In the beginning, Griffin, "The Man With the Plan", as his best friend Ben Slovak likes to call him, gets an idea to sleep in the old Rockford house scheduled for demolition. They then proceed to lie to their parents so they can go have a sleepover there before it gets demolished. They start snooping through the house and they come to a drawer; they open it to find an old Babe Ruth card. Wondering about it, they take it to a pawn shop owned by S. Wendell Palomino, nicknamed "Swindle"; they ask him how much Palomino would give them for the card. Palomino tells him the card is a replica and tricks them out for $120. Griffin’s parents are not doing well financially, due to Griffin’s dad''s invention, a machine that picks fruit automatically named the SmartPick. Griffin also finds out his family is going to have to sell their house to move to a more reasonably priced neighborhood. If his family had to move, Griffin would have to leave his best friend Ben behind, and he also finds out the card was actually real, and that Palomino is going to sell it for millions. Griffin, with Ben''s help, decides to make a plan to break into Palomino''s store to get the card from the safe. They break into the shop by getting in a large crate. A man that works in the store, Tom Dufferin, carries the box inside. When the boys are securely inside the shop, they discover that the safe has disappeared. To break out of the store, Griffin and Ben climb the fence, and break the alarm code using a video recording of Dufferin, as he punches the code in after he closes the shop. After the failure, he had moved the card to his house. Griffin and Ben make another plan to break into the house and steal the card back. The only problem is that they need six sixth graders to help. They recruit four in all. Logan, an actor-to-be, takes care of the suspicious neighbor of Palomino’s. Pitch is a climber, and they need her to climb up and get in from the bathroom skylight. They need Savannah, an animal lover, to calm the guard dog down, and make Melissa take care of the security system so they can get in. Suddenly, Darren, a boy who is loved by Ben and Griffin, hears about the plan to break in and blackmails them into letting him join in on the plan for some of the money. They need Swindle to get out of his house so the plan can happen and, knowing Swindle is a stealer, Griffin and Ben buy him a ticket to a New York Rangers hockey game and they "accidentally" mail it to him, faking it as a birthday card. Everyone agrees to the plan, and so it begins. On the heist night, Pitch sprains her ankle; Ben falls asleep in a bush, and they almost ruin the entire heist. Then Darren tries to take the card for himself. Only thinking of the one guard dog, they get inside to find two. After they manage the affair, they find the safe, but the card isn''t in there, so they look around the entire house until Griffin remembers from an interview where the reporter asked why the card was so cold. Griffin then ran to the freezer. However, something sets the security system on and the team hears the police coming. In shock Darren grabs the card and tries to run. When running outside, Darren loses grip and the card ends up in a tree. Griffin remembers his dad’s invention, the SmartPick, and runs home to get it. They manage to get the card and make a run for it. Luckily Griffin has a Plan B. Unfortunately; they get caught, since Pitch left the climbing harnesses. Later, Griffin goes to retrieve the card, but he is arrested by Detective Vizzini. Swindle doesn''t want to press charges (so he can avoid an investigation so he won''t risk getting in trouble when he cheated Griffin), and Winifred Rockford Bates, the last surviving member of the original Rockford family, gives the Babe Ruth baseball card to her youngest relative, Darren Vader. Ben had said earlier that Darren claimed to be related to the Rockfords. However, Griffin and Ben did not believe him donate the money, in total $974,000, making it the second most expensive collectible ever. They then have to give the card to the Cedarville Museum. In the end no one got any money from the heist, though all the talk about the heist caused Griffin''s dad to have the SmartPick patented. After that, Griffin and his family do not have any more financial problems. As of 2009, a movie deal on Swindle and Schooled (another Gordon Korman book) was made public, although not many details have gone out.

Swindle

A white male is picked up by the New York Police after being found bending over the victim of a mugging at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. After having responded to the police questions with somewhat strange answers, he is transferred to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation. Although not physically ill, he is found to harbour a strange delusion: That he is from a planet called K-PAX in the constellation of Lyra. The patient, who calls himself "prot" (intentionally lower-case to reflect the insignificance of an individual life form in the universe), is eventually transferred to the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute (MPI), where he becomes the patient of Dr. Gene Brewer. Dr. Brewer, with the help of a journalist named Giselle, discovers that prot may simply be an alter ego (the result of Multiple Personality Disorder) of Robert Porter, whose life has been devastated by the murder of his wife and child and his subsequent killing of the perpetrator. When prot returns to his own planet, Robert Porter is left in a catatonic state. However, Bess (another patient prot had promised to take with him) disappears along with a box of souvenirs prot has been collecting. Prot promises to return in "about five of your years".

K-PAX

;Volume I *Chapter 01: This is How it Starts (with a pre-introductory dedication to Pablo Neruda and Aragon) ::*A touching memoir dedicated to Jules Verne and Lester Young without offending Phileas Fogg, about Charlie Parker, Stéphane Mallarmé, Passepartout, Aouda, Man Ray, Robert Lebel, Marcel Duchamp and Antonin Artaud. ::*How to dance a shirtless girl (short story / mini poem) ::*(Encore) *Chapter 03: Julios in Action ::*Jules Laforgue, Marcel Duchamp''s drawing for the poem Encore a cet astre, Le Monde (thursday edition), Moulin a cafe, Dada exhibition in Paris (11.12.66), the first painting he saw by order of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (Nu descendant un escalier) and a photograph of Julio playing the trumpet. *Chapter 05: Theme for San Jorge *Chapter 09: I fall... then emerge. *Chapter 10: The smiler with the knife under the cloak *Chapter 17: Clifford ;Volume II *Chapter 01: What Happens, Minerva? ::*Happenings, Benjamin Patterson''s Lawful Dance, Paik''s Omnibus Music No. 1, Le Monde, Dick Higgins, Thomas Shmidt, Jean-Jacques Lebel, Tetsumi Kudo. *Chapter 03: Around the Piano of Thelonious Monk *Chapter 05: On to Lezama Lima''s Arrival *Chapter 09: Mallarmé''s Tombeau *Chapter 13: The Nobel Art *Chapter 14: The Most Profound Caress es:La vuelta al día en ochenta mundos

Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

Frank and Joe Hardy receive a telegram from their friend Tony saying that he is in danger in Alaska and needs their help. He also suggests bringing the brother''s friend, Chet Morton. At the airport they find a person following them and spying on them and they are attacked. Later the police discover that the attacker was a wanted spy: Romo Stransky. Arriving in Alaska, they meet Ted Sewell, Tony’s helper, and he leads the boys to Tony’s camp. During the trip, Ted tells the boys about how his father disappeared and he wants them to help him find him. At camp, Tony tells the boys that they have been attacked several times by a gang. During a search of the island, they find a knapsack, a map and a piece of jade. They later learn of a gang member going to The Devil’s Paw — a place in British Columbia. At The Devils Paw they learn of an ancient Indian burial site where people would steal gold and jewelry. The brothers remembered the piece of jade they found in the knapsack and it might have been stolen from the burial site. They locate the ancient burial site and also find Ted Sewell’s father. They find the camp of the gang and learn that the mysterious gang was searching for a lost rocket. They are captured, but escape with the help of their friend Chet. A radio call to special agents leads to the arrest of the gang.

The Mystery at Devil''s Paw

The Persians takes place in Susa, Iran, which at the time was one of the capitals of the Persian Empire, and opens with a chorus of old men of Susa, who are soon joined by the Queen Mother, Atossa, as they await news of her son King Xerxes'' expedition against the Greeks. Expressing her anxiety and unease, Atossa narrates "what is probably the first dream sequence in European theatre." This is an unusual beginning for a tragedy by Aeschylus; normally the chorus would not appear until slightly later, after a speech by a minor character. An exhausted messenger arrives, who offers a graphic description of the Battle of Salamis and its gory outcome. He tells of the Persian defeat, the names of the Persian generals who have been killed, and that Xerxes had escaped and is returning. The climax of the messenger''s speech is his rendition of the battle cry of the Greeks as they charged: "On, sons of Greece! Set free / Your fatherland, your children, wives, / Homes of your ancestors and temples of your gods! / Save all, or all is lost!" (401-405). At the tomb of her dead husband Darius, Atossa asks the chorus to summon his ghost: "Some remedy he knows, perhaps, / Knows ruin''s cure" they say. On learning of the Persian defeat, Darius condemns the hubris behind his son’s decision to invade Greece. He particularly rebukes an impious Xerxes’ decision to build a bridge over the Hellespont to expedite the Persian army’s advance. Before departing, the ghost of Darius prophesies another Persian defeat at the Battle of Plataea (479 BCE): "Where the plain grows lush and green, / Where Asopus'' stream plumps rich Boeotia''s soil, / The mother of disasters awaits them there, / Reward for insolence, for scorning God." Xerxes finally arrives, dressed in torn robes ("grief swarms," the Queen says just before his arrival, "but worst of all it stings / to hear how my son, my prince, / wears tatters, rags" (845-849)) and reeling from his crushing defeat. The rest of the drama (908-1076) consists of the king alone with the chorus engaged in a lyrical kommós that laments the enormity of Persia’s defeat.

The Persians

Dr. Jonathan Kingsley, traveling to a Himalayan spiritual hermitage, tries to save himself from suicidal thoughts after the death of his wife. This hermitage, known as an Ashram, was meant to provide him peace even as he sought to rehabilitate others through volunteer work. But he never expected the practices and rituals he would discover, or imagined himself trying to save one woman from her unwanted future. As the doctor searches for an excuse to keep on living, Seeta struggles to keep her own husband alive, not only out of love, but for her own safety. The townspeople of Baramedi, bowing to the wishes of a local landowner (nicknamed Satan), have decided that when her husband dies, Seeta should climb atop a burning pyre to burn with his body. This practice of suttee, out of use for many years, brings Jonathan to her town in an effort to save her, but when he arrives at the pyre, he realizes there is more to his journey and that—unbeknownst to him—the woman’s safety is intricately tied with his own spiritual salvation. A woman''s emancipation from oppressive culture and fear of men; a man''s overcoming of inability to cope with death and learning to love—again!

The Ashram

Portrait in Sepia is the sequel to Daughter of Fortune and follows the story of Aurora del Valle, the granddaughter of Eliza Sommers (Hija de la fortuna). The daughter of Lynn Sommers (the daughter of Eliza and Tao Chi''en) and Matías Rodríguez de Santa Cruz (son of Paulina del Valle and Feliciano Rodríguez de Santa Cruz) has no memory of her first 5 years of life. She has recurring nightmares of men in black pyjamas looming around her, and losing the grip on the hand of someone beloved. Lynn died giving birth to Aurora, known also by her Chinese name Lai Ming, in Chinatown, San Francisco, while Aurora''s biological father never acknowledged that he had a child until the end of his life; he died a slow and agonizing death of syphilis. After Lynn''s death, Aurora''s maternal grandparents raised her until the death of Tao Chi''en. After these events, Eliza approaches Paulina to raise Aurora while Eliza goes to China to bury Tao''s body. Paulina makes Eliza agree to cut all contact with Aurora so she will not get too attached to the girl and have her taken away later on in life. So, Paulina del Valle tries to hide Aurora''s true origins. Nevertheless, when Aurora talks to her real father, Matías, he tells the truth about her past. In this first part the writer also describes the War of the Pacific in which Severo del Valle is involved as a soldier. The descriptions of the war is very cruel; that can be seen in the scene where Severo del Valle loses his leg to gangrene. The second part is about the transition of Aurora''s childhood to adulthood. She learns to be a photographer and she becomes an expert artist in that field. The family moves from San Francisco to Chile and Frederick Williams becomes Paulina''s husband, so he will be accepted in Chilean society. Everyone there see him as a true English lord, but no one knows his origins are not noble. Allende also describes a civil war which affects them directly and the way Paulina del Valle endlessly creates new businesses such as growing French wine and selling cheese, in Chile. The Del Valle family then travels to Europe because Paulina has a tumor and needs an operation. The operation is successful and Paulina becomes healthy and strong once more. She is more than 70 years old, but does not show signs of being tired, ill or soft; she imposes her will on her body and thus she continues to rule the family as a matriarch. Thus, the novel is divided into three parts and an epilogue. The first part describes Aurora''s infancy and family members, and the second is where Aurora''s life comes more into play. The third part is where Aurora grows up, becoming a photographer, marrying Diego Domínguez and eventually leaving him. She takes a lover, Dr. Ivan Radovic, and their relationship is explained more fully in the epilogue. In the end, the mystery of Tao Chi''en''s death is revealed and it plays an important role.

Portrait in Sepia

In Roman times, Macey is an ex-soldier with a group of deserters. He has berserker fits in which he fights like ten men, using an old stone axe. Escaping from a local tribe, the "Cats" at Rudheath, the soldiers find a stockaded Cat village at Barthomley, which they pillage, killing all the inhabitants except for a young girl, whom they take as a slave. They try to "go tribal", pretending to be members of another tribe, the "Mothers", and settle on Mow Cop. This is a sacred site to the Cats, and the girl is their corn goddess. The Cats mine millstones on Mow Cop, and bring food as offerings. The soldiers think they have engineered a truce, but the girl poisons their food and they have hallucinations, killing themselves. Only Macey is spared, as he never touched the girl, who was raped and impregnated by the others. He and the girl leave together, but first he returns to Barthomley where he buries his talisman, the stone axe head, in the burial mound, asking forgiveness for killing so many villagers. The axe head is later found by Thomas Rowley. In the time of the English Civil War, Thomas Rowley lives in Barthomley with his wife Margery. They find a stone axe-head buried in an old mound, and call it a "thunderstone", believing it to have been created by lightning striking the ground. They intend to build it into a chimney to guard against future strikes. The village is besieged by Irish Royalist troops searching for John Fowler, the village head man who has sided with Parliament. The troops eventually kill Fowler and all the other men of the village. Thomas and Margery are rescued by Thomas Venables, a former villager with the Royalists who once desired Margery. He leads them to a shanty town settlement at Rudheath and tells them to go to his family on Mow Cop once Thomas is recovered from his wounds. They take the thunderstone with them and embed it in the chimney of their new home, where it is found by Tom and Jan. In the modern day Tom is a teenager living cooped up in a caravan at Rudheath with his parents. He is sustained by his relationship with his girlfriend Jan, who is leaving to become a student nurse in London. To keep their relationship alive they agree to meet regularly in the railway station at Crewe. One day they follow an ancient path from Crewe to the village of Barthomley. Returning next time on bicycles, they go further to Mow Cop, a hill dominated by a folly tower. Here they find a stone axe-head embedded in an old chimney. They decide to make it a symbol of their love. Tom and Jan have been avoiding sex, but Jan reveals that she had an affair while working as an au pair in Germany. After this, Tom becomes unstable. He insists on having sex with Jan, but having done this he becomes even more self-destructive and unbalanced. He tells Jan that he has donated the axe head to a museum, as it was a valuable Neolithic artifact. Their relationship dissolves and they bid a final farewell as Jan''s train leaves again for London. Pieces of the three narratives are alternated in an inconsistent pattern, calling special attention to their similarities beyond the landscape: themes, circumstances, visual descriptions, and even lines of dialogue echo throughout.

Red Shift

It''s two years after the events in Storm Front. Dresden, struggling with curing Susan of her vampirism infection, is approached by Mab, the Winter Queen. Mab purchased Dresden’s debt from his fairy godmother, Leanansidhe. Queen Mab tells Dresden he can pay off his debt by doing three favors. The first favor is for him to find the murderer of the Summer Knight Ronald Reuel and recover his stolen mantle, declaring Dresden her chosen Emissary. Dresden refuses her request, but is forced by the White Council to accept as his Trial, else be stripped of his title of wizard and handed over to the Red Court vampires as a peace offering. Dresden finds Elaine, his former fellow apprentice and lover, who is the Emissary of the Summer Court and heavily indebted to Aurora, the Summer Lady. Dresden goes to Reuel’s funeral, looking for a group of teenage half-human/half-Fae changelings who were Reuel''s friends, but they flee and attack, believing him to be in service to Winter. Dresden gets information and a guide to the Winter and Summer Ladies. Dresden’s interview with the sadistic Winter Lady, Maeve, convinces him that she did not kill the Summer Knight. Approached by the changelings to find their friend Lily, after Dresden tells Meryl and Fix that he will look for Lily. Dresden discovers Elaine in the back seat of his car, dying of multiple stab wounds. He follows Elaine’s delirious advice to take her to the Summer Lady, Aurora. Aurora heals Elaine, and briefly comforts Dresden. She is not forthcoming with any details on Reuel’s murder or Lily’s disappearance. Instead, she explains that the death of the Summer Knight and the theft of his mantle of power shifted the power balance in favor of Winter. Summer must now attack Winter at Midsummer to maintain control over their remaining power. Dresden heads north to an isolated spot on Lake Michigan and summons his fairy godmother, Leanansidhe. Dresden tells his godmother that he needs to see the Fae Queens and Mothers. Leanansidhe instead takes him transported to an ethereal Chicago-over-Chicago and a great Stone Table. This sacrificial stone that maintains the balance between the Winter and Summer Sidhe. The power of blood spilled upon that table will change the balance of power between the Courts. Leanansidhe says she can do no more for him and disappears. Dresden still needs to speak with the Mothers of both Courts. He tracks Elaine to O''Hare International Airport and persuades her to call in some favors so he can get an invitation to see the Mothers. Rather than provide him with answers, they goad him into answering his own questions, that Aurora is the only Queen capable of stealing the Summer Knight''s mantle, and therefore one of his killers. Lily captured the mantle, being the closest Summer fae at the time of his death, and was turned to stone by Aurora, which is why no one could find either Lily or the mantle. As a reward for his correct deductions, they give him a Cloth of Unraveling and their blessings. Victorious at last, Dresden returns to Elaine and is ambushed. When Dresden regains consciousness, he is the prisoner of Aurora, the Winter Knight Lloyd Slate--and Elaine, who has been coerced into helping with the plot. Aurora explains that she plans to sacrifice Lily on the Table to give Winter the power of the Summer Knight, permanently destroying the balance and freeing humanity from the constant collateral damage of the eternal Faerie War. Elaine then binds Dresden and leaves him to drown. Recognizing the spell he and Elaine invented, Dresden easily escapes. Collecting his friends, they fight their way to the Stone Table and the Winter Queen, telling her of Aurora''s plan. Dresden confronts Aurora and unleashes an army of pixies armed with steel-bladed box cutters--cold iron, which is deadly to the Fae. After the pixies kill Aurora, Queen Mab congratulates Dresden on his success, and offers Dresden the mantle of the Winter Knight, which he refuses. Queen Mab grants safe passage to the White Council. Having passed his Trial, he retains his wizard accolades, and protection from the Red Court. The new Summer Lady, Lily, and her new Knight, Fix, pay Dresden a visit and grant him a favor of Summer in thanks for his services.

Summer Knight

In the third Ripley novel, Tom Ripley is a wealthy man in his early thirties. He lives in Villeperce, France, with his wealthy French wife, Heloise. Ripley spends his days living comfortably in his house, Belle Ombre, until an associate, an American criminal named Reeves Minot, asks him if he can commit a murder for him. Ripley &mdash; who "detest[s] murder, unless absolutely necessary" &mdash; turns down the offer of $96,000 for the two hits, and Minot goes back to Hamburg, Germany. The previous month, Ripley had gone to a party in Fontainebleau, where the host, Jonathan Trevanny, a poor British picture framer suffering from myeloid leukemia, insulted him. As revenge, Ripley suggests to Minot that he might try to convince Trevanny to commit the two murders. To ensure that the plan will work, Ripley starts a rumor that Trevanny has only months to live, and suggests that Minot fabricate evidence that Trevanny''s leukemia has worsened, though Minot does not. Trevanny, who fears his death will leave his wife and son penniless, accepts Minot''s offer of a visit to a German specialist in Hamburg. While in Hamburg, he is persuaded to commit the murder for money. After carrying out the contract &mdash; a shooting at a crowded U-bahn station &mdash; Trevanny insists that he is through as a hired gun. Minot invites Trevanny to Munich, where he visits another doctor. Minot persuades Trevanny to murder a Mafia boss, this time on a train using a garrotte, but he also gives him the far less desirable option of using a gun. At first Trevanny is horrified by the idea, but he eventually gives in and finds himself on the train. He resolves to shoot the mafioso and commit suicide before he can be caught, and he asks Minot to ensure that whatever happens to him the money will go to his wife. Before Trevanny can go through with it, however, Ripley &mdash; who had started to feel responsible for getting Trevanny into the situation &mdash; shows up and executes the Mafia boss himself. He asks Trevanny not to let Minot know that he has "assisted" with the assassination. Back in France, Ripley and Trevanny form a strange sort of bond; Ripley learns to take care of someone other than himself, while Trevanny learns to abandon his conscience and do whatever it takes to survive. Trevanny''s wife Simone discovers a Swiss bank book with a large sum in Trevanny''s name and starts to suspect that her husband is involved in something shady. She links the rumor about her husband''s demise to Ripley and asks Trevanny to tell her how, exactly, he has been making so much money. Trevanny is unable to explain it to her and turns to Ripley to help him concoct a credible story. Ripley acknowledges his role in Trevanny''s dilemma and promises to shepherd him through the ordeal. Ripley learns from Minot that the Mafia in Hamburg appear to be suspicious of Minot''s involvement with the murders. Minot goes on the run after the Mafia bombs his house. Ripley begins to fear Mafia revenge when he receives a couple of suspicious phone calls. After sending Heloise and their housekeeper, Mme. Annette, away, Ripley asks Trevanny to help him deal with any Mafia reprisals at Belle Ombre. When two Mafia hitmen turn up at Belle Ombre, Ripley forces them to phone their boss in Milan and say that Ripley is not the man they are after. He then kills both assassins. Simone then shows up at the house demanding answers &mdash; and discovers the corpses and is sent away in a taxi. Ripley and Trevanny drive to a remote village to burn the corpses in their own car. A few days later, Ripley visits Trevanny''s house, where a quartet of Mafia gunmen appear. One of them opens fire on Ripley, but Trevanny falls in front of him and is mortally wounded; he dies in Simone''s arms. Minot is thrown out of the Mafia car as they drive away; they had kidnapped and tortured him into revealing Trevanny''s name and address. A few months later, Ripley encounters Simone in Fontainebleau, and she spits at him. He realizes that Simone has accepted her husband''s blood money, and in doing so has necessarily remained silent about her suspicions of Ripley''s instigation of the entire affair.

Ripley''s Game

Capt. Robin Weinbaum of Earth Security submits to a request for an interview from Dana Lje, a video commentator, mostly because she can and has made his life difficult with her reporting of Security lapses, especially in a recent case involving the Government of Erskine, another planetary system. Ms. Lje reveals that she has received a communication from an outfit calling itself "Interstellar Information Ltd." about an incident in a star system so far away that even by a faster-than-light ship, no message could return from it in less than two months. The incident in fact is due to take place in the next few days. The communication also alleges that there is a new device aboard the ship, and gives the name of the device. When Weinbaum hears the name—the Dirac communicator—he is forced to believe that Interstellar Information have access to information even he doesn''t have. He brings in Dr. Thor Wald to explain the Dirac device to Dana Lje. She agrees to play along with Interstellar and its owner, J. Shelby Stevens, to let Security find out how the company gets its information. A long investigation turns up exactly nothing. Even when J. Shelby Stevens allows an interview, under the conditions of so-called "stoolie''s arrest" in which he voluntarily places himself in custody for interview, with a guarantee of being set free immediately afterward, there is no progress. The only result is that Stevens predicts the date of their next meeting. Weinbaum uses the Dirac device to communicate with his agents, even though he suspects the communications may not be secure. Each audiovisual message is preceded by a loud beep and burst of visual static, which is so annoying that Weinbaum orders it edited from the tapes he reviews. Finally Weinbaum discovers who Stevens really is, and to his amazement the day this happens is the exact day Stevens predicted they would meet again. He orders his agents to arrest the miscreant. The explanation he gets is this: the beep that he found so annoying represents all the messages ever sent, or that ever will be sent, using the Dirac device. With proper techniques, it is possible to extract any message, whether it be recent, or far in the future. Weinbaum realizes that this is an incredible and dangerous thing. On the one hand he can be ready for any hostile act on the part of Earth''s enemies, but on the other he may, by choosing some events over others, affect the course of future history. The final chapters of the book are a long and well-informed discussion on free will and determinism (the preface of the novel has a quote on the subject from philosopher William James). Eventually Weinbaum decides that the best choice is no choice at all. If information in the beep states that something will happen, then his agents must make sure that it happens. He calls this principle "Thy will, not mine".

The Quincunx of Time

The novel is set in Bengali society of the early 1900s. The story has four main women characters–two major, Savitri and Kiranmayi, and two minor, Surbala and Sarojini. The former two are accused of being charitraheen (characterless). It is most interesting that all four characters are totally different. Savitri is born a Brahmin, but poverty has forced her to become a servant, doing tasks appropriate only for a ''lower caste''. She is, and remains, pure of character, and devoted to the man she loves–Satish. Surbala is Upendranath''s wife. She is young, pure in character and pious to the point of blind faith in religious texts. Sarojini is educated in the Western style, and is forward-thinking, but hampered by familial circumstances and a forceful mother. She marries Satish in the end. Finally, Kiranmayi is the most striking character of the novel. Young and extremely beautiful, she is also very intelligent and argumentative. Her emotions and desires have, however, always been repressed by a husband more intent on teaching her than on conjugal matters, and by a nagging mother-in-law. She surprises and impresses all the three main men in the novel–Satish, Upendra and Diwakar–but her life is ultimately reduced to shambles by these unthinking men. The three men play very important roles in the lives of the four women, but most of the time, their actions are detrimental to the women. They are orthodox, unthinking, and not in control of their emotions. Satish brings about Savitri''s downfall and acts strangely with Sarojini till the end, when he brings about a final reunion of sorts on Upendra''s deathbed. Upendra helps Kiranmayi initially, but thinks the worst of her relationship with Diwakar, and actually causes Kiranmayi''s compulsive elopement with Diwakar. Diwakar is weak-kneed and immature. An orphan, he is delighted by Kiranmayi treating him as her brother, and eventually shirks education. He acts totally irresponsibly after his elopement with Kiranmayi. There is a redemption of all the women in the end, Savitri being considered a devi, Kiranmayi''s compulsions understood somewhat and her ill-treatment regretted implicitly, Sarojini getting to marry Satish, and Surbala dying a natural death. But one feels that this redemption has come too late. Wrong done to the women cannot be righted just like that, even if the women themselves feel so. The depiction of orthodox Hindu society in conflict with Western thoughts brought in by British rule is good.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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Swindle

By Gordon Korman

K-PAX

By Gene Brewer

Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

By Julio Cortázar

The Mystery at Devil's Paw

By Franklin W. Dixon

The Persians

By Aeschylus

The Ashram

By Sattar Memon

Portrait in Sepia

By Isabel Allende

Red Shift

By Alan Garner

Summer Knight

By Jim Butcher

Ripley's Game

By Patricia Highsmith

The Quincunx of Time

By James Blish

Choritrohin

No Author Listed