7/8/2007
A classic American novel about a woman's struggle for empowerment.
Celie is a fourteen year-old girl living in rural Georgia. She is constantly subject to physical and sexual abuse by her father, Alphonso. He has impregnated her twice, both times stealing and presumably killing the babies. After Celie's mother becomes ill and dies, Alphonso remarries but continues...
7/8/2007
The ultimate spiritual journey of a man.
Siddhartha, the rich and popular son of a Brahmin, lives a fortunate and easy life. He follows all the rules of his Hindu religion, which are supposed to bring him peace and happiness, but feels dissatisfied with his existence. Feeling that something is missing, his life changes one day when he...
7/8/2007
A beautiful classic about life, love and the Russian Revolution
Yury Zhivago, a young Russian, was raised by his uncle Kolya after his mother died when he was a boy. When he is eighteen, he enrolls at the university in Moscow to study medicine. While Yury is attending school, he meets Tonya, who he eventually marries and has a son with. When Yury becomes a...
7/7/2007
Daisy Miller is one of the most tragic and vivid literary characters of all time.
Daisy Miller chronicles the complicated courtship of two young Americans. Winterbourne and Daisy first meet at a hotel in Switzerland. Daisy, rich and beautiful, is traveling through Europe with her mother and brother. Winterbourne is also American, but has lived in Geneva most of his life. He is...
7/7/2007
Eliot's first novel about seduction, murder, and sacrifice.
Dinah Morris is a Methodist preacher staying temporarily with her aunt and uncle, the Poysners. The local carpenter, Seth Bede and his brother, Adam, work in the village at the carpentry shop. Seth loves Dinah, but she rejects his marriage proposal, and Adam loves Hetty, the niece of the Poysners...
7/7/2007
The predecessor to Huckleberry Finn, Twain referred to this as his
This is the story of the imaginative and mischievous young red-headed orphan called Tom Sawyer. Tom lives with his Aunt Polly and his half-brother, Sid, in the Mississippi river town of St. Petersburg, Missouri. He gets into trouble often for different reasons, this time for cutting school and...
7/6/2007
A classic novel read through the eyes of a mentally challenged character.
Flowers for Algernon is composed entirely of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the story's protagonist. Thirty-two years old at the beginning of the novel, Charlie is mentally retarded and chosen by a team of scientists to undergo a corrective experimental surgery. He works at a bakery in...
7/6/2007
A fantasy kingdom and a beautiful frienship, both of which are truly unforgettable.
Jess Aarons's dream is to be the fastest runner in the fifth grade. Eleven years old and one of five children, Jess also likes to draw and paint, but knowing that this makes him less masculine in the eyes of his father, he focuses solely on running. He practices every morning, always envisioning...
7/6/2007
A horrifyingly real tale of slavery in the nineteenth century.
The story begins in the late nineteenth century in Cincinnati, Ohio. Sethe is a former slave living with her eighteen year-old daughter, Denver. Paul D., a friend of Sethe's who she has not seen since they worked together on a Kentucky plantation, stops by. Sethe is overcome with memories from...
7/1/2007
This insightful narrative is considered a symbol of Dickens maturity as an author.
Pip is an orphaned young boy who lives in the marshes of Kent with his older sister and her husband. One night as he is looking at his parents gravestones in the cemetery an escaped convict jumps out from behind a headstone and grabs him. He orders Pip to bring him food and a file for his leg irons...
