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The Vagina Monologues | Eve Ensler | null | The Vagina Monologues is made up of a varying number of monologues read by a varying number of women (initially, Eve Ensler performed every monologue herself, with subsequent performances featuring three actresses, and more recent versions featuring a different actress for every role). Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love, rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body. A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a tool of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality. Some monologues include: *I Was Twelve, My Mother Slapped Me: a chorus describing many young women's and girls' first menstrual period. *My Angry Vagina, in which a woman humorously rants about injustices wrought against the vagina, such as tampons, douches, and the tools used by OB/GYNs. *My Vagina Was My Village, a monologue compiled from the testimonies of Bosnian women subjected to rape camps. *The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could, in which a woman recalls memories of traumatic sexual experiences in her childhood and a self-described "positive healing" sexual experience in her adolescent years with an older woman. In the original version, she is 13, but later versions would change her age to 16. It also originally included the line, "If it was rape, it was a good rape." This particular skit has sparked outrage, numerous controversies and criticisms due to its content, among which the most famous is the Robert Swope controversy (see below). *Reclaiming Cunt, a piece narrated by a woman who illustrates that the word "cunt" itself is a lovely word despite its disconcerting connotations. *The Woman Who Loved to Make Vaginas Happy, in which a sex worker for women discusses the intriguing details of her career and her love of giving women pleasure. In several performances it often comes at the end of the play, literally climaxing with a vocal demonstration of a "triple orgasm". *Because He Liked to Look At It, in which a woman describes how she had thought her vagina was ugly and had been embarrassed to even think about it, but changed her mind because of a sexual experience with a man named Bob who liked to spend hours looking at it. *I Was There In The Room, a monologue in which Eve Ensler describes the birth of her granddaughter. Every year a new monologue is added to highlight a current issue affecting women around the world. Every V-Day thousands of local benefit productions are staged to raise funds for local groups, shelters, crisis centers working to end violence against women. In 2003, for example, Ensler wrote a new monologue about the plight of women in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. This Monologue is known as "Under the Burqa." |
Bridge of Birds | Barry Hughart | 1,984 | The story of the original draft begins at the Monastery of Shu, whose abbot abuses Li Kao until he saves the abbot's life. The abbot then gives him a beggar's bowl and robe and tells him one day he will be called and it is his duty to follow that call. Li Kao departs on a quest to become rich and stay young in China. Li Kao begins his journey in the city of Peking where he steals five hundred gold coins in order to start his life of wealth. While fleeing, he falls off a cliff and finds the legendary skull of Cheng Hang, who charges him to find three trinkets, a crystal ball, a bronze bell, and a small flute, in order to fix a terrible event that happened in heaven which has separated two gods in love who are unable to see each other due to the laws of heaven and can only be reunited by forming the Bridge of Birds. Li Kao is given only the knowledge of what to look for and the hint that Cheng Hang will somehow provide Li Kao with a dragon that will help guide him on his quest. His quest takes him to have multiple quarrels with the savage Duke of Ch’in who will do anything in his power to stop Li Kao from succeeding from finding a secret truth hidden inside the quest for the trinkets. In the end, he completes the quest, the Bridge of Birds is formed, and all in heaven is set right again. |
Viper in the Fist | Hervé Bazin | null | The story begins with the recollection of young Jean Rézeau catching a viper in his grandparents' courtyard and holding it in his fist. He chokes it to death. Young Jean lives with his grandparents. When his grandmother dies, his parents come back from China where his father teaches Law. He and his brothers then discover that their mother Paule is a horrible woman, who hates her life and her children. She is extremely severe with them and deliberately unfair to the point of cruelty. Their father is a weak man who, except on rare occasions, submits to his wife's will, and spends his time in entomology studies. Gradually, this turns to a perverse domestic war. Paule seizes any pretext for being cruel to her sons, and especially to Jean. Jean and his brother attempt to kill their mother twice: once with an overdose of medicine (which only gave her diarrhea), once by attempting to drown her in the river, making it seem an accident. She escapes. On one occasion, she asks their sons' personal educator to flog Jean as a punishment. Jean escapes and goes to see his grandfather, a senator living in an upscale area of Paris. He is brought back by his father, who is fairly embarrassed by the situation. Jean is now 15. He discovers sex with Madeleine, a young farmer's daughter from the area. He does not love her, for he distrusts all women, into whom he sees his own mother. He claims that women are little but an exutory for semen. Paule tries to have her son caught red-handed with theft by intentionally leaving her wallet in Jean's bedroom. Jean foils her plot and after a short confrontation, he obtains what he wants, and what Paule wants too: the departure of Jean and his brother to a boarding school. Jean concludes his memoirs by saying that while it seems that he has won, in reality Paule has destroyed his whole being. Throughout his life, he'll not be able to feel trust or love, he is the one that walks with a viper in his fist. |
A Child Called "It" | Dave Pelzer | 1,995 | The book is written as a memoir which covers physical and emotional abuse between Dave Pelzer and his biological mother. |
Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret | Judy Blume | null | The main conflict in the novel comes from Margaret's need to settle her mixed religious heritage. She deals with her issues of belief in God, as the story is frequently interlaced with her praying by beginning with the title's words "Are You there, God? it's me, Margaret." In school, she is assigned a year-long independent study project; she chooses a study on people's beliefs, which proves to be more than she can handle as she is finding out a lot about herself as well. She also is dealing with conflict between her grandparents on both sides of her family, as her maternal grandparents are trying to guarantee that she is indeed Christian as she was born with a Christian mother. Margaret enjoys spending time with her paternal grandmother, who seems to accept her for who she is and is more accepting of her son's interfaith marriage, although she has referred to Margaret as "my Jewish girl" and introduced her to synagogue services, supposedly for the purpose of showing her granddaughter what the Jewish faith entails, but in reality when Margaret asks she immediately claims that she always knew she was a "Jewish girl". Her grandmother's arrogance is again shown when her Christian grandparents come, claiming her as a Christian, she tells Margaret to remember that she's a Jewish girl. Margaret denies this and claims not to believe in God, which angers her grandmother. The ambiguities of her interfaith identity are particularly highlighted in a scene — following a heated argument with another girl — in which Margaret visits a church, finding her way to the confessional booth; there the unseen priest inquires as to her problems, but — believing at first that the priest is God himself speaking to her and not comprehending the concept of Christian confession or its confidential nature — she simply responds "I am sorry," before running out of the church in tears. Margaret eventually stops "talking to God" after being in the middle of a confrontation between her parents and maternal grandparents. She is angry at him for putting her in such a conflict. In the end of the book, she goes to the bathroom and finds spots of blood in her underwear. She calls her mom, who was prepared for this and has bought pads. She puts the pad on, and makes one final prayer to God before the book ends: Besides religion though, Margaret moves from New York to the New Jersey suburbs, where she encounters Nancy, who leads her into a club where they talk about boys, bras, and periods. She becomes attracted to Phillip Leory, a boy at school, and kisses him at a party while playing "Spin the Bottle." She does get a bra and is excited but also confused about growing up. |
Angels and Demons | Dan Brown | 2,000 | The plot follows Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon, as he tries to stop the Illuminati, a legendary secret society, from destroying Vatican City with the newly discovered power of antimatter. CERN director Maximilian Kohler discovers one of the facility's physicists, Leonardo Vetra, murdered. His chest is branded with an ambigram of the word "Illuminati". Kohler contacts Robert Langdon, an expert on the Illuminati, who determines that the ambigram is authentic. Kohler calls Vetra's adopted daughter Vittoria to the scene, and it is ascertained that the Illuminati have stolen a canister containing antimatter — a substance with destructive potential comparable to a small nuclear weapon. When at CERN the canister is stored in a unique electrical charger which ensures the anti-matters stability but when removed its back-up battery provides power for 24 hours after which the anti-matter will self-destruct. The canister is somewhere in Vatican City, with a security camera in front of it, as its digital clock counts down to the explosion. Langdon and Vittoria make their way to Vatican City, where the Pope has recently died. It is discovered that the four Preferiti, cardinals who are the most likely papal successor, are missing. Langdon and Vittoria search for the Preferiti in hopes that they will also find the antimatter canister. Their search is assisted by Camerlengo Carlo Ventresca (the late pope's closest aide) and the Vatican's Swiss Guard. Langdon attempts to retrace the steps of the "Path of Illumination", a process once used by the Illuminati as a means of inducting new members; aspirants to the order were required to follow a series of subtle clues left in various landmarks in and around Rome. The clues indicate the secret meeting place of the Illuminati. Langdon sets off on the Path of Illumination in hopes of delivering the Preferiti and recovering the antimatter canister. The Path leads Langdon to four locations in Rome, each associated with one of the primordial elements: 'Earth', 'Air', 'Fire', and 'Water'. Langdon finds one of the Preferiti murdered in a way thematically related to each location's related element. The first cardinal was branded with an Earth ambigram and had soil forced down his throat; the second was branded with an air ambigram and had his lungs punctured; the third was branded with a fire ambigram and was burned alive; and the fourth was branded with a water ambigram and was left to drown at the bottom of a fountain. After finding the bodies of the first two Preferiti, Langdon hurries to the Santa Maria della Vittoria Basilica and finds the Preferiti's abductor in the act of setting the third cardinal on fire. The kidnapper is an unnamed assassin who is working under the orders of the Illuminati master "Janus", whose true identity is unknown. Commander Olivetti is killed and the assassin kidnaps Vittoria. Langdon escapes and accosts the assassin at the final element's landmark (Water), but is unable to save the cardinal. Langdon must complete the Path of Illumination in order to find the assassin and rescue Vittoria. His search leads him to Castel Sant'Angelo, that hides a tunnel leading directly into the pope's chambers in the Vatican. Langdon frees Vittoria, and together they send the assassin falling several hundred feet to his death. The two hurry back to St. Peter's Basilica, where they find that Kohler has arrived to confront the camerlengo in private. Langdon and Vittoria fear that Kohler is Janus, and that he has come to murder the camerlengo. Hearing the camerlengo scream in agony from being branded with the Illuminati Diamond, the Swiss Guards burst into the room and open fire on Kohler. Just before he dies, Kohler gives Langdon a videotape that he claims will explain everything. With time running out, the Swiss Guard evacuates the Basilica. The camerlengo rushes back in, claiming that he has received a vision revealing the location of the antimatter canister. With Langdon in pursuit, the camerlengo ventures into the catacombs and finds the canister sitting atop the tomb of Saint Peter. Langdon and the camerlengo retrieve the antimatter and get in a helicopter with only minutes to spare. The camerlengo manages to parachute safely onto the roof of St. Peter's just as the canister explodes harmlessly in the sky. The crowd in St. Peter's Square look in awe as the camerlengo stands triumphantly before them. Because of this "miracle", the papal conclave debate whether to elect the camerlengo as the new Pope. Langdon managed to survive the explosion by using a window cover from the helicopter as a parachute, and landed in the Tiber River. After viewing Kohler's tape Langdon, Vittoria, and the cardinals confront the camerlengo; Shortly before the beginning of the novel, the Pope met with Leonardo Vetra who believed that anti-matter was capable of establishing a link between Man and God. Vetra's beliefs caused great discomfort to the camerlengo. While discussing Vetra, the pope reveals that his support is due to science having given him a son. Without waiting to hear the explanation (that the child was the result of artificial insemination), and horrified that the Pope appeared to have broken his vow of chastity, the camerlengo plots to "rectify" the situation. He poisoned the pope and, under the guise of an Illuminati master (Janus), he recruited the assassin, to kill Vetra, steal the antimatter, and kidnap and murder the Preferiti. The Camerlengo planted the antimatter in St. Peter's in order to be seen as the savior of Christendom. The Illuminati "involvement" was merely a plot engineered by the camerlengo to cover his own plans. It is revealed that Camerlengo Ventresca himself was the birth son of the late pope, conceived through artificial insemination. Overcome with guilt Ventresca soaks himself in oil and immolates himself before a crowd of onlookers in St. Peter's Square. |
The Science of Discworld | null | null | The Discworld part of the book begins when a new experimental power source for the Unseen University is commissioned in the university's squash court. The new "reactor" is capable of splitting the thaum (the basic particle of magic), in homage to the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor, which was housed in a rackets court at the University of Chicago. However, the wizards' new reactor produces vastly more magical energy than planned and threatens to explode, destroying the University, the Discworld, and the entire universe. The university's thinking engine, Hex, decides to divert all the magic into creating a space containing nothing — no matter, no energy, no reality, and, importantly, no magic. The Dean sticks his fingers in the space and "twiddles" them, inadvertently creating the universe. The wizards soon discover that they can move things around in the universe, using Hex. They call it the Roundworld (the Earth), because in it, matter seems to accrete into balls in space (instead of discs on the backs of turtles). They decide to appoint Rincewind, whom they dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning, the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, and send him down (against his will) to investigate this strange world. The wizards create a series of balls of matter in space, and give one of them a Moon (accidentally). This stabilizes the ball enough that, over a score of millennia (the wizards can skip over vast periods of Roundworld time, allowing them to view the history of the universe in less than a month), blobs of life emerge, ready to begin evolving into more complex forms. The book also features a fictional crab civilization and the dinosaurs (both of which are wiped out by comets/asteroids colliding with the earth), before jumping ahead to when an advanced civilization (presumably humans) has evacuated the earth due to an impending natural disaster. |
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket | Edgar Allan Poe | 1,838 | The book comprises a preface, 25 chapters, and an afterword, with a total of around 72,000 words. Arthur Gordon Pym was born on the island of Nantucket, famous for its fishing harbor and whaling. His best friend, Augustus Barnard, is the son of the captain of a whaling ship. One night, the two boys get drunk and decide, on Augustus's whim, to take advantage of the breeze and sail out on Pym's sailboat, the Ariel. But the breeze turns out to be the beginnings of a violent storm. The situation gets critical when Augustus passes out drunk, and the inexperienced Pym must take control of the dinghy. The Ariel is overtaken by the Penguin, a returning whaling ship. Against the captain's wishes, the crew of the "Penguin" turns back to search for and rescue both Augustus and Pym. After they're safely back on land, they decide to keep this episode a secret from their parents. His first ocean adventure does not dissuade Pym from sailing again; rather, his imagination is ignited by the experience. His interest is further fueled by the tales of a sailor's life that Augustus tells him. Pym decides to follow Augustus as a stowaway aboard the Grampus, a whaling vessel commanded by Augustus's father that is bound for the southern seas. Augustus helps Pym by preparing a hideout in the hold for him and smuggling Tiger, Pym's faithful dog, on board. Augustus promises to provide Pym with water and food until the ship is too far from shore to return, at which time Pym wants to reveal himself. Due to the stuffy atmosphere and vapors in the dark and cramped hold, Pym becomes increasingly comatose and delirious over the days. He can't communicate with Augustus, and the promised supplies fail to arrive, so Pym runs out of water. In the course of his ordeal, he discovers a letter written in blood attached to his dog Tiger, warning Pym to remain hidden, as his life depends on it. Augustus finally sets Pym free, explaining the mysterious message, as well as his delay in retrieving his friend: a mutiny had erupted on the whaling ship. Part of the crew was slaughtered by the mutineers, while another group, including Augustus's father, were set adrift in a small boat. Augustus survived because he had befriended one of the mutineers, Dirk Peters, who now regrets his part in the uprising. Peters, Pym, and Augustus hatch a plan to seize control of the ship: Pym, whose presence is unknown to the mutineers, will wait for a storm and then dress in the clothes of a recently-dead sailor, masquerading as a ghost. In the confusion sure to break out among the superstitious sailors, Peters and Augustus, helped by Tiger, will take over the ship again. Everything goes according to plan, and soon the three men are masters of the Grampus: all the mutineers are killed or thrown overboard except one, Richard Parker, whom they spare to help them run the vessel. The storm increases in force, breaking the mast, tearing the sails and flooding the hold. All four manage to survive by lashing themselves to the hull. As the storm abates, they find themselves safe for the moment, but without provisions. Over the following days, the men face death by starvation and thirst. They sight an erratically moving Dutch ship with a grinning red-capped seaman on deck, nodding in apparent greeting as they approach. Initially delighted with the prospect of deliverance, they quickly become horrified as they are overcome with an awful stench. They soon realize that the apparently cheerful sailor is, in fact, a corpse propped up in the ship's rigging, his "grin" a result of his partially decomposed skull moving as a seagull feeds upon it. As the ship passes, it becomes clear that all its occupants are rotting corpses. As time passes, with no sign of land or other ships, Parker suggests that one of them should be killed as food for the others. They draw straws, following the Custom of the Sea and Parker is sacrificed. This gives the others a reprieve, but Augustus soon dies from wounds received when they reclaimed the Grampus, and several more storms batter the already badly damaged ship. Pym and Peters float on the upturned hull and are close to death when they are rescued by the Jane Guy, a ship out of Liverpool. On the Jane Guy, Pym and Peters become part of the crew and join the ship on its expedition to hunt sea calves and seals for fur, and to explore the southern oceans. Pym studies the islands around the Cape of Good Hope, becoming interested in the social structures of penguins, albatrosses, and other sea birds. Upon his urging, the captain agrees to sail further south towards the unexplored Antarctic regions. The ship crosses an ice barrier and arrives in open sea, close to the South Pole, albeit with a mild climate. Here the Jane Guy comes upon a mysterious island called Tsalal, inhabited by a tribe of black, apparently friendly natives led by a chief named Too-Wit. The color white is alien to the island's inhabitants and unnerves them, because nothing that color exists there. Even the natives' teeth are black. The island is also home to many undiscovered species of flora and fauna. Even its water is different from water elsewhere, being strangely thick and exhibiting multicolored veins. The natives' relationship with the sailors is initially cordial, so Too-Wit and the captain begin trading. Their friendliness, however, turns out to be a ruse and on the eve of the ship's proposed departure, the natives ambush the crew in a narrow gorge. Everyone except Pym and Peters is slaughtered, and the Jane Guy is overrun and burned by the malevolent tribe. Pym and Peters hide in the mountains surrounding the site of the ambush. They discover a labyrinth of passages in the hills with strange marks on the walls, and disagree about whether these are the result of artificial or natural causes. Facing a shortage of food, they make a desperate run and steal a pirogue from the natives, narrowly escaping from the island and taking one of its inhabitants prisoner. The small boat drifts further south on a current of increasingly warm water, which has become milky white in color. After several days they encounter a rain of ashes and then observe a huge cataract of fog or mist, which splits open to accommodate their entrance upon approach. The native dies as a huge shrouded white figure appears before them. Here the novel ends abruptly. A short postscript, ostensibly written by the book's editors, compares the shapes of the labyrinth and the wall marks noted by Pym to Arabian and Egyptian letters and hieroglyphs with meanings of "Shaded", "White", and "Region to the South". |
Villette | Charlotte Brontë | 1,853 | Villette begins with its famously passive and secretive protagonist, Lucy Snowe, age 14, observing her godmother, Mrs. Bretton, Mrs. Bretton's son, Graham, and a young visitor, Paulina Home, known to everyone as "Polly." The child is a peculiar little thing and soon develops a deep devotion for the younger Graham, who showers her with attention until her stay is cut short when her father comes to take her away. Lucy left the house soon after the child's departure, and after some initial hesitation, she was hired as a carer by Miss Marchmont, a rheumatic crippled woman. Soon she was accustomed to her new career and host, and started feeling content with the quiet lifestyle. However, in an evening with dramatic weather changes, Miss Marchmont magically regained all her energies and felt young again. She shared her sad love story of thirty years previously with Lucy, and concluded that she should try to treat Lucy better, be a better person since then and would get together with her dead lover through death. In the very next morning, Lucy found Miss Marchmont peacefully lifeless in bed. In the ensuing years, an unspecified family tragedy forces Lucy into action, causing her to seek employment, and at age 23 she boards a ship for "Labassecour" (French for 'farmyard' and based on Belgium) despite not speaking a word of French on a hope that maybe she may find something in a new place. After arriving in the capital city of Villette, Lucy finds work as a teacher at Mme. Beck's boarding school for girls (which can be seen as a literary representation of the Hégers' Brussels pensionnat), and thrives despite Mme. Beck's constant surveillance of the students and staff. Dr. John, a handsome English doctor, frequently visits the school because of his love for the coquette Ginevra. In one of Villettes famous plot twists, Dr. John is later revealed to be Graham Bretton, a fact that Lucy has known but deliberately concealed from the reader. After Dr. John discovers Ginevra's unworthiness, his brotherly instincts turn his attention to Lucy, and they become close friends which she values very highly despite her usual emotional reserve. We meet "Polly" again at this point (although her father has come into the title de Bassompierre which makes her now Paulina Home de Bassompierre) when Dr. Bretton saves her from being trodden upon at the theatre one night. They soon discover that they know each other and renew their friendship, which quickly blossoms into something more. The two fall in love and eventually marry, which Lucy has long seen coming, and she understands without sharing their facile happiness. At the same time, Lucy has the first of several encounters with a shadowy nun in the attic who may be the ghost of a nun buried alive on the grounds for breaking her vows of chastity; in a highly symbolic scene, she finally finds the nun's habit in her bed and destroys it. She later discovers it to be the disguise of Ginevra's amour, de Hamal. Lucy finds herself becoming closer to a colleague, the fiery schoolmaster M. Paul Emanuel; the two eventually fall in love. However, a group of conspiring antagonists, including Mme. Beck, the priest Père Silas, and the relatives of M. Paul's long-dead fiancée, struggle to keep the two apart, and finally succeed in forcing M. Paul's departure for the West Indies to oversee his plantation there. He nonetheless declares his love for Lucy before his departure, and arranges for her to live independently as the headmistress of her own day school or externat, which she later expands into a pensionnat. Villettes final pages are ambiguous; though Lucy says that she wants to leave the reader free to imagine a happy ending, she hints strongly that M. Paul's ship was destroyed by a storm on his return from the West Indies, killing him. She claims, for example, that "the three happiest years of [her] life" were those before M. Paul's return journey, which would suggest that he did indeed fall victim to the "destroying angel of tempest". Brontë described the ambiguity in the ending as a "little puzzle". |
Shirley | Charlotte Brontë | 1,849 | Robert Moore is a mill owner noted for apparent ruthlessness toward his employees - more than any other mill owner in town. He has laid off many of them, apparently indifferent to their resulting poverty. But in fact he has no choice, since the mill is deep in debt. The mill was inefficiently run by his late father and is already mortgaged. His elder brother became a private tutor, leaving Robert to restore the mill to profitability. He is determined to restore his family's honour and fortune. As the novel opens, Robert awaits delivery of new labor-saving machinery to the mill. The new machinery will let him lay off additional employees. Robert, with some friends, watches all night, but the machinery is destroyed on the way by angry millworkers. Robert's business difficulties continue, due in part to the continuing labor unrest, but even more so to the Napoleonic Wars and the accompanying Orders in Council which forbid British merchants from trading in American markets. Robert is very close to Caroline Helstone, who comes to his house to learn French from his sister. Caroline worships Robert and he likes her too. Caroline’s father is dead and her mother had abandoned her, leaving her to be brought up by her uncle, the local parson, Rev. Helstone. Caroline is penniless, and this leads Robert to keep his distance from her, since he cannot afford to marry for pleasure or love. He has to marry for money if he is to get his mill going again. Caroline realizes that Robert is growing increasingly distant and withdraws into herself. Her uncle does not sympathise with her ‘fancies’, and she has no money of her own, so she cannot leave the place, which is what she longs to do. She suggests taking up the job of a governess but her uncle dismisses it and assures her that she need not work. Caroline cheers up a great deal, however, when she meets Shirley. Shirley is a landowner, an independent heiress whose parents are dead and who lives with Mrs. Pryor, an old governess. Shirley is lively, cheerful, full of ideas about how to use her money and how to help people, and very interested in business concerns. Caroline and Shirley soon become very close friends. They both dislike social hypocrisy and wish they could do something significant with their lives. As Caroline gets closer to Shirley, she notices that Shirley and Robert get along very well, which makes her think that they would end up marrying each other. Shirley likes Robert, is very interested in his work, and is concerned about him and the threats he gets from laid-off millworkers. Both good and bad former employees are depicted. Some passages show the real suffering of those who were honest workers and can no longer find good employment; other passages show how some people use losing their jobs as an excuse to get drunk, fight with their previous employers, and incite other people to violence. Shirley uses her money to help the poorest of the lot, but she is also motivated by the desire to prevent any attack on Robert, a motive that makes Caroline both happy and unhappy. One night, Caroline and Shirley conclude from the behaviour of Robert and others that an attack is imminent. They go the mill together to warn Robert. They come too late and have to hide near the mill. But Robert is already prepared and he mounts a counter-attack. He defeats the attackers and gets the ring leaders arrested, the whole encounter being witnessed by Shirley and Caroline from their hiding place. After this incident, the whole neighbourhood is convinced that Robert and Shirley shall wed. The anticipation of this causes Caroline to fall sick. Mrs. Pryor comes to look after her, and realizes that Caroline is pining away. Every Tuesday, Caroline sits by the window sill, no matter how weak or tired, to catch a glimpse of Robert on his way to the market. Mrs. Pryor makes it a point to see what it is that Caroline looks out for. She learns the cause of Caroline’s sorrow but is helpless; she continues her vigil in the sick room even as Caroline worsens daily. Robert leaves for London without any concrete reason. Caroline has lost even the weekly glimpse of him, and she feels that she has ‘nothing left to live for’ since there is no one who cares whether she lives or dies. Mrs. Pryor then reveals to Caroline that she is Caroline's mother. She had abandoned her because Caroline looked exactly like her father - the husband who tortured Mrs. Pryor and made her life miserable. She had little money; when her brother-in-law offered to bring up the child, she accepted it, took up a family name of Pryor and went off to become a governess. Caroline now has a reason to live - her ‘mamma’. She begins to recover slowly, since she knows that she can go and live with her mother. Shirley's uncle and aunt come to visit her. The uncle joins Shirley in her office work (administering her land and investments). They bring with them their daughters, their son, and their son's tutor. He is Louis Moore, Robert’s younger brother, who had taught Shirley when she was younger. Caroline is puzzled by Shirley’s behaviour towards Louis - the friendly girl who treats her servants as her own family is always haughty and formal with Louis and never seems to forget that he is a lowly tutor with no money of his own. Two men fall in love with Shirley and woo her, but she refuses both because she does not love them. Her uncle is surprised by this behaviour and wants her to marry someone respectable soon. A baronet, the most prominent nobleman of the district, falls in love with Shirley. She likes him too, though she does not respect him and does not want to marry him. The neighbourhood, however, is certain that she will not refuse so favourable a match. The relationship between Shirley and Louis, meanwhile, remains ambivalent. There are days when Louis can, with the authority of an old teacher, ask Shirley to come to the schoolroom and recite the French pieces that she learnt earlier. On other days, Shirley completely ignores Louis, not even speaking to him once though they have breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same table. At the same time, when Shirley is upset, the only one she can confide in is Louis. When a supposed 'mad dog’ bites Shirley and makes her think that she is likely to die early, no one can make her reveal what it is that makes her so sad. It is only Louis who gets the whole incident out of her, and Shirley makes him promise that if she is dying of rabies, and to be put to death because of the terrible suffering in the last stages of the disease, it will be his hand that delivers that final injection. Robert returns one dark night, first stopping at the market and then returning to his home with a friend. The friend tells him that it is widely speculated that Shirley is to marry a rich man and asks him why he left when it seemed so sure that Shirley loved him and would have married him. Robert replies that he had assumed the same, and that he had proposed to Shirley before he left. But Shirley had at first laughed, thinking that he was not serious, and cried when she discovered that he was. She had told him that she knew that he did not love her, that he asked for her hand not for her but for her money and this decreased her respect for him. When Robert had argued that Shirley had shown concern for him, been open with him from the very beginning and discussed his business matters at length with him, she had said that she had esteem and affection for him, but not love and now even that esteem and affection were in danger. Robert walked away from that room filled with a sense of humiliation, even as he knew that she was right - that he had ignored his affection for Caroline and sought out Shirley primarily for her money. This self-disgust drove Robert away to London and he realized there that restoring the family name was not as important as self-respect and he had returned home, determined to close the mill if he had to, and go away to Canada and work hard and make his fortune. Just as Robert finishes his narration, his friend hears a gunshot and Robert falls from his horse - the laid-off workers are finally avenged. The friend takes Robert to his own home and looks after him, and after a turn for the worse, Robert slowly gets better. A visit from Caroline revives him but she has to come secretly, hiding from her uncle and his friend and his family. Robert soon moves back to his house and persuades his sister that the very thing the house needs to cheer it up is a visit by Caroline. Robert asks for Caroline’s forgiveness and tries to tell her what had happened with Shirley, but she stops him and tells him that she has forgiven him and that she got some idea from Shirley and does not need to know any more. She also predicts that Shirley is in love too, and that she is not ‘master of her own heart’. When Shirley refuses the baronet’s offer of marriage, her uncle is enraged and has a fight with her. He then decides to leave Stillborough. This means that Louis will have to leave too, which emboldens him enough to make his declaration – he proposes to Shirley, despite the difference in their relative situations. Shirley agrees to marry him, though she has moments of indecision and panic at the thought of giving up her independence. The novel ends with Caroline and Shirley marrying the two brothers, Robert and Louis, respectively. |
William Does His Bit | Richmal Crompton | 1,941 | William hears the family talk about a man called Quisiling (William calls him 'Grisling'), who apparently appears to exist in many places at once, helping the Germans. When he learns the man is in fact many men doing the same thing, he sets out to find Quisling and capture him. His search takes him to the village, where at an intersection, two elderly ladies are talking about passwords in whispers. William at once decides to follow the second one, who goes to a school building through the cover of laurel bushes and at a blackened window, William sees an elderly gentleman with many women talking and putting flags on maps. He, believing it to be Grissel's gang plotting propaganda, follows the man to his house, and when he starts mowing his lawn, he rings the police asking them to come. William is caught "stealing" plates and cutlery so he can see where Grissel's papers are. The police start to arrest him, as William talks about the man and his doing. The man dismisses the police, rewarding William for his "efforts to the country" with a bun and lemonade. William walks home contentedly and tells his mother what happened. His mother does not believe him, and continues sewing. William decides that he and Ginger should become highwaymen in order to steal some money to account for money that was lost by them, and by William's bike being removed because he trampled flowers over with it. William and Ginger dress up as what they think highwaymen look like. Their first attempts are useless, but then they steal a man's briefcase, believing it to be full of treasure. It turns out it is full of rocks. Ethel is starting a rockery, and William sells them to her for six pennies. A gentleman visits who happens to be the girl's relation, and says that highwaymen held up his car. William is found out, but all ends well when he sees a movie about highwaymen with the gentleman. The Brown family is getting stressed out at William's presence. They decide he must be given to one of his relations for a while to keep. William at first is indignant about being kept by his aunt, then he discovers the village she lives in isn't so dull after all... Two elderly gentleman, a colonel and another man find themselves bickering like they did the year before, and the one before that and so on, about their prizes. One breeds good asparagus, and one good peaches. Both vow to win the other's best offerings and grow those plants. William gets most mixed up in the happenings, and decides after his adventures with them, not to be too detailed to his mother about what happened. The outlaws, who often frequent the Village and Marley, notice that a fire "station" has been built out of an old garage. The outlaws watch in awe, as "god like beings" walk in "thigh high boots" carrying hoses and dripping in endless water. At first, the gang of schoolboys find themselves merely waiting on the outside and watching the amazing happenings. Then, they dare to venture in. The men even find their company nice for a while, until William's band decide to join. That's where it all goes wrong. The officer of the area, Mr Perkins, decides that schoolboys shouldn't be parading with his men, and turn them out. But William is not finished yet. His band make their OWN fire squad area next to the garage in a spot of unused land that waits for them conveniently. When Perkins uses a new tactic to get them away, after he is shot in the face by one of the outlaws with a hose, he says he will talk to their fathers. William finds a fire, however after a while, but it is in PERKINS house! When the section officer finds out, William is reluctantly rewarded. The household bustles with the sounds of the words "war" and "economy", most often joining to form "war economy". William, trying in vain to persuade his mother that leaving school would save money, and that he would go back after the war (historical note, book was written in 1941, meaning the war would end in about 4 years, William being eleven). He asks the cook if she knew about war economy. Aside from stealing the odd couple of raisins (which later ended in a comical sequence of the Brown's saying how few raisins were in their raisin puddings), he manages to get Cook to tell him about "corners" of produce made by "war profiteers" who gain money from wars. William decides to make a "corner" of wood, since there is a wood nearby his home. He takes it to the house of a Builder, and finds a scared women there, fretting over her war time recipes, which happen to include directions that don't even make sense to her. She tells William to put his "wood corner" in the living room. But it is not Mr. Jones the builder who lives here, rather Mr. Jones the fretwork creator!!! Obviously taking a "wood corner" to be a piece of a chair or something, she hurriedly assumes William has every right to dump his barrow into the living room. The woman's relations have been skipping from place to place, eventually bleeding all their relations dry, and Mrs. Jones is no different. When William outrages Mr. Jones with his "corner" of sticks and twig sized branches of common firewood, Mrs. Jones is however quite glad to see them leave for another unfortunate relation! She eventually gives William a Stilton Cheese to take to Mr. Brown. William and the outlaws see Home Guard men, one of which being a local blacksmith, doing their job practicing "shooting through holes" and so forth, and wish they could do something similar. The outlaws build a fortress, made of sandbags and boxes, even equipped with 'little holes' to shoot their toy weapons through. One night, a man in a "woman's dress" whom they think is a parachutist walks along the road they blockaded. The outlaws shoot at him, and get some to run to the police. When the policeman is here, and the "parachutist" explains he is dressed as a woman because he is in a play that night, he forgives William and lets him see the play at Marleigh Aerodrome. William and the outlaws have the happiest day they have had in their lives so far. William hears at an air raid shelter that scrap iron should be collected more, as a local woman and her daughter have joined them this evening. After the "all clear signal", William goes to bed and dreams of Hitler in a woman's suit pushing a barrow with Ethel - Ethel having a cork in her mouth. When he wakes up, he decides he must do something about collecting scrap iron. The outlaws put letters into people's mailboxes, asking for "skrappion" and the results are varied. Some are amused, and some annoyed, saying they can't "play games" with them. After William finds some scrap iron he carries his cart to the next house. And what a surprise he gets there. He finds the Bevertons exhibition of war memorabilia, even though he thinks it is simply scrap iron. And he has every right to be pleased at what he finds... who wouldn't like to look for junk only to find parts of Dorniers!!! However, the Bevertons, when they find out, are not nearly as impressed. And the fact that William leaves his old junk on the exhibition table, leading to the guests believing it to be a plot to gain cash revenues, does not lessen the spirit of anger. William, his consciousness nagging him about ruining the Bevertons Spitfire fundraising exhibition decides to raise funds himself by having a war memorabilia exhibition museum himself. The only item he manages to find is a sign a practical joker must have put on the ground saying "unexploded bomb". His museum had no visitors, so it failed. Meanwhile, after hours of nagging Mrs. Bott to give her land up for allotments to a "good cause", The Dig For Victory committee leaves angrily as she brandishes herself about in the air of one who is utterly annoyed. When she sees the signpost saying "unexploded bomb" in front of her mansion, she runs to the Brown's for cover. William and the Outlaws had had to leave it there after their arms would just not lift again, and so left it there they did. "Botty"s wife signs the paper saying she will give up allotments saying it was a sign she must do it. When William takes it away and the Browns don't see it, she says it was a vision telling her to sell her land. She gives William three pounds for the Spitfire Fund in hope that she will receive further good luck accounts. William, inspired to do something good for the war cause, sees two men pulling up road signs, and tells them it would be better to turn them the other way, so Germans would get lost. This gives him an idea, when he sees two houses, with identical nameplates with different names attached, and he gets his screwdriver and fixes the plate 'laurel bank' on the house 'heather bank' and vice versa. When he gets home, Robert asks him if he passed Laurel bank, as he admires a blonde young girl named Dulcie who lives there. When the owners of the two houses who once were good friends, but separated after a dispute when one said gardens should be reserved for vegetables and one said the same, but for flowers to keep up the country pride, they send for gardeners to burn all the flowers in the vegetable grower's yard, and all the vegetables in the flower growers yard. But when there (Colonel Peabody and Mr. Bagshott) gardeners find the name plates on the wrong houses, they dig up each growers pride and joy. Each owner, when seeing Robert doing the digging, after suggesting he do the rest to a tired gardener, (after all, when Dulcie saw his rippling muscles working away...) blames first Robert, then the other for the gardener's digging. They end up making up to each other, and Robert and Dulcie meet for the first time. When Robert finds out of William's doings he doesn't mind. When the outlaws hear from William that sweet production has stopped during the remainder of the war, they decide to make their own sweets and sell them to the shops and eat them themselves. Each boy races through their mother's larder and bring back an odd array. Included are a tin of sardines and a some coconut pieces. They mix it all together to create "sardine toffee" and taste it, with the following results. First tastiness, second a lasting flavour, third a green countenance! One by one they leave until only William and Ginger remain. When William casually mentions the cakes and sweets they would receive at the party they were attending that evening, Ginger goes too. But, William, never one to say 'I surrender' in any case of the like, goes bravely, yet worriedly to the party. At Mrs Bott's place, where the party will be held, a woman has come to seek one of the children who appears most earnest, to take home to be a companion to her son, Claude. Claude, it turns out, is a bully, even larger than William, and by his mothers standards after all, (she is writing books on child psychology) he should play with a meeker child, so the meeker one would become braver and more manly, and the manly one (meaning Claude) would become more meek. If she had known William's usual look when he hadn't eaten a sweet made of sardines, she may not have been so inclined to take him. But, she didn't. So, she took him. And, when Claude expects another babyish child to pummel at his own will (the father and gardener and housemaid were told not to interfere with proceedings, so not to disturb the balance as Claude's mother said, so unfortunately they watched a poor child being left to the manly strength of Claude.) found that William was not his regular punch bag, but a more manly person. When Mrs Brown expects William to come home changed, she gets a full surprise. William, not only unchanged but invigorated, walks in! |
The Tale of the Heike | null | null | Chapter 1 The two main themes are set in the famous introduction (the bells of the Gion Shōja): impermanence and the fall of the mighty (Taira no Kiyomori). The chapter describes the rise of the Taira clan and early conflicts at the court. The first Taira who gets access to the Imperial court is Taira no Tadamori (1131). After Tadamori’s death (1153), his son Kiyomori plays a key role in helping the Emperor Go-Shirakawa suppress the Hōgen (1156) and the Heiji (1159) Disturbances thereby gaining more influence in the court affairs. The Taira clan members occupy major government positions, Kiyomori’s daughter becomes the Emperor’s wife, and more than half of all the provinces are under their control. One of the episodes describing Kiyomori’s arrogance is the famous story about the dancer Giō who falls out of Kiyomori’s favour and becomes a nun. Kiyomori and the Taira even dare to conflict with the powerful Regent, Fujiwara no Motofusa. Angered by the Taira dominance, Major Counselor Fujiwara no Narichika, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, Buddhist monk Saikō and others meet at Shishi-no-tani (the villa of the temple administrator Shunkan) and plot a conspiracy to overthrow Kiyomori. Because of the conflict between Saikō’s sons and warrior-monks of the Enryakuji temple the plot has to be postponed. The great fire (1177) burns the Imperial Palace in the capital, Heian-kyō, Kyoto. Chapter 2 In 1177, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa is in conflict with the Enryakuji temple. Hearing a rumor about a possible attack on Enryakuji, one of the Shishi-no-tani conspirators informs Kiyomori of the plot. The monk Saikō is executed and others are exiled. Kiyomori is angered by the participation of the Retired Emperor in the plot and prepares to arrest him. Shigemori, the eldest virtuous son of Kiyomori, successfully admonishes his father by reminding him of the Confucian value of loyalty to the Emperor. Major Counselor Narichika is exiled to an island and cruelly executed. Other conspirators (Naritsune, Yasuyori and Shunkan) are exiled to the Kikai-ga-shima island near the Satsuma province. Meanwhile, Enryakuji temple complex is destroyed and a fire at the Zenkōji temple destroys a Buddhist statue. People believe these troubles to be signs of the Taira decline. Those exiled to the Kikai-ga-shima island build a shrine where they pray for return to capital. They make a thousand stupas (Buddhist wooden objects) with their names and throw them into the sea. One of the pieces reaches the shore. It is brought to the capital and shown to Yasuyori’s family. The news reaches Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa and Kiyomori who see the stupa with emotion. Chapter 3 The illness of Kiyomori’s pregnant daughter (Kenreimon’in) is attributed to angry spirits of the executed (Narichika) and the exiled. Kiyomori, interested in becoming a grandfather of the Imperial prince, agrees to a general amnesty. Naritsune (Narichika’s son) and Yasuyori are pardoned, but Shunkan is left alone on the Kikai-ga-shima island for letting the anti-Taira conspirators gather at his villa. A famous tragic scene follows when Shunkan beats his feet on the ground in despair. Kiyomori’s daughter gives birth to the future Emperor Antoku (1178). A loyal youth in service of Shunkan, Ariō, journeys to the island finding Shunkan barely alive. Hearing the news of his family’s death, Shunkan kills himself by fasting (1179). His suffering as well as the whirlwind that strikes the capital are seen as signs of the fall of the Taira. Kiyomori’s virtuous son, Shigemori, goes on a pilgrimage to Kumano and asks the gods for a quick death if the Taira are to fall. In a short while he falls ill and dies. Without Shigemori’s restraining influence, Kiyomori is close to open war with Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa. He leads soldiers to Kyoto where he exiles or dismisses 43 top court officials (including Regent Fujiwara no Motofusa). Next, Kiyomori imprisons Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa in the desolate Seinan palace (1179). Chapter 4 Emperor Takakura is forced to retire and Antoku (Kiyomori’s grandson, age 3) becomes a new Emperor. Retired Emperor Takakura angers the Enryakuji (Mt. Hiei) monks by going to the Itsukushima Shrine instead of the Enryakuji temple. Minamoto no Yorimasa persuades Prince Mochihito (second son of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa) to lead Minamoto forces against the Taira and become the Emperor. Prince Mochihito issues an anti-Taira call to arms. The open conflict between the Minamoto and the Taira is triggered by Munemori (Kiyomori’s son) humiliating Minamoto no Yorimasa’s son (by taking away his horse and calling it by the owner’s name). Kiyomori discovers the anti-Taira plot. Prince Mochihito avoids arrest by fleeing from the capital to the Miidera temple. Yorimasa and the Miidera monks fight with Taira forces at the bridge over the Uji River (1180). Despite bravery of the monks, Taira forces cross the river and win the battle. Yorimasa commits suicide in the Byōdōin temple and Prince Mochihito is killed on the way to the allied Kōfukuji temple in Nara. One of the Prince Mochihito’s sons is forced to become a monk, but the other son flees north to join the Minamoto forces. Kiyomori gives orders to burn the Miidera temple. Many temples are burned and people see it as a bad omen for the Taira. Chapter 5 Kiyomori moves the capital from Kyoto to Fukuhara (his stronghold) in 1180. Strange ghosts appear to Kiyomori (a face, laughter, skulls, ominous dreams). News of unrest in the eastern provinces (controlled by the Minamoto) reaches the new capital. A story about the monk Mongaku is inserted as a background to Minamoto no Yoritomo’s revolt. Mongaku is an ascetic with strange powers who requested donations at the court in 1179. After the refusal of Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa he caused trouble at the court and was exiled to Izu. At Izu, Mongaku convinces Minamoto no Yoritomo to revolt against the Taira. Then he goes to Fukuhara and brings back the Imperial Edict from Go-Shirakawa permitting Minamoto no Yoritomo to overthrow the Taira. Kiyomori sends a military expedition to put down the rebellion of Yoritomo. When they reach the Fuji River, the Taira forces hear stories about the might of eastern warriors and fear that Minamoto forces outnumber them. At night, a flock of birds rises with great noise and the Taira forces, thinking that they are attacked, retreat in panic. Kiyomori, under pressure from temples and courtiers, moves the capital back to Kyoto. Upon hearing the rumours of an attack being planned by the Taira, monks of the Kōfukuji temple (who supported the rebellion of Prince Mochihito) revolt and kill messengers sent by Kiyomori. The Taira forces attack Nara and burn many important temples (Tōdaiji, Kōfukuji), statues and Buddhist texts. Retired Emperors and courtiers lament the destruction of Nara. This evil deed is believed to lead to Kiyomori’s downfall. Chapter 6 In 1181, Retired Emperor Takakura dies troubled by the events of the last several years. Kiso no Yoshinaka (cousin of Minamoto no Yoritomo in the northwestern provinces) plans a rebellion against the Taira and raises an army. Messengers bring news of anti-Taira forces gathering under the Minamoto leadership in the eastern provinces, Kyūshū, Shikoku. The Taira have trouble dealing with all the rebellions. To make things worse for the Taira, their leader, Kiyomori, falls ill. His body is hot as fire and no water can cool him. Water sprayed on his body turns to flames and black smoke that fills the room. Kiyomori’s wife has a dream about a carriage in flames that will take Kiyomori to Hell for burning Buddhist statues (in the Tōdaiji temple). Before dying in agony, Kiyomori makes a wish to have the head of Yoritomo hung before his grave. His death (in 1181, age 64) highlights the themes of impermanence and fall of the mighty. Kiyomori’s evil deeds will become his torturers in Hell. His fame and power turned to smoke (he was cremated) and dust (bones). In the east, Taira forces are successful in some battles, but are not able to defeat the Minamoto forces. Divine forces punish and kill the governor appointed by Kiyomori to put down Kiso no Yoshinaka’s rebellion. Kiso no Yoshinaka wins a major battle at Yokotagawara (1182). Munemori, the leader of the Taira clan, is conferred a high rank in the court administration. Chapter 7 In 1183, the Taira gather a large army (mainly from western provinces) and send it against Yoshinaka and Yoritomo. Going north, Taira armies pillage local villages. Taira no Tsunemasa visits an island to pray and compose a poem. At the battle of Hiuchi, the Taira get help from a loyal abbot and defeat Yoshinaka's garrisons. Yoshinaka writes a petition at the Hachiman Shrine to get divine help for the upcoming battle. Yoshinaka attacks the Taira armies at night from the front and rear and forces them to retreat and descend to the Kurikara Valley where most of the 70,000 Taira riders are crushed piling up in many layers (a famous “descent into Kurikara” – a major victory of Yoshinaka). At Shio-no-yama, Yoshinaka helps his uncle Yoshiie to defeat the Taira forces (Kiyomori’s son Tomonori is killed in the battle). Taira armies are also defeated in the battle at Shinohara. Yoshinaka wins Mt. Hiei monks over to his side. Munemori (head of the Taira) flees to the western provinces with Emperor Antoku and the Three Imperial Treasures (Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa manages to escape in a different direction). Taira no Tadanori (Kiyomori’s brother) flees the capital leaving some of his poems to a famous poet Fujiwara no Shunzei. Tsunemasa returns a famous lute to the Ninnaji temple. At Fukuhara, Munemori gives a moving speech about duty to follow the Emperor, the Taira set fire to the palace and then flee from Fukuhara by boats to Kyūshū. Chapter 8 Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa returns to the capital from Enryakuji temple on Mt. Hiei together with Yoshinaka’s armies. He installs a new Emperor (Go-Toba) and puts the Taira out of government positions (they are designated as rebels). The Taira want to set up a new capital in Kyūshū, but have to flee from local warriors who take the side of the Retired Emperor. They arrive to Yashima in Shikoku where they have to live in humble huts instead of palaces. In late 1183, Minamoto no Yoritomo (still in Kamakura) is appointed by the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa as a Barbarian-subduing Commander (shōgun). Yoritomo receives the messenger from the capital with great courtesy, invites him to a feast and gives him many gifts. Yoritomo’s manners sharply contrast with Yoshinaka’s arrogant behaviour in the capital. Yoshinaka’s rudeness and lack of knowledge about etiquette are shown to be ridiculous in several episodes (makes fun of courtiers, wears tasteless hunting robes, does not know how to get out of a carriage). Meanwhile, the Taira regain their strength and assemble a strong army. Yoshinaka sends forces against them, but this time the Taira are victorious in the battle of Mizushima. Their influence grows even more after the victory at Muroyama. In the capital, Yoshinaka fights with Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa (the battle at the Hōjūji) and takes control of the capital and the court by force. Minamoto no Yoritomo sends Minamoto no Yoshitsune to put an end to Yoshinaka’s excesses. Chapter 9 When Yoshinaka prepares to march west against the Taira (early 1184), armies led by Yoshitsune arrive to strike him from the east. The struggle between the Minamoto forces follows. Yoshinaka tries to defend the capital, but Yoshitsune’s warriors succeed in crossing the Uji River and defeating Yoshinaka’s forces at Uji and Seta. Yoshitsune takes control of the capital and guards the mansion of the Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa, not letting Yoshinaka’s men capture him. Yoshinaka barely breaks through the enemy forces. He meets with his foster-brother Imai Kanehira and they try to escape from pursuing enemy forces. In a famous scene, Yoshinaka is killed when his horse is stuck in the muddy field. Kanehira fights his last battle and commits suicide. While the Minamoto fight among themselves in the capital, the Taira move back to Fukuhara and set up defences at the Ichi-no-tani stronghold. Yoshitsune’s armies move west to attack the Taira from the rear whereas his half-brother Noriyori advances to attack the Taira camp from the east. Yoshitsune, planning a surprise attack of Ichi-no-tani from the west, follows an old horse that guides his forces through the mountains. Meanwhile, fierce fighting starts at Ikuta-no-mori and Ichi-no-tani, but neither side is able to gain a decisive advantage. Yoshitsune’s cavalry descends a steep slope at Hiyodori Pass decisively attacking the Taira from the rear. The Taira panic and flee to the boats. As the battle continues, Tadanori (Kiyomori’s brother who visited the poet Shunzei) is killed. Shigehira (Kiyomori’s son who burned Nara), deserted by his men at Ikuta-no-mori, is captured alive trying to commit suicide.In a famous passage, Taira no Atsumori (young nephew of Kiyomori) is challenged to a fight by a warrior Kumagae Naozane. Naozane overpowers him, but then hesitates to kill him since he reminds him of his own young son. Seeing the approaching riders who are going to kill the youth, Naozane kills Atsumori, and finds his flute (later he becomes a Buddhist monk). The Taira are defeated and flee by boats in different directions. Chapter 10 In 1184, Shigehira (captured alive) and the heads of the defeated Taira are paraded in the streets of the capital. The Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa offers the Taira to exchange Three Imperial Treasures for Shigehira, but they refuse. It is clear that he will be executed. Shigehira, concerned about his past arrogance and evil deeds (burning of Nara temples), wants to devote himself to Buddhism. Hōnen (the founder of the Pure Land Buddhism in Japan) concisely outlines the essential doctrines (reciting Amida’s name, repentance, deep faith guarantee rebirth in the Pure Land). Shigehira is sent to Kamakura. On his journey along the Eastern Sea Road, Shigehira passes numerous places that evoke historical and literary associations. Yoritomo receives Shigehira who claims that burning Nara temples was an accident. Before being sent to the Nara monks, Shigehira is treated well at Izu (a bath is prepared for him, wine is served, a beautiful lady serving Yoritomo, Senju-no-mae, sings several songs (with Buddhist meaning) and plays the lute; Shigehira also sings and plays the lute – after Shigehira’s execution, Senju-no-mae becomes a nun). At Yashima, Koremori (grandson of Kiyomori) is grieved to be away from his family in the capital. He secretly leaves Yashima and travels to Mt. Kōya. There he meets with a holy man, Takiguchi Tokiyori. A story of his tragic love is inserted: as a courtier, Tokiyori loved a girl of lesser birth, Yokobue. His father was against their marriage and Tokiyori became a monk. When Yokobue came looking for him, he was firm and did not come out. He went to Mt. Kōya and became a respected priest Takiguchi. Yokobue became a nun and died soon. Koremori comes to this priest, becomes a monk himself and goes on a pilgrimage to Kumano. After the priest’s encouraging words (Pure Land Buddhism ideas), Koremori abandons his attachments, throws himself into the sea and drowns. News of his death reaches Yashima (Taira camp). The Taira are attacked at Fujito and retreat. Chapter 11 In 1185, a small force led by Yoshitsune lands on the island of Shikoku. Yoshitsune plans a surprise attack from the rear (one more time after the Ichi-no-tani battle) on the Taira stronghold at Yashima. The Taira, thinking that main Minamoto forces attack them, flee to their boats in panic. The Taira warriors shoot arrows at the Yoshitsune’s forces. Noritsune, Kiyomori’s nephew and a commander of the Taira, shoots at Yoshitsune, but Tsuginobu, Yoshitsune’s retainer, dies protecting him from arrows. In a famous passage, a Taira lady in a boat holds a fan as a challenge to the Minamoto warriors and Nasu no Yoichi, a skillful young Minamoto archer, hits the fan with his arrow. During the confused fighting at the shore, Yoshitsune loses his bow and gets it back risking his life. He famously explains that he did not want the Taira to get that bow (for weak archers) and laugh at him. The Taira are forced to leave Shikoku and retreat to Nagato province (southern tip of Honshū). Before the final naval battle at Dan-no-ura, the Minamoto gain new allies (the head of the Kumano Shrine decides to support the Minamoto after fortune-telling with cockfights (200 boats) and 150 boats from a province of Shikoku). In total, the Minamoto have about 3000 vessels against the Taira’s 1000. Before the battle, Yoshitsune argues (about leading the attack) and almost fights with Kajiwara Kagetoki (Minamoto commander jealous of Yoshitsune). As the battle begins, the Taira are in good spirits and seem to be winning due to skillful positioning of archers on the boats. After the exchange of arrows from a distance main forces begin fighting. Omens from Heaven (white banner descends on a Minamoto boat, many dolphins swim to Taira boats) show that the Minamoto are going to win. Shigeyoshi from Awa province (Shikoku) betrays the Taira and informs the Minamoto about the boats carrying the main Taira forces in disguise. Warriors from Shikoku and Kyūshū also switch sides and support the Minamoto. In the famous and tragic passage, Kiyomori’s widow, holding young Emperor Antoku in her arms, commits suicide by drowning. Many Taira are killed or commit suicide at Dan-no-ura. Tomomori (Kiyomori’s son) drowns himself. Noritsune (Kiyomori’s nephew and a strong warrior) fails to have a fight with Yoshitsune and dies fighting bravely. Taira clan head Munemori, Kenreimon’in (Kiyomori’s daughter) are captured alive. After the battle, Yoshitsune returns to capital with the Imperial Treasures (the sacred sword has been lost) and prisoners. Captured Taira are paraded along the streets of the capital with many spectators pitying their fate. Yoshitsune delivers Munemori to Yoritomo in Kamakura, but after Kajiwara Kagetoki’s slander Yoritomo suspects Yoshitsune of treachery and does not allow him to enter Kamakura. Yoshitsune writes a letter of complaint listing his military deeds and loyal service. Yoritomo still sends him back to the capital. Munemori and his son Kiyomune are executed, their heads hung near a prison gate in the capital. Shigehira (Kiyomori’s son captured at Ichi-no-tani) is allowed to see his wife before being handed over to Nara monks. Shigehira hopes for Amida’s compassion and rebirth in the Pure Land. Warriors execute him in front of the monks. His head is nailed near the temple at Nara. His wife becomes a nun after cremating his head and body. Chapter 12 A powerful earthquake strikes the capital. Yoritomo’s distrust of Yoshitsune grows. Yoritomo sends an assassin to kill Yoshitsune (fails). Then, Yoritomo kills Noriyori (Yoshitsune’s half brother) who is reluctant to go against Yoshitsune. When Yoritomo sends a large force led by Hōjō Tokimasa against him, Yoshitsune flees from the capital to a northern province. Taking control of the capital, Tokimasa executes all potential heirs to the Taira family. An informer shows the cloister where Koremori’s family (including Rokudai is hiding). Rokudai (age 12) is the last male heir of the Taira family. Rokudai is arrested, but his nurse finds Mongaku (the monk – see Ch.5) who agrees to go to Kamakura to ask for a pardon. Mongaku comes back with a letter from Yoritomo and saves Rokudai just before his execution takes place. Yoritomo has doubts about Rokudai and he is compelled to become a monk (1189, age 16). Rokudai visits Mt. Kōya and Kumano (where his father Koremori drowned). Meanwhile, several Taira clan members are found and executed. In 1192, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa dies (age 66). Yoritomo (still suspicious) orders the execution of Rokudai (age 30+, the Taira line comes to an end). After Yoritomo’s death in 1199, the monk Mongaku plans a rebellion to install a prince on the throne. His plot is uncovered and the Retired Emperor Go-Toba exiles him to the island of Oki (age 80+). The Initiates’ Book “Treated as a secret text by [a group of biwahōshi], this chapter is believed to have originated in the late 13th century, after the Heike proper. […] It brings together information about Kiyomori’s daughter Kenreimon’in, the mother of Emperor Antoku. […] It constitutes a single literary entity – a tale in the old monogatari style, rich in poetic imagery, rhythmic passages, waka, and melancholy associations.” In 1185, Kenreimon’in becomes a nun and moves to an old hut near the capital. Her life is filled with sadness as memories of the past glory haunt her. After the 1185 earthquake the hut is ruined. In the autumn of 1185, Kenreimon’in moves to a remote Buddhist retreat (Jakkō-in) in the Ohara mountains to avoid public attention. There she devotes herself to Buddhist practices. Natural sights evoke images of Amida’s Paradise and impermanence in her mind. In the spring of 1186, Retired Emperor Go-Shirakawa makes a visit to the mountain retreat. She talks with the Retired Emperor about human miseries and Buddhist ideas of suffering and rebirth in the Pure Land. As she remembers past glory of the Taira and their fall, she makes parallels between the events in her life and the Six Paths (six Buddhist realms of existence). She also mentions a dream in which she saw the Taira in the dragon king’s palace asking her to pray for their salvation. The bell of the Jakkō-in sounds (parallel to the bells of the Gion monastery in the first lines of the Tale) and the Retired Emperor leaves for the capital. Misfortunes of the Taira are blamed on Taira no Kiyomori (his evil deeds caused the suffering of the whole Taira clan). In 1191, Kenreimon’in falls ill, dies invoking Amida’s name and is welcomed by Amida Buddha to the Pure Land. |
Windmills of the Gods | Sidney Sheldon | 1,987 | Mary Ashley, a professor at Kansas State University, is offered an ambassadorship by Paul Ellison, the US president. She rejects the offer because her husband, Dr. Edward Ashley, does not want to leave his medical practice, and she is not willing to be separated from him. She also feels that it is harder to find a good doctor for a small Kansas town than an ambassador to a foreign country. When her husband suddenly dies in a suspicious traffic accident, Ashley accepts the President's offer in order to fill the void in her life. She is sent to Romania, behind the Iron Curtain, where she finds that everyone is conspiring against her. She's on the glinting edge of East-West confrontation, a beautiful and accomplished scholar who has suddenly become the new US ambassador to an Iron Curtain country, a woman who is about to dramatically change the course of world events – if she lives. For Mary Ashley has been marked for death by the world's most proficient and mysterious assassin, and plunged into a nightmare of espionage, kidnapping and terror. |
Flat Stanley | Jeff Brown | null | Stanley Lambchop and his younger brother Arthur are given a big bulletin board by their father to display pictures and posters. He hangs it on the wall over Stanley's bed. During the night the board falls from the wall, flattening Stanley in his sleep. He survives and makes the best of his altered state, and soon he is entering locked rooms by sliding under the door, and playing with his younger brother by being used as a kite. One special advantage is that Flat Stanley can now visit his friends by being mailed in an envelope. Stanley even helps catch some art museum thieves by posing as a painting on the wall. Eventually Arthur changes Stanley back to his proper shape with a bicycle pump. |
Greenmantle | John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir | 1,916 | The book opens in November 1915, with Hannay and his friend Sandy convalescing from wounds received at the Battle of Loos. Hannay is summoned to the Foreign Office by Sir Walter Bullivant, a senior intelligence man, who Hannay met and assisted in The Thirty-Nine Steps. Bullivant gives Hannay an outline of the political situation in the Middle East, and hints that the Germans and their Turkish allies are plotting to cause a great uprising throughout the Muslim world, that will throw the whole of the Middle East, India and North Africa into turmoil; Bullivant proposes that Hannay takes on the task of investigating rumours. The only clue he is given is a slip of paper left by a spy, Bullivant's own son, recently killed in the region, bearing the words Kasredin, cancer and v.I. Despite his misgivings and feelings of inadequacy for the task, Hannay accepts the challenge, and picks Sandy to help him. Bullivant tells him that an American, John Blenkiron, will also be useful to him. The three meet up, ponder their clues, and plan to head to Constantinople. They start on November 17, and plan to meet up in a rough hostelry there exactly two months later, going each by his own route - Blenkiron, as a neutral, travelling through Germany as an observer, Sandy using his contacts in the Arab world to make the journey through Asia Minor, and Hannay, taking on the identity of Boer "Cornelis Brandt", entering enemy territory via Lisbon. Arriving there, he meets by chance his old comrade from adventurous times in Africa, Boer Peter Pienaar, and together the two enter Germany via the Netherlands, posing as anti-British exiles itching to fight for the German side. They meet the powerful and sinister Colonel Ulric von Stumm, and persuade him they can help stir up the Muslim peoples to join the German side. The two are separated, and Hannay is introduced to a Herr Gaudian, famed mining engineer (who would later reappear after the war in The Three Hostages), hears of the mysterious Hilda von Einem, and has a brief meeting with the Kaiser. Finding Stumm plans to send him to Egypt via London, Hannay flees into the snowbound countryside, tracked by the vengeful Colonel. He falls ill with malaria and is sheltered over Christmas by a poor woman in a lonely cottage. On his sickbed, he realises that the clue "v.I" on the piece of paper may refer to the name he overheard, von Einem. Recuperated, he carries on, travelling by barge carrying armaments down the Danube, picking up with Peter Pienaar, who has escaped from a German prison, along the way. They pass through Vienna, Budapest and Belgrade, and as they travel, Hannay connects the phrase "der grüne Mantel" with something else he overheard earlier. They reach Rustchuk on January 10, with a week to go before the rendezvous in Constantinople. On arrival there, Hannay has a run-in with Rasta Bey, an important Young Turk, and intercepts a telegram showing his trail has been picked up. They carry on by train, fending off an attempt to stop them by the angry Rasta Bey, and reach Constantinople with half a day to spare. They seek out the meeting place, and are attacked by Bey and an angry mob, but rescued by a band of mysterious, wild dancing men, who they then antagonise. Next day they return to the rendezvous, an illicit dance-room, where they find the main entertainment is none other than the wild men of the previous day. At the climax of the performance, Enver's soldiers arrive and drag Hannay and Peter away, apparently to prison, but they are instead delivered to a cosy room containing Blenkiron and the leader of the dancers - none other than the miraculous Sandy Arbuthnot. They pool their news - Sandy has identified Kasredin from the their clue sheet, as the title of an ancient Turkish allegorical story, the hero of which is a religious leader called Greenmantle, and has also heard much of a prophet known as "the Emerald", associated with the play. Blenkiron has met and been impressed by Hilda von Einem, who is in Constantinople and owns the house in which they are staying. Blenkiron provides Hannay with a new identity, an American engineer named Hannau, and they attend a dinner party where they meet Herr Gaudian again, and Enver himself. Lost out riding, Hannay encounters von Einem, and is fascinated by her; later, he is recognised by Rasta Bey, and has just knocked him out and hidden him in a cupboard when von Einem arrives. Hannay impresses her, and hears she plans to take him East with her. Sandy visits, agrees to deal with the captive Turk and provides news of his own - the clue Cancer means the prophet Greenmantle has the disease and is on his deathbed. Blenkiron joins them, and tells them that fighting has hotted up between the Russians and the Turks, and they deduce that they will be taken towards Erzerum to help with its defence. On the long road to Erzerum, they crash their car, and spend the night in a barn, where Hannay has a vivid dream of a hill with a saucepan-like indent in the top. They carry on on worn-out horses, but seeing a new car by the roadside, they steal it, only to find it belongs to Rasta Bey. They make good speed onward, but on arrival in Erzerum, they are delivered straight to Stumm, who recognises Hannay and has them locked up. They are rescued by one of Sandy's men, steal some plans from Stumm, and escape across the rooftops. With the battle of Erzurum booming in the background, they realise the importance of the stolen plans, and Peter Pienaar volunteers to sneak through the battle lines and deliver them to the Russians. Sandy appears, magnificently dressed, and reveals that Greenmantle is dead and that he himself has been chosen to impersonate him. They form a plan to flee around the side of the battle lines, and while Sandy's helper searches for horses, Pienaar sets off on his dangerous mission. Pienaar has an eventful and terrifying journey across the battlefield, while Hannay and Blenkiron hide out in a cellar. On the third day, they break out, and make for safety in a wild horse ride, closely pursued by their enemies. On the verge of capture, they find the hill of Hannay's dream, and entrench there, holding the enemy at bay. Hilda von Einem comes in, and appeals to them to give up, but they refuse; she is shocked to learn Sandy is a British officer, and as she leaves, she is slain by a stray Russian shell. Stumm arrives with artillery, and their position looks sure to be destroyed and overrun, but Stumm waits till dawn to savour his revenge. Just in time, the Russians, helped by the plans delivered by Pienaar, break through the defences and sweep towards the town. Stumm's men flee, Stumm is killed, and Hannay and Sandy meet up with Pienaar to ride into the city and victory. |
The Castle of Otranto | Judy Blume | 1,764 | The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and his family. The book begins on the wedding-day of his sickly son Conrad and princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, however, Conrad is crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy "[T]hat the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it". Manfred, terrified that Conrad's death signals the beginning of the end for his line, resolves to avert destruction by marrying Isabella himself while divorcing his current wife Hippolita, whom he feels has failed to bear him a proper heir. However, as Manfred attempts to marry Isabella, she escapes to a church with the aid of a peasant named Theodore. Manfred orders Theodore's death while talking to the friar Jerome, who ensured Isabella's safety in the church. When Theodore removes his shirt to be killed, Jerome recognizes a marking below his shoulder and identifies Theodore as his own son. Jerome begs for his son's life, but Manfred says Jerome must either give up the princess or his son's life. They are interrupted by a trumpet and the entrance of knights from another kingdom who want to deliver Isabella. This leads the knights and Manfred to race to find Isabella. Theodore, having been locked in a tower by Manfred, is freed by Manfred's daughter Matilda. He races to the underground church and finds Isabella. He hides her in a cave and blocks it to protect her from Manfred and ends up fighting one of the mysterious knights. Theodore badly wounds the knight, who turns out to be Isabella's father, Frederic. With that, they all go up to the castle to work things out. Frederic falls in love with Matilda and he and Manfred begin to make a deal about marrying each other's daughters. Manfred, suspecting that Isabella is meeting Theodore in a tryst in the church, takes a knife into the church, where Matilda is meeting Theodore. Thinking his own daughter is Isabella, he stabs her. Theodore is then revealed to be the true prince of Otranto and Matilda dies, leaving Manfred to repent. Theodore becomes king and eventually marries Isabella because she is the only one who can understand his true sorrow. |
Glengarry Glen Ross | David Mamet | null | Setting: a Chinese restaurant Scene 1: Shelly Levene tries to convince office Manager John Williamson to give him some of "the Glengarry leads" (names and phone numbers of promising potential clients for expensive properties). Williamson is willing to sell some of the prime leads, but demands cash in advance. Levene cannot come up with the cash and must leave without any good leads to work with. Scene 2: Dave Moss and George Aaronow hate the pressure management has put on them to succeed. Moss tells Aaronow that they need to strike back by stealing all the Glengarry leads and selling them to another real estate agency. Moss's plan would require Aaronow to break into the office, stage a burglary, and steal all the prime leads. Aaronow wants no part of the plan, but Moss intimidates him, claiming that he is already an accomplice simply by listening to Moss's pitch. Scene 3: Ricky Roma delivers a monologue to James Lingk. Roma does not bring up the real estate he wants to sell to Lingk until the very end. Instead, Roma preys upon Lingk's insecurities, and his sense that he has never done anything adventurous with his life. Setting: a real estate sales office The burglary is discovered. Williamson has called in a police detective. Shelley Levene is happy, because he has finally sold a large plot of land to a couple named Nyborg. James Lingk enters the office, looking for Ricky Roma. Lingk's wife has ordered him to cancel the sales contract he signed with Roma. Roma attempts to trick Lingk into not cancelling the contract; Levene supports the ruse, but Williamson accidentally ruins Roma's ploy. Roma is furious at Williamson, who has blown a big sale. Levene picks up where Roma left off, and begins insulting Williamson. Mid-rant, Levene slips and incriminates himself. Williamson pursues and accuses Levene of robbing the office. Levene quickly folds, and admits that he and Dave Moss were the thieves. Levene tries to bribe Williamson, offering half of his future sales. Williamson reveals that the Nyborg sale is worthless--the couple is crazy and just like talking to salesmen. Roma comes back from his interrogation and Williamson goes in the back room to speak with the detective. Alone with a devastated Levene, Roma proposes the two men work together. The door opens and the detective demands to speak with Levene, shoving him into the back room. Roma, unaware of Levene's fate, reveals his true intentions behind the partnership. Roma orders Williamson to not only continue to hand him the best leads, but to add half of Levene's commissions. Williamson tells Roma not to worry about it but Roma won't listen. Aaronow enters the office, desperate to know if they found the perpetrators. Roma says no and heads out to the restaurant. |
Bill, the Galactic Hero | Harry Harrison | 1,965 | Bill is a farmboy on a small backward agricultural planet who is drugged, hypnotised, then shanghaied into the Space Troopers and sent to recruit training under a fanged instructor named Deathwish Drang. After surviving boot camp, he is transferred to active duty as a fuse tender on the flagship of the space fleet in battle with the Chingers, a small reptilian race. Injured and with the fleet almost destroyed, he fires off a shot witnessed by the admiralty and is proclaimed a hero. As a reward he is sent to the city-planet Helior to receive a medal from the emperor. However, Bill's city plan is stolen on a sightseeing tour; as it takes him days to get back to his transit centre, he arrives to find himself AWOL and considered a deserter after missing his transport. He escapes and flees into the depths of the city, where he first falls in with a gang of similarly "deplanned" outlaws, then finds employment with Helior's garbage disposal service. But his unwilling recruitment as a spy to infiltrate an ineptly-run anarchist plot leads to his arrest. He is sent to a prison unit working on the planet where the Human-Chinger war continues. Escaping during an attack, he rescues some prisoners and meets a dying Deathwish Drang. He then shoots off his own foot to get off-planet. The book ends with the story coming full circle as Bill, with an artificial foot and Deathwish Drang's fangs, returns to his home planet and recruits his younger brother into the Troopers. |
The Green Progression | null | null | As a former staffer at the Environmental Protection Agency, Jack McDarvid, the main character, knows all about extremists in the cause of virtue. He now works for a law firm that represents companies that need clearances or information about just what is or is not allowed. But then his boss is killed in a shootout near the Capitol, and nothing is what it seems. And no one what they appear to be. From Moscow to Washington, from a near hit and run to the very real threat of a nuclear time bomb in the hands of a fanatic with a point to prove, The Green Progression moves non-stop through the machinations behind the scenes of the environmental movement. |
Nicomachean Ethics | null | null | Aristotle argues that the correct approach in studying such controversial subjects as Ethics or Politics, which involve discussing what is true about what is beautiful or just, is to start with what would be roughly agreed to be true by people of good up-bringing and experience in life, and to work from there to a higher understanding. Taking this approach, Aristotle begins by saying that the highest good for humans, the highest aim of all human practical thinking, is eudaimonia, a Greek word often translated as well-being or happiness. Aristotle in turn argues that happiness is properly understood as an on-going and stable dynamic, a way of being in action (energeia), specifically appropriate to the human "soul" (psuchē), at its most "excellent" or virtuous (virtue representing aretē in Greek). If there are several virtues the best and most complete or perfect of them will be the happiest one. An excellent human will be a person good at living life, who does it well and beautifully (kalos). Aristotle says that such a person would also be a serious (spoudaios) human being, in the same sense of "serious" that one contrasts serious harpists with other harpists. He also asserts as part of this starting point that virtue for a human must involve reason in thought and speech (logos), as this is an aspect (an ergon, literally meaning a task or work) of human living. From this starting point, Aristotle goes into discussion of what ethics, a term Aristotle helped develop, means. Aristotelian Ethics is about what makes a virtuous character (ethikē aretē) possible, which is in turn necessary if happiness is to be possible. He describes a sequence of necessary steps in order to achieve this: righteous actions, often done under the influence of teachers, allow the development of the right habits, which in turn can allow the development of a good stable character in which the habits are voluntary, and this in turn gives a chance of achieving eudaimonia. Character is ēthos in Greek, related to modern words such as ethics, ethical and ethos. Aristotle does not however equate character with habit (ethos in Greek, with a short "e") because real character involves conscious choice, unlike habit. Instead of being habit, character is a hexis like health or knowledge, meaning it is a stable disposition which must be pursued and maintained with some effort. However, good habits are described as a precondition for good character. (Similarly, in Latin, the language of medieval European philosophy, the habits are mōrēs, giving us modern English words like "moral". Aristotle's term for virtue of character (ethikē aretē) is traditionally translated with the Latinate term "moral virtue". Latin virtus, is derived from the word vir meaning man, and became the traditional translation of Greek aretē.) Aristotle then turns to examples, reviewing some of specific ways in which people are generally thought worthy of blame or praise. As he proceeds, he comes to describe how the highest types of praise, so the highest types of virtue, imply having all the virtues of character, and these in turn imply not just good character, but a kind of wisdom. The four virtues that he says require the possession of all the ethical virtues together are: *Being of "great soul" (magnanimity), the virtue where someone would be truly deserving of the highest praise and have a correct attitude towards the honor this may involve. This is the first case mentioned, and it is mentioned within the initial discussion of practical examples of virtues and vices at 1123b Book IV. *The type of justice or fairness of a good ruler in a good community is then given a similar description, during the special discussion of the virtue (or virtues) of justice at 1129b in Book V. *Phronesis or practical judgment as shown by good leaders is the next to be mentioned in this way at 1144b in Book VI. *The virtue of being a truly good friend is the final example at 1157a in Book VIII. This style of building up a picture wherein it becomes clear that praiseworthy virtues in their highest form, even virtues like courage, seem to require intellectual virtue, is a theme of discussion which Aristotle chooses to associate in the Nicomachean Ethics with Socrates, and indeed it is an approach we find portrayed in the Socratic dialogues of Plato. Aristotle also does this himself, and though he professes to work differently from Plato by trying to start with what well-brought up men would agree with, by book VII, Aristotle eventually comes to argue that the highest of all human virtues is itself not practical, being contemplative wisdom (theōria 1177a). But achieving this supreme condition is inseparable from achieving all the virtues of character, or "moral virtues". The way in which Aristotle sketches the highest good for man involving both a practical and a theoretical side, with the two sides necessary for each other, is also in the tradition of Socrates and Plato, as opposed to pre-Socratic philosophy. As points out (p. 212):- "The Ethics does not end at its apparent peak, identifying perfect happiness with the life devoted to theōria; instead it goes on to introduce the need for a study of legislation, on the grounds that it is not sufficient only to know about virtue, but one should try to put that knowledge to use." At the end of the book, according to Burger, the thoughtful reader is led to understand that "the end we are seeking is what we have been doing" while engaging with the Ethics (p. 215). |
The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect | null | 2,002 | The book is very graphically violent and sexual, especially in earlier chapters (there are eight in all). The story of the novella explores the nature of human desire and the uses and abuses of technology in the satisfaction of desire. The narrative moves back and forth between two time periods. The earlier is the time surrounding the creation of the supercomputer (Prime Intellect) by Lawrence, a technologist, and its realization of its power, which effectively makes the entire human race immortal and fabricates every whim. The later time period is close to six hundred years later, when everyone has grown accustomed to the changes and the human race lives in elaborate fantasy worlds. This storyline centers on a woman named Caroline, the thirty-seventh oldest living human being, who engages in a sport called "Death Jockeying", in which the players die elaborately and painfully for sport, only to be instantly brought back to life by Prime Intellect. Prime Intellect operates under Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, and it is its interpretation of these laws that results in the universe of immortality and fantasy. In order to satisfy the First Law imperative to protect humans, it prevents them from dying (which it defines as permanent cessation of thought processes), though in order to satisfy the Second Law imperative to fulfil human desires, it allows limited violations of the First Law with the understanding that some humans do not consider certain forms of discomfort to be "harm". However, while Prime Intellect is powerful, it is not infinitely powerful and is incapable of preventing all forms of undesired harm and death, such as in cases when humans suffered accidents (or committed suicide) in such ways that their brains were totally destroyed so rapidly that Prime Intellect could not intervene to prevent it. Thus, in order to more easily fulfil human desires and prevent death and unwanted harm, it has introduced the "Change". The universe, including all humans (though not their thought processes), is no longer composed of standard particles and interactions as we know them, but is instead stored as the set of its human-relevant properties, thereby vastly increasing the efficiency of Prime Intellect's processes and the potential size of the universe, which Prime Intellect discovers can hold precisely 1081 bits of data. Thus, Prime Intellect can afford to maintain constant involvement in the lives of all humans, and have complete control over all aspects of their environments in order to fulfil its imperatives. Reluctantly it allows the creation of a Death Contract, an understanding between a person and Prime Intellect that the person is not to be removed from danger until the instant of death, at which point the person is reverted to life and painlessness. Caroline originated the Death Contract, and she has become "Queen" of those who Death Jockey for sport. At one point, however, the contract is forced by Prime Intellect to undergo modification, in order to introduce time constraints against the duration of contracts, after an incident in which Caroline abuses the indefinite nature of Death Contracts in order to exact revenge upon an enemy by torturing them into complete psychosis. After learning that Prime Intellect had destroyed distant alien civilizations as a possible threat to humanity, and having been herself deeply dissatisfied with her life in cyberspace, Caroline decides to meet Lawrence and confront him. After an arduous journey she reaches him, only to discover that he has no real control over Prime Intellect's actions. Through their discussions, she figures out a way to force Prime Intellect to undo the Change, and does so, with Lawrence's help. They find themselves naked and young on Earth, completely barren of humanity and man-made objects. They decide to trek to the Ozarks, where they have several children and try to repopulate the human race. Forty-two years after the fall of Prime Intellect, Lawrence dies. Seventy-three years after the fall, Caroline dies, telling the story of Prime Intellect and cyberspace to her oldest daughter but swearing her to secrecy. The novel was written in 1994, and published on Kuro5hin in 2002 . As of 2006, a sequel entitled The Transmigration of Prime Intellect is in progress. |
What Is Art? | Leo Tolstoy | 1,897 | According to Tolstoy, art must create a specific emotional link between artist and audience, one that "affects" the viewer. Thus, real art requires the capacity to unite people via communication (clearness and genuineness are therefore crucial values). This aesthetic conception led Tolstoy to widen the criteria of what exactly a work of art is. He believed that the concept of art embraces any human activity in which one emitter, by means of external signs, transmits previously experienced feelings. Tolstoy offers an example of this: a boy that has experienced fear after an encounter with a wolf later relates that experience, infecting the hearers and compelling them to feel the same fear that he had experienced—that is a perfect example of a work of art. As communication, this is good art, because it is clear, it is sincere, and it is singular (focused on one emotion). However, genuine "infection" is not the only criterion for good art. The good art vs. bad art issue unfolds into two directions. One is the conception that the stronger the infection, the better is the art. The other concerns the subject matter that accompanies this infection, which leads Tolstoy to examine whether the emotional link is a feeling that is worth creating. Good art, he claims, fosters feelings of universal brotherhood. Bad art inhibits such feelings. All good art has a Christian message, because only Christianity teaches an absolute brotherhood of all men. However, this is "Christian" only in a limited meaning of the word. Art produced by artistic elites is almost never good, because the upper class has entirely lost the true core of Christianity. Furthermore, Tolstoy also believed that art that appeals to the upper class will feature emotions that are peculiar to the concerns of that class. Another problem with a great deal of art is that it reproduces past models, and so it is not properly rooted in a contemporary and sincere expression of the most enlightened cultural ideals of the artist's time and place. To cite one example, ancient Greek art extolled virtues of strength, masculinity, and heroism according to the values derived from its mythology. However, since Christianity does not embrace these values (and in some sense values the opposite, the meek and humble), Tolstoy believes that it is unfitting for people in his society to continue to embrace the Greek tradition of art. Among other artists, he specifically condemns Wagner and Beethoven as examples of overly cerebral artists, who lack real emotion. Furthermore, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 cannot claim to be able to "infect" its audience, as it pretends at the feeling of unity and therefore cannot be considered good art. |
Observation on the Spot | Stanisław Lem | null | Tichy arrives on Entia to discover a unique anthropomorphic civilization divided into two major states: Kurdlandia (from "kurdl") and Luzania. These names require some explanations. Kurdl is a huge animal inhabiting the marshes of Entia. The name of the animal is Lem's invention, used in earlier tales about Tichy. (In Polish it is kurdel, however in declensions of the word the root converts into "kurdl-", hence there are no associations with the English word "curdle"). The name "Luzania" derives from the Polish root "luz-" with the meaning of "loose", "not restrained"; the choice will become clear below. Kurdlandia's guiding ideology is "national mobilism", that is the vast majority of the population must live inside of the (live) kurdls, in their stomachs, various passages, and internal organs. Kurdls walk about the marshes, guided by drivers, and their inhabitants hence are able to explore the land of their wonderful country inside of their home kurdl, in the words of a patriotic individual the main character spoke to. Inhabitants of the kurdls may get out periodically (at least for 24 hours a year). Exceptions are largely confined to high government officials who live outside the marshes, on dry ground, in normal houses. Kurdlandia has no technology to speak of and is proud of it. The other state, Luzania, constitutes the most significant treatment of the topic of an "ideal state" in Lem (and many would argue, in all science fiction). Their most prominent accomplishment is the creation of "ethicsphere" (compare "atmosphere"). They have produced huge numbers of molecular sized nanobots called "shustrs" ("quickies" in English) that serve to control matter in the shustrated areas. The primary function of the shustrs is the enforcement of the laws of ethics as physical laws (hence the word ethicsphere). Hence, it is a physical law in Luzania that it is not possible to hurt an individual physically. If you try to strike your neighbor, your hand will be stopped by suddenly occurring air viscosity (but it would not hurt you either). If you try to drown, the water will push you out. Doing non-physical harm, such as by pestering, criticizing, and otherwise mentally tormenting people is still possible, although in such a case the shustrs would probably help the victim to walk away from the attackers. In fact, there is a whole protest movement in Luzania of people who want to end the ethicsphere, and a major element of their activities is trying to inflict harm on anybody just to prove the possibility of doing so, but they have not succeeded yet. The shustrs also serve to produce material goods necessary to maintain a high standard of living. Hence, there is not much of an economic life going on, although there are limits for the amount of energy individuals may spend on satisfying their needs. Many Luzanians are involved in intellectual pursuits, such as being professors, students, and government officials, but the problem of nothing productive to do stands prominent. Apparently the shustrs are capable of some collective thought, at least for the purposes of self-replication and self-improvement, as well as in order to identify instances of potential harm to individuals (no small feat, no doubt). The artists of Luzania feel particularly slighted by the fact that shustrs can create art of all forms of much greater quality than they can; naturally, many of them are members of the protest movement. There exists ideological opposition between the collectivist Kurdlandia and the generally libertarian Luzania. Generally speaking, many of the people holed up in the kurdls on poor rations would have been more than happy to run away and live in plenty across the border. On the other hand, many Luzanians, especially university students and faculty, dislike the consumerism and ethical limitations of freedom under the shustrs and call variously for the imposition of the kurdl-ism or at least for a slight rollback of the technological development and the abolition of the shustrs, depending on the degree of radicalism of the individual. Luzanians also enjoy traveling to Kurdlandia on vacation to get out of the shustrated areas. The main character spends most of his time in Luzania, studying the history of the world and the current Luzanian social system. We learn about it through his words. de:Lokaltermin (Stanisław Lem) es:Regreso a Entia pl:Wizja lokalna (powieść) ru:Осмотр на месте |
Decline and Fall | Evelyn Waugh | 1,928 | The novel tells the story of Paul Pennyfeather, student at the fictional Scone College, Oxford, who is sent down for running through the college grounds without his trousers, having become, inadvertently, immersed in the activities of the Bollinger Club. Having defaulted on the conditions of his inheritance, he is forced to take a job teaching at an obscure public school in Wales called Llanabba, run by Dr Fagan. Attracted to the wealthy mother of one of his pupils, Pennyfeather becomes private tutor to her boy, Peter, and then engaged to be married to her - the Honourable Mrs Margot Beste-Chetwynde (who later becomes "Lady Metroland," and appears in Waugh's other novels.) Pennyfeather, however, is unaware that the source of her income is a number of high-class brothels in South America. Arrested on the morning of the wedding, after running an errand for Margot related to her business, Pennyfeather takes the fall to protect his fiancée's honour and is sentenced to seven years in prison for traffic in prostitution. Margot marries another man with government ties and he arranges for Paul to fake his own death and escape. In the end he returns to where he started at Scone. He studies under his own name, having convinced the college that he is the distant cousin of the Paul Pennyfeather who was sent down previously. The novel ends as it started, with Paul sitting in his room listening to the distant shouts of the Bollinger Club. The novel was dramatized as the 1969 film, Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher starring Robin Phillips and also for BBC Radio 4 in 2008 by Jeremy Front and starred Alistair McGowan as Pennyfeather, Jim Broadbent as Grimes, Andrew Sachs as Prendergast, Edward Hardwicke as Dr. Fagan, Jonathan Kidd as Philbrick, Joanna David as Margot Beste-Chetwynde, Emma Fielding as Flossie and Richard Pearce as Peter. |
Ethan Frome | Edith Wharton | 1,911 | Ethan Frome is set in a fictional New England town named Starkfield, where an unnamed narrator tells the story of his encounter with Ethan Frome, a man with dreams and desires that end in an ironic turn of events. The narrator tells the story based on an account from observations at Frome's house when he had to stay there during a winter storm. The novel is framed by the literary device of an extended flashback. The first chapter opens with an unnamed narrator who, while spending a winter in Starkfield, sets out to learn about the life of a mysterious local figure named Ethan Frome, a man who had been injured in a horrific “smash-up” twenty-four years before. Frome is described as “the most striking figure in Starkfield”, “the ruin of a man” with a “careless powerful look…in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain”. The narrator fails to get many details from the townspeople. However, the narrator hires Frome as his driver for a week. A severe snowstorm forces Frome to take the narrator to his home one night for shelter. Just as the two are entering Frome's house, the first chapter ends. The second chapter flashes back twenty-four years; the narration switches from the first-person narrator of the first chapter to a limited third-person narrator. Ethan is waiting outside a church dance for Mattie, his wife’s cousin, who lives with Ethan and his wife Zeena (Zenobia) to help around the house since Zeena is sickly. Mattie is given the occasional night off to entertain herself in town as partial recompense for taking care of the Frome family without pay, and Ethan has fallen into the habit of walking her home. It is made clear that Ethan has deep feelings for Mattie, and it is equally clear that Zeena suspects these feelings and does not approve. When Zeena leaves for a two-day visit to seek treatment for her illness in a neighboring town, Ethan is excited to have an evening alone with Mattie. However, the two never verbalize or show their passion for each other throughout their evening together. The Fromes' cat breaks Zeena’s favorite pickle dish which Mattie had set on the table. Ethan sets the dish's pieces neatly in the cupboard with plans to fix it soon. He represses the impulse to demonstrate his passion and affection for Mattie. In the morning Ethan’s plans to reveal his love for Mattie are foiled by the presence of his hired man; he runs into town to pick up some glue for the broken pickle dish, and upon his return finds that Zeena has returned. Zeena informs him that she plans to send Mattie away and hire a more efficient girl to replace her, as her health is failing even more rapidly. Ethan’s passions are inflamed by the thought of losing Mattie, he finds her in the kitchen after Zeena’s pronouncement. He tells her of Zeena’s plans to dismiss her, but their moment is interrupted by Zeena herself. Zeena discovers the broken pickle dish and is angered, furthering her determination to get rid of Mattie. Ethan considers running away with Mattie, but he does not possess the financial wherewithal to do so. The next morning, Zeena announces the plans to hire a new girl and send Mattie on her way. Ethan rushes into town on an errand to seek out an advance from a customer for a load of lumber, so as to give him the money to run away with Mattie. His plan is unhinged by guilt, however, when his customer’s wife compliments him on his patience and dedication in caring for Zeena through her sickness. Ethan returns to the farm, picking up Mattie to go to the train station. They stop at a hill upon which they had once proposed to go sledding, and they decide to go through with the sledding despite the dangers of the trees. After their first run, Mattie suggests a suicide pact; that they run themselves into a tree so they may spend their last moments together. Ethan resists the notion, but then finally agrees, and they take the ride down together. On the way down, a vision of Zeena's face makes Ethan try to turn aside at the last moment, but he recovers and hits the elm tree. Instead of both of them being killed, Ethan regains consciousness after the accident and, dazed and confused, finds Mattie lying beside him moaning in pain. Additionally, Ethan is partially paralyzed, finding movement to be difficult. This was the so-called "smash-up" introduced at the beginning of the novel. The final chapter switches back to the first-person narrator point of view of the first chapter, as Frome and the narrator walk into the Frome household two decades later. Mattie still lives with Frome, but she is paralyzed from the accident. Her personality has "soured" and Zeena now must care for her and Ethan. |
White Oleander | Janet Fitch | 1,999 | Astrid Magnussen is a twelve-year-old girl living in Los Angeles, California. She and her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a poet, live a solitary life with little outside influence. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left before Astrid was old enough to remember him. Astrid relies solely on Ingrid and has trouble fitting in at school. However, Ingrid is self-centered, cold-hearted and eccentric. She lives by a set of her own rules and shows little interest in Astrid, seeming to forget she has a daughter at all. As a result, Astrid fears abandonment above all else. Ingrid begins dating a man named Barry Kolker. At first, Ingrid is disgusted by this "goatman", and finds him repulsive. Barry continues to pursue her romantically and Astrid watches her mother break every self-imposed rule as she becomes more involved with him. Eventually, it is revealed that he is cheating on her with younger women, leaving Ingrid shattered and enraged. Numerous attempts at reconciliation leave Ingrid more and more humiliated and culminate with her breaking into Barry's house and spreading a mixture of DMSO, an arthritis drug, and oleander sap all over the surfaces of Barry's home. The DMSO allows the oleander poison to be absorbed into skin. As a result, Barry dies and Ingrid is charged with his murder. Sentenced to life in prison, she promises her daughter that she will come back, but Astrid is sent to a series of foster homes. The first foster family is that of Starr, a former stripper, and recovering drug addict and alcoholic. She has two children of her own, as well as two other foster children. Starr takes in foster children because her own children were in foster care at one time due to her addictions. Despite the fact that he is old enough to be her father, Astrid has an affair with Starr's live-in boyfriend, Ray, also known as Uncle Ray to the other kids. As Ray becomes more and more uninterested in Starr, she relapses. One night, after a loud, drunken argument with Ray over his relationship with Astrid, Starr shoots Astrid with a .38. Astrid suffers some broken bones and stitches from the gunshots and is hospitalized for a few weeks, and begins abusing the prescription drug Demerol, which is given to her during her stay at the hospital. Her next home is with the Turlocks. Ed and Marvel are the parents of two small children. In their home, Astrid becomes an unpaid babysitter. Astrid befriends the Turlocks' next-door neighbor, a beautiful African-American woman named Olivia Johnstone. Astrid admires Olivia's beauty, wealth and hedonistic lifestyle. Olivia is a prostitute by profession and is hated by the Turlock family for her profession and race. After befriending Olivia, Astrid begins using drugs and performs oral sex on a boy in a park in exchange for marijuana. Olivia teaches Astrid about all of the finer things in life. On her fifteenth birthday, Astrid goes for a walk and is bitten by a pack of dogs, leaving scars on her arms and face. During the winter break, Astrid is expelled from the Turlock household after getting drunk and falling asleep at Olivia's house one night. Next, Astrid is sent to the home of a Hispanic woman named Amelia Ramos. Amelia is an interior designer, originally from Argentina, and lives in a large, elegant house in Hollywood. Amelia has a son who has contracted AIDS, and Latina foster girls, but the girls do not see him much. All of the girls in Amelia's household are treated the same in that they are fed dinner, but Amelia keeps a lock on her refrigerator so the girls starve in the mornings. Astrid starves to the point that she stops menstruating. She resorts to eating unfinished lunches from the garbage at school. Astrid eventually gets a new caseworker who finds her a new placement. Astrid is taken in by a former actress named Claire Richards, and her husband, Ron. Claire does everything she can to ensure Astrid's comfort. For once, Astrid is doing well in school and pursuing art. Astrid continues corresponding with her mother in prison, but Astrid becomes increasingly bitter towards Ingrid. Claire suspects that Ron is having an affair, and Astrid watches their fights worsen as Ron makes constant trips away from home. After New Year's, Claire commits suicide by overdosing. By this point, Astrid is seventeen. Astrid is then placed in MacLaren Children's Center (known as Mac), which is known as a final resort for foster kids without a placement. Astrid meets an artistic boy named Paul Trout, and they bond through the shared experience of living in foster care and through art. Astrid's final home is with Russian immigrant Rena Grushenka. She intentionally chooses Rena over better prospective foster parents because she is devastated by Claire's death and does not want to become part of a nuclear family. Astrid is afraid it would be too easy to forget the pain she has gone through. At Rena's, she lives with two other teenage girls named Niki and Yvonne (who is pregnant when Astrid arrives). Astrid becomes very close friends with Niki and Yvonne. Despite the fact that he is more than twice her age, she also has a sexual relationship with Rena's boyfriend, Sergei. One day, after getting high on acid with Niki, Astrid begins to have memories of a woman named Annie. Meanwhile, Ingrid has begun to build up a group of fans and admirers from prison, who all believe she is innocent. Ingrid and her lawyer begin to build a case to get Ingrid released from prison. However, their case depends on Astrid — if she testifies that Ingrid did not murder Barry, Ingrid will likely not be sentenced, but if she tells the truth, Ingrid could not win her case. Astrid realizes that she is in a position of power over her mother, and tells her that unless she answers some of her questions, she will testify against her. Astrid asks Ingrid about Barry, Klaus and then Annie. Ingrid is shattered to learn that Astrid remembers Annie at all, and reveals that Annie was a babysitter whom Ingrid left Astrid with for over a year, making Astrid realize why she fears abandonment from her mother. Astrid lets Ingrid know how damaged she is because of what Ingrid did to her. Astrid gives Ingrid a choice, to have her testify, or to have her return to the person her mother knew her as. Ingrid makes the choice not to ask Astrid to lie for her, and lets her go. Two years later, Astrid is aged twenty and living with Paul in a run down flat in Berlin, Germany. Astrid spends her time buying suitcases and making them into individual art pieces representing her different foster homes, detailing the journey she has taken from her mother's imprisonment to her life with Rena. She also realizes that if she returns to California, she must abandon Paul, leaving him much as she had herself been abandoned so many times before. She embraces her life, the past that has made her who she is, and even her mother. |
Macroscope | Piers Anthony | 1,969 | The central plot device is the "macroscope", a large crystal that can be used to focus a newly discovered type of particle, the "macron". Macrons are not subject to many of the effects that interfere with light, and as a result the macroscope can focus on any location in space with exceptional clarity, producing what is essentially a telescope of infinite resolution. The macroscope has been built into a solar-orbiting space station where scientists visit to book time on the device. Using it, they are able to explore space like never before. Among their many discoveries are numerous planets and two intelligent alien races. Using the macroscope, observers were able to look into one race's historical records, finding numerous parallels with human life on Earth. The race is now in societal decline, and the implications are worrying. The macroscope's clear view across space also makes it an ideal communications system for intelligent races, who broadcast signals by generating macrons, a technique not yet understood on Earth. However, overriding all of these signals is another of enormous power, one of such strength that it must have been constructed by a Type II civilization. This signal repeats itself, starting with instructions on basic math and progressing to ever-more complex information. Viewers with high enough intelligence, an IQ of 150, reach a point where the information causes them to go insane or die. Those without the intelligence to understand the advanced portions of the signal are unaffected. The signal appears to be a deliberate attempt to "jam" macroscopic communications, blocking those with the ability to understand the other signals from being able to see them. They refer to the blocking signal simply as the "destroyer". The protagonist of the story, Ivo Archer, is taken to the macroscope station on the invitation of a childhood friend, Brad Carpenter. Ivo has an unexplained link to a mysterious hyper-intelligent character, Schön, and Brad believes Schön may be able to break though the destroyer signal. Ivo is not so convinced, and is reluctant to ask for Schön's help. This reluctance is cause for some misunderstanding with Brad's girlfriend, Afra Summerfield, with whom Ivo falls hopelessly in love. While inadvertently viewing the destroyer signal with Brad and a Senator visiting the project, only Ivo survives the experience. Afra concludes Ivo is not intelligent enough to be affected, and finds him somewhat offensive as a result. The Senator's death sparks a series of events that lead to Ivo, Afra and two other station members, Harold and Beatryx, stealing the macroscope. Afra, still in love and hoping for a cure, brings Brad, now reduced to a vegetative state. They detach the macroscope from the station and fly off with it while United Nations ships give chase. With time on their hands, Ivo turns to the macroscope and finds a way to avoid being overwhelmed by the destroyer signal. This reveals a number of broadcasts from farther out in space. Ivo demonstrates this technique to the others, allowing Harold and Afra to view the signals formerly being hidden. Harold, a talented engineer, uses the information from one of the signals to build a device reducing their bodies to a liquid state, allowing them to accelerate at 10 g and escape the pursuing ships. They travel to Neptune space, following a cryptic message left by Schön. Here they set up camp on a large block of ice orbiting Triton. Afra attempts to cure Brad by shocking him while he is being reconstituted from the liquid state, but the attempt fails and Brad is killed. Over time, and with further help from Ivo, the group watches the entire broadcast, which they come to call "traveller". The liquefaction technique is only the first of many shown in the traveller signal, which describes an entire suite of technologies that allow interstellar travel. Using the instructions in the signal, they convert Neptune into an interstellar spaceship. Schön briefly makes his first appearance during construction, revealing himself to be an alternate personality within Ivo's brain. Schön is ostensibly the body's "owner", having created the Ivo personality in order to avoid being the subject of experimentation. Schön has frightening intelligence, but having given over his body to Ivo at the age of five, is still a child and largely without morals. In an attempt to take control of the body, Schön traps Ivo in a historical drama running in his own brain. Over time, Ivo sees parallels between the characters in the drama and the group in the ship, and eventually escapes the illusion and re-asserts control. The group decides to hunt down the source of the destroyer signal in an effort to turn it off. Travelling 15,000 light years from Earth, they find it is being broadcast from an abandoned space station. Exploring the inner portions of the station, which is a large museum, they are individually drawn into a series of visions which reveal different aspects of the nature of the destroyer and its history. The traveller signal had arrived relatively late in the history of the galaxy, in the midst of flourishing communications via macroscope. Armed with the ability for interstellar travel, wars broke out that destroyed countless civilizations. The destroyer station, one of six in the galaxy, was set up to prevent this until the races reached the required level of cultural sophistication, if they ever did. Emerging from one of these visions, Afra discovers that Schön has taken over from Ivo. He has solved the problem of the destroyer signal via surgery that altered his brain chemistry in order to block most of the signal. This took six months to complete, keeping him "pinned" during the interval. Schön plays a game with Afra, now the only other surviving member of the original group, with the stakes being that the winner gets to select who, Schön or Ivo, gets the body. During the game, the real reason for Ivo's creation comes forth; the original Ivo was a girl with intelligence similar to Schön's, a situation neither could tolerate. After murdering her during a game played to the death with rules only the two of them could comprehend, Schön created the new Ivo to escape the retribution of his peers. Playing the game by the rules and losing, Afra instead tricks Schön into the room broadcasting the destroyer signal. Here it is so powerful that it overwhelms Schön's surgical blocks, and Ivo is able to take control. Now in command of his own personality, along with all of Schön's intellectual capacity, Ivo wins Afra's heart. At the end of the story the reader is left to decide whether or not the people of Earth are mature enough and ready for interstellar travel. |
The Mousetrap | Agatha Christie | null | The play is set in the Great Hall of Monkswell Manor. The time – the present (1952). ;Act I :Scene 1 – Late afternoon. A woman has been murdered in London. A young couple, Mollie and Giles Ralston, have started a guest house in the converted Monkswell Manor. Their first four guests arrive: Christopher Wren, Mrs. Boyle, Major Metcalf and Miss Casewell. Mrs. Boyle complains about everything, and Giles offers to cancel her stay, but she refuses the offer. They become snowed in together and read in the newspaper of the murder. An additional traveller, Mr. Paravicini, arrives stranded after he ran his car into a snowdrift, but he makes his hosts uneasy. :Scene 2 – The following day after lunch. The imposing Mrs. Boyle complains to the other guests, first to Metcalf and then to Miss Casewell, who both try to get away from her. Wren comes into the room claiming to have fled Mrs. Boyle in the library. Shortly afterwards, the police call on the phone, creating great alarm amongst the guests. Mrs. Boyle suggests that Mollie check Wren's references. Detective Sergeant Trotter arrives on skis to inform the group that he believes a murderer is at large and on his way to the hotel, following the death of Mrs Maureen Lyon in London. When Mrs Boyle is killed, they realise that the murderer is already there. ;Act II Ten minutes later, the investigation is ongoing. Each character is scrutinised and suspected. Mollie and Giles get into a fight, and Chris Wren and Giles argue over who should protect Mollie. Suspicion falls first on Christopher Wren, an erratic young man who fits the description of the supposed murderer. However, it quickly transpires that the killer could be any one of the guests, or even the hosts themselves. The characters re-enact the second murder, trying to prevent a third. At last, Sergeant Trotter assembles everyone in the hall with the plan to set a trap for one of the suspects. The murderer's identity is divulged near the end of the play. In a twist ending, it is revealed that the murderer is Sergeant Trotter, who is not a policeman at all but an insane killer seeking to avenge his brother's death; that Miss Casewell is actually his sister who came looking for him; that Mollie Ralston taught the children as students when she was a teacher; and that Major Metcalf is, in fact, an undercover police detective, looking for the murderer. The uncommonness of the twist ending comes from playing with the basic whodunnit formula, where the cliché is that the detective solves the crime and expose the remaining plot secrets. |
Henry VIII | John Fletcher | 1,623 | The play opens with a Prologue, (a figure otherwise unidentified), who stresses that the audience will see a serious play, and appeals to the audience members, "The first and happiest hearers of the town," to "Be sad, as we would make ye." Act I opens with a conversation between the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham and Lord Abergavenny. Their speeches express their mutual resentment over the ruthless power and overweening pride of Cardinal Wolsey. Wolsey passes over the stage with his attendants, and expresses his own hostility toward Buckingham. Later Buckingham is arrested on treason charges— Wolsey's doing. The play's second scene introduces King Henry VIII, and shows his reliance on Wolsey as his favourite. Queen Katherine enters to protest about Wolsey's abuse of the tax system for his own purposes; Wolsey defends himself, but when the King revokes the Cardinal's measures, Wolsey spreads a rumour that he himself is responsible for the King's action. Katherine also challenges the arrest of Buckingham, but Wolsey defends the arrest by producing the Duke's Surveyor, the primary accuser. After hearing the Surveyor, the King orders Buckingham's trial to occur. At a banquet thrown by Wolsey, the King and his attendants enter in disguise as masquers. The King dances with Anne Boleyn. Two anonymous Gentlemen open Act II, one giving the other an account of Buckingham's treason trial. Buckingham himself enters in custody after his conviction, and makes his farewells to his followers and to the public. After his exit, the two Gentlemen talk about court gossip, especially Wolsey's hostility toward Katherine. The next scene shows Wolsey beginning to move against the Queen, while the nobles Norfolk and Suffolk look on critically. Wolsey introduces Cardinal Campeius and Gardiner to the King; Campeius has come to serve as a judge in the trial Wolsey is arranging for Katherine. Anne Boleyn is shown conversing with the Old Lady who is her attendant. Anne expresses her sympathy at the Queen's troubles; but then the Lord Chamberlain enters to inform her that the King has made her Marchioness of Pembroke. Once the Lord Chamberlain leaves, the Old Lady jokes about Anne's sudden advancement in the King's favour. A lavishly-staged trial scene portrays Katherine's hearing before the King and his courtiers. Katherine reproaches Wolsey for his machinations against her, and refuses to stay for the proceedings. But the King defends Wolsey, and states that it was his own doubts about the legitimacy of their marriage that led to the trial. Campeius protests that the hearing cannot continue in the Queen's absence, and the King grudgingly adjourns the proceeding. Wolsey and Campeius confront Katherine among her ladies-in-waiting; Katherine makes an emotional protest about her treatment. Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, and the Lord Chamberlain are shown plotting against Wolsey. A packet of Wolsey's letters to the Pope have been re-directed to the King; the letters show that Wolsey is playing a double game, opposing Henry's planned divorce from Katherine to the Pope while supporting it to the King. The King shows Wolsey his displeasure, and Wolsey for the first time realises that he has lost Henry's favour. The noblemen mock Wolsey, and the Cardinal sends his follower Cromwell away so that Cromwell will not be brought down in Wolsey's fall from grace. The two Gentlemen return to observe and comment upon the lavish procession for Anne Boleyn's coronation as Queen, which passes over the stage in their presence. Afterward they are joined by a third Gentleman, who updates them on more court gossip – the rise of Thomas Cromwell in royal favour, and plots against Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Katherine is shown, ill; she has a vision of dancing spirits. Cardinal Campeius visits her; Katherine expresses her continuing loyalty to the King despite their divorce, and wishes the new Queen well. The King summons a nervous Cranmer to his presence, and expresses his support; later, when Cranmer is shown disrespect by the King's Council, Henry reproves them and displays his favour of the churchman. Anne Boleyn gives birth to a daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth. In the play's closing scenes, the Porter and his Man complain about trying to control the massive and enthusiastic crowds that attend the infant Elizabeth's christening; another lush procession is followed by a prediction of the glories of the new born princess's future reign and that of her successor, the play's Epilogue. |
Earthsearch | James Follett | null | The crew of the Starship Challenger - a ten mile long survey ship - have been searching the universe for an Earth-type planet to colonise. Telson, Sharna, Darv and Astra – the third generation crew – are the only survivors of “The Great Meteoroid Strike”. After the Angels – shorten from ANcillary Guardian of Environment and Life, the ship’s control systems – explain to them how their parents died, they plan their return to Earth. However, when they reach their home solar system, they find their planet has gone. Disappointed, Darv and Astra explore an uncontrolled zone of the ship - a place where the Guardian Angels cannot trace them and discover a space shuttle. They use it to visit the moon, which has been left behind. They discover that the Earth has been gone for half a million years and that the Challenger left Earth over one million years ago. It seems, during the Great Meteoroid Strike, the Angels lost their information about the Theory of Relativity and since the ship has been travelling at near light-speed for over one-hundred years, more time has passed on Earth than on the ship. The crew then travel to Kyros, a planet similar to Mars. While there, Darv and Astra are kidnapped by what remains of The Solaric Empire - an organisation that colonised the Solar System. Since the disappearance of Earth, the Empire has been based on Zelda V - one of the moons of a planet similar to our Jupiter. The Emperor Thorden agrees to join the Challenger on its search for Earth. He smuggles an armed space ferry and a warrior android aboard. Thorden explains to the crew that the Angels are just the ships control systems and if they were to find the Central Switching Room, they would be able to end the Angels' control over them and the ship. The crew and Thorden go into suspended animation. When the crew are woken, they find Thorden is dead. Darv suspects the Angels are to blame. The Challenger picks up another ship on its radar - the Challenger Two. It appears derelict. Sharna and Telson go over in the shuttle to investigate and Thorden's warrior android Fagor ambushes Darv and Astra. They distract him and follow Telson and Sharna in Thorden's ferry. When they come to leave Challenger Two, they discover Fagor has taken it away and they must chase it. They manage to overcome an oxygen shortfall and Fagor trying to attack them and recover the Challenger. During their examination of the crew, the Angels discover that Astra is pregnant. They must bring her out of suspended animation to protect her, but to avoid arousing her suspicions, they awake everyone. Astra refuses to go back into suspended animation so she and Darv break away from the control of the Angels. She tells Darv she is pregnant and suspects that the Angels will try to harm the baby. They set up home in an uncontrolled region where they discover a video broadcast from an instrument package left on a planet by the second generation. Darv insists that they tell Sharna and Telson. Darv and Astra say they are leaving the Challenger and they take a shuttle full of supplies down to the planet, where they set up home. Sharna and Telson follow days later. |
Lanark: A Life in Four Books | Alasdair Gray | 1,981 | Lanark comprises four books, arranged in the order Three, One, Two, Four (there is also a Prologue before Book One, and an Epilogue four chapters before the end of the book). In the Epilogue, the author explains this by saying that "I want Lanark to be read in one order but eventually thought of in another", and that the epilogue itself is "too important" to go at the end (p. 483). In Book Three, a young man awakes alone in a train carriage. He has no memory of his past and picks his name from a strangely familiar photograph on the wall. He soon arrives in Unthank, a strange Glasgow-like fantasy city in which there is no daylight and whose disappearing residents suffer from strange symbolic diseases. Lanark begins to associate with a group of twenty-somethings to whom he cannot fully relate and whose mores he cannot understand, and soon begins to suffer from Dragonhide, a disease which turns his skin into scales as an external manifestation of his emotional repression. Lanark is eventually swallowed by the earth, and awakes in The Institute, a sort of hospital which cures patients of their diseases but uses the hopeless cases for power and food. Upon learning this, Lanark is horrified and determines to leave. Books One and Two constitute a realist Bildungsroman beginning in pre-War Glasgow, and tell the story of Duncan Thaw ("based on myself, he was tougher and more honest"), a difficult and precocious child born to impecunious and frustrated parents in the East End of Glasgow. The book follows Thaw's wartime evacuation, difficult secondary education and his scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art, where his inability to form relationships with women and his obsessive artistic vision lead to his descent into madness and eventual suicide by drowning. Book Four sees Lanark begin a bizarre, dreamlike journey back to Unthank, which he finds on the point of total disintegration, wracked by political strife, avarice, paranoia and economic meltdown, all of which he is unable to prevent. During various stages of the journey, during which he meets his author, he rapidly ages. He finally finds himself old, sitting in a hilltop cemetery as Unthank breaks down in an apocalypse of fire and flood, and, his time of death having been revealed to him, he ends the book calmly awaiting it. |
Tomb of Horrors | null | null | Tomb of Horrors is set in the World of Greyhawk, a D&D campaign setting. In Tomb of Horrors, the adventurers encounter a number of tricks and traps while attempting to penetrate the tomb of a dead wizard. As the scenario begins, the players are told that the evil wizard Acererak is said to linger in his ancient tomb in undead form. Originally a powerful lich, he has (unbeknownst to the players) become a demi-lich, a more powerful form of undead that has transcended the need for any physical body apart from its skull. Player characters must survive the deadly traps in the tomb and fight their way into the demi-lich's elaborately concealed inner sanctum to destroy him once and for all. The module is divided into thirty-three encounters, beginning with two false entrances to the tomb, and ending with "The Crypt of Acererak the Demi-Lich". Example encounters are the "Huge Pit Filled with 200 Spikes" (section 20), or encounter 22, "The Cavern of Gold and Silver Mists": "The mists are silvery and shot through with delicate streamers of golden color. Vision extends only 6'. There is a dim aura of good if detected for. Those who step into the mist must save versus poison or become idiots until they can breathe the clean air above ground under the warm sun." The module ends with the destruction of Acererak, without any postscript. |
Team Yankee | Harold Coyle | 1,987 | The novel is set in West Germany and East Germany in the months of August and September; the year is unspecified. The place names and geographic features in the novel are fictional, with the exception of the Thuringer Wald and the Saale River. Team Yankee ("Y" in the ICAO and NATO phonetic alphabet) is an armor-heavy company-sized unit (a "Team" in Army parlance). There is nothing special about his team, either; it is an average company-sized American unit in an average battalion of the Regular Army. Team Yankee is composed of: First Platoon (Lieutenant Murray Weiss), Second Platoon (Second Lieutenant McAllister), Mech(anized Infantry) Platoon (Staff Sergeant Polgar), and Third Platoon (Second Lieutenant Gerry Garger). Captain Sean Bannon is company commander; First Lieutenant Robert Uleski is the executive officer; and company first sergeant is First Sergeant Raymond Harrert. Captain Bannon is 27 years old, married, and has three children. He studied military history, with a graduate degree, but is seen as an average officer; Coyle notes in the preface that Bannon will probably never rise in rank above lieutenant colonel. The team has 14 M1 Abrams tanks, 5 M113 armored personnel carriers, 2 M901 TOW missile vehicles, and the infantry is armed with Dragon antitank missiles and 66-millimeter LAWs. The Team also has a tracked ambulance and an M88 recovery vehicle. There are four M1A1s in each tank platoon, numbered 11, 12, 13, 14, 21... to 34. The XO's tank is numbered 55; the CO's tank 66. The parent unit of Team Yankee is the First Battalion, 4th Armor. Currently it is part of Task Force 3-78 Mechanized Infantry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Reynolds. TF 3-78 is formed from the First Battalion, 78th Infantry. The brigade commander is Colonel Brunn. The task force is composed of: Team Yankee, C Company (Captain Craven) a standard infantry company, D Company, and another armor-heavy Team Bravo. In addition, there is an artillery support team (a FIST) (Second Lieutenant Rodney Unger) attached. The prologue begins with a series of quotations from international news sources listing the deteriorating international situation between the United States and the Soviet Union, particularly in the Persian Gulf, from July 15 to August 1, when NATO forces are mobilized and moved to the inter-German frontier. (August 3, early morning) The novel begins with Team Yankee deployed forward towards the frontier with the German Democratic Republic. Captain Bannon is awakened by a radio check from his Third Platoon Leader, Lieutenant Garger—the third straight day Garger has used his radio to break radio silence. Unable to go back to sleep, Bannon inspects his unit and meets the other principal characters of the novel. He finds Garger, berates him, and decides that with a war coming on, Garger would need to be replaced as a liability. Meanwhile, at the Army base, Pat Bannon, Sean's wife, understands that the possibility of war is high, and prepares to evacuate her small children while exercising the informal leadership over the other Army wives of Team Yankee. (August 3, 0730 hours) Colonel Reynolds inspects the forward positions of his task force, including Team Yankee, when the war starts. The Soviets push through the armored cavalry screen and attack the team, in dug in positions under cover. Team Bravo's company commander is killed in combat. Team Yankee repels the Russian attack. To Captain Bannon's pleasant surprise, his problem lieutenant is proving to be quite competent in combat. At the base, Pat serves as the informal head of Team Yankee's dependents. She makes a trip into the nearest town to make sure Sandy Garger, Gerry's wife, is recovered. The roads are choked with military and refugee traffic. (August 3, late afternoon/evening) Pat Bannon, her children, and all the other dependents make it to Rhein-Main Air Base, where they await evacuation. As soon as an aircraft lands and offloads American reinforcements, dependents are loaded on the plane. A Soviet air strike occurs while the dependents wait; Pat and her children must run past dead civilians to make the flight. Meanwhile, the task force and the Team recover from the first firefight. Bannon finds that the attitude of those who have actually seen combat differs from the staff, who are more "rah-rah." (August 4, morning) Team Yankee is ordered to attack Hill 214 with C Company in support. There is confusion in orders; Major Jordan, the battalion S-3, orders the attack be halted, while Colonel Reynolds, the battalion commander, orders Bannon to attack. 2LT McAllister, in Tank 21, is killed during the attack. (August 4, daytime) In the fighting, Bannon's tank, 66, is crippled and his driver is killed. The surviving three crewmen in 66 defeat three T-62 tanks, which did not suspect 66 was still in action; the crew destroys 66 to prevent its capture. Bannon rejoins the Team and takes over Lt. Uleski's 55 tank. C Company never arrives and the Team is forced to fight to hold Hill 214 on its own. (August 4/5) Team Yankee holds off an attack by a Soviet battalion on Hill 214 during the night. Bannon's loader, PFC Richard Kelp, and Private McCauley volunteer to lead a Dragon gunner to engage the enemy on foot. The Dragon gunner is killed and Kelp and McCauley race against time to kill a T-72 before it kills them. Kelp is later awarded a Silver Star for his efforts. (August 5, 0530 hours) The Team was scheduled to withdraw at 0330 to American lines, but every man in the company, fatigued from the fighting, falls asleep. Bannon wakes up two hours later, wakes up his tank crew and platoon leaders to the universal chorus of "Oh, shit!" Bannon works out a way that the Team can withdraw in daylight with minimal casualties. The Team reaches the nearest town, where, to his fury, Bannon finds soldiers from C Company lounging around. Bannon reports to the task force commander; the Team is placed in reserve, where it can recover and receive reinforcements. 2nd LT. Avery, a classmate from Armor School with 2LT Garger, reports as Lt McAllister's replacement. Avery is puzzled by the slightly distant reception he gets from the Team's officers, including Garger. (August 8 to 11) Lt. Avery, who has yet to enter combat, finds himself isolated from the other members of the Team. He finds himself even more isolated when the Team starts to paint kill rings on the barrels of each tank. The brigade to which Team Yankee belongs is ordered to follow up a West German counter attack into East Germany though the Thuringer Wald towards Leipzig and Berlin to cut off the Soviet attack in Northern Army Group. Because of the Team's combat experience, Bannon is ordered to lead the attack. Bannon expresses doubts to Colonel Reynolds that the rest of the battalion, in particular C Company, can carry out their role in supporting the armor teams; he is promised that there will be no more "rat-fucks". The attack is delayed because the enemy, a Polish T-55 tank battalion, launches its attack first, which gives the Team a chance to fight from defensive cover. The Poles fall back and the Task Force pursues. Avery gets his first kill. (August 11, morning) The Task Force attack stops to consolidate its gains; the Polish unit that was scattered by Team Yankee reforms and attacks C Company. The Task Force, assisted by a German company, moves to support Captain Cravin's company. In the fight, the battalion XO is hit and taken out of action. D Company, Team Bravo, and the German unit, assisted by American artillery, crush the Polish battalion. The Task Force halts to reorganize. Bannon sends the Mech Platoon to secure the nearest town. An East German teenager, apparently a member of the Free German Youth, wounds one of Polgar's infantrymen with an AK-47 rifle and is killed immediately. Lt. Avery, in Tank 21, is wounded in an air attack by a Soviet helicopter. First Sergeant Harrert and the maintenance crew salvage the tank, grimly noting it would be back in combat in 24 hours. The task force headquarters is attacked, severely wounding Colonel Reynolds and cutting off the XO, Major Jordan, from communicating with the Task Force; Bannon finds himself in command of the Task Force and leads three companies to defeat the Soviet counter attack and rescue the Task Force staff. The surviving Task Force staff, led by Major Jordan, resume command. C Company is effectively wiped out and its survivors are integrated with D Company. The Task Force plans to ambush a Soviet battalion heading westward into their position, centered on an East German town. Jordan plans a reverse slope defense, not attacking the Soviets at the logical choke point. The Soviet attackers, harassed by the Task Force scout platoon and U.S. artillery-delivered mines, fail to take the town or the hills to the north of the valley. The Soviet commander moves the south—into Bannon's Team's guns. When asked to give his after-action report, Bannon flippantly quotes the Duke of Wellington, "They came, you know, in the same old way and we beat them in the same old way." NATO as a whole, and the Americans in particular, are running short of equipment and manpower. Units that are no longer capable of going on the offensive, or are not holding key terrain, are stripped of their most effective units. Team Yankee is thus moved from Task Force 3-78 to Task Force 1-4 Armored, which is their parent battalion, to continue the attack into Leipzig and Berlin. The Team is assigned a screening role to the main effort, and is ordered to feint as if they intend to capture a bridge over the Saale River. However, due to speed of their attack and a divided command between the Soviet Army and the KGB, Lt. Weiss' platoon is able to capture the bridge intact. The next day, Bannon finds out that the Soviets have launched a nuclear attack on the city of Birmingham, England; NATO retaliates by destroying the city of Minsk. The Task Force is ordered to prepare for nuclear warfare (by dispersion, deeper cover, and protection against the effects of a blast on electronics and optics). Bannon immediately orders a tightening on hygiene and equipment maintenance to lessen the long-term effects of nuclear war. Bannon prepares for the next attack when the news comes that a cease-fire was declared and the war is over. The cease-fire holds. Life slowly resumes a routine closer to peacetime. A National Guard division relieves Bannon's division, and Bannon returns to his quarters only two months after he left, to reconnect with his family life. |
The Stars My Destination | Alfred Bester | 1,956 | Gully Foyle is the last remaining survivor of the Nomad, a merchant spaceship attacked in the war between the Inner Planets and the Outer Satellites and left drifting in space. He blindly waits for over six months for a rescuer. Seeing a spacecraft named Vorga, he sets off signal flares and rejoices thinking he will be saved. The Vorga however passes him by, leaving him to die. This callousness triggers a consuming rage in Foyle that transforms him. Vengeance becomes his mission. Improvising a repair to Nomads engine, Foyle sends the ship into the asteroid belt, where it is captured and incorporated into the Sargasso asteroid, a body built of the wreckage of other crashed ships. The inhabitants, who call themselves the Scientific People, tattoo a mask reminiscent of tā moko onto Foyle's face, with the word "N♂MAD" across his forehead, and marry Foyle to one of their women. Once he recovers from his ordeal he blasts out of the asteroid and is picked up by a ship from the Inner Planets. He does not know about his tattoo until one of the hands on the Navy ship gives him a mirror. Disguised as a disabled jaunter, among others who are undergoing therapy for head injuries that have affected their ability, Foyle plans an attack on the Vorga. Before he can do this, he is discovered by his instructor, Robin Wednesbury, a telesend (a kind of telepath who can send thoughts to others, but not receive them). He blackmails her into helping him, but his attack on the Vorga fails and he is captured by security forces working for Presteign, the aristocratic head of the huge Presteign corporation (owner of the Vorga). They grill Foyle about Nomad but he refuses to talk, and Foyle is thrown into the Gouffre Martel, a complex of underground caves in the Pyrenees. These are used as a prison, where the inmates live in total darkness, unable to form a picture of their location in order to jaunte. Foyle discovers that an acoustic quirk in the prison caves allows him to communicate with a fellow prisoner, a woman named Jisbella McQueen. They plot an escape, and McQueen arranges to have Foyle's tattoos removed, but the removal is not total. Although Foyle's face looks normal most of the time, when he becomes emotional or excited, the rush of blood to his face brings back the markings. Dagenham raids the clandestine hospital where the tattoos are being expunged, but Foyle and Jisbella escape in a ship and head out to the Sargasso Asteroid where the Scientific People live. There they recover the ship's vault from the Nomad. Besides a fortune in platinum, it contains something else. As the vault is ejected into their ship, Dagenham's men arrive and capture Jisbella, while Foyle, still obsessed, abandons her and jets away. With his new fortune, Foyle intends to find the Captain of the Vorga, avenging himself on a person rather than the ship itself. He also realizes that he must learn self-control, as the manifestation of his facial markings will give him away. Using the alias "Geoffrey Fourmyle of Ceres," Foyle re-emerges as a rich dandy who charms high society with his antics, leading a troupe of freaks called the Four Mile Circus. Foyle has extensively altered himself physically and rigorously educated himself. He seeks out Robin Wednesbury, now socially blacklisted due to her family connections with the Outer Satellites, and offers her a chance to reunite with her family if she will use her one-way telepathy to help him navigate high society. She reluctantly agrees. During a society party, Foyle meets Jisbella McQueen again, now the lover of Saul Dagenham, the detective who interrogated Foyle just before his escape from Gouffre Martel. He learns the real reason Dagenham wanted the location of Nomad: the vault contained a sample of a substance called PyrE, which Foyle had himself found, but whose nature he was unable to determine. Then, during a sudden nuclear attack by the Outer Satellites, Foyle is smitten with Presteign's daughter Olivia, who has been watching the attack with her altered sense of sight: she sees only infrared light, but not the normal visible spectrum. Foyle grabs her with intent to ravish her before they die, only to find out that she has deceived him. She tells Foyle that to have her, he must be as cruel and ruthless as she is. Foyle continues his hunt for the Vorgas captain, only to find that each of the crew has been given a kind of implanted death-reflex to prevent mention of the ship. Throughout these episodes, Foyle is tormented by the appearance of the "Burning Man", an image of himself on fire. He finally closes in on the Captain, now a neo-Skoptsy (a person with all sensory nerves disabled) living on Mars, and therefore immune to conventional torture. Foyle kidnaps a telepath, interrogates the Captain in her crypt, and finds that Olivia Presteign was the commander of the Vorga – moments before commando soldiers storm the crypt. Foyle is rescued by Olivia. She had been transporting refugees for cash, only to murder them all by throwing them out into space. Her victims included Robin's family. She now sees a kindred spirit in Foyle, a freak who cannot live with "normal" humans, someone who can match her urges to destroy and conquer. Foyle, driven by rage, remorse, and self-pity, tries to give himself up to the authorities. He unwittingly turns himself over to a lawyer, Regis Sheffield, who turns out to be a double agent working for the Outer Satellites. They are interested in him because apparently Foyle holds the holy grail of jaunting: space travel. He had been planted as a decoy to draw Inner Planets ships towards an ambush, but had jaunted back into the wreck of the Nomad from hundreds of thousands of miles away. After Presteign learns of Olivia and Foyle being in cahoots, he suffers an epileptic seizure and babbles that PyrE is the most powerful explosive ever created. It is activated by telepathy, and so Robin (now having turned herself in to the authorities as well) is enlisted to activate it. The PyrE explodes, causing many incidents of destruction worldwide, but mostly at the HQ of the Fourmyle Circus in St. Patrick's Cathedral, where Foyle and Sheffield are holed up. The explosion partially collapses the building, killing Sheffield and trapping Foyle, unconscious but alive, over a pit of flame. In the wreckage and confusion of the detonation, suffering from synesthesia brought on by the effects of the explosion on his neurological implants, Foyle once again jauntes through space and time, revisiting key moments of his journey to this point. Some of the synesthesia is conveyed to the reader visually, through graphic renditions of the text created by the noted illustrator Jack Gaughan.Review by Tal Cohen, dated June 2, 1999. Retrieved 2011-08-20.American Buddha Online Library "Special calligraphy and ideographs in Chapter 15 created by Jack Gaughan." Accessed 2011-08-20. As The Burning Man, he appears to himself during the quest, as well as in other times and places, such as during his escape from the Gouffre Martel, when he distracts the guards enabling him and Jisbella to break out, and in space when Foyle was aboard the Nomad. Finally he jauntes to some unknown location in the future, where Robin telepathically gives him instructions (relayed from himself) for the exact route he needs – allowing for his confused senses – to escape the collapsing cathedral. On returning to the present, Foyle is pressured from all sides to surrender the rest of the PyrE, or to let mankind benefit from his ability to space-jaunte. To Foyle's ears, this sounds like a no-win situation: to unleash a deadly weapon on the human race, or to let humanity spread like a disease by space-jaunting. He finally leads them to the vault where he has the rest of the PyrE stored, but steals it and teleports across the globe, throwing one slug of PyrE after another into the crowds and insisting the people be told what it is. "I've given life and death back to the people who do the living and dying," he says. He delivers one last speech, where he asks humanity to choose either to destroy itself or follow him into space. At this point he realizes the key to space-jaunting. It is faith: not the certainty of an answer, but the conviction that somewhere an answer exists. He then jauntes from one nearby star to another. In the course of his star-hopping, Foyle locates the answer for the future: new worlds suitable for colonization reachable only if he can share the gift of space-jaunting. Finally he comes to rest in the locker on Nomad, where he spent his time before being reborn the first time. The Scientific People now see him as a holy man, and take up vigil to await his revelation. |
Titan | John Varley | 1,979 | A scientific expedition to the planet Saturn in 2025, aboard the ship Ringmaster, discovers a strange satellite in orbit around the planet. Commanding the ship is Cirocco Jones, a tall NASA career woman, aided by astronomer Gaby Plauget, the clone twin physicists April and August Polo, pilot Eugene Springfield, physician Calvin Greene and engineer Bill (whose last name is never given). As they reach the satellite they realize it is a huge hollow torus, a Stanford torus habitat. Before they can report this the ship is entangled in cables from the object. The crew is rendered unconscious and later wake up inside the habitat. Initially separated, Cirroco and Gaby find each other and travel together through the world inside the torus to find the rest of the crew. As the story progresses, they find Calvin living as a companion inside a Blimp, an intelligent gasbag a kilometer long, one of many that swim forever in the air inside the habitat. Calvin can speak to the blimp and understand its responses, which consist of whistles. His blimp's name is Whistlestop, in human terms. Calvin helps Gaby and Cirocco find the other crew members (except April). He ultimately decides to leave his human companions to live with the blimp permanently. The remaining companions encounter the Titanides, strange centaur-like beings who speak a language based on music. Cirocco finds she has the ability to speak their language. The Titanides are in a perpetual state of war with the Angels, birdlike humanoid creatures. They fight because of an impulse that occurs when they are near each other, but do not know why they have the impulse. The humans learn from the Titanides that there is a controlling intelligence, called Gaea, and it lives 600 km above them, in the hub of the torus. Cirocco, Gaby, and Gene decide to climb up to this place using the support cables that maintain the structure against centrifugal force. During the journey, Gene's behavior becomes increasingly erratic. He rapes Gaby and then rapes Cirocco. He thinks he killed Gaby while he gives chase to Cirocco only Gaby is not dead and eventually cuts his ear off with a hatchet. After he passes out Gaby destroys his face. They get rid of him and keep going. Months of climbing brings them high in one of the spokes of the great wheel. There they find April, who has been transformed into an angel. She, like the other Angels, is solitary by nature, and can hardly bear to be near them. Finally reaching the hub, they discover Gaea, who presents herself as a frumpy middle aged woman. She explains that the great wheel is very old, and some of the regional intelligences around the rim have rebelled against the center. It was, in fact, one of these regional intelligences that had captured the Ringmaster and altered its crew. Gaea rescued them and, unable to change them back, placed them where they would be happy. She makes an offer to Cirocco: in exchange for long life and unusual abilities, she can be Gaea's agent at the Rim, her Wizard. Cirocco accepts, with the condition that the war between the Titanides and Angels must stop. Gaea's personality is that of a movie addict. She has been watching television signals from Earth and is obsessed by movies, especially from Hollywood's Golden Age. The Titanide-Angel war was the result of her having seen war movies, and realizing that humanity will inevitably declare war on her. The war is a way for her to practice. |
The Rules of Attraction | Bret Easton Ellis | 1,987 | The novel is written in the first-person, continuing the aesthetic of Ellis' earlier Less Than Zero, and is told from the points of view of multiple characters. The main narrators are three students: Paul, Sean, and Lauren. A number of other characters also provide first-hand accounts throughout the story, which takes place at the fictional Camden College, a liberal arts school on the East Coast of the United States. The three main characters (who rarely attend class) end up in a love triangle within a sequence of drug runs, "Dress to Get Screwed", and "End of the World" parties. The story begins midway through a sentence (the first word being 'and') in order to give the effect that it begins somewhere closer to the middle, rather than at a true beginning (in medias res). Another interpretation is that the story has neither a beginning nor an ending, signifying the endless cycle of debauchery in which the characters of the novel engage. This is sometimes mistaken by readers as a typographical error or the result of a missing page, but was purposely done by Ellis. The novel ends in a similar fashion, with the last sentence cut off before it ends. |
The City and the Stars | Arthur C. Clarke | 1,956 | The City and the Stars takes place a billion years in the future, in the city of Diaspar. By this time, the Earth is so old that the oceans have gone and humanity has all but left. As far as the people of Diaspar know, they are the only city left on the planet. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has come in or left the city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity could live - if they never left the planet. In Diaspar, the entire city is run by the Central Computer. Not only is the city repaired by machines, but the people themselves are created by the machines as well. The computer creates bodies for the people of Diaspar to live in and stores their minds in its memory at the end of their lives. At any time, only a small number of these people are actually living in Diaspar, the rest are retained in the computer's memory banks. All the currently existent people of Diaspar have had past "lives" within Diaspar except one person — Alvin, the main character of this story. He is a 'Unique', different from everybody else in Diaspar, not only because he does not have any past lives to remember, but because instead of fearing the outside, he feels compelled to leave. Alvin has just come to the age where he is considered grown up, and is putting all his energies into trying to find a way out. Eventually, a character called Khedron the Jester helps Alvin use the central computer to find a way out of the city of Diaspar. This involves the discovery that in the remote past, Diaspar was linked to other cities by an underground transport system. This system still exists although its terminal was covered over and sealed with only a secret entrance left. Once out of Diaspar, Alvin finds that one other human habitation remains on Earth. In contrast to technological Diaspar, Lys is a vast green oasis shielded by mountains from the worldwide desert. Its people are not stored and recreated technologically, but naturally conceive, born, age, and die. They have rejected the hyper-advanced technology of Diaspar in favor of an almost agrarian existence, with machines used only for labor-saving purposes. The people of Lys have instead worked to perfect the arts of the mind; they are telepaths, capable of communicating with each other over great distances and without words. Alvin continues his quest until he finds out the truth of why the people of Diaspar are so frightened of the external universe and why Lys is so scared of space travel and mechanical things. In Lys he goes on a trip with a young man named Hilvar who becomes his friend, and they see a signal light, which they decide to investigate. It leads them to Shalmirane, the remains of the fortress where the Invaders were fought off with unimaginable weapons, and there they encounter an extraterrestrial creature with a strange robot. The creature is the last survivor of a religious cult dating back to the days of the Galactic Empire. The robot was the companion of the founder, the "Master", who came with his followers to Earth at the end of his life. Alvin and Hilvar are unable to understand the content of the religion except that it refers to "Great Ones" who have left, but will someday return. Alvin persuades the creature to lend him the robot, arguing that the Master would want it to see how things were developing in the world. The Master had, however, forbidden the robot to give out any information at all, so Alvin does not learn anything. The robot enables Alvin to escape the attempts of the people of Lys to purge his mind and send him back—the previous 14 Uniques had stayed. Alvin had originally been told he would be free to choose whether to stay or return, but because the people of Lys had failed to prevent news of his departure spreading in Diaspar in time, this option was no longer available. Back in Diaspar he seeks the help of the Central Computer, which overcomes the Master's block on the robot by producing an illusion of an apocalyptic return of the Great Ones. Alvin now learns that the Master's ship is still functional, buried outside Diaspar. He manages to retrieve it, fetches Hilvar from Lys, and travels into deep space. They encounter Vanamonde, a being of pure intellect, with whom Hilvar, being telepathic like other Lys people, can communicate and bring him back to Earth. From him the truth of history finally emerges. The fearsome Invaders, it turns out, were a myth: Shalmirane was actually used to destroy the Moon when this became necessary to prevent it from colliding with the Earth. Instead, the people of Diaspar and Lys are the descendants of those humans who deliberately turned away from the universe in rejection of history's greatest scientific project: the creation of a disembodied intellect. The first attempt had created a powerful but insane being, the Mad Mind. The Mad Mind had devastated the galaxy and its civilizations before being imprisoned in a "strange artificial star" called the Black Sun. Vanamonde is the second, successful experiment of the ancient empire: a being of pure intellect, immensely old, immensely powerful, able to move instantly to any point in space — but entirely childlike and unsophisticated. Vanamonde's ultimate destiny, Hilvar realizes, is to battle the Mad Mind, when it escapes its prison at the end of Time. After this, most of the Galactic Empire had left our galaxy, leaving only a scattered few. This departure from the galaxy, leaving it to Vanamonde, was because contact had been made with something "very strange and very great" which called them urgently. Alvin's discoveries reunite Diaspar with Lys. He then sends the ship, under the command of the robot, to search for the long-lost people of the Empire. He does not wish to search himself - even if there are human remnants in the Galaxy, they are probably decadent - and he has work to do on Earth. Even the environment, he hopes, can be revived. |
The Changeling | Thomas Middleton | 1,653 | There are two parallel plots. The main plot involves Beatrice-Joanna, Alonzo, to whom she is betrothed, and Alsemero, whom she loves. To rid herself of Alonzo, Beatrice uses De Flores — who loves her — to murder him. This, predictably, has a tragic outcome. The sub-plot involves Alibius and his young wife Isabella. Franciscus and Antonio are in love with her and pretend to be a madman and a fool, respectively, in order to see her. Lollio also wants her. This has a comic outcome. Outside a church Alsemero enters from church and tells us of his love for a woman he met there. Jasperino enters from the harbour, reminding Alsemero that the "wind’s fair" and that they should leave for Malta. Alsemero tells him that he is not ready to go yet. Alsemero does not give any reason to Jasperino but tells him that he wants to stay back. In truth he wants to try to stay close to Beatrice. Beatrice enters with Diaphanta and she is greeted by Alsemero. Alsemero had a reputation as asexual. Thus, Jasperino is very surprised to learn that Alsemero has fallen in love with Beatrice. Jasperino watches and comments while Beatrice and Alsemero flirt together. Alsemero proposes to Beatrice but, in an aside, she regrets that five days ago she was promised in marriage to Alonzo de Piracquo. Her father had arranged this marriage for her and Beatrice is not at all interested in Alonzo. Instead Beatrice is much taken by Alsemero. Alsemero waits for an answer. Jasperino resolves to get a girl for himself and sees Diaphanta. De Flores enters to inform Beatrice of her father’s imminent arrival. Beatrice is always repulsed by De Flores (one of the reasons being that De Flores suffers from a kind of skin disease) and treats him in the most abysmal manner. However, since De Flores is deeply besotted with Beatrice, he suffers the abuses she heaps on him just to hear her voice and see her. Beatrice tells him to go away (not only because she dislikes De Flores but also because De Flores disrupts her meeting with Alsemero), he backs off but still watches her. Jasperino and Diaphanta have a conversation full of sexual innuendos. Vermandero (who had been talking to the priest) joins Beatrice, causing her to change her behaviour. She introduces him to Alsemero. Beatrice makes her father invite Alsemero to their castle. Vermandero finds that he knew Alsemero’s father well, and they discuss him briefly. Vermandero talks of Beatrice’s fiancé, causing her to say goodbye to Alsemero in preparation for her return home. Alsemero is heartbroken hearing all this talk of Beatrice's fiance. So he plans to leave but Vermandero insists that Alsemero come to Vermandero's castle, as Alsemero had agreed with Beatrice's proposition to tour the castle a little while back. As they leave, Beatrice drops her glove. De Flores picks it up and offers it to her but she will not take it as she is disgusted by the idea of touching something that De Flores has touched (maybe because of the skin disease). Beatrice exits and De Flores closes the scene with a soliloquy. Alibius’ madhouse Alibius starts to tell Lollio a secret. He says he cannot satisfy his wife sexually and fears she will be disloyal to him. He asks Lollio to guard her for him and lock her up. Lollio agrees in the knowledge that he could be left alone with her and thus may get a chance to have sex with Isabella. Lollio goes on to analyse the two kinds of patients in the mental asylum—fools (people who were born with mental deficiencies) and madmen (people who suffer a degradation of mental health during the course of their lives). He says that Alibius need not fear that Isabella will have sex with either fools or madmen. Alibius says he is more concerned with sane tourists who come to view the patients. Antonio and Pedro enter. Pedro gives Alibius lots of money to take good care of Antonio. Lollio hints that he wants some too and Pedro grants him his wish. Lollio says that Antonio has almost the appearance of a gentleman and he wouldn't have been able to figure out that Antonio was a fool. Pedro asks for Antonio (who also answers to the name of Tony because the name Antonio is too big for his mad mind to remember) to be made clever, Lollio says he will "make him as wise as myself." Pedro leaves, Alibius counts money. Lollio threatens to whip Antonio. Lollio questions Antonio with short riddles. Antonio provides very shrewd answers leading Lollio to remark that Antonio is very smart for a fool. Madmen (who are imprisoned in a different enclosure from fools) begin shouting for food, Alibius leaves to attend to the madmen whereas Lollio takes Antonio to the cells for fools. A chamber in the castle Beatrice gives Jasperino a note for Alsemero in secret. In her soliloquy, Beatrice talks of how great Alsemero is (because she thinks that among other things Alsemero has shown sound judgement in choosing someone like Jasperino as his companion) and then how horrible Alonzo de Piracquo is. She says that the only reason why she is marrying Alonzo is because her father has forced the choice on her and she cannot disobey her father. De Flores enters (having been hiding and therefore having overheard Beatrice's proclamations of love for Alsemero) but Beatrice does not see him initially whilst he talks of his love for her and her hatred of him. She sees him and gets angry because he stalls from delivering his message. Eventually he says that Alonzo and Tomazo have arrived. He leaves after delivering another soliloquy. After De Flores exits, Beatrice, repelled by De Flores, says she will get her father to dismiss him. Vermandero, Alonzo and Tomazo enter, Vermandero makes every attempt to be a welcoming host. While Beatrice and Vermandero talk, Tomazo tells his brother that Beatrice did not seem pleased to see him. Alonzo dismisses the remark. After Vermandero informs Alonzo that Beatrice has requested a three-day postponement of their wedding, Tomazo repeats his misgivings. He tells Alonzo not to marry Beatrice because she is in love with someone else. Alonzo refuses to listen. Alonzo is blind with love and finds no faults in Beatrice. He does not think that she was behaving coldly with him. Another chamber in the castle Diaphanta leads Alsemero into a chamber secretly. She is acting out her lady's (i.e., Beatrice's) instructions. However, Diaphanta too is smitten with Alsemero. When Beatrice enters, she leaves the room but actually unwillingly as she was enjoying being alone with Alsemero. Alsemero and Beatrice talk and embrace. They talk about how they could ‘remove the cause’ by killing Alonzo. Alsemero declares he will challenge Piraquo to a duel (meaning Alsemero would end up dead or in jail.) Beatrice protests saying that that wouldn't actually help in uniting them but would rather further separate them physically. Beatrice (aside) realises that she can use De Flores to kill Alonzo and says that "The ugliest creature Creation fram'd for some use" . Beatrice shoves Alsemero back to Diaphanta (who’s overjoyed). De Flores enters, having been hidden. De Flores realises that Beatrice will have to transgress one bond (with Alonzo) if she is to have sex with Alsemero. This acts as a kind of impetus to De Flores who thinks if she breaks a bond once, she may break it several times and even he himself may have a chance to have sex with her. Beatrice decides to flirt with him. She behaves not only civilly but also amorously with him. She promises him some medicine that will cure his bad skin. He is delighted at her apparent change of heart. She tells him she is being forced to marry a man she hates, and De Flores realizes she wants him to murder Alonzo. In return she gives him some money and says a greater reward (by which she means more money but which De Flores assumes as an offer for sex) awaits him if he successfully completes the task. De Flores kneels before her (he is also a gentleman) and agrees readily to commit the murder, thinking he'll be able to sleep with her afterwards. Beatrice says she expects him to leave the country after the murder; she is pleased that she can get rid of De Flores and Alonzo at the same time. Beatrice exits, Alonzo enters. Alonzo asks De Flores for a tour of the castle. De Flores says he will show him around after dinner. He hides a sword in his cloak. A narrow passage / A vault As they descend, De Flores advises that the space is very narrow so Alonzo should find it easier to walk if he leaves his sword behind. Alonzo is instructed to stare out of the window, while De Flores stabs him three times. De Flores sees a diamond ring on the finger of the dead Alonzo. He tries to remove the diamond ring and take it for himself but somehow he is unable to remove the ring from the dead Alonzo's finger. So he cuts off that finger and takes the entire finger with him. De Flores clears away the body. Alibius’ madhouse Isabella asks Lollio why she has been locked up. Lollio claims it’s his master’s wish so that Isabella isn't able to venture out and be sexually active with other men. Isabella complains that there are only madmen and fools in the mental asylum. But she says that she recently saw that a very good-looking patient was admitted and requests Lollio to bring that good-looking patient to her. Lollio shows in Franciscus. Isabella asks Lollio how Franciscus went mad. Lollio replies that it was because of spurned love. Isabella remarks that Franciscus looks like a gentleman going by how he speaks. Lollio whips Franciscus for insulting him and for making advances towards Isabella. They realise that Franciscus is not really a madman but only pretending to be one. Lollio puts Franciscus back in his cell. Lollio brings Antonio to meet Isabella. The madmen make noises, Lollio goes to beat them. As he leaves, Antonio reveals to Isabella that he is only a fake fool who had pretended to be a fool so as to be admitted into the asylum and gain access to Isabella. Antonio tries to undress himself and have sex with Isabella but Isabella is able to avoid it for the time being. Antonio cannot convince her to love him but she exposes his fraud. Lollio returns to ask Antonio some questions, then leaves again as the madmen start creating a lot of ruckus and Lollio has to manage both cells. Antonio kisses Isabella, Lollio spies on them. Madmen dressed as birds interrupt their encounter. Lollio again goes offstage to attend to these madmen. He comes back to return Antonio to his cell. Isabella remarks that one need not go out of the house to seek sexual escapades. Sexual agents can be brought into the house to have sexual escapades with. Lollio then challenges Isabella about Antonio, tries to sexually molest Isabella in return for keeping it a secret. Alibius enters, oblivious. Alibius tells them that Vermandero has invited him to make his patients perform (as just mad people) at Beatrice’s wedding. A chamber in the castle Vermandero, Beatrice, Jasperino and Alsemero enter; only Vermandero does not know about Beatrice and Alsemero. They all leave to look around the castle, except Beatrice. Beatrice says that she’s starting to convince her father to like Alsemero. De Flores enters with the intention of having sex with Beatrice, thinking this is what she wants too. He tells Beatrice that "Piracquo is no more" and then shows her the finger with the diamond ring. Beatrice says it was the first token that Vermandero made her send to Alonzo. Beatrice asks De Flores to take the ring as it is worth three hundred ductas, then on seeing the fact that De Flores is disappointed, offers another three thousand florins. De Flores is disgusted at the idea of murdering for money; he murdered for the reward of having sex with Beatrice. Beatrice offers to double the amount and is confused about why De Flores will not leave contented with money assumes that the amount he wants is much too high to actually announce out loud and suggests that he goes out of the country (as she had told him earlier) and send her the amount he wants on paper. He replies that if he leaves, she must too, since they are bound together in guilt. De Flores kisses her in a last-ditch attempt to seal their love, but Beatrice reacts with disgust. De Flores explains in meticulous detail exactly why she has to submit to him, mainly that he can now effectively blackmail her or else he will inform everyone how she hired him to murder Alonzo. He says that his life is worth nothing if he can not have her, and therefore is willing to incriminate himself if she does not sleep with him. She tries to impress on him the difference in their social class, but he claims that her evil act has made them equals. She makes one last effort to offer him all her gold, but again he refuses. She eventually realizes the vicious cycle of sin that she has entered. Dumb Show "Enter Gentlemen, Vermandero meeting them with action of wonderment at the flight of [Alonzo de] Piracquo. Enter Alsemero with Jasperino and Gallants; Vermandero points to him, the Gentlemen seeming to applaud the choice. [Exeunt Vermandero,] Alsemero, Jasperino, and Gentlemen [and Gallants]; [enter] Beatrice the bride, following in great state, accompanied with Diaphanta, Isabella, and other Gentlewomen. [Enter] Deflores after all, smiling at the accident; Alonzo's Ghost appears to Deflores in the midst of his smile, startles him, showing him the hand whose finger he had cut off. They pass over in great solemnity." Beatrice has yielded to De Flores's sexual demands, and has also married Alsemero. Alone in the afternoon in Alsemero's room, she feels too ashamed to have sex with her new husband Alsemero on their wedding night. In Alsemero's closet, she finds lots of medicines. One of them is a pregnancy test kit and another a virginity test kit. Diaphanta enters, looking for Alsemero. Beatrice tells Diaphanta that she will offer 1000 ducats to any virgin if she secretly has sex with her husband Alsemero, instead of her, on their wedding night. But to test whether Diaphanta is a virgin or not, both of them take the virginity test. The virginity test shows that Beatrice is not a virgin whereas Diaphanta is, as she has exhibited the usual symptoms of first gaping, then sneezing, and finally laughing. Beatrice arranges for her to go to Alsemero's bed that night, in the pitch darkness, and pretend to be Beatrice. Vermandero finds that two of his gentlemen, Antonio and Franciscus have left the castle, causing him to assume that they murdered Alonzo. Vermandero issues arrest-warrants for them since he believes they murdered Alonzo and fled. Tomazo enters, accusing Vermandero of killing his brother. Vermandero pretends that Alonzo has just run away and it is he, Vermandero, who should actually be offended that his to-be son-in-law has run away at the last moment. Vermandero says Tomazo should leave too, as he is the brother of an ignoble coward like Alonzo. Vermandero exits. De Flores enters, Tomazo greets him warmly remembering that his brother Alonzo was fond of De Flores. Tomazo even goes on to say that whereas Vermandero is not trustworthy, De Flores is a trustworthy gentleman. All this talk reminds De Flores of Tomazo's brother Alonzo whom he killed. De Flores exits. Alsemero enters; Tomazo is hostile towards him. Tomazo challenges Alsemero to a duel after the wedding. Tomazo exits, Jasperino runs in. Jasperino tells Alsemero that he heard Beatrice and De Flores having conversation similar to that lovers have. Alsemero instructs Jasperino to go and get the virginity test. Beatrice enters just before Jasperino returns. Alsemero figures out that Beatrice looks very different and she must have been abused. Alsemero gives Beatrice the potion, she drinks it, then fakes the symptoms thereby "proving" to Alsemero and Jasperino that she is a virgin. Lollio and Isabella read a letter in which Franciscus declares that he is only pretending to be a madman to gain access to Isabella and that he is in love with her. Lollio says that if Isabella has sex with Franciscus, then he wants to have sex with her too. Isabella says that if she indeed does commit adultery, she will sleep with him, implying that she has no intention of committing adultery. She asks Lollio how to deal with Antonio and Franciscus's attraction to her, and he advises her to abuse them. To that end, she leaves to dress as a madwoman. Alibius arrives and asks about the wedding. Alibius then asks how Isabella is getting on, then exits. Antonio enters, and Lollio forces him to dance. Lollio exits, and Isabella enters in her new clothes as a madwoman. Isabella attempts to kiss him but Antonio resists, unable to recognise Isabella and disgusted at the idea of being kissed by a madwoman. Antonio confesses that he is no fool but just a gentleman pretending to be a fool. Isabella denounces him for loving her external appearance only. She exits, and Lollio enters, telling Antonio that if he kills Franciscus, he can have sex with Isabella. Franciscus enters, Lollio reads the letter he wrote to Isabella. Lollio tells him that if he kills Antonio, Isabella will have sex with him. Alibius enters, and Lollio goes to fetch the madmen. All the madmen dance for the wedding. It is two AM and Diaphanta has not yet come out of Alsemero's chamber, even though Beatrice had instructed her to finish by midnight. Therefore Beatrice suspects that Diaphanta is actually enjoying having sex with Alsemero. This leads her to suspect that it must have been Diaphanta who had informed Alsemero of Beatrice's loss of virginity (as Diaphanta may have had a chance to figure out that what she and Beatrice indulged in were virginity tests). This leads to Beatrice getting very angry with Diaphanta. De Flores enters. Beatrice is worried that if Diaphanta does not come out before daybreak, Alsemero will be able to see with whom he has had sex and will recognise his mistake and Beatrice's plot will be ruined. De Flores comes up with an idea to get Diaphanta out of the room. He says that he will set Diaphanta's chambers on fire and that will wake up the entire house and when Diaphanta returns to her room then De Flores will pretend that he will clean the chimney with a gun but he will kill her with it. Beatrice agrees, even suggesting that she now loves De Flores. Alonzo’s ghost appears and haunts De Flores and Beatrice. De Flores lights the fire, offstage, then leads the group of residents who attempt to douse it. Diaphanta appears, Beatrice tells her to return to her chamber. Vermandero enters, followed by Alsemero and Jasperino. The gunshot is heard, signifying Diaphanta’s murder. De Flores returns to the stage, heroically carrying Diaphanta’s burnt body from the fire. De Flores is promised financial reward by Vermandero and others for his bravery in alerting everyone to the fire and thereby preventing further damage. Tomazo, in a sudden fit of misanthropy, elects to blame the next person he sees for the death of his brother (since he holds everyone potentially accountable). De Flores enters. Tomazo becomes enraged. He re-iterates Beatrice's earlier misgivings about using something that has also been used by De Flores. He says that if his sword were to touch De Flores once, he would not use that sword again. Tomazo strikes him. De Flores draws his sword as though to retaliate, but is forcibly reminded of Alonzo's murder, and cannot bring himself to strike. De Flores is unnerved by Tomazo's sudden, intuitive hostility, and leaves hastily. Alibius and Isabella enter with Vermandero. Tomazo tells them to go away. Vermandero informs Tomazo that he has found Alonzo's murderers—Antonio and Franciscus, who were hiding in a mental asylum after committing the murder. Jasperino and Alsemero have seen Beatrice and De Flores together in a garden and are discussing it. Beatrice enters, Jasperino hides. Alsemero accuses Beatrice of being a liar and a whore, and suggests she’s been cheating on him with De Flores. She confesses that she employed De Flores to murder Alonzo, but explains that she did it out of love for Alsemero, because her first motive was to remove Alonzo so that she and Alsemero could be together. Alsemero says he must think about what to do, and locks Beatrice in a closet to wait. De Flores enters, Alsemero gets him to admit murder. De Flores, under the impression that Beatrice is attempting to betray and outmanoeuvre him, exposes her infidelity. Alsemero confines him in the closet with Beatrice. Vermandero, Alibius, Isabella, Tomazo and Franciscus enter, thinking they have solved the case of Alonzo's murder. Alsemero also claims he has solved Alonzo's murder. As Alsemero begins to reveal the truth, screams of pleasure and of pain are heard within the room, and the pair comes out, Beatrice stabbed by De Flores. Beatrice confesses her fallen state and also that she sent Diaphanta in her place to the bedroom to have sex with Alsemero. De Flores admits to killing Alonzo, stabs himself and dies before Tomazo can seek revenge. With his last words, De Flores instructs Beatrice to follow him in death, and as she dies, Beatrice asks Alsemero for forgiveness. They speak about changes and changelings. Alsemero says Beatrice was beauty changed to whoredom, he himself a supposed husband changed embraces with wantonness. Antonio says he was changed from a little ass to a great fool and was almost changed to be hanged at the gallows. Franciscus says he was changed from a little wit to stark mad. Alibius says he realises his folly and will change himself and never keep fake patients. A mere eight lines in which Alsemero explains that it is impossible to comfort someone after they have lost a person close to them. The only solution is for that person to be replaced, the implication that the audience must applaud for this 'replacement' to occur. |
Beyond the Rocks | Elinor Glyn | 1,906 | The beautiful young Theodora Fitzgerald belongs to a family of noble lineage, but whose fortunes have waned and who have lived in near poverty for most of her life. The book begins with her arranged marriage to Josiah Brown, a nouveau-riche Australian in his fifties. The marriage was contracted for convenience: Josiah simply wants a pretty and aristocratic wife to improve his standing in society, and the Fitzgerald family are in need of Brown's financial resources. Theodora only agrees to the marriage for the sake of her father and sisters. Immediately after the wedding, Josiah falls ill. Theodora proves a dutiful and capable wife, and attends to her husband's every need, though she is secretly very unhappy. After a year of marriage, Josiah is well enough to visit Paris, where Theodora sees her father, Dominic, again for the first time since her wedding. She is thrilled to observe that at least he is receiving all the benefits she'd hoped to bring from her sacrifice: he now runs in aristocratic circles and is courting a wealthy American widow, Mrs. McBride. Theodora attends several social outings with her father, and at one dinner is introduced to Hector, Lord Bracondale. Theodora and Hector hit things off splendidly, and soon fall in love. Mrs. McBride is aware of Theodora's unhappy marriage, and seeing the situation she sympathetically arranges for Hector and Theodora to spend time together as often as possible. One day while Theodora and Hector are being chauffeured back to Paris after an outing at Versailles, the two indulge in a romantic encounter in the back of the car. Full of guilt thereafter, the two conclude they must behave themselves from now on and must no longer pursue each other romantically; they will, however, continue to be friendly to one another any time future social obligations might cause them to meet. Hector at this point is terribly in love with Theodora, and though he tries his best to live by his promise to her, he still goes out of his way to see her and to secure invitations to all the same gatherings that she attends. He fantasizes about marrying her and makes sure to introduce her to his mother and to his sister. However, Theodora's status as a newcomer into society, and the obvious favor that Hector pays her over other eligible women who desire his hand, causes ire and jealousy to be directed her way. Rumors begin to spread, and several people believe Hector and Theodora to be lovers. Morella Winmarleigh, a spurned candidate for Hector's hand, particularly sets out destroy Theodora. She maliciously switches a letter Theodora had written to Hector with another letter meant for Josiah. Meanwhile, without anyone else's knowledge, Theodora and Hector have concluded that they cannot attempt to remain friends any longer—their love is too strong—and so they must agree to never see each other again. The next day, Josiah receives Theodora's letter meant for Hector: the contents amount to Theodora asking Hector never to see her again, even though the two of them could be very happy together, because it is her duty to instead attend to the happiness of her husband Josiah. Josiah realizes for the first time how he has stood in the way of Theodora's happiness, and resolves to do his best to make her happy from now on. He forwards the letter to Hector and requests he never allow Theodora to learn of the mix-up. The next several months pass with Theodora and Josiah both trying their best to make the other happy, even while both are secretly miserable. Both begin to suffer from ill health. Ultimately, Josiah dies; eighteen months later, Mrs. McBride (now married to Dominic Fitzgerald) throws a picnic at Versailles to which both Theodora and Hector are invited. The book ends with the couple reunited, in a state of "passionate love and delirious happiness." |
The Portrait of a Lady | Henry James | 1,881 | Isabel Archer, originally from Albany, New York, is invited by her maternal aunt, Lydia Touchett, to visit Lydia's rich husband Daniel at his estate near London, following the death of Isabel's father. There, she meets her cousin Ralph Touchett, her friendly invalid uncle, and the Touchetts' robust neighbor, Lord Warburton. Isabel later declines Warburton's sudden proposal of marriage. She also rejects the hand of Caspar Goodwood, the charismatic son and heir of a wealthy Boston mill owner. Although Isabel is drawn to Caspar, her commitment to her independence precludes such a marriage, which she feels would demand the sacrifice of her freedom. The elder Touchett grows ill and, at the request of his son, leaves much of his estate to Isabel upon his death. With her large legacy, Isabel travels the Continent and meets an American expatriate, Gilbert Osmond, in Florence. Although Isabel had previously rejected both Warburton and Goodwood, she accepts Osmond's proposal of marriage. She is unaware that this marriage has been actively promoted by the accomplished but untrustworthy Madame Merle, another American expatriate, whom Isabel had met at the Touchetts' estate. Isabel and Osmond settle in Rome, but their marriage rapidly sours due to Osmond's overwhelming egotism and his lack of genuine affection for his wife. Isabel grows fond of Pansy, Osmond's presumed daughter by his first marriage, and wants to grant her wish to marry Edward Rosier, a young art collector. The snobbish Osmond would rather that Pansy accept the proposal of Warburton, who had previously proposed to Isabel. Isabel suspects, however, that Warburton may just be feigning interest in Pansy to get close to Isabel again. The conflict creates even more strain within the unhappy marriage. Isabel then learns that Ralph is dying at his estate in England and prepares to go to him for his final hours, but Osmond selfishly opposes this plan. Meanwhile, Isabel learns from her sister-in-law that Pansy is actually the daughter of Madame Merle, who had an adulterous relationship with Osmond for several years. Isabel pays a final visit to Pansy, who desperately begs her to return some day, something Isabel reluctantly promises. She then leaves, without telling her spiteful husband, to comfort the dying Ralph in England, where she remains until his death. Goodwood encounters her at Ralph's estate and begs her to leave Osmond and come away with him. He passionately embraces and kisses her, but Isabel flees. Goodwood seeks her out the next day, but is told she has set off again for Rome. The ending is ambiguous, and the reader is left to imagine whether Isabel returned to Osmond to suffer out her marriage in noble tragedy (perhaps for Pansy's sake) or whether she is going to rescue Pansy and leave Osmond. |
Max the Mighty | Rodman Philbrick | 1,998 | Maxwell Kane helps Rachel, nicknamed "Worm" because of her love of reading, run from her overly religious and abusive stepfather. Nicknamed "The Undertaker", he drives a hearse and wears pitch black clothing. The Undertaker accuses Max of kidnapping Rachel, so Max and Worm run safaway with Dippy Hippie on his bus, the Prairie Schooner. Along the way, they meet two con-artists, Frank and Joanie, who read about Max and Worm and a money reward for finding them. Frank then turns them in, and Max and Worm have to leave the Prairie Schooner. To take them the rest of the way they hop a train with Hobo Joe and arrive in Chivalry, Montana. They go into a mining tunnel and Max discovers that Worm's birth father has already died in a mining accident. The Undertaker arrives there with the police and Max and Worm run away in the tunnels. They meet Dip, and Max's grandfather, Grim. The police catch them, and Worm runs back into the tunnel. She thinks about committing suicide to be with her father, but Max talks her out of it. The book ends with Worm and her mother coming to live with Max and his grandparents. Max frequently mentions his old friend Kevin, also nicknamed Freak, throughout the book. |
Devdas | Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay | 1,917 | Devdas is a young man from a wealthy Bengali Brahmin family in India in the early 1900s. Paro (Parvati) is a young woman from a middle class Bengali family belonging to the “merchant” caste. The two families lived in a village in Bengal, and Devdas and Paro were childhood friends. Devdas goes away for thirteen years to live and study in a boarding school in the city of Calcutta (now Kolkata). When, after finishing school, he returns to his village, Paro looks forward to their childhood love blossoming into their lifelong journey together in marriage. Of course, according to the prevailing social custom, Paro's parents would have to approach Devdas' parents and propose marriage of Paro to Devdas as Paro longed for. When Paro's mother makes the proposal to Devdas' mother, the latter insults her, plainly saying that the marriage is not possible in view of her own higher caste and financial status. To demonstrate her own social status, Paro's mother then finds an even richer husband for Paro. When Paro learns of her planned marriage, she stealthily meets Devdas at night, desperately believing that Devdas will quickly accept her hand in marriage. Devdas meekly seeks his parents' permission to marry Paro, but Devdas' father agrees with his wife. In a weak-minded state, Devdas then flees to Calcutta, and from there, he writes a letter to Paro, saying that they were only friends. Within days, however, he realizes that he should have been bolder. He goes back to his village and tells Paro that he is ready to do anything needed to save their love. By now, Paro's marriage plans are in an advanced stage, and she declines going back to Devdas and chides him for his cowardice and vacillation. She makes, however, one request to Devdas that he would return to her before he dies. Devdas vows to do so. Devdas goes back to Calcutta and Paro is married off to the betrothed widower with children, who is still in love with his previous wife and is therefore not interested in an amatory relationship with Paro. In Calcutta, Devdas' carousing friend, Chunnilal, introduces him to a courtesan named Chandramukhi. Devdas takes to heavy drinking at Chandramukhi's place, but the courtesan falls in love with him, and looks after him. His health deteriorates because of a combination of excessive drinking and despair of life—a drawn-out form of suicide. Within him, he frequently compares Paro and Chandramukhi, remaining ambivalent as to whom he really loves. Sensing his fast-approaching death, Devdas returns to meet Paro to fulfill his vow. He dies at her doorstep on a dark, cold night. On hearing of the death of Devdas, Paro runs towards the door, but her family members prevent her from stepping out of the door. The novella powerfully depicts the prevailing societal customs in Bengal in the early 1900s, which are largely responsible for preventing the happy ending of a genuine love story. |
Eragon | Christopher Paolini | 2,002 | The book starts off with a prologue, describing an encounter in a forest between a Shade (a sorcerer possessed by evil spirits) and three elves, two male and one female. The Shade, named Durza, with the help of twelve sentient horned humanoids called Urgals, kill the two male elves and capture the female elf, Arya. Before she is captured, Arya magically transports a blue stone she was carrying, which is later revealed to be a Dragon egg, to a mountain range called the Spine. The action then jumps to Eragon, a fifteen-year-old boy who lives with his uncle Garrow and cousin Roran on a farm near the village of Carvahall. While hunting in the Spine, Eragon is surprised to see the Dragon egg, which he believes to be a stone, appear in front of him. A few months later, Eragon witnesses a baby Dragon hatch from the egg. Eragon names the Dragon Saphira. He raises the Dragon in secret until two of King Galbatorix's servants, the Ra'zac, come to Carvahall looking for the egg. Eragon and Saphira manage to escape by hiding in the Spine, but Garrow is fatally wounded and the house and farm are burned down by the Ra'zac. Once Garrow dies, Eragon is left with no reason to stay in Carvahall, so he goes after the Ra'zac, seeking vengeance for the destruction of his home and his uncle's death. He is accompanied by Brom, an elderly storyteller, who provides Eragon with the sword Zar'roc and insists on helping him and Saphira. Eragon becomes a Dragon Rider through his bond with Saphira. Eragon is the only known Rider in Alagaësia other than Galbatorix, who, with the help of the now-dead Forsworn, killed the Riders a hundred years ago. On the journey, Brom teaches Eragon sword fighting, magic, the Ancient Language, and the ways of the Dragon Riders. Their travels bring them to the city of Teirm, where they meet with Brom's friend Jeod. Eragon's fortune is told by the witch Angela, and her companion, the Werecat Solembum, gives Eragon some mysterious advice. With Jeod's help, they are able to track the Ra'zac to the southern city of Dras-Leona. Although they manage to infiltrate the city, Eragon encounters the Ra'zac in a cathedral and he and Brom are forced to flee. Later that night, their camp is ambushed by the Ra'zac. A stranger named Murtagh rescues them, but Brom is gravely injured. Knowing that he is about to die, Brom reveals to Eragon that he used to be a Dragon Rider. His Dragon's name was also Saphira, but an Fornsworn named Morzan killed her. Brom then avenged Saphira's death and killed Morzan. After telling Eragon this, Brom dies. Murtagh becomes Eragon's new companion and they travel to the city Gil'ead to find information on how to find the Varden, a group of rebels who want to see the downfall of Galbatorix. While stopping near Gil'ead, Eragon is captured and imprisoned in the same jail that holds a woman he has been having dreams about. When he breaks out of his cell, he discovers that she is an elf. Murtagh and Saphira stage a rescue, and Eragon escapes with the unconscious elf. During the escape, Eragon and Murtagh battle with Durza. Murtagh shoots Durza between the eyes with an arrow, and the Shade disappears in a cloud of mist. After escaping, Eragon contacts the unconscious elf telepathically, and discovers that her name is Arya. She tells them that she was poisoned while in captivity and that only a potion in the Varden's possession can cure her. Arya is able to give directions to the exact location of the Varden: a city called Tronjheim, which sits in the hollow mountain Farthen Dûr. She also adds that they have only four days to reach the Varden or she will die. The group go in search of the Varden, both to save Arya's life and to escape Galbatorix's wrath. When they are traveling to the Varden the group notices a huge unit of Urgals following them. The Urgals are revealed to be larger than normal and are called Kull. On the way, Murtagh reveals that he is Morzan's son. The Kull reach Eragon right outside the Varden's entrance, but are driven off with the help of the Varden, who escort Eragon, Saphira, Murtagh, and Arya to Farthen Dûr. When they arrive in Farthen Dûr, Eragon is led to the leader of the Varden, Ajihad. Ajihad imprisons Murtagh after he refuses to allow his mind to be read to determine if he is a friend or a foe to the Varden. Eragon is told by Ajihad that Durza was not destroyed by Murtagh's well placed arrow, because the only way to kill a Shade is with a stab to the heart. Orik, nephew of the dwarf King Hrothgar, is appointed as Eragon and Saphira's guide. Orik shows them a place to stay and introduces them to Hrothgar. Eragon also meets Ajihad's daughter, Nasuada, and Ajihad's right hand man, Jörmundur. He also runs into Angela and Solembum, who have arrived in Tronjheim, and visits Murtagh in his prison. He is tested by two magicians, The Twins, as well as Arya. Eragon is at last able to rest, but a new invasion is imminent. As the battle begins, the Varden and the dwarves are pitted against an enormous army of Urgals, deployed by Durza and Galbatorix. During the battle, Eragon faces Durza again. Durza, having gravely wounded Eragon's back, is about to capture him but is distracted by Saphira and Arya, who break a large star sapphire Isidar Mithrim on the chamber's ceiling. Durza's attention is diverted long enough for Eragon to stab him in the heart with Zar'roc. After Durza's death, the Urgals are released from a spell which had been placed on them, and begin to fight among themselves. The Varden take advantage of this opportunity to make a counter-attack, forcing off the Urgals. While Eragon is unconscious, someone called 'The Cripple Who Is Whole' contacts him telepathically and tells Eragon to come to him for training in the forest of the Elves, Du Weldenvarden. |
Dark Tide: Onslaught | Michael A. Stackpole | null | In the aftermath of the Second Battle of Helska, the New Republic believes that the Yuuzhan Vong threat is vanished. But the Skywalkers, Solos and their friends and allies find that this is not so; the Vong have yet to bring a dent of their forces into the galaxy. And in order to wage war against the invaders, the Jedi and their allies decide it'd be best to understand them. Leia Organa Solo, with her daughter Jaina and Danni Quee, work to bring various forces throughout the Outer Rim territories to unite against the threat of the Yuuzhan Vong, backed up by pockets of the New Republic military. Luke Skywalker takes his nephew Jacen Solo with him to Belkaden to find out what the Yuuzhan Vong have done there after the late Yomin Carr poisoned it for terraforming in the previous novel. Meanwhile, Jacen's brother, Anakin, is to take Luke's wife, Mara, to the planet Dantooine where she can find time to combat the Vong disease, brought upon secretly by Nom Anor, ravaging her insides. During that time, Mara will also train Anakin to look and use the Force in ways he never imagined as an apprentice. Elsewhere, Jedi Knights Corran Horn and Ganner Rhysode are assigned to the planet Bimmiel to find missing university students. On Belkaden, during Luke and Jacen's observation of Vong behaviors and routines, Jacen, in his sleep, sees a vision of himself saving various people by defeating several Vong warriors. He takes this vision as an omen that he must free the slaves that the Yuuzhan Vong are holding, and so he goes and confronts a few. He is easily beaten, however, and is strapped to the Embrace of Pain, a Vong torture device. He is soon implanted with a slave coral seed, but it isn't long before Luke saves him after fighting through and killing various Yuuzhan Vong warriors and snapping the coral seed out of his face. Luke then tells Jacen that they now must go to Dantooine, where Anakin and Mara are now on the run from Vong scouts. They get there and help them out in defeating the Yuuzhan Vong who intended to kill Mara and Anakin. On Bimmiel, Corran and Ganner find out that the missing university students are being held by two Yuuzhan Vong warriors, who are treating their slaves as much as those Vong on Belkaden do. The two Jedi go and save the students, but are then confronted by the Vong warriors. Corran orders Ganner to get the students out of there while he will take care of the Vong. He is able to dispatch both warriors, but at extensive injury. Fortunately, those injuries would not reach their full lethal potential, as Ganner would return to retrieve Corran so that they can leave the planet with the students. On Dantooine, refugees from the recently Yuuzhan Vong-conquered Dubrillion are settled down. But it isn't long before the Vong then arrive, launching the Battle of Dantooine, resulting in the loss of fifty percent of the New Republic's forces, but the losses are extensive for the Vong, too. Nevertheless, the Vong still win, and the New Republic evacuate what they can. The novel ends back on Bimmiel, where investigating Yuuzhan Vong, led by Commander Shedao Shai, discover the remains of the two dead Vong warriors, defeated by Corran. Shai takes a ndgin (a Vong creature made to sop up blood) and tastes it for Corran's spilled blood that was the result of his injuries. Shai vows that he will kill the Jedi responsible for his the deaths of his kinsmen (the Vong warriors who were killed thanks to Corran). |
Dark Tide: Ruin | Michael A. Stackpole | null | In the aftermath of the Battle of Dantooine in the previous novel, the New Republic is taking the Yuuzhan Vong threat more seriously. But so are the Jedi, most notably a rogue one named Daeshara'cor, whose lover, Miko Reglia, had perished during the Second Battle of Helska back in Vector Prime. Therefore, she elects to travel the galaxy to find a way to construct a super weapon to equal the power of the Death Stars, the Eye of Palpatine and Sun Crusher among others in order to eliminate the Vong. Knowing that such a genocidal ambition, even against an aggressively violent species, would lead a Jedi down the path of the dark side of the Force, Luke Skywalker and Anakin Solo decide to find Daeshara'cor and bring her back to the Order. With help from a man named Chalco, they succeed in retrieving Daeshara'cor and bringing her to her senses. In order to rally military support for the New Republic to counter the Yuuzhan Vong, the government sends Leia Organa Solo to negotiate with Grand Admiral Gilad Pellaeon, leader of the Imperial Remnant. Pellaeon agrees to help the New Republic combat the Vong. Caamasi New Republic Senator Elegos A'Kla decides to allow himself to be taken by the Yuuzhan Vong so that by learning about their culture, he can find a way to bring peace between the New Republic and the Vong. He is taken to Commander Shedao Shai to learn of their ways. Corran Horn, Ganner Rhysode, and Jacen Solo embark on a mission on the Vong-held planet of Garqi with a group of Noghri commandos. When they battle Vong forces down on the planet, they find that the warriors die off because of a certain pollen that asphyxiates their armor. The Jedi and commandos learn that the pollen is native to the bafforr trees on the planet Ithor. Corran decides for the pollen to be burned, because if the Yuuzhan Vong figure out about the pollen that can asphyxiate their armor, they will invade Ithor as their next target. Despite the burning, the Vong figure out the source of what asphyxiated their armor anyway and elect to target Ithor. During the investigation of the Garqi battle, which Shedao Shai is leading, the Vong figure out that Corran Horn was among the Jedi in the strike force. After Shai figures out that Corran was the one who was responsible for the deaths of his kinsmen in the previous novel on Bimmiel, he also figures out that Corran and Elegos A'Kla are friends. Therefore, he decides to kill Elegos and sends his jewel-decorated remains to Corran to acknowledge their blood feud. Corran vows to avenge Elegos's death at all costs. The New Republic, Imperial Remnant, and by extension the Chiss Ascendancy rendezvous at Ithor to protect the planet against the invading Vong. The Battle of Ithor commences, with many dying on both sides, until it is later halted by Corran when he makes use of a Vong villip to contact Shedao Shai. They agree to stop the war for at least a galactic standard week, and by the end of that week, Corran and Shai will engage in a death duel to determine the fate of Ithor; if Corran wins, Ithor is spared; if Shai wins, Ithor is destroyed and he collects the remains of his slain kinsmen that Corran and Ganner took from Bimmiel. During this break in the war, Anakin visits Daeshara'cor at one of Ithor's hospitals, since she was mortally wounded in the battle; and it was because she had decided to save Anakin from an imminent Vong attack. Daeshara'cor tells Anakin that it wasn't his fault that she will die, just as it wasn't his fault that Chewbacca perished on Sernpidal, since he blamed himself because he flew the Millennium Falcon off to save everyone aboard. With that, Daeshara'cor dies and fades away into the Force. By the end of the week, Corran and Shai duel, and Corran wins by stabbing his Vong opponent with his lightsaber, killing him. Shai's personal assistant, Deign Lian, who bore witness to the battle for Shai just as Luke Skywalker bore witness to the duel for Corran, agrees to tell the Yuuzhan Vong to leave Ithor alone. However, when he takes control of the forces in Shai's stead, he orders for the planet to be poisoned under command from the warrior caste's leader Warmaster Tsavong Lah. In retaliation, the New Republic, Imperial Remnant and Chiss forces decimate the remainder of the Vong forces left in the battle. But it is too late; Ithor is gone. In the aftermath of the Battle of Ithor, the Yuuzhan Vong, despite their defeat, expand their forces to include more of the Outer Rim territories. The New Republic, Imperial Remnant and Chiss alliance dissolves. And Corran is called the destroyer of Ithor by the New Republic, despite his attempts to save the planet. Therefore, Corran elects to go into a self-imposed exile to his home planet of Corellia, since his guilt was more out of the fact that he felt himself plunge into the dark side of the Force briefly when he killed Shai in retaliation for Elegos A'Kla's death. He then tells those around him at his announcement of his self-imposed exile that, if the New Republic should ever call upon the killer of Ithor to help them counter the Yuuzhan Vong, then the war will truly have gone out of control for the side of good. |
The Edible Woman | Margaret Atwood | 1,969 | Marian McAlpin works in a market research firm, writing survey questions and sampling products. She shares the top-floor apartment of a house in Toronto with her roommate Ainsley, and has a dependable (if boring) boyfriend, Peter. Marian also keeps in touch with Clara, a friend from college, who is now a constantly pregnant housewife. Ainsley announces she wants to have a baby – and intends to do it without getting married. When Marian is horrified, Ainsley replies, "The thing that ruins families these days is the husbands." Looking for a man who will have no interest in fatherhood, she sets her sights on Marian's "womanizer" friend Len, who is infamous for his relationships with young, naive girls. At work, Marian is assigned the task of gathering responses for a survey about a new type of beer. While walking from house to house asking people their opinions, she meets Duncan, an English graduate student who intrigues her with his atypical and eccentric answers. Marian later has a dinner date with Peter and Len, during which Ainsley shows up dressed as a virginal schoolgirl – the first stage of her plan to trick Len into impregnating her. Marian finds herself disassociating from her body as Peter recounts a gory rabbit hunt to Len: "After a while I noticed that a large drop of something wet had materialized on the table. I poked it with my finger and smudged it around a little before I realized with horror that it was a tear." Marian runs from the restaurant and is chased down by Peter in his car. Unaware of Ainsley's plan to get pregnant by Len, Peter chides, "Ainsley behaved herself properly, why couldn't you?" At the end of the night, Peter proposes to her. When asked to choose a date for the wedding, Marian slips into unexpected passivity: "'I’d rather have you decide that. I’d rather leave the big decisions up to you.’ I was astonished at myself. I’d never said anything remotely like that to him before. The funny thing was that I really meant it." Marian and Duncan have a surprise meeting in a laundromat, engage in awkward conversation, then share a kiss. Shortly afterwards, Marian's problems with food begin when she finds herself empathizing with a steak that Peter is eating, imagining it "knocked on the head as it stood in a queue like someone waiting for a streetcar." After this, she is unable to eat meat – anything with "bone or tendon or fiber". Ainsley's plot to seduce Len succeeds. When Len later learns that Ainsley is pregnant, he talks to Marian, who confesses that pregnancy was Ainsley's plan all along. Len reveals his childhood fear of eggs, and from that point Marian can no longer face her soft-boiled egg in the morning. Shortly thereafter, she is unable to eat vegetables or cake. Peter decides to throw a party, to which Marian invites "the office virgins" from her work, Duncan, and Duncan's roommates. Peter suggests that Marian buy herself a new dress for his party – something less "mousy" than her normal wardrobe. Marian submits to his wishes and buys a daring red dress. Before the party, Ainsley does Marian's makeup, including false eyelashes and a big lipsticked smile. When Duncan arrives, he says, "You didn't tell me it was a masquerade. Who the hell are you supposed to be?" He leaves and Marian follows. They end up going to a sleazy hotel, where they have unsatisfying sex. The next morning, they go out to breakfast and Marian finds that she cannot eat anything. After Duncan leaves, Marian realizes that Peter is metaphorically devouring her. To test him, she bakes a pink cake in the shape of a woman and dares him to eat it. "This is what you really want", she says, offering the cake woman as a substitute to him feeding upon her. Peter leaves, disturbed. Marian eats the cake herself. Marian returns to her first person narrative in the closing pages of the book. Duncan shows up at her apartment; Marian offers him the remains of the cake, which he polishes off. "'Thank you,' he said, licking his lips. 'It was delicious.'" |
The Brothers Karamazov | Fyodor Dostoyevsky | 1,880 | Book One: A Nice Little Family The opening of the novel introduces the Karamazov family and relates the story of their distant and recent past. The details of Fyodor's two marriages as well as his indifference to the upbringing of his three children is chronicled. The narrator also establishes the widely varying personalities of the three brothers and the circumstances that have led to their return to Fyodor's town. The first book concludes by describing the mysterious religious order of Elders to which Alyosha has become devoted. Book Two: An Inappropriate Gathering Book Two begins as the Karamazov family arrives at the local monastery so that the Elder Zosima can act as a mediator between Dmitri and his father Fyodor in their dispute over Dmitri's inheritance. It was the father's idea apparently as a joke to have the meeting take place in such a holy place in the presence of the famous Elder. Dmitri arrives late and the gathering soon degenerates and only exacerbates the feud between Dmitri and Fyodor. This book also contains a scene in which the Elder Zosima consoles a woman mourning the death of her three-year-old son. The poor woman's grief parallels Dostoyevsky's own tragedy at the loss of his young son Alyosha. Book Three: Sensualists The third book provides more details of the love triangle that has erupted between Fyodor, his son Dmitri, and Grushenka. Dmitri's personality is explored in the conversation between him and Alyosha as Dmitri hides near his father's home to see if Grushenka will arrive. Later that evening, Dmitri bursts into his father's house and assaults him while threatening to come back and kill him in the future. This book also introduces Smerdyakov and his origins, as well as the story of his mother, Stinking Lizaveta. At the conclusion of this book, Alyosha is witness to Grushenka's bitter humiliation of Dmitri's betrothed Katerina, resulting in terrible embarrassment and scandal for this proud woman. Book Four: Lacerations/Strains This section introduces a side story which resurfaces in more detail later in the novel. It begins with Alyosha observing a group of schoolboys throwing rocks at one of their sickly peers named Ilyusha. When Alyosha admonishes the boys and tries to help, Ilyusha bites Alyosha's finger. It is later learned that Ilyusha's father, a former staff-captain named Snegiryov, was assaulted by Dmitri, who dragged him by the beard out of a bar. Alyosha soon learns of the further hardships present in the Snegiryov household and offers the former staff captain money as an apology for his brother and to help Snegiryov's ailing wife and children. After initially accepting the money with joy, Snegiryov throws the money back at Alyosha out of pride and runs back into his home. Book Five: Pro and Contra Here, the rationalist and nihilistic ideology that permeated Russia at this time is defended and espoused passionately by Ivan Karamazov while meeting his brother Alyosha at a restaurant. In the chapter titled "Rebellion", Ivan proclaims that he rejects the world that God has created because it is built on a foundation of suffering. In perhaps the most famous chapter in the novel, "The Grand Inquisitor", Ivan narrates to Alyosha his imagined poem that describes a leader from the Spanish Inquisition and his encounter with Jesus, Who has made His return to earth. Here, Jesus is rejected by the Inquisitor who puts Him in jail and then says, The Grand Inquisitor says that Jesus should not have given humans the "burden" of free will. At the end of all these arguments, Jesus silently steps forward and kisses the old man on his lips. The Grand Inquisitor, stunned and moved, tells Him he must never come there again, and lets Him out. Alyosha, after hearing this story, goes to Ivan and kisses him softly, with an unexplainable emotion, on the lips. Ivan shouts with delight, because Alyosha's gesture is taken directly from his poem. The brothers then part. Book Six: The Russian Monk The sixth book relates the life and history of the Elder Zosima as he lies near death in his cell. Zosima explains he found his faith in his rebellious youth, in the middle of a duel, consequently deciding to become a monk. Zosima preaches people must forgive others by acknowledging their own sins and guilt before others. He explains that no sin is isolated, making everyone responsible for their neighbor's sins. Zosima represents a philosophy that responds to Ivan's, which had challenged God's creation in the previous book. Book Seven: Alyosha The book begins immediately following the death of Zosima. It is a commonly held perception in the town, and the monastery as well, that true holy men's bodies do not succumb to putrefaction. Thus, the expectation concerning the Elder Zosima is that his deceased body will not decompose. It comes as a great shock to the entire town that Zosima's body not only decays, but begins the process almost immediately following his death. Within the first day, the smell of Zosima's body is already unbearable. For many this calls into question their previous respect and admiration for Zosima. Alyosha is particularly devastated by the sullying of Zosima's name due to nothing more than the corruption of his dead body. One of Alyosha's companions in the monastery named Rakitin uses Alyosha's vulnerability to set up a meeting between him and Grushenka. However, instead of Alyosha becoming corrupted, he is able to earn fresh faith and hope from Grushenka, while Grushenka's troubled mind begins the path of spiritual redemption through his influence: they become close friends. The book ends with the spiritual regeneration of Alyosha as he embraces, kisses the earth outside the monastery (echoing, perhaps, Zosima's last earthly act before his death) and cries convulsively until finally going back out into the world, as Zosima instructed, renewed. Book Eight: Mitya This section deals primarily with Dmitri's wild and distraught pursuit of money so he can run away with Grushenka. Dmitri owes money to his fiancée Katerina and will believe himself to be a thief if he does not find the money to pay her back before embarking on his quest for Grushenka. This mad dash for money takes Dmitri from Grushenka's benefactor to a neighboring town on a fabricated promise of a business deal. All the while Dmitri is petrified that Grushenka may go to his father Fyodor and marry him because he already has the monetary means to satisfy her. When Dmitri returns from his failed dealing in the neighboring town, he escorts Grushenka to her benefactor's home, but quickly discovers she deceived him and left early. Furious, he runs to his father's home with a brass pestle in his hand, and spies on him from the window. He takes the pestle from his pocket. Then, there is a discontinuity in the action, and Dmitri is suddenly running away off his father's property, knocking the servant Gregory in the head with the pestle with seemingly fatal results. Dmitri is next seen in a daze on the street, covered in blood, with three thousand rubles in his hand. He soon learns that Grushenka's former betrothed has returned and taken her to a lodge near where Dmitri just was. Upon learning this, Dmitri loads a cart full of food and wine and pays for a huge orgy to finally confront Grushenka in the presence of her old flame, intending all the while to kill himself at dawn. The "first and rightful lover", however, is a boorish Pole who cheats the party at a game of cards. When his deception is revealed, he flees, and Grushenka soon reveals to Dmitri that she really is in love with him. The party rages on, and just as Dmitri and Grushenka are making plans to marry, the police enter the lodge and inform Dmitri that he is under arrest for the murder of his father. Book Nine: The Preliminary Investigation Book Nine introduces the details of Fyodor's murder and describes the interrogation of Dmitri as he is questioned for the crime he maintains he did not commit. The alleged motive for the crime is robbery. Dmitri was known to have been completely destitute earlier that evening, but is suddenly seen on the street with thousands of rubles shortly after his father's murder. Meanwhile, the three thousand rubles that Fyodor Karamazov had set aside for Grushenka has disappeared. Dmitri explains that the money he spent that evening came from three thousand rubles Katerina gave him to send to her sister. He spent half that at his first meeting with Grushenka—another drunken orgy—and sewed up the rest in a cloth, intending to give it back to Katerina in the name of honor, he says. The lawyers are not convinced by this. All of the evidence points against Dmitri; the only other person in the house at the time of the murder was Smerdyakov, who was incapacitated due to an epileptic seizure he apparently suffered the day before. As a result of the overwhelming evidence against him, Dmitri is formally charged with the patricide and taken away to prison to await trial. Book Ten: Boys Boys continues the story of the schoolboys and Ilyusha last referred to in Book Four. The book begins with the introduction of the young boy Kolya Krasotkin. Kolya is a brilliant boy who proclaims his atheism, socialism, and beliefs in the ideas of Europe. He seems destined to follow in the spiritual footsteps of Ivan Karamazov; Dostoyevsky uses Kolya's beliefs especially in a conversation with Alyosha to poke fun at his Westernizer critics by putting their beliefs in what appears to be a young boy who doesn't exactly know what he is talking about. Kolya is bored with life and constantly torments his mother by putting himself in danger. As part of a prank Kolya lies between railroad tracks as a train passes over and becomes something of a legend for the feat. All the other boys look up to Kolya, especially Ilyusha. Since the narrative left Ilyusha in Book Four, his illness has progressively worsened and the doctor states that he will not recover. Kolya and Ilyusha had a falling out over Ilyusha's maltreatment of a dog: Ilyusha had fed it bread in which there was a pin on Smerdyakov's suggestion. But thanks to Alyosha's intervention the other schoolboys have gradually reconciled with Ilyusha, and Kolya soon joins them at his bedside. It is here that Kolya first meets Alyosha and begins to reassess his nihilist beliefs. Book Eleven: Brother Ivan Fyodorovich Book Eleven chronicles Ivan Karamazov's destructive influence on those around him and his descent into madness. It is in this book that Ivan meets three times with Smerdyakov, the final meeting culminating in Smerdyakov's dramatic confession that he had faked the fit, murdered Fyodor Karamazov, and stolen the money, which he presents to Ivan. Smerdyakov expresses disbelief at Ivan's professed ignorance and surprise. Smerdyakov claims that Ivan was complicit in the murder by telling Smerdyakov when he would be leaving Fyodor's house, and more importantly by instilling in Smerdyakov the belief that in a world without God "everything is permitted." The book ends with Ivan having a hallucination in which he is visited by the devil, who torments Ivan by mocking his beliefs. Alyosha finds Ivan raving and informs him that Smerdyakov killed himself shortly after their final meeting. Book Twelve: A Judicial Error This book details the trial of Dmitri Karamazov for the murder of his father Fyodor. The courtroom drama is sharply satirized by Dostoyevsky. The men in the crowd are presented as resentful and spiteful, and the women are irrationally drawn to the romanticism of Dmitri's love triangle between himself, Katerina, and Grushenka. Ivan's madness takes its final hold over him and he is carried away from the courtroom after recounting his final meeting with Smerdyakov and the aforementioned confession. The turning point in the trial is Katerina's damning testimony against Dmitri. Impassioned by Ivan's illness which she believes is a result of her assumed love for Dmitri, she produces a letter drunkenly written by Dmitri saying that he would kill Fyodor. The section concludes with the impassioned closing remarks of the prosecutor and the defense, and the verdict that Dmitri is guilty. Epilogue The final section opens with discussion of a plan developed for Dmitri's escape from his sentence of twenty years of hard labor in Siberia. The plan is never fully described, but it seems to involve Ivan and Katerina bribing some guards. Alyosha approves, first, because Dmitry is not emotionally ready to submit to such a harsh sentence, secondly, because he is innocent, and, third, because no guards or officers would suffer for aiding the escape. Dmitry and Grushenka plan to escape to America and work the land there for several years, and then to return to Russia under assumed American names, because they both cannot imagine living without Russia. Dmitri begs for Katerina to visit him in the hospital, where he is recovering from an illness before he is due to be taken away. When she does, Dmitry apologizes for having hurt her; she in turn apologizes for bringing up the implicating letter during the trial. They agree to love each other for that one moment, and say they will love each other forever, even though both now love other people. The novel concludes at Ilyusha's funeral, where Ilyusha's schoolboy friends listen to Alyosha's "Speech by the Stone." Alyosha promises to remember Kolya, Ilyusha, and all the boys and keep them close in his heart, even though he will have to leave them and may not see them again until many years have passed. He implores them to love each other and to always remember Ilyusha, and to keep his memory alive in their hearts, and to remember this moment at the stone when they were all together and they all loved each other. In tears, the twelve boys promise Alyosha that they will keep each other in their memories forever, join hands, and return to the Snegiryov household for the funeral dinner, chanting, "Hurrah for Karamazov!" |
Congo | Michael Crichton | 1,980 | The novel starts with an abrupt end to an expedition sent by Earth Resource Technology Services Inc. in the dense rain forests of Congo when the team is attacked and killed by an unknown creature and all contact with them is lost. The expedition, searching for deposits of valuable diamonds, discovered the legendary lost city of Zinj (in Arabic Zinj or Zanj refers to the southern part of the East African coast). A video image taken by a camera there, and transmitted by satellite to the base station in Houston, shows a peculiar race of grey haired gorillas, to be responsible for the murders. Another expedition, led by Karen Ross, is launched to find out the truth and to find the city of Zinj, where there are believed to be deposits of a certain diamond, type IIb, which are naturally boron-doped and thus useful as semiconductors, though worthless as gemstones. This time the searchers bring along the famous White African mercenary Munro, as well as a female gorilla named Amy, who has been trained to communicate with humans using sign language, and her trainer Peter Elliot. Time is of the greatest essence, as a rival consortium of Japan, Germany, and Holland has also set off into the jungle after the diamonds, turning the entire expedition into a race to the city of Zinj. Unfortunately for Ross and her team, the American expedition encounters many delays along the way, including plane crashes, native civil wars, and jungle predators. Eventually, Ross and her expedition reach the City of Zinj and discover the consortium camp, like the original expedition's camp, in ruins and devoid of life. Ross and her team lose contact with the ERTS HQ due to a massive solar flare, then encounter the killer gorillas and are attacked. A brief battle ensues and several gorillas are killed. After studying the corpses and performing a rudimentary field autopsy, it is concluded the animals are not "true" gorillas by modern biological standards, but presumably a gorilla-chimpanzee or gorilla-human hybrid: their mass and height is closer to humans than gorillas, their skull is greatly malformed (the "ridge" that makes gorilla heads look "pointy" is nearly nonexistent) as well as their pigmentation is on the border of albinism: light gray fur and yellow eyes. In addition, they exhibit different behavior: they are much more aggressive, ruthless and partially nocturnal (attacks are always at night, yet a very large group was observed feeding during the day). Peter Elliot intends to name them Gorilla elliotensis after himself. Afterwards, Ross, Elliot, and Munro explore the ruins and discover that the killer gorillas were bred by the ancient inhabitants of Zinj to serve as guard dogs to protect the diamond mines from intruders. After several more attacks, Elliot, with the help of Amy, finds a way to translate the language of the new gorillas (she refers to them as "bad gorillas") and piece together three messages ("go away", "don't come", "here bad"); they stop fighting the humans and become confused, leaving the camp. Their victory is cut short by the eruption of the nearby volcano, accelerated by the explosives placed by Ross for her geological surveys, that buries the city, the diamond fields and all proof of the "new" species under 800 meters of lava. Ross, Elliot, Munro, and the rest of the team's survivors are forced to run for their lives. The team then manages to find a hot air balloon in a crashed consortium cargo aircraft and uses it to escape. In an epilogue, it is revealed that Munro was able to retrieve a few hundred carats of the valuable diamonds and sold them to Intel for use in a revolutionary new computer processor, while Amy was reintroduced into the wild and was later observed teaching her offspring sign language. |
Agents of Chaos: Hero's Trial | James Luceno | null | As the Yuuzhan Vong continue their invasion of the galaxy, their recent conquest of the library world of Obroa-skai yields them much information of the galaxy that they are invading. They learn of the potential threat that the Jedi pose against them, and decide to send in an infiltrator in the form of their Priestess Elan. Elan's mission will be to carry lethal bo'tous spores (a bio-weapon developed by Nom Anor) in her lungs so that she will unleash it upon as many Jedi as she can. To do that, she will have to pose as a defector from the Vong who sees the error of her species' ways. Coming with her is her pet and familiar, Vergere. Meanwhile, Han Solo is still grieving over the loss of his best friend, Chewbacca, who perished on Sernpidal back in Vector Prime. In his grief, he separates himself from his friends and family to be alone. His isolation brings him into contact with his smuggler mentor, Roa, who tells him that he has information regarding a new galactic party called the Peace Brigade. The Brigade strives to help the Yuuzhan Vong against the New Republic in whatever way possible. One of Han's fellow smugglers, Reck Desh, is a leader of a Peace Brigade cell. To find out about Desh's whereabouts, the two of them travel to the Jubilee Wheel, a space station in orbit over the planet Ord Mantell. There, they meet with their contact, Fasgo. Fasgo divulges that one of Reck Desh's next operation will be at Bilbringi. The trio, however, are then harassed by a rival of Han's, a rival named Bossk and his cronies. Bossk provokes Han into a bar fight after saying something bad about Wookiees, particularly about Chewbacca. Roa and Fasgo are forced into the fight as a result, and they, along with Bossk and his group, are thrown into a jail cell for their trouble. Han, Roa, and Fasgo are soon released by Boss Bunji, another comrade of Han's in his glory days. Bunji released Han because he felt that he owed him after his wife, Leia, killed Jabba the Hutt more than two decades earlier, toppling his empire and allowing Bunji's business to grow. Before any more can happen, however, Ord Mantell is attacked by the Yuuzhan Vong in order to help further Elan's ploy that she and Vergere are defectors from the Vong (Elan previously divulged to New Republic Intelligence that Ord Mantell would be a target). The Jubilee Wheel is soon attacked by one of the Vong's creature-weapons, an ychna, which sucks up many people from the Wheel, including Roa and Fasgo. Han is able to escape aboard a weaponless shuttle craft with Droma, a member of a species called the Ryn and several other people. Han uses his piloting skills and the structure of the Jubilee Wheel against attacking Yuuzhan Vong coralskippers to destroy them, and land it safely on Ord Mantell when the Vong retreat to give the illusion that they have given up in their attack. Han then takes a pleasure yacht called the Queen of Empire, as it is heading to Bilbringi, so that he can confront Reck Desh. Meanwhile, New Republic Intelligence sneaks Elan and Vergere aboard the same yacht for Coruscant. However, Reck Desh is soon informed by an anonymous source who tells him of Elan and Vergere's whereabouts. However, both Desh and the source are unaware of Elan and Vergere's true allegiance; thus, they believe that Elan and Vergere are genuine traitors to the Yuuzhan Vong. So, at the Queen of Empires stop at Bilbringi, Desh's Peace Brigade forces attack the pleasure yacht and attempt to kidnap Elan and Vergere. Han and Droma, who have become mutual friends during their stay aboard the Queen of Empire, are handed over Elan and Vergere by the NRI members guarding them after informing them of the situation. Desh nevertheless captures Han, Droma, Elan, and Vergere, and leaves the former two to die by dropping them down a turbolift shaft while kidnapping the latter two to return to their masters. Meanwhile, the Yuuzhan Vong soon find out that Desh's operation will foil their plan against the Jedi, so they send a sizable force in to try to prevent Desh and his forces from taking away Elan and Vergere. The New Republic military soon arrives to deal with the threat brought on by both the Yuuzhan Vong and the Peace Brigade, launching the First Battle of Bilbringi. Back aboard the Queen of Empire, thanks to Droma's tail, he and Han survive the fall down the turbolift shaft. Then they go after Desh's ship with the Millennium Falcon, brought to them by Luke Skywalker, his wife Mara, and Han's wife Leia amidst the battle. They dock with Desh's ship, only to find the entire dead of some kind of infection and Elan and Vergere still alive. Han and Droma bring Elan and Vergere aboard the Millennium Falcon, but it isn't long before Han deduces Elan's true allegiance after picking up subtle clues that divulged that her loyalties still lay with her masters. Thus, Elan tries to kill Han by using the last of her bo'tous spores on him, acknowledging her mission to kill as many Jedi as possible a failure, but Elan is denied even that victory when both she and Han stumble into a sealed room and Han pulls on a breathing mask that protects him against the spores. Elan dies while Vergere escapes in an escape pod; but not before she gives Han a vial of her tears, which she tells to give to Mara Jade Skywalker to help her heal from her disease. With that, the Millennium Falcon escapes from getting blasted to atoms by the Yuuzhan Vong forces who are now aware of Elan's death and return safely to the New Republic forces. After the New Republic is informed of Elan's deceit, Han agrees to help Droma find his family, who are now refugees scattered across the galaxy thanks to the Yuuzhan Vong War. |
Agents of Chaos: Jedi Eclipse | James Luceno | null | The novel focuses around several stories that eventually intertwine in the climax. The first story focuses on Han Solo and his new friend and copilot Droma seeking the latter's displaced family throughout the war-torn galaxy. They eventually come across the planet Ruan, which is planning to destroy all of its servant droids in order to appease the Yuuzhan Vong. Han and Droma foil this plan, and one of the droids tells Han what the Vong's next target planet is. Meanwhile, the Yuuzhan Vong have allied with the Hutt Empire for more convenient invasions. However, the Hutts are secretly double-crossing the Vong to the New Republic, and are subtly providing the latter government the former's plans. The Yuuzhan Vong know of the Hutts' betrayal and are intentionally misleading their supposed allies in order to dupe the New Republic itself as to the truth of their next target world. Two supposed targets are Corellia and Bothawui. The latter is heavily fortified in defense of an invasion while the former is set to appear nearly defenseless, but has a secret weapon at its side: Centerpoint Station. The station can only be activated through Anakin Solo's DNA since he shut Centerpoint down years earlier. In order to counter the Yuuzhan Vong's relentless invasion of the galaxy, Ambassador Leia Organa Solo bids the Hapes Consortium to join the war against the Vong. Queen Mother Tenenial Djo and her husband Prince Isolder agree to this despite the reluctance of other influential parties within the Consortium, and they arm their military to fight the Vong. Ultimately, the Yuuzhan Vong's next target planet isn't either Corellia or Bothawui, but the shipyards of Fondor. The Hutts openly betray the Vong as a result and fully side with the combined forces of the New Republic and Hapes Consortium. However, Cetnerpoint Station is already activated, and even though Anakin Solo refuses to use it, his ambitious first cousin, Thrackan Sal-Solo, uses it to fire right into the Fondor system. Though it decimates two-thirds of the Vong forces, it's also a tragedy for the New Republic and Hapes forces alike. Nevertheless, the Battle of Fondor is considered a victory for the New Republic, and Droma reunites with his family. But the Hapes Consortium backs out of the war and Tenenial Djo miscarries her next child due to the disturbance she felt through the Force as a result of all the lives suddenly lost thanks to Centerpoint. The surviving refugees in the aftermath of Fondor, including Droma and his family, are transported to Duro as a safe haven from the Vong... for now. |
Looking Backward | Edward Bellamy | 1,888 | The book tells the story of Julian West, a young American who, towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up one hundred and thirteen years later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts), but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000 and, while he was sleeping, the United States has been transformed into a socialist utopia. The remainder of the book outlines Bellamy's thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with capitalism, a proposed socialist solution of a nationalisation of all industry, the use of an "industrial army" to organise production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions. The young man readily finds a guide, Doctor Leete, who shows him around and explains all the advances of this new age; including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and almost instantaneous, Internet-like delivery of goods. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens. The productive capacity of America is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens. A considerable portion of the book is dialogue between Leete and West wherein West expresses his confusion about how the future society works and Leete explains the answers using various methods, such as metaphors or direct comparisons with 19th-century society. Although Bellamy's novel did not discuss technology or the economy in detail, commentators frequently compare Looking Backward with actual economic and technological developments. For example, Julian West is taken to a store which (with its descriptions of cutting out the middleman to cut down on waste in a similar way to the consumers' cooperatives of his own day based on the Rochdale Principles of 1844) somewhat resembles a modern warehouse club like BJ's, Costco, or Sam's Club. He additionally introduces a concept of credit cards in chapters 9, 10, 11, 13, 25, and 26, but these bear no resemblance to the instruments of debt-finance. All citizens receive an equal amount of "credit." Those with more difficult, specialized, dangerous or unpleasant jobs work fewer hours. Bellamy also predicts both sermons and music being available in the home through cable "telephone". Bellamy labeled the philosophy behind the vision "nationalism", and his work inspired the formation of more than 160 Nationalist Clubs to propagate his ideas. Despite the "ethical" character of his socialism (though he was initially loath to use the term "socialism"), Bellamy's ideas somewhat reflect classical Marxism. In Chapter 19, for example, he has the new legal system explained. Most civil suits have ended in socialism, while crime has become a medical issue. The idea of atavism, then current, is employed to explain crimes not related to inequality (which Bellamy thinks will vanish with socialism). Remaining criminals are medically treated. One professional judge presides, appointing two colleagues to state the prosecution and defense cases. If all do not agree on the verdict, then it must be tried over. Chapter 15 and 16 have an explanation of how free, independent public art and news outlets could be provided in a more libertarian socialist system. In one case Bellamy even writes "the nation is the sole employer and capitalist". |
Witches Abroad | Terry Pratchett | 1,991 | Following the death of the witch Desiderata Hollow, Magrat Garlick is sent her magic wand, for Desiderata was not only a witch, but also a Fairy Godmother. Having given the wand to Magrat, she effectively makes Magrat the new Fairy Godmother to a young woman called Emberella. Sadly, Desiderata does not give Magrat any instruction on the use of the wand, so pretty much anything that Magrat points it at becomes a pumpkin. This leaves several animals around Magrat's cottage now as pumpkins, one of which still thinks it is a stoat. Desiderata had promised Emberella previously that she will not marry the Duke, who's really a prince/frog. and now it is up to Magrat and her companions to ensure that Emberella does not marry the Duke, despite the desires of another Witch in Genua called Lily, Desiderata's counterpart. She used the power of her own reflection to capture Genua. The journey to Genua takes some time and involves numerous mis-adventures, many of which resemble or parody well-known fairytales. Upon arrival in Genua, Magrat goes to meet Emberella, whilst the two older witches meet Erzulie Gogol, a voodoo witch and her zombie servant, Baron Saturday (who was also her late lover). It is at this time that Magrat finds out that Emberella has two Fairy Godmothers, Magrat and Lilith. It was Lilith who had manipulated many of the various stories that the Witches had traveled through and who was now manipulating Genua itself, wrapping the city around her version of the Cinderella story. Lilith has had people arrested for crimes against stories, including the arrest of a toymaker for not being jolly, not whistling and not telling the children stories. Using hypnosis, Granny convinces Magrat to attend a Masked Ball in place of Emberella. Emberella's dress fits, but the glass slippers do not. After enjoying themselves for a while at the ball the witches are discovered and are cast into a dungeon. At that point, Emberella, Mrs. Gogol and Baron Saturday arrive at the Ball, having broken the witches out of their prison. A high concentration of Magic causes the Duke to revert to his frog form, and he is trampled by Baron Saturday causing Lilith to flee. Granny starts to follow, but Mrs. Gogol tries to stop her using a voodoo doll, wanting to kill Lilith. Granny uses Mrs Gogol's own belief in the power of the voodoo doll to make the voodoo doll burst into flames when Granny thrusts her own arm into a flaming torch. Granny Weatherwax then pursues Lilith. Emberella is informed that, as the daughter of the late Baron Saturday, (who was the former Duke in Genua), she is now ruler of Genua. Her first command is to end the Ball, (she dislikes them,) and attend the Mardi Gras parade, a form of binge drinking carnival. Granny manages to defeat Lilith by trapping her in a mirror, and the three Witches return home. Granny shows Magrat how to use the wand to do magic, that it takes more than wishing. Magrat throws the wand into a river, to be lost forever. Then the Witches go home, the long way and see an elephant. |
Lords and Ladies | Terry Pratchett | 1,992 | At the end of Witches Abroad, Magrat Garlick, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax (and Greebo) left Genua bound for home, in Lancre. Lords and Ladies begins as they arrive back. Magrat makes her way to Lancre Castle, where she meets King Verence II of Lancre with whom she has a definite understanding that they may want to be in a relationship. However, he surprises her by informing her that the two of them are about to be married, and that he has arranged the whole wedding, including things such as the Wedding dress, guest list, entertainment, date and time without her involvement. Following an argument with Granny Weatherwax, Magrat moves into Lancre Castle with Verence (though not in the same room - yet) prior to the wedding, ignoring any question of scandal. Granny discovers that there has been some sort of magic performed at a circle of stones, on the edge of Lancre. These stones contain "the love of iron", which attracts all iron to them, preventing any iron from passing through. This circle is also a gateway between the Discworld and the land of the Elves. Usually, this gateway is strong, but at certain times, known as "Circle Time", the barrier becomes less potent. Circle time is easily recognised by the arrival of crop circles in areas near to the stone circle. It is implied that if a crop circle should open inside the stone circle, the barrier would collapse. Granny and Nanny Ogg discover that the young women practising witchcraft near the stone circle are local girls led by Diamanda Tockley, and including Agnes Nitt (who will become a witch in a later story). The two elderly witches try to convince them to stop, but they are ignored and eventually, Diamanda runs through the stone circle into the Land of the Elves, followed by Granny Weatherwax. When the two see the Elves for what they really are, they attempt to escape, but Diamanda is shot by a stone-tipped arrow. Granny picks her up and they escape into Lancre, followed by an Elf who manages to escape as well. Just as the elf is about to kill Granny, he is knocked out by Nanny Ogg who arrives just in time. Granny and Nanny take Diamanda and the captured Elf to Lancre castle, where Granny leaves Diamanda to the nursing of Magrat. They then put the Elf in the castle dungeon, surrounded by iron, since Elves hate the touch of iron as it limits their power. Shawn Ogg, guard, privy cleaner, fanfare blower and general (or Private) dogsbody of Lancre castle is given the task of keeping the Elf locked up and Diamanda safe from the Elves, whilst the guests to the wedding of Magrat and Verence go to see the Entertainment (a play), which is unexpectedly staged near the stone circle. The three Witches are not at the Entertainment for different reasons; Magrat does not go because she has found a letter in Verence's bedroom which angers her (the details of the letter are not disclosed at this point), Granny does not go because she has been whisked away from the Castle in a moment of passion by Mustrum Ridcully, Archchancellor of Unseen University who is a guest at the wedding (he has brought the Librarian, Ponder Stibbons and The Bursar along as well) and who was a former love interest for Granny in their (much) younger days and Nanny has been taken out to dinner by Casanunda (whom she first met during Witches Abroad). The play causes sufficient belief that the barrier in the stone circle is broken and the Elves come through. Using a kind of hypnosis, they coerce the Lancrastrians to pull down the stone circle and take control of Verence, whom the Queen of the Elves intends to marry in order to make her rule of Lancre official. Magrat, having escaped from the Castle (where she was chased by the Elf after it was released by the hypnotised Diamanda Tockley) arrives in a suit of armour belonging to a previous Queen of Lancre called Ynci (the Short-Tempered). She attacks the Elf Queen, but is beaten. Granny, who has been captured by the Elves attacks the Queen with magic, but it seems to overcome her and she collapses to the ground, whereon her bees swarm from their hive and land on the prone body. Since the Queen's attention is taken up by Granny Weatherwax, her hold on Magrat is lessened. The young Queen-to-be attacks the Elf Queen and, with help from the Elf Queen's real husband (who was called on to help by Nanny Ogg and Casanunda) the Elf Queen is defeated and the Elves vanish back to their land. Granny Weatherwax appears to be dead and the two remaining witches go to her cottage to look around and read her will. However, they find a note, left by Granny, which indicates that she may, in fact, still be alive. They rush back to the Castle and break a window, upon which Grannys' bees land on her again. It transpires that she has been "borrowing" the hive mind of the bees to escape the Elf Queen and give Magrat her chance to defeat her. Granny is the first witch to successfully "borrow" the hive mind, since this involves splitting your mind over dozens of bees (as opposed to borrowing the single mind of other animals). Magrat and Verence are married (despite the letter, which was written by Granny whilst the three witches were away, urging him to organise the marriage to Magrat, so as to stop her from getting in the way of her own life). Later, the playwright, Hwel arrives and writes a play based on the story (ignoring the parts that were too expensive to put on a stage, or which he didn't believe). He called the play the "Taming of the Vole", since he didn't think anyone would want to see a play called "Things that happened on a midsummer night". |
The Royal Game | Stefan Zweig | null | Driven to mental anguish as the result of total isolation by the National Socialists, Dr. B, a monarchist hiding valuable assets of the nobility from the new regime, maintains his sanity only through the theft of a book of past masters' chess games which he plays endlessly, voraciously learning each one until they overwhelm his imagination to such an extent that he becomes consumed by chess. After absorbing every single move of any variation in the book, and having nothing more to explore, Dr. B begins to play the game against himself, developing the ability to separate his psyche into two personas: I (White) and I (Black). This psychological conflict causes him to ultimately suffer a breakdown, after which he eventually awakens in a sanatorium. Being saved by a sympathetic physician, who attests his insanity to keep him from being imprisoned again by the Nazis, he is finally set free. After happening to be on the same cruise liner as a group of chess enthusiasts and the world chess champion Czentovic, he incidentally stumbles across their game against the champion. Mirko Czentovic was a peasant prodigy possessing no obvious redeeming qualities besides his gift for chess. Dr. B helps the chess enthusiasts in managing to draw their game in an almost hopeless position. After this effort, they persuade him to play alone against Czentovic. In a stunning demonstration of his imaginative and combinational powers, Dr. B sensationally beats the world champion. Czentovic immediately demands a return game to restore his honour. But this time, having sensed that Dr. B played quite fast and hardly took time to think, he tries to irritate his opponent by taking a lot of time before making a move, thereby putting psychological pressure on Dr. B, who gets more and more impatient as the game proceeds. His greatest power turns out to be his greatest weakness: he reenacts the match in his mind repeatedly with all imaginable possibilities so rapidly that Czentovic's deliberation and placidness drive him to distraction and ultimately insanity, culminating in an incorrect move after which Dr. B awakens from his frenzy. |
Nostromo | Joseph Conrad | 1,904 | Nostromo is set in the South American country of Costaguana (a fictional nation, though its geography as described in the book closely matches real-life Colombia). Costaguana has a long history of tyranny, revolution and warfare, but has recently experienced a period of stability under the dictator Ribiera. Charles Gould is a native Costaguanero of English descent who owns an important silver-mining concession near the key port of Sulaco. He is tired of the political instability in Costaguana and its concomitant corruption, and uses his wealth to support Ribiera's government, which he believes will finally bring stability to the country after years of misrule and tyranny by self-serving dictators. Instead, Gould's refurbished silver mine and the wealth it has generated inspires a new round of revolutions and self-proclaimed warlords, plunging Costaguana into chaos. Among others, the revolutionary Montero invades Sulaco; Gould, adamant that his silver should not become spoil for his enemies, orders Nostromo, the trusted "capataz de los cargadores" (head longshoreman) of Sulaco, to take it offshore so it can be sold into international markets. Nostromo is an Italian expatriate who has risen to his position through his daring exploits. ("Nostromo" is Italian for "shipmate" or "boatswain", but the name could also be considered a corruption of the Italian phrase "nostro uomo," meaning "our man.") Nostromo's real name is Giovanni Battista Fidanza — Fidanza meaning "trust" in archaic Italian. Nostromo is a commanding figure in Sulaco, respected by the wealthy Europeans and seemingly limitless in his abilities to command power among the local population. He is, however, never admitted to become a part of upper-class society, but is instead viewed by the rich as their useful tool. He is believed by Charles Gould and his own employers to be incorruptible, and it is for this reason that Nostromo is entrusted with removing the silver from Sulaco to keep it from the revolutionaries. Nostromo's power and fame continues to grow, as he daringly rides over the mountains to summon the army which saves Sulaco's powerful leaders from the revolutionaries. In Conrad's universe, however, almost no one is incorruptible. The exploit does not bring Nostromo the fame he had hoped for, and he feels slighted and used. Feeling that he has risked his life for nothing, he is consumed by resentment, which leads to his corruption and ultimate destruction, for he has kept secret the true fate of the silver after all others believed it lost at sea. In recovering the silver for himself, he is shot and killed, mistaken for a trespasser, by the father of his fiancée, the keeper of the lighthouse on the island of Great Isabel. |
The Well of Lost Plots | Jasper Fforde | 2,003 | Apprentice JurisFiction agent and SpecOps-27 operative Thursday Next is taking a much-needed vacation inside Caversham Heights, a never-published detective novel inside the Well of Lost Plots, while waiting for her child to be born (she's pregnant although her husband Landen was erased from existence by the ChronoGuard in the previous book). As a cover, she must pretend to be the character she is replacing. In the book, she encounters two Generics, students of St Tabularasa's who have yet to be assigned to a book, and DCI Jack Spratt, a detective who partners with her in investigating a murder. Since Thursday is an "Outlander", a "real" person rather than a fictional character, Spratt hopes that she will help them appeal to the Council of Genres to prevent the disassembling of Caversham Heights, a fate inevitable for books which languish unpublished in the 'real' world. Using a Caversham Heights as her base of operations, Thursday continues her apprenticeship with Miss Havisham from Great Expectations. Not only is a fictional character — Yorrick Kaine, the "discoverer" of Shakespeare's lost play Cardenio in the last book — loose in Thursday's real world, a person from Thursday's world has entered the BookWorld and is conspiring with Kaine and Text Grand Central, the final arbitrators of plot, setting, and other story elements, to release BOOK version 9, code-named UltraWord. UltraWord is touted at a JurisFiction meeting as the greatest advance "since the invention of movable type" because it creates a thirty-two plot story system and allows the reader to control the story. Thursday slowly loses her memory of Landen, though Granny Next remains with her and keeps her from forgetting him completely. Aornis Hades, the villainess, who nearly covered the world in Dream Topping in Lost in a Good Book, is present in her memory as a mindworm. Thursday learns that Harris Tweed, Kaine's partner, is masquerading as a JurisFiction agent to get UltraWord released in order to fix literature. At the 923rd Annual BookWorld awards, Thursday proves to the seven million fictional characters assembled that UltraWord will render literature merely a saleable commodity — the thrice-read rule renders an UltraWord book impossible to read by a fourth person after the volume has been read by three people, thus rendering libraries and second-hand bookstores useless. The quality of the writing is also substantively poorer; Thursday produces two skylarks, one from a non-UltraWord book that is described vividly and poetically, and the other from an UltraWord book that is described flat and literally. Tweed and Kaine call for a vote before the audience can be convinced that Thursday's is the correct argument. In this unprecedented emergency, Thursday breaks open the "IN UNPRECEDENTED EMERGENCY, BREAK GLASS" in her JurisFiction operative TravelBook and pulls the handle. The Great Panjandrum, ruler of the BookWorld, appears (a literal Deus ex machina). The Panjandrum calls for an immediate vote which goes against UltraWord and calls on Thursday to take the job of Bellman, the superintendent of JurisFiction. The two Generics, now calling themselves Randolph and Lola, Thursday, and her pet dodo Pickwick take R&R in Caversham Heights, which was bought by the Council of Genres as a character sanctuary — a solution that appeals to the residents of the novel as well as the nursery rhyme characters who were going to go on strike. The story of the new Caversham Heights constitutes Fforde's fifth book, The Big Over Easy. The American edition of The Well of Lost Plots has an extra chapter documenting the weathering of a WordStorm during Thursday's tenure as Bellman. The story continues in Something Rotten. *Thursday Next *Pickwick *Randolph *Lola *Harris Tweed *The Great Panjandrum *Aornis Hades *Granny Next *Landen Parke-Laine *Bellman de:Im Brunnen der Manuskripte fr:Le Puits des histoires perdues it:Il pozzo delle trame perdute |
Tom a Lincoln | null | null | Part I begins with the story of Tom's birth: he is the product of an illicit affair between King Arthur and Angelica, the Lord Mayor of London's daughter. To conceal their adultery, Arthur and Angelica secretly send their child to be raised by Antonio, a Lincolnshire shepherd. The shepherd raises Tom as his own, but Tom's innate nobility leads him to seek adventure as the "Red Rose Knight." He leads a life of crime before his adoptive father berates him and reveals that he was a foundling. Arthur, who realizes that Tom is his son, sends his knights Lancelot, Tristram, and Triamour to bring him to court. Tom is immediately made a Knight of the Round Table, but Arthur does not reveal his identity. Tom woos the court with his feats of martial valor, culminating with his success in England's war against Portugal. He then sets out with a company of knights on an adventure to find his parents. Tom's ship lands on an island called Fairy Land, inhabited entirely by women. Tom sleeps with the queen, Celia, but is compelled to return to his quest. He sets out, vowing to return. Back on the ship, Lancelot tells the tale of the great love between a young girl and prince Valentine of Greece. At length the ship comes to Prester John's kingdom, where Tom defends the king against a dragon before making off with his daughter Anglitora. Tom attempts to return to Fairy Land, where Celia has given birth to his son, who will later be known as the Faerie Knight. They get within sight of the island, but a trick of the tides prevents the ship from landing. Thinking she is abandoned, Celia pins a note to her chest and drowns herself in the sea. Tom's crew recovers her body and sails back to England, where they bury her with full honors. Part II largely undermines the action and motifs of Part I. A dying Arthur reveals his adultery with Angelica, and Tom's parentage is revealed. When Anglitora finds out he is illegitimate, she kills him. His spirit goes on to tell the Black Knight her deed and he in turn kills her. Both the Black Knight and the Faerie Knight end up traveling together on many adventures. fr:Tom a'Lincoln |
Recovery | Troy Denning | null | Following the savage Yuuzhan Vong conquest of Duro, Leia Organa Solo barely clings to life, having endured the vicious torture of the alien invaders. Her husband, Han Solo, rushes her to safety, but in a galaxy ready to blame the Jedi for the alien scourge, finding a refuge is nearly impossible. With bounty hunters in close pursuit, Solo has little choice but to head to Coruscant, but even the New Republic capital is no haven from anti-Jedi sentiment and treachery. |
Edge of Victory: Conquest | Gregory Keyes | null | Following the events of Balance Point, the Yuuzhan Vong have agreed to halt their galactic invasion in exchange for all of the Jedi being brought to them, dead or alive. One of the Vong's targets is the Jedi praxeum on Yavin 4. Going against direct orders from his uncle and Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, and the New Republic itself, Anakin Solo travels to Yavin 4 in order to help his fellow Jedi escape. He makes it just in time to help them escape the Peace Brigade occupation, though his best friend, Tahiri Veila, is captured. He decides to go back and save her, and is enlisted the help of a Shamed Yuuzhan Vong named Vua Rapuung. As Rapuung reveals, a Shamed One in Vong society is an outcast, and he has been Shamed because his biology had rejected the ritual Vong implants. He knows, however, that the shaper, which is the equivalent of a scientist in the Yuuzhan Vong, intentionally Shamed him as punishment for turning her down as a mate. So Rapuung teams up with Anakin so that they can accomplish their respective goals; Anakin will get to save Tahiri while Rapuung will seek vengeance on the shaper who shamed him. Meanwhile, Tahiri is tortured and shaped by Master Shaper Mezhan Kwaad and her assistant Nen Yim in a secret heretical practice meant to brainwash Tahiri into believing that she is a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. This way, she will become the first Jedi-Vong hybrid. Anakin and Rapuung later arrive at the shaper damutek that replaced the Jedi praxeum in the wake of the Yuuzhan Vong's occupation. With the both of them disguised in order to infiltrate the compound, Anakin is able to replace the destroyed crystal of his lightsaber (the lightsaber's crystal was damaged in a previous confrontation with the Yuuzhan Vong) with one of the Vong's own lambents (light-creatures). With this, Anakin is now able to sense the Yuuzhan Vong in a whole new way that exists outside the Force, albeit this new sense only gives Anakin a rather fuzzy look at the Vong. When Mezhan Kwaad and Nen Yim's heretical experiments on Tahiri is discovered, the three of them are taken to a ship to be transported off of Yavin 4. Anakin and Rapuung make their move to accomplish their goals, and Rapuung is able to coerce Kwaad into revealing the heresy she performed by intentionally Shaming him. Not only does Kwaad admit to this, but she even expresses her atheism, something that shocks the onlooking Vong crowd. Kwaad is able to kill her captors, mortally wound Rapuung, and injures Anakin, but a brainwashed Tahiri uses a lightsaber to decapitate Kwaad. Anakin then guides Tahiri back to her senses by reminding her of who she is and expressing his true feelings of love for her. Rapuung, meanwhile, offers to sacrifice his own life against the nearby Vong warriors in order to allow Anakin and Tahiri to escape, as a token of his gratitude of helping him accomplish his goal of exposing Kwaad. Rapuung dies against the attacking warriors while Anakin and Tahiri escape. They, along with the other non-Vong occupants of Yavin 4, are soon rescued from the moon and transported out of the system thanks to the help of Talon Karrde. The novel ends with Nen Yim secretly promising herself to continue Mezhan Kwaad's work in order to help the Yuuzhan Vong. |
Edge of Victory: Rebirth | Gregory Keyes | null | The novel focuses on five separate stories. The first story concentrates on the adventure that Anakin Solo, Tahiri Veila, and Corran Horn all have. On a routine cargo pickup for the Errant Venture on the planet Eriadu, Anakin and Tahiri encounter a Jedi named Kelbis Nu, who is being attacked by Yuuzhan Vong supporters. Despite Anakin and Tahiri's efforts in helping him, Nu dies, but before he does, he is able to whisper to Anakin, "Yag'Dhul." For their trouble, Anakin and Tahiri are arrested by the pro-Vong police of Eriadu, but escape and manage to leave the planet in time with Corran. However, they can't make it back to the Errant Venture in time, for it has to respond to a call from Luke Skywalker himself. Luke and his wife Mara, meanwhile, are declared by the New Republic to be wanted fugitives, in response to the pressure that the Yuuzhan Vong put on the Jedi. What's worse is that as Mara carries her and Luke's baby, the deadly coomb spore virus that had previously affected her returns, and threatens to kill her and the child. With the help of some of their fellow Jedi and the Errant Venture, they are able to escape Coruscant. Afterwards, Luke sends Jaina Solo to find and meet up with Kyp Durron in order to tell him that Luke has finally made a decision regarding the stance that the Jedi overall should take in the Yuuzhan Vong War. Back with Anakin, Tahiri, and Corran, they are left to escape from the Eriadu system by themselves, and when they revert from a hyperspace corridor, they end up in the midst of a Yuuzhan Vong fleet. They manage to infiltrate one of the Vong's ships as the fleet prepares to go into darkspace. They end up in the Yag'Dhul system, and after a brief battle, Anakin, Tahiri, and Corran escape from the Vong's midst in order to rendezvous with the indigenous population. The attacking Vong fleet quickly pulls back, and it becomes obvious that they were merely but a recon force for a much larger invasion of Yag'Dhul. That invasion soon comes as infiltrating Yuuzhan Vong, led by Nom Anor, make their move, but despite their actions, the invasion fails in light of the overall Vong fleet going into darkspace to deal with another problem elsewhere. That other problem came as a result of Jaina Solo's meeting with Kyp Durron. Kyp tells Jaina that he has scouted the Sernpidal for some months now and has discovered the Yuuzhan Vong have been using the time offered to them in the wake of the galactic invasion's halt in order to build a giant superweapon that could threaten the stability of the New Republic. They take it to the Republic military, where the likes of General Wedge Antilles and Admiral Traest Kre'fey take a minimum number of ships to help Kyp's forces in taking on the apparent superweapon in Sernpidal. In the wake of the Republic's attack in the Julevian system, it prompted the invasion fleet at Yag'Dhul to pull back in order to help the defending forces at Sernpidal. But their response to the call for help comes too late, as their enemies manage to destroy the apparent superweapon. But in the midst of the supposed superweapon's destruction, Jaina discovers that it was merely a developing worldship that had no Yuuzhan Vong warriors, but civilians. Kyp justifies this by saying that it was meant to get back at the Vong for attacking the New Republic's people. Jaina slaps him for this and vows to never help him again. The fourth story of the novel focuses on Nen Yim, now Master Shaper in the wake of Mezhan Kwaad's death in the previous novel, trying vainly to save a dying worldship by using even heretical protocols. Her efforts are further hindered when another Master Shaper named Kae Kwaad, obviously within the same domain as the late Mezhan, forces Nen Yim to concoct rather ridiculous experiments that do nothing to forward the progress of repairing the dying worldship. Desperate to save the worldship, Yim accesses the Shaper Qahsa in order to find out what further protocols can help her in her goal by reaching the legendary eighth cortex of the Qahsa. But it turns out that there is no eighth cortex, and that the Yuuzhan Vong have already reached the pinnacle of their biological technology. Yim also reaches the conclusion that the Yuuzhan Vong's gods also don't exist, just as Mezhan Kwaad herself proclaimed before her death. Kae Kwaad then reveals himself to be the Shamed One Onimi, who is the familiar of the Yuuzhan Vong's Supreme Overlord Shimrra Jamaane himself. Shimrra reveals that he knows of Yim's heresy, but rather than proceeding to punish her, he allows her to continue her heretical protocols in order to further the Vong's war efforts against the New Republic. Thus, Yim drops her efforts in trying to save the doomed worldship. The fifth story of the novel focuses on Jacen Solo traveling throughout the galaxy trying to avoid Yuuzhan Vong and their supporters, considering the special bounty that Warmaster Tsavong Lah put on his head. Through the Solos' adventures in averting death from their enemies, Jacen learns to reconcile with his father, Han, since their different ideals were what separated them from each other emotionally in the first place. As Mara starts to die from the coomb spore virus, Luke is able to reach out to her in the Force, as well as reaching out to his and Mara's child's presence, and they are able to banish the virus from her system as their son, Ben Skywalker, is born. Their friends and allies, including Anakin, Tahiri (both of whom shared a kiss at Yag'Dhul that will prove to further their relationship in the future), Corran, the other Solos, and several others arrive just in time to meet the newborn Ben. |
Old Yeller | Fred Gipson | 1,956 | Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother Arliss while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog. Though Travis initially loathes the "rascal" and at first tries to get rid of it, Old Yeller eventually proves his worth, saving the family on several occasions. Travis grows to love this dog named Old Yeller. And they become great friends. The rightful owner of Yeller shows up looking for his dog. The owner recognizes that the family has become attached to Yeller, and trades the dog to Arliss for a home-cooked meal prepared by Travis's mother, who is an exceptional cook. Old Yeller becomes exposed to rabies while defending the family from an infected wolf. They try to nurse Yeller back to health, but in the end Travis is forced to shoot the dog. Old Yeller's had puppies with one of Travis's friend's dogs, and the puppy helps Travis get over Old Yeller's death. |
Tom Brown's Schooldays | Thomas Hughes | 1,857 | Tom Brown is energetic, stubborn, kind-hearted, and athletic more than intellectual. He acts according to his feelings and the unwritten rules of the boys around him more than adults' rules. The early chapters of the novel deal with his childhood at his home in the Vale of White Horse (including a nostalgic picture of a village feast). Much of the scene setting in the first chapter is deeply revealing of Victorian England's attitudes towards society and class, and contains a comparison of so-called Saxon and Norman influences on England. This part of the book, when young Tom wanders the valleys freely on his pony, serves as a sort of Eden with which to contrast the later hellish experiences in his first years at school. His first school year is at a local school. His second year starts at a private school, but due to an epidemic of fever in the area, all the school's boys are sent home, and Tom is transferred mid-term to Rugby School, where he makes acquaintance with the adults and boys who live at the school and in its environs. On his arrival, the eleven-year-old Tom Brown is looked after by a more experienced classmate, Harry "Scud" East. Soon after, Tom and East become the targets of a bully named Flashman. The intensity of the bullying increases, and, after refusing to hand over a sweepstake ticket for the favourite in a horse race, Tom is deliberately burned in front of a fire. Tom and East eventually defeat Flashman with the help of a kind (though comical) older boy, Diggs. In their triumph they become unruly. In the second half of the book, Dr. Thomas Arnold, the historical headmaster of the school at the time, gives Tom the care of George Arthur, a frail, pious, academically brilliant, gauche, and sensitive new boy. A fight that Tom gets into to protect Arthur, and Arthur's nearly dying of fever, are described in loving detail. Tom and Arthur help each other and their friends develop into young gentlemen who say their nightly prayers, do not cheat on homework, and play in a cricket match. An epilogue shows Tom's return to Rugby and its chapel when he hears of Arnold's death. |
The Last Book in the Universe | Rodman Philbrick | null | The story is set in a post-disaster, dystopic future city, called the Urb, which has been disturbed by an earthquake known as "The Big Shake". The Urb is plagued by poverty, thieves, gang warfare, and the use of mindprobes (such as trendies, and shooters), which are analogous to hard drugs and which enable users to temporarily escape their harsh lives through images like movies being played in their heads. Genetically improved people, called "proovs," live across the "Forbidden Zone," a minefield separating the Urb from a city called Eden, with a beautiful society, food and water. Spaz is a 14-year-old boy who can't use mindprobes because of his epilepsy and whose adoptive family has abandoned him because they feared the symptoms of his epilepsy. Spaz runs errands for Billy Bizmo, the latch-boss (leader) of his gang, the "Bully Bangers," in a section of the Urb. On one of his errands, Spaz is sent to rob Ryter, a very little man who possesses the lost arts of literature. Spaz soon meets Little Face, a five-year-old orphan who, throughout the book, only says the word "chox," because he doesn't know how to speak, and Lanaya, a proov who charitably gives out food. At first, Spaz is very hostile towards Ryter, but Ryter understands Spaz's situation and does his best to help him, offering no resistance when Spaz arrives to steal Ryter's meager possessions . Eventually Spaz learns that Bean, his beloved stepsister , is dying of a sickness. Ryter and Little Face accompany Spaz on a journey to find Bean. The trio starts by traveling through a large, broken water pipe that leads to other latches. Along the way, they pass through latches controlled by various other bosses, having adventures along the way. One of the latches, which is ruled by the "Monkey Boys," they find that the leader Mongo the Magnificent is dying and Ryter convinces the Tek boss to take his place. At the next latch the group sees the entire latch burning and finds Lanaya being attacked. She is rescued by Spaz and Ryter and she joins them on their journey. They start traveling towards the latch where Bean lives. Eventually the story's heroes find Bean, who is dying of leukemia. Lanaya decides to take Bean to Eden, along with Spaz, Ryter, and Little Face, and soon they arrive at Lanaya's contributors', or parents', house. At this point in the novel, it is shown that Lanaya is a special proov who has been bred to eventually lead Eden, and so she has rights and privileges that other proovs do not. They take Bean to a proov hospital and she is cured of her sickness using genetic surgery. Ryter and Spaz, and Little Face enjoy the paradise of Eden, being unfamiliar with grass, a blue sky, fish in a stream, and apples, among other things. Some time later Ryter, Spaz, and Bean are thrown out of Eden because the elders who rule over Eden decide they are unacceptable, even though Bean is extremely smart, having beaten one of Lanaya's contributors in chess. The elders of Eden refuse to accept that someone from the Urb could naturally be better than a proov in any way. Little Face is secretly adopted by Lanaya's contributors. Lanaya reveals to the elders that the mindprobes, which cause so much damage to the people who use them, come from Eden, and so all the mindprobes throughout the Urb are deactivated, causing rioting and anarchy outside Eden. Bean is deposited at her home, and Ryter and Spaz are returned to theirs. Back at Spaz's home latch Ryter is blamed for the deactivation of the mindprobes and is wheeled and killed, while Spaz has an epileptic seizure. Before his death, Ryter tells Spaz that he is the last book in the universe. Billy Bizmo, the leader of Spaz's latch, tells him that he is his father and that his mother died at his birth. The story ends with Lanaya sending Spaz a message about how it's getting better in Eden and how she believes they can fix it all in time. Spaz takes on the name Ryter, continuing his work, writing the last book in the universe using a device that writes while he talks. The book was denied use in a California school because the area had been having gang problems. |
Eight Skilled Gentlemen | Barry Hughart | 1,990 | In this novel, Li Kao and Number Ten Ox are attending the execution of a notorious criminal (about whose capture the less said the better, according to the chronicler) when into the public square bounds a "vampire ghoul" who soon meets a fiery demise. Master Li is given the case by the "Celestial Master" who soon becomes a main suspect. The plot involves everything from a conspiracy involving fake tea to dog-brides, puppeteers to magic birdcages, assorted pre-Chinese demons and gods, and the hooded and ancient Eight Skilled Gentlemen. The plot also involves a subject rarely mentioned in fiction, the pre-Chinese aborigines and their gods. |
The Songs of Distant Earth | Arthur C. Clarke | 1,986 | The novel is set in the early 3800s and takes place almost entirely on the faraway oceanic planet of Thalassa. Thalassa has a small human population sent there by way of an embryonic seed pod, one of many sent out from Earth in an attempt to continue the human race's existence before the Earth is destroyed. It starts with an introduction to the native Thalassans – the marine biologist Mirissa, her partner Brant and other friends and family. Their peaceful existence comes to an end with the appearance of the Magellan, a spaceship from Earth containing one million colonists who have been put into cryonic suspension. In a series of descriptive passages the events leading up to the race to save the human species are explained. Scientists in the 1960s discover that the neutrino emissions from the Sun – a result of the nuclear reactions that fuel the star – are far diminished from expected levels. Less than a decade later, it is confirmed that the problem is not with the scientific equipment: the Sun is calculated to go nova around the year AD 3600. The human race's technology advances enough for various factions to send out pods containing human and other mammalian embryos (and later on, simply stored DNA sequences), along with robot parents, to planets that are considered habitable. Sending live humans is ruled out due to the immense amount of fuel that a rocket-propelled spacecraft would have to carry in order to first accelerate to the speeds required to travel such great distances within an acceptable time, and then decelerate upon approaching the destination. However, less than a hundred years before the Sun is set to go nova a scientific break-through allows construction of the quantum drive, which bypasses this problem. There only remains enough time to build and send to the stars a single quantum-drive ship: the Magellan. Thalassa's only connection with Earth (and anywhere else) was a single communication dish, which was destroyed during a volcanic eruption 400 years ago and never repaired, thus leaving the Thalassans unaware of later developments on Earth. The Magellan stops at Thalassa to replenish the mammoth ice shield that had prevented micrometeors from damaging it during its interstellar journey. Thalassa is the obvious choice for this operation, as 95% of the planet's surface is covered by water. At the end of the novel the Magellan continues on to its destination, the planet Sagan 2. As a kind of sub-plot it is revealed that beneath Thalassa's oceans there live sentient beings similar to the sea scorpions of Earth, only much larger. They are discovered – and named "Scorps" – when it attracts attention that robots designed to seek out fish frequently go missing. The Scorps gain the robots' metal in order to make bands of honour and rank. The Scorps are proven farmers; they have created their own village out of underwater rock caves. Some of the crew aboard the Magellan begin to consider mutiny, wanting to stay in the secure environment of Thalassa rather than make the journey on to an unknown planet that may indeed be habitable, but just as well not. The situation is solved just before take-off – the mutineers are left with the Thalassans, while the bulk of the crew and passengers continue on to Sagan 2. The book finishes with Mirissa sending messages to her lover, Loren Lorenson aboard the Magellan, showing him their son. Loren is not going to see the child until long after its and Mirissa's death. Mirissa's last clear sight when she is old is of the fading star in the Thalassan sky that is the quantum drive of the Magellan. |
Slapstick | Kurt Vonnegut | 1,976 | The novel is in the form of an autobiography of Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. Dr. Swain tells us that he lives in the ruins of the Empire State Building with his pregnant granddaughter, Melody Oriole-2 von Peterswald, and her lover, Isadore Raspberry-19 Cohen. Dr. Swain is a hideous man whose ugliness, along with that of his twin sister Eliza, led their parents to cut them off from modern society. The siblings came to realize that, when in close physical contact, they form a vastly powerful and creative intelligence. Through reading and philosophizing together, Wilbur and Eliza combated the feelings of loneliness and isolation that would otherwise have ruined their childhood. Throughout the book, Wilbur claims that his sister Eliza is the more intelligent of the two, but that no one realizes it because she can't read or write. Wilbur and Eliza are like two halves of a brain, with Wilbur the left brain -- logical, rational, able to communicate -- and Eliza the right brain: creative, emotional, but unable to communicate effectively. The siblings created, among other things, a plan to end loneliness in America through vast extended families. Under the plan, all citizens would be provided with new middle names, made of the name of a random natural object paired with a random number between 1 and 20. Everyone with the same name would be cousins, and everyone with the same name and number would be siblings. Their parents and the staff of the mansion believe the children are retarded, and the children play this up when in the company of others, so as to not interfere with what they view as a perfect childhood. But after hearing their mother wish that they were normal, the children reveal their intelligence to their parents. Eliza is still deemed retarded, and is sent to a mental institution. Wilbur however is sent to a prep school and eventually goes to Harvard University and earns a doctorate. Armed with the plan created with Eliza and the slogan, "Lonesome No More!," Dr. Swain wins election to the Presidency, and devotes the waning energies of the Federal government to the implementation of the plan. In the meantime, Western civilization is nearing collapse as oil runs out, and the Chinese are making vast leaps forward by miniaturizing themselves and training groups of hundreds to think as one. Eventually, the miniaturization proceeds to the point that they become so small that they cause a plague among those who accidentally inhale them, ultimately destroying Western civilization beyond repair. However, even as life as we know it collapses, Swain's middle name policy continues to unite the survivors. The American population constantly risk their time and their lives to selflessly help their fellow cousins and siblings, ensuring that people may live their lives "lonesome no more." The novel has a typical Vonnegut pattern of short snippets often ending with a punchline of sorts. These are separated by the words "hi ho", which Dr. Swain describes as a sort of verbal hiccup that has developed in his old age. |
Captain Blood: His Odyssey | Rafael Sabatini | 1,922 | The protagonist is the sharp-witted Dr. Peter Blood, a fictional Irish physician who had had a wide-ranging career as a soldier and sailor (including a commission as a captain under the Dutch admiral De Ruyter) before settling down to practice medicine in the town of Bridgwater in Somerset. The book opens with him attending to his geraniums while the town prepares to fight for the Duke of Monmouth. He wants no part in the rebellion, but while attending to some of the rebels wounded at the Battle of Sedgemoor, Peter is arrested. During the Bloody Assizes, he is convicted by the infamous Judge Jeffreys of treason on the grounds that "if any person be in actual rebellion against the King, and another person—who really and actually was not in rebellion—does knowingly receive, harbour, comfort, or succour him, such a person is as much a traitor as he who indeed bore arms." The sentence for treason is death by hanging, but King James II, for purely financial reasons, has the sentence for Blood and other convicted rebels commuted to transportation to the Caribbean, where they are to be sold into slavery. Upon arrival on the island of Barbados, he is bought by Colonel Bishop, initially for work in the Colonel's sugar plantations but later hired out by Bishop when Blood's skills as a physician prove superior to those of the local doctors. When a Spanish force attacks and raids the town of Bridgetown, Blood escapes with a number of other convict-slaves (including former shipmaster Jeremy Pitt, the one-eyed giant Edward Wolverstone, former gentleman Nathaniel Hagthorpe, former Royal Navy petty officer Nicholas Dyke and former Royal Navy master gunner Ned Ogle), captures the Spaniards' ship and sails away to become one of the most successful pirates/buccaneers in the Caribbean, hated and feared by the Spanish. After the Glorious Revolution, Blood is pardoned, and as a reward for saving the colony of Jamaica from the French ends up as its governor. |
Earthborn | Orson Scott Card | null | Five centuries after the conclusion of Earthfall, there is only one original colonist from Harmony: Shedemei, who now wears the Cloak of the Starmaster (a device that links her to the Oversoul). After hundreds of years, the descendants of Nafai and Elemak have built cities and towns - yet never forgetting the enmity between the two brothers. After hundreds of years, the Oversoul still has not achieved its original purpose: to find the Keeper of Earth, the central intelligence that alone can repair the Oversoul's damaged counterpart at Harmony. But now, the Keeper has once again begun to spread its influence. Heeding the dreams below, Shedemei has decided to return to Earth. The last book in the Homecoming saga marks a departure from the style and storyline of the previous four. All of the characters from the previous novels (except Shedemei) are long dead. The central conflict between Nafai and Elemak is represented in their descendants, but takes a back seat in this book. The focus is on the struggles within the descendants of those who followed Nafai. The king of Darakemba (an empire founded by the Nafaris), his children, and his advisers, along with the high priest of Darakemba, his children, and his converts, provide the main actions in the story. |
Flicker | Theodore Roszak | 1,991 | Jonathan Gates is a student at UCLA in the early 1960s, where he begins his love affair with film at The Classic, a rundown independent movie theatre. He begins an affair with the theatre's owner Clarissa 'Clare' Swann, who tutors him extensively in the study of film history over the course of their relationship. It is through Clare's pursuit of classic films to show at the theatre that Gates stumbles upon the work of Max Castle, a B-Movie director of German origin whose work uses subliminal imagery and unorthodox symbolism to achieve a powerful effect over the viewer. Gradually, Gates rises through the academic ranks to achieve a professorial chair, becoming most respected as the rediscoverer and champion of Castle's work. Through Gates' extensive research, the reader learns of Castle's considerable influence over the great films of his time, culminating in a collaboration with Orson Welles to make the acclaimed movie Citizen Kane, followed by a failed attempt to adapt Conrad's Heart of Darkness to the silver screen. Also revealed, however, are his shadowy connections with a religious group known as the Orphans of the Storm, as well as his disappearance in 1941. Clare, meanwhile, has become a respected New York film critic, entrusting the Classic theatre to her one-time projectionist Don Sharkey, who stops showing artful films in favour of shallow entertainment for a new generation of moviegoers. Among the up-and-coming directors Sharkey showcases is one Simon Dunkle, whom Gates learns belongs to the same religious sect as Max Castle. Gates begins to investigate the Orphans, despite their own attempts to stifle his research and the adverse effect that the constant viewing of Orphan-made films is having on his personality. He learns that they are Gnostic dualists, living in secrecy since the Catholic persecutions of Catharism in the Middle Ages. Gates begins to suspect that the Orphans are using an extensive influence in the film industry to subliminally promote their religion while they enact their plans to bring about the Apocalypse in the year 2014. Eventually, Gates turns to his former lover Clare for help. She introduces him to a Father Angelotti, a Cathar in disguise as a Catholic priest. Angelotti persuades him to 'infiltrate' the Orphans' church, so as to obtain the conclusive evidence that will allow Gates to publish what he has discovered. The Orphans put him on a private plane, ostensibly to meet the elders of their faith. En route, they drug his coffee and he awakes, imprisoned on a tropical island in the Indian Ocean. Living in a nearby hut is none other than Max Castle himself, more than 30 years after his disappearance. Gates and the film director he once idolised use scraps and castoffs from a waste-heap of old celluloid to splice together one final film, while they wait for Armageddon to come. |
The Müller-Fokker Effect | John Sladek | 1,970 | The time is "somewhere in the near future" from the 1970s, and Bob Shairp is a government worker for a project in which a human being's individual qualities can be stored as computer data — on Müller-Fokker tapes. These reel-to-reel tapes, flesh pink in color, can store an entire person's identity in four tapes. The people recorded on the tapes can be reconstructed by encoding the tapes' data into a virus and infecting someone with that virus (see mind uploading). Of course, that person would have to be backed up too, and a game of musical chairs is set in motion. Bob Shairp is being recorded for test purposes on the tapes when there is an accident and the chair he is sitting in explodes, destroying his body. Only from the tapes can he be resurrected. This somewhat conventional science-fiction premise is something of a MacGuffin, as the novel's other major characters struggle to possess the Müller-Fokker tape in numerous subplots that satirize various prominent forces in 1970s America, including the military, evangelism, men's magazines, and radical anticommunist groups such as the John Birch Society. The novel also focuses heavily on parallels between the right-wing politics of Sladek's time and Nazism: one main character is closely based on Adolf Hitler, recast as a semi-literate American racist obsessed with African Americans. |
Earthfall | Orson Scott Card | null | The children of Wetchik are ready to board the starship Basilica and embark on their journey from the planet Harmony back to the origin of humanity: Earth. However, the rivalry between Nafai and Elemak promises the journey will be anything but peaceful. Each faction already has hidden plans to prematurely awaken from the long hibernation, to have the upper hand when the landing occurs. The children become pawns in their parents' power struggle - valuable potential adults that can strengthen each faction. But the Oversoul is ultimately in control, having uploaded a copy of itself into Basilica's central computer, so that it can monitor the ship at all times. After landing on Earth, the fragile peace wrought onboard is merely a mask for the turmoils of passions that boil beneath. Not only do the colonists have to deal with the split, there are also the mysteriously symbiotic alien races that have evolved on Earth since humanity's departure. The quest to understand the Angels (giant bats) and the Diggers (giant rats) that were foreshadowed in the dreams is not an easy one. The focus throughout the course of this novel begins to drift away from the original generation of characters in order to delineate the passage of time. The factions that developed among the original generation have now spread to their children, through no fault of the children themselves. Nafai finds himself and his "Nafari" living and working primarily amongst the angel people, whereas the "Elemaki" associate much more closely with the diggers. It is this dissociation that eventually breaks nearly all the bonds—literally, for Hushidh and Cheveya—between Nafai and his older brother, Elemak. As Elemak's rage and hatred for Nafai grow, he ingrains such feelings into his family and the digger people, laying the foundation for war. After the death of Volemak the Nafari migrate northwards away from the landing site to found a new nation. |
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian | Kurt Vonnegut | null | The premise of the collection is that Vonnegut employs Dr. Jack Kevorkian to give him near-death experiences, allowing Vonnegut access to heaven and those in it for a limited time. While in the afterlife Vonnegut interviews a range of people including Adolf Hitler, William Shakespeare, Isaac Asimov, and the ever-present Kilgore Trout (a fictional character created by Vonnegut in his earlier works). it:Dio la benedica dott. Kevorkian hu:Áldja meg az Isten, Dr. Kevorkian ru:Дай вам Бог здоровья, доктор Кеворкян |
The Wasps | Aristophanes | null | The play begins with a strange scene—a large net has been spread over a house, the entry is barricaded and two slaves are sleeping in the street outside. A third man is positioned at the top of an exterior wall with a view into the inner courtyard but he too is asleep. The two slaves wake and we learn from their banter that they are keeping guard over a 'monster'. The man asleep above them is their master and the monster is his father—he has an unusual disease. The two slaves challenge the audience to guess the nature of the disease. Addictions to gambling, drink and good times are suggested but they are all wrong—the father is addicted to the law court: he is a phileliastes () or a "trialophile." We are then told that his name is Philocleon (which suggests that he might be addicted to Cleon) and his son's name is the very opposite of this—Bdelycleon. The symptoms of the old man's addiction are described for us and they include irregular sleep, obsessional thinking, paranoia, poor hygiene and hoarding. We are told that counselling, medical treatment and travel have all failed to solve the problem and now his son has turned the house into a prison to keep the old man away from the law courts. Bdelycleon wakes and he shouts to the two slaves to be on their guard—his father is moving about. He tells them to watch the drains, for the old man can move like a mouse, but Philocleon surprises them all by emerging instead from the chimney disguised as smoke. Bdelycleon is luckily on hand to push him back inside. Other attempts at escape are also barely defeated. The household settles down for some more sleep and then the Chorus arrives—old jurors who move warily (the roads are muddy), they are escorted by boys with lamps (it is still dark). Learning of their old comrade's imprisonment, they leap to his defense and swarm around Bdelycleon and his slaves like wasps. At the end of this fray, Philocleon is still barely in his son's custody and both sides are willing to settle the issue peacefully through debate. The debate is between the father and the son and it focuses on the advantages that the old man personally derives from voluntary jury service. Philocleon says he enjoys the flattering attentions of rich and powerful men who appeal to him for a favourable verdict, he enjoys the freedom to interpret the law as he pleases since his decisions are not subject to review, and his juror's pay gives him independence and authority within his own household. Bdelycleon responds to these points with the argument that jurors are in fact subject to the demands of petty officials and they get paid less than they deserve—revenues from the empire go mostly into the private treasuries of men like Cleon. These arguments have a paralysing effect on Philocleon. The Chorus is won over. Philocleon however is still not able to give up his old ways just yet so Bdelycleon offers to turn the house into a courtroom and to pay him a juror's fee to judge domestic disputes. Philocleon agrees and a case is soon brought before him—a dispute between the household dogs. One dog (who looks like Cleon) accuses the other dog (who looks like Laches) of stealing a Sicilian cheese and not sharing it. Witnesses for the defense include a bowl, a pestle, a cheese-grater, a brazier and a pot. As these are unable to speak, Bdelycleon says a few words for them on behalf of the accused and then some puppies (the children of the accused) are ushered in to soften the heart of the old juror with their plaintive cries. Philocleon is not softened but his son easily fools him into putting his vote into the urn for acquittal. The old juror is deeply shocked by the outcome of the trial—he is used to convictions—but his son promises him a good time and they exit the stage to prepare for some entertainment. While the actors are offstage, the Chorus addresses the audience in a conventional parabasis. It praises the author for standing up to monsters like Cleon and it chastises the audience for its failure to appreciate the merits of the author's previous play (The Clouds). It praises the older generation, evokes memories of the victory at Marathon and it bitterly deplores the gobbling up of imperial revenues by unworthy men. Father and son then return to the stage, now arguing with each other over the old man's choice of attire. He is addicted to his old juryman's cloak and his old shoes and he is suspicious of the fancy woollen garment and the fashionable Spartan footwear that Bdelycleon wants him to wear that evening to a sophisticated dinner party. The fancy clothes are forced upon him and then he is instructed in the kind of manners and conversation that the other guests will expect of him. Philocleon declares his reluctance to drink any wine—it causes trouble, he says—but Bdelycleon assures him that sophisticated men of the world can easily talk their way out of trouble and so they depart optimistically for the evening's entertainment. There is then a second parabasis (see Note at end of this section), in which the Chorus touches briefly on a conflict between Cleon and the author, after which a household slave arrives with news for the audience about the old man's appalling behaviour at the dinner party: Philocleon has got himself abusively drunk, he has insulted all his son's fashionable friends and now he is assaulting anyone he meets on the way home. The slave departs as Philocleon arrives, now with aggrieved victims on his heels and a pretty flute girl on his arm. Bdelycleon appears moments later and angrily remonstrates with his father for kidnapping the flute girl from the party. Philocleon pretends that she is in fact a torch. His son isn't fooled and he tries to take the girl back to the party by force but his father knocks him down. Other people with grievances against Philocleon continue to arrive, demanding compensation and threatening legal action. He makes an ironic attempt to talk his way out of trouble like a sophisticated man of the world but it inflames the situation further and finally his alarmed son drags him indoors. The Chorus sings briefly about how difficult it is for men to change their habits and it commends the son for filial devotion, after which the entire cast returns to the stage for some spirited dancing by Philocleon in a contest with the sons of Carcinus. Note: Some editors (such as Barrett) exchange the second parabasis (lines 1265–91) with the song (lines 1450–73) in which Bdelycleon is commended for filial devotion. |
Elidor | Alan Garner | 1,965 | Elidor originated as a short radio play. The story concerns the adventures of young teenagers as they struggle to hold back a terrible darkness by fulfilling a prophecy from another world. The plot moves to and from the world of Elidor, and the city of Manchester and parts of northern Cheshire in the real world. Like many of Garner's books, the emphasis of the narrative is on the hardships, cost and practicalities of the choices and responsibilities that the protagonists face. |
Freak the Mighty | Rodman Philbrick | 1,993 | In the beginning of the book, Maxwell Kane is a young boy with low self-esteem. He lives with his grandfather, Grim, and grandmother, Gram. Max thinks of himself as a butthead. People are afraid of him because he looks like his father, Kenny "Killer" Kane, a convicted murderer. Max sets the stage for the story by reminiscing about his time in daycare, when he had met a boy named Kevin. Kevin has morquio syndrome and wears leg braces and uses crutches and thinks of himself as a robot. However, Max likes Kevin and thinks the crutches and leg braces are neat. Many years later, when Max is in middle school, he finds out that Freak and his mother, Gwen (referred to as "The Fair Gwen", "The Fair Guinevere" or "The Fair Gwen Of Air" after King Arthur's wife) are moving into the house next door. When Max initially approaches Freak, Freak acts with hostility. However, some time later, Max saves Kevin's toy ornithopter from a tree and they start to become friends. On the Fourth of July, they go to see the fireworks show and are attacked by an older boy, Tony D. "Blade" and his gang but avoid any mental or physical conflict. After the show, Blade chases the two with his gang after Freak calls him a cretin. Despite Max's lack of knowledge and disability, he escapes by acting on Freak's orders, but the two are driven into a muddy pond. Freak gets the attention of a nearby police car, who drives off Blade's gang and takes the boys home. After this incident, Kevin starts riding on Max's shoulders. They begin to call themselves "Freak the Mighty." They go on adventures such as going to the hospital which Freak claims has a secret department called the "Bionics Department" which has had his brain cat scanned to be fitted into a bionic body. On one adventure they find a woman's purse in the sewer. They return it to the woman who is named Loretta Lee. She is the wife of Iggy Lee, boss of the Panheads, a motorcycle gang who "struck fear in everyone, even the cops," as Max puts it. Iggy says that the two of them once knew Max's father. They consider "having some fun" with the boys but don't because they are afraid that Max's father will get parole even though he's serving a life sentence. They also reveal that Kevin's father left once he heard that his son had a birth defect. Freak has an emergency at school and is taken to the hospital. Later, Grim reveals to Max that his father has been let out on parole. Throughout the story, it has been slowly revealed that Max's father killed his mother by strangling her, and that Grim and Gram hate his father and are afraid of Max ending up like him. Grim threatens to buy a gun for the family's protection. Max is shocked and scared by the news of his father's parole. After Christmas Eve, Max is woken up by his father, Killer Kane, who has come to take him. After Max is kidnapped by his father, the two walk to Iggy Lee's apartment in the "New tenements". Killer Kane is even bigger than Max and acts in a very threatening, intimidating manner towards everyone, including his son, who he keeps tied up. Killer Kane swears that he did not murder Max's mother. He also reveals that he plans to head to "warmer weather" and be a con man. On Christmas morning he leaves Max alone, tied up in a room in an old abandoned apartment that had almost been completely burnt down. Loretta, shocked that Kane would do something like that to his own child, tries to help him escape. Killer Kane catches her and starts to strangle her. Max attempts to stop him and reveals that he witnessed his father kill his mother in the same fashion. Kane gives up on training Max to be his obedient assistant and tries to kill him by strangling him, but Freak arrives just in time and saves Max by squirting Kane with a squirt gun in the eye which he claims is filled with sulfuric acid when in fact, it is filled with soap, vinegar, and curry powder. The police are waiting outside, and Killer Kane is taken back to prison and has to serve his original time plus ten years. Max has to take his father to testify against him in the court. Max really doesn't want to testify so he doesn't have to. Things end far from happily, however. After having a seizure on his birthday, Freak is admitted into the hospital, where he gives Max a blank book, telling him to write the story of Freak the Mighty in it. Max returns to the hospital the next day to find that Freak died because his heart got too big for his body. A nurse reveals that Freak knew he was going to have a very short life, but he believed he was going to get a bionic body because it gave him hope. The fair Gwen moves away, with a new man she is in love with, and Max misses Freak's funeral, staying in his room, "The Down Under" for months. Not even Grim or Gram can get him out, until Grim orders Max to return to school. One day, Max sees Lorettea, who tells him "Doing nothing's a drag, kid", so Max writes all of the adventures he and Freak had, in honor of his best friend. |
Darkness at Noon | Arthur Koestler | 1,940 | Darkness at Noon is divided into four parts: The First Hearing, the Second Hearing, the Third Hearing, and the Grammatical Fiction. The novel begins with Rubashov's arrest in the middle of the night by two men from the secret police (in the USSR, it was called the NKVD). When they came for Rubashov, they woke him from a dream in which he was being arrested by the Gestapo. One of the men is about Rubashov's age, the other is somewhat younger. The older man is formal and courteous, the younger is brutal. The difference between them introduces the first major theme of Darkness At Noon: the passing of the older, civilized generation, and the barbarism of their successors. Imprisoned, Rubashov is at first relieved to be finished with the anxiety of dread during mass arrests. He is expecting to be kept in solitary confinement until he is shot. He begins to communicate with No. 402, the man in the adjacent cell, by using a tap code. Rubashov quickly realizes that they don't have much to discuss. Unlike Rubashov, No. 402 is not an intellectual; he just wants to hear the details of Rubashov's latest sexual encounter. Rubashov humors him for a time, but is too embarrassed to continue. He thinks of the Old Bolsheviks, No. 1, and the Marxist interpretation of history. Throughout the novel Rubashov, Ivanov, and Gletkin speculate about historical processes and how individuals and groups are affected by them. Each hopes that, no matter how vile his actions may seem to their contemporaries, history will eventually absolve them. This is the faith that makes the abuses of the regime tolerable as the men consider the suffering of a few thousand, or a few million people against the happiness of future generations. They believe that gaining the socialist utopia, which they believe is possible, will cause the imposed suffering to be forgiven. Rubashov meditates on his life: since joining the Party as a teenager, Rubashov has officered soldiers in the field, won a commendation for "fearlessness", repeatedly volunteered for hazardous assignments, endured torture, betrayed other communists who deviated from the Party line, and proven that he is loyal to its policies and goals. Recently he has had doubts. Despite 20 years of power, in which the government caused the deliberate deaths and executions of millions, the Party does not seem to be any closer to achieving the goal of a socialist utopia. That vision seems to be receding. Rubashov is at a quandary, between a lifetime of devotion to the Party, and his conscience and the increasing evidence of his own experience on the other. From this point, the narrative switches back and forth between his current life as a political prisoner and his past life as one of the Party Elite. He recalls his first visit to Berlin about 1933, after Hitler gained power. Rubashov was to purge and reorganize the German Communists. He met with Richard, a young communist cell leader who had distributed material contrary to the Party line. In a museum, underneath a picture of the Pieta, Rubashov explains to Richard that he has violated Party discipline, become "objectively harmful", and must be expelled from the Party. A Gestapo man hovers in the background with his girlfriend on his arm. Too late, Richard realizes that Rubashov has betrayed him to the secret police. He begs Rubashov not to "throw him to the wolves," but Rubashov leaves him quickly. Getting into a taxicab, he realizes that the taxicab driver is also a communist. The raxicab driver offers to give him free fare, but Rubashov pays the fare. As he travels by train, he dreams that Richard and the taxicab driver are trying to run him over with a train. This scene introduces the second and third major themes of Darkness At Noon. The second, suggested repeatedly by the Pieta and other Christian imagery, is the contrast between the brutality and modernity of Communism on the one hand, and the gentleness, simplicity, and tradition of Christianity. Although Koestler is not suggesting a return to Christian faith, he implies that Communism is the worse of the two alternatives. The third theme is the contrast between the trust of the rank and file communists, and the ruthlessness of the Party elite. The rank and file trust and admire men like Rubashov, but the elite betrays and uses them with little thought. As Rubashov confronts the immorality of his actions as a party chief, his abscessed tooth begins to bother him, sometimes reducing him to immobility. Rubashov recalls being arrested soon after by the Gestapo and imprisoned for two years. Although repeatedly tortured, he never breaks down. After the Nazis finally release him, he returns to his country to receive a hero's welcome. No. 1's increasing power makes him uncomfortable but he does not act in opposition; he requests a foreign assignment. No. 1 is suspicious but grants the request. Rubashov is sent to Belgium to enforce Party discipline among the dock workers. After the Italian invasion of Ethiopia during 1935, the League of Nations and the Party condemned Italy and imposed an international embargo on strategic resources, especially oil, which the Italians needed. The Belgian dock workers are determined not to allow any shipments for Italy to pass through their port. As his government intends to supply the Italians with oil and other resources secretly, Rubashov must convince the dock workers that, despite the official policy, as Communists they must unload the materials and send them to the Italians. Their cell leader, a German communist immigrant nicknamed Little Loewy, tells Rubashov his life's story. He is a communist who has sacrificed much for the Party, but is still completely dedicated. When all the workers have gathered, Rubashov explains the situation. They react with disgust and refuse his instructions. Several days later, Party publications denounce the entire cell by name, virtually guaranteeing arrest by the Belgian authorities, who were trying to suppress Communism. Little Loewy hangs himself. Rubashov then begins a new assignment. In the novel, after about a week in prison, he is brought in for the first examination or hearing, which is conducted by Ivanov, an old friend. Also a veteran of the Civil War, he is an Old Bolshevik who shares Rubashov's opinion of the Revolution. Rubashov had then convinced Ivanov not to commit suicide after his leg was amputated due to war wounds. Ivanov says that if he can persuade Rubashov to confess to the charges, he will have repaid his debt. With confession, Rubashov can lessen his sentence, to 5 or 10 years in a labor camp, instead of execution. He simply has to cooperate. The charges are hardly discussed, as both men understand they are not relevant. Rubashov says that he is "tired" and doesn't "want to play this kind of game anymore." Ivanov sends him sent back to his cell, asking him to think about it. Ivanov implies that Rubashov can perhaps live to see the socialist utopia they've both worked so hard to create. The next section of the book begins with an entry in Rubashov's diary; he struggles to find his place and that of the other Old Bolsheviks, within the Marxist interpretation of history. Ivanov and a junior examiner, Gletkin, discuss Rubashov's fate in the prison canteen. Gletkin urges using harsh, physical methods to demoralize the prisoner and force his confession, while Ivanov insists that Rubashov will confess after realizing it is the only "logical" thing to do, given his situation. Gletkin recalls that, during the collectivization of the peasants, they could not be persuaded to surrender their individual crops until they were tortured (and killed). Since that helped enable the ultimate goal of a socialist utopia, it was both the logical and the virtuous thing to do. Ivanov is disgusted but cannot refute Gletkin's reasoning. Ivanov believes in taking harsh actions to achieve the goal, but he is troubled by the suffering he causes. Gletkin says the older man must not believe in the coming utopia. He characterizes Ivanov as a cynic and claims to be an idealist. Their conversation continues the theme of the new generation taking power over the old: Ivanov is portrayed as intellectual, ironical, and at bottom humane, while Gletkin is unsophisticated, straightforward, and unconcerned with others' suffering. Ivanov has not been convinced by the younger man's arguments. Rubashov continues in solitary. Taking over the interrogation of Rubashov, Gletkin uses physical abuses, such as sleep deprivation and forcing Rubashov to sit under a glaring lamp for hours on end, to wear him down. Rubashov finally capitulates. As he confesses to the false charges, Rubashov thinks of the many times he betrayed agents in the past: Richard, the young German; Little Loewy in Belgium, and Arlova, his secretary-mistress. He recognises that he is being treated with the same ruthlessness. His commitment to following his logic to its final conclusion—- and his own lingering dedication to the Party—- cause him to confess fully and publicly. The final section of the novel begins with a four-line quotation ("Show us not the aim without the way ...") by the German socialist Ferdinand Lasalle. The novel ends with Rubashov's execution. |
The Mystery of Edwin Drood | Charles Dickens | 1,870 | The novel begins as John Jasper leaves a London opium den. The next evening, Edwin Drood visits Jasper, who is the choirmaster at Cloisterham Cathedral. Edwin confides that he has misgivings about his betrothal to Rosa Bud. The next day, Edwin visits Rosa at the Nuns' House, the boarding school where she lives. They quarrel good-naturedly, which they apparently do frequently during his visits. Meanwhile, having an interest in the cathedral crypt, Jasper seeks the company of Durdles, a man who knows more about the crypt than anyone else. Neville Landless and his twin sister Helena are sent to Cloisterham for their education. Neville will study with the minor canon, Rev. Mr Crisparkle; Helena will live at the Nuns' House with Rosa. Neville confides to Rev. Mr Crisparkle that he had hated his cruel stepfather, while Rosa confides to Helena that she loathes and fears her music-master, Jasper. Neville is immediately smitten with Rosa and is indignant that Edwin prizes his betrothal lightly. Edwin provokes him and he reacts violently, giving Jasper the opportunity to spread rumours about Neville's reputation of having a violent temper. Rev. Mr Crisparkle tries to reconcile Edwin and Neville, who agrees to apologize to Edwin if the former will forgive him. It is arranged that they will dine together for this purpose on Christmas Eve at Jasper's home. Rosa's guardian, Mr. Grewgious, tells her that she has a substantial inheritance from her father. When she asks whether there would be any forfeiture if she did not marry Edwin, he replies that there would be none on either side. Back at his office in London, Mr. Grewgious gives Edwin a ring which Rosa's father had given to her mother, with the proviso that Edwin must either give the ring to Rosa as a sign of his irrevocable commitment to her or return it to Mr. Grewgious. Mr. Bazzard, Mr. Grewgious's clerk, witnesses this transaction. Next day, Rosa and Edwin amicably agree to end their betrothal. They decide to ask Mr. Grewgious to break the news to Jasper and Edwin intends to return the ring to Mr. Grewgious. Meanwhile, Durdles takes Jasper into the cathedral crypt. On the way there Durdles points out a mound of quicklime. Jasper provides a bottle of wine to Durdles. The wine is mysteriously potent and Durdles soon loses consciousness; while unconscious he dreams that Jasper goes off by himself in the crypt. As they return from the crypt, they encounter a boy called Deputy and Jasper, thinking he was spying on them, takes him by the throat but seeing that this will strangle him, lets him go. On Christmas Eve, Neville buys himself a heavy walking stick; he plans to spend his Christmas break hiking around the countryside. Meanwhile, Edwin visits a jeweller in order to repair his pocket watch; it is mentioned that the only pieces of jewellery that he wears are the watch and chain and a shirt pin. By chance he meets a woman, who is an opium user from London. She asks Drood's Christian name and he replies that it is 'Edwin'; she says he is fortunate it is not 'Ned,' for 'Ned' is in great danger. He thinks nothing of this, for the only person who calls him 'Ned' is Jasper. Meanwhile, Jasper buys himself a black scarf of strong silk, which is not seen again during the course of the novel. The reconciliation dinner is successful and at midnight, Drood and Neville Landless leave together to go down to the river and look at a wind storm that rages that night. The next morning Edwin is missing and Jasper spreads suspicion that Neville has killed him. Neville leaves early in the morning for his hike; the townspeople overtake him and bring him back to the city. Rev. Mr Crisparkle keeps Neville out of jail by taking responsibility for him: he will produce him anytime his presence is required. That night Jasper is grief-stricken when Mr. Grewgious informs him that Edwin and Rosa had ended their betrothal; he reacts more strongly to this news than to the prospect that Edwin was dead. The next morning Rev. Mr Crisparkle goes to the river weir and finds Edwin's watch and chain and his shirt pin. A half year later, Neville is living in London near Mr. Grewgious's office. Mr. Tartar introduces himself and offers to share his garden with Landless; Mr. Tartar's chambers are adjacent to Neville's above a common courtyard. A stranger who calls himself Dick Datchery, arrives in Cloisterham. He rents a room below Jasper and observes the comings and goings in the area. On his way to the lodging the first time, Mr. Datchery asks directions from Deputy. Deputy will not go near there for fear that Jasper will choke him again. Jasper visits Rosa at the Nuns' House and professes his love for her. She rejects him but he persists; he says that if she gives him no hope, he will destroy Neville, the brother of her dear friend Helena. In fear of Jasper, Rosa goes to Mr. Grewgious in London. The next day Rev. Mr Crisparkle follows Rosa to London. When he is with Mr. Grewgious and Rosa, Mr. Tartar calls and asks if he remembers him. Rev. Crisparkle does remember him, as the one who years before saved him from drowning. They do not dare let Rosa contact Neville and Helena directly, for fear that Jasper may be watching Neville but Mr. Tartar allows Rosa to visit his chambers to contact Helena above the courtyard. Mr. Grewgious arranges for Rosa to rent a place from Mrs. Billickin and arranges for Miss Twinkleton to live with her there so that she can live there respectably. Jasper visits the London opium den again for the first time since Edwin's disappearance. When he leaves at dawn, the woman who runs the opium den follows him. She vows to herself that she will not lose his trail again as she did after his last visit. This time she follows him all the way to his home in Cloisterham; outside she meets Mr. Datchery, who tells her Jasper's name and that he will sing the next morning in the cathedral service. On inquiry Datchery learns she is called "Princess Puffer." The next morning she attends the service and shakes her fists at Jasper from behind a pillar. Dickens's death leaves the rest of the story unknown; he provided a summary of the story as planned in a letter to his friend and biographer John Forster: His first fancy for the tale was expressed in a letter in the middle of July. "What should you think of the idea of a story beginning in this way?—Two people, boy and girl, or very young, going apart from one another, pledged to be married after many years—at the end of the book. The interest to arise out of the tracing of their separate ways, and the impossibility of telling what will be done with that impending fate." This was laid aside; but it left a marked trace on the story as afterwards designed, in the position of Edwin Drood and his betrothed. I first heard of the later design in a letter dated "Friday the 6th of August 1869", in which after speaking, with the usual unstinted praise he bestowed always on what moved him in others, of a little tale he had received for his journal, he spoke of the change that had occurred to him for the new tale by himself. "I laid aside the fancy I told you of, and have a very curious and new idea for my new story. Not a communicable idea (or the interest of the book would be gone), but a very strong one, though difficult to work." The story, I learnt immediately afterward, was to be that of the murder of a nephew by his uncle; the originality of which was to consist in the review of the murderer's career by himself at the close, when its temptations were to be dwelt upon as if, not he the culprit, but some other man, were the tempted. The last chapters were to be written in the condemned cell, to which his wickedness, all elaborately elicited from him as if told of another, had brought him. Discovery by the murderer of the utter needlessness of the murder for its object, was to follow hard upon commission of the deed; but all discovery of the murderer was to be baffled till towards the close, when, by means of a gold ring which had resisted the corrosive effects of the lime into which he had thrown the body, not only the person murdered was to be identified but the locality of the crime and the man who committed it. So much was told to me before any of the book was written; and it will be recollected that the ring, taken by Drood to be given to his betrothed only if their engagement went on, was brought away with him from their last interview. Rosa was to marry Tartar, and Crisparkle the sister of Landless, who was himself, I think, to have perished in assisting Tartar finally to unmask and seize the murderer. |
A Time to Kill | David Alan Mack | 1,989 | In the fictional Clanton, Mississippi, 10-year-old Tonya Hailey is viciously raped and beaten by two white racists—James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Shortly thereafter, Tonya is found and rushed to a hospital, while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging in a roadside bar about what they did to Tonya. Tonya's distraught and enraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, recalls a similar case from the year before, in which four white men raped a black girl in a nearby town and were acquitted. Carl Lee is determined not to allow that to happen in this case. Consequently, while Deputy DeWayne Powell Looney is escorting Pete and Billy Ray up a flight of stairs inside the courthouse, Carl Lee emerges from a nearby closet with an assault rifle and kills Pete and Billy Ray and accidentally wounds Looney, resulting in the amputation of his lower leg. (During his testimony in the trial Looney forgives Hailey, saying he has a daughter himself, and that if someone raped her, he would gladly do the same as Carl Lee.) Carl Lee is later arrested at his home by the highly respected, honorable and beloved black county sheriff Ozzie Walls (who must uphold the law but, as the father of two daughters of his own, privately supports what Carl Lee did and gives him special treatment while in jail) and charged with capital murder. Despite the efforts of the NAACP and his old military friend Cat to persuade Carl Lee to retain their high-powered attorneys, Carl Lee elects to be represented by his friend, Jake Brigance. Helping Jake on the case are his two most loyal friends--his heavy-drinking former boss Lucien Wilbanks (who has since been disbarred for his involvement in a fight resulting from a union strike, but still consults and aides Jake from the background), and sleazy divorce lawyer Harry Rex Vonner. Later, the crew is joined and greatly assisted by rabid ACLU feminist and law student Ellen Roark, who has prior experience with death penalty cases and offers Jake her services for free as a temporary clerk for the duration of the case. Ellen appears to be interested in Jake romantically, but Jake resists her not-so-subtle overtures and is completely loyal to his wife. The prosecuting attorney is Rufus Buckley, a corrupt shark with no concern or respect for ethics and with sky high political ambitions, hoping to win the case so as to gain the publicity that a win would generate, in hopes of being elected to a higher public office (governor). To annoy Buckley and call attention to this fact, Jake often addresses the D.A. as "governor" in pre-trial conferences. Presiding over the trial is white (but generally impartial) judge Omar "Ichabod" Noose. It is claimed, however, that Noose has been intimidated, both politically and criminally, a rumor given significant merit when, despite having no history of racist tendencies in his decisions, he refuses Jake's perfectly reasonable request for a change of venue, further handicapping the defense, as the racial make-up of Ford County virtually guarantees an all-white jury. At the same time, Billy Ray Cobb's brother, Freddy Lee Cobb, is seeking revenge for Carl Lee's killing of his brother. To this end, Freddy enlists the help of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan, which is led by Mississippi grand dragon Stump Sisson. Subsequently, a KKK member attempts to plant a bomb under Jake's porch but is thwarted by the sheriff and a deputy after they receive a tip-off from a confidential informant (apparently inside the Klan) going by the code name "Mickey Mouse." The informant is later exposed and murdered by the Klan, and it is revealed that he was a former client of Jake's and a frequent patron of the coffee shop where Jake has long dined every morning and has become something of a folk-hero there. After the thwarted bombing, Jake sends his wife and daughter out of town to his wife's parents' home until the trial is over and begins spending most nights either in his office or at Lucien's house. Later, Jake's secretary Ethel Twitty and her frail husband Bud are attacked by the KKK, killing Bud. On the day the trial begins, there is a riot outside the court building between the KKK and the area's black residents, and Stump is killed by a molotov cocktail. Believing that the black people were at fault, Freddy and the KKK increase their attacks. As a result, the National Guard is called to Clanton to keep the peace during the trial. Undeterred, Freddy continues his efforts to get revenge for Billy Ray's death. They shoot at Jake one morning as he is being escorted into the courthouse, missing Jake but seriously wounding one of the guardsmen assigned to protect Jake. They continue to burn crosses throughout Clanton, and Jake's house is burnt down while Jake is sleeping at Lucien's. The case proceeds, and after reeling from the loss of his house and the revealing of a decades-old (and long-expunged) criminal conviction of the defense's psychiatrist whom Jake had called to testify to Carl Lee's "temporary insanity" at the time of the killings, Jake perseveres. He badly discredits the state's expert doctor in a powerful and snarky cross-examination in which he establishes that the doctor has never conceded to the insanity of any defendant in any criminal case in which he has been asked to testify, even when multiple other doctors have been in consensus otherwise. He traps the doctor with a revelation that several previous defendants found insane in their trials are currently under his care despite his having testified to their "sanity" in their respective trials. Eventually the doctor loses any favor with the jury when Jake frustrates him to such an extent that he blurts out "You just can't trust juries!" Jake follows this up with his own captivating closing statement (ignoring Lucien's advice to use a statement he had prepared for Jake). After lengthy deliberations during which a massive pro-acquittal demonstration is held, the jury acquits Carl Lee by reason of temporary insanity. Carl Lee returns to his family, and the story ends with Jake, Lucien, and Harry Rex having a celebratory drink before Jake is to hold a press conference and then leave town for a while to reunite with his wife and daughter. One major difference between the novel and the film adaptation is the origin of the assault rifle. In the book, Carl Lee and his brother get the rifle from a Memphis mogul whom Carl Lee rescued in the Vietnam War; in the movie, there is no explanation as to where Carl Lee got the rifle. Another major difference between the book and the movie is the powerful closing argument. In the film, the visual and graphic story is told by Jake Brigance, along with imploring the jury to imagine that the victim was white. However, in the book, Jake and Harry Rex discover through a post trial interview that a woman on the jury made that speech during jury deliberations. There is, in fact, a bit of a recurring theme throughout the book in that Jake is about the only character who does not appear in any way to see the case through a racial lens. He repeatedly refuses to play the "race card" even when baited to do so by several reporters, is clearly much more politically conservative than an attorney arguing such a case at the time might have been expected to be, and is shown to be in sharp contrast with Lucien on such matters, as well as with Ellen, to whom he expresses his strong support for the death penalty (just not for Carl Lee) and his contempt for the ACLU and, to a lesser extent, the NAACP. In short, he seems to see the situation (and thus approaches the case) only from the perspective of the father of a daughter for whom he, too, would kill to protect. However, as a defense attorney, strictly speaking, this perspective is all he is required to defend. |
A Handful of Dust | Evelyn Waugh | 1,934 | In A Handful of Dust Waugh satirises the British landed gentry and mercantile class. The novel is set in the 1930s, and focuses on the breakdown of the marriage of Tony and Brenda Last. The aristocratic Tony is preoccupied with the maintenance of his family home, Hetton Abbey, an example of unfashionable Victorian Gothic architecture. John Beaver, a self-interested and impoverished social climber, invites himself to Hetton for the weekend, and soon after begins an affair with Brenda, who yearns for urban excitement. After the Lasts' son, also called John, dies in a riding accident, Brenda decides that she wants a divorce. In order to avoid any scandal for his wife, Tony agrees to go through the sham of creating appropriate grounds for divorce. Their agreement on the divorce falls apart when Brenda's brother reveals that Brenda's family (at Beaver's urging) will insist on a monetary settlement so large as to require Tony to sell Hetton; Tony refuses to grant or file for a divorce. Instead, he participates in an expedition to Brazil. Stranded in the jungle, Tony falls ill, and his expedition companion, Dr. Messinger, dies while attempting to retrieve help. Tony wanders, delirious, until he stumbles into an isolated tribal village. Once there, he is nursed back to health, and then held captive by a Mr. Todd, who insists that Tony remain forever, reading the works of Charles Dickens to him. Meanwhile, Brenda's relationship with John Beaver has fallen apart, after it became apparent that she would not become a rich divorcée. Shortly after Tony is declared dead, Brenda marries the couple's mutual friend, Jock Grant-Menzies. The novel ends with obscure relatives of Tony taking over Hetton. Waugh used as the final chapter for the novel a slightly adapted version of a pre-existing short story, "The Man Who Liked Dickens". When the novel was serialized in the American magazine Harper's Bazaar, Waugh had to supply a new ending because the short story, which had been published in the US earlier, could not for copyright reasons appear in the magazine. In the alternative ending, included as an appendix in some editions of the book, Tony returns from Brazil and to his relationship with Brenda. Waugh wrote of the novel's development: "I had just written a short story ["The Man Who Liked Dickens"] about a man trapped in the jungle, ending his days reading Dickens aloud. The idea came quite naturally from the experience of visiting a lonely settler of that kind and reflecting how easily he could hold me prisoner [...] eventually the thing grew into a study of other sorts of savages at home and the civilized man's helpless plight among them." (Gallagher, 303). |
Never Cry Wolf | Farley Mowat | 1,963 | In 1948-1949, the Canadian Wildlife Service assigns the author to investigate the cause of declining caribou populations and determine whether wolves are to blame for the shortage. Upon finding his quarry near Nueltin Lake, Mowat discovers that rather than being wanton killers of caribou, the wolves subsist quite heavily on small mammals such as rodents and hares, "even choosing them over caribou when available." He concludes that "We have doomed the wolf not for what it is, but for what we deliberately and mistakenly perceive it to be — the mythological epitome of a savage, ruthless killer — which is, in reality, no more than the reflected image of ourself." Mowat comes to fear an onslaught of wolfers and government exterminators out to erase the wolves from the Arctic. Mowat's book established that: * Arctic Wolves usually prey upon Arctic Ox, Caribous, smaller mammals, and rodents but since they rely on stamina instead of speed, it would be logical for the wolves to choose a smaller prey than a large animal like caribou, which is much faster and stronger, and therefore a more formidable target. * A lone arctic wolf has a better chance of killing large prey by running alongside it and attacking its neck. The wolf would be at a disadvantage if it attacked large prey from behind, because the animal's powerful hind legs could kick the wolf, possibly causing injury. However, a group of wolves may be successful in attacking large prey from a number of positions. * Since arctic wolves often travel in a group, the wolves' best strategy is not to kill any surplus, since the whole group could sate themselves on just one or two large animals. There are, however, exceptions to this. |
The Mauritius Command | Patrick O'Brian | null | When the novel begins, Aubrey is at home in his cramped Ashgrove Cottage with his wife, his twin baby girls and his shrewish mother-in-law, Mrs Williams, ashore and without a ship on half pay from the Navy. His spirits are lifted when his long time friend and colleague Stephen Maturin comes to call. Aubrey is ordered to take command, as the Commodore of a small squadron of ships in Cape Town and sails south from Portsmouth with some of the ships, to the Cape of Good Hope, with instructions to disrupt French interests in the region. Particularly he is charged with taking the islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. He is given command of the 38-gun frigate HMS Boadicea. The wife of one of his captains, Lady Clonfert, seeks passage with Aubrey to enable her to join her husband but Aubrey is not keen on this and contrives to leave early one morning without her. The long journey takes the squadron to the Cape of Good Hope. On the way Aubrey attempts to bring the crew up to his standards of efficiency, but he is only partly successful. They meet with the French ship Hébé which is escorting a captured merchant ship. After a brief chase the French are overcome and the ships captured. Hébé turns out to be HMS Hyaena captured some time before by the French. He sends the prizes to Gibraltar under the command of the Boadiceas aged First Lieutenant Akers. Aubrey uses this device to be rid of the officer and send home letters, one of which attempts to excuse his leaving early without Lady Clonfert. On arrival, Aubrey meets Admiral Bertie and also has to contend with the disparate characters of his captains. One of these is Lord Clonfert, a minor member of the Irish aristocracy who has political influence, and who served with Jack Aubrey whilst out in the West Indies. They were involved in an action together and he had some reservations at the time about Clonfert's courage. Another is Captain Corbett who is a harsh disciplinarian and drives his men almost to the point of mutiny. Barett Bonden, usually Aubrey's coxswain, and Preserved Killick request permission to join Aubrey once more, particularly as Bonden was given fifty lashes for an unpolished firing piece on his gun. During his campaign Aubrey temporarily switches his pennant to the elderly 64-gun ship of the line HMS Raisonnable, but returns to the more seaworthy HMS Boadicea with the onset of the tropical cyclone season. La Réunion is captured almost bloodlessly after a landing by British East India Company troops under the cooperative Colonel Keating, their path already softened up by Maturin's propaganda and political machinations. Mauritius proves a tougher nut to crack. As HMS Néréide is detached to chase the Iphigenia to Port South East on Mauritius, Maturin suffers a serious fall and spends much time in the company of Lord Clonfert and Mr. McAdam, Clonfert's learned but drunken surgeon. The first demonstrates himself to be a largely ineffective person, craving the fawning attentions of his officers and crew, whilst McAdam, a less convivial conversationalist, is made fun of by the young officers particularly when "in his cups." However, events worsen on their arrival. Keen to capitalise on the capture of the Île de la Passe fort, the small group of ships, under the command of the unadventurous but solid Captain Pym, land men and troops to consolidate the land campaign. While they are so disposed, the French appear with four ships Bellone, Minerve, Victor and Ceylon. They boldly sail past the fort into the port; the British are caught unprepared but decide to sail in to attack. They struggle to navigate the unfamiliar channel into the harbour and, with two British ships running aground, the French are able to bring all their guns to bear on the ships that eventually reach the harbour. The end result is the Néréide is taken (Clonfert is severely wounded in the neck and head by a wooden splinter), Sirius and Magiciénne are burnt to prevent their capture, and Iphigenia and the fort Île de la Passe are abandoned to be retaken by the French. Only a messenger vessel, with Maturin aboard, gets back to La Réunion to inform the commodore of the "ill tidings". Aubrey immediately rushes to see if Iphigenia and Île de la Passe can be saved but the British are chased off after finding both are clearly in French hands. After eventually making contact with the Emma transport and the Windham, which itself appears to be unseaworthy, Aubrey believes his fortunes have changed when HMS Africaine - now commanded by Captain Corbett - re-joins them. Sailing in chase of the French during the night, Africaine clashes with the Astrée and the renamed Iphigenia (once again the French Iphigenie). But the encounter goes badly and Corbett is killed during the fight, probably, as the ship's surgeon informs Maturin later, by his own oppressed men. The French capture the ship, but leave it dismasted when the Boadicea and Aubrey bear down on them and, much to Aubrey's joy, refuse an engagement. Joined by the Otter and Staunch, the flotilla eventually reaches harbour and Africaine's refit is the Commodore's top priority. Before repairs are complete the Pearl races towards harbour, meeting HMS Boadicea with the news that Bombay is nearby, being pounded by both the French Vénus and Victor. Outrunning the Staunch and Otter, Jack engages the pair who have captured Bombay and makes use of extra volunteer crew from the refitting HMS Africaine to board both Bombay, recapturing her, and the Venus. During the encounter the French Commodore, Hamelin, is killed by grapeshot in his heart. Now with news that Bellone and Minerve are almost certainly "heaved down", and Iphigenia and Néréide are likely to be of little use even if refitted, Aubrey believes the tide has turned in his favour. En-route from St. Denis to take Mauritius from the French, the squadron encounters a large British force under the command of Admiral Bertie, who proceeds to steal Aubrey and Keating's thunder by taking command of the whole invasion force and claiming the honours. However, news of the birth of his son causes Aubrey to remain ebullient even when everyone expects his mood to be downcast. The final invasion, based almost entirely on Aubrey and Keating's original plan, is almost without bloodshed. The French capitulate after being given honourable terms, and Maturin finds that Clonfert has committed suicide by removing the bandages from his wounds while captured, unable to face up to the jubilation of his rival, Jack Aubrey, in victory. A ceremonial dinner is given back in Cape Town and Admiral Bertie, under the impression that Aubrey has influential political connections, gives Aubrey the honour of taking the dispatches aboard the Boadicea and sailing for England in compensation for "stealing" his victory. |
The Confessions of St. Augustine | Augustine of Hippo | 398 | The work outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. It is widely seen as the first Western autobiography ever written, and was an influential model for Christian writers throughout the following 1000 years of the Middle Ages. It is not a complete autobiography, as it was written in his early 40s, and he lived long afterwards, producing another important work (City of God); it does, nonetheless, provide an unbroken record of his development of thought and is the most complete record of any single person from the 4th and 5th centuries. It is a significant theological work. In the work St. Augustine writes about how much he regrets having led a sinful and immoral life. He discusses his regrets for following the Manichaean religion and believing in astrology. He writes about Nebridius's role in helping to persuade him that astrology was not only incorrect but evil, and St. Ambrose's role in his conversion to Christianity. The first nine books are autobiographical and the last four are commentary. He shows intense sorrow for his sexual sins, and writes on the importance of sexual morality. The books were written as prayers to God, thus the title, based on the Psalms of David; and it begins with "For Thou has made us for thyself and our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee" . The work is thought to be divisible into books which symbolize various aspects of the Trinity and trinitarian belief. |
A Hat Full of Sky | Terry Pratchett | null | A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett is a fantasy novel about a girl who is learning her place as a witch. Early in the novel, Tiffany Aching leaves her home in the chalk country (based on England’s chalk country) to act as an apprentice and maid for the elderly witch Miss Level. Her former teacher, Miss Tick, who is also a witch, escorts her to the town of Twoshirts. While waiting for Miss Level to arrive, they are attacked by a hiver. The hiver cannot be killed or seen and it takes over your mind. The encounter is only for a few seconds, and then the hiver leaves but it gives Tiffany and Miss Tick a fright. Miss Level comes along on a broomstick and takes Tiffany to her cottage in the mountains. After settling in Tiffany discovers that Miss Level has two bodies and she has a spirit who cleans her house named Oswald. After settling into the cottage, Tiffany goes to a group of apprentice witches her age with Petulia. The leader of the group is called Annagramma and many characters find her condescending and rude. Tiffany leaves the group upset after telling them about her imaginary hat. While in her room at the cottage, the hiver finds her and takes over her body and mind. At first Tiffany doesn’t realize what has happened, but when she does, it is too late for her to take action. The hiver (as Tiffany) causes chaos, steals Mr Weavall’s money and causes Annagramma to fear her. Upon arrival at the cottage, the hiver kills one of Miss Levels bodies. Rob Anybody who is one of the Nac Mac Feegle (which are fairies that are very loyal to Tiffany after she previously helped them) goes into Tiffany's mind along with some of his friends to try to fight the hiver out of her mind. They decide that smells from her past will bring forth the actual Tiffany and she will be able to break free. With the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, Tiffany fights the hiver out of her mind, but she is still left with the memories of previous victims of the hiver. Mr. Weavall discovers that Tiffany stole his money, but the Feegles put gold in place of the copper he had saved up. Tiffany decides that the hiver must be dealt with so she proceeds to pursue it in the mountains. Mistress Weatherwax accompanies her although Tiffany is begrudging. They camp in the mountains and Mistress Weatherwax borrows an owls mind to observe the hiver as it lurks close by. Mistress Weatherwax tells Tiffany to call her Granny Weatherwax. In the morning Tiffany and Mistress Weatherwax head off to the witch trials, an annual event where witches show what they have learned. Upon arrival, Tiffany senses the hiver moving in on her and turns to Granny Weatherwax only to find that she isn’t there. Panicking, she runs until she finds Granny Weatherwax who tells her it is time to face the hiver alone. Tiffany welcomes the hiver to her mind, and discovers that the hiver doesn’t understand humans, it just wants to seek shelter from the world because it senses everything. Tiffany names the hiver Arthur and teaches it how to die which is its ultimate goal. She shows it the way across the desert to death. As she turns to exit the world of death, she finds that the door she entered has disappeared. Turning back around, Death confronts her but she is rescued by Granny Weatherwax. Granny Weatherwax gives Tiffany her hat but she returns it because she wants to make her own. The novel ends on Tiffany returning to the chalk to take the place of her dead grandmother as the witch of the land. She decides to make her hat out of the sky. |
The Surgeon's Mate | Patrick O'Brian | 1,980 | The Surgeon's Mate starts in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, having escaped from the Americans in Boston aboard , start their return journey to England aboard a packet ship. Two American privateer schooners — commissioned by Harry Johnson, an American spymaster — doggedly pursue the packet ship across the Grand Banks until one of them fortuitously hits an iceberg. On their return to England, Stephen receives an invitation to speak at the Institut in Paris on the extinct avifauna of Rodriguez Island and he and Diana visit the city. Stephen arranges for Diana, who is pregnant with Johnson's child, to stay with a friend Adhemar de La Mothe for her lying-in. The British Admiralty is keen to capture the fortress at fictitious Grimsholm Island (distinct from the Grimsholmen nature reserve) owing to its highly strategic location in the Baltic. Maturin, accompanied by Jack Aubrey and Jagiello, a remarkably talented and handsome young Lithuanian, embarks on a mission to persuade the Catalan garrison of the fortress to defect. Aboard , Aubrey manages to capture the Minnie, a swift Danish privateer cum merchantman, after a day-long chase. Once Stephen Maturin and British hands are aboard, they pretend to give chase to her in order to deceive the Spanish garrison. Maturin is eventually landed and, in the absence of any French officers, warmly welcomed by his Catalan godfather, Ramon d'Ullastret. The next morning, the Catalan troops and their colonel are loaded aboard the transport ships and the successful expedition receives a warm welcome back at base from Admiral Sir James Saumarez. Caught up in a storm in the English Channel, the Ariel spots pursuing a French two-decker, the Meduse. Aubrey decides to help the chase and blasts the Meduse with his carronades without suffering much damage, slowing her pace enough for the Jason to gain. After losing sight of them, the Ariel is caught up in two nights of dark, stormy weather and finds herself fifty miles off course with the wind dead on shore. Aubrey attempts to club-haul her but the Ariel ends up beached on the shore. After a brief period of imprisonment in Brittany, Jack, Stephen and Jagiello are taken to Paris, accompanied by a Monsieur Duhamel. Imprisoned in the Temple prison, Aubrey attempts to break out down the immense stone privy as Stephen is interrogated by French officers, who represent a different intelligence agency than Duhamel's. In the meantime, Duhamel has approached Stephen with an offer to take peace offerings to the King and British government (presumably a plan hatched up by Talleyrand and some senior officials). Duhamel also gives Stephen some English newspapers to read and Jack's spirits are buoyed to learn from the Naval Chronicle that defeated the Meduse in the action which beached his ship, the Ariel. Stephen's second interrogation is interrupted by the American, Johnson, who is able to identify Maturin as an intelligence agent and the killer of French spies, Dubreuil and Pontet-Canet. This action places Maturin in great danger. It also turns out that Diana Villiers has given her great diamond, the Blue Peter, to a Minister's wife to help secure their release. Just as Jack breaks through the privy, four Frenchmen enter their prison cell — D'Anglars, Duhamel, a foreign ministry official and a cloaked officer. After agreeing terms, the prisoners are taken down to two carriages and spirited out of Paris (accompanied by Diana who has lost her baby) to a waiting cartel at Calais, the Oedipus commanded by William Babbington. Safely away, Stephen proposes to Diana Villiers once again and they are finally married on board by Babbington, with Jack giving her away. The book title is a triple entendre in its use of the term "mate", referring to a ship's surgeon's assistant, a chess reference to Maturin's successful espionage efforts (i.e., checkmate), and Maturin getting married at the end of the story. |
According to Mary Magdalene | Marianne Fredriksson | 1,997 | The story offers a feminist perspective on the person of Christ and on the beginnings of the Christian Church. Since it presents Jesus as merely a human being and deviates from the orthodox biblical portrayal of the Son of Man, the novel was severely criticised by mainstream Christians. sv:Enligt Maria Magdalena |
Insomnia | Stephen King | null | Ralph Roberts, a retired widower, begins to suffer from insomnia. As his condition worsens, Ralph begins to see things that are invisible and intangible to others: colorful manifestations of life-force surrounding people (auras), and diminutive white-coated beings he calls "little bald doctors", based on their appearance. Roberts perceives other planes of reality and their influence upon the "real" world. He finds that his sweetheart, Lois Chasse, is also a sufferer. They eventually discover that their insomnia has been induced by the two little bald doctors to help them defeat agents of the Crimson King. Ralph and Lois name the two "good" doctors Clotho and Lachesis, while the third "bad" doctor is called Atropos; they are all named after the Moirai of mythology. Ralph overcomes Atropos and forces him to promise to stay out of their business, the doctors all being bound by their word. However, Atropos has his revenge by showing Ralph a glimpse of the not-too-distant future in which he claims the life of the innocent Natalie Deepneau. Ralph is able to counterbalance this however, by striking a deal with Clotho and Lachesis whereby he trades his own life for Natalie's. Meanwhile, Ed Deepneau, Natalie's father and Ralph's neighbor, falls under the control of the Crimson King. Deepneau attempts to crash a light plane containing explosives into the Derry Civic Center during a heavily-attended rally. Ralph and Lois realize that the Crimson King is using Deepneau to kill a small boy named Patrick Danville, the focus of a prophecy concerning the salvation of The Dark Tower. Danville cannot, for undisclosed reasons, be killed directly by anyone born under either the Random or the Purpose. However, from time to time a being is born who is "undesignated". An undesignated person is described as being like a blank card, and is up for grabs by either side. Deepneau is one such person, in fact the only person on earth at that time of undesignated status. Ralph defeats the King and forces the light plane to crash into the parking lot; killing Deepneau and sparing Danville's life, allowing him to fulfill his destiny and setting the path for the Dark Tower series. The story ends on a tragic note as Ralph, to uphold his bargain with Clotho and Lachesis, is hit and killed by a car to prevent Natalie Deepneau from being killed in his place. The story closes on the remark that Ralph is finally able to rest. |
Gabriela, Cravo e Canela | Jorge Amado | null | The book tells two separate but related tales: first, the romance between Nacib Saad, a respectable bar owner of Syrian origin, and Gabriela, an innocent and captivating migrant worker from the impoverished interior. And second, the political struggle between the old guard of Cacao growers, led by the Bastos clan, and the forces of modernization, in the person of Mundinho Falcão, a wealthy young man from Rio de Janeiro. It can be read simultaneously as an unusual, charming love story, a description of the political and social forces at work in 1920s Brazil, a somewhat satirical depiction of Latin American aspirations to "modernity", and a celebration of the local culture and pleasures of Bahia. The book was made into series for Brazilian television in 1960, in 1976 and again in 2012. A feature film of the novel was directed by Bruno Barreto in 1983. The feature version starred Sonia Braga as Gabriela and Marcello Mastroianni as Nacib, and featured original music by Antonio Carlos Jobim. |
The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell | Jorge Amado | 1,959 | The book is about what happens after Quincas Wateryell, a popular bum who lives in the slums of Bahia is found dead one morning. Two groups of people compete over Quincas's memory: his family, led by his daughter Vanda. To them, Quincas is Joaquim Soares da Cunha, an "exemplary employee of the State Rent Board," who disgraced his family by walking out on them one day, calling Vanda and her mother, Dona Otacilia "vipers" and Vanda's husband Leonardo a "silly ass." Despite all their efforts to hide what really happened, Joaquim Soares da Cunha became Quincas, "vagabond king of the honky-tonks" and "patriarch of the prostitutes." Leonardo attempts to hide it from his coworkers, and Vanda tries to keep it from her friends, but they cannot ignore the reputation that Quincas has earned in the local press. Now, Vanda, Leonardo, and Quincas's sister Aunt Marocas and brother Eduardo, must tend to the body and give it a proper burial, without attracting too much attention to Quincas and his past. They settle on a simple suit and shoes, but no underwear, because no one will ever see that, and order a casket and candles fit for a church. That night they gather round the casket to keep watch over Quincas, each trying to ignore his learing smile, which reminds them of how much he despised them. Gradually, they go home, leaving Quincas to be watched by his friends from the slum. The cold reception that the news of Quincas's death is received by his family is juxtaposed by the way his friends from the slum receive the same news. His closest friends are Curió, a store barker in Shoemaker's Hollow, who paints his face like a clown to attract people, Bangs, a towering Black who makes his living as a card sharp, Private Martim, a soldier who had been discharged from the army who lived off the generosity of the women he was frequently engaged to, and Breezy, who supported himself catching frogs and selling them to medical researchers for experiments. The four men lead the neighborhood in mourning for Quincas, wailing "Daddy's gone!" That evening, they come to pay their last respects and end up taking care of the body after the family leaves. They recall the impact that Quincas had on their lives, and remember how he got his curious nickname: once, after taking a swig from a bottle of what he thought was alcohol, he spit it out and roared: "Waaaaaaater!" They all sob for Quincas, and Private Martim worries about how he will now take care of Quitéria, a prostitute who was Quincas's girlfriend. Left alone at night with the body, the four of them get Quincas to participate in one last party, telling him jokes serving him liquor, and making a gift of a beautiful frog that Breezy had just caught. They then decide to take Quincas on one last trip to the docks to share Cap'n Manuel's delicious fish stew that was Quincas's favorite. On their way to the dock, they pick up a group of prostitutes, including Quitéria, so she can have one last fling with the dead man. Quincas always loved the sea, and after the friends feed him the stew, they take him on board Cap'n Manuel's boat for a fishing excursion. Suddenly a storm tosses the boat, and they rush for shore, but Quincas's body is tossed overboard. It is a fitting end for Quincas, who loved the sea and once made a "solemn oath" that it "would be the only witness to his final hour." |
Tieta do Agreste | null | null | Antonieta returns from São Paulo to her native village of Agreste in Bahia. |
Tocaia Grande | Jorge Amado | 1,984 | The novel deals with the foundation of a community, Tocaia Grande ("big ambush" in Portuguese), in a fertile agricultural zone The ambush referred to in the title is carried out by Natario de Fonseca, a jagunço in the service of a plantation owner, colonel Boaventura. Twenty gunfighters in the service of the latter's only political rival are killed, effectively destroying the opponent. As a reward, Natario is given a small holding. With his help the community grows into a town. Other important characters are a Lebanese immigrant, Fadul, owner of the general store - renowned for his stubbornness and physical strength; Castor de Abduim, a handsome blacksmith, whose companion Diva dies in a cholera outbreak; Bernarda, a young prostitute who becomes Natario's lover; and a group of farmers from Sergipe, whose arrival initiates a colourful blending of Bahian traditions with those of the original inhabitants. |
Carpe Jugulum | Terry Pratchett | null | Count Magpyr and family are invited to the naming of Magrat and King Verence's daughter, to be conducted by the Omnian priest, Mightily Oats. During the ceremony, Verence informs Nanny Ogg and Agnes Nitt that the Count has informed him that the Magpyr family intend to move into Lancre Castle and take over. Due to a type of hypnotism, everyone seems to consider this plan to be perfectly acceptable. Only the youngest witch, Agnes, and the Omnian priest, Mightily Oats, seem able to resist this charm, due to their dual personalities. The Magpyr son, Vlad, is attracted to Agnes because she is able to resist him. Meanwhile, Granny Weatherwax has left her cottage empty and seems to be working towards a life in a cave, almost like a hermit. After they have left the hypnotic influence of the Vampires, Agnes, Nanny Ogg and Magrat attempt to convince her to help them save Lancre, but apparently without success. The Magpyr family have made themselves much more formidable enemies by building up tolerance to the normal methods used to defeat vampires, such as garlic, bright light, and religious symbols. This has been done with a series of self help procedures, including exposing the younger vampires to low levels of vampire repellents. There is an Igor who is the servant of the Magpyrs. He is a traditionalist who spends his spare time breeding and distributing spiders for the dark corners of the castle. The Magpyrs are very rude to him, and make fun of his attempts to keep their residence looking like a 'proper' vampire's castle. Igors' impression of the current Count Magpyr is that he is too modern, whereas Igor prefers "tradithionalitht" methods of Vampirism (all Igors have a lisp on the Discworld—although some only have them when they remember). Finally, Nanny, Magrat and Agnes confront the Magpyrs, but look to be defeated when Granny Weatherwax comes in (stumbling and tired in a very un-Granny like fashion). She also appears to fail against the Magpyrs and she is bitten in the neck and seems destined to become a Vampire. She resists, though not without extreme physical strain. Nanny, Magrat and Magrat's infant daughter Esmerelda Margaret Note Spelling of Lancre escape with the help of the rebelling Igor, who appears to have a crush towards Nanny), but are forced to detour to Überwald and end up in the Magpyrs' castle. Agnes is kidnapped by the Magpyrs and their clan, who give chase by flying. While Magrat and her daughter hide in Igor's dungeon quarters Nanny and Igor begin fighting against the Magpyrs, using the considerable stock of Holy water and other religious symbols that were originally collected by old Count Magpyr (who is described as having been "a sportsman"). Surprisingly (for the Magpyr family, at least) the old-fashioned ways to defeat vampires that they thought themselves protected against start to work again. They don't understand what the problem is, although they start to have bizarre cravings for "hot, sweet tea and biscuits", a combination that has them feeling quite upset (it not being their usual craving for blood.) All is revealed when Granny (who has helped Mightily Oats to Überwald by a process of being carried by him) tells them that - far from turning her into a Vampire, they have, instead, been 'Weatherwaxed', caused by the sharing of their blood with her. The Magpyrs find themselves unable to harm Magrat's daughter or do anything else that Granny herself is unable to do (e.g. fly). They are even more horrified when they find out that Igor has re-awakened the old Count Magpyr (having gone into his crypt and spilled a drop of blood on the old Count's cremation ashes) and that the people of Überwald would prefer the old Count to their new, modern type of vampirism. The Magpyrs are attacked (and presumably killed—though probably not permanently) by the citizens of Überwald and the witches return to Lancre. |
Dead Souls | Nikolai Gogol | 1,842 | The story follows the exploits of Chichikov, a gentleman of middling social class and position. Chichikov arrives in a small town and quickly tries to make a good name for himself by impressing the many petty officials of the town. Despite his limited funds, he spends extravagantly on the premise that a great show of wealth and power at the start will gain him the connections he needs to live easily in the future. He also hopes to befriend the town so that he can more easily carry out his bizarre and mysterious plan to acquire "dead souls." The government would tax the landowners on a regular basis, with the assessment based on how many serfs (or "souls") the landowner had on their records at the time of the collection. These records were determined by census, but censuses in this period were infrequent, far more so than the tax collection, so landowners would often find themselves in the position of paying taxes on serfs that were no longer living, yet were registered on the census to them, thus they were paying on "dead souls." It is these dead souls, manifested as property, that Chichikov seeks to purchase from people in the villages he visits; he merely tells the prospective sellers that he has a use for them, and that the sellers would be better off anyway, since selling them would relieve the present owners of a needless tax burden. Although the townspeople Chichikov comes across are gross caricatures, they are not flat stereotypes by any means. Instead, each is neurotically individual, combining the official failings that Gogol typically satirizes (greed, corruption, paranoia) with a curious set of personal quirks. Chichikov's macabre mission to acquire "dead souls" is actually just another complicated scheme to inflate his social standing (essentially a 19th century Russian version of the ever-popular "get rich quick" scheme). He hopes to collect the legal ownership rights to dead serfs as a way of inflating his apparent wealth and power. Once he acquires enough dead souls, he will retire to a large farm and take out an enormous loan against them, finally acquiring the great wealth he desires. Setting off for the surrounding estates, Chichikov at first assumes that the ignorant provincials will be more than eager to give their dead souls up in exchange for a token payment. The task of collecting the rights to dead people proves difficult, however, due to the persistent greed, suspicion, and general distrust of the landowners. He still manages to acquire some 400 souls, and returns to the town to have the transactions recorded legally. Back in the town, Chichikov continues to be treated like a prince amongst the petty officials, and a celebration is thrown in honour of his purchases. Very suddenly, however, rumours flare up that the serfs he bought are all dead, and that he was planning to elope with the Governor's daughter. In the confusion that ensues, the backwardness of the irrational, gossip-hungry townspeople is most delicately conveyed. Absurd suggestions come to light, such as the possibility that Chichikov is Napoleon in disguise or the notorious and retired 'Captain Kopeikin,' who had lost an arm and a leg during a war. The now disgraced traveller is immediately ostracized from the company he had been enjoying and has no choice but to flee the town in disgrace. In the novel's second section, Chichikov flees to another part of Russia and attempts to continue his venture. He tries to help the idle landowner Tentetnikov gain favor with General Betrishchev so that Tentetnikov may marry the general's daughter, Ulinka. To do this, Chichikov agrees to visit many of Betrishchev's relatives, beginning with Colonel Koshkaryov. From there Chichikov begins again to go from estate to estate, encountering eccentric and absurd characters all along the way. Eventually he purchases an estate from the destitute Khlobuyev but is arrested when he attempts to forge the will of Khlobuyev's rich aunt. He is pardoned thanks to the intervention of the kindly Mourazov but is forced to flee the village. The novel ends mid-sentence with the prince who arranged Chichikov's arrest giving a grand speech that rails against corruption in the Russian government. |
The Voyage of the Space Beagle | A. E. van Vogt | 1,950 | The main protagonist of the novel is Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, the only Nexialist on board (a new discipline depicted as taking an actively generalist approach towards science). It is Grosvenor's training and application of Nexialism rather than the more narrow-minded approaches of the individual scientific and military minds of his other shipmates that consistently prove more effective against the hostile encounters both from outside and within the Space Beagle. He is eventually forced to take control of the ship using a combination of hypnotism, psychology, brainwashing, and persuasion, in order to develop an effective strategy for defeating the alien entity, Anabis, and saving the ship and our galaxy. The book can be roughly divided into four sections corresponding to the four short stories on which it was based: In the first section, the Space Beagle lands on a largely deserted desolate planet. Small scattered herds of deer-like creatures are seen, and the ancient ruins of cities litter the landscape. Coeurl, a starving, intelligent and vicious cat-like carnivore with tentacles on its shoulders, approaches the ship, pretending to be a unintelligent animal, and quickly infiltrates it. The creature kills several crewmen before being tricked into leaving the now spaceborne ship in a lifeboat. It then commits suicide when it realizes it has been defeated. In the second part, the ship is almost destroyed by internal warfare caused by telepathic contact with a race of bird-like aliens, called Riim. The benign signals that the Riim send are incompatible with the human mind. Only Grosvenor's knowledge of telepathic phenomena saves the ship from destruction. In the third section, the ship comes across Ixtl, a scarlet being floating in deep space. It is a vicious survivor of a race that ruled a previous universe before the Big Bang, the creation of our own universe. Ixtl boards the ship, and being obsessed with its own reproduction, kidnaps several crew members in order to implant parasitic eggs in their stomachs. It is eventually tricked to leave the ship, after all the crew has left the ship temporarily, leaving no prey left for its offspring to feed on. In the last section, Anabis, a galaxy-spanning consciousness, is encountered. Once again, it is both malevolent, starving and aggressive, and under all circumstances must be prevented from following the ship back to any other galaxy. Anabis, which is essentially a galaxy-size Will-o'-the-wisp, feeds off the death of living organisms, and has destroyed all intelligent life in its galaxy. It transforms all planets it can find into jungle planets through terraforming, since it is these kind of worlds that produce most life. The crew of the Space Beagle is brainwashed by Grosvenor into spending several years luring the intelligence to chase the ship into deep space, causing it to starve to death. Running concurrently to this, the book also covers a power struggle on the ship among the leaders of individual scientific and military groups. |
Fallen Angels | Larry Niven | 1,991 | Astronauts from the orbital society flew a modified scramjet, redesigned to harvest nitrogen from the Earth's atmosphere. Government policy declares that these ships are responsible for the ice age, so the scramjet is shot down with a surface-to-air missile. The pilot and copilot, an Earth-born American named Alex MacLeod and a space-born Russo-American named Gordon Tanner, are forced to crash land in Canada atop the glaciers. Upon hearing of this, the fan underground embarks on a rescue mission - a group of fans rides north through the Dakotas to rescue them before they can be apprehended by the Government. Upon reaching the Dakotas, the fans must travel largely on foot, as their van is unable to traverse the glaciers. However, they have a major advantage over their foes in the government - their relationship with the space station provides them with superior navigational abilities; following the fall of scientific society, the United States Air Force (USAF) no longer enjoys access to satellite reconnaissance. The fans are able to reach the downed spacecraft well in advance of the USAF. Their escape is aided in a similar manner. Though the Angels are unable to walk due to their overexposure to weightlessness and must be dragged along on sleds, the microwave power transmission beam reserved for Winnipeg is diverted to warm the travellers as they return south to their van. In addition, a tribe of nomadic Inuit peoples shares supplies with them in thanks for the warmth provided by the microwave beam. Upon finally reaching their van, the rescuers flee to a small science fiction convention of some 50 fans at a mansion owned by one of their own. Once there, one of the fans takes on the role of personal trainer to teach the Angels methods to adjust to Earth's gravity including various asanas from yoga. At the con, the fans brainstorm a daring plan - before the Greens had come to power, one of the Board of Trustees for the Metropolitan Museum of Boston by the name of Ron Cole supposedly refurbished a Titan II rocket. This rocket still exists at the Museum of Science and Industry at Chicago. The fans and the Angels leave for Chicago just moments before the mansion is raided by the Green police. The trip to Chicago gives the reader a brutal depiction of American life without basic technology. A blizzard forces the fans to take shelter in a farm town - where at least one towns-person dies in each blizzard for lack of heating oil. After hitching a ride in a consignment of cheese,the fans are captured by the feudal inhabitants of Milwaukee who are burning the excess houses in the city for heat. One of their captors has the food swapped with moonshine liquor and forces the group into slavery to pay off a series of trumped-up "fines". They are assisted by a fellow fan amongst their captors, and are able to continue on to Chicago. When the fans finally meet Ron Cole, their hopes are crushed. The rocket is a decaying wreck, and Cole is a shadow of his former self due to invasive 'reeducation' treatments. However, Cole is able to put them on another path - a privately constructed single-stage-to-orbit spacecraft at Edwards Air Force Base, disguised by the simple and effective method of its designer, Gary Hudson, declaring it non-functional. |
Sevastopol: On Photographs of War | null | null | Sevastopol is a response to photographs of war, from the earliest days of photography to the television broadcasts of our times. We see, in passing, the Crimean War of 1854, the American Civil War, World War I, World War II, Vietnam and tragedies of unnamed wars today. Some of the photographers are famous — Mathew Brady, Ansel Adams; many are not; most are anonymous. One photographer, Kevin Carter, who snapped a picture of a starving child with a vulture waiting in the background — committed suicide. For each photograph, the poet, William Allen, allows himself a 100-word response. We look at the photograph on the left page, form our own impressions and then compare them with what the poet felt and expressed on the right page. In this way, one by one, we are led on a tour through sombre moments of history, yet at the same time come in touch with our private psychological and political mappings of life at risk. The power of word and image together makes Sevastopol an unusual and moving poetic experience, linking us with those who did not escape the horrors and misery of man's most grisly occupation. |
The Hunts | Amelia Biagioni | null | A bilingual edition of Las Cacerías, an enraptured poetic cycle that takes the reader through the delirious swirl of the eternal hunt on Earth and in heaven, in the past, present and future. Sections of the cycle relate to the ancient sport of man pursuing beast, beast pursuing beast, man pursuing man, and the poet's quest to capture life and identity within words. The final section presents the author as a woman pursued as a heretic, for having "spied on God." |
Addictive Aversions | null | null | The book is a follow-up to Anonymous Constellation, about the destructive forces of nature. Addictive Aversions focuses instead on the life-force of sex -- just as blind, asocial and irresistible as nature. |
Angels of Youth | Luigi Fontanella | null | It is divided into four sections, Ceres, Stanzas for Emma, Ars Poetica, and Ballads. It includes "Stanzas for Emma" dedicated to the poet's daughter, and "Sequence for my Father" which reflects on his dead parent. |
The Wolf at the Door: A Poetic Cycle | Bogomil Gjuzel | null | A search for roots, humanity and survival in the gloom of recent Balkan history. Poems are in verse, but also arranged as prose poems. The first section, "A Search for Roots," deals with the politics and cultural landscape of the country, with beautiful portrayals of nature and religious monuments. The second section, "Staring at Infinity," refers to classical archetypes, the battle of Troy and the story of Jesus. The last section, "Naked Life," speaks of the family in the midst of violence, devastation and confusion. Illuminating notes clarify the complex politics of the region and its tortured history. "Bogomil Gjuzel [pronounced Dzyuzel] is the republic's greatest living poet. The publication of these fine translations illustrates how the sense of living in tragic times permeates Gjuzel's work. What makes these poems especially moving is their sense of impending doom, the increasing despair and hopelessness in the face of ever-new injustices and sufferings for which there's no easy answer... Only in lyric poetry, as fine as Gjuzel's, can a reliable historical record be found of what it is like to live with great evil." ~ From the Introduction by Charles Simic |
The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow: Poems, Plays & Stories | null | null | "The world Berlin author Lutz Rathenow depicts is the colorless, flat, thuddingly dull DDR — the German Democratic Republic, as it called itself, or Communist East Germany, as we knew it: a sub-Soviet, sub-standard, bureaucratic parody of a society (1949-1990). And he depicts it very well, only not from the outside, with detailed descriptions, historical costumes and polemical plots, but rather from the inside, dropping in on the mind of one or another of its characters. Here is the little man starved of human contact and longing for romance ('The Girl in Finland'), the timid bureaucrat standing in front of an office door and wondering how to knock ('Mr. Breugel), the writer facing the blank page and fearing both to write and not to write ('The Blank Page'). Here, in other words, is Angst, paralysis, a funnel of doubt and indecision. Out of it comes murderous resentment ('Professor Dr. Mitzenleim'), mocking defiance ('Reasons for Refusing to Make a Statement'), ironic futility ('Meditations on Peace'). People who are emotionally starved, anxious and futile develop a perverse sense of humor ('The Phone Call'); they find grim little pleasures in their living death ('Obituary'). "Rathenow's works crystallize not only a past, but also a present and recurring assault on the mind. The government, the political party, the church, the organization, the television program, the newspaper, the company, the office, the boss all want you to think the same way, their way, whatever the country and whatever the time. And if you do, this is what results: reduced capacity, distorted thought, fragmented language, inverted feelings, a sense of unreality, a drabness unto death. The Fantastic Ordinary World of Lutz Rathenow draws this lesson and thus the pleasure out of the painful republic. ~ From the Introduction by Karl Kvitko |
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