Category Archives: Classics
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
Waterstones Synopsis: From the famous episodes of the whitewashed fence and the ordeal in the cave to the trial of Injun Joe, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” is redolent of life in the Mississippi River towns in which Twain spent his own youth. A sombre undercurrent flows through the high humour and unabashed nostalgia of [...]
Share on FacebookAgnes Grey by Anne Bronte
Waterstones Synopsis: When her family becomes impoverished after a disastrous financial speculation, Agnes Grey determines to find work as a governess in order to contribute to their meagre income and assert her independence. But Agnes’ enthusiasm is swiftly extinguished as she struggles first with the unmanageable Bloomfield children and then with the painful disdain of [...]
Share on FacebookThe Vendetta by Honore de Balzac
Amazon Description: October 1800: a foreigner, accompanied by his wife and their young daughter, stands before the Tuileries, waiting for an audience with Napoleon – the only man who can understand his wretched plight and the Vendetta that has driven him here. When Ginevra Piombo falls in love, fifteen years later, with a young Corsican [...]
Share on FacebookThe Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
Synopsis from Amazon: The Moonstone, a priceless Indian diamond which had been brought to England as spoils of war, is given to Rachel Verrinder on her eighteenth birthday. That very night, the stone is stolen. Suspicion then falls on a hunchbacked housemaid, on Rachel’s cousin Franklin Blake, on a troupe of mysterious Indian jugglers, and [...]
Share on FacebookThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Synopsis by Amazon: Everyone has a dark side. Dr Jekyll has discovered the ultimate drug. A chemical that can turn him into something else. Suddenly, he can unleash his deepest cruelties in the guise of the sinister Hyde. Transforming himself at will, he roams the streets of fog-bound London as his monstrous alter-ego. It seems [...]
Share on FacebookThe Time Machine by H. G. Wells
Synopsis from Amazon: When a Victorian scientist propels himself into the year 802,701 AD, he is initially delighted to find that suffering has been replaced by beauty, contentment and peace. Entranced at first by the Eloi, an elfin species descended from man, he soon realises that this beautiful people are simply remnants of a once-great [...]
Share on FacebookBrighton Rock by Graham Greene
Synopsis from Amazon: A gang war is raging through the dark underworld of Brighton. Seventeen-year-old Pinkie, malign and ruthless, has killed a man. Believing he can escape retribution, he is unprepared for the courageous, life-embracing Ida Arnold. Greene’s gripping thriller, exposes a world of loneliness and fear, of life lived on the ‘dangerous edge of [...]
Share on FacebookThe Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Synopsis: The Catcher in Rye is the ultimate novel for disaffected youth, but it’s relevant to all ages. The story is told by Holden Caulfield, a seventeen- year-old dropout who has just been kicked out of his fourth school. Throughout, Holden dissects the ‘phony’ aspects of society, and the ‘phonies’ themselves: the headmaster whose affability [...]
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