LITERARY CORNER [THE VAGARIES OF THE HEART] VOL.VI.
Explore the vagaries of the human heart with our curated literary corner. From Tolstoy's *Anna Karenina* to Zola's *Germinal* and Maugham's *Of Human Bondage*, discover classic fiction and memoirs about passion, loss, and the human condition.
Book
The Portrait of a Lady
by Henry James
When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt Touchett, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy the freedom that her fortune has opened up and to determine her own fate, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. It is only when she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the cultivated but worthless Gilbert Osmond that she discovers that wealth is a two-edged sword and that there is a price to be paid for independence. With its subtle delineation of American characters in a European setting, Portrait of a Lady is one of the most accomplished and popular of Henry James's early novels.
Book
Dram Shop
by Émile Zola
Focuses on the Paris taverns, presenting a tragedy of working-class people in slums. The work was influenced by theories of heredity/experimental science. The behaviour of the families is shown to be conditioned by environment/inherited characteristics, chiefly drunkenness and mental instability.
Book
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read. An American classic and great bestseller for over thirty years, A Separate Peace is timeless in its description of adolescence during a period when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II. Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
Book
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maugham
A masterpiece of modern literature that mirrors Maugham’s own career. Of Human Bondage is the first and most autobiographical of Maugham's novels. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, Philip settles in London to train as a doctor. And that is where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.
Book
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy's evocative tale of doomed love—one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century. Anna Karenina startled the world with its powerful portrayal of the human need for love and purpose. In a story that brings to vivid life nineteenth century Russia across various social classes, Anna renounces a respectable yet stifling marriage for a passionate affair that weighs her happiness against her love for her son, her family’s status and the rigid demands of society. Her story contrasts with that of Levin, a young self-doubting agnostic who takes a different journey to fulfillment and finds faith and satisfaction in an age of repression. Considered one of the greatest novels of the nineteenth century, Anna Karenina has been called Tolstoy’s spiritual autobiography. Anna and Levin personify Tolstoy’s lifelong struggle to reconcile his physical desires and intellectual ideals in order to create a more meaningful existence. Translated by David Magarshack Includes an Introduction by Priscilla Meyer
Book
Germinal
by Emile Zola
The thirteenth novel in Émile Zola’s great Rougon-Macquart sequence, Germinal expresses outrage at the exploitation of the many by the few, but also shows humanity’s capacity for compassion and hope. Etienne Lantier, an unemployed railway worker, is a clever but uneducated young man with a dangerous temper. Forced to take a back-breaking job at Le Voreux mine when he cannot get other work, he discovers that his fellow miners are ill, hungry, and in debt, unable to feed and clothe their families. When conditions in the mining community deteriorate even further, Lantier finds himself leading a strike that could mean starvation or salvation for all. New translation Includes introduction, suggestions for further reading, filmography, chronology, explanatory notes, and glossary
Book
The Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane
The classic story of a sensitive boy under the strain of war moving from cowardice to courage.
Book
Hunger
by Knut Hamsun
A modern classic about a penniless, unemployed young writer, this powerful, autobiographical novel paints an unforgettable portrait of a man driven to the edge of self-destruction by forces beyond his control.
Book
Angela's Ashes
by Frank McCourt
"A memoir about childhood, relilience, and the trumphant power of storytelling."--From back cover.
Book
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D.H. Lawrence
SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING THE CROWN’S EMMA CORRIN AND UNBROKEN’S JACK O’CONNELL Lyric and sensual, D.H. Lawrence’s last novel is one of the major works of fiction of the twentieth century. Filled with scenes of intimate beauty, it explores the emotions of a lonely woman trapped in a sterile marriage and her growing love for the robust gamekeeper of her husband’s estate. The most controversial of Lawrence’s books, Lady Chatterly’s Lover joyously affirms the author’s vision of individual regeneration through sexual love. The book’s power, complexity, and psychological intricacy make this a completely original work—a triumph of passion, and a celebration of life.