ABCTE English: Fiction

Vladimir Nabokov "A Bad Day" (1931) "The Duel" (1932) "Signs and Symbols" (1948) (wrote Lolita but not one of the recommended literatures thank god)

"A Bad Day": Peter is taken to name-day celebrations at a neighboring estate, although he would prefer to be at home, playing alone. He tries to be cooperative with the adults he encounters, but in general he feels cut off from his surroundings. Obliged to join other children, he is both ignored and rebuffed by them and whilst playing hide and seek, they abandon the game without telling him. He eventually rejoins them, only to be rebuffed again. themes: --- "The Duel": (Same as "A Bad Day" Peter) At school, another child (Dmitri Korff) shows Peter a magazine with a comic illustration announcing a duel between Peter's father and another member of the parliament whereat he works, asking "is it true?" As Peter did not know about the duel, he becomes upset, dreading his father's potential death. It's unknown to Peter in what medium the duel will progress, but his father's daily fencing lessons in the library suggest (to the reader) that it will be by sword (a clever red herring planted by Nabokov). The boy's dread is captured symbolically by his mis-remembering a poem in front of his class; he recalls the dramatic 'ache' instead of the innocuous 'orache', a weed. After much dread over his father's duel, the same student reveals to Peter that the events of the duel are recounted in that day's paper. Peter rushes to the school's porter, Andrey, to look into his paper, where it's written that the duel was bloodless, the opponent firing first, and missing, to which Peter's father fired into the air. In the end, Peter weeps with relief. themes: --- "Signs and Symbols": A short story about an aged Russian couple going to pay their insane son a visit on his birthday. themes: misfortune, madness, sanity, ambiguity

Flannery O'Connor "A Good Man is Hard to Find" (1953) "Good Country People" (1955) "Everything that Rises Must Converge" (1965) "Parker's Back" (1965)

"A Good Man is Hard to Find": A Southern gothic short story where "the story of a family of six which, on its way driving to Florida [from Georgia], is slaughtered by an escaped convict who calls himself the Misfit". themes: violence, goodness, sin, redemption, recipients of grace, punishment and forgiveness, familial conflict and familial love, moral decay "Good Country People": A short story about a thirty-two-year-old woman with a wooden leg who learns a harsh lesson about herself at the hands of a man posing as a Bible salesman. Hulga is the protagonist, or main character. She is also a nihilist (someone who believes in nothing). This story is a commentary on the misleading nature of self-identity. themes: identity, love, life and existence, religion, education, society and class, superiority, appearances and realities, authentic faith and vulnerability, disease and disability, hypocrisy, Christianity "Everything that Rises Must Converge": Julian, a recent college graduate, has returned home to the South to live with his mother while he attempts to launch a career as a writer. At the behest of her doctor, Julian's Mother attends a weekly exercise class to manage her blood pressure. set in the American South soon after racial integration has become the law of the land. As such, the story portrays a moment in which people of different races are encountering each other in new ways, even as racism and prejudice continue to impact every character's perceptions. themes: family, race, society and class, suffering, religion "Parker's Back": The efforts of a worldly tattooed Southern man to demonstrate his love for a fundamentalist Christian woman whom he courts and marries but never understands why he stays with her. themes: connection, dissatisfaction, change, grace, the search of meaning, religion

Charles Baudelaire "Correspondences" ["Correspondances"] (1857) "The Jewels" ["Les Bijoux"] (1857) "Spleen" ["Spleen"] (1869 - posthumously)

"Correspondences" ["Correspondances"]: Nature is a temple whose living colonnades Breathe forth a mystic speech in fitful sighs; Man wanders among the symbols in those glades Where all things watch him with familiar eyes. Like dwindling echoes gathered far away Into a deep and thronging unison Huge as the night or as the light of day, All scents and sounds and colors meet as one. Perfumes there are as sweet as the oboe's sound, Green as the prairies, fresh as a child's caress,— And there are others, rich, corrupt, profound And an infinite pervasiveness, Like myrrh, or musk, or amber, that excite The ecstasies of sense, the soul's delight. "The Jewels" ["Les Bijoux"]: Naked was my dark love, and, knowing my heart, Adorned in but her most sonorous gems, Their high pomp decked her with the conquering art Of Moorish slave girls crowned with diadems. Dancing for me with lively, mocking sound, This world of stone and metal, brittle and bright, Fills me with rapture who have always found Excess of joy where hue and tone unite. Naked she lay, suffered love pleasurably To mould her, smiled on my desire as if, Profound and gentle as the rising sea,It rode the tide toward its appointed cliff. A tiger, tamed, her eyes on mine, intent On lust, she sought all strange ways to please: Her air, half-candid, half-lascivious, lent A new charm to her metamorphoses. In turn, her arms and limbs, her veins, her thighs, Polished as nard, undulant as a swan, Passed under my serene clairvoyant eyes As belly and breasts, grapes of my vine, moved on. Skilled in more spells than evil angels muster To break the solace which possessed my heart, Smashing the crystal rock upon whose luster My quietude sat on its own, apart, Her waist, awrithe, her belly enormously Out-thrust, formed strange designs unknown to us, As if the haunches of Antiope Flowed from a body not yet Ephebus. Slowly the lamplight sank, resigned to die. Firelight pierced darkness, stud on glowing stud, Each time it heaved a sharply flaming sigh It steeped her amber flesh in pools of blood. "Spleen" ["Spleen"] : (I) I have more memories than if I'd lived a thousand years. - A heavy chest of drawers cluttered with balance-sheets, Processes, love-letters, verses, ballads, And heavy locks of hair enveloped in receipts, Hides fewer secrets than my gloomy brain. It is a pyramid, a vast burial vault Which contains more corpses than potter's field.— I am a cemetery abhorred by the moon, In which long worms crawl like remorse And constantly harass my dearest dead. I am an old boudoir full of withered roses, Where lies a whole litter of old-fashioned dresses, Where the plaintive pastels and the pale Bouchers, Alone, breathe in the fragrance from an opened phial. - Nothing is so long as those limping days, When under the heavy flakes of snowy years Ennui, the fruit of dismal apathy, Becomes as large as immortality. — Henceforth you are no more, O living matter! Than a block of granite surrounded by vague terrors, Dozing in the depths of a hazy Sahara An old sphinx ignored by a heedless world, Omitted from the map, whose savage nature Sings only in the rays of a setting sun. (II) I am like the king of a rainy land, Wealthy but powerless, both young and very old, Who contemns the fawning manners of his tutors And is bored with his dogs and other animals. Nothing can cheer him, neither the chase nor falcons, Nor his people dying before his balcony. The ludicrous ballads of his favorite clown No longer smooth the brow of this cruel invalid; His bed, adorned with fleurs-de-lis, becomes a grave; The lady's maids, to whom every prince is handsome, No longer can find gowns shameless enough To wring a smile from this young skeleton. The alchemist who makes his gold was never able To extract from him the tainted element, And in those baths of blood come down from Roman times,And which in their old age the powerful recall, He failed to warm this dazed cadaver in whose veins Flows the green water of Lethe in place of blood. (III) January, irritated with the whole city, Pours from his urn great waves of gloomy cold On the pale occupants of the nearby graveyard And death upon the foggy slums. - My cat seeking a bed on the tiled floor Shakes his thin, mangy body ceaselessly; The soul of an old poet wanders in the rain-pipe With the sad voice of a shivering ghost. - The great bell whines, the smoking log Accompanies in falsetto the snuffling clock, While in a deck of cards reeking of filthy scents, - My mortal heritage from some dropsical old woman, The handsome knave of hearts and the queen of spades Converse sinisterly of their dead love affair. (IV) When the low, heavy sky weighs like a lid On the groaning spirit, victim of long ennui, And from the all-encircling horizon Spreads over us a day gloomier than the night; - When the earth is changed into a humid dungeon, In which Hope like a bat Goes beating the walls with her timid wings And knocking her head against the rotten ceiling; - When the rain stretching out its endless train Imitates the bars of a vast prison And a silent horde of loathsome spiders Comes to spin their webs in the depths of our brains, - All at once the bells leap with rage And hurl a frightful roar at heaven, Even as wandering spirits with no country Burst into a stubborn, whimpering cry. - — And without drums or music, long hearses Pass by slowly in my soul; Hope, vanquished, Weeps, and atrocious, despotic Anguish On my bowed skull plants her black flag.

O. Henry "Gift of the Magi" (1905) "The Last Leaf" (1905) "Man About Town" (1906) "The Ransom of Red Chief" (1907)

"Gift of the Magi": A young husband and wife long to give each other meaningful Christmas presents. The couple is constrained by their meager budget, so each gives up something they treasure in order to afford a gift for the other. themes: the greatest gift of all is unconditional love, generosity, selflessness, poverty "The Last Leaf": A story of Johnsy, a poor young woman who is critically ill due to pneumonia. She believes that when the ivy vine on the wall outside her window would lose all its leaves, she would die too. However, her neighbor, Behrman, an artist, tricks her by painting a leaf on the wall. Johnsy recovers. themes: selflessness, sacrifice, hope, health, gender, sexuality, "starving artist" and "masterpiece", friendship and sacrifice "Man About Town": A gentleman goes in search of the elusive Man About Town. As he traverses the city he encounters a number of people who express their thoughts and opinions about the Man About Town. The answers given to the gentleman just pique his curiosity even more. themes: searching for answers, curious nature, "The Ransom of Red Chief": Two men kidnap and demand a ransom for a wealthy Alabamian's son. Eventually, the men are driven crazy by the boy's spoiled and hyperactive behavior, and they pay the boy's father to take him back. themes: avoid taking the easy way out, crime, violence, empathy, imagination and play, justice, outsiders

Nathaniel Hawthorne "My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832) "Young Goodman Brown" (1835) "The Minister's Black Veil" (1836) "The Birthmark" (1843) "The Artist of the Beautiful" (1844) The Scarlet Letter (1850)

"My Kinsman, Major Molineux": set in New England before the American Revolution. Young Robin Molineux seeks out his kinsman, a major in the British army, with the hope of gaining access to power. He finds, however, that his kinsman is scorned, and he is advised to make his own way in the world. themes: natural Is superior to manmade, individual freedom, morality, innocence vs. corruption, civilization vs. chaos, good vs. evil "Young Goodman Brown": The titular Goodman Brown, a recently married man in Puritan times who wanders into the woods one night and sees strange happenings that make him question his faith and the people around him. themes: weakness of public morality, inevitable loss of innocence, fear of the wilderness, hypocrisy of Puritanism, losing faith and innocence, nature and the supernatural, saints vs. sinners "The Minister's Black Veil": It follows Reverend Mr. Hooper, as he dons a black veil that obscures most of his face, leaving just his mouth and chin visible. The veil is a symbol of secret sin. The piece of black cloth is a visible representation of the sins people hide from one another. themes: hidden sin, underlying guilt, Puritanism and piety, appearance, perception, and interpretation, sin and guilt, teaching by example, isolation "The Birthmark": It follows the tale of Aylmer and his wife, Georgiana, who has a red hand-shaped birthmark on her left cheek. The birthmark is a symbol of Nature, but Aylmer finds it to be very ominous. themes: science, nature, religion, impossibility of perfection, limitations of science, pride, submission "The Artist of the Beautiful": Focuses on the conflict between artistic effort and practical value, as evidenced by Annie Hovenden's preference for Robert Danforth, a local blacksmith, rather than Owen Warland, a would-be artist. The literary movement of "The Artist and the Beautiful" is Transcendentalism. The story focuses on the beauty of nature and nature also personifies the main character's state of being. Owen's gift to Annie and Robert was a butterfly, which personified nature and its beauty. themes: creative spirit, universal soul, human dynamics, nature, beauty The Scarlet Letter: Hester Prynne conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. themes: sin, knowledge, the human condition, nature of evil, identity and society, female independence, guilt, nature Vs society, empathy

Anton Chekhov "My Life" (1896) "The House with a Mezzanine" (1896) "The Lady with the Little Dog" (1899 / Eng.-1903)

"My Life": the tale of a rebellious young man so disgusted with bourgeois society that he drops out to live amongst the working classes, only to find himself confronted by the morally and mentally deadening effects of provincialism. The 1896 tale is partly a commentary on Tolstoyan philosophy, and partly an autobiographical reflection on Chekhov's own small-town background. But it is, more importantly, Chekhov in his prime, displaying all his famous strengths—vivid characters, restrained but telling details, and brilliant psychological observation—and one of his most stirring themes: the youthful struggle to maintain idealism against growing isolation. themes: the town/country divide, self-realization through trial and hardship, the disillusionment of failed ideals "The House with a Mezzanine": Lydia Volchaninova, a good-looking, but very stern and opinionated young teacher with somewhat dictatorial inclinations is deeply engaged in the affairs of the local zemstvo (institution of local government set up during the great emancipation reform of 1861 carried out in Imperial Russia by Emperor Alexander II of Russia). Devoted to the cause of helping peasants, she is interested in doing and speaking of nothing but practical work, mostly in the fields of medicine and education. Lydia dislikes the protagonist, a landscape painter, who frequently visits their house. From time to time the two clash over problems of both the rural community and Russia as a whole. The painter discovers a kindred spirit in Lydia's younger sister Zhenya, a dreamy and sensitive girl who spends her time reading, admiring him painting and having long walks. The two fall in love, and an evening comes when, after a walk, the painter lets his feelings out in a passionate outburst. Zhenya responds in kind, but feels she has to tell her mother and sister about their love immediately. The following day he learns that Zhenya and her mother had departed. A boy hands him a note from Zhenya, which reads: "I have told my sister everything and she insists on my parting from you. I could not hurt her by disobeying. God will give you happiness. If you knew how bitterly mamma and I have cried." The painter leaves the place too. The last glimpse of hope to fill his lonely life with any kind of meaning is now gone, and the person who robbed him of it was Lydia, the one who cared for nothing but bettering other people's lives. Time passes, but he cannot forget Zhenya and deep in his heart knows she still thinks of him, too. themes: contrast between work and idleness, love, Russia "The Lady with the Little Dog": An adulterous affair between an unhappily married Moscow banker and a young married woman which begins while both are vacationing alone in Yalta. themes: complexities of love, adultery, love lost and love found, the breakdown of aristocratic society, disillusionment

James Baldwin "Sonny's Blues" (1957) Nobody Knows My Name (1961)

"Sonny's Blues": the recollections of a black algebra teacher in 1950s Harlem as he reacts to his brother Sonny's drug addiction, arrest, and recovery. themes: cycles of suffering of black people in America, family bonds, drugs and alcohol, restraint, control, salvation and relief Nobody Knows My Name: themes of the different experiences of race in Europe and America, depictions of African-Americans in literature, and the religious life. In his introduction he write about how he decided to return to the United States after several years in Europe. For him, it was overcoming terror. He confesses to residing in Europe out of fear. Well, he returned at the right time to take part in some of the most interesting discussions about race in American history. The essays in Nobody Knows My Name are therefore transitional. His opening essay considers the old question: "What does it mean to be an American?" We learn that being an American means first and foremost not being a European. And Frederick Douglass and W. E. B. Dubois taught us that this question is far from color blind. For a writer, it poses the problem of perspective, which Baldwin sees are rooted in the place of our birth. "Every society is governed by hidden laws." He starts to hint at the trouble of being an American writer as tied to the liquidity of the society. While Europe was more static in terms of class and status, "American writers do not have a fixed society to describe." More subtlety, Americans still have those hidden structures but cannot admit them or fully analyze them. Europe provides some breathing space and perspective to describe the boundaries and limits of the American liquid world. He has a long essay describing "The Conference of Negro-African Writers and Artists" in Paris, which was declared by one of the presenters to be a second Bandung conference. Baldwin does not quite fit into this conference, often opposing the Afrocentric positions of many writers. Having spent much of his time arguing for the distinctive African-American experience, he cannot swallow this idea of a unitary black experience. Africans at least have a country. Baldwin is still impressed at the enthusiasm of the conference and its power. Following up on this conference, Baldwin takes us back to Harlem where he exposes the devastation caused by urban renewal and the development of housing projects. The rhetoric of free choice and free markets break down in a place like Harlem where race and economic barriers limit mobility. If the urban reformers want a disgusting, low-quality housing project they have the power to construct it, even if that construction costs the city a neighborhood, businesses, or parks. As bad as the projects were as institutional impositions, they necessitated the further occupation of Harlem by the police. "The only way to police a ghetto is to be oppressive." Nobody Knows My Name also includes a series of essays on the U.S. South. Baldwin sees the South and the North as part of the same national trauma. Northern blacks live in the South, even if they never have been there. It is in their family history and their cultural memory. Its problems are also not unique. He even correctly predicts that the trauma of the Civil Rights struggle in the South would be relived in Northern urban areas before long. "It must be said that the racial setup in the South is not, for a Negro, very different from the racial setup in the North. It is the etiquette which is baffling, not the spirit. Segregation is unofficial in the North and official in the South, a crucial difference that does nothing, nevertheless, to alleviate the lot of most Northern Negroes." He attacks liberal white Southerners for their inability to fully imagine an alternative to the world that they helped construct and define. He focuses on Faulkner. White Southern writers cling to the mythology of the South and cannot demand immediate change without destroying the world that created them. "Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety." The end of this safety is something that people of Faulkner's ilk cannot accept, making them poor allies in the struggle for racial equality. themes: the complex rewards and dangers of love, the need for self-awareness and responsibility, the quest for personal achievement and fulfillment, the creation of one's own identity, the complexities of human relationships, all within a given social context

Jorge Luis Borges "The Circular Ruins" (1940 / Eng.-1949) "The Library of Babel" (1941)

"The Circular Ruins": an allegorical tale of creation. Wounded, a foreigner is traveling from the southern reaches of Persia, fleeing to the north to ancient circular ruins. When he arrives and rests there, his wounds are healed by magic, yet the traveler is not surprised by this. Borges describes the ruins as having previously been the color of fire, but now the color of ash. There is a stone statue there, which Borges describes as possibly a horse, possibly a tiger. The traveler feels compelled to sleep, and so he does. Upon waking, he finds that the locals have left offerings nearby. He takes this to mean that they either want him to grant them favor, or they fear his magical ability and seek to earn his goodwill. Now healed, he begins to create, dreaming a man into the real world. To this end, he meditates, focusing all of his energy on creating through this dream state. At first, his dreams are chaotic. Then, they change so that he stands in an amphitheater, lecturing to students. His topics range through a number of academic disciplines, and as he questions his students, they try to answer to prove that they understand his lectures. His sleeping and waking hours are devoted to thinking about their answers—this is part of his creation process; he is seeking the soul that he will manifest into reality among those students. About ten nights pass in this fashion, and he decides that the students do not provide meaningful answers. Instead, they just regurgitate what he has told them. Their souls are not independent, so they are not ready to be manifested into reality. The traveler decides to take a new path, which is to work with and tutor those students who object to his lectures. Through this process, he selects one student from among the multitude. Now ready to create, he must undergo the trial of such an act. The stress of creating makes it impossible for him to sleep at first, so he has to take a month of rest without meditating. After that month has passed, he begins to dream the youth into existence, part by part, focusing first on the heart and organs. During this process, he almost accidentally destroys this creation, this manifestation. Borges points out that he should have, but the traveler pleads with the statue in the ruins. In reply to the traveler's pleas, the god Fire appears as a combination of a tiger, horse, bull, rose, and tempest. The god offers to bring the creation to life and only he and the traveler will know the other man was created—provided the traveler teaches the youth about the rites of fire. The traveler agrees, and the god brings the youth into existence. For two years, the traveler teaches the youth. One day, he sends him to train by himself at the ruins downstream. The traveler is feeling weak and fearful; he is afraid the youth will discover his nature—that he was created and did not always exist in the real world. At the end of the story, fire burns the ruins. But when it does not harm the traveler, he discovers that he, too, is the result of someone's dream, just like the youth. themes: idealism, immortality, thoughts manifesting in the tangible world, the nature of reality and dreams "The Library of Babel": In this story, Borges' narrator describes the universe as a vast and virtually infinite library, comprising a great number of hexagonal rooms, with various floating staircases and long galleries, containing a huge number of books. These books comprise every possible permutation or combination of 25 symbols: 22 letters, the comma and full stop, and the space. All the books are exactly 410 pages long, and every single one is different from all the rest. Borges' narrator tells us that the library exists ab aeterno, i.e., since the days of earliest antiquity. It could only have been created by a god. Although the content of many of the books proved indecipherable for a long while, people were able to decode the languages used in some of the books. Nevertheless, the library is not technically 'infinite', because the number of books does have an end. Although the number of different combinations of 25 different characters, over 410 pages of text, is monumentally vast, it is not infinite: just a very large number. Among all these books, somewhere, are the 'Vindications': books which excuse away every sin man has committed, and offer keys for his future. However, the chances of finding the relevant Vindications are said to be zero, given the magnitude of the library. So, most of the books are useless because they are incomprehensible to the librarians who study them. To make this task easier, some librarians attempted to remove the books they perceived as useless or irrelevant. But this was futile, because there were always hundreds of thousands of near-identical copies of any one book (different from the discarded book by just one character here or there), and the library was so vast that any human attempt to cull the number would produce virtually no effect on the library's vast size. The narrator concludes by asserting that the Library of Babel is infinite and cyclical. themes: the absurd futility of humanity's attempt to understand everything, when there is so much to comprehend, language, infinity, metaphysics, labyrinths, sameness and difference, religion, order

Edgar Allen Poe "The Fall of the House of Usher" (1839) "William Wilson" (1839) "The Tell-Tale Heart" (1843) "The Purloined Letter" (1844) "The Cask of Amontillado" (1846)

"The Fall of the House of Usher": An unnamed narrator approaches the house of Usher on a "dull, dark, and soundless day." This house—the estate of his boyhood friend, Roderick Usher—is gloomy and mysterious. The narrator observes that the house seems to have absorbed an evil and diseased atmosphere from the decaying trees and murky ponds around it. themes: family, isolation, madness, mortality, isolation, fear, burial, identity "William Wilson": a man of "a noble descent" who calls himself William Wilson because, although denouncing his profligate past, does not accept full blame for his actions, saying that "man was never thus ... tempted before". themes: doppelgänger, ghostly double, identity, versions of reality, lies and deceit, guilt and blame, freedom and confinement "The Tell-Tale Heart": an unnamed narrator whose psychological state is extremely precarious, though he insists that he is sane. This narrator has murdered an old man whom he describes as having a 'vulture eye'. This was not a crime of passion but was carefully planned by the narrator in advance of his carrying out the act. themes: guilt and innocence, madness, psychological disorder, death, time "The Purloined Letter": A detective short story written by Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1844 and 1845. It is about a letter purloined, or stolen from an unnamed royal woman. The police prefect, Monsieur G—, seeks assistance in finding the letter from C. Auguste Dupin, who is in his library with the unnamed narrator. themes: cunning and cleverness, lies and deceit, versions of reality, power, rules and order "The Cask of Amontillado": It is about revenge, deceit, and murder, as Montresor tricks a drunk Fortunato by trapping him inside an ancient catacomb. Poe's story uses irony incredibly well in the elements of his characters and setting. themes: revenge, foolishness, intense irony

Guy de Maupassant "The Necklace" (1884) "Bel-Ami" (1885)

"The Necklace": Mrs. Loisel lost the necklace that she had borrowed from her friend and instead of confessing it to the owner, she got into more debt and poverty to repay the amount. 10 years later she finds out the borrowed necklace was a fake. themes: negative effects of pride and vanity, content, honesty, greed, sacrifice, suffering, happiness, women and beauty, reality and illusion "Bel-Ami" (Dear Friend): chronicles journalist Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power from a poor former cavalry NCO in France's African colonies, to one of the most successful men in Paris, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent, and wealthy women. themes: social rise, ambition, lust, the power of money, love and disenchantment, women

Alexander Pope "The Rape of the Lock" (1712) "Essay on Man" (1733) "An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" (1734)

"The Rape of the Lock": a mock-epic that satirizes the upper class in London at the time. The story focuses on the central character, Belinda, whose lock of hair is cut off at a social gathering. Although trivial to most, Belinda is outraged that her lock of hair has been cut by the Baron. themes: triviality, misplaced priorities, vanity, love, fate "Essay on Man": describes the order of the universe in terms of a hierarchy, or chain, of being. By virtue of their ability to reason, humans are placed above animals and plants in this hierarchy. themes: (1) a God of infinite wisdom exists; (2) He created a world that is the best of all possible ones; (3) the plenum, or all-embracing whole of the universe, is real and hierarchical; (4) authentic good is that of the whole, not of isolated parts; (5) self-love and social love both motivate humans' conduct; (6) virtue is attainable; (7) "One truth is clear, WHATEVER IS, IS RIGHT." "An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot": Augustan satire as an apology in which Pope defends his works against the attacks of his detractors, particularly the writers Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Joseph Addison, and John, Lord Hervey. themes: memorial of friendship

Oliver Goldsmith The Vicar of Wakefield (1766)

A book about family endurance, the drama surrounds the characters of the Primrose family: Dr. Primrose as the Vicar of Wakefield, his wife, and their many children. The Primrose's idyllic country life is turned upside down when they lose their financial footing and a daughter is abducted. themes: deception, social status, strength of family, gender, prudence, fortitude, religion

H. G. Wells The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896)

A shipwrecked man, Edward Prendick, reaches a sinister island inhabited by notorious vivisectionist, Doctor Moreau. Prendick suspects that experiments are also being carried out on humans, resulting in hybrid forms; however, the doctor explains that he has actually been changing animals into people. themes: scientific knowledge vs. ethics, religious authority and order, human vs. animals, mortality, survival, circumstance

Thomas Berger Little Big Man (1964)

After surviving the massacre of his pioneer family, ten-year-old Jack is adopted by an Indian chief who nicknames him Little Big Man. As a Cheyenne, he feasts on dog, loves four wives, and sees his people butchered by horse soldiers commanded by General George Armstrong Custer. themes: Native American and white philosophy and conflict

George Orwell Animal Farm (1945) "Politics and the English Language" (1946) 1984 (1949)

Animal Farm: a beast fable, in the form of a satirical allegorical novella. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. themes: corruption of socialist ideals in the Soviet Union, societal tendency toward class stratification, danger of a naïve working class, abuse of language to abuse power, corruption, failure of intellect, exploitation of animals by humans "Politics and the English Language": if we use language that is slovenly and decadent, it makes it easier for us to fall into bad habits of thought, because language and thought are so closely linked. problems: dying metaphors, operators or verbal false limbs, pretentious diction, meaningless words 1984: Winston Smith wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where the Party scrutinizes human actions with ever-watchful Big Brother. Defying a ban on individuality, Winston dares to express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with Julia. themes: censorship, freedom, propaganda, totalitarianism, language (doublethink and newspeak), technology, surveillance

Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina (1877) The Death of Ivan Ilyich (1886)

Anna Karenina: centers on an extramarital affair between Anna and dashing cavalry officer Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky that scandalizes the social circles of Saint Petersburg and forces the young lovers to flee to Italy in a search for happiness, but after they return to Russia, their lives further unravel. themes: love and death, hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city The Death of Ivan Ilyich: a high-court judge in 19th-century Russia and his sufferings and death from a terminal illness. themes: greed, purity, corruption, the inevitability of death, mortality, illness, suffering, society and class

Anonymous Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th century)

At Christmas, a knight who is completely green rides into King Arthur's hall. The Green Knight proposes a game: Any knight brave enough to strike off the Green Knight's head may keep the Green Knight's ax, but that man must accept a return stroke in one year. Gawain accepts the challenge and cuts off the Green Knight's head. The knight picks up his severed head and leaves, telling Gawain to look for the Green Chapel. Near the end of the allotted year, Gawain sets out in search of the Green Chapel. He finds a castle in the wilderness. The lord of the castle asks Gawain to stay until New Year's Day, because the Green Chapel is nearby. The lord proposes an agreement: He will go out hunting while Gawain stays at the castle, and the two men will exchange whatever they have gained at the end of the day. The exchange of winnings takes place over three days. Each day, the lord goes out hunting, while the lady of the castle tries to seduce Gawain in his bed. Gawain politely refuses her advances, although he does give her some kisses. Finally, she offers him a magic belt that will protect the life of any man who wears it. Gawain repays the lord his lady's kisses, but he does not mention the belt. Gawain keeps his appointment at the Green Chapel. The Green Knight raises his axe to cut off Gawain's head, but twice he draws back. The third time, the Green Knight barely cuts Gawain on the neck. The Green Knight reveals that he was Gawain's host and that his appearance as the Knight was made possible by Morgan le Fay. He tells Gawain that the first two blows were for the first two days of their agreement, when Gawain fairly repaid him his wife's kisses. The small cut was for accepting the belt and concealing it. Overcome with shame, Gawain acknowledges his fault and wears the belt to remind him of his fault. When he returns to Camelot, the entire court wears green sashes in fellowship with Gawain. themes: chivalry, natural and supernatural, legend, fame, and reputation, games, rules, and order, Christianity

John Bunyan The Pilgrim's Progress, Part I (1678)

Bearing his burden with great difficulty, Christian runs along the narrow highway, which is bordered by a wall called Salvation. He runs until he reaches a Cross standing on a small hill; below it stands a Sepulchre. Just as he reaches the Cross, Christian's burden falls from his shoulders. The burden tumbles into the Sepulchre and out of sight. Immediately, Christian is filled with joy. He gazes at the Cross for a while, amazed at his newfound ease. He even begins to weep. Soon, three Shining Ones appear and greet Christian. The first angel tells him, "Thy sins be forgiven." The second angel takes off Christian's rags and puts new clothes on him. The third angel gives Christian a sealed roll, telling him to look at it as he journeys and to hand it in when he reaches the Celestial Gate. Christian leaps three times for joy and goes on, singing of his salvation. As Christian goes on his way, he comes upon three sleeping men with chained ankles. Their names are Simple, Sloth, and Presumption. Christian wakes them and warns them to beware of Satan, but the three men think there's no danger, and they settle back to sleep. Just then, two men scramble over the wall beside the narrow way: their names are Formalist and Hypocrisy. They explain to Christian that they're taking a shortcut to Mount Zion. Christian argues that this violates the Lord's expressed will. Formalist and Hypocrisy reply that this will be no problem—they can offer a testimony which an impartial judge will accept, and anyway, as long as they're on the narrow way, does it matter how they got there? Christian warns them that they have entered without the Lord's direction, and as thieves, they cannot expect his mercy at the end. Formalist and Hypocrisy go on their way, laughing. Christian goes on alone, often looking at the roll that one of the Shining Ones gave him for reassurance. themes: burden of sin and salvation through Christ, world vs. Christianity, obstacles on the journey, centrality of the bible, women as pilgrims

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Faust, Part 1 (1808)

Begins with a prologue in Heaven, where the Lord bets Mephistopheles, an agent of the Devil, that Mephistopheles cannot lead astray the Lord's favorite striving scholar, Dr. Faust. We then see Faust in his study, who, disappointed by the knowledge and results obtainable by science's natural means, attempts and fails to gain knowledge of nature and the universe by magical means. Dejected in this failure, Faust contemplates suicide but is held back by the sounds of the beginning Easter celebrations. He joins his assistant Wagner for an Easter walk in the countryside, among the celebrating people, and is followed home by a poodle. Back in the study, the poodle transforms itself into Mephistopheles, who offers Faust a contract: he will do Faust's bidding on earth, and Faust will do the same for him in Hell (if, as Faust adds in an important side clause, Mephistopheles can get him to be satisfied and to want a moment to last forever). Faust signs in blood, and Mephistopheles first takes him to Auerbach's tavern in Leipzig, where the devil plays tricks on some drunken revelers. Having then been transformed into a young man by a witch, Faust encounters Margaret (Gretchen) and she excites his desires. Through a scheme involving jewelry and Gretchen's neighbor Marthe, Mephistopheles brings about Faust's and Gretchen's liaison. After a period of separation, Faust seduces Gretchen, who accidentally kills her mother with a sleeping potion given to her by Faust. Gretchen discovers that she is pregnant, and her torment is further increased when Faust and Mephistopheles kill her enraged brother in a sword fight. Mephistopheles seeks to distract Faust by taking him to a witches' sabbath on Walpurgis Night, but Faust insists on rescuing Gretchen from the execution to which she was sentenced after drowning her newborn child while in a state of madness. In the dungeon, Faust vainly tries to persuade Gretchen to follow him to freedom. At the end of the drama, as Faust and Mephistopheles flee the dungeon, a voice from heaven announces Gretchen's salvation. themes: reason and passion, human desire for meaning and transcendence, pleasure and love, parts wholes and limits, intellectualism, value of words, politics

Herman Melville Billy Budd (1824) "Bartleby the Scrivener" (1853)

Billy Budd: A young merchant sailor (the title character) who is forced to serve on a naval vessel, the HMS Indomitable. There he finds a well-meaning captain but an evil-hearted master-at-arms who is determined to destroy the handsome new recruit. themes: natural character and appearance, duty, loyalty, camaraderie, justice, individual vs. society, present vs. past, storytelling, rumor, and truth "Bartleby the Scrivener": A successful lawyer on Wall Street hires Bartleby, a scrivener, to relieve the load of work experienced by his law firm. For two days, Bartleby executes his job with skill and gains the owner's confidence for his diligence. themes: isolation, imprisonment, the failure of maintaining effective communication, passive resistance, disconnected workplace, unreliability of language, charity and its limits

Evelyn Waugh Brideshead Revisited (1945) The Loved One (1948)

Brideshead Revisited: It follows, from the 1920s to the early 1940s, the life and romances of the protagonist Charles Ryder, most especially his friendship with the Flytes, a family of wealthy English Catholics who live in a palatial mansion called Brideshead Castle. Ryder has relationships with two of the Flytes: Sebastian and Julia. themes: innocence, experience, redemption, suffering, persecution, martyrdom, authority, Rebellion, love, war and peace, globalization, culture, modernity The Loved One: relates the experiences of a young Englishman in southern California who observes the clash between English and American cultures. Among other targets, it attacks what Waugh perceived as the snobbery of the English and the stupidity, vulgarity, and intellectual sterility of Americans. themes: mortality & death, challenging authority, power, vanity and the lack of common sense, escapism, love as it is

Fyodor Dostoevsky Crime and Punishment (1866) The Brothers Karamazov (1880)

Crime and Punishment: Raskolnikov, a former student, lives in poverty and chaos in St. Petersburg. He decides—through contradictory theories, including utilitarian morality and the belief that extraordinary people have the "right to transgress"—to murder Alyona Ivanovna, an elderly pawnbroker. themes: criminality, morality, guilt, madness, intoxication, coincidence and free will, money and poverty, family The Brothers Karamazov: The titular brothers Karamazov are Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha, who are the sons of the town reprobate. The novel follows the circumstances leading up to the murder of the brothers' father Fyodor, and the subsequent arrest of one of them for the crime. themes: conflict between faith and doubt, the burden of free will, the pervasiveness of moral responsibility

Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Crusoe is on a ship bound for Africa, where he plans to buy slaves for his plantations in South America when the ship is wrecked on an island and Crusoe is the only survivor. Alone on a desert island, Crusoe manages to survive thanks to his pluck and pragmatism. themes: Christianity and divine providence, society, individuality, and isolation, advice, mistakes, and hindsight, contentment vs. desire and ambition, strangers, savages, and the unknown

Henry James Daisy Miller (1879) Washington Square (1880)

Daisy Miller: It portrays the courtship of the beautiful American girl Daisy Miller by Winterbourne, a sophisticated compatriot of hers. His pursuit of her is hampered by her own flirtatiousness, which is frowned upon by the other expatriates when they meet in Switzerland and Italy. themes: European and American character, observing vs. living, judgment, knowledge, knowability, innocence, female independence Washington Square: A father's attempts to thwart a romance between his naive daughter and the man he believes wishes to marry her for her money. themes: gaining independence, loss and idealization, class, wealth, social status, reason, romanticism, blind spots, women's limited freedoms

James Joyce Dubliners A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)

Follows the intellectual, moral and spiritual development of a young Catholic Irishman, Stephen Dedalus, and his struggle against the restrictions his culture imposes. themes: religion, nationality, freedom, what it means to become and artist, self-realization, rebelliousness, family, power, art, reality

Zora Neale Hurston Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Follows the life of Janie Crawford, a girl of mixed black and white heritage, around the turn of the century, which was not an easy time to be of mixed race. As an adolescent, Janie sees a bee pollinating a flower in her backyard pear tree and becomes obsessed with finding true love. themes: search for unconditional, true, and fulfilling love, love changes people, gender roles and relations, language and storytelling, sex, race, desire, judgement, jealousy

Chaucer Selected Canterbury Tales, including in Middle English, General Prologue, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale (1387-1400)

General Prologue: The General Prologue is the first part of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. It introduces the frame story, in which a group of pilgrims traveling to the shrine of Thomas Becket in Canterbury agree to take part in a storytelling competition, and describes the pilgrims themselves. Wife of Bath's Prologue: The Wife of Bath begins the Prologue to her tale by establishing herself as an authority on marriage, due to her extensive personal experience with the institution. Since her first marriage at the tender age of twelve, she has had five husbands. Wife of Bath's Tale: The tale concerns a knight accused of rape, whose life shall be spared if in one year he discovers what women most desire. He eventually turns to an ugly old witch who promises him the answer that will save his life if he will do the first thing she asks of him. themes: social class, deceit, religion, social satire, courtly love, significance of company

Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels (1726) A Modest Proposal (1729)

Gulliver's Travels: a misadventure story involving several voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship's surgeon, who, because of a series of mishaps en route to recognized ports, ends up, instead, on several unknown islands living with people and animals of unusual sizes, behaviors, and philosophies, but who, after each adventure, is somehow able to return to his home in England where he recovers from these unusual experiences and then sets out again on a new voyage. themes: perspective, moral vs. physical power, society and the state, knowledge, truth and deception A Modest Proposal: Presented in the guise of an economic treatise, the essay proposes that the country ameliorate poverty in Ireland by butchering the children of the Irish poor and selling them as food to wealthy English landlords. Swift's proposal is a savage comment on England's legal and economic exploitation of Ireland. motifs: poverty, class, politics, mercantilism, greed

Charles Dickens Hard Times (1854) Great Expectations (1861)

Hard Times: Thomas Gradgrind, a wealthy, retired merchant in the industrial city of Coketown, England, devotes his life to a philosophy of rationalism, self-interest, and fact. He raises his oldest children, Louisa and Tom, according to this philosophy and never allows them to engage in fanciful or imaginative pursuits. The book surveys English society and satirizes the social and economic conditions of the era. themes: imagination, dangers of industrialization, fact vs. fancy, unhappy marriages, femininity, escape Great Expectations: follows the childhood and young adult years of Pip a blacksmith's apprentice in a country village. He suddenly comes into a large fortune (his great expectations) from a mysterious benefactor and moves to London where he enters high society. The moral theme of Great Expectations is quite simple: affection, loyalty, and conscience are more important than social advancement, wealth, and class. themes: ambition and self-improvement, social class, crime, guilt, innocence, sophistication, education, family

Joseph Conrad Heart of Darkness (1899) Lord Jim (1900)

Heart of Darkness: retells the story of Marlow's job as an ivory transporter down the Congo. Through his journey, Marlow develops an intense interest in investigating Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, and Marlow is shocked upon seeing what the European traders have done to the natives. themes: hypocrisy of imperialism, madness as a result of imperialism, absurdity of evil, futility Lord Jim: the story of a man named Marlow's struggle to tell and to understand the life story of a man named Jim. Jim is a promising young man who goes to sea as a youth. He rises quickly through the ranks and soon becomes chief mate. An early and primary event in the story is the abandonment of a passenger ship in distress by its crew, including a young British seaman named Jim. themes: the consequences of a single, poor decision, the indifference of the universe, and the inability to know oneself or others, fantasy vs. reality, justice and duty, racism and colonialism, truth and perspective

Edmond Rostand Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)

Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted, joyful poet and is also a musical artist. However, he has an obnoxiously large nose, which causes him to doubt himself. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness would prevent him the "dream of being loved by even an ugly woman." themes: appearances and identity, the many kinds of love, panache (dash or flamboyance in style and action), social hierarchy and the romantic ideal, loyalty and honor

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905)

Holmes dramatically returns from the dead, or from being presumed dead. He's not a zombie. He and Watson reunite to take down a would-be assassin of Holmes, and murderer of Ronald Adair, Colonel Moran. With Moran in jail Holmes can now safely return to London and resume his detective business. themes: respect, reputation, justice and judgment, admiration

Ernest Hemingway In Our Time (1924) "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (1933) "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" (1936) "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" (1936) "Hills Like White Elephants" (1927)

In Our Time: A collection of short stories and vignettes about the years before, during, and after World War I. The stories, which are titled, are separated by vignettes, each of which is a chapter. The first story, "On the Quai at Smyrna," introduces the war through a description of an evacuation. themes: masculinity, relationships between men and women, bonding between members of the same sex, love, development and adaptation, maturity, responsibility, fatherhood, problem of relationships, uncertainty about the future, fate, destiny, youth, death, loss, art of omission, fishing, skiing "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place": An old waiter struggles to find a sense of meaning and dignity in his life amidst a world that is seemingly "full of nothing". The film begins with two waiters conversing with each other while they wait for the last customer of the night to leave. themes: empathy, old age, despair, meaning and meaninglessness "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber": themes: A married American couple on safari in Africa with their English guide. The husband has a failure of nerve when faced with a lion during one of their hunts, and his wife loses respect for him. themes: courage, cowardice, nature, gender dynamics, men and masculinity, courage, violence, women and femininity, marriage "The Snows of Kilimanjaro": A man named Harry has gone to Africa on safari where he is punctured by a thorn and develops an infection. The infection progresses rapidly and he advances towards a slow death. themes: death, decay, postwar trauma and loss, writer's responsibility, memory and legacy "Hills Like White Elephants": Pooja, an Indo-Canadian teenage girl with an innocent crush on Trevor, a local white boy - a white boy just like the teen heartthrobs she sees in all the movies and TV she's obsessed with. A boy unlike all the other boys in her mostly Brown and Black neighborhood. themes: unwanted pregnancy, limits of language, choice, freedom vs. family, men, women, and relationships

Dante Selections from Inferno: Cantos 1-17, 26-28, and 31-34 (1314)

Inferno opens on the evening of Good Friday in the year 1300. Traveling through a dark wood, Dante Alighieri has lost his path and now wanders fearfully through the forest. The sun shines down on a mountain above him, and he attempts to climb up to it but finds his way blocked by three beasts—a leopard, a lion, and a she-wolf. Frightened and helpless, Dante returns to the dark wood. Here he encounters the ghost of Virgil, the great Roman poet, who has come to guide Dante back to his path, to the top of the mountain. Virgil says that their path will take them through Hell and that they will eventually reach Heaven, where Dante's beloved Beatrice awaits. He adds that it was Beatrice, along with two other holy women, who, seeing Dante lost in the wood, sent Virgil to guide him. Virgil leads Dante through the gates of Hell, marked by the haunting inscription "abandon all hope, you who enter here" (III.7). They enter the outlying region of Hell, the Ante-Inferno, where the souls who in life could not commit to either good or evil now must run in a futile chase after a blank banner, day after day, while hornets bite them and worms lap their blood. Dante witnesses their suffering with repugnance and pity. The ferryman Charon then takes him and his guide across the river Acheron, the real border of Hell. The First Circle of Hell, Limbo, houses pagans, including Virgil and many of the other great writers and poets of antiquity, who died without knowing of Christ. After meeting Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, Dante continues into the Second Circle of Hell, reserved for the sin of Lust. At the border of the Second Circle, the monster Minos lurks, assigning condemned souls to their punishments. He curls his tail around himself a certain number of times, indicating the number of the circle to which the soul must go. Inside the Second Circle, Dante watches as the souls of the Lustful swirl about in a terrible storm; Dante meets Francesca, who tells him the story of her doomed love affair with Paolo da Rimini, her husband's brother; the relationship has landed both in Hell. In the Third Circle of Hell, the Gluttonous must lie in mud and endure a rain of filth and excrement. In the Fourth Circle, the Avaricious and the Prodigal are made to charge at one another with giant boulders. The Fifth Circle of Hell contains the river Styx, a swampy, fetid cesspool in which the Wrathful spend eternity struggling with one another; the Sullen lie bound beneath the Styx's waters, choking on the mud. Dante glimpses Filippo Argenti, a former political enemy of his, and watches in delight as other souls tear the man to pieces. Virgil and Dante next proceed to the walls of the city of Dis, a city contained within the larger region of Hell. The demons who guard the gates refuse to open them for Virgil, and an angelic messenger arrives from Heaven to force the gates open before Dante. The Sixth Circle of Hell houses the Heretics, and there Dante encounters a rival political leader named Farinata. A deep valley leads into the First Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where those who were violent toward others spend eternity in a river of boiling blood. Virgil and Dante meet a group of Centaurs, creatures who are half man, half horse. One of them, Nessus, takes them into the Second Ring of the Seventh Circle of Hell, where they encounter those who were violent toward themselves (the Suicides). These souls must endure eternity in the form of trees. Dante there speaks with Pier della Vigna. Going deeper into the Seventh Circle of Hell, the travelers find those who were violent toward God (the Blasphemers); Dante meets his old patron, Brunetto Latini, walking among the souls of those who were violent toward Nature (the Sodomites) on a desert of burning sand. They also encounter the Usurers, those who were violent toward Art. The monster Geryon transports Virgil and Dante across a great abyss to the Eighth Circle of Hell, known as Malebolge, or "evil pockets" (or "pouches"); the term refers to the circle's division into various pockets separated by great folds of earth. In the First Pouch, the Panderers and the Seducers receive lashings from whips; in the second, the Flatterers must lie in a river of human feces. The Simoniacs in the Third Pouch hang upside down in baptismal fonts while their feet burn with fire. In the Fourth Pouch are the Astrologists or Diviners, forced to walk with their heads on backward, a sight that moves Dante to great pity. In the Fifth Pouch, the Barrators (those who accepted bribes) steep in pitch while demons tear them apart. The Hypocrites in the Sixth Pouch must forever walk in circles, wearing heavy robes made of lead. Caiphas, the priest who confirmed Jesus' death sentence, lies crucified on the ground; the other sinners tread on him as they walk. In the horrifying Seventh Pouch, the Thieves sit trapped in a pit of vipers, becoming vipers themselves when bitten; to regain their form, they must bite another thief in turn. In the Eighth Pouch of the Eighth Circle of Hell, Dante speaks to Ulysses, the great hero of Homer's epics, now doomed to an eternity among those guilty of Spiritual Theft (the False Counselors) for his role in executing the ruse of the Trojan Horse. In the Ninth Pouch, the souls of Sowers of Scandal and Schism walk in a circle, constantly afflicted by wounds that open and close repeatedly. In the Tenth Pouch, the Falsifiers suffer from horrible plagues and diseases. Virgil and Dante proceed to the Ninth Circle of Hell through the Giants' Well, which leads to a massive drop to Cocytus, a great frozen lake. The giant Antaeus picks Virgil and Dante up and sets them down at the bottom of the well, in the lowest region of Hell. In Caina, the First Ring of the Ninth Circle of Hell, those who betrayed their kin stand frozen up to their necks in the lake's ice. In Antenora, the Second Ring, those who betrayed their country and party stand frozen up to their heads; here Dante meets Count Ugolino, who spends eternity gnawing on the head of the man who imprisoned him in life. In Ptolomea, the Third Ring, those who betrayed their guests spend eternity lying on their backs in the frozen lake, their tears making blocks of ice over their eyes. Dante next follows Virgil into Judecca, the Fourth Ring of the Ninth Circle of Hell and the lowest depth. Here, those who betrayed their benefactors spend eternity in complete icy submersion. A huge, mist-shrouded form lurks ahead, and Dante approaches it. It is the three-headed giant Lucifer, plunged waist-deep into the ice. His body pierces the center of the Earth, where he fell when God hurled him down from Heaven. Each of Lucifer's mouths chews one of history's three greatest sinners: Judas, the betrayer of Christ, and Cassius and Brutus, the betrayers of Julius Caesar. Virgil leads Dante on a climb down Lucifer's massive form, holding on to his frozen tufts of hair. Eventually, the poets reach the Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, and travel from there out of Hell and back onto Earth. They emerge from Hell on Easter morning, just before sunrise.

Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights (1847)

It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws' foster son, Heathcliff. themes: chaos and order, selfishness, betrayal, obsession, gothic literature and supernatural, revenge and repetition, class, masculinity and femininity, nature and civilization

Anonymous The Arabian Nights (written by numerous individuals over several hundred years, likely dating to 8th century India and Persia)

It's an epic collection of Arabic folk tales written during the Islamic Golden Age. Scorned by an unfaithful wife, Shahryar is the king of a great empire but is brokenhearted. Shahryar chose to marry a new woman every day only to kill her the next morning. themes: hospitality, fate, destiny, good fortune, greed, adventure, competition

Alexander Solzhenitsyn One Day in the Life of Ivan (1962)

Ivan Denisovich Shukhov has been sentenced to a camp in the Soviet Gulag system. He was accused of becoming a spy after being captured briefly by the Germans as a prisoner of war during World War II. Although innocent, he is sentenced to ten years in a forced labor camp. themes: struggle for human dignity, outrage of unjust punishment, importance of faith

Henry Fielding Joseph Andrews (1742) The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)

Joseph Andrews: Little Joey Andrews has a pretty sweet gig going for him. At ten years old, he goes from a job scaring birds away from the fields to being a footman at Sir Thomas Booby's grand old house. The job comes with one downside: Lady Booby, Sir Thomas's lecherous wife, is majorly into Joseph. themes: appearance versus reality, abuse of power by individuals classes and institutions, inhumanity of individuals and society, lust versus chastity, nature of goodness, charity, vanity, city living versus living in retirement in the country The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling: Tom Jones, like its predecessor, Joseph Andrews, is constructed around a romance plot. Squire Allworthy suspects that the infant whom he adopts and names Tom Jones is the illegitimate child of his servant Jenny Jones. When Tom is a young man, he falls in love with Sophia Western, his beautiful and virtuous neighbor. The contrast between Tom Jones's good nature, flawed but eventually corrected by his love for virtuous Sophia Western, and his half-brother Blifil's hypocrisy. themes: virtue as action rather than thought, impossibility of stereotypical categorization, tension between art and artifice

Gustave Flaubert Madame Bovary (1865)

Madame Bovary tells the bleak story of a marriage that ends in tragedy. Charles Bovary, a good-hearted but dull and unambitious doctor with a meager practice, marries Emma, a beautiful farm girl raised in a convent. Although she anticipates marriage as a life of adventure, she soon finds that her only excitement derives from the flights of fancy she takes while reading sentimental romantic novels. She grows increasingly bored and unhappy with her middle-class existence, and even the birth of their daughter, Berthe, brings Emma little joy. Grasping for idealized intimacy, Emma begins to act out her romantic fantasies and embarks on an ultimately disastrous love affair with Rodolphe, a local landowner. She makes enthusiastic plans for them to run away together, but Rodolphe has grown tired of her and ends the relationship. A shocked Emma develops brain fever and is bedridden for more than a month. She later takes up with Léon, a former acquaintance, and her life becomes increasingly chaotic. She embraces abstractions—passion, happiness—and ignores material reality itself, as symbolized by money. She is utterly incapable of distinguishing between her romantic ideals and the harsh realities of her life even as her interest in Léon wanes. Her debts having spun out of control, she begs for money, but all turn her down, including Léon and Rodolphe. With seemingly nowhere to turn and on the verge of financial ruin and public disclosure of her private life, Emma swallows arsenic and dies a painful death. A grief-stricken Charles, who has been blindly unaware of Emma's affairs, remains devoted to his deceased wife even as he struggles to pay her debts. After discovering love letters from Rodolphe and Léon, he becomes increasingly despondent but blames Emma's affairs on fate. Shortly thereafter he dies, and Berthe ultimately ends up working at a cotton factory. themes: abstraction, fantasy, and experience, sublime and the mundane, love and desire, causes, appearances, and boredom, truth, rhetoric, and hypocrisy, dissatisfaction, freedom and confinement, foolishness and folly, love, women and femininity, wealth, repression

Sinclair Lewis Main Street (1920) Babbitt (1922)

Main Street: Satirizing small-town life, Main Street is perhaps Sinclair Lewis's most famous book, and led in part to his eventual 1930 Nobel Prize for Literature. It relates the life and struggles of Carol Milford Kennicott as she comes into conflict with the small-town mentality of the residents of Gopher Prairie. themes: reality of small-town America, individual vs. the community, disillusionment, reality of marriage Babbitt: a satirical novel about American culture and society that critiques the vacuity of middle-class life and the social pressure toward conformity. The word "babbitt" refers to a person, especially a businessman who conforms to prevailing middle-class standards without questioning them. George F. Babbitt is described as a middle-aged man and successful realtor, who sells houses at rates that exceed what people are actually able to pay for them. Lewis explains Babbitt's morning routine with meticulous detail, down to his high-tech alarm clock, which he views as a marker of social status. He is proud of his house in Floral Heights, as it is standardized from the architecture to the atmosphere, which appeals greatly to Babbitt. The first seven chapters of the book follow Babbitt over the course of a single day, examining how he dresses with each article of clothing perfectly curated. At work, he spends most of his time and energy on activities with the goal of climbing the social ladder. He closes a deal by forcing a poor businessman to buy a piece of property at more than twice its value. This gives him a sense of pride, as he pockets his earnings, feeling that he has done a good job. He picks up the phone to call his best friend, Paul Riesling, to ask him to lunch. Paul is a talented musician and should have been a violinist but has gone into the tar-roofing business in order to provide for his wife, Zilla. She is always stirring up trouble, antagonizing men she believes to be below her social status, and then enlisting Paul to come to her rescue to fight them like a man. At home, she demeans him, accusing him of being a coward and a weakling. Babbitt is saddened observing the relationship between his friend and his wife, so much so that he suggests the two of them take a vacation to Maine, away from their wives. Paul is skeptical, but Babbitt uses his powers of persuasion, assuring Paul that he will arrange the whole thing. Back at the office, Babbitt refuses a raise to one of his employees. He then goes home to his wife, and the two decide to throw a flamboyant dinner party, which is a resounding success. All of Babbitt's friends are just like him, and together they stuff themselves on rich food and get drunk on Prohibition-era gin, before going home to nurse their hangovers. Babbitt and his wife stop by to visit Paul and Zilla, who immediately starts berating her husband. This leads Babbitt to tell her that she is a nagging and terrible wife to Paul, and he insists that she allow him to go to Maine. Zilla consents. Myra, Babbitt's wife, accuses him of bullying Zilla, and he tells her to mind her own business. Paul and Babbitt head off on their journey to Maine by train, where they are surrounded by other like-minded businessmen who express their concerns about the price of motorcars and oil and the growing threat of communism. Maine turns out to be very soothing for both Paul and Babbitt, and they spend their time fishing and hiking. The time away leads Babbitt to realize that his life in Zenith is not all that it should be. He promises that upon his return he will change his ways, living a simple and less hurried lifestyle. After returning to Zenith, Babbitt is invited to speak at a real estate conference in the neighboring town of Monarch. In the speech, he proclaims that real estate agents should be looked upon as professionals and referred to as realtors. He also states that Zenith is the best place in the world, quoting various statistics to back up this claim. His speech is a resounding success and he is immediately recognized as an orator. He later takes a business trip to Chicago, where he sees Paul having dinner with a beautiful middle-aged woman. He later confronts his friend about what he has seen, and Paul confesses that he can no longer stand to live with Zilla. Babbitt promises to keep his friend's secret; he is secretly envious of his newfound independence. One day, he is at the office when he receives a call from his wife telling him that Paul has shot his wife and that Zilla is in the hospital and Paul is in prison. Babbitt feels that his world is collapsing around him, triggering him to go off the rails, adopting a more bohemian and free-spirited way of living. His faith in the almighty dollar has been demolished, and in its place, he has a newfound respect for the importance of living a life of freedom and integrity. themes: conformity to expected social norms, hypocrisy, and ignorance endemic to the American middle class, abandoned ideals, escapism, the tension of human life

Miguel de Cervantes Don Quixote (1605 / Eng.-1912)

Portraits the life and insightful journey of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a Spanish man who seems to be losing his mind on his quest to become a knight and restore chivalry alongside with a farmer named Sancho Panza, with whom he fights multiple imaginary enemies and faces a series of fantastic challenges. themes: truth and lies, literature, realism, and idealism, madness and sanity, intention and consequence, self-invention, class identity, and social change

Stephen Crane Red Badge of Courage (1895) "The Open Boat" (1897)

Red Badge of Courage: a young private of the Union Army, Henry Fleming, flees from the field of battle. Overcome with shame, he longs for a wound, a "red badge of courage," to counteract his cowardice. themes: youth, manhood, courage, self-preservation, the universe's disregard for human life, man and the natural world, isolation, respect and reputation, duty "The Open Boat": Stephen Crane's semi-autobiographical, fictionalized account of his time at sea, enduring thirty hours in a lifeboat after surviving the sinking of a steamer ship. The story tells of the struggle of four men to survive in a small dinghy after their ship capsizes on the open ocean. themes: perseverance, man's unrelenting grit. camaraderie, man's fight against the forces of nature, indifference of nature, helplessness of man against odds, zest for life and adventure, hope

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby (1925)

Set in the Jazz Age on Long Island, near New York City, the novel depicts first-person narrator Nick Carraway's interactions with mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and Gatsby's obsession to reunite with his former lover, Daisy Buchanan. themes: justice, power, greed, betrayal, social stratification, the American dream

Isaac Bashevis Singer "Gimpel the Fool" (1957)

Set in the imaginary village of Frampol, the story centers on Gimpel, a baker, who is continuously heckled and tricked by those around him. When Rietze the Candle-dipper tells him his parents have risen from the grave and are looking for him, Gimpel knows full well this cannot be, but he goes outside to look just in case: "What did I stand to lose just by looking?" This incident creates such an uproar that he vows not to believe anything else, but that does not work either. He is confused and turns to the rabbi for advice. The rabbi tells Gimpel, "It is written, better to be a fool all your days than for one hour to be evil. You are not a fool. They are the fools. For he who causes his neighbor to feel shame loses Paradise himself." Gimpel considers leaving town, but the people will not hear of it. Instead, they decide to fix him up with a wife. He sees several flaws in Elka, his prospective bride, but the townspeople tell him his perceptions are wrong. Elka's "bastard" son is really her little brother, and her limp is "deliberate, from coyness." Furthermore, they threaten to have the rabbi fine him for giving her a bad name. Elka refuses to let Gimpel into their bed after the wedding, and four months later she gives birth to a boy. Everyone knows that Gimpel is not the father; "the whole House of Prayer rang with laughter." When he confronts Elka about this, she insists that the child is premature and is Gimpel's. He does not believe her, but the next day the schoolmaster assures him that the same thing happened to Adam and Eve. Gimpel begins "to forget his sorrow" because he loves the child. He steals scraps from the pots that women leave in the baker's oven for Elka and begins to love her too. Gimpel has to sleep at the bakery during the week, but one night he comes home unexpectedly and discovers a man sleeping next to Elka. To avoid waking the child he goes back to the bakery and tries to sleep on the floor. He vows, however, that "there's a limit even to the foolishness of a fool like Gimpel." He goes to the rabbi for advice, and Elka denies everything. The rabbi recommends that Gimpel divorce her, but Gimpel longs for her and the child. Eventually, he tells the rabbi that he had made a mistake. The rabbi reconsiders the case for nine months before telling Gimpel he is free to return home, during which time Elka gives birth to another child. When Gimpel returns, he sees his apprentice in bed beside Elka. She tells him to go outside and check on the goat; when Gimpel returns, the apprentice is gone and Elka denies everything. Gimpel lives with her for twenty more years, during which time Elka has six more children. He continues to turn a blind eye towards his wife's behavior and professes his belief in everything she says. On her deathbed, Elka asks him for forgiveness and confesses that the children are not his. Gimpel imagines that, "dead as she was, she was saying, 'I deceived Gimpel. That was the meaning of my brief life." One night the Spirit of Evil appears to Gimpel, tells him there is no God, and advises him to "deceive the world" as it has deceived him. Gimpel urinates into the bread dough at the bakery, but later Elka appears to him in a dream with a black face and says, "You fool! Because I was false is everything false too? I never deceived anyone but myself. I'm paying for it all, Gimpel." Gimpel awakes, sensing that "everything hung in the balance. A false step now and [he'd] lose Eternal Life." He immediately grabs a shovel and buries the contaminated loaves of bread. Then he divides his belongings among the children and leaves Frampol for good. Outside Frampol, people suddenly treat him well. He hears "a great deal, many lies and falsehoods," but eventually he comes to understand that "that there were really no lies." Whatever does not really happen is dreamed at night. He begins to "spin yarns—improbable things that could never have happened," and children ask him to tell his stories. In his dreams he still sees Elka, but she is radiant now, and he looks forward to rejoining her in a place "without ridicule, without deception. . . . [where] even Gimpel cannot be deceived." themes: faith, acceptance and belonging, knowledge and ignorance, honor and integrity

Lucy Maud Montgomery Anne of Green Gables (1908)

Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of 11-year-old orphan girl Anne Shirley sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island, Canada. themes: friendship, the home, appearances, man and the natural world, religion, awe and amazement, coming of age, duty

Denisovich The Gulag Archipelago, Chapter 1, Volume II "The Fingers of Aurora" (1973)

Solzhenitsyn details the history of concentration camps in Russia. He believes that such camps and prisons were immediately established in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution. The forced labor—"the leading idea of the Archipelago" —differs from the previous incarceration system by being better staffed, more intense, and involving a far greater number of prisoners. Solzhenitsyn quotes from Lenin's telegrams about the use of concentration camps and "mass terror" to secure the safety of the Soviet Republic against class enemies. From there, the system of camps grew into what Solzhenitsyn refers to as the Archipelago. themes: fear-driven social alienation, the line dividing good from evil [that] cuts through the heart of every human being

D.H. Lawrence Sons and Lovers (1913) "Rocking Horse Winner" (1926)

Sons and Lovers: It traces emotional conflicts through the protagonist, Paul Morel, and his suffocating relationships with a demanding mother and two very different lovers, which exert complex influences on the development of his manhood. themes: family, psychology, Oedipus complex, Christianity, propriety, physicality, women's work, women's rights, death, grief, self-destruction, nature and industrialism "Rocking Horse Winner": A little boy who seeks to relieve his family's financial worries by accurately predicting the outcome of horse races, a feat he achieves by riding his toy rocking horse for hours until he reaches a clairvoyant state. themes: greed, materialism, luck, hard work, anxiety, family, intimacy

Thomas Hardy Tess of the d'Urbervilles (1891) Jude the Obscure (1895)

Tess of the d'Urbervilles: Tess, attractive and innocent, is seduced by dissolute Alec d'Urberville and secretly bears a child, Sorrow, who dies in infancy. Later working as a dairymaid, she meets and marries Angel Clare, an idealistic gentleman who rejects Tess after learning of her past on their wedding night. themes: injustice of existence, changing ideas of social class in Victorian England, men dominating women Jude the Obscure: Jude Fawley dreams of studying at the university in Christminster, but his background as an orphan raised by his working-class aunt leads him instead into a career as a stonemason. He is inspired by the ambitions of the town schoolmaster, Richard Phillotson, who left for Christminster when Jude was a child. themes: marriage, fate, social criticism, women in society, religion, isolation, love, gender, education, society and class, dreams, hopes, and plans

Mark Twain The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" (1895) "The War Prayer" (1916)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: The novel tells the story of Huckleberry Finn's escape from his alcoholic and abusive father and Huck's adventurous journey down the Mississippi River together with the runaway slave Jim. themes: racism and slavery, intellectual and moral education, hypocrisy of "civilized" society, guilt/shame, empathy, adventure, money/wealth A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: It is the tale of a commonsensical Yankee who is carried back in time to Britain in the Dark Ages, and it celebrates homespun ingenuity and democratic values in contrast to the superstitious ineptitude of a feudal monarchy. themes: new world vs. old world, imperialism, nature vs. nurture, superiority, power, authority, slavery, foolishness and folly, patriotism, society and class, injustice, wisdom and knowledge, technology and modernization, supernatural "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses": Twain asserted Cooper's popular Deerslayer, a Leatherstocking tale, committed 114 "offenses against literary art out of a possible 115." Generally, Twain's biting mockery of Cooper's characterization, plot, and setting is considered by contemporary critics as unnecessary and unfounded. broken rules: 1. Shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere. 2. The episodes shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. 3. The personages shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. 4. The personages, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. 5. When the personages deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. 6. When the author describes the character of a personage, the conduct and conversation of that personage shall justify said description. 7. When a personage talks like an illustrated, gilt-edged, tree-calf, hand-tooled, seven-dollar Friendship's Offering in the beginning of a paragraph, he shall not talk like a negro minstrel in the end of it. 8. Crass stupidities shall not be played upon the reader as "the craft of the woodsman, the delicate art of the forest," by either the author or the people in the tale. 9. The personages shall confine themselves to possibilities and let miracles alone; or, if they venture a miracle, the author must so plausibly set it forth as to make it look possible and reasonable. 10. The author shall make the reader feel a deep interest in the personages of his tale and in their fate, and he shall make the reader love the good people in the tale and hate the bad ones. 11. The characters shall be so clearly defined that the reader can tell beforehand what each will do in a given emergency. 12. Say what he is proposing to say, not merely come near it. 13. Use the right word, not its second cousin. 14. Eschew surplusage. 15. Not omit necessary details. 16. Avoid slovenliness of form. 17. Use good grammar. 18. Employ a simple and straightforward style. "The War Prayer": The message is that war is futile. Twain shows that wars happen because people are willing to turn a blind eye to the truth of the atrocities of war. Citizens do this in order to support and elevate their own country and people as heroes that are favored by God or their religion. themes: scathing indictment of war, particularly of blind patriotic and religious fervor as motivations for war

Jack London The Call of the Wild (1903) White Fang (1906)

The Call of the Wild: The story follows a dog named Buck, a 140-pound Saint Bernard and Scotch Shepherd mix. Buck is abducted from a comfortable life as a pet and tossed into the chaos of the Klondike Gold Rush and the brutal realities of frontier life. themes: indispensable struggle for mastery, power of ancestral memory and primitive instincts, laws of civilization and of wilderness, membership of the individual in the group White Fang: the story of a wolf-dog that is rescued from its brutal owner and gradually becomes domesticated through the patience and kindness of its new owner, Weedon Scott. White Fang eventually defends Scott's father from attack by an escaped convict. themes: man and the natural world, death, competition, suffering, courage, freedom and confinement, coming of age, innocence

Ovid Metamorphoses, Book I, including The Creation, The Four Ages, Jove's Intervention, The Flood, Jove and Io, Orpheus and Eurydice, Narcissus and Echo (8 A.D.)

The Creation: Ovid starts by explaining what the universe was like before Earth came into being. Before creation, the universe is one face, called Chaos. This face has no distinct parts and is a jumble of incompatible elements. The gods Titan (the sun), Phoebe (the moon), and Amphitrite (the ocean) don't exist. The land, sea, and sky are all present in Chaos, but they are indistinguishable. None of these elements has a shape, and they all conflict with each other. Then, the kind god of nature settles the conflict of the elements by separating them. Fire, the lightest element, rises to the heavens; air settles between the fire and earth, the heaviest element. Water, lighter than earth by as much as fire is lighter than air, surrounds the earth. Then, the god who did this forms the earth into a sphere so it hangs in balance. He adds springs to the ocean and rivers to the land. Then he makes plains, valleys, mountains, and forests. This wise god traces five zones on the earth's surface. The central zone is too hot to live in, and the top and bottom zone are buried in snow. Between the snow and heat two zones blend the hot and cold into a livable temperature. The god puts the mists, winds, and thunder in the air. The winds—gods Eurus, Zephyr, Boreas, and Auster—would tear the earth to pieces if they didn't counteract each other. The creator puts a pure ether above the air. Stars shine that were hidden before in Chaos's darkness. The Four Ages: Ovid explains that the first Age on earth is the Golden Age. This Age has no laws or punishments, and the people do what is right of their own free will. People have not started cutting down trees, plowing the earth, or traveling away from their homelands. No cities put up barricades, and no wars start. The people practice peace and enjoy eternal spring. The earth yields fruits in plenty, and rivers of milk and honey. When Saturn is banished to Tartarus, the dungeon of the gods, Jupiter, Saturn's son, takes the throne and the Silver Age starts. Spring is broken into summer, fall, winter, and a short spring. People, who used to live in caves, take shelter from the weather in houses. They plow the fields and yoke the oxen. Then the Bronze Age comes, bringing weapons. Next, the Iron Age comes, and evil invades the earth. Cruelty and deception replace loyalty and truth. People become violent, lustful, and greedy. They sail from their homelands, chop down the trees, and put boundaries around their cities. They strip the earth of its food and mine for gold and iron to make weapons. Wars break out. Sons deceive their fathers and husbands and wives plot each other's deaths. Finally, Justice the Maiden abandons the bloody earth. Jove's Intervention: Jupiter, also known as Jove, looks down from heaven and sighs, thinking of a gruesome visit he paid to Lycaön—a corrupt king. Jove calls for the gods, and they walk the Milky Way to assemble at Jove's palace. Jove vents his anger to the gods, saying that he fears for the universe even more than he feared the giants who tried to capture the heavens. The giants were one enemy, but Jove now fears he'll have to destroy the whole world to punish its corruption. He wants to populate the earth with demigods but knows they won't be safe around Lycaön, who wants to kill Jove. The assembly roars for Lycaön to be killed. Jupiter assures the gods that Lycaön has been punished and recounts the story to them: Jove heard of the evil times on earth, and so he dressed as a mortal and went to investigate. After traveling and witnessing the evil, Jove arrives at Lycaön's palace. He reveals to the people there that he is a god. Lycaön mocks him and plans to test Jove's immortality by trying to murder him later that night. Unable to wait, Lycaön murders Jove's companion, roasts his flesh, and serves it at the banquet. Then Jove strikes the palace with lightning. Lycaön flees to the country where he transforms into a wolf but maintains his savage expression. Jupiter explains to the assembly that Lycaön is only one of many evil men who deserve to die. Madness and evil govern the earth. Jove plans to punish everyone. Most of the gods agree, but some don't want to end the human race; they wonder who will honor the gods when only animals are left. Jove tells them he will breed a new human race, better than the one before it. The Flood: Jupiter starts to strike the earth with lightning, but he worries that the heavens will catch on fire. He remembers that the Fates once decreed that the throne of heaven would burn. So, Jove gathers storm clouds instead. He imprisons all the winds, and then releases Notus, the wind of the South. Notus flies over the earth, bringing gloom and pouring rain. Farmers weep as their crops are flattened. Jove calls his brother, the sea god Neptune, and tells him to let loose his strength. Neptune strikes the earth with the sea, causing the rivers to burst their confines. Crops, livestock, and houses crumble under a gigantic wave. After the flood, the land and the sea can no longer be distinguished. Men row their boats where their houses had been, the forests fill with dolphins, and wolves, sheep, and tigers swim together. The boar's strength and the deer's speed are useless. Only the peaks of mountains show above the water, and anyone who doesn't drown in the flood dies later of starvation. Jove and Io: In Thessaly, the Peneus river flows down a rocky ravine where the river god Penéus rules. All the river nymphs gather to recognize Daphne's transformation into a tree, except Ínachus, who is too upset over his missing daughter Io to appear. This is what happened to Io: one day, Io leaves her father's river and Jupiter (Jove?) sees her and falls in love with her. He tells her to lie down in the shade and to let him help her escape the wild beasts in the woods. She tries to flee, but Jupiter darkens the sky, overpowers her, and rapes her. Queen Juno—Jupiter's wife—notices that the sunny day has turned to night and suspects that Jupiter is cheating on her again, as he often has. She goes to earth to find him, but before she can catch him, Jupiter transforms Io into a beautiful white cow. Queen Juno suspects that the cow is really Jupiter's mistress, so she asks Jupiter to give her the cow. Reluctant to give up Io but not wanting to reveal his infidelity to his wife, Jupiter finally gives Queen Juno the cow. The Queen, still suspicious, has Argus—a man with a hundred eyes—keep watch over her. Io can't plead with Argus to release her, because her voice has become a moo. One day, Io wanders close to her father's river. Her father feeds her grass and she licks his hands, weeping because she can't tell him who she is. She writes her name in the dust with her hoof to explain. Her father weeps, lamenting that his lineage will be a herd of cattle. Argus then moves Io to a pasture farther away. Jupiter is unable to bear Io's distress. He calls for his son, Mercury, and orders him to kill Argus. Mercury grabs his sleep-inducing wand and goes down to earth. There, he pretends to be a shepherd playing music on a reed pipe. Entranced by the music, Argus asks Mercury to sit down beside him. Slowly, the music starts to put Argus to sleep. Orpheus and Eurydice: Orpheus is the world's greatest poet and singer. As such, he is profoundly idealistic, capable of deep love, and also somewhat impractical. Orpheus's troubles start on what should be the happiest day of his life: his marriage to a young woman named Eurydice. Music is powerful and in the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice his music is the reason for passing through the gates of Hades, whereas Porphyro wakes up Madeline by singing to her. The myth is the original tragic love story and the power of music is the main theme throughout it. Narcissus and Echo: Echo falls in love with Narcissus, but Narcissus isn't into it. Echo proceeds to pine over Narcissus until her body withers away and only her voice is left. Meanwhile, Narcissus stops for a drink at a small pond. When Narcissus sees his reflection in the water of the pool he falls hopelessly in love—with himself. themes: transformation

J. R. R. Tolkien The Hobbit (1937) The Lord of the Rings (1954)

The Hobbit: the quest of home-loving Bilbo Baggins, the titular hobbit, to win a share of the treasure guarded by a dragon named Smaug. He acts as the "burglar" in a troop of dwarves out to reclaim their treasure from The Lonely Mountain (Erebor) themes: bravery, quest, greed, hospitality, luck, the power of language The Lord of the Rings: The title refers to the story's main antagonist, the Dark Lord Sauron, who, in an earlier age, created the One Ring to rule the other Rings of Power given to Men, Dwarves, and Elves, in his campaign to conquer all of Middle-earth. From homely beginnings in the Shire, a hobbit land reminiscent of the English countryside, the story ranges across Middle-earth, following the quest to destroy the One Ring, seen mainly through the eyes of the hobbits Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin. themes: redemption, reversed quest, good vs. evil, the danger of power, fate and free will, rebirths

Washington Irving The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1819) Rip Van Winkle (1819)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: the tale of Ichabod Crane, a young gentleman who moves to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to take up the position of local schoolmaster. Here, Crane falls in love with one of his students and tries (and fails) to win her heart. themes: greed, supernatural, appetite and consumption, history and storytelling, war and battle, reality and imagination Rip Van Winkle: an amiable farmer who wanders into the Catskill Mountains, where he comes upon a group of dwarfs playing ninepins. Rip accepts their offer of a drink of liquor and promptly falls asleep. When he awakens, 20 years later, he is an old man with a long white beard; the dwarfs are nowhere in sight. themes: tyranny vs. freedom, truth, change vs. stasis, active vs. passive resistance, history and storytelling, labor vs. productivity

C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia (1950-56)

The Magician's Nephew: Uncle Andrew is off limits to Digory and one day when they stumble upon his secret office they are tricked into slipping on rings than transport them to the world between worlds where they awaken Jadis, an evil queen who has destroyed her own world and plans to return to London to take over that world as well. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Four kids travel through a wardrobe to the land of Narnia and learn of their destiny to free it with the guidance of a mystical lion. Four siblings are sent away from home during the blitz of WWII. They are sent to be watched over by an old Professor Kirke, who owns a massive mansion. The Horse and His Boy: Shasta is a boy who lives in southern Calormen with Arsheesh, an abusive fisherman, whom Shasta believes to be his father. A powerful nobleman demands hospitality one evening and haggles with Arsheesh to buy Shasta as his slave. Prince Caspian: Prince Caspian is heir to the throne but his evil uncle Miraz wishes the throne for another. Caspian, aided by his tutor Cornelius must fight against his uncle's tyrannical rule and find help among the talking beasts that are left in Narnia. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader. Along the way they encounter dragons, dwarves, merfolk, and a band of lost warriors before reaching the edge of the world. The Silver Chair: Eustace Scrubb's second trip to Narnia, accompanied by his friend Jill Pole, who had never been there before. The two of them were running from bullies at their school when they entered a door to hide, and found themselves in Aslan's country, next to a great cliff. The Last Battle: the last war of Narnia, when King Tirian and his loyal followers fight the Calormene invaders and their allies. This conflict leads to the end of the old world of Narnia and the beginning of a new adventure in Aslan's real country. themes: love, sacrifice, and redemption, allegories to the life of Christ, betrayal and forgiveness, good vs. evil, transformation, courage, spirituality

Rudyard Kipling The Man Who Would Be King (1888) "Just So Stories" (1902)

The Man Who Would Be King: two British adventurers in British India who become kings of Kafiristan, a remote part of Afghanistan. themes: "Just So Stories": The stories illustrate how animals acquired their distinctive features. 1) How the Whale Got His Throat - why the larger whales eat only small prey. 2) How the Camel Got His Hump - how the idle camel was punished and given a hump. 3) How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin - why rhinos have folds in their skin and bad tempers. 4) How the Leopard Got His Spots - why leopards have spots. 5) The Elephant's Child/How the Elephant Got His Trunk - how the elephant's trunk became long. 6) The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo - how the kangaroo assumed long legs and tail. 7) The Beginning of the Armadillos - how a hedgehog and tortoise transformed into the first armadillos. 8) How the First Letter Was Written - introduces the only characters who appear in more than one story: a family of cave-people, called Tegumai Bopsulai (the father), Teshumai Tewindrow (the mother), and Taffimai Metallumai, shortened to Taffy, (the daughter), and explains how Taffy delivered a picture message to her mother. 9) How the Alphabet Was Made - tells how Taffy and her father invent an alphabet. 10) The Crab that Played with the Sea - explains the ebb and flow of the tides, as well as how the crab changed from a huge animal into a small one. 11) The Cat that Walked by Himself - explains how man domesticated all the wild animals, even the cat, which insisted on greater independence. 12) The Butterfly that Stamped - how Solomon saved the pride of a butterfly, and the Queen of Sheba used this to prevent his wives from scolding him. 13) The Tabu Tale - how Taffy learned all the taboos. themes: innocence, inquisitiveness, the nature of childhood, whimsy of children

Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis (1915) "The Hunger Artist" (1922)

The Metamorphosis: tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa, who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect and subsequently struggles to adjust to this new condition. themes: man and the natural world, life, consciousness, and existence, morality and ethics, transformation, identity, isolation, family, society and class "The Hunger Artist": A man who is known only as "the hunger artist" and fasts for a living travels from town to European town with the impresario (his manager). The hunger artist refuses food, but his self-denial reveals his need for a different kind of nourishment: public recognition and artistic perfection. themes: death, art, isolation, asceticism, spiritual poverty, futility, personal failure and the corruption of human relationships

William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury (1929) Light in August (1932) "Barn Burning" (19139) "The Bear" (1942)

The Sound and the Fury: Set in Jefferson, Mississippi, in the first third of the 20th century. The novel centers on the Compson family, former Southern aristocrats who are struggling to deal with the dissolution of their family and its reputation. themes: natural and unnatural love among siblings, love between the sexes, Christian love, corruption of Southern aristocratic values, resurrection and renewal Light in August: The central figure of Light in August is the orphan Joe Christmas, whose mixed blood condemns him to life as an outsider, hated or pitied. Joe is frequently whipped by Simon McEachern, the puritanical farmer who raises him, and, after savagely beating his adoptive father, Joe leaves home when he is 18. themes: race, gender, transgression, freedom, discipline, violence, names and identity, haunting and the past, strangers, outcasts, belonging "Barn Burning": Emphasizes the antithetical loyalties that confront Sarty. The setting is a makeshift court for a Justice of the Peace, for Abner Snopes has been accused of burning Mr. Harris' barn. Immediately, Sarty is convinced that the people in the court are his and his father's enemies. themes: resentment, race, and prejudice, aspiration, desperation, defiance, independence and justice, loyalty, family, blood "The Bear": A hunting story told from the perspective of Isaac ("Ike") McCaslin, a young man from an old family in Yoknapatawpha county. In the first three parts of the novelette, Ike trains under the expert tracker Sam Fathers and hunts down the legendary bear Old Ben. themes: man is a slave to his feelings, loneliness and companionship, slavery, miscegenation, the doom of the American South

Sir Thomas Malory The Coming of Arthur (1470) The Knights of the Round Table (1471) The Quest of the Holy Grail (1485) The Departing of Arthur (1485) from King Arthur and His Knights: Selected Tales (edited by Eugene Vinaver) or King Arthur and His Knights (edited by R.T. Davies)

The book begins with Merlin, and really King Uther Pendragon and the wife of the Duke of Cornwall, Igraine, and the conception of one King Arthur. Following are tales of knight-errantry, profiles of brave souls such as Guinevere, Arthur, Merlin, and perhaps most notably, Sir Lancelot and his erstwhile beloved Elaine, and their child, Sir Galahad. The tales are highlighted by prophecies, magical kingdoms, chaste maidens and not-so-chaste queens. These are, of course, the Christianized versions of these stories, but it is a strange Christianity indeed. The eucharist holds no sway here, where instead, the sankgreall, or holy blood, just appears, sometimes from a censor a dove bears in its mouth, other times leeching from a long sword bore by Christ Himself (to Sir Galahad). Angels bear away noble souls to heaven, while sorcery and magic are promulgated side by side with Christian feasts and observances. The thin line between paganism and Christianity is blurred to the point the stories bear an uncontested occult thread from beginning to end which is to good effect here. themes: chivalry, feudalism, religion, absurd

Chinua Achebe Things Fall Apart (1958)

The novel chronicles the life of Okonkwo, the leader of an Igbo community, from the events leading up to his banishment from the community for accidentally killing a clansman, through the seven years of his exile, to his return, and it addresses a particular problem of emergent Africa—the intrusion in the 1890s of white missionaries and colonial government into tribal Igbo society. themes: colonization, masculinity, generational divide, language as a sign of cultural difference, struggle between change and tradition, pride

Aldous Huxley Brave New World (1932)

The novel examines a futuristic society, called the World State, that revolves around science and efficiency. In this society, emotions and individuality are conditioned out of children at a young age, and there are no lasting relationships because "everyone belongs to everyone else" (a common World State dictum). themes: dystopia and totalitarianism, technology and control, the cost of happiness, industrialism and consumption, individuality

Euripides The Trojan Woman (415 B.C.)

The play centers on Hecuba, the fallen queen of Troy, and her grief at the loss of her city and her family at the conclusion of the Trojan War. Her daughter, Cassandra, mourns the loss of her service as the maiden priestess in the temple of Apollo and captivates the audience as the mysterious and frenzied priestess. themes: duty, obligation, integrity, tragedy, suffering, pain, irrationality and absurdity of war, effects of war on women

Mikhail Bulgakov The Master and Margarita (1967)

The story concerns a visit by the devil and his entourage to the officially atheistic Soviet Union. The devil, manifested as one Professor Woland, challenges the Soviet citizen's beliefs towards religion and condemns their behavior throughout the book. The Master and Margarita combines supernatural elements with satirical dark comedy and Christian philosophy, defying categorization within a single genre. themes: don't take yourself too seriously, no matter how bad things have gotten, ambiguity of good and evil, courage and cowardice, art and authenticity, the danger and absurdity of the Soviet Union

Ralph Ellison Invisible Man (1897)

The story is a bildungsroman that tells of a naive and idealistic (and, significantly, nameless) Southern Black youth who goes to Harlem, joins the fight against white oppression, and ends up ignored by his fellow Blacks as well as by whites. themes: racism as an obstacle to individual identity, limitations of ideology, danger of fighting stereotype with stereotype, illusory promise of freedoms, elf-interested nature of power

Sir Walter Scott Ivanhoe (1819)

The story of one of the remaining Anglo-Saxon noble families at a time when the nobility in England was overwhelmingly Norman. It follows the Saxon protagonist, Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe, who is out of favor with his father for Sir Wilfred's allegiance to the Norman king Richard the Lionheart. themes: honor and dishonesty, about loyalty and betrayal, about pride and humility, about courage and cowardice, about love and sacrifice

E. M. Forster A Passage to India (1924)

The story revolves around four characters: Dr. Aziz, his British friend Mr. Cyril Fielding, Mrs. Moore, and Miss Adela Quested. During a trip to the fictitious Marabar Caves (modeled on the Barabar Caves of Bihar), Adela thinks she finds herself alone with Dr. Aziz in one of the caves (when in fact he is in an entirely different cave; whether the attacker is real or a reaction to the cave is ambiguous), and subsequently panics and flees; it is assumed that Dr. Aziz has attempted to assault her. Aziz's trial, and its run-up and aftermath, bring to a boil the common racial tensions and prejudices between Indians and the British during the colonial era. themes: colonialism, "muddles" and mysteries, division vs. unity, friendship, race and culture

James Fenimore Cooper The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

The story tells of brutal battles with the Iroquois and their French allies, cruel captures, narrow escapes, and revenge. The beauty of the unspoiled wilderness and sorrow at its disappearance symbolized in Hawkeye's Mohican friends, the last of their tribe, are important themes of the novel. themes: interracial love and friendship, friendship, communication, religion, power, conflict, violence

Francois-Marie Arouet Voltaire Candide (1759)

The young and naive Candide stumbles from one (mis)adventure to the next, including fighting in wars, being arrested, being nearly burned at the stake, finding El Dorado, and leaving it. themes: optimism and disillusion, the enlightenment and social criticism, religion and philosophy vs. the world, love and women, wealth,

Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island (1883) Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) Kidnapped (1893)

Treasure Island: a young boy named Jim Hawkins goes on a dangerous adventure to recover buried treasure. Along the way, he encounters mutinous pirates, marooned castaways, frightening tales of ghosts, and much more. themes: fortune and greed, father figures and "becoming a man", deception, secrecy, trust, courage, adventure, pragmatism Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Dr. Jekyll is a kind, well-respected and intelligent scientist who meddles with the darker side of science, as he wants to bring out his 'second' nature. He does this through transforming himself into Mr. Hyde - his evil alter-ego who doesn't repent or accept responsibility for his evil crimes and ways. themes: duality of human nature, appearance and reality, morality, class, age, gender, legacy and impact Kidnapped: the story of David Balfour, a young man of the Lowlands, the southern part of Scotland. David's father, Alexander Balfour, has recently died, and his mother died some time before, so he is now an orphan. Since he is now seventeen years old, he has decided it is time to go and seek his fortune. themes: rite of passage, loss of innocence, duality of self, man vs. nature, friendship, duality of Scottish character

Albert Camus The Stranger (1942)

a French man, Meursault, living in French-occupied Algeria. Meursault goes through life in isolation, reacting to events and relationships without much emotion or attachment. themes: meaninglessness of life and death, absurd and irrational universe, religion and God, physical world

Booth Tarkington Penrod (1914)

a collection of comic sketches by Booth Tarkington that was first published in 1914. The book follows the misadventures of Penrod Schofield, an eleven-year-old boy growing up in the pre-World War I Midwestern United States themes: boyhood

Sherwood Anderson Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

a collection of loosely interconnected short stories that focus on the troubled inhabitants of a small midwestern town. Although each of the 25 stories focuses on a different character, the novel's central plot arc is protagonist George Willard's gradual coming-of-age. themes: inability to communicate, loneliness, isolation, coming-of-age, independence

Richard Wright Black Boy (1945)

a memoir by American author Richard Wright, detailing his upbringing. Wright describes his youth in the South: Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee, and his eventual move to Chicago, where he establishes his writing career and becomes involved with the Communist Party. themes: racism, violence, society and class, isolation, education, dreams, oppression

Bulfinch Bulfinch's Mythology (1867)

a prose recounting of myths and stories from three eras: Greek and Roman mythology, King Arthur legends, and medieval romances. Bulfinch intersperses the stories with his own commentary, and with quotations from writings by his contemporaries that refer to the story under discussion. Three sections: The Age of Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes, The Age of Chivalry, and The Knights of English History; and Legends of Charlemagne or Romance of the Middle Ages. themes: lively versions of the myths of Zeus and Hera, Venus and Adonis, Daphne and Apollo, and their cohorts on Mount Olympus; the love story of Pygmalion and Galatea; the legends of the Trojan War and the epic wanderings of Ulysses and Aeneas; the joys of Valhalla and the furies of Thor; and the tales of Beowulf and Robin Hood.

Theodore Dreiser Sister Carrie (1900)

a young woman who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream. She first becomes a mistress to men whom she perceives as superior, but later becomes a famous actress. themes: woman and femininity, society and class, isolation

Alexis De Tocqueville Democracy In America (1835)

believed that equality was the great political and social idea of his era, and he thought that the United States offered the most advanced example of equality in action. He sought to apply the functional aspects of democracy in the United States to what he sees as the failings of democracy in his native France. themes: liberty, equality, and tyranny, checks and balances, civic and religious institutions, individualism and materialism, politics, customs, and culture

John Steinbeck Of Mice and Men (1937)

centered around two itinerant workers, George and Lennie, in California in the 1930s as they start work on a ranch in a place called Soledad (a Spanish word meaning 'solitude'). The whole story takes place over a period of four days, starting on Thursday evening and ending on Sunday. Lennie is mentally challenged, accidentally kills the ranch's owner's son's wife, and George mercy kills him. themes: dreams, the predatory nature of human existence, fraternity, the impossibility of the American dream, fear, freedom vs. captivity

Edith Wharton The Age of Innocence (1920)

centers on an upper-class couple's impending marriage, and the introduction of the bride's cousin, plagued by scandal, whose presence threatens their happiness. Though the novel questions the assumptions and morals of 1870s New York society, it never develops into an outright condemnation of the institution. The novel is noted for Wharton's attention to detail and its accurate portrayal of how the 19th-century East Coast American upper class lived, as well as for the social tragedy of its plot. themes: innocence vs. experience, the failure of marriage, the rules of society, change and progress, American vs. Foreign

William Makepeace Thackeray Vanity Fair (1848)

follows the lives of Becky Sharp, a strong-willed, penniless young woman, and her friend Amelia 'Emmy' Sedley, a good-natured wealthy young woman. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, Vanity Fair charts the girls' misadventures in love, marriage, and family. themes: vanity, society's values, selfishness, illusion and reality, heroism, fiction versus reality, married and parental relationships, the gentleman

Charlotte Bronte Jane Eyre (1847)

follows the story of Jane, a seemingly plain and simple girl as she battles through life's struggles. Jane has many obstacles in her life - her cruel and abusive Aunt Reed, the grim conditions at Lowood school, her love for Rochester, and Rochester's marriage to Bertha. themes: love vs. autonomy, family, independence, social class, gender roles, religion, anxiety and uncertainty

Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813)

follows the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth Bennet, the daughter of a country gentleman, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, a rich aristocratic landowner. They must overcome the titular sins of pride and prejudice in order to fall in love and marry. themes: a woman's reputation, social class, class distinction, overcoming obstacles for true love, integrity and behavior, the strength of family networks

Mary Shelley Frankenstein (1818)

gifted scientist Victor Frankenstein who succeeds in giving life to a being of his own creation. However, this is not the perfect specimen he imagines that it will be, but rather a hideous creature who is rejected by Victor and mankind in general. themes: dangerous knowledge, nature, isolation, revenge, monstrosity

Samuel Johnson "The Rambler No. 4" (1750) Preface to the Dictionary () "Letter to Lord Chesterfield" (1755) first half of "Preface to Shakespeare, Note on King Lear" (1765) "Metaphysical Wit" (1779) Criticisms of Paradise Lost from the Life of Milton () "A Letter to a Noble Lord" (1796)

literally can not find any of this wtf.

Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse (1927)

made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of the Ramsay family, living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. There's maternal Mrs. Ramsay, the highbrow Mr. Ramsay, their eight children, and assorted holiday guests. themes: marriage, perception, memory and the passing of time, the nature of interior life, art and beauty, gender

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin Moliere The Misanthrope (1666)

satiric comedy in five acts by Molière, performed in 1666 and published the following year. The play is a portrait of Alceste, a painfully forthright 17th-century gentleman utterly intolerant of polite society's flatteries and hypocrisies. themes: honesty and hypocrisy, justice and injustice, manipulative social games people play, conflict between the individual and society

James Thurber The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1939)

the aging Walter Mitty on a trip into town with his overbearing wife, Mrs. Mitty. Walter is inept at many things; he is an absent-minded driver, he can't handle simple mechanical tasks, and he forgets things easily. What makes Walter exceptional is his imagination. themes: heroism and masculinity, the overlap of fantasy and reality, humor, dissatisfaction, marriage, identity

Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland (1865)

the book lampoons the moralistic and hypocritical Victorian era. Alice, a child, discovers the nonsensical and nightmarish world of adults. Her painful growing and shrinking experiences are a symbol of puberty and the confusing search for a new identity. themes: tragic and inevitable loss of childhood innocence, physical changes, life as a meaningless puzzle, death as a constant and underlying menace

Willa Cather My Antonia (1918)

the stories of an orphaned boy from Virginia, Jim Burden, and the elder daughter in a family of Bohemian immigrants, Ántonia Shimerda, who are each brought as children to be pioneers in Nebraska towards the end of the 19th century. themes: immigrant Experience, friendship, prairie, past, innocence and maturity, gender

William Golding Lord of the Flies (1954)

the story of a group of young boys who find themselves alone on a deserted island. They develop rules and a system of organization, but without any adults to serve as a civilizing impulse, the children eventually become violent and brutal. themes: civilization vs. savagery, loss of innocence, struggle to build civilization, man's inherent evil

George Eliot The Mill on the Floss (1860)

the story of a young woman's struggle for growth and independence against the restraints of small country life, domineering family, and unsuitable suitors. themes: claim of the past upon present identity, importance of sympathy, practical knowledge vs. bookish knowledge, effect of society upon the individual