All the Books You Will Never Read

FOrEWORD
In 2010, Google calculated the total number of books published in the mod-
ern era as nearly 130 million separate titles1
. Compare that to the 30,000
days in the average Canadian lifespan and, dear reader, you’ve lost the
battle before you’ve begun. This book is a monument to the millions on
which, try as you might, you will never manage to lay your hands. It is a
constant prodding to turn off the television and turn another page, but
also a reminder that no matter how much you know, you will never know
everything. As much a plea to read broadly, to tear from it as many pages
as you can, it is the daunting souvenir of an ambition that is both noble and
impossible. Empty its spine as you might, there will forever be thousands
more, for this may simply be considered Volume I.
The terrible grief of the dying
as they realise their last hour is
upon them and they still haven’t
read Proust.
– Jean-Claude Carrière
1
Kelly, Cathal. “How Many Books Are There in the World? Google Has the Answer.”
Thestar.com. Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., 6 Aug. 2010. Web. 15 Oct. 2013.

5
7 HAbits
OF HighlY
EffectiVe
People
By Stephen R. Covey
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, first published in 1989, is a
business and self-help book written by Stephen R. Covey. It has sold more
than 15 million copies in 38 languages worldwide, and remains one of the
best selling nonfiction business books. Covey presents an approach to
being effective in attaining goals by aligning oneself to what he calls “true
north” principles of a character ethic that he presents as universal and
timeless. U.S. President Bill Clinton read the book and invited Covey to
Camp David to counsel him on how to integrate the book into his presidency.
The book first introduces the concept of Paradigm Shift and prepares
the reader for a change in mindset. It helps the reader understand that
there exists a different perspective, a viewpoint that may be different from
his or her own and asserts that two people can see the same thing and yet
differ with each other. Once the reader is prepared for this, it introduc-
es the seven habits, in a proper order.
Approximately 200 pages

6 7
habit
ofhig The
Adveotures OF
Huckleberrz
Finn
By Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel by Mark Twain, first pub-
lished in England in December 1884 and in the United States in February
1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is
among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in
vernacular English, characterized by local color regionalism. It is told in
the first person by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn, a friend of Tom Sawyer and
narrator of two other Twain novels (Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer,
Detective). It is a direct sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
The book is noted for its colorful description of people and places along
the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society that had ceased
to exist about twenty years before the work was published, Adventures
of Huckleberry Finn is an often scathing satire on entrenched attitudes,
particularly racism.

8 9
ADVEN
HUCKL The
Adveotures OF
Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young
boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the fiction-
al town of St. Petersburg, inspired by Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain lived.
Tom Sawyer with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid. Tom dirties
his clothes in a fight and is made to whitewash the fence the next day, as
punishment. He cleverly persuades his friends to trade him small treasures for
the privilege of doing his work. In Sunday school, Tom does not manage to
get a Bible because Mr. Walters knew he was trading tickets.
Tom falls in love with Becky Thatcher, a new girl in town, and persuades
her to get “engaged” by kissing him. But their romance collapses when she
learns Tom has been “engaged” previously, to a girl named Amy Lawrence.
Shortly after being shunned by Becky, Tom accompanies Huckleberry Finn
to the graveyard at night, where they witnessed the murder of Dr. Robinson.
Tom, Huck, and Joe Harper run away to an island. While enjoying their
newfound freedom, the boys become aware that the community is sound-
ing the river for their bodies.

10 11
ENTUR
SAWYE alice’s
Adventures IN
wooderland
By Lewis Carroll
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (commonly shortened to Alice in Wonderland)
is an 1865 novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under
the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells of a girl named Alice who falls down a
rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar creatures.
The tale plays with logic, giving the story lasting popularity with adults
as well as with children. It is considered to be one of the best examples of
the literary nonsense genre, and its narrative course and structure, charac-
ters and imagery have been enormously influential in both popular culture
and literature, especially in the fantasy genre.

12 13
ALICE’s
adven Americao
PsYcho
By Bret Easton Ellis
American Psycho is a novel by Bret Easton Ellis, published in 1991. The story
is told in the first person by Patrick Bateman, a serial killer and Manhattan
businessman. The book's graphic violence and sexual content generated a
great deal of controversy before and after publication. The Observer notes
that while “some countries [deem it] so potentially disturbing that it can
only be sold shrink-wrapped”, “critics rave about it” and “academics revel
in its transgressive and postmodern qualities.”
Set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, Ameri-
can Psycho is about the daily life of wealthy young investment banker Pat-
rick Bateman. Bateman, in his late 20s when the story begins, narrates his
everyday activities, from his recreational life among the Wall Street elite
of New York to his forays into murder by nightfall. Through present tense
stream-of-consciousness narrative, Bateman describes his daily life, rang-
ing from a series of Friday nights spent at nightclubs with his colleagues
— where they snort cocaine, critique fellow club-goers' clothing, trade
fashion advice, and question one another on proper etiquette — to his love-
less engagement to fellow yuppie Evelyn and his contentious relationship
with his brother and senile mother.
Bateman's stream of consciousness is occasionally broken up by chap-
ters in which he directly addresses the reader in order to critique the work
of 1980s Pop music artists. The novel maintains a high level of ambiguity
through mistaken identity and contradictions that introduce the possibili-
ty that Bateman is an unreliable narrator.

14 15
AMER
PSYCH animal Farm
By George Orwell
Animal Farm is an allegorical and dystopian novel by George Orwell, pub-
lished in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects
events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the
Stalin era in the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic
of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, especially after
his experiences with the NKVD and the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet
Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of
personality and enforced by a reign of terror. In a letter to Yvonne Davet,
Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin “un conte
satirique contre Stalin”, and in his essay “Why I Write” (1946), he wrote
that Animal Farm was the first book in which he had tried, with full
consciousness of what he was doing, “to fuse political purpose and artistic
purpose into one whole”.
The original title was Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, though the subtitle
was dropped by U.S. publishers for its 1946 publication and subsequently
all but one of the translations during Orwell’s lifetime omitted it. Other
variations in the title include: A Satire and A Contemporary Satire. Or-
well suggested the title Union des républiques socialistes animales for the
French translation, which recalled the French name of the Soviet Union,
Union des républiques socialistes soviétiques, and which abbreviates to
URSA, the Latin for “bear”, a symbol of Russia.

16 17
ANIMA
FARM angels AND
Demoos
By Dan Brown
Angels and Demons is a 2000 bestselling mystery-thriller novel written by
American author Dan Brown and published by Pocket Books. The novel
introduces the character Robert Langdon, who is also the protagonist of
Brown's subsequent 2003 novel, The Da Vinci Code; his 2009 novel, The
Lost Symbol; and the 2013 novel Inferno. Angels and Demons shares many
stylistic literary elements with its sequel, such as conspiracies of secret so-
cieties, a single-day time frame, and the Catholic Church. Ancient history,
architecture, and symbolism are also heavily referenced throughout the book.
The book contains several ambigrams created by real-life typographer John
Langdon. Besides the “Angels And Demons” and “Illuminati” designs, the
title of the book is also presented as an ambigram on the hardcover book
jacket, and on the inside cover of the paperback versions. The book also
contains ambigrams of the words Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, which
has served to bring the art of ambigrams to public attention by virtue of
the popularity of the book. The “Illuminati Diamond” mentioned in the book
is an ambigram of the four elements arranged in the shape of a diamond.

18 19
ANGEL
DEMON Aona
KareninA
By Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in
serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Mes-
senger. Tolstoy clashed with editor Mikhail Katkov over political issues
that arose in the final installment; therefore, the novel’s first complete
appearance was in book form. Widely regarded as a pinnacle in realist fic-
tion, Tolstoy considered Anna Karenina his first true novel, when he came
to consider War and Peace to be more than a novel.
Anna Karenina is the tragedy of married aristocrat and socialite Anna
Karenina and her affair with the affluent Count Vronsky. The story starts
when she arrives in the midst of a family broken up by her brother’s un-
bridled womanizing—something that prefigures her own later situation,
though with less tolerance for her by others.
A bachelor, Vronsky is eager to marry her if she would agree to leave
her husband Karenin, a government official, but she is vulnerable to the
pressures of Russian social norms, her own insecurities and Karenin’s
indecision. Although Vronsky and Anna go to Italy where they can be
together, they have trouble making friends. Back in Russia, she is shunned,
becoming further isolated and anxious, while Vronsky pursues his social
life. Despite Vronsky’s reassurances she grows increasingly possessive and
paranoid about his imagined infidelity, fearing loss of control.

20 21
anna
kare Aone Franl:
The DiaryOF A
Young Girl
By Anne Frank
The Diary of a Young Girl (also known as The Diary of Anne Frank) is a book
of the writings from the Dutch language diary kept by Anne Frank while
she was in hiding for two years with her family during the Nazi occupation
of the Netherlands. The family was apprehended in 1944 and Anne Frank
ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The
diary was retrieved by Miep Gies, who gave it to Anne’s father, Otto Frank,
the only known survivor of the family. The diary has now been published
in more than 60 different languages.
First published under the title Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 juni
1942 – 1 augustus 1944 (The Annex: Diary Notes from 14 June 1942 – 1
August 1944) by Contact Publishing in Amsterdam in 1947, it received
widespread critical and popular attention on the appearance of its English
language translation Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Doubleday
& Company (United States) and Valentine Mitchell (United Kingdom) in
1952. Its popularity inspired the 1955 play The Diary of Anne Frank by the
screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, which they subse-
quently adapted for the screen for the 1959 movie version. The book is
in several lists of the top books of the 20th century.

22 23
ANNE
FRANK
TH
Aone OF
GreeN Gables
By Lucy Maud Montgomery
Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling 1908 novel by Canadian author Lucy
Maud Montgomery. Written as fiction for readers of all ages, the literary
classic has been considered a children's novel since the mid-twentieth
century. It recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, a young orphan girl
mistakenly sent to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, a middle-aged brother
and sister who have a farm on Prince Edward Island and who had intend-
ed to adopt a boy to help them. The novel recounts how Anne makes her
way with the Cuthberts, in school and within the town.
In writing the novel, Montgomery was inspired by notes she had made
as a young girl, about a couple who were mistakenly sent an orphan girl
instead of the boy they had requested yet decided to keep her. She drew
upon her own childhood experiences in rural Prince Edward Island.
Montgomery used a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit as the model for the
face of Anne Shirley, which she had clipped from New York’s Metropoli-
tan Magazine and put on the wall of her bedroom.

24 25
ANNE
fGREE Around THE
World IN
Eightz Days
By Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days is a classic adventure novel by the French
writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London
and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavi-
gate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (roughly £1,511,978 today) set by
his friends at the Reform Club. It is one of Verne's most acclaimed works.
Verne is often characterised as a futurist or science fiction author but there
is not a glimmer of science fiction in this, his most popular work. Rather than
any futurism, it remains a memorable portrait of the British Empire “on which
the sun never sets” shortly before its peak, drawn by an outsider.

26 27
sROUND
HEWO as I Lay Dzing
By William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying is a novel by American author William Faulkner. Faulkner
said that he wrote the novel from midnight to 4:00 AM over the course
of six weeks, and that he did not change a word of it. Faulkner wrote it
while working at a power plant, published it in 1930, and described it as a
“tour de force.” Faulkner’s seventh novel, it is consistently ranked among
the best novels of 20th century literature. The title derives from Book
XI of Homer’s The Odyssey, wherein Agamemnon speaks to Odysseus:
“As I lay dying, the woman with the dog’s eyes would not close my eyes
as I descended into Hades.”
The novel utilizes stream of consciousness writing technique, multiple
narrators, and varying chapter lengths. The book is narrated by 15 different
characters over 59 chapters. It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren
and her family’s quest and motivations – noble or selfish – to honor her wish
to be buried in the town of Jefferson.
As is the case in much of Faulkner’s work, the story is set in Yoknapatawpha
County, Mississippi, which Faulkner referred to as “my apocryphal county,” a
fictional rendition of the writer’s home of Lafayette County in that same state.
Throughout the novel, Faulkner presents fifteen different points of view,
each chapter narrated by one character, including Addie, who, after dying,
expresses her thoughts from the coffin. In 59 chapters titled only by their
narrators’ names, the characters are developed gradually through each other’s
perceptions and opinions, with Darl’s predominating.

28 29
TURES
E
Asila
dying atlas
Shrugged
By Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged is a novel by Ayn Rand, first published in 1957 in the United
States. Rand's fourth and last novel, it was also her longest, and the one
she considered to be her magnum opus in the realm of fiction writing.
Atlas Shrugged includes elements of romance, mystery, and science fiction,
and it contains Rand's most extensive statement of Objectivism in any
of her works of fiction.
The book explores a dystopian United States where many of society's
wealthiest citizens refuse to pay increasingly high taxes, reject govern-
ment regulations and disappear, shutting down their vital industries. The
disappearances evoke the imagery of what would happen if the mythologi-
cal Atlas refused to continue to hold up the sky. They are led by John Galt.
Galt describes the disappearances as “stopping the motor of the world” by
withdrawing the people that drive society's productivity. In their efforts,
these characters hope to demonstrate that the destruction of the profit
motive leads to the collapse of society. The title is a reference to Atlas,
a Titan of Ancient Greek mythology, described in the novel as “the gi-
ant who holds the world on his shoulders”, although in Greek mythology
he holds the sky, not the earth.

30 31
S
R
ATLAS
SHRUG The
Autobiographz
OF Malcolm X
By Malcolm X with Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X was published in 1965, the result of a collab-
oration between Malcolm X and journalist Alex Haley. Haley coauthored
the autobiography based on a series of in-depth interviews he conducted
between 1963 and Malcolm X's 1965 assassination. The Autobiography is
a spiritual conversion narrative that outlines Malcolm X's philosophy of
black pride, black nationalism, and pan-Africanism. After the death of his
subject, Haley authored the book's epilogue, which describes their collab-
oration and summarizes the end of Malcolm X's life.
While Malcolm X and scholars contemporary to the book's publication
regarded Haley as the book's ghostwriter, modern scholars tend to regard
him as an essential collaborator who intentionally subsumed his authorial
voice to allow readers to feel as though Malcolm X were speaking directly
to them. Haley also influenced some of Malcolm X's literary choices; for
example, when Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam during the composi-
tion of the book, Haley persuaded him to favor a style of “suspense and
drama” rather than rewriting earlier chapters into a polemic against the
Nation. Furthermore, Haley's proactive censorship of the manuscript's
antisemitic material significantly influenced the ideological tone of the
autobiography, increasing its commercial success and popularity although
distorting Malcolm X's public persona.

32 33
tures
AUTOB
OFMA The Bell Jar
By Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is American writer and poet Sylvia Plath's only novel, which
was originally published under the pseudonym “Victoria Lucas” in 1963.
The novel is semi-autobiographical with the names of places and people
changed. The book is often regarded as a roman à clef, with the protago-
nist's descent into mental illness paralleling Plath's own experiences
with what may have been clinical depression. Plath committed suicide a
month after its first UK publication. The novel was published under Plath's
name for the first time in 1967 and was not published in the United States
until 1971, pursuant to the wishes of Plath's mother and her husband Ted
Hughes. The novel has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.
The novel is written using a series of flashbacks that show up parts of
Esther's past. The flashbacks primarily deal with Esther's relationship with
Buddy Willard. The reader also learns more about her early college years.
The Bell Jar addresses the question of socially acceptable identity. It ex-
amines Esther's “quest to forge her own identity, to be herself rather than
what others expect her to be”. Esther is expected to become a housewife,
and a self-sufficient woman, without the options to achieve independence.
Esther feels she is a prisoner to domestic duties and she fears the loss of her
inner self. The Bell Jar sets out to highlight the problems with oppressive
patriarchal society in mid-20th Century America. The men in Esther's life
are all oppressive, whether it is in a physical manner or an emotional one.

34 35
CAN
O
HEBE
LLJAR BeloVed
By Toni Morrison
Beloved is a novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the
American Civil War (1861–1865), it is inspired by the story of an African-
American slave, Margaret Garner, who temporarily escaped slavery during
1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve
her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave
owners the right to pursue slaves across state borders. Margaret killed her
two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be recaptured.
Beloved's main character, Sethe, kills her daughter and tries to kill
her other three children when a posse arrives in Ohio to return them to
Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation from which Sethe recently fled. A
woman presumed to be her daughter, called Beloved, returns years later
to haunt Sethe's home at 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati. The story opens
with an introduction to the ghost: “124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom.”
The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988.

36 37
ALBELO
VED Beowulf
By Unknown Author
Beowulf is the conventional title of an Old English heroic epic poem con-
sisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as
one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature. It survives in a
single manuscript known as the Nowell Codex. Its composition by an anony-
mous Anglo-Saxon poet is dated between the 8th and the early 11th century.
In the poem, Beowulf, a hero of the Geats in Scandinavia, comes to the
help of Hroðgar, the king of the Danes, whose mead hall (in Heorot) has
been under attack by a monster known as Grendel. After Beowulf slays
him, Grendel's mother attacks the hall and is then also defeated. Victori-
ous, Beowulf goes home to Geatland in Sweden and later becomes king
of the Geats. After a period of fifty years has passed, Beowulf defeats a
dragon, but is fatally wounded in the battle. After his death, his attendants
bury him in a tumulus, a burial mound, in Geatland.

38 39
S
NS
BEOW
ULF Black Beautz
By Anna Sewell
Black Beauty is an 1877 novel by English author Anna Sewell. It was com-
posed in the last years of her life, during which she remained in her house
as an invalid. The novel became an immediate best-seller, with Sewell dying
just five months after its publication, but long enough to see her only novel
become a success. With fifty million copies sold, Black Beauty is one of the
best-selling books of all time.
While forthrightly teaching animal welfare, it also teaches how to treat
people with kindness, sympathy, and respect. Black Beauty became a fore-
runner to the pony book genre of children's literature.
The story is narrated in the first person as an autobiographical memoir
told by the titular horse named Black Beauty—beginning with his care-
free days as a colt on an English farm with his mother, to his difficult life
pulling cabs in London, to his happy retirement in the country. Along the
way, he meets with many hardships and recounts many tales of cruelty and
kindness. Each short chapter recounts an incident in Black Beauty's life
containing a lesson or moral typically related to the kindness, sympathy,
and understanding treatment of horses, with Sewell's detailed observations
and extensive descriptions of horse behaviour lending the novel a good
deal of verisimilitude.

40 41
nina
BLACK
BEAUT The Book
Thief
By Markus Zusak
The Book Thief is a novel by Australian author Markus Zusak. Narrated by
Death, the book is set in Nazi Germany, a place and time when the narra-
tor notes he was extremely busy. It describes a young girl's relationship
with her foster parents, the other residents of their neighborhood, and a
Jewish fist-fighter who hides in her home during the escalation of World
War II. First published in 2005, the book has won numerous awards and
was listed on the The New York Times Best Seller list for over 230 weeks.
Upon arriving at the home of her foster parents, housepainter Hans
Hubermann and his wife Rosa, Liesel finds it difficult to adjust. She is
haunted by nightmares about her mother and dead brother. She eventually
develops a bond with Hans, who comes to her every night and stays with
her until she is able to fall sleep again, Hans, upon noticing The Grave Dig-
ger's Handbook tucked under Liesel's mattress, decides to take advantage
of the sleepless hours he spends with Liesel each night by teaching her
how to read and write.

42 43
EBOOK
THEIF BrAve New
World
By Aldus Huxley
Brave New World is a novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley and published in
1932. Set in London of AD 2540 (632 A.F. – “After Ford” – in the book), the
novel anticipates developments in reproductive technology, sleep-learning,
psychological manipulation, and operant conditioning that combine to pro-
foundly change society. Huxley answered this book with a reassessment in an
essay, Brave New World Revisited (1958), and with Island (1962), his final novel.
Huxley said that Brave New World was inspired by the utopian novels of
H. G. Wells, including A Modern Utopia (1905) and Men Like Gods (1923).
Wells' hopeful vision of the future's possibilities gave Huxley the idea to begin
writing a parody of the novel, which became Brave New World. He wrote
in a letter to Mrs. Arthur Goldsmith, an American acquaintance, that he had
“been having a little fun pulling the leg of H. G. Wells,” but then he “got
caught up in the excitement of [his] own ideas.” Unlike the most popular
optimist utopian novels of the time, Huxley sought to provide a frighten-
ing vision of the future. Huxley referred to Brave New World as a “negative
utopia”, somewhat influenced by Wells' own The Sleeper Awakes (dealing
with subjects like corporate tyranny and behavioural conditioning) and
the works of D. H. Lawrence.

44 45
OF
N
BRAVE
NEWW Breakfast AT
Tiffaoy’s
By Truman Capote
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958.
The main character, Holly Golightly, is one of Capote's best-known creations
and an American cultural icon. In autumn 1943, the unnamed narrator be-
comes friends with Holly Golightly, who calls him “Fred”, after her older
brother. The two are both tenants in a brownstone apartment in Manhattan's
Upper East Side. Holly (age 18–19) is a country girl turned New York café
society girl. As such, she has no job and lives by socializing with wealthy men,
who take her to clubs and restaurants, and give her money and expensive
presents; she hopes to marry one of them.

46 47
RLD
BREAKF
ATTIFFA Bridge TO
Terabithia
By Katherine Paterson
Bridge to Terabithia is a work of children's literature about two lonely children
who create a magical forest kingdom. It was written by Katherine Nate
Paterson and was published in 1977 by Thomas Crowell. In 1978, it won
the Newbery Medal. Paterson drew inspiration for the novel from a real
event that occurred in August 1974 when a friend of her son was struck by
lightning and killed.
Bridge to Terabithia is the story of fifth grader Jesse Aarons, who becomes
friends with his new neighbor Leslie Burke after he loses a footrace to her
at school. Leslie is a smart, talented, outgoing tomboy, and Jesse thinks
highly of her. Jesse is an artistic boy who, in the beginning of the novel,
is fearful, angry, and depressed. After meeting Leslie, Jesse's life is trans-
formed. He becomes courageous and learns to let go of his frustration.

48 49
yRIDGE
OTERA Bridget
Jones’s Diarz
By Helen Fielding
Bridget Jones's Diary is a 1996 novel by Helen Fielding. Written in the form
of a personal diary, the novel chronicles a year in the life of Bridget Jones,
a thirty-something single working woman living in London. She writes
(often humorously) about her career, self-image, vices, family, friends,
and romantic relationships.
Bridget not only obsesses about her love life, but also details her vari-
ous daily struggles with her weight, her over-indulgence in alcohol and
cigarettes, and her career. Bridget's friends and family are the supporting
characters in her diary. These friends are there for her unconditionally
throughout the novel; they give her advice about her relationships, and
support when problems arise. The novel is based on Pride and Prejudice.

50 51
GED
BRIDG
JONES The Call OF THE
Wild
By Jack London
The Call of the Wild is a novel by American author Jack London published
in 1903. The story is set in the Yukon during the 19th-century Klondike
Gold Rush—a period when strong sled dogs were in high demand. The
novel's central character is a dog named Buck, a domesticated dog living
at a ranch in California as the story opens. Stolen from his home and sold
into the brutal existence of an Alaskan sled dog, he reverts to atavistic
traits. Buck is forced to adjust to, and survive, cruel treatments, fight to
dominate other dogs, and survive in a harsh climate. Eventually he sheds
the veneer of civilization, relying on primordial instincts through lessons
he learns, to emerge as a leader in the wild.
London lived for most of a year in the Yukon and gained from that
experience material for the book. The story was serialized in the Saturday
Evening Post in the summer of 1903; a month later it was released in book
form. The novel’s great popularity and success made a reputation for Lon-
don. Much of its appeal derives from the simplicity with which London
presents the themes in an almost mythical form.

52 53
IO
L
CALL
WILD Caodide
By Voltaire
Candide, ou l'Optimisme is a French satire first published in 1759 by Vol-
taire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment. The novella has been
widely translated, with English versions titled Candide: or, All for the Best
(1759); Candide: or, The Optimist (1762); and Candide: or, Optimism (1947).
It begins with a young man, Candide, who is living a sheltered life in an
Edenic paradise and being indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism (or
simply Optimism) by his mentor, Pangloss. The work describes the abrupt
cessation of this lifestyle, followed by Candide's slow, painful disillu-
sionment as he witnesses and experiences great hardships in the world.
Voltaire concludes with Candide, if not rejecting optimism outright,
advocating a deeply practical precept, “we must cultivate our garden”, in
lieu of the Leibnizian mantra of Pangloss, “all is for the best in the best of
all possible worlds”.
Candide is characterised by its sarcastic tone, as well as by its erratic,
fantastical and fast-moving plot. A picaresque novel with a story similar
to that of a more serious bildungsroman, it parodies many adventure and
romance clichés, the struggles of which are caricatured in a tone that is
mordantly matter-of-fact.

54 55
CAN
DIDE The
CanterburY
Tales
By Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stories written in Middle English
by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century, during the time of
the Hundred Years' War. The tales (mostly written in verse, although some
are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of
pilgrims as they travel together on a journey from Southwark to the shrine
of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest
is a free meal at the Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return.
After a long list of works written earlier in his career, including Troilus
and Criseyde, House of Fame, and “Parliament of Fowls”, The Canterbury
Tales was Chaucer's magnum opus. He uses the tales and the descriptions
of its characters to paint an ironic and critical portrait of English society
at the time, and particularly of the Church. Structurally, the collection
resembles The Decameron, which Chaucer may have read during his first
diplomatic mission to Italy in 1372.
It is sometimes argued that the greatest contribution that this work made
to English literature was in popularising the literary use of the vernacular,
English, rather than French or Latin. English had, however, been used
as a literary language for centuries before Chaucer's life, and several
of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, William Langland, and the
Pearl Poet—also wrote major literary works in English. It is unclear to
what extent Chaucer was responsible for starting a trend rather than
simply being part of it.

56 57
CANTE
TALES Casioo Rozale
By Ian Fleming
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for
a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story
collections, followed by many “continuation” Bond novels by other authors.
The story details James Bond, Agent 007 of the “Secret Service”, travelling
to the casino at Royale-les-Eaux in order to bankrupt a fifth-columnist,
Le Chiffre, the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian
secret service. Bond is supported in his endeavours by Vesper Lynd, a
member of his own service, as well as Felix Leiter of the CIA and René
Mathis of the French Deuxième Bureau.

58 59
CASIN
ROYAL The Castle OF
Otranto
By Horace Walpole
The Castle of Otranto is a 1764 novel by Horace Walpole. It is generally regard-
ed as the first gothic novel, initiating a literary genre which would become
extremely popular in the later 18th century and early 19th century. Thus, Wal-
pole, by extension, is arguably the forerunner to such authors as Charles Ma-
turin, Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and Daphne du Maurier.
The Castle of Otranto tells the story of Manfred, lord of the castle, and
his family. The book begins on the wedding-day of his sickly son Conrad
and princess Isabella. Shortly before the wedding, however, Conrad is
crushed to death by a gigantic helmet that falls on him from above. This
inexplicable event is particularly ominous in light of an ancient prophecy
“[T]hat the castle and lordship of Otranto should pass from the present
family, whenever the real owner should be grown too large to inhabit it”.
Manfred, terrified that Conrad's death signals the beginning of the end for his
line, resolves to avert destruction by marrying Isabella himself while divorcing
his current wife Hippolita, who he feels has failed to bear him a proper heir.

60 61
Y
CASTL
OFOT CAtch-22
By Joseph Heller
Catch-22 is a satirical novel by the American author Joseph Heller. He began
writing it in 1953, and the novel was first published in 1961. It is set during
World War II in 1943 and is frequently cited as one of the great literary
works of the twentieth century. It uses a distinctive non-chronologi-
cal third-person omniscient narration, describing events from different
characters' points of view and out of sequence so that the time line develops
along with the plot.
The novel follows Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25
bombardier. Most of the events in the book occur while the fictional 256th
squadron is based on the island of Pianosa, in the Mediterranean Sea west
of Italy. The novel looks into the experiences of Yossarian and the oth-
er airmen in the camp, and their attempts to keep their sanity in order
to fulfill their service requirements, so that they can return home. The
phrase “Catch-22”, “a problematic situation for which the only solution
is denied by a circumstance inherent in the problem or by a rule,” has
entered the English language.

62 63
CATCH
H-22 The Catcher IN
THE rYe
By J. D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is a 1951 novel by J. D. Salinger. Originally published
for adults, it has since become popular with adolescent readers for its themes
of teenage angst and alienation. It has been translated into almost all of
the world’s major languages. Around 250,000 copies are sold each year
with total sales of more than 65 million books. The novel’s protagonist and
antihero, Holden Caulfield, has become an icon for teenage rebellion.
The novel was included on Time’s 2005 list of the 100 best English-lan-
guage novels written since 1923, and it was named by Modern Library and
its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
It has been frequently challenged in the United States and other countries
for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality. It also deals with
complex issues of identity, belonging, connection, and alienation.

64 65
WORLD
CATCH
INTHE Charlotte’s
web
By E. B. White
Charlotte's Web is a children's novel by American author E. B. White and
illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published in 1952 by Harper & Broth-
ers. The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship
with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being
slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such
as “Some Pig”) in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Written in White's dry, low-key manner, Charlotte's Web is considered a
classic of children's literature, enjoyable to adults as well as children. The
description of the experience of swinging on a rope swing at the farm
is an often cited example of rhythm in writing, as the pace of the sentences
reflects the motion of the swing. Publishers Weekly listed the book as the
best-selling children's paperback of all time as of 2000.

66 67
AST
ANY’S
CHARL
WEB A ChristDas
Carol
By Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens, first
published by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The story tells of
bitter and miserly Ebenezer Scrooge’s ideological, ethical, and emotional
transformation resulting from supernatural visits from Jacob Marley and
the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. The novella met
with instant success and critical acclaim.
The book was written and published in early Victorian Era Britain, a
period when there was both strong nostalgia for old Christmas traditions
and an initiation of new practices such as Christmas trees and greeting
cards. Dickens’s sources for the tale appear to be many and varied but are
principally the humiliating experiences of his childhood, his sympathy for
the poor, and various Christmas stories and fairy tales.
The tale has been viewed by critics as an indictment of 19th-century indus-
trial capitalism. It has been credited with restoring the holiday to one of mer-
riment and festivity in Britain and America after a period of sobriety and som-
breness. A Christmas Carol remains popular, has never been out of print, and
has been adapted to film, stage, opera, and other media multiple times.

68 69
CHRIS
CAROL Clarissa
By Samuel Richardson
Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady is an epistolary novel by Samuel
Richardson, published in 1748. It tells the tragic story of a heroine whose
quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family, and is one of the
longest novels in the English language.
Clarissa Harlowe, the tragic heroine of Clarissa, is a beautiful and virtu-
ous young lady whose family has become wealthy only recently and now
desires to become part of the aristocracy. Their original plan was to con-
centrate the wealth and lands of the Harlowes into the possession of Clar-
issa's brother James Harlowe, whose wealth and political power will lead
to his being granted a title. Clarissa's grandfather leaves her a substantial
piece of property upon his death, and a new route to the nobility opens
through Clarissa marrying Robert Lovelace, heir to an earldom. James's
response is to provoke a duel with Lovelace, who is seen thereafter as the
family's enemy. James also proposes that Clarissa marry Roger Solmes,
who is willing to trade properties with James to concentrate James's
holdings and speed his becoming Lord Harlowe. The family agrees and
attempts to force Clarissa to marry Solmes, whom she finds physically
disgusting as well as boorish.

70 71
ET
s
CLAR
ISSA A Clockwork
Orange
By Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess published
in 1962. Set in a not-so-distant future society that has a culture of extreme
youth violence, the novel's teenage anti-hero gives a first-person narration
about his violent exploits and his experiences with state authorities intent
on reforming him. It is partially written in a Russian-influenced argot
called “Nadsat”. According to Burgess, the novel was a jeu d'esprit written
in just three weeks.
In 2005, A Clockwork Orange was included on Time Magazine's list of
the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, and it was named
by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language
novels of the 20th century. The original manuscript of the book is located
at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada since that insti-
tution purchased the documents in 1971.

72 73
CLOCK
WORK The Color
Purple
By Alice Walker
The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker
which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award
for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name.
Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of
women of color in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing nu-
merous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social
culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on
the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged
Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit
content, particularly in terms of violence.
Celie, the protagonist and narrator, is a poor, barely educated, fourteen-
year-old black girl living in the American South. She writes letters to
God because the man she believes to be her father, Alphonso, beats and
rapes her. Almost none of the abusers in the novel possess a stereotypical
demon-like demeanor that could be dismissed as pure evil. The characters
who perpetuate violence are themselves, victims, often of sexism, racism,
or paternalism.

74 75
THE
COLOU The CoDplete
Tales
By Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and
conservationist known for her imaginative children’s books featuring ani-
mals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British
landscape and country life.
On 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published, and was an
immediate success. It was followed the next year by The Tale of Squirrel
Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester which had also first been written as
picture letters to the Moore children. Working with Norman Warne as her
editor, Potter published two or three little books each year for a total of
twenty-three books. The last book in this format was Cecily Parsley's Nurs-
ery Rhymes in 1922, a collection of favourite rhymes. Although The Tale of
Little Pig Robinson was not published until 1930, it had been written
much earlier. Potter continued creating her little books until after the First
World War when her energies were increasingly directed toward her farming,
sheep-breeding and land conservation.
The immense popularity of Potter’s books was based on the lively qual-
ity of her illustrations, the non-didactic nature of her stories, the depiction of
the rural countryside, and the imaginative qualities she lent to her characters.

76 77
RCOMPL
TALES CoraliEe
By Neil Gaiman
Coraline is a horror/fantasy novella by British author Neil Gaiman, pub-
lished in 2002 by Bloomsbury and Harper Collins. It has been compared to
Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Coraline Jones and her parents move into an old house that has been
divided into flats. The other tenants include Miss Spink and Miss Forcible,
two elderly women retired from the stage, and Mr. Bobo, who is training a
mouse circus. The flat beside Coraline's remains empty. During a rainy day
she discovers a locked door in a downstairs room, which has been bricked
up. As she goes to visit her neighbours, Mr. Bobo relates to her a mes-
sage from the mice: Don't go through the door. At tea with Miss Spink
and Miss Forcible, Miss Spink spies danger in Coraline’s future after
reading her tea leaves, and gives her a lucky stone. They then explain
that it will make the unseen seen.
Despite these warnings, Coraline decides to unlock the door when
she is home by herself and finds the brick wall behind the door gone. In
its place is a long passageway, which leads to a flat identical to her own,
inhabited by her Other Mother and Other Father, who are replicas of
her real parents. They have button eyes and exaggerated features. In this
“Other World”, Coraline finds everything to be better than her reality: her
Other Parents are attentive, her toy box is filled with animate toys that can
move and fly, and the Other Miss Spink and Miss Forcible forever perform
a cabaret show in their flat. She even finds the feral Black Cat that wanders
around the house in the real world can talk; however, she learns he is not
of the Other World; he only travels from one world to another and warns
Coraline of the imminent danger, but Coraline pays him no heed.

78 79
O
E
CORA
LINE The Count OF
MoEte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo is an adventure novel by French author Alexan-
dre Dumas. Completed in 1844, it is one of the author’s most popular works,
along with The Three Musketeers. Like many of his novels, it is expanded from
plot outlines suggested by his collaborating ghostwriter Auguste Maquet.
The story takes place in France, Italy, islands in the Mediterranean,
and in the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838. It begins from
just before the Hundred Days period (when Napoleon returned to power
after his exile) and spans through to the reign of Louis-Philippe of France.
The historical setting is a fundamental element of the book. An adventure
story primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, vengeance, mercy and
forgiveness, it focuses on a man who is wrongfully imprisoned, escapes from
jail, acquires a fortune and sets about getting revenge on those responsible for
his imprisonment. However, his plans have devastating consequences for the
innocent as well as the guilty.
The book is considered a literary classic today. According to Luc Sante,
“The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization’s lit-
erature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, No-
ah’s flood, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood.”

80 81
ETHECO
OFMO Crime AND
Punishmeot
By Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Crime and Punishment is a novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
It was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in
twelve monthly installments during 1866. It was later published in a single
volume. It is the second of Dostoyevsky’s full-length novels following his
return from ten years of exile in Siberia. Crime and Punishment is the first
great novel of his “mature” period of writing.
Crime and Punishment focuses on the mental anguish and moral di-
lemmas of Rodion Raskolnikov, an impoverished ex-student in St. Peters-
burg who formulates and executes a plan to kill an unscrupulous pawn-
broker for her cash. Raskolnikov argues that with the pawnbroker’s money
he can perform good deeds to counterbalance the crime, while ridding the
world of a worthless vermin. He also commits this murder to test his own hy-
pothesis that some people are naturally capable of such things, and even have
the right to do them. Several times throughout the novel, Raskolnikov
justifies his actions by connecting himself mentally with Napoleon Bonapar-
te, believing that murder is permissible in pursuit of a higher purpose.

82 83
CRIME
ANDP The Curious
Incident OF
THE Dog IN THE
Eight-TiDe
By Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 mystery novel
by British writer Mark Haddon. Its title quotes the fictional detective
Sherlock Holmes in Arthur Conan Doyle's 1892 short story “Silver Blaze”.
Haddon and The Curious Incident won the Whitbread Book Awards for
Best Novel and Book of the Year, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for
Best First Book, and the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. As a writer for
The Guardian remarked, “Unusually, it was published simultaneously in
separate editions for adults and children.”
The novel is narrated in the first-person perspective by Christopher
John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as “a math-
ematician with some behavioral difficulties” living in Swindon, Wiltshire.
Although Christopher's condition is not stated, the book's blurb refers to
Asperger syndrome, high-functioning autism, or savant syndrome. In July
2009, Haddon wrote on his blog that “curious incident is not a book about
asperger’s....if anything it’s a novel about difference, about being an outsid-
er, about seeing the world in a surprising and revealing way. The book
is not specifically about any specific disorder,” and that he is not an expert
on autism spectrum disorder or Asperger syndrome.

84 85
ERCURIO
INCID Cyrano DE
Bergerac
By Edmond Rostand
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although
there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play is a fictionalization of his
life that follows the broad outlines of it. The entire play is written in verse,
in rhyming couplets of 12 syllables per line, very close to the Alexandrine
format, but the verses sometimes lack a caesura. It is also meticulously re-
searched, down to the names of the members of the Académie française and
the dames précieuses glimpsed before the performance in the first scene.
Hercule Savinien 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 shown to be a musician. However, he has an extremely large nose,
which is the reason for his own self-doubt. This doubt prevents him from
expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual
heiress Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness denies him the “dream
of being loved by even an ugly woman.”

86 87
OCYRAN
DEBER DaVid
Copperfield
By Charles Dickens
David Copperfield is the common name of the eighth novel by Charles Dick-
ens, first published as a novel in 1850. Its full title is The Personal History,
Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of
Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account).
Like most of his works, it originally appeared in serial form during the
two preceding years. Many elements of the novel follow events in Dickens'
own life, and it is probably the most autobiographical of his novels. In the
preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens wrote, “...like many fond parents, I have
in my heart of hearts a favourite child. And his name is David Copperfield.”

88 89
TDAVID
COPPE Death OF A
Salesmao
By Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman is a 1949 play written by American playwright Arthur
Miller. It was the recipient of the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony
Award for Best Play.
The play is mostly told from the point of view of the protagonist, Willy,
and the previous parts of Willy's life are revealed in the analepsis, some-
times during a present day scene. It does this by having a scene begin in
the present time, and adding characters onto the stage whom only Willy
can see and hear, representing characters and conversations from other
times and places.

90 91
DEATH
OFAS The Divine
Comedz
By Dante
The Divine Comedy is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between c.
1308 and his death in 1321. It is widely considered the preeminent work
of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world
literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the afterlife is
a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the West-
ern Church. It helped establish the Tuscan dialect, in which it is written,
as the standardized Italian language. It is divided into three parts: Inferno,
Purgatorio, and Paradiso.
On the surface, the poem describes Dante's travels through Hell, Purga-
tory, and Heaven; but at a deeper level, it represents allegorically the soul's
journey towards God. At this deeper level, Dante draws on medieval Chris-
tian theology and philosophy, especially Thomistic philosophy and the
Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. Consequently, the Divine Comedy
has been called “the Summa in verse”.
The work was originally simply titled Comedìa and was later christened
Divina by Giovanni Boccaccio. The first printed edition to add the word
divine to the title was that of the Venetian humanist Lodovico Dolce, pub-
lished in 1555 by Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari.

92 93
DIVINE
COMED DoE quiXote
By Miguel de Cervantes
Don Quixote, fully titled The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La
Mancha, is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. It follows
the adventures of Alonso Quijano, an hidalgo who reads so many chivalric
novels that he decides to set out to revive chivalry, under the name Don
Quixote. He recruits a simple farmer, Sancho Panza, as his squire, who
often employs a unique, earthly wit in dealing with Don Quixote's rhetor-
ical orations on antiquated knighthood. Don Quixote is met by the world
as it is, initiating such themes as intertextuality, realism, metatheatre, and
literary representation.
Published in two volumes, in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is considered
the most influential work of literature from the Spanish Golden Age and
the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western
literature, and one of the earliest canonical novels, it regularly appears
high on lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published. It has had ma-
jor influence on the literary community, as evidenced by direct references
in Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers (1844) and Mark Twain's The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). In a 2002 list, Don Quixote was
cited as the “best literary work ever written”.

94 95
R
DON
QUIXO Dracula
By Bram Stoker
Dracula is an 1897 Gothic horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. Famous
for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells
the story of Dracula’s attempt to move from Transylvania to England, and
the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by
Professor Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula has been assigned to many literary genres including vampire lit-
erature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel
touches on themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual
conventions, immigration, colonialism, and post-colonialism. Although
Stoker did not invent the vampire, he defined its modern form, and the nov-
el has spawned numerous theatrical, film and television interpretations.
The novel is told in epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries,
ships’ log entries, and so forth. The main writers of these items are also the
novel’s protagonists. The story is occasionally supplemented with newspaper
clippings that relate events not directly witnessed by the story’s characters.
The events portrayed in the novel take place largely in England and Tran-
sylvania during 1893.

96 97
DRAC
ULA EAst OF EdeE
By John Steinbeck
East of Eden is a novel by Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck, published
in September 1952. Often described as Steinbeck's most ambitious novel,
East of Eden brings to life the intricate details of two families, the Trasks
and the Hamiltons, and their interwoven stories. The novel was originally
addressed to Steinbeck's young sons, Thom and John (then 6½ and 4½
years old, respectively). Steinbeck wanted to describe the Salinas Valley
for them in detail: the sights, sounds, smells, and colors.
The Hamilton family in the novel is said to be based on the real-life fam-
ily of Samuel Hamilton, Steinbeck's maternal grandfather. A young John
Steinbeck also appears briefly in the novel as a minor character.
According to his third and last wife, Elaine, Steinbeck considered it his
magnum opus—his greatest novel. Steinbeck stated about East of Eden: “It
has everything in it I have been able to learn about my craft or profession
in all these years.” He further claimed: “I think everything else I have writ-
ten has been, in a sense, practice for this.”

98 99
EAST
OFED EDma
By Jane Austen
Emma, by Jane Austen, is a novel about youthful hubris and the perils of
misconstrued romance. The novel was first published in December 1815.
As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of
genteel women living in Georgian-Regency England; she also creates a
lively comedy of manners among her characters.
Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, “I am going to take a heroine
whom no one but myself will much like.” In the very first sentence she in-
troduces the title character as “Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and
rich.” Emma, however, is also rather spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied;
she greatly overestimates her own matchmaking abilities; she is blind
to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and
perceptions often lead her astray.
Emma Woodhouse is the first Austen heroine with no financial con-
cerns, which, she declares to the naïve Miss Smith, is the reason that she
has no inducement to marry. This is a great departure from Austen’s other
novels, in which the quest for marriage and financial security are often
important themes in the stories. Emma’s ample financial resources put her
in a much more privileged position than the heroines of Austen’s earlier
works, such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

100 101
OUNT
N
EM
MA Everything IS
IllumiEated
By Jonathan Safran Foer
Everything Is Illuminated is the first novel by the American writer
Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. Jonathan Safran Foer, a young
American Jew, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman
who saved his grandfather's life during the Nazi liquidation of Trachim-
brod, his family shtetl. Armed with maps, cigarettes and many copies of
an old photograph of Augustine and his grandfather, Jonathan begins his
adventure with Ukrainian native and soon-to-be good friend, Alexander
“Alex” Perchov, who is Foer's age and very fond of American pop culture,
albeit culture that is already out of date in the United States. Alex studied
English at his university, and even though his knowledge of the language
is not “first-rate”, he becomes the translator. Alex's “blind” grandfather and
his “deranged seeing-eye bitch,” Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., accompany them on
their journey. Throughout the book, the meaning of love is deeply examined.

102 103
U
EVERY
ISILLU FAhreoheit 451
By Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel by Ray Bradbury published in 1953. It
is regarded as one of his best works. The novel presents a future Ameri-
can society where books are outlawed and “firemen” burn any that are
found. The title refers to the temperature that Bradbury understood to be
the autoignition point of paper.
The novel has been the subject of various interpretations, primarily
focusing on the historical role of book burning in suppressing dissenting
ideas. In a 1956 radio interview, Bradbury stated that he wrote Fahrenheit
451 because of his concerns at the time (during the McCarthy era) about
censorship and the threat of book burning in the United States. In later
years, he stated his motivation for writing the book in more general terms.

104 105
US
ENTt
FAHRE
451 A Farewell
TOArms
Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms is a novel written by Ernest Hemingway set during
the Italian campaign of World War I. The book, published in 1929, is a
first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant
(“Tenente”) in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken
from a poem by 16th-century English dramatist George Peele.
A Farewell to Arms focuses on a romance between the expatriate American
Henry and Catherine Barkley, whose nationality is variously described as En-
glish or Scottish, against the backdrop of the First World War, cynical soldiers,
fighting and the displacement of populations. The publication of this, Hem-
ingway's bleakest novel, cemented his stature as a modern American writer,
became his first best-seller, and is described by biographer Michael Reynolds
as “the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I.”

106 107
NO
GERAC
AFARE
TOARM The Fault IN
Our StArs
By John Green
The Fault in Our Stars is the fourth solo novel by author John Green, pub-
lished in January 2012. The story is narrated by a sixteen-year-old cancer
patient named Hazel, who is forced by her parents to attend a support
group, where she subsequently meets and falls in love with the seven-
teen-year-old Augustus Waters, an ex-basketball player and amputee.
Sixteen year-old Hazel Grace Lancaster is forced by her parents to at-
tend a support group for children living with cancer. Hazel was diagnosed
with Stage 4 Thyroid cancer with metastasis on her lungs when she was
13, but has managed to live with her disease thanks to an experimental
drug called Phalanxifor. Isaac, a friend, also attends the support group.
Hazel meets Augustus through Isaac and the support group. Augustus de-
cides to read An Imperial Affliction, Hazel's favorite book, and he becomes
almost as obsessed with it as she is. In addition to countless text messages
and phone calls, Hazel and Augustus begin to spend more time together.

108 109
R
FAULT
INOUR The
Fellowship OF
THE ring
By J.R.R. Tolkien
The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of three volumes of the epic novel The
Lord of the Rings by the English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It takes place in
the fictional universe of Middle-earth. It was originally published on July
29, 1954 in the United Kingdom. The volume consists of a Prologue titled
“Concerning Hobbits, and other matters” followed by Book I and Book II.
Tolkien conceived of The Lord of the Rings as a multiple volume with six
sections he called “books” along with extensive appendices. The original
publisher made the decision to split the work into three parts. It was also
the publisher's decision to place the fifth and sixth books and the appen-
dices into one volume under the title The Return of the King, in reference
to Aragorn's assumption of the throne of Gondor. Tolkien indicated he would
have preferred The War of the Ring as a title, as it gave away less of the story.

110 111
FELLOW
ofth The Femioine
MystiQue
By Betty Friedan
The Feminine Mystique is a 1963 book by Betty Friedan which is widely credit-
ed with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States.
In 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a survey of her former Smith College
classmates for their 15th anniversary reunion; the results, in which she
found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives,
prompted her to begin research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting in-
terviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychol-
ogy, media, and advertising. She originally intended to publish an article
on the topic, not a book, but no magazine would publish her article.

112 113
Y
FEMIN
MYSTI Fight Club
By Chuck Palahniuk
Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk. It follows the experiences of
an unnamed protagonist struggling with insomnia. Inspired by his doctor's
exasperated remark that insomnia is not suffering, the protagonist finds
relief by impersonating a seriously ill person in several support groups.
Then he meets a mysterious man named Tyler Durden and establishes an
underground fighting club as radical psychotherapy.
Palahniuk first tried to publish another novel, Invisible Monsters, but
publishers rejected it as too disturbing. Therefore, Palahniuk instead
concentrated on Fight Club, intending it to be more disturbing. Initially
Fight Club was published as a seven-page short story in the compilation
Pursuit of Happiness (1995), but Palahniuk expanded it to novel length (in
which the original short story became chapter six).

114 115
TE
FIGHT
CLUB FinnegaEs
Wake
By James Joyce
Finnegans Wake is a work of comic prose by Irish writer James Joyce that
is significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of
the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris
over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before
the author's death, Finnegans Wake was Joyce's final work. The entire
book is written in a largely idiosyncratic language, consisting of a mixture
of standard English lexical items and neologistic multilingual puns and
portmanteau words, which many critics believe attempts to recreate the
experience of sleep and dreams. Owing to the work's expansive linguistic ex-
periments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream
associations, and its abandonment of the conventions of plot and character
construction, Finnegans Wake remains largely unread by the general public.
Despite these obstacles, readers and commentators have reached a
broad consensus about the book's central cast of characters and, to a lesser
degree, its plot. However, a number of key details remain elusive. The book
treats, in an unorthodox fashion, the Earwicker family, composed of the
father HCE, the mother ALP, and their three children Shem the Penman,
Shaun the Postman, and Issy. Following an unspecified rumour about
HCE, the book, in a nonlinear dream narrative, follows his wife's attempts
to exonerate him with a letter, his sons' struggle to replace him, Shaun's
rise to prominence, and a final monologue by ALP at the break of dawn.
The opening line of the book is a sentence fragment which continues from
the book's unfinished closing line, making the work a never-ending cycle.

116 117
FINNE
WAKE FiVe ChildreE
AND It
By Edith Nesbit
Five Children and It is a children's novel by English author Edith Nesbit,
first published in 1902; it was expanded from a series of stories published
in the Strand Magazine in 1900 under the general title The Psammead,
or the Gifts. It is the first of a trilogy which includes The Phoenix and the
Carpet (1904) and The Story of the Amulet (1906). The book has never been
out of print since its initial publication.
Like Nesbit's Railway Children, the story begins when a group of children
move from London to the countryside of Kent. While playing in a gravel
pit, the five children—Robert, Anthea, Cyril, Jane, and their baby brother,
the Lamb—uncover a rather grumpy, ugly and occasionally malevolent
sand-fairy known as the Psammead, who has the ability to grant wishes.
However, the Psammead has been buried for so long, he is no longer able
to grant individual wishes. Instead, he persuades the children to take one
wish per day, to share amongst the lot of them, with the caveat that the
wishes will turn to stone at sundown. This, apparently, used to be the
rule in the Stone Age, when all children wished for was food, the bones
of which would then become fossils. However, when the children's first
wish—to be “as beautiful as the day”—ends at sundown, it simply vanishes,
leading the Psammead to observe that some wishes are too fanciful to be
changed to stone.

118 119
N
FIVE
CHILD Flowers FOR
Algernoo
By Daniel Keyes
Flowers for Algernon is a science fiction short story and subsequent nov-
el written by Daniel Keyes. The short story, written in 1958 and first
published in the April 1959 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science
Fiction, won the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1960. The novel was
published in 1966.
The eponymous Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone
surgery to increase his intelligence by artificial means. The story is told
by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human
test subject for the surgery, and it touches upon many different ethical and
moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled. Although the
book has often been challenged for removal from libraries in the US and Cana-
da, sometimes successfully, it is regularly taught in schools around the world.

120 121
FLOWE
ALGER Frankensteio
By Mary Shelley
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheusis a novel written by Mary
Shelley about eccentric scientist Victor Frankenstein, who creates a
grotesque creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Shelley started
writing the story when she was nineteen, and the novel was published
when she was twenty-one. The first edition was published anonymously in
London in 1818. Shelley’s name appears on the second edition, published
in France in 1823.
Shelley had travelled in the region of Geneva, where much of the story
takes place, and the topics of galvanism and other similar occult ideas
were themes of conversation among her companions, particularly her
future husband, Percy Shelley. The storyline emerged from a dream. Mary,
Percy, Lord Byron, and John Polidori decided to have a competition to see
who could write the best horror story. After thinking for weeks about what
her possible storyline could be, Shelley dreamt about a scientist who created
life and was horrified by what he had made. She then wrote Frankenstein.
Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the Gothic novel and
the Romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest
examples of science fiction.

122 123
THFRAN
KENS Freaky Fridaz
By Mary Rodgers
Freaky Friday is a classic comedic children's novel written by Mary Rodg-
ers first published in the United States in 1972, and adapted for film several
times. A willful, disorganized teenage girl, Annabelle Andrews, awakens
one Friday morning to find herself in the body of her mother, with whom
she argued the previous night.
Suddenly in charge of taking care of the New York family's affairs and
her younger brother Ben (whom Annabelle has not-so-affectionately
nicknamed “Ape Face”), and growing increasingly worried about the
disappearance of “Annabelle”, who appeared to be herself in the morning
but has gone missing after leaving the Andrews' home, she enlists the help
of her neighbor and childhood friend, Boris, though without telling him
about her identity crisis.
As the day wears on and Annabelle has a series of increasingly bizarre and
frustrating misadventures, she becomes gradually more appreciative of
how difficult her mother's life is.

124 125
NFREAK
FRIDAY Girl WITH A Pearl
EarriEg
By Tracy Chevalier
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 1999 historical novel written by Tracy Chevalier.
Set in 17th century Delft, Holland, the novel was inspired by Delft school
painter Johannes Vermeer's painting Girl with a Pearl Earring. Chevalier
presents a fictional account of Vermeer, the model, and the painting.
Tracy Chevalier's inspiration for Girl with a Pearl Earring was a poster
of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring. She bought the poster
as a nineteen-year-old, and it hung wherever she lived for sixteen years.
Chevalier notes that the “ambiguous look” on the girl's face left the “most
lasting impression” on her. She describes the girl's expression “to be a mass
of contradictions: innocent yet experienced, joyous yet tearful, full of longing
and yet full of loss.” She began to think that the girl had directed all these
emotions at the painter, and began to think of the “story behind that look”.

126 127
WELL
MS
GIRL
PEARL The Giver
By Lois Lowry
The Giver is a dystopian children's novel by Lois Lowry. It is set in a soci-
ety which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears
more and more dystopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through
the twelfth year of his life. The society has eliminated pain and strife
by converting to “Sameness,” a plan that has also eradicated emotional
depth from their lives.
Jonas is selected to inherit the position of “Receiver of Memory,” the
person who stores all the past memories of the time before Sameness, in
case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experi-
ence to make. When Jonas meets the previous receiver—The “Giver”—he
is confused in many ways. Additionally, the Giver is able to break some
rules, such as turning off the speaker that listens to peoples' conversations
in their homes, and lying to people of the community. As Jonas receives
the memories from the Giver, he discovers the power of knowledge. The
people in his community are happy because they do not know of a better
life, and the knowledge of what they are missing out on could create major
chaos. He faces a dilemma: Should he stay with the community and the safe,
consistent but shallow life it offers, or should he run away in pursuit of a life
full of love, color, choices, and knowledge, but also potentially full of danger?
Despite controversy and criticism that the book's subject material is
inappropriate for young children, The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal
and has sold more than 5.3 million copies. In Australia and the United
States, it is a part of many middle school reading lists, but it is also on
many challenged book lists and appeared on the American Library Associ-
ation's list of most challenged books of the 1990s.

128 129
THE
GIVER Go Ask Alice
By Anonymous (Credited to Beatrice Sparks)
Go Ask Alice (1971) is a cautionary tale about the life of a troubled teenage
girl. It is written by Beatrice Sparks in the form of the diary of an anonymous
teenage girl who became addicted to drugs. The diarist's name is never
given in the book. The novel's title was taken from a line in the 1967 Grace
Slick-penned Jefferson Airplane song “White Rabbit” (“go ask Alice/when
she's ten feet tall”), which is itself a reference to a scene in Lewis Carroll's
book Alice's Adventures In Wonderland where Alice eats a cookie that makes
her grow large. Go Ask Alice is presented as an anti-drug testimonial.
The story caused a sensation when published, and remains in print as of
2012. Revelations about the book's origin cast doubt on its authenticity and
factual accounts, and the publishers have listed it as a work of fiction since
at least the mid-late 1980s.

130 131
W
e
GOAS
ALICE Goiog BoVine
By Libba Bray
Going Bovine is a 2009 surreal dark comedy novel by Libba Bray. It follows
the experiences of high school junior Cameron Smith as he suffers from
transmissible spongiform encephalopathy.
Cameron Smith is a high school slacker from Texas who is on “a slow
but uncontrollable skid to nowhere” living a somewhat aimless life. His
father is a college physics professor; his mother is a community college
English teacher. Cameron’s apparent social exclusion is emphasized when
the author introduces his sister, Jenna, who is described as perfect. One of
the first scenes in the novel is of Cam having what he thinks is a marijua-
na-induced hallucination of flames during his English class. This public
hallucination gets Cameron sent to multiple drug counselors, all while his
hallucinations continue. Cameron’s life starts to spiral out of control when
he is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob variant BSE (also known as mad
cow disease), possibly contracted from the cafeteria at his school or his
minimum-wage job at the fast food joint Buddha Burger.

132 133
IGOING
BOVIN The GoldeE
notebook
By Doris Lessing
The Golden Notebook is a 1962 novel by Doris Lessing. This book, as well as
the couple that followed it, enters the realm of what Margaret Drabble in
The Oxford Companion to English Literature has called Lessing's “inner
space fiction”, her work that explores mental and societal breakdown. The
book also contains a powerful anti-war and anti-Stalinist message, an ex-
tended analysis of communism and the Communist Party in England from
the 1930s to the 1950s, and a famed examination of the budding sexual and
women's liberation movements. The Golden Notebook has been translated
into a number of other languages.
The Golden Notebook is the story of writer Anna Wulf, the four notebooks
in which she keeps the record of her life, and her attempt to tie them
all together in a fifth, gold-coloured notebook. The book intersperses
segments of an ostensibly realistic narrative of the lives of Molly and Anna,
and their children, ex-husbands and lovers—entitled Free Women—with
excerpts from Anna's four notebooks, coloured black (of Anna's expe-
rience in Southern Rhodesia, before and during WWII, which inspired
her own best-selling novel), red (of her experience as a member of the
Communist Party), yellow (an ongoing novel that is being written based
on the painful ending of Anna's own love affair), and blue (Anna's personal
journal where she records her memories, dreams, and emotional life).

134 135
GOLDE
NOTEB GoEe WITH THE
wind
By Margaret Mitchell
Gone with the Wind is a novel written by Margaret Mitchell, first published
in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during
the American Civil War and Reconstruction. It depicts the experiences of
Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner,
who must use every means at her disposal to come out of the poverty she
finds herself in after Sherman's “March to the Sea”.
Margaret Mitchell was often asked what became of her lovers, Rhett
and Scarlett, after the novel ended. She did not know, and said, “For all I
know, Rhett may have found someone else who was less difficult.” Mitchell
received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for the book in 1937. The book was
adapted into a 1939 American film. Gone with the Wind is the only novel
by published by Mitchell.

136 137
GONE
WITH The Good
Soldier
By Ford Maddox Ford
The Good Soldier: A Tale of Passion is a 1915 novel by English novelist Ford
Madox Ford. It is set just before World War I and chronicles the tragedy
of Edward Ashburnham, the soldier to whom the title refers, and his own
seemingly perfect marriage and that of two American friends. The novel is
told using a series of flashbacks in non-chronological order, a literary
technique that formed part of Ford's pioneering view of literary impres-
sionism. Ford employs the device of the unreliable narrator to great effect as
the main character gradually reveals a version of events that is quite different
from what the introduction leads the reader to believe. The novel was loosely
based on two incidents of adultery and on Ford's messy personal life.
The novel’s original title was The Saddest Story, but after the onset
of World War I, the publishers asked Ford for a new title. Ford suggested
(sarcastically) The Good Soldier, and the name stuck.

138 139
REN
GOOD
SOLDE The Grapes OF
WrAth
By John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Stein-
beck and published in 1939. As a result, he won the annual National Book
Award and Pulitzer Prize for novels and it was cited prominently when he
won the Nobel Prize in 1962.
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor
family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought,
economic hardship, and changes in the agricultural industry forcing
tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and
in part because they were trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for
California. Along with thousands of other “Okies”, they sought jobs, land,
dignity, and a future. The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American
high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and
enduring legacy.

140 141
RSGRAPE
OFWR GreAt
EXpectations
By Charles Dickens
Great Expectations is Charles Dickens’s thirteenth novel. It is his second
novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. Great
Expectations is a bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel, and it is a
classic work of Victorian literature. It depicts the growth and personal
development of an orphan named Pip. The novel was first published in se-
rial form in Dickens’ weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 Decem-
ber 1860 to August 1861. In October 1861, Chapman and Hall published the
novel in three volumes.
Great Expectations was to be twice as long, but constraints imposed by the
management of All the Year Round limited the novel’s length. Collected and
dense, with a conciseness unusual for Dickens, the novel represents Dick-
ens’ peak and maturity as an author. According to G. K. Chesterton, Dickens
penned Great Expectations in “the afternoon of [his] life and fame.” It was the
penultimate novel Dickens completed, preceding Our Mutual Friend.
It is set among the marshes of Kent and in London in the early to mid-
1800s. From the outset, the reader is “treated” by the terrifying encounter
between Pip, the protagonist, and the escaped convict, Abel Magwitch.
Great Expectations is a graphic book, full of extreme imagery, poverty,
prison ships, “the hulks,” barriers and chains, and fights to the death.
It therefore combines intrigue and unexpected twists of autobiographical
detail in different tones. Regardless of its narrative technique, the novel
reflects the events of the time, Dickens’ concerns, and the relationship
between society and man.

142 143
GREAT
EXPEC The Great
Gatsby
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is a 1925 novel written by American author F. Scott
Fitzgerald that follows a cast of characters living in the fictional town of
West Egg on prosperous Long Island in the summer of 1922. The story
primarily concerns the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby and
his quixotic passion for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan. Considered to be
Fitzgerald’s magnum opus, The Great Gatsby explores themes of deca-
dence, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a
portrait of the Jazz Age that has been described as a cautionary tale regarding
the American Dream.
Fitzgerald, inspired by the parties he had attended while visiting Long
Island’s north shore, began planning the novel in 1923 desiring to produce,
in his words, “something new—something extraordinary and beautiful
and simple and intricately patterned.” Progress was slow with Fitzgerald
completing his first draft following a move to the French Riviera in 1924.
His editor, Maxwell Perkins, felt the book was too vague and convinced
the author to revise over the next winter.
First published by Scribner’s in April 1925, The Great Gatsby received
mixed reviews and sold poorly; in its first year, the book sold only 20,000
copies. Fitzgerald died in 1940, believing himself to be a failure and his work
forgotten. His work, spearheaded by The Great Gatsby, experienced a revival
during World War II, and the novel became a part of American high school
curricula in the following decades. The Great Gatsby is widely considered to
be a literary classic and a contender for the title “Great American Novel”.

144 145
YGREAT
GATSB
H
OF The
Handmaid’s
Tale
By Margaret Atwood
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel, a work of science fiction or
speculative fiction, written by Canadian author Margaret Atwood and
first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1985. Set in the near future,
in a totalitarian Christian theocracy which has overthrown the United
States government, The Handmaid's Tale explores themes of women in
subjugation and the various means by which they gain agency. The nov-
el's title was inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, which
is a series of connected stories.
The Handmaid's Tale is set in the near future in the Republic of Gile-
ad, a theocratic military dictatorship formed within the borders of what
was formerly the United States of America. It was founded by a racist,
homophobic, Christian nativist-derived, theocratic-organized cult's mil-
itary coup as an ideologically driven response to the country's ecological,
physical and social degradation.
Beginning with a staged terrorist attack (blamed on Islamic extremist
terrorists) that kills the President and most of Congress, a movement
calling itself the “Sons of Jacob” launches a revolution and suspends the
United States Constitution under the pretext of restoring order.

146 147
HAND
TALE Harry Potter
AND THE Deathlz
HAllows
By J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry
Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The book was re-
leased on 21 July 2007 by Bloomsbury Publishing in the United Kingdom,
in the United States by Scholastic, and in Canada by Raincoast Books, end-
ing the series that began in 1997 with the publication of Harry Potter and
the Philosopher's Stone. The novel chronicles the events directly following
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2005), and the final confrontation
between the wizards Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort.
Rowling completed the book while staying at the Balmoral Hotel in
Edinburgh in January 2007, and left a signed statement on a marble bust
of Hermes in her room which read: “J. K. Rowling finished writing Harry
Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (652) on 11 January 2007”. In
a statement on her website, she said, “I've never felt such a mixture of ex-
treme emotions in my life, never dreamed I could feel simultaneously
heartbroken and euphoric.” She compared her mixed feelings to those
expressed by Charles Dickens in the preface of the 1850 edition of David
Copperfield, “a two-years' imaginative task”. “To which,” she added, “I can
only sigh, try seventeen years, Charles”.

148 149
HARRY
POTTE Heart OF
Darkness
By Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness is a short novel written by Joseph Conrad, presented
as a frame narrative, about Charles Marlow’s job as an ivory transporter
down the Congo River in Central Africa. This river is described to be “...
a mighty big river, that you could see on the map, resembling an immense
snake uncoiled, with its head in the sea, its body at rest curving afar over a
vast country, and its tail lost in the depths of the land.” In the course of his
commercial-agent work in Africa, the seaman Marlow becomes obsessed
by Mr. Kurtz, an ivory-procurement agent, a man of established notoriety
among the natives and the European colonials.
The story is a thematic exploration of the savagery-versus-civilization
relationship, and of the colonialism and the racism that make imperialism
possible. Originally published as a three-part serial story, in Blackwood's
Magazine, the novella Heart of Darkness has been variously published and
translated into many languages.

150 151
KHEART
OFDAR Heidi
By Johanna Spyri
Heidi is a Swiss work of fiction, originally published in two parts as Heidi's
years of learning and travel and Heidi makes use of what she has learned. It
is a novel about the events in the life of a young girl in her grandfather's care,
in the Swiss Alps. It was written as a book “for children and those who love
children” (as quoted from its subtitle) in 1880 by Swiss author Johanna Spyri.
Heidi is one of the best-selling books ever written and is among the
best-known works of Swiss literature.

152 153
E
HEI
DI The
Hitchhiker’s
Guide TO THE
GalaXy
By Douglas Adams
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the first of five books in the Hitch-
hiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction “trilogy” by Douglas
Adams (with the sixth written by Eoin Colfer). The novel is an adaptation
of the first four parts of Adams' radio series of the same name.
The book begins with contractors arriving at Arthur Dent's house, in
order to demolish it to make way for a bypass. His friend, Ford Prefect,
arrives while Arthur is lying in front of the bulldozers, to keep them from
demolishing it. He tries to explain to Arthur that the Earth is about to be
demolished. The Vogons, an alien race, intend to destroy Earth to make
way for a hyperspace bypass.

154 155
N
OOK
HITCH
HIKER The HobBit
By J. R. R. Tolkien
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again, better known by its abbreviated title
The Hobbit, is a fantasy novel and children’s book by English author J. R.
R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937 to wide critical acclaim,
being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the
New York Herald Tribune for best juvenile fiction. The book remains popu-
lar and is recognized as a classic in children’s literature.
Set in a time “Between the Dawn of Færie and the Dominion of Men”, The
Hobbit follows the quest of home-loving hobbit Bilbo Baggins to win a
share of the treasure guarded by the dragon, Smaug. Bilbo’s journey takes
him from light-hearted, rural surroundings into more sinister territory. The
story is told in the form of an episodic quest, and most chapters introduce
a specific creature, or type of creature, of Tolkien’s Wilderland. By accept-
ing the disreputable, romantic, fey and adventurous side of his nature and
applying his wits and common sense, Bilbo gains a new level of maturity,
competence and wisdom. The story reaches its climax in the Battle of Five
Armies, where many of the characters and creatures from earlier chapters
re-emerge to engage in conflict.
Personal growth and forms of heroism are central themes of the story.
Along with motifs of warfare, these themes have led critics to view Tolk-
ien’s own experiences during World War I as instrumental in shaping the
story. The author’s scholarly knowledge of Germanic philology and inter-
est in fairy tales are often noted as influences.

156 157
THE
HOBBIT Holes
By Louis Sachar
Holes is a 1998 young adults novel written by Louis Sachar and first published
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It won the 1999 U.S. National Book Award
for Young People's Literature and the 1999 Newbery Medal for the year's
“most distinguished contribution to American literature for children”.
Originally, the book was to be called Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Wrong Kid.
Stanley Yelnats, an overweight teenage boy who is supposedly af-
fected by a family “curse” which has brought his family bad luck since his
great-great-grandfather's time, has been wrongly accused of stealing the
shoes of the baseball player Clyde “Sweet Feet” Livingston. As punishment
for this crime, he is given the choice of either going to jail or to Camp
Green Lake, a juvenile detention and correctional facility in the middle
of nowhere in which the young inmates are forced to dig five-feet holes
to “build their character”. When he arrives at the desolate place, he is
warned by the supervisor, a man named Mr. Sir, not to cross the warden of
the camp, warden Walker.

158 159
R
HOL
ES The Houod OF
THE BaskerVilles
By Arthur Conan Doyle
The Hound of the Baskervilles is the third of the four crime novels written
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle featuring the detective Sherlock Holmes. Orig-
inally serialised in The Strand Magazine from August 1901 to April 1902, it
is set largely on Dartmoor in Devon in England's West Country and tells
the story of an attempted murder inspired by the legend of a fearsome,
diabolical hound of supernatural origin. Sherlock Holmes and his compan-
ion Doctor Watson investigate the case. This was the first appearance of
Holmes since his intended death in “The Final Problem”, and the success
of The Hound of the Baskervilles led to the character's eventual revival.
Sir Charles Baskerville, Bart, is found dead on the grounds of his country
house, Baskerville Hall. The cause is ascribed to a heart attack. Fearing
for the safety of Sir Charles's nephew and the only known heir, Sir Henry
Baskerville, coming from Toronto, Canada to claim his inheritance, Dr
James Mortimer travels to London and asks Sherlock Holmes for help.

160 161
S
A
HOUND
BASKE House OF Leaves
By Mark Z. Danielewski
House of Leaves is the debut novel by the American author Mark Z.
Danielewski, published by Pantheon Books. The novel quickly became a
bestseller following its release on March 7, 2000. It was followed by a com-
panion piece, The Whalestoe Letters. The novel has since been translated
into a number of languages.
The format and structure of the novel is unconventional, with unusual
page layout and style, making it ergodic literature. It contains copious foot-
notes, many of which contain footnotes themselves, including references
to books, films or articles that do not exist. Some pages contain only a few
words or lines of text, arranged in strange ways to mirror the events in the
story, often creating both an agoraphobic and a claustrophobic effect. The
novel is also distinctive for its multiple narrators, who interact with each
other throughout the story in elaborate and disorienting ways. While
some have attempted to describe the book as a horror story, many readers
as well as the author would define the book as a love story.

162 163
T
HOUSE
OFLEAV The House OF
Mirth
By Edith Warton
The House of Mirth is the fourth novel by Edith Wharton. First published
in 1905, the novel is Wharton's first important work of fiction. It sold
140,000 copies between October and the end of December, adding to
Wharton's existing fortune. The House of Mirth was written while Edith
Wharton lived at The Mount, her home in Lenox, Massachusetts.
Although The House of Mirth is written in the style of a novel of manners,
set against the backdrop of the 1890s New York aristocracy, it is considered
American literary naturalism. Wharton places her tragic heroine, Lily Bart, in
a society that she describes as a “hot-house of traditions and conventions.”
The House of Mirth tells the story of Lily Bart, a woman who is torn
between her desire for luxurious living and a relationship based on mutual
respect and love. She sabotages all her possible opportunities for a wealthy
marriage, loses the esteem of her social circle, and dies young, poor, and alone.

164 165
Y
HOUSE
MIRTH How I Live
now
By Meg Rosoff
How I Live Now is a novel by Meg Rosoff, first published in 2004. It re-
ceived generally positive reviews and won the British Guardian Children's
Fiction Prize and the American Printz Award for young-adult literature.
Fifteen-year-old Manhattanite Elizabeth (who goes by the name of Daisy)
is sent to stay with cousins on a remote farm in the United Kingdom
during the outbreak of a fictional third world war of the 21st century.

166 167
MAHOWI
LIVEN The
Huochback OF
Notre Dame
By Victor Hugo
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame is a French Gothic novel by Victor Hugo
published in January 14, 1831. The title refers to the Notre Dame Cathedral
in Paris, on which the story is centered. The story begins on Epiphany (6
January), 1482, the day of the Feast of Fools in Paris, France. Quasimodo, a
deformed hunchback who is the bell-ringer of Notre Dame, is introduced
by his crowning as the Pope of Fools.
The novel's original French title, Notre-Dame de Paris (the formal title
of the Cathedral) indicates that the Cathedral itself is the most significant as-
pect of the novel, both the main setting and the focus of the story's themes.
With the notable exception of Phoebus and Esmeralda's meeting, almost
every major event in the novel takes place within, atop, and around the
outside of the cathedral, and also can be witnessed by a character standing
within, atop, and around the outside of the cathedral. The Cathedral
had fallen into disrepair at the time of writing, which Hugo wanted to
point out. The book portrays the Gothic era as one of the extremes of archi-
tecture, passion, and religion. The theme of determinism (fate and destiny)
is explored as well as revolution and social strife.
The severe distinction of the social classes is shown by the relationships of
Quasimodo and Esmeralda with higher-caste people in the book. Readers
can also see a variety of modern themes emanating from the work includ-
ing nuanced views on gender dynamics.

168 169
R
HUNC
NOTRE I Capture THE
Castle
By Dodie Smith
I Capture the Castle is the first novel by English author Dodie Smith, writ-
ten in the 1940s when she and her husband (also British and a conscien-
tious objector) lived in California during WWII. She longed for England
and wrote of a happier time—unspecified in the novel but probably early
1930s—between the wars. Smith was already an established playwright
and later became famous for writing the children's classic The Hundred
and One Dalmatians.
The novel relates the adventures of an eccentric family, the Mortmains,
struggling to live in genteel poverty in a decaying English castle during
the 1930s. The first person narrator is Cassandra Mortmain, an intelligent
teenager who tells the story via her personal journal—a coming-of-age
story in which she is visibly maturing and by the end is no longer a girl but
a young woman.

All the Books You Will Never Read

All the Books You Will Never Read

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