In a faraway kingdom, there lives a widowed King with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess. One day, he decides to remarry. He marries a wicked queen who was a witch. Out of spite, the queen turns her eleven stepsons into swans (they are allowed to become human by night) and forces them to fly away. The queen then tries to bewitch their 15-year old sister Elisa, but Elisa''s goodness is too strong for this, so she has Elisa banished. The brothers carry Elisa to safety in a foreign land where she is out of harm''s way of her stepmother. There, Elisa is guided by the queen of the fairies to gather nettles in graveyards; she knits these into shirts that will eventually help her brothers regain their human shapes. Elisa endures painfully blistered hands from nettle stings, and she must also take a vow of silence for the duration of her task, for speaking one word will kill her brothers. The king of another faraway land happens to come across the mute Elise and falls in love with her. He grants her a room in the castle where she continues her knitting. Eventually he proposes to crown her as his queen and wife, and she accepts. However, the Archbishop is chagrined because he thinks Elisa is herself a witch, but the king will not believe him. One night Elisa runs out of nettles and is forced to collect more in a nearby church graveyard where the Archbishop is watching. He reports the incident to the king as proof of witchcraft. The statues of the saints shake their heads in protest, but the Archbishop misinterprets this sign as confirmation of Elisa''s guilt. The Archbishop orders to put Elisa on trial for witchcraft. She can speak no word in her defence and is sentenced to death by burning at the stake. The brothers discover Elisa''s plight and try to speak to the king, but fail. Even as the tumbril bears Elise away to execution, she continues knitting, determined to keep it up to the last moment of her life. This enrages the people, who are on the brink of snatching and destroying the shirts when the swans descend and rescue Elise. The people (correctly) interpret this as a sign from Heaven that Elise is innocent, but the executioner still makes ready for the burning. Then Elise throws the shirts over the swans, and the brothers return to their human forms. The youngest brother retains one swan''s wing because Elise did not have time to finish the last sleeve. Elise is now free to speak and tell the truth, but she faints from exhaustion, so her brothers explain. As they do so, the firewood around Elise''s stake miraculously take root and burst into flowers. The king plucks the topmost flower and presents it to Elise and they are married.

The Wild Swans

In the Earth year 1968 (Andalite: 8563.5; Yeerk: Generation 686, early-cycle; Hork-Bajir: late-cool), Aldrea and her family come to live on the Hork-Bajir homeworld after her father -formerly Prince- Seerow, is relieved of duty by Alloran and many other Andalites in 1966, who feel he is no longer fit to command them. This is mainly due to his peaceful philosophy towards the Yeerks, which has resulted in the Yeerks'' enslavement of many other species. On the Hork-Bajir homeworld, two Hork-Bajir, Dak Hamee and his friend Jagil Hullan make contact with Aldrea''s family, and Aldrea makes friends with Dak. Dak is a seer, meaning he possesses intelligence greater than most others of his species. Aldrea''s mother, a biologist, is fascinated with the reptilian, tree-dwelling, peaceful Hork-Bajir, as well as with the other life on the planet. Aldrea herself begins to learn more about Hork-Bajir culture from Dak, and he in turn learns about Andalites. But then tragedy strikes in the form of a Yeerk invasion. Aldrea''s entire family is killed, but she escapes—barely—along with Dak. Dak is sickened by his first taste of violence when they are forced to fight Yeerks and Gedd-Controllers. The Yeerks arrive at the enormous tree where the other members of Dak''s tribe live, and proceed to enslave every single Hork-Bajir they find. Aldrea and Dak, meanwhile, continue to flee the Yeerks, and they journey down into Father Deep, a huge chasm (the Hork-Bajir believe they were born from Father Deep and Mother Sky). There they meet the Arn, a powerful but arrogant race who created the Hork-Bajir, as well as many other creatures that inhabit their planet. Aldrea convinces the Arn that it is in their best interest to fight back against the Yeerks. Aldrea also urges Dak to round up the remaining Hork-Bajir and train them to fight. Eventually, Dak does so, and he and Aldrea then lead their Hork-Bajir army, along with various monsters and terrifying creatures created by the Arn, against the Yeerks on the ground. In the ensuing bloodbath, Aldrea is disgusted by the carnage, and Dak blames Aldrea for turning his people from innocence and peacefulness towards violence. Dak becomes more distant with Aldrea. After many months, an attack force of Andalite ships appears, though not enough to fight off all the Yeerks. The Andalites, including Alloran, now a powerful leader, join Dak and Aldrea on the ground and take part in their campaign of guerilla warfare against the Yeerks. As their numbers began to dwindle, Alloran becomes desperate and finally resorts to using a biological weapon, a virus which will kill all Hork-Bajir, from the Hork-Bajir-Controllers (whose bodies are being controlled by Yeerks) to all the free Hork-Bajir still alive on the planet. When Aldrea realizes what is about to happen, she betrays Alloran and her fellow Andalites in order to help Dak destroy the virus before it can be employed. In the resulting conflict, the virus is accidentally released into the environment. Aldrea, who had morphed into a female Hork-Bajir (who is actually Delf Hajool, the wife of Jagil Hullan) during the struggle, willingly stays too long in that form and is thus trapped as a Hork-Bajir nothlit. She and Dak realize their love for each other, and the two become a mated pair. They go to live in the deep valleys, where the toxin will not reach for some time. At least one of their descendants will eventually become a founding member of the small Hork-Bajir colony on Earth. About 30 Earth years later, Jara Hamee, Dak and Aldrea''s grandson, tells the story of the Yeerk invasion of the Hork-Bajir homeworld to Tobias. Sitting around a campfire at night with other Hork-Bajir, Jara reveals at the end of his story that he and his kalashi, Ket Halpak, have named their daughter Toby after Tobias. Responding to Tobias'' comment that it is a strange name for a Hork-Bajir, Jara comments that Toby (like her great-grandfather) is different. As Tobias begins to fly away the next morning, he pauses to ask <When you say Toby is different...,> and Toby (still only four feet tall at this point) replies to him "Yes, Tobias, friend of the Hork-Bajir. Yes, I am different." Tobias is happy to know that she is a seer just like Dak Hamee. (Note: Dak and Aldrea''s story would later be extended somewhat further in Animorphs #34, The Prophecy.)

Hork-Bajir Chronicles

The Hive follows the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi as he is dispatched as a Republic envoy to the Outer Rim planet Ord Cestus, where he must halt the sale of potentially deadly "bio-droids" to the Separatists. Despite Obi-Wan''s efforts, this mission quickly turns from diplomatic to dangerous. This planet, which was at one time self-contained, has long since been co-opted by unscrupulous offworlders, whose plunder of a vital natural resource has enabled the rise of a powerful corporation that controls the economy. Even the native population known as the X’Ting have been reduced to mere second class citizens in their own society. Obi-Wan brings with him the knowledge of a legal technicality that would allow the X''Ting to retake control of their planet. Circumstances within the X''Ting civilization are less than desirable in which to mount such a revival. This once tightly knit race has splintered into battling factions as a result of a devastating plague, which wiped out many of the X''Ting rulers. Reunification can only come with the rise of new royals, whom all X’Ting are bound by blood to serve. The eggs that will spawn those sovereigns lie out of reach, however, secured in a secret chamber and booby-trapped by those whose knowledge died with them in the plague. Obi-Wan and his X''Ting guide, Jesson Di Blinth, travel down into the sealed egg chamber in an attempt to retrieve the last remaining royal eggs. They face many trials along the way, including a question and answer session for the final test. The questions are presented by a machine that holds the eggs, and threatens vaporization of them if answered incorrectly. Jesson is the only one who can complete this task because he is X''Ting, and the test seeks to determine one''s knowledge of X''Ting history.

The Hive

Alec of Kerry, a young hunter who has recently been orphaned, is taken prisoner under the false charge of spying. He ends up sharing a cell with Seregil, a seemingly youthful spy and noble from the exotic city of Rhiminee, who has the ability to assume various guises and trick his way out of tight situations. The two escape together, and Seregil, motivated by something he does not entirely understand, takes Alec on as his apprentice in thieving, spying and trickery. They head south towards Rhiminee, where Seregil will report on his mission to the wizard Nysander, the head of a covert group of spies known as "Watchers." But along the way, Seregil falls ill under the influence of a mysterious magic. Alec is forced to navigate their way south on his own, testing his limited resources and knowledge of the world outside his rustic homeland. When the cause of Seregil''s illness finally becomes known (an ordinary wooden disk imbued with a powerful curse) it is almost too late to save his life. In his unconscious state, Seregil experiences visions of a dark entity known as the "Empty God," foreshadowing the designs of the evil Duke Mardus, who wishes to obtain the god''s power for himself. In Rhiminee, the capital of Skala, Nysander heals Seregil and takes possession of the disk. Once recovered, Seregil reassumes his role as mentor to Alec, teaching him how to be a successful thief and spy. Alec meets Beka Cavish, a friend of Seregil''s and member of the Queen''s elite Horse Guard, and he and Seregil carry out odd jobs for the scandal-ridden nobles and citizens of Rhiminee under the guise of the "Rhiminee Cat." Seregil learns of a prophecy in which he is to become "father, brother, friend and lover" to Alec, and Alec discovers that Seregil is Aurenfaie, a race of long-lived peoples inhabiting the distant and exotic realm of Aurenen, from which magic originates. After Seregil is thrown into jail for supposedly writing treasonous letters against Queen Idrilain of Skala, it becomes clear that a plot is underway to overthrow the queen. Seregil briefly switches bodies with Thero, Nysander''s apprentice, in order to assist Alec and Nysander in discovering the perpetrators. Their hunt eventually leads them to Lady Kassarie, a supporter of the "Lerans," a group of anti-Aurenfaie nobles who object to Idrilain''s queenship (she is a distant descendant of Lord Corruth, an Aurenfaie consort). Alec manages to seduce a young servant of Kassarie''s, allowing him and Seregil to break into her stronghold. Their discovery of Lord Corruth''s decomposed skeleton, which Kassarie has set up for display like a trophy, reveals that the Lerans were behind the consort''s disappearance, which had so strained the relations between Skala and Aurenen. A fight breaks out between the Skalans and the Lerans, but Nysander is able to transform Seregil and Alec into birds, ensuring their escape from Kassarie''s stronghold. Kassarie is killed and Idrilain''s place on the throne is preserved, but the novel ends with Nysander experiencing a vision of death and the Empty God, foreboding more dark times to come.

Luck in the Shadows

Marty and Grace O''Hara were very different twins. After their journalist parents were lost in a helicopter crash, they went to their uncle''s island. Dr. Laurel Lee arrived with a Mokélé-mbembé egg, a dinosaur thought to have gone extinct but is believed by some to still exist in the Congo. Laurel explained how she''d given the egg to Dr. Noah Blackwood, an evil man who collects rare and unique animals, but is portrayed as a sweet and caring person. Laural stole the egg back, but Blackwood was on the trail of Mokélé-mbembé. Wolfe and his team depart to the Congo, to protect his friend Masalito and Mokélé-mbembé. The twins where to be left at their boarding school until afterwards. But on the plane, Grace and Marty had to catch a run-away chimp in the supply shoot. They fell out when the luggage drop over Congo takes place. While they were stranded in the wilderness, Wolfe contacted them and told them to travel to a safe place, the Skyhouse, by Lake Télé and to wait for them, and explained that he needed to avoid Butch McCall, Blackwood''s number one guy. The children forgot what Wolfe had said about Butch. Butch saw the children and spied on them, sending information back to Blackwood. Blackwood told him to find the girl. The children found the Skyhouse and Marty left shortly, leaving Grace behind. She climbed upstairs and knocked herself unconscious while Butch and his men kidnapped her and took her to their camp. Marty signaled Masalito and Marty realizes Butch must have kidnapped Grace. The twins realized that Grace was actually the daughter of Rose, Blackwood''s daughter, and Wolfe, and that Wolfe had handed her to her cousin Marty''s parents, the O''Haras. Marty and Masalito went to find Grace, and Wolfe and Laurel saw a note through a video feed in the Skyhouse. Grace''s captors fell asleep, and Grace escaped. Grace and Marty met up and hurried into a tunnel in the trees and saw the body of Mokélé-mbembé, setting it on fire and collecting two eggs. Blackwood and Butch arrived. Marty had went upstairs and Grace was about to come up also. Butch tied Grace up, about put her into Blackwood''s helicopter, and went to get Marty and the eggs. Marty forced Butch and Blackwood to hand out Grace. In the meantime, Dr. Lee and Wolfe has arrived at the cleaning. With Blackwood''s helicopter, they fly out of the clearing.

Cryptid Hunters

Audrina Adare lives with her father Damian,who has a strange past, mother Lucietta, aunt Ellsbeth and cousin Vera. Nine years before Audrina was born, her elder sister—who was also named Audrina—was raped and murdered in the woods. Damian convinces the younger Audrina that, by a process of self-hypnosis, she can gain all of the First Audrina''s memories and become just as beloved and special as her dead sister, which is what Audrina wants more than anything else in the world. Audrina is haunted by dreams of her dead sister''s rape and is terrified of sex and men. When she is eight, she meets Arden Lowe and his mother Billie, an amputee. Meanwhile, Lucietta is pregnant yet again. On Audrina''s ninth birthday, Lucietta goes into early labor and dies in childbirth; the baby, a girl, is named Sylvia. More than three years after her birth, Sylvia finally comes home from the hospital and turns out to be mentally challenged. A few years later, Audrina discovers the affair between Lamar and Vera and that Vera is pregnant. In the ensuing confrontation, Vera has a miscarriage. The next day, she leaves town with Lamar. She leaves a note stating that she is Audrina''s paternal half-sister, due to an affair that Ellsbeth had with Damian before he met Lucietta. Shortly after she turns eighteen, Audrina discovers that Damian and Ellsbeth are lovers again; however, tragedy strikes again when Ellsbeth threatens to leave Damian because he will not let her help Vera, who is alone after Lamar committed suicide. The next morning, she is found dead from a mysterious fall down the stairs. Audrina elopes with Arden, hoping to escape her controlling father, and takes Sylvia with her. However, she is still not prepared for sexual intimacy, and her wedding night goes terribly wrong. When the newlyweds return from their disastrous honeymoon, they find that Damian has won over Arden''s mother. He also offers Arden a job at his company. Audrina is upset but goes along with it for the sake of peace. Vera returns suddenly one day and, against Damian''s wishes, stays for a while. It is not long before Vera attempts to seduce Arden. Tragedy strikes again when Billie "falls" down the same steps and dies. Depressed, Audrina pulls away from Arden and Sylvia—Vera and Arden begin an affair. But when Audrina''s love and sexuality finally awakens, she tells Arden that she doesn''t want to lose him and they spend the first happy night of their marriage together. One night, she is pushed down the stairs and falls into a coma. With Sylvia''s help, she awakens and escapes, realizing that she cannot die without learning the secret of First Audrina. Audrina confronts her father and he confesses that the First and Best Audrina never existed. It was Audrina herself who was gang-raped in the woods. The rape left her so traumatized that she attempted suicide. In an attempt to save Audrina from herself, Damian subjected her to electro-convulsive therapy, trying to erase the memory of the rape. Following Damian''s lead, the family conspired to convince Audrina that the rape didn''t happen to her but to an older sister who died before she was born. Eventually the repetition of this story worked. Since the family deliberately changed the clocks in the house and also ripped off calendar days, her sense of time was also altered. Audrina realizes that Arden had been present and witnessed the rape but ran away in fear. She also realizes that Vera was the only other person who knew she would be coming home through the woods that day. However, Vera denies being involved, though her reaction suggests she is in fact guilty. When Vera turns to run, she falls down the stairs, later dying of her numerous injuries. Heartbroken, Audrina decides to take herself and Sylvia away but Sylvia refuses to leave. Audrina realizes that where there is love, there can be forgiveness and the promise of a fresh start. She decides to stay, finally feeling like the loving "First" Audrina she has always strived to be.

My Sweet Audrina

In 1926 Mr and Mrs Trevelyan from England are holidaying in Brittany with their ten-year-old daughter, Flora. The two parents openly despise and neglect the young girl, who is left to occupy herself whilst they prepare to depart for a life in colonial India without her. Left to herself Flora gradually befriends the locals and the other guests at the hotel, who show her more attention and kindness than she receives from her parents. Flora soon falls helplessly in love with no less than three young men (Cosmo, Blanco and Felix) who are also staying at the hotel, and she is crestfallen when the holidays are over and they have to leave. When her parents leave for India Flora is left at a boarding school in England where she will spend the following seven years. Only once is Flora invited to spend her holidays with the Leighs, whom she met in Brittany, and in the years that follow she is only in casual contact with the Leighs and Cosmo, Blanco and Felix. When Flora is seventeen she is supposed to go to India to meet her parents who then will find her a suitable husband, but Flora decides to get off the ship in Marseilles and return to England. Back in England she has to make a living on her own and becomes a housemaid for a family in London and later in the West Country. She begins to live an independent and sensible life.

A Sensible Life

The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. She becomes enamoured with him during their youth but is forced to stop meeting him by her father. Eventually she weds Juvenal Urbino at the age of 21 (the "deadline" she had set for herself) because he seemed to offer her security and love. Urbino is a medical doctor devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress." He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who values his importance and reputation in society to the utmost. He is a herald of progress and modernization. Urbino''s function in the novel is to provide the counterpoint to Florentino Ariza’s archaic, boldly romantic love. Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina many years into their marriage. Though the novel seems to suggest that Urbino''s love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino Ariza''s was, it also complicates Florentino''s devotion by cataloging his many trysts and apparently a few, possibly genuine, loves. By the end of the book, Fermina comes to recognize Ariza''s wisdom and maturity and their love is allowed to blossom during their old age. For most of their adult lives, however, their communication is limited to occasional public niceties. *Lorenzo Daza – Fermina Daza’s father, a mule driver; he despised Florentino and forced them to stop meeting each other. *Jeremiah de Saint-Amour – The man whose suicide is introduced as the opening to the novel; a photographer and chess-player. *Aunt Escolástica – The woman who attempts to aid Fermina in her early romance with Florentino by delivering their letters for them. She is ultimately sent away by Lorenzo Daza for this. *Tránsito Ariza – Florentino’s mother. *Hildebranda Sánchez – Fermina’s cousin. *Miss Barbara Lynch – The woman with whom Urbino confesses having an affair. *Diego Samaritano – The captain of the riverboat on which Fermina and Florentino ride at the end of the novel. *Leona Cassiani - She starts out as the "personal assistant" to Uncle Leo XII at the R.C.C., the company which Florentino eventually controls. At one point, it is revealed that the two share a deep respect, possibly even love, for each other, but will never actually be together. She has a maternal love for him as a result of his "charity" in rescuing her from the streets and giving her a job. *América Vicuña - The fourteen-year-old girl who towards the end of the novel is sent to live with Florentino; he is her guardian while she is in school. They have a sexual relationship, and upon failing her exams and after her rejection by Florentino, she kills herself. Her suicide illustrates the selfish nature of Florentino''s love for Fermina.

Love in the Time of Cholera

The story tells of a Sadaijin (high-ranking courtier) who has two similar-looking children by different mothers, a boy called Wakagimi and a girl called Himegimi, but their mannerisms are those of the opposite sex. The title, "Torikaebaya", literally means "If only I could exchange them!", an exasperated cry by the father. The Sadaijin plans to have them join religious orders, but the news of the talents of the "son" spreads to the court. The children go through the coming of age ceremonies for the opposite sex, and the Sadaijin presents his daughter as a man to the court, and his son as a woman. The man disguised as a woman, now known as the rank of Naishi no Kami (head of the ceremonies committee), becomes the sheltered princess''s confidante, whereas the woman disguised as a man becomes a Chūnagon (mid-ranking courtier). The siblings are worried that they will be exposed, and so Naishi no Kami is even shyer than most ladies of the court, and the Chūnagon more aloof than is seemly. Despite this, the Chūnagon has platonic affairs with the elder Yoshino princess and the Lady of the Reikeiden. Naishi no Kami is pursued by men — the Crown Prince falls in love with Naishi no Kami based on her reputation, and pursuing her relentlessly. The Chūnagon''s best friend, Saishō Chūjō, attempts to seduce Naishi no Kami for a period of two nights and a day. The daughter marries a woman, Shi no Kimi (Fourth Daughter). Saishō attempts to educate the Chūnagon''s wife that couples do more than hold hands and sleep next to each other all night. Naishi no Kami similarly avoids the pursuit of the Crown Prince. Saishō has an affair with Shi no Kimi, and then turns his attention to the Chūnagon, discovering in a grappling match the Chūnagon''s true sex. He then begins to court the Chūnagon in the usual manner, and insists that she return to being a woman. The Chūnagon becomes pregnant and hides herself away from the court. Naishi no Kami has sex with the princess, and she becomes pregnant. Naishi no Kami dresses as a man and searches for the Chūnagon, and after the Chūnagon gives birth, the siblings swap places. The tengu who cursed the siblings in their previous lives to not be content with the sex they were born with has since become a Buddhist — Willig''s translation mistakenly says that it''s the siblings'' father who has turned to the path. Because of the tengu''s conversion to Buddhism, as the siblings resolve to swap roles and dress in the clothes of their physical sex, they become content. The former Naishi no Kami marries the sheltered princess, the elder Yoshino princess, and "remains" married to Shi no Kimi. He attains the rank of Sadaijin. The Crown Prince, now Emperor, has sex with the former Chūnagon, and is dismayed to find she is not a virgin, but marries her anyway. Saishō never learns what became of the former Chūnagon, the princess barely notices the change in her female companion, and the siblings live happily ever after and have many children with their new spouses.

Torikaebaya Monogatari

The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman De Grieux and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, "Grandmother", he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Madamoiselle De Cominges''s hand in marriage. Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina and swears an oath of servitude to her. He told her while on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town) that all she had to do was give the word and he would gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. This leads to her asking him to go to the town''s casino and place a bet for her. He refuses at first but, when goaded and reminded of his oath of undying love and servility, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table (this was his first experience with the narcotic bliss of gambling). He returns to her the winnings but she will not tell him the reason she needs money. She only laughs in his face (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with cold indifference, if not downright malice. He only learns the details of The General''s and Polina''s financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei''s fondness of Polina. He comes from English nobility and has a good deal of money. One day while Polina and Alexei are on a walk they see a Baron and Baroness. Polina dares him to insult the Aristocratic couple and he does so with little hesitation. This sets off a chain of events that details Madame de Cominges''s interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General''s children. Shortly after this Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General''s debt and why the French man and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers by saying that none of them are getting any of her money. She then asks Alexei to be her guide around the town famous for its healing waters and infamous for its casino where the tables are stacked with piles of gold; she wants to gamble. After being ushered to the roulette table, she plays and wins a significant amount of money. After a short return to the Hotel she comes back to roulette tables and she starts to get the bug; before she leaves the town she''s lost almost a hundred thousand roubles. When Alexei gets back to his room after sending Grandmother off at the railway station he''s greeted by Polina. She tells him that De Grieux had left town but not before he absolved the General from a certain moiety of the mortgages on his property. She then explains that because she was indebted to him she couldn''t return Alexei''s love. Upon hearing this Alexei runs out of the room and to the casino where he wins over two hundred thousand roubles and becomes a rich man. When he gets back to his room and the waiting Polina he empties his pockets full of gold and bank notes onto the bed. They fall asleep on the couch and the next day she tells Alexei that she hates him and wants to be with Mr. Astley (they had been secretly meeting and exchanging notes and she was supposed to meet him but had fallen asleep in his room). She runs out of the hotel and he doesn''t see her again. After learning that the general wouldn''t be getting his inheritance Madame de Cominges leaves the hotel with her mother for Paris. Alexei goes with them having won a significant amount and they stay together for a month, he allowing them to spend his entire fortune on horses and frivolous balls. Alexei starts to gamble to survive. One day he passes Mr. Astley on a park bench in Bad Homburg and has a talk with him. He finds out from Astley that Polina is in Switzerland and actually does love him. Astley gives him some money but shows little hope that he will not use it for gambling. Alexei goes home dreaming of going to Switzerland the next day and recollects what made him win at the roulette tables in the past.

The Gambler

The action revolves around a few characters brought together by a Hollywood millionaire, Jo Stoyte. Each character represents a different attitude toward life. Stoyte, in his sixties and conscious of his mortality, finds himself in deep contemplation of life. Enlightenment eludes him, though, as he is ruled by his fears and cravings. Stoyte hires Dr Obispo and his assistant Peter to research the secrets to long life in carp, crocodiles, and parrots. Jeremy, an English archivist and literature expert, is brought in to archive a rare collection of books. Jeremy''s presence highlights Stoyte''s shallow attitude toward the precious works of art that he affords himself. Other characters are Virginia, Stoyte''s young mistress; and Mr Propter, a professor who lives on a neighboring estate. Mr Propter believes: ... every individual is called on to display not only unsleeping good will but also unsleeping intelligence. And this is not all. For, if individuality is not absolute, if personalities are illusory figments of a self-will disastrously blind to the reality of a more-than-personal consciousness, of which it is the limitation and denial, then all of every human being''s efforts must be directed, in the last resort, to the actualization of that more-than-personal consciousness. So that even intelligence is not sufficient as an adjunct to good will; there must also be the recollection which seeks to transform and transcend intelligence. This is essentially Huxley&#39;s own position. Though other characters achieve conventional success, even happiness, only Mr Propter does so without upsetting anyone or creating evil. Dr Obispo places great faith in science and medicine as saviours of humankind. He sees everyone as a stepping stone to science, the greater good, and thus only derives happiness at others&#39; expense. According to Propter&#39;s philosophy, he is trapped in ego-based &#34;human&#34; behaviour that prevents him from reaching enlightenment. Obispo seduces Virginia in a characteristically egotistical way. She is unable to resist him despite her loyalty to Stoyte. When she is found out by Stoyte, he wants to kill Obispo but accidentally kills Peter (whose thoughts and morals had slowly started to expand under Propter&#39;s tutelage) instead. Obispo covers up the act for money and continued research support. This takes him, along with Virginia and Stoyte, to Europe, where they find an immortal human, the Fifth Earl of Gonister, still alive at 200, who now resembles an ape. Stoyte cannot grasp that transcendence or goodness should be one&#39;s ultimate goal, rather than prevention of death, and expresses his wish to undergo treatment so that he too will live forever.

After Many a Summer

The British Home Secretary, Sir Derek O''Callaghan MP, has received several death threats from anarchists affiliated with Stalinist Communism - and a pleading letter threatening suicide from Jane Harden, a nurse he had a short affair with some months earlier. Shortly after receiving the letter his old friend and family physician, Sir John Phillips, visits him to ask him about O''Callaghan''s relationship with Jane, who is also Phillips''s scrub nurse and who he has loved from afar for years. After O''Callaghan brutally informs Phillips that Jane is "easy" and not worth his regard, he and Phillips almost come to blows before Phillips threatens his life in front of a servant. One week later, O''Callaghan is introducing a bill in the House of Commons to deal with anarchism when he doubles over, incapacitated by acute appendicitis. His wife, unaware of the fight or of Phillips''s threats, has her husband moved to Phillips''s private hospital ("nursing home" in contemporary usage) and begs Phillips to operate immediately. He does so against his own wishes, as assisted by Dr. Roberts, the anaesthetist; Dr. Thoms, the assistant surgeon; Sister Marigold, the matron; Nurse Banks, the circulating nurse; and Jane Harden, the scrub nurse. The operation goes well, but O''Callaghan weakens near the end of the operation and dies one hour later, apparently of peritonitis. The next day, Lady O''Callaghan is going through her late husband''s papers and finds both the death threats from anarchists and Jane Harden''s letter. Convinced that her husband has been murdered, she calls in Roderick Alleyn of Scotland Yard. It turns out that O''Callaghan has died of an overdose of hyoscine, a drug used in anaesthesia. Suspicion rests not just on Phillips and Harden but also on Nurse Banks, an outspoken Communist whose constant vicious insults toward O''Callaghan during the operation have led to her dismissal. Alleyn''s digging reveals that it would have been possible for any member of the surgical team to have committed the crime. He learns that Harden loved O''Callaghan to the point that even after his death she was unable to return Phillips''s feelings; that Banks is a member of an anarchist society almost completely controlled by the authorities (and which has more bark than bite, as Alleyn finds out when he attends a meeting in disguise with his amanuensis, Nigel Bathgate); that O''Callaghan''s sister, an unbalanced, shrill, unintelligent hysteric, has been bullying her brother into taking quack medicine produced by an avowed Communist; and that Dr. Roberts the anaesthetist is a firm believer in eugenics to the point that he is unable to prevent himself from expounding on the topic for hours. Frustrated, Alleyn finally arranges for a re-enactment of the operation. During the re-enactment Sister Marigold brushes by Roberts''s anaesthetic cart during a weak moment and Roberts erupts in rage, screaming that the nurse could have blown up the entire building had his cart (which carries ether) fallen over. Alleyn has Roberts removed from the room and quickly checks the cart and finds that one of the "bolts" holding the cart together is actually the top of a syringe. Hours later, he and Fox visit Roberts at his home and charge him with murder. Roberts admits to having injected O''Callaghan with hyoscine, but claims that he was justified: O''Callaghan''s family had a "hereditary taint" (as shown by his sister), and it was his duty to remove such "tainted" persons from society. At the end, Alleyn points out that Roberts himself is insane and has committed dozens of similar murders, as testified to by the notches on his stethoscope. In the epilogue Alleyn expresses doubt that Phillips and Harden will ever get together, and remarks that such things only happen in the "movie-mind".

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