The first person narrative revolves around three days in the early life of a neurotic old man. “None of the days is described clearly or coherently and few details are given for the second and third days.” It is unlikely that the days are actually chronologically contiguous although the general framework does tend to be, digressions aside. The story begins with the old man remembering back to when he was young, probably a young man rather than a child per se (based on the assumption that the man is modelled on Beckett himself who only came to appreciate Milton in his early twenties whilst at Trinity College). He begins arbitrarily; at least he maintains, “any other [day] would have done”. Despite feeling unwell he rises early and leaves the house but not so early that his mother isn’t able to catch his eye from her window. He appears unclear in his own head if she is even waving at him – he’s already at a fair distance when he notices her – and puts forth the notion, calculated to reduce any significance that could be attributed to her actions, that she may simply have been exercising, her latest fad, and not really trying to communicate anything at all. The young man is prone to sudden rages. As he is walking away he feels “really awful, very violent [and starts to] look out for a snail, slug or worm” to squash. Despite his propensity towards violence – or perhaps to find excuse for it – he makes a point of never avoiding things that might exacerbate it whether these be small birds or animals or simply difficult terrain. He becomes aware of a white horse at such a distance that despite the excellent sight he boasts of he cannot tell if a man, woman or child is following it. White is a colour that has a strong effect on him and he flies into a rage simply at the thought of it (See Classical conditioning). In the past he had tried “beating his head against something” but has discovered that short bursts of energy, “running five or ten yards”, works best. After this he walks on for a bit and then heads home. On the second day, despite having had another bad night, he leaves the house in the morning and doesn’t return until nightfall. He describes being “set on and pursued by … stoats” which – perhaps significantly – he refers to as “a family or tribe” rather than using the more common collective noun, pack. This is noteworthy because he specifically mentions he has a good head for facts having “picked up a lot of hard knowledge”. He survives the attack but regrets that he did not let them finish him off. The events of the third day are distilled into the look he gets from an old road worker named Balfe of whom he had been terrified of as a child. Once he has finished with these recollections we learn a little about where he is now. It appears he is still going for his daily perambulations, “out, on, round, back, in” as he puts it. And he is still in poor health. His throat, which has bothered him for as long as he can remember, still troubles him and he has developed earache. He regards himself now as a “mild” person and yet for some reason the violence of old erupts and he begins lashing about with his stick and cursing. His final thoughts are of vanishing from view in the tall ferns. The man’s constant sore throat may well be a psychosomatic condition; he suffers from fidgeting and cites one instance where he collapses in some kind of fit. He is clearly a disturbed individual with a great deal of pent up hostility particularly toward his parents. He refers to himself as “mad” but then acknowledges that he is probably merely “a little strange”. His behaviour is obsessive, he has a propensity towards self-harm (“beating [his] head against [things])” – Waiting for Godot). His relationship with his parents is not good; he says he would rather go to hell than join them in paradise in fact. He is glad that his father died early in his life so that he wouldn’t have to be disappointed with the directionlessness of his son’s life (“I have never in my life been on my way anywhere”). The mother’s own somewhat eccentric behaviour meant that the two of them never became close; neither had spoken to the other in years following a dispute over money (perhaps his inheritance). The man talks of love but a love of the local flora (he is not far travelled) and imaginary fauna (creatures he has dreamt of), certainly not people. He wonders if he killed his parents and suspects that in a way, probably due to years of having to cope with his aberrant behaviour, he at least brought them a little closer to death. He has never married and so the family line – assuming he has no brother – will end with him, effectively killing off the family name.

From an Abandoned Work

After an attack by the Maquis orchestrated by Ro Laren, the saucer section is damaged and in need of repairs. While at the dry dock facilities, Captain Picard receives new orders from Admiral Nechayev to test a new saucer section. This new saucer section has been designed to be able to land on a planetary body and lift off from the surface, overcoming a reluctance by captains to carry out a saucer sep. The stardrive section of the Enterprise-D is attached to this new saucer, which is then taken out for field testing. During the course of the mission, the saucer section is hijacked by Maquis operatives (one of whom is among Nechayev''s test crew), who intend to re-dock it with the stardrive section and take it over, and Picard finds himself having to prevent the saucer and the technology contained within from falling into Maquis hands. The saucer does make a controlled crash, under conditions not conducive to its recovery, on a planet with a primitive sentient culture that could one day discover the saucer at the bottom of its ocean, depending on how durable Starfleet metals are. Meanwhile, Ro''s hideaway is found by the Cardassians and attacked, leading to a narrow escape.

Rogue Saucer

The story is told as a narrative by an unnamed veteran who participated in the Battle of Dorking and is recounting the final days before and during the invasion of Britain. It is addressed to his grandchildren as an event fifty years past. Beginning sometime after an event similar to the Franco-Prussian War, concerns grow with the mobilisation of armed forces near Holland. The Royal Navy is destroyed by a wonder-weapon ("fatal engines"), and an invasion force suddenly lands near Harwich, Essex, England. Demilitarisation and lack of training means that the army is forced to mobilise auxiliary units from the general public, led by ineffective and inexperienced officers. The two armies ultimately converge outside Dorking in Surrey, where the British line is cut through by the advancing enemy, and the survivors on the British side are forced to flee. The story ends with the conquest of Britain and its conversion into a heavily-taxed province of the invading empire. The British Empire is broken up, with only Gibraltar and Malta being kept by the victorious Germans. Canada and the West Indies are ceded to the United States, whilst Australia, India and Ireland are all granted independence, with Ireland entering a lengthy civil war as a direct result.

The Battle of Dorking

The book starts with Bryson explaining his curiosity at the Appalachian Trail near his house. He and his old friend Stephen Katz start hiking the trail from the state of Georgia in the south, and stumble in the beginning with the difficulties of getting used to their equipment; Bryson also soon realizes how difficult it is to travel with his friend, who is a crude, overweight recovering alcoholic, and even less prepared for the ordeal than he is. Overburdened, they soon discard much extra food and equipment to lighten their loads. After hiking for what seemed to him a large distance, they realize they have still barely begun while in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and that the whole endeavor is simply too much for them. They skip a huge section of the trail, beginning again in Roanoke, Virginia. The book recounts Bryson''s desire to seek easier terrain as well as "a powerful urge not to be this far south any longer." This section of the hike finally ends (after nearly of hiking) with Bryson going on a book tour and Katz returning to Des Moines to work. In the following months Bryson continues to hike several smaller parts of the trail, including a visit to Centralia, an environmentally poisoned mining town in Pennsylvania, and eventually reunites with Katz to hike the Hundred Mile Wilderness in Maine, which again proves too daunting. The fact that Bryson did not complete the trail is not surprising since fewer than 25% of thru-hike attempts are successful; he quotes the older figure of 10%.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

Maxwell Kane helps Rachel, nicknamed "Worm" because of her love of reading, run from her overly religious and abusive stepfather. Nicknamed "The Undertaker", he drives a hearse and wears pitch black clothing. The Undertaker accuses Max of kidnapping Rachel, so Max and Worm run safaway with Dippy Hippie on his bus, the Prairie Schooner. Along the way, they meet two con-artists, Frank and Joanie, who read about Max and Worm and a money reward for finding them. Frank then turns them in, and Max and Worm have to leave the Prairie Schooner. To take them the rest of the way they hop a train with Hobo Joe and arrive in Chivalry, Montana. They go into a mining tunnel and Max discovers that Worm''s birth father has already died in a mining accident. The Undertaker arrives there with the police and Max and Worm run away in the tunnels. They meet Dip, and Max''s grandfather, Grim. The police catch them, and Worm runs back into the tunnel. She thinks about committing suicide to be with her father, but Max talks her out of it. The book ends with Worm and her mother coming to live with Max and his grandparents. Max frequently mentions his old friend Kevin, also nicknamed Freak, throughout the book.

Max the Mighty

The story takes place at the time of Iran''s occupation by the Allied Forces during World War II. Most of the plot occurs in the narrator''s home, a huge early 20th-century-style Iranian mansion in which three wealthy families live under the tyranny of a paranoid patriarch Uncle. The Uncle—who in reality is a retired low-level officer from the Persian Cossack Brigade under Colonel Vladimir Liakhov''s command—claims, and in latter stages of the story actually believes that he and his butler Mash Qasem were involved in wars against the British Empire and their lackeys such as Khodadad Khan, as well as battles supporting the Iranian Constitutional Revolution; and that with the occupation of Iran by the Allied Forces, the English are now on course to take revenge on him. The story''s narrator (nameless in the novel but called Saeed in the TV series) is a high school student in love with his cousin Layli who is Dear Uncle''s daughter. The story revolves around the narrator''s struggles to stall Layli''s pre-arranged marriage to her cousin Puri, while the narrator''s father and Dear Uncle plot various mischiefs against each other to settle past family feuds. A multitude of supporting characters, including police investigators, government officials, housewives, a medical doctor, a butcher, a sycophantic preacher, servants, a shoeshine man, and an Indian or two provide various entertaining sequences throughout the development of the story.

My Uncle Napoleon

Kairo-kō consists of a short introduction and five sections. The first section, "The Dream" recounts a conversation between Guinevere and Lancelot in which she describes her dream of a snake that coils around the pair and binds them together; it ends with Lancelot heading to a tournament. The second section, "The Mirror", relates a scene based on Tennyson''s "The Lady of Shalott": the Lady can view the world only through a mirror''s reflection or else she will die, but when she sees Lancelot she turns to look upon him. Her action kills her, but not before she places a death curse on Lancelot. The section "The Sleeve" relates the famous episode in which Elaine of Astolat convinces Lancelot to wear her sleeve on his shield as a token in a joust. Guinevere finds out about Lancelot''s relationship with Elaine in the next section, "The Transgression"; Mordred condemns her for her infidelity against King Arthur with Lancelot. The final section, "The Boat", concerns the death of Elaine; grieving over the loss of Lancelot, she dies and is placed in a boat along with a letter proclaiming her love, and is sent downriver to Camelot.

Kairo-kō

The Dashwood sisters, Ellie, Abby and Georgie go to London to visit their father. After spending The Day in Dungeons, they go to father’s new flat, where He lives with Pandora. They meet Blake Goodman – Pandora’s nephew. Georgie gets a birthday present and the girls come back to Brighton. Abby goes to the XS club, but she pretends that, she’ll be in the hospital, because her boyfriend had an accident. Her mother discovers it and Abby can’t go out with friends for a month. Few days later, Blake calls Ellie and tells her that Max is in the hospital. Ellie, Abby and their mother, Julia, go to London to visit Mr. Dashwood. Unfortunately, he dies and Abby blames Pandora of killing her dad. Pandora blames Julia, but ladies explain everything and talk about funeral details. Georgie comes back Home (she was at the zorbing session, which was present from Tom)and she’s really upset. Few days later Max’s lawyer comes to Holly House and tells Julia that, she and her daughters have to move out, because the house is Pandora’s property. Davina - Julia''s mother, arrives to Holly House and tells her daughter that, they can move to Norfolk to her grandma''s house. Abby discovers that, in Norfolk there are no clubs, discos and cinemas. She meets Chloe at school and they become friends. Chloe brings Abby for a concert of local group and they meet Nick Mayes, who falls in love with Abby. Unfortunately, Chloe has a crush on Nick and Abby can''t go out with him. One day, Abby meets Hunter Meade-Holman - son of local politician. She falls in love with him and they become couple after few days. Nick doesn''t want to look at Abby kissing Hunter and tells her about it. She doesn''t care about him. Once, Hunter takes Abby out and offers to go to his house. He wants to make love with her, but Abby doesn''t agree. Hunter breaks up with her and Abby comes back home on foot. Luckily, Nick finds her and she tells him about everything. Ellie''s private life is complicated, either. Blake''s got girlfriend - Lucy, who''s grandma is ill and he can''t break up with her. But he doesn''t see any problems with kissing Ellie, who doesn''t like his games. Ellie doesn''t want to hear Blake''s explanations, but Davina makes things worse - she wants Ellie to meet Lucy. Georgie has a new friend - Adam. He seems to have a crush on Georgie. They are working together on a party - they''re waiters. Before starting their work, Adam talks with Georgie about sailing. He has strange voice and Georgie starts to think about his health. But when he kisses her, every thought about his illness is gone. Ellie works at the bar. She overheard Blake''s conversation with Piers, his friend. She treats Blake very cool, when he comes to the bar and tells him to go to his girlfriend and dance with her. Hunter comes back for a party and he brings his new girlfriend with him. Abby sees it and tells Fiona that she''s Hunter''s girlfriend. She''s very angry and she hits Fiona with her bag and runs away to the parking. She''s got Nick''s keys and she decides to get into the car and go home. Abby can''t handle driving a car. Suddenly, she sees bright light and she becomes unconscious. Her family and Nick go to the hospital. Next day, Abby talks to Nick, who tells her about his feelings and kisses her. Abby talks to Chloe, who has a boyfriend now - Ryan. Abby goes out with Nick. She can''t walk, so the boy brings a wheel chair for her. They go to the harbour and they see Georgie and Tom, who came to Norfolk to visit his friend. Georgie tells her sister that, she and Tom will be important for each other forever. Ellie talks to Blake, who came back from Hong Kong (he was going to go to Australia with Lucy, but he came back). He kisses her and tells Ellie that, he loves her. Then, he shows her portrait of Dashwood family: Max, Julia, Ellie, Abby and Georgie and offers her to come to Holly House.

The Secrets of Love

The fictional memoirs of Forrest "The Education of Little Tree" Carter begin in the late 1920s when, as the protagonist, his parents die and he is given over into the care of his Cherokee grandparents at the age of five years. The book was originally to be called "Me and Grandpa," according to the book''s introduction. The story centers on a clever child''s relationship with his Scottish-Cherokee grandfather, a man named Wales (an overlap with Carter''s other fiction). The boy''s Cherokee Granpa and Cherokee "Granma" call him "Little Tree" and teach him about nature, farming, whiskey making, mountain life, society, love, and spirit by a combination of gentle guidance and encouragement of independent experience. The story takes place during the fifth to tenth years of the boy''s life, as he comes to know his new home in a remote mountain hollow. Granpa runs a small moonshine operation during Prohibition. The grandparents and visitors to the hollow expose Little Tree to supposed Cherokee ways and "mountain people" values. Encounters with outsiders, including "the law," "politicians," "guv''mint," city "slickers," and "Christians" of various types add to Little Tree''s lessons, each phrased and repeated in catchy ways. (One of the syntactic devices the book uses frequently is to end paragraphs with short statements of opinion starting with the word ''which,'' such as "Which is reasonable.") The state eventually forces Little Tree into a Residential School, where he stays for a few months. At the school, Little Tree suffers from the prejudice and ignorance of the school''s caretakers toward Indians and the natural world. Little Tree is rescued when his grandparents'' Native American friend Willow John notices his unhappiness and demands Little Tree be withdrawn from the school. At the end, the book''s pace speeds up dramatically and its detail decreases; Willow John and Granpa die natural deaths and Granma dies a peaceful death at home. Little Tree heads west and works briefly on various farms in exchange for food and shelter. The book ends after Little Tree''s last companion, one of Granpa''s hounds, dies.

The Education of Little Tree

The novel begins as life is seemingly returning to normal for the Jarretts of Lake Forest, Illinois, in September 1975. It is slightly more than a year since their elder son "Buck" was killed when a sudden storm came up while he and their other son Conrad were sailing on Lake Michigan. Six months later, a severely depressed Conrad attempted suicide by slashing his wrists with a razor in the bathroom. His parents committed him to a psychiatric hospital from which he has only recently returned after eight months of treatment. He is attending school and trying to resume his life, but knows he still has unresolved issues, particularly with his mother, Beth, who has never really recovered from Buck''s death and keeps an almost maniacally perfect household and family. His father Calvin, a successful tax attorney, gently leans on him to make appointments to see a local psychiatrist, Dr. Tyrone Berger. Initially resistant, he slowly starts to respond to Dr. Berger and comes to terms with the root cause of his depression, his identity crisis and survivor''s guilt over having survived when Buck did not. Also helping is a relationship with a new girlfriend, Jeannine Pratt. Calvin sees Dr. Berger as the events of the recent past have caused him to begin to doubt many things he once took for granted, leading to a midlife crisis. This leads to strain in his marriage as he finds Beth increasingly cold and distant, while she in turn believes he is overly concerned about Conrad to the point of being manipulated. Finally the friction becomes enough that Beth decides to leave him at the novel''s climax. Father and son, however, have closed the gap between them.

Ordinary People

Jones and Merchant differed from some other feminist novelists of their generation (like Corbett and Lane, mentioned above) in that they made their fictional protagonist male instead of female. Their hero travels to the planet Mars in an "aeroplane." (That term had originated in France in 1879; this novel provided one of the earliest uses of the word in English.) The nameless traveller visits two different "Marsian" societies; in both, women possess greater equality with men. In one, Paleveria, women have adopted the negative characteristics of men; in Caskia, the other, gender equality "has made both sexes kind, loving, and generous." Since Jones and Merchant were primarily interested in crafting a satiric commentary of their own society, they made their Mars and Martians strongly similar to Earth and human beings. The technological level is comparable on both planets; the Martians rely on Martian horses for transport. The narrator first lands in the Martian country of Paleveria, which is a republican and capitalist state, with clear class divisions; the people are vegetarians, and dress in loose robes. Their homes (at least among the aristocrats) are classical and palatial, with marble floors and statuary, silk hangings, and frescoes on the walls. Women in Paleveria can vote, hold political office, and run businesses; they propose marriage to men, have sex with male prostitutes, and even participate in wrestling matches. The traveller stays with an astronomer named Severnius, in the city of Thursia; he studies diligently and learns the language. Severnius acts as his guide to Paleverian society &mdash; as does the astronomer''s beautiful sister Elodia. The narrator soon falls in love with Elodia, but is shocked by her liberated traits and habits. Elodia is a banker by profession; she drinks alcohol and imbibes a Martian drug, has affairs with men, and eventually proves to have had an illegitimate child. Severnius, for his part, asks the narrator about Earth, and the traveller is hard put to provide logical and acceptable explanations for many Earthly customs, mainly involving the distinctions between the sexes. The narrator is appalled by women participating in martial arts &mdash; and Elodia condemns this too; but she also condemns men''s boxing matches, which the traveller accepts as natural. The narrator is profoundly shocked when he learns of Elodia''s illegitimate daughter; he leaves for a visit to Caskia. This northern country has a more co-operative and egalitarian social and economic order than Paleveria has; its people cultivate intellectual, artistic, and spiritual qualities. Caskia approaches the status of a Martian Utopia. In the city of Lunismar, the traveller meets another Martian woman, Ariadne, who is more traditionally feminine by conservative Earthly standards. He considers her "the highest and purest thing under heaven." He also meets a venerated teacher called The Master; the two have a long spiritual conversation. The narrator returns to Earth. Unveiling a Parallel has been reprinted in several modern editions.

Unveiling a Parallel

At the beginning of the novel, Mona''s sister, Lindy, is getting married for the second time. The date is given as 23 May 1984. Mona is self-conscious of her appearance; she is a bridesmaid. She plays on the fruit machines in the pub in which her family live, and drinks alcohol to help her cope with the day. After the festivities of the day, she goes to a large house in a nearby village. She occasionally tends to the residents'' pony, Willow, though the Fakenhams don''t pay her much attention, or any money. This evening, however, Mr. Fakenham speaks to her and asks her, in rather an awkward manner, to befriend his youngest daughter, Tamsin - she has been sent home from boarding school and seems to be lonely. Mona herself is feeling quite friendless - she refers to ''poor lost Anne-Marie'' as someone who had once been a school-friend. However, they have drifted apart - Mona had lost her mother to cancer a year previously, and she reflects that Anne-Marie was probably emotionally drained by having to support her through her bereavement. However, she thinks it''s a very pitiful state of affairs that Tamsin''s father is actually begging people to be her friend. Despite this, in the days after the wedding, Mona feels lonely and bored. She is off school - it appears to be exam leave - and she decides to visit the Fakenham''s house. She finds Mr. and Mrs. Fakenham in a blazing row. The girls are then left to their own devices. Mona finds herself instantly drawn to - and fascinated by - Tamsin.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

From an Abandoned Work

By Samuel Beckett

Rogue Saucer

By John Vornholt

The Battle of Dorking

By George Tomkyns Chesney

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail

By Bill Bryson

Max the Mighty

By Rodman Philbrick

My Uncle Napoleon

By Iraj Pezeshkzad

Kairo-kō

By Soseki Natsume

The Secrets of Love

No Author Listed

The Education of Little Tree

By Forrest Carter

Ordinary People

By Judith Guest

Unveiling a Parallel

No Author Listed

My Summer Of Love

By Helen Cross