Marlowe''s poem relates the Greek legend of Hero and Leander, youths living in cities on opposite sides of the Hellespont, a narrow body of water in what is now northwestern Turkey. Hero is a priestess or devotee of Venus (goddess of love and beauty) in Sestos, who lives in chastity despite being devoted to the goddess of love. At a festival in honor of her deity, Venus and Adonis, she is seen by Leander, a youth from Abydos on the opposite side of the Hellespont. Leander falls in love with her, and she reciprocates, although cautiously, as she has made a vow of chastity to Venus. Leander convinces her to abandon her fears. Hero lives in a high tower overlooking the water; he asks her to light a lamp in her window, and he promises to swim the Hellespont each night to be with her. She complies. On his first night''s swim, Leander is spotted by Neptune (Roman god of the sea), who confuses him with Ganymede and carries him to the bottom of the ocean. Discovering his mistake, the god returns him to shore with a bracelet supposed to keep him safe from drowning. Leander emerges from the Hellespont, finds Hero''s tower and knocks on the door, which Hero then opens to find him standing stark naked. She lets him "whisper in her ear, / Flatter, entreat, promise, protest, and swear," and after a series of coy, half-hearted attempts to "defend the fort" she yields to bliss. The poem breaks off as dawn is breaking. No critical consensus exists on the issue of how Marlowe, had he lived, would have finished the poem, or indeed if he would have finished it at all.

Hero and Leander

At the beginning of the story, Jimmy''s mother and father are murdered by their best friend, who is also the youngster''s godfather and appointed guardian as well as the inventors'' trustee. It leaves the protagonist—who has had the plans of his parents'' invention eidetically and indelibly imprinted in his mind—to destroy the physical copies of these plans before his "uncle" can finish him off as well. Jimmy must survive his guardian''s efforts to squeeze the secret of the invention out of him (whereupon his death will most certainly be arranged, just as his parents'' were), and then escape into hiding until he can grow into a physical stature commensurate with his mental age. In the process, the character must make for himself a living and a safe place of residence, and Smith uses his protagonist''s situation and capabilities to examine the nature of childhood and the "protections" (including incapacitations) imposed upon legal infants in American civil society at the time of writing.

The Fourth "R"

The story goes back and forth in time, from the beginnings of Sara and Jeffrey’s relationship to a hostage situation at the Grant County Police Station. After dating for a few months, Sara and Jeffrey head for the beaches of Florida for a few days. On their way Jeffrey makes a detour to Sylacauga, Alabama, to show her where he grew up and introduce her to his childhood friends, Robert and Possum and their wives. They plan to spend the night in Jeffrey''s old bedroom but Sara''s first meeting with his mother upsets her so, she dashes out into the street. When Jeffrey finally catches up to her, they hear a scream and gunshots coming from Robert''s house. Jeffrey kicks in the door and finds a wounded Robert and his wife with a dead man in their bedroom, and their stories are conflicting and shaky. Sara and Jeffrey assist in the ensuing investigation and when it''s finally resolved, Jeffrey finds that some of those closest to him during his past were not who he thought they were, and some of his deepest secrets are revealed to Sara. But that''s only half the book—fast forward to the present, where the Heartsdale Police Station is taken over in a murderous bloodbath by heavily armed gunmen, right in the middle of an elementary school field trip, and while Sara is there. A terrifying and tense hostage situation develops. Lena, back on the force now, on her birthday, and suspecting she''s become pregnant by abusive boyfriend Ethan Green, is one of the few Grant County cops on the outside, not knowing who''s dead and who''s alive. What do the gunmen want? Who are they? Is this somehow related to the events in Sylacauga all those years ago?

Indelible

At the zoo, Rachel and Cassie witness a boy fall into the crocodile pit. Rachel jumps into the pit to rescue him. Out of sight, she acquires and morphs a crocodile, carrying the boy to safety. At a meeting later in the barn, the Animorphs focus on their latest news: Jeremy McCole, a teen heart-throb, has become a new spokesman for The Sharing. The Animorphs fear this could make many join The Sharing, and decide to stop it from happening. That night, Rachel suddenly finds herself morphing involuntarily a crocodile, directly into a fly without returning to human form, a violation of morphing ''rules'', and then an elephant. She meets up with her father and has him get her on the Barry and Cindy Sue Show, which McCole will be on. Rachel tells Cassie what really happened, but tells her not to tell Jake, and Cassie agrees. The next day the Animorphs spy on McCole''s yacht to find Visser Three there. McCole tells the Visser he wants to become a Controller. Rachel suddenly finds herself involuntarily morphing into various animals, the last being a crocodile. Visser Three is alerted and morphs. The Visser is thwarted when Rachel bites him. Back at the barn, Ax diagnoses Rachel''s condition. She is allergic to crocodile DNA, explaining her involuntary morphing, happening when emotionally stressed or excited. Ax tells her she needs to expel a live crocodile, a process known as hereth illint. Jake pulls Rachel off the mission until she undergoes the process. She lies to him the next day, pretending that it occurred overnight. The next day Rachel is scheduled to be on the show. At the show, the hereth illint begins. Cassie rushes her to the bathroom, and Rachel ''burps'' the crocodile. As it attacks her, she morphs a bear and Cassie morphs a squirrel. The crocodile runs onto the stage with Rachel and Cassie, causing commotion. Ax kills the crocodile and Rachel steps on McCole''s Yeerk. The mission to stop McCole is a success, as he had retreated to Uzbekistan.

The Reaction

In the first novel, Fireball, Simon and Brad are cousins who are mysteriously transported to an alternate history Earth, where the Roman Empire did not break up and Europe remains in pre-Dark Ages technology. In an attempt to improve their status in the new realm, Simon and Brad aid the Church, which is oppressed, to launch a coup by introducing the stirrup and the longbow. The coup succeeds, but the boys did not anticipate the Church as a state power would force everyone in the Empire to convert or die. At the end of the first book, they sail away to the New World, which in the realm, was not discovered yet by the Old World. At the beginning of this novel, they managed to reach the American continent safely. They are received warmly enough by the native tribes in North America, but soon find themselves yearning for more advanced civilizations. Trekking across the continent, they head for the only civilization in America which has significant urban living - the Aztecs. As the Roman Empire has persisted in Europe of this realm until the 20th century due to unchanging externalities, the Aztec too has continued without encounters from the Europeans'' discovery of the New World. In order to quickly gain wealth and status to enjoy a comfortable living, they take part in the sacred games, which is a cross between squash, tennis and handball. Their aim though is to finish second, as the victors will be sacrificed to the gods. Unfortunately, they win. To escape the fate of the winners, they escape again, and this time, are captured by sailors from the Far East. Their story continues in the last book of the trilogy, Dragon Dance.

New Found Land

The Great White Hope tells a fictional idealized life story of boxing champion Jack Johnson, here called Jack Jefferson. Acting as a lens focused on a racist society, The Great White Hope explores how segregation and prejudice created the demand for a "great white hope" who would defeat Johnson and how this, in turn, affected the boxer''s life and career. While the play is often described as being thematically about racism, this is not, it seems, entirely how Sackler viewed his work. Though certainly not denying the racist issues confronted in the play, Sackler once said in an interview, "What interested me was not the topicality but the combination of circumstances, the destiny of a man pitted against society. It''s a metaphor of struggle between man and the outside world. Some people spoke of the play as if it were a cliché of white liberalism, but I kept to the line straight through, of showing that it wasn''t a case of blacks being good and whites being bad. I was appalled at the first reaction." In a comment, reflecting on both the racist theme dealt with in the play and Sackler''s notion that the play is about a man fighting society, Muhammad Ali, greatly impressed with James Earl Jones'' performance in the play, apparently commented to the actor, "That''s my story. You take out the issue of white women and replace it with the issue of religion. That''s my story!" Ali was fighting being drafted into the army at the time on grounds of being a conscientious objector.

The Great White Hope

Ramona Quimby is growing up. She and Beezus manage to convince their parents to let them stay home alone together after school for one week to see how it goes. When the sisters find their cat, Picky-Picky, dead in the basement and handle the funeral and burial themselves, their parents decide they are responsible enough to take care of themselves. Ramona is especially happy not to have to go to the Kemp''s after school any more because Howie''s rich Uncle Hobart has arrived from Saudi Arabia. He''s the kind of man who thinks it funny to tease kids, and the girls don''t like him. There are more changes coming for the Quimbys. Mr. Quimby is almost finished with college, and everyone hopes he''ll get a teaching job in the area. It''s especially important because Mrs. Quimby is expecting another baby, and she plans on staying home to take care of it. Beezus thinks it will be wonderful to have a baby around to take care of, but Ramona realizes she won''t be the littlest any more. She''s not sure how she feels about being the middle child. Before she gets a chance to find out, something else changes. Aunt Bea and Howie''s Uncle Hobart get engaged, and Beezus and Ramona are to be maids of honor. They only have two weeks to plan the wedding, though, and by the time the wedding day arrives everyone in the neighborhood has become involved. By the time baby Roberta arrives, Ramona realizes, along with everyone else, that "She was winning at growing up."

Ramona Forever

The Iron Man arrived from seemingly nowhere and his appearance is described in detail. To survive, he feeds off local farm equipment. When the farm hands discover their destroyed tractors and diggers, a trap is set consisting of a covered pit on which a tractor is set as bait. Hogarth, a local boy, lures the Iron Man to the trap. The plan succeeds, and the Iron Man is buried alive. The next spring, the Iron Man digs himself free of the pit. To keep him out of the way, the boy Hogarth takes charge and brings the Iron Man to a metal scrap-heap to feast. The Iron Man promises to not cause further trouble for the locals, as long as no one troubles him. Time passes, and the Iron Man is treated as merely another member of the community. However, astronomers monitoring the sky make a frightening new discovery; an enormous space-being moving from orbit to land on Earth. The creature (soon dubbed the "Space-Bat-Angel-Dragon") crashes heavily on Australia and demands that humanity provide him with food. Terrified, humans send their armies to destroy the dragon, but it remains unharmed. When the Iron Man hears of this global threat, he allows himself to be disassembled and transported to Australia where he challenges the creature to a contest of strength. If the Iron Man can withstand the heat of burning petroleum for longer than the space being can withstand the heat of the Sun, the creature must obey the Iron Man''s commands forever more; if the Iron Man melts or is afraid of melting before the space being undergoes or fears pain in the Sun, the creature has permission to devour the whole Earth. After playing the game two rounds, the dragon is so badly burned that he no longer appears physically frightening. The Iron Man by contrast has only a deformed ear-lobe to show for his pains. The alien creature admits defeat. When asked why he came to Earth, the alien reveals that he is a peaceful "Star Spirit" who experienced excitement about the ongoing sights and sounds produced by the violent warfare of humanity. In his own life, he was a singer of the "music of the spheres"; the harmony of his kind that keeps the Cosmos in balance in stable equilibrium. The Iron Man orders the Star Spirit to sing to the inhabitants of Earth, flying just behind the sunset, to help soothe humanity toward a sense of peace. The beauty of his music distracts the population from its egocentricism and tendency to fight, causing the first worldwide lasting peace.

The Iron Man

The book is set in the year 1756 during the French and Indian War in Guilderland, New York. Ten-year-old Edward Van Alstyne (throughout the book, he is called "Ateoord", which is his name in Dutch) and his mother Gertrude are determined to protect their home and family with an ancient (and much too heavy) Spanish matchlock gun that Edward''s great-grandfather had brought from Bergom Op Zoom in Holland while his father Teunis is away from home with the local militia fighting the enemy (using, to Edward''s disappointment, a musket instead of the matchlock). Gertrude, Edward, and his younger sister Trudy go about their everyday chores, but news arrives that the French-Indian forces have been attacking and burning nearby settlements and that Teunis and his militia company have been sent to intercept them. Later that day, while she and the children are out herding the cows, Gertrude spots a column of smoke in the distance and realizes that raiders are getting closer. Rather than take herself and the children over to her mother-in-law''s brick house as Teunis had previously suggested, since raiders would be more likely to attack it rather than their house, she devises a plan for a possible Indian attack. Returning home, she loads the matchlock gun, fixes it in position to fire and instructs Edward how and when to fire it. She then goes outside to keep a watch for any approaching raiders. At the book''s climax, Gertrude sees flames in the distance and realizes that her mother-in-law''s house has indeed been attacked. Moments later, she spots five Indians approaching in the darkness, bent on burning the house. Barely able to outrun them, she reaches the front porch and manages to shout a pre-arranged warning to Edward, but is wounded in the shoulder by a thrown tomahawk, and the boy fires the gun through the front window, killing three raiders and driving off the remaining two (one of them, apparently wounded, is later killed by the returning militia). As their house burns, Edward and Trudy manage to drag their unconscious mother to safety. Edward goes back into the burning house to save the Spanish gun, and later he, Trudy and their mother are found by their father and the other militiamen. The book''s forward states that this is a true story handed down from Trudy''s descendants (Trudy became widely known as an expert spinner, having been taught by her mother who, because of her crippled shoulder, could no longer perform the task).

The Matchlock Gun

The Life traces the life story of Dennis Keith, now obese, mentally unwell and living in retirement village with his mother. A young would-be biographer arrives one day and begins to teases out his past. The story is told in different strands, one being reflections by Dennis (often in a variety of styles – first person, then third person) and also present day conversations with the biographer. Dennis is a poor gold coast kid who is mysteriously found and adopted by his mother "Mo" Keith. Dennis and his stepbrother Rod become obsessed with surfing at an earlier age. They prove to be talented and daring surfers and soon develop a reputation. They start entering competitions and eventually enter the nascent pro circuit all the while descending into heavy drug use. Dennis stumbles into an intermittent relationship with a singer Lisa Exmire. Lisa is found murdered and eventually charges are laid. Dennis drug use escalates and he drops out of the pro circuit. The novel concludes by revealing the truth about Dennis''s family, the murder and biographer.

The Life

Young, idealistic Mark Coffin—he will not turn thirty until a week after the election—wins a surprise, upset victory, turning him from Stanford professor into the junior senator from California. Not only that, in the presidential election held at the same time, the presidential candidate of his party rides Mark''s coattails to corral California''s electoral votes and the White House. Mark is not totally a political neophyte. His father-in-law is Jim Elrod, the powerful senior senator from North Carolina. Mark''s father owns one of the largest newspapers in the state. Mark goes to Washington amid the glare of the media spotlight. Some reporters consider him one of the most idealistic and finest senator to hit town in decades. One female reporter, though, is a sort of senatorial groupie--it is revealed that she has slept with earlier neophyte senators, and Mark is her latest target. Mark''s hopes of sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are damaged when he takes strong positions on two hot button issues—his father-in-law''s bill to add an extra ten billion dollars to the defense appropriation, to be used to try to catch up with the Soviets; and the nomination of Charlie Macklin, the tough D.A. of Los Angeles County to be Attorney General. Mark leads other junior senators in bucking the Washington establishment on these two issues. The "Young Turks" include Rick Duclos of Vermont, who has an eye for the ladies and a teenage son, and Bob Templeton of Colorado, who recently lost his family in a plane accident. When Mark will not soften his opposition, he is deprived of the committee assignment, which is given to Duclos instead. Three other main characters include reporters Bill Adams, Chuck Dangerfield, and Lisette Greyson. They all take an interest in Mark''s career from the start and seem to develop a case of "true believerism" (i.e. thinking Mark is a breath of fresh air and will do great things for the world). Lisette Greyson also takes a different kind of interest in Mark. She makes it clear almost from the start that she wants a relationship with Mark despite the fact that he is married. It is made clear throughout the novel that she has tried the same thing with other senators. Lisette and Mark run into each other on Inauguration night. Mark, drunk and depressed because of being kept off the Foreign Relations Committee, ends up sleeping with Lisette. Chuck Dangerfield knows of the affair and is determined to help mark in any way that he can to keep the story quiet. Inevitably, the story comes out, and Mark is damaged. His marriage is threatened, but survives, as his wife, knowing what is expected of political wives, backs him up publicly while slowly reconciling privately. Macklin tries to make political capital of the scandal, but overplays his hand, offending more senators than he persuades, and his nomination is narrowly defeated. Mark, however, loses on the appropriation issue, but his father in law is careful to allow him to save face. It is made clear that Mark enjoys a long political career.

Mark Coffin U.S.S.

The novel tells the story of a Jewish businessman, Joseph Süß Oppenheimer, who, because of his exceptional talent for finance and politics, becomes the top advisor for the Duke of Württemberg. Surrounded by jealous and hateful enemies, Süß helps the Duke create a corrupt state that involves them both in immense wealth and power. In the meantime, Süß discovers he is the illegitimate son of a respected nobleman, but decides to continue living as a Jew, as he is proud of having achieved such a position despite this. In the meantime, the Duke finds out about Süß’s hidden daughter and when trying to rape her accidentally kills her. Süß is devastated. He plans and executes his revenge. After he encourages and then exposes the Duke''s plan to overthrow the Parliament, thus infuriating the Duke to death, Süß realizes nothing will bring back his daughter, and apathetically turns himself over. He is found innocent, but under the pressure of the public he is finally sentenced to death by hanging. Despite it being his last chance for reprieve, he never reveals his noble origins nor converts to Christianity, and dies reciting the Shema Yisrael, the most important prayer in Judaism.

Over 8000 Takeaways For Your Brain!

Read - Listen - Learn

Hero and Leander

By Christopher Marlowe

The Fourth "R"

By George O. Smith

Indelible

No Author Listed

The Reaction

By K. A. Applegate

New Found Land

By Samuel Youd

The Great White Hope

By Howard Sackler

Ramona Forever

By Beverly Cleary

The Iron Man

By Ted Hughes

The Matchlock Gun

By Walter D. Edmonds

The Life

No Author Listed

Mark Coffin U.S.S.

No Author Listed

Jud Süß

No Author Listed