The story, which is told in the first person, centers on down-and-out actor Lawrence Smith (stage name Lorenzo Smythe, a.k.a. "The Great Lorenzo"). A brilliant actor and mimic (or so we are told, by Smith himself), he is down to his last coin when a spaceman hires him to double for a public figure. It is only when he is on his way to Mars that he finds out how deeply he has been deceived: he will have to impersonate one of the most prominent politicians in the solar system (and one with whose views Smythe deeply disagrees): John Joseph Bonforte. Bonforte is the leader of the Expansionist coalition, currently out of office but with a good chance of changing that at the next general election. Bonforte has been kidnapped by his political opponents, and his aides want Smith to impersonate Bonforte while they try to find him. Bonforte is rescued, but he is in poor health due to the treatment inflicted on him during his imprisonment. This forces Smith to extend his performance, even to becoming temporary Supreme Minister and running in an election. (This is made plausible through Bonforte''s extensive Farley Files.) The central political issue in the election is the granting of the vote to Martians in the human-dominated Solar System. Lorenzo shares the anti-Martian prejudice prevalent among large parts of Earth''s population, but he is called upon to assume the persona of the most prominent advocate for Martian enfranchisement. Smith takes on not only Bonforte''s appearance, but some aspects of his personality. At the moment of electoral victory, Bonforte dies of the aftereffects of his kidnapping, and Smythe realizes he has little choice but to assume the role for life. In a retrospective conclusion set twenty-five years later, Lorenzo has ''become'' Bonforte, suppressing his own identity permanently. He has been generally successful and has carried forward Bonforte''s ideals to the best of his ability. Penny (Bonforte''s adoring secretary; now Smith/Bonforte''s wife) says, "I never loved anyone else." At the end, Lorenzo looks back on his former life, including the prejudices he used to hold, commenting that they seem to him like they happened to someone else.

Double Star

In L''Ankou, Ororéa invites Spirou and Fantasio to join her at a congress of magicians in Brittany. When they arrive, they meet strange L''Ankou, who objects to the presence of a nuclear thermal power station on his land. They then save Ororéa from an aggression, but the gangsters manage to escape. At their arrival at the hotel, they find out that Itoh Kata is amongst the magicians invited. The others are telepath Al Kazar, hypnotist monk Capuccino and telekinesist Rethros Athana. Those are currently developing a magic trick based on teleportation. Fantasio is used as guinea-pig during the first representation but is abducted by the gangsters. Ankou reappears and suggests to Spirou and his friends not to try anything against the kidnappers. The latter exert blackmail on the magicians: they are to deliver a revolutionary product developed at the power station in exchange for Fantasio. Kata decides not to say anything to his friends and together, the magicians steal the product. Meanwhile, Fantasio manages to escape and warns the police with Spirou and Ororéa. The gangsters are arrested but the product stolen by the magicians threatens to explode. Fortunately, Spirou warns the magicians in time and Itoh Kata makes the product vanish. This event leads to the power station closing down. L''Ankou is thus grateful towards Spirou and his companions. <!--

L''Ankou

Married to a tenant farmer, Nathan, because her family can''t afford the dowry for a better match, Rukmani must leave everything she has ever known and learn how to run a household by herself at the age of twelve. Nathan proves to be a tender, thoughtful husband and Rukmani soon comes to love him. Their first child, a daughter named Irawaddy, is born punctually; then six years pass with no more children. In a society where sons were what mattered most, Rukmani grows desperate. She seeks out the help of an English doctor, Kenny, who successfully treats her infertility. Rukmani eventually gives birth to six more children. Meanwhile, a tannery is built in the village and begins to take over the land. The system of trading, and the quiet way of life for the people who live there is quickly disrupted. Rukmani seems to be the only one who recognizes this as a danger, and stands alone in her protest against modernization. Irawaddy is married off to a well-placed young man; then Rukmani''s two eldest sons leave her to go work at a tea plantation in faraway Ceylon. After several years Irawaddy, divorced by her husband because she is barren, returns home. The family endure a time of drought and famine, and Rukmani''s third son, weak with hunger, is beaten to death while trying to steal a calfskin from the tannery. Her youngest son Kuti begins to starve. Irawaddy is forced to turn to prostitution so she can provide food for her baby brother. Despite the extra food, Kuti dies. Irawaddy becomes pregnant from the prostitution and gives birth to an albino boy. Eventually, the tannery officials buy the land Nathan has been farming for thirty years and evict him. With nowhere else to go, the couple travel by oxcart and on foot to a city, hoping to move in with one of their sons. The son, however, has gone no-one knows where. Completely destitute, they work as stonebreakers at a quarry in hopes of earning enough money to get home. There Nathan dies. Afterward, Rukmani returns to her home village accompanied by a resourceful street boy named Puli, who has lost his fingers to leprosy. She moves in with her daughter and her youngest son, who is now a doctor at the hospital Kenny has built.

Nectar in a Sieve

In this book, Kristof and WuDunn, husband and wife, wrote about their experiences in China from 1988 to 1993. The couple spent five years in China as journalists reporting for the New York Times. For a time, WuDunn worked and traveled around China as a tourist after her press credentials had been revoked by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on a technicality. The authors present alternating chapters with Kristof writing the odd-numbered chapters and WuDunn writing the even-numbered chapters. Only the last chapter of the book was written by both authors. Kristoff and WuDunn cover various topics such as the lives of Chinese peasants, corruption, sex, religion, China''s one-child policy, the June 4th Incident (Democracy Movement), and the future of the Communist party. The two journalists are assisted by local Chinese friends, anonymous sources, and Communist officials in researching stories for the New York Times. In the Author''s Note it is stated that the names of some Chinese sources have been changed for their protection, while the names of corrupt Communist officials have been left uncensored. The authors'' view of China is that of a country torn between Deng Xiaoping''s successful economic strategy and frustrated political reform and human rights.

China Wakes

Le Meneur de Loups is set around 1780 in Dumas'' native town of Villers-Cotterêts, and is supposedly based on a local folk-tale Dumas heard as a child. The story concerns Thibault, a shoe-maker, who is beaten by the gamekeeper of the Lord of Vez for interfering with the lord''s hunting. Afterwards he encounters a huge wolf, walking on its hind legs like a man, who offers him vengeance; Thibault may wish harm on any person in return for one of his own hairs for each wish. To seal the agreement, the two exchange rings. As a result of this bargain he also finds himself able to command the local wolves, and hence gradually gains the reputation of being a werewolf. Thibault''s first two wishes kill the gamekeeper and injure the Lord of Vez. The wishes turn two hairs on his head long and red, as do his subsequent ones, which, though equally successful, also backfire against him in unexpected ways, leaving him scorned and hated by others in his community. Finally one of his wishes causes him to trade bodies with Lord Raoul of Vauparfond, who is having an affair with the wife of the Count de Mont-Gobert. Caught with the lady by the count as the result of an earlier wish against Lord Raoul, he is mortally wounded. He manages to keep himself alive until transferred back into his own body, only to find himself trapped in his own home, to which the townsfolk have set fire. Escaping, Thibault takes to the forest, where he subsists on animals caught for him by his wolves and hunts and is hunted by the Lord of Vez. He has but one human hair left on his head. The conclusion of the book, however, brings him an unusual redemption.

The Wolf Leader

Spencer Brydon returns to New York City after more than thirty years abroad. He has agreed to have his old family house demolished in favor of a more lucrative apartment building. Before the wreckers begin, he starts to prowl the house at night. Brydon has begun to realize that he might have been an astute businessman if he hadn''t forsaken moneymaking for a more leisurely life. He discusses this possibility with Alice Staverton, his woman friend who has always lived in New York. Meanwhile Brydon begins to believe that his alter ego&mdash;the ghost of the man he might have been&mdash;is haunting the "jolly corner", his nickname for the old family house. After a harrowing night of pursuit in the house, Brydon finally confronts the ghost, who advances on him and overpowers him with "a rage of personality before which his own collapsed." Brydon eventually awakens with his head pillowed on Alice Staverton''s lap. It is arguable whether or not Spencer had actually become unconscious or whether he had died and has awoken in an afterlife. She had come to the house because she sensed he was in danger. She tells him that she pities the ghost of his alter ego, who has suffered and lost two fingers from his right hand. But she also embraces and accepts Brydon as he is.

The Jolly Corner

The story continues a few months after The Chocolate War ends. As the school year draws to an end, many students look forward to leaving for the summer but Carter and Obie, leading members of the ruthless secret society, The Vigils, can''t contemplate the future until they have destroyed the leader, Archie Costello. Obie has seen his relationship with the beautiful Laurie Gundarson ruined by one of Archie''s Vigil exploits and is out for revenge. But his plan involving a trick backfires and Archie hands over the leadership of the Vigils with his ruthlessly cool reputation still intact. During all of this, it''s also revealed what happened to Jerry Renault after the conclusion of the last book, that he had stayed in Canada, and even after a second scuffle with Emile Janza decides to return to Trinity High School. The story ends with Archie giving the role of the "Assigner" to his underling, Bunting, but only on one condition: Emile Janza becomes the Vigil''s second-in-command. At the end of the year, Janza suggests to Bunting many changes to the way Archie ran the Vigils, including the use of physical force rather than psychological force, taxing students, and the selling of marijuana and pills. Bunting agrees, not knowing that it was Archie recommending all of the various illegal activities. Archie thus engineers the "ruin" of Trinity in coming years. A side story is David Caroni''s pursuit of Brother Leon and in the end committing suicide after a failed murder attempt. The sequel was as well received as its predecessor, but notably darker undercurrents stream beneath its main plot. Principal among those is the spectre of sexual frustration in single sex schools, a sparsely explored theme of both "Chocolate War" books. Critics have argued that Cormier was alluding to Trinity being destroyed by the perversion of simple teenage urges, as the protagonists are frustrated by the compulsory all male environment. Cormier has never made any comment in relation to this claim.

Beyond The Chocolate War

Tom Ripley is a young man struggling to make a living in New York City by whatever means necessary, including a series of small-time confidence scams. One day, he is approached by shipping magnate Herbert Greenleaf to travel to Mongibello, Italy, to persuade Greenleaf''s errant son, Dickie, to return to the United States and join the family business. Ripley agrees, exaggerating his friendship with Dickie, a half-remembered acquaintance, in order to gain the elder Greenleaf''s trust. Shortly after his arrival in Italy, Ripley meets Dickie and his friend Marge Sherwood; although Ripley ingratiates himself with Dickie, Marge does not seem to like him very much. As Ripley and Dickie spend more time together, Marge feels left out and begins insinuating to Dickie that Ripley is gay. Dickie then surprises Ripley in Dickie''s bedroom dressed up in Dickie''s clothes and imitating his mannerisms. Dickie is upset, and from this moment on Ripley senses that his wealthy friend has begun to tire of him, resenting his constant presence and growing personal dependence. Ripley has indeed become obsessed with Dickie, which is further reinforced by his desire to imitate and maintain the wealthy lifestyle Dickie has afforded him. As a gesture to Ripley, Dickie agrees to travel with him on a short holiday to Sanremo. Sensing that Dickie is about to cut him loose, Ripley finally decides to murder him and assume his identity. When the two set sail in a small rented boat, Ripley beats him to death with an oar, dumps his anchor-weighted body into the water and scuttles the boat. Ripley assumes Dickie''s identity, living off the latter''s trust fund and carefully providing communications to Marge to assure her that Dickie has dumped her. Freddie Miles, an old friend of Dickie''s from the same social set, encounters Ripley at what he supposes to be Dickie''s apartment in Rome. He soon suspects something is wrong. When Miles finally confronts him, Ripley kills him with an ashtray. He later disposes of the body on the outskirts of Rome, attempting to make police believe that Miles has been murdered by robbers. Ripley enters a cat-and-mouse game with the Italian police, but manages to keep himself safe by restoring his own identity and moving to Venice. In succession Marge, Dickie''s father, and an American private detective confront Ripley, who suggests to them that Dickie was depressed and may have committed suicide. Marge stays for a while at Ripley''s rented house in Venice. When she discovers Dickie''s rings in Ripley''s possession, she seems to be on the verge of realising the truth. Panicked, Ripley contemplates murdering Marge, but she is saved when she says that if Dickie gave his rings to Ripley, then he probably meant to kill himself. The story concludes with Ripley''s traveling to Greece and resigning himself to eventually getting caught. On arrival in Greece, however, he discovers that the Greenleaf family has accepted that Dickie is dead and that Ripley shall inherit his fortune according to a will forged by Ripley on Dickie''s Hermes typewriter. While the book ends with Ripley happily rich, it also suggests that he may forever be dogged by paranoia. In one of the final paragraphs, he nervously envisions a group of police officers waiting to arrest him, and Highsmith leaves her protagonist wondering, ".....was he going to see policemen waiting for him on every pier that he ever approached?"

The Talented Mr. Ripley

The book opens with a Kentucky farmer named Arthur Shelby facing the loss of his farm because of debts. Even though he and his wife Emily Shelby believe that they have a benevolent relationship with their slaves, Shelby decides to raise the needed funds by selling two of them—Uncle Tom, a middle-aged man with a wife and children, and Harry, the son of Emily Shelby’s maid Eliza—to a slave trader. Emily Shelby is averse to this idea because she had promised her maid that her child would never be sold; Emily''s son, George Shelby, hates to see Tom go because he sees the man as his friend and mentor. When Eliza overhears Mr. and Mrs. Shelby discussing plans to sell Tom and Harry, Eliza determines to run away with her son. The novel states that Eliza made this decision because she fears losing her only surviving child (she had already miscarried two children). Eliza departs that night, leaving a note of apology to her mistress. Tom is sold and placed on a riverboat which sets sail down the Mississippi River. While on board, Tom meets and befriends a young white girl named Eva. Eva''s father Augustine St. Clare buys Tom from the slave trader and takes him with the family to their home in New Orleans. Tom and Eva begin to relate to one another because of the deep Christian faith they both share. During Eliza''s escape, she meets up with her husband George Harris, who had run away previously. They decide to attempt to reach Canada. However, they are tracked by a slave hunter named Tom Loker. Eventually Loker and his men trap Eliza and her family, causing George to push Loker down a cliff. Worried that Loker may die, Eliza convinces George to bring the slave hunter to a nearby Quaker settlement for medical treatment. Back in New Orleans, St. Clare debates slavery with his Northern cousin Ophelia who, while opposing slavery, is prejudiced against black people. St. Clare, however, believes he is not biased, even though he is a slave owner. In an attempt to show Ophelia that her views on blacks are wrong, St. Clare purchases Topsy, a young black slave. St. Clare then asks Ophelia to educate her. After Tom has lived with the St. Clares for two years, Eva grows very ill. Before she dies she experiences a vision of heaven, which she shares with the people around her. As a result of her death and vision, the other characters resolve to change their lives, with Ophelia promising to throw off her personal prejudices against blacks, Topsy saying she will better herself, and St. Clare pledging to free Tom. Before St. Clare can follow through on his pledge, however, he dies after being stabbed outside of a tavern. His wife reneges on her late husband''s vow and sells Tom at auction to a vicious plantation owner named Simon Legree. Legree (a transplanted northerner) takes Tom to rural Louisiana, where Tom meets Legree''s other slaves, including Emmeline (whom Legree purchased at the same time). Legree begins to hate Tom when Tom refuses Legree''s order to whip his fellow slave. Legree beats Tom viciously and resolves to crush his new slave''s faith in God. Despite Legree''s cruelty, however, Tom refuses to stop reading his Bible and comforting the other slaves as best he can. While at the plantation, Tom meets Cassy, another of Legree''s slaves. Cassy was previously separated from her son and daughter when they were sold; unable to endure the pain of seeing another child sold, she killed her third child. At this point Tom Loker returns to the story. Loker has changed as the result of being healed by the Quakers. George, Eliza, and Harry have also obtained their freedom after crossing into Canada. In Louisiana, Uncle Tom almost succumbs to hopelessness as his faith in God is tested by the hardships of the plantation. However, he has two visions, one of Jesus and one of Eva, which renew his resolve to remain a faithful Christian, even unto death. He encourages Cassy to escape, which she does, taking Emmeline with her. When Tom refuses to tell Legree where Cassy and Emmeline have gone, Legree orders his overseers to kill Tom. As Tom is dying, he forgives the overseers who savagely beat him. Humbled by the character of the man they have killed, both men become Christians. Very shortly before Tom''s death, George Shelby (Arthur Shelby''s son) arrives to buy Tom’s freedom but finds he is too late. On their boat ride to freedom, Cassy and Emmeline meet George Harris'' sister and accompany her to Canada. Cassy discovers that Eliza is her long-lost daughter who was sold as a child. Now that their family is together again, they travel to France and eventually Liberia, the African nation created for former American slaves. George Shelby returns to the Kentucky farm and frees all his slaves. George tells them to remember Tom''s sacrifice and his belief in the true meaning of Christianity.

Uncle Tom''s Cabin

The book opens with scenes of astonishing opulence, beginning with Renée and Maxime lazing in a luxurious horse-drawn carriage, very slowly leaving a Parisian park (the Bois de Boulogne) in the 19th century-equivalent of a traffic jam. It is made clear very early on that these are staggeringly wealthy characters not subject to the cares faced by the public; they arrive at their mansion and spend hours being dressed by their servants prior to hosting a banquet attended by some of the richest people in Paris. There seems to be almost no continuity between this scene and the end of the previous novel, until the second chapter begins and Zola reveals that this opulent scene takes place almost fourteen years later. Zola then rewinds time to pick up the story practically minutes after La Fortune des Rougon ended. Following Eugene Rougon''s rise to political power in Paris in La Fortune, his younger brother Aristide, featured in the first novel as a talentless journalist, a comic character unable to commit himself unequivocally to the imperial cause and thus left out in the cold when the rewards were being handed out, decides to follow Eugene to Paris to help himself to the wealth and power he now believes to be his birthright. Eugene promises to help Aristide achieve these things on the condition that he stay out of his way and change his surname to avoid the possibility of bad publicity from Aristide''s escapades rubbing off on Eugene and damaging his political chances. Aristide chooses the surname Saccard and Eugene gets him a seemingly mundane job at the city planning permission office. The renamed Saccard soon realises that, far from the disappointment he thought the job would be, he is actually in a position to gain insider information on the houses and other buildings that are to be demolished to build Paris''s bold new system of boulevards. Knowing that the owners of these properties ordered to be demolished by the city government were compensated handsomely, Saccard contrives to borrow money in order to buy up these properties before their status becomes public and then make massive profits. Saccard is at first unable to get the money to make his initial investments but then his wife falls victim to a terminal illness. Even while she lies dying in the next room, Saccard (in a brilliant scene of breathtaking callousness) is already making arrangements to marry rich girl Renée, who is pregnant and whose family wishes to avoid scandal by offering a huge dowry to any man who will marry her and claim the baby as his own. Saccard accepts and his career in speculation is born. He sends his youngest daughter back home to Plassans and packs his older son Maxime off to a Parisian boarding school; we meet Maxime again when he leaves school several years later and meets his new stepmother Renée, who is only a couple of years older. The flashback complete, the rest of the novel takes place after Saccard has made his fortune, against the backdrop of his luxurious mansion and his profligacy and is concerned with a three-cornered plot of sexual and political intrigue. Renée and Maxime begin a semi-incestuous love affair, which Saccard suspects but appears to tolerate, perhaps due to the commercial nature of his marriage to Renée. Saccard is trying to get Renée to part with the deeds to her family home, which would be worth millions but which she refuses to give up. The novel continues in this vein with the tensions continuing to mount and culminates in a series of bitter observations by Zola on the hypocrisy and immorality of the nouveau riche. A near-penniless journalist at the time of writing La Curée, Zola himself had no experience of the scenes he describes. In order to counter this lack, he toured a large number of stately homes around France, taking copious notes on subjects like architecture, ladies'' and men''s fashions, jewellery, garden design, greenhouse plants (a seduction scene takes place in Saccard''s hothouse), carriages, mannerisms, servants'' liveries; these notes (volumes of which are preserved) were time well spent, as many contemporary observers praised the novel for its realism. Roger Vadim updated the setting to modern-day Paris in a movie adaptation by Jean Cau, starring Jane Fonda, Michel Piccoli and Peter McEnery in 1966. The film was released in English-speaking markets as The Game is Over.

La Curée

Paradyzja (from "paradise") is the story about the human colony on a space station orbiting a distant and mineral rich star system. The colony is controlled by a totalitarian regime. All human activity is tracked by electronic devices. It had been primarily devised as a ring, in which the gravity force is simulated by the centrifugal force exerting upon all objects inside a ring tube in the direction opposite to the centre of the ring. This space station was built accidentally. The expedition had to settle on planet Tartar in order to live there and exploit the natural goods. But general Cortazar, the leader of settlers, decided that Tartar was not suitable for settling because of a lack of good conditions for living, so the living place had to be built as a space station on the Tartar''s orbit. On Paradise, living rooms are made of transparent material and to get to some of them you have to pass through other living rooms. Personal watches are not allowed, there; the only clocks are those in living rooms. Rinah Devi''s first impression is that all people strictly adhere to the regime law, but then he discovered that they had devised various ways to work around the system. One of them is "the only language of truth" - Koalang, an artificial poetic language invented by the inhabitants of Paradise in order to cheat the electronic eavesdropping system. The government and the safety service is trying to suppress every possible knowledge of physics, which could allow a verification of the statements about what Paradise is as presented to Paradisians. That is why every research in physics is blocked, especially every research about Coriolis force. The main hero discovered this, when he was trying to check whether the forces really differ on every floor: all things that would be used to make such an experiment (even such as a spring from his ballpen) have been taken from him by the customs officers and no other things that would make such a simple experiment possible are accessible. Then he discovers that minutes on clocks in living rooms are not equal in length. Finally, he finds out that Paradise is not a ring-tube space station, but a train of buildings lying on the surface of Tartar planet. In addition, Tartar is a planet quite well suitable for settlement and the group in charge built some buildings and gardens for itself, keeping the majority of settlers in the fictional Paradise and making them believe that it was an artificial planet.

Paradyzja

The plot follows Scilla and Jake who are enjoying the pleasures and the comforts of the upper class. But the story climaxes when Jake Todd turns up murdered during the first few scenes due to his underground trading. Scilla takes it upon herself to find her brother''s killer and the money he was dealing. She later finds out that he was being investigated by the Department of Trade and Industry. Though she does not find the killer, she finds the American business woman Marylou Banes with whom Jake was dealing. Marylou Banes offers her a fresh start. The story takes place around the stock market troubles in Britain. Aside from that a second story follows Billy Corman''s and Zac Zackerman''s attempt to take over the Albion company from Duckett. In between this takeover Corman attempts to get Jacinta Condor and Nigel Ajibala [who are the foreigners with an interest in his takeover] to buy shares in his company. They support Corman but decide to give their bid to Duckett in the end. The plot ends with Greville Todd in jail, Corman appointed as a Lord, and Scilla happily working for Marylou Banes.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

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Double Star

By Robert A. Heinlein

L'Ankou

No Author Listed

Nectar in a Sieve

By Kamala Purnaiya Taylor

China Wakes

No Author Listed

The Wolf Leader

By Alexandre Dumas

The Jolly Corner

By Henry James

Beyond The Chocolate War

By Robert Cormier

The Talented Mr. Ripley

By Patricia Highsmith

Uncle Tom's Cabin

By Harriet Beecher Stowe

La Curée

By Émile Zola

Paradyzja

By Janusz Zajdel

Serious Money

By Caryl Churchill