1.
The King of the
Elves by Philipp K. Dick (2014)
This is a novella by science
fiction writer Philip K. Dick and first
published in the September 1953 issue of Beyond Fantasy Fiction.
Synopsis:
Shadrach Jones is an old man who owns and runs a gas
station in the fictional town of Derryville, Colorado, along an old highway fallen into disrepair due to it
having been replaced by a modern interstate highway. One night he counts the
money he made that day and realizes that although his income is meager, it is
enough to sustain a humble lifestyle that suits him. He then looks outside and
sees sickly elves standing in the rain in front of his store. He invites
them inside his home to comfort them and learns that they are an army with
their king, who is ill and needs rest. They tell him that they are at war with trolls.
Shadrach allows them to sleep in his bedroom while he sleeps in his living
room.
During the night, Shadrach feels foolish for believing in
the existence of elves, and goes to check on them. He finds that the King of
the Elves has died in his bed, but his last command to his subjects was that they
should have Shadrach be the new King of the Elves, and have him lead them into
battle against the trolls. Shadrach looks in the mirror and sees his aged face;
immediately he thinks to tell his friend Phineas Judd of his royal status. The
next day Shadrach tells Phineas that he is king, and by the end of the day the
local community has all heard this news. Away from Shadrach, they question
among themselves whether he actually believes that he is king, and why he would
say this, and whether he is trying to get more customers for his gas station.
That night a messenger elf comes to Shadrach and tells
him that he must help his staff develop battle plans against the trolls at a
meeting tonight under the oak tree on Phineas’ property. Shadrach thinks of his
dinner, of being ready to serve customers the next day, and of the opinions of
his human peers, and suggests that the elf choose a different person to be
king. Still, he commits to attend the meeting. When he goes to attend at the
appointed time the cold weather bothers him and on the way he passes Phineas at
his home. When Phineas invites him inside for a short while, Shadrach gets
comfortable inside and forgets his commitment as they reflect on their long
friendship. At Phineas' advice Shadrach decides to return home to be warm and
comfortable. As Phineas takes Shadrach outside, Shadrach realizes in the
moonlight that Phineas is an inhuman, beastly troll.
Phineas attacks Shadrach as legions of trolls pour from
the shadows. Shadrach calls for help and attacks trolls as best he can while
elves rush to his rescue. In the end, Shadrach has fought effectively and
killed many trolls, including Phineas. The elves reveal Phineas to be the Great
Troll, and are awed that he is defeated. With the trolls routed, Shadrach
expresses a desire to return to his life as a gas station attendant, and the
elves respect this. But after seeing his dilapidated home and gas station, he
reconsiders, and accepts the status of King of the Elves.
2.
The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (2013)
“The Invisible Man”
is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells. Originally serialized in Pearson's
Weekly in 1897, it was published as a novel the same year. The Invisible Man of
the title is Griffin, a scientist who has devoted himself to research into optics
and invents a way to change a body's refractive index to that of air so that it
absorbs and reflects no light and thus becomes invisible. He successfully
carries out this procedure on himself, but fails in his attempt to reverse it.While
its predecessors, The Time Machine and The Island of Doctor Moreau, were
written using first-person narrators, Wells adopts a third-person objective
point of view in The Invisible Man.
Synopsis:
A mysterious man, Griffin, arrives at
the local inn of the English village of Iping,
West Sussex, during a snowstorm. The stranger wears a long-sleeved, thick coat
and gloves; his face is hidden entirely by bandages except for a fake pink
nose; and he wears a wide-brimmed hat. He is excessively reclusive, irascible,
and unfriendly. He demands to be left alone and spends most of his time in his
rooms working with a set of chemicals and laboratory apparatus, only venturing
out at night. While Griffin is staying at the inn, hundreds of strange glass
bottles (that he calls his luggage) arrive. Many local townspeople believe this
to be very strange. He becomes the talk of the village.
Meanwhile, a mysterious burglary occurs in the village.
Griffin has run out of money and is trying to find a way to pay for his board
and lodging. When his landlady demands that he pay his bill and quit the
premises, he reveals part of his invisibility to her in a fit of pique. An
attempt to apprehend the stranger is frustrated when he undresses to take
advantage of his invisibility, fights off his would-be captors, and flees to the downs.
There Griffin coerces a tramp, Thomas Marvel, into
becoming his assistant. With Marvel, he returns to the village to recover three
notebooks that contain records of his experiments. When Marvel attempts to
betray the Invisible Man to the police, Griffin chases him to the seaside town
of Port Burdock, threatening to kill him. Marvel escapes to a local inn and is
saved by the people at the inn, but Griffin escapes. Marvel later goes to the
police and tells them of this "invisible man," then requests to be
locked up in a high-security jail.
Griffin's furious attempt to avenge his betrayal leads to
his being shot. He takes shelter in a nearby house that turns out to belong to
Dr. Kemp, a former acquaintance from medical school. To Kemp, he reveals his
true identity: the Invisible Man is Griffin, a former medical student who left
medicine to devote himself to optics. Griffin recounts how he invented
chemicals capable of rendering bodies invisible, and, on impulse, performed the
procedure on himself.
Griffin tells Kemp of the story of how he became
invisible. He explains how he tried the invisibility on a cat, then himself.
Griffin burned down the boarding house he was staying in, along with all the
equipment he used to turn invisible, to cover his tracks; but he soon realised
that he was ill-equipped to survive in the open. He attempted to steal food and
clothes from a large department store, and eventually stole some clothing from
a theatrical supply shop and headed to Iping to attempt to reverse the invisibility.
But now he imagines that he can make Kemp his secret confederate, describing
his plan to begin a "Reign of Terror" by using his invisibility to
terrorise the nation.
Kemp has already denounced Griffin to the local
authorities and is waiting for help to arrive as he listens to this wild
proposal. When the authorities arrive at Kemp's house, Griffin fights his way
out and the next day leaves a note announcing that Kemp himself will be the
first man to be killed in the "Reign of Terror". Kemp, a cool-headed
character, tries to organise a plan to use himself as bait to trap the
Invisible Man, but a note that he sends is stolen from his servant by Griffin.
Griffin shoots and injures a local policeman who comes to
Kemp's aid with the use of Kemp's gun. Then, breaks into Kemp's house. Kemp
bolts for the town, where the local citizenry come to his aid. Griffin is
seized, assaulted, and killed by a mob. The Invisible Man's naked, battered
body gradually becomes visible as he dies. A local policeman shouts to have
someone cover Griffin's face with a sheet, then the book concludes.In the final chapter, it is revealed that Marvel has
secretly kept Griffin's notes, but that he is completely incapable of
understanding them.
3.
Ghost Walker by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers (2012)
“The Grey” is based on the short story "Ghost Walker" by Ian MacKenzie Jeffers, who also
co-wrote the screenplay with Carnahan. The story follows a number of oil-men stranded in Alaska after a plane crash, who are
forced to survive using little more than their wits, as a pack of gray wolves stalk them amidst mercilessly cold weather.
Synopsis:
John Ottway (Liam Neeson) works in Alaska killing the
wolves that threaten an oil drilling team. We see a scene of him shooting a
wolf and then watching, with his hand on it almost as though he's sorry for it,
as it breaths more and more slowly and finally dies. On his last day on the
job, Ottway writes a letter to his wife Ana (Anne Openshaw) who has left him,
that he plans to commit suicide. While holding the barrel of the Winchester
Model 70 in his mouth, Ottway hears the howl of a wolf, which stops him. Upon
completing the job, the team and Ottway head home on a plane that crashes in a
blizzard. Ottway then sees a vision of his wife but awakens to find one of the
team, Lewenden (James Badge Dale), mortally wounded. Ottway calms him, letting
him know that he is going to die, and then Lewenden dies peacefully.
Ottway sets the survivors to task collecting material for a fire. He sees a woman in need of help, but finds her being eaten by a gray wolf who also attacks Ottway. He is rescued by the others and explains that they are most likely in the wolves' territory. After starting a fire, the survivors take turns keeping watch. While urinating, Hernandez (Ben Bray) is killed by two wolves. The remaining survivors find his body in the morning and Ottway suggests they leave the crash site because they are wide open to attack. Diaz (Frank Grillo) questions Ottway's leadership and begins defying his orders. Before they leave, Ottway and the others remove the wallets from many of the bodies with the intention of returning them to surviving family members. Hendrick says a prayer and thanks to God for allowing them to survive the crash and then the survivors leave the crash site. While hiking across the snow, Flannery (Joe Anderson) falls behind and is killed by three wolves. The remaining survivors continue on and make camp in the woods, where tension between Ottway and Diaz comes to a head as the survivors create makeshift weaponry. Diaz threatens Ottway with his knife, but is disarmed by Ottway. The survivors meet the alpha wolf, who sends an omega to test Diaz. However, the survivors are able to kill the wolf and eat it. Diaz severs its head and throws it back as a symbol of defiance.
The group stop to build a campfire at night and they
start a conversation. Diaz tells the group how the men who died aren't in
heaven and there is no god, Talget admits that he believes but Ottway confesses
that he too is an atheist, but he wishes that he could believe. Burke (Nonso
Anozie) awakens and he begins to hallucinate from hypoxia. He goes back to
sleep in front of the campfire. The group bonds over personal stories. A
blizzard approaches and they try to preserve the campfire to prevent
hypothermia. Despite their best efforts, Ottway finds Burke's frozen lifeless
body in the morning.
Further in their travels, the survivors come across a
high canyon wall within which, screened by trees, they identify a river.
Hendrick (Dallas Roberts) jumps to the trees to secure a line as a means of
traverse. Diaz and Ottway make it across the line to join Hendrick, but Talget
(Dermot Mulroney), who is afraid of heights, loses his glasses on the way and
freezes out of fear. He reluctantly continues across, but soon finds his
injured hand has begun bleeding and he gets caught up in the makeshift rope.
Talget struggles to untangle himself, but the line breaks and he crashes
through the trees to the ground. Wounded, Talget sees a vision of his daughter
and is dragged away by the wolves. While attempting to save Talget, Diaz falls
from the tree and injures his knee. The three remaining survivors continue
their trek and make it to the river, but an exhausted Diaz can make it no
further, preferring to stay and die than go on. Hendrick tries to convince Diaz
to carry on, but Ottway tells him it is futile. They give each other final
goodbyes and Ottway and Hendrick leave Diaz on the riverside, as the crackling
of branches caused by wolves is heard. Ottway and Hendrick continue, but are
soon chased by wolves again. Fleeing, Hendrick falls in the river and he gets
his foot stuck between underwater rocks. Ottway jumps into the river to attempt
to save him but Hendrick drowns in the river. Freezing and alone, Ottway then
curses God and asks for His help with no response.
Ottway continues on without his wet coat but he is
eventually dazed from hypothermia taking effect. He then stops and pulls out
each wallet collected from the dead, examines the mementos they contain, and
places them in a pile on the snow, adding his own wallet as well. Suddenly, the
pack of wolves surrounds him, leading Ottway to discover that he has walked right
into their den. He is soon spotted by the alpha wolf and realizes that it is
female while the other pack members back off. Ottway sees another vision of his
wife, which now reveals that she was dying on a hospital bed, and suggests the
reason for his earlier attempted suicide. Deciding to make a stand, he tapes
broken miniature alcohol bottles to his fist and a knife to his other hand. He
recites his father's poem aloud to himself, then charges the alpha wolf before
the screen goes black. In a post-credits scene, the back of Ottway's head is
seen laying on the side of the presumably dying Alpha wolf's stomach, as it
breaths more and more slowly, a bookend to the similar scene at the beginning.
4.
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” by
F. Scott Fitzgerald (2008)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is a novella written by F. Scott Fitzgerald adapted
into a 2008 American romantic fantasy drama film directed by David Fincher.
Synopsis:
In 1860 Baltimore, Benjamin is born with the
physical appearance of a 70-year-old man, already capable of speech. His father
Roger invites neighborhood boys to play with him and orders him to play with
children's toys, but Benjamin obeys only to please his father. At five,
Benjamin is sent to kindergarten but is quickly withdrawn
after he repeatedly falls asleep during child activities. When Benjamin turns
12, the Button family realizes that he is aging backwards. At the age of 18,
Benjamin enrolls in Yale College, but is sent
home by officials, who think he is a 50-year-old lunatic.
In 1880, when Benjamin is 20, his father gives him a
control of Roger Button & Co. Wholesale Hardware. He meets the young Hildegarde
Moncrief, a daughter of General Moncrief, and falls in love with her.
Hildegarde mistakes Benjamin for a 50-year-old brother of Roger Button; she
prefers older men and marries him six months later, but remains ignorant of his
condition. Years later, Benjamin's business has been successful, but he is
tired of Hildegarde because her beauty has faded and she nags him. Bored at
home, he enlists in the Spanish–American War in
1898 and achieves great triumph in the military, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He
retires from the army to focus on his company, and receives
a medal.
In 1910, Benjamin, now looking like a 20-year-old, turns
over control of his company to his son, Roscoe, and enrolls at Harvard University. His
first year there is a great success: he dominates in football and takes revenge against Yale for rejecting him years
before. However, during his junior and senior years he is only 16 years old,
too weak to play football and barely able to cope with the academic work.After
graduation, Benjamin returns home, only to learn that his wife has moved to Italy.
He lives with Roscoe, who treats him sternly, and forces Benjamin to call him
"uncle." As the years progress, Benjamin grows from a moody teenager
into a child. Eventually, Roscoe has a child of his own who later attends
kindergarten with Benjamin. After kindergarten, Benjamin slowly begins to lose
memory of his earlier life. His memory fades away to the point where he cannot
remember anything except his nurse. Everything fades to darkness shortly after.
5.
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
(1982)
“Rita Hayworth and
Shawshank Redemption” is a novella by Stephen King, from his 1982 collection Different Seasons, subtitled Hope Springs Eternal. It
was adapted for the screen in 1994 as The Shawshank Redemption,
which was nominated for seven Academy Awards in 1994, including Best Picture. In 2009, it was adapted for the stage as the play The Shawshank Redemption.
Synopsis:
Andy Dufresne, a banker from Maine,
is arrested for the double murder of his wife and her lover, a crime he did not
commit. He is sent to Shawshank Prison for life. At the prison, he meets Red, a
prisoner who specializes in procuring items from the outside world. As a free
man, Andy had been an amateur geologist, so he
asks Red to get him a rock hammer, a tool he uses to shape the rocks he finds
in the exercise yard into small sculptures. One of the next items he orders
from Red is a large poster of Rita Hayworth. Over the ensuing years, Andy regularly requests
more posters from Red, including pin-ups of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. When asked, Andy tells Red that he likes to
imagine he can step through the pictures and be with the actresses.
One day, Andy and other prisoners are tarring a roof when
Andy overhears a guard complaining about the amount of tax he will have to pay
on a sum of money bequeathed to him. Andy approaches the guard, and tells him a
way that he can legally shelter the money from taxation. A gang of predatory
prisoners called "The Sisters," led by Bogs Diamond, rapes any
prisoner they can, and Andy is no exception. However, when Andy makes himself
useful to the guards, they protect him from "The Sisters." One night,
Bogs is found in his cell unconscious and severely beaten. Andy is also allowed
to stay alone in his cell instead of having a cellmate like most other
prisoners.
Andy's work assignment is later shifted from the laundry
to the prison's library. The new assignment also allows Andy to spend more time
doing financial paperwork for the staff. Andy applies to the Maine State Senate
for funding to expand the library. For years he gets no response to his weekly
letters until the Senate finally sends him $200, thinking Andy will stop
requesting funds. Instead of ceasing his letter writing, he starts writing
twice as often. His diligent work results in a major expansion of the library's
collection, and he also helps a number of prisoners earn equivalency diplomas.
The warden of Shawshank, Norton, also realizes that a man of Andy's skills is
useful. He has started a program called "Inside-Out" where convicts
do work outside the prison for slave wages. Normal companies outside cannot
compete with the cost of Inside-Out workers, so they offer Norton bribes not to
bid for contracts. This cash has to be laundered somehow, and Andy makes
himself useful here as well.
One day, Andy hears from another prisoner, Tommy
Williams, whose former cellmate had bragged about killing a rich golfer and a
lawyer's wife (Andy latches onto the idea that the word "lawyer"
could easily have been mixed up with "banker," the professions being
similarly viewed by the uneducated public), and framing the lawyer for the
crime. Upon hearing Tommy's story, Andy realizes that this evidence could
possibly result in a new trial and a chance at freedom. Norton scoffs at the
story, however, and as soon as possible he makes sure Tommy is moved to another
prison. Andy is too useful to Norton to be allowed to go free; furthermore, he
knows details about Norton's corrupt dealings. Andy eventually resigns himself
to the fact that the prospect for his legal vindication has become
non-existent. Before he was sentenced to life, Andy managed to sell off his
assets and invest the proceeds under a pseudonym. This alias, Peter Stevens,
has a driver's license, Social Security card
and other credentials. The documents required to claim Stevens' assets and
assume his identity are in a safe deposit box in a Portland bank; the key to
the box is hidden under a rock along a wall lining a hay field in the small
town of Buxton, not far from Shawshank.
After eighteen years in prison, Andy shares the
information with Red, describing exactly how to find the place and how one day
"Peter Stevens" will own a small seaside resort hotel in Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Andy
also tells Red that he could use a man who knows how to get things. Red,
confused about why Andy has confided this information in him, reflects on
Andy's continued ability to surprise. One morning, after he has been
incarcerated for nearly 27 years, Andy disappears from his locked cell. After
searching the prison grounds and surrounding area without finding any sign of
him, the warden looks in Andy's cell and discovers that the current poster
pasted to his wall (a young Linda Ronstadt) covers a man-sized hole. Andy had used his
rock hammer not just to shape rocks, but to carve a hole through the wall. Once
through the wall, he broke into a sewage pipe, crawled through it, emerged into
a field beyond the prison's outer perimeter, and vanished. His prison uniform
is found two miles away from the outfall. How he made good his escape with no
equipment, clothing or known accomplices, nobody can determine.
A few weeks later, Red gets a blank postcard from a small
Texas town near the Mexican border, and surmises that Andy crossed the border
there. Shortly afterwards, Red is paroled. After nearly 40 years' imprisonment,
he finds the transition to life "outside" a difficult process. On the
weekends, he hitchhikes to Buxton, searching for suitable hay fields from
Andy's "directions". After several months of wandering the rural town
roads, he finds a field with a rock wall on the correct side, with a black rock
in it. Under this rock, he finds a letter addressed to him from "Peter
Stevens" inviting him to join Peter in Mexico. With the letter are twenty
$50 bills. The story ends with Red violating his parole to follow Andy to
Mexico.
6.
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick
(1966)
"We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"
is a novella by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in The Magazine of
Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966. It features a melding
of reality, false memory, and real memory. The story has been the subject of
two film adaptations, 1990's Total Recall, with Arnold Schwarzenegger as
the story's protagonist; and 2012's same-titled with Colin Farrell in a similar role.
Synopsis:
Douglas Quail dreams of visiting Mars, still in the midst
of colonization, but is unable to do so. He contracts Rekal, Incorporated to
have false memories implanted fulfilling his fantasy. He further adds a twist
of adventure, as these memories will make him an undercover agent of Interplan.
McClane, the head of Rekal, promises that the memories will be sharper and more
vivid than real memories, which blur and fade over time. This highlights how
modern technology is able to be more “real” than reality itself, providing
sensory stimuli well beyond what normal human interaction gives.
Before the implants take place, however, technicians
discover Quail already had an implant that erased his memories of actually
visiting Mars as an undercover agent, blowing a government secret. Now aware of
his true past and scared for his life, Quail tries to run; however, he is
contacted by Interplan agents who convince him to surrender. Interplan agrees
to give Quail a new set of memory implants to replace the real Mars memories;
in these new implants, Quail foiled an alien invasion as a child and only his
continued survival prevents the invasion from resuming. Unfortunately, McClane
discovers this may be the truth as well, as a drug-induced Quail moans that
this secret was never to be revealed—again, right before the implants take
place. The addition of false memories is less troubling than the uncovering of
true memories suppressed for a reason. It becomes difficult to verify what is
“real” and what is “false” since what one has to rely on are the altered
memories of a damaged man.
7.
Breakfast At Tiffany’s by Truman Capote (1958)
“Breakfast at Tiffany's” is Truman Capote's
best-loved work of fiction and arguably one of the finest American novellas.
Set in Manhattan's Upper East Side, during the final years of World War II, it
documents the story of a young writer's fascination with, and affection for,
his charming and troubled neighbor, the unorthodox Holly Golightly. The simple,
linear narrative of Breakfast at Tiffany's provided Capote with the
perfect vehicle to refine his characteristically minimal, naturalistic prose
style, marking the novella as a transition phase between the author's more
elaborate earlier writings and the documentary-style realism of his next major
work, the non-fiction masterpiece In Cold Blood.
Capote composed Breakfast at Tiffany's in the
spring of 1958, shortly after the publication of the critically well-received Other
Voices, Other Rooms, his first full-length novel and a commercial success.
Capote culled inspiration for his new work from gossip, personal experience,
and the lives of his eccentric New York friends. The title Breakfast at
Tiffany's is drawn from an anecdote popular among Capote's social circle
about an ignorant out-of-towner who, upon being asked which glamorous New York
restaurant he would like to visit, answered, "Well, let's have breakfast
at Tiffany's". The author's idea for Holly Golightly, who, in the first
drafts of the manuscript, was named "Connie Gustafson", likely came
from several sources. In his personal correspondence, Capote acknowledged that
he intended his charismatic and unscrupulous heroine as a composite portrait of
a number of Manhattan socialites with whom he enjoyed intimate friendships,
including Babe Paley, Gloria Vanderbilt, Carol Marcus, and Oona O'Neill.
Holly's story arc, in which she escapes an impoverished childhood in the rural
South to reinvent herself as a New York sophisticate, resembles Capote's
mother's life. In particular, Holly's real name - Lulamae - seems to directly
reference Nina Capote's own discarded birth name, Lillie Mae. However, as his
biographers and critics have suggested, Holly was perhaps also a projection of
the author himself, a vehicle through which Capote explored his own struggles
with social convention, depression, and his need for permanence and stability.
Capote, already famous on the American literary and
social scenes, found the market receptive to his new work. Shortly after
completing the manuscript of Breakfast at Tiffany's, he sold it for
$2000 to Harper's Bazaar, which intended to serialize it. However,
executives at Hearst publications objected to the obscene language and explicit
sexual references in the novella, and after demanding numerous revisions,
decided against publication. While Hearst claimed that the colorful content of Breakfast
at Tiffany's made it unsuitable for the pages of Harper's Bazaar,
many of Capote's peers in the publishing world suggested that Hearst had feared
the novella would offend or alienate Tiffany's, an important sponsor of the
magazine. Alienated by Harper's Bazaar, Capote re-sold the manuscript
to the rival magazine Esquire for $3000. Esquire's
serialization of the novella in 1958 appeared on newsstands at the same time as
newspaper reviews of the complete novella, published by Random House. The
publicity surrounding Capote was overwhelming. Esquire's sales
skyrocketed, and the novella soon attracted the attention of film producers at
20th Century Fox.
Synopsis:
The novella opens in New York during World
War II. We're introduced to an unnamed narrator who moves into a brownstone
apartment building in the city in order pursue his career as a writer. Shortly
after moving into the apartment, he sees Holiday Golightly (she goes by Holly
for most of the novel) for the first time late one night in the hall of the
apartment building, but it takes a while before he actually meets her
face-to-face. And then one night his life changes entirely when Holly knocks on
his bedroom window after she's been sitting out on the fire escape watching
him. He lets her in and after the two get to know each other a little better,
Holly crawls into the narrator's bed (just so she can get some rest) because he
reminds her of her brother Fred and she feels safe with him. But when she
starts crying, and when the narrator asks her about it, Holly rushes back to
her own apartment (and we and the narrator learn that Holly doesn't like
discussing anything too personal about her life).
Holly and the narrator start to spend some
time together, and he learns that Holly is in the habit of entertaining lots of
different men at loud parties in her apartment. He's invited to one of these
parties and, among others, meets a Hollywood agent named O.J. Berman, who once
tried to get Holly into movies, and a man named Rusty Trawler, who pretends he
loves Holly but who she thinks is actually gay. The narrator also meets Mag
Wildwood at one of these soirees (she's a model who can't hold her liquor and
who Holly doesn't like very much). Mag is engaged to a Brazilian diplomat named
José Ybarra-Jaegar (he becomes important to the story a little later on). One
of the ways Holly earns money is by visiting alleged mobster Sally Tomato in
prison every week. The visits seem innocent enough, and Holly gets paid to send
weather reports back to Sally's lawyer (whose name is O'Shaughnessy). But we
soon learn that these weather reports aren't as innocent as they seem.
At some point, Holly, Rusty, Mag, and José
take a trip to Florida, and after Mag and Rusty both end up in the hospital,
Holly and José start an affair with each other that ends up with Holly getting
pregnant. Mag and Rusty find out about the affair and marry each other instead
(the marriage ends badly, we later learn). Does this sound enough like a soap
opera yet? Wait, there's more! José eventually proposes to Holly and she makes
plans to move to Brazil to be with him. This devastates the narrator, who has
fallen a little in love with Holly and who has come to depend on having her in
his life. But he agrees to go horseback riding with her in Central Park a few
days before she's scheduled to leave New York so she can say good-bye to her
favorite horse. The ride is a disaster in more ways than one. The narrator's horse
freaks out and takes off with the narrator still on him. So Holly rides hard to
catch up to the narrator and to save him, an overexertion that causes her to
lose the baby (though we don't know that yet).
Later the same evening, Holly is tending to
the narrator, who is still sore and battered from the horseback ride, when
she's confronted by two detectives who arrest her for being part of a drug ring
headed by Sally Tomato. It seems those weather reports were actually messages
about drug shipments (which Holly is unaware of), and she's taken into custody
and her name is splashed all over the evening newspapers. José loves Holly, but
he decides that he can't risk being associated with any scandal since it could
ruin his political career. He writes her a "Dear John" letter and
returns to Brazil without her (keep in mind that he thinks she is still
pregnant with his child). Since Holly no longer has married life with José to
look forward to, she decides she's going to leave the country (even though
she's still under investigation for the drug charges), and decides she's going
to head to Brazil anyway since José has already paid for her ticket. She asks
the narrator to help her gather her things since she's being watched by the
authorities (which he does), and she eventually makes it to the airport and
goes on her way.
A lot of time passes before the narrator
hears from Holly, but he finally gets a postcard from her. It seems she's made
her way to Buenos Aires where she's fallen in love with a rich (and married)
man. She promises to write the narrator again once she has a permanent address,
but we learn that he never hears from her again and he's left wondering what
becomes of her and whether she ever finds happiness.
8.
The Double by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1846)
“The Double” is a novella written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It was first
published on January 30, 1846 in the Fatherland Notes. It was
subsequently revised and republished by Dostoevsky in 1866. The Double
is the first of many works by Dostoyevsky to reveal his fascination with
psychological doubles. The morbidly sensitive and pretentious clerk Golyadkin,
already clinically deranged by the social pressures of his office and by
unrequited love, suffers a growing persecution mania, which leads him to
encounter another man looking exactly like him who is the leader of a
conspiracy against him. He is finally driven to a madhouse by a series of
encounters with this being, who is sometimes clearly his own reflection in a
glass, sometimes the embodiment of his own aggressive fantasies, sometimes an
unpleasant ordinary mortal who happens to have the same name and appearance,
and sometimes, in some supernatural way, himself.
Synopsis:
The Double
centers on a government clerk who goes mad. It deals with the internal
psychological struggle of its main character, Yakov Petrovich Golyadkin, who
repeatedly encounters someone who is his exact double in appearance but
confident, aggressive, and extroverted, characteristics that are the polar
opposites to those of the toadying "pushover" protagonist. The motif
of the novella is a doppelgänger (Russian
"dvoynik").
Golyadkin is a titular councilor.
This is rank 9 in the Table of Ranks established
by Peter the Great. As rank
eight led to hereditary nobility, being a titular councilor is symbolic of a
low-level bureaucrat still struggling to succeed. Golyadkin has a formative
discussion with his Doctor Rutenspitz, who fears for his sanity and tells him
that his behavior is dangerously antisocial. He prescribes "cheerful
company" as the remedy. Golyadkin resolves to try this, and leaves the
office. He proceeds to a birthday party for Klara Olsufyevna, the daughter of
his office manager. He was uninvited, and a series of faux pas lead to his
expulsion from the party. On his way home through a snowstorm, he encounters
his double, who looks exactly like him. The following two thirds of the novel
then deals with their evolving relationship. At first, Golyadkin Sr. (the
original main character) and Golyadkin Jr. (his double) are friends, but
Golyadkin Jr. proceeds to attempt to take over Sr.'s life, and they become
bitter enemies. Because Golyadkin Jr. has all the charm, unctuousness and
social skills that Golyadkin Sr. lacks, he is very well-liked among the office
colleagues. At the story's conclusion, Golyadkin Sr. begins to see many
replicas of himself, has a psychotic break, and is dragged off to an asylum by
Doctor Rutenspitz.
9.
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)
“A Christmas Carol” is a novella by Charles Dickens, first published in London by Chapman & Hall on 19 December 1843. The novella met
with instant success and critical acclaim. Carol tells the story of a
bitter old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge and his
transformation into a gentler, kindlier man after visitations by the ghost of
his former business partner Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of Christmases
Past, Present and Yet to Come.
The book was written at a time when the British were
examining and exploring Christmas traditions from the past as well as new
customs such as Christmas cards and Christmas trees. Carol
singing took a new lease on life during this time. Dickens' 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. It remains popular—having never been out of print—and
has been adapted many times to film, stage, opera, and other media.
A Christmas Carol (1843) is one of the most recognizable stories in
English literature. With its numerous literary, stage, television, radio, and
cinematic adaptations, the tale has become a holiday classic, and the character
Ebenezer Scrooge has become a cultural icon. First published in 1843, the
novella garnered immediate critical and commercial attention and is credited
with reviving interest in charitable endeavors, the possible perils of economic
success, and festive traditions of the Christmas season. It is the first work
in Dickens's series of Christmas stories known collectively as the Christmas
Books, as well as the most popular and enduring.
Synopsis:
A mean-spirited, miserly old man named Ebenezer Scrooge
sits in his counting-house on a frigid Christmas Eve. His clerk, Bob Cratchit,
shivers in the anteroom because Scrooge refuses to spend money on heating coals
for a fire. Scrooge's nephew, Fred, pays his uncle a visit and invites him to
his annual Christmas party. Two portly gentlemen also drop by and ask Scrooge
for a contribution to their charity. Scrooge reacts to the holiday visitors
with bitterness and venom, spitting out an angry "Bah! Humbug!" in
response to his nephew's "Merry Christmas!" Later that evening, after
returning to his dark, cold apartment, Scrooge receives a chilling visitation
from the ghost of his dead partner, Jacob Marley. Marley, looking haggard and
pallid, relates his unfortunate story. As punishment for his greedy and
self-serving life his spirit has been condemned to wander the Earth weighted
down with heavy chains. Marley hopes to save Scrooge from sharing the same
fate. Marley informs Scrooge that three spirits will visit him during each of
the next three nights. After the wraith disappears, Scrooge collapses into a
deep sleep.
He wakes moments before the arrival of the Ghost of
Christmas Past, a strange childlike phantom with a brightly glowing head. The
spirit escorts Scrooge on a journey into the past to previous Christmases from
the curmudgeon's earlier years. Invisible to those he watches, Scrooge revisits
his childhood school days, his apprenticeship with a jolly merchant named
Fezziwig, and his engagement to Belle, a woman who leaves Scrooge because his
lust for money eclipses his ability to love another. Scrooge, deeply moved,
sheds tears of regret before the phantom returns him to his bed.
The Ghost of Christmas Present, a majestic giant clad in
a green fur robe, takes Scrooge through London to unveil Christmas as it will
happen that year. Scrooge watches the large, bustling Cratchit family prepare a
miniature feast in its meager home. He discovers Bob Cratchit's crippled son,
Tiny Tim, a courageous boy whose kindness and humility warms Scrooge's heart.
The specter then zips Scrooge to his nephew's to witness the Christmas party.
Scrooge finds the jovial gathering delightful and pleads with the spirit to
stay until the very end of the festivities. As the day passes, the spirit ages,
becoming noticeably older. Toward the end of the day, he shows Scrooge two
starved children, Ignorance and Want, living under his coat. He vanishes
instantly as Scrooge notices a dark, hooded figure coming toward him.
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come leads Scrooge through
a sequence of mysterious scenes relating to an unnamed man's recent death. Scrooge
sees businessmen discussing the dead man's riches, some vagabonds trading his
personal effects for cash, and a poor couple expressing relief at the death of
their unforgiving creditor. Scrooge, anxious to learn the lesson of his latest
visitor, begs to know the name of the dead man. After pleading with the ghost,
Scrooge finds himself in a churchyard, the spirit pointing to a grave. Scrooge
looks at the headstone and is shocked to read his own name. He desperately
implores the spirit to alter his fate, promising to renounce his insensitive,
avaricious ways and to honor Christmas with all his heart. Whoosh! He suddenly
finds himself safely tucked in his bed.
Overwhelmed with joy by the chance to redeem himself and
grateful that he has been returned to Christmas Day, Scrooge rushes out onto
the street hoping to share his newfound Christmas spirit. He sends a giant
Christmas turkey to the Cratchit house and attends Fred's party, to the stifled
surprise of the other guests. As the years go by, he holds true to his promise
and honors Christmas with all his heart: he treats Tiny Tim as if he were his
own child, provides lavish gifts for the poor, and treats his fellow human
beings with kindness, generosity, and warmth.
10.
A Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe (1843)
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe first published in 1843. The story was first
published in James Russell Lowell's The
Pioneer in January 1843. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is widely
considered a classic of the Gothic fiction genre and is one of Poe's most famous short
stories.
It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to
convince the reader of his sanity, while describing a murder he committed; the
victim was an old man with a filmy "vulture-eye", as the narrator
calls it. The murder is carefully calculated, and the murderer hides the body
by dismembering it and hiding it under the floorboards.
Ultimately the narrator's guilt manifests itself in the form of the
sound—possibly hallucinatory—of the old
man's heart still beating under the floorboards. It is unclear what
relationship, if any, the old man and his murderer share. The narrator denies
having any feelings of hatred or resentment for the man. He states: 'I loved
the old man! He had never wronged me! He had never given me insult!'. He also
denies the assumption that he killed for greed: 'Object there was none.', 'For
his gold I had no desire.' It has been suggested that the old man is a father
figure, the narrator's landlord, or that the narrator works for the old man as
a servant, and that perhaps his "vulture-eye" represents some sort of
veiled secret, or power. The ambiguity and lack of details about the two main
characters stand in stark contrast to the specific plot details leading up to
the murder.
Synopsis:
"The Tell-Tale Heart" is a first-person narrative of
an unnamed narrator[1] who insists he is sane but suffering from a disease
(nervousness) which causes "over-acuteness of the senses". The old
man with whom he lives has a clouded, pale, blue "vulture-like" eye
which so distresses the narrator that he plots to murder the old man, though
the narrator states that he loves the old man, and hates only the eye. The
narrator insists that his careful precision in committing the murder shows that
he cannot possibly be insane. For seven nights, the narrator opens the door of
the old man's room, in order to shine a sliver of light onto the "evil
eye". However, the old man's vulture-eye is always closed, making it
impossible to "do the work".
On the eighth night, the old man awakens after the
narrator's hand slips and makes a noise, interrupting the narrator's nightly
ritual. But the narrator does not draw back and, after some time, decides to
open his lantern. A single thin ray of light shines out and lands precisely on
the "evil eye", revealing that it is wide open. Hearing the old man's
heart beating loudly and dangerously fast from terror, the narrator decides to
strike, jumping out with a loud yell and smothering the old man with his own
bed. The narrator then dismembers the body and conceals the pieces under the
floorboards, making certain to hide all signs of the crime. Even so, the old
man's scream during the night causes a neighbor to report to the police. The
narrator invites the three arriving officers in to look around. He claims that
the screams heard were his own in a nightmare and that the man is absent in the
country. Confident that they will not find any evidence of the murder, the
narrator brings chairs for them and they sit in the old man's room, on the very
spot where the body is concealed, yet they suspect nothing, as the narrator has
a pleasant and easy manner about him.
The narrator, however, begins to feel uncomfortable and
notices a ringing in his ears. As the ringing grows louder, the narrator comes
to the conclusion that it is the heartbeat of the old man coming from under the
floorboards. The sound increases steadily, though the officers seem to pay no
attention to it. Terrified by the violent beating of the heart, and convinced
that the officers are aware of not only the heartbeat, but his guilt as well,
the narrator breaks down and confesses. He tells them to tear up the
floorboards to reveal the body.
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