity. She is stopped at the last moment by Johanson who gives his own life to detonate the torpedoes and kill Li. Karen Weaver, a scientific journalist, then manages to get hold of the last surviving submarine and dives into the depth of the oceans. There she releases a dead human pumped full of the yrr's natural pheromone, hoping to trigger an "emotional" response. This works and the yrr cease their attacks on humanity. The epilogue reveals that a year later, mankind is still recovering from the conflict with the swarm. The knowledge that humans are not the only intelligent lifeform on Earth has plunged most religious groups into chaos, while parts of the world still suffer from the epidemic the yrr sent to destroy the threat to their marine homeland. Humanity now faces the difficult task of rebuilding their society and industry without coming into conflict with the ever-watching superpower under the sea again.

A group of soldiers led by Maj. Baker is ordered to investigate a basement level station which they believed was attacked. After Baker contacts his commander, General Slater , they begin to investigate who drove a civilian van into the base. It is revealed to be owned by a scientist named Dr. Bradford Crane . Slater orders two choppers to check for a black mass , and they are sent out of the sky.

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Anne of Green Gables

Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story

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

Anne Shirley returns to Avonlea after five years of teaching at an orphanage in Nova Scotia while separated from her fiancé, Gilbert Blythe, who was finishing medical school. After catching up with Diana Barry and other old friends. Anne and Diana visit Green Gables, and a horrified Anne realizes that since Marilla's death in an episode of Road to Avonlea the owners have treated Green Gables so poorly, that it is coming apart. Later, Anne is reunited with Gilbert on the island. However, instead of settling down immediately, Gilbert asks Anne to move to New York since he has been offered a staff position at a prestigious medical institution. Her reluctant agreement comes with the promise of being published and that they will return to Prince Edward Island to raise their family. In New York, Anne is employed as a junior editor at a small publishing house, where she meets Jack Garrison, a writer and local sensation who becomes interested in Anne. Seeing her potential as a writer, he offers to become the editor for her new manuscript and use his influence to have it published under both their names. When the manuscript is accepted, Anne is outraged to learn that Jack has presented it as his own; she breaks off contact with Jack, who reveals he has fallen in love with her. Meanwhile, Gilbert is troubled by his work at the hospital - most of the doctors are more interested in prestige than saving lives. Disillusioned by life in New York, Anne and Gilbert return to Prince Edward Island. Upon returning to Avonlea, Gilbert buys Green Gables from Mr. Harrison and they set about restoring the house as they plan their wedding. However, the couple find the effect of the war in Europe to be much more present; Fred Wright, Diana's husband, eventually enlists in the war as his family life becomes increasingly strained. Increasing pressure results in Gilbert enlisting as medical officer and he convinces Anne to marry him before he leaves. When he is declared missing in action, Anne leaves for Europe as a Red Cross volunteer in hopes of finding him. Anne's desperate search leads to a chance meeting with Jack Garrison, along with his lover, Colette, and their infant son, Dominic. Jack, involved in dangerous espionage activities, leaves suddenly and asks that Anne take Colette and Dominic to London. However, Colette is killed in an explosion while Anne briefly sees Gilbert as his troop is forced to abandon their field hospital. Anne promises Colette on her last breath to take care of Dominic and find his father. Left to care for Dominic, Anne finds an injured Fred and his arm must be amputated. They leave for London and reside in Jack's apartment until they can return to Canada; in that time, Anne works for a British newspaper office and becomes acquainted with Fergus Keegan, Jack's editor, and Maude Montrose, one of Jack's contemporaries and a fellow spy. When Jack arrives to make arrangements for his family, he learns of Colette's death and asks for Anne to care for Dominic should anything happen to him. Though Anne intends to return to Canada with Fred and Dominic, her connection to Jack as well as a resurfacing chance of finding Gilbert results in taking Dominic with her to France. Disguised as a nun and befriending entertainers Margaret Bush and Elsie James, Anne struggles to bring Dominic to Kit Garrison, Jack's aunt who has also become involved in war efforts. Reunited again with Jack, Anne travels with him in hopes for finding her husband. As Anne's search continues to be fruitless, Jack attempts to persuade her to return with him to the United States and form a family with him and Dominic; Anne refuses, determined to continue searching for Gilbert in Germany. When she encounters Margaret and Elsie again, she joins them in entertaining the soldiers; in the crowd is Gilbert and Anne is reunited with him at last. Jack arranges for them to leave immediately as the armistice to end the war approaches. However, Keegan's fear of being exposed as a traitor by Jack's group results in Jack being shot on the train; as he dies, he asks that Anne take care of his son. Once the armistice is declared, Anne and Gilbert attempt to find Dominic, but after finding Kit Garrison's cháteau empty, they are forced to return to Canada in hopes of finding the child from home. After a year of living back in Avonlea, Anne and Gilbert arrive at the local train station to collect Dominic, whom they are adopting as their own. They decide to leave Green Gables to Diana and Fred while they "make a new life, but built on all the old foundations" and "build a good home, and raise a family, with lots of scope for the imagination."

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The War of the Worlds

H.G. Wells' The 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.

The early part of the film follows the experience of a late 19th century journalist, known as "the writer", who races through London to be reunited with his wife in Leatherhead as an army of Martians attacks the planet, driving in massive Tripods and taking control of the Earth. The film also shows the adventures of his brother, who accompanies two women to the coast of England in an attempt to escape the aliens.

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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.

In Paris 1877, rats save an abandoned baby in a basket and raise him in the underground of the Opéra de Paris. This child becomes The Phantom of the Opera, a misanthrope who kills anyone who ventures into his underground chambers, just as rats are killed whenever they venture above ground. The Phantom , who is not disfigured and hence does not wear a mask, falls in love with Christine Daaé , an opera singer just beginning her career. He speaks to her using telepathy, and the two begin a romantic relationship. Unlike in other versions, however, he does not teach her to sing. Meanwhile, the aristocratic Baron Raoul De Chagny has fallen in love with Christine, though at first Christine offers him only a platonic relationship. Later, she ruminates that she may be in love with both men. After sex, the Phantom forces Christine to stay in his subterranean chambers as he goes to secure the role of Juliet for her by bringing down the chandelier. Christine grows angry with him and his controlling ways. She tells him she hates him, and when he returns, she refuses the role he has secured for her. He becomes angry and forcibly has intercourse with her. Afterward, while he is playing with his rats, she escapes. She flees into the arms of Raoul, and they ascend to the roof, where the Phantom hears them confessing their love for each other. The next night, as Christine sings, the Phantom swoops down and steals her away into his chambers. Raoul et al. give chase, and Raoul shoots the Phantom. Mortally wounded, the Phantom's main concern becomes Christine's safety, as he fears that the police will kill her now that they know she's his mistress. The Phantom shows Christine and Raoul a waterway out of the underground tunnels, and then fights off the police as Raoul rows a hysterical Christine to safety.

positive

positive

True Grit

True Grit

Portis’ novel is narrated by Mattie Ross, a thrifty, churchgoing older spinster distinguished by intelligence, independence and strength of mind. Speaking in 1903, she recounts the story of her adventures many years earlier, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney. She is joined on her quest by Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced "La-beef"). As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross’ family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney is not adept as a farmhand, and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash", and noting that her kind-hearted father, Frank, only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses, along with two gold pieces he always carried. He ends up spending only $100 on the horses. When Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation involving Chaney, Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) on his horse. Hearing that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper, Mattie wishes to track down the killer, and upon arriving at Fort Smith she looks for the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district. That man turns out to be Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and although he is an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie is convinced that he has "grit", and that he is best suited for the job due to his reputation for violence. Playing on Cogburn's need for money, Mattie persuades him to take on the job, insisting that, as part of the bargain, she accompany him. During their preparation, a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf appears. He too is tracking Chaney, and has been for four months, for killing a senator and his dog in Texas, with the hopes of bringing him back to Texas dead or alive for a cash reward. Cogburn and LaBoeuf take a dislike to each other, but after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt realizing that they can both benefit from each other's respective talents and knowledge. Once they reach a deal the two men attempt to leave Mattie behind, but she proves more tenacious than they had expected. They repeatedly try to lose her, but she persists in following them and seeing her transaction with Marshal Cogburn through to the end. Eventually she is jumped by Cogburn and LaBoeuf, who had hid themselves from view and LaBoeuf begins to spank Mattie. Mattie appeals to Cogburn and he orders LaBoeuf to stop. At this point Mattie is allowed to join their posse. Together, but with very different motivations, the three ride into the wilderness to confront Ned Pepper's gang. Along the way, they develop an appreciation for one another.

After Frank Ross ([[John Pickard is murdered in January 1878 by his hired hand, Tom Chaney , in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Ross' 14-year-old daughter Mattie travels to Fort Smith and hires the aging U.S. Marshal Reuben "Rooster" J. Cogburn . Mattie has heard that, despite his vices and missing eye, Cogburn has "true grit". She gives Rooster a down payment to track down Chaney, who has taken up with "Lucky" Ned Pepper , a gang leader whom Rooster once shot in a gunfight. The pair must head into Indian Territory . Mattie buys a horse for this, after collecting money from a horse trader . They are joined by a young Texas Ranger, La Boeuf , who hopes to collect a $1,500 reward for capturing Chaney, much more than Mattie is offering Cogburn. The ranger says Chaney also killed a Texas state senator named Bibbs, and Bibbs' dog. Mattie dislikes the boastful La Boeuf and refuses his assistance, but the ranger joins forces with Cogburn, who agrees to split the reward with him. The two try to abandon Mattie, but they learn that she is determined to join their posse. After several days, the three plan to spend the night at a cabin which Cogburn had said would be empty. At the cabin, they discover Emmett Quincy and Moon , two horse thieves waiting for Pepper. Moon's leg is badly injured and Cogburn uses the injury as leverage to get information about Pepper from them. To prevent Moon from telling too much, Quincy fatally stabs Moon with a knife, and Cogburn kills Quincy. Before Moon dies, he tells Cogburn that Pepper and his gang are due at the hideout that night; the posse lays a trap. The following morning, Pepper and his men arrive at the hideout. La Boeuf mistakenly fires and a shootout ensues, during which Cogburn and La Boeuf kill two of the gang, but Pepper and the rest escape. Cogburn, La Boeuf and Mattie make their way to McAlester's store, where the marshal arranges for the four dead men to be buried. The three continue their pursuit. After a few days, Mattie slips down a steep hill one morning on her way to bathe in a river and finds herself face-to-face with Chaney. She shoots and wounds him, calling out to her partners. Pepper and his gang capture her, and he forces Cogburn and La Boeuf to abandon the girl. Cogburn doubles back and attacks Pepper and his gang. La Boeuf finds Mattie and moves Chaney to an area he thinks is secure. La Boeuf and Mattie move to an outcropping and watch as a mounted Cogburn confronts Ned and his three gang members. Cogburn tells Pepper he has a choice of getting killed or surrendering and being hanged at Judge Isaac Parker's convenience. Pepper replies that is "bold talk for a one-eyed fat man." Cogburn shouts "Fill your hand, you son of a bitch!" just as he begins charging the four gunmen firing a rifle in one hand and a pistol in the other and holding the horse's reins in his mouth. Rooster shoots down three of the gang and wounds Pepper, but Rooster is trapped under his fallen horse which has been shot by Ned. As Pepper prepares to shoot Rooster, La Boeuf kills Pepper from the outcropping located a great distance away. As La Boeuf and Mattie return to Pepper's camp, Chaney comes out from behind a tree and strikes La Boeuf in the head with a rock, immediately knocking him unconscious and causing an ultimately fatal wound. Mattie shoots and wounds Chaney in the arm but, driven back from the recoil, falls into a pit breaking her arm. Cogburn arrives and fatally shoots Chaney, sending him into the pit. As Cogburn descends into the pit on a rope to retrieve Mattie, she is bitten by a rattlesnake, which he shoots and kills. La Boeuf, thought to be dead, peers over the pit and helps them get out by tying the rope to his horse and riding is slowly away from the pit. After Mattie and Cogburn are safely out of the pit, La Boeuf collapses and dies. In a hurry to get help for Mattie's snakebite, they have to leave La Boeuf's body. They both must ride Mattie’s horse, but the overloaded horse collapses and succumbs before they reach their destination. Undaunted, Cogburn gathers Mattie in his arms and carries her until they encounter some horsemen with a wagon. Cogburn steals the wagon and they ride it the rest of the way to McAlester's. There, an Indian doctor treats Mattie's snakebite and splints her broken arm. Days later, Mattie's attorney, J. Noble Daggett arrives. Throughout the plot, Mattie has frequently used his name as a legal threat on occasions when she fails to get her way. He pays Cogburn a $75 reward for Chaney's capture, plus an additional $200 for saving her life. Mattie is still ill from the snakebite and Cogburn offers to bet the attorney the $275 that Mattie will make it back to her home, but Daggett declines to bet against her. Weeks later, Mattie, arm in a sling, is recovered and at home. She shows a visiting Cogburn her family burial plot on the land. Cogburn was there to receive all the reward money offered for Chaney in Texas, which was apparently more than the $75 he initially received. She promises that he can be buried next to her family after his death. Cogburn reluctantly accepts, hoping his burial will not be too soon. She offers him her father's pistol which he reluctantly accepts, stating that it misfired once. He leaves, jumping over a fence with his new horse to disprove her claim that he was too old and fat. He heads off into the valley below as the film ends.

positive

positive

True Grit

Rooster Cogburn

Portis’ novel is narrated by Mattie Ross, a thrifty, churchgoing older spinster distinguished by intelligence, independence and strength of mind. Speaking in 1903, she recounts the story of her adventures many years earlier, when, at the age of fourteen, she undertook a quest to avenge her father’s death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney. She is joined on her quest by Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced "La-beef"). As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross’ family farm in west central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney is not adept as a farmhand, and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash", and noting that her kind-hearted father, Frank, only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses, along with two gold pieces he always carried. He ends up spending only $100 on the horses. When Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation involving Chaney, Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (present day Oklahoma) on his horse. Hearing that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous "Lucky" Ned Pepper, Mattie wishes to track down the killer, and upon arriving at Fort Smith she looks for the toughest deputy U.S. Marshal in the district. That man turns out to be Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn, and although he is an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man, Mattie is convinced that he has "grit", and that he is best suited for the job due to his reputation for violence. Playing on Cogburn's need for money, Mattie persuades him to take on the job, insisting that, as part of the bargain, she accompany him. During their preparation, a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf appears. He too is tracking Chaney, and has been for four months, for killing a senator and his dog in Texas, with the hopes of bringing him back to Texas dead or alive for a cash reward. Cogburn and LaBoeuf take a dislike to each other, but after some haggling, they agree to join forces in the hunt realizing that they can both benefit from each other's respective talents and knowledge. Once they reach a deal the two men attempt to leave Mattie behind, but she proves more tenacious than they had expected. They repeatedly try to lose her, but she persists in following them and seeing her transaction with Marshal Cogburn through to the end. Eventually she is jumped by Cogburn and LaBoeuf, who had hid themselves from view and LaBoeuf begins to spank Mattie. Mattie appeals to Cogburn and he orders LaBoeuf to stop. At this point Mattie is allowed to join their posse. Together, but with very different motivations, the three ride into the wilderness to confront Ned Pepper's gang. Along the way, they develop an appreciation for one another.

Because of his drunkenness and questionable use of firearms, aging U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn has been stripped of his badge. But he's given a chance to redeem himself after a village in Indian Territory is overrun by a gang of violent, ruthless criminals, who've killed an elderly preacher, Rev. George Goodnight. His spinster daughter, Eula Goodnight, wants to track the criminals down and makes Rooster an unwilling partner. But Rooster must use care, because the criminals, led by Hawk and Breed, have stolen a shipment of nitroglycerine.

negative

positive

Donovan's Brain

The Lady and the Monster

The novel is written in the form of diary entries by Dr. Patrick Cory, a middle-aged physician whose experiments at keeping a brain alive are subsidized by Cory's wealthy wife. Under investigation for tax evasion and criminal financial activities, millionaire megalomaniac W.H. Donovan crashes his private plane in the desert near the home of Dr. Cory. The physician is unable to save Donovan's life, but removes his brain on the chance that it might survive, placing the gray matter in an electrically charged, oxygenated saline solution within a glass tank. The brainwaves indicate that thought&mdash;and life&mdash;continue. Cory makes several futile attempts to communicate with it. Finally, one night Cory receives unconscious commands, jotting down a list of names in a handwriting not his own—it is Donovan's. Cory successfully attempts telepathic contact with Donovan's brain, much to the concern of Cory's occasional assistant, Dr. Schratt, an elderly alcoholic. Gradually, the malignant intelligence takes over Cory's personality, leaving him in an amnesiac fugue state when he awakes. The brain uses Cory to do his bidding, signing checks in Donovan's name, and continuing the magnate's illicit financial schemes. Cory becomes increasingly like the paranoid Donovan himself, his physique and manner morphing into the limping image of the departed criminal. Donovan's bidding culminates in an attempt to have Cory kill a young girl who stands in the way of his plans. Realizing he will soon have no control over his own body and mind, Cory devises a plan to destroy the brain during its quiescent period. Cory resists the brain's hypnotic power by repeating the rhyme "He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts." With Dr. Schratt's help, he destroys the housing tank with an ax and leaves the brain of Donovan to die, thus ending his reign of madness.

The film is about the attempts to keep alive the brain of a multimillionaire after his death, only to create a telepathic monster. The man then takes over the medical assistant's mind, and the "lady" of the title has to fight it.

negative

negative

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind takes place in the southern United States in the state of Georgia during the American Civil War (1861–1865) and the Reconstruction Era (1865–1877) that followed the war. The novel unfolds against the backdrop of rebellion wherein seven southern states, Georgia among them, have declared their secession from the United States (the "Union") and formed the Confederate States of America (the "Confederacy"), after Abraham Lincoln was elected president with no ballots from ten Southern states where slavery was legal. A dispute over states' rights has arisen had an effect on men, especially when she took notice of them. It is the day before the men are called to war, Fort Sumter having been fired on two days earlier. There are brief but vivid descriptions of the South as it began and grew, with backgrounds of the main characters: the stylish and highbrow French, the gentlemanly English, the forced-to-flee and looked-down-upon Irish. Miss Scarlett learns that one of her many beaux, Ashley Wilkes, is soon to be engaged to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. She is stricken at heart. The following day at the Wilkeses' barbecue at "Twelve Oaks," Scarlett informs Ashley she loves him and Ashley admits he cares for her. However, he knows he would not be happily married to Scarlett because of their personality differences. Scarlett loses her temper at Ashley and he silently takes it. Then Scarlett meets Rhett Butler, a man who has a reputation as a rogue. Rhett had been alone in the library when Ashley and Scarlett entered, and felt it wiser to not make his presence known while the argument took place. Rhett applauds Scarlett for the unladylike spirit she displayed with Ashley. Infuriated and humiliated, Scarlett tells Rhett, "You aren't fit to wipe Ashley's boots!" Upon leaving the library and rejoining the other party guests, she finds out that war has been declared and the men are going to enlist. Seeking revenge for being jilted by Ashley, Scarlett accepts a proposal of marriage from Melanie's brother, Charles Hamilton. They marry two weeks later. Charles dies from measles two months after the war begins. Scarlett is pregnant with her first child. A widow at merely sixteen, she gives birth to a boy, Wade Hampton Hamilton, named after his father's general. As a widow, she is bound by tradition to wear black and avoid conversation with young men. Scarlett is despondent as a result of the restrictions placed upon her. Melanie, who is living in Atlanta with Aunt Pittypat, invites Scarlett to live with them. In Atlanta, Scarlett's spirits revive and she is busy with hospital work and sewing circles for the Confederate army. Scarlett encounters Rhett Butler again at a dance for the Confederacy. Although Rhett believes the war is a lost cause, he is blockade running for the profit in it. The men must bid for a dance with a lady and Rhett bids "one hundred fifty dollars-in gold." for a dance with Scarlett. Everyone at the dance is shocked that Rhett would bid for Scarlett, the widow still dressed in black. Melanie smooths things over by coming to Rhett's defense because he is generously supporting the Confederate cause for which her husband, Ashley, is fighting. At Christmas (1863), Ashley has been granted a furlough from the army and returns to Atlanta to be with Melanie. The war is going badly for the Confederacy. Atlanta is under siege (September 1864), "hemmed in on three sides," it descends into a desperate state while hundreds of wounded Confederate soldiers lie dying or dead in the city. Melanie goes into labor with only the inexperienced Scarlett to assist, as all the doctors are busy attending the soldiers. Prissy, a young Negro servant girl, cries out in despair and fear, "De Yankees is comin!" In the chaos, Scarlett, left to fend for herself, cries for the comfort and safety of her mother and Tara. The tattered Confederate States Army sets flame to Atlanta as they abandon it to the Union Army. Melanie gives birth to a boy named "Beau", and now they must hurry for refuge. Scarlett tells Prissy to go find Rhett, but she is afraid to "go runnin' roun' in de dahk". Scarlett replies to Prissy, "Haven't you any gumption?" Prissy then finds Rhett, and Scarlett begs him to take herself, Wade, Melanie, Beau, and Prissy to Tara. Rhett laughs at the idea, but steals an emaciated horse and a small wagon, and they follow the retreating army out of Atlanta. Part way to Tara, Rhett has a change of heart and he abandons Scarlett to enlist in the army. Scarlett makes her way to Tara without him where she is welcomed on the steps by her father, Gerald. It is clear things have drastically changed: Gerald has lost his mind, Scarlett's mother is dead, her sisters are sick with typhoid fever, the field slaves left after Emancipation, the Yankees have burned all the cotton and there is no food in the house. The long tiring struggle for post-war survival begins that has Scarlett working in the fields. There are so many hungry people to feed and so little food. There is the ever present threat of the Yankees who steal and burn, and at one point, Scarlett kills a Yankee marauder with a single shot from Charles's pistol leaving "a bloody pit where the nose had been." A long succession of Confederate soldiers returning home stop at Tara to find food and rest. Two men stay on, an invalid Cracker, Will Benteen, and Ashley Wilkes, whose spirit is broken. Life at Tara slowly begins to recover when a new threat appears in the form of new taxes on Tara. Scarlett knows only one man who has enough money to help her pay the taxes, Rhett Butler. She goes to Atlanta to find him only to learn Rhett is in jail. As she is leaving the jailhouse, Scarlett runs into Frank Kennedy, who is betrothed to Scarlett's sister, Suellen, and running a store in Atlanta. Soon realizing Frank also has money, Scarlett hatches a plot and tells Frank that Suellen has changed her mind about marrying him. Thereafter Frank succumbs to Scarlett's feminine charms and he marries her two weeks later knowing he has done "something romantic and exciting for the first time in his life." Always wanting Scarlett to be happy and radiant, Frank gives her the money to pay the taxes on Tara. While Frank has a cold and is being pampered by Aunt Pittypat, Scarlett goes over the accounts at Frank's store and finds many of his friends owe him money. Scarlett is now terrified about the taxes and decides money, a lot of it, is needed. She takes control of his business while he is away and her business practices leave many Atlantans resentful of her. Then with a loan from Rhett she buys a sawmill and runs the lumber business herself, all very unladylike conduct. Much to Frank's relief, Scarlett learns she is pregnant, which curtails her activities for awhile. She convinces Ashley to come to Atlanta and manage the mill, all the while still in love with him. At Melanie's urging, Ashley takes the job at the mill. Melanie soon becomes the center of Atlanta society, and Scarlett gives birth to a girl named Ella Lorena. "Ella for her grandmother Ellen, and Lorena because it was the most fashionable name of the day for girls." The state of Georgia is under martial law and life there has taken on a new and more frightening tone. For protection, Scarlett keeps Frank's pistol tucked in the upholstery of the buggy. Her trips alone to and from the mill take her past a shanty town where criminal elements live. On one evening when she is coming home from the mill, Scarlett is accosted by two men who attempt to rob her, but she escapes with the help of Big Sam, the former negro foreman from Tara. Attempting to avenge the assault on his wife, Frank and the Ku Klux Klan raid the shanty town whereupon Frank is shot dead. Scarlett is a widow for a second time. Rhett puts on a charade to keep the men who participated in the shanty town raid from being arrested. He walks into the Wilkeses' home with Hugh Elsing and Ashley, singing and pretending to be drunk. Yankee officers outside the home question Rhett and he tells them he and the other men had been at Belle Watling's brothel that evening, a story Belle later confirms to the officers. The men are indebted to Rhett for saving them, and his Scallawag reputation among them improves a notch, but the men's wives, with the exception of Melanie, are livid at owing their husbands' lives to Belle Watling. Frank Kennedy lies cold in a coffin in the quiet stillness of the parlor in Aunt Pittypat's home. Scarlett is in a remorseful state. She is swigging brandy from Aunt Pitty's swoon bottle when Rhett comes to call. She tells Rhett tearfully, "I'm afraid I'll die and go to hell," to which Rhett replies, "Maybe there isn't a hell." Before she can cry any further, Rhett asks Scarlett to marry him saying, "I always intended having you, one way or another." Scarlett declares she doesn't love him and doesn't want to be married again. However, Rhett kisses her passionately, and in the heat of the moment she agrees to marry him. One year later, Scarlett and Rhett announce their engagement. News of the impending marriage is the talk of the town. Mr. and Mrs. Butler honeymoon in New Orleans, spending lavishly. Upon their return to Atlanta, the couple take up residence in the bridal suite at the National Hotel while their new home on Peachtree Street is being constructed. Scarlett chooses a modern Swiss chalet style home like the one she saw in Harper's Weekly, and red wallpaper, thick red carpet and black walnut furniture for the interior. Rhett describes the house as an "architectural horror". Shortly after the Butlers move into their new home, the sardonic jabs between them turn into full-blown quarrels. Scarlett wonders why Rhett married her. Then "with real hate in her eyes" she tells Rhett she is going to have a baby, a baby she does not want. Wade is seven years old in 1869 when his sister, Eugenie Victoria, named after two queens, arrives in the world. She has blue eyes like Gerald O'Hara and Melanie gives her the nickname, "Bonnie Blue," in reference to the Bonnie Blue Flag of the Confederacy. When Scarlett is feeling well again, she makes a trip to the mill and talks to Ashley, who is alone in the office. In the conversation with him, she comes away believing Ashley still loves her and is jealous of her intimate relations with Rhett, which excites her. Scarlett returns home and tells Rhett she does not want more children. From then on, Scarlett and Rhett sleep in separate bedrooms, and when Bonnie is two years old, she sleeps in a little bed beside Rhett's bed (with the light on all night long because she is afraid of the dark). Rhett turns his attention towards Bonnie, dotes on her, spoils her, and worries about her reputation when she is older. Melanie is giving a surprise birthday party for Ashley. Scarlett goes to the mill to keep Ashley there until party time, a rare opportunity for Scarlett to see Ashley alone. When she sees him, she feels "sixteen again, a little breathless and excited." Ashley tells her how pretty she looks, and they reminisce about the days when they were young and talk about their lives now. Suddenly Scarlett's eyes fill with tears and Ashley holds her head against his chest. Then in the doorway of the office Ashley sees standing his sister, India Wilkes. Before the party has even begun rumors of an adulterous relationship between Ashley and Scarlett have started, and Rhett and Melanie have heard the gossip. Melanie refuses to accept any criticism of her sister in-law and India Wilkes is banished from the Wilkeses' home for it, causing a rift in the family. Rhett, more drunk than Scarlett has ever seen him, returns home the evening of the party long after Scarlett. His eyes are bloodshot and his mood is dark and violent. He enjoins Scarlett to drink with him. Not wanting Rhett to know she is fearful of him, Scarlett throws back a drink and gets up from her chair to go back to her bedroom. But Rhett stops her and pins her shoulders to the wall. Scarlett tells Rhett he is jealous of Ashley and Rhett accuses Scarlett of "crying for the moon" over Ashley. He tells Scarlett they could have been happy together saying, "for I loved you and I know you." Rhett then takes Scarlett in his arms and carries her up the stairs to her bedroom where passion envelops them. The following morning Rhett leaves town with Bonnie and Prissy and stays away for three months. Scarlett finds herself missing him, but she is still unsure if Rhett loves her, having told her so when he was drunk. She learns she is pregnant with her fourth child. On the day Rhett arrives home, Scarlett waits for him at the top of the stairs. She wonders if Rhett will kiss her, but to Scarlett's irritation, he does not. He tells her she looks pale. Scarlett tells him she is pale because she is pregnant. Rhett sarcastically asks her if the father is Ashley. She calls Rhett a cad and tells him no woman would want a baby of his. To which Rhett responds, "cheer up, maybe you'll have a miscarriage." At that comment, Scarlett lunges at Rhett, but he side steps and she tumbles backwards down the stairs. She is seriously ill for the first time in her life, having lost her child and broken her ribs. Rhett is remorseful, believing he has killed her. Sobbing and drunk, Rhett buries his head in Melanie's lap and confesses he had been a jealous cad. Scarlett, who is thin and pale, goes to Tara taking Wade and Ella with her, to regain her strength and vitality from "the green cotton fields of home." When she returns a healthy woman to Atlanta, she sells the mills to Ashley. She finds Rhett's attitude has noticeably changed. He is sober, kinder, polite and seemingly disinterested. Though she misses the old Rhett at times, Scarlett is content to leave well enough alone. Now Bonnie is four years old in 1873. A spirited and willful child, she has her father wrapped around her finger and giving into her every demand. Even Scarlett is jealous of the attention she gets from him. Rhett rides his horse around town with Bonnie in front of him, but the household mammy, "Mammy," insists it is not fitting for a girl to ride a horse with her dress flying up. Rhett heeds Mammy's words and buys Bonnie a Shetland pony, whom she names "Mr. Butler," and teaches her to ride sidesaddle. Then Rhett pays a boy named Wash twenty-five cents to teach Mr. Butler to jump over wood bars. When Mr. Butler is able to get his fat legs over a one foot high bar, Rhett puts Bonnie on the pony, and soon Mr. Butler is leaping bars and Aunt Melly's rose bushes. Wearing her blue velvet riding habit with a red feather in her black hat, Bonnie pleads with her father to raise the bar to one and a half feet. He gives in and raises the bar, warning her not to come crying to him if she falls. Bonnie yells to her Mother, "Watch me take this one!" The pony gallops towards the wood bar, but trips over it splintering the wood. Mr. Butler tumbles to the ground then scrambles to his feet and trots off with an empty saddle. Little Miss "Bonnie Blue" Butler is dead. In the dark days and months following Bonnie's death, Rhett is often drunk and disheveled, while Scarlett, though deeply grieved also, seems to hold up under the strain. With the untimely death of Melanie Wilkes a short time later, Rhett decides he only wants the calm dignity of the genial South he once knew in his youth and he leaves Atlanta to find it. Meanwhile, Scarlett dreams of love that has eluded her for so long. However, she still has Tara and is determined to win Rhett back, and "tomorrow is another day."

The film opens on a large cotton plantation called Tara in rural Georgia in 1861, on the eve of the American Civil War. Scarlett O'Hara is flirting with the two Tarleton brothers, Brent and Stuart, who have been expelled from the University of Georgia. Scarlett, Suellen, and Careen are the daughters of Irish immigrant Gerald O’Hara and his wife, Ellen O'Hara, who is of aristocratic French ancestry. The brothers share a secret with Scarlett: Ashley Wilkes, whom Scarlett secretly loves, is to be married to his cousin, Melanie Hamilton. The engagement is to be announced the next day at a barbecue at Ashley's home, the nearby plantation Twelve Oaks. At Twelve Oaks, Scarlett notices that she is being admired by Rhett Butler, who has been turned out of West Point and disowned by his Charleston family. Rhett finds himself in further disfavor among the male guests when, during a discussion of the probability of war, he states that the South has no chance against the superior numbers and industrial might of the North. Scarlett sneaks out of the afternoon nap time to be alone with Ashley in the library, and confesses her love for him. He admits he has always secretly loved Scarlett but that he and the sweet Melanie are more compatible. She accuses Ashley of misleading her and slaps him in anger. Ashley exits as Rhett reveals he has overheard the whole conversation, sleeping unseen on a couch. Rhett promises to keep her guilty secret. Scarlett leaves the library in haste, and the barbecue is disrupted by the announcement that war has broken out. The men rush to enlist, and all the ladies are awakened from their naps. As Scarlett watches Ashley kiss Melanie goodbye from the upstairs window, Melanie’s shy younger brother Charles Hamilton, with whom Scarlett had been innocently flirting, asks for her hand in marriage before he goes. Despite not truly loving Charles, Scarlett consents. They are married before he leaves to fight. Ironically, Scarlett is quickly widowed when Charles dies from a bout of pneumonia and measles while in the Confederate Army. Scarlett's mother sends her to the Hamilton home in Atlanta to cheer her up, although the O’Haras' outspoken housemaid Mammy tells Scarlett she knows she is going there only to wait for Ashley’s return. Scarlett and Melanie attend a charity bazaar in Atlanta; Scarlett, who should be in deep mourning, is turned against and whispered about. Rhett, now a heroic blockade runner for the Confederacy, makes a surprise appearance. Scarlett shocks Atlanta society even more by accepting Rhett's large bid for a dance. While they dance, Rhett tells her of his intention to win her, which she says will never happen as long as she lives. The tide of war turns against the Confederacy after the Battle of Gettysburg in which many of the men of Scarlett's town are killed. Scarlett makes another unsuccessful appeal to Ashley’s heart while he is visiting on Christmas furlough, although they do share a private and passionate kiss while in the parlor on Christmas Day, just before he leaves for the war. In the hospital, Scarlett and Melanie care for a convalescent soldier. Eight months later, as the city is besieged by the Union Army in the Atlanta Campaign, Melanie goes into a premature and difficult labor. Staying true to a promise Scarlett made to Ashley to "take care of Melanie," she and her young house servant Prissy must deliver the child without medical attendance. Scarlett calls upon Rhett to bring her home to Tara immediately with Melanie, Prissy, and the baby. He appears with a horse and wagon to take them out of the city on a perilous journey through the burning depot and warehouse district. He leaves her with a nearly dead horse, helplessly frail Melanie, her baby, and tearful Prissy, and with a passionate kiss as he goes off to fight. On her journey home, Scarlett finds Twelve Oaks burned out, ruined and deserted. She is relieved to find Tara still standing but deserted by all except her parents, her sisters, and two servants: Mammy and Pork . Scarlett learns that her mother has just died of typhoid fever and her father's mind has begun to crumble under the strain. With Tara pillaged by Union troops and the fields untended, Scarlett vows she will do anything for the survival of her family and herself, exclaiming, "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again!" Scarlett sets her family and servants to picking the cotton fields. She also kills a Union deserter who threatens her during a burglary and finds Union currency in his wallet, enough to sustain her family and servants for a time. With the defeat of the Confederacy and war's end, Ashley returns. Mammy restrains Scarlett from running to him when he reunites with Melanie. The dispirited Ashley finds he is of little help to Tara, and when Scarlett begs him to run away with her, he confesses his desire for her and kisses her passionately, but says he cannot leave Melanie. Gerald dies after he is thrown from his horse in an attempt to chase from his property a Scalawag, his former plantation overseer who now wants to buy Tara. Scarlett realizes she cannot pay the rising taxes on Tara implemented by Reconstructionists. Knowing Rhett is in Atlanta, she has Mammy make an elaborate gown for her from her mother’s drapes. However, upon her visit, Rhett, now in jail, tells her his foreign bank accounts have been blocked, and that her attempt to get his money has been in vain. As Scarlett departs, she encounters her sister’s fiancé, the middle-aged Frank Kennedy, who now owns a successful general store and lumber mill. Scarlett lies to Kennedy by saying Suellen got tired of waiting and married another beau, and after becoming Mrs. Frank Kennedy, Scarlett takes over his business and becomes wealthy. When Ashley is about to take a job with a bank in the north, Scarlett preys on his weakness by weeping that she needs him to help run the mill; pressured by the sympathetic Melanie, he relents. One day, after Scarlett is attacked while driving alone through a nearby shantytown, Frank, Ashley, and others make a night raid on the shantytown. Ashley is wounded in a melee with Union troops, and Frank is killed. With Frank’s funeral barely over, Rhett visits Scarlett and proposes marriage. Scarlett accepts. He kisses her passionately and tells her that he will win her love one day because they are both the same. After a honeymoon in New Orleans, Rhett promises to restore Tara to its former grandeur, while Scarlett builds the biggest mansion in Atlanta. The two have a daughter. Scarlett wants to name her Eugenie Victoria, but Rhett names her Bonnie Blue Butler. Rhett adores her. He does everything to win the good opinion of Atlanta society for his daughter’s sake. Scarlett, still pining for Ashley and chagrined at the perceived ruin of her figure , lets Rhett know that she wants no more children and that they will no longer share a bed. In anger, he kicks open the door that separates their bedrooms to show her that she cannot keep him away. When visiting the mill one day, Scarlett listens to a nostalgic Ashley, and when she consoles him with an embrace, they are spied by two gossips including Ashley's sister India, who hates Scarlett. They eagerly spread the rumor and Scarlett’s reputation is again sullied. Later that night, Rhett, having heard the rumors, forces Scarlett out of bed and to attend a birthday party for Ashley. Incapable of believing anything bad of her beloved sister-in-law, Melanie stands by Scarlett's side so that all know that she believes the gossip to be false. At home later that night, Scarlett finds Rhett downstairs drunk. Blind with jealousy, he tells Scarlett that he could kill her if he thought it would make her forget Ashley. He carries her up the stairs in his arms, telling her, "This is one night you're not turning me out." She awakens the next morning with a look of guilty pleasure, but Rhett returns to apologize for his behavior and offers a divorce, which Scarlett rejects saying it would be a disgrace. Rhett decides to take Bonnie on an extended trip to London only to realize, after Bonnie suffers a terrible nightmare, that she still needs her mother by her side. Rhett returns and Scarlett is delighted to see him, but he rebuffs her attempts at reconciliation. She tells him that she is pregnant again. An argument ensues, and Scarlett, enraged, lunges at Rhett, falls down the stairs, and suffers a miscarriage. Rhett, frantic with guilt, cries to Melanie about his jealousy yet refrains from telling Melanie about Scarlett's feelings for Ashley. As Scarlett is recovering, little Bonnie dies while attempting to jump a fence with her pony. Scarlett blames Rhett; Rhett blames himself. Melanie visits the home to comfort them and convinces Rhett to allow Bonnie to be laid to rest, but then collapses during a second pregnancy she was warned could kill her. On her deathbed, Melanie asks Scarlett to look after Ashley for her, as Scarlett had looked after her for Ashley. With her dying breath, Melanie tells Scarlett to be kind to Rhett because he loves her. Outside, Ashley collapses in tears, forcing Scarlett to realize that Ashley only ever truly loved Melanie. Scarlett runs home to find Rhett preparing to leave. She pleads with him, telling him she realizes now that she had loved him all along, that she never really loved Ashley. However, he refuses, saying that with Bonnie's death went any chance of reconciliation. As Rhett walks out the door, she pleads, "Rhett, if you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?" He answers, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" and walks away into the fog. She sits on her stairs and weeps in despair, "What is there that matters?" She then recalls the voices of Gerald, Ashley, and Rhett, all of whom remind her that her strength comes from Tara itself. Hope lights Scarlett's face: "Tara! Home. I'll go home, and I'll think of some way to get him back! After all, tomorrow is another day!" It ends with a silhouette of Scarlett standing under a large tree, looking forward. In the distance lies Tara.

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positive

The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter

The story starts in seventeenth century Boston in a Puritan settlement. A young woman, named Hester Prynne, has been led from the town prison with her infant child in her arms, and on the breast of her gown "a rag of scarlet cloth" that "assumed the shape of a letter." It is the uppercase letter "A." The Scarlet Letter "A" represents the act of adultery that she has committed and it is to be a symbol of her sin—a badge of shame—for all to see. A man, who is elderly and a stranger to the town, enters the crowd and asks another onlooker what's happening. The second man responds by explaining that Hester is being punished for adultery. Hester's husband, who is much older than she, and whose real name is unknown, has sent her ahead to America whilst settling affairs in Europe. However, her husband does not arrive in Boston and the consensus is that he has been lost at sea. It is apparent that, while waiting for her husband, Hester has had an affair, leading to the birth of her daughter. She will not reveal her lover's identity, however, and the scarlet letter, along with her subsequent public shaming, is the punishment for her sin and secrecy. On this day, Hester is led to the town scaffold and harangued by the town fathers, but she again refuses to identify her child's father. The elderly onlooker is Hester's missing husband, who is now practicing medicine and calling himself Roger Chillingworth. He reveals his true identity to Hester and medicates her daughter. They have a frank discussion where Chillingworth states that it was foolish and wrong for a cold, old intellectual like him to marry a young lively woman like Hester. He expressly states that he thinks that they have wronged each other and that he is even with her — her lover is a completely different matter. Hester refuses to divulge the name of her lover and Chillingworth does not press her stating that he will find out anyway. He does elicit a promise from her to keep his true identity as Hester's husband secret, though. He settles in Boston to practice medicine there. Several years pass. Hester supports herself by working as a seamstress, and her daughter, Pearl, grows into a willful, impish child, and is said to be the scarlet letter come to life as both Hester's love and her punishment. Shunned by the community, they live in a small cottage on the outskirts of Boston. Community officials attempt to take Pearl away from Hester, but with the help of Arthur Dimmesdale, an eloquent minister, the mother and daughter manage to stay together. Dimmesdale, however, appears to be wasting away and suffers from mysterious heart trouble, seemingly caused by psychological distress. Chillingworth attaches himself to the ailing minister and eventually moves in with him so that he can provide his patient with round-the-clock care. Chillingworth also suspects that there may be a connection between the minister's torments and Hester's secret, and he begins to test Dimmesdale to see what he can learn. One afternoon, while the minister sleeps, Chillingworth discovers something undescribed to the reader, supposedly an "A" burned into Dimmesdale's chest, which convinces him that his suspicions are correct. Dimmesdale's psychological anguish deepens, and he invents new tortures for himself. In the meantime, Hester's charitable deeds and quiet humility have earned her a reprieve from the scorn of the community. One night, when she is about seven years old, Pearl and her mother are returning home from a visit to the deathbed of John Winthrop when they encounter Dimmesdale atop the town scaffold, trying to punish himself for his sins. Hester and Pearl join him, and the three link hands. Dimmesdale refuses Pearl's request that he acknowledge her publicly the next day, and a meteor marks a dull red "A" in the night sky as Dimmesdale sees Chillingworth in the distance. It is interpreted by the townsfolk to mean Angel, as a prominent figure in the community had died that night, but Dimmesdale sees it as meaning adultery. Hester can see that the minister's condition is worsening, and she resolves to intervene. She goes to Chillingworth and asks him to stop adding to Dimmesdale's self-torment. Chillingworth refuses. She suggests that she may reveal his true identity to Dimmesdale. As Hester walks through the forest, she is unable to feel the sunshine. Pearl, on the other hand, basks in it. They coincide with Dimmesdale, also on a stroll through the woods. Hester informs him of the true identity of Chillingworth. The former lovers decide to flee to Europe, where they can live with Pearl as a family. They will take a ship sailing from Boston in four days. Both feel a sense of relief, and Hester removes her scarlet letter and lets down her hair. The sun immediately breaks through the clouds and trees to illuminate her release and joy. Pearl, playing nearby, does not recognize her mother without the letter. She is unnerved and expels a shriek until her mother points out the letter on the ground. Hester beckons Pearl to come to her, but Pearl will not go to her mother until Hester buttons the letter back onto her dress. Pearl then goes to her mother. Dimmesdale gives Pearl a kiss on the forehead, which Pearl immediately tries to wash off in the brook, because he again refuses to make known publicly their relationship. However, he clearly feels a release from the pretense of his former life, and the laws and sins he has lived with. The day before the ship is to sail, the townspeople gather for a holiday in honor of an election and Dimmesdale preaches his most eloquent sermon ever. Meanwhile, Hester has learned that Chillingworth knows of their plan and has booked passage on the same ship. Dimmesdale, leaving the church after his sermon, sees Hester and Pearl standing before the town scaffold. He looks ill. Knowing his life is about to end, he mounts the scaffold with his lover and his daughter, and confesses publicly, exposing the mark supposedly seared into the flesh of his chest. He dies in Hester's arms after Pearl kisses him. Frustrated in his revenge, Chillingworth dies within the year. Hester and Pearl leave Boston, and no one knows what has happened to them. Many years later, Hester returns alone, still wearing the scarlet letter, to live in her old cottage and resumes her charitable work. She receives occasional letters from Pearl, who was rumored to have married a European aristocrat and established a family of her own. Pearl also inherits all of Chillingworth's money even though he knows she is not his daughter. There is a sense of liberation in her and the townspeople, especially the women, who had finally begun to forgive Hester of her tragic indiscretion. When Hester dies, she is buried in "a new grave near an old and sunken one, in that burial ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both." The tombstone was decorated with a letter "A", for Hester and Dimmesdale.

In the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1667, there is an uneasy truce between Puritans and Algonquian. Metacomet becomes the tribe's new chief after the death and cremation of his father Massasoit. Hester Prynne arrives overseas from England, seeking independence. She waits for her husband, befriending Quakers and setting up a home. As time passes, she falls for a young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale , who feels the same way about her. When they hear the news that her husband has most likely been killed by Native Americans, they engage in a relationship. When she becomes pregnant, Hester is imprisoned for her indiscretions. Dimmesdale visits Hester in prison, telling her that he would declare himself the father, but Hester begs him not to. Hester tells him that she could not see the man she loved hang, for they did nothing wrong. Hester's daughter is then born in prison, and later Hester is publicly humiliated by being forced to wear a scarlet "A" for adultery. A drummer boy is ordered to follow her whenever she comes to town. On the same day, her husband reappears with Indians, after a year's absence. Going by the name of "Dr. Chillingworth", he stirs fears of witchcraft, while seeking out Hester's lover in order to exact his revenge. As his plans are done, he attacks and scalps a man riding to town from Hester's house, disguised as Indian. Once the villagers discover this cruelty, they blame it on the Indians and bring them all to a public place to judge them. Seeing this scene, Hester's husband understands his fault and its severe results. He hangs himself in his room. When the minister wants to talk to him, he discovers his dead body hanging from the roof of the room. He runs back to town and offers his throat instead of Hester's, admitting that he is the father of the child. When he is about to be put to death, the Indians save him and Hester, and a battle between them and the villagers starts. Both sides sustain heavy casualties, with no clear winner. Later, after visiting Hester's husband's grave, the three leave on a horse-driven buggy after Hester abandons her scarlet letter, and Pearl, who had been playing with it, drops it on the ground. Then finally before the end credits, Pearl reveals that her father dies before she becomes a teenager and that Hester never remarried.

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positive

Frankenstein

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.

This is not a direct adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel, but a postmodern gothic reinvention set in present-day New Orleans. It recasts the doctor as the villain and the creature as a tragic hero determined to stop him; the primary action involves two police detectives who enlist the aid of the creature to stop a serial killer who is one of Victor's later creations.

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positive