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THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS

TTHE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1918 novel written by Booth Tarkington, which won the 1919 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It is the second novel of his trilogy called Growth. The story is set mainly in a fictionalized version of Indianapolis and was greatly inspired by the neighborhood of Woodruff Place. The trilogy follows the aristocratic Amberson family as their fortune declines over the course of three generations. Major Amberson built his family’s fortune during the 1870s. His daughter, Isabel, is courted by two men: Wilbur Minafer, a quiet businessman, and Eugene Morgan, a debt-ridden lawyer. Before long, Morgan ruins his chances during an incident on the Amberson estate in which he becomes intoxicated and proceeds to make a fool of himself. Isabel marries Wilbur, and they have a child, a boy they call George Amberson Minafer. Isabel dotes on her son, spoiling him rotten. George runs wild, treating others with great disrespect, and being expelled from ...

THE GINGER MAN

TTHE GINGER MAN Originally published in France in 1955, The Ginger Man is the humorous National Book Award-winning picaresque novel by Irish-American author J.P Donleavy. Set in post-war Dublin in 1947, the story follows the episodic misadventures of Sebastian Dangerfield, an irresponsible young American studying at Trinity College in the Irish capital. As Dangerfield skips his studies, hides from bill-collectors, drinks and womanizes excessively, the charming but reprehensible rogue does everything in his power to avoid a lifetime of hard work. The Ginger Man was banned in Ireland and the United States during its initial publication on the grounds of obscenity. Still, the book sold more than 45 million copies worldwide. In 1998, it was named one of the 100 Best Novels of the Twentieth Century by Modern Library. The novel has been called “lusty, violent, wildly funny […] The Ginger Man is the picaresque novel to stop them all” by famed author Dorothy Parker. Narrated from alternat...

THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE

TTHE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE A married woman and a drifter fall in love, then plot to murder her husband. —Shannon Patrick Sullivan <shannon@mun.ca> Drifter Frank Chambers arrives at a quiet California roadside restaurant where he meets and falls for drop-dead gorgeous Cora, the wife of restaurant owner Nick Smith. After weaseling his way into a job, the two begin a deadly love affair and cook up plans to end her marriage and start a new life together. After a few botched attempts at a clean break, they are forced to put their honeymoon on hold after being rerouted into the arms of a D.A. hot to convict and a corrupt lawyer with designs on Cora. Frank and Cora thought they packed just enough luck to avoid what should be unavoidable but the duo failed to account for the possible intervention of a formidable force that doesn't need a badge. —Mae Moreno Nick Smith, the middle-aged proprietor of a roadside restaurant, hires drifter Frank Chambers as a handyman. Frank eventual...

THE SHELTERING SKY

TTHE SHELTERING SKY The Sheltering Sky is a 1949 novel by American author Paul Bowles. Centered on New York couple Port Moresby and his wife, Kit, it follows their journey to the North African desert accompanied by their friend George Tunner. The trip initially intended to help Port and Kit resolve their marital difficulties, soon becomes a battle for survival as their ignorance of the dangers around them comes back to haunt them. Exploring themes of colonialism, privilege, and existential despair, The Sheltering Sky is considered one of the pioneering post-colonial novels and was critically acclaimed. It was named as one of the hundred best novels of the 20th century by both Time Magazine and The Modern Library. In 1990, it was adapted into a feature film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich. The Sheltering Sky has been influential on musical artists, with artists, including The Police, using motifs and references from the book on their alb...

SOPHIE’S CHOICE

SSOPHIE’S CHOICE Sophie’s Choice is narrated retrospectively by a successful novelist named Stingo, who reminisces about events that took place more than twenty years earlier in the summer of 1947. That summer, Stingo was twenty-two. Having grown up in Virginia, he moved to New York City to pursue his ambition of being a writer. After working briefly in the publishing industry, he lost his job and decided to spend the next several months focusing on his writing while living off of a family inheritance. He rented a cheap room in a boarding house in Brooklyn where he made friends with two of the other tenants, Nathan Landau and Sophie Zawistowska. Nathan was a Jewish-American biologist, while Sophie was Polish and Catholic. After being interned in a concentration camp during World War II, Sophie had immigrated to the United States, where she found work and learned English. Nathan and Sophie had a volatile relationship with both intense sexual passion and violent arguments in which N...

UNDER THE NET

UUNDER THE NET Under the Net (1954), a novel by British author and philosopher Iris Murdoch, follows aspiring writer Jake Donaghue as he stumbles from place to place through Europe in search of illusory ideals. The novel falls into the genre of the picaresque, a comedic form in which a clever, lower-class protagonist makes his way up in the world using his wits. For advice, Donaghue looks to his old philosopher friend, Hugo Bellfounder. The novel puts a modernist spin on this old form, depicting Donaghue as a freeloader who, ironically, succeeds due to the serendipity of encounters that the chaos of the modern world provides. Part of the modern canon, the novel is often considered one of the greatest works of the twentieth century. The novel begins as Donaghue returns to London after a brief visit to France. His relative, Finn, informs him that they have been kicked out of their benefactor Madge’s house to make room for her wealthy new boyfriend, Sammy Starfield. While packing, Do...

WIDE SARGASSO SEA

WWIDE SARGASSO SEA Antoinette's story begins when she is a young girl in early nineteenth- century Jamaica. The white daughter of ex-slave owners, she lives on a run-down plantation called Coulibri Estate. Five years have passed since her father, Mr. Cosway, reportedly drunk himself to death, his finances in ruins after the passage of the Emancipation Act of 1833, which freed black slaves and led to the demise of many white slave owners. Throughout Antoinette's childhood, hostility flares between the crumbling white aristocracy and the impoverished servants they employ. As a young girl, Antoinette lives at Coulibri Estate with her widowed mother, Annette, her sickly younger brother, Pierre, and gossiping servants who seem particularly attuned to their employers' misfortune and social disrepute. Antoinette spends her days in isolation. Her mother, a beautiful young woman who is ostracized by the Jamaican elite, spends little time with her, choosing to pace listlessly on the...