LITMIR.BIZ

Anatole France's work «Les dieux ont soif» translates to «The Gods Will Have Blood» or «The Gods are Athirst.» Both translations of the title accurately depict the nature of this novel set during the French Revolution. Young artist Évariste Gamelin is the right-hand man of Jacobin, Marat, and Robespierre and eventually becomes appointed as a juror on the Revolutionary Tribunal during the heinous Reign of Terror. Though Gamelin fully believes in the ideas of revolution and liberty, he uses his position of power to terrorize his friends and family who do not agree with his zealous ideals. Yet his bloodthirsty nature is put to an end when he, along with his mentor Robespierre, is beheaded during the aftermath of the Thermidorian Reaction. «The Gods Will Have Blood» was published in 1912, and author Anatole France received the Nobel Prize for Literature in honor of his literary achievements. The text shows the dangers a fervently angry country and the terror that can arise when the public is allowed to dole out its own version of justice with random death sentences. It shows the consequences when humanity is consumed by an idea, even a good idea, that is allowed to become more important than the people who hold it.

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Virginia Woolf's 1919 novel «Night and Day», her second novel, is an examination of the relationships of its four main characters: Katharine Hilbery, Mary Datchet, Ralph Denham, and William Rodney. The granddaughter of a distinguished poet, Katherine Hilbery, is struggling with the expectation that she will be a great writer. She is torn between the prospect of marrying either William Rodney, a budding poet who attempts to impress her with his mediocre verse, and Ralph Denham, a lawyer who occasionally has articles published by Katharine's father. Mary Datchet, a champion for woman's suffrage, is the character whom the others in the novel often seek out to confess their true feelings with regard to their own love or anguish. Woolf's «Night and Day» is considerable one of her most traditional works. While it lacks the stylistic flair that fans of her later works will be accustomed to, it dramatically explores the issues of woman's suffrage and the struggle of women in modern society to balance endeavors of love, marriage, and vocation.

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Among the most sophisticated examples of Gothic romance, «The Italian» was written in 1797 at the height of Radcliffe's power as an author. The dark, shadowed Italy of this novel immediately encapsulates the fast-paced plot concerning Vincentio di Vivaldi and his beautiful love Ellena Rosalba. While they wish to marry, Vincentio's mother is against their marriage. Her scheming to separate them soon involves Schedoni, a mysterious monk, and arguably Radcliffe's most exceptional invention, whose sinister machinations cause the couple much strife. Radcliffe explores the ways in which concealment and disguise can threaten love and devotion, particularly during the Holy Inquisition, where crime and religion blend dangerously.

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"The Prince and the Pauper" is the story of how when young Prince Edward Tudor of Wales and Pauper Tom Canty switch clothes that they are mistaken for each other and end up switching places. Prince Edward learns of the struggles of the commoners of England while Tom discovers what it is like to be a Prince and then a King. «The Prince and the Pauper» is both a delightfully comedic tale and a biting social commentary on the inequities among different social classes.

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Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) was an admired 19th century French writer. He became one of the leading artists since Gustave Flaubert and is considered to be one of the fathers of the modern short story. Maupassant's stories are characterized by their wealth of style, clever plotting and effortless resolutions. Many of his stories are set during the Franco-Prussian War of the 1870s, describing the futility of war and the innocent civilians who, caught in the conflict, emerge from catastrophe and change. «Bel Ami», written at the height of Maupassant's career, is his second novel, published in 1885. The story chronicles Georges Duroy's corrupt rise to power. Georges, a down-and-out journalist, comes from a humble background yet concocts a spectacular rise to the top of Parisian society, most of which he achieves by manipulating a series of powerful, intelligent and wealthy mistresses. «Bel Ami» is not only a vivid portrait of a glamorously crooked and long-vanished Paris, but also a strikingly modern depiction of the destructiveness of unconstrained ambition, sex and power.

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Mark Twain's semi-autobiographical travel memoir, «Roughing It» was written between 1870-1871 and subsequently published in 1872. Billed as a prequel to «Innocents Abroad», in which Twain details his travels aboard a pleasure cruise, «Roughing It» documents Twain's early days in the old wild west between the years 1861-1867.

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A work that Mark Twain himself considered his last finished and most important novel, «The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc», is a departure from Twain's usual comic and satirical spirit. «Joan» is a work of serious historical reflection that suggests that the English deliberately rigged the trial of Joan of Arc to convict her of witchcraft and heresy, a view that recent scholarship seems to support.

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A classic picaresque novel, Francisco de Quevedo's «The Spanish Sharper» chronicles the adventures of Don Pablos, a buscón or swindler, who aims in life to learn virtue and to become a caballero, or gentleman, both of which he fails miserably at. The work is a notable piece of satire that criticizes not only Spanish society but the protagonist Pablos himself. His ambition to elevate his status to that of a gentleman is, in Quevedo's opinion, unobtainable; as such aspirations from the lower classes would only destabilize the social order. Written around 1604 and first published in Spanish as «El Buscón» in 1626, «The Spanish Sharper» stands as one of the earliest and premier examples of the popular genre of Spanish literature known as the picaresque novel.

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Set in Dunnet Landing, Maine in a summer of the late 1800s, «The Country of the Pointed Firs», is the story of a female writer seeking isolation and inspiration for her writing in a small coastal New England town. Rich with the dialect of the region and the culture of the time «The Country of the Pointed Firs» is an intimate examination of the relationships amongst the members of a rural New England fishing village in the late 1800s.

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At the center of «Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)» by Philippine national hero José Rizal is the conflict against Spanish colonialism. The Philippines, which is named after King Philip II of Spain, was ruled by the Spanish empire as a colony from 1565 until the Philippine Revolution ended this rule in 1898. For his part in the Philippine Revolution, José Rizal was tried and convicted for rebellion, sedition, and conspiracy. His sentence was to be death by firing squad. Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra, the main character of «Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)», returns to the Phillipines after a seven year absence studying in Europe. He is betrothed to the María Clara, the beautiful daughter of Captain Tiago. With this work Rizal set out to write a novel that would expose the ills of Philippine society and in so doing created a passionate love story set against the backdrop of the political conflict against a repressive regime. «Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)» and its sequel «El Filibusterismo» are exceptional firsthand documents of the real struggles faced by the Philippine peoples at the end of the 19th century.

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